On the Road Again

When I left Colorado to go to England (what seems like both ages ago and just yesterday), Michal and I drove from Colorado to Virginia to drop my car off with Shiri in Lexington. Since I needed to somehow get my car from Lexington to Texas, Michal and I decided on Road Trip part two, this time through Tennessee and Arkansas. So Shiri, Michal, and I all flew out of California together, met with the Barnharts for dinner, and then headed off to Lexington for the night.

 

We left Lexington in the morning and drove straight to Knoxville TN. When we arrived in Knoxville we met up with Moti and Mary Ben-Ami, some extended family who used to live in Israel and NY but now live in Tennessee. (If you watch American Idol, their daughter Didi was on Season 9. After visiting with them for a while, Mary took us on a little tour. We started down along the Tennessee River and walked along the river and through some beautiful neighborhoods. Then we went downtown to James White’s Fort. James White founded Knoxville and his fort was where the city got its start. We drove around downtown a bit more before heading back to our hotel.

 

The next morning, before leaving Nashville, we went to the Girl Scout Museum. It was pretty small but really cute with lots of old uniforms, exhibits about the history of the scouts, and many little things that brought back memories of our scouting days. From there we got back on the road and drove to Nashville, with the plan being to see stuff in Nashville and then get back on the road to Memphis where we would spend the night.

  We started out in downtown Nashville but since we didn’t want to pay a ton of money just to park for a little bit, Michal stayed in the car and drove around the block a few times while I got out and took pictures of the Statehouse and the memorials to Johnson, Jackson, and Polk around the Statehouse.

 

From the Statehouse we headed to park in town where someone (I don’t know who nor do I know why) had built a full scale replica of the Parthenon! Yes, completely random, but since I’ve never been to Greece, it’s the closest I’ll come to the Parthenon for a while.

  We then decided to do some Civil War history stuff. We started out at Fort Negley, a large fort on the southern side of Nashville. Fort Negley was the largest inland fort built during the War and was constructed by the Union soldiers so as to defend Occupied Nashville from the Confederate Troops. The fort had the craziest design and many of the ramparts were still standing.

 

From the fort we went to Shy’s Hill, the site of a very bloody battle during the Battle of Nashville. The Battle of Nashville raged for only two days but it was one of the largest Union victories of the war, effectively destroying the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

 

Our last Civil War stop was Traveller’s Rest, an old plantation owned by one of the wealthiest men at the time, John Overton. The house had many artifacts from the Civil War period including several that belonged to the Overton family. It was a pretty quiet day at the Plantation so we wound up having a private tour which allowed us to ask lots of questions and hear some interesting stories about the house and the area during the War.

 

From there we got back on the road to Memphis and arrived in time for a late dinner. We ate on Beale Street, the main hub of Memphis, and had pulled-pork barbecue (not as good as Neal’s!!) while listening to live music and people watching the crowds walking along Beale Street. A long day, but a thoroughly enjoyable one as well.

 

We woke up pretty early the next morning to see some of Memphis. We walked from our hotel to the Lorraine Motel, passing by the Gibson guitar factory along the way. We then arrived at the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr was shot. The façade of the hotel was left as it was on that day and they had placed replicas of the cars that were in the parking lot waiting to take Reverend King to a dinner. It is always so surreal to stand in places where history happened, especially history that was as well documented as the MLK assassination (a feeling that would return the next day at the site of the Kennedy assassination).

 

From there we walked down to the River and watched as the fog dissipated and we went from zero visibility to being able to see across the river in a span of 5 minutes. We then walked back towards the city centre, past the Orpheum Theater and its own Walk of Fame of all the stars who had performed there. We walked past a statue of Elvis and since it would cost about $30 to go to Graceland we decided that was as much of Elvis as we needed to see, so we got back on the road and drove across the river into Arkansas.

 

Our first stop in Little Rock was the MarArthur Military Museum. There we saw the Korean War Memorial outside the Museum (which was in the old Arsenal) and then went into the museum. Included inside was an exhibit about the history of the Jeep, a special exhibit with never before seen photographs from WWII (this was my favourite part), Civil War history including information on the Confederate Soldiers Reunion that Little Rock hosted 50 years after the War, an exhibit about the Medal of Honor and the winners from Arkansas, some information on the Spanish-American War, and an exhibit about MacArthur and his famously public fall-out with President Truman over the Korean War. It was a really interesting and well done museum (and it was free!).

 

From there we went down to the river and started at the Old Statehouse which is now a museum of Arkansas History. It was also really well done and we would have liked to have had a bit more time there. There was a really cool exhibit with the inaugural gowns of many of the First Ladies of Arkansas including Secretary Clinton, and it was interesting to see how the styles had changed so dramatically throughout history.

 

Our last stop in Little Rock (and my favourite) was Little Rock Central High School where the Little Rock Nine made history by living out the order to desegregate American public schools. While it is still a working high school, it is jointly operated by the National Park Service and they had a really great museum that explained the lead up to the event, what happened in those crucial weeks in September 1957, and the aftermath of the event in Little Rock and across the country. We then walked over to the school (one of the most gorgeous High Schools I’ve ever seen) and to the Gas Station that was (and in its original form still is) across the street from which all the reporters filed their stories using the pay phone. Once again, standing where history happened was pretty amazing. If you don’t really know the story of the Little Rock Nine it is well worth investigating.

 

It was then time to get back on the road and make the long drive to Dallas where we collapsed into bed after another long day.

After some issues finding parking in dowtown Dallas, we finally made it to the Sixth Floor Museum, the site of the JFK assassination. Although it was really crowded, the museum was really well done and did a great job of not only explaining the assassination itself, but also the controversy surrounding the Warren Commission and the conspiracy that persists to this day surrounding the killing. There was so much I didn’t know about the Kennedy assassination and I was mesmerized by everything. The thing that struck me most was how quickly everything happened. Within 48 hours, Lee Harvey Oswald had been caught (after allegedly shooting and killing a police officer who had pursued him after being in the same car as President Kennedy in the motorcade), mounds of evidence had been gathered against Oswald including finding the location of the shooting and the weapon itself, he had been accused of killing both Tippit (the police officer) and the President, he had denied being charged with the killing of the President, and then while being led out of the basement of the police headquarters, Oswald himself was shot and killed! Again, this all happened between 22 November and 24 November; it all happened so fast and left so many unanswered questions, despite the mounds and mounds of evidence that existed including photographs and video of the assassination, eyewitness reports, forensic and audio evidence, etc. So many questions and still no way to get definitive answers...

 

After the museum we wandered downstairs to the assissination site, which was marked by an X in the road. We stood on the “Grassy Knoll” and looked down the Triple Underpass that the Motorcade sped away through after the shooting. Once again, standing in the spot where history had happened (and recent history at that) is something that just feels so surreal and its hard to wrap your head around the events that happened and the profound impact they had on the nation and its next few decades.

  From the assassination site we went to the JFK Memorial in a square just around the corner and then to the Old Red Museum, a museum of Dallas history housed in the old Courthouse. The museum was definitely tailored to a younger audience than the museums we had previously visited but I liked learning the story of Dallas history as well as seeing lots of cool historical artifacts from Dallas. We then walked back to the car through Founder’s Plaza where the cabin of John Neely Brian (the founder of Dallas) is now situated. 

 

It was then time to drop Michal off with her friend Beth and head off to Sheppard AFB, by home for the next 2+ years. All in all, it was a great couple of days seeing some pretty cool things and getting to explore a few new states. This brings my total of states I’ve been to up to 34! Only 16 to do before I get them all! But until then, its time to get back to the real world and actually start earning my living... I guess I'm well overdue for that!