A CRUISE THROUGH TEXAS.

There is an upside to downsizing. My cousin Debbie collects postcards and while going through my stuff I found a scrapbook of a trip to Texas. I grabbed some pages and put them in a box to mail, thinking explanatory stuff might interest her. But, oh the memories.  Dallas/Fort Worth really does have more shops than New York, more music than Nashville and more thrills than Disneyland. We went to the stockyards and saw a cattle drive that was a life-sized sculpture of long horns crossing a river. Museums, art galleries, the Hard Rock Cafe, the White Elephant Saloon, a cooling water walk, Assyrian treasures at Kimball, Cavanaugh Flight Museum, a sewing machine museum, the H.W. Perry Homestead.  We followed the footsteps of Kennedy's assassin at Dealy Plaza and the grassy knoll.  We could easily have spent three weeks there, so much to see and do.
Our method suited both my husband's and my personality. He would write for tourist information, we'd fly into the major airport, rent a car and do as much as we could during a 3 to 4 week period. In Houston, the Sam Houston Museum, the Astrodome, LBJ Space Center, San Jacinto Battlefield,  Missons. We toured the Battleship Texas, and the Funeral Services Museum. We really did go to Billy Bob's  Honky Tonk, (disappointing) and  Ruth's Chris steak house, but we didn't order steaks the size of a roast. George wanted to go to the Millionaires Club, just for a peek, but realized you need to be a millionaire.
We drove to Galveston and visited the historic Moody Mansion, The Texas Seaport Museum where I got my art fix watching Anthony Blackman draw. The old downtown area is quite small and interesting. A Mardi Gras Museum,  History of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. The best estimate of life lost was six thousand perished, one of the worst disasters in our nation's history. We took pictures of a mansion with a two  foot picket fence. The other four feet were covered in mud and the owners never rebuilt. They chose to live in what was the top two floors of the mansion.  I loved Galveston.
We drove to San Antonio to see the Alamo. Texans didn't set aside land around the Alamo. It sits on a city block with businesses surrounding it, smaller than you'd think.  The missions- magnificent edifices in stone, a cool place rest. The Arts are the heart of San Antonio at La Villita with glass blowers, candle making, stained glass, weavers, jewelry, etc. And, every where we ate Tex Mex, different from California Mex. The best River Walk in Texas, on the San Antonio River right through the middle of town. Cooling, breathtaking.
Then to Austin, to visit the State Capital building, the Governor's Mansion, LBJ Library, the amazing Bishops Palace resembles Chateau of France. George didn't want to see a bunch of bats, but I'd heard about Mexican bats living under a bridge in Austin and I worked to convince him. It helped to have a nearby journalism  museum.  We sat on the grassy banks of the river. When it got dark, the bats flowed out in waves of millions swooping up and down the river, wave, after wave, after wave.
Once we got home, the thing that impressed him the most of our entire trip was the bats. I enjoyed his enthusiasm for the bats, as he told everyone we met about them.
My favorite experiences from that trip? The bats, the funeral museum and the San Antonio river walk. American diversity, every state a marvel.

FORT DEFIANCE, CLARKESVILLE, TN. RIVER WALK.

Fort Defiance at Clarksville was named by Union Soldiers after its capture. It was formerly Fort Bruce, and then Fort Sevier. You see remnants of the  dirt embanked fort with few cannon and not even a reasonable shot at ships in the Cumberland River. In other words, little protection was offered by this fort.

It is unique because no great battle occurred here and the interpretive center and park preserve is a story of a city then of 5,000 to 8,000 people during the occupation of Union Troops. Clarkrsvillians certainly joined the war, some on both sides. Many  Kentuckians who were Confederate sympathizers joined in Clarksville since Kentucky was a Union stronghold.
But, back to the fort. While the Tennessee Governor was making speeches about providing 50,000 men for the Confederates to defend their honor and  chosen way of life, the City Fathers quickly made haste to put up a white flag to surrender as soon as they knew forces were marching on their city, a smart decision for two reasons.

First, they were the richest most successful city in Tennessee, and they were industrialized. They had a concentration of 8 great pig iron furnaces and abundant timber to keep them firing. They had the river and the railroads to ship to the  industrialized north. Their finances were tied more to the North than their slave holding farms were tied to the south.

Much of the information describing occupation cames from diaries. Serepta Jordan above…
…and Private Robert Tarpley kept extensive diaries. Union soldiers tried their best to keep commerce flowing, but war has few friends and the people suffered deprivation, lived on hope and made do with little as much as they could. The role of women in this war is extensive. The Union advertised for women and  their ad read like this: “….past thirty, maternal, healthy, plain almost to repulsiveness in dress, and devoid of personal attractions.” They didn’t want young women attracting men away from the war. 20,000 women served in the Civil War on both sides, making blankets and bandages, working as unskilled nurses, cooking and providing food and supplies and so on. Four hundred women disguised as men served in the fields of battle on both sides.

A new business resulted in the need for prosthesis’  Local residents were slowly registered and made to take a loyalty oath to the Union. Many resisted. Some avoided it for as long as possible. Women, too, were required to take the oath and would cross their fingers hidden in the folds of their skirts  so it wouldn’t count.

The war dragged on for what seemed like forever. Slaves rushed to leave and the farmers hands went missing affecting the economy. Everything, including food was in short supply. Plus, oath takers were considered traitors by some guerrilla types hanging out in the woods who would come into town and punish those who “changed” loyalties by burning their house down. Farmers suffered also because the marauders stole their chickens and turkeys. They were difficult times for everyone and risky for all.

And, it was a great stress for people who had to register in order to move about, and get food and other needed privileges, to be overseen by black enlistees.

An aside about Virgil Earp. From the area, he served in the Civil War along side Marion Morrison, John Wayne’s great-grandfather. The interpretive center did a great job in humanizing the civil populations reactions and sufferings during an occupation.

It rained the night through and morning was still wet and threatening when we went out. We decided to try the River Walk and Museum.  The barges were floating on a full river.

The little museum was closed and the river walk flooded.

We drove away and looked back at an old bridge with a high water mark.

MUD ISLAND RIVER WALK, MEMPHIS.

A place not to miss when you travel to Memphis is the river walk on Mud Island. The best way to do it is park your car at the Visitors Center, walk across the street and take the tram across to Mud Island, so-called because it was at one time a natural sandbar. Dredging mud to deepen the channel made it big enough to turn into a great park.

Enjoy the views from the gondola ,or you can walk over on the walking bridge above the tram. We enjoyed very  much the John Grisham movie The Firm much of which was filmed in Memphis. Particularly memorable was a tense scene from this gondola and the mezzinine where you disembark near the escalators. We decided to re-watch the movie just to see it again.

From the mezzanine, you peer down on a miniature replica of the Mississippi River and its environs as it passes through every state, from its source in Minnesota, to its ending in the Gulf of Mexico. I’ve been here previously and I love this park. Unique, educational, beautiful and stimulating.

The cement floor of the river bed details every little elevation and bank and floodplain. It features the rivers, levees, bridges  and  places where the river has dramatically changed course and no longer flows. The park is only a half mile long. The scale is every 30 inches, one step, is a mile.

When you cross from one state to the next, the border is clearly marked.

All the major cities along the way are plotted in grey slate with their bridges both rail and car built across the river.

An oxbow is a section where the river once flowed and was then cut off and now contains a lake or a dry bed.

At this spot, you can see the miniature river along with the real Mississippi rolling along beside the park and a real bridge in the background. The park offers many places to sit and watch. One couple I talked to had chosen to follow a leaf and watch it make the entire trip just for the fun of it.

Jim enjoyed cities he has visited. Here he stands in Natchez, across from Vidalia, Louisiana. Kids here love to take off their shoes and play in the water or float little boats. There are picnic tables and lawn aplenty.

As you pass from state to state, the plantings along the miniature river match the flora and fauna of that state. Story boards identify the plant life as you pass through each state.

If you’ve ever viewed a major river from the air, you know it resembles this curving, snake-like path. The  river has carved the earth and given life to humans and animals for thousands of years. Some people walk down one side and back on the other. We often stepped over the river to see both sides because it is so easy to do.

Here we are at the sprawling contours of New Orleans. To the right is a cafe where you can lunch before heading back. To the left a small lake with a fountain. But the Mississippi doesn’t actually end here.

We chose to follow it to the small deltas where the river is building islands that will one day be one solid piece. We found 1/B, a spot of one of our unique adventures, our trip to Pilots Island.

We hired a boat to take us to Pilottown in 2010.  There isn’t much there, but we enjoyed the  adventure for many reasons.  It was fun to see it designated at the very tip of the Gulf of Mexico where the river meets ocean.  A ticket for seniors at $9 includes the tram, the river walk and the museum.

The museum is very thorough. It gives early Native American History, which we skipped because we’ve seen so much of it. Here is riverboat history. Above are boat builders tools.

Steamboat whistles.

Inside a typical passengers berth on a steam-powered paddle wheeler. The river is dangerous. Awful accidents killed many. There was a film about disasters on the river. The saddest, the sinking of the Sultana.

A  section on slavery and sharecroppers that built the south. And, another section on how the blues developed from the black churches and field hollers from slave days. It gives very interesting lyrics and clips of old-time music. Lyrics and music that Scott Joplin put on paper and saved. His own tragic story is here as well. Ragtime piano, opera, one of his that failed during his lifetime has been produced and put on stage to great acclaim.
I’m still struggling to walk a half-mile even with plenty of rest stops. We go this morning for a second  acupuncture treatment. But, I see signs of wellness and hope.