Tennesee 2016

May 19, 2106

Steps to Loretta's Home

After breakfast we headed to Waverly, as I saw a sign yesterday about a Civil War memorial.  We found it and explored what we could.   All of the buildings were closed (look permanent).   Read the history of this battle and then drove to Johnsonville State Historic Site.  

Johnsonville Visitors Center

This is a fairly new visitors center, only 3 yrs old.  It tells the story of how the Confederate Army blew up the depot in Johnsonville, destroying over 3 million in supplies intended to replenish the Union army.  Once we watched the movie and looked at the exhibits, we went to the park.  Honestly there's not much to see, as this area is underwater do to the dam being built and Lake Kentucky being formed.    Lake Kentucky is huge and obviously Johnsonville is now  called New Johnsonville.

Our next stop was the crash site of where Patsy Cline died.   There's not much to see, only a grave site where the plane crashed and marks the date.

Loretta Lynn's Home

We then drove back to Hurricane Mills and had lunch at the coach.   Once finished, we headed to the ranch, two miles down the road from campground.    Here we toured her home (she now lives in a smaller house behind the main home....we weren't allowed to see this home), her museum, western store, a replica of the Hollar Home where she grew up and Coal Mine (replica of) where her father and  Mooney worked, the old grist mill and saw her tour bus. 

It was a great tour and you learn how she came to pick this spot for their home.  They actually took a wrong turn and found this ranch, that had been abandoned by the owners of the land.

   They currently own 65 thousand acres in this area. The museum shows you the many awards she has won, the people that have influenced her life, her kids and a family plus a tribute to Conway Twitty.

May 18, 2016

Uneventful day, drove from Memphis to Hurricane Mills, which took us about 3 hrs.   I drove most of the way so Bobby could catch up on his emails, etc...lol.   We arrived at Loretta Lynn's Family Campground and picked out our spot.  It's a first come, first serve campground.   Most sites are uneven, so we picked what we thought was the best.

In front of the office

Old Dude Ranch

This facility is the home of Loretta, so we'll tour it tomorrow.   Once we got settled and had lunch, we headed to Waverly, TN where there's a Walmart.   Our DVD has died and we need a new one.   Got one at a great price, while Bobby installed it (had to redo the wiring), I went for a walk around the grounds.   Loretta's Dude

Ranch is just a short walk along with the Rice Cemetery.   Got back and helped Bobby finish up and install, it works GREAT.   We'll watch movies, as there is no TV and very little wifi.

Later in the evening, we did take a walk down to the event center, where Loretta performs.  She'll be in concert here memorial day weekend.

May 17, 2016

Today is our anniversary!!!!   Been married 32 and together 38, amazing how time flies bye!

Got up and called Ron and Debbie, as Ron is having knee surgery today.   It doesn't happen until after 1 PM so we'll check in with Deb later today.

Went down by the river to watch the river traffic, saw a tug pushing 21 barges.   You wouldn't believe the wake he was putting out!

We are in process of doing laundry so once it's done, we'll head into Memphis to see the mud river area. 

Wheel from an old Steamship

We arrived in downtown and saw the new Bass Pro store, so that was our first stop.   Apparently Bass Pro bought the old area and converted to their store, it has a restaurant, hotel, lake (it had 5 pontoon boats floating in it) and an elevator that's 15 stories high that takes you  to an observation

Mud Island

point.   It's their second largest store, 1st is their headquarters in Missouri, which we've also seen. 

Next stop was Mud Island, this depicts the path of the mighty Mississippi river.  This display shows you how it meanders from Canada all the way to the ocean, even where it combines with the Missouri River.   It's impressive and great opportunity to learn how massive this river really is.  

We also toured the museum, nothing special but does tell you about the floods that have occurred in this area plus shows how the river traffic has evolved. 

Later we went to Costco in search of a new DVD player, as ours has quit.   Did not find what we want, since it has to work on our surround sound system.  After several other stores, called it quits, we'll wait until Nashville or some other town to purchase.

Got back to coach and I went for a long walk along the river and talked to several RV'ers.   Many are from TX.  Always fun to learn where people are traveling from and too.   Tomorrow we head to Hurricane Mills, home of Lorretta Lynn.

May 16, 2016

Fort Smith

On the road again, this time we are headed to Fort Smith to see the Fort Smith National Historic site.   We arrive around 11:30, it's raining so we decide to watch the movie and see the inside stuff.   This is the site that Judge Parker, the hanging Judge was infamous.   The main building is where the original courthouse was located along with the jail underneath.   Later on, they added a new courthouse, which you can see in the pics.   Because of Judge Parker, two famous movies were made, "Hang them High" with Clint Eastwood and "True Grit" with John Wayne.   True Grit also was remade in later years.

The facility talks about the many (over 150) criminals that were hung here.  While we toured the outside, we got to see the gallows.  You can't go on them, but it was still cool to see.

 The museum is closed on Mondays, so we were unable to look through it....too bad.

Flood mark of May 2011

Barge going upriver

The National Cemetery is few blocks away, we looked into it, but it was starting to rain again, so we headed back to the coach.  On the way, looked at the old trains by the Trolley Museum.  Got to the coach, had a late lunch and then hit the road.

While we were starting to pull out, Bobby noticed that the brake would release correctly, apparently the screws have come loose, we'll fix it once we arrive at our destination for the night.

We made it to Tom Sawyer RV Park in West Memphis around 6.   Got to our site and are set up for the evening.   We are parked three rows away for the might Mississippi River.   We've seen a couple of barges go up and down, hopefully tomorrow, we'll see many more.  The picture to the right shows where the water mark was in May of 2011.  I talked to one of the permanent residents, it took 2 months to reach this level, park was closed for 5 months.   He said they usual flood every year, usually in the spring, do to the snow melting.