The Adventures of Bubba Jones Time Traveling Through the Great Smoky Mountains by Jeff Alt

Author:Jeff Alt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Beaufort Books
Published: 2015-10-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

AS REAL AS IT GETS

I pulled out the coded piece of paper from the family journal and handed it to Crockett.

“You know what the code looks like to me? A cipher code, like what Thomas Jefferson used with Lewis and Clark,” I said. Crocket held the torn paper in his hands and slowly examined it.

“I think you’re right, Bubba Jones, but why would our family send secret codes?”

I explained to Crockett what Papa Lewis had said about how some of our early ancestors were masters of coded messages during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

“But what’s so secret that they had to write a coded message?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Before we can even try to decipher the message, we need to find the missing half.”

“Yep, you’re right. I think if we locate Papa Lewis’s cousin, Will, he might know something about the missing piece.”

“Do you think it’s possible Will has the missing half?”

“Let’s hope so. If Will still lives in the area, it would be worth checking into. But, Papa Lewis said he checked and couldn’t find a phone number for him in any of the counties around the park. “

“Can I see the coded letter?” Aunt Walks-a-Lot asked.

Crockett handed it up to her from the backseat. After a few minutes she handed it back to me and said, “I wouldn’t know the first thing about how to read that, let alone finding the missing half. Good luck!”

We passed a sign announcing “Cherokee” and another sign directing traffic to “Oconaluftee Village.” We followed Mom, Dad, Papa Lewis, Grandma, and Hug-a-Bug’s vehicle into a parking lot for the Oconaluftee Village.

We all emerged from our vehicles and Papa Lewis shouted, “Hey Clark, bring back memories?”

“It sure does.”

Mom and Dad had stopped for a night in Cherokee on their honeymoon and toured the village, and were excited to be back for another visit. We stood in line for tickets among hundreds of others, eager to learn about the Cherokee Indian culture. The village is a re-creation of a Cherokee Village in the late 1760s, a time before the Cherokee were forced to leave the Great Smoky Mountains on the Trail of Tears. As soon as we stepped into the village, I felt like I had entered another time period even though my hand had never touched the family journal. At first I thought Papa Lewis was playing some sort of trick on me. We were immersed in an actual village. Real Cherokee Indians wearing traditional clothing busied themselves in the tree-shaded village, going about everyday life in the 1760s . But, they were actually present-day re-enactors demonstrating how their tribe once lived. There were small, one-room log cabin homes. We watched two Indians burning out a large tulip poplar log, to make it into a canoe. Some teenage boys were playing the Cherokee version of stick ball. The village had a sweat lodge, a log-lined cavern that people used to clean themselves of impurities. Several Cherokee women were making pottery. A young

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.