Florida

I can't believe that it's been almost a week since my last post!  Shows how busy we've been, I guess.

We had a wonderful time with Jon's friend Dick and his wife Carol.  They live part of the year on Amelia Island in the far northeast corner of Florida.  It is a beautiful island with an easy going pace of life.  We enjoyed a lovely dinner at one of their favorite restaurants and a tour of the island with them.  They were actually leaving for their home in New York state the next day, so we spent the evening together and then parted company.

Following that visit, we went to Summerfield, near Ocala, to see Eileen and Dennis Jones who are great friends that we met on our month long European river cruise in June of 2010.  They have a gorgeous home in a community with numerous pools, athletic options, class offerings etc.  We were toured through their neighborhood and then to the larger area called "The Villages".  That is a senior housing area that has about 70,000 residents and several "town squares" well situated to provide services - shops, businesses and restaurants - as well as entertainment.  We had a great dinner at a Greek restaurant and then went to the bandstand where live music was played and people were having a ball dancing, all out of doors of course!  We also got in a good visit - I don't think Eileen and I stopped talking the whole time.  We saw their pictures of their recent trip to several countries in south Africa and talked with them about their upcoming trip to Norway.  We were sorry to say goodbye!

And then it was south on the Florida Turnpike to the Everglades.  We stayed in Florida City, just south and west of Miami, for a night and then spent 5 hours in the Everglades.  It was fascinating - an area that looks sort of like prairie, with lots of grasses and bunches of trees, but is really a moving river only inches deep.  We saw exotic trees and other plant life and on one boardwalk saw turtles, alligators, several kinds of birds and fish.  A truly unique place!

Later that afternoon we drove down the Keys to Key West.  It took a while since most of the way it is only two lanes.  When we reached our hotel and settled in a bit, we made reservations for dinner and booked the hotel shuttle, since our place was not right downtown.  It worked wonderfully since parking can be a nightmare.  We had just enough time for a leisurely outdoor dinner accented with people watching (and there are some unusual types there) and a stroll back to the pickup spot, with a quick shopping stop thrown in.  The next morning we drove to the edge of downtown and walked to Ernest Hemmingway's house.  We were just in time for a good tour - he was quite a character - four wives, many lovers, first hand observer in two wars, and a enthusiastic liver of life.

Around 1:00 we started the drive back up the Keys, stopping for lunch at the "Crab Shack" and stopping again at Bahia Honda state park, supposedly one of the most beautiful beaches in America.  We would agree!  We wished we had more time to spend there, but we only waded a bit - I love warm salt water for swimming! -  and then got back in the car.  We ended our day in Tamarac, just off the Turnpike near Fort Lauderdale.

Today we are going to the Space Center area to spend two nights.  We plan to tour the center and to spend lots of visiting time with our dear friend from St. Charles, Poulsbo, Alice Black.

More later!
Photos:  our friends Carol and Dick Peterson, our friends Eileen and Dennis Jones, Everglades alligator, the way the Everglades look - a sea of grass, Jon and a huge tree on a trail in the Everglades, Hemingway's home in Key West and me on the beach at Bahia Honda St. park.

Nashville and Atlanta

Greetings, y'all!  Can you say Loretta Lynn, Minnie Pearl and Martin Luther King Jr.?

We have spent the last four days seeing two of the most "southern" of the cities of the South.  We spent a day driving to Nashville, a day in Nashville, a day driving to Atlanta and now a day in Atlanta (sort of).  We've seen a lot of countryside!

Nashville is the capital of Tennessee and the birthplace of country music via the Grand Ole Opry.  We stayed near the music quarter and saw the Country Music Hall of Fame and Ryman Theatre, where the broadcasts of Hee Haw and the Grand OO began.

The Country Music Hall of Fame was very well done and interesting.  We spent three hours there, listening to early recordings, watching videos (including Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show) and looking at gold and platinum records and other awards.  We came away with a new respect for the music genre and for its  history.  Did you know that Bakersfield CA was a main force in the evolution of country?

We toured the Ryman with a guide which allowed us to go back stage and see some of the dressing rooms.  Even though the GOO has a new (since the 70s) home out at Opryland, performances are still happening there on a regular basis; Vince Gill will play there in a few days.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant with great southern cooking - Jon finally found "southern fried chicken" - and live music.  A fine fiddler named Lauren McGhee - Scot turned local - entertained us.

Yesterday, Friday, we drove down here to Atlanta via a stop at Opryland, new home of the GOO.  It was quite a complex and we spent some time trying to find the new Opry house amidst the mall, hotel etc.  It was worth the stop though.  It's fun to see the autographed photos and to stand where some pretty famous people have stood.  Unfortunately some guys were doing some electrical work on stage preparing for a big show so we couldn't go there, but it was still a thrill.

After that stop, we spent too many hours in the car, in part because of a traffic accident on the freeway in Chattanooga and in part because we hit Atlanta at evening rush hour.  We are actually staying in Stone Mountain, east of the city by about 20 miles, but we still had to travel the ring road when lots of people were going home for the weekend.  We made it to our hotel by about 6 pm.

Today we spent the morning at Stone Mountain.  I hesitate to call it an amusement park because it is so much more than that, but it is a very family friendly spot with activities for all ages.  We took the gondola up to the top of Stone Mountain, a dome shaped solid granite monolith.  It was spectacular even though the day was cloudy.  Once on the ground again, we walked around a bit and took a train ride around the base of the mountain.

We wanted to go into Atlanta to see the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial and complex so after lunch we got in the car and headed back into the city.  We went to the Visitor Center (it's a National Park Service property) where we found a good display and a half hour movie celebrating his life.  Afterwards, we walked up a block to the house where he was born.  We also visited his memorial, a long pool with fountains, an eternal flame and the marble stone with his and Coretta King's epitaphs on it.  It was very moving.  Finally we visited the restored Ebenezer Baptist Church where Dr. King preached.  It is now the way that it appeared when he was there in the 50s and 60s.
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On the way back to the hotel we stopped back at Stone Mountain to see the Antebellum Plantation there.  It is comprised of buildings that have been moved from all over Georgia, including a mansion, store, barn and slave cabins.

Now we are preparing to drive to northern Florida tomorrow to visit Jon's former room mate, Dick Peterson.  We've enjoyed having 2 two night stays but we're eager to explore Florida too!

Photos:  photo of Dolly Parton and her duet partner at the Country Music Hall of Fame, a look down the main music street in Nashville, fried green beans for dinner, the stage at the Grand Ole Opry, Stone Mountain and it's famous sculpture in stone of Robert E Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson, sculpture outside the NPS Martin Luther King museum - reminds me of the "Roots" TV series, inside the museum there was a life size exhibit of a civil rights march, and the famous church home of MLK.

Natchez Trace Parkway

We have spent the last three days driving on the Natchez Trace Parkway. What an amazing road! It is beautiful, lush and a living historical document. It was first an Indian trail and then early traders used it to travel back and forth from Tennessee to Natchez. Later settlers and general travelers made use of it. Finally it was taken over by the National Park Service. They have preserved it, built trails and picnic areas and put up many informative signs. It is about 440 miles long, from Natchez to Nashville. Our three days took us from just west of Jackson to Nashville, about 350 miles. It is an easy drive with no commercial vehicles are allowed and a speed limit of around 50.

Our first day we drove from Vicksburg to Tupelo. Our first stop was at Cypress Swamp, a short trail that wound around a swamp and had a raised boardwalk for part of the trail. We didn't see any alligators or snakes, happily. It was magical, with bird calls, frogs and interesting plants of all sizes. We also drove to an overlook that is one of the highest points in the state and walked on part of the old Trace, a leaf-covered trail about 10 feet wide. By the time we got to Tupelo it was raining quite hard. We were glad to get to our hotel but then went out again for dinner - it felt almost like home!

The next day we had a short drive but there was a lot to see. First we visited Elvis Presley's home and the adjoining museum. It was quite interesting. I hadn't realized how really poor his family was. His house was tiny - 2 rooms. One room served as bedroom and living room, and the other was the kitchen and dining room. It was also fun to see all the pictures, clothes, jewelry, ticket stubs etc. in the museum.

Once we were back on the Trace, we stopped at the Visitor's Center to learn what we could and then shortly thereafter stopped again at a spot with 13 Confederate grave sites. It was continuing to rain and so further stops were cancelled and we drove right to Florence, AL, to find our hotel. On our way, we stopped at the Old Rocking Chair Cafe for lunch. What a place! I finally got to have fried pickles! I also ordered sweet potato fries and fried okra (I won't repeat the latter). It was still raining when we got to our hotel so we decided to go to the Applebees just about a block away for dinner; that worked fine since we weren't very hungry for dinner!

Today we found our way back to the Trace and stopped at Rock Spring for a hike. Since the sky had returned to being bright blue and sunny, it was a good morning for it! There was a large pond dammed up by beavers - one of which was swimming across the pond when we arrived - and on a long log sat a string of turtles! We were the only ones around and it was so peaceful! After the pond, we came to a part of the Trace that one can drive on and we took it! It was one way, narrow with trees on either side - really great! Our last stop of the day was at the burial place of Meriwether Lewis. His marker is a column with the top broken off, marking an unfinished life. After all the years that I taught the Lewis and Clark Expedition, it was meaningful to see his resting place.

When the Trace ended, we used our invaluable GPS to get us to our hotel in downtown Nashville. Tomorrow we will see the Country Music Hall of Fame in the morning and then go from there. More later.....

Photos:  Jon starting our hike at Cypress Swamp, another scene at Cypress,  the Trace as it looks today, the turtles at Rock Spring, and fried pickles!

Memphis to Baton Rouge to Vicksburg

We have covered a lot of territory since I last posted a blog. We've been in Memphis, Baton Rouge and now Vicksburg and have seen, done and eaten some amazing things!

We spent our time in Memphis well. We began at the National Civil Rights Museum, getting there a bit before 10 am. It is extremely well done. We only saw one building but it was the one in which we were most interested. It chronicles the history of blacks in the United States from 1619, when slaves were first brought here, through the assassination of Dr. King. There are wonderful exhibits, including a bus like the one that Rosa Parks rode and you can walk onto it and see her likeness sitting in one of the seats. There is also a burned out bus like the ones that the Freedom Riders rode. You can listen to a recording of President Kennedy talking to George Wallace about integrating the schools in Alabama. The Lorraine Hotel is itself part of the physical plant of the museum and the first part of the museum ends with the viewer looking into the room at the hotel that was Dr. King's. The museum continues across the street in the building where James Earl Ray waited and then fired the shot.

That afternoon we went on a riverboat cruise on the Mississippi. It was 90 minutes long and well narrated and was a lot of fun. The sun was warm too - time to haul out the sunscreen! In the evening we took the trolley to Beale street, home of the blues and rock and roll. We enjoyed walking the three block area and people watching and listening to live music. We stopped in one club to watch a pretty good Elvis impersonator - fun!

The next day we spent about 7 hours driving to Baton Rouge to visit a college friend of Jon's whose name is Dick Haymaker. He is a retired LSU physics professor and we enjoyed a nice visit with him. He made us a delicious dinner - shrimp and homemade bread - and we talked until we were falling asleep. We crashed in his upstairs guest room and then continued the conversation this morning at breakfast. It was good to meet him and the two guys had a great time reliving "the old days" and getting reacquainted.

We left Dick this morning at about 11 am and started our drive to Vicksburg. We took a smaller road, US 61, and enjoyed the scenery. This time we did see some grinding poverty as well as some gorgeous homes. We got to Vicksburg in time to check in to the hotel and then drive a short distance to the Vicksburg National Military Park. We went to the Visitor's Center where we watch a short interactive presentation and then a 30 minute movie about the siege of Vicksburg and what proceeded it. Then we purchased a CD that gave us an hour driving tour through the park. Very awesome, in the true sense of the word.

Tonight we enjoyed fried green tomatoes for dinner - unfortunately the restaurant was all out of the fried dill pickles! We've also eaten hush puppies, catfish, bourbon pecan pie....I know I'm gaining weight!!

Tomorrow we begin our drive on the Natchez Trace Parkway and we'll stay overnight in Tupelo where we'll see Elvis' home.

Photos are:  Jefferson Davis, Dick Haymaker - Jon's former roommate, cannon at Vicksburg, General Grant, and outside the Lorraine Hotel - the Civil Rights museum.

Memphis

Today we were very busy, beginning in Mountain View, Arkansas and ending up in Memphis, Tennessee! We had a modest breakfast at our hotel and then checked out and went to the nearby Ozark Folk Center. It was great and Jon, who wasn't all that excited about going initially, said that he was so glad that we were there.

As I mentioned yesterday, it is set up like a small village with various buildings where crafts and skills of many kinds are demonstrated by docents. We saw a blacksmith, broom maker, jeweler, quilter, weaver, potter, gunsmith and wood carver as well as hearing good mountain music and eating lunch at the Smoke House. We were there for 4 hours and had many conversations with the docents and other tourists.

We left at 2:00 and drove back roads toward Memphis. There really isn't a direct way so we chose to use what we hoped were the more scenic roads. We didn't get on a freeway until we were almost there. Thank goodness for our GPS - it has already provided a lot of help and reassurance!

When we crossed the Mississippi river, we were in Memphis and again our hotel choice was a fortunate one. We took the first exit once over the bridge and then went only about 4 blocks to the hotel. We have a great room which looks back to the river and bridge and is quite comfortable.

Our good friend Dick Yarington had suggested that we have dinner at Corky's, a barbeque place. We found that it was fairly easy to drive to from our hotel, although it was about 10 miles away. We had about a half hour wait when we got there because it was packed! They had great 50s and 60s music going, lots of hustle and bustle, a crowd mixed in both age and race. Angela was our waitress and she was wonderful, memorizing our long order and smiling the whole time. I will have a couple of pictures in this entry to give you a sense of the place. If you ever get to Memphis, do plan to eat there!

We asked Angela to review our plans for tomorrow and she heartily approved of them. I told her that I was sorry that we wouldn't get to Graceland and she suggested we drive by on our way back to the hotel. It was out of our way for sure but we decided to go anyway. She got the address for us and when we left we plugged in into our GPS and away we went. It involved two different freeways just to get there but it was fun to see the mansion all lit up, with the grounds, car etc.

Here are a few pictures from our trip thus far - please excuse the mixed up order - I'd forgotten how to load them to get them to come out the way I wanted!: from the top:

our rack of ribs (half dry, half wet) that we shared at Corky's; Jon holding up the Corky's menu; brooms and the broom makers at the Ozark Folk Center; the Folk Center sign: Tom Albright's brother David and a group photo of David, Brigit his wife, Jon and I; and finally our clean rib plate and dishes at Corky's.

St. Louis and the Ozarks

We arrived safely yesterday in St. Louis after an uneventful flight (always a good thing!). We were even a few minutes early getting in. Picking up our rental car went very smoothly too, as did getting to our hotel. Once there, we had about 45 minutes before we were to meet my first husband's brother and his wife who live in Florissant. David had made reservations for us at a good Italian restaurant just up the street from the hotel, which was so kind of him.

We met them at 7 and had a lovely time catching up and enjoying some good pasta (me) and prime rib (Jon). We were there for two hours and enjoyed every minute! Before we left, we took a few pictures which I will download and post soon.

Today we got up, had breakfast in our hotel, packed and began our drive through southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. It took us from 10:30 until 4 to get here, which included lunch and two grocery stops. We are in Mountain View, Arkansas with the Ozark mountains just a few miles away. We drove through Ozark National Forest just before arriving here and the scenery was wonderful. The forest of course did not look like a Pacific Northwest forest; it's all deciduous and hilly rather than rugged peaks. We did not stop to take any photos but we may tomorrow.

Mountain View is a little town of about 2000 and has quaint little shops - my favorite is "Linda's Curl Up and Dye Salon"! We had dinner at the "WingShack" tonight - chicken wings with your choice of 11 (!) different sauces and if you order 10 or more, you can choose 2 sauces, which of course we did. I had a 3 piece catfish dinner - catfish, dinner salad, hush puppies, baked beans, baked potato with sour cream and butter - and Jon had a 10 oz rib eye steak, 10 grilled shrimp, dinner salad, baked potato with toppings and we each had a "soft" beverage, all for a little over $40, all of which is to say that the economy here is very friendly to tourists!

Tomorrow we will spend several hours at the Ozark Folk Center which is a mile or two away. As we understand it, the center is a state park that is set up like Williamsburg VA - a series of stores, workshops etc. with docents in period dress (1800s to early 1900s) demonstrating a variety of crafts, skills etc. that are common in the Ozark culture. I am really looking forward to it! We'll have lunch there and then depart for Memphis, home of the Civil Rights museum across the street from the Loraine Hotel where Dr. King was assassinated, of Graceland and of Beale street blues and jazz. We hope to find time to eat some great BBQ at Corky's and to take a Mississippi river cruise on a steamboat. We are there for two nights and the day in between so we'll be busy!

I plan to take photos tomorrow at the folk center and then in Memphis and hopefully download them together, choosing a few to post in a day or two. Weather here is sunny and in the low to mid 60s currently - hope you are enjoying sunshine at home too!

A New Adventure Begins

Greetings All!

We are about to depart on a new adventure, this time within the United States! We will visit a region that neither of us has spent any amount of time in, the South. We will begin in St. Louis via a flight from Seattle. Once there we will rent a car and spend six weeks touring what we believe to be an amazing area of our country. We will visit, in order, Mountain View (Arkansas), Memphis, Baton Rouge, Vicksburg, the Natchez Trace, Nashville, Atlanta, several places in Florida (including the Tampa area, Everglades, Key West, the Space Center and 3 friends), Savannah, Charleston, the Outer Banks, Kitty Hawk, Norfolk and several other areas of Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley, Smokey Mountains, Cumberland Gap, Louisville, Lexington and Paducah (Kentucky) , then finally back to St. Louis.

We depart on April 10 and will shortly thereafter begin to post entries here.

If you would enjoy it, we would love to have you join in our trip via this site!

More to follow..........