Kansas to home

In KS we ran into gusts up to 40 mph on Sunday.   Got a campsite in Hesston -where Hesston Farm Equipment has been built  for almost 100 years.  Bitter cold with the wind.  We went to the store  and then baked brownies, peanut butter cookies, spaghetti.   I was helpess during Makoshika Basketball, but it survived and so did I.  No one is indispensible but Dea sure pulled thru then broke her ankle on Sunday night.  I spent time revising checklists.

Now that we are traveling today, Monday, we see that not one of the wind farm blades is turning on I-70.  Today the winds are 12-14mph so don't know if they have an automatic shutdown high winds and have to be reset.  Blades were spinning on our way down a month ago.  A second wind farm farther west was spinning fine this morning.  And KS sprays their roads with salt so all that care Mike took is on the back of the RV.  Spent the night at Fishberry campground out of Valentine with gaggles of geese flying and honking overhead.  This will be our first night stop from now on.  Good wifi, high amps , sufficient gravel and wide turns with now low overhanging branches.  I could design a good R.V park now and would put in a workout center as well as nature walk.  Been a fun journey with my hubby.  Look forwsard to the next adventure and to seeing friends and family

Across the wide Missouri

From Paducah Friday morning we crossed the windy Mississippi River twice- west and south over two magnificent high bridges within a half mile as we crossed into Missouri.  The size of the rivers in the east and the heavy commercial river traffic has amazed us both.   We crossed the state to Springfield  back in the Ozarks and then retraced roads to Carthage, place of the first western  battle of the civil war.  Wilson Creek would follow a few weeks later.  There is nothing but a highway marker at Carthage.   The woods thin out and the prairie lays ahead. 350 miles across Missouri.

We stayed at Big Red Barn Campground in Carthage - a wonderful place Shopcat loved exploring. 

Weather was reporting the storm in Denver heading across Kansas and NE.  I thought we should get as far as we could before the rain hit our area.  Mike refuses to have road salt sprayed on the bus. .  It was our only dispute of the trip.  With the weather cloudy nearby from weather.com we took off from Carthage and spent the afternoon and night at a rest area with no cell or wifi service.  Luckily the satellite TV worked and cards too  In two days we put on 222 miles.    We love the fences and entries into the country homes with their porches, columns and shutters.

With the Cargills in Paducah

barges going down the Ohio River  on Paducah Port

Murals make cement levies an attraction

A fund day of exploring Paducah, KY - a city of about 24,000 that has a great love of the arts and a fabulous waterfront.  Four rivers meet in this county - the Ohio seen the the background, the TENNESSEE, the Cumberland and the Mississippi.  WE ALSO TOURED THE NATIONAL QUILT MUSEUM BUT NO PICTURES WERE ALLOWED.  We toured their lovely brick home with a pool and stables on 6 acres.  With depressed market here they got it for a song.  The moving van just unloaded Sunday so they are Paducah's newest residents.  We enjoyed a dinner out with catfish and salmon.  A delightful rendezvous on our journey.

Natchez Trace Parkway

Awesome road closed to commercial traffic.  The Natchez Trace Parkway an ancient Indian trail from Natchez, MS (almost LA) to Nashville.  It's so picturesque and no traffic.  Would be fun on a motorcycle.  We took it from Tupelo to Nashville, 191 miles.  Will add pics later.

Let Down Your Hair

I felt like Rapunzel sequestered in the tower as I was stranded in the RV up on hoists all day in the Prevost service center.  Although  I need a haircut, it certainly isn't long enough to let down and crawl out. Actually had a good day working on Makoshika basketball tourney as raining here.  Charley Daniel's bus was across from  us and Clay Walker's nice paint job was in the parking lot.  

We did let our own hair last night as we went to Tootsies Bar downtown. The walls are filled with pictures and autographs.  Out the back door is the Ryman Theatre, former home of the Grand Old Opry.    Hank Williams Sr. got fired for arriving late after too much time at Tootsies.  Two bands played Monday night ; one in the front and one in the back of this long narrow bar filled with folks having fun and  wanabees singing along.  Walking down the street  every bar had a band.  It reminded me of  Orleans but this is country and that is jazz.  We ended with BBQ - with TN sauce - vinegary and spicy and Kansas City sweet sauce. They slow-roast the brisket for 24 hours.  Parking downtown is $6/HR. $12/ 2 HR OR $17 til 6AM.  We take the wide open spaces back home for granted.

Shiloh Battlefield

Beyond impressive.  We went back today cuz it got dark on us Friday.  Saturday was snowing so I did some retail therapy in Tupelo, a town with every known franchise. At the liquor store the kid said he's seen snow 3 times in MS.  Lucky us.  It was nothing that stuck on the ground but ironic that it was 50 in Glendive.

Politically correct has run amuck. 150 years after the war Memphis city council renamed Forrest Park last week  cuz General Nathan Bedford Forrest was a brilliant tactical Confederate Calvary leader but too cruel in his killing and later associated with the Klu Klux Klan.  He and his wife were reburied in the park in the 1910s by people that thought he should be more honored.  Old Miss had to give up their plantation owner college mascot cuz he seems too racist.  I said we could relate cuz UND faced sanctions by NCAA if didn't change Fighting Sioux name.  The historian at Shiloh told me Memphis also changed the name of Confederate Park and Davis Park ( Confederate Pres, Jefferson Davis lived in Memphis after being released from prison. )

April 6, 1862 each side had around 40,000 with the Confederates surprising Grant who was waiting for more troops.  They battled from sun up to sundown and by the color coded and shaped signs you can see where the confederates pushed them back and at what time and day,  General Buell arrived with 20,000 fresh troops that night via the Tennessee River and by land.   Confederates retreated to Corinth to protect the RR Monday afternoon.  23,726 died- shocking the world.  To know what to do you listened to the drums - 100 different drum rolls for charge, retreat, lunch, etc.  To hear over the din took 10 drummers.  After 1865, the military changed to buglers cuz the different pitch could be heard easier and the other 9 could be fighting soldiers.

The military terms boggled me so here's the lesson from the ranger:  Company -100 soldiers from the same area named letters (not J), led by captain.  Regiment -10 companies so 1000 men named numbers based on when commissioned, led by Colonel.  Battery 3-4 regiments, led by Brigadier General.  Divisions - 2-3 batteries or 10,000 soldiers, led by major general. At Shiloh may be 6000-8000 cuz of previous loses, on sick leave, etc.  The union names their divisions after Rivers - Tennessee and the Ohio.   The south named them after regions -the Mississippi (Valley).


Shiloh has many monuments honoring those who served.  Illinois monuments dominated the battlefield but they had the most soldiers.  Statues had to be approved and paid for by the state, shipped down by boat, pulled to the sight by oxen and placed at the appropriate site.  Union outnumber the south's statues 50 to 1. I liked one by Arkansas Daughters of the Confederates in 1910. The south was broke and had more pressing issues than statues after the war,  This park allows no statues honoring individuals as it was so chaotic, it was the soldiers, not the generals who were the heroes here.  One statue for Alabama's General "Fighting Joe:Wheeler snuck in during the 30s when a weak supt. bowed to wealthy influential southern ladies.

the south

Traveling from GA through Alabama to MS - a few comments - miles and miles of rolling wooded hills, lots of manufacturing near the big cities -Birmingham AL 1 million - we just kept on the interstate and didn't check out Civil Rights, but John Grisham's A Time to Kill was on that night,  After the trashy yards of the back hills of FL, lots of manufactured homes, to nice antebellum manions in GA and MS &TN.  Shutters,porches,  columns, brick are common sites. Confederate flags still fly.  Saw cotton fields and rice.  soybeans and corn are common.

Corinth,MS

We are staying in Tupelo -Elvis's birthplace, but the reason it its proximentry to Corinth Civil War Battkefield and to Memphis.  The confederates move south after the win APRIL 6 AND THE DEFEAT APRIL 7 AT SHILOH. IN CORINTH THE MISSION WAS TO PROTECT THE RAILROADS.  If you could control the transportation of good by land or sea, you could control the war.  Black slaves, called the contraband of war, learned to read and had a model camp here run by a  minister with every house having a garden

The numbers in battle were 40,000 or at Shiloh 100,000 with 23,000 dead. The logistics are hard to fathom - feeding, caring for the injured, burying the dead.

Columbus, GA and Montgomery AL

Columbus is on the Chatahoochee River, a main river that flows through the whole state and ends up in FL where we stayed a 3 Rivers State Park - the Flint, Chattahoochee and the Appalachacola (all big rivers we have crossed in GA).  During the civil war Columbus,GA was a major supply depot and the south's Ironworks factory, making cannons, bullets and ironclad boats.  We saw a lot of manufacturing-(Proctor & Gamble, wood mills) driving to GA and the empty Dolly Madison ( Hostess) factory.

We stopped at the Naval museum after a war with Alice the GPS.  She was still steering us wrong as we got to Montgomery,AL for the night. Mike had had it.  This nice campground, Capital City RV, had two bus-stop shelters on either end of the pond with cement walking path around it.  How unusual.  Wonder.

The Sweaky Wheel gets the Grease.

We were headed north into Georgia on a wooded two-lane road when we heard the screeching.  First we thought it was a train that was running parallel hidden by the trees.  As we continued north Mike figured it was the back wheel bearing.  There were no pulloverspots and with all the rain the last few days  (reason we'd staying in Cedar Keys longer) you couldn't dare leave the pavement.  When we got to Quitman (God does have a sense of humor) Mike unloaded the pickup and went for grease to fix the wheelbearing.  Would you have a clue?  Anyway an hour later we changed direction and went to closest town, Thomasville, GA.

Although not listed in Woodall's RV catalog, found an RV park on line with one review. We pulled in the soggy grass park  and after walking it, Mike practiced his backing skills and we headed to Walmart to boondock with a couple truckers.  If not in Woodalls, be wary.   He was in the mood for Pizza so I called for delivery.  They couldn't deliver to a mobile address for safety reasons, so after checking with Mike, cuz the Hibachi Buffet was in our backyard, I walked the .4 miles Trip Advisor said it was.  I went by 15 restaurants to get there including Dominos, but I'd already called it on.  The mile walk did me good.

The next morning we unloaded the pickup to see this historic downtown and the oldest oak this side of the Mississippi.  It was alive when the constitutions was written.  WOW. Block after block of Victorian homes.  In the 1830 Thomasville in the highlands was where the Northerers came and bought land and built plantation homes because there was no yellow fever.  After the Panama Canal was built and they'd found the reason (mosquitoes) and cure for yellow fever, Thomasville lost its draw but the homes remained and more added.  Even the new subdivisions have that southern appeal.  It's called the city of roses.   I'll bet if you checked, Thomasville has a strong planning board and a community foundation.  What a beautiful city.

Shopcat and Mike check out the biggest oak east of the Mississippi.  Notice the braces holding up the branches.

Tues, - still in Cedar Key but moving out

 
We like it here and stormy weather between us and home has us staying put.  Allthese dog owners cant believe Shopcat follows Mike on walkabouts.  Went to Manatee Springs Yesterday - AWESOME.  Altho some people saw a manatee, I didn't but was most impressed with cedar knees (roots).  Saw an ALLIGATOR IN THE POND AT THE RV CAMP.    Went to Cedar Key and enjoyed Key Lime Pie at the Pickled Pelican.  Had a bullshit session with several friendly neighbors.  I think things broke up when I was defending fracking cuz it's 10,000' deep so couldn't be spoiling ground water.  Maybe it's time to move on!

Manatee Springs - will add pictures taken with camera later

Planted forests all in a row - used for making paper.  Lots of cattle ranches in North central FL.

After torrential rains this morning, Sun is out so moving up to see Georgia and Alabama.  Will see my cousin Elaine in Memphis - Thursday if we can make it there by then.

Naval Aviation Museum- Pensacola

Japanese plane we got hold of and found the weaknesses so we could fight it as they caused a lot of losses to Allied fighers and property.  Touyr given by Veteran pilots that brought history to life.  God bless em.

Flew in Vietnam  but had great stoies about the planes of WWII.  He also steared us upstairs to the mainstreet of WWII - Rationing and stamps was a way of life.  Everyone helped in the war effort.  Margarine was sold with a yellow capsule to  add after sold so couldn't be mistaken for butter, a requirement from the strong dairy industry.  Didn't want black market fraud.  The camps in the jungles of the Pacific had  haircut and shave signs - fun sense of humor to survive the rigors of war..

We had some good planes and some designs that were a challenge to fly or to see the target unless you were in a nosedive these veteran pilots said.

George Bush Sr. flew this plane in the Pacific at age 19

President  Nixon's helicopter.  See him in the window.

Newer planes.  They had a section on Vietnam War and POWs that touched your heart.

Saturday Flea Market Feb.23

FLEA MARKET

                We went to see Lyle's friend, Ed, in Spring Hill and he said to meet them at the USA Flea Market in Port Richey.  Traffic got heavier as we drove on Commercial Road closer to Tampa,  filled with malls and gas stations and billboards advertising lawyers.  Ed's girlfriend, Diane, has a booth at the Flea Market from stuff she buys at estate and garage sales,  She rents 3 booths and 2 center kiosks for $700/mo.  I found treasures at the  maze of a market.  My morning walk was good training to finding my way back,  Ed and Mike went to smoke cigars at a shop and found themselves in a food festival to get there.  Luckily after paying $10  to park and paying for the morsels they ate, they had a good afternoon.  

 Diane is perfect for her job.  She has a gift of gab, in fact talks nonstop, and an eye for buying bargains.   When it closed at 4 with talking Elmo and the car walker gone to a young family, Diane and I went to their new home, bought from a foreclosure for $73,000.  The previous owners had paid $205,000.  We joined the guys for dinner at Inn On The Gulf, eating outside listening to live music across the street.  As Melissa says when you can see the water, eat seafood. Great food.   At 8:30 headed back 80 miles to see Shopcat.  A few deer along the way.  Raining after 11 PM.