Life on the Mississippi

 Monday, August 30, 2021

Today was planned to be mostly a driving day--we are heading for Milwaukee in earnest now. But I did want to stop in Hannibal, Missouri, to check out Mark Twain's childhood home and Museum. We'd also planned to follow the Great River Road again, but it seemed like we didn't do that-- our GPS put us onto US 61, but north of St. Louis that's a divided highway with a straight shot north. So we let it take us until we did reach Hannibal, right on the river.

Downtown "historical" Hannibal is a very cute little town, with a lot of Mark Twain-themed store names in the old buildings. We found a place to park on the curb right outside the museum, and after eating lunch, we went in. The Museum encompasses 7 buildings. The first, main one, was a history of the Clemens family, and Twain's boyhood in Hannibal, and went through the rest of his life using a timeline. Of course we read

Statue of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn

everything--it was disappointing not to have time to watch the 90 minute video which was running continuously as we read the panels in the museum. After that, we saw the Huck Finn house behind the Museum. I had never known that Huck Finn was based on a real boy who was, like his fictional doppelganger, a river rat with a drunkard for a father, who was feared by the parents of other boys, and hence admired by the boys themselves. Huck's house (supposedly the house of this real boy) was actually larger than I would have thought, although quite simple, with only two rooms. It had been reconstructed just a few yards away from the museum.

Inside the Museum

From there, the path led us to the Clemens house itself. It was a nice-sized cottage with several upstairs bedrooms, and a kitchen, parlor, and dining room downstairs. Small, but cozy. I hadn't realized that the Clemens family owned slaves, and there was quite a bit about slavery during Sam's boyhood as well as his anti-slavery stance once he had grown up and understood it better. Both the Museum and the house were filled with quotes from Twain's autobiography, as well as from speeches he made later in life which cast a light on his boyhood. Quite famous in his own time, his life and its similarity to the life of Tom Sawyer (as well as to quotes from the book which sounded exactly like episodes from his own life) must have been as interesting to contemporary audiences as they are today.

Parlor in the Clemens House

After the house, we decided not to go into the three small buildings which were "Becky Thatcher's House," the Justice of the Peace office, and Grant's Drug Store. The Justice of the Peace was significant because Twain's father, although unsuccessful in business throughout his life, was elected to be a Judge, and was much respected in that regard. Joe and I opted for the Becky Thatcher Ice Cream Emporium instead, but of course a town so small did not have no-sugar-added ice cream for Joe, to our disappointment. I had a small scoop of chocolate ice cream, but that was it. And we decided not to walk the three blocks to the last building, the Museum Gallery. In retrospect, I realize I have no idea what might have been in there! 

Joe whitewashing the fence

Instead, we decided to get back on the road, realizing that it was already after 3pm, and we had almost 150 more miles to drive for the day. We arrived around 6:30 at Shady Creek Recreation Area, a Corps of Engineers park in Iowa, right on the shores of the Mississippi. It is absolutely beautiful here--the Corps parks seem to be a cut above many others we've been to. The only problem when we arrived was, there was a camper in our reserved space! This doesn't usually happen, but the camp hosts (two nice women) helped us find a different space which actually had a nicer river view. The people in our spot are nowhere to be found--it's a trailer and the tow vehicle was not here last night and is still missing. Joey says the husband's body is inside, and the wife took off in the SUV, but I'm hoping it's something less nefarious than that! In any case, we are happy in the spot we have, and tomorrow we have to leave anyway, to continue our journey to Milwaukee. Tonight, it's gotten much cooler, and we don't even need the AC, our exhaust fan is pulling cool air right over our bed. Sadly, we will swap this gorgeous area for another urban parking lot, but it's our best option to accommodate both some sightseeing and proximity to Natan and Ruby's wedding on Thursday.

Mississippi at Dusk, with barges passing by

Our 50th Wedding Anniversary

 

Sunday, August 29, 2021

Joe and I were married exactly 50 years ago today. We woke up and the first thing we discussed was not, "Happy Anniversary," but "Will you be long in the bathroom?" I guess that's what 50 years of marriage (or of anything!) does to people! We did go back to "Happy Anniversary" very quickly after that, however.

Our plans for the day were to be tourists in St. Louis--specifically, to visit the Gateway Arch National Park. I had purchased the complete ticket package yesterday, including a movie on the making of the Arch, a trip up to the top, and a boat ride on the river with narrated tour about the history of the city. We started out early for our 10:30a.m. boat ride. This RV Park, which has no beauty other than the beautiful night view of the Arch, makes up for that in convenience--it is truly less than 15 minutes from downtown, and it took us less than that to get to the levee, where we parked (at a steep angle) for the boat ride. 

The ride was an hour long, and was fun, especially when going downstream so that we had a breeze (there was no breeze going upstream.) The pilot narrated the whole time, identifying various buildings and explaining the history of things we were seeing. I was able to get one pretty good selfie of us before we docked, with the Arch in the background, so that will be serving as my memory of us on this auspicious day.

The cruise was over at 11:30, and it seemed too early to go to lunch. So we drove to Forest Park. It is huge, and we really didn't have enough time to do something like go to the zoo (and it was HOT again), but we stopped at the Jewel Box, an art deco glass building now used as a greenhouse and event space (weddings would be beautiful here.) We were the only ones in the building most of the time, and we didn't stay long. We did, however, note that it would be a good place for a wedding. So we went up to the front where the bride and groom would stand, and we "renewed our vows" for 50 more years. 

Inside the Jewel Box

By then it was 12:30, and we decided we'd better go eat. We had decided to have lunch at Pappy's Smokehouse, our most favorite BBQ place in the world. We never go past St. Louis without stopping at Pappy's, even if it just means getting off the interstate, stopping to eat, and then continuing on. We got there very quickly, which was lucky, because there was a long line. There is ALWAYS a long line, but this time it moved much more slowly because they had cut down on the number of diners. Masking was required, and I saw that they were spraying and wiping down tables rigorously after each group left. So we waited about 20 minutes before being seated, but the service is always very fast. And man, was the food incredible as always! Especially compared to Central BBQ in Memphis, there was NO comparison. Joe had a rack of ribs again, and even I loved them! I had the chicken as I always do. When I say that the green bean side dish was the first thing I finished--that's how good THEY were! Joe was moaning in ecstasy with his ribs, while i was moaning over my roasted corn on the cob side dish. All in all, we were just in heaven from the food.

Mural Dedicated to the Builders of the Arch

We had to run afterwards, though-- it was already about 2:10, and we had a 3pm ticket to see the movie, "Building the Dream", about building the Arch. But first we had to run back to the RV to walk Cassie. We rushed back home, jumped out, had 15 minutes to walk the dog, and then jumped back into the Jeep and drove to our parking garage, which was about a 10 minute walk from the Arch. We were really hustling, and managed to make it into our seats for the movie at 2:56pm.  

The movie was so impressive! It seems miraculous that this Arch could be built, when you see all the details that went into it. We were both just amazed. It was so impressive. After the movie, we stopped in the big waiting area where the trams to the top of the Arch leave from (it is a big space behind the Museum.) Joe wanted something to drink, so he got soda, and then we went to the gift shop to pick up my National Park pin for my collection, and a few other things. Then he rested while I looked at one corner of the adjacent museum.

St. Louis, looking West

At 4:30, we went to the tram line. They are being very Covid conscious throughout the National Park building/museum, and they kept us far apart and sorted us into the tram cars--each family group had a car to themselves. They also strictly limited us to 10 minutes, so they could transport people on schedule and so it would not be so crowded at the top of the Arch. The tour guide was very entertaining as we waited, and we got to see a cute little video "describing" some of the important events and people from the 1960s (when the Arch was built)-- everything from the Beatles to the Women's Movement to MLK's "Free at Last!" and the moon landing, Walter Cronkite and The Graduate, Woodstock and JFK. So that was entertaining, and then they sorted us out again to get into the little claustrophobic cars that take you up to the top of the Arch.

Looking East Across the River to Illinois

Needless to say, the views up there were spectacular. I'd forgotten my good camera in the car, but the zoom on my phone camera allowed me to see our RV all the way across the river. The entire view was pretty clear and I'm sure we were seeing for miles and miles. Looking down at the city was amazing as well. The 10 minutes passed all too quickly! Then down we went again.

There were quite a few steps involved, though, both getting to the trams and at the top of the Arch, and it really wore Joe out. So he decided to rest a bit, while I looked at the Museum. I thought it was very well done, blending both the history of the city of St. Louis and its importance as the "Gateway to the West," with the history of the country as a whole. There were exhibits on the importance of the Louisiana Purchase, and the subsequent "winning" (or stealing) of the West. And finally, there was a large section on Eero Saarinen and the contest for a design for a monument to stand on the shore of the Mississippi River, to represent all the history and the importance of the city. There were descriptions of how the Arch was designed and how it was built. I found all of it very interesting. And as we walked away, it was really hard not to take more photos of it!

At the Top of the Arch

At about 6:30, we walked back to our car in the parking deck (getting it out just before 7:00, when our ticket ran out.) We'd had a big discussion while sitting in the building--what to do about dinner. Neither of us were starved after our huge lunch at Pappy's, but I wanted *something*, specifically, a St. Louis specialty--toasted ravioli. After looking up restaurants making the best toasted ravioli, we found that most of them were closed today. In the end, we looked for a combination of pizza (St. Louis also has its own style of pizza) and ravioli, and settled on Imo's Pizza, which was not too far away.

Description of Treaties with Indians, All Broken

Visions of "Manifest Destiny" to Settle the West

St. Louis as Mercantile Center for Westward-Bound Carvans

So for dinner we had a small pizza with "the works" (the suggestion of the guy at the counter) and a portion of toasted ravioli. The latter was scrumptious! As for the former, I told Joey before we ate that it was important to take it on its own merits, not compare to NJ pizza. St. Louis pizza is made with an almost crack-like crust, very very VERY thing (half of a "thin crust" pizza at home.) We decided that although it was good, it was much more like a "loaded nacho" plate at home that like a pizza. Also, i thought the cheese tasted like velveeta--but Joey looked it up, and it was a blend of cheddar, swiss, and provolone. All in all, I would certainly not order "the works" again, but it was tasty. We brought about half of it home (we brought half my chicken from lunch home also, so we have LOTS of leftovers for the next few days.)

It was hard not to take photos of the Arch as we walked away

And then, we came back to the RV again. It has been a super-long day, but I think we made it memorable. I wanted something to remember our anniversary by, and this was a lot of fun. And Cassie was just fine in the RV with the air conditioning all day, so having this full-hookup campsite was worth it for the peace of mind. Altogether, I think our stay here was very successful. But... I am not as young as I used to be (I've been married 50 years!!!) and I am tired.

Driving up the Great River Road

View of Mississippi River from our Campsite

 Friday/Saturday Aug. 27-28, 2021

We left Memphis this morning and headed across the Mississippi to begin our drive up the Great River Road, a designated All-American Road on the Arkansas side. Our first destination was the town of Marion, to visit the Sultana Disaster Museum. I found this site the night before, when I downloaded the Great River Road app which tells about interesting stops all along the route up the Mississippi from Louisiana to Wisconsin. 

Photo taken of Sultana the day before disaster

The Sultana was a steamboat which was destroyed on April 27, 1865, when its boilers exploded. The boat was loaded far beyond its official capacity of less than 400 people; there were about 2200 on board. The majority of them were Union soldiers who had been prisoners of war at Andersonville or Cahaba POW camps. Through corrupt kickbacks from the boat's captain to Union officers, soldiers were loaded onto the boat to sail north to their homes. A photo of the Sultana taken the day before the explosion shows the decks overloaded with people, horses and mules, listing to the port side. According to our guide, more than 1700 people were killed (more than the 1200 originally counted.) It was the worst maritime disaster for the United States, surpassing even the Titanic in casualtiies.

We were amazed that we'd never heard of this event before! The museum was small but very comprehensive, with a list of ALL the passengers about the Sultana and notes as to whether they survived. We started out with a short video overview of the event, and then a docent gave us details about the exhibits.  There was a cabinet with photos of many of the people on board, a model of the boat, and photos and articles. There was also an exhibit describing the Andersonville prison camp, which was known for being the most deadly camp a soldier could be sent to.  It seems that even soon after it happened, news of the wreck of the Sultana was overshadowed by other events: within the same 24 hour period, Lincoln's funeral train left Washington, DC, John Wilkes Booth was killed, and General Joe Johnson surrendered the last large contingent of the Confederate Army. So the Sultana disaster is almost unknown.

When we finished our visit at the museum, we decided to have lunch--we were parked in a shady spot off the main street, and there was plenty of area to walk Cassie too. It was almost 2pm when we headed north again. Our next stop was the Hampson Archaeological Museum State Park. Dr. Hampson owned property which contained relics of the Nodena Indians, and he spent his retirement digging up pottery and other evidence of their culture. The museum is quite small, but it's impressive that it really represents one man's dedication to learning about an early indigenous culture. We spent about an hour there (we were literally the only people there except for the park ranger and a secretary.)

Nodena Pottery human image

Nodena pottery display

After that, we had to take the interstate rather than the more mellow Great River Road route, because we would not have gotten to our campsite before dark otherwise. We spent the night at the Trail of Tears State Park in Missouri. We were parked right next to railroad tracks, and just on the other side of those was the Mississippi River. It was very mellow and we got a very good night's sleep, despite the train coming through periodically about 50 feet from our bedroom. 

Our morning started with a visit to the park's Visitor's Center to see the exhibit on the Trail of Tears. The relocation of the Cherokee Nation from western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee is well known--partly because the Cherokee had one of the most "modern" cultures of any Native Americans. They had a written version of their language, and during their "golden age" in the early 19th century, they had a newspaper, schools, and a governing council with its own laws. However, they were pushed westward as a government policy in order for white settlers to move into Cherokee land, despite advocates for their cause going as far as the Supreme Court. President Jackson was not interested in upholding the rights of the Indians to their land, and in the end they were forcibly relocated.

Trail of Tears Diorama

Reading the details of the governmental machinations which are so similar to some of the justifications used today to trample the rights of people was very sad. The Cherokee, once resettled in Oklahoma, once again established their own community with laws and elected leaders. But eventually they were absorbed into the new Oklahoma Territory, and they gradually had to relinquish their own government in preparation for statehood.

Joe and left the Visitors Center after a chat with the ranger, saying that when you think about it, the arc of history is a very sad one--all progress comes at the expense of someone else, it seems. 

We went back to the RV, had some lunch, did some planning for tomorrow, and finally packed up to leave. We headed up the Great River Road again, and after an hour, we crossed the river into Illinois on the eastern shore. The main reason we crossed was to go through the town of Chester. Its claim to fame is that it is the "home" of Popeye the Sailor Man, or to be more specific, of Popeye's creator, who came from Chester. As soon as we crossed the river, the statue was there to greet us, along with a parking lot sufficient for us to pull over into, and a lot of folks taking their photos with Popeye! There was a visitor center there too, but I didn't even go in--we didn't want to linger forever. Joey did take my photo with Popeye, however--unfortunately, only one came out where he didn't manage to chop of Popeye's head!

We spent about 30-40 minutes in a traffic jam for one mile from the bridge to the main route north--they desperately need a stoplight at that intersection! But it gave us time to snap a photo of another Chester--Home of Popeye sign, which also wished a happy 50th anniversary to Loren & Peggy Jany. I think Highland Park should put up a sign to wish US a happy anniversary tomorrow!

Once we finally got on the route north, it took about 90 minutes more driving and we arrived at the Draftkings at Casino Queen RV Park. This is a huge parking lot, basically, but it is set up with all pull-through sites with full hookups. There's a laundry, showers, etc right here as well, and it is 15 minutes from St. Louis. I decided last night that we should "do something special" so we'd at least remember what we did on our 50th anniversary. So I booked us reservations to go on a riverboat cruise for an hour in the morning, and then (after time to come check on Cassie, and to have lunch) a ticket to the movie about the building of the St. Louis Arch, followed by a tram ride up to the top of the Arch. So we will be tourists at the St. Louis Arch tomorrow, learning all about the Westward Expansion, and (mostly) staying out of the expected heat in the 90s yet again. And we'll look for someplace for a nice dinner, too. I'm hoping we have a memorable day.

Walking In Memphis (also Driving)

 Wednesday/Thursday, August 25-26,2021

I didn't plan well enough for this vacation, I think. This was our 3rd time through Memphis, and we've seen the most compelling museums-- Graceland, and the National Museum of Civil Rights, and the Rock and Soul Museum. So I started searching the Internet and finally decided we would go to the Stax Records Museum of American Soul Music. But meanwhile, we realized we had a number of items we needed, and that finding a Walmart might help.

So we decided we'd go to Walmart, then to lunch, and then to the Stax museum. The park is about 15-20 minutes away from downtown, but it is the same distance also from Walmart (in a different direction.) We went to Walmart, where besides picking up what we needed, Joe was able to dump the old oil he'd drained a week earlier at Betsy's. That was all successful, but we messed up our plan by buying meat. We couldn't leave the meat in the car while we went elsewhere, so instead we went back to the RV, unloaded all the stuff, and had lunch there, opting to put BBQ off until dinner.

At about 2pm, we went back into town to go to the Stax Museum. It turned out to be a really good museum. There weren't many people there, and they were being active about cleaning everything all the time (the entire county was under a mandatory mask order--so you can't go ANYWHERE in Memphis at the moment without a mask, including restaurants.) In any case, almost no one else was with us in the museum. So we weren't worried as we wended our way through exhibits on the history of Stax Records, the development of soul music in Memphis, the impact of stars such as Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes, and wonderful stories about the founders of Stax Records. There were also exhibits about soul music from other cities, and a cute area with a dance floor which was playing vintage video clips from Soul Train. It was almost impossible not to dance along with the audiences on the screen!

Ike and Tina Turner Memorabilia

Isaac Hayes's Gold-Plated Cadillac

Soul Train (dance along and Express Yourself)

"Soul Man"

When we left the museum, we decided it was too early to eat dinner. But we didn't feel like calling it a day. So we drove to Beale Street. We'd been there two years ago, at night, when the place was jumping in neon and music and energy. But at 5pm, the souvenir shops were already closed, but the restaurants and bars hadn't gotten started yet. Other than a few other tourists like us wandering aimlessly, there was not much to do or see there, although i did take a few photos. It was STILL too early to eat dinner (although the menus posted in restaurant windows made Joe think he COULD eat, so once again, we went back to the RV for about an hour. We had a big discussion as to which BBQ place to go to, and eventually, after looking at 10 Best and 16 Best lists, decided on Central BBQ, which appears on all the lists and which we hadn't tried last time. So for the third time in one day, we drove back into the city. 

Central BBQ has a few locations, but we went to the one in the center of town--just a block from the Museum of Civil Rights, and a block from where we'd driven only a few hours earlier. The restaurant had tables split up so there was plenty of space to eat. But despite the fact that Central is rated high on all the Best BBQ lists, we were totally underwhelmed. We thought it was really just average, nothing special at all. My best "bite" was my collard greens, and Joe's was his baked beans. The ribs were very disappointing, he said, and my chicken was just average. I took half the latter home, but without much enthusiasm. I was wishing we'd just gone back to the BBQ Shop, where we ate last time we were here, and loved. Or even to someplace on Beale Street (none of those restaurants are ever on any lists--I guess they are just for tourists) where at least it would have been lively. But we just drove back to the RV again, the exact same route we'd taken a couple of hours earlier.

Joey on Beale Street

Thursday, we woke up determined to get some good BBQ at the BBQ Shop, but other than that, I could not find anything at all we really wanted to do! The museum we wanted (The Mississippi River Museum on Mud Island) was closed, and nothing else sounded that exciting. We frittered away the morning with a very late start, so we decided we'd 1) go for lunch, and then 2) decide what to do. 

We headed for the BBQ Shop, but were SO upset when we got there-- it was closed this week so they could refinish their floors!!!!  Besides being disappointed and hungry, we were then at a total loss. We got back in the car and looked up the Best Lists yet again, and finally decided that we'd go to wherever was closest. That turned out to be Payne's, about a mile away.  So we headed that direction.

 Payne's is a tiny place in a cinderblock building with peeling paint in a very decrepit part of town. Inside, the place had 4 tables set up around the perimeter and a small counter with a menu containing about 12 items (all pork, which i don't normally eat) and only 4 side dishes. And yet..... WOW!  The raves were absolutely correct-- the chopped pork sandwich (which is what we both got) was FANTASTIC. It was served on a bun with sauce and slaw. I had them hold my slaw, because i'm not a big slaw fan, but we got it on the side. It was a bizarre yellow color, and upon tasting it, was sort of mustard-vinegary flavored. It was fabulous, and I quickly piled some onto my meat where it "belonged." I didn't eat my bun (extra calories) but the meat was amazing. Joe was moaning with joy, and he proclaimed his baked bean side dish to be "not just good--SPECTACULAR."  (Even I liked them.) This was definitely the kind of place where, if it was local to us, Joe would eat at a couple of times/week. The whole time we were there, a steady stream of customer came by the little service window and left with bags of BBQ. Our only regret was that we had not tasted the sausage and cheese, which was also highly recommended. But I know Joe will want to go back there (he was ready to go back at dinner time!) So our disappointment meant that we'd found a new favorite place.

After leaving, we had to decide what to do. Our choices were 1) the zoo, 2) another small music musuem, and 3) return my dress to JJill, and then go to an antique mall. It was stinking hot again, making the zoo an unappealing option. And we weren't really up for another museum. So we drove further east, found a JJill, and I returned a dress I'd bought before we left home (an errand which had been following us since we left the beach.) Then we drove 10 more minutes to the antique mall. Although I did see some Roseville, none of it was appealing, and there was nothing else to be had. And so, after frittering away the entire day in Memphis, we drove back to the RV. It's hard to find things to do when it is 100% outside, and we just wanted to relax "at home." So that is what we did.

Two New State Stickers!

 

Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021

Our day started a bit inauspiciously. Joe opened the refrigerator, and a jar fell down, hit the bottom shelf (which sits over the produce drawer), and shattered it. Glass was all over the kitchen floor, inside the refrigerator door and shelves ON the door, and most of all, inside and all over the produce drawers. It took us about an hour to thoroughly sweep (5-6 times), get the chips out of the cracks in the refrigerator, and take the entire produce drawer outside, empty it, get rid of the glass, and wash it all out. What a nuisance!!

After that, though, we left to drive to Memphis. I had wanted to leave by 9:00-- due to the glass catastrophe, we left at 10:00. But soon after we got onto the interstate, I saw a sign: "Central Time Zone." AHAH! We got our hour back!

The drive itself was unremarkable, but since the most direct route was through northern Alabama and Mississippi, we got two of the four missing stickers for our map! We also maintained our record of always needing some kind of repair in every state. In Alabama, we stopped for lunch and discovered that one of the hubcaps was coming loose. So Joe fixed it. Then we had to pull over in Mississippi because we were hearing a loud thwacking noise coming from our roof, and Joe (who was the passenger--I drove the whole way) said he could see something hanging off. He climbed up and sure enough, the wide strip of rainproof tape was coming loose. I tossed him up a scissors, and he cut off the tape (which will need to be replaced asap) to stop the noise. 

 And that was the entire trip! Two new states (we also passed through Georgia briefly, but we've been there before years ago with Mo), two small repairs, and a shattered refrigerator door. We arrived at T.O. Fuller State Park in Memphis at about 5:00 local time. I had specifically reserved a site that was described as "fully shaded," but at that time of day, the sun was shining RIGHT on the parking pad, and I could see from the way the trees grew that the afternoon sun would be unimpeded by trees. So I went and spoke to the camp host, and he called the rangers, and supposedly they officially changed us to another spot I saw, which was tucked way back in the trees. It also happened to be a bit slanted (the other site was perfectly flat), which is kind of a nuisance. But I'm more worried about Cassie being cool during the day than about being perfectly level. It was brutally hot and humid all day, and leaving the air conditioned RV was like stepping into a wall of heat. Yuck!

I seem to have brought NO info with me about sightseeing in Memphis, so tomorrow we may have to be tourists and look for a tourist center. Meanwhile I will use the internet-- it's very important to find out WHICH BBQ place we'll be eating in tomorrow!

On Lookout Mountain

 Monday, Aug. 23, 2021

Our day started out not so well--I was packing up stuff into the backpack for our day of adventure, and suddenly I could not find my wallet. I looked in the backpack and it wasn't there. We looked EVERYWHERE in the RV--I knew I'd had it the night before when I stopped for ice. We ran to the convenience store and I asked inside if anyone had found it, but he said no. We came back to the RV, and I was just SHAKING. I started checking to see if my credit cards had been used... I was thinking that if I really had lost the wallet, we would have to go home today. And then--Joe found it! It was in the backpack the entire time, in an inside pocket that was virtually invisible. It slid in there instead of the main pocket. So everything was okay-- but it then took me an hour to calm down and be able to finally deal with going out.<br> 

So we packed up with lunch, sunscreen, hats, and various other needs for the day, and we took Cassie and drove up Lookout Mountain. We had two dog-friendly destinations in mind. The first was Rock City (which happens to be over the Georgia state line--the line goes right through Lookout Mountain!). This is definitely in the category of "tourist trap", in the sense that it was built in 1932 precisely to lure people up to see the amazing rock formations and gardens. The formations seemed even to early visitors to have paths between them, and they were seen as a city of "citadel." So a pathway was designed between and through the rocks, and many native plants were introduced to all the nooks and crannies. <br>

The designer was a German woman who loved her German folk tale heritage, so the different little nooks and crannies have gnomes everywhere (I am not a fan of gnomes), and there is a "fairyland cavern" with dioramas from many traditional fairy tales. That last part, we felt, was totally unnecessary and a detraction from the location. But the rocks and plants and water were gorgeous. There was soft music coming through everywhere too, and it was so tranquil, despite the tourists (but being Monday, it was probably not very crowded, and there were many times we were alone.)<br>

We really enjoyed walking the path, looking at the formations. Cassie was great--she walked ahead of us most of the time and was totally unfazed by all the steps (I kind of wish we'd brought our walking sticks, though.) We squeezed through several VERY narrow passages, walked over bridges (including a swinging bridge) and under and around the rocks. I was sorry not to get a photo of the swinging bridge, but I was so busy encouraging Cassie over it (she was SO AMAZING!) that I couldn't stop to take a photo. Definitely a big mistake! <br>

We stopped at the halfway point, which offered snacks, drinks (including a bar), rest rooms, etc. There was no restaurant service today (Monday), so the patio tables were largely empty, except for people who bought drinks. We decided to just sit there and enjoy the view and eat our sandwiches. I took a photo of the "See 7 States" rock, and the Seven States Flag Court, and the great view. We were probably there for an hour all told. After that, we continued on our way. It was about 3:00 when we got through the entire pathway, and then we stopped again for some drinks and rest time.<br>

Seven States Overlook

Balancing Rock

Seven States Flag Court

From there, we drove to the other end of Lookout Mountain to the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Historic Park.  Point Park, as that section of the park is called, overlooks the Tennessee River and is on the site where there was a huge battle in 1863, part of several which decided control over Chattanooga. The view of Chatta and the river was simply stunning! We sat for a bit, then walked around the park on the grass. There is a large monument to both sides in the war, an attempt at a "reconciliation" of sorts. But most significant is the view and the thought of how many young men were killed and wounded there during the "Battle Above the Clouds". I had about 15 minutes to spend in the visitor's center before our parking meter ran out.<br>

Painting of Battle Above the Clouds

Entryway to Point Park

Tennessee River and Chattanooga

The park has several other locations, but we were pretty tired by that time, so we drove back down the mountain and back "home." We did stop for ice cream, but the shop was closed--boo!! We had to cool off the RV, which was horribly hot inside, and then Joey made a lovely dinner of chicken on our little grill, plus peas and potatoes. And now, we need to start packing up-- we are heading to Memphis tomorrow. And, we expect to get two of our missing state stickers-- our route will take us through Alabama and Mississippi!

Chattanooga Choo-Choo

Saturday-Sunday, August 21-22, 2021 

We left Betsy and Sean's house in Hendersonville yesterday at about 10:45ish. Although I hadn't wanted to take I-40 all the way west to Tennessee, we took a wrong turn and the easiest and fastest thing to do at that point was get back on I-40. So we drove on the interstates all day. We stopped for lunch at a rest stop near the state border, and we stopped again at a flea market/antique place in Tennessee (which was a waste of time.) We arrived at our Boondockers Welcome host's house at about 6pm.<BR>

 Our host has a very large field of mostly grass behind what looks like some kind of business. There are several picnic tables spread out in the field (along with a bunch of RVs and boats which are obviously being stored here. There is a sweet path that leads from the back of the field down to the shores of the Chattanooga Creek. It's quiet and dark, but there are no hookups here. We got ourselves settled upon arrival, then took the Jeep into the center of Chatta, which was only about a 10-minute drive. We ate dinner at Champy's, which is well known for its fried chicken, which Joey loves. The meal did not disappoint-- the chicken was delicious, moist and fresh, and everything, including our fried pickle appy, came out blazing hot. We really enjoyed the meal, and brought home leftovers.<BR> 

 No hookups proved to be a problem for us, because it is too hot to leave Cassie in the RV while we go explore the Scenic City. I found a bunch of places where we could take her--scultpure gardens, Rock City, and Lookout Mountain. But this morning, it was overcast and rain was predicted. We decided to go to Lookout Mountain tomorrow. Meanwhile, we packed up for a day trip, and went downtown. My goal was the Riverwalk, and the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge, the longest pedestrian bridge anywhere. It crosses the Tennessee River, which runs through Chatta and cuts a valley between Lookout Mountain and Signal Mountain.<BR>

 We had some trouble navigating the streets, but finally found a parking lot. We had to download an app to pay for it. Then we walked over to the Riverfront, going past the highly recommended Aquarium (which we could not visit because of the dog issue.) We made a loop, not knowing where we were going, but finally got to the bridge. After resting for a little while, we took our photos and then just as we were ready to start walking, we watched a big black cloud head toward us, and it started to rain. We decided to head back to the car instead--it wasn't a rain CLOUD, it was RAIN. By the time we got to the car, we and Cassie were all soaked to the skin. That seems to be the theme of this vacation--too much rain!<BR>

 We were very disheartened, and decided to go back to the RV, because all our ideas of things to do were outside being rained on. We came back, ate our lunches, and then of course it stopped raining. But we didn't want to go anywhere that would be soaking wet. So Joey and Cassie hung out in the RV, and I went to a place about 15 minutes away which had 8 antique centers in one location. I spent a couple of hours walking through the antique stores, but didn't find any Roseville that i needed. I came home, stopping for ice on the way, and Joey said it had poured here again.<BR>

 So we've been here all evening, and we are hoping that tomorrow will indeed be sunny. We want to go up to the top of Lookout Mountain and to Rock City, both of which allow dogs. There is a National Historic Site at the top of the mountain, where there was a major battle during the Civil War. I'm looking foward to all of it, and just PRAY there will not be rain!

A Week with Friends and Family

Saturday, Aug 14-Friday, Aug 20, 2021 After we left Oak Island, we spent a lovely week visiting "at home" with various friends and family. As I wrote in my previous blog, we did a major shuffle of our belongings from house to Jeep to RV when we left our beach house. Then we drove down to Myrtle Beach, where our friends Howie and Lois have an oceanfront condo. We shlepped our two coolers up in the elevator to the 5th floor, where we filled up their refrigerator with leftovers from the beach and our RV foodstuffs. Then the four of us, somehow tired after our lovely beach vacation, just chilled out, reading on the balcony and napping. We had a totally delicious steak and salad dinner with a view of the ocean, and did absolutely nothing until we went to bed. Sunday was similar, but we did go swimming in the ocean. The water was a little bit cooler than it had been at Oak Island, but that may have been due to the rain which fell the afternoon before. Dinner this time was out on the balcony--pasta and scallops, YUM! And after dinner, we watched the movie Yesterday. All in all the two days were completely lovely. Although of course we adored spending a week with our kids and grandchildren, there's something very nice about just hanging out with old friends. Monday morning, we all packed up yet again. Joe and I planned to drive back to Oak Island again to pick up the RV, and then head for the mountains. But after some discussion, we decided that we would not try to get there that night. We knew from experience that our destination was pitch black at night, and we didn't think we'd get there before the sun went down. After looking at various routes, we decided that we'd simply go to Howie and Lois's house in Greensboro for the night to break up the drive, thereby extending our vacation with them. So saying "See you later!", Joe and I headed back to the RV. Our departure from the storage yard was delayed by the electrical connections between the Jeep and the RV. Both vehicles were fine, but the hookups were not working. Joe ended up spending almost 90 minutes completely rewiring the lights, getting soaked to the skin in a sudden torrential downpour of a rain shower. Once he was done, he changed his clothes and we left, without bothering to get lunch, despite the fact that it was now after noon. We drove for a while, and then I wanted to pull over for some lunch at a fast food place (I knew Joe was exhausted and I didn't want to take the time to make lunch and then clean up). We found a Hardee's with a large parking lot, but when Joe went in, they said it was "drive through only." We obviously couldn't drive through in the RV, so we left without eating. In the end, we never DID eat lunch. We did, however, miss our exit, and somehow we turned a 4 hour drive into a 6.5 hour drive. Not only that, but I had a mishap-- we stopped for gas, and I was going to walk Cassie. But she managed to pull me over when I was coming down the stairs, and I landed hard on the concrete. Fortunately, H&L were waiting for us with open arms, a delicious dinner, and a hot tub just waiting for our aching bodies. The next morning, we took off for Linville and our friend Margie's mountain cottage. We were extremely happy to get there in daylight, but as has been our luck so far with this vacation, just as we were unhooking the jeep, another torrential downpour soaked Joe to the skin once more. However, we did get the RV up to the cottage and situated on the flat driveway pad of a neighbor (Margie's driveway is too steep for us, as we discovered the hard way last fall.) We spent the rest of Momday and all day Tuesday visitng with Margie and Grace, and even seeing Margie's parents Dot and Ed (whose anniversary we were at in 2019.) We also saw Margie & Grace's daughter Eliana. We played bridge with Dot and Ed, ate barbeque, and generally just had a relaxing time despite the heavy rains the night we got there. Finally, we left Margie's house to drive to Joe's sister, Betsy, and her husband Sean in Hendersonville. We got there at about 3pm on Thursday, and have been hanging out with them since then. Today, Betsy had an appointment in town, so I went with her and then walked on the main street window shopping while she was busy. Meanwhile, back at the RV, Joe changed the oil and installed a new XM antenna on the roof (the old one was broken, so he ordered it while we were at the beach and had it sent to Betsy's house.) Then all four of us had lunch together, after which Sean went back to work and the three of us went to the Pinball Museum. We ended up buying "bracelets" allowing us to play the machines for as long as we wanted, and Betsy and I spent about an hour trying them all out (I still much prefer the 1970s vintage machines to the razzle-dazzle electronic machines from the 1990s.) Then we came back home, and I took a nap for the second day in a row. Tomorrow we head west to Chattanooga. I have reserved a place to stay for the next 3 nights through Boondockers Welcome, a program which matches RVers up with people willing to host them. This will be our first time using the group, and it looks like a very nice place to stay, very near downtown Chattanooga. So if all works out, we will get there in the late afternoon and have a launching pad to explore the city.

A Little Slice of Heaven

8/7/21-8/14/21 We got up on Saturday morning after a night of constant heavy rainstorms. The pounding on the roof of the RV woke us up several times. During those times, I kept hearing the sound of a cat meowing. I finally decided there must be a cat hiding under the RV or Jeep, because it didn't stop and was very close by. I felt awful--the parking lot was streaming with water all night. I was VERY glad we had decided not to seek out a campsite at the nearby Nature Center; it was reassuring to know that the parking lot would shed the water and we wouldn't have to deal with mud as well as with wetness. In the morning, it was still raining lightly. We knew we couldn't get into our beach house on Oak Island before 4:00pm. We were planning to drop Cassie at the "Bed & Biscuit" at about 3:00. But there was no real point in hanging around at the Walmart. So we packed up to leave. Joe went out to make sure everything was okay with the Jeep and prepare to move it, and suddenly he heard the cat meowing again. He opened the hood of the Jeep and there it was--perched uncomfortably in the engine compartment. He came to the RV and said, "Deb, we have a big problem." When I went outside, the cat (it was actually a kitten) had moved back, deeper into the engine toward the windshield of the car. I got a long dowel from the RV and tried to "poke" it toward the way out, but instead it went even deeper, and wedged itself underneath a piece of the hood adjacent to the windshield. In the end, Joe got out his tool kit and had to remove the piece of the Jeep that the kitten was stuck under. When he lifted it up, the poor little thing sat up, looked at me, and then hip-hopped across the engine to the edge, leaped to the ground, and ran like lightning across the parking lot. It headed for a cluster of bushes, and I would like to think there was SOME kind of shelter there, but I fear it was soaking wet there too. The poor thing couldn't have been comfortable in the engine, with absolutely no surface flat enough for it to curl up onto, and the entire area was soaking wet. It's probably a good thing it ran, or we'd have ended up wanting to keep it! After that, we proceeded with our expected itinerary: we drove to Oak Island and decided to head for the Lowes parking lot, which has a great ice cream place and a huge empty area where we had room to disconnect the Jeep from the RV. We had some lunch there, got ice cream, then unhooked and took the dog (with both vehicles) to the kennel, drove to the RV storage lot, transferred anything we wanted at the beach into the back of the Jeep (it was literally filled to the roof), and drove the Jeep to the rental house, leaving the RV in storage. This all took so long that although we were the first of our group to reach Oak Island, we were the last ones to get to our home for the week, C&E At the Sea. The week at the beach was fantastic. We had perfect weather, we loved spending time with our family and dear friends, Joe got to cook a lot, I managed not to overeat, the ocean was like a bathtub,

and everything was just wonderful. As usual, it was hard to leave, but we had to be out of the place by 9:00 on the following Saturday. So we reversed our procedure: we loaded up the Jeep with all our stuff and several coolers of food, drove to the RV, hastily unloaded the Jeep into the RV without any planning, then drove to pick up Cassie in the Jeep. Then, back to the RV, where we spent a little while reorganizing. We left almost everything in the RV, taking only the dog and things we needed for a 2-day stay, plus both coolers, still filled with food. And then, leaving the RV again, we drove from Oak Island to Myrtle Beach.

Driving Down the Eastern Shore

Friday Aug. 6, 2021 We woke up to bright blue skies and a quiet Walmart lot, where we both slept great last night. We took our time getting dressed, having breakfast, and before we were ready to pull out, we decided to walk “next door” (the other side of the parking lot across the street) to the Dunkin Donuts and get some iced coffees. We took Cassie with us, and although in the end it got hotter than we’d thought, we enjoyed the exercise. We finally pulled out of our “site” at about 10:00 in the morning, and headed south down US 113. We travelled this route last year, and I recognized some of the places we passed. But it was an uneventful drive-- local traffic when passing through towns, and otherwise a rural landscape. It sure beat the heck out of I-95! We stopped for lunch by pulling into a large supermarket parking lot along the way, and decided it had finally gotten REALLY hot. We switched drivers, and kept on going. At about 2pm, we made it to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. We’d loved going over it last year, and it was just as beautiful today. There were so many fishing boats out enjoying the bay breezes, and the views were awesome. Unfortunately, the bridge-tunnel ends at Virginia Beach and then Norfolk, and the traffic was HORRIBLE. We crawled along for a while before getting out of Norfolk. I don’t know if it’s always like that, or if it was due to a problem on the road plus friday afternoon traffic. We also had a first--just before the tunnel entrance, we had to pull over for a propane check--they made sure we’d turned off our propane tank. We’d turned it off already, though, from the bridge-tunnel, and hadn’t had a chance to turn it back on. (The lady at the toll booth had asked us about it; then she gave us a dog biscuit for Cassie!) The check only took a minute, though, and now I know how to turn the propane on and off.

On the other side of the tunnel out of Norfolk, we had some fast highways for a while, and then a two-lane road that took us into North Carolina. Somewhere along that road, we went through a huge cell hole where NONE of our phones could get a connection, even using our new wifi booster. But we knew we were on the right road, and besides, I could always refer to my paper map if the online mapping program wasn’t available. We headed directly for Kings BBQ in Kinston, NC. We’d heard about this place on the Drew Barrymore Show (don’t ask-- it was an accident that I saw it and when I realized they were having a BBQ Taste-Off, I kept it on.) Kings won the taste test, and Joe and I put it on our agenda for this trip. However, before getting to Kinston, we had noticed that the sky was getting darker and darker, and the weather reports said rain. We saw some incredible thunderhead clouds, and soon we were driving through a torrential downpour. It seems our beautiful blue skies are gone for the time being. We found Kings BBQ with no trouble. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting-- it is a very small neighborhood place (although there are two of them, so it must be popular.) We went in and ordered dinner. Sadly, as it turned out, we were disappointed. This is supposed to be premier “Eastern NC barbecue”, and I guess maybe I don’t like that variety. For one thing, the only bbq sauce we got with it was way too vinegary for my taste. I did love the collards, though, which I got as a side dish, and the hush puppies were good. Joe liked his collards and slaw, too. But we thought the actual meat was just “meh.” Joe’s comment: “Don’t watch Drew Barrymore, and don’t take her recommendation for barbecue!” We’re planning to make up for it tomorrow at lunch, when we’ll got to the BBQ House on Oak Island. Their stuff is fantastic, and you get a choice of sauces too.

After dinner we came right to our favorite campground franchise, Walmart. I picked up a few things (I’m seeing my granddaughter tomorrow-- I needed to get her something, right??) including a bathroom scale to keep in the RV. I’m trying to lose weight before our reunion in October, and the scale will help keep me honest. (Joe was appalled when I mentioned it!) So now we’re ready to call it a night, and to try and stay comfortable in all this humidity.