pntaylor1997

Saturday, May 8, 2021

8 May 2021

We left home on 5 May, but haven’t done much to make note about.

We spent the first couple of days at the Agri Center in Memphis, TN. Not much to write home about there, it was in dire need of a mow job, there are a lot of extended stay people there. The day before we left, there were a lot of horse trailers arriving, the kind with the living space in the front, so there was going to be a horse show of some kind this weekend.

We thought we would kill an hour or so and went up to the Farmers Market building, but that doesn’t start until June 1^st. But there is a really nice, very large plant nursery right next door, so we walked through that for a little while. If we had been on our way home I probably would have bought some plants, but as luck would have it, we weren’t, so we didn’t spend any money. Phil was broken hearted about that!!

We arrived in Nashville yesterday, got caught in accident traffic, just before our exit off of the interstate. There are those electronic signs all over the place with “Slow down Nashville” and I can see why. They all drive 90 to 90 and then suddenly slam on their breaks..if they can’t weave into the next lane. Phil fits right in!! Warning to anyone coming this direction, every freeway in the vicinity is riddled with potholes, especially the 40, so keep an eye out.

Today we went to Cheekwood, which is a huge mansion build in the period after WWI. Following is the blurb:

About Cheekwood

Cheekwood is a 55-acre botanical garden and art museum located on the historic Cheek estate. Originally built as the home of Leslie and Mabel Cheek in 1929, Cheekwood is one of the finest examples of an American Country Place Era estate. Since being converted into a museum of art and botanical garden in 1960, Cheekwood has presented world-class art exhibitions, spectacular gardens and an historic estate unlike anything else.

The first and 3^rd floors are furnished with furniture from the original owners, the middle floors are given over to the “art galleries”.

The special display in the gardens right now is large animals and other figures made out of Legos, we saw a dog, bird, rabbits and a very pretty 4’ high rose bud in the guest services office, all made out of Legos.

The big pink Lego dog

The Lego bird

Nita waits at the front door of the Cheekwood House

Phil looks to the left

then to the right

Then, finally, we go inside

In case you don't recognize this, it is a telephone from back in the day, it has a dial!

Recovering from Covid 19, the new normal, we walk through a place like this going one way, following the arrows on the floor, practicing social distancing with stairways roped off, one side up, the other down.

The front yard, view from the second floor.

A glassed in display case of items from the era of the house.

A game table with a tapestry top.

I love the way the chair is designed

When the house was build, this was open to the outside. It wasn't until a few years later that these walls were added. Phil had me stand in front of the doors to give an idea of the height. The doors, upper and lower, could be opened independently.

This candle stick reminded me of the one drawn in the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast

This fiber optic light was not part of the original house, but we were fascinated with it!!

The 'Art Galleries'

It's hard to see in this picture, but the surface is brick, very labor intensive for a 'service entry'

Back to the light again...

We leave the house

Tomorrow we head to Sevierville to attend an RV Rally for a week, don’t know how much time I will have for writing.

Nita

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Fort St Jean Baptiste State Historic Site

2021 Apr 9

Today we visited Fort St. Jean Baptiste, a state historic site. The visitor’s center/museum is located in the historic district of Natchitoches. The fort is a replica of the original, built to the exact blueprints of the original fort, which was built not far away in 1714. The man in charge of this endeavor was Louis Antoine Juchereau de St. Denis and it’s purpose was to protect the French interests in the Louisiana Territory. St Denis believed it was in the Fort’s best interest to get to know his neighbors, which included the local Natives and the Spanish inhabitants of a nearby fort, which was also there to protect the Spanish interest in the Louisiana Territory. St Denis opened trade with his neighbors and it was not unusual to see either of these neighbors inside the fort, trading at the store.

Our guide is an archeologist and his knowledge of that side of the history of the fort gave us a much better understanding of the life and times the occupants of the fort lived in. An additional plus for us, was that the employees and volunteers of the site were all artisans who have become proficient in the arts of the 1700’s. As you can see by the pictures, there are woodworkers, bead weavers, and fiber weavers. Our visit there was educational as well as enjoyable.

A few interesting tidbits…in the building of the fort, nearly 2,000 treated pine logs form the palisade and approximately 250,000 board feet of treated lumber went into the construction of the buildings. All of the hinges and latches were handmade at a nearby foundry.

This gentleman was a volunteer and the artist of the bead weaving.

This is a shingle maker, made by hand, one at a time.

The General Store, or trade center, the hub of the fort.

The palisade.

The entrance to the fort was just wide enough for a wagon to enter.

Probably officer's quarters. The ranks slept on wide pallets along the wall, eight men to a side. No soft air mattresses, just the hard wood.

Our very knowledgeable guide

Hand crafted

On the road again...at last! 8 Apr 2021

2021 Apr 8

We are on the road again, for a few short weeks anyway. We left home on Sunday, April 4^th. Made a stop of one night just north of Texarkana, AR at Sunrise RV Park.

Headed out the next day for our goal of the first part of this trip, Grand Encore RV Park, located just east of Natchitoches, LA (pronounced Nack-i-tish). Grand Encore is a nice park, sites are spaced out so we aren’t on top of our neighbors. We are here to hang out with the Suite Owners group, which is sponsored by the manufacturer of our rig, DRV.

Yesterday we went out to lunch with the group (first time we have been out to eat in over a year!), then we went for a carriage ride through the historic district of Natchitoches. Our guide was the daughter of the owner of the carriage business, complete with piercings and bright pink hair. She was very informed and knew what she was doing.

The Steele Magnolia house

Our tour guide had a baby possum she had rescued in her pocket.

This little horse pulled one of the carriages our group rode in.

The movie “Steel Magnolias” was filmed here, and our tour took us to several of the sites used. She knew the movie inside and out, it’s one of my favorites, so I knew she knew what she was talking about. There have been a lot of movies filmed in and around the town, evidently the historical aspects of the town are popular with film productions.

After our tour, we walked through the district and visited the shops located there. Didn’t spend a lot of money, just bought a plastic knife to use with cheese. Works really well!!

About the time we got back to the rig, we had a line of thunderstorms go through, some pretty strong winds, but nothing more serious, although we were under a tornado watch.

Today we went to Magnolia Plantation. The actual home was burned at the beginning of the Civil War and rebuilt after the war, it is still in the family, so we didn’t get to see that. We did get a tour of the ‘out’ buildings, the blacksmith shop, the overseer’s house, which at one time was the hospital for the slaves, and the remaining cabins the slaves were housed in. The last building was the gin house where we saw the cotton cleaning and baling process, quite interesting! A big screw like thing that was turned by mules and pressed the raw cotton into a screening process where the seeds were removed from the cotton. This was first mechanized by a mule or horse. Then steam was introduced to the process and steam engines replaced the mules and the cotton was processed even faster, inadvertently prolonging the need for slave labor.

Mules were an important asset on the plantation as they were used in almost all areas of production and recreation of plantation life.

The blacksmiths domain

This building was first used as the slave hospital, then became the overseers house.

Inside the overseers house

There are a several slave cabins still standing, and were later used as tenant housing. The last cabin used by a tenant farmer was in the early 1970's

Nita

2021 Mar 28

On the 50th anniversary of the Viet Nam War, Nita's DAR group participated in the ceremony at the Little Rock Viet Nam Memorial. For each Arkansas soldier that was MIA, each DAR lady laid a memorial of roses at the base of the memorial, and a bell was rung at the reading of each name. This was the war of my generation, I am always touched at any memorial for these guys that I attend.