Thank you Daniel and Rebecca Boone!

Sometimes I use Brenda, our GPS, to try to scope out some possible destinations in our travels by using her thousands of points of interest that are preloaded in her software. When looking around, I found out that Daniel and Rebecca Boone – yes, that Daniel Boone – were buried in the Frankfort Kentucky cemetery. So we headed there as it was only maybe 15 or 20 miles off the path we were taking anyway.

The gravesite was awesome – on a high hillside in the cemetery – about the only one with a vast clear view of the downtown area of Frankfort. Apparently it was well thought out because there is a gorgeous view of the Kentucky state capitol building and the governor’s mansion. More on that later.

We also learned about the Daniel Boone gravesite controversy. Boone dies in 1820 at his then home in Missouri, and was buried nearby next to Rebecca who had preceded him in death. In 1845 his and Rebecca’s remains were disinterred and moved to the Frankfort cemetery in the capitol of Kentucky to commemorate his exploration and settlement of Kentucky in the mid-1700’s, which at that time was part of the territory of Virginia. But his living family members in Missouri were not happy that these renegades from Kentucky had moved Boone and his wife.

Many years later the Boone heirs announced that when Boone and his wife had been buried in Missouri that the headstones were placed on the wrong graves. The relatives said they knew that all along, but that nobody had taken the effort to move the stones to their correct location. So they heirs claim that when the renegades from Kentucky came and exhumed Daniel and Rebecca, they actually had taken some other remains, and that Daniel and Rebecca are still buried near Marthasville Missouri. Both cemeteries lay claim to the gravesites to this very day!

If not for Daniel and Rebecca, we would not have figured out that Frankfort was the state capitol. So we headed to the capitol complex and toured it to add it to our list of state capitols visited. It was actually the third capitol building built – the first was wooden and burned – the second still sits in the business district of downtown and is still used as governmental offices. We visited it, but it is not open for touring.

The current capitol was built in 1905 to create the added space needed for the legislature, the Supreme Court, and state offices. It is a classic domed capitol design, and it is simply beautiful both inside and out. A huge statue of Abraham Lincoln sits under the dome. And the extensive marble and golden ceiling work is really stunning.

The governor lives right across the street from the capitol building – there is no doubt the governor could easily just walk to work. It is an impressive building, built in 1912 not long after the 3^rd capitol building.  While it is not available for touring, it was fun and impressive to see.

In nearby Hodgenville we found the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln. There is a great museum here where we learned more interesting Honest Abe facts that we had not known before.

The actual cabin in which Abe was born and spent a few early years has been put inside a climate controlled monument. The monument building itself is quite impressive, not quite as big as the Lincoln Memorial in DC, but nearly that big.

The reason Lincoln’s father had picked this land to live on was because of the water source on the land – Sinking Spring. His dad thought that he had purchased the land legally, but someone filed a claim of ownership of the land, and in court, the ownership was granted to the other party. Apparently this was not all that uncommon back then when title records were not centralized and surveying not all that reliable. In fact, the land the Lincolns then moved to and rented came under an ownership dispute, which their landlord lost, and so they were evicted from his nearby boyhood home as well. That was enough for the Lincolns, who then left Kentucky never to return.

We went to see the boyhood home where the young Abe Lincoln spent his early formative years. This home is also a National Historic Site, but unfortunately it was under construction and remodeling, so not open to visit. We only got to steel a glimpse from behind the construction barriers.

In the small nearby town of Hodgenville we toured a private Lincoln Museum which was nice to see. There were not a lot of original artifacts, but the exhibits were interesting and compelling. As a bonus, across the street in the center of the roundabout stood a bronze sculpture of Abraham Lincoln, much like the one in the Memorial in DC. However this one predates the sculpture in the Memorial by quite a few years.
 

 And we learned one more gem that ties in with our traveling the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. In 1919, two substitute school teachers decided that they might be happier making candy together than teaching. Rebecca Gooch and Ruth (Hanly) Booe formed Rebecca Ruth Candy Company, which is still in operation today being managed by heirs of the Booe family. The only factory located in Frankfort Kentucky is still in Ruth’s old home. We toured the factory and had great fun, especially the sample at the end of their most infamous creation.

During prohibition, apparently revenuers paid visits from time to time to the factory because the smell of vanilla used in candy making was awful similar to that of alcohol. Apparently, even after Prohibition ended in 1933, rumors of the ladies using alcohol in their candies persisted, which actually drove both interest and sales. With all that interest it was generating, Ruth decided in 1938 that she would develop a candy that included fine Kentucky bourbon in it in a way that the alcohol was not cooked out of it. She called them Bourbon Balls, and they were an instant success. Now you see Bourbon Balls all over Kentucky.

The Bourbon Balls Ruth Booe invented in 1938 contained what she then felt was the best Kentucky bourbon available – Evan Williams. Today, you will still find Bourbon Balls on sale at Heaven Hills distillery, who makes Evan Williams bourbon, and those Bourbon Balls are made by the Rebecca Ruth Candy Company. But apparently Ruth’s heirs are business savvy – they also make Bourbon Balls containing Makers Mark (on sale at that distillery) and Wild Turkey (on sale at that distillery) and I am sure several others.

I love it when we make new discoveries that tie things together for us!

Talk to you soon!

Honeydew success!

I have been working on the ceiling light fixture in our bedroom in Colectiva for several months. It appeared to me that we were having issues with the ballast in the fluorescent fixture as the bulbs weren’t firing right, and often would not ignite totally, just a low flicker. I tried to replace the fluorescent bulbs with some LED bulbs, which worked for a while, but then even they quit working. I messed with the wiring and fiddled with the fuses but nothing brought the fixture back to life. I knew I had to replace it, but as with many things in a motorhome, I was not sure if it was a 120 volt AC fixture or a 12 volt DC fixture.

Then, when leaving Lexington, the Woman could not get the turn signals to function on the Saturn when connected electrically to Colectiva for towing. She messed with the wiring harness, which has always resulted in fixing the issue, but walked up to me with a sad look and shaking her head – she said that there was a wire broken on the harness. I went back and looked, and there were actually two, one I could repair temporarily but the other I couldn’t. There were no RV parts suppliers where we were, so for the next leg I knew I would have brake lights (maybe most important) and a right turn signal – but no left.

The good news is that when we arrived, there was an RV dealership a mile from our campground, and when we called them, they didn’t have the OEM part we needed, which was a 5 foot straight electronic cord with 4 prong connectors on each end, but they did have a coiled cord with 4 prong connectors they said would fit our Roadmaster tow bar. So I headed over, and sure enough, the 4 prong connectors were identical to the ones on my frayed cord. It was sufficiently long that I knew with enough zip ties I could jury rig it to work.

Also, in the meantime, I had pinged my ever helpful friends at Fleetwood Company and they let me know that the bedroom ceiling fixture in Colectiva was in fact a 12 volt DC fixture. While at the RV dealership, I saw that they had a thin light fixture that even used the same bulbs I already had – 18 inch long thin fluorescent bulbs – and it looked like it might fit exactly the mounting holes in the ceiling from the fixture I removed – bonus!

Well, nearly perfect. The 4 pin plugs fit perfectly and the brake lights and turn signals on the Saturn work even better than before. I was able to rig it up to the tow bar with zip ties – not as pretty as it used to be but works flawlessly! And although the mounting holes didn’t match on the thin light, my trusty drill and four new holes later had it mounted exactly in the indentation where the old fixture had been. Sadly, when I flipped the switch on the wall, the disappointment on my face was probably intense when nothing at all happened.

Then I remembered that all these 12 volt DC fixtures, even if they are run with wall switches, still have switches on the fixture itself. When I flipped that switch, I don’t know whether the illumination from the fixture or from my huge smile was bigger. 100% success all around!

Talk to you soon!

Kentucky Bourbon Trail

You can’t think Kentucky without thinking bourbon – at least I can’t. Apparently all the historic bourbon distilleries are located in the hilly country around Lexington and Louisville. It’s nice that we were able to combine horsed for the Woman and bourbon for me – sometimes things actually do work out well.

When we got to Lexington, one of the distilleries that was on the official State of Kentucky Bourbon Trail was right in town. Town Branch, as many of the distilleries, began distilling bourbon in the 1700’s, but through Prohibition and many other economic ups and downs, it has changed ownership many times over the decades, now being owned by a Scottish family that relocated to the region because it reminded them of home.

When we visited and I picked up a Passport for the Kentucky Bourbon Trail (yes, just like the National Park Service Passport that you can get stamped at every park), I thought I would pick it up just to keep as a souvenir, and that we would have one or two stamps in it. But it turned out our journey would put us in fairly close proximity to all of the distilleries on the Bourbon Trail, and we had more fun visiting than we expected. So it turned out that we now have a Kentucky Bourbon Trail Passport with stamps on each of the official distillery pages – bonus!

One of the fun parts of the visits was learning some very interesting facts about Bourbon and why it is here in Kentucky. First the basics, why is it here? Well, the same limestone that allowed all those stone fences to be built for the thoroughbred pastures also purified the ground water here. The limestone removed all the iron content in the ground water, and also increased the calcium content. Apparently both those are important to the water source for distilling good bourbon.

So, how does bourbon differ from whiskey? To be bourbon, you have to meet four criteria. #1 – it has to be distilled in America. #2 – it has to contain at least 51% corn as the base grain used in the distilling process. #3 – it has to be distilled at no more than 160 proof, entered the barrel for aging at no more than 125 proof, and bottled at no less than 80 proof. #4 – it must be aged in oak barrels made only from American oak, and charred on the inside, and each barrel can only be used once to age a batch of bourbon. If you meet all 4 criteria, you are legally allowed to call the end product bourbon.

Why charred oak barrels? Back in the 1700’s it was common for the whiskey makers to put their moonshine in barrels and put them on shipping barges on the Ohio River. By the time that the moonshine reached New Orleans, the moonshine had aged a bunch, and the moonshine had absorbed some of the colors and flavors of the oak barrels. The folk in New Orleans loved this aged shine, both tastier and smoother, so much more than the locally distilled, harsh shine that the demand for it exploded. The producers in Kentucky figured it out, and began barreling and aging all their whiskey.

Why charred oak barrels? Well, nothing ever got wasted in the 1700’s. When the “bourbon” reached New Orleans, the barrels would be emptied, and then enterprising New Orleans fishermen would fill them full of fish and send them back to Kentucky. The distillers in Kentucky soon learned that shine aged in a barrel that had been filled with fish did not produce the desired results. So they burned the inside of the oak barrels to remove the fish stank, and not only did it succeed in removing the fish smells, but it actually ended up further improving the flavors and smoothness created by the barrel aging process. Necessity the mother of invention?

Many of the bourbon makers just follow the 4 criteria, meeting the necessary quantities and proofs in order to be legally able to market as bourbon. Others have decided that messing with the basic criteria allows them to make claims about their product being “better quality” than other bourbons – the most common of which seems to be the percentage of corn in the final recipe. Several of the distillers have upped their percentage of corn used in the mash to 71%, claiming that gives a unique and preferred flavor and smoothness to their bourbon.

We saw warehouse upon warehouse at all the distilleries. At Wild Turkey, they told us that their warehouses generally held 20,000 to 30,000 barrels of bourbon – their most recently built warehouse holds 50,000 barrels. Wild Turkey alone has 27 warehouses of this size. According to the state of Kentucky regulators there are more barrels of bourbon aging in Kentucky than there are thoroughbred horses – or people – actually, there are more than both thoroughbreds and people combined!

Also, as we looked at all the warehouses, they all were really dirty and looked unkempt. Well, we learned that they weren’t dirty – they were covered with Torula mold. Torula is a mold that is attracted by the fermenting and aging alcohol, and grows all over the side of the warehouses. We learned that during Prohibition, the revenuers would keep a keen eye out for Torula growing on trees, because the meant for sure there was an illegal still nearby!

At the Makers Mark distillery, we saw that all there buildings were a deep dark brown color, as opposed to the light colors of all the other distilleries. At the others we learned they kept the warehouses light colored to keep the temperatures inside a bit cooler. But at Makers Mark, they didn’t like the dirty look the Torula left on the warehouse and production buildings. They still have Torula all over their buildings at Makers Mark, you just can’t see it because of the dark brown color.

We also learned that they pay attention to detail at Makers Mark. Not only do they go to great lengths to hand dip each and every bottle of bourbon cap in their distinctive red sealing wax to give it a personalized look, They even make sure that their window shutters on all of their buildings show the outline of their distinctive bourbon bottle. Nice touch!

Finally, we learned where the name Makers Mark came from.  A makers mark is the mark that artisans would put in the bottom of the pewter they created in old England. Since the founders of Makers Mark considered their bourbon to be a fine piece of craftsmanship, they decided to give it a Makers Mark. The circled S IV that is on every label on a Makers Mark bottle stands for the Samuels family who founded the distillery (the “S”), and the 4^th generation of bourbon makers involved (the “IV).

 

Talk to you soon!

Kentucky at last!

We finally made our way to Lexington. Lexington is the home to horse country in the US. The Woman had planned well – we were staying at a public campground known as the Kentucky Horse Park. All the while we were in the Smoky Mountain, when folk would as where we were heading next, we would say Lexington. The first words out of each of their mouths were “are you going to the Kentucky Horse Park?” And I am not even kidding – I bet we talked to well over a dozen people, and each one asked that first. So, the Woman obviously did good.

We actually spent most of two days in the park, because there is that much to do here. The first thing we found out was that some of the most famous thoroughbreds in history are buried here. Although never actually a Triple Crown winner (only because his owner didn’t like racing in Kentucky for some reason and refused to enter him in the Kentucky Derby), Man o’War, set world record in both the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, winning the Stakes by 20 lengths in 1920. In fact, 1920 turned out to be a season when he won all 11 races he was entered in – a year undefeated! Over his two year racing career, he won 20 of the 21 races he was entered in. Because of this impressive record, many believe him to be the greatest thoroughbred racehorse ever. Man o’War is buried here under a massive memorial. Apparently it is not customary to embalm horses when they die – Man o’War is the first horse in history to be embalmed prior to burial.

The customary burial for horses is to bury their head, their heart and their hooves, and then cremate the rest of the horse – the head because of their smarts, their heart because the heart of a horse is revered, and their hooves because they fly like the wind. We visited the traditional burial site for Triple Crown winner Secretariat and a former Kentucky Derby winner, Cigar, who lived at the Park up until last year. At the Kentucky Horse Park, when a traditional horse burial occurs, the cremated remains of the rest of the horse are spread around the entire grounds of the Park in memorial.

Near the memorials we learned about the distinctive walls that, combined with the split rail fencing, create the distinctive and picturesque look of the Kentucky horse country. Apparently all over this part of Kentucky the topsoil lies on vast bed of limestone. It was so plentiful, easy to get at and came up easily in slabs, the locals built miles and miles of walls from it. The slabs were such perfect form that they developed a no mortar style of wall brought to the colonies by Irish stone masons, just stacking the limestone in a way that its own weight would keep it in place. Today a nonprofit organization works to preserve these artifacts dating back to the 1700’s.
 

We also got some insight into why we often see double layers of the split rail fencing around the horse pastures, the rows being maybe 6 or so feet apart. Because the thoroughbred horses are so valuable, the double fencing keeps onlookers from being able to touch the horses. Also, because the stallions are not generally gelded, they are type A and prone to biting, so keeping the onlookers away from the horses keeps liability costs in line. Also, some say that due to the high value of the thoroughbreds, a car that leaves the road and careens into the horse pasture will likely stop after hitting the first fence and not penetrate the second, thereby protecting the owner’s investment.
 

The Woman couldn’t stand being around all these horses without mounting one. But when she finally got on one, she was going so fast I couldn’t get a good focus for the shot!
 

There are two museums within the park dedicated to horses. The International Horse Museum is impressive. The museum contains equestrian artifacts that date back to several centuries BC. Some of the Roman and early Syrian artifacts were particularly interesting, including decorative stonework as well as horse armor. Artifacts through the centuries were fun to stroll through. Items from the earliest settlement in the United States were particularly interesting. As time moved on, the artifacts became more current. Those from the early days of competitive horse racing were quite fun.
 

Eventually we got to the trophy area, where the trophies from some of the most celebrated thoroughbreds in history were on display. We saw trophies from wins by Man-O-War, Affirmed, Secretariat, and even the Belmont Stakes Trophy awarded to Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew in 1977.

The live shows were by far the best, and the part of the Park the Woman really enjoyed. First in the Hall of Champions, they brought out 4 horses for us to meet who had been winners of prestigious races. Two of the horses were thoroughbreds and Kentucky Derby winners, Go for Gin and Funny Cide. The others two were harness racing champions, Western Dreamer and Da Hoss. It apparently common if horses are raised in the area that if they have retired and can no longer be used for breeding, they may live out the rest of their lives giving demonstrations at the Park – not a bad life!

The next show was a display of all different types of horses that have been popular in recent times, along with their riders wearing historically accurate garb. The horses ranged from formal English dressage horses, to Celtic draft horses, to the typical horse that the Norse warriors would ride, to an absolutely gorgeous dark Arabian steed.

The Woman liked this show the best. First of all, the horses and riders were both dressed up elegantly and brought back images we all have grown up with. Each new horse and rider combination took you to a different memory and internal vision.

But the real reason it was her favorite was because after the show, the horses and riders come back out and spend as much time at the rails as the show participants wanted. You could touch and interact with the horses, and you could chat with the riders as well. While the Woman did enjoy chatting with the riders, she was really all about whispering to the steeds themselves. I am sure we could have hung around for a few hours and the Woman would not have noticed, but we eventually decided to scope out all the parts of the Park that we had not yet taken advantage of.

We spent most of the day at the Park, so we just headed back to Colectiva. We cracked out the bikes and were going to try to find the Legacy Trail we had read about. It is a 14 mile paved bike trail that leads from the Kentucky Horse Park to downtown Lexington. But we didn’t make it that far. We had been hearing distant sounds of PA announcements that sounded a bit like some kind of event. Well, as we drove around the back areas of the Kentucky Horse Park, we stumbled upon the Bluegrass Festival Horse Show, part of the 2015 Kentucky Horse Show Series, and it was in full glory.

The 2015 USHJA International Hunter Rider Derby Championship was in progress at the Rolex Stadium. The USHJA (US Hunter/Jumper Association) is the official US Equestrian Federation regulating show jumping. We stumbled upon a tent based pub that had two chairs and a small table right along the rail of one of the competition rings. so we parked the bikes, the Woman grabbed a Chardonnay and I grabbed a Bourbon Barrel Ale (brewed at the historic Town Branch Distillery in Lexington) and we watched the best horse jumping event we had ever seen. And we were literally sitting just arms reach from the competitors!

It turned out that we had selected the exactly the right kind of transportation for this event. The Park in the competition area is really tight, and so cars are precluded. But everything is set up for folk having golf carts. So there are golf cart paths winding through everything, and of course bikes are welcome as well. We spent a couple hours just chilling, sipping, and watching world class show jumping. What a great time!

Then we learned that this weekend the Kentucky Horse Park is holding the 2015 Park Equine International Polo Cup Championship. Polo teams from all over the world converge on Lexington. Well, it turns out that because the International Show Jumping event is running now on the grounds that will be used for the Polo Championships this weekend, the teams were using the huge field directly behind Colectiva to practice. So as we had our daily campfire, we sat and watched a South American team (couldn’t figure exactly which team though) practice, and it was great fun – bonus!

 

Talk to you soon!

More eastern Tennessee rewards

We targeted two potentially interesting destinations as we continued to scour eastern Tennessee for what it had to offer. The Devils Triangle and the town of Oak Ridge called out our names.

After US 129 and the Tail of the Dragon, I wanted to check out more of these historic mountain highways. The Devil’s Triangle is a 44 mile loop with some of the sharpest and steepest switchbacks you will ever experience. It is billed as being much more of a challenge than the Tail of the Dragon. We enjoyed exploring the Triangle, but found out that because it is not adjacent to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and the Smoky Mountains, it does not seem to attract all the higher profile activity and attractions we experienced at the Tail.

I could see that this would be a really fun ride on a Harley, or anything on two wheels. But from a tourism viewpoint, the area is really depressed. The towns had little to offer other than boarded up and vacant buildings, and there were no real attractions to draw in crowds. Even though it was a weekend, we saw a total of only 30 Harleys on the Devil’s Triangle, compared with the many hundreds we experienced while driving the Tail of the Dragon. And we saw not a single stealth camera blind on the way. However, we really enjoyed the ride.

Oliver Springs is typical of the towns along the Devil’s Triangle, except that it may have had a few more buildings (abandoned of course) of substance than the other towns around. We had no idea why there was an RV park in Oliver Springs – we assumed it might have been the draw of the Triangle. We were wrong. Apparently this is a hot spot for off road ATV aficionados. It turns out we were actually lucky to be able to get a site.

Oak Ridge did not provide any entertainment. For all the reasons I mentioned before, Oak Ridge became the primary location for the Manhattan Project, established there on August 13, 1942. Apparently back in 1942 the town didn’t even show up on maps it was that top secret. I expected there to be something to remind folk of what may have been one of the most significant war effort in history, but I was wrong. Other than a few street names like Centrifuge Boulevard and such, and a museum dedicated to atomic science, there was really nothing to commemorate the Project here.

We did, however, stumble on a gem while doing the Triangle. When in Cataloochee Valley we picked up a National Park brochure for the Obed National Wild and Scenic River. Because of the preservation of the National Park Service, the Obed River valley is pretty much as it looked in the 1700’s when European settlers arrived. The National Park Service manages over 45 miles of natural bluffs along the Obed River, Clear Creek and Daddy Creek.

We hiked out to the Lilly Bluff. Lilly Bluff is one of the dozens of dedicated rock climbing areas available to users of the park. Also, at the base of Lilly Bluff is one of the many rapids that make up the challenging white water canoeing available in the park. Cataracts ranging from level 2 to level 4 rapids make this a haven for those who love to hit the white water.

Since we had extra time, we decided to hike out to The Point, a thin pinnacle high over the Obed River on one side and Clear Creek on the other. The Point is where the confluence of these bodies of water occurs.

This is the second time we hiked to the confluence of two rivers – the first time was to the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers in Canyonlands National Park. However, today’s hike was only 4 miles round trip to The Point, as opposed to the 26 miles round trip in Canyonlands!

We were really happy we stumbled upon this gem that we wouldn’t have otherwise known about.

 

Talk to you soon!

Andrew Johnson

We learned that the 17^th President of the US called the community of Greeneville Tennessee home for much of his life. Being only a couple hours from the Smoky Mountains, we had to visit.

Johnson was born on December 29, 1808 in Raleigh North Carolina. When Andrew was only 3 years old, his father died of a heart attack, leaving his mother without a viable means to support her two sons, and took work as a washwoman. When old enough, she apprenticed both her sons to help support the family. Both sons were apprenticed to a local tailor, James Selby. Although he turned out to be a fine tailor, he was not happy and ran away after 5 years. Selby put out a warrant for his arrest in breaking his servitude bond, and provided a reward for his return. Johnson avoided returning to his home in Raleigh for fear of being arrested.

Johnson moved to Greeneville in 1827 and established a successful tailor shop. He was married at the age of 18 by Mordecai Lincoln, cousin to Abraham Lincoln’s father. The relationship would become important in the future. In addition to having a successful tailor shop, he pursued politics, becoming a member of the House of Representatives, a Senator, and Governor of Tennessee. He was a very staunch Constitutionalist, believing in the supreme sanctity of the document.

Two of Johnson’s homes exist in Greeneville and are available to view. His family home has been restored and contains many artifacts that were owned and used by the Johnson’s. His children and heirs were instrumental in gathering and providing both the home and the furnishings to the National Park Service in memory of their father.

The visitor center also has the tailor shop that Johnson operated – it has been reassembled inside the visitor center, and is worth seeing. While you can’t go inside, it is open and easily visible. The NPS has speakers hidden in the tailor shop, with the sounds of scissors cutting fabric, sewing, walking on wooden floors; it really creates a very surreal experience.

Abraham Lincoln ran with Hannibal Hamlin as his vice president during his first term. After the commencement of the Civil War, Lincoln was concerned about his ability to be reelected given the divide in the country. While he was a Republican, Johnson was a Democrat, but he personally knew Johnson due to the familial relationships, as well from his interactions in the senate. Lincoln decided he had a better chance of reelection with a Southern candidate even if from the opposing party. Apparently his tactic worked.

Johnson took office upon Lincoln’s assassination, the first time that part of our government had to perform, and it did admirably. However, despite supporting the union of the states, he did not support punishing the South for its efforts at secession. He believed reconstruction of the Union could only occur if the South was encouraged rather than punished. For that reason, he vetoed many of the bills that Congress passed after the end of the war which would have established harsh military rule of the South, or refused the citizens of the South those rights held by the rest of Americans. For his vetoes, the Congress attempted to impeach him. Luckily, he was able to withstand the impeachment vote, which also set a precedent that Congress could not easily remove a President just because he was not popular with the majority party.

If not for Johnson’s firm resolve, and full belief in the constitution as written by the founding fathers, the post-Civil War reconstruction of the South, and the ultimate reconstruction of the Union of States, may not have happened as it did. Before visiting Greeneville, I knew only vague references to Andrew Johnson, but now I know how absolutely a key figure he was in creating the US we enjoy today.

We also visited the National Cemetery in Greeneville where Andrew Johnson and most of his immediate family are buried. His only request on burial was that he be laid to rest in the family burial grounds, with his head lying on a copy of the Constitution which he loved. His requests were granted as given.

We also toured the Dickson Williams mansion while in Greeneville. It was a very interesting tour in that the docent’s grandfathers had been officers in the Confederate army, and his ancestors had been acquaintances of both the Johnson and Lincoln families. Most of the other folk on the tour were locals who had also had relationships in their families with those local and important. So our tour group was great to listen to, as they bantered about whose grandma had interacted with whose grandpa and such. It was really fun.

The mansion had significance in Greeneville as its original owners had ties to both the Lincoln and Johnson families. The other reason it is of significance is that its vineyard ended up being one of the few locations in which a Confederate General was killed by Union forces. Apparently because of its location in eastern Tennessee, Greeneville seemed to trade hands from Union to Confederate control quite frequently. On September 4, 1864 the “Rebel Raider”, General John Hunt Morgan of the Confederacy came to Greeneville just to check out its status. Despite being advised not to by his scouts because Union forces were approaching and would likely assume that he would be there, Morgan chose to stay in the Dickson Williams mansion primarily because it was the finest home in the city, and he was accustomed to staying in the finest accommodations wherever he went. The next day, Union forces overtook Greeneville, were aware of General Morgan’s presence, and based on his habits had a pretty good idea where he might be located.

When Union forces seized the area, General Morgan escaped to the church next door to the mansion. When the Union forces also seized the church, Morgan apparently decided to make a run for it and try to get to his steed in the stable across the mansions yard. Unfortunately, as he made the dash for the stable, a Union private shot him in the back as he was running, resulting in one of the few incidents of either forces killing an opposing general.

The room where General Morgan spent his last evening alive was well preserved. Most of the furniture that was in the room the last evening of the Rebel Raider’s life is still there. On the wall even hung the actual straight razor that the General had in his pack when he was shot. Allegedly the General, after preparation, we laid out for viewing in Greeneville the next day, and both Union and Confederate forces came to pay their respects.

Other notable people stayed with the Dickson Williams families over the years that they occupied this mansion. For example, this is the actual desk on which English playwright Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote Little Lord Fauntleroy, first published as a serial in 1885 and then as a book in 1886.
  While a bit hard to get to, a visit to Greeneville TN brings lots of rewards.

 

Talk to you soon!

Great Smoky Mountain Railway

Built during the rail boom in the mid-1800’s, the GSMR ran some 160 miles along the Nantahala River connecting Murphy with Asheville. It was built almost entirely using convict labor. Being progressive at the time, both male and female convicts were involved in the construction of the railroad. Of course, the males swung the pick axes, and the females cooked and did laundry.

Our car was a turn of the century first class lounge car, complete with a full bar. Since we were one county over from Graham, we were able to take advantage of the only Carolina Shine car on the train. In the Carolina Shine car, samples of all the flavors of the local Carolina Shine moonshine are served to the patrons. The first 4 shots were served as we were getting ready to depart the station, just to get the buzz going early I guess. The strawberry shine was the best of the lot.

Along the Nantahala River, we stopped at the NOC – the Nantahala Outdoor Center. Primarily a canoeing based facility, the Center was in the process of holding the 2015 ICF Junior & U23 Whitewater Canoeing World Championships. The course looked pretty challenging. The Woman’s good friend, Melvin Swallow, competes internationally in these kind of events – adult level rather than junior – but this course looked like it would have had the adults breathing a bit heavy as well.

We learned that the largest number of passengers on the GSMR was Americans – no big surprise I guess. But the 2^nd largest was Brits, followed by Germans and French. We were told that Europeans simply love forests. We were told they visit the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in droves because there are more trees within the National Park borders than there are in all of Europe. I can’t confirm that statistic, but since it was being told to us by a Ranger, I have to assume it is accurate. A representative of the US Government wouldn’t say something that wasn’t true would they, that is of course unless they are elected.

After the train we walked around town a bit. So, is this sign making a statement about the local school system in the city of Bryson City, North Carolina?

Actually it is not. Apparently back in 1944 when the TVA displaced those thousands of American families, they made a promise to the townsfolk of Fontana. When the TVA built the Fontana Dam to dam up the Little Tennessee River, it flooded the town of Fontana where families had lived for generations. The US Government promised the displaced families that they would build a road into the un-flooded cemeteries so that the displaced families could still visit their dead.

The road was built – well at least half-way built. There is a gorgeous 1,275 foot long stone tunnel built through the mountain in the mid-1940’s to route this promised highway through. However, the original funding then ran out – about 300 yards past the end of this fabulous tunnel – and the Government never appropriated the additional funds needed to complete the road, despite the promise that was made. Somehow it seems like a promise should be a promise.

The betrayed locals refer to this highway as the “Road to nowhere” – a different one than Sarah Palin talked about. There are billboards and graffiti accusing the Government of betrayal, lying, and all kinds of treachery. No wonder they still sport the Confederate flag down here.

While sitting in the Carolina Shine car along with 10 other guests for four hours, we got to know everyone pretty well. The folk from Georgia mentioned that they had been to a remote area called Catalooche where there were lots of Elk. It turned out that Catalooche Valley is within the National Park boundaries, just on the far eastern side. So we headed there on our way out of the Park.

A 10 mile narrow snakelike road, 3 miles of which is gravel and essentially one lane, takes you over the pass and into the valley that lies along the Catalooche Creek. There were trailheads everywhere and even a nice, but small, campground. Like in Cades Cove, many of the old homesteads still remain in the area under the care of the National Park Service.

It was raining a bit so we weren’t sure if we would see any wildlife. But we were rewarded with a whole field full of wild turkey that were fun to watch scamper around. And sure enough, as we got to the end of the road two huge elk were nibbling on the vast meadow, undaunted even in the least by the rain. It was well worth the drive, and with all the trail heads we saw, we hope to return.

Saying our last good byes to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it was finally time to move on. But on our way out of the Park, we spotted what has come to be a familiar sight. We have been to Stonehenge in England. We have been to Carhenge in Texas. Now we have finally been to Canoehenge in North Carolina!

Talk to you soon!