🚙2017 March 27-29, Adventures in the Smoky Mts

Before we could get on the road we had to take our Chrysler Van in for body repairs.
We stopped in Elgin to have the front end checked on the Honda Van and had to leave it for repairs so we ended up driving the LS Saturn an older car that got good gas mileage.
We stopped for our weekly B-12 shots and began our journey.
We took I-65 North to 840west to 40west stopping at Pilot in Knoxville to fill up with gas.

We stopped in Lancaster Tennessee Rest Stop where we saw a display about Tennessee in the Civil War, tough men ~ an even tougher war. 

We reached the Inn on the River around 5PM, checked in and rested a few minutes, and rode to the Islands where we saw the ferries wheel, Dudley's Daiquiris, Mellowmushroom Pizza, Margaritaville, and a Carrousel.
We were getting hungry so we decided to eat at Paula Deen's but it was way too much food and we both were watching our weight so we ended up eating at Long John Silvers.
I ordered a piece of Cod Fish (my favorite) and a hubby seafood platter which we shared.
We rode past the Old Mill stopping at Patriots Park which was nearby.

Liberty Bell
Home to a beautiful landscape and several major events, Patriot Park is an area where you can go to relax and have an exciting time.

The park is located behind The Old Mill, off Middle Creek Road. A large expanse of lush greens covers the park, but the highlight of the park is certainly the inspiring Veterans Memorial.

A large, cracked liberty bell was erected within the park to pay homage to all of the Sevier County war veterans. This act of patriotism carries over into the Annual Celebrate Freedom event, a two-week celebration that pays tribute to the millions of men and women who courageously fought for the freedoms of America. When visiting Sevier County be sure to take some time to pay a visit to Pigeon Forge's Patriot Park.

Patriot Missile
Patriot uses an advanced aerial interceptor missile and high-performance radar systems. Patriot was developed at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, which had previously developed the Safeguard ABM system and its component Spartan and hypersonic speed Sprint missiles. The symbol for Patriot is a drawing of a Revolutionary War-era Minuteman.

Patriot Park City of Pigeon Forge
A patriot is someone who feels strong support for their country. (See also Patriotism.) It is derived from the Hellenic (Greek) word Πατρίς (Patris), which means homeland. It is the female form of Πατέρας, which means Father

Liberty Bell

We rode back to the hotel watched some television and fell asleep.

The next morning we took the elevator from the fourth floor to the ground level and walked to the dining room to eat breakfast.
We then rode through Gatlinburg looking at the sites where the fire had been earlier in the year.

We crossed the Tennessee State line into North Carolina

It was a bit chilly and I had left my jacket back at the hotel

The Smoky Mountains

Our next stop is Mountain Farm Museum & Visitor Center Oconaluftee, NC 
At the Mountain Farm Museum, we saw Corn Cribs, Broomcorn, Sorghum Mill and Furnace, Blacksmith Shop, Sorghum Cane, the fenced-in garden, an Apple House, Hog PINS, the Meat-house, Corn Cribs, AND Springhouse

Cabin

Mountain Farm Museum 

Most of the buildings on a mountain farm are related to the most basic of all needs; preserving food. The historic buildings at the Mountain Farm Museum were moved here from throughout the national park in the early 1950s. These buildings reflect the challenges faced daily by every mountain farm family. John Davis spent two years building this house near Deep Creek, North Carolina. It was completed in about 1900. The log walls are "matched"; Davis split chestnut logs in half along their length and placed the halves in matching positions on opposite walls. 

Oconaluftee River Trail  

Hand-stitched quilts at Oconaluftee Visitor Center 

Inside the Oconaluftee Visitor Center 
We saw cultural-themed exhibits about the people that once lived in the area. 

Our next stop was Cherokee Veterans Park where we saw markers from Indians who had served in the US Army, US Navy, US Marines, and US Air Force.

A bear at the Cherokee Veterans Park representing our US Flag and the American Eagle. 

We enjoyed a Whopper, Whopper Jr, onion rings, and a slice of chocolate cheesecake at Burger King in Clyde, NC.

Slice of  Oreo Cookie Cheese Cake 

Whopper Jr, Onion Rings, and drink
We took a different route (I-40s)back to the Inn on the River and stopped to tour the Bush Museum and Store. 

Come on down to the BUSH'S® Visitor Center in Chestnut Hill, Tennessee, where you can trace the values and events that made BUSH'S BEST® for what it is today. And it's all housed in the original A.J. Bush & Company general store, founded in 1897.

Bush's Truck 

Bush's Visitor Center

3901 US-411, Dandridge, TN 37725

A replica can of Bush's Baked Beans showing the bean's journey 

Jay Bush and his dog Duke 

Bush's Factory 

We arrived in Pigeon Forge just in time for dinner at the Apple Farm Restaurant.
Where we enjoyed Applewood Apple Fritters, juice, chicken, and vegetables.

Applewood Apple Fritters

Ingredients

1 cup milk
1 egg (beaten)
4 Tbsp margarine
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 orange, rind, and juice
1 cup apples (chopped but not too fine)
3 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Beat egg. In a mixing bowl, combine the milk, egg, and melted margarine. Add the orange juice, rind, chopped apples (skin can be left on), and vanilla. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Stir into milk mixture with a spoon until blended. DO NOT OVERMIX. Preheat oil in a skillet to 350 degrees. Drop off the end of tablespoons into the hot oil. Fry to a golden brown. Turn so they brown evenly. Allow cooling Makes about 30 fritters. 

Applewood Farm 

We had enough left over for the next day.
After enjoying a nice meal we rode back to the hotel, took a shower climbed into bed to watch some television, and fell asleep.

The next morning we dressed and rode the elevator down to the first floor and walked into the dining room for breakfast.
We checked out and headed for home. 
We stopped to fill up with gas and stopped at the I-75  rest stop, where we saw a historic marker.

The road to Chattanooga The tide turns for the Union.
This interstate highway parallels the historic line of the East Tennessee & Georgia Railroad. Late in 1863, Union and Confederate armies followed the tracks during a series of battles in the fight for control of Chattanooga, a strategically vital rail center.
     Multiple Civil War-related sites are located in Charleston (Exit 33), near the location of a raid by Confederate Gen. Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry. The Henegar House was the headquarters for Union Gen. William T. Sherman. Cumberland Presbyterian Church served as a Confederate hospital. The Hiwassee River Heritage Center interprets the story of the Union occupation.
     In downtown Cleveland (Exit 25), late in 1863 Union forces built Fort Hill to protect the railroad. A cemetery was established nearby, with the dead of both sides interred there. In 1914, the Grand Army of the Republic erected a monument for the Union soldiers there, one of three such memorials in the state. Fighting occurred around the Masonic Female Institute in Cleveland.
     The site of a major Confederate hospital is located near Exit 7. Silverdale Confederate Cemetery contains the graves of about 155 of Gen. Braxton Bragg’s soldiers. Most of them are unknowns who died in hospitals in 1862.
  Several units of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park can be accessed from Exit 3, including Orchard Knob, 
Missionary Ridge, and Lookout Mountain. Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s victory there late in November 1863 turned the tide against the Confederates and resulted in the Federal occupation of most of East Tennessee for the rest of the war.

We ate lunch at Taco Bell in Athens and were home by 5:30PM.
My granddaughter brought over her daughter and she stayed with us until 8:30PM.
We had a great time in the mountains but were also glad to be home. 

🏛Visiting Mystic Seaport Village Museum Mystic, Connecticut

Mystic Seaport is the nation’s leading maritime museum. Founded in 1929 to gather and preserve the rapidly disappearing artifacts of America’s seafaring past, the Museum has grown to become a national center for research and education with the mission to “inspire an enduring connection to the American maritime experience.

The Museum’s grounds cover 19 acres on the Mystic River in Mystic, CT, and include a recreated 19th-century coastal village, a working shipyard, formal exhibit halls, and state-of-the-art artifact storage facilities. The Museum is home to more than 500 historic watercraft, including four National Historic Landmark vessels, most notably the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan, America’s oldest commercial ship still in existence

L.A. Dunton Ship
Built-in 1921, she is the last ship afloat of her type, which was once the most common sail-powered fishing vessel sailing from New England ports. In service in New England waters until the 1930s and Newfoundland into the 1950s. 

Joseph Conrad Rigged Ship
Joseph Conrad is an iron-hulled sailing ship, originally launched as Georg Stage in 1882 and used to train sailors in Denmark. 

Brant Point Lighthouse
Brant Point Light is a lighthouse located on Nantucket Island. The station was established in 1746, automated in 1965, and is still in operation.

Restoring the Charles P. Morgan Ship
Charles W. Morgan is an American whaling ship built in 1841 whose active service period was during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Ships of this type were usually used to harvest the blubber of whales for whale oil, which was commonly used in lamps.

Figure Heads
A figurehead is a carved wooden decoration found at the prow of ships largely made between the 16th and 20th centuries.

Thomas Oyster House
Thomas Oyster House is one of the few remaining buildings that could be classified as a typical small northern oyster house. The building was constructed about 1874 at City Point, New Haven, Connecticut, by Thomas Thomas. New Haven once was the largest oyster distribution center in New England; now there is only one oyster-opening shop left in this state, that of the Bloom Brothers in South Norwalk.

Mystic Bank
The office of a shipping merchant is represented on the second floor of the Mystic Bank. In the larger seaports, some merchants specialized in operating ships.

Thames Keel &Ship building Exhibit
The 92-foot keel assembly from the whaleship Thames is set up on blocks in a shed within the Preservation Shipyard. The keel is the “backbone” and the starting point for the construction of a ship and so, displayed along the entire length of the keel, is an exhibit on the process of shipbuilding that takes visitors from the laying of the keel to her launching.

Mystic River Scale Motel 

Visiting Mystic Seaport

Stonington Crew
John Flaherty, president of Friends of Stonington Crew, the nonprofit fundraising support for the team, which receives minimal funding from the school department, thanked everyone in attendance, as well as Mystic Seaport for again hosting the team on its docks. He said the team would not be able to compete at the level it does without the support of its donors.

Roann Florence Western Rig Dragger
Roann is one of the last surviving examples of the fishing vessels that replaced sailing schooners like the Museum’s L.A. Dunton. The eastern-rig draggers originated in the 1920s; indeed, Thomas McManus, who designed the Dunton, was influential in their development.

2015 November 27, 28, 29, Trip to Gulf Shores, Al, Biloxi, MS & Pensacola, Fl

We left mid-morning traveling on I-65 South to Gulf Shores.
At lunch, we stopped at Peach Park in Clanton Alabama where we enjoyed a delicious fried peach pie topped with a scoop of peach ice cream. Hubby also ordered a large order of onion rings and a barbecue sandwich.

fried peach pie topped with a scoop of peach ice Cream

I walked around Peach Park taking pictures of the giant peach statue sitting on a large bucket with a sign that read, Peach Park Clanton, Al (do not sit on the peach)
I took pictures of a green birdhouse, several wooden bridges, a pond, the playground area, a large red barn where children could play, a swing, a gazebo, a lighthouse, a red caboose (that is rented as an RV) a rose bush, a tractor and my husband sitting at a picnic table.

 large red barn where children could play

Back on the road for another four hours, stopping only for fuel and to use the restrooms.

The Rat Pack (Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr & Frank Sinatra

We stopped in Bay Minette, Alabama to get our oil changes at Chuck Stevens Dodge.
Inside the deanship, I noticed hanging on the wall paintings of several famous people.

I asked the owner if I could take a picture of the paintings, and he said I will sell you all the paintings for $100 each if you take all of them.
They were paintings of Sammy Davis Jr, (notice the ring on his right hand) Frank Sinatra, (big smile) Dean Martin  (The three members of the Rat Pack).
Lewis Armstrong, (with his trumpet) Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Jimmy Dean, Willie Nelson, Jerry Lewis, Glen Miller, and Madison Bourbon Jazz.
In the painting of Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, and Jimmy Dean they all appeared with a cigarette.

I told him that someone had done a great job, but I did not want to buy them.

Clock Belltower 

We saw a Christmas display in Robersdale.
After we checked into the Staybridge Hotel we rode back to Foley's Heritage Park.
In the park was a Christmas village, a clock bellower, angles, and a flowing fountain.

Gulf Shores Beach 

We ate dinner at Chick-fil-A in Foley.
I ordered some chicken nuggets and a Peppermint milkshake, and my husband ordered a strawberry milkshake, and a grilled chicken sandwich.
Before we went back to the hotel we went to Gulf Shores beach, it was too dark to take pictures.

It had been a long day so after we both had a hot show we climbed into bed for a long winter's sleep.

Saturday morning we were both up before the rooster crowed.
We dressed and headed to the beach to watch the sunrise which was at 6:27 AM.

Sunrise

I was an awesome, white and dark cloud overlooking the blue gulf.
There was a hint of pink, blue, white, and yellow as the sun peeked his head through the clouds.
Slowly this ball of fire raised his head higher and higher changing from yellow to a bright orange then back to a bright yellow, with clouds floating all around him, until you could no longer look directly into his face.
A couple was sitting on a blanket that they had spread out on the sandy beach to watch the sunrise. It was still a chill in the air so they were wearing light jackets.

Watching the sunrise 

As the sun peeked, the sky cleared, and you could see the waves that splashed happily upon the sand beach.
We rode back to the hotel where we enjoyed a nice breakfast of link sausage and an omelet. We had cranberry juice to drink.
We stopped to take a picture of the Bell Tower in Foley's Heritage Park.
The 52-foot Bell Tower has four clock faces that face north, south, east, and west which includes 32 brass bells. The Bell Tower and Plaza were built to celebrate Foley's Centennial on January 8, 2015.
Across the street is the Hotel Magnolia one of Foley's oldest buildings, that is now for sale.

Bell Tower 
We took I-10 from Foley to Mobile driving through the George Wallace Tunnel across Mobile Bay.

As we approached Mobile in the distance we could see the RSA Battle House Tower, The RSA Bank Trust Building, and the Van Antwerp Building.
We stopped at the Antebellum Welcome Center in Jackson County, Moss Point, Mississippi.
The Welcome Center was built to resemble an antebellum home with its spiral staircase, arched doorways, and chandeliers. It is filled with antique furniture, and sculptures by Marlin Miller.

Sculptor Marlin Miller working on a large oak near Hard Rock Casino Resort in Biloxi Mississippi. It is named "Marlin's Marlin". This is just one of his many pieces

We traveled the freeway of the Gulf Coast crossing the swamp land area of Escatawpa River,  through Pascagoula, Gautier, Ocean Springs, to Biloxi, MS.
As we topped the I-10 Interstate in Biloxi we could see several casinos and as we exited the interstate we could see the Gulf, the beautiful white sandy beaches, and the Biloxi Lighthouse. We rode past the casinos to Veterans Memorial Park where we stopped to take pictures.
We rode back to the welcome center to find out where we could purchase tickets to ride the trolley.

We were told that we would have to hurry to catch the trolley because it was leaving in a few minutes.
We walked down the hill, across four lanes of traffic to catch the trolley that was leaving the station.
I caught up with the driver, Carla Beaugez Taconi, she said to climb aboard, that she had not collected for the ride.
So we climbed aboard the back of the open-air trolley, so I could take pictures.
We introduced ourselves as the newcomers to the ride, and then off we went hair blowing in the wind.
When Carla was not telling stories about Biloxi, she was playing upbeat music from that area.
As we rode down the street many residents waved to us and we waved back, Carla knew many by their first names and they knew her name.
Carla showed us what real southern hospitality is all about the way she greeted everyone she met.
Carla made you feel like you were a part of her family and her neighbor.

We rode past many vacant store buildings and empty lots that Katrina had destroyed with her violent winds and waters.
We saw old mansions and homes that had survived the storms of time.

We stopped at the 12-foot-high Hurricane Katrina Memorial where we saw a glass case containing various items found after the storm and a black marble wall listing the names of those who died or were lost during the hurricane.

We stopped at the Magnolia Hotel Museum built in 1847 serving as a lodging establishment but now it serves as a Mardi Gras Museum.
In it, we saw memorabilia from carnival celebrations with a variety of colorful Mardi Gras costumes.

Trying on the colorful Mardi Gras costumes

We ended the tour by riding past the works of art on Beach Boulevard, which is a sculptured garden teeming with pelicans, egrets, seagulls, blue marlin, and a shark.
After Katrina destroyed most of the trees along Beach Blvd a chainsaw artist carved six oak trees into marine sculptures that are now displayed along the median of Beach Blvd.

Katrina Sculptured Garden 

We thanked Carla as we exited the trolly.
We walked along the beach to the pier where I took a few pictures.

We had to cross four lanes of traffic back to the Visitor Center.
The Visitor Center is a museum in itself, it has a wealth of information, a gift shop, multi-media exhibits, Biloxi Memorabilia, and on the second floor it has a 67-seat movie theater. The Visitor Center has a striking resemblance to the Dantizier House that once sat at this site, and it has two-story porches, a grand staircase, and floor-to-ceiling windows.

We started our journey home stopping at Taco Bell for a snack.

We arrived just in time for the setting of the sun in Gulf Shores. The sunset was at 4:50PM.

Sun Setting 

We stopped at Lucy Buffett's Lulu's for dinner.
We ordered the Sea Food Sampler with iced tea to drink.
It had been a long day we were both too tired to do anything else.

Sea Food Sampler at Lulu's 

The next morning we slept a little later, got dressed went down for breakfast. We came back upstairs packed our bags, and checked out of the hotel.

We rode to Pensacola, Florida.
We rode through the historic area of Pensacola, touring the Historic Village and taking many pictures.
The village consists of twenty properties in the Historic District which includes the Museum of Commerce and Industry, Julee Panton Cottage, Manuel Barrios Cottage, the McMillen House, Lavalle House Lear-Rocheblave House, Dorr House, and the Old Christ Church. All were closed on Sunday.
We also walked through the park, stopping to take pictures of the T.T. Wentworth Florida State Museum and many other historic state buildings in the historic town.

We went inside the Atlas and Fish House which is along the riverfront to use the restrooms.
 Some of the famous people that have eaten here are American Pickers, Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan (Astronauts), Elton John, Steve Martin, and Mariah Carey just to name a few.

Historic Village in Pensacola, Fl 

Old Christ Church 1832

I took pictures of John Wesley Hardin (Criminal turned lawyer), the First Baptist Church site, Old City Hall 1907, Mooring Anchor, I never throw anything away, gateway to Florida's History, and many others.
We stopped for gas in Cantonment Florida near the Paper Mill which was giving off an awful vapor of steam.
We ate lunch at Burger King.
On the way home we stopped in Flomation Alabama to take pictures of the marker, L & N train car, and Train Depot now a visitor center.

The closer we got to Montgomery the heavier the traffic got, it was bumper-to-bumper because of the Thanksgiving Holiday.

We took a detour along Highway 31 coming out at Calera where we stopped to eat at Cracker Barrel.
We headed back to I-65 hoping the traffic had moved on but no it was worse.
We saw wreck after wreck and traffic backed up for miles but this time it was headed south.
It took several hours longer than we expected to get home. With my intestines in knots, we finally made it home. I think the break on my side of the card did not work too well.