Nashville, Tennessee

Tennessee Capitol Building

Mansker Station wood turner

Who am I?
There are two ways to drive north through Nashville, the east way or the west way, we took the wrong way. What looked like the easiest way turned out to be the very long way, just as we got to the Cumberland River Bridge we were about 40 cars behind the accident that blocked the entire freeway. Then the rubbernecks on the other side of the freeway decided to have one of their own and block all but one lane on that side of the bridge. Six Police cars, 3 Rescue Squads, 3 Fire trucks including a hook and ladder, 2 EMS units, a Helicopter and one hour later we managed to get one lane open and we were back on our way. Best of all we were only 10 minutes away from our exit for the RV Park.
Cathy got to spend 2 full 8-hour days in the State Archives and I just wandered around downtown Nashville trying to avoid all the construction. Most of the monuments and memorial stuff was total blocked off to the public because they were putting in new sidewalks.
We stopped by Mansker Station, which was the first establish fort in Tennessee, they had a few re-enactors there to show you around the fort and plantation house. The house is the oldest brick building in Tennessee. The fort is an exact 1/3 model of the original.
Since we both love Country Western Music so much we avoided the Grand Ole Opry. No such luck we just found out that the RV Park is hosting a big Holiday weekend Hoe Down tonight right across from our site. (Hoe Down in Detroit means one of your Bi**hes just got shot).
The biggest thing this week is we got a new little grill (we haven’t had one for over 2 years) so we’re BBQing all our meals.
Leaving for Louisville in the Morning (Sunday) hopefully the traffic won’t be as bad as Nashville and we’ll get out and do a little more exploring.
Answer: Alvin York

Florence / Tuscumbia, Alabama

We reluctantly left Baton Rouge, we still had a lot of stuff that we wanted to do there and started our journey north to see the grandkids. We took the north end of the Natchez Trace and spent the night in Tupelo, birthplace of Elvis Presley.

Then on to Florence Ala. where we are camped on the shore of the Tennessee River, we're just driving around a bunch of the back roads seeing what we stumble across. Today (Friday) we found the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, being such big country music fans we decided to pass on it. The waterfall is located in a downtown park in Tuscumbia; there is also a waterwheel, small-scale train, a fountain with music and colored lights for night viewing and tons of ducks and geese waiting to be fed. We got lost for awhile and found a neighborhood called "City One" it was built by the government during WW I to house people that worked at a nitrate factory, the main streets form a big liberty bell if seen from the sky. Most of the homes are still there and in like new shape. Then we found a dead end street that took us to the edge of the cliffs on the north shore of the river for a fantastic view. Then while driving along a little out of the way street that went right along the river we stumbled across a little park where there was a film crew, filming scenes for an up coming movie. They had about 10 trucks filled with equipment and probably 100 people running around and it looked like all they did was film about a minute of a tugboat going by and blowing his horn at some actor on a dock. The name of the movie is "Where (or when) I found the Ocean", well they're sure not going to find it in northern Alabama. When we were here about 8 to 10 years ago we had to hunt for a grocery store, now we have a Super Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Target, Sears, K-Mart and every type of restaurant that you can think of then some. The Ranger told us that the campground would be bulldozed in October for a Pro Bass Shop and a major sports complex to go with the Trent Jones golf course right across the river, also a 4-1/2 mile river walk that will cover the city end to end.

Tomorrow we head up to Nashville and a resort with WiFi , Cathy will be so happy for the week that we are there. We'll eventually make it back to Michigan, we have to be there for the big baseball playoffs with Nick "the Flamethrower" Squier is pitching.

More when we get it.

Baton Rouge

Baton Rouge, the Red Stick.
We arrived here last Sunday and it was 80 degrees and sunny, and so far that has been the bad weather day. It has been in the high 80’s to mid 90’s since we’ve been here and the humidity is right around 300%.
We’re camped at a city park which is about 2 miles south of the LSU campus and 3 miles from Downtown and best of all only 2 miles from Mike Andersons Seafood Restaurant. They have the best food and service that we have come across this entire season, we’ve only been there 3 times this week.
We spent one day downtown touring the Capitol Bldg, they show you where Huey Long was assassinated and then you can go up to the observation deck, the Capitol Bldg is the tallest one in the USA. The observation deck is on the 27 floor and is right on the Mississippi River so you really get a great view of the town and surrounding area. Huey Long had the first bridge built crossing the river here and he had them make it low enough so that the big ship could not get any further up the river and had to stop at the Port of Baton Rouge, you gotta love a man that thinks like that. The amazing thing is you can’t say Louisiana with out thinking of Huey Long yet he only served one term as Governor and was assassinated during the 2nd year of his term as Senator. He made quite a name for such a short time.
We went to the city Zoo, which we had almost all to ourselves, it’s a very nice zoo and you can cover it in about two hours. All the animals were very active while we were there.
There are a ton of other things to do in this area and you could spend a month here very easy.
Today we’re going to tour the Old Capitol Museum and tomorrow we’ll drive over to Lafayette to visit with Cathy’s Sister
More to follow.

Bay St Louis

We're staying at a park in Bay St. Louis, Miss, which is about 45-50 miles east of New Orleans. We drove over to New Orleans and spent the morning in the north end of town at City Park touring the botanical gardens and the Sculptors garden. We kind of raced through the Sculptors garden since there were about ten school bus's worth of kinds just running wild. The City Park covers the north central part of the city and has just about everything you can think of for the family from a kiddies park to a 18 hole golf course. It's a lot like Belle Isle in Detroit except that none of the buildings are boarded up and people use it.
Then we drove down to Jackson Barracks Museum, this is the military base for the Louisiana Air National Guard, this base has been active since before the Battle of New Orleans "In 1814 we took a little trip down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico"
Remember that song. If you do I'll bet your humming it the rest of the day.
This is one of the better Military Museums that we have ever been to. Then the best part of the day, "A Cheeseburger in Paradise" at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville.
So far we've spent two days dropping coins into the slots without any luck, going to give them one more chance later this week.
We drove through Kiln, Miss, known as "The Kil" by the locals and saw what we believe to be Brett Farves house, it was the only one that sat in the middle of 300 hundred cleared acres with security fences surrounding it.
We didn't have internet at Bay St Louis, so I just got this posted. We just got in and set up in Baton Rouge.