Day Seventy of Trip--Three States--In the Rain

Today was a 250 mile semi-long day as we drove through western Missouri, into southwestern Iowa, and are camped in Nebraska.  Three unique state flags, as it was too rainy to add these states to our RV map outside, hopefully tomorrow.

This was the rainiest day we have had since Michigan over two months ago, It is only the second day that we have had to set up camp in the rain.  Spending one night at the West Omaha/NE Lincoln KOA near Gretna, NE. From now on, we will be driving along the route the Oregon Trail pioneers traveled in the 1850's. Only they had to reach Independence Rock in southern Wyoming before the first snowfall, if they were going to make it to Oregon.

Rainy Roads and a Big Water Tower

We continue to see unique sights along the way, like this very tall water tower in southern Iowa. However, the states along the Missouri River are in flood stage and warnings for most rivers. Every river we crossed was very brown, above its banks and carrying large trees down river. While we did not see stranded livestock (except on the News tonight), we did see a couple of freeway exits closed, due to flooded roads below us and many harvested fields were also flooded.

Crossing the Missouri River in eastern Nebraska

As we entered the KOA office to register, we discovered a unique sight before us, which got Neil excited----this KOA office makes and delivers pizza to your campsite, so meat lovers special was his dinner tonight. We have seen menus for restaurants at campground where they do deliver to your site, but never made at the campground pizza!  We have enjoyed lobster rolls at our campground in Bar Harbor, Maine, and wine tasting was available in Watkins Glen, NY and in Charlottesville, VA.

KOA Pizza Stand in Nebraska

Oh, and yes the pizza was good!  We did have a surprise along the road today, we passed this sign three times, that made us look twice and raised our hopes.  But reality soon sank in that it is a small town in western Missouri, not home, ha!

It Turns Out That We Are Not One Mile from Home

Today is a milestone for us--Day Seventy of our across the USA RV trip, which is longer traveling than we have ever done before, except for the winter we tried to be snowbirds in 2011.  From that we discovered we are blue-green people not beige-brown people.  This means we MUCH prefer to be traveling in, seeing sights in, relaxing in, camping in places that are close to water or mountains with green trees, not deserts and the prairies.  Unless, we are visiting family or friends in those places.

Rainy eastern Nebraska

The last few miles of travel today was over some very rough roads with heavy rain, which makes us  glad to be heading west towards home.  We have one more important stop in Idaho to see good friend.  When we have rough roads, we find our thoughts are becoming focused on the people at home and things we need to do upon arriving there. 

Tomorrow we head west across Nebraska on Interstate 80 to North Platte.  We have been blessed with the weather so far, missing the hurricane remnants, thunderstorms and tornadoes.  We hope that continues into Wyoming this week.  May "old man winter" not arrive in the Rockies until we are through Wyoming and into Idaho. 

Wish us the best for our trip west!

Neil and Pamela

Grant's White Haven and Clydesdale's White Blazes

We had a couple of good days visiting Pamela's cousin Brian in Belleville, IL.  He lives east of Saint Louis, MO.  He played tour guide for us in Neil's fathers Buick LeSabre.  After Neil's Dad passed away in March, we put the Buick up for sale, and Brian bought it and drove it east to Belleville.  The car rides very well and we used it for a tour went into St. Louis, through East St. Louis (where you do not want to drive at night, due to safety issues) and across the Mississippi south of St. Louis to White Haven, where President Ulysses S. Grant lived, farmed and died.

Gateway Arch in Saint Louis

White Haven:  President Grant's Home Is NOT White

White Haven is home a National Park Service National Historic Site.  We watched a movie on Grant's life, which opened our eyes to aspects new to us. Then, a helpful Park Ranger gave us an outline of several aspects on the house, before a tour. As you can see the house is two unique shades of green. The lighter color is called Paris Green, so called because it was created in France with arsenic. The French discovered it worked really well to pour down sewer pipes to kill rats and prevent them from getting into homes. The darker green was created by adding sulfur to the already toxic Paris Green. These bright colors were expensive and showed your wealth. The ranger said that in the 1800's, to show off your wealth, instead of buying a sports car, you bought fancy paint for your home and high-stepping horses.

Only the first floor was available to see, due to fire hazard concerns for the upper floor. This house was originally his wife's family, the Dent's home.  Grant first visited them when stationed at Jefferson Barracks. Grant was good friends with Julia's brother, who was a classmate. During that first visit he met the sister, 17th year old Julia Dent.  They corresponded for four years, through Grant fighting in the Mexican-American War, until they were finally married. After reading the interpretive exhibits about Grant's firm belief in equal rights for all people (he freed his only slave before the Civil War), the need and value of education for all children (including Negroes and Native Americans), and how he helped heal our international relations after the Civil War, we have a far greater respect for this President and the strong family values he and Julia created.

President Grant and Julie with their four children

After visiting White Haven, we drove next door to Grant's Farm, which was land in the Grant family that is now one of three Anheuser-Busch horse farms where they raise and train the iconic Clydesdale horses for the eight horse hitches that pull the large Budweiser beer wagons.

Sizes of Horse Shoes

This will give you an great idea of how much bigger a Clydesdale is from normal size horses. In fact, a new colt weighs 125 pounds at birth and will gain 5 pounds a day eating in the first 6 months of their life!  Brian shared that the darkest horses go east to the new Hampshire farm, and the lightest in color go west to the farm in Colorado, so each farm has uniform color in their teams. Young colts start training at six months at and will be in training for over three years, to qualify to pull a wagon or what they call a "hitch".

Budweiser Transport Truck and Clydesdale Horse

All of the horses must have four white "feathered" stockings, and a white "blaze" on their forehead. They must also stand six feet tall at the withers (the highest part of a horses back) and will weigh about 2,000 pounds.  It takes three trucks to carry nine horses and two wagons for parades and events, of which they appear at over 500 events and parades a year. They carry one spare horse and an extra wagon, just in case.  Budweiser also have some of the best Super Bowl ads, in our opinion. 

Pamela with "Yankee" at Grant's Farm

While at Grant's Farm, We wandered through one of the horse barns where Pamela got to carefully pet a Clydesdale horse while we learned more about the horses and wagons.

Fences Around Grant's Farm Are Made of Civil War Rifle Barrels

Weather is still very warm-- we saw 93 degrees driving from Paducah, KY to Belleville, MO on Saturday and it was in the mid-eighties all the time we were in Belleville.  We have been fortunate to have missed most of the weather systems that have been coming up from the Gulf of Mexico into the mid west and east coast, but we hope God continues to watch over us as we head west.

Mississippi River On Our Way West

Today, we drove through St. Louis, MO and across the state on Interstate 70 towards Kansas City, Missouri. We are camped tonight just east of Kansas City and will head north up to Omaha, Nebraska, where we will follow the Oregon Trail west.  We crossed the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers today, so it feels more like we are heading west now.  We have to keep an eye out for weather in the Wyoming Rockies and we adjust our course as needed.

Neil and Pamela

Parked in Paducah and Random Thoughts

Today (Friday) we decided to move west and north to get just a little bit closer to home.  The weather back here has been about fifteen degrees warmer than normal, which meant that we saw temperatures today of around 93 degrees.  That is much too warm for October, and we are not enjoying it any longer.  We drove about two hundred miles towards northwest Kentucky to Paducah, just south of the Ohio River.

Adding Kentucky to the RV Map

We did cross the Cumberland River and went by two large dams that form the Land Between the Lakes, part of the National Forest system. This is a massive land mass between two 50+ mile long lakes that have many campgrounds, boat launches, picnic area and more.

Ohio River from Kentucky

We read in one of the blogs we follow for tips and ideas, that the ideal RV travel day is the called the Rule of Two -- drive two hundred miles, arrive by 2:00 PM, and have two adult beverages each upon arrival.  We just may meet all those criteria, depending on how much we drink tonight.  However, it was so hot when we arrived at Fern Lake campground, that we set up early and quickly got in air-conditioned car for the five miles into downtown for different kind of drink -- root beer floats in an air-conditioned historic building.

Etcetera Cafe Where We Got Root Beer Floats Before Dinner

Etcetera Sign in Paducah

Paducah has two claims to fame: a national quilt museum and the massive wall and levee where the Ohio River flows by downtown Paducah.  We did not realize how much history took place here, from the early Indian tribes building large elaborate burial mounds, George Rogers Clark who won the land during from the French and buying 38,000 acres that his brother William Clark inherited by the time the Lewis and Clark exhibition came through, the Battle of Paducah during the Civil War, the expansive river boat shipping era on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, large military base during World War II and even a uranium enrichment facility that is still here today.

Paducah Floor Wall and Murals

The Ohio River flooded ninety percent of downtown Paducah in 1937. So, the Corps of Engineers built a massive twelve mile long concrete flood levee that with a fourteen feet tall concrete wall that lines and protects downtown Paducah.  That downtown wall now has over fifty flood wall murals depicting significant historic events for the area.  The large Mississippi river cruise/tour boats such as the Delta Queen, Mississippi Queen, and American Queen all make stops at Paducah, KY.

Oyster Barges Used to Make Pearl Buttons

Chief Paducah and Motorcycles Mural

Christening of Tow Boat on the Ohio

 Tomorrow, we have another short drive northwest to see cousin Brian Kelly in Illinois for a couple of days, before heading west.  Thanks for tuning in.

Neil and Pamela

Shoeing the Toad and Nashville Tour

Thanks to the attentive tire engineer who camped next to us, we learned a tire on the Toad had to be replaced.  Neil had plans to replace all of the Subaru Toad tires at Les Schwab at the end of the month when we get back home, but he noticed that the front passenger tire had worn to the point that the steel belts were visible.  So, we diverted today to a Discount Tire store and bought a new tire for the Toad.  We learned that front tires on vehicles under tow endure more wear and tear.

At $85, and one hour of our time, it was cheaper than a blow out or road side assistance call, but we had hoped that the tires would have lasted another 2400 miles to home, but such was not to be.  Neil plans to turn it into a full size spare tire if he can get it to fit into the spare tire spot in the back of the Subaru.  He found out that the "donut" spare tire that came with the Subaru cannot be used on the front tires, and you have to disable the all wheel drive system if you install it on any wheel.  Crazy!

The "Batman" Building in Nashville

We got into downtown Nashville a bit later than planned. We chose to take the Old Town Trolley (hop-on and off)Tour through Nashville as a good way to see the city.  What we did not count on is all the construction in downtown Nashville disrupting traffic and moving the shuttle stops around.  We wound up waiting for 45 minutes before we could get on the bus, and the other stops were so crowded with people trying to get on that we just stayed on the bus for the hour and a half round trip.

We Spent a Hot Afternoon on One of These!

We also did not count on this is Nashville's the third busiest weekend of the year or the temperatures of 90 degrees--and the shuttle was not air conditioned!  The commentary was mostly about country music, country stars, country recording studios, and a little bit of other history thrown in.  We would have to give the tour a grade of 'C' overall.  We got off the shuttle and walked through downtown Nashville with the open air bars and restaurants on all sides competing with each other as to who could have the loudest, live country music. 

Dinner Location

Can You Guess the Song Title of the Meal?

We were hungry and decided to stop in at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville restaurant.  We were able to get a table in the very back away from the singer, where we could actually hear each other. Pamela had a yummy frozen margarita and "Cheese Burger in Paradise", named after one of his famous songs.

Neil had peel and eat shrimp and BBQ ribs.  Everything was good, but we sure missed hearing Jimmy Buffet's music. Watching the large video screen of Buffet restaurant events and Buffet Tailgate parties, we did have a great idea for Friday night camping trips in the future.  After dinner, we were kind of wiped out by the heat and humidity so decided to head home.  We did not see everything that we thought we might, but found out that all of the attractions were sold out because of the busy long Columbus Day weekend.

Music City Statue of Bill Monroe

The Grand Old Opry began and still is a radio show. The location of it has moved at least nine times around the city. We did see the historic Ryman Auditorium, which was built to be a "tabernacle for music".  Today, the Opry radio show takes place every day at the new Opryland resort, which is 10 miles north of downtown, surrounded by several large hotels and three large RV resorts.  If you go to a show, we were reminded that for the hour that WSM Class Country 650 AM is broadcast, you also will hear the announcer reading the commercials every eight minutes.

Ryman Auditorium--One of the Older Venues for Grand Old Opry

We got out of Nashville in some pretty heavy traffic and stopped at a Kroger (Fred Meyer affiliated) grocery store for travel supplies and filled up the Toad with gas for the trip north and west.  Tomorrow, we plan to drive into Kentucky (KY) as we head north towards St. Louis and a visit with cousin Brian Kelly.

Neil and Pamela

Franklin - Dentist, Civil War and Lots of Holes

Today we changed plans and decided NOT to go into Nashville.  There was a threat of thunderstorms, and we did not want to be on a trolley tour in the middle of one of those.  So...we decided to make a trip to Franklin, thanks to our dentist Dr. McDowell who recommended the fascinating place. This small town south of Nashville, is the site of the Battle of Franklin on November 30,1864 which was the last large battle of the Civil War (as the northern states called it) and one of the bloodiest battles.

Map of Battle of Franklin (south of Nashville, TN)

Franklin is located just south of Nashville, and a strategic location between bends in the Harpeth River, and has three roads running into it.  The Federal troops (the term Union wasn't used until after the war) decided to use Franklin as a buffer to prevent the Confederate troops from re-taking Nashville, which was a pivotal supply center that the Federal troops captured in 1862.  The Confederates needed to take Franklin to have a major win late in the war, and the stage was set for a major confrontation between nearly 60,000 troops.  This battle was larger than Pickets Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, and even more decisive.

Confederate Soldier at Franklin

Federal Soldier at Franklin

Imagine being Fountain Branch Carter (yup, his real name) who had two sons in the Confederate army, one home from being a POW and four daughters-in-law with 18 children living with you for safety during the war. Then, you are awoken at 5 A.M by General John Schofield of Federal/US army, who says "I am commandeering your house as headquarters for the upcoming battle. Suggest you wake your family and take them to the basement for safety." Carter did. General Schofield left General Cox in charge while he went to reconstruct bridges to Nashville for the army.

Cox, who had led the men over 15 miles through the night, set up three line of defense and promptly fell asleep for several hours. General John Hood led the Confederate forces.  The two armies met in Franklin in the afternoon of November 30th. The Federal forces held the high ground on Carters Hill and had time to dig emplacements on the south side facing the Confederate forces.  The FIVE HOUR battle killed about 7000 Confederate troops and 2500 Federal troops.  Also lost in this battle were six Confederate generals.  This significant loss for the Confederacy was a major contribution to their surrender at Appomattox just five months later.

After the battle, the Federal troops retreated to Nashville, where they were reinforced with other troops and forts that stopped the final attack by General Hood, who had to retreat to the south.

We centered our visit at the Carter House and grounds, a state owned facility.  We had an excellent historic interpreter with real passion (and recent anthropology degree) who took us through the Carter House, basement and battle, used by General Jacob Cox of the Federal army as a command center in the middle of the Battle of Franklin. 

What our dentist remembered of this battle, is also what will stick with us too --- the house and buildings that took thousands of rounds of fire that you can still see today! And how the Carter family and neighbors sheltered in the basement hearing but not seeing anything for all afternoon and into the night listening to the cannons, rifle fire and moans of the wounded all around them.  Click on photos and they should enlarge for better viewing. Also, unusual was their dining room in the basement, entered from the outside!

Carter Outbuilding Riddled with Gun Fire

Inside of Building showing all the bullet holes

Canons at Carter's Hill from Battle of Franklin

After visiting the Carter House and learning about the significance of this battle, we stopped in lovely old-fashioned downtown Franklin for a visit.  We found a Savory Spice shop, which is a fresh and organic spice chain that we love in Bend and Sellwood, OR.  We picked up some spices and jam unique to the area, then found another Kilwin's ice cream parlor and enjoyed cool treats as we walked around the historic downtown.

Dinner at a favorite place, know where?

We decided that we needed to kill some time before heading home through Nashville while rush hour traffic moved through. We found a PF Chang's restaurant nearby that was a delight as we enjoyed dinner and leftovers for another.  Pamela had gluten-free chicken fried rice, and Neil had his go-to meal of Mongolian beef.  Both were very good, as usual.

It was another good day with lots of new things learned and another great day of travel together.

Thanks for listening,

Neil and Pamela

Andrew Jackson's Hermitage

Our first day at the campground in North Nashville and we drove a short distance to the home of President Andrew Jackson known as "Old Hickory" more on that later.  It is still warm and in the mid eighties--warm even for Tennessee in early October.  We had a little bit of rain on the way to the Hermitage (means dwelling of retreat and solitude) but it cleared off for our visit.

This is our fourth presidential house on our trip, and we must confess that while all are interesting, we are starting to overload on reading exhibits and remembering/learning about various eras of American history.  That said, the Hermitage was a very well done museum, tour and exhibition.

The Hermitage Front Entrance

The tour of a small portion of the 1,000 acre park begins in a museum that included artifacts from his growing up on the frontier, battles he fought (including prisoner of war at 13 in the Revolutionary War and leading the decisive battle of New Orleans in 1812), time as governor of Florida and Tennessee and his eight years as president.  There was a lot of information about Rachel Jackson who he was married to for thirty-seven years.  Andrew felt that the personal attacks on his wife during his successful presidential run was a contributing factor to her death by heart attack.  He was elected in November and she died in December before he took office. She was married when they met, though estranged from husband who lived in another state. The divorce took several years to accomplish, while Andrew, Rachel and her chaperone lived in Pensacola, Florida, where he served as Territorial Governor as the Spanish left.

The visit to the estate includes an audio tour with small hang around your neck devices the size  of a small cell phone. These provided a welcome additional dimension to the tour or the grounds and gardens. The house historic interpreters were in period costume and added a lot of information and humorous stories to the tour.  We learned that Jackson was called "Old Hickory" because of his toughness in battle, surviving a number of wounds and carried bullets, that would plague him later in life in his travels.

Interpreters Were All In Period Costume

Jackson built three homes on this property over the 50 years he owned it. Until the War of 1812, they lived in a two-story log house that was good sized (1,000) square foot. After the Battle of New Orleans, when he drove the British out and saved the Mississippi River for the USA, he built a much larger 8,000 square foot home of brick and tulip popular. The bricks and wood all came from the huge plantation. It is painted to look like stone columns above and the tulip popular was stained to look like mahogany using a turkey feather and sponge. Most amazing is the original wall paper in most of the rooms, including the entry hall massive 14 foot tall wallpaper in a circle that tells the story of Homer"s Odyssey, of Telemachus journeys looking for his father.

"Old Hickory's" Bedroom

Family descendants lived in the house through the Civil War, but afterwards sold the house and 30 acres to the state, as they were broke from having to free the enslaved Negroes on the cotton plantation. This home like Washington's Mount Vernon and Jefferson's Monticello were saved by local women's organizations, who held bake sales, wrote letters, and petitioned state legislatures to buy and donate these homes to preserve them. 

Andrew and Rachel Jackson's Grave Site in Rachel's Garden

Rachel was so beloved in Nashville, that the church bells pealed for an entire hour when she died and over 10,000 people followed her coffin to be buried on the estate. Jackson built the dome for her and they are both buried there. The garden is large, with a 25% set up at an apothecary garden. While in the garden, we saw a number of very beautiful butterflies that were a vibrant orange color.  We don't know our butterflies, but they sure were pretty.

Butterflies in Rachel Jackson's Garden

Part of the reason so much is known about the estate is that Amos, who was born here before the Civil War, as one the enslaved Negroes, stayed to farm 20 acres with his family when they became free in 1865. When the state bought the home, he worked with the Ladies Hermitage Association to give tours around the house, even posing with them in the gardens. He had purchased a bed, desk and several items from the Jackson heirs when they left and the Association wanted to buy them back for the house. He agreed to give them to the house, if he could be buried in the cemetery near Andrew and Rachel --- and he is!

Amos family cabin

Exhibit on Rachel Jackson's Death in December 1828

We Both Read This Book On Jackson and Really Liked It

Funny Money!

Tomorrow, we plan to drive into Nashville and take the Trolley Tour to see the sights and get an overview to everything.  We will then decide what we want to go back and see.  We also plan to see the Carter House in Franklin which was the last major battle during the Civil War (or War of Northern Aggression), as some would have it.

Wish us luck for dry and cooler weather.  It is supposed to be 88 here later in the week.  Yikes!

Neil and Pamela