I love my 2004 Avalon very much, but she is 17 years old has been showing her age recently (i.e. having to buy a new radiator last week out of nowhere). One of her new quirks is that the heat doesn’t work on the driver’s side…
(Also, when a specific combination of dashboard lights comes on, it means I need to tighten my gas cap.)
Driving to Chester County from Memphis was interesting because I had to turn on the defrost because it was rainy, but whenever I did that, any warm air already in the car from the passenger’s side would get circulated out. It just turned into this horrible cycle of Defrost -> Get cold -> Turn off defrost -> Windows fog up -> ad infinitum.
Quick Facts
County: Chester
City: Henderson (Yes, there’s a Henderson County…)
Route: Chickasaw State Park
Mileage: 1
Date: 12/19
The County
Chester County is the newest county in Tennessee (possibly why it’s shaped so weirdly?), formed in 1879. The area was originally supposed to be named Wisdom County, but that never got anywhere. (I guess the Tennessee legislature has been rejecting wisdom for the past 150 years ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
The movie Walking Tall, based on a true story from McNairy County, was primarily filmed in Chester County. Freed-Hardeman University, affiliated with the Churches of Christ, is also in Chester County. One of the most popular country music singers of the 1950s, Eddy Arnold, was born in Chester County.
The Route
I ran at Chickasaw State Park which is in Chickasaw State Forest. I ran around half of Lake Placid which, not to be a lake snob, is kind of a big pond haha. There’s a bunch of random short trails in the state forest, which seems pretty standard for TN state forests. Chickasaw State Park itself is kind of small, but there are nice camping accommodations and a beach area. If I lived closer, I would be all over those trails in the park and forest lol
Highlights
I saw an abandoned boat with oars in it on the side of the lake, and I was very tempted to take it for a spin even though I’ve never rowed before. However, I listened to common sense for once 😂
The long bridge over Lake Placid was cool too. The whole lake kind of gave me Roller Coaster Tycoon vibes when you give people paddleboats to go around the lake.
Misadventures
Ummm you’ve probably noticed this is a very short post because I honestly didn’t have that much fun haha I was tired/cold/wet, but I got it done.