This year we did sort of a double trip; first a road trip and then a cruise. So first I’ll write about the road trip portion. We started by flying to Cincinnati
where we rented a car. We were there to visit Chuck’s relatives that live in Northern Kentucky. We visited a couple cemeteries where his mom,
grandma and other family members are buried. We also had a fun get together with several aunts, cousins and his brother that he had not seen in
many years. We met at Pelle’s Cafe in Silver Grove, Kentucky, that is owned by a second cousin of his. After leaving there, we headed south
stopping in Louisville, KY. We visited Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. They have a tour and an excellent museum that has exhibits
about the horses, trainers, jockeys, and owners as well as history of the races. We also went to the Louisville Slugger factory. The museum is
small, but the tour was very interesting; everything you could want to know about baseball bat production. For instance, they have their own forest,
and major league players often pick the wood pieces they want for their bats.
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| Cincinnati Sign Museum |
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| Churchill Downs |
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| Louisville slugger factory |
The next day we went to the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln Museum in the nearby town of Hodgenville. From there we went to Mammoth
Caves National Park. It was a good place to tour because it was cool underground but very hot above ground. It is huge (over 400 miles of passages).
We did the domes and dripstones tour. The last part was beautiful, but overall it’s not as spectacular as Carlsbad Caverns. We ended that day arriving in Nashville, with tickets to the Grand Ole Opry. The evening’s headliner was one of our favorites: Carrie Underwood. In the morning we headed to The Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson. He was a rags to riches success story, unfortunately he profited because of ownership of slaves. After the house tour we strolled the grounds and saw an interesting demonstration on how duels we actually conducted in Jackson’s time. Then we drove in to downtown Nashville, which was very crowded. We stopped at a farmer’s market and an old auto factory (Marathon Motors) that is now shops in a cool old building. The next day we went out to the Stones River National Battlefield at Murfreesboro. Even though it is not as well known as many other Civil War sites, it was a decisive, significant battle. Besides being a very bloody battle (6th costliest in casualties) it was fought at a critical time, between December 31, 1862 to January 2, 1863. This was when the Emancipation Proclamation was to take effect, so a Union victory was very important for advancing Lincoln’s cause. From there we went to Franklin to visit the Carnton Plantation. I particularly wanted to visit this site after reading the historical novel “Widow of the South” about the events that took place there during and after the Battle of Franklin in November 1864. The home was used as a hospital and had been filled with hundreds of casualties. You can still see the blood-stained floor where the doctors worked as they did amputations on injured soldiers. The lady of the house, Carrie McGavock, later used two acres of their property to create the largest private cemetery in the country from the hundreds of soldiers that died there and never returned to their homes.
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| Lincoln family cabin (Abe's birthplace) |
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| Mammoth Caves National Park |
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| Andrew Jackson's Hermitage |
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| Marathon Motors |
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| McGavock Confederate Cemetery |
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| Carnton plantation |
We’d spent so much time exploring the history in the Nashville area that we ran out of time to do more of the city highlights, so we might have to go back sometime. The next day we were headed to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Along the way we stopped at a couple cemeteries where ancestors of mine were buried. One was my great-great grandfather who had served as a Confederate soldier. The drive into the Great Smoky Mountains was beautiful; the area is so green. Gatlinburg itself, although in a beautiful setting, is a major tourist trap. You know that for sure when there are three different Ripley’s attractions. We walked along the main street and enjoyed some street performers and checking out the many shops. We spent the night there, then continued through the mountains to the coast, destination Savannah, Georgia. We fell in love with Savannah when we were there in 2013 because of its beautiful old houses and plazas. After a stop at the Seafood Shack we walked about five miles along the riverfront and through the city’s plazas. We stayed in the 17hundred90 Inn which was really nice. I heard talking outside our window in the evening, and looking outside I discovered the hotel in on the ghosts and graveyards tour. I waved at the people to let them know I was still alive, haha.
Our next stop was Jacksonville, Florida. The purpose of that stop was to do laundry and go to Costco. In the morning we stopped in St. Augustine,
Florida, the oldest city in the US. We visited the Castillo de San Marcos, which is the largest and oldest (late 1600’s) masonry fort in the US. We
walked around the historic district and then headed for Port St. Lucie. We drove past Cape Canaveral and down the coastal route and got pounded
by the heaviest rain I’ve ever seen. The next morning we checked in our rental car at the Fort Lauderdale airport and then boarded the Caribbean
Princess for the next part of our journey.
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| Savannah cotton exchange |
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| Forsyth Park fountain |
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| 17hundred90 Inn |
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| Castillo de San Marcos |
