Sunday, May 26, 2013

Art Museum and Traveling



Our last "attraction" on the 11 day/10 night East Coast tour is the Knoxville Museum of Art at World's Fair Park, Knoxville, Tennessee.
This 3 story building has all sorts of modern and mixed media art with an area for children's artwork as well.
One very interesting room was filled with room miniatures behind glass.  Very accurate "doll house" type representations of 17th, 18th,19th Century rooms in Early America, Spain, England, etc.  It was very intricate and reminiscent of some of the places N and I have seen in visiting castles in Spain and early American houses.  I could have spent much more time there absorbing the detail, but the glare from the hall outside the room made some of the parts of the rooms hard to see.


Before I go any further, let me say "modern" art is not my favorite visual art.  I appreciate portraits, landscapes, and pictures that look like what they are depicting.  There was some of this type, but the vast majority of the works were not especially my favorites.  There were large and small paintings, and many of the works were not "paintings" but collages.
One interesting mixed media piece was a representation of a sitting woman made out of coat hanger wire.

One artist created a "sculpture" of the back of his shoulders and head about 3 times life size.


 And another piece looked like someone had dumped out gummy worms on a table.

  Several pieces in the museum were stuff glued over other stuff.


One of the paintings looked upside down, while another had large drips of paint cascading down the entire canvas.  One was a piece of aluminum, shot with bullets making holes and the paint splotched around the holes like blurry flowers.  One piece (small, about 8 X 10) was different colors of confetti glued on a canvas, while a very large painting was "painted" with cosmetics.

It was an interesting place and I am sure the artwork was quite expensive. 

We got back on the bus and traveled a way to a barbecue place for lunch.   Good choice by the driver.   The afternoon consisted of riding and rest stops- followed by supper at La Pinata in Meridian, Miss.  Fairly good Mexican food, if I had been hungry, which I wasn't.

By the way, I'm halfway through my 6th book.  When that is finished, I do have one downloaded on the iPad, I can finish up with and some newspaper crossword puzzles. I also brought some crochet to work on, but I don't do it long, my hands get tired.  

We'll be home Sunday after a long day of traveling with no "attractions"

Thanks for sharing our adventure with us

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Thomas Woodrow Wilson-1856-1924

Since we're on the way home, our only real activity today (Friday) is visiting the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and birthplace. in Staunton, VA.  The schedule allowed an hour and a half there with a short guided tour and then time to browse .  It was sufficient and I don't think anyone felt they didn't get to see what they wanted. However picture taking in the museum was prohibited, so I can't show you what we saw.

First we went thru the Presbyterian Manse where little Tommy was born.  We saw the parlor, formal dining room, parent's bedroom, then visited the kitchen, scullery and children's room in the basement.  Period furnishings along with some of the Wilson's personal books and furniture were in the house.  A lovely hand stitched quilt was on the bed in the bedroom we saw, as was a cradle.  I thought it interesting that the (treadle) sewing machine was in the parlor where guests were entertained.  The docent mentioned that it was a status thing, to have a sewing machine, so they wanted to show it off.  It was a fore-runner to the treadle machines that I've seen.   The kitchen was most interesting with a cast iron cook stove called a "range" taking prominence.  It was a new invention in the 1850's to have a cook stove with a "range of temperatures".  Cool!  didn't know where that term came from.  We were told that Wilson was slow to learn to read, a skill he didn't master til he was about 10-- it is thought that he was dyslexic, but when he learned, he did extremely well.  He is the only president to earn a Phd-- many have received honorary degrees, but his was earned.  Before he became the 28th U S President, he was president of Princeton and governor of New Jersey.

The household consisted of Wilson's father( a Presbyterian minister), his mother and 3 servants.  The folks talking to us called these people slaves, but slavery had been abolished by then, so I'm calling them servants.  It was mentioned that the workers came with the house and were not hired by the Wilsons.  They were "rented" (hired?) by the Presbyterian church.  They were a cook, a scullery maid and a house man who took care of the heavy chores and slept by the back door as protection.

The museum had a short film to watch about Woodrow Wilson and had various displays.  The one which interested us the most was WW's 1919 Pierce Arrow, which is in beautiful condition, having been completely redone.  It is absolutely pristine looking and had the interesting addition of a little pump knob on the dashboard for the driver to keep the pressure up in the gas tank. Wonder why the steering wheel is on the "wrong" side, it was built in Buffalo, NY. It is still used in parades.

We ate lunch at Cracker Barrel-- it is amazing how efficiently they can feed large groups with a minimum of fuss.

We drove, we had a rest stop, we drove some more, we ate this time at the Sagebrush Steakhouse in Kingsport, Tenn.  (one of our best meals on the trip) and we drove some more to get to our hotel for the night in Kodak, Tenn.  We are on page 14 of a 15 page itinerary.  Yeah, only two more days on the bus.


Friday, May 24, 2013

The Harbor


As we left Atlantic City, I heard someone in our group talking about using the ATM at the casino.  She was miffed that it charged her $24.95 to use the machine.  Glad we brought sufficient cash with us- no charge for our ATM at our bank.

Our new driver is Rick, who wears boots, big cowboy hat, etc.  He seems quite efficient, and knows where he's going, but his personality is much quieter than Stan.  Hope Stan's having fun in Canada.

We arrived at the Harbor area of Baltimore with about 2 hours to look around and have lunch.  The "official" schedule says we should have had 3 1/2 hours, but we arrived later than the schedule indicated.  We didn't get into traffic, we didn't leave late, no clue, but that's the way it is.

Harbor area is interesting. Altho we have no guide to provide a running commentary about the area, we enjoyed looking around.

We saw a big(old) ship- USS Constellation and it is open for tours, there is a large aquarium and other attractions, but we really didn't have time for those things.  Just as the bus parked to let us off, a heavy rain shower came up.  We sat for about 5 minutes until it passed and then got out to get lunch.


 The largest restaurant by where we parked was Bubba Gump's Shrimp,

but we walked further into the complex.  We finally ended up at 5 Guys burgers- N, hotdog and me small burger, which were very good.   Looked around some t shirt shops-- one shirt that caught my eye said "Yankees Suck"  There were also lots of Edgar Allen Poe shirts and souvenirs, so I'm thinking he lived here for part of his life.


We really enjoyed a place called It's Sugar--all kinds of candy and sweets imaginable.  They also carried 'giant" sizes of well known candies.
There was a giant gummy worm about 2 feet long-- $34.95, a giant tootsie pop about the size of a soft ball.  There were Hot Tamale (also Mike and Ike) candies in 1 1/2 pound sizes  and a one pound Snickers bar, 

We stopped into a gelato shop and had a small cup each, it was good but very expensive.  This would be a good place to spend more time doing the activities we didn't have time for this trip.  Maybe we should plan to go to Baltimore to see the Rangers play the Orioles someday and come back to the harbor with the time to enjoy the attractions.

We did see an interesting trash receptacle that compacts and recycles.  Good idea

Loaded the bus and drove only about 30 minutes to our hotel-- we were here on the way to NYC.  This place has one person (girl) to handle suitcases for an entire bus load of folks.  We received our suitcases almost 2 hours after arriving.  Some folks grabbed theirs and took them up themselves- guess we should have done that also.  Nick told her he hoped she got a good "tip" from the tour company and she said it was $3 per room.  She worked hard schlepping all those bags around.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

PHILADELPHIA—City of Brotherly Love





Didn’t take long to get from Atlantic City to Philadelphia- about 1 ½ hours.  We were joined by tour guide, Steve.  He gave us a great deal of history in a short amount of time and he has an accent that takes some getting used to (unlike Nadine from NYC- who was very easy to understand)   


 
 
Across from where the bus was parked to let us have a rest break is the largest U.S. Mint which makes 32 million coins per year.




William Penn was owed by the King of England, and received  46,000 square miles of land in the “New World” as payment.  He sold off most of it and became a very wealthy man.  His guiding principles were “freedom of religion” and “freedom of speech”  Pennsylvania was the only place under British rule where a Catholic Mass could be celebrated legally.


Philadelphia was inundated with school field trips today and they were everywhere—not unruly particularly but just EVERYWHERE.  We drove by Betsy Ross’s house, heard her “story” and some folks planned to go back for a better look.  



We were told that George Washington asked her to make the flag (she was an upholsterer) with 6 pointed stars and 5 pointed ones were easier, so that’s what she did.

Seems like everything started by Franklin in Philadelphia—libraries, fire departments, post office, hospital, ice cream (not Franklin, but Bass- flavor was tomato), sales receipts (Wannamaker) first Holocaust Museum (1964)

We stopped at the Phil. Museum of Art—made famous by the steps that Rocky Balboa ran up training for his fight in ROCKY.  Several of our folks walked fast up and down the stairs.

Other quirky Phil. Facts
There are more houses of worship here than any other American city.
More people walk to work per capita than any other American city
The originator of the Monopoly board game is from Phil.
In 1780 Pennsylvania abolished slavery—altho Washington brought his  from Mt. Vernon to his Philadelphia residence.

A modern law was enacted in Phil called the ” % for art law” which mandates that a percentage of funds spent on building or renovating a building must be spent on outdoor art--- hence all the sculptures and statues.


I mentioned earlier that our bus driver, Stan was very capable and a friendly person to be around.  He got a call from his boss at Diamond Tours telling him that he needed to switch to another tour group.  The other group’s driver had a death in the family and they were headed to Canada.  Stan has a passport and the other available drivers don’t.  So we’ll be “breaking in” another bus driver tomorrow.  Sorry to see him go, he felt like one of us.

We had lunch in a fancy upscale mall which used to be a warehouse


After lunch we went back to the visitor's center where we watched folks in period costume.

 
The gentleman  I am  talking to  (R) was mending an antique coat.  And we discussed how he planned to repair the jacket.  Interesting.

We’ll be leaving for Baltimore, MD tomorrow.—and a new hotel, yea!

The Resort in Atlantic City



We’re staying at Resorts Casino /Hotel of Atlantic City and have been here 2 nights so far with another to come.  We haven’t stayed anywhere more than one night, so we didn’t have much time to learn the room’s quirks.
The first thing that upset me about the Resort is the fact that they have NO WiFi and if you want to use a computer in the room, a “technician” must come to your room (for a fee) to set it up.  Give me a break!  The phones in the room are push button style and yep, there is one in the bathroom.  Of course there is no desk (for my laptop) cuz they don’t expect me to need one- and the room is plenty large enough.  The counter in the bathroom for putting things like toothpaste/ toothbrush, make-up, etc is maybe three and a half to 4 inches wide.  N messed with the thermostat to get air conditioning working any number of times and then finally called the customer service to ask for help.  The technician came and messed with the thermostat and it is working.   When we arrived we were given 4 meal vouchers that had written on them the times the buffets (breakfast and supper) would be open- also giving the $ value of the voucher.  What we weren’t told is that the breakfast buffet is only open occasionally—Tues- yes, Wed- no, Thursday-no—with no prior notification about when it will be available.  We can use the voucher at a restaurant, which usually has about a 20 min waiting list to be seated.  We had no breakfast this morning because of time constraints and lack of knowledge—I guess it is our fault—and we managed, but it doesn’t make me feel happy with the experience.

Obviously the “most important” place in the entire resort is the casino.  They have just opened a new area called Margaritaville- separate casino space/ restaurant and shop.  I couldn’t understand what the big deal was- yes I know it is a song by Jimmy Buffett, so…..

Enough about the hotel—on to-----Philadelphia

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

On the Boaardwalk




After a rather elegant breakfast buffet (is that an oxymoron?)  we figured out how to use the $30 credit we received from the resort for gambling.  The vast majority of the slot machines are penny machines, with the option of spending up to $1.00 per play, your choice.  Nick did pretty well winning $6 once and over $10 another time, but it’s all gone plus $20.  I’m not crazy about gambling—I’ve used $3 of my $30 and he’ll probably use the rest of it.  To me, it’s not fun to sit in a loud, smelly room and just sit glued to the machine.  Not fun!


After being in the casino for awhile we walked down (up?)  the boardwalk.  I’m guessing it was a couple of miles.  We stopped and looked in shops and bought a few little things, but mostly just looked.  At one point, I decided I needed to touch the Atlantic Ocean.  Walking down to the water, we saw a group of folks congregated around a “pack” of feral cats- 10-12 of them.  They seemed friendly enough, but I didn’t pet—I know what would happen if my cat Ranger were one of them, I’d be bitten/scratched before I knew what had happened.  

Saw a few folks from the tour group and one pair told us that our driver, Stan, would be leaving us in Philadelphia to drive another group into Canada.  That’s too bad, cuz he is very good, we are his first tour group (he drove big rigs before) and we will miss his friendliness.  I’m sure the substitute driver will  be fine, but……



As we walked the boardwalk, we saw the Trump Taj Mahal and went in to take a look.  It is the same inside as all casinos- dark, loud and smokey.  We also saw the Hard Rock Café.  In our travels we have made it a point to eat at HR café’s wherever it is feasible.  London, Barcelona, Scandinavia, Mexico,  lots of places.  With some of our meals paid for by the tour, not sure if we’ll get there this time or not.

Nick’s taking a nap, I think I’ll find a way to download this and then we’ll see what happens next.  
Took beach pics from our window after the sun came out a little.



We decided to eat lunch/supper at Hard Rock Cafe- 2 appetizers and some ice cream.  Back to the room for awhile and then we went to the entertainment.  Allen Edwards, a singer who performed all sorts  of familiar music. Very entertaining.    Tomorrow-- day trip to Philadelphia.

NYC

 

The breakfast this morning is the best so far.  Fresh OJ, scrambled eggs done almost correctly, very relaxing atmosphere.  Well done, Holiday Inn.

Headed thru the Holland Tunnel to NYC, some of the bus riders are excited, since they used to live in New Jersey and visited the city often.

We are in the midst of Monday morning going- to –work traffic and it is slow.  Driver calls our attention to taxis and says he has seen Smart Car taxis,  Hmmm, could only pick up one person!


We see billboards for Broadway Shows—“Silence the Musical- an unauthorized parody of Silence of the Lambs” caught my eye.   

We pick up our guide of NYC, Nadine, who has lived here all her life.  She handles people well and can be heard in a crowd.    She told us a little about herself as we passed her apartment building.  She lives  on the 5th floor of a 20 floor building which has 300 apts  in a 650 square ft. 2 bedroom apt.  Her kitchen is 6 X 8, but it’s rarely used because she and her boyfriend eat out most of the time. 

The city has 8 Million people, 13,000 taxis, 9% unemployment rate, and a moderately low crime rate.  90% of people in Manhattan live in apartments. 

As we drive around she mentions where celebrities live—Denzel Washington $15 M apartment,  Sting $30 M apartment.  We are driving on the street that the Macy’s parade uses and we go by Spielberg and also Michael Douglas/Catherine Z Jones’ apartments.   We also drive by where John Lennon was shot outside the Dakota.

We stop for a bathroom break in Central Park (150 years old).  It is not the largest park in NYC, but it is the most famous. With 22 playgrounds, it is 2 ½ miles long and ½ mile wide (843 acres).  There are 26,000 trees and 7 bodies of water.  The park has it’s own police precinct.

We stopped by a lovely fountain for a bit and then visited a French Garden, about the size of a large back yard in Tx.


We left the park, headed to HARLEM.
I’m not sure what I expected, but this wasn’t it.  Too much t.v. I guess.  If I hadn’t known, I would have thought it was just another part of any city.  There are statues of Black notables (Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas, Adam Clayton Powell,  Duke Ellington etc). 


 It became a black neighborhood because at the turn of the century developers were turning farmland into apartment complexes for middle class families, but they were reluctant to move from their current housing.  The prices were lowered and black lower economic families who previously hadn’t had good housing- moved in.  During the ‘20’s, there was an abundance of night clubs with black musicians, which only  served whites as customers.  The area was originally owned by the Dutch and the word Harlem is from the Dutch language.  Nadine said that the area has been revitalized and is a  multi-racial, very diverse area now.  This is where Bill Clinton’s office is.  Some businesses of note are the Apollo Theatre, which still has big name entertainment. Madame Alexander Dolls are manufactured here  The Cotton Club was here.

UPPER EAST SIDE-
The Harlem Meer (Dutch for little sea) isn’t in Harlem, but is a part of Central Park.  The Meer covers 11 acres and is available for “catch and release” fishing.

Some stores we saw were Cartier Jewelry, Tiffany, Sacks, Juicy Couture, Versache,  original Apple store with a huge line to get in.


We stopped for lunch at Rockafeller Center, we had an hour and that was ample time to visit the food court, find a place to sit (the most difficult part) and then walk around a bit.  The center was built in the ‘30’s as an office building with shops.  There is a statue of Prometheus by the area which in winter houses the skating rink, in summer it is an outside café/ dining area.    As suggested by Nadine, we went to Hale and Hearty for soup/sandwich.  I wouldn’t like to work there because of all the noise and the hurry, hurry, hurry.  2 medium sized cups of soup, with potato chips and one lemonade cost just over $18.    Having finished that we went in search of Ben and Jerry’s and finished the meal off right.  We did some people watching and noticed teenagers in graduation gowns—not sure if the ceremony was there or nearby, but outside waiting for the bus, we met a graduate and her parents. 

TIMES SQUARE-  It is named for the NY Times Building and is 7 blocks long and houses 40 theatres.
GARMENT CENTER-  is where wholesale clothing is bought and sold.  Used to be the area where clothing was made, but that is no longer the case.  Macy’s is the largest department store in the world, followed by London’s Harrah’s.

We drove by the Pennsylvania Hotel where Glen Miller took the phone number and made it into a famous swing song “Pennsylvania 6-5000”

Drove thru GREENWICH VILLAGE, where Nadine can get discounted tickets of all kinds and lots of freebies

SOHO   I learned that this is a high fashion area and it stands for South Of Houston Street—and they say How-ston, not Hugh-ston as we do.

TRIBECCA is where Robert DeNiro lives and he put on the film festival of the same name to gather funding for businesses in the area after 9/11 when this part of NYC was closed down.



We visited the Episcopal  St. Paul’s Chapel which is across the street from where the Towers were.  This building was a refuge for the rescuers and those who were digging through the rubble.  Here they could find a place nearby to eat, to sleep, to have someone to talk to, to get medical attention.  


 The chapel now houses memorabilia that people left near ground zero—letters, stuffed animals, and all sorts of mementos. 

 It also has a cemetery in back.  When the towers fell, not a piece of glass was broken, not a tombstone was cracked or overturned.  The only damage was to a large tree which was felled.  It is a fascinating place of remembrance of the ministry at Ground Zero.  This chapel is where George Washington worshiped when he was President in NYC before Washington DC was built.  The chapel also escaped being burned in the Great fire of 1776,  and President James Monroe’s funeral was held in this chapel

Freedom Tower
Altho’ we did not go to the 9/11 memorial (tickets must be secured a long time in advance) we did see the 4 towers that are being built and are in different stages  as memorials to the two that went down.  The Freedom Tower (#1)  will be the tallest structure in the world.

Items of interest that  we saw—trapeze school with folks practicing, at the place where the Titantic was slated to dock. 
Quirky stores/signs—Organic Dry Cleaner (how do they do that?)   Potted Potter (Harry Potter stuff)

Costs—Dog walkers charge $20 per dog for an hour, Parking garage special ½ hour for $8.45,  a month of parking in a garage- $600  Jackie Kennedy’s  apartment where she raised her children near Central Park originally cost her 
( in the 60’s, remember) $120,000—on her death the apt. sold for $7 million and recently sold again for $30 million.  
 Row houses and apartments are different.  I think of row houses as brownstones – an entire house on several levels but very narrow (front door on the street), whereas apartments rarely have direct access to the street

As you can tell if you’ve read this far, it was an information filled day and altho it is an interesting place to visit, I absolutely know that I don’t want to live in NYC.  



Sunday, May 19, 2013

"Sweetest place on earth"

 Sunday- day 4--We left the hotel in a slow drizzle which continued most of the day.  Today we visit Hershey, Pennsylvania- the sweetest place on earth- according to their signs.
Inside Chocolate World, there are various shows and tours, and if we wanted to pay for them, we probably could have done several.  We did the free tour, which reminded me of "It's a Small World" at Disney World.  There were carts for 6 folks to ride in and a cloying song about Hershey and milk that was sung by cows.  Over and Over and Over.  This "ride" gave us the basics of choc. production from picking beans, to drying and roasting them, to crushing and blending them.  Additives were mentioned (milk and sugar) as well as molding into bars or kisses.

    After the ride, we were free to browse the gift shop, the food court, or enjoy more expensive tours or movies. 

 It was rather full, but then it is a Sunday, so I expect families were there for a weekend activity.



 We bought a couple of shirts, some chocolate (DUH!), a tote bag and had lunch.  Soup and a baked potato were tasty, but the best thing we ate, was the extra dark hot fudge sundae, which we shared.  Oh My Goodness, it was WONDERFUL. 

On leaving Chocolate world, we drove 2 1/2 hours to a very good restaurant in New Jersey- close to our hotel.  The fish was unusually good, according to N and my chicken with grilled veggies was good as were the desserts which came with the meal.  The restaurant is next door to a Bed Bath and Beyond, where N and I went to get him a cushion for his bus seat.
Movie of the day was Avatar- which got REALLY loud at times.

Still raining, the bus driver is doing an excellent job of dealing with the traffic and his huge vehicle.  On the way from the restaurant to the hotel the folks in a row in the middle of the bus started getting dripped on, then the drip became a slight stream.  they got their rain coats out.  The bus is a 2013 model and the driver has diagnosed a leaking seal at the emergency door (right by the leak)  Don't know if it can be fixed or if we just have to "deal" and hope for dry weather.
Finished book #3 Baldacci's The Forgotten and will begin "The 19th Wife", a book about Mormons in the late 1800's .
The temperature today has been in the high 50's to low 60's-.  Yes, I'm wearing my jacket and have the gray cape ready if needed.
One of the folks in the bus behind me said "This has been the funnest day yet"  I concur.

Train pictures

Day 3 of bus riding is getting a little old.  We do stop every 2-3 hrs for a break, and for meals, but other than that, we RIDE.  Stan, the bus driver, is competent  and friendly-- I certainly wouldn't want his job.

We've been thru Tennessee and are now into Maryland.  We've been by lots of fields with red barns and cities and towns and as we drive movies are shown on the bus.  A Dolly Parton movie (didn't watch, but it was impossible not to hear the music), a really old Richard Widmark, Willie Nelson, Angie Dickenson movie-- something about a Texas Train.    The last movie had Ashley Judd as a lawyer representing her husband in a military court for murder.

After lunch at Shoneys   we went a little farther to Roanoke, Va to see the O.Winston Link Museum ( his photography business was called O W  L).   He was a photographer in the mid-19th century who specialized in Railroad pictures.  Pictures of the steam driven trains, stopped and moving-- pictures from the trains of fields and communities and people, and pictures of passengers enjoying the ride.  The photographic equipment was included at the museum and an explanation of the workings of the equipment.  One placard was entitled, Do you remember flashbulbs?   The museum is housed in an old but well kept (and added on-to) train station in Roanoke.

After the museum we drove for several more hours to Harrisonburg, VA for supper at Bob Evans.  Nothing spectacular, nothing bad.  We had a choice of 4 dinners (it was another prepaid-prearranged meal), with a scoop of ice cream to follow.

We drove a few more hours to our hotel in Clear Springs, Maryland where for the first time on this trip our big bags left the bus and we had access to more clothes and books.
I finished book #2 and am halfway into #3.  I also got my crochet out and did a little of it.  I won't finish it on this trip (altho' I'll certainly have the time) cuz it is tedious and makes my hands tired.
We're headed to Hershey PA for a tour and then to N.J. 

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Is this called the Deep South?

Birmingham, Alabama
Who knew Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee were this large?  Yesterday I  finished book #1 and have almost finished # 2.  The bus has a system for playing movies and the group has watched Lincoln, some Robin Williams comedy whose name I didn't catch (didn't watch it) and The King's Speech, which some of the ladies around me pronounced boring. We drove all day- 8:30am-9:30 pm with breaks and we're stiff and gripey. At least some folks in the back of the bus are, but that's another story for another day.

Lunch stop was in Tuscaloosa, AL in an area with several restaurants from which to choose.  We picked Ryans which is a Golden Corral like place with lots of choices and lots of veggies.  Must be consistently good food, we saw police cars parked there.

We visited the Vulcan Park and Museum in Birmingham.  The "Largest Cast Iron Statue in the World" is situated there overlooking the city from a very high pedestal.  The origin of the LCIS in the World was for the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis-  It is a rendition of the Roman God of the working man (the forge and steel)- in charge of smelting ores from the earth.  The 56-foot tall statue depicts the Roman god Vulcan, god of the fire and forge. There was a small display of native ores beside the tower, which had an elevator so the visitor could go up to the observation deck to see Birmingham from a high vantage point.  When the displays were dismantled from the World's Fair, the statue was brought to Alabama.  It has been refurbished recently, since Vulcan's concrete "bones" were deteriorating.  The grounds were a very pretty park-like area surrounded with shrubbery and flowering trees.

While we were there, the rain, predicted by our bus driver, arrived.  It was refreshing and made the aroma of the trees and their flowers even stronger.

We stopped for supper at Cracker Barrel (one of our meals paid for by the tour), didn't realize there were soo many choices.  We looked around after our meal, saw lots of cute things that we don't need and then drove 2 more hours to our hotel in Knoxville.

Saturday's adventure is the Winston Link Museum (photography collection) in Roanoke, VA

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Rollin' Rollin', Rollin'

Today was a day of getting from Arlington to Brandon, Mississippi.  Nothing particularly interesting or exciting planned, just sitting and going and driving.  We did stop a couple of times for "walking around" breaks and lunch. 
Several things are unique and (to me) interesting about the bus we are on.  It is wired for WiFi and each seat has electronics charging outlets.  Very technologically advanced. 

We stopped in Monroe, LA for lunch and it was excellent.  I only heard one or two complaints and those were about baked potatoes being cold.  Of the 35 or so of us, most were very, very satisfied.  Nick had a pecan crusted fish fillet and I had a grilled chicken salad. 

Our after lunch fuel stop was on the far eastern edge of Louisiana at a Loves truck stop.  Ever been to a Loves with a built in casino?  This was a first for us. 

Drove across the Mississippi river near Vicksburg and I was a little disappointed that it wasn't wider.  I guess I was remembering all the times I taught Huck Finn and he had trouble at times seeing across.  I realize that the story was set much farther north and more than a century ago, so......it is what it is.

We're in Brandon Mississippi for the night at a La Quinta which is quite adequate, but I'm not getting the Ranger's baseball game on t.v.

At least tomorrow we have a scheduled activity-- a park and museum in Birmingham.
This WiFi in the room is really slow, let's see if this will publish.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Tomorrow

We're packing and deciding and stopping mail and newspaper, making arrangements for cat and tomato plants and our car.   We've not been on a bus trip of this length and I'm dreading the time spent on the bus a little.  I'm sure once we get underway, all will be well, and we'll meet lots of fun new folks and have a wonderful time.

The good things about this trip:
No airport security to deal with,
No new currency to exchange and try to understand,
English will be spoken by all we try to deal with
No passports will be checked
We'll get to see a part of our country we haven't experienced before
We know wi-fi will be available for blogging and e-mail purposes
Can keep phone on without high charges

Uncertainty about this trip:
LONG hours on the bus (I am bringing lots of books, crossword puzzles, etc)


Check here every day or two and discover, along with us, the interesting and unusual sights, sounds and smells of  Mississippi, Tennessee, Maryland, New Jersey , NYC, and Virginia.





Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Another trip



Next week we're doing an East Coast tour with Arlington Parks and Rec. organization.  We met today with the tour manager and it looks like about 35 folks will be traveling  with us.  We are going by bus and will be visiting museums on the way to NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Atlantic City.  The most interesting "side trip" will be to Hershey's Chocolate World Visitor's Center, Hershhey, PA

There will be LOTS of bus time- so I'd better stock up on reading material.   Since we will be staying in "name" hotels, internet should be available every night.  Join me on this adventure. -->