Northeast '06                                             June, p.1


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Feb 27 - Winkie Library

Just squeeze in a few pictures of the finished Winkie Library.  Worked on the outside walk. Had to be raised because of water pooling in front.

 

Monday, June 5

We are getting ready for our trip!  We should be able to leave Wednesday, and make some headway towards Nashville where we will spend some time with Fiona. Then, we'd like to see some good friends who live in Delaware.

Other plans?  We have a Sower work project at Camp Shoshonah in Keeseville, New York for three weeks in July, and have signed up for one in Maine for August, but we are on a waiting list for that one.  In between, we plan to spend several trips to Montreal where Ed's sister and mom live.  Ed would also like to spend some time in Northern Quebec, so we could have some interesting travels through New England, Maine, New Brunswick, etc. But, we'll see...

Wednesday, June 7

Well, we got off today about noon, and met with Brady, Jan and the grandchildren for lunch at Subway.  It was hard to leave them for about 4 months.   It was also somewhat hard leaving our new place...it already feels like home.

We decided to go through Caddo Lake State Park for the night.  Caddo Lake is unique as it is the only natural lake in  Texas - all others are man-made reservoirs.  The state park is in an inlet to the lake with many bald cypress trees.   It is a wonderful place.

In the evening, we were treated to a chorus of many types of frogs singing.  The parks hosts called it an amphibian orchestra.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Ed trying out his camera on a dragonfly at some good distance.

 

Thursday, June 8

We got up early, and drove towards Memphis through Arkansas.  Got stuck for 2 hours on the interstate because of a bad truck wreck.

Stopping at the Visitor Center just across the Mississippi in Memphis, we realized that the temperature was 95 degrees, so there was little incentive to go sightseeing in Memphis.  But, how about these large (about 15-20 feet tall) statues of BB King and Elvis Presley?

We had driven I-40 many times from Memphis to Nashville, and find it a very boring road.  So we took to the south and drove through some beautiful country to Pickwith Lake, where Tennessee has a State Resort Park called Pickwick Landing.  The resort restaurant had a great buffet which included delicious Tennessee river catfish.  We found out later that this area claims to be the catfish capitol of the world (not only Texans have this kind of braggadocio). 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, June 9

A late start, but a wonderful morning traveling the Natchez Trace parkway from south-central Tennessee to Nashville.  The Trace was a road built about 1800 to permit more direct travel from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee.  There already had been roads from Nashville to Knoxville, and Knoxville to Philadelphia.

 

 

 

 

About half-way to Nashville, we came up to a sign which stated that Meriwether Lewis' gravesite was along the Parkway.  We had learned some about Lewis of the Lewis-Clark expedition last fall when we were in Great Falls, Montana.  Why was his grave here?  The first panel states that he took the Trace because he was "not wanting his expedition journals to fall into British hands." The second stated that his life "came tragically and  mysteriously to its close on the night of Oct 11, 1809." 

 

 

 

 

We finally found this last panel that states that he died "apparently from a self-inflicted wound".  At age 35!

Ed talked with a Park employee later who said that Lewis was shot twice, and that he had been traveling with his slave and another companion. 

Anyone know anything more about this?

 


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