Monday we have an all mission conference in Franklin, Tennessee, near Nashville where the Temple is located.  Monday is our usual p-day so we took some time Saturday to travel to Bowling Green and get medications and groceries.  Sister Peterson even went shopping and bought a skirt at TJ Max, so we really let our hair down.  This pawn shop is on one of the main roads we use near a hospital where we have visited some of our members.  We have always loved the name and wanted a picture and I had my camera along.  It seems quite an appropriate name for a pawn shop.

Bowling Green is about 40 miles from where we live in Hartford.  We travel the Natcher Parkway (Freeway) to get there.  Thick woods line the Parkway almost all the way and only break for a farm here and there.  With all the rain this year the trees and all the foliage is very lush and green.  It is so thick that you can't see anything except woods as you travel and it makes for a very beautiful drive.  (However it certainly pales in comparison to that beautiful drive between Sweetzer and Declo????)

Everywhere you travel in this area is so beautiful and green that we often comment how beautiful it truly is.  Actually everywhere we go to visit people is a beautiful drive.  This is an oiled road that we drive to a member's home.  It took it just to show how lush and green and how dense the woods really are here.

This is a farming area where they mostly raise grass hay.  We are on the highest point looking out over a large area.  Although there are many hills and hollers, the area overall is quite flat.  There are no larger hills or (mountains) to break the skyline.  There are no reference points to get your bearings and none of the roads are straight.  They just follow the ridges or hollows so it is very hard to keep your bearings.

Some more of the same area.  Notice how tall and lush the grass is.  The farmers are just starting to cut and bale these type of fields.  I wanted a picture of this area before it was cut.  All the hay is put up in large round bales and fed locally in the winter.  They pasture the cattle on smaller rougher fields and save fields like this for harvesting.

Everywhere we go we see large beautiful homes on very large acreages that are all mowed.  They may mow up to four or five acres around their homes.  There is enough rainfall that they never water their lawns so the only real maintenance is the mowing.  Big zero turn lawnmowers are the rage here and if I was in business here, I would want the lawn mower dealership.

A large, lovely old home with its large yard and grounds near where we live.  There are quite a few of these lovely old homes in certain areas of the city.

Sister Peterson preparing her talk for Sacrament meeting Sunday.  She worked so hard on it way into the night Saturday then when we got to Church, found out there was a conflict and she didn't have to speak.  But she will get her chance in a couple of weeks.  Our Hartford branch is so small that they only have a two-hour block of meetings.  Each meeting is shortened and only one speaker is needed for Sacrament meeting.  If two speakers were needed, the active members would get to speak every couple of months.

Meditation and park area that are across the street from our duplex and part of the complex.  Right in the middle is a garden area for the people in the apartments.  I could garden here if I wanted to!  However I feel we are busy enough trying to grow people spiritually.  Besides we can buy all the fresh produce we want from the Amish farmers.  Sister Peterson has already bought strawberries and made freezer jam.  It was a hit at District meeting and the Elders really snarfed it up.

Elder and Sister Peterson - enjoying a beautiful green part of God's creations!  (Remember we are actually not too far from where the Garden of Eden was)