Aqua-nuts

Yesterday was Aquarium Day. I had gone on-line the night before and bought a combo ticket that got us into the aquarium, the IMAX theater and on the River Gorge Explorer cruise. The aquarium is in two buildings and the theater in a third, all located around a square in the downtown area one block away from the waterfront where the cruise starts. The rest of the block contains all sorts of restaurants and the parking lot ($8).

We picked up our tickets and headed into the Oceans building. The first exhibit was a pool where we were invited to touch manta rays. The whole museum was highly decorated for Halloween.

From there, the tour took us into a butterfly room. Now, I don't quite get the connection with the world oceans, but it was a magical place. After you enter through a double door, the butterflies are flying all around you. Sometimes, they land on you! The exhibit contains specimens from up to 65 different species. They buy the butterflies in chrysalis form and keep them in a nursery until they hatch. Some can take a year to mature before they emerge. Most come from Costa Rica and Belize. A new batch of whatever is available is released each day at 4:00pm. They have a variety of plants growing that are each favorite foods for different species of butterfly. They also feed them slices of oranges.

Each of the aquarium buildings is four stories high. The exhibits begin on the fourth floor and then you make your way downward through the exhibits on ramps, stopping along the way at each new presentation. Each building also has a three story aquarium in it in addition to the many smaller tanks and displays. There are opportunities to see each of the tanks at various levels and many tanks have domes or chambers that children can crawl into and be surrounded by the tank. There's lots of natural looking stone and habitat.

This is one of several tanks of jellyfish. The tanks are round, which tends to magnify the view. They are also lit from the bottom with lights that change colors.

The second building focuses on rivers of the world and their various ecosystems. It's a good chance to see that while many parts of the world differ, they all have similarities and common problems. We got to see species we'd only heard of. They had quite a display of sturgeon from around the world, all  kinds of turtles and amphibians, too.





Between buildings, we took in the IMAX theater presentation. The film we saw was a presentation about undersea life, narrated by Jim Carrey. It was in 3D and it was superb.

At 4:00, we moved to the waterfront to board the River Gorge Explorer. This is a unique boat, designed and built especially for this service. It is a catamaran, meaning it has two side-by-side hulls and is hydrofoil assisted. That means it has an airfoil wing mounted between the hulls that puts the whole boat up on plane when up to speed. The shallow draft on plane of 6 1/2 inches means that the four engines, totaling 3500 hp can drive the loaded boat at 55 mph down the river. And since they can reverse the thrust, it stops just as well, as the captain was happy to demonstrate several times.

The cruise took us downstream on the Tennessee River to the next dam in the TVA system and lasted three hours, most of it cruising at slow speed so all who wished could ride up on top and watch the shore go by.
Diane enjoyed the ride:

The fall colors were right at peak. If only the weather had cooperated, it would have been perfect. As it was it was still a terrific experience on a unique craft.

One of the highlights of the trip was seeing a mature bald eagle fly low over the boat. Another one was seeing a deer swimming across the river, which at this point was over two football fields wide.

The Saga Continues

Yesterday, we made the move from Lynchburg to Chattanooga. The weather cleared out pretty well in the afternoon. We had followed Rt.64 all across TN and did so yesterday until we linked up with I24 heading south. They are widening 64 into 4 lanes divided just as they have done in much of NC. We were in and out of construction all the way from Memphis. The road yesterday was quite good, however, and we made pretty good time, arriving here around 4:00pm. The route in from the West through the hills was very pretty.

I stopped at the office and registered for five nights and they showed me which site was mine. I towed the camper around to it and saw that it was a pull-through site. Moved the camper into place and went to fine tune it and the truck quit responding. It would start and run just fine but I had no gauges and no throttle. A bunch of guys from around the campground pitched  in to help. One found that the armature of the alternator was magnetized, a sure sign of diode failure. So, off to the parts store and put on a new alternator. No luck. Another guy had a fancy laptop analyzer program that he hooked up to the OBD port and showed a whole handful of codes. By now, the armchair mechanics were in full bloom, but no answers. So, I said that's it, wait till morning and it goes to the Ford dealer and we'll just get it fixed. So that's what I did. Had it towed this morning and got it back this afternoon ready to go. It turned out that the shift lever had shorted out inside the steering column and blown a fuse. Who'd a thunk it!

We have been concentrating our stays in State Parks as much as possible. We like the space and the peace and quiet and the rates are great. But  for this stay, we've elected to move to a commercial park. Raccoon Mountain RV Park is supposed to be the finest in Chattanooga. It is pretty decent but a long way from being a polished park. It's fairly old but kept up well. The nice parts for us is that they have full hookups, free high speed WiFi and a whole slew of cable TV channels. The sites are close. If I put my arm out my slide window, I can toast marshmallows on my neighbors fire. There's gravel for the trailer pad and road, but the rest is grass. (Mud when it rains). There's a 14 day limit on most state parks, but here many of our neighbors are here for the winter. Some have fairly elaborate skirts built around them. It gets quite cold here and it snows. Others around us are living here while working in the area. We have several cable installers at the end of the row.

It's interesting to talk with the different folks and see the setups. We enjoy the extras while we have them, but we'd still rather be in the state parks. When we leave here, I think we'll head to north Georgia to Vogel State Park and move East from there.
Tomorrow, however, is the famous Tennessee Aquarium capped off by a boat ride on the Tennessee River at sundown.

Alone in the Wilderness

RV park, that is. We're at the Lynchburg Wilderness RV Park. The only other units parked here belong to a couple of the guys working here. They tell us that last weekend it was full because of the barbeque at the distillery. Maybe. The sites are full hookup but my sewer connection is above me so I'd have to dump uphill. I could use about twice the blocks I have for leveling. It rained all day getting here and its rained ever since we got here. But that didn't stop us.

We visited the Jack Daniels Distillery this afternoon. This is a view of a bronze statue of JD standing in front of the spring where they get the water for brewing. It's limestone filtered and has no iron, that's what makes it so good. We had our own tour guide and shuttle bus with lift, just like at Graceland. We were the only ones on our tour and we had a great gal as a guide. She took us through the whole process and most of the buildings. This is a dry county, but a few years back they got an ordinance passed allowing them to sell JD in commemorative decanters. At the bar, you can have all the lemonade you want.

The thing that makes Tennessee whiskey different from regular bourbon is the fact that it is charcoal filtered. They make there own charcoal right here using only hard sugar maple lumber. They also make their own barrels out of white oak, but that's done in St. Louis. Each barrel is used only once, then they are sold to various businesses, mostly wineries. I saw them for sale in the barrel shop for anywhere from $85 up to $175 for a varnished one.

She said that about 60% of the price of a bottle of whiskey is taxes. We contributed. Here, Diane is clutching our bottle.

One of the interesting things about the distillery is that they let the town merchants handle the souvenirs, none are sold at the tour. So, of course, we had to see what they had. Diane got another cookbook and I got a T-shirt. I also got a bottle opener I've been looking for to install in the camper.

They pulled the sidewalks in at about 4:30 so we were left with coming back to camp and cooking hot dogs. I think we're going to pull up stakes tomorrow and move to Chattanooga. We're supposed to get a break in the weather for a couple of days and we want to take the river excursion that the aquarium offers.

On the road again.

We've left Memphis behind and are heading back to the East. After 185 miles and 4 1/2 hours, we're back in David Crockett State Park for the night. Tomorrow, it's off to Lynchburg for a first hand look at Jack Daniels. The weather looks to be closing in again, but what're you gonna do - just have to suck it up and keep at it.

It's great to be back to a park where I can get a decent cell signal.

It's about as colorful as it gets around here. Some reds from the dogwood and sourwood, but mostly golds and browns from the rest. Still, it's very pretty and today was a great day for watching the trees going by.

What did we do? We went to the Zoo!

On our first really nice day in a week, we decided to take in the Memphis Zoo. I had been to the San Diego Zoo, one of the premier zoos in the country, and I wanted to see how this one compared. The short story is that we had the best experience on any zoo we've been to. This is a first class operation. The habitats are about on par with San Diego but the Panda exhibit is much nicer. The animals all appear to be in good shape and quite content. All of the big cats were laid out in the sun, soaking it up, and not posing for pictures. There were the usual range of species, from alligators to zebras and most everything in between. Birds to fish to mammals.

But, of course, our favorite was the pandas. They had a nice intro film to watch and then we strolled into the exhibit in time for the afternoon feeding. The pandas are behind glass so it's easy to get a good look at them. They are not as big as they seem in the pictures. But they do have that roly-poly appearance and they sure do like their bamboo.
























I again was fortunate enough to impose on a gal to record our presence, so I can prove we both made it.

Today is a resting day and tomorrow is travel, probably back to David Crocket for an overnight on our way to Lynchburg.

Time Travel

Yesterday was overcast but it didn't rain until after dark. We decided it would be a good day to visit the Pink Palace. This the name the locals gave to the home built by Clarence Saunders, the originator of the Piggly Wiggly grocery chain. He donated it to the city in 1926 for a museum after he was ruined in a bankruptcy fight with the New York Stock Exchange. It is made from pink marble from Georgia, hence the name. The home was built with 36,500 square feet of living area. Today, it is a collection of museums of both natural and local history and also houses an IMAX theater and a planetarium.

We started out in the natural history museum on the first floor. This has exhibits showing the internal bone structures of many animals and birds from mice to men. It shows the march of time and the development of plant and animal life over the ages, with some information on dinosaurs that have been found in the area.

There is an extensive display of rocks and minerals from around the world.

We interrupted our tour for the show at the planetarium. It was a program on the development of the telescope, which was first invented 400 years ago this year. Then there was a follow-up program on the night sky of Memphis and some of the more easily identifiable constellations.

After the show, we went up to the second floor of the museum to see the local history displays. This is all Smithsonian quality stuff, with many life-size dioramas and lots of artifacts. The time span goes from the early pioneer days up into the 1930's.  At one place, I saw an opportunity to get both of us in the picture.

Also on the second floor was a temporary exhibit, this one put on by the local model railroad clubs. It was a huge display, and very detailed.

The permanent displays ranged from pioneer history up through the 1930's. There is a heavy emphasis on local medical history with many displays and dioramas of medical and dental practice and training. Lots of artifacts. There was also a section describing the "Cotton Ball", a yearly celebration of the importance of cotton to the local economy, as Memphis was the clearing house for all of the cotton grown for a long ways around. It looked like a local Mardis Gras, with specially designed costumes and floats.

But one of the exhibits that I got quite a charge out of was one of a 1930's kitchen. It had the exact same models of clock, waffle maker and mix-master that we had in our kitchen when I was a kid. Talk about feeling old! Now they're putting my life in a museum.

Don't trust the weatherman

The weather had backed off by noon yesterday, so I went on line and they had changed the forecast to partly cloudy. I looked at the radar and it looked like some heavy stuff coming but there  would be a break for a while before hand. So we decided to go to Mecca_er_Graceland. It was misting a little bit when we got there (it's only 6 miles from camp) but we had committed and away we go. They are really set up well to handle the crowds but the crowd was very light yesterday. They had this lift shuttle to carry Diane.

No sooner than we had gotten inside than it started to pour. I had left our rain gear in the truck except for a poncho for Diane. We toured the part of the house that was accessible to us. We couldn't go to the cellar for the TV room, pool room and jungle rooms because of the stairs. So we had to go back outside and around to the back of the house where they had a slide show on a monitor to show us what we had missed. They also had umbrellas for those who didn't bring their own.


 The tour of the mansion involves several buildings so we were in and out of the downpour several times. But the place is impressive. It lives up to it's billing. They have done a great job with the various displays. One I found particularly impressive was set up in what used to be his racquet-ball court.

We spent about two hours going through what we could. We had bought just the basic ticket because the longer tours took in things like his airplanes that we couldn't have gotten into. A good tour and it could take as long as you wanted. You don't have to stay with a group and you can set your own pace. Lots of fan devotionals, especially at the entrance and at the graves.

Since it was the middle of the afternoon and we still hadn't eaten, we made our way over to the East side of town and found Corkys Barbeque. This was also one of the places we wanted to visit because Diane sees their ribs offered on QVC. It's just a small BBQ joint but the ribs were great! We split a full rack, one half done dry and the other wet. I liked the wet better. The dry has no sauce on it but has a paprika rub. Of course, there's sauce on the table to add to all of it. I had to get some to bring home, the sauce, that is.


So, we had a good day in spite of the weather. It rained hard until midnight and then quit. It's overcast and cool this morning. Maybe we'll head to the Pink Palace today.

Beale Street

Well, we did Beale Street yesterday. At least the old farts version of it. Beale Street is a three block stretch in the center of Memphis that is known for it Blues and is touted as the home of Rock n Roll. It is a collection of blues clubs, dining establishments and souvenir shops. There is a Hard Rock Cafe there blaring blues music all day. We visited in the mid afternoon, but the area is really meant to be seen at night with all of the neon and the hawkers and live music at full blast. It was quite calm while we were there but I'm afraid the late night crush is just not our thing. We did the best we could by buying t-shirts and having a rack of ribs at the Blues City Cafe. They were good but not as good as I remember getting at the Dinosaur. At least we have a standard to judge against when we go to Corky's.

Beale Street has its sidewalk honoring the greats of its music and we  looked at many we didn't know, but here's one we did:

Then we went to a park along the Mississippi River and watched the boats go by. Then off to McD's for a hot fudge sundae for dessert and then back to camp.

Today it started raining about 4:00am and is coming down pretty well so we're going to lay low and maybe go out to Corkys for BBQ dinner.

One of the biggest disappointments of this campground is the lack of good cell signal. I tried to post last night and only had enough to hook up but not to post and certainly not to post any photos. This morning it's two bars and I'm doing as well as I can.

Move Day

Today we pulled up stakes at Crockett SP and drove 202 miles to T O Fuller SP in Memphis. I mean IN Memphis. On-The-Mississippi-River Memphis. A very nice park in a not very nice section of town. But quiet  and secluded from town and very pretty. We have a very adequate site right near the bath house. And they have a laundry! Which we need badly by this time. When the ranger came around to register us tonight, I showed him our handicap placard and he said "well that means half-price". So we're staying here for 5 nights at $10 a night. Can't beat those state parks.

We traveled down the Trace as far as Florence, Alabama and then followed Rt. 72 across Alabama and through Mississippi over to Memphis. We stopped in Corinth, Miss. for lunch and altogether it took us just a hair over 5 hours. The route was very flat with only a few low hills, lots of very low land and really not much to see. This is the rural South. Not poor, but not congested with suburbia and its trappings. Most all towns have a town square. Only the larger ones have a McDonalds and fewer yet a Wal-Mart. And Wal-Mart is as close as it gets to a big box store. Lots of hunting and fishing outlets and Tractor Supply stores.

Tomorrow, we're going to sleep in and take our time getting going. Then we will probably go out and find Beale Street and see what kind of mischief we can get into.

Shiloh

We got to Shiloh today as promised. It is a somber, stirring place. We watched the (1956) movie that explained the battle and it's significance. It was the battle that broke the South's hold on the western front. Even though the war lasted another two years, the South could not from this point on, mount an offensive up the Mississippi and come from the West. It was a tragic battle in many regards. One of elation and despair for both sides. The South won the first day's fighting and started to drive the Union back, but then the Union reinforcements arrived to shore up Grant's army overnight and the next day they drove the outnumbered Confederates back over the ground they had so dearly fought and died to gain the day before. At the end of two days of fighting, the South had over 10,000 injured and dead and the Union had over 13,000.

The area is a mix of clear fields and oak forest and in driving around the battlefield, it is easy to imagine the terror of confronting all that firepower with the short range of vision available. Like Gettysburg, it has large numbers of gun emplacements from the various divisions involved in the fight. It's impressive but a little hard to absorb after seeing scene after scene.

Just to prove that there are really two people on this trip, I managed to talk a young lady into providing us with proof.

Of course, we had to stop at the bookstore for souvenirs and the highlight of Diane's day was finding the cookbook from "Fried Green Tomatoes".

Lawrenceburg

As noted before we are at David Crockett State Park. It's interesting to see how the various parks compare. Earlier we were in Norris Dam State Park and it was as different from this as night and day. This park was dedicated in 1959. That is to say, before modern RVs and their larger space requirements. The roads are paved and so are the parking pads. Our pad is about average and we just fit. Water and electric at each site and a dump station on the way out of the loop. There are two camping areas, one at the bottom of the ill along the stream and another at the top of the hill in the woods. We're in the top camping area. There are many deer in the woods here and we see several each time in and out of the campgrounds. Last night it got to the mid 30's and a water pipe broke. It was a 4" pipe about 3'  down, so I don't think it froze but it meant no water all day. Some campsites have stone fireplaces that must date from the early days of the park.

Yesterday we went in to Lawrenceburg, which is right next door to the park. There is this statue of David Crockett in the center square. It's an old time town square trying to stay alive with various antique stores and junk emporiums. North of town is the growth area, if you can call it that, with the WallMart Supercenter and the more modern stores. Out of town, north on Rt. 43 can be seen elements of an Amish community. There are the usual buggy rides being offered and a great furniture outlet made out of an old motel. There are also a couple of shops that serve as both stores for the Amish to get some few things and an outlet for some of their wares. We bought a dynamite Walnut Spice Cake, great with cream cheese! For some reason, they had  a tractor parade on Saturday. It was passing the store just as we stopped. This is an interesting look at the Amish. There is none of the polish of Lancaster, PA. These are very ordinary, trying to get by, folks like the rest of us and they look just a little more out of place than they do in other enclaves I've visited.

Today, we finally had sunshine so we went back up the Trace to the Meriweather Lewis monument and burial place. What a tragedy. The man was only 35 years old and had the great accomplishment of the Lewis & Clark Expedition in his past and a bright future. Yet he died here in the wilderness in suspicious circumstances and we're left with the mystery. I've read "Undaunted Courage", the story of the expedition, and to lose this man before we had the full story is just unfathomable. Of course, all his papers were lost with him. A fascinating story. The monument is incomplete in it's height to commemorate his shortened life.

We had a chance to get a better look at the Natchez Trace on the way back up. Here's a shot of the Trace as it appears today.








We also had a chance to drive a section of the Old Trace. There is a 2 1/2 mile section of the old trace open to vehicles (no RVs) on the northbound section.  It is paved but narrow and trees close in on the sides. It's a chance to feel more of the experience.

Tomorrow, it's off to Shiloh. Stay tuned.

Is it Davy Crockett or Davy Jones?

It has rained for the last six days and it sure feels  more Jones than Crockett, but we are camped at David Crockett State Park, about 100 miles south of Nashville. On Thursday, we visited the Opry Museum which is right next to the Grand Ole Opry House. At first, it seems like the Country Music  Hall of Fame all over again, and then you realize that this display is about the people more than the music. There are extensive displays about the lives of Patsy Cline, Tex Ritter, Little Jimmy Dickens, Marty Robbins and others. They have an amazing amount of memorabilia from most of the performers, some things dating back to their early childhood. As well, they have some very sizable items, like Marty Robbins pickup and his stock car. Of course, lots of guitars and records and clothing. Also, they have recreations of stars rooms like Patsy Cline's living room and Marty Robbin's office. So it's different from the Hall and a worthwhile visit.

We then tried to get to the Opryland Hotel for lunch but the only way to park anywhere near it cost 18$ and I just got tired of being ripped off and we bagged it in favor of a Bob Evans around the corner.

We then did some shopping, stopping at Goodwill for some warm clothes for Diane and then back to camp.

We got away from camp on Friday to move South about 10:45 but ran into some mechanical difficulties that delayed us about 3 hours. I wound up replacing the power tongue jack on the trailer in the rain in the Opry Mills Mall parking lot. Long, sad story here but I'm still too close to it to laugh yet.

On our way South, I missed my exit on 440 and wound up miles West of where I wanted to be. So I figured out where I was and trekked cross-country to get back on route. Made to Rt. 100 just in time to stop at the Loveless Cafe, one of the Nashville must-see's. We stopped for lunch and had some of the best food ever. This is one stop that lived up to its billing. Then it was South on the Natchez Trace for about 75 miles to our new camp.

One of the things I've found about traveling with a GPS is the difficulty of either getting to an indefinite location or going on an alternate route. It's fine for going to a street address, but if all I have is a post office box, I'm out of luck. Same way if I want to use the Trace for the scenics and it wants to use the direct route, it's always recalculating. Using Street Atlas would let me do what I want (with some advance preparation) but using the laptop to navigate in the truck just takes up so much room. So it's back to maps on the lap and dead reckoning like we used to do before technology.

The Natchez Trace is a pretty road. I'm used to the Blue Ridge Parkway and I wondered how it would compare. It's not as hilly or curvy. The Northern section had a speed limit of 40 mph but when the road straightened some, it changed to 50 mph. The sides are mostly wooded but the grassy areas are broader, sometimes expanding into mowed fields with huge round hay bales. There are no vistas per say, but there are some overlooks with wider views of some of the valleys. We saw several flocks of turkeys foraging along the way in the late afternoon. The trees are showing some color change but there are only a few Maples for color with most being Oaks and Hickories in shades of yellow, orange and brown. Most of the Southern hardwoods are Oak and Hickory and we have stayed in wooded sites on this trip. It's pretty but somewhat disconcerting in the middle of the night when a nut or two falls on the roof. It sounds like somebody throwing rocks at the camper.

I'm learning that on an open ended trip such as this, we need to not try to schedule our activities and watch the weather and be willing to wait out an inclement spell. I think we pushed a little hard in Nashville, partly due to the limited availability of a campsite. We're going to sit out today, take it easy, maybe get some laundry done, and wait a little for the weather to improve. Sunday through Thursday is forecast to be much better. This campground even has a restaurant that serves dinner on Friday and Saturday and lunch every day, so we're going to see what they have for dinner tonight.

History and Music

Yesterday we went to visit Carnton Plantation. It was built in 1826 and was caught in the Civil War Battle of Franklin. The Confederates were at the front of the house, and the Federals were at the back (shown here). After five hours of fierce fighting, the battle was over and over 10,000 men from both sides were either dead or wounded. The Federals pulled back North and the house and grounds became a Confederate hospital. The family, father and mother, two kids and two help, lived in what was the old kitchen (called the first house) and 12 doctors and surgeons took care of 600 men in the house and grounds. The wounded stayed for 6 months. What is most notable is that the family embraced the wounded and cared for them for months day and night and then eventually donated two acres of land for a Confederate graveyard. It is the largest private Confederate graveyard in the South. This made the property the scene of visits and family explorations for the next 20 years as relatives of the dead sought information about the lost. The house still has blood stains soaked into the floor where operations were carried out. I've read about the battle of Franklin and the war in general and it's a remarkable story. But the feeling of actually standing on a spot where it happened and where you can visualize the effects on the civilian population is memorable. It gives a whole new perspective to the story. You just have to be here.

As we were preparing to leave, it started to rain, putting an end to our outdoor activities for a while. We had secured tickets for the Grand Ole Opry for the evening, so we headed back into Nashville. It turns out that even 4:00 on a Tuesday is rush hour in Nashville and we were engulfed in a slow moving traffic pattern for several miles. But we made it through with plenty of time and another tour of Opry Mills mall. We had dinner in the mall at Tony Romas.  The food was great, but they are sure proud of their beverages. Then it was on to the Opry House for the Tuesday night radio show. It was a two hour show with a 15 minute intermission. Since it was a live radio show, it included all of the commercials. Just like watching TV, there was as much commercial time as there was performance. But it was still great and we feel like we've had the ultimate Nashville experience.

Today is a day of R&R. It rained all night and it's still misting out. It's good just to lay back and be lazy for a little bit. I went out with the dog and saw this setup two sites up from us. A whole haunted house setup. It's not like they're going to be here through Halloween because there's a max 14 day stay and they have to be out before then. I have to admire the enthusiasm.