Making Our Way To Austin Texas.......

During our stay in Memphis we took a day to drive up to Wilson Arkansas.  Why Wilson you ask....???? Well, our friend Gary, from Nashville, is involved with this town being renovated and rejuvenated.  The town of Wilson, and surrounding 65,000 acres, was recently purchased by Gaylon Lawrence for a mere $150 million.  There is a whole lot of history about this town of Wilson, and Lee Wilson & Company, one of the oldest family-owned businesses in Arkansas.  If you are interested, you can check out the link below for more information:

http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/34051/150-million-sale-brings-an-end-to-wilson-empire?page=all

There are cotton fields forever in this area, and we were invited to visit a Cotton Gin.  We have been wondering what they do with all that cotton, and how was it cleaned and processed after picking.  From what we hear, this Cotton Gin is one of the most modern in the country.  Pretty much totally computerized, and the management likes to see people just standing around, which tells them everything is working fine.

The white is cotton being fed through machines that separates the husks and seeds, then it is sent to another machine below, to compress it into 500 pound bales for shipping.

The seed is very high in protein, and is used for cow feed.  The cotton seed is transported via air tubes and stored for resale.  The bottom right picture shows three 500 lb bales waiting to be loaded in a waiting truck.

We were taken on a personal guided tour, behind the scenes of this little town of Wilson, and shown plans of upcoming town improvements.  If our travels take us back this way we will return to see how it turns out.

Our daughter, Andrea, asked if we were in the area of Tishomingo Oklahoma, could we stop at the "Pink Pistol" to pick her up a T-Shirt.  For all you Country Music people out there, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton live in Tishomingo Oklahoma, and Miranda has opened her second Pink Pistol store here.  Her first store was opened a few years ago in her home town of Lindale Texas.  This year was her second annual "Pink Friday" celebration, the day after Thanksgiving.  Main Street Tishomingo was blocked off, where there were Bands playing, vendors selling their wares, and a two hour line to get into Miranda's store.

Everything in the town was decorated in PINK, for Pink Friday, even Santa, and a few other children characters that were roaming around.  Pink was definitely the color of the day.  We didn't find Blake or Miranda, but the weather was nice, we had a Great Day and we found a couple of T-Shirt.

One corner of the store was dedicated to "SHIT", where we had a hard time trying to figure out what to purchase.  We figured Blake had something to do with this corner of the store., and we decided to leave this Shit alone, since we already have enough Shit.

Neil McCoy was scheduled to perform at 8PM, but since the nights have been getting down right COLD, and we had an hour drive back to our wheelhouse, in the dark, we decided to skip the show and head home.

Tomorrow we travel South toward Austin.  Hopefully we will find warmer weather so we can work on our winter tans.  We fly home on the 11th for Christmas and will return January 8th.  We are looking forward to spending the Holidays with all of our family and friends, and enjoying some good old fashion Northwest weather.

Thanks for looking in on us, and we will continue our adventure after the first of the year.

Hope you have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,

Steve and Roberta

On the Road to Memphis

Before we said goodbye to our friends, and Nashville, we had to make one more trip downtown.  Our first stop was the Ryman Auditorium, which was the original "Grand Ole Opry".  The Auditorium was vacant for many years before it went through a complete renovation, and is now a National Historical Building.  The Ryman is still used for concerts and events, since this venue has some amazing acoustical properties.

Absolutely Beautiful and so much history

Our next stop was the Country Music Hall of Fame.  On our way, we took a short detour over the Cumberland River, on a walking bridge, where we could see a nice view of downtown Nashville and LP Field where the Tennessee Titans play football.  The red art structure is part of a Roller Coaster that was at the amusement park where the new Grand Ole Opry is now located.  Our visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame was "GREAT", but our pictures did not turn out very well.

The Pedal Tavern looked like FUN, but it was a CHILLY day in Nashville so we decided not to partake.

 From Nashville we made our way to Memphis, for just a couple of days.

Our first stop was "Graceland", the home of Elvis.

Elvis Memorial Garden, where Elvis, his mother, father, grandmother and younger brother are laid to rest.

Elvis had a couple of aircraft.  The Lisa Marie was named after his daughter.

And a trip to Memphis would not be complete without stopping on Beale Street, to listen to some Blues and enjoy some Barbecue.

We were directed down a dark alley, to the World Famous "Charles Vergos' Rendezvous" where we stuffed our face with some delicious Charcoal Barbecued Ribs, and then a stop at the Rum Boogie Bar and BB Kings Blues Bar for a couple of brews and some good music.

We have a few more destinations we want to visit before we make it to Austin, where we will fly home for Christmas on December 11th.

We aren't sure where our next stop will be, so please come back to see what we find along the way.

As always, Thanks for looking in on us.

Steve and Roberta

Chattanooga and Nashville

We are currently just outside of Nashville, staying at our friends, Gary and Debs house.  Gary cut down a small tree so were able to park our wheelhouse in their front yard.  As you can see, they have a very big front yard, so we weren't in the way.  These pictures were taken from where we were parked.  We ran an extension cord for power, and hooked up the hose for water, and we were at home, at our friends house.

We stayed just minutes outside of Chattanooga for two nights, to check out the area, and visit Ruby Falls.

There didn't seem to be much going on in Chattanooga, so we were glad that our stay was going to be a short one.  We did locate the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Railway Station.  The Railway Station is also a Hotel, where they have some of the old rail cars converted into hotel suites.

We drove up to lookout mountain to see the view, but like many other places, the view will cost you money. Since it was a view of Chattanooga, we didn't need to see it for $50.  We managed to find a couple of places that gave us the same view, and at Rock City we found a unique Starbucks.

After reading bad reviews about the Ruby Falls Cave Tour, we decided to checkout a much recommended cave tour at Raccoon Mountain.  This was a pretty cool cave, and we were the only two people on the tour.

Last Friday evening we went out to Barefoot Charlie's, just outside of Nashville, to listen to one of our mutual friends play and sing.  Our friend Mark likes playing small venues with his just his guitar, and an occasional harmonica.  Mark's Bride, Terri, was also there, so we had a wonderful evening with our Nashville friends, eating a burger, having a brew and listening to some wonderful music.  Thanks Mark. 

Gary has a friend that volunteers at the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville.  All the vehicles in this museum are European, (well most of them) and some of them are very different.  We had our own private tour guide, where we were taken for a ride in a very cool European compact car, and were privileged enough to see behind the curtain, where the public is not allowed.

Steve's Favorite

Yup, an air driven car.  Hang onto your hat on this ride.

3 wheeled vehicles

Sporty Models

 Roberta's Favorite

Motorcycles and Bicycles

And our ride in a antique European compact car

There is a Nissan Automobile Factory here in Nashville, and Nissan rents space in the basement of the museum, to store some of their concept cars.  So, behind the curtain, are a few cars that most of the public have never seen, and probably never will.

For all you Oregon Duck Fans, here is an older Ferrari, that any Duck Fan would love to drive to the Game.

We only have a few days left before we say good-bye to our Nashville friends, and look for some warmer weather.  This weekend we are planning to tour the Ryman Theater (Original Grand Ole Opry) and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Moving on to the Memphis area on Monday.

Thanks for taking another look at us.

Roberta and Steve

Where is Stone Mountain.......????

Ya, we know exactly how you feel......  Always wondering, where in the world is "Stone Mountain"..

Anyway, we were told by our friends, from Sandy Oregon, that if we got around Atlanta we should checkout Stone Mountain.  After looking up Stone Mountain online it appeared to be an amusement park, so we were a bit apprehensive about even stopping, but Fred and Tina would not steer us wrong.  It turned out to be a beautiful park, and a great campground to stay in.  Stone Mountain is basically this mammoth Rock, made of Granite, sticking out of the ground.  It just doesn't look like it belongs here.

The park is 3200 acres in size, with a wide variety of things for people to do.  There is a SkyTram to take you to the top of the rock (Not the Rockefeller Center), a railroad to take you around the Rock, golf course, lakes, and even some history.  On one side Stone Mountain is a carving titled "Confederate Memorial Carving".  Long story about the carving, but it depicts three Confederate hero's of the Civil War, President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.

More information is available from the  link below if you are interested:
http://www.stonemountainpark.com/activities/history-nature/Confederate-Memorial-Carving.aspx

Also, if you checkout the provided link, you can see some incredible pictures of the carving.

Much better than ones we managed to get.

Our pictures make it look like a PacMan carving.......  Sorry

We took the tram to the top, which gave us an awesome view of the Atlanta area, and trees for as far as you can see.  In the Winter they transform one area of the Stone Mountain Park into a snow park.  In the upper right hand picture you can see a white round object at the bottom.  The white mound is a mountain of man made snow, and it is growing every minute.  "CRAZY"

The snow is being blown onto the mound, you can sort of see the nozzle at the bottom left.  Some how the wooden ramps will be covered with that snow, and much more, and will become a tubing area.  Pretty Cool.

The lake in the park is huge, and stretches all around.  It was amazingly beautiful with the leaves turning colors, the water backdrop, the ducks and turtles on the lake, and did we mention the "SUN".

The park has an old historic Plantation, with a well preserved home and grounds, covered bridge out to an island and a water powered Grist Mill.

 So, Thank You, Fred and Tina, for your recommendation to visit "Stone Mountain".  A very beautiful place.

Tomorrow we make our way up North a bit, to Chattanooga Tennessee, to another recommendation from Fred and Tina, "Ruby Falls".  We are told that this is a huge, 145 foot, waterfall, underground in a cave. We don't expect that we will be disappointed.  We'll let you know.

As always, thanks for looking in on us.  See ya next time.

Steve and Roberta

Virginia and North Carolina................

Not to much excitement going on for right now.  We made our way down to Williamsburg Virginia for a few nights.  It is amazing what just a couple hundred miles will do for the weather.  We are finally back in shorts and flip-flops..............  "YAHOO"

Colonial Williamsburg is an old 17 Century town which has been well preserved.  Many people walking around in period clothing, horse drawn buggies, and like everywhere else out here in the East, lots and lots of history.  I wish I would have taken History more seriously in school.

The Original College of William and Mary Campus

Stopped by Virginia Beach, but not much going on this time of the year.  We could tell that this is a very popular area during the summer.  Many high rise hotels, lots of eateries and plenty of shops to visit.

We found these meters all along the boardwalk on Virginia Beach.  We didn't see any panhandlers, but it was a slow day at the beach.  We wonder if the donation meters have made a difference.  Hummmmm.... we will probably never know

From Virginia Beach we headed down to the Southeastern coast of North Carolina, wanting to checkout the Outer Banks, that we have heard so much about.  We jumped in the truck for day of sightseeing, with really no idea where we were going, just wanted to enjoy the warm sunshine and hopefully find the beach.  We found water, but that seems to be everywhere around here.  We stumbled upon a ferry, that takes you, and your vehicle, across the bay.  Best part about it......?,  it was free.  We are so into free, that we didn't give it much thought, and off we went. The ferry dropped us off very close to the Carolina Outer Banks, just where we wanted to be.  The ferry saved us a couple of hours driving all the way around the bay.  Some Days things just seem to go flawlessly.

We were ready for a snack, and possibly a cold one, so we pulled into this little port town, just off the highway, "Atlantic Beach".  Beautiful Place, with a boardwalk along the water, and access to boat moorages. Luck was with us again, because we found that cold one, with outside seating and an incredible view.

Just down the road a few miles, was Emerald Isle Beach, where we saw a sign pointing to a fishing pier, so away we went.  Turned out to be another pretty cool find.  This pier goes way out into the ocean, and it is just for fishing.  No cost to go out on the pier, where some people were just reading a book, but most were, ya you guessed it.... fishing.

We purchased a beer at the pier store and walked out to the end.  

The very end of the pier is for the larger fish, but there are a few restrictions.

Some people really get into their fishing.  Yup, those are fishing poles mounted on the front of that truck.

And our day would not be complete without a quick stop at.........

We are currently in Hilton Head, South Carolina, leaving tomorrow, heading toward Nashville. We plan to make a couple of stops along the way and hopefully be back at Gary and Debs by Friday.  From what we see on the evening news, we managed to get out of the Northeast just in time.  Colder weather, rain and snow are expected in the next few weeks.  We have our airline reservations, to fly home for Christmas, flying out of Austin texas.  We have reserved a place to store the wheelhouse and truck, so it looks like we are ready.

That's about it for now.  Just cruising around the country, until we find our way to Austin sometime next month.  We'll keep posting........

Thanks for checking in on us.

Roberta and Steve