Bound for Memphis and Graceland (because, after all, why not?), we discovered that US 72 took us right through Tuscumbia, Alabama. Now there's a familar name for anyone who has read, watched, or taught "The Miracle Worker" lo these many years. So we took a slight detour to visit "Ivy Green", the birthplace and childhood home of Helen Keller, in Tuscumbia. It is a quaint farmhouse that is a complete surprise to anyone expecting the midwestern look that it has in the movies. And the little cottage that Annie Sullivan takes Helen to, so she can teach her away from Mom and Dad's influence? It's right next door. In fact, it's the litte bridal cottage built for Kate (the second Mrs. Keller) and the actual birthplace of Helen. It's a few steps away from the main house, not miles away on the plantation as it is usually seen. But the pump?
The pump is there - now enshrined in a gazebo like covering - but right there in the yard. The pump where Helen made the discovery that W-A-T-E-R meant that liquid stuff pouring over her hands. And from that connection, she went on to graduate cum laude from college, hobnob with presidents and world leaders, and write several books.
Back to Route 72, we soon found ourselves in Mississippi where we stopped for lunch in Corinth. We thought about exploring a few Civil War battlefields, but decided to hold those off for another (perhaps cooler) time. And then a short drive back into Tennessee and Memphis.
Our first stop was to Beale Street - center of town and the birthplace of the blues and rock'n'roll. We celebrated its heritage by grabbing dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and wandering the street, listening to bar musicians playing the blues and r'n'b live. W.C. Handy is given credit for the birth of the blues when he wrote "Memphis City Blues" right here on this street. Today, there's a statue in his honor, horn and all. Beale Street was also the home of Sun Records, Sam Phillips' recording studio that was visited by a young Elvis Presley in 1955.
Two years later, after "Hound Dog" and numerous others, he bought Graceland - a beautiful stone facade mansion that served as his home until his death 20 years later. Now it is Presley Enterprises: tours of the mansion (headphones and players in hand) through the "jungle room" living room, his indoor racquet ball court (and lounge area where he died), and the gravesites for him and his parents and paternal grandmother. In addition, across the street (Elvis Presley Boulevard), separate museums celebrate his films, his cars, his two airplanes, his life in the Army 1958- 60, his outfits (those jewel-bedecked jump suits that all the imitators have) and gift shops/cafes galore. We bought VIP passes - why not? - and took the full 4 hours to really get to know and/or remember Elvis.
But the heat - it's closing in on 100 again - made us get back to the AC in our motel - only 5 minutes away. Luckily. Because while we sat in the room and wrote postcards, a major thunderstorm hit and continued pouring for over an hour. But this time we had our car windows closed!
We ordered pizza delivered to our room and just relaxed. Tomorrow we head for Arkansas - the actual goal of this trip after Atlanta, remember? But who knows? There may be a side trip or two in store.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
No matter where you go...
We're back to that fascinating theory of ours that it does not really matter where you go, there is always something of interest that was somehow not originally obvious in the planning. After discovering Montgomery (our description of which also should have included the beautiful grounds of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival) and the world of Talassee, we proceeded through the countryside of Alabama through the infamous Birmingham and up to Huntsville, home of NASA's Space and Rocket Center.
Huntsville was formerly home to the Marshall Space Center, where Werner Von Braun and other German and American scientists formulated the American space program. Today, the center is a tribute to that program - dominated by an actual Saturn V rocket, towering over the parking lot. Trivia: In a scale model of the rocket, a person would only be 7.5" in comparison to its height. In addition, the center has lunar modules, astronaut suits, artifacts from the Apollo program, and an full-size mockup of the space shuttle and its booster rockets.
We also had a lesson in perspective: given the heat, we had left the moon roof slightly open in the parking lot. During our lunch break, we noted dark clouds and increasing winds, but failed to respond appropriately. After exploring the museum a little more (they have a shutle simulator where you have to try to land the shuttle successfully), we looked outside and it was teeming! Quick with the umbrella and through the storm to try to rescue our vehicle and its contents. Which I did. Sort of. Some things were wet; the seats were soaked; but nothing major destroyed. Not like another person who was leaving the museum, slipping on the wet stairs, and taken away by an ambulance. Something else must have occurred as well, for, after the lightning storm had abated somewhat, two fire trucks arrived and stayed. A final reminder that a little rain is nothing to get upset over came as we walked back to our motel room after feasting at a local "Barnhill's Buffet". A loud crack pulled us out of our conversation to see a car ramming into another at a red light - did one not stop? It happened so quickly, we could not be sure. One car did a 360 turn, its airbag and alarm went off; the other vehicle (the one hit?) took a while to stop, finally resting about 100 feet down the highway. EMTs arrived quickly, so we wandered back "home", reflecting that it had been a strange day. Space, with its disasters of Apollo I and Challenger; Earth, with its ability to change focus within seconds. "There but for Fortune, go you and I" says Phil Ochs. I think I'll drive very carefully tomorrow.
Huntsville was formerly home to the Marshall Space Center, where Werner Von Braun and other German and American scientists formulated the American space program. Today, the center is a tribute to that program - dominated by an actual Saturn V rocket, towering over the parking lot. Trivia: In a scale model of the rocket, a person would only be 7.5" in comparison to its height. In addition, the center has lunar modules, astronaut suits, artifacts from the Apollo program, and an full-size mockup of the space shuttle and its booster rockets.
We also had a lesson in perspective: given the heat, we had left the moon roof slightly open in the parking lot. During our lunch break, we noted dark clouds and increasing winds, but failed to respond appropriately. After exploring the museum a little more (they have a shutle simulator where you have to try to land the shuttle successfully), we looked outside and it was teeming! Quick with the umbrella and through the storm to try to rescue our vehicle and its contents. Which I did. Sort of. Some things were wet; the seats were soaked; but nothing major destroyed. Not like another person who was leaving the museum, slipping on the wet stairs, and taken away by an ambulance. Something else must have occurred as well, for, after the lightning storm had abated somewhat, two fire trucks arrived and stayed. A final reminder that a little rain is nothing to get upset over came as we walked back to our motel room after feasting at a local "Barnhill's Buffet". A loud crack pulled us out of our conversation to see a car ramming into another at a red light - did one not stop? It happened so quickly, we could not be sure. One car did a 360 turn, its airbag and alarm went off; the other vehicle (the one hit?) took a while to stop, finally resting about 100 feet down the highway. EMTs arrived quickly, so we wandered back "home", reflecting that it had been a strange day. Space, with its disasters of Apollo I and Challenger; Earth, with its ability to change focus within seconds. "There but for Fortune, go you and I" says Phil Ochs. I think I'll drive very carefully tomorrow.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Montgomery: home of Civil War and Civil Rights
After a brief visit to the Atlanta Zoo, itwas down the road towards Montgomery, Alabama. We stayed outside of the city in a little town called Talassee (accent on the first syllable), in the Hotel Talisi (said exactly the same way, just spelled differently). It is a quaint old style hotel, looking like something out of "Gunsmoke" except it has a bathroom. Actually ours has two because it used to be two rooms! The lobby has an old bathtub/shower which the owner suggested could be used, but I couldn't see any pipes. I knew he was kidding around with the Yankee. The hotel has a restaurant that closes at 3 p.m., so dinner on Sunday was at a Hudde House. Our room, on the second floor, is off a lobby that has several arm chairs, tables, a piano, several cases containing Hummel-like knick-knacks, and an old-fashioned phone booth. In fact I'm writing this from the hallway because the wi-fi doesn't carry into the rooms.
We had a fabulous (albeit hot - it's closing in on 100 in town) day in beautiful downtown Montgomery, under the guidance of our good friend Phillip, who spent 17 years here as a teacher before he left for the slightly cooler (in all senses of the word) New Jersey. Anyway, it was fun to get a hometown boy's tour. It began with breakfast at Chappy's, a "NY style deli", that makes you buy the milk for your coffee if you don't use cream. Then, it was on to town.
Montgomery was the capital of the Confederacy and is the current capital of the state. Driving around town, there are a number of historic markers explaining the beginnings of the Civil War: the vote for secession was taken in the House of Representatives' room in the Capitol; the telegram that OK'd the bombing of Fort Sumter was sent from here. Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, lived and ruled here, in what is affectionately called "the Confederate White House". It is white and it contains a large number of artifacts and belongings from the period. One room holds the furniture that was in the NY hotel room occupied by Mrs. Davis at her death in 1906 and the chair that she sent to him when he was imprisoned by the North. Ironically, just down the street is the Baptist Church in which Martin Luther King was pastor in the 50s, and the place where the vote was taken to begin the bus boycott after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat in 1955. The march for civil rights took place on the very street we drove on, heading up "goat hill" toward the Capitol.
We visited a few other churches before enjoying lunch in the Davis Cafe, a primarily black dining establishment which Phillip used to frequent while employed nearby in the Booker T. Washingon Magnet School for the Arts. We had fried pork chops; Patty tried some turnip greens and brown beans, and we feasted on a sweet "red velvet" cake for dessert. Very tasty.
The heat took us back to Talassee, after bidding goodbye to our tour guide. And the heat in the hall is sending me back into the air-conditioned room.
We had a fabulous (albeit hot - it's closing in on 100 in town) day in beautiful downtown Montgomery, under the guidance of our good friend Phillip, who spent 17 years here as a teacher before he left for the slightly cooler (in all senses of the word) New Jersey. Anyway, it was fun to get a hometown boy's tour. It began with breakfast at Chappy's, a "NY style deli", that makes you buy the milk for your coffee if you don't use cream. Then, it was on to town.
Montgomery was the capital of the Confederacy and is the current capital of the state. Driving around town, there are a number of historic markers explaining the beginnings of the Civil War: the vote for secession was taken in the House of Representatives' room in the Capitol; the telegram that OK'd the bombing of Fort Sumter was sent from here. Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, lived and ruled here, in what is affectionately called "the Confederate White House". It is white and it contains a large number of artifacts and belongings from the period. One room holds the furniture that was in the NY hotel room occupied by Mrs. Davis at her death in 1906 and the chair that she sent to him when he was imprisoned by the North. Ironically, just down the street is the Baptist Church in which Martin Luther King was pastor in the 50s, and the place where the vote was taken to begin the bus boycott after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat in 1955. The march for civil rights took place on the very street we drove on, heading up "goat hill" toward the Capitol.
We visited a few other churches before enjoying lunch in the Davis Cafe, a primarily black dining establishment which Phillip used to frequent while employed nearby in the Booker T. Washingon Magnet School for the Arts. We had fried pork chops; Patty tried some turnip greens and brown beans, and we feasted on a sweet "red velvet" cake for dessert. Very tasty.
The heat took us back to Talassee, after bidding goodbye to our tour guide. And the heat in the hall is sending me back into the air-conditioned room.
Friday, July 25, 2008
More thoughts on Atlanta
Southern hospitality has a true representative in the people of Atlanta. From our very first experience (getting lost), we were treated kindly by all we met. A fire fighter returning from a fire said "Wow, how did you get here?" when we told him where we wanted to go and then explained what streets and what turns we needed. When that didn't work completely, we flagged down one of Atlanta's finest - police this time - and he not only gave us specific directions, but he said "Now, you'll want to turn left onto Peachtree. Turn left! Even if it says not to (several streets in Atlanta do not allow left turns), do it anyway. And if you get stopped by a police officer, tell them that Officer Somers (and he gave us his badge number) said it was OK." And then he proceeded to give us his cell phone number in case we got lost again!
In addition, several folks in white uniforms walk up and down the downtown streets and, if you look a little confused, will say "May I help you?" And then give directions to the restaurant or hotel or MARTA (their subway & bus line). And down in the MARTA station, another color uniform says "where do you want to go? Will you go again tomorrow?" And shows us how to use the coin-operated ticket machine and then how to use the ticket to get through the gates. And finally, even the guy on the street: a valet parking employee (well, he was wearing a uniform so it seemed OK to ask) was happy to point out that we were going the wrong way to get back to our hotel from the subway. All in all, very pleasant people.
Atlanta is also very lovely. Today we visited its Botanical Gardens in Piedmont Park. Not overly large but well represented in the flora collection. A Japanese garden, complete with contemplative shelter, to relax and chant "om" (I don't know, is that Japanese?) A rose garden that unfortunately in the drought was not doing too well- so the garden gave us little lessons on how to conserve water and stil have a garden. And the indoor conservatory with its tropical desert from Madagascar, trees and frogs from Costa Rica, orchids from Asia, and the mountain tropics (a cool and wet respite from the 90 degree heat outside).
From there, with its natural beauty, we went on to the High Art Museum, a complex of three buildings with three floors of fine art. The current display is "The Louvre Atlanta", a collection of Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and mid-East sculptures from as long ago as 4200 BC and the more recent first millenium AD. In addition, a floor of American folk (self-taught) art and another on 18th-19th century American and European art. Other floors presented other eras and styles, but time would not allow us the pleasure. I'm supposed to be attending a conference, remember?
In addition, several folks in white uniforms walk up and down the downtown streets and, if you look a little confused, will say "May I help you?" And then give directions to the restaurant or hotel or MARTA (their subway & bus line). And down in the MARTA station, another color uniform says "where do you want to go? Will you go again tomorrow?" And shows us how to use the coin-operated ticket machine and then how to use the ticket to get through the gates. And finally, even the guy on the street: a valet parking employee (well, he was wearing a uniform so it seemed OK to ask) was happy to point out that we were going the wrong way to get back to our hotel from the subway. All in all, very pleasant people.
Atlanta is also very lovely. Today we visited its Botanical Gardens in Piedmont Park. Not overly large but well represented in the flora collection. A Japanese garden, complete with contemplative shelter, to relax and chant "om" (I don't know, is that Japanese?) A rose garden that unfortunately in the drought was not doing too well- so the garden gave us little lessons on how to conserve water and stil have a garden. And the indoor conservatory with its tropical desert from Madagascar, trees and frogs from Costa Rica, orchids from Asia, and the mountain tropics (a cool and wet respite from the 90 degree heat outside).
From there, with its natural beauty, we went on to the High Art Museum, a complex of three buildings with three floors of fine art. The current display is "The Louvre Atlanta", a collection of Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and mid-East sculptures from as long ago as 4200 BC and the more recent first millenium AD. In addition, a floor of American folk (self-taught) art and another on 18th-19th century American and European art. Other floors presented other eras and styles, but time would not allow us the pleasure. I'm supposed to be attending a conference, remember?
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Hotlanta
"Oh Atlanta, I hear you calling...." (Allison Krause & Union Station)
Well, it's calling because of this theater and education conference, otherwise I think I'd come back in cooler time of year weather. We arrived in the midst of a thunderstorm (they badly need the rain - a drought has lowered their reservoirs considerably and I understand they've had to go to Tennessee to get some water.) Our travel day took us through 100 degree temps, though after the storm, it's closer to 88.
But Atlanta is beautiful. I spent part of the day in the Woodruff Arts Center (named for the founding owner of Coca-Cola) and the Center for Puppetry where I learned to make a shadow puppet. Lots of things to see and do here - a new aquarium, a botanical garden, Coca-Cola, and CNN. And, oh yeah, I'm supposed to go to theater workshops!
Well, it's calling because of this theater and education conference, otherwise I think I'd come back in cooler time of year weather. We arrived in the midst of a thunderstorm (they badly need the rain - a drought has lowered their reservoirs considerably and I understand they've had to go to Tennessee to get some water.) Our travel day took us through 100 degree temps, though after the storm, it's closer to 88.
But Atlanta is beautiful. I spent part of the day in the Woodruff Arts Center (named for the founding owner of Coca-Cola) and the Center for Puppetry where I learned to make a shadow puppet. Lots of things to see and do here - a new aquarium, a botanical garden, Coca-Cola, and CNN. And, oh yeah, I'm supposed to go to theater workshops!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Why don't you stop by?
Be careful with those words, everybody. Like Elwood P. Dowd in "Harvey", I am not only likely to say "w-w-when?" but I am also likely to show up! On our way south, I got in touch with an old Summerfun colleague who had married and moved to Maryland. One of Jeanne's e-mails said "come by sometime" so finally, after several years of e-mails and Christmas letters, we did! A beautiful home in Chesapeake Beach slightly damaged by a recent tornado but otherwise absolutely gorgeous.
A little further south our cousins Betty Ann and George, in the middle of Virginia, near Skyline Drive. "You're welcome anytime" she said so there we were. A lakeside cottage. A tad warm this time of year, but still a lovely drive in the country, especially over to a peach farm to pick your own peaches and enjoy a tasty frozen peach yogurt (or the peach-strawberry combo, yum!)
A third visit to the nephew and family in Henderson, NC. Another fine repast together.
And now we are headed for Atlanta, but first - I remembered that one of my VHS colleagues lived in South Carolina. And hey! It's right off I-85, which is where we're going. Look out, Sigrid, here we come!
A little further south our cousins Betty Ann and George, in the middle of Virginia, near Skyline Drive. "You're welcome anytime" she said so there we were. A lakeside cottage. A tad warm this time of year, but still a lovely drive in the country, especially over to a peach farm to pick your own peaches and enjoy a tasty frozen peach yogurt (or the peach-strawberry combo, yum!)
A third visit to the nephew and family in Henderson, NC. Another fine repast together.
And now we are headed for Atlanta, but first - I remembered that one of my VHS colleagues lived in South Carolina. And hey! It's right off I-85, which is where we're going. Look out, Sigrid, here we come!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
48 and counting
As anyone who knows us (my wife Patty and I) knows, we love to travel. In addition to the occasional Canada, United Kingdom, and Ireland trips, we have traveled throughout the United States - visiting 48 of the 50; missing only Hawaii and Arkansas. Now when I say visit, I mean stopped in for at least a few hours or overnight. We are constantly amazed that "no matter where you go, there you are" to borrow a phrase. This has taken us to Teddy Roosevelt NP in North Dakota, lighthouses along the Oregon coast, Disneyland and Disney world, the coastal islands of North and South Carolina, my father's birthplace of Tucson and its neighboring vilage of Ajo, Arizona. But somehow, following interstates, bus, or Amtrak lines, we went right by Arkansas. Arkansas? How do you miss Arkansas? (Or, more likely, some would ask, why go there in the first place?)
That will be the goal of this 2008 travel - to discover the wonders of Arkansas (beyond it being the birthplace of Civil Rights and Bill Clinton). Our trek will take us south to Atlanta, then west to Montgomery and Huntsville, Alabama; Memphis and Graceland; and on to the Ozarks - actual home of the "hillbilly" - somewhat ironic after spending 27 years in Verona, NJ, whose "mascot" is a hillbilly.
Hawaii will have to wait.
That will be the goal of this 2008 travel - to discover the wonders of Arkansas (beyond it being the birthplace of Civil Rights and Bill Clinton). Our trek will take us south to Atlanta, then west to Montgomery and Huntsville, Alabama; Memphis and Graceland; and on to the Ozarks - actual home of the "hillbilly" - somewhat ironic after spending 27 years in Verona, NJ, whose "mascot" is a hillbilly.
Hawaii will have to wait.
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