Hunting Island

We've just about got another road trip wrapped up. Leaving the South Carolina upstate we followed the border with Georgia on back country roads. We convienantly came upon a historical marker right about the time we wanted to stop for lunch. They had a nice pull off so we stopped to eat and take the girls out for a walk. The marker was for the town of Ellenton which once stood on the site.

present day post office site

Ellenton post office circa 1950

Today it hard to imagine that the government would destroy a whole town. But this was just after the big war and high priority was given to maintaining our lead in nuclear technology. In 1950 it was announced that the Savannah River plant for the production of plutonium would be built on 300 square miles of southern South Carolina. Ellenton and several other towns were destroyed for the project. 6000 people and 6500 graves were relocated.

Ellenton circa 1950

By 1952 Ellenton, born as a railroad stop in the 1860's was gone; 760 people, 190 residences, 30 commercial buildings, five churches, two schools, one cotton gin, the city hall and the railroad station. All gone but for some concrete curbing and a few sections of asphalt street.

10 inch gun mount at Fort Fremont

Our last stop for this trip is Hunting Island State Park. which has an oceanfront campground, it is located east of Beaufort, South Carolina. Wednesday on our way to dinner we went exploring on St Helena island and discovered an old shore defense battery. Fort Fremont dates to the late 1800's and was decomissioned in 1910.

Abandoned and forgotten until preservation efforts were but in place in 1989 the gun battery is all but swallowed by forest. It once held three 10-inch breech-loaded disappearing cannons and two 4.7-inch rapid fire guns. All that remains is the concrete fortifications.

Dock scenes for Forrest Gump filmed here

Another interesting thing about our locale is a connection to the Forest Gump movie. As you probably already know some of it was filmed nearby in Savannah Georgia. It was there during the park bench scene that Tom Hanks imortalized the phrase, "life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your going to get".

Gay fish company shrimp boats used in Forest Gump

The Vietnam war scenes where filmed on Fripp island which is just south of Hunting Island and the scrimp boat scenes were shot at a local seafood company about a mile up the causeway from the campground.

On the beach at Hunting Island

Mostly we have been just chilling out, walking the beach, riding our bikes, reading books and writing this posting. I suppose we're making the mental transition from our highway
gallivant to life at the our beach home.

Memorial Day Weekend

We been back in our home state of South Carolina for a few days but are still 300 miles from Myrtle Beach. We are sitting out the holiday weekend at Carolina Landing Campground in the region they call the upstate. We decided not to be home this year for Memorial Day because of Black Bike week.

We live between two heavily used traffic routes and the Black Bike event is 24 hours a day of whining Japanese motorcycles. Unlike the Harley event which quiets down at night the Memorial Day rally never stops. Centered in the four block Atlantic Beach neighborhood the vendors do not have to close down until 4 am. Because there is no lodging in Atlantic Beach the attendees stay either in North Myrtle Beach or in Myrtle beach proper and they come and go at all hours. America being what it is today, the bikers have free run of the town and anyone wanting a quiet place to honor our veterans had better go elsewhere on Memorial Day weekend.

our location in western South Carolina

 Carolina Landing is one of the Campgrounds in my Thousand Trails membership. We've never visited before so we thought we would check it out. It's a fairly nice campground, none of the Thousand Trails parks are what you would call upscale resorts but the price is right. Our only real complaint here is the extreme hills make riding our bicycles impossible.

Roger "Hurricane" Wilson

They had a lot of activities for family's yesterday, we went to the music performance in the evening by blues guitarist and singer Roger "Hurricane" Wilson. He is one of those not quite famous working professionals we see so often out here on the road. They've been making music for a long time, rubbed elbows with a few of the greats, and are probably making a decent living doing the campground or county fair circuit. Hurricane Wilson surprised us with his extraordinary guitar playing, he is very good at his craft, one of the best I've ever seen.

Clemson football stadium

We've also been exploring the surrounding area while in the western part of the state. Clemson University is nearby and we spent Friday exploring the campus and surrounding village. Clemson is a big name down here with fans all over the south states. Founded in 1889 the sprawling campus is a mix of old and new buildings. Nestled amoung huge old trees and perfectly manicured lawns it has the ambiance of higher learning. I have surely absorbed knowledge through asmosis just by walking in the footsteps of all the esteemed alumni.

Millie with the Clemson Tiger

The one surprising thing about Clemson was the surrounding village. I expected a city or at least a thriving town but the University is the largest element of the Clemson, there is really not much around it.

Greenville Trolley

On Saturday we drove about 40 miles to Greenville South Carolina. The largest city in the upstate it has a population of nearly one million. With a history dating back to colonial times it is a thriving community. Like many urban metropolis's the downtown district began to languish in the 1960s as shopping centers lured the retailers and customers to the suburbs.

Greeville Main Street

 In response, the City started a downtown renewal project.City leaders initially focused on improving the streetscape along Main Street. This included narrowing the street to create a pedestrian friendly walk. They installed angled parking spaces, trees, flowers and light fixtures; and creating parks and plazas throughout the central core of downtown. From our brief visit we have the impression that the revitalization was successful, the downtown area is very vibrant, thats for sure, we would come again if passing through the area.

Chattanooga Tennessee

Our departure from Nashville was once again on the road less traveled. We meandered south by southeast along highway 70 until we got to the town of Sparta. We turned due south onto four lane highway 111. This leg of the route traveled through mostly rural rolling Tennessee countryside geographically called the Highland Rim. Just northwest of Chattanooga we entered the Cumberland Plateau where we crested a mountain thru a pass that lead us into a wide valley. We crossed over the Sequatchie River before ascending the mountains again on the opposite side. We stopped for lunch at a scenic overlook along the long ascent out of the valley.

We are camped at Harrison Bay State Park just north of Chattanooga. It appears to be an old park that was built back when everyone was camping in tents and tag along campers. It is located on Lake Chickamauga which is very scenic. Our site is one of the larger pull thru spots and is plenty big enough for us and we're only here for two nights anyhow.

One odd thing I noticed at the marina located here at the state park is the condition of the boats. Apparently they don't sell boat wax here in Tennessee. All of the larger boats, mostly houseboats are downright shabby. I mean these boats have never been waxed and most could use a good scrubbing too.

Today we toured downtown Chattanooga, and I think it might be about time to end this road trip. We don't want to see any more aquariums, river walks, revitalized urban centers or museums. We didn't see anything during our city tour that we wanted to explore further so we went to COSTCO!

Nashville Tennessee

Greetings, we've been in Nashville Tennessee for the last several days. After our quick stops in St Louis, Louisville and Bowling Green we took a day off and enjoyed the beautiful park like setting of our Corp of Engineers campground before delving into the Nashville music scene.

Cedar Creek Campground

In order to make this post easier to follow I first offer a little explanation about the Grand Ole Opry.The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee. It is broadcast on the radio and dates back to 1925.  The show was moved several times before it acquired a permanent home at the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville. In 1974, the show left the Rymon and has been broadcast from a new theater east of downtown Nashville called The Grand Ole Opry House.

That should be simple enough but the old Rymon which is held in reverence as "home of American music" and "country’s most famous stage" has been refurbished and once again hosts a weekly radio show. The new show at the home of the old Grand Ole Opry is produced by the same company that hosts the original Grand ole Opry at the new Grand Ole Opry House. The new show at the old theater is called Country Classics and features the very same radio announcer, band, back up vocalists, stage crew, etc that work the old Grand Ole Opry Show at the new Grand old Opry House. In the winter months the The Grand Ole Opry moves from the The Grand Ole Opry House and returns to its former home at the Ryman so sometimes the old show is back in the old theater. Doesn't that make everything perfectly clear!   

On Thursday evening we went to the Ryman and saw the Country Classics show. On Friday we went to the Grand Ole Opry House and saw the Grand Ole Opry show.

Ryman Auditorium

The Rymon is a wonderful wooden amphitheater that has perfect acoustics and a warm friendly ambiance. The Grand Ole Opry House has the same circular shape as the Ryman but is two or three times larger. It's obvious they were trying to reproduce the Ryman with a larger seating capacity. Millie and I both agree the new theater isn't as nice an experience as the old one. if you go to the downtown theater in addition to the Ryman experience  you can walk to the Honky Tonk district which is 1/2 block away.

The Grand Ole Opry House

While in Nashville we also visited the Hermitage, home of our seventh president Andrew Jackson. I'm not sure whats going on politically, but somethings amiss at the historical site. We had to come home and research Andrew Jackson on the internet to learn about the man.

Andrew Jackson's home

They barely mentioned and didn't elaborate his place in American history. For example; during his military service, General Jackson defeated the British in the battle of New Orleans, his political activities included starting the Democratic party, or his presidential actions, one of many is the relocation of indians to Oklahoma on a march that became known as the trail of tears.

grave of Andrew and Rachel Jackson

What we did hear about at every turn of the corner was slavery. In the early 1800's the hermitage was a working farm that was run with slave labor. Jackson owned 150-200 slaves and for some reason that was all they choose to elaborate on. I don't even know what else to say, it was very strange.

Corvette Factory tour

Monday 5/12: We got up early and drove 100+/- miles south to Bowling Green, Kentucky this morning. First stop was the Corvette Museum which is located near the General Motors Assembly plan where the sports car is manufactured. They have a nice collection of vette's representing it's many model changes since it was first sold in 1953. The cars are about 50% donated to the museum and 50% on loan from individuals. There is also many drivetrain displays with cut away sections to reveal the inner workings.

Right now the most popular display is the sinkhole and the cars salvaged from it. Eight corvettes fell into the sinkhole on February of this year. They have all been removed and are on display in the condition they were pulled out the hole, dirt and all. If I was making the decision about their repair, I would say half are repairable, two are definitely junk, and another couple are iffy.

The sinkhole shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone. Look at how close the skydome is to the gigantic retention pond.

They have a good deal for the gambling corvette fans. The museum raffles off a new corvette every two weeks. They only sell 1000 tickets for each car at $200. That's odds of 999 to 1, way better odds than you get on the lottery.

At noon we went across the road for a tour of the factory. It's a brief walking tour of the main assembly area. The paint shop is off limits, to protect the cars from airborne contamination. The body shop is off limits for safety reasons, you do get to view one of the body shop lines from two lines over. The main assembly tour however brief was interesting and it was the first auto plant Millie has been in so it was all new to her. They don't allow any electronics or photos in the plant so I got all these official GM photos from the internet, go figure?

My biggest impression was that after being out of the business for ten years, not much has changed. The build process is the same as it was at Chrysler and the manufacturing facility is the same as every other auto assembly plant I've ever been in. I told Millie I felt like I could walk in there and go to work, they used the same equipment we used at Newark. She said aren't you glad you don't have to! One thing we didn't have that Bowling Green does is air conditioning. The entire one million square foot building is air conditioned. Useless trivia; Newark Assembly Plant was two million square feet. More useless trivia; the corvette assembly line runs at 17 cars per hour. Newark's line speed varied a lot over the 37 years I worked there but has run as high as 80 cars an hour.

I'm not trying to demean the corvette in any way, it is a about as fine an automobile as you can buy for $58,000, but it is manufactured in about the same way as very other car running down the road.

Churchill Downs

Saturday 5/10: We left St Louis originally planning on taking I-65 thru both Illinois and Indiana. Leaving East St Louis I executed a spontaneous change of plan and diverted onto route 50. We took the two lane country road all the way across the mostly farm land of Illinois. About 40 miles into Indiana while stopping for fuel we saw a sign for the Gasthof Amish village with restaurant and bakery so we made a side trip for lunch.

Indiana Amish country

The village sits off the road and from a distance has the appearance of an Amish farm. The restaurant is an authentic post and beam building. Wooden pegs secure all joints in the rough cut lumber, it did however have some modern features like fire sprinklers and electric wiring run in conduit.  we chose the buffet lunch and over-ate for the second day in a row, having eaten the buffet at the casino the day before. Real Mashed potato's and perfectly cooked fried chicken where the winners of the buffet. Coconut cream pie, blueberry pie, pecan pie, ice cream, the desert table was all good. They also had a gift store, flea market and a bakery. We were so full the bakery sweets didn't tempt us, we did however buy a loaf of oven fresh wheat bread.

Mustard field in Indiana

Shortly after leaving the Amish village we left route 50 and angled down towards Louisville on route 150. The plains gave way to rolling hills or small mountains as we passed thru Hoosier National Forest. Our destination was a campground on the Indiana side of the Ohio River just across from Louisville Kentucky. This area doesn't have many RV parks and in my research this one seemed the best . It did not meet my expectations, mostly because it is another that has been taken over by permanent residents living in RV's. The folks we've spoken to in these parks are always friendly and we've always felt safe. It's just human nature I guess, birds of a feather want to flock together.

Jumbo tron

Larry

Sunday 5/11: We drove the jeep to Churchill Downs in Louisville. I had wrongly assumed it would not be crowded because this is the week after the Kentucky Derby. There were people everywhere and unlike us, everyone else seemed to know where they were going. A friendly guide gave us a quick coaching on where we could go on our general admission tickets and where to purchase programs and place wagers. BTW, We paid $1 for our entry and had access to open seating on the first level. Last weekend for the Kentucky Derby the gate admission was $50 and that only allowed you into the rear areas where the betting and bars were located. Races could only be seen on TV monitors. All track side seating was reserved for an additional fee.

Millie in front of the original part of the grandstand

from our seats at the finish line

 Millie and I are novices at horse racing, neither of us could decipher most of the cryptic columns of numbers and letters on the program. We picked our horses based entirely on their names. All of our horses except one ran at least in the middle of the pack so the races were exciting. Two of our horses finished in third place giving us a total winnings of $9.60. Luckily we weren't there trying to win gas money for the motorhome. While we did get caught up in the excitement of the races, we had mixed feelings about the sport. Both of us worry about the animals being abused, we hope thats not a widespread practice. Another troubling thing we noticed was the large number of small children betting on the races. Kids as young as 5 or 6 stood in line with parents who placed bets for them. It appears the industry is trying to addict the next generation of gamblers at a very young age.

St. Louis Arch

Thursday 5/9 we departed Branson Missouri and drove 260 miles to St Louis. The ride up I-44 was about a straight a route as you could get and not the way we usually travel. We were going through the Ozark mountains and there just wasn't a long secondary roads going in our direction. The Ozarks are very scenic the mountains covered with forest and numerous rock outcroppings.

North base of the arch

little elevator car to the top

We are parked at a casino campground directly across the Mississippi River from the St Louis Arch. The arch is a memorial to Western expansion after the Louisiana purchase. The idea for the memorial was conceived in the 1930 by a local lawyer who wanted to revitalize the run down waterfront area. It wasn't completed until 1965 and that is probably a good thing as the technology didn't exist in the 30's to build a 630 foot stainless steel arch that will be standing for 1000 years.

looking west

We rode the interior tram to the apex of the arch. The tram cars are very small, each one with only five seats. They not only take you 630 feet to the top, but must also move laterally toward the center while keeping the passengers in an upright position. In the observation room you can see for 30 miles across the city to the west and to the east is the state of Indiana.

observation deck

After returning to the visitors center at the base of the arch we watched the film about the construction of the memorial. It is an engineering marvel there is no doubt about that. But the thing that made the biggest impression on me was no one working in the steel wore any type of safety equipment, none not a safety belt or safety net in sight. And there was not one single fatality.

looking down on the Mississippi side

We had planned on walking uptown and taking a guided trolley tour but the southwestern sky had become ominously dark and we feared one of the severe storms that have been going through the state was going to cross our path. We walked back to the train station and took the short ride to the Indiana side of the river. The sky's had softened some so we decided to tour the casino before returning to the motorhome.

my casino queen

The Queen Casino is unique among casino's. It is not owned by Indians or the Vegas crowd, it is employee owned. They bought it when the original investors wanted to sell. We ate an excellent lunch in the buffet but neither of us wanted to gamble so we just walked around, stopping and studying the craps tables. The betting seems complicated, we couldn't make any sense of it.

By the time you read this we will be on the road again, next stop, Louisville Kentucky. Home of the Kentucky Derby, Colonel Sanders fried Chicken and Louisville Slugger baseball bats.

Branson - George and Shoji

I've fallen behind again writing the blog so I'll do a quick catch up. The 3rd show we saw in Branson was the George Strait Tribute show. James Garrett heads a list of top Branson entertainers who along with featuring the music of George Strait highlight music from other great artists, a little bluegrass,
comedy and gospel sprinkled along the way.

We have been really enjoying these tribute shows. The theaters are small so you are very close to the performers and they are all very good professional entertainers. This the the bio for the George Strait tribute cast.

James Garrett was with two-time Grammy winning group, The Kendalls as lead male vocalist and rhythm guitar player. He has performed with Marie Osmond and the Osmond Brothers. James has toured with various artists, including Dolly Parton, Ricky Skaggs, and Glen Campbell. This great live show features legendary Branson gospel singer/songwriter Randy Plummer who has been performing in Branson for over 35 years. Randy was awarded the 2007 male vocalist of the Year from Branson‚
Gospel Singer/Songwriter Association. You will also experience the musical talent of fiddle player, Shawn Pittman (Roy Clark's very own fiddle player) and James's bandmate from "The Kendalls" - mandolin player, Ricky Wood.

In the afternoon after the show we went to the downtown historic district and the new lakefront plaza. The Plaza is an urban town center with shopping and restaurants on the ground level and Westgate timeshare condo's on the 2nd and 3rd levels. We enjoyed dinner at an upscale Mexican restaurant overlooking the water.

Wednesday we went to the movies to see the new Spider-man movie, Millie liked it, I thought it was OK. That evening we had front row seats to see Shoji Tabuchi, the Japanese fiddle player. His musical production covers all genres of music from the big band era to today, except maybe rap or whatever the youth of today call that awful stuff they listen to. The cast includes dancers, a band, and vocalists in addition to Shoji who performs in probably 3/4 of the show. Yes the rest rooms at the Shoji theater are opulent.

Pool table in the Gentleman's rest room

Lady's rest room at the Shoji theater

All too soon our Branson adventure ended, we packed a lot of entertainment into our 5 day stay, but it is now time to move on, next stop St Louis to ride to the top of the Gateway Arch.