The Journey Continues...May 2 - May 8

Sunday, May 2

We had Meet & Greet fellowship after church.  How normal yet special it felt to socialize. Everyone wore masks until they were seated and most of us are vaccinated.

After church I stopped by Home Depot and finally got the Early Girl tomatoes I've been chasing.  Before dark, I had them in the ground.

Monday, May 3

Busy Monday!  I started a batch of sourdough this morning.  It will proof overnight in the refrigerator.  I had UMW meeting at 10:30.  After the meeting I had a few short errands, but I was home in time for lunch.  We are still eating the pimento cheese spread and salmon spread leftover from our trip last week.  The afternoon was spent at bread-making.  I used the "wait time" to finish Amanda's cell phone bag and to work on my sermon for next Sunday.

Tuesday, May 4

I finished baking the bread this morning.  The first loaf was out of the oven in time for breakfast.  Most of the day, I worked on sermon preparation.  I had a lot of information on Creation Care and Climate Change and wanted to put it together with a scriptural perspective.  

David & Trisha sent a picture of the family with one of their two new cats.  These are their first pets. Kids look good, too!

Wednesday, May 5

We weren't thinking about Cinco de Mayo this morning while we were packing the RV for our 3-day, 2-night excursion to Pickwick Landing State Park and Shiloh National Military Park in southern middle Tennessee.  We've been planning this trip for a few weeks and were so relieved that the weather looks cooperative.  We finally pulled out at 10:15 am (mi 101,302) on the way to our first stop - Murphreesboro to meet Claire.  The back road from Crossville to Murphreesboro is scenic but not quick.  We got there just in time to meet her at 1 pm CDT (almost 4 hours driving).  We offered lunch and she chose a Mexican restaurant, so we got our celebration after all.  We enjoyed our conversation and the drive around campus.  We spent almost 2 hours with Claire.

Our intention was to make our way to the Nashville I-840 bypass and exit onto the Natchez Trace for a leisurely drive down near Pickwick.  We didn't realize until we were already on the bypass that while it crosses the Trace, there is not connection.  So we took what seemed like the best back road alternate to pick up the Trace further south.  That road turned out to be more scenic, narrow and winding, with no towns or gas stations.  Bill got worried because he knew that we would probably not find gas on the Trace since we weren't going near any major towns.  So we detoured again, found gas and made our way back to the Trace even further south.  

Our only stop on the Trace was at the Merriweather Lewis death and burial site.  We had no idea what Lewis had to do with the Natchez Trace.  We learned that he was traveling from Louisiana, where he had been appointed governor by President Jefferson, to Washington DC.  He stopped overnight at Grinder's Inn and died by gunshot before morning.  Whether his death was by his own hand or murder has never been settled.  He was known to be depressed and suicidal.  He was buried near the site by his friend we came along shortly after his death.  

A section of the Old Trace for hiking

The monument marks the burial site.  There is a proposal to exhume to remains to determine if the death was murder.

Ginder's Inn reconstructed

We continued south on the Trace for another 20 miles before exiting and turning westward towards Savannah and Pickwick Dam.  We enjoyed the serenity of riding the Trace.

We arrived at our campsite at 6:45 CDT after 9 1/2 hours of travel, 325 miles total.  We still had plenty of daylight to set up camp, relax with our wine, beer and pimento cheese snack and walk a short trail, about 100 yards, to the lakeshore for sunset.  Our campsite was #26, wooded with no lake view.

Happy Hour, camp style

Sunset across the Lake

Rental Cabins across the Cove

I was glad that supper was beef stew that I had cooked ahead and only required heating in the microwave.  The evening was turning cool, but we were not prepared for a camp fire.  We were too tired, anyway, and glad for dark and bedtime.

Eating In

Thursday, May 6

It was mid-40;s outside but cozy inside when we woke up to enjoy our coffee and a lovely wooded view outside our window.  We had the area all to ourselves.  After sufficient coffee, we were ready for a full camp breakfast - scrambled eggs with grits, bacon and home-made sourdough toast.  Before leaving the park for our day's adventure we checked out the beautiful new lodge on the lake.

The deck overlooking the lake

View from the deck

The drive to Shiloh took only about 1/2 hour. As is our usual practice, we went to the visitor center first and watched the interpretive movie.  Just our luck that a group of high schoolers joined us, filling the room to Covid-capacity, everyone in masks by rule.  The movie was an excellent dramatization which depicted the scope and horror of the battle through the eyes and eyewitness accounts of battle survivors.  The battle involved over 100,000 combatants, and more than 23,000 casualties, including almost 3000 dead, making it one of the largest conflicts in the Civil War. We walked through the cemetery to the site of Pittsburg Landing.  The battle was for control of river and of the railroad cross-roads at Corinth, just 20 miles south.  Whichever side controlled those, controlled vital supply lines.  Grant commanded the Union forces and Johnston, who lost his life during the battle, commanded the Confederates.  We walked through the memorial cemetery to the river and down to Pittsburg landing.

We drove around most of the self-guided tour.  The most interesting stop was at Shiloh Methodist Church (UMC) which gave the battleground its name.  The little log meeting house was occupied back & forth by both sides.  A replica of the original building stands on the site and an active UMC congregation has its church next to it.  The original Methodist meeting house was built in 1851 and its damaged remains burned in 1874.  The current active church building was completed in 1949.

Replica of the original Methodist meeting house

Imagine spending all day on those benches listening to preachers.

Shiloh UMC today

The next stop was at the Indian Mounds.  The creation of the park shortly after the end of the Civil War, resulted in the preservation of these mounds when so many others were raided or leveled for crop land.  We took the one mile interpretive hike through the woods and mounds and climbed the largest overlooking the river.  We both enjoyed the walk and learning about the native Americans who lived here more than 1000 years ago.

View from the top of the largest mound.  It must have been a ceremonial spot as it commanded an impressive view of the river.

We thought we should memorialize one of the many cannons on display throughout the park.

Just 5 minutes outside the park we found Hagy's Catfish Hotel, a restaurant, not lodging.  We had seen an old program that featured this place last week and were looking for it for a very late lunch. The friend catfish was as delicious as advertised.  We haven't had friend catfish in a very long time.

This was our first indoor restaurant meal in more than a year.

I had the whole fish and Bill had the filets

Hagy's is definitely off the beaten path, but has a following.

Next on the afternoon's agenda was a visit to the Tennessee River Museum in Savannah.  We enjoyed learning more about river history from archaic times through the steamboat era. I didn't take any pictures in this charming little town, but check out this link to the museum: https://www.tennesseerivermuseum.org/

From Savannah we had an easy 20 minutes back to camp.  Just as we pulled into our campsite a fierce storm blew in.   We quickly lowered the canopy over the picnic table and secured the chairs and got back in the RV before the rain started.  After an initial hard wind and downpour, the weather settled into just rain and finally
let up enough for Bill to get the electricity connected.  It was quite a while before the rain stopped and we could go outside.  We sat outside for our Happy Hour before retreating back in for a supper repeat of last night.

Friday, May 7

After yesterday afternoon's storm, we woke up this morning to cool, crisp air and clear skies.  We looked out on bright sunlight filtering through the trees.  It was nice to sip our coffee while snuggled under warm covers in our cozy little space, soaking up the calm of the woods.

We fixed another traditional camp breakfast, then cleaned up and packed up.  The canopy was very wet but everything else was ok.  We were on the road by 10.   We made a brief detour into Historic Downtown Waynesboro looking for gas. At 1, we hit I-65 and made a brief stop for an in-RV picnic. The rest of the drive was boring interstate.  After a long traffic delay between Crossville and Crab Orchard, we made it home at 6 EDT.  (7 hr, mi 101,985).  We travelled 683 miles (about 68 gal of gas).

Saturday, May 8

Finally the garden is mostly planted - plants, seeds & herbs are all in the ground.  The garden is almost "laid by" as my father and grandfather would say about their crops in the late spring.  I will lay soaker hose and mulch and then wait for everything to grow.

I put the finishing touches on my sermon and practiced it.  We cooked burgers on the grill on the beautiful spring evening.  What a pleasure to sit on our deck!