6/8/15 - We're off!

We got a late start today.  We went by the nursing home and spent time with mother and played Bingo.  My brother was there also. We made it to Lake O' the Pines-Buckhorn Creek C.G. near Jefferson, Texas, at 8:30.  Thank goodness I had vegetable soup already made and ready to heat.  The lake here is very full from all the rain Texas has gotten.  The frogs are very loud and hopping around on the road.

6/9/15 - Little Rock, AR

After breakfast and showers, we walked around the campground and took some pictures since it was dark when we arrived last night.  A rivet had come out of one side of the cook top cover and Jim replaced it.  We looked over maps to determine where to go today and decided on Little Rock, Arkansas.  We drove to a Passport America park that we stayed at in 2012.  It is on the Arkansas River next to an old railroad bridge that was converted for pedestrians.  It connects the riverwalk on both sides of the Arkansas River. We got set up and were thinking about walking to Lost Forty Brewery on the other side of the river near the Clinton Library.  It was too hot, so we drove.  After cooking dinner tonight we took an evening walk on the bridge to the library and came back.  The bridge has lights that change color and reflect off the river.  The river is very high here also due to the rain.  Some of the gardens and walkways at the Clinton Library are still under water.

 

6/10/15 - Memphis, TN

T.O. Fuller State Park is where we got a site to camp in Memphis.  It is about 6 miles from Graceland.  After unhooking, we drove to Elvis Presley Blvd. and Jim dropped me off at the Plaza.  I bought my girlfriend a present for her birthday in September.  She is a big Elvis fan.  Tonight for dinner we went to a Diners, Drive-ins and Dives place (later to be written as DDD).  The name of the restaurant is S.O.B. which stands for South of Beale.  Jim had a duck patty melt and I had reuben egg rolls. We were going to order Jack and Coke bread pudding with ice cream for dessert but we decided against it because of the calories.

Parking downtown is free after 5 p.m. and on Saturday/Sunday unlike Houston where you pay no matter what time or day it is.  After dinner we walked down Beale Street.  This three block area is cordoned off and is a walking district sort of like Bourbon Street in New Orleans.  On Wednesdays the motorcycles get together and park in the blocked off section.  There were hundreds of them.  There is live music all along the street.  BB King has a bar, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Hard Rock Cafe are there, too.

6/11/15 - Memphis, TN

Jim made sweet potato pancakes this morning for breakfast then we went to Chucalissa.  We got free tickets when we checked in to the campsite.  Chucalissa is an archaeological site that contains a prehistoric Indian temple mound complex.  It has a central plaza and three earthen mounds.  There is a short movie and a museum with artifacts.  After lunch at camp we went to one brewpub and two breweries – Boscos Squared, High Cotton and Wiseacre.  There was a food trailer (in an old Argosy travel trailer) at High Cotton and we got a thick sliced bologna sandwich.  It was really tasty.  Instead of a DDD tonight, we went to the oldest restaurant in Memphis.  The Arcade Restaurant was built in 1919 (my mother was born in 1919).  Jim had chicken fingers and I had a grilled peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich.  This was the first one I have ever eaten.  Surprisingl,y it was really good. I would order it again.

 

6/12/15 - Pickwick Dam, TN

We drove from Memphis to Pickwick Dam, Tennessee today. It was a drive of only 132 miles.  Along the way we stopped in Middleton.  My great grandfather, great great grandfather and great great great grandfather were born near Middleton in Hardemon County.  I stopped at a grocery store and the manager made me some copies out of the phone book of the Sain families who live in that area.  I called one of them after we got set up at camp.  He is a 4^th cousin or 3^rd cousin once removed.  I’m not sure how you say it.  We had a nice talk and he is going to send me some of the genealogy information he has and when I get back I will send him what I have.  I was looking for a cemetery in the area where my grandfathers or other kin would be buried.  We drove around town after having some lunch and rented a movie from Red Box - “Draft Day” with Kevin Costner.  We don’t have any TV or satellite reception because there are too many trees in the campground.  There are lots of fireflies in the woods here.  We used to catch them in jars when we were kids and I haven’t seen this many in a long time.

6/13/15 - Shiloh National Battlefield, TN

Today we drove to Shiloh National Battlefield.  This early battle in the Civil War was fought on April 6 & 7, 1862, between Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s Union Army and Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston’s Confederate Army.  About 100,000 men fought and there were 23,476 casualties in the two day battle.  There were more American casualties in this one battle than in all the wars prior to it.  We watched a really informative 45 minute movie about Shiloh and went to two demonstrations.  One was on musket firing and one was about the importance of the drum corps.  We drove around the park and stopped at several of the monuments and buildings.  We also saw a few Indian mounds on the bank of the Tennessee River.

 

 

6/14/15 - Corinth Unit - Shiloh National Battlefield, MS

We got up early and drove to the Corinth Unit of the Shiloh National Battlefield in Corinth, Mississippi.  Corinth was in a vital location at the junction of two railroad lines that supplied Confederate troops. What was left of the Confederate troops after the battle of Shiloh retreated to Corinth.  The Union troops laid siege to the town and the Confederates retreated after another bloody battle.  Most of the buildings in town were used as makeshift hospitals. At the Visitors Center we watched a short movie and went through the exhibits.  A lot of the slaves who escaped during the battles congregated here with the Union troops and were put in a camp called Contraband.  Contraband was a term commonly used in the military during the war for escaped slaves. They were paid for the work they did and they also had a small thriving community.  Teachers taught children and adults to read.  Escaped slaves also enlisted in the Union army to form the United States Colored Troops.  There is a driving tour and we drove by the contraband site and some historic houses.

We hooked up and dumped just before noon and drove all the way to Bandy Creek Campground in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in northern Tennessee.  On the way we drove part of the Natchez Trace that we had never been on and stopped at the site of Meriwether Lewis’ death and his grave.  He was either murdered or committed suicide here at the age of 35 while staying at a boarding house on his way to Washington D.C.  No one really knows.