October 7 - “Hangwoman”

“Bob wears orange. 

Don’t hit Bob. 

We need Bob.”

That’s the signage on the roadway in Vicksburg, Mississippi, that greeted us as we left the hotel. Please, folks. If you’re driving through Mississippi, be ever mindful of good ol’ Bob. They really need him. 

We looked hard for something to do or see on this particular leg if our journey - I20 through Northern Louisiana. Aside from the whole Duck Commander experience, which we have already done, things looked pretty bleak. We did stop for gas in West Monroe. Didn’t see Willie of the gang, though. Guess they don’t get gas at the QT. 

We finally crossed into Texas around lunch time, so we had to celebrate a little bit. The first Whataburger we came to was in Marshall, so off we went. Good to be back among something familiar. And speaking of familiar, when we needed gas a few hundred miles later, what should show up but … Buc-ees. 

We made to Dallas in plenty of time to make the rehearsal dinner we had been invited to. Best part of the evening? Playing “Hangwoman” with a cute as a button nine-year-old girl named Aurora. The game went kind of like hangman, except she, with her remarkable dramatic skills, became the one being hanged. She announced a category (like “my favorite vegetable“), and I had to make the guesses. When I missed, she struck the appropriate pose to mirror the little hanged person on a piece of paper. Great fun. We met lots of the bride’s other family as well. It was also good to see a few of the Galveston connection folks. Many prayers for this meshing. 

Philippians‬ ‭2‬:‭5 says. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus

Father, thanks for getting us safely back into Texas. Amen. 

October 6 - “Little River”

Our foresight the night before placed us within just a few miles of our next destination, the Little River National Preserve. It wasn’t necessarily a big place, just long. It followed the banks of the Little River. Hence the name. Imagine that. 

We arrived before the welcome center opened, so we went old school and followed a paper map and road signs (yes, they do still make those. Helpful in areas with spotty cell service).  And our first stop was a littler boardwalk hike to see Little River Falls. I chuckle as I type this. They certainly lived up to their name. Little. Not much to them, actually. I know the drought had a lot to do with that, but for someone who has seen some really big waterfalls (Niagara), this was tiny. Pretty, though. 

As we returned toward the car, we passed an elderly lady (OK. She was probably our age. It’s weird being the same again as old people). She told us we were in for a real treat. The “real hike” started just behind her, but she couldn’t do it because of a bum knee. We thanked her and continued on. 

Sure enough, we soon came to a break in the railings that led to a path. Ignoring the warnings about the 139 steps at the end, and how difficult it would be to turn around and come back up the hill, we jumped right in. Fortunately, we knew to watch for red marks on trees to make sure we stayed on the rocky trail. And they weren’t kidding about those treacherous steps. But we made it all the way down to the river. We even explored an old cave and walked around on on the river bed itself, much of which was dry. Then came the return. Yep. New lesson for all you prospective hikers out there: uphill is harder than downhill, especially after you have already done the downhill. I was about hiked out. 

On our way out of the preserve, we took the canyon rim road. Supposed to have some amazing views of the canyon. The views were pretty good.  After all, God does good work. My favorite part, though, were the six of eight raptors that were soaring around the canyon. Now THAT was majestic. 

From the canyon rim we left the high places and began our descent back into the lower plains of existence. In other words, we jumped on the interstate and headed south and west. It was a long afternoon of driving, but fortunately the sky was overcast, so it wasn’t super hot with the sun in our eyes. We trekked across Alabama and almost all of Mississippi to stay the night in Vicksburg. The only excitement on this leg came when we accidentally turned onto a one way street - the wrong way. Fortunately we recognized the snafu right away (the car headed right for us gave us our first clue).  We were able to jump the small median and get back to where we needed to be. Watch out for those confusing streets in Meridian, Mississippi. But on a positive note, we were able to use our accumulated frequent traveler points to get a free room. 

Next target … Dallas, and a wedding to attend. 

2 Peter‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬ says, His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Father, thank you for riding with us on long days like yesterday. Today will be another one. Please join us. Amen. 

October 5 - “650 eggs??”

First stop straight from the hotel to The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s house. Guess it’s fitting since we saw where he commanded the Battle of New Orleans earlier in our travels. Nice to see he had a home “back home.”  It was definitely a mansion. Also had about an acre of garden next door, plus acres and acres of open land surrounding it that used to all be cotton crop. Main thing I learned? He was a big advocate for term limits in politics. Also, Teddy Roosevelt liked him. That says a lot in his favor in my book. Oh, and he was never called “Mr. President.”  It was always “General.”

I was on nap duty for our second run of the day. Er, wait. I mean MAP duty. Autocorrect, you know what I mean?  I saw a place we probably should have turned off for. Not that it had anything special to offer. It would have just been fun to say we have been through Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, just north of Chattanooga. Yep. Soddy-Daisy. Hyphen and all. Wonder what the story is behind that name. 

Our second stop was a national monument called Russell Cave in Northeastern Alabama. But wait! Detour time. Yep. We saw one of THOSE signs. And we ended up in South Pittsburg, Tennessee. Why? Well, obviously, because it is the home of cast iron skillets. At least the Lodge brand. And not just that. It is the home of the World’s Largest Cast Iron Skillet. That’s right. We took a selfie in front of a skillet that we both could have napped in, along with six or eight of our closest friends. The skillet is actually big enough to theoretically cook 650 eggs at once. Theoretical because no one has ever tried it. The thing is huge. How could we not turn aside from our pursuit of national parks? No way I was missing this one. 

Of course because of the detour, we only had time to do one of our two remaining target parks. Russell Cave was first up. We were actually the 17th and 18th visitors of the day (the Ranger told us). That place was pretty remote. You couldn’t go into the cave, but they had a boardwalk that led right up to its dual entrances. In fact, we were warned not to leave the boardwalk because of a preponderance of venomous reptiles. We obeyed. 

One entrance was actually more of a massive overhang where the early inhabitants lived (lots of archaeological stuff going on). The other was the actual cave opening. Pretty impressive to be that close up. The most significant thing to me? The quiet. 

From the cave we headed in the general direction of our last park target. Because of the time, though, we shifted gears and went straight to our hotel for the night. Holly, Dolly, Polly, and Molly Cart greeted us at the door. First time I have ever seen named luggage carts. Love it. We had Holly. She served us well. 

Oh, and I almost forgot. As we puttered along yesterday afternoon (actually Chris was right in the middle of passing a couple of slow-moving 18-wheelers), all of a sudden, both of our phones as well as the car’s radio speaker all exploded at the same time. Test of the national emergency broadcast system. I guess it worked. Now the whole country can be simultaneously notified either when aliens land or … maybe when Jesus comes back?

Mark‬ ‭16‬:‭15‬ says, He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”

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Father, thanks for yet another really strange place for us to enjoy yesterday. Keep that creativity coming. Amen. 

October 4 - “Small things entertain”

We are definitely “up north” (at least for us). Temp when we got up in the morning yesterday? 55 degrees. That is for sure winter in Galveston. 

Mill Spring Battlefield National Monument was our first stop. Actually, it wasn’t much of a stop. The visitor center was closed, but they did have stickers outside the door. They also had a driving tour of the battlefield, kind of like the way Gettysburg was set up, only on a much smaller scale. The one place that did have some interesting things to see was the second stop of the tour. Problem was, we were met by a Ranger who told us they were doing repair work on an original wall, so they were asking all visitors to park at the top of the hill and walk back down. “All visitors”? This was a brand new park, and I really doubt they were having a huge influx of guests. But of course we happily complied. 

Well, that didn’t seem so hard coming down, but we did have to get back up that hill again. It was a bit of a challenge, but we’ve handled much worse. Oh! Be proud of me. On the way down the hill, I pointed out some obscure agri-tourist photo shots of random flowers for Chris. Getting in the swing of things, I guess. 

Next we headed into Tennessee to the Big South Fork National Recreation Area. No historical sites to see, but they did have another stamp for The Book. 

On the way I got a little bored, so I started looking for churches with unusual names. That’s always a fun pastime. Here’s my list:

Sinking Valley Baptist Church (located in a deep valley. Imagine)

The Old Path Baptist Church (as opposed to the new path?)

Barnesburg Baptist Church (too easy. Name of the town)

Saline Baptist Church (specialty is starting IV’s?)

Sardis Methodist Church (I thought of Dr. Who, but I guess he would go to Tardis Baptist)

Lakeside Baptist Church (no lake in sight)

Calvary Separate Baptist Church (separate from the other versions of Baptists, of course)

Grave Hill Baptist Church (had graves on the hill behind it - imagine that)

Bible Believers Baptist Church (helpful to believe the Bible)

New Haven Baptist Church (shouldn’t that be in Connecticut?)

Leatherwood Baptist Church (leather wood doesn’t sound very sturdy) 

Small things entertain me. 

Right before we arrived at the park, we decided to get some lunch. Chris looked up some loxcal hot spots, and RaeZack’s kept coming up. Chris had a chicken wrap. I had fried chicken livers, mac n cheese, and green beans. Best meal yet on this vacation. 

After a false start at one visitor center that was closed, we backtracked a bit and headed for a different one. This one was deep inside the park, and the road was one of those with serious twists. Like complete 180 degree turns and heading straight up. But we did see something I have never seen before. There were flowers on every grave in every cemetery. And I don’t mean just a carnation or two. I mean big sprays of flowers. Cut flowers. Expensive cut flowers. Kudos to you, small town. 

Next stop was none other than Nashville. Somehow we have missed seeing The Hermitage on our other travels through there. We also connected with Bobby, one of our Seasiders who lives there. He met up with us for supper at one of his favorite local restaurants. Great to see him. And as a plus, I got to have some alligator sliders. Yum. Looking forward to seeing you again in Galveston, Bobby. 

Lamentations‬ ‭3‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭says, Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Father, thank you for helping me notice those different church names. They all reflect the minor differences among us, but I pray that our similarity my be Just Jesus. Amen. 

October 3 - “Ark Cruisin’”

Our hotel was literally next door to the parking lot. Easiest commute ever. Oh. Did I mention we were paying a visit to The Ark Encounter?  Wasn’t on our intent list for this trip, but hey … why not?  It was only four or five hours away. 

The hotel was amazing. Absolutely best ever, and really set the bar high going forward. Which proved to be kind of sad. The very next hotel we checked into was in a small town in Kentucky called Corbin. Yep. Same town that held the amazing Colonel Sanders museum we stopped at earlier in the week. This hotel was among the lower end of middle quality. In fact the first room we were issued still had food in the fridge, the lamp didn’t work, and in general hadn’t been cleaned properly. They switched us right away. The second was adequate, but there were a few annoying issues. No luggage holder. The battery cover on the remote was gone. But it was clean. So we stayed. Well, after we went to Cracker Barrel for supper. That brightened our afternoon somewhat. Mainly because our waitress was named Heaven. Hard to go wrong in the presence of Heaven. 

But back to the day’s activities. We piled into one of the parking lot buses with a host of other early arrivals. And sure enough, after a brief journey through wooded hills, we pulled up into the presence of the life-sized replica of the massive earliest ever cruise ship. Pretty impressive. 

We took advantage of every photo op we could on our way in. My favorite part of the long walk were the large steles (stela?) they had erected along the path. They told the story of creation up to the flood in pictograph images. Kind of like oversized visual verses. Loved it. 

Inside, the ark was set up as a combination shopping mall, food court and visual educational experience. It was fully three stories tall. Cages lined all the floors, with catwalks that could have been used to deliver food. An intricate water delivery system had been worked out as well. They even dealt with waste removal. Pretty impressive. Among the animal species included in cages (replica animals, of course) were basic species of dinosaurs as well as the more recognizable species not yet extinct. 

Back outside, the ark was surrounded by other encounters. We strolled through the small zoo. They do offer camel rides, but we weren’t there at the right times. There was a virtual reality program and live animal shows as well. And how about a zip line for the more adventurous (not us on this day.  My back and Chris’ heart both screamed “No!”). For the younger set, there was a huge playground with lots of climbing apparatuses. And the last thing in the big circle (other than the restaurants run by Noah’s family - we ate lunch at his wife’s buffet place) was none other than an old-timey carrousel. No one was around except the lonely young man assigned to work there, so we hopped on a dinosaur and rode around in circles for a while. By the time in ended, the guy had a line waiting. You’re welcome. 

I did manage to rescue one of the actual descendants of the very first giraffes that disembarked this ark. That’s “this” ark. From what I saw, there were now hundreds of the foot-tall hybrids available for adoption. If I can remember, I’ll call him Gorman (pronounced “Jorman”). Gorman Giraffe. 

And that brought us back to our hotel for the night and our encounter with Heaven. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. 

2 Corinthians‬ ‭10‬:‭5‬ ‭says, We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Father, thank you for the ministry this ark place has. Draw people there who need to hear the gospel as presented several ways there. Amen. 

October 2 - “Cracker-in’ again and again”

While I have a minute or two before tuning in to worship in Waco (I’m typing this on Sunday morning), I thought I would comment on something that is apparently a thing up here. They call it “Agri-tourism.”  Honestly, I have no idea what the local definition for that is, but I can say that it describes perfectly Chris on a hike or checking out of a hotel or … well, anytime she sees a flower. We have hundreds of random pictures of flowers on our camera right now. And the weird thing is … Chris can probably tell you exactly where we saw each one. Amazing. 

We drove on the Davy Crockett Parkway through the Daniel Boone National Forest. Very pretty mountain drive. Places like Brown Fanny Road. I don’t think I want to know where that name came from. 

Stopped in Corbin, Kentucky. Why? It’s the birthplace of the secret recipe for Colonel Sanders’ fried chicken. We went to the museum and had lunch with some college students in the original Sanders Cafe. Put this one on your bucket list of weird places. 

Next we stopped at an artisan fair in Berea, Kentucky. It was more like a visitor center with a permanent store and restaurant in the back. And all the stuff for sale was made by locals. There were some interesting things. I especially liked the woodworking, of course. Oh, and the creatures one guy made using old screws and bicycle chains and the like. Weird, but cool. 

From that parking lot we finally made reservations for our next hotel. It was about an hour away, and it was already after one, so we hit the save button and reserved a room. Good thing, too. All their rooms for tonight were sold out already. 

We got checked in with no problems. This hotel is so nice that Chris changed her whole perspective on reservations. Looks like we’ll be seeking out Hampton Inns for a while. We even found a Cracker Barrel a few miles away, that’s where we went for supper. Back in the room we just crashed and got excited when the Astros won big. But then the Rangers lost a close one. That bumped the Astros became the  Division champs by virtue of a tie-breaker over the Rangers. Rangers still made the playoffs, though. 

Psalms‬ ‭32‬:‭8 says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

Father, thank you for yesterday. It was good for my back to take a rest from walking so much. Please be with us with all the walking we face today. Amen. 

October 1 - “Detouring yet again?”

New record for this vacation. We woke up to a bitter 55 degrees outside. I was pretty sure we had frost on the windshield, but Chris assured me it was just dew. 

First stop for the day was the Andrew Johnson National Historical Site. We visited the cemetery where he is buried. Pretty amazing place. It’s at the top of a steep hill with graves all up and down the sides. We then made a quick stop at the visitor center for a park stamp, of course. And across the street was his childhood home. His tailor shop was encased in another entire building as part of a museum. His homestead was a large brick building on the Main Street of town, and they have built a replica of his birthplace home in the same area. Johnson was a strong advocate for state’s rights, and his plan to go easy on the South after the Civil War got him impeached. I knew I liked that guy. 

We made an accidental discovery while checking the map for a next destination. Davy Crockett Homestead State Park on the Nolichucky River. It was less than an hour away, so we adjusted our plan again and headed out. They had a replica of the homestead Davy grew up in, and we happened to walk up on a guided tour about to start. They welcomed us in, so we joined them. The characters did a great job explaining all the period constructions around the site. It was fun to get the growing up perspective of the ol’ Davy we know from the Alamo. Oh! We did learn that in Tennessee he is David, not Davy. Well, excuse me. 

Aaaand how about another detour?  On the advice of a certain friend (you know who you are), we backtracked a bit and went to the Bush’s Baked Beans factory. Yep. That’s the one. Dog that talks in commercials. Secret family recipe. And I even managed a quick photo with their latest spokesman. Even convinced him to wear my Galveston Fire Department hat. He’s some hot shot football player with a couple of brothers and a famous daddy?  Maybe you’ve heard of him. Manning. Something Manning. I get their first names all confused. Actually it wasn’t the real guy. It was just a life-sized cutout of him and the dog. The picture was fun, though. Almost as much fun as the selfie we took in front of … a gigantic bean. Huge. Like … Jolly Green Giant huge. I know. Wrong company. But did I mention it was huge? 

From there we made our way to a town called Morristown to spend the night. We located a Cracker Barrel for some supper. Again. That has become our go-to place for food this trip. Lots of options. 

Last night we read some disturbing news. The impending government shutdown meant all the National parks would be shut down as well. Chris still had at least five and as many as nine still in her sites. Soooo … at 6:30 we were looking at doing some detouring yet again. 

However … by 7:00 we were seeing that Congress was passing an extension. No surprise there. We’ll see. 

James‬ ‭1‬:‭19 says, My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry

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Father, thank you for detours and maps in pencil and that massive bean. Memories. Amen.