Salisbury Confederate Prision - the only building left of the prison. Building was built in 1839 - orginally a cotton factory, 

Salisbury, North Carolina

Apr 21-28....We have been in North Carolina for the last week! We are in a park just north of Salisbury North Carolina. It has been kinda rainy since we got here so we haven't been out and about much. We have driven around the area and today went on an audio driving tour of the Salsibury Conferderate Prision and National Cemetery. The Prision was the largest Civil War prision. It had the capacity for 1,000, but between Aug & Oct 1864, about 10,000 Federal troups were crammed into every square foot space. Needless to say the conditions were horrible & there were many deaths. As a result, The Salisbury Natl Cemetery contains the largest number of unknown dead of any Civil War prison (believed to be around 5,000). There is one building still standing, which we were able to go into. This afternoon we are going to find a golf course and get a little practice in as our next stop is the Pinhurst area! Dixie has had to do some doctoring while here for abdominal pain/nausea....according to the ultra sound its a polyp on the gallbladder or gallstone. Got some medication to get by for now but will be seeing a GI specialist in the Fayetteville area as we will be there for 3 weeks or so. Didn't know retirment life was so hard on you! We move to the next stop on Monday....

The "Great Smoky Mountains National Park" 

From Clingmans Dome at 6,643ft. You can see where they get their name of 'Smoky Mtns". This blue haze is constant - especially at the higher elevations. 

Abrams Falls in Cades Cove - the end of our 5 mile hike (2.5 mi. to the falls)!

A Grist Mill that still operates. We watched the flour & cornmeal being made! 

The Great Smoky Mountains

Apr 18 - 20.…Pigeon Forge & the Great Smoky Mountains -- Our RV park is on Walden Creek in Pigeon Forge. We were surprised to see how much ‘stuff’ is in the area between Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge. It’s a kid’s dream - everywhere you look you see some type of amusement place! The are also several musical theaters. All this AND the most visited National Park in the US - The Great Smokey Mountain National Park. One day we drove the beautiful Cade’s Cove loop where we saw many building from the early 1800’s and then made a 5 mile hike to Abrams Falls. It was a great hike with a lot of up & downs! We could either see or hear the creek all the way. Once we made it to the falls we enjoyed our packed lunch on the rocks along side the falls! On Wed & Thu we had some rain but we didn’t let that stop us. We wondered around town and drove to Clingman’s Dome which is the highest peak in the park as well as east of the Mississippi (6,643ft). On the way back down we stopped at Newfound Gap and hike for a mile or so on the Appalachian Trail. Then we had another picnic lunch along the Little Pigeon River & hiked the Cove Hardwood Forest Nature Trail. There are nearly one hundred species of trees in this forest. Did you know that the Smokies have more tree varieties than all of Europe? Today, miles of the main parkway in Pigeon Forge is lined with ‘classic cars’. There must be 100’s of them…any type of car ever made is here! There is a special event in town where collectors buy, sell & trade cars! Tomorrow we leave this area and head to a park near Salisbury, North Carolina which is south of Winston Salem and north east of Charlotte. The adventure continues…

Mike with 'Jack Daniel' in front of the natural springs. This spring water has been used to lower the proof of the whiskey since the distillery began! 

Oaklands House in Mufressburo, TN. Occupied buy both Union & Conferdate troops. 

Hazen Brigade Monument - erected in 1863 by survivors. It's the nation's oldest Civil War memorial! 

The Hills of Tennessee!

Yes, another BLOG - what can we say...we've been busy!
Apr 15 - Apr 17.…YES another BLOG - what can we say...we've been busy!.....Two days in Middle Tennessee -- We stayed at a campground in Lebenon, TN which is about 30 miles east of Nashville. Since we have been to Nashville before and seen the sites we decided to venture south into the ‘hills of TN’. Our first stop was Murfressboro where we went to Stone River Battlefield. This battle took place Dec 31-Jan 2 1862 and was one of the bloodiest encounters of the Civil War. There were 81,000 troops and over 23,500 lost their lives. This battle was a much-needed boost to the northern morale following the disastrous Union defeat at Fredericksburg, VA, just 3 weeks before. From the battlefield we went by the Oaklands Historic House (a Mansion that was used by both armies during the Civil War) and Rutherford County Courthouse (built in 1859 & one of six pre-Civil War courthouses still used in TN). Ok, that’s your Civil War lesson for the day - on to other things. We continued our drive through the beautiful hills of TN (and I do mean beautiful). Everything was ’green’ and we saw many beautiful homes and ranches! Our next stop was Lynchburg and the Jack Daniel Distillery. We went on a 75 min. tour where we learned how to make Tennessee Mash (ie ’whiskey’.) This is the oldest registered distillery. The county Jack Daniel’s is made in happens to be a ‘dry’ country so there was no sampling or purchasing! Ya, it’s pretty amazing - they had to get special permission after prohibition to make & ship the whiskey to their distributors. After all that we went to Nashville to attend the AAA baseball game of the ‘Nashville Sound’ (farm team for Milwaukee Brewers). It wasn’t ‘Minute Maid Park’ in Houston but the play was very close to major league quality (the beer costs the same!) Whew - what a day!!!! Our Easter Sunday consisted of a Sunrise Service at the local Lutheran Church (630a), breakfast at Cracker Barrel and a our drive to Pigeon Forge, TN…. More from the Great Smokey Mountains later in the week!

Front of 'Graceland' 

Grave's of Elvis & Family members. In the Meditation Garden at the side of the house.  

Beale Street - kinda dark, but the street was lined with Bikes!

'Is Elvis in the Building?' We searched!

Apr 12-14....2 days in Memphis. We stayed at a nice State Park about 3 miles from Graceland. Once we settled in we decided to venture out after dark!! We went to see what was happening on Beale Street, which is famous for it's Blues & Rock n Roll. As luck would have it there was -- "Bikes on Beale" ...there were motorcyles everywhere. There was a Sports Bike jump show, where 2 Pro's made several jumps. It was pretty cool! It was too fast to get a good photo so you will just have to take our word for it. We then strooled down to B.B. Kings Blues Club and listened to some music. On Thursday it was time to check out 'The King's' Graceland (Elvis that is). We went on a 3 hr tour that took us through the mansion, the grounds, several museums, 2 of his jets, cars, & motorcycles. We weren't disappointed at all and was surprised on how much there was to see. There's nothing like a good Elvis 'fix'! Next stop was back to Beale Street for some Memphis Bar-b-que at the PIG -"Pork With an Attitude". Once refueled we toured the orginal "Sun Studio" where Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and many others made their first record. The studio still looks like it did in 1953 & is still used for recordings in the evenings (tours by day). The day was pretty much like stepping back in time! Next stop - somewhere in Middle Tennessee!

The sunset view from our campsite at Willow Beach near Little Rock, AR. This was right out our door! 

The Clinton Library 

The Arkansas State Capital (it's patterned after the US Capital) 

"I Think I'm on a Roll Here in Little Rock"

Apr 9 - Apr 12.…The last 2 days were spent in Little Rock, AR. We stayed at a beautiful Army Corps of Engineer park about 10 miles east of Little Rock (Willow Beach). Our campsite was right on a lake - we could lay in bed and see the water. It was wonderful to have a little space & quite! Our time in Little Rock was quite eventful - We went to the Clinton Library (our 5th Presidential Library), had lunch with a Arkansas Supreme Court Justice and toured the Capital building!!!!! It was quite a day - The Supreme Court Justice was a cousin of Mike’s friend, Ross from grade school (the one we got re-acquainted with last year at the LPGA tourney in Palm Springs). We have kept in close touch with him and seen him at a few golf tournaments. He sells golf memorabilia and travels to several pro tournaments. Hope to catch up with him again at the US Open in NY. Today we are driving to Memphis -- off to see if 'Elvis' is in the building!

Dixie at the entrance to Palo Duro Canyon - before the drive down. 

The "Lighthouse" formation -- the end destination of our hike. 

On the 'Lighthouse' hike in Palo Duro Canyon. This formation was NOT the Lighthouse. 

The "Cadillac Ranch"...right off I40 near Amarillo where there are nearly a dozen Cadillacs upended in the ground. 

The Texas Panhandle

Apr 4-8...Our first day in Canyon, TX was beautiful - it was around 85 degrees with a slight wind. We went to Palo Duro Canyon State Park which was just 10 miles from our RV Park. Palo Duro Canyon is approx. 120 miles longs and 600-800 ft deep & is the second largest canyon in the US (can you guess the first?) The canyon was formed less than 1 million years ago when the Praire Dog Town Fork of the Red River first carved its way through the Southern High Plains. It was a pretty unbelievable site as the area around Canyon is perfectly flat and then all of a sudden you get to the 'canyon'. We drove the loop in the canyon and then made a 5.5 mile roundtrip hike to the 'Lighthouse', a rock formation (the last part getting to the base of the formation was 86 steps straight up). It was a pretty long hike considering the hot temp. It took us just over 3 hours as we stopped in the middle & ate our packed lunch! The weather quickly changed on Thursday -winds of 35-45 mph with gusts of 60-70 mph! --and I thought the wind blew in north central Montana!!! We had to bring our slides in and stay inside pretty much all day. By mid afternoon we were getting cabin fever so we had to go to 'Walmart' & kill a little time! A semi-truck even overturned on the highway right by the RV park. The winds Friday weren't much better, but we did venture into Amarillo to browse around. It was our 16th anniversary so we had a nice dinner while there. Today the weather is beautiful - NO wind and about 55-60 degrees. We decided not to stay here the full week so we will be heading out tomorrow (Sunday). We plan to get somewhere past Oklahoma City just to spend the night and then on to Little Rock for 2 nights. This coming week will be short stops - 2 nights in Memphis, 2 in Nashville and then 5 nights in Pigion Forge, TN.

THEN....Mike's Senior picture in 1960!!! (his name tag from the reunion) 

The 'Boys" NOW....at their "forty something" Reunion! 

Headin' to the Panhandle of Texas

Mar 27 - Apr 4.…We moved to an RV park about 15 miles east of Albuquerque in Tijeras. We were in the mountains on this side totally opposite from the west side of ABQ. On Friday we flew to Houston for Mike’s 40 something class reunion!!!! We stopped in a couple of the Presidents Clubs to say hi and then met up with some of friends for lunch. We drove to Pearland where we stayed with Mike’s brother & wife. While there we were able to visit with 2 of our nephews as well. We had a great time at the reunion - it covered 4 classes (59-62) so there was quite a crowd. Of course we spent most of our time with the group of 4 guys & 2 of the wives that Mike hung around with in school! On Sunday we had a difficult time getting on a flight back to Albuquerque as they were all very full. After trying a few flights we decided that they were just too full, both on Sunday and Monday to stand any chance of getting on standby. We decided to fly to El Paso, rent a car and drive the 270 miles to Albuquerque….we made it back to the motor home about 10pm that night! This (renting cars to get to our destination) is becoming a regular thing - makes us happy to stay in our motor home and DRIVE!!! Speaking of driving, we are doing that again today we are headed to Canyon, TX which is just south of Amarillo. We will stay there for a week and plan to hike in the Palo Duro Canyon state park.