At Village Creek
Note: Judy wants the blog to read the latest first (like most blogs) so here we go…
Wednesday March 18, 2009
Quick, before the weather changes….it was 75 today! We’re heading into the mountains of NC tomorrow, so we know this will change. The weather forecast calls for showers late tonight and cloudy skies with highs in the low 60’s for Thursday. After the darkest night with the most visible stars we awoke to fog blanketing our little valley. It was quiet last night! Also of note Harris decided to do the night without electricity and rely solely on battery power. We watched The Swing Vote which was ok and used a few lights and only used 1/3 of the battery. Harris felt good about the battery capacity.
We stopped in Memphis which was 40 miles away for a short walk along the Mississippi River looking at the paddle boats docked along side an old cobblestone landing, but didn’t choose to visit Graceland. No comments, please.
Drove about 450 miles through most of Tennessee, flat farmland to rolling hills, and on to the “mountains”. We made a couple of short stops to enjoy the warm weather and finally stopped just outside of Knoxville for the night.
Official Ghost Certificate
2 Ladies that have had ghost experience
Tuesday March 17, 2009
Another lazy morning….got up late and took a short walk. The walk was supposed to be longer, but nature prevailed. We were walking across a built up causeway along the lake. It was a beautiful morning, fog rising from the lake, a lonely fisherman out in a boat, and ducks and geese all around. Did you catch that last? Ducks and geese all around…..leave “stuff” all around. Oh well, we figured, we’d wash our shoes later. But the dew was heavy on the long grass, and before too long our feet were soaked through the mesh at the top of our shoes. So, a short walk. Followed by showers and the washing of shoes.
We decided to spend a little time in Little Rock, so we went to the visitor’s center first. We could have spent hours there. The visitor’s center is in a gorgeous old house called Curran Hall. It was built in the early 1800’s, we forget when. It passed through many families, until one little old lady was left in it. She was a complete recluse and refused to let any workers in to fix the place, so it was falling down around here when she died. The city bought it, and restored it, and it’s beautiful. Two little old ladies were there to tell us the history, give us brochures, and, oh, by the way, yes, there is a ghost in this house. We think it’s Mary, one of the former owners. They told us several “incidences” that they themselves had witnessed. What fun! The place had gorgeous landscaping, especially the hundreds of pansies in bloom that filled the air with their perfume.
Of all the places we could walk to, Harris chose the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History. General Douglas MacArthur was born there in 1880. The place was built as an arsenal against Indians in 1840. (Indians who had been moved there along the Trail of Tears.) It changed hands during the Civil War a few times, and now is full of military memorabilia. Some interesting tidbits:
-the youngest medal of honor recipient (winner is not proper terminology) was a 12 year old during the civil war, but he received it when he was 13
-there were 3 companies that were trying to win the government contract for a 4 wheel drive utility vehicle to use during WWII and Ford was required to follow the design for the Willey design
-no one knows for sure where the term Jeep came from (Popeye cartoon who had a character named Jeep that could do wondrous things, General Purpose abbreviated to GP and when said quickly, or the other one Harris can’t remember)
-there was a plane whose front swung open upward and then whose tail was tipped up so a jeep could be backed into it for delivery somewhere
-6 men can tip the Jeep on its side to do repair work
-the expected lifespan of a Jeep was 90 days on the front line
-parts were reused and extra engines shipped to replace ones that broke down
- A Jeep could be slung over a river pretty easily
-a Jeep could go through 3’ water (with breather pipe) ride RR tracks, be lifted off barges onto ships with slings tied to pre-fixed points/hooks
-a bunch more that will come to Harris and Judy later…
Harris liked the whole room of Jeep history the best, and kept returning there as Judy wandered other rooms.
We decided to drive on out of the city area, and ended up in east Arkansas at the Village Creek State Park. It’s huge! 7000+ acres, about 90 campsites, and probably 20 other people here spread around. Driving through Arkansas west to east we’ve gone from the Ozark hilly regions to flat farmland in the east. It’s still sunny and bright, predicted high of 70 tomorrow….this is the time of year to be south!
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