Music City, Motoring, and Many Waterfalls

It's time for yet another photo spread. This time, it's from Tennessee, Kentucky, and a bit of North Carolina. Specifically, we're talking about Nashville, Mammoth Caves National Park, Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and a few other famous spots, including The Hermitage and the Polk home. 

The Parthenon, which was a temporary structure as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. It was such a hit, that the effort was made to make it a permanent structure, which was completed in 1931.

A rain soaked Parthenon

Mammoth Caves - the historical entrance tour. We missed out on seeing more of the cave system because we didn't make reservations ahead of time. We'll know better next time. 

One of the many bears spotted during our trip through the Smoky Mountains.

There were countless waterfalls along the way. This is one.

Want to cross the Green River in Mammoth Caves National Park? Take a ferry. 

Grotto Falls, in Smoky Mountains NP

At the President James Polk home in Columbia, TN.

Nashville at night.

The Ernest Tubb Record Shop, home to one of the most famous radio shows in country music. Imagine the history told, the music strummed in those walls.

The Kitchen Sinks at Great Smoky Mountains NP.

Yet another waterfall in Great Smoky Mountains NP.

Outside the Nashville Symphony.

One of the many neon signs along the Honky Tonk Row in Nashville.

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At the summit of Clingmans Dome.

A natural bridge.

Broadway after a rain soaked night in Nashville.

Kentucky Census Worker Staged Death To Conceal Suicide

In the end, it came down to following the money trail and that the man, Bill Sparkman, hoped that his death would be treated as a homicide rather than a suicide because he had just taken out two life insurance policies that denied payoffs for suicide.

Authorities are saying a Kentucky census worker found hanging from a tree with "fed" scrawled on his chest committed suicide and staged his death to look like a homicide.

A news release from Kentucky State Police said Tuesday that Bill Sparkman died at the same location where his body was found Sept. 12 near a cemetery in a heavily wooded area of southeastern Kentucky.

A man who found the body in the Daniel Boone National Forest said the 51-year-old was bound with duct tape, gagged and had an identification badge taped to his neck.

Investigators say Sparkman acted alone in manipulating the scene to conceal the suicide.

The news release says Sparkman had recently taken out two life insurance policies that would not pay out for suicide.

Of course, at the time of his discovery, the media was abuzz with stories trying to blame his death on right wing wackaloons who were fomenting violence against the government. Sparkman may have chosen his cover well (hoping that media hype and focus on his job as a census worker and anti-government rhetoric coming from the fringe), but in the end the money trail exposed his true intentions.

Moreover, had he been killed while on the job, his family would have been eligible for additional compensation from the government.

UPDATE:
The two other life insurance policies were considerable in size:

Sparkman had recently taken out two accidental life insurance policies totaling $600,000 that would not pay out for suicide, authorities said. If Sparkman had been killed on the job, his family also would have been be eligible for up to $10,000 in death gratuity payments from the government.

That's quite a bit of incentive to make a suicide look like a homicide. Sparkman's family situation was in bad shape, and that was a desperate act of a man desperate to help his family with a dire financial problem. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family who have to live with the news of these events.