I just discovered that my great-great grandfather on my mothers side, Thomas Grundy Smith, was born in Shoal Creek, MO. in 1857, and his mother was born in Tennessee. That explains this:

The creek that runs below my window here in Tennessee is named Shoal Creek and it's been around for over four hundred years. According to the geneology charts my great-great-great grandmother lived right down the road from this Shoal Creek before moving to Missouri to farm the land. Maybe she named the creek up there?

(and that looks like a bus :-)