Installment # 12

Remember, you can click on the pictures if you want to see them ‘close-up and personal’. You can also leave comments on the bottom of the blog. It has been suggested that everyone list their home location so other readers know where everyone is from. The web sites are included because they often tell the whole story and have good pictures.

Tony needed something to do one night – so we now have a dvd/vcr player attached to the front television – gave him something to figure out for an evening! It is much nicer watching DVDs on a larger screen rather than the laptop.

We toured the Tifton Mobile Home Manufacturing plant in Red Bay, Alabama (http://www.tiffinmotorhomes.com/about/ourStory.html) . These guys make the Allegro motorhomes mainly at the rate of 13/day. Although they are a different make from ours it was fascinating and very informative to see just how these things are really put together, to see the levels of insulation and weatherproofing and how to access some of the difficult-to-get-at features, and also to witness first hand the levels of quality and inspection they all use – we came away very satisfied.




The 100 year old water tower held together with ropes was on the Tiffin property.











Next we went on to Tupelo, Mississippi, to see the birthplace of Elvis Presley (http://www.elvispresleybirthplace.com/) . Elvis’s home where he was born (very small) was open for visitors. All around the home and behind the home, the city had built a park for tourists to visit, complete with a chapel and museum. The city did a real good job commemorating Elvis’ life in the short 13 years that he lived there. One statute in the park was Elvis with a guitar at 13 years old.


A thunderstorm in Brinkley, Arkansas, was welcomed to clean the car from the Georgia pollen….the tornado warnings were not so welcome. Our next drive to Little Rock, Arkansas, was slowed down by a huge fire on the interstate (a camper had caught fire). By the time we were allowed to pass, the camper was nothing but a small pile of charred remains. The amount of semi-trucks on this highway was amazing – one six mile count came up to 5 RVs, 83 semi-trucks, and 72 cars.



Somewhere along the last 24 hours, our spare wheel for the tow dolly came up missing – seems we would have noticed if it fell off – so we have to assume that someone needed the spare wheel more than we did. Ironically while touring around the Arkansas River, we saw a wheel float down the river – unfortunately, I couldn’t get Tony to go after it!




Again in Little Rock, Arkansas, we had a very capable chauffeur/tour guide, my niece, Kelly. She wore us out with all the places we walked and drove to – the Clinton Library was first (http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/) – we learned a lot – one interesting fact – Clinton was the 42nd president of the U.S. after he had been the 42nd governor of Arkansas. There was a full-size replica of the Oval Office (picture) and the Cabinet Room in the Library, as well as one of the presidential limousines. I couldn’t resist sitting in the Presidential cabinet chair (just a little taller than all the other chairs). One of the pictures is of tables set for some event at Clinton Library. A walk to the Clinton Museum Store gave us a glimpse of some of the Art along the River Front.


Next stop in Little Rock was the Central High School – their 50th year of being known as the "Little Rock Nine" crisis (www.nps.gov/chsc) A visitor center was across the street in an original site of the Mobile gas station and had a lot of information about the event – one little known fact was that after the first year, one of the nine students graduated – in the audience at the ceremony was Dr. Martin Luther King.







We then went on to the Arkansas State Capitol Building ( http://www.sos.arkansas.gov/) for a look inside and outside where they had a statute commemorating the Little Rock Nine. A last stop for the day was the "Dam Bridge" – a pedestrian bridge across the Arkansas River and over the dam, built to encourage exercising by people who live in Little Rock. The bridge is connected to at least 20 miles of walk-way on each side of the river. We walked from the parking lot to the top of the bridge and half-way across, before going back to be treated to Kelly’s great home-cooked meal.


The next morning we went for breakfast where Kelly works part-time – the Java Roasting Company (http://www.javaroasting.com/) – a very nice place – two couches beside the lit fireplace, wi-fi available with plug-ins for laptops along a bar, and an extensive latte menu as well as Paninis - breakfast sandwiches. We needed the energy for our next adventure – going "geocaching" again. This geocache was a three part hunt (http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=6d27a721-5486-4786-9f89-d8b1869754ac), but with Kelly’s youth and Tony’s GPS, we found it – we had to go to the first coordinate to find one number to add to the second coordinates, count the rungs on a slide to find out the third set of coordinates, and then finally found the cache under the bridge we walked over in the beginning of our search. This cache had a disposable camera in it for us to take our picture – the instructions said the picture would be posted on the web when the camera is full.


Our next stop was the most unusual small park we have ever seen – the Old Mill Park (http://www.northlittleorck.org/old_mill.html) More pictures at this site (http://www.cherylsgardenparty.com/GardMoNov03Mill.htm) . There was a wedding in process when we got there (according to the brochure they have about 200 weddings a year). This park was featured in the opening scenes of Gone With the Wind, believed to be the only remaining structure from the movie. The park was also the site of the unveiling of the Gone With the Wind commemorative stamp. Senor Dionicio Rodriguez, a sculptor and artist, was responsible for all the details of each piece of concrete work made to represent wood, iron, or stone…..all the steps, railings, walkways, no matter how ornate are made from good old-fashioned concrete. Rodriguez has sculptures in seven states – it would be fun to see what else he did.

Next stop was a side trip to the Flag and Banner store in Little Rock (http://www.flagandbanner.com/) . It was a neat little store, but unfortunately it didn’t display the biggest selection of American Santas at this time of the year as advertised in my tour book.
By this time Kelly and I had arranged a surprise for Tony – a trip to a British Pub in downtown Little Rock – their logo "Great Food, Great Beer, Great Britain" – Kelly and Tony had fish and chips – Kelly even tried to eat with her knife and fork as Tony does – take a look at the plaque under churchill’s picture (http://www.theundergroundpub.com/history.htm) .





On the road again on Saturday, April 7th, Day 100 of our trip, we found Sam Walton’s original "five and dime" store in Bentonville, Arkansas, which had been made into a museum and Wal-Mart Visitor’s Center (http://www.walmartstores.com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate.do?catg=7) . One of the more clever displays depicted their motto about the customer always being right – the display showed items that had been returned to Wal-Mart – one a large yellow plastic outdoor thermometer (customer brought it back and got their money back saying it never kept good time) – another item, a thermos bottle that leaked (customer got their money back – it did leak – but the thermos bottle had been manufactured and sold at least five years before there ever was a Wal-Mart store). One picture shows Sam’s library in his office, just in case anyone wants to know which books he read to become so successful. We bought a miniature Wal-Mart shopping cart that now sits in our motorhome front window to hold the GPS that guides us to each tourist spot and each Wal-Mart. The greeter at the visitor center was a lady from Orofino, Idaho, close to Moscow. She was so excited to see someone from Idaho.


Our next stop was to learn about another Sam – Sam Butler - at his Precious Moments Inspiration Park (also home to the world’s largest Precious Moments gift shop) located in Carthage, Missouri. This was such an appropriate stop for Easter Sunday morning with all the teardrop-eyed children depicting Biblical events. There was a huge gift shop, TV video to show how a Precious Moments figurine is made, a walk through a park to the Chapel for a guided tour of the paintings by Butler, a memorial room to his son who had died, another memorial room with books to sign "In Memory Of", as well as larger than life-size Precious Moments figurines. This would be a stop I would highly recommend for everyone. (http://www.preciousmoments.com/)

Thanks again for all the phone calls, emails, and blog messages. We enjoy hearing from everyone.

~~Sharon and Tony

Installment #8

Arriving in Baton Rouge at yet another Wal-Mart, we took off in the car to see the sites:

The Louisiana State Capitol building (claims to be the tallest state capitol building in the U.S.). Tony had never been in a state capitol building and he was amazed and impressed. We went into the Senate and House chambers (all wired for laptops, of course); took elevator to the 27th floor to the observation deck (34 floors total, 450 feet high) – the views were fantastic with the Mississippi River to the west. The brochure description quoted the north view as "Louisiana’s prosperous and economically important chemical corridor" – meaning petro chemical plants and smog! The entrance is approached by a grand staircase with one step for each of the 48 states, listed in the order of their admittance to the Union. Alaska and Hawaii were added to the top step when they were made states. Flags of various nations which have ruled Louisiana hang from the balcony – Castile & Leon, France, Spain, England, a 15-star U.S. flag, Confederate flag, Louisiana state flag, the modern U.S. flag and more.

On the capitol grounds was an Old Arsenal Museum, built about 1838, used by the military during the Civil War, displaying hundreds of kegs of powder, and vents that angled through the five foot thick walls to prevent a direct shot into the arsenal.

Next stop was the Hollywood Casino River boat – gambling not allowed in the state; however, it is allowed on the Mississippi River. There was a very elaborate motel, restaurant entrance with a walkway to the river boat casino (picture).
We drove around the block to get a picture of this mural painted on the side of a building. (picture)
Our next stop was the Port Allen on the west side of the Mississippi. Unfortunately, after 9 Eleven, visitors have been stopped from entering. We did find a small spot outside the government fence to watch six barges being pushed by one tug boat out of the locks.
We went to the Blue Bonnet Swamp for an upclose and personal look at a swamp - to see the lizards, hear all the birds, and see all the water logged cypress trees.
We stopped in Slidell, Louisiana, jut 40 miles northeast of New Orleans. We spent a lot of time driving around in the car looking at the devastation from "Katrina" – "do not crush" sign on a boat, "your adjuster" sign with a phone number, very nice homes all built on stilts (picture) with garage and storage on ground floor, a shopping mall completely closed, army tanks parked, "demolish shed in back only" sign, "evacuation route" sign, and "looters will be shot" sign. In Slidell, the TV weather man suggested a weather watch for possible tornadoes so we stayed put another night. In this particular Wal-Mart parking lot, a lot of people were living in their cars.
We continued on our trek to Mississippi (picture of view over Mississippi) – our first stop at the Visitor’s Center where we found "Southern Hospitality" from the people in the Visitor Center. Notice the picture of their Apollo training module in the park. We went south down to the Gulf of Mexico highway 90 to travel along the gulf to see the Katrina devastation (described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_Hurricane_Katrina_on_Mississippi ). Two main bridges are still not repaired (due to be opened this May). Signs we saw - "Need a dummpster?…call …", "coastal clean-up", "Homes in 8 weeks", "storm debris in water", "do not enter, boardwalk torn up". We saw a Wal-Mart parking lot with no Wal-Mart, stilts left where houses once were, a McDonald’s sign, but no McDonald’s; boat on dry land across from Gulf with sign "I survived Hurricane Camille" from years ago.

Our next tourist stop was (picture of street scene) Mobile, Alabama…we stayed nearby in Daphne, Alabama. Got a few pictures of the Carnival Cruise ship which had just arrived, unloaded passengers, and loading up again for another cruise beginning that night. We toured Fort Conde (notice the picture of the gaslight lit outside the museum) (http://www.museumofmobile.com/html/other_museums.php) and the Mobile Carnival Museum - memorabilia from 1921 Mobile Mardi Gras – gowns (picture), sceptors, crowns, trains http://www.carnivalmuseum.com/ Learned more about Joe Cain's Merry Widows (http://www.mardigrasdigest.com/Bureau/Mobile/joe_cain_procession.htm). There is more about the Mardi Gras celebration in Mobile at this site (http://www.mobile.org/ab_mardigras.php ).

We stopped for lunch at the "Spot of Tea" http://www.spotoftea.net/. Went inside the Immaculate Conception Church (picture); took a picture of an unusual site - store window with suits and matching hats. We also stopped in at the A&M Peanut Shop, open since 1947 - peanuts roasted hourly in a 90 year-old roaster. A pigeon kept coming inside the door to eat the peanuts that fell on the floor.





Next we went to a park with the USS Alabama (picture) and USS Drum sub, http://www.ussalabama.com/. Saw B-52 bomber, "Calamity Jane", Mustang, A-12 Blackbird spyplane, F/A-18 hornet prototype, B-25 "doolittle" bomber, OS2U kingfisher scout plane, vietnam "Huey" helicopter, F-4U Corsair, A-4 skyhawk, F105 Thunderchief, F4C Phantom, F-86 Sabre, 9 tanks and armored vehicles; also another Vietnam & Korean Veteran memorial park.

We took a walk to General Andrew Jackson's Oak Tree (a sign on the way - "beware of snakes and alligators") - Andrew Jackson climbed this oak and rallied 3000 troops in 1814, CSA camped here 1861–65 and Union troops came ashore here en route to Battle of Spanish Fort.






Next we went to the American Sport Art Museum http://www.asama.org/collection/onlinetour/index.asp , check out page 12 (Arman) one of my favorite and page 15 (Rizzi) - fun 3-D pictures (picture) "Just a few moments left on the clock".






Not quite out of Alabama yet, we went to an RV park called Wales West to give Tony his British fix of sitting out in the hot sun and going to a blue grass music ho-down in the evening. http://www.waleswest.com/. After Sharon took a swim in the pool, we got caught up on laundry. Took a ride on the train in the park during the day and another after the entertainment.

We have now learned that our goal of seeing the Atlantis blast off from Cape Canaveral has been postponed for at least another month – can you believe that the lift-off support rockets strapped to the shuttle suffered hail damage in a storm. I guess our tour of Florida will not be on any schedule now. Our first stop in Florida was to see Kathy (Cally & Casey’s Mom) in Pensacola. We then drove on to Navarre, Florida for two nights, waiting out what appeared to be a possible storm, again. The storm was bad in Mobile only a few miles away where we had been a few nights before: at the time of writing ten people were reported dead most of them school kids when a tornado flattened the school during session. I think Tony’s negative attitude is getting us in possible bad weather, and my positive attitude is keeping us out of the possible bad weather.

We took a drive around the area – across a bridge to a very narrow island (beach red warning flag up was for "high water hazard"). Sand was blowing everywhere. With the window just barely open, we were pelted with sand.


We got off the island and drove to the Air Force Armament Museum at Eglin Air Force Base. This was even better than the planes, etc. that we saw at the USS Alabama. We saw the MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast or Mother of all bombs - the world's largest conventional weapon); the "fat man" casing - second and last nuclear bomb ever used; a missile with writing all over it – one comment was "this one's for you, Saddam"; and several airplanes inside from different wars – the Mustang, P-47, Shooting Star, and Thunderchief. Outside they displayed a Soviet MIG-21, Blackbird, B-52 and about 20 other war planes. One display allowed visitors to walk through an Airborne Battlefield Command Control Center capsule.

We are going to slowly work our way down the west coast of Florida, possibly take a drive down to Key West. At that point, we will begin heading north and then west for the trip back home.

Thanks again for all the phone calls, emails, and blog messages. We enjoy hearing from everyone. As I am getting ready to send this blog, Tony is taking a nap, and we are sitting on the south coast of the Florida panhandle beside the Gulf of Mexico. I'm am loving the view with the waves and sounds. What a way to have a vacation!!

~~Sharon & Tony