4th of July

Lisa returned from Jamaica late on Saturday, July 3rd. I thought I would look around to find something fun to do on the 4th for when she was back.

I saw the Tennessee Smokies were going to have fireworks after their ball game.

There were booths and activities at a park downtown and they would shoot off fireworks when it became dark while the symphony played patriotic music.

There was going to be a firework show over one of the local lakes.

All of those sounded great, but then I read about this.....

We went to see a good, old fashioned anvil shoot. (The guy next to me was apparently taken back by the loud bang, so the choice word you may hear is his.)

The boom doesn't really come out in the video. It takes a lot of gunpowder to launch an anvil that high in the air. The explosion can be heard for 15 miles.

This was at the Museum of the Appalachia, just north of Knoxville. I guess it was a fairly common practice in the early 1800's to shoot anvils in celebration! They also raised a Liberty Pole and had patriotic bluegrass music. We ate BBQ and homemade ice cream. It was a fun outing!