New Orleans

WED June 16

So I took advantage of the French Quarter free shuttle and spent the day there walking and drinking it all in. I made the rounds of all the usual places and some unusual places.

I started off by walking over to the river and watching the boats and then on to Jefferson Park where I listened to a Park Ranger explain about the founding of New Orleans. One of the things he said was that the word "'Dixie'" refers to privately issued currency from banks in Louisiana. These banks issued ten-dollar notes labeled "Dix", French for "ten", on the reverse side. These notes are now highly sought-after for their numismatic value. The notes were known as "Dixies" by English-speaking southerners, and the area around New Orleans and the French-speaking parts of Louisiana came to be known as "Dixieland". Eventually, usage of the term broadened to refer to most of the Southern States.

After that I was wandering around the Park when it started to rain lightly so since I was planning on going inside anyway I went over to the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France. Wow what a great church; that’s how churches should be built again.

When I came out of the Basilica it was pouring rain [Thank you Marla for leaving me your umbrella and for the record one of the supports isn’t supporting; “Not my fault Dr. Jones.” It was rains so hard it had run the tarot card readers and mimes off. Just FYI, the balconies in the French Quarter do a very bad job of keeping rain off the sidewalk, had to keep the umbrella up. The rain did lower the temperature but not the humidity so all in all it was a positive thing.

I was walking down Bourbon Street thinking about what the price of real estate with a Bourbon Street address must be and then I noticed how tawdry it was with all lingerie stores and strip clubs.

You know one of the things that has made an impression on me this trip is big rivers, the Mississippi and the Cumberland, and big bridges.

Love the feel and architecture of the French Quarter but off tomorrow for new places.

Vicksburg – Natchez – Baton Rouge – New Orleans

TUE June 15

I stayed MON night at a RV park in Vicksburg that was an annex of a riverside casino and when I checked in they gave me a voucher for a free buffet breakfast at the casino. There was also a free shuttle service so I couldn’t pass it up and stuffed myself with a ham & cheese omelet, sausage, bacon, sausage gravy, fried potatoes and corned beef hash. Um, um, good.

Off to the Vicksburg National Military Park and it made up for my disappointment with the Tupelo National Battlefield. I started with the Visitor Center 20-minute movie to give the overall perspective and then I did the driving tour. Thinking back to the pictures of the era that I had seen there weren’t many trees shown but today the area is full of trees. But the driving tour took me up and down hills and the North and South positions were well marked and explained. I was very easy to see the advantages the South had with the high ground and how hard it was for the North to attack uphill. This is an excellent Civil War battlefield and you can see the pride taken by the various states by the monument they erected early last century. Also lots of cannon and lots of Generals.

Onward to Natchez, lunch and a visit to the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians; I enjoyed the small museum and visitors center showing arts and crafts of the Natchez and then I walked the area to see the burial mounds for chiefs and a replica house.

I drove through Baton Rouge looking for a McDonalds so I could get Wi-Fi. Didn’t see any signs so I got off at the LSU exit thinking I could find something and that didn’t work either so off to New Orleans without a real plan on where I was going to stay since a call told me that the RV park run by the Naval Support Activity was closed down. Finally found a McD and got a couple of addresses and moved out to the less expensive one, pulled in and pulled right out, nope. My second choice is very good; on a waterway, across from a yacht repair facility and also with a shuttle to the French Quarter.

Natchez Trace

SUN June 13

Left Clarksville and the Special Forces McLeans and headed for the Nashville airport to drop Marla off for her flight back to Phoenix and Sun City West while I head down the Natchez Trace to Tupelo MS to see the Tupelo National Battlefield and oh by the way Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis.

The drive was pretty but long, 130 miles of tall trees and mowed grass road shoulders broken every now and again by fields of corn and sometimes hay fields. The Trace is one of the very early “highways” in the U.S. opened to support commerce between Nashville and the South down toward New Orleans.

Oh yes, Meriwether Lewis, he of Lewis and Clark, died and is buried on the Natchez Trace and I stopped there.

Stayed at a very nice RV park.


MON morning I headed off to the Tupelo National Battlefield Park and was really disappointed. I don’t know where I heard of the Park making me wanting to visit but it was only 2 cannon, a couple of stone monuments, a flag pole and an information board, all in a Park about a quarter of a city block totally.

Next was off to Elvis Presley’s birthplace and then down to Vicksburg MS.

MS roads really have me slowing down, they aren’t level and whip the trailer tossing clothes off hangers and moving other things around if they aren’t held down.

Something interesting about MS license plates; most states have special plates and that includes license plates for their universities. But MS has a plate that has the LSU logo on it. Why would one state give special attention to another state and a football rival?

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.