October 10, 2015

In honor of autumn, I decided to change the color of my type today.  I hope you will find it a pleasant switch for this post.  There is much to share since I wrote last.  Our night in the Wal-Mart in North Little Rock was a little scary for a while.  All was well until about 9:30 pm, when a large group of men parked a truck right behind us, and were drinking beers and making a lot of noise.  We were afraid they could be part of a gang, but then an hour later two big rig trucks pulled in to spend the night and the group of beer drinkers left.  Thank God.  We felt much safer with the truckers, as I think they would have come to our rescue if we had needed help.  We have noticed some interesting named places along our way. 

Here is one such example.  We didn't visit this park, so we have no idea why the name, but it amused me.


  The next day we went to the Elks Lodge near Fort Smith, AR.  That night they were having a big fund raiser dinner......a FISH FRY.  Those of you who know I am seriously allergic to ALL seafood can understand why we had to pass on



that....but we did go in after dinner since they had a band for dancing.  It turned out to be a VERY loud rock and roll band, so we didn't stay too long, but we did get to do a few line dances and one nice and slow "belly rubber."  This last picture was behind the bar.......not sure of its meaning either.
We left the lodge on Monday
and saw this on the side
of a building in Fort Smith.




 We drove west on I-40 to a KOA Park near Choctaw, OK, where we only stayed one night.  As we continued the next day, we stopped at the Cherokee Trading Post, where we saw some beautiful hand made Native American items.  The artwork was amazing, as you can see below.

We continued west and stopped at a campground in Texola, OK. 

We stayed two nights so we could visit the little town of Shamrock, TX which was 16 miles west of where we were.  I took over 300 pictures inside and outside the structures of the Pioneer West Museum, so I will only post a few.  If anyone wants to see more pictures from the Cherokee Trading Post or from the museum, please post a request, and I will forward more pictures to you.  Below is the museum, and an old piano in the sitting room.  Since I posted this, I was kindly informed that it is probably a pump organ, so I say thank you Allyn, and I really do appreciate corrections.  This was an old hotel before it became a museum.  I know I shouldn't have taken the picture of Jim in the shamrock hat, but he looked so natural I couldn't resist it. 

 

The picture above is a pioneer kitchen and the one below was the upstairs sitting room. 

Then we went outside for a docent guided tour.  We visited an old law office, and old fire truck and one of the old street lights in town.

 After that, we went to see the Shamrock water tower plaza.

This mural above covered the whole side of a huge brick building. 



We got a kick out of the volunteer fire department too. 





Last but not least, we saw the Conoco Tower, an old gas station in town.  I will close for now, but later today or tomorrow, I will finish reporting on our travels up through today.  Stay well, stay happy and enjoy America, it's God's gift to us.



Friday, October 2, 2015

It has been a busy week for us.  We didn't leave Crossville, TN until Wednesday because of the heavy rain we had.
When we left the KOA, we saw this beautiful house.

We drove to Dickson, TN to stay at a park found in our Passport America Directory.  It's not every day you see someone walking a horse through an RV Park!  LOL.

The best thing about it was that it was close to the Interstate for our departure the next day.  On the way there, we saw bill boards about the Loretta Lynn Ranch and Kitchen.  I wish we could have stayed at the campground on the grounds of her ranch, but it was about 30 miles off the interstate.  We did go to her Kitchen which was a nice restaurant and gift shop.  I'm not sure why, but this buffalo stood outside the restaurant.



 The next picture was taken out front.



These are just two of the many wonderful pictures we saw inside.  In case anyone doesn't recognize the people, on the right is Loretta Lynn with her sister, Crystal Gayle, and the one on the left is her with Conway Twitty.
We had a really nice dinner there, and the price was not bad at all.  They also had an all-you-can-eat buffet for only $9.98, but we didn't chose to do that......too many yummy options to chose from!  We visited the gift shop and then drove back to the campground for the night. 
Yesterday we continued west on I-40 and stayed at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant & Country Store near Memphis for the night.  We have decided we should NOT do that very often, as the food is very tasty and the servings are generous.  Again, the prices are not bad at all.  AND they have a lot of wonderful items one could buy in their store.  It was hard resisiting all they had to offer. 

Before getting to Memphis, we stopped at a Visitor's Center, and we got to see the one-room school house where Tina Turner went to school.







We also went inside the home of Sleepy John Estes.

Inside the Visitor's Center we saw some really neat pictures of several Tennessee musicians,

and this awesome fireplace was in the lobby area.  We couldn't resist taking some photos inside here.

Jim tried to make friends with some of the wild life of Tennessee, but not the character on the right.



 We also saw some live fish in large aquariums while we were there.

Last but not least, were the celebrities we saw.  Here's Jim, with Elvis.  LOL  Then Hank Williams, both Senior and Junior.

Loved these pictures of Tina Turner, Carl Perkins and these greats of the blues era.



Above is Sleepy John, Hammie, and Yank.  We had a great time visiting the visitor's center and seeing these pictures.  I hope you will enjoy them too.

Today we left Memphis, and drove west on I-40 into Arkansas.  The road was in TERRIBLE condition, with pot holes and ruts everywhere.  After about 75 miles we got to better roads, and continued west.  Before we left Memphis, we did get a glimpse of the world famous St. Jude's Research Hospital founded by none other than Danny Thomas.  The last picture below was taken after we got into Arkansas.  I think it's a sports arena here sponsored by Bass Pro Shops.



We are now at a Wal-Mart in North Little Rock.  Tomorrow we will arrive at the Elks Lodge in Fort Smith, where we will stay for two nights before resuming our travels.  This day started off really great.  After breakfast, my dear friend Joan, from California called and chatted with me for a while.  Later Carol & Ray called for a chat, and finally I called Big Fred and talked with him for a few minutes.  What a great way to start the day!!!!  I much prefer talking to people over emails and text messages.  Best of all is being face to face in person, but a phone call is great too.  Thanks for the calls Joan and Carol.  You both made my morning!  It is a beautiful, warm and sunny day here, so I'm going to close and take the dogs for a short walk.  Stay well dear friends and family.  Enjoy this great land of ours.  Keep the shiny side up, and keep the faith.  God IS awesome, and life IS good.  

Georgia, and Tennessee

After our stay at the KOA in South Carolina, we drove to the Atlanta-Northlake Elks for two nights.  It was a very pleasant lodge. 

The first night there, they had a pot luck dinner.  I made a yummy macaroni salad and we had a great dinner of baked ham, augratin potatoes, veggies, oven baked apples, macaroni salad, cinnamon bread and chocolate cake.  After dinner, they invited us to play a game of trivia with them.  Each table was a team.  We didn't win......but we did have a good time.  We had planned to visit Stone Mountain the next day, but since it rained all day, and was cold and damp, we decided not to go there.  The visit would have cost us $15.00 for parking, and $29.95 each to get in, and with miserable weather, it didn't seem worth the price if we couldn't see everything. 

We had also planned to visit my sister Joan and her family.   Below is a picture of their lovely home.  Alan & his wife, Jen, take care of both Joan (his mom) and also his wife's mom. 

   Not only that, we got to meet his two daughters, and one of his grand kids.  I have to apologize as I'm terrible with names.  We had a lovely visit.  Joan had recently broken her hip, so she requires a lot of care.  I think Alan and his wife are doing a wonderful thing, caring for the mothers at home.  They were delightful and charming, and I'm really glad we got to visit them.  Also, Alan showed us the tear drop trailer he is building in his garage.  It's going to be really cool when he gets done.  We were able to get home before it got dark and before it began raining heavily again.
The next day we drove through moderate rain up to a KOA park in McDonald, TN.  The park was nice enough but the site they gave us was too short for the RV and car.  After we unhooked, I had to park the car sidewards, near where the edge dropped down precipitously.  Kinda scary, but I set the parking brake and we were OK until morning.  We just stayed there one night then came to this KOA Park in Crossville, TN, on Sunday.  I have a dear friend, Sharon Medlar (nee Cadek) with whom I attended school.  We had not seen each other since 1975, at our 10th high school reunion.  After Jim and I were at the 50th reunion in Horseheads this summer, I got Sharon's address, and wrote to her.  She and her wonderful husband Jack live here in Crossville.  Sunday she invited us to enjoy a delicious dinner at her house.  She has a beautiful
home and two very sweet dogs.  I only got a picture of one of the dogs, but they are both sweetie pies!  The picture below is of Jim sitting in their living room.  It is a very comfortable and lovely home.



On Moday, Jack & Sharon took us to the Stonehaus Winery, where we sampled some delightful wines, and bought a few bottles, even one of Aaron Tippin's wines.  We bought some yummy fudge too.
Then we came back to the RV for a dinner I had made.  It was a lovely evening. 

The picture above on the right is of the water tower, identifying this town as the Golf Center of Tennessee.  Jack is an avid golfer too.  I didn't have the heart to tell him we only play mini golf.  LOL.
We had planned to leave here this morning, but it has been raining all night and most of today, so we decided to stay one more day and hope for better travel weather tomorrow.  Since we had the unexpected time for it, we went ahead and made our travel plans for the rest of the trip home.  If we are able to continue our travels as we hope to, we will arrive at Silent Valley, in Banning, CA on October 20th. 
That's all for today.  Keep well, happy travels to those of you who are enjoying seeing this wonderful country.   Keep the shiny side up, and keep the faith.  God is awesome!