so next
after posting one more time from avoca tn btw
without mentioning the place at the time
i headed back to the bristol cemetery to check out the owner of the
obelisk on the state line & also to look for the state line monument
shown there on the topo

but it turns out when you get up onto the hillside & overlook the
entire westward alignment of state street
the obelisk itself proves to be not so good as a state line marker
since it actually does stand entirely if barely inside virginia
judging from the state steet center line & 10pointed star decoration
but the smith family plot it commands does straddle the line
& clearly at least some of the members of some of the members of
that family must be er divided

the most probable ones being those of lizzie k hodges
but there is no knowing if this was intentional
whether on her or anyone elses part

so perhaps with that we can put the topic of things divided by
borders to rest
if not the borders themselves

just kidding of course you freaks

the far greater fun however was in looking for a border stone in a
cemetery
hahahahaha
hahahahahaha
hahahahahahaha
ahhhh
can you imagine that

well i soon gave up on that folly
& on my final pass under the star i finally figured out why it is
10pointed

10 for tennessee
& 10 for virginias rank of admission into the union

just my humbly proud guess of course

& for my next caper i headed for none other than the famous covered
tripoint
not only to refresh my memory as to what the enclosure actually
looked like but to resolve the question of where on the arrow shaped
diagram the tripoint actually falls

at the tip
or
where the centers of the 3 stripes converge
these being 2 slightly different points

& since nobody guessed the name of this tripoint
i wont mention it now either
except to say my location here in harrogate may set a new bp record
of closest post from a tripoint ever
at about a 3 mile crowfly
which at least beats my old place in lakeville ct
which was 4 miles from ctmany

the climb from the parking area to what is called tristate peak
averages about a 10 percent grade for the better part of a mile

i remembered it from the last time
& was fresh out of water & needed a drink
& didnt know if i could make it before dark
but a lady came & without my asking
said
here take this bottle of icy water

en route i passed a mountain pass whose name is illustrious in the
opening of the west
where a herd of 9 deer grazed undisturbed by my silent passage

when i reached the pavilion i saw the forgotten
but definitive
uscgs copper disc
smack in the middle of the arrow diagram
so that question is resolved

& the pavilion proved to be
well
a completely open but fully roofed fat squat untapered hexagonal
obeliskoid
with only 6 posts

the tripoint is a yard west of the keypost in the pavilion roof
because the space of the circular tripoint precinct has been
allocated about equally to the 3 states
so they actually share the construction in about equal thirds
tho the shares are of different shapes

perhaps the most remarkable thing about the site however is the way
the design emphasizes the similarity the trijunction alignment has
to an arrowhead
aimed directly west thru this famous migration route
as if to give that migration its very direction & impetus

a rare case of something very tastefully done by the nps