We left St. Cloud, next stop was Des Moines, Iowa.
Monday the 13th. We visited West End Salvage, the
site of the TV reality show of the same name. They have 5 floors of architectural salvage,
we had a lot of fun snooping around... in the end we walked out with nothing but smiles.
On the way out of town we stopped at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden.
Then on to St. Louis. We spent the
night with Leigh English and his wife Sheila Mapes in their lovely home. Leigh
was my first judo instructor at NDSU. We were just in time so I could join the
judo class in Leigh's basement. Monday is the kids class, “little puppies” is I
think how Sheila referred to the kids. There were half a dozen adults and a
half a dozen spirited kids. It was great being on the mat again with Leigh! And
great meeting his students and training with everyone.
After training we got a chance to
hang out for a while and visit. After a nice breakfast the following morning we
said our goodbyes. It was great seeing both Leigh and Sheila again, it has been
many years!!! Too many years!!! They were my sanity at NDSU after I got out of
the Army.
On the way out of St. Louis we
stopped at the Missouri Botanical Gardens and spent much of the day there. The
trees were just budding/blooming, azaleas were at their peak, black and yellow
tulips in profusion! This garden is very photogenic, I took about 30 pictures and they all turned out great. It is a big place, it takes a couple of hours to tour
the grounds, more if you really want to check things out. The Japanese Garden
is very handsome.
Next stop Bowling Green, Kentucky
Wednesday the 15th We arrived at the
Corvette museum a bit after 10 am, it had been raining off and on all morning.
If you like Corvettes this is a great place to spend a morning. There are 70 to
75 Vettes on display, including the 8 cars that ended up in the bottom of the
sinkhole. The sinkhole has been filled in, they were finishing up the concrete
the day we were there. The cars from the pit are on display in various states
of damage, from relatively minor to almost nothing left – from a car
enthusiasts point of view the collapse was a horrible loss as all of the
damaged Corvettes were one of a kind vehicles and irreplaceable.
After lunch at the Museum Diner we
toured the Chevrolet Corvette manufacturing facility across the street from the
Museum. The walking tour started with a short video. We watched as the various
sub assemblies were put together, then attached to the frame, watched as
engines were mated with the chassis, brakes, wheels, seats... to start up and testing. Even Carol
was fascinated with the entire process.
We departed Bowling Green for
Mammoth Cave, only about 50 miles away. We stayed on the park grounds in an old
hotel, which is run down and we were told in its last year of operation. Once
we were settled in our room the rain which had been off and on became steady. I
opened the exterior door to the room and settled into a chair with my Kindle
for some “reading in the rain.”
After a bit we visited the park
restaurant for supper... while it was clean and the service was good the food
was not good. We had breakfast there the next morning and they even screwed up
bacon and eggs! Don't eat there!
Carol and I took the historical tour
of Mammoth Cave. Mammoth Cave is the longest cave system in the world at 400 mapped miles, with they think, maybe an additional 600 miles yet unmapped. Bat
guano was mined from the cave by slaves during the Civil War to supply
manufactures with saltpeter for gun powder. After the war the saltpeter mining
was abandoned and the former slaves who worked the mine were converted into
tour guides.
Mammoth Cave is pretty much devoid
of flow formations, we saw no stalagmites or stalactites on our tour, although
we understand that there are a few. Wind Cave and Jewel Cave are much prettier
and our favorite is Carlsbad Caverns, if you only tour one cave in your
lifetime it should be Carlsbad Caverns!
Friday the 17th In the
morning visited the American Museum of Science and Energy, a museum dedicated
to the Manhattan Project, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This is a very data dense facility, it would take the
better part of the day to read all the displays. A fascinating part of our history.
As a kid born in the 1940s our
school days were filled with observations and lessons about the nuclear world
we lived in. We had “Duck and Cover” drills in school, Bert the Turtle
encouraged us to “duck and cover” when we “saw the flash.” The fact that no one
would survive a nuclear attack if you saw the flash was denied by the
Government and protests pointing out the fact were vigorously quashed.
Government sponsored programs encouraged people to get ready for nuclear attack
by setting up fallout shelters, our neighbors had a shelter buried in their
backyard. We all worried about Khrushchev pushing the button.
Oak Ridge prior to 1942 had a
population of just a few thousand people but by 1945 the population was 75,000
and other than the residents few people even knew it existed. Oak Ridge was chosen as the site of the
Manhattan Project because of it proximity to roads, railroads, a newly
constructed hydro electric dam and the topography; the ridges and valleys would
allow for a nuclear disaster without damaging the entire facility and... hide
what was going on there. Amazingly only a dozen or so people even knew the
purpose of the facility: to extract Uranium 235 from yellow cake. After the
bomb was dropped in Hiroshima, only then did the employees learn what they had
worked on for 3 years.
 |
| original graphite reactor |
We took a tour from the American
Museum of Science and Energy of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a 3 hour bus
tour of the facilities. The tour guide was retired military, had worked at the
Lab in his earlier years and at the Pentagon in his later years – he gave an
excellent history and explanation of the facility. There was an old guy on the
trip, he had worked as a physicist at the Lab during the war, he was showing
two of his granddaughters where he worked. We got to see a lot of buildings and
hear about the current research effort taking place... it was interesting to
me. We also got to see the original graphite reactor that was brought to life
during the war.
Although there are great dangers
with nuclear energy there can be great rewards and so I support the use of
nuclear energy reactors - except that the ones that I support are small, air
cooled reactors that are built to be meltdown proof – of course they are less
efficient and make less money for investors so there is little investment,
except in Europe.
Saturday the 18th We
started our day at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. The day was partly
cloudy and free of rain, warm and not so humid so we could leisurely stroll the
grounds and look at the trains on display. There were a couple of steam
locomotives, a couple of diesel locomotives and an assortment of cars in the
yard. I walked around taking pictures while we waited for our 12:05 train to
depart. Our consist was 3 passenger cars and a diesel locomotive. We
choose the
oldest car with opening windows. The route is only 4 miles with a turn around
wye at one end and a round table at the other. When we got to the yard we
departed the train, watched the train decouple and spin the locomotive on the
turntable. We got to look around the yard. There was a small crew of older
guys, guessing retirees, who were maintaining and restoring equipment in the
yard. If it were closer I might consider volunteering some time to help out, it
looked like fun!
All aboard, next stop is Asheville,
NC
Sunday morning, wipers
pushing rain off the windshield, we are on our way to the Biltmore Estate in
Asheville, NC. From the entrance of the estate to the house proper takes 45
minutes at 20 miles per hour... the place is huge... the azaleas are in bloom
and color is everywhere. We elected to have valet parking, it is sure nice
to drop off the car next to the front door so we didn't get drenched.
The main house was built between 1889 and 1895 by George Vanderbuilt and still
remains within the family making it the largest family owned residence in the
United States. The house is 178,000 square feet. It is really hard to describe
the feeling in the house, it is huge with high ceilings, extensive stone and
wood work, fabulous attention to detail, amazing. It really takes one's breath
away. Think about Downton Abbey the TV show and that will get you in the right time frame. If you are interested I would suggest googling the Biltmore Estates and look at the images. The picture below is from the Internet.
We spent the better part of two
hours on a self guided tour with one of those audio devices. Then we toured the
gardens, luckily we purchased rain coats at Mammoth Cave so all but our feet stayed dry. The gardens were
European style and very beautiful.
The stables, to the right of the house in the picture, have been converted into
shops and restaurants... without losing much of the charm of the old stables. We were seated in a horse stall where there were 3 tables... there had to be
seating for a thousand people! The menu has many items that would have been
served during the time of the Vanderbuilts, we choose a meal for two consisting
of roasted chicken, pulled pork, ribs, cold slaw, pickles, and cheesy grits –
we took a doggy bag and got a second meal out of it.
We stopped at the former dairy on
the estate, participated in a wine tasting and finally hung our hat at Cedric's
Tavern, named for the St. Bernard dog that was the Vanderbuilt's pet. I had a locally brewed stout that was very good. After the Cedric tap we dropped by the dairy and picked up malteds made with hard ice
cream on our way to the car.
The tour is expensive, we paid about
$50 each but we both enjoyed ourselves and felt it was money well spent. The
food, beer and wine was no more expensive than eating in Fargo.
We arrived in Murrell Inlet, South
Carolina on Monday evening, the 20th
It was time to get serious, we
anchored a short distance from the mouth of the river where it meets the
Atlantic. I was the first to catch a fish, a Blue something or another, about 2
pounds, too small to keep. After an hour or so of no bites Lee decided we
should try our luck in a channel surrounded by mud flats, the tide was going
out so fish should be moving from the shallow mud flats to the channels. After
a few more hours of no bites we moved again back to the mouth of the river where
Jeff caught a fish, a bass. As he was reeling it in, Lee ready with the net,
within feet of the boat a 5 foot shark swam up and bit the fish in half! 
When we got back close to Georgetown
we picked up a 12 of beer at the marina and toured the waterfront at
Georgetown. It was a great day. We later met the ladies and had dinner at
Drunken Jacks, a local supper club, I had a plate of blackened Grouper that was
absolutely out of this world.
Jeff loaned me a set of clubs and
three balls. The course was beautiful, bright green grass, not a brown spot in
sight, trimmed bushes, some flowers. We had a perfect day, it was in the low
70s, partly cloudy, with just a light breeze. The water hazards featured some
gators, a few were quite large. I started out with 3 balls, lost one in a water
hazard early on but retrieved two balls from the hazard, later in the day I
dropped two in a water hazard and then lost another in the rough. I had to
borrow a ball to finish the game. I shot a 56 on the back nine and a 58 on the
front nine. I got some good drives with a 3-wood but could not get the 1-wood
to work. 
