We moved on from Memphis on Tuesday as planned, headed for Branson, MO. We had a great “scenic” route laid out, but decided to take I 40 on into Little Rock and then US 65 north to Branson. This was a good call because US 65 is about as scenic as one needs to get. It cuts directly, or maybe indirectly given the curves, through the Ozarks. It has plenty of hills and curves, enough to keep both Carol and me happy and the views were just great. So I know you are all just waiting to ask the question, what is in Branson and why did you have to go there?

The what is over a 100 theaters with just about every kind of music and entertainment you can imagine. I could take my 5 year old grandson to any show without having to answer any untoward questions. It started as a Missouri Ozarks showcase of country music. Many of the big names from Nashville built their own theaters there. There are several seasons. We arrived in the lull between summer family and fall bus seasons. When school is not in session the place is filled with families (so we are told) and the family entertainment venues are jumping. The buses bring in retirees by the thousands for a few shows a couple of nights in a cheap hotel and all the chain food you can imagine, oh I didn’t mention buffets, really big.

This picture is the Lobby of The Remington Theater where we saw the Oak Ridge Boys.

We set up in Chastain’s RV Park just on the edge of the district (by about 500 feet) and set out to choose some shows to attend.

This is not easy since there are more schedules than you can think about. Many shows are offered at 2 PM and again at 8. Some are on at 10 AM. We thought we would go to a couple of them. By the time we were done we got to five shows in three days. Tuesday night we went to “Country Tonight” which had several good country singers and other entertainment of a very country nature. Wednesday we saw The Oak Ridge Boys at 3 and Acrobats of China at 8. Wednesday at 2 we went to The Magic Show with Brett Daniels and at 8 we saw Cirque produced by Neal Goldberg. All of the entertainment was well done and very professional. The performers all came into the lobby to greet the patrons after the show. The theaters are huge, holding up to 4,500 in the case of the Grand Palace and most of the audiences during this interim week numbered in the low hundreds. The performers did not seem fazed by the small audiences and appeared to put out the full effort for us. It was fun and very personal. I do not recommend Branson as a place for most readers to visit. The hotel accommodations run to Fairfield Inn and other mid to low level chains, I am sure there must be some high end, but we did not see it. The food is almost exclusively national chain. We did get into one local restaurant, Jim Owens Steakhouse which was acceptable and was able to put together a decent vegetarian meal for Carol. Not a place I would go out of my way to eat in, but acceptable.

As for why, because it is there. We don’t need to repeat this particular excursion and given its location in the Ozarks, 50 miles south of Springfield, MO, it is not likely that we will happen to be passing by.

We had been making plans for a swift return to Rochester after leaving Branson. Given the direct interstate route it was clear that we would pass through St Louis, MO, Indianapolis and Columbus, OH. We have friends in each of these places and began to set up stopovers of a couple of hours in each for a visit. Accept for the first in St Louis this was not to be. We got a call from Dan that Malena had a kidney stone and was in great pain and Dan seemed to need some help with the kids getting ready to start school and many unknowns about Malena. Since we had to go through St Louis no matter what and did not have to make any decisions until we were ready to leave there, we decided to go ahead with our visit with Carol Slepian. We three go back to Kindergarten together and the Carols were very close through school and have stayed in touch ever since. Her husband, Jake, was at work performing surgery so we could not get to see him unless we stayed over which was not to be. We spoke with Dan and Malena while we were visiting and made the decision to go through to Covesville as quickly as possible.

To visit Carol, we had gotten off the Interstate in the heart of St Louis and found our way to a synagogue near her home that had an open parking lot. Carol called the office there for us and cleared the way for us to park for an hour or so. It is Central Reform Synagogue and we acknowledge their welcome here. We managed to get out of town ahead of the Friday rush hour, just barely, and crossed Illinois and much of Indiana as darkness (and Shabbat) approached. We got to Corydon, IN and located a WalMart just off the Interstate. They gave us the expected permission to stay the night in their parking lot and so we did and I went in and bought a cantaloupe to have fruit for breakfast and to satisfy the unspoken suggestion that one repay their kindness by doing some business with them.

We found an interesting art gallery in the Arts district, saw it from the trolley, and met the owner. Carol has the details, but we were quite charmed and the collection was very eclectic. They were hosting a retrospective of a local artist who had been very sick for a month, in hopes of raising money for him and his family.

The two most impressive museums we visited were Stax Recording Studio and the National Civil Rights Museum. Stax was the home of much of the music we know from the 60’s. It went bankrupt in the 70’s and the building was taken down in the 80’s. It has been reconstructed on the original site in great detail, including the Satellite Record Store serving as the entrance and the floor of the recording studio is sloped as the original was – it has been built in an old movie theater. The National Civil Rights Museum incorporates the Lorraine Motel where MLKing was killed and the building across the street which served as the James Earl Ray’s vantage for the killing (if you accept the idea that he was the killer and not some other conspiracy theory). The history of the civil Rights Movement is detailed and the room where king was staying, 306, has been preserved. All the evidence from his murder is presented and you can make your own determination. Ray did plead guilty and die in prison. There was one more stop in Memphis, and that was at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art where there was a traveling exhibit:

Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt:

A Family Archive from the Nile Valle

http://www.brooksmuseum.org/public/exhibitions/default.asp?id=10000141

We toured the show and then went into the auditorium for a presentation by Rabbi Micah Greenberg and a professor of religious studies from University of Tennessee and an orthodox rabbi. Given the size of the Memphis Jewish community, we met people we had seen the day before and are now friends. After the lecture we went to the zoo and finished the day with dinner and relaxation back on Gee 2.

So, we had a great time with the kids for five days and then we set out for Memphis, TN with a general idea of a route and some needs to make specific stops. Although we had little desire to face Nashville and its traffic again, it was clear that if we were going to get to a Camping World this trip it would have to be Nashville. That became our first planned stop and the first “casualty” of delayed planning. We needed to stock up on groceries and some other needs before we would be totally self contained. We made it to Staunton, VA, about 45 minutes from the house (by a direct route) and spent two hours there, plus another half hour for lunch. We were already half a day behind our minimal schedule before we had even gotten started.

After lunch we rolled down I81 past Roanoke until we got to a Flying J near Marion, VA. Nearby there was a private campground near Hungry Mother State Park (that is NOT a typo). This would not be my first choice of campgrounds, but I knew who had slept in our bed the night before and who was using the bathroom, so the upkeep of the campground was of little concern other than appearances. Do not go out of your way to stay there. I have no idea about the facilities in the park, but doubted we would find anything we could fit into, so gave it a miss.

The next day, Wednesday the 18^th found us rolling along the interstate, 81 to 40 into Nashville, and we arrived mid afternoon. This gave us time to set up near the Camping World store. The RV Park we stayed at was, God help us, now a Yogi Bear Jellystone Park, something we have managed to avoid for all of our years of camping until now. Since it had been a decent park the last time we had been in the area in January, we checked in and found it quite comfortable, the only thing changed was the name and the signage (and the price). We killed the rest of the afternoon shopping for small comforts for Gee 2, a special soap dish for the shower, another small folding step for internal use, and items that are generally made for RV’s. Carol made a nice dinner on board and we thought about finding some music, as we opened the door we heard it, it was coming from a small pavilion in the Park and a trio was performing an uninspired mix of music, mostly country. They were not bad, just not polished. When we asked later, we learned that this was a pickup group that had not played together much at all. For the price, free, they were pretty good and we had had our music in Nashville.

Thursday the 19^th found us starting out in familiar territory. We retraced our route from the winter of 2002 on to the Natchez Trace Parkway. This time the weather was fine and warm, hot even, and we slowly worked our way to the south of Tennessee along the Trace. We were surprised at the lack of bright colors. We have seen winter drab and early Spring along the way and sort of expected the summer would be a riot of color. Instead everything was lush green. As we worked our way south we discussed where to stop for the night. Just West of the Trace I noticed Shiloh National Military Monument and just east of that Pickwick State Park which had camping available. We decided on the State Park with little idea of what it was about. As we followed the highway signs for the park I realized we were approaching a large dam, this is part of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the dam serves to provide power, here is a retired turbine, and maintains a navigable waterway and flood prevention as well as providing a major recreational resource.

The campground (note not an RV Park) was quite lovely, but the sites were small and not really level as you can see from the amount of boards and blocks we needed even with our power levelers.



For our RVing friends in motorhomes, there are three or four sites that will accommodate a unit of 36 feet, maximum, and they are not particularly level. Don’t be fooled by the pull throughs on the map they are humpbacked and the utilities are on the wrong side, your door will open on the road. We drove into town for a look see and found a Radio Shack that had the printer I was looking for and a radio with CD player that Carol wanted for dining out, so we left town with more goods than we arrived with and less money.

The weather did not cooperate and we had reservations for Graceland RV Park in Memphis and plans to take a very convoluted route from Pickwick to Memphis so we got up early and left for Memphis. The route was northerly to TN 100 and then westerly on Tn100 until we turned South. There we gave up on scenic and braved the expressways into town following I240 to I55 to US 51 (Elvis Presly Blvd) within a couple of blocks we spotted The Heart Break Hotel on the corner of Lonely Street. We turned in on Lonely Street and found the RV Park at the end. This is a nice place, not particularly scenic, but quite comfortable. The Memphis locals were horrified that we would stay in such a rough neighborhood. We did not understand until we went shopping for wine. We found one place that had a “customer area” completely surrounded by ½ inch Plexiglas and the wine selection ran to Richards Wild Irish Rose (a product of Canandaigua Wineries, now Constellation Brands).

But I get ahead of myself. Our first full day in Memphis was to be Saturday and we traced down the Reform Synagogue, Temple Israel, far to the east of us, and made our way there for Saturday Morning Shabbat Services. Torah study was a shock, there were over 40 attendees and it was clear that this was a normal occurrence. The lox and bagels were special; although not being prepared we had eaten and could not partake. Rabbi Micah Greenstein led the study and it was quite wonderful. We went on to the congregational service in the chapel lead by Tara and Maury Feldstein. He had just been hired from B’nai Jeshrun and the service was quite a mix between the Reform we are used to and the more conservative of BJ. Also the music was very different. This is new to this congregation, fourth week, and they too are just getting used to it. It was a very warm service and we were very welcomed.

While in Memphis we did many different things. We walked Beale Street and managed to get into one club that had a bunch of old timers playing Blues that seemed pretty authentic to us. Most of the music we heard coming from bars was modern fusion. We went to Graceland, which was a short walk from our campground. I must say it is worth the trip. I am not exactly an Elvis fan, but he certainly accomplished a lot and, it would appear, he was generous in his support of many causes. Graceland is about as gaudy as you might expect.

This just makes it more fun because it meets expectations.

Here is a picture of Cory, Malena and Dan’s youngest, on board Gee2 before the hurricanes turned the weather wet and chilly.

For the record, the software puts the picture in the right place, but it does not get the link quite right. I had to edit the link. Most of you really don’t care, but for any novice setting up your own blog it may take some greater knowledge than Blogspot would have you believe.

Yesterday, that was Friday the 13th, we drove to Natural Bridge Virginia, this is listed as one of the 7 Wonders of the Natural World, from the time of Washington and Jefferson. George Washington surveyed this area and the route of highway 11, which still passes over the bridge, when he was a young man. As we remembered, the area is a major tourist trap and even the entrance to the gorge with the bridge is a major shopping event. Once we got past the entrance, the area is quite interesting. Here we are under the bridge:

The Native American Village was staffed by two members of the tribe from the area who were quite interesting in their presentations of what they were doing and were also willing to talk about their lives today.

The kids all ended up with wet feet from wading in the stream and the adults, at least the two older adults, were quite content to get back in the car for the ride back to Covesville with dry feet. We stopped at a new restaurant in Batesville, Cucina del Sol, and had excellent Mexican food. I was even able to find a fine chicken dish that did not challenge my diet too much.

Today, the 14th has been grey, wet and chilly all day. We have had fun hanging around the house with the kids and now Malena and Dan have gone off to a party and we are babysitting.

More soon.

We thought we were pretty comfortable in Goliath, especially during the 3 month winter journey that took us coast to coast and all along the southern border of this great country. If you followed any of the trip you know we shopped our way across the country and ended up ordering our new motorhome during a mechanical breakdown in West Virginia. We had it built to our order, more like ordering a car than custom construction, and took delivery in June between trips to Central Europe and Israel. We have never been accused of letting grass grow beneath our feet.

This is a new beginning, Goliath is gone and we now travel in Gee 2, a 36 foot Southwind with a couple of slideouts and a really large shower in the back (well, if you’ve seen our shower at home this is just medium large, but compared to many home showers and all the motorhome showers we have seen, this one is LARGE). For all of the details you can click on the Fleetwood RV website. This will provide a good picture and a complete floor plan. Ours is the 36E and we do not have the washer/dryer and we do have the sofa sleeper.

We took a shakedown cruise to Roseboom, NY. This is in Cherry Valley and not too far from Cooperstown. Most everything worked just fine and the punch list of fixes was mostly trivial. We picked up Gee 2 from the dealer and after a few days to get ready we set out and had a 500 mile day, almost 11 hours, getting to Malena and Dan’s home in Virginia. That is where we are now. In a day or two I will post some pictures and a link to Fleetwood Southwind for those who care about floor plans and such.