Serendipity Again!

We moved to Tupelo, MS on Friday.  Other than construction and a U Turn detour in Jackson, TN, things went ok.  We have a nice big site in the trees and horses a few sites away.  Ted has been feeding them apples and carrots.

On Saturday, we settled in and drove a bit on the Natchez Trace stopping to see some Chickasaw mounds and listen to an audio about their life and friendship with the Natchez Indians plus English and French traders. We went to Mass at 4:30.  There weren’t more than two dozen people in attendance.  

We have friends that have moved to Ramer, TN which is less than an hour away.  We went there on Sunday and visited all afternoon and had lunch.  On Monday they drove to us and we continued with our visit and had lunch at Rib City.  A good choice by Ted!

So today we drove north on the Natchez Trace for about 50 miles before getting off and traveling into Alabama.  Our destination was Helen Keller’s birthplace in Tuscumbia.  What a delightful, informative and beautiful place and tribute to an outstanding woman.  

We learned Helen was born healthy but lost sight and hearing from a high fever illness called, at the time, “brain fever.”  Anne Sullivan was hired as a teacher for her at age 7.  They recounted the food fight depicted in the movie and said it really happened.  And Ms. Sullivan taught her in one day what her family had been unable to do in 7 years.

Anne finger spelled names of things into Helen’s hand all day long.  The water pump breakthrough did happen too.  As Helen had water running into one hand, Anne was spelling W A T E R in her other hand.  A word Helen had learned by 19 months old was wawa.  She put it all together and finally Anne had her attention.  She was extremely bright and learned 30 words that day.  

A sculpture of Anne and Helen at the pump.  The second is a bronze sculpture that sits center stage in the museum room.  The other photo is the actual, real pump where Helen made her learning breakthrough.  

In 1925 Helen attended a Lions Convention and was able, in her own voice she could not hear, challenged the organization to make their mission help for those with sight problems.  To this day they continue their mission.  She traveled all over the world and met every president from Calvin Coolidge to John Kennedy.  

We so enjoyed our visit to a place we had no idea even existed.  Sometimes these are the best surprises.  

On our way we saw a sign that Red Bay, where we are to meet Tommy and Susan a week from Friday, was only about 45 minutes away.  We needed a new drawer lock where the spring had sprung so Ted decided we would drive to Tiffin service to buy one.  We drove through the park we are booked into.  The restaurant was closed for 14 days starting 8/8 so we assume someone had tested positive.  They will reopen the day after we check in if Tommy is a go after his blood test results.  We bought our new drawer lock and drove back to Tupelo stopping in town for an early dinner since we had no lunch.

It has been storming tonight so it should be extremely good sleeping.  

Last Day in Kentucky

 We decided to visit The Railroad Museum in Bowling Green before leaving.  I have never ridden overnight on a train.  When we lived in Detroit we would take the train from Windsor to Toronto and there have been trips in Europe most notably Cologne to Dusseldorf and Paris to Normandy.  But I never went to sleep to the clickity-clack of the wheels.

I lost my flyer so I will be short on some information.  But I took photos and they will have to tell the story but here goes.

This line started as the Louisville to Bowling Green line and eventually expanded to Nashville.  It was doing well until the Civil War when one city ended up in the Union, the other in the Confederacy.  Eventually they were both in the Confederacy but the quarreling had taken its toll.  Today the tracks are used by the CRX line and they make no stops at the station anymore.  

The outside of the station.

We walked through First, Second and Third class cars.  I could travel in any of them but the beds make RVs look like the Ritz in size.  

The Dining Car has separate classes but the tables were all the same, but the food was different.

Of interest to me was the mail car.  We learned about the hooks the mail was hung on outside and would be grabbed by hooks as the train sped by.  When it didn’t work and shredded mail went floating, they reported they had a snowstorm!  

There were pigeon holes and bins, with all the mail being sorted by hand.  Guards would travel in the mail car because there really were train robberies.  

Ttt

Moving to Kentucky

We left bright and early on Thursday heading to Kentucky with an overnight stop in Angola, IN.  It turned out to be a very nice KOA park and we got out and walked around, but avoided others.

We had a reservation at the KOA in Shepherdsville KY.  What a difference.  First, the GPS took us the wrong way and we had to keep going until we found a place to turn around.  That was no fun!!  When we arrived, they parked us in such a way that our slides would not clear.  I told Ted to just take the car off and I will direct him myself.  I moved him over and all was ok.  It was the most we have ever paid for a site and in our estimation certainly not worth it.

Once that was all settled, we took off for the Zappo outlet.  They have such a great selection of quality shoes.  Ted found a new pair of white gym shoes and I got black dress shoes and black dress boots.  It was my vote of confidence that by winter we all will be back in our uniform of black slacks and colorful tops!

Saturday we visited Locust Grove, the antebellum home of  the sister of William Rogers Clark, of the Lewis and Clark expedition team.  It was self guided to keep people apart.  We were the only ones there!  Then we finally went to church in Mount Washington, KY.  It is only the third time since early March that we have attended in person.  We wore masks and were socially distanced from all others.  Afterwards we went to the Cattlemen’s Club for dinner and sat outside on the patio.

Sunday was a mass exodus of all the poor souls who had somewhere to be on Monday morning.  That is the definition of happiness for a retired RVer - watching people leave on Sunday!  We just took it easy with a walk to the pool in the evening.

Monday went so smoothly!  We pulled out easily despite our parking guide’s insistence if we didn’t stay where he parked us we couldn’t make the turn.  Ted pulled out and went around, stopped behind our site, we hooked up the car and took off.  It was just a few hours to Franklin and we pulled into the park, were directed to take the second spot and I guided Ted right in.  When the guy brought our paperwork he said Ted did a great job of parking and he would not have a job if everyone could do that.  Ted told him “my wife parks me!”  

Ted had a conference call, we had lunch, then drove back to Bowling Green to the Russell outlet.  Ted buys his underwear there along with shirts.  I bought underwear and a cover up.  There was a nail salon in the same area so Ted told me to have my nails done and he would find something to do.  It was close to dinner time when we returned.

Then Ted banged his leg on a pipe coming from the ground next to the water outside.  I wanted him to get stitches but he wouldn’t.  Men!  It was more of a scraping the skin aside so stitches probably wouldn’t have helped.  I cleaned it, put antibiotic cream on it, bandaged it and gave him a starter dose of amoxicillin.  I will keep him off it for at least a day and watch it closely.

Tuesday we stayed home to keep Ted’s leg up.  It is doing well.  No bleeding, no pain, no signs of infection.  By a Wednesday we were more than ready to go to Nashville.  First up was the Parthenon.  We have been to Nashville many times but just have never stopped to visit Centennial Park.

• “The Parthenon in Centennial Park, in Nashville, Tennessee, is a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens. It was designed by Confederate veteran William Crawford Smith and built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition.”

This is the Athens, Greece Parthenon that we visited in 2018.

From there we traveled through the Belle Meade upscale area to Cheekwood Park.  There are gardens, a mansion and a golf course.  A Chihuly exhibition was being shown in the gardens but we did not have time to visit the mansion.  

Here is the statue of Athena and her shield for perspective.  The 24 foot high doors were at the entrance to the temple with Ted for perspective.

From there we traveled through the upscale area of Belle Meade to Cheekwood a park of gardens, a mansion and a golf course.  A Chihuly exhibition was being displayed in the gardens.  The photos will give you an idea of the beauty we enjoyed.

Behind Again

Don’t ask me how you fall behind when you have nothing to do, yet here we are.  Last week went by so quickly.  We were in town at Kara’s a lot getting ready for the party.  We checked in with the venue (Scottish Lodge Hall) and went over regular and Covid details.  There could be no buffet but a caterer was allowed to dish up prepared food, she had to have a bartender, no self serve.  Only 50% of capacity was allowed.  Everyone had to wear a mask. With that done we regrouped to establish and tackle jobs to make the party happen as safely as possible.

We rolled a small packet of hand sanitizer, salt & pepper packets, knife and fork in a napkin and taped it shut with yellow strips made with sticky on one side. We washed our hands, sanitized our hands and wore gloves.  She had ordered 8 dozen cupcakes and bought individual containers to put them in.  Then she made labels for the different flavors.  

We felt well prepared for celebrating as safely as possible.  Imagine our surprise on Friday when the hall called and said the Board of Health had just visited and said they were wrong in classifying them as a restaurant and they were an Event Center with a limit of 10 people.  They and the caterer could lose their licenses and attendees could be fined $1000!?!

By Saturday morning they had a plan in place to have it at home, outside in their yard.  As a precaution she had bought two canopy tents intending to use one on their patio in the summer and take one back if she did not run into the exact problem we were dealing with.  The biggest item was tables and chairs which she was able to rent at the last minute.  She and Bill were able to pick them up using both SUVs. With that taken care of, I knew we could do this.  

The caterer said he was running into this and coming to their house instead was no problem.  He served all the food while gloved and had wrapped each dinner roll in its own baggie.  

The patio

The Chill table 

The Driveway

Restrooms

Kara had his Awards Table all ready with help from Morgan and Kristin.  She displayed it next to their 50” TV brought outside to run the slideshow she created of his life.  It was exceptional and I made three appearances plus one of my hands holding him.  In addition to a check I wrapped up a DVD that we had in at least 4 RVs.  It was from 1930s cartoons, most of which were Popeye.  As soon as he climbed into the RV he wanted to watch those old time black and white cartoons.  Morgan was excited too because she said it had prompted her interest in drawing.  (She is an excellent artist).  I worried he would think it was dumb but he was elated.  He remembered watching it none stop and said it was like finding an old friend.  

It turned out to be a beautiful day.  It was on the warm side but the shade and a nice breeze kept most everyone comfortable.  The kids were able to play all sorts of games on the grass and the last people didn’t leave until about 10:30.  I was expecting Daughter #4 and her family at the park for dinner on Monday.  Sheetal has been a part of our family for 37 years as Kristin’s best friend.

Turns out Kara sent me home with all the leftovers because they all decided to come!  I really didn’t have to do much though.  More heating up than cooking!  

Today we are going to take Sam to his haircut thinking I could get my nails done.  But they aren’t allowed to do powder dip so I decided to just wait.  But we are having one last family dinner because Larry and Kristin fly back to Florida on Wednesday and we head into Indiana and then Kentucky on Thursday and Friday.  

Week One of Two

We went to Frankenmuth on Wednesday for two things - Chico’s Summer Sale and Bavarian Inn’s world famous chicken dinner.  Chico’s was a success $280 worth of clothes for $104 and the chicken dinner was as delicious as ever.  It was our only meal of the day.

I don’t think we did much on Thursday other than Ted washed and waxed the car and MH.  I am still straightening, finding, moving things to be as convenient as possible.  And I found the fly swatter!  No flower on it though.  I also found the campfire forks to roast marshmallows. Neither of us could even remember if we had kept them.

We had Kara’s family out but just had pizza delivered to our campsite.  The little fellow in yellow latched on to Sam and it turned out he was the nephew of Cassie’s prom date in high school.  Small world.  He had some cookies and a lemonade before his grandma came to get him.

On Friday we went into Kara’s where she had Bill grill beef or chicken kabobs, corn on the cob and watermelon chunks for dinner.  Bill bought them a 6th anniversary cake that was enjoyed by all.  We stopped at the store on the way home because everyone was coming to the park on Saturday.

We had a crowd - Kelly, Pat, Cassie, Greg, Ally, Bidkar, Baby CeCe, Kara, Bill, Morgan plus the two of us.  Getting enough serving dishes and silverware was the biggest obstacle.  I had summer sausage with cherry covered Brie and some chips and pretzels for snacks but I had to find big spoons so people were not reaching in with their hands.  Ted grilled burgers and brats.  I made baked beans and a peach cobbler in my crockpot served with vanilla ice cream, Kelly made a fruit salad and Kara a pasta salad.  I also sliced tomatoes, onions and had shredded lettuce and pickles to make a good old fashioned burger.  And of course the hand sanitizer was on the table too.  We had commandeered another 8 foot table from an empty campsite so we had 16 feet of food and plenty of seating using additional lawn chairs.

We did not hold the baby and stayed 6 feet away because we have been out in stores and places though we do wear our masks indoors, it is mandated for public buildings now in Michigan.  She can walk a few steps but takes off when pushing her little cart.  She loves music and was enthralled trying to clap and keep time to Ted singing All My Exes Live in Texas.  It was so cute!

Ted built a fire and we all social distanced around it.  We turned the outside TV on and Ted turned the station to country music.  We found there are light strips under the slide out and the coach!  Makes a big difference when you come home in the dark.  The two patio light bulbs were burned out and Bill brought a bigger ladder to reach them.  No more coming home in the dark!

Little by little we are finding things and learning.  Every once in awhile we have to write Jim and ask him the question of the day.  Good thing he doesn’t charge us!

On Sunday Ted went shooting and it rained cats and dogs.  I thought for sure he would come home but he said they shot the whole course, stopping to wait for showers to pass.  We dressed and went into town.  Our original Plan was to attend church outdoors in lawn chairs but the weather caused cancellation so we watched Pat and Kelly’s church on TV in their family room.  Afterwards we went to a great restaurant with lots of food, great prices and even better service.  It was my Monday dinner too!

Monday, right after they emptied our tanks, we had a problem that sounded like a motor or something running under the sink.  We couldn’t figure out what it was and why it was running.  It started after they had dumped our tanks.  We talked to Oasis people, Jim the previous owner and finally Newmar who I told the only thing under there was the Sub Woofer and the built in vacuum.  Turns out the sub woofer has been a problem and they were sure that was it.  They said we could unplug it and get it “fixed” at our convenience.  I went under the sink looking for an off button but there was only a Max and Min dial.  It was on Max and I turned it to Min and it stopped.  It doesn’t appear to be “on” and they said it only comes into play when the surround sound comes on.  We are lucky we can get the TV on and find the station we want without worrying about the surround sound.  Ted called Jim back and had a good laugh.  We are learning something new almost every day.