Day 33 - Combines and Sunsets

Saturday, 24 September

We left Kathy and Frank's this morning and started towards Valparaiso, Indiana to see my 91-year-old Great Aunt and Uncle Ruby and Darrel.  Ruby is my grandmother Edwards only sister and she is the only one that is still living from my grandmother's family.  I have never met her and I am anxious to talk to her tomorrow.

As we travelled through Illinois and into Indiana, using only backroads (NO FREEWAYS - BORING), we finally got to see farmers combining their corn and soybean fields... Deb was so excited.  We also saw some awesome barns and then this evening a beautiful sunset.  As we left Gays, IL, we found the site of a two story outhouse built in 1872... hmmm...

Photographic evidence:

Day 32 - Airplanes, Combines, Kindergarten, and BBQ

Friday, 23 September

This morning, Frank took us over to Scott AFB, which is just a couple miles from his home, to see the C-141 that he actually flew in 1971...

 When the plane was put on static display here at Scott, Frank recognized the tail numbers of the plane and went to his flight logs to confirm his memory...  Sure enough, it was there... he had flown this plane out of McChord AFB in 1971.

 In 1973, the plane took part in the famous mission "Operation Homecoming" to evacuate POW's out of Hanoi... it was dubbed the "Hanoi Taxi".

 Frank is dwarfed by the large jets on this plane...

 Frank explained how the tail could open up and the ramp lowered down to load cargo...

 I love listening to Frank talk about these planes...

 A proud USAF Pilot - Col. Franklin Rudolph, Retired, and the bird he flew.

 Later, Frank took us to his friends farm to show us the corn and soybean operation there...

 Deb gets a lesson from her brother on how to operate the combine...

 This cutter head will do eight rows of corn at a time...

 Frank explains this seed planter...

 We had lunch in Mascoutah, and then drove to Lebanon for a dish of Ice Cream and Mr. Jazz's Ice Cream Parlor.  They had one of two 12 foot soda bars still operating in the US... it is like the five footer that we have at home.  The owner gave me a lot of information about the soda bars and I am anxious to go home and check some things out on my antique soda bar...

 After our treat, we drove over to the school where our great nephews and nieces attend and their grandma Kathy is the school secretary... this is her new office.

We also drove over to our nieces new home, which they actually closed on today... Deb and Kathy helped Wendy unpack a few boxes and Frank and I went home and watched a little bit of the news... (Actually, we both fell asleep waiting for the girls to come home).

 Frank and Kathy took us to the 17th Street Barbecue Grill tonight for dinner.  I had the best brisket I have ever had tonight.  They have earned the title of Grand National Champions three times in "Memphis in May"... it was delicious.

Tonight we said goodbye to our grand-nephew Logan because we are leaving in the morning as we head to Valparaiso, IN to see my great Aunt and Uncle (my grandmother's sister), if she will have us.

Day 31 - To Belleville, IL

Thursday, 22 September

Today...

We left Nashville...

Drove through Kentucky...

Into Illinois where we stopped at Kathy and Frank's home in Belleville.  After a great dinner of Irish Stew and homemade beer bread (made with coke), we watched a slide show of the photos that they took on their recent trip to Ireland.  It was a great night.

Day 30 - Tearful Farewell, Civil War, and Country Music

Wednesday, 21 September

Today we pulled out from Dunlap on our way to Nashville.  It was a very difficult thing to do because we had an amazing time at the kids place...

Before we left, I took the butt plate off of Ammon's Henry Rifle and I placed a message there to remind him how and when he got it from Grandpa (I forgot to do it last year)...

Then I did the same for the Henry Rifle that I gave Kaleb this year...

Everyone sat on "Picture Rock" as we drove past them on the way down the driveway (Brandyn was at work).  The boys and Deb were trying to be brave...

On the way to Nashville, we stopped in Franklin, TN to view some of the Civil War historical sites...

This is a pyramid of cannon balls.

This is one of the key sights in the Battle of Franklin, which occurred here on the evening of 30 November in 1864...

It is the sight of the cotton gin across the road from Carter House...

This is a house on the Carter House property that was a key site during the Battle of Franklin.  This house has over 1000 bullet holes in it and are still visible today...

This is Carter House...

A short distance down the road is the Carnton Plantation, which became the makeshift hospital for the rebel troops that were cut down as they tried to break through the federal line near Carter House the night of the battle.  Over 700 men were treated here and there were over 1000 casualties during the five hour battle, including four Generals...

The front of the Carnton Home...

After leaving Franklin, we drove to Nashville for the evening.  We went to see the Grand Ole Opry House, but it was closed to tours because there was a sold-out concert that evening.  This is the backside of the Gaylord Grand Ole Opry Hotel.  We went inside the hotel to look around and it was pretty amazing... waterfalls, and rivers meander through the hotel and the atrium is like a tropical rainforest...

 Next door is the Opry House...

 Because it is Wednesday, there usually is no show.  However, there was a special show tonight, but it was sold out...

So, we went across the street to Cooters... It is a Dukes of Hazzard museum... I got my photo taken with Daisy Duke in front of the General Lee...

 This is Daisy's pink Jeep, Dixie...

 Sheriff Bos Hogg's patrol car...

For the life of me, I cannot remember what it was that compelled us to watch this silly show... my memory is getting "kinda short"...

Next door was the Nashville Palace... Many Opry stats got noticed here while playing on this stage before they became Opry stars...

We had a good dinner here...

 On the way out, we noticed that thousands of patrons had signed the walls.  We decided to do the same and I placed our name and date on the upper left corner of the ticket window frame...

As I was doing so, it dawned on me that this was the anniversary of the night I proposed to Deb in 1973!

Tomorrow we will head to Frank and Kathy's.