More Clarksville

We also visited Forrest’s office at Fort Campbell and met the members of his team that were there. They were in a new building that was much more suited to their needs than the old building we last saw.

We also enjoyed a very good BBQ lunch in the Nashville area with Dave Pigg and talked about family. But the trip down to the restaurant and the trip back was weird, our Garmin GPS took us down and back essentially paralleling and not on the Interstate highway.

We got to go to Kira’s gymnastics class and watch her and since it was the last class saw her awarded a medal

The real true highlight of the visit was FRI night joining Forrest and Kit at the 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group formal Dining Out. The Colonel and his staff planned and executed a great occasion and we met very many people who all had good things to say about Forrest.

Clarksville Bound and There

SUN June 7

Good Laudy [remember I’m in the South], this is embarrassing, this isn’t right. Am I that slow pulling a trailer? I just got passed by a SMART car on the Interstate to Nashville.

Arrived at Forrest, Kit & Kira home for a BBQ steak dinner; um, um, good, both good food and great company.

MON June 8 we were off to Fort Donelson TN where after a year of war the Union won a major victory that opened up TN to Nashville that was a major railroad switching area and also effectively lost both KY and TN to the South. Two Confederate generals skedaddled and ordered a third General to surrender 13,000 Confederate soldiers, the largest number ever surrender in the war.

But MON night was the highlight of the trip so far. Highlight? There we were relaxing in the evening when a lady that neither Forrest nor kit knew pulled into their driveway and asked if they owned black cattle. To shorten the story, 5 of their 10 had gotten through a gap in the fence that was caused by the recent rains silting up the wire and eventually bringing it down. So we drove around the “neighborhood”, found the cattle, Forrest and I then drove them back across neighbors mowed green lawns and then through the woods and finally back on to their property. That’s when the real work started and Forrest gathered up barbed-wire, fence stakes, clips, staples, hammer and cutters and we mended about 10-yards of fence-line across a creek where the cattle had gotten through. When the mending started it was dusk and we finished in the dark about 9:00 PM with flashlight headlamps on.

TUE Marla and I went to The Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson and did there museum and the walking tour of the house and grounds. President Jackson is buried on the grounds and his marker is for General Andrew Jackson because they say he considered that to be the top achievement of his life.

We finished the day with a feast at the Red Lobster; drinks, lobster pizza, crab legs, fried shrimp, shrimp scampi, more lobster and chicken for Ms. Kira.

More Memphis Pictures

See blog below for narative.

Memphis TN

FRI June 4

Back to the city I was born in for the first time since 1979 or 1980, can’t remember exactly.

FRI Marla and I started with breakfast at IHOP followed by the tour of Graceland. It is on my list of recommended things to do in Memphis because Elvis Presley was such a great performer and I also feel a great American because when his number was called for the draft he put his career on hold and went into the Army. He didn’t go hide in Canada or change his name and claim a religious objection, he went.

After the tour we ate lunch at Corkey’s BBQ on Poplar St, I remembered the Pig & Whistle BBQ in Memphis but Google did find the P & W I was looking for.

Oh, side story, walked into Corkey’s wearing an In & Out t-shirt and the hostess said where in California are you from, she recognized In & Out. Similar thing happened in McKinney TX when we were out for lunch with Gus & Di, In & Out t-shirt and as we were leaving the folks at a table stopped me and asked if I worked for In & Out because they had heard that I & O was looking for a location in the area to open for business; love t-shirts that start conversations.

Back to Memphis, after lunch I wanted to do a drive-by of 229 N. McNeil St, old family home from the 1940’s when Mom& I lived with her Mother, Grandmother and assorted Aunts. House is now designated historic and looks fairly well preserved but you could tell the neighborhood was 80+ years old, but I saw it.

From McNeil St we looked at our map and headed for Elwood Cemetery to go see some relatives. On the way over and driving down Cleveland St I saw a church and when almost passed it made a hard right turn. Sacred Heart Church and across Jefferson what was once Sacred Heart School where I went to the 1st and 2nd grades in 1948 – 49. The neighborhood has changed, church signs are now in English, Spanish and Vietnamese.

After a couple of pictures, onward to Elwood, check in with the office on location information and then Marla and I spent 20-minutes schlepping around where we were told to go, covering the area at least 3 times and not finding any markers; went back to the office to confirm the area, yes, but this time she asked if I wanted a superintendant to meet us and I said yes. The superintendant took a look at the copy of the registration she gave us and took us to a different part of the cemetery where the markers I was looking for were easily located; one of these years I’ll really get to work on my genealogy project instead of picking at it for an hour a year.

SAT June 5

Today was Mud Island River Park, Mud Island was really just mud 30-years ago when I was last here but they have developed it to a Mississippi river Museum and a 5-block water-flowing model of the lower part of the Mississippi River, Ohio River merge to Gulf of Mexico disappearance, lots of walking but educational and enjoyable. Love the Mississippi, cargo moves by ship and barges; air and trucks get a lot of attention but in order of tonnage it is ship/barge, rail road, truck and then air.

After Mud Island we went to lunch on Beale St and enjoyed VERY LOUD blues music and the different places tried to get you to come in and more pork BBQ. Beale St, a fun happening place for drinks and music.

Then back to the Mississippi River to a place where I saw they had some paddle-wheel boats, I’m always a tourist.

Also had to go back to Sacred Heart Church for mass. Small group, only 17 people, but the church was in very good condition.

Forgot to mention that we are at the Memphis-Graceland RV Park & Campground just off Love Me Tender Blvd on Heartbreak Lane.

Branson MO

WED June 2

With “chores” didn’t get to bed until 11:30 last night but it was nice and quiet with crickets and small birds and we slept in this morning.

A bit of shopping, relaxing and off to see what Branson has to offer. My impression is a lot of big names on marquees but not many of those names in town rather, Legends impersonators, and son’s of, as in Roy Rodgers & Dale Evans, son of, RR & DE, brothers of, Marty Haggard, lots of places to eat and buy t-shirts, a very ersatz and chintzy town, but fun if you know what you are getting yourself into, we had fun.

We ate well as we always do and we saw the REAL Yakov Smirnoff, “WHAT A COUNTRY!!” in a show and laughed and laughed. He told stories about people coming to this country and not being familiar with our customs and idioms such as what he said he thought when he saw a “Baby Changing Station” [guess it’s where you go if you don’t like the baby you have] and he wanted to buy a car and ask where he should go and was told to go to the car so he went to a lot full of cars, it was really a parking lot and saw a woman give a man a dollar bill and she said “blue Cadillac” and the man went and got her a blue Cadillac. Yakov’s punch line to those stories was “Bet you never thought of it that way but you will now.” He also talked a lot about love and laughter between two people and it is true that people who love each other laugh with each other.

When we left the show we saw lightening far off to the NW so when we got back to the campground I rolled up the awning and later at night there was wind, hard rain turning to hail, I slept through most of it. Wake up in the morning to find water on the shelf on the side where I sleep and so on the way south to Little Rock we stopped at a shop in Harrison AR and a tech put a lot of sealant on for free. [Will do permanently when I get back to AZ in SEP.] And it’s a good thing we had that taken care of because we were hit by 2 heavy rainstorms in the afternoon, had to get a 2-handed grip on the steering wheel and slow down on the Interstate.

We were going to stay at Naval Support Activity Mid-South, used to be NAS Memphis/Millington, campground and we had a very hard time finding it only to be very disappointed in the condition of the place when we got there so off to the Good Sam campground a block from Graceland, hook up and crash into bed.

Driving Northeast

TUE June 1

Driving NE from McKinney TX through the rolling hills of TX and OK and then watching the country change to the mountains of ARK and into MO, long day behind the wheel.

But the day was broken in McAlister OK with lunch with Ron Miller. Said he was doing fine but missed the Mexican food of AZ.

Dallas TX

SAT May 29 – MON May 31

Texas, land of high water towers.
Dallas, land of high church steeples.

McKinney TX

In Dallas area to visit my brother Gus and his wife Dianna who I met when I was in college and have a very special relationship with; family is great, close family that you are real friends with is even greater.

Anyway, super time talking and catching up from the last time we saw each other and touring around Dallas together.

We went to Dealey Plaza where JFK was shot, saw the painted “X”s on the roadway for where he was hit and a few yards on another X where Governor John Connelly was hit. Had a walking history tour from a street-guy who played on the conspiracy theory angle and all-in-all had a very enjoyable 1+hour. Also saw the Texas School Book Depository. They have left the second to the top floor window on the right, where Lee Harvey Oswald took his position, open and for a fee viewable and the “grassy knoll” no fee charged.

We also drove out to “Southfork Ranch” and saw the opening TV shot of the gate and house for the 1978 - 1991 night-time soap opera “Dallas” that we used to watch religiously.

And in keeping with the spirit of Memorial Day we went with Gus & Di to a dedication of a memorial to armed forces veterans in Wylie TX. Now this is the way Memorial Day should be spent. A small town got the spirit to raise money and build a small memorial to veterans and to have the official dedication on Memorial Day; speeches, music & singing, color-guard, saluting and “Thank you for your service.”, very, very nice. Afterwards we went to another small town for a lunch picnic of Di’s & Gus’s horse friends, more thank you's, LOTS of good food and fellowship galore. A really great day.