Review pg. 2

Florida sure went by in a hurry, as did the whole trip actually. Next on the trip was getting to the Smoky Mountains with a stop along the way. If I had a choice again, I would have stopped in Charleston, but it just wasn't directly on the route. This was one of the many choices I had during the trip, which is one of the reasons that I could have spent another month going to more areas of the country. Anyway, one of the biggest surprises on the trip was the Biltmore estate in Asheville. I had no idea this place was here, but it was well worth the time I took to go for a visit. This was one huge structure with all the trappings of a castle in Europe, except for the moat. The Smokies are everything I remembered from our family vacation when I was a lot younger. The only thing I missed was the glass blower in Gatlinburg. That still fascinates me to watch those people work. After a few days in the Smokies, I went ahead toward the Northeastern part of the country, with a couple of days in Roanoke, excellent ribs, and the Natural Bridge. Those George Washington initials still get me to thinking about surveying during that time in America. That was some tough work. I think the only place I would have skipped during the trip was Washington, D.C. Although I spent a couple of days there, I found myself not really wanting to fight the traffic, parking, etc. that getting down to the National Mall would have entailed. Once again, if I had it to do again, I would just have gone on down to Annapolis. For spending only one day there, I saw a good bit, and could have really enjoyed at least 2 more days checking out the waterfront and seeing some of the Naval Academy. Next on the road was some time in the Philly area, before trucking on up to Maine. I'll get to that in the next review. So far, so good.

Review pg. 1

This whole thing got started on June 14th with a drive across Texas, from Austin to Lafayette, La. I didn't make it to New Orleans, just satisfied with driving the road along the Gulf, and snarfing on lots of seafood and Cajun meals. I still remember spotting the gator road-kill and thinking to myself "dat dar be a right smart 'mount of tail meat, I garontee". Rural Lousiana still has this draw to it, and I'll return when possible.
After a couple of days there, I hit the road again with the idea of getting toward Key West. Getting to the Keys was the main idea that got this road trip started. On the way through Alabama, I spent some time at the battleship Alabama. There is a C-47 on display. That's the plane my father flew during the War. Through Florida, I spent a day in Pencilcola, continued on down to Crystal River, a town on the west coast of Fla., and finally ended up at the Keys for a week. That is such a neat place, and I had thoughts that I should've lived there for a year or two back in my 30's. Oh well, that's water under the loooong bridge. Then it was back up to Crystal Springs for the manatees. I told y'all about everyone having to wear wet suits, and how there was the possibility that you weren't actually stroking a manatee. I was listening to a John Prine cd later during a drive somewhere, when he sang this line "ain't it funny how an old broken bottle looks just like a diamond ring". Right after that, this line popped in my head "ain't it funny how an old rubber wet suit feels just like a manatee". I was sooo proud.
From there, I went over to the NASA base at Cape Kennedy, and had a real nice time going through all the exhibits, taking a tour, and a ride on the simulator. I'd still like to be there for a shuttle take-off.
I'm writing these reviews for my sake mainly, as a quick reference for the future, so that is all I've got for the Fla. leg of the trip, and from there I'll be getting into the Smokies. I give this portion of the trip an A.

10-4-07

I didn't have trouble getting to Hattiesburg, but I did have a little once I arrived. I knew to take a right at the football field, after passing the Southern Miss. campus. The only small change to my route was, as I found out after calling Deborah, the field has been replaced by a HOSPITAL. I guess it's been a few years since I've been in Hattiesburg.
Curtis and Deborah's yard has gone through a few changes since Katrina came a knocking. There used to be huge pines and a swimming pool in the back. The pool's been filled in, the pines are gone, and Curtis isn't taking donations of seedlings to replant. Fact is there is one pine still in their front yard, and he's anxious to get rid of that.
As you can tell, our choice for car colors is pretty close, except his would be considered a "colour". I know someone in Philly who would give him a run for his money on a course to a remote Fed-Ex depot, but that's another story. Anyway, Curtis took me on a ride to a museum at Camp Shelby. This is where most of the National Guard units in Miss. take their two-week active duty tours once a year, as I did in the early 70's. Not much has changed, except the barracks have air conditioning now, and there's gambling on the coast. WooHoo!
Speaking of the coast, we took a ride down to check it out. There are still barren areas where businesses, houses, historical sites, etc. used to be. One of the bridges on Hwy. 90 along the coast has reopened, but only two lanes are in use. This makes it easier to get to the gambling spots, and, we hoped, to Emeril's new restaurant. It was closed at the time we were there, rats! We cruised around for a little while, then headed back toward the house. After filling up, Curtis asked me if I wanted to take a turn behind the wheel. I had no trouble once we were highway-bound again, but trying to fit my water ski feet into the tiny slot to work the clutch and accelerator proved daunting at best. Aside from the back seat heckling, "you know, I'd be in third now", things worked out fine. That wrapped up the day of cruising, so after catching another episode of "War" on PBS everyone headed to bed.
The next day Deborah took me downtown to meet Curtis, and my niece Anna for lunch. She works in an upscale art shop right beside a pizza place, so we dropped in for some 'za. On the way back to Anna's work place, Deborah and I got chastised for giving money to the local crackhead bum. They just don't look the same as in Austin. That was MY excuse. That afternoon Curtis took off work, and he and I went to see "SuperBad". All you have to do now to get Curtis bent over laughing is mention one name.....Mcloving. After the movie we headed back for some of Deborah's shrimp gumbo. She makes the best, and a lot of it at a time. Anna and her boyfriend Matt came by, and everybody filled up as was proved by the poochy bellies poking out later.
I headed out early the next day to drive back to Austin, but not before getting a shot of Curtis, Deborah, and me on their front stoop. Once again, it was such a pleasure just hanging out with family. I love them all.
Believe it or not bon vivants, the trek has come full circle. I'm back in Austin finishing this last post, for now. I'll get together with y'all later and try to rehash all the high spots on the trip, 1st off so I won't forget anything, and secondly to get in some pics I left out due to restraints in the blog system. All of y'all be good, and we'll get together for a final stroll soon. Toodles noodles.

10-2-07 #3

From previous page, this roo had muscles bulging and veins sticking out. Stuff that usually is covered by fur on most animals. He is, for lack of a better term, buff. Betty was doing a good job of establishing her dominance. He was just staring, so we went on to the friendlier looking groups. They are not as big as ol' red, but there are probably 60 or 70 in the other pastures. This one group would stay along the fence and keep in front of us by ten yd.s or so. Leading us to who knows where. Eventually our tour took us to the wallaby enclosure where there was this albino hiding over in the corner. Cute as a bug. Two of the wallabies went into wrestling mode as we were standing there. Choke holds are legal in wallaby wrestling.
It was about this time my camera went phhhht! This camera doesn't give any warning as to when the battery is going. It just shuts down, so I couldn't get any pics of the rest of the conservatory where there is another bird cage with, I swear, birds with day-glo feathers. Freaky.
That got us around the place, back to the gift shop, and to the car. Our new destination for the day was this town that had been set up by the entire population to look like it was in the heart of Germany. Betty said the townsfolk got together to see what could be done to attract tourists. Somebody at the meeting came up with this German idea, everybody bought into it, and next thing you know Bavaria was in Ga. All of main street put these gingerbread facades on their buildings, started selling German goods, opening German restaurants, having Oktober Fest every year, the whole schmeer. I've forgotten the name of it, but the streets were packed, parking was hard to find, and it was wall to wall pedestrians. Every little town should come up with their own schtick like this. We had to laugh at the couple of older ladies getting drunk, wearing those green caps with the feathers, and trying to show their boobs to this group of college guys. Too much.
After a while, it was time to head back to Atlanta. We took a more direct route than the one on the way from the roos to the boobs. Somehow, we went through this little town of Delonegha (spelling?) three times, each time from a different direction. The Arkansas road map has nothing on the Georgia map, guaranteed.
Finally getting back to Betty's house, we watched the first episode of that Ken Burns documentary on WW II, then hit the sack. My last day with Betty, we just hung out, went to see that movie "3:10 to Yuma", which is great by the way, got a couple of pics on her front stoop, just cooled our heels. We always have fun together, and this was another laugh fest. Thanks Betty for your hospitality. I enjoyed every minute.
It's back to Mississippi now for a visit with my older brother and his wife. I'll keep y'all informed. Adidas!

10-2-07 #2

We rose early on the Saturday I was in Atlanta, hoping for a nice drive through NE Georgia to visit a kangaroo conservatory that somehow got to this area. How, why, and when this came to be in this corner of Ga. I'll never know, but here it is. As we went around, we found cages of birds, and pastures of roos and wallabies. The bird cages were walk through, except for this Kukaboro (spelling?). This is a meat eater so fingers were kept out of the wire, wisely. Look at that beak, ready to pluck an eyeball out.
The bird cage we walked through had these parrots and strange things, all from Australia/New Zealand. The walls were painted, so some of these birds really stood out, and some just walked around looking weird. Suzanne, how'd you like to have a few of these...chickens?...to get your eggs from. They'd be a strange sight in Minn.
The employee working the cages came to be referred to as "the stalker" by both of us as he would creep around, giving one word answers to questions, and leering at us, well Betty more than me, so we headed on out to continue our stroll through the pastures. The first separate yard area had "big red", the largest of the roos.
Continue on please.

10-2-07 #1

I send y'all greetings from Atlanta. My sister, Betty Mac, took a day off from lawyer work so we could spend more time doing things. A trip to the Atlanta Aquarium got the ball rolling, and brought on this pic of the crippled two step. Betty has to wear this wrap-on cast on the left foot for a while due to foot fungus, or something, and as we were walking through the parking lot we heard someone say "we're twins". It ended up being an employee of the aquarium with the same cast, but on the right foot. After getting this shot, she got a golf cart over to give us a ride around the building to the entrance. Betty was spoiled then.
This is a great aquarium with some huge fish, we saw a big ol' grouper poot, and a few touchy, feely displays. Can anyone pick Betty's arm out of the pack at the anemone tank? Does the fact we're in Atlanta give a clue? I liked the silhouette shot of the jelly fish tank. The thick glass around the huge tanks kept me from getting some clear shots of the whale shark, and the aquarium's signature exhibit of the beluga whales. They would swim up to the glass to get a good peek at the tiny creatures on the other side. There's a nice otter tank, but they were just sleeping away when we went by. On the way out we got to one more touch pool with rays, and several bonnet head sharks. I caught one of those sharks on a fishing trip to South Padre, had the teeth hanging on the turn signal of the company truck until they fell apart. Texas heat and all that.
We spent two or three hours in the aquarium, then caught Betty's personal taxi back to the parking lot. Later that night, we ambled over to one of Ted Turner's restaurants for a buffalo steak, amazing, followed by a dessert of strawberry tall cake. Our bellies full, back to the house for a deep sleep, and another day.

10-1-07 #1

Here we find the birthplace of Elvis. Surprisingly little fanfare goes into keeping this little house suitable for visitors. There's a small gift shop on the site with a few sidewalks and parking spaces added to the original lot, but no Elvis impersonators, no blaring music, no Vegas type froofra. There seems to be an air of respect for the guy who was born here, and went on to put the town of Tupelo on the map. Mom fit in that swing rather well, don't you think? Of course, before we left, I had to buy one of those Elvis pendulum clocks....no way around that.
That was my last day in North Miss., so when we got back to New Albany I got this pic of mom's house with the giant oak, and the next day a shot of us on her front porch. I had a great time visiting here, and urge everyone to visit your moms whenever possible. I'll be heading out to Atlanta from here to see my sister, so we'll get together then. Adios mi amigos.

9-30-07 #4

Rowan Oak is William Faulkner's house in Oxford. It's set up for visitors with all the old furniture, kitchen works, and books looking like someone is still living there. Mom and I had to walk from the far end of the visitor's parking area which wore her out pretty good. They let her grab a rocker, while I spent a little time walking around. I got a couple of shots of the main house, front and rear, and the staff house. As I got back inside the main house, I found mom sitting at the end of a hallway, enjoying her reading material provided by the staff. That lady does like to read. That pretty much takes care of our Oxford visit, so next on the agenda will be the visit to Elvis's house in Tupelo. Hang in there kiddies.