Day 19 and 20: The Adventures of a Hobbit in Tennessee

Saturday (Day 19) dawned overcast and much too early. My day, however, began long before the waking sun. At four in the morning I was up and preparing for the journey ahead of me. This week my summer internship has taken me to a conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Though my job is about as low on the totem pole as you can get, I was drafted to accompany four senior level employees to the conference as their personal assistant/courier.

Sunday (Day 19) was spent running back and forth delivering goods, making sure paperwork and registration was taking care of and everything was set up. By the time work was over and I could actually relax in my hotel room, I had walked over four miles already! Tennessee is a beautiful state and I immediately set out for a journey along its famous Cumberland River. Even though I was stuck in the city and not in my beloved country, walking along the river was a wonderful treat. At the end of the walk I stopped to feed ducks. Alone on the river bank I took advantage of the rare chance to stand still for a moment in time. Everything around me was calm and in stillness I could appreciate the little piece of nature I was allowed to enjoy. Of course, given my luck, my moment was disrupted by a young boy on his bike careening down the hill behind with his frantic mother running after him. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a dressing down quite like this mother gave her son when she finally caught him. Over the course of the weekend I walked 12.15 miles (19.5 km), not bad considering the current circumstances.

At this point in their journey, the hobbits are enjoying a rare moment of peace. They have been rescued from the wights by Tom Bombadil. The hobbits enjoy their new found freedom and frolic about on the grassy hills without fear of encountering more wights. They are pleasantly to find that their ponies have been recovered by Tom’s horse Fatty Lumpkin. With this peril past, Frodo and company set off again on their journey (because we really can’t call it a quest yet, and it’s up for debate if you can even call it a quest at all). Tom rides with the hobbits until he reaches the ends of his lands and then turns back home to Goldberry. Part of me really wants to continue this post with a lengthy discussion of Tom Bombadil and his literary merits, but for now I shall leave Tom alone. For most readers it is only important to remember Tom Bombadil as the man with the bright blue jacket and gold boots who the terrifying one ring couldn’t fool and whose home was safe. We will have to wait until we get to Rivendell to find out more about Tom, but for now we must join the hobbits in saying farewell to the jolly man and his underappreciated pony Fatty Lumpkin.

The Road Goes Ever On and On,
~ Daisy Buttons