Tennessee❤️
When people told us at the beginning of our road trip that people in the South are different, we didn’t really know what they meant. But after spending several weeks here, we finally understand.
The hospitality here is just something else. Everyone knows everyone, and it feels like people are living one big shared life. Someone is always stopping by, doors are always open, and everyone is welcome.
One guy told us he hasn’t locked his house in 23 years. When we were out on the lake, we met some people who immediately invited us to their lake house to hang out. They offered us drinks, chicken wings, and made us feel completely at home. It’s a kind of hospitality I’ve never experienced before.
When we got back to the dock late that night, one of the guys on the boat said something that really stuck with me:
“You don’t have to live in some big, exciting city. What matters is the people who live there. That’s what makes you happy. I’ve lived in many places around the world, but nothing comes close to Ocoee, Tennessee. And you know the best part about living here? We’re going to do the exact same thing again tomorrow.”
We will be back.
The two players not singing along to the national anthem were the team's two non-Germans, Mesut Özil and Jerome Boateng.
The inclusion of these players in the 2014 World Cup winning side caused German media to celebrate the team as an example of Germany's successful multicultural experiment.
Özil later met the Turkish President before Germany's 2018 World Cup, accused Germany of racism when this caused a controversy, then turned his back on Germany and retired early from international football.
He is now a board member of the ruling party of Turkey and helps the Turkish football federation recruit other ethnic Turks living in Germany to play for Turkey.
Jerome Boateng, a mixed race German-Ghanaian, was convicted in 2021 for beating the mother of his children. After this, he dated a Polish model who eventually killed herself, and who alleged he beat her to the point of breaking her bones. Boateng's German mother wrote "For years, my son has been abusing women psychologically and physically."
Assimilation is a myth.
The indigenous called him “Conotocaurius”, Devourer of Villages.
He was built like an inside linebacker, 6ft and 220lbs.
And his personal motto was, “Exitus Acta Probat” - the outcome justifies the means.
He is the standard.
On June 10, 1864, Nathan Bedford Forrest took 3,500 Confederate cavalry and destroyed a Union force of 8,000 men.
Not surprised them. Not inconvenienced them.
Destroyed them.
Here's the part that makes military historians still talk about this battle 160 years later:
Forrest planned the whole thing around Mississippi mud and summer heat.
He knew the Union cavalry would arrive first. He knew their infantry was miles behind, marching through sweltering heat on terrible roads.
So his entire strategy was: hit the cavalry hard, make them fight for hours, wear them down completely.
Then wait.
When the Union infantry finally arrived, exhausted, soaked in sweat, legs giving out after miles of brutal marching, they were immediately thrown into a battle that had already been raging.
Forrest hit them the moment they got there.
The Union line collapsed.
The retreat became a rout. The rout became a disaster.
Forrest captured 18 artillery pieces, 176 supply wagons, and over 1,500 prisoners.
Grant was so embarrassed he ordered another expedition against Forrest almost immediately.
That one failed too.