Alabama & Georgia

About Hidden Heritage, my LDS romance novel. It came back with a rejection letter. That's simply part of the writer's life. I'll look at it again, and make improvements, and try another one. I'll have it ready to print out and send by the time we get home.

Monday: Mostly a travel day, arriving in Alabama! I’m always surprised when I look at the map and see how far we have come. We are ahead of our flexible schedule, which is a good thing. We visited the Stone River Civil War battlefield along the way. So many lives lost on both sides.

We also visited the Ave Maria Grotto. A priest named Brother Joseph, created miniature religious sites and a few buildings of historical interest out of shells, junk, marbles, and items people donated. It was a life time of meticulous work and was amazing to see.

Tuesday: Today we visited what is now a historical landmark, but was once a 24-7 operational steel mill. It was amazing as I thought that family members never trod where we were walking among the now silent machinery. It’s the only one in the USA that hasn’t been torn down.

After that we went to a beautiful camp ground amongst trees. We walked along the creek for almost an hour. I never get tired of looking at greenery. They also had some historic cabins that have been saved and moved to the property. They are actually rental properties now. It’s interesting to see these antique houses with air conditioning units attached.

Wednesday: We took a side trip to see the covered bridge at Kymulga, AL on our way to Wal-Mart at Oxford, AL. It’s the oldest city in the USA that’s still around. Of course it was far from what would become the 13 Colonies at the time.

Thursday: We took the Talladega Scenic Drive in the Chia Mountains near Oxford, AL to the highest peak in Alabama on our way to Georgia. It’s all of 2,400 feet. It was gorgeous as all of the forests have been. It’s in the Talladega Forrest.

Georgia! We arrived in our campground in the early afternoon. It includes two lovely small lakes, and more forest.

Friday: A slow down day. After a relatively short drive, we attended the temple then came to the campground for an afternoon off.

 Saturday: Our biggest day, and the reason we took Friday afternoon off (that and laundry). We went to Stone Mountain. At the highest it’s 1,686 feet (513 m) above the surrounding area, and at the lowest part, 825 feet (251.5 m) and extends 9 miles (14 km) underground.  We took the tram up to the highest point, and after looking around, hiked down to ground level 1.3 miles (2.09 km). It was then a 2 mile (3.2 km) back to the main attraction.  While there we also took a train ride, saw the museum, and more. We also wondered at the workmanship it took to create the Confederate Memorial carved out of the mountain of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and “Stonewall” Jackson. It covers 3 acres (12,000 m²). In comparison, Mt. Rushmore is 60 feet (18.3 m) high, and the Sphinx is 66 feet (20 m) high. The highlight of the day was the laser show on the face of the mountain.  It was almost an hour of lights and fireworks. This is the only place we’re going to repeat going to. We went there over twenty years ago when we tented it across the country with 7 of our 8 children. Wish I could have taken pictures of the laser show, but our camera battery was dead. I don’t know if they would have come out well anyway.



 

Mostly Tennessee: Lucile Ball Sunday

Monday we said good-bye to Louisiana in a thunder storm. We spent the night in moderate winds, thunder, lightning and pouring rain in a Jackson Mississippi Wal-Mart. A new state! It’s so green. Of course they have the rain and humidity to contend with, so I can’t complain about our Southern California weather.

Tuesday and another new state, Arkansas: Okay, we didn’t do much here except stay at Tom Sawyer’s Camp ground next to the Mississippi. I couldn’t ask for a better setting—Forest on the west, and the Mississippi River on the East. I must work this site into my writing somehow. Not the one I’m working on now Escape from Fire, but someday.

Wednesday: Dan’s an Elvis fan, I’m not, but Graceland was still an interesting place which we visited after going to the Memphis temple. Although I still don’t think much of his singing, there is a lot about his person underneath all of the glitz, glam, drugs, and fame to admire. Sure he had a mansion, but he could have lived in a much more extravagant palace-like mansion. His kitchen is about the size of mine, yet it was constantly busy putting out food for everyone. Family was extremely important to him, and he was more charitable than we realize. As if I hadn’t had enough of Elvis with his music blaring nearly the whole time we were there, when we got back to the RV, it was time to change the CD. Guess what! 30 more Elvis songs—his album was the next in line. I got even though; the Beach Boys was after that, and just as long.

Thursday we planned on exploring downtown Memphis, but another thunderstorm hit. The winds weren’t quite as hard, so we were able to drive to our next destination: Jackson Tennessee. Not much to write home about, but it wasn’t expensive, and was near an attraction we wanted to see Friday.

Friday morning we went to Casey Jones Village and spent a couple of interesting hours. Besides all of the train and country store stuff, they had a miniature golf course that was different from any I’ve ever seen. It had sand traps and water traps instead of castles and windmills. Please don’t ask how I did. I’ve been known to beat Dan from time to time, but I wasn’t even close on this course. We also attended an evening session at the Nashville temple (see temple page for pictures).

Saturday we went to downtown Nashville. No, we aren’t country music fans, but it’s a part of American culture, and a goodly part of this trip is discovering American culture. It was a fun day. They have a monument they built to celebrate their bi-centennial. It was black polished rock I assume granite depicting everything from pre-historic times to 1997, when they turned 200 as a state. We got to one spot, and there was a crack which exposed some of the un-polished rock. As I looked down the rest, there were several blocks broken and splintered off. It was the civil war years. Tennessee was the last state to join the rebellion, and the first one to reunite with the union. It had an area to honor World War II veterans which included a black globe being turned on a fountain of water. We also walked around downtown and saw some of the sights. The only thing we missed was the Grand Old Opry.

Sunday: Bang. Thump, thump, thump.... I recognize that sound by now. I released my seatbelt, clambered out of my seat and flew past the couch and table. Once again the refrigerator door had flung open then shut, but not without spilling contents all over the floor. Usually it’s up to half a dozen items. Nothing falls open, so I just have to shove everything back in, then quickly get back into my seatbelt. Not this time. Half of the contents were on the floor including a half gallon of milk. Miraculously, the orange juice was still safely on the shelf. The brace we have across the top shelf fell down, that’s why the milk fell.  You can see the way Dan Jerry rigged it to keep it in place, sort of. I was reaching for the last two items when Dan drove around a big curve. Half of what I had just put back fell back out including the milk which hit me on the head, and the orange juice which was spilling out all over my sweater, skirt, and the rug (whoever put a rug in an RV including the bathroom and kitchen area is an idiot). It was a Lucile Ball moment if ever there was one. I asked Dan to let me know before driving around curves.  He did, and I sat on the floor with one arm across the brace on the top shelf, and the other one protecting the items on the second shelf. The third shelf was unattended, and a couple of yogurts fell out.  I finally got the last item in after he had stopped in the church parking lot. I stood up and closed the door ever so carefully, leaving a trap for the next person who opened it. (Dan fixed the brace so it works better after church and before we drove back to the campground.)



Lousiana at LAST!

We had a delightful if long stay in Texas. Eighteen days total. (We went to Oklahoma City for a couple of days after Lubbock and before Dallas. I didn’t count those.) We’re getting antsy, and it’s time to move on. That’s the most time we’ll ever be in one state.

Monday, the last day there we visited NASA Space Center. It was an amazing place. The Saturn V rocket is massive. The circle of oak trees is a memorial for astronauts who have lost their lives.  We didn’t get over there, but they have plaques with their names in front of each one.

Tuesday was a travel day to Jennings, LA. What a difference crossing the Sabine River made. The pictures below are from the rest stop just inside the Louisiana border.

Wednesday we went to the Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site and learned a lot about the history of the area. Either I’ve forgotten everything, or I wasn’t taught much about the history of this country of ours. Now if only I can remember some of this stuff. We also planned on eating at a Cajun restaurant someone told us about. Well, first of all, the address on their brochure didn’t say west or east, so we tried both. At least it was supposed to be in the 300 block not 2,000 or something, so that wasn’t difficult. It was 2:00 pm, and we hadn’t eaten lunch. It wasn’t there. It’s now either a bar, or furniture store. We settled for a good Chinese buffet we saw on the way to the campground.  I’m disappointed; I was all set to try Cajun food. The picture of the caterpillar is what they call the stinging caterpillar. DO NOT TOUCH. It has an awful sting. No, I didn’t test it. I took their word for it.

Thursday the restaurant saga continued. We found the address for the same restaurant in Baton Rouge. Another strike out: it is now a bar. Sigh. By this time it was almost 3:00 and we were hungry. We found another restaurant we had some money left on the gift card Dan’s sister gave us for Christmas.  The lesson here: no matter how good it is don’t bother saving “good” restaurant information when traveling. The sad part is we will be moving on Monday, and I won’t be able to try out Cajun food. We’ll be on to Mississippi, then Tennessee next week.

 We visited Oak Alley Plantation in Baton Rouge. No matter how lovely it was, the way it was built and run is a black mark on our nation.  I can’t imagine treating human beings the way slaves were treated. 

This morning we were able to track down the gravesite of our daughter-in-law’s dear family friend.  Even more exciting, we found out that his wife lived near the where he was buried and we were able to have a nice visit with her. The afternoon was pleasant, but less exciting. We went to the “new” capitol building which was built in the 1930’s. It looked like the old one to us. Luckily I happened to take a picture of a castle-like building as we drove by just because it was different. It turns out, that is the old capitol building built in the 1800’s.

 

 

 

Not too much going on Saturday and Sunday. It was general conference so we stayed around camp and watched it.  Saturday evening we drove to the stake center that’s next to the temple, and I stayed in the camper writing my next great novel during the priesthood session.