Entries about forrest city

Saturday 5 March 2011

I I don't know if it is because I put on my nightgown in the dark a couple of days ago and in the morning found it was inside out and backwards, but the weather today has been terrible.

Originally I had thought I would look at the lighthouses around Lake Pontchartrain like the one at Port Pontchartrain. But given that it is the weekend before Mardi Gras, I didn't want to go near New Orleans and the two I thought I would see were on the south side of the lake. I decided just to go see the lighthouse on the Tchefuncte River Lighthouse

Lighthouse photo from Wikipedia (public domain)

which could be seen from the end of Main Street in Madisonville.

I gave Bob his birthday present from me this morning.

It was a shirt I bought him in Tortola at Sunny Caribe. I teased him about being three quarters of a century old.

Bob wasn't very happy with the breakfast here - he said they had the pancake shaped scrambled eggs

(I thought they were an omelet) and he didn't realize that the white stuff was sausage gravy - he thought it was grits or something. I got cranberry juice, and grabbed a banana and a bagel to eat in the car on the way to Madisonville, Louisiana.

We headed out. It was raining off and on. We got to Main Street about 11:30,but about a mile and a half from our objective, the road was completely covered with water to the depth of about 8 inches (judging by the fact that we could see the yellow lines through the water). But Bob refused to go any farther.

We turned back and decided to go to the museum that we saw just before we were stopped by the high water.

Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum and Research Center

This proved a very interesting museum and among other things they had little dioramas showing all the Louisiana lighthouses. I was taking pictures and saw an empty cubicle which said "No Photographs Please". I didn't understand why they didn't want pictures of that, but I didn't want a photo of it and so I didn't take one.

Unlabeled diorama

This is labeled Bayou St. John Lighthouse

Then when I got around to the other side I saw another sign and realized that they meant no photos of any of the dioramas. But it was too late - I had already done it. And I don't see why they didn't want photos anyway.

When I got home and looked up the lighthouses, I realized that these were mostly lighthouse which no longer exist or that have been modified or moved, and that the dioramas must have been created from old Coast Guard photos.

Second Chandeleur Island Lighthouse - 1856 lighthouse destroyed by hurricane

Sabine Bank diorama- Endangered

Third Light South Pass Lighthouse diorama - replaced by the fourth South Pass Lighthouse

Oyster Bayou Lighthouse which was demolished

Point Au Fer Reef Lighthouse was burned in 1876

Diorama showing Port Pontchartrain Light before it was extended - The lighthouse is endangered by lack of maintenance

Southwest Pass Lighthouse built in 1839 -gravely endangered tower

West Rigolets- destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005

1985 - Hurricane Juan destroyed the 1917 Timbalier Bay Lighthouse.

Southwest Reef Lighthouse in 1914 before relocation

Sabine Pass Light-Endangered. The Keeper's quarters burned in 1976

Point Aux Herbes Light- burned by vandals during the 1950s

East Rigolets Lighthouse -Ruins of the lighthouse are said to be visible in the water

Calcastra River Lighthouse- replaced

Bob pointed out the outboard motor display

Evinrude outboard display

and they also had a display on tugboats

Practice steering a tugboat

Required boarding Arrangements for Pilot

Tchefuncle River Light Station

I thought maybe I could get Bob a T-shirt as there were shirts on sale, but they were sweatshirts and were children's sizes mostly.

We left the museum to and headed out.

Leaving the museum

We started north on I-55 in torrents of rain which the windshield wipers could hardly keep up with and we had to watch carefully for cars ahead that didn't have their lights on as they were practically invisible from behind. The road was very rough as there were nasty joints between each section on concrete.

We were listening to whatever the local NPR station is on the radio, and the NWS kept coming up with tornado warnings. I could see from the map that the warnings were for the southern Louisiana counties and that is where we were.

The weather guy on the radio kept saying that a tornado had been spotted but I couldn't find the town he was talking about on the map. It turns out that I was spelling it wrong in my head. The name sounded like Rain, but was spelled Rayne.

The radio guy said that if we "spotted a white funnel cloud" ... and just then there was thunder and lightning, but there was too much rain to spot anything at that moment.

He would continue that we should get to a place of safety and one good place would be under a sturdy workbench. He said that if we were in a mobile home, we should get out and go to a safer place. Then he said that if we were in a car we should get out and go lie in a ditch. I was looking at the rain and trying to imagine myself getting out and lying down in a ditch when it was raining so hard that I couldn't SEE a ditch. If I did find one and lay down in it, I'd need a snorkel to breath, and the snorkel was in a bag in the trunk.

Eventually I decided to turn off I-55 and head across to Monroe Louisiana. We stopped for lunch at the I-55 interchange at the Subway which was at that intersection.

Subway sub

The US highways proved to be much smoother, and were practically devoid of traffic.

Going toward bridges

We did still go through some extremely heavy rain showers, but eventually it sort of cleared up.

US highway bridge in Louisiana

I made this reservation because it was about halfway between the previous hotel outside of Mobile, and our daughter's house in Frisco. The weather was really bad for driving, so we were glad to get here. We had been assigned a room on the second floor but the hotel had no elevator. So the receptionist gave us a handicapped room after she checked that we would be OK with just one bed instead of two.

Queen bed room for handicapped and Handicapped shower

I love the handicapped rooms as they have a seat in the shower so I can sit down as I shower.

We can even park outside the room. However there was no restaurant that we could drive to without getting on the interstate, so Bob just went to Burger King and brought back some hamburgers. Cheapest dinner to date.

Burger from Burger King

Some time after we got there, there was some violent pounding on the door. I thought it might be kids who had the wrong room, so Bob looked through the peep hole and then opened the door and asked them what they wanted. They apparently had the wrong room. I asked him if it was children and he said no, that it was two adult black females. When he was telling our daughter about it later, he said they were "working girls".

Sunday 6 March 2011

There was the usual good Hampton Inn breakfast the next morning

Breakfast buffet

When we checked out I told the man at the desk about our visitors last night and he seemed disturbed and asked what I wanted to do, but I didn't want anything - just to tell him about the incident.

We saw from the TV that one of the next interchanges on I-20 is closed for a water main repair and we will have to find our way around it. I asked the man at the hotel and he gave me specific directions which included what businesses (a Burger King and a BBQ place) were on the corners of the US route that was parallel to I-20.

However we made a mistake in the exit and also I had us turn the wrong way. So we went off into the hinterland and had to turn around and come back and get on the interstate and go one more exit. The traffic didn't seem too bad but it WAS really early on Sunday morning.

Shreveport

We got to Shreveport about noon, and then when we got to the TX border we stopped and got a map.

Texas border information station

About 1300, we stopped at an IHOP for lunch. I had what was called

Loaded potato and bacon soup which was really almost all CHEESE and Blueberry blintzes

Bob had

French toast fingers and bacon

He drank a LOT of water and that meant that in about 2 hours we had to stop, and then stop again.

Tree from where we stopped once

I talked to our daughter on the phone and she told us an alternate way to get to them so we didn't have to get on the roads around Dallas.

Car-b-e-que in my side mirror

We saw a carbeque (car on fire) and no one seemed to be doing anything about it. The fire appeared to be on top of the hood.

I took some photos of their new patio

Bob and our son-in-law on their new patio

New BBQ

Our daughter's family took us to Texas Land and Cattle for a birthday dinner for Bob. We had to wait for a table, and while we waited, our granddaughters were teaching Bob some game on an electronic device.

Showing granddad how to play

Fireplace at the restaurant

I had a

Lettuce wedge salad

Our grandson had

Ribs

When we got home, our daughter had pineapple upside down cake for Bob - his favorite

Pineapple upside down cake for Bob's birthday

and also

Monday 7 March 2011

I spent time uploading photos and Bob tried to fix the electrical problems that led to the garage outlets not working. Eventually I think they decided that the GFPI in the laundry room really didn't belong there, and took it out. We went to watch our grandson play a 'scrimmage baseball game before the start of the real season.

Walking in to the game

Since we had to be there around 1700, we brought a picnic so that we would have something to eat

Scrimmage baseball game

It was COLD. Phyllis and Bill (the other grandparents) came too.

Cold at the game

When our son-in-law was working late but when he saw the photos he said that we all looked cold.

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Tuesday Bob fixed the dishwasher. By the time he was done, the people at Lowes could greet him by his first name. It was Shrove Tuesday, so we went to a pancake dinner at the church.

Mardi Gras masks

Our grandson was cooking pancakes.

Grandson making pancakes at church

Bill (the other grandfather) let me try out his scooter and it was really neat.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

I finally finished putting all the pictures to date up on Picasa, but I still haven't written the narrative for March 2nd to March 4th.

At my daughter's suggestion, I looked up the cemeteries that had been listed and found one not too far away that had been listed but not photographed, so we went out there and took pictures.

Conway Cemetery

The little cemetery was behind a small strip mall and there was a dog boarding kennel behind it.

Picassa Cat

Grave marker

Then we had lunch at Which Wich which was a sandwich place.

Which Wich? sign

You wrote your order down on a brown bag

Which Wich order form

(pre-printed with options - way better than Subway) and handed it in to the counter person. I had a

Meatloaf, bacon and cheese sub

with a pineapple shake. The shake got down almost to the bottom but there were a couple of big pieces of pineapple that wouldn't go through the straw.

Youngest Granddaughter at Which Wich

I tried to make a reservation for a trolley tour of Nashville but they had a phone system where they would put you on hold for only 4 minutes. Then, even if there was only 1 person ahead of you, they'd stick you into the voicemail system. I finally emailed - I wanted to know if we got there late could we switch to the next day. The answer I got was that there would be no refund unless I bought trip insurance for $20. Since the tour for the two of us was only $29.00, I didn't think that was such a good deal. Also I would have to have a printed receipt for them to honor the tickets and would have to purchase 72 hours in advance. So I didn't purchase.

That night we got to see a track meet.

Daughter taking a photo at the track meet

This was also VERY cold and windy.

Grandson lined up

They charge admission to the meet which was four middle schools. Our grandson ran the 880

Running the 880

and I got some pretty good pictures. This time we were done in time to have dinner at home.

Thursday 10 March 2011

Since our grandson had the track meet last night he didn't have Athletics before school today - Usually his dad takes him on his way to work, but today our daughter took him. The the older granddaughter left. the little one had to be at her school at 9 (she goes Tues and Thurs), so we left about 8:30 for the drive to Arkansas

I'm still having trouble getting the GPS to talk to me. I do not know what the secret code is. Sometimes it talks and sometimes it does not.

We stopped for lunch and gas before we got to Texarkana where we stopped last time. The GPS said we got 38 mpg but we think the tank wasn't all the way full. We ate at Church's Chicken.

Bob had a

Chicken strip and biscuit

and I got the

Boneless honey BBQ wings and Apple pie

I ate the biscuit and he ate my fries.

Texarkana water tower

We stopped at the Arkansas Welcome Station

Welcome station desk

and got a map. Everyone is wearing boots and cowboy hats.

I looked in the booklet and saw that there was a museum in Forrest City - free and open M-F from 10 to 5.

Arkadelphia water tower

We were (according to the GPS) to get here at 4:30 so I figured we'd check out the museum.

Church driving south toward railroad tracks

Forrest City is a city in and the county seat of St. Francis County, Arkansas. It is located on Crowley's Ridge,

Sign pointing to Crowley's Ridge

which rises above the Mississippi Delta. This is a north-south running highland is some three miles wide and 300 feet above sea level.

Forrest City was named for General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Forrest's Camp historic sign

"Forrest's Camp- Birth of a City

In 1866 General Nathan Bedford Forrest, along with about 1,000 workmen pitched camp in the vicinity of what is now Front Street on land belonging to the Izard and Jewett families. By 1868 they had succeeded in making a cut through Crowley's Ridge and laying track for the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad. The county surveyor, John C. Hill, drew the plat for a town on March 1, 1869, and on May 11, 1870, the community was officially incorporated as Forrest City. Within a year trains were running regularly and Front Street was a thriving business district. By 1892 most of the buildings were brick, and many of those early brick structures are still a part of this historic site

Sign about the War Between the States

St. Francis County Troops in War Between the States
St. Francis County was predominately sympathetic to the southern cause. Raised five companies. The first company known as the "Linden Dead Shots" was raised by Poindexter Dunn who also served as Captain. This company marched away from here in 1861 and later participated in the battles of Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Rincoold Cap. Golgotha Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Jonesboro and Franklin. Their gallantry was attested by the fact that of the one hundred who went away only twenty-one returned and many of these had lost an arm or leg or bore wounds.

We got to the museum OK although the railroad gates were down and the lights flashing right down where we had to turn - due to a truck being on the track and not a train.

Truck that was on the railroad track

We got a parking place on the street by pulling into where a woman was leaving,

Picture from across the street

Located in the restored, historic Rush-Gates home;

Sign on the museum

exhibits include the J.O. Rush relic collection, reconstructed doctor's office, geology and fossils from Crowley's Ridge, county, veterans, and African-American history. Temporary and seasonal exhibits year-round; also serves as the central visitors center for the Crowley's Ridge National Scenic byway

Rush Gates house museum

Outhouse back of the museum (??)

Looking in through the door

but the museum was locked up tight even though it was only 1640. I wonder if the woman wasn't maybe the museum person leaving early.

I can't find out much about it, but there are about 7 murals of old time Forrest City including one showing how an Indian would view the new railroad.

Railroad tracks in town

I did not find the one of the Indian, but I did photograph a few of them.

Large painting near the museum

Old courthouse on the right

Then we checked into the Hampton Inn. The receptionist gave us a key and said to go up the elevator and over the breezeway to our room, but when we got upstairs, we saw that the room was 204 and it was not across the breezeway.

From the Breezeway looking down on the lobby

When the key didn't work, we went back to the breezeway (which was a balcony over the lobby and called down.

Corridor - Bob looking over balcony to lobby

She came up with the correct keys which were for 435.

TV, fridge and microwave

There appears to be a large church group staying here. They came in big vans.

I got connected to the internet, and then Bob wanted to go to dinner. From the literature in the room he picked the Ole Sawmill Cafe and we got directions from the desk clerk.

Ole Sawmill sign with part of the neon missing

Bob walking in

Sign at entrance

Although they had table service, the buffet was $9.50 and it didn't look like we could have ordered anything on the menu that wouldn't have been at least that.

Menu

It wasn't IMHO a very good buffet. This is an older version of the Cracker Barrel chain. I don't like them either.

Buffet

They did have an extensive salad bar,

Salads

but the main section had some collard greens, mashed potatoes with various kinds of gravy, fried fish, fried chicken, baked chicken, some meat in gravy, stewed tomatoes, what we think was hominy (nothing was labeled), carrots, limas and maybe sweet potatoes (I didn't try any so I don't know). They also had corn muffins and yeast rolls, butter or honey butter.

Sample items from the buffet

For dessert there was apple and peach cobbler, bread pudding, brownie, some cake and a bunch of cookies and soft serve ice cream.

My dessert plate

The Ole Sawmill Cafe very cleverly routes you through a large "antique" shop before you can get to the part where you get the food.

Storefront

Then when you leave, the cash register where you pay is right in the middle of the gift shop.

St. Patricks Day display

Display of Jams and Jellies

Dolls

which had an amazing selection of dolls with blonde hair and fancy dresses.

Outside of the Ole Sawmill Cafe

Sunset going up to Hampton Inn from dinner

Sign at night

When we got back the girl asked how we liked it and Bob said he liked it fine. I said it was very "local". Bob said probably the only out of state license in the lot was on our car. She said people either loved it or hated it. I said I was OK with it - I just don't care much for buffets.

Friday 11 March 2011

Breakfast at this Hampton Inn did not have cranberry juice and Bob came back to the room with his cereal as he couldn't find any place to sit.

Breakfast area

I washed my hair and dressed. He took the cranberry juice out of the cooler and took the stuff down to the car and we both had a hot chocolate which he got from the breakfast stuff the night before. There's a thing in the room which does hot water. I grabbed two bagels on the way out - they didn't have bananas.

The Arkansas police were really policing the highway on the way to the Tennessee border. We are headed for Nashville. We had only about 30 miles to go to Memphis and we were approaching the city by 10:15.

Approaching Memphis, TN

Unfortunately we knew that the information center was off the freeway in the city so we bypassed it and probably we should not have done. We have a AAA map of KY and TN but no detailed map of Nashville.

We saw lots of FedEx trucks, and also a truck which had flaps in the back kind of tied together with bungee cords.

Truck with back flaps

Later we say a license plate RYF which were my mother's initials.

Sign at rest area

We stopped at the Sam Phillips/ Carl Perkins Rest Area about 11:45 to use the bathroom, but it was unattended and there were no TN maps. Then we stopped to have lunch. At first I thought I'd go to Loretta Lynn's Kitchen, but that was a buffet. So we went to the Log Cabin Restaurant

Bob entering the Log Cabin Restaurant

Log Cabin menu

in Hurricane Mills (near a place called Bucksnort).

Fried Green Tomato special

Bob had the

Chili

and I had a

Fried Baloney sandwich

which was advertised as a traditional southern classic. They had a lot of pies,

Pie display case

so I had the

Malted Chocolate Caramel pie

We also filled up with gas and are getting about 38 mpg. I can't figure out how it does the averages for the gas usage - it does not seem to me to make sense.

We got to Nashville about 1:30 and promptly ran into a horrible traffic jam. I told Bob to go ahead and get off, but people would not let him into their lanes. As bad as D.C. Eventually we turned off but I could not get the GPS to talk and couldn't really tell whether the hotel was on the right or left. Traffic was still bad and Bob had to stop at Wendy's, and he said he used the ladies room as someone was in the men's room and was not leaving.

We got to the hotel before three as I originally thought I would take a city tour. and they said they could not give us the room for 45 minutes so I sat in the lobby writing and Bob read the paper. The whole place was full of high school students and their parents - I guess doing college visits. Originally I thought the Hampton Inn at the center of the city charged for parking.

The Hampton Inn in the city center

But I was wrong - there was a charge for valet parking but not for self parking - at least according to the sign we saw outside the next day. So this was the next best place.

Our room

I've decided that we should go to the Hermitage on the way out tomorrow and the traffic in the city is too bad to do anything here tonight. Later, it seemed that the traffic dispersed and also the parking lot was not as jam packed as it had been. We walked across to Amerigo for dinner.

Amerigo

At first I thought it might be too fancy with fancy prices but it was not. There was a early bird menu,

Early Bird menu

and Bob (surprise) had the

Bob's salmon and green beans

and I had the cheese tortellini. I originally expected to have it plain which would have been $10.00, but the waitress suggested I have it with crab instead of chicken and that was $14.00.

Cheese Tortellini with Crab

They did the thing they do at Italian restaurants of bringing

Bread and Olive Oil

But it was good bread. Bob finished up his salmon but my tortellini was too much for me. Would have had gelato, but they were out. Total for the meal with tax was $26.77

Hotel at night

I took a photo of the hotel from across the street and it turned out like one of those modern posters. Lime green. pale blue and white building (really beige), aqua tree trunk and orange leaves/flowers.

Street in front of the hotel at night

Road next to the hotel at night

Saturday 12 March 2011

I decided that I wanted to see the Parthenon and the Capitol so I put their locations in the GPS and it guided us to them. (or at least it did the mapping - it was silent most of the time).

Street Sunday morning without traffic

My dad had a thing about getting a photo of each state capitol, so Nashville was no exception.

My father's photo at night 1956

Closer 1956 photo of the capitol at night

The distinctive tower is designed after the monument of Lysicrates in Athens, Greece.

Since we were in Nashville, I thought that I would also take some photos of the capitol.

Approaching Capitol

The Capitol building is the home of the Tennessee legislature, the location of the governor's office, and a National Historic Landmark. Build on five acres, it was opened in 1859 and is in architectural style Greek Revival. The Architect was William Strickland.

Photo from the car 2011

Capitol in 2011

There are several statues and graves on the grounds. That includes the one for Edward Ward Carmack who was an attorney, newspaperman, and political figure who served as a U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1901 to 1907.

Edward W. Carmack's statue

Following his political service, and after an unsuccessful run for Governor of Tennessee, he became editor of the one-year-old Nashville Tennessean. He was shot to death on November 9, 1908 over a feud precipitated by his editorial comments in the paper.

I had been reviewing my father's pictures and there was a picture of the Parthenon in Nashville.

1956 photo of the Parthenon

I did not realize at the time that this was built because Nashville thought of itself as the "Athens of the South".

My picture 2011

From the car

I suppose we could have taken the city tour in the morning, but I also wanted to go to the Hermitage, and the city tour people were so un-helpful that it really put me off.

Centennial Park sign with Parthenon in background

So we drove to Centennial Park

Centennial Park

The inscription says
James Robertson
Founder of Nashville
"We are the advance guard of civilization. Our way is across the Continent." Robertson-1770
Born in Brunswick County, Virginia, June 28, 1742.
Moved to North Carolina in 1750.
Came to Tennessee in 1769.
Settled Nashville in 1780.
Died in Tennessee Sept 1, 1814.
Reinterred inthe City Cemetery at Nashville, 1825 under authority of the Tennessee Legislature.

Canada geese

and then headed for the Hermitage.

Sunday traffic

Welcome to the Hermitage

Hermitage information

The Visitor's center is where the ticket office is located. The last admission tickets are sold at 4:00 p.m. during winter hours, and 5:00 p.m. during summer hours. Senior tickets (over 62) are currently $17.00. Adult general admission is $20.00. We got a wheelchair for me. A golf cart is available to transport visitors needing assistance from the Andrew Jackson Visitor Center to The Hermitage mansion. Wheelchairs are available free of charge for those unable to walk around the grounds. Motorized and non-motorized wheelchairs are welcome in the mansion; however, the size of the interior spaces prevents the use of motorized scooter chairs.

We saw the movie and went through the museum. Bob took photos of all the signs and I took photos of the various exhibits.

Carriages

Carriages in the visitor's center

Rachel Jackson's portrait

Wedding finery in museum

Bob's photo at the museum - I'm in the photo in the wheelchair on the left side

furniture exhibit

model of original cabin

Jackson's Hermitage in 1845

Cotton exhibit

Then we went out into the gardens. They had said we would have no trouble, but they lied. The gravel was so deep in the gardens in the cemetery area that I just had to get out and walk because we really couldn't push the wheelchair there.

Gravel path

The Jacksons were buried with a little temple building over their graves.

Graveyard

Rachael died first and Jackson decided to bury her in her garden. After the building over her grave was built he had the garden around it restored.

President and Mrs Jackson's graves

Little cemetery around the Jackson graves

Description of the graves

There are some monument boxes in the cemetery - these were built over limestone monuments to protect them from acid rain.

Monument Boxes covering limestone grave markers

There was also a WOW (Woodsman of the World which was an insurance company) grave marker in the shape of a tree.

Tree marker by Woodmen of the World

We saw the cemetery and then we got to the building itself.

grounds of the Hermitage

The Hermitage at the end of the path

The Hermitage

Hermitage from the side

Roofline

They had two little ramps marked left and right - the man said that one side of the step was lower than the other.

Front of the house with one of the ramps

No photos were allowed inside. They asked if I could walk up the stairs and I said I could if I had to so they said I could look at photos of the upstairs. I said could I take pictures of them, and the man looked taken aback - don't think anyone ever asked him that before. Finally he said no but that they would sell me a book with them in it.

Description of the trees planted on the automobile entrance

Looking down a path from the Hermitage

We toured the downstairs and then I looked at the photos. There was also an interesting letter in there from Jackson's son or nephew trying to explain why the house burned in 1834. Bob pushed me back towards the Visitor's Center.

Sign about the buildings

He went into some of the outbuildings to take pictures.

Inside one of the outbuildings

Visitor's Center

Then we turned in the wheelchair and headed for Virginia.

We drove until lunchtime and got gas and went to a restaurant called the Bean Pot which had a sign on the side that said Open Forever

The Bean Pot - Open Forever

Country Store part of the Bean Pot

But apparently the Bean Pot has now closed.

Menu of the now closed Bean Pot

Hot Pepper Tennessee Sunshine sauce and Tiger sauce on the table at the Bean Pot

Car in the ceiling

They gave me water in a short glass and I said that Bob (who was in the bathroom) wanted more water than that so she gave him a taller glass about the size of most water glasses.

Short and tall water glass

I had an

Aig Biskit

(egg biscuit) and Bob had a chicken biskit. I asked for a root beer float, but what I got was a little bit of root beer in a milk shake as the girl that was making the ice cream things did not know what a root beer float was supposed to be.

Root beer float?

Interestingly, the root beer float was more expensive than the milk shake.

Candy

Ladies room graffiti

Interesting yellow motorcycle

We stayed in Abington that night at the Hampton Inn. Bob walked across the street and brought dinner back from Long John Silver. I looked up the menu first and told him we wanted a combo dinner of fish and chicken.

Fried fish and hush puppy

He ate the chicken and fries and I ate the fish and biscuits.

Sunday 13 March 2011

Funny machine in the parking lot

The internet would not work for me this morning.

Birds in the tree outside the motel in the morning

Also I found an ant on my pill box. It bit me. There was no cranberry juice on the buffet. I used the hotel computer but it was too slow for some things.

Leaving Abingdon -8 am

The rest stops on I-81 have all been bulldozed.

We stopped for lunch and I saw a whole parking lot full of cars at the church up on the hill,

Gas stop

but Bob got gas first and then went to eat and by that time everyone was out of church and there was a long wait - it was Wendy's which is slow anyway. I got a

Chicken apple and walnut salad

which I keep forgetting is not a chicken salad, but pieces of chicken on top of the salad. I also got a

Junior bacon cheeseburger

(Bob got one too - it was two for $4.49) and I couldn't eat all the salad

AAA took us across I-64 over to Richmond and up I-96. The GPS told us to get off at Shadwell and so we drove up to Fredericksburg the way we always took when we were taking Penny to Crozet to breed her.

Road around Charlottesville on the east

Up past Castelia, to Orange and then to Wilderness.

Crossing the Potomac

We got home about 1630, and Bob turned the water on.

He also found two starlings in the house - mostly in the bathroom. The first clue was water on the toilet seat. I don't know how long they were in here, but they were probably drinking out of the toilet. He says he will have to check the insulation in the chimney to see if that's how they got in. Bob took his plastic homemade storm windows out and opened the windows so they could fly out.. One of the storm windows in the bedroom had some rips in it which the birds probably made.

Interesting fact to know and tell - A pair of starlings were originally imported so that we would have all the birds mentioned by Shakespeare in the 'new world'. They have become such a problem that some places offer a bounty on them.

Initially I could not get the computer to log on to the internet, but after I turned if off and waited a bit, it started to behave better.

Monday 14 March 2011

Bob got the mail and put gas in the car and went to BJs and got some veggies. The car was getting 40+ mpg the last part of the trip which Bob attributes to the lack of alcohol in the gas. The tax forms have not come yet. I ate the rest of yesterday's chicken salad for lunch.

Our house in the summer

We unpacked and did the wash

Our next trip was a cruise to Alaska