searcyf@mac.com – Page 94 – Travels with Fred

Road Trip – Day 9

2 February 2019

It’s always bittersweet saying goodbye to friends and family. I left Archie and Tanis around 7:30 am and headed to Hot Springs, Arkansas. My gps routed me to I-20 west to Vicksburg and across the father of waters. It was then up US 65 and then over on 270 to Hot Springs.

I checked into The Waters. It’s certainly a nice hotel and my rooms is quite spacious, but it should be at the prices they charge. The desk and valet are very accommodating. However, be careful of the shower.

After off loading luggage, I left for a quick downtown tour of Bathhouse Row. When I was a very young kid, my grandfather on my mother’s side used to fight chickens (yes, it was and still is illegal but that didn’t stop anyone). He loved his roosters and took exceptional care of them, but still, it’s a bloody sport. In any case, he came to Hot Springs to fight his roosters one night and Archie and I tagged along. Hot Springs back then was pretty much the gambling capital of the South. I distinctly remember two things: bathhouse row and the natives called stop lights “stop and go” lights.

Fordyce Bathhouse and the visitor center for Hot Springs National Park.

It’s taken me a while, but I finally made it back to see Hot Springs. The Waters has an arrangement with the Quapaw Baths where we get a 15% discount on services. I decided to take advantage of it and “partake of the waters.” I also decided to schedule a deep tissue massage for 3 pm the next day. I figured I would need it after a morning hike.

In any case, guess who did not pack a bathing suit. Not to worry, the Quapaw had some cheap ones on sale for $15. For your time in the waters and for time in the steam cave, they charge $30. I did both. There are four pools, each a different temperature with the coolest at 94F and the warmest at 104F. I stayed in the 104F. They come and get you for the steam cave and make sure you don’t overheat once in it.

Me at the Quapaw Bathhouse. Water temperature 104F.

I had dinner (and a martini) at The Avenue, part of The Waters hotel. I had their pork dumplings and a rabbit pot pie. The rabbit pot pie was great.

I then headed back to the room for a shower and then bed. That was a bad idea. It is an absolutely beautiful, non-functional shower. I was raising one foot to wash and slipped. I was lucky I only hit my head, knee and hip. No blood. I’ll probably be very sore in the morning. I called down for a bath mat but the only thing they could provide was a handicap chair for the shower. We’ll see.

The totally non-functional shower that I slipped in and fell at The Waters Hotel.

Road Trip – Day 8

1 February 2019

I was awake by 4:15 am and up by 5:30. The coffee pot had been prepared the night before so all I had to do was push the button. Usually, Archie and Tanis sleep late but he got up around 6:30 and Tanis a little later.

Tanis made us a fine breakfast and Archie and I decided to do the nostalgia tour. We headed out on old US 80, one of the first transcontinental highways. U.S. 80 starts on Tybee Island off the coast of Savannah, Georgia and ends in San Diego, California and for many years, I lived alongside the highway in two locations in Morton, Mississippi. I remember the transfer trucks passing the house at night and listening to their tires hitting the expansion joints in the old 2-lane concrete highway. It has pretty much been superseded by I-20 but still has plenty of local traffic. My brother and I have logged many, many miles along US 80 between Vicksburg, Mississippi and Meridian Mississippi.

Our first stop was the Searcy Cemetery just outside the metropolis of Pulaski. Our parents and paternal grandparents are buried there. Another reason was to see if the old Searcy home place was still standing – it was, albeit with a few missing windows. My grandfather and his Dad built the place in 1885. It’s the classic dogtrot house of rural Mississippi.

Paternal grandparents’ dog trot house built in 1885 and the birthplace of my dad, Uncle Ray and Aunt Sue.

From there we headed to Morton Cemetery to see the graves of our maternal grandparents and maternal relatives, and then back to Sims Hill Cemetery to see if we could find the grave of our great grandmother Laura Lee McEwen. We couldn’t find her grave and couldn’t remember where she was buried – Morton, Sims Hill, or some other cemetery. Grandma Laura was the one who taught me to make tea cakes. I still do and on rare occasions, I send off care packages to cousin Jimmie and Jo and brother Archie.

After Sims Hill, we decided to visit Roosevelt State Park (where I learned to swim) and where our cousin Joe Lee Tadlock was showing out and jumped off the high board (it seemed very high back then) and hit the lower diving board with his face. Archie had to pull him out. There are a lot of Joe Lee stories, and all of them end about the same way.

There were several rites of passage at Roosevelt. My cousin Jo coaxed me out to the swim platform for my first visit to that structure. It seemed it took forever to swim out to the platform from the regular swimming area and only “big” kids made it there to dive off the high dive and low board. Jo smartly got me to do it on my back which gave me the confidence I needed.

The next rites du passage was going off the high board. My first attempt got water up my nose because I went in feet first. Only later did I get brave enough to spring off the board and dive in head first. My cousin Jimmie was fearless and always managed to “out-first” me on these outings. She even taught me to ride down Agnew Street next to her house on my bike hands free. The real tricky part there was turning in to her driveway at the end without panicking and grabbing the handle bars.

I spent a huge amount of time at Roosevelt with the local Boy Scout Troop 28. We were often offered an area for scout camping, spend the summer clearing the area, and then the park would confiscate the area for their use. We did this a couple of times before we got smart and quick clearing land for their use.

Another childhood memory was Tank Hill on Spring Street. It became a rite of passage to climb the water tank. Alas, the tank is no longer there. All around the base of the water tank were Chickasaw plums that came ripe around late June and early July. That was a great reason to head to Tank Hill.

As we drove around Morton, we kept pointing out houses and locations we knew as kids: Stykes and Buddy Easterling’s house, David Earl Walter’s house, the three houses where Uncle Ray and Aunt Minrose lived, the site of our grandfather’s hardware – Agnew Hardware, the Williamson house on Agnew Street, Zera Mae and Spivey Crimm’s house, and Uncle Lonnie and Aunt Maxine’s house.

Near where Agnew hardware stood and on the same corner was an old cotton gin. It actually still ginned cotton when I was a kid. Up the hill from that was Gunn’s Dairy that made the best milkshakes and hamburgers. Miss Ivy (don’t know her last name but no one ever used it) ran the place.

Morton, at the time, was a booming town compared to our neighbor town of Pelahatchie. We had a theater and many a Saturday morning and afternoon were spent there. Do you remember the 13 reeler serials?

We ended the day by traveling back US 80 to Brandon. As usual, there are some bitter memories of growing up in a small town but for some reason, you only remember the good ones. Perhaps that is as it should.

Road Trip – Day 7

31 January 2019

Another cold, crisp morning with temperatures in the low 20’s. For some reason, I waked at 3:30 am and couldn’t get back to sleep before 4:30 am. As a consequence, I slept late until 7:30 am.

Ann made a great breakfast. It was in a casserole dish and contained eggs, flour, milk, chili’s, and cheese. You baked it in the oven for about 45 minutes until the eggs solidified. I really like the spice of the chilis to the dish. Reid cooked sausage, and with fresh fruit and banana bread, I was stuffed.

I said my goodbyes and hit the road by 9 am. I decided to head south on US 45 to Meridian, my birth city. I was born at St. Joseph’s Hospital which has since been torn down – I guess it never recovered from my birth. However, whenever I get anywhere near Meridian, I make a point of stopping in at Weidmann’s Restaurant – in business since 1870. I don’t care what I eat for entrée but I do care to make sure I always get a slice of their Black Bottom pie. It’s made with bourbon and is delicious. I actually have the recipe for the pie and make it for special occasions.

I’ve had the pie many times over the years and sometimes it is better than others. You have to get the right chef making the pie. Today’s pie was spot on.

I pulled into Brandon around 1:30 pm and Archie and Tanis were waiting for me on the back porch soaking up the sun’s rays with a balmy temperature of 56 F.

There’s a standing joke between Archie and me. He waits on projects until I get there and he me into the projects. Trust me when I say this has happened more than once. One time I ended up roofing a pier on a pond.

Tanis gave him three things to accomplish before I got there and, of course, he hadn’t done any. One project was to see what was wrong with the dryer. After a while, I gave in and said let’s see what’s wrong. I figured the belt that turns the drum had slipped off but it seemed in good shape. Archie then suggested we load it up and take it to a place he knew that repairs them.

It then struck me he had been waiting all day for this moment – me to arrive to help him load the dryer into the truck for the trip to the appliance repair. He’d done it again!

The good news is I got a barbecue rib dinner out of it. They had put ribs on the grill just before I got there and slow cooked them for about 5 hours. I didn’t really do them justice because of the meal at Weidmann’s and the BB pie.

We don’t have any plans for tomorrow (unless it is to complete the other two projects Tanis had for him). I think the next time he and Tanis visit, I’ll come up with some devious project that I rope him into.

Road Trip – Day 6

30 January 2019

Another great visit with Reid and Ann! After a great night’s sleep, Reid and I headed to Comer’s Cafe near Fultonf or an early breakfast of eggs, country ham (very salty) with home made biscuits. Country ham is always salty but I think this had enough to dry the ocean.

We then visited an old colleague from Itawamba Community College (back then, it was Itawamba Junior College) Stacy Russell. Stacy was part time at the college and his wife Dixie was full time. I took Calculus with Dixie. Anyone who can make me understand math, much less Calculus is a very good teacher!

Stacy has a farm outside of Fulton. He always has a project going. His current project is apple trees. He’s identified apple trees from all over northern Mississippi and has preserved them by grafting them to root stocks. Some of his apple trees date back to the 1880’s. In addition he has growing on his property apple trees from George Washington’s estate and Thomas Jefferson.

He’s learned the art of grafting from his father and has decided to try to preserve the varieties of apples throughout the southeast. He does make some cider with the apples, but I think he really does it for the enjoyment of grafting and preservation.

After we left Stacy’s place, Reid and I headed to Itawamba Community College in Fulton, where I taught for five years, to meet up with Steve Miller. Steve and I became friends when he was a student there and his Dad ran the food service operation. His Dad now works for Steve in the same manner that Steve worked for him. Les is 90 years old and still going strong.

I always ate in the faculty dining room while at the college and paid my way. I also managed the men’s dormitory on campus and thus ate my meals on campus at night. Les almost never charged me for any meals I ate at night. He realized just how poorly the college paid its faculty.

Over the years, Steve and I became closer and once toured England and France together. It’s hard to believe he’s now getting close to retirement and with not only kids but grandkids! Where does the time go? Steve treated Reid and I to lunch. I also exacted a promise for him to visit Fort Lauderdale.

After we left Steve, we visited Herb and June Parham. Herb was the chemistry professor at IJC. Ole Miss and Mississippi State used to send him students to get through college chemistry. Once they passed Herb’s course, they could pass the other upper level courses at each university.

June and Herb really took to me while I was there and I ate a lot of meals at their house (as well as Jane and Reid’s). Both are now retired. It was good to sit and talk with them and talk old times.

Tonight, I treated Reid and Ann to dinner at a local Tupelo restaurant. We also watched Ole Miss lose to Florida in basketball. Once and Ole Miss fan, always one!

Tomorrow, I head out to Brandon for a visit with my brother Archie and Tanis.

There’s always something melancholic about visiting places you once lived and worked. I was fortunate to find so many friends at Itawamba and keep them over the years.

Road Trip – Day 5

29 January 2019

It was rather cool when I waked this morning – 26F. By the time I made coffee, it had dropped to 23F. When I packed the tent, there was ice on the outside.

I went to bed around 6:15 pm (it was dark, after all) and- around 9 pm it started to sprinkle. By midnight, it was a downpour. Then the front passed through and it got very, very windy. However, I was dry and warm. The two sleeping bag tricked worked so well that I was actually too warm for most of the night. By the time I got up, the wind had dried up all the rain on the tent except for a few places.

I had a hot shower, a change of clothes, and a shave and headed out. I decided I needed to go see Shiloh National Battlefield.

Visitor Center at Shiloh National Military Park

Of all the years I’ve lived in Mississippi, of all the years so close to the battlefield during my masters thesis, I have never been to Shiloh, one of the pivotal battles of the Civil War. General Sherman said it was a great learning experience for both sides – albeit at a terrible cost in life.

I was particularly interested in seeing three parts of the battlefield – unfortunately all very bloody: the Peach Orchard, the Hornet’s Nest and Shiloh Church.

The Peach Orchard is a broad field once planted in peach trees. Supposedly, the peach trees were in bloom and the bullets from soldiers denuded the trees and peach blossoms fell on the dead and dying.

The Hornet’s Nest took place along a supposedly sunken road (it’s not really too sunken) and some of the fiercest fighting took place there. So many bullets were whizzing by it reminded the soldiers of a hornets nest.

Shiloh Church was where Sherman engaged the rebel forces and was also very bloody. After the first day of fighting, Sherman said something to Grant about the nature of the day (the Union army was forced to retreat) and Grant allegedly said “Whip them tomorrow.” It proved prophetic.

Mississippi Regiment at Shiloh Church Cemetery

Pittsburg Landing – where the Union forced arrived.

After leaving Shiloh, I headed south to Tupelo to tie up with Reid and Ann. I taught with Reid at Itawamba Junior College for 5 years. He was math/science and I was biology. He retired in 1985 and since our teaching days, we’ve been best of friends.

Ann prepared an outstanding Boston butt from an Ina Garten recipe. It was delicious. It cooked for 6 hours and was perfectly done and tender. Ann’s a great cook and I don’t know how Reid keeps a constant weight.

Tomorrow, Reid and I plan to visit some old friends from Itawamba days.

Road Trip – Day 4

28 January 2019

I reluctantly said goodbye to Robert and Lynn around 8:30 am and headed to Tishomingo State Park. Robert and Lynn really know how to make you feel at home. We had a great time catching up on old friends, dissing enemies, and generally having a good time.

I keep forgetting that there’s a new interstate between Birmingham and Tupelo – I-22. It certainly makes the trip go faster but there are some wonderful small towns you miss by not taking old US78.

In any case, I pulled into Tishomingo State Park (just north of Dennis, Mississippi and south of Tishomingo, Mississippi) around noon. After checking in, I pulled into campsite number 8 and realized I had forgotten how steep the area around the lake is. I found a somewhat level site to pitch the tent.

Campsite 8. There’s a very steep slope down to the lake. There’s a concrete pad at the top where most people park their camper but I didn’t intend to sleep on concrete tonight since the temperature is predicted to be 18F. Light snow is also predicted.

For those who don’t know, I did my graduate research for my BS in biology at Tishomingo State Park. It entailed 2 years of collecting vascular plants, pressing them, drying them, and then identifying them. I was at the park every other week from early spring, through summer, and into early fall.

The park personnel were great. George Gilpin was the manager at the time and he had a wonderful staff of good ole boys to help run the park. They gave me the run of the place and even put me up in a group cabin most nights (with a fireplace), a visitor cabin several nights (2 bedroom, fireplace, kitchen, and bath) and eventually, I was put up at the old manager’s home near the lodge.

During my first year, I was often put up in this group cabin. It had bunk beds, a shower with hot and cold water, and most importantly, a fire place. The park provided the firewood.

My second summer at the park was spent in the rear stone apartment of this building. The front was used for storage. I loved it. It was on top of a cliff which overlooked the swinging bridge and swimming pool below. The good ole boys would collect me at night and take me out roaming around north Mississippi and Alabama. With drinks flowing freely, I got to see Mussel Shoals recording studio and more importantly, the Coon Dog Cemetery in north Alabama. There are some tombstones in New Orleans that were not as fancy and ornate as some of the graves of treasured coon dogs.

After getting my degree, I later returned to head up a contingent of the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) to renovate the nature center. In all, I spent four wonderful years in this park.

It was here in the nature center that the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) and I renovated the facility. I think our renovation lasted a year and the park decided they needed the space for storage. It’s a great building. The concrete was so solid (from 1939) that you couldn’t drill into it.

The famous swinging bridge of Tishomingo State Park – originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1939. A sign says no more than five people at a time on the bridge. The bridge spans Bear Creek.

Bear Creek. The water is pretty high right now. Charlie Cooper and Crag Knox and I used to frequently canoe this creek. It runs northwards and empties into the Tennessee River near Pickwick Lake. We’ve canoed it all the way to Pickwick.

The rock formations in Tishomingo State Park are amazing. Winter is an excellent time to visit the park because the summer greenery hides much of the formations.

This was probably the view that convinced me to do my graduate work at this park. I had been presented by my thesis director, Dr. Thomas Marion Pullen, two state park choices for the plant survey. Upon entering the park, it’s as though you have entered the Smokey Mountains. The reason is that Tishomingo County is considered the foothills of the Appalachians. I thought the scenery couldn’t be beat and I had a great chance to find interesting flora similar to the Smokey’s.

There are three very rare ferns in the park: Purple cliffbrake, Cliff fern and walking fern. This is walking fern, Asplenium rhizophyllum. You find it growing among mosses on the surface of cliff faces. Where the end of the frond touches, it sprouts another fern vegetatively. To my sorrow, I checked all the places I remember collecting these ferns and this was the only one of the three species I found still growing in the park and the was the only one I found at all. Hopefully, the three are still found in other places in the park I didn’t check.

You can just imagine this as some animal den.

I always referred to this as the grotto. It’s across the swinging bridge and Bear Creek along a trail I walked more times than I can remember. I remember my excitement when I found freshwater planarians under the rocks of the stream.

The 100 steps. Actually, there are only 98 but everyone calls it 100. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been up and down these from 1974-1977.

My thesis direct, Dr. Pullen, asked me to be on the lookout for a plant commonly referred to as quillwort. It took me two years to find it growing along the edge of the CCC pond. I think he was more excited than I when Charlie Cooper and I brought it back to campus on a Sunday morning. He met us in my office and confirmed our find. I was able to get a scientific note out of this in the journal **Castanea**. It was the first reporting of this genus and species in the state of Mississippi.

This is found at the front entrance to the park and it is similar to the color photograph of the wildflower book I wrote on the park. The Mississippi Park Commission and the Graduate School of the University of Mississippi published the book. You can see a copy of the book here.
If you are really bored, you can see my thesis here.

Road Trip – Day 3

27 January 2019

What a great day! Robert and I left the house around 8 am and headed to breakfast. After Belgian waffles and coffee we then made a short detour to see Vulcan.

I’m old enough to remember when the statue had a lamp in his upraised arm instead of an arrow. Robert said the original statue had an arrow and it was later replaced by a lamp and has since been restored to its original arrow. The statue was made from iron ore mined from the site and was Alabama’s entry into the St. Louis World’s Fair in the 1904. After the fair, it was returned to Birmingham and permanently installed at its present site.

For many years when traveling through Birmingham for various reason, I always looked to see Vulcan. Robert said when the light was installed in the upraised hand, it was red if there was an accident on the road next to it. If not, it was green. It’s a great site to visit and one day I hope to make it up into the tower.

From Vulcan, Robert drove me around downtown Birmingham showing me some sights. We headed south on I-65 to Montgomery. Our primary purpose was to see the Hank Williams Museum.

The museum opened at 1 pm so we had some time to kill. We drove to the Oakwood Annex Cemetery to see Hank Williams’ grave. It is pristinely maintained and there were fresh red roses on his gravestone.

From there we visited a Civil War cemetery that started out as the original town cemetery of Montgomery. A large section of the cemetery is blocked off for Confederate soldiers who died not from their wounds but from diseases from the battlefield like cholera, dysentery, smallpox, etc. Many of the graves were marked unknown.

Confederate Portion of Cemetery of those who died from disease

A lot of these deaths were early in the war and as late as 1864. Many were the result of lack of medicines in the South during the war because of the blockade of the southern states.

Finally it was time for the HW Museum to open. It was jam packed with memorabilia from Hank’s days on tour. Most of the collection on display is privately owned and much of it is owned by his son Hank Jr.

Hank Williams Museum on Commerce Street, Montgomery, Alabama

There were things from his days at the Louisiana Hayride, the Grand Ole Opery,, and even from the Hadacol Radio Hour. For those not in the know, Hadacol was this miracle cure out of Louisiana that was 14% alcohol that advertised constantly on the radio. I remember the commercials as a kid. The didactics of the museum indicated the inventor gave it the name because he “had to call it something.” It went the way of Carter’s Little Liver Pills when the FDA ruled your drug actually had to do what it promised.

The museum is deceptive. It looks very small but it larger than you think. Included in the exhibitions are the suit Williams was wearing on tour, his suitcase, and toilet kit that was in the trunk of the car when he died. Williams died in the back seat of his car (also in the exhibition) at the age of 39 of a heart attack while on his way to a concert in Canton, Ohio.

On our way to the HW Museum, you could go through the block through an alley. As you walked through the alley, you would pass restaurants and stores to get to the next block. As I was walking through, I saw an advertisement for The Legacy Museum. It later dawned on me this was the museum dedicated to the lynching of blacks in the United States during and after Reconstruction.

I knew I wanted to see this so I left Robert at the Hank Williams Museum to buy a ticket to the other. The Legacy Museum was closed but I could walk 15 minutes to the National Museum for Peace and Justice which is associated with The Legacy Museum. I finally realized it was the National Museum for Peace and Justice I wanted to see.

I had confused the new Civil Rights Museum in Jackson, Mississippi with this museum. If you have read anything about it, the NMFPAJ has metal rectangular columns handing from the ceiling.

Scott County Mississipi lynchings are the center one. Others are from other states and counties.

Each column represents one county of one state. The names of black men and women who were lynched were cut out of the metal. Each column is illuminated at night so if you visit at night, the names are outlined in light on the column.

Over 4,000 lynchings occurred in the United States after Reconstruction and up until the 1950’s. I was trying to find my home county (Scott) in Mississippi. I had looked this up on a web site and was told there was only 1 lynching in the county. It turns out there were 13 lynchings in Scott County from 1896 until 1902.

Two women were walking around the same area as I and they were looking for Madison County Alabama. We all agreed to help each other look. I found mine but they were still looking when I left.

As you leave the hanging columns, you walk out into the sculpture garden and the same names and counties are cut out of metal to look like coffins. The number of lynchings in Mississippi was so large there was a special area of the sculpture garden set aside for them.

I get emotional when I see images and video of the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington. I’ve never visited and would love to see it. I can’t image it could be any more powerful than this monument to those who lost their lives to lynchings in the United States. This is a must see if you ever get to Montgomery. It’s worth a special trip.

From there, Robert and I headed to Confederate Memorial Park which has a wonderful small museum on the Civil War and the Confederate Veterans Home that was once on the sight. As many as 91 Confederate Veterans and their wives (called inmates) were housed on the premises with healthcare. The last Confederate veteran died 1934. After the last widows passed away in 1939, the facility was closed. None of the buildings or cottages remain.

There are two cemeteries in the park that hold the graves of the veterans who died while in the care of the Home.

We returned in time to gather Lynn and head to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays.

Tomorrow I head to Tishomingo State Park near Dennis, Mississippi for one night of camping. This is where I did my masters thesis – a floristic survey of the vascular plants of the park. I want to hike some of the trails that traveled for over two years of plant collecting. Predicted temperatures are in the 20’s. It should be cold but I have two sleeping bags which I intend to slip one inside the other. There’s even a possibility of snow!

Road Trip – Day 2

26 January 2019

It’s been a long day. The drive to Hoover, Alabama to see Robert and Lynn Buford was a little over 9 hours. I ate breakfast at the hotel and was on the road by 10 after 8. The good news was my gps guided me through some back roads (albeit 4 lane) until I hit I-75 and I-10.

I-10 was interesting. During the last hurricane, stretches of I-10 were closed. I can now see why. Although the interstate was open all the way, as you traveled west from Tallahassee you were often a single lane both directions due to crews working to clear the hurricane debris from the sides of the interstate. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many downed trees. There must have been 20 different crews working along the I-10 corridor cleaning up. I suspect it will take them another 4-6 months to be completely done. Every so often, you would see a house along the interstate with major damage. I can only imagine the damage to Pensacola.

Once into Alabama,. I headed up through Dothan, then across to Montgomery where I picked up I-65 into Birmingham. I had phoned Robert to tell him to anticipate me around 7 pm with fuel stops and bathroom stops delaying my arrival. As I passed over the Apalachicola River, I remembered the time zone change which would put me at 6 pm Central time.

With minor exceptions, the speed limit was mostly 65 on state roads and 70 on the interstate so I was able to pick up some time and I rolled into Robert and Lynn’s place at 5:30 pm. Lynn had dinner ready: pot roast, turnips, and mashed potatoes with cornbread right out of the oven! All I needed to do was put pepper sauce on the turnips and butter on the hot cornbread.

Robert taught speech on my campus and Lynn was an Executive Assistant to a Vice President downtown. Robert and I worked with the faculty union and faculty senate. We’ve all remained good friends ever since.

After dinner, Robert showed me his newest hobby – leather working. He’s become very proficient. Most of his work currently is hand stitched and he does a beautiful job. He’s done purses, pocket books, holsters, and belts. He’s even done a beautiful backpack. Robert is very talented. He even makes his own knives.

Tomorrow, our goal is to do a Hank Williams tour. There are several sites in Birmingham and there’s a museum in Montgomery. Hank, Senior has always been a favorite of mine. I never have cared for junior (Bocephus).

Mother and Daddy used to frequent juke joints in the Mississippi Delta when I was a kid. These were real dives but they all had some type of juke box and enough wooden floor space to dance. Mom and Dad would often put a nickel in to play a Hank tune, drink beer (illegal in the state of Mississippi, of course) and dance to “Cold, Cold Heart”, “Hey Good Lookin’”, or my favorite, “Your Cheatin’ Heart”. They would start out on the dance floor and I would get jealous and get in between them and make them pick me up and dance with me between them. I suspect I was all of 4 years old. At home, I have a photo of me and Mom with me standing on the bumper of a really old Plymouth. It’s funny what you remember from childhood. When it comes to bars, I still prefer the beat up, worn down juke joint type.

And yes, I have almost every recording Hank made on my playlist.

Road Trip – Day 1

25 January 2019

The drive from Fort Lauderdale to Lakeland, Florida took around 4 hours, mainly due to a stop at Fort Pierce Turnpike rest stop and a line at Dunkin’ Donuts inside. Let’s just say the people behind the counter really didn’t want to be there. That threw me off by around 30 minutes. That and a notification from SunPass that my credit card renewal was denied. I spent some time accessing SunPass on my iPad and getting the credit card information updated so they wouldn’t send the HP after me on the Turnpike.

I pulled into The Terrace Hotel around 1:30 pm, took my luggage to the room (8th floor) and went back down to the lobby to wait for Bill Wood. He showed up about 10 minutes later.

Bill was a young ensign on board the. Coast Guard Cutter Reliance in Corpus Christi, Texas when I reported there in 1971 (can you believe 48 years ago). Unlike most of the officers on board, Bill was not an academy graduate (called ring knockers because they constantly drew your attention to their graduation ring by knocking it against any table at which they were sitting) but a graduate of Officer Candidate School in Yorktown. Va. after completing bootcamp at Cape May, N.J.. He had a more laid back attitude about things than the academy types. Even though he had nothing to do with my rating (Radioman 2nd class) we crossed paths often enough to become friends. We constantly ragged each other by Georgia/Ole Miss football.

Coast Guard Cutter Reliance. It’s hard to believe it is still in service. Photo from USCG Atlantic web page.

Before my retirement, we re-established contact via a CGC Reliance website and have kept in touch since. During my last posting about my last trip, he read I was in Lakeland and from there, we decided to get together in Lakeland. He’s in town from Atlanta (by way of Celebration, Florida) as a judge for the Lakeland Pig Fest Barbecue contest. Since 2015 he’s been judging contests throughout the south and now has 27 contests under his belt.

Before he needed to head to the contest, we had lunch at Harry’s Seafood Bar and Grill (the best place to eat in Lakeland). He had the Jambalaya and I had red beans and rice -Harry’s is the real deal as far as Cajun food goes.

Bill had printed me out a judge’s parking pass and I followed him out to the site at the SUN ’N FUN/Florida Air Museum grounds on Medulla Road about 6 miles outside Lakeland. He said they anticipated 80 professional barbecuers and some 30 amateurs.

He’s judging tonight and tomorrow. The barbecue is approved by the Kansas City Barbecue Society and judging is quite strict in the guidelines and how the food must be prepared by the barbecuers.

Bill walked me around the site pointing out various outfits, types of smokers and grills, etc.

As we walked we talked barbecue and Coast Guard days. We both lied and told each other we hadn’t changed a bit. Right! I seem to remember us both with more hair and less weight.

To be a judge, you do have to go through some significant training and once certified, you can work your way up into the system, judging more and more events and more events open by invitation only. Bill is about to hit the 30 contest mark where he will then qualify for master judge (after passing a written test).

New paint job on my jeep. What do you think?

He headed to a judges orientation and I headed back to The Terrace. After the late lunch, I suspect I will find something simple to eat. I need to get an early start tomorrow morning for an eight plus hour drive to Hoover, Alabama where I’ll stay with old Broward College friends Robert and Lynn Buford.

And no, I didn’t eat any barbecue. They were just setting up and beginning the prep for the next day.

Colt Creek State Park – Day 2

10 January 2018

It must have been a cold night. When I got up this morning, there was a sheet of ice on the top of the ice chest. Apparently the dew froze. However, with my down sleeping bag, I was plenty toasty. Only around 4:30 am did I reach over and pull a blanket over me and the bag. The only real problem was getting up in the middle of the night for bathroom breaks!

After two cups of coffee and a bowl of cinnamon/apple oatmeal, I started my hike. I left the campsite at 9 am and finished the hike at 2 pm, so that seems to be around 5 hours of walking. Of course I took breaks but never longer than 5 minutes.

The trail begins near the campground. It then loops around Mac Lake and then crosses the road and begins to meander through long leaf pine forest with saw palmetto as an understory.

There were a couple of open fields here and there but most of the hike was in the shade of pine trees. The temperature was perfect – hovering around 60 most of the day.

For the first part of the hike I had a jacket, gloves and a woolen watch cap to cover my head and ears. I needed all three. By the time I circled Mac Lake, the sun was getting higher and I came out of the jacket, gloves and watch cap and shifted to my beloved Tilley hat.

They have warning signs for alligators and bears posted all over the park. The only problem with the bear warning is the park showsa map of bear areas in Florida and north of Lakeland is not in one of the bear areas. Since they were so dedicated about the bear posters, I did carry my bear spray with me. I have to admit, it certainly looked like bear country with all the berries available with the saw palmetto.

The trail is pretty well marked except in three places. Once you get near Mac Lake, it assumes you know to loop around one of the smaller lakes next to Mac Lake. Later, I did take a side trip on the loop accidentally. There was a marker and underneath the marker was a sign that said “trail” and pointed one direction. It was not the way to go and I had to backtrack. I suspect it was for horses. Most of the trails in the park are open to bikes, horses and hikers. No motorized vehicles are allowed on any of the trails.

Trail Marker: blue is connecting trail, white is main trail.

The last area that signage was poor was where you loop back toward the campsite. I took the horse trail by mistake but the trail was marked with white and blue markers. White markers generally refer to the main trail. Blue markers are connecting trails. The blue mark under the white mark was the letter “H” so I assume it as a horse trail. There was certainly enough horse poop.

My major concern on the hike was the distance and whether my ankle would hold up from the sprain from April of last year. It did!. The park brochure says the loop trail is 10 miles. My gps said 10.7 miles and that could account for the side trip I made accidentally. In any case, I made it the distance without any ankle problems. One favorable point is that it is very flat. The only real problem was some mud. I am tired and plan to take it easy for the rest of the day. A hot shower sounds wonderful at this point.

Tomorrow, I pack up and head home.