May 23, 2014
The miracles of modern medicine - I had sinus surgery yesterday and am almost back to normal today.
I have had headaches almost continuously since we returned from our big trip. While I'm no stranger to headaches, by the time they had gone on for three weeks, I knew this was different. A sinus cat scan showed several problems and surgery was scheduled. The surgeon is not convinced the problems he saw were causing all my headaches, but the problems did need to be fixed.
They gave me pain pills after the surgery, but I really felt better than I had for weeks and only took a few. So keep your fingers crossed that this solves most of the problems.
I don't know how this surgery would have been performed years ago, but it's remarkable to me that there are no scars or bruising or much of a recovery period.
When I was a kid, I very much remember cancer being a death sentence. The adults would mention the diagnosis of a friend in hushed tones and there was little that could be done. Today, I know many cancer survivors. I remember taking one of the first polio vaccines - they gave it to us on a sugar cube. And polio was such a threat that I think we got it in a mass inoculation set up in a local school gym. Today, polio is unheard of in this county and very rare in the rest of the world. And transplants - I remember the first heart transplant. The recipient only lived a short time, but it was a miracle and paved the way for many other transplants.
While we have a long way to go on many medical fronts, it's wonderful that we live in a time of such medical progress.
Our last road trip was to an RV boot camp that was being followed by a big RV rally. We had other plans, so we didn't stay for the rally. We did get our rig weighed on Sunday and we are below our weight limit and mostly balanced. Yeah!
The rally that started the next day was going to be huge. Motor homes and trailer rigs were pulling in all day Sunday. I had to move our truck to give someone more maneuvering room. I don't know how many of the 900 sites there were filled but there were a lot of people there.
Coming home, I was reminded of how long we've managed to stretch out spring with our travels. In northern Indiana, there were still some bare trees and the redbuds and dogwoods were still in bloom. We experienced that down south months ago. It's been pleasant.
The trailer is off getting it's own "medical" attention. Last fall when we had the satellite system installed, the installer said that our roof caulking would probably need replacing this spring. So the trailer is in the shop, getting caulked, along with a whole list of things Steve wanted fixed/installed. I have a bit more staining to do on some support blocks for the desk and I've been ordering some things that we'll need in duplicate (measuring spoons, etc) so I"m not moving them from the trailer to the house and back. I still have work to do to make moving back and forth easier.
We've also gotten some work on the house. I finally got plants into the planters out back. When we moved in (23 years ago) the back yard looked like the before of those yard improvement shows. We had two concrete slabs that didn't look like they belonged together; one had been the base of a dog kennel along the back wall of the garage. Zebra landscaping did a wonderful job of tying the areas together, creating planters and steps down to the grass. We still have a ways to go, but with perennials in the planters, we can at least work on other areas.
Steve wanted some roses, so we got some roses. My Dad is a rose lover and had found a brand of roses (Knock Out) that requires much less care than most roses. So the house on Rose Street has more roses.
We're working on planning our next big trip for next winter. We have some shorter trips planned before then, but next winter will start with Disney World and may end up in Alaska!
More on that as plans develop!
Take care,
Deb
Steve and Debbie are amateur radio operators (known as "hams") who are traveling (mostly by RV ) in their retirement.
Friday, May 23, 2014
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Wow! This boot camp is rather amazing. Remembering that this is for newbies, I was surprised that there seem to be between 75 and 100 attendees. We are camped at the Elkhart County Fairgrounds, which has about 270 permanent RV sites, and can accommodate up to 900 rigs. We had to wait in line to get parked.
Some one came by and said they had a fifth wheel being pulled by a semi with a driver that had never pulled it before. Kinda slowed things up. But since we've had our share of parking problems, we sympathized.
We're parked on grass, and have water and electric. This is one of their temporary sites, but the fairgrounds does this often enough that everything is working fine.
We are, however, about 50 yards from a very active rail line. Steve, of course, takes out his hearing aids and sleeps like a rock. The trains didn't really bother me, except last night during a storm. Thunder woke me up and it was raining. The wind was blowing, although the motorhome next to us was taking most of the force. So I'm about to fall back to sleep when I hear the roar of a train, which is the sound they warn you about during tornadoes. It took a few beats before I decided it really was a train and went back to sleep.
There is a stream between us and the rail tracks. It looks like it's just a drainage ditch, but its a clear flowing stream. Yesterday there was a family of mallards gathered there and tonight there were Canadian geese. It seems to drain the field we're in quite well, as there is no mud, even though it has rained the last couple of days.
Our view out our window is certainly not our best, but gives you an idea of the variety of vehicles people full time in.
The Boot Camp precedes an Escapees's rally that they call an Escapade. It's a week of classes and social events. The classes cover everything from insurance to legal to medical to crafts to maintenance. They repeat a lot of the information covered in the boot camp throughout the week. Steve will be heading to Dayton, Ohio, at the end of this coming week, so we won't be staying for the Escapade. If we did, we'd definitely be on information overload.
There is another RV group, RV Dreams, that is holding a rally here in the fall. They will offer driving classes before the rally and we're going to try and get signed up for those. This group was recommend by Diane and Roger, cousins of the Robison clan.
We will get our rig weighed tomorrow and find out how out of balance we are. We don't think we'll be overweight, but we'll find out.
I did finally take some better pictures of our new desk and table.
We're really happy with the way they turned out. They work well for us. The picture below shows the desk and how the chairs will fit under it when we bring in the slides. The desk is permanently installed, while the table folds up.
We've learned a lot this weekend and I know we still have more to learn. But so far we haven't found out that we've done something extremely stupid and expensive, which is good news.
Obi's fast asleep on Steve's lap while Steve's working on the computer. My lap just isn't level enough for him to sleep on. He likes to rest his chin on the desk while he sleeps.
Time to get to bed so I can get up for an 8 am class. Fortunately tomorrow's the last day of class and I can sleep in a little on Monday before we head for home.
Take care,
Deb
Wow! This boot camp is rather amazing. Remembering that this is for newbies, I was surprised that there seem to be between 75 and 100 attendees. We are camped at the Elkhart County Fairgrounds, which has about 270 permanent RV sites, and can accommodate up to 900 rigs. We had to wait in line to get parked.
We're parked on grass, and have water and electric. This is one of their temporary sites, but the fairgrounds does this often enough that everything is working fine.
We are, however, about 50 yards from a very active rail line. Steve, of course, takes out his hearing aids and sleeps like a rock. The trains didn't really bother me, except last night during a storm. Thunder woke me up and it was raining. The wind was blowing, although the motorhome next to us was taking most of the force. So I'm about to fall back to sleep when I hear the roar of a train, which is the sound they warn you about during tornadoes. It took a few beats before I decided it really was a train and went back to sleep.
There is a stream between us and the rail tracks. It looks like it's just a drainage ditch, but its a clear flowing stream. Yesterday there was a family of mallards gathered there and tonight there were Canadian geese. It seems to drain the field we're in quite well, as there is no mud, even though it has rained the last couple of days.
Our view out our window is certainly not our best, but gives you an idea of the variety of vehicles people full time in.
On the left is a semi truck with sleeping quarters that is licensed as a motorhome. On the right is a box van that resembles a moving van and may be an old homemade motorhome. Farther ahead you see trucks towing fifth wheels and motorhomes. There are also truck campers, van campers, and maybe a car camper or two. I would say the majority of vehicles are motor homes.
The Boot Camp precedes an Escapees's rally that they call an Escapade. It's a week of classes and social events. The classes cover everything from insurance to legal to medical to crafts to maintenance. They repeat a lot of the information covered in the boot camp throughout the week. Steve will be heading to Dayton, Ohio, at the end of this coming week, so we won't be staying for the Escapade. If we did, we'd definitely be on information overload.
There is another RV group, RV Dreams, that is holding a rally here in the fall. They will offer driving classes before the rally and we're going to try and get signed up for those. This group was recommend by Diane and Roger, cousins of the Robison clan.
We will get our rig weighed tomorrow and find out how out of balance we are. We don't think we'll be overweight, but we'll find out.
I did finally take some better pictures of our new desk and table.
We're really happy with the way they turned out. They work well for us. The picture below shows the desk and how the chairs will fit under it when we bring in the slides. The desk is permanently installed, while the table folds up.
We've learned a lot this weekend and I know we still have more to learn. But so far we haven't found out that we've done something extremely stupid and expensive, which is good news.
Obi's fast asleep on Steve's lap while Steve's working on the computer. My lap just isn't level enough for him to sleep on. He likes to rest his chin on the desk while he sleeps.
Time to get to bed so I can get up for an 8 am class. Fortunately tomorrow's the last day of class and I can sleep in a little on Monday before we head for home.
Take care,
Deb
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Thursday, May 8, 2014
On Sunday we had a family birthday party at the McDaniel's. Rich, his niece, Angie (?), his grandson, Ben, and his grand niece, Ella, were all celebrating birthdays.
I finished staining and varnishing the desk and table around 5 on Monday, but they had to dry for 24 hours before installation.
On Sunday we had a family birthday party at the McDaniel's. Rich, his niece, Angie (?), his grandson, Ben, and his grand niece, Ella, were all celebrating birthdays.
Rich was also celebrating finishing the 500 Mini Marathon the day before. Go, Rich!
After the party, I went home and continued working on the desk and table for the trailer.
I finished staining and varnishing the desk and table around 5 on Monday, but they had to dry for 24 hours before installation.
Luckily, our friend Greg was still in town. He helped Steve get them into the trailer and into position for Steve to install. Here they are set up as we'll use them.
I'll have to take another picture when it's not so bright out. But they are working great! Steve found these contraptions and installed one in each corner.
Each has two electric outlets and two usb ports. No more crawling under the desk to plug stuff in. Way cool!
We're at the Pla-mor Campground near Bremen, IN. Here's the view out our window.
This is a large RV campground. It has two fishing ponds (catch and release) and one swimming pond, plus playgrounds, horseshoe pits and mini-golf. And a driving range. It's in the middle of Amish country. For early in the season, there are a number of rigs here. There are some permanent residents, but everything looks well kept. They appear to be spacing out us transients so that we're not parked right next to each other. There's no one on one side of us and there are 3 or 4 spaces between us and the next rig over on the other side.
We'll move to the Elkhart County Fairgrounds tomorrow for the RV Boot Camp. It's supposed to be just a gravel lot with hookups, but it's close to the seminars and that's what we're here for.
It's warm and the air conditioner seems to be working, but there's a really strong wind. The wind is whistling around the trailer and sometimes shakes it. This is the precursor to the storms and tornadoes that are hitting the middle of the country. We're supposed to have thunderstorms tomorrow, which will also cool us off. High today was 88.
Steve's trying to take Obi for a walk and he's not exactly enthusiastic. Poor Obi. He was okay to leave the house with me this morning, but planted all fours when he realized we were headed for the truck! While he's still not happy about riding in the truck, he no longer shakes and usually naps on our trips. He is getting older though. He's slow going up the stairs at home and sometimes needs to be carried. I'm trying to train him to stay downstairs if I tell him to when I go up to move laundry or make some other quick trip. He's beginning to catch on. (I think.)
That's all for now. Take care!
Deb
Friday, May 2, 2014
Friday, May 2, 2014
I'm still struggling with sinus headaches, so I'll use that excuse for not blogging.
We got the house ready for Easter and had a great time seeing everyone. Total attendance ended up being 32. The wonderful thing about being a part of this "family" is that everyone pitches in. I provided the house and the ham and everyone else brought something. We had two kinds of cheesy potatoes, asparagus, corn, several salads, deviled eggs, jello eggs and more desserts than you can imagine. No one went away hungry.
We only had 3 little ones attend this year - Ben who is almost one, Ella who is almost 3, and Haleigh who is 4. So the Easter eggs were "hidden" in the front yard for them to find. The Easter egg hunt has been going on for a long time. We haven't missed many years, even when no one really qualified as a kid anymore. I was busy showing the trailer to people and Steve already had the camera on the tripod for the family picture, so we don't have any Easter egg hunt pictures. We did get a good family shot, but not before Betsy, Reston and their friends left.
I'm still struggling with sinus headaches, so I'll use that excuse for not blogging.
We got the house ready for Easter and had a great time seeing everyone. Total attendance ended up being 32. The wonderful thing about being a part of this "family" is that everyone pitches in. I provided the house and the ham and everyone else brought something. We had two kinds of cheesy potatoes, asparagus, corn, several salads, deviled eggs, jello eggs and more desserts than you can imagine. No one went away hungry.
We only had 3 little ones attend this year - Ben who is almost one, Ella who is almost 3, and Haleigh who is 4. So the Easter eggs were "hidden" in the front yard for them to find. The Easter egg hunt has been going on for a long time. We haven't missed many years, even when no one really qualified as a kid anymore. I was busy showing the trailer to people and Steve already had the camera on the tripod for the family picture, so we don't have any Easter egg hunt pictures. We did get a good family shot, but not before Betsy, Reston and their friends left.
Ben, middle of the front row, was fascinated by Steve running to get in place and was always watching him, so we never got a shot of his face. But everyone else, except Obi the dog, managed to smile for the camera!
The family photos have been going on at least as long as the Easter Egg hunt and it's always fun to look back over the photos and see how everyone's changed. Here's one from 1992.
Steve's been working hard on the trailer and I don't even know all the projects he has going on. With the help of Greg, who's visiting from Bellingham, he got all the cuts made and the edges routed on both the desk and the table. Now it's my turn. I'm the finisher in the family and need to sand, seal, stain, and polyurethane both pieces. I got them sanded this evening and hope to keep moving on the project all weekend.
Steve would like them finished and installed by Thursday. We'll be heading to Goshen, IN, to attend an Escapee's RV boot camp on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We're going up a day early so we don't have to rush on Friday and we'll head home on Monday.
The boot camp should help us learn about RVing. Yes, we should have attended one of these before we went on the road, but better late than never. Maintenance and safety will be two of the items we'll be focusing on. We'll also get the rig weighed.
A big part of safety is not pulling more weight than your tow vehicle can handle and not having more weight in the trailer than it can handle. Weighing can help you balance the weight better for a better, safer ride. When we were driving Leigh's car across country last summer, we stopped at a bed and breakfast in Cody, WY. The owner did some RV restorations and told about restoring an Airstream trailer. He finished and on their first trip out, the trailer started fishtailing, he lost control and totaled the trailer. He didn't have a tow vehicle sized for his trailer. Which is why we have a one ton diesel truck.
We think we're okay on what we're carrying in the trailer, as we still have some empty shelves and drawers. I'm sure we'll remedy that over time, but it will be nice to make sure that we are under weight.
That's all for now.
Deb
Monday, April 14, 2014
Monday, April 14, 2014
We did make it home on Saturday, April 5. It was a long 6 hour drive, made worse for me by a sinus headache. We'd like to find some place about 4 hours from home for our first and last nights of a trip.
Steve got the trailer backed into the driveway with little trouble. He's actually getting pretty good at it. Someday I'll get up the courage to back up the trailer.
But we've had to turn the furnace on to make sure the trailer doesn't freeze. It's supposed to snow tonight. Apparently we didn't stay in the south long enough!
Transitioning back home has been interesting. I keep going back and forth to the trailer. We need to work on how to efficiently transfer what we need from one to the other. We bought the trailer mostly furnished with not only furniture, but plates, glasses, towels, sheets, etc. Since everything was good quality, we just kept all of it. Most of the linens are in browns and beiges. Since Steve is red green color blind and red, green and brown all look alike to him and we don't use them in the house. So, we know that anything in one of those colors belongs in the trailer. That helps, as it will make it a bit harder to leave town without sheets or towels!
Steve has been making great progress on our desk for the trailer. It had to be cut to fit, both lengthwise and widthwise and cutouts to go around the windows done. That cutting is done and he has test fitted it. It looks great and now "just" needs to have the edges routed, everything sanded, stained and sealed. And the T portion of the desk needs done. But progress has been made.
One of the things I didn't talk about earlier was all storm damage we saw across the south. Along most of the highways we could see torn limbs and downed trees. We finally managed to get a picture of some of the damage at the Tom Sawyer RV Park.
You could tell the recent damage from the lighter wood. We saw this kind of damage everywhere but southern Florida. It was a bad winter all over.
Now, it's time to get the house ready for Easter. We're hosting this year, so we have to finish getting sorted out from last year's remodeling. We had managed to get all of the furniture moved back into place before we left on our trip, but there are still things that need to be hung or put away or found. (The wine bottle opener is missing; Leigh had to borrow one!)
Deb
We did make it home on Saturday, April 5. It was a long 6 hour drive, made worse for me by a sinus headache. We'd like to find some place about 4 hours from home for our first and last nights of a trip.
Steve got the trailer backed into the driveway with little trouble. He's actually getting pretty good at it. Someday I'll get up the courage to back up the trailer.
But we've had to turn the furnace on to make sure the trailer doesn't freeze. It's supposed to snow tonight. Apparently we didn't stay in the south long enough!
Transitioning back home has been interesting. I keep going back and forth to the trailer. We need to work on how to efficiently transfer what we need from one to the other. We bought the trailer mostly furnished with not only furniture, but plates, glasses, towels, sheets, etc. Since everything was good quality, we just kept all of it. Most of the linens are in browns and beiges. Since Steve is red green color blind and red, green and brown all look alike to him and we don't use them in the house. So, we know that anything in one of those colors belongs in the trailer. That helps, as it will make it a bit harder to leave town without sheets or towels!
Steve has been making great progress on our desk for the trailer. It had to be cut to fit, both lengthwise and widthwise and cutouts to go around the windows done. That cutting is done and he has test fitted it. It looks great and now "just" needs to have the edges routed, everything sanded, stained and sealed. And the T portion of the desk needs done. But progress has been made.
One of the things I didn't talk about earlier was all storm damage we saw across the south. Along most of the highways we could see torn limbs and downed trees. We finally managed to get a picture of some of the damage at the Tom Sawyer RV Park.
You could tell the recent damage from the lighter wood. We saw this kind of damage everywhere but southern Florida. It was a bad winter all over.
Now, it's time to get the house ready for Easter. We're hosting this year, so we have to finish getting sorted out from last year's remodeling. We had managed to get all of the furniture moved back into place before we left on our trip, but there are still things that need to be hung or put away or found. (The wine bottle opener is missing; Leigh had to borrow one!)
Deb
Friday, April 4, 2014
Friday, April 4, 2014
We didn't have good Internet access the last two nights, so I gave up and went to bed. I left off on Tuesday without mentioning the food. One of the things we've always enjoyed as we traveled is finding local restaurants to try. In the past we relied heavily on the AAA guides. We still use those, but supplement with Urban Spoon and Around Me apps and Travelocity web site.
Using those, we found a restaurant around the corner from the Rock and Soul Museum with a 95% approval rating, known for great burgers. So we wander over and walk in to Wet Willies and its just a bar. No indication of food service, except that there is a family eating food.
This is obviously a late night place. Behind the bar is a whole row of frozen daiquiri machines. I start to suspect that the 95% rating may not be due to food. We eventually realize that there are menus on the bar and go up and order. I order a hamburger, no bun and fries and Steve gets a pulled pork sandwich. We wait awhile for the food and conversation's not really an option because the bar's music is competing with the live music from the park across the street. Finally the food comes. And it is delicious. I don't know that I've had a better burger. Steve said his pork sandwich was great, too.
On Wednesday, we started at the Blues City Cafe on Beale Street for lunch. Beale Street is the street for Music in Memphis. I order ribs and Steve goes with pulled pork again. This place was somewhat reminiscent of the Smokehouse in Lafayette. Except better. (And I like Smokehouse!) I have no idea how they manage to place a half rack of ribs on my plate, because when I touch it, the meat falls off the bone. Seriously tender and flavorful. So good, in fact, we buy our first souvenir of our trip - a jar of their seasoning.
Next on the agenda was a stop at Schwab's. Here's part of their wikipedia entry:
A. Schwab dry goods store is the only remaining original business on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. A family owned store, their motto is "If you can't find it at A. Schwab, you're probably better off without it!"
They were started in 1876 and haven't modernized the interior. It's an old fashioned dry goods store. They still have one of the mechanical fabric measures, for those of you old enough to remember when they ran the edge of the fabric through that to measure it. It was a nice trip down memory lane.
We headed over to the Gibson Guitar factory for a tour, but it's inventory week and there was no production going on, so Steve opted to save the tour for another trip. (We will be back.) The next stop was Sun Records, where Rock and Roll was born.
Now, I'm not a musician and not much into music, but this is a historical place. Sam Phillips, owner of Sun Records, created a recording studio to record the music he heard in the fields as a young kid harvesting cotton. He felt it needed to be recorded in order not to be lost. In the beginning he recorded everything he could and would even record weddings and birthday parties to earn enough money to keep his studio going. For $3, anyone could come in and cut a record. Which is how he met Elvis. It's a fascinating story, as is the history behind many of the songs. I love this quote by Sam:
Most of the rest of the buildings at this campground are on wheels and can be pulled out during a flood.
Our next stop was Paducah, KY, Quilt City, USA. The National Quilt Museum is there, as is the headquarters of the American Quilters Society. It's also a very historic town, having been laid out by William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame. It's a fairly major port on the Ohio and we saw several barges being pushed along.
Saving the quilt museum for our full day in Paducah, we headed downtown to the historic district and checked out the murals painted on the flood wall. Paducah is protected by 12 miles of flood walls that were built after a 1937 flood devastated the city. In the downtown area, the wall is decorated by historical paintings that are quite well done. We went through the wall and watched the tug boats moving the barges around. My impression of ports is lots of activity, but with container shipping and other mechanization, there's not much activity on land. And that had moved upstream a bit from downtown. We could see the huge crane used to load the containers onto barges. At least I think that's what the crane is used for.
We did stop at a quilt store and I bought some equipment. I did reign in the urge to buy any fabric; I have more than enough!
And we finally make it to today, Friday, our last day before we head for home. We drove into the quilt museum and spent most of the day there. Interesting and amazing quilts that I found somewhat intimidating. I don't have the time, energy, or imagination to create most of what I saw. My last project was a quilt for Maria, our granddaughter. In case you can't tell, it's a combination of the American and Russian flags.
We didn't have good Internet access the last two nights, so I gave up and went to bed. I left off on Tuesday without mentioning the food. One of the things we've always enjoyed as we traveled is finding local restaurants to try. In the past we relied heavily on the AAA guides. We still use those, but supplement with Urban Spoon and Around Me apps and Travelocity web site.
Using those, we found a restaurant around the corner from the Rock and Soul Museum with a 95% approval rating, known for great burgers. So we wander over and walk in to Wet Willies and its just a bar. No indication of food service, except that there is a family eating food.
This is obviously a late night place. Behind the bar is a whole row of frozen daiquiri machines. I start to suspect that the 95% rating may not be due to food. We eventually realize that there are menus on the bar and go up and order. I order a hamburger, no bun and fries and Steve gets a pulled pork sandwich. We wait awhile for the food and conversation's not really an option because the bar's music is competing with the live music from the park across the street. Finally the food comes. And it is delicious. I don't know that I've had a better burger. Steve said his pork sandwich was great, too.
On Wednesday, we started at the Blues City Cafe on Beale Street for lunch. Beale Street is the street for Music in Memphis. I order ribs and Steve goes with pulled pork again. This place was somewhat reminiscent of the Smokehouse in Lafayette. Except better. (And I like Smokehouse!) I have no idea how they manage to place a half rack of ribs on my plate, because when I touch it, the meat falls off the bone. Seriously tender and flavorful. So good, in fact, we buy our first souvenir of our trip - a jar of their seasoning.
Next on the agenda was a stop at Schwab's. Here's part of their wikipedia entry:
A. Schwab dry goods store is the only remaining original business on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. A family owned store, their motto is "If you can't find it at A. Schwab, you're probably better off without it!"
They were started in 1876 and haven't modernized the interior. It's an old fashioned dry goods store. They still have one of the mechanical fabric measures, for those of you old enough to remember when they ran the edge of the fabric through that to measure it. It was a nice trip down memory lane.
We headed over to the Gibson Guitar factory for a tour, but it's inventory week and there was no production going on, so Steve opted to save the tour for another trip. (We will be back.) The next stop was Sun Records, where Rock and Roll was born.
Now, I'm not a musician and not much into music, but this is a historical place. Sam Phillips, owner of Sun Records, created a recording studio to record the music he heard in the fields as a young kid harvesting cotton. He felt it needed to be recorded in order not to be lost. In the beginning he recorded everything he could and would even record weddings and birthday parties to earn enough money to keep his studio going. For $3, anyone could come in and cut a record. Which is how he met Elvis. It's a fascinating story, as is the history behind many of the songs. I love this quote by Sam:
Elvis, Carl Perkins (Blue Suede Shoes), Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash all got their start at Sun Records. Again, I'm quoting from Wikipedia -
Phillips's pivotal role in the early days of rock and roll was exemplified by a celebrated jam session on December 4, 1956 which came to be known as the Million Dollar Quartet. Jerry Lee Lewis was playing piano for a Carl Perkins recording session at Phillips's studio. When Elvis Presley walked in unexpectedly, Johnny Cash was called into the studio by Phillips, leading to an impromptu session featuring the four musicians.
The recording studio is still in use and hasn't been modernized. I believe U2 has recorded there, along with local groups and anyone who wants a touch of history.
We bought two more souvenirs at Sun. Steve found a white polo shirt, his trademark souvenir and we bought a CD of the original recording of the Million Dollar quartet. It's fun to listen as the musicians talk to each other, sometimes during the songs. There are just snatches of some songs and lots of gospel. They actually don't know who all is recorded as the session went on for awhile and musicians came and went. But it's a good listen.
After Sun, we headed for Graceland. I'm not a big Elvis fan and I wasn't interested in touring his home, but for some reason I did want to drive by it. So we did. You can see it from the road. It's a very nice looking large house, but not a mansion.
We headed back to the trailer to rescue Obi and get ready for our trek to Paducah, KY Thursday. But before we left our home on the Mississippi, I wanted to take one last picture.
This is the building that houses the laundry at our campground. The laundry is on the second floor and still got wiped out by the flood of 2011. The top of the sign is the flood crest.
Most of the rest of the buildings at this campground are on wheels and can be pulled out during a flood.
Our next stop was Paducah, KY, Quilt City, USA. The National Quilt Museum is there, as is the headquarters of the American Quilters Society. It's also a very historic town, having been laid out by William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame. It's a fairly major port on the Ohio and we saw several barges being pushed along.
Saving the quilt museum for our full day in Paducah, we headed downtown to the historic district and checked out the murals painted on the flood wall. Paducah is protected by 12 miles of flood walls that were built after a 1937 flood devastated the city. In the downtown area, the wall is decorated by historical paintings that are quite well done. We went through the wall and watched the tug boats moving the barges around. My impression of ports is lots of activity, but with container shipping and other mechanization, there's not much activity on land. And that had moved upstream a bit from downtown. We could see the huge crane used to load the containers onto barges. At least I think that's what the crane is used for.
We did stop at a quilt store and I bought some equipment. I did reign in the urge to buy any fabric; I have more than enough!
And we finally make it to today, Friday, our last day before we head for home. We drove into the quilt museum and spent most of the day there. Interesting and amazing quilts that I found somewhat intimidating. I don't have the time, energy, or imagination to create most of what I saw. My last project was a quilt for Maria, our granddaughter. In case you can't tell, it's a combination of the American and Russian flags.
But the quilts do inspire me to go home and sew. Maybe I'll get some of my unfinished projects done.
And we came away with a few more souvenirs. I bought a tshirt and a couple of books.
We're back in the trailer and trying to figure out what all we need to do before we head for home tomorrow. We should be home by late afternoon tomorrow. If anyone wants to stop by and say hi in the next few days, we'd love to see you! We have missed all our friends.
That's all for now.
Deb
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
This is the view out our back window.
This is the view out our back window.
That's the mighty Mississippi River rolling by. Thanks to Diane and Roger Norris's blog,
http://travelwithwhippets.blogspot.com , we are staying at the Tom Sawyer Mississippi River RV Park. Diane is Charley, Becky and John's cousin and travels full time in their motor home. Only they winter in south Texas. Anyway, we've gotten lots of good tips from them and this is one of them. The view above is from our back window. Right now from the side window I'm seeing the lights of Memphis, Tennessee, where we spent the afternoon. We're here for two nights and I'd love to stay for more. I love to watch the water.
Sunday we were still at Natasha's. We spent most of the day packing and getting ready to leave the next day. Steve did take some time out to watch basketball with Maria.
I had previously been thinking that we had managed quite well for 3 months with a limited amount of "things". Not so limited - it took two loads to get it all out to the trailer! Steve took one load Sunday afternoon and we loaded up the rest Monday morning.
But even with all the shifting of stuff from the truck to the trailer, we managed to get on the road out of Dallas shortly after 10 am. We had a long day of travel to a campground near Benton, Ark. We were traveling mostly east but some north, so East North East, I think. We should have been heading into colder climates, but Mother Nature seems to have some tricks up her sleeve. In areas, the trees were greener than in Dallas, we saw some daffodils blooming and even some redbuds. There were certainly more flowering trees than we had seen in Dallas. Arkansas is a bit hilly, so we may have been seeing the effects of some micro climates along the way.
We did manage to pull into JB's RV campground before dark and even had time for a walk down to the lake before supper. We had stayed here overnight on our way down to Dallas in December and found it a reasonable place. They have long, level pull through sites for us transient RVers and are close to the highway, although you wouldn't know it. No water view, but the view from the back window wasn't bad.
We got the inside of the trailer sorted out and it felt like home again. As I sit here looking at the lights of Memphis, I realize how much we are enjoying this. The setup in the trailer works quite well and does feel like home. Except maybe not to Obi. After our time in Dallas, he wasn't exactly thrilled about getting back into the truck.
This morning we left JB's campground and headed for Memphis. That took us around Little Rock, Arkansas. Did you know that Little Rock is a port? It sits on the Arkansas River that flows to the Mississippi River. The Arkansas River is quite wide and we saw barges being floated down it. I'm learning a lot on this trip.
Tom Sawyer's RV Park is just south of West Memphis, Arkansas, which is just across the river from Memphis, Tennessee. We were parked and set up shortly after noon and took off for some sightseeing in Memphis. We decided on the Museum of Rock and Soul, just south of Beale Street, birthplace of the blues.
The Museum was a great trip down memory lane. They show a short film and then set you up with an audio device and headphones, so that as you are going through the museum, you can hear about the displays and listen to some of the music associated with the displays. There was a lot of music from my childhood and teenage years. A lot of interesting anecdotes about how people got started and how some songs came about. Elvis Presley's "It's all right" was just the musicians jamming during a break, singing an old blues tune with an upbeat.
Obi's insisting that it's time for bed, so that's all for now.
Deb
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