Berea, Kentucky

Berea Info Center

We reviewed the map of places we've been, and discovered that Kentucky formed a big hole east of the Mississippi River. So Consuelo planned a visit to the Blue Grass state. We made online reservations at a campground called, "Oh! Kentucky", in Berea and close to I-75. As with many of our places to stay moving north, we're here "off-season", so most of the campers are long term residents of the park.

One of the "Show of Hands"

Berea lists itself as the "Folk Arts and Crafts Capital of Kentucky", and that was the principle draw for Consuelo. Berea College offers programs which preserve and folk art traditions, such as Skittle board games and dulcimer making. Numerous artisans dot the landscape. We even saw two bead stores within 100 feet of each other, definitely a rarity.

In 2003, the Berea Arts Council established a sculpture display around town made up of 12 giant sized hands with wrists, each decorated by local artists, calling it "Show of Hands". Three of these are now on the lawn in front of the visitor's center. We're looking for the rest.

Eagle flag at visitor's center

We found some nice antique stores downtown, and an authentic flea market which had the quality of a big garage sale. A local cafe downtown made great sandwiches for us one day.

Oak Ridge, TN

Tiger swallowtail at the Arboretum

One of the day trips that Wayne Lohrmann and I took was to Oak Ridge, TN We left to visit the American Museum of Science and Energy, but on our way there, we got sidetracked at the University of Tennessee Arboretum. It was a warm partly cloudy day, around 80 degrees, and we walked for several miles on the trails in the woods.

The Arboretum serves as a collection of native trees and plants as well as varieties of species from around the country that will grow well in Tennessee. They have a large collection of holly varieties, for example. Many of the trees in the woods are labeled, which was useful at this time of year since most were without distinguishing leaves. The once had a large stand of American Chestnut trees, but as with nearly all chestnuts in the US, theirs were wipes out by the blight. Later, they had a great collection of American Chestnut stumps, and the school kids would play a game counting those. But even those are now virtually gone.

Unfortunately, we were probably a week or two early from the peak spring bloom there. Daffodils and redbuds, and a few of the dogwood and tulip trees were in bloom, but the rest were well before their peak. We enjoyed the information and the walk in the woods regardless.

Flying hair from the Van De Graaf generator

Later we went to the American Museum of Science and Energy. Oak Ridge was one of the "secret cities" built in 1943 where atomic energy and methods of refining uranium were developed in preparation to build the atom bombs which ended World War II. A thorough history of this development and the lifestyles are presented in the museums galleries and halls.

Oak Ridge is also close to the Tennessee Valley Authority projects which built huge hydroelectric dams and lakes to provide power for the country during the depression. The museum notes this, and provides information on all of the major energy sources that have been used in the country, as well as the alternative energy sources now under consideration. There are large exhibits on coal, nuclear, natural gas, solar and wind power.

The human kaleidescope

After walking 4 miles in the Arboretum, by the time we had spent 2 hours in the museum, we were thoroughly exhausted. We went home to tornado warnings just north of the campground. No tornadoes bothered us, though, and Wayne and Mary Jo treated us to a wonderful Tennessee barbecue dinner.

Back to Knoxville

Knoxville's iconic SunSphere

On our way north, we decided to stop at Raccoon Valley RV Park in Heiskell, TN, just north of Knoxville on I-75. We had stopped here going south in the fall of 2006. The weather forecast was terrible, and we ended up spending 4 days waiting out the rain. When it cleared up some, we discovered that our friends Mary Jo and Wayne Lorhmann were hiding out in another part of the park, so we spent another 10 days there visiting and sightseeing with them.

One warm and sunny day we went down to the McCluney Museum on the campus of the University of Tennessee. Though small, the exhibits were interesting. Consuelo especially enjoyed the exhibit on forensic anthropology, a subject that UofT experts teach to police the FBI how to recover evidence from moldering murder scenes.

Of course, we had to make a stop at the old Chocolate Factory and sample some of the handmade candies. I had the rum balls, they were yummy.

Redbuds and one of the fountains

Later on, we went down to the World's Fair Park, a lingering remnant from 1982. We saw the Sunsphere, Knoxville's iconic reminder of the fair. This gold plated tower has been virtually unused since the fair, although several entrepreneurs have proposed uses for it, mostly as a restaurant like Dallas' Reunion Tower. The 4th and lowest floor in the ball reopened in mid 2007 as a visitors viewing gallery, and we took the ride up the elevators for a look. The upper floors are owned by a catering company who uses the place for special events.




Mary Jo and Consuelo chatting

We walked through the park, which was beautiful on such a fine spring day. A concert tent provides seating for concerts and gatherings, and the lake stretches nearly to the river. The redbud trees were blushing the landscape with their rosy blossoms.

Unclaimed Baggage

We stopped overnight at the Walmart in Scottsboro, AL. We wanted to shop the goods at the Unclaimed Baggage Store there, to see if anything caught our eye. We had stopped there in the 1990's right after they had received television coverage on CNN, and we found things kind of sparse. We thought another visit would be worthwhile, and it was.

We don't know if all the goods in the store actually are from people's missing luggage. I'm suspicious, as some things looked like they were damaged in transit, and perhaps insurance paid for replacements. If so, they're not really unclaimed, just unwanted. Most everything is used, like shopping Goodwill, but generally the quality is good or better. Some items still have store tags on them, probably never worn.

Prices are fairly good, though they clearly do enough research to eliminate unusually good deals. Golf shirts, for example, typically sell there from $10 to $15. But name brands will go for more, sometimes much more. I did see a Tiger Woods One shirt on the rack for $130. Not my size, fortunately.

So I got some golf shirts, a belt and shorts, needed now that I'm down a size from last year. I found a trucker's atlas, handy to identify routes with low clearances in our taller motorhome. A diabetes cookbook. A 1 GB mp3 player for $12. All that for under $60. Consuelo found some fabric, in the form of sari's. Really beautiful stuff.

I looked at cameras, not that I don't have enough, but I'm still wanting to have a point-and-shoot I can hang on my belt to have available for those shots I now miss.

All in all, it was a good way to kill a morning and satisfying the shopping itch.

Denham Springs, LA

Steve at the grill

Our journey eastward included a planned stop in Denham Springs to visit with Steve Landry and his family. Steve was our boss in the shelter when we worked with the Red Cross after Katrina, and later was my boss when I worked in headquarters.

I consider him one of my special friends. We worked well together, even considering the unique circumstance we worked in, Steve once suggested that we go to Pakistan to help the Red Cross there, but his wife, Jana, quickly vetoed that idea. Steve had a bad heart, not getting better.

In December 2007 we received a call from Steve to let us know that he had successfully survived a heart transplant. We might not have needed much of a reason to stop and see him, but hearing that he had received the heart he had been waiting for prompted us to go a few extra miles to see him.

Softball star Natalie and her mom

We found him in good spirits. I joked that they must have had trouble finding a heart large enough, since Steve had a way of taking care of people, he was a big hearted guy. It turns out that the heart he received was literally too small, and his body was adapting to it, and that was giving him some trouble. He also was consuming a lot of medication, which left him swollen all over. He looked like he had gained 50 lbs, but it was not so. His dietary recommendations were limited, but Steve always played a bit loose with the rules, so he was giving himself a few liberties with the food. Even so, he seemed to be behaving himself, for the most part.

The baseball star Nathan

Perhaps more difficult for him was the adjustment to the changes brought about by his transplant. He had high expectations for life after the transplant, and he has not, as yet, realized those expectations. Perhaps he will as his rehab proceeds. Thwarted expectations generally produce upsets, and Steve is struggling with his.

But the visit turned into a feast. We came to their house when we got to town, and Steve grilled steaks and Jana made mac&cheese, banana pudding, strawberry shortcake. We retaliated the next day with pork chops, cole slaw, basque eggplant casserole, and yellow rice with veggies. We showed Steve, Jana, and Nathan around our motorhome, showed pics of our travels, and talked about old times.

As an anniversary present, Steve and Jana brought us 5 pounds of mud puppies aka crawfish, a Louisiana specialty. We had some before our dinner on Sunday, and had the rest for lunch at a rest stop in Mississippi the next day. They were GOOD! We'll look forward to tasting them again the next time we get down that way.