After a pleasant Christmas at home, celebrated with a steak
cookout on the grill with neighbors, we finished our medical exams (all fine)
on Boxing Day and headed out on the road to Durham on December 27. We left home in a light drizzle and headed
north around Austin to Interstate 35 to Waco. Then we drove highway 31 northeast through Corsicana, Athens, and Tyler to Longview
where we met Rita’s brother Ken, and her niece, Deanna Pillaro, at a café for
lunch. It was fun getting together even
if it was brief.
Soon we were on I-20 heading east past Shreveport
and Monroe, Louisiana,
to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where we had reservations for
the night. It was after dark when we
arrived and we just had a soup and sandwich at McAllister’s Deli before
checking into our hotel for the night.
Saturday morning we woke to a fine drizzle which increased
in strength throughout the day. The
morning was fine enough for us to take a tour of the Vicksburg National
Military Park. We drove the entire route and really enjoyed
our stop at the U.S.S. Cairo Museum
where we toured the Union ironclad ship, Cairo,
which wasn’t there on our first visit to Vicksburg
many years ago. The next major stop was
the Railroad Redoubt where in 1863 Waul’s Texas Legion held the ground against
a Union breakthrough with hand-to-hand combat.
My great-grandfather, Rudolph Franke, and his brother, Carl, both were
in Waul’s Texas Legion at Vicksburg.
After a stop at the Visitor’s Center we drove into the town
of Vicksburg
going up and down streets looking at old historical buildings. We headed southwest on Hall’s Ferry Road because
before the siege of Vicksburg began, Waul’s
Texas Legion was stationed there and took that road into Vicksburg.
We couldn’t find any historical markers however. The rain increased so we abandoned my idea of
visiting Yazoo City
where my great-grandfather’s two other brothers were captured by Union forces
and taken to a prison, Camp Morton, in Indiana.
We took I-20 to Jackson, Mississippi, then headed north on I-55 to Memphis, Tennessee
where we had reservations for the night at Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak
Hotel. We arrived much earlier than
expected so we checked into the hotel then took a tour of Elvis Presley’s home,
Graceland.
We also toured his car museum and his aircraft. All of this reminded us that we enjoyed the
Elvis of the 50s and early 60s when we were young teenage rebels but didn’t
especially follow the Elvis of the 70s with his Las Vegas jumpsuits. In all Graceland
was interesting but not something we would want to repeat. For dinner that evening we ate at a nearby
Marlowe’s which featured Memphis
barbequed ribs. Portions were huge and
we overate as the food was good.
Sunday the rain had stopped and we headed east out of Memphis. As we had driven I-40 across Tennessee from border to
border several times, I chose to take back roads. Leaving Memphis
we took highway 57 through upscale suburbs of Germantown
and Collierville to Moscow where we turned north
to Somerville and US
highway 64 which followed much of the old Trail of Tears when the Cherokee were
banished to Oklahoma. Somerville
was an attractive town as was Bolivar.
The highway skirted around Selmer and in Adamsville Rita and I were
talking about the Civil War when I said I thought the battleground of Shiloh
was in Western Tennessee. She looked on the map and said, “Oh it’s here
near Adamsville”. So we detoured a
little distance and toured the Shiloh
National Military
Park. Shiloh was
one of the major battles of the Civil War and mostly known as the place where
Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston was killed. Since he was from Texas
he was later reburied in Austin,
Texas.
After a nice tour of Shiloh we headed back to Adamsville,
home of Sheriff Buford Pusser of Walking Tall fame, and US highway 64 heading
east through Savannah, Waynesboro to Lawrenceburg where we stopped at the
crowded Brass Lantern for a nice lunch.
We noticed several people with their children stopping at the table behind
me asking the person there if they could have autographs and take photos. I asked our waitress who he was and she
didn’t know but went to ask. Turned out
it was Michael Wolfe of the reality TV show “American Pickers”, his wife and
young son. We never heard of the show or
of him. But he was friendly and
accommodating with everyone.
We were running late and near Pulaski we took I-65 north
towards Nashville
but before that big city we took loop highway 840 to I-40 where we headed east
as the sun was setting. We still had a
way to go. Traffic on I-40 moved fast
and soon we were through Knoxville and crossing
the Smoky Mountains
into North Carolina
on winding roads. We had also lost an
hour crossing into the Eastern Time zone.
So we arrived at our reserved hotel about 10 pm, had the nice cookies
they offered and went directly to bed exhausted.
Monday we had breakfast at the Atlanta Bread Company then
went to the Biltmore
Mansion for our
tour. The mansion, built by the
Vanderbilts, was beautifully decorated for Christmas. We had toured the mansion many years ago in
summer but it looked nice for the holidays and we thought we saw more rooms of
the house this time. After the crowded
tour we drove to Antler
Hill Village
on the property and had a nice lunch at The Bistro. We left about 2-3 pm and headed to Durham and Rachel and
Deana’s house where we arrived about 6 pm.
They had a delicious meal prepared and we enjoyed good conversation for
an enjoyable evening. Their dog, Olive,
was also happy to see us.
Tuesday, New Years Eve, Rachel took off work and after a
leisurely start we headed to Bennett
Place, a nearby State Historical Site where Confederate
General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to General William Sherman of the Union
Forces, the largest number of Confederate solders. The Bennett farm has been restored with old
farm houses of the period and some of the remains of the original house. Afterwards we did some shopping at Costco and
Southern Seasons which is a large gourmet food emporium that we try to visit
each time we are in the area.
After Deana got off work we dressed up and went to Panciuto,
a nice restaurant in the pretty, historical village of Hillsborough. I remember our delicious meal beginning with an
amuse bouche of crispy fried
black-eyed peas in a sauce of pureed greens.
Rita and I had a starter of tortellini Toscana with pumpkin butter
juice, wilted spinach, breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. For our entrées Rita and I had braised pork
ragu, homemade pappardelle pasta, carrots, arugula, breadcrumbs and parmesan
cheese again. For dessert I had warm
apple cake with maple ice cream, a cheddar Florentine and lemon-cinnamon syrup
while Rita had custard with crushed macaroons, caramel and cardamom whipped
cream. All the flavors merged together
nicely. The chef, Aaron Vandemark, uses
95% of his ingredients from local farms.
It was a great finish to 2013.
Wednesday, New Years Day, we welcomed in 2014 in a low key
manner. We slept late then Rachel and
Deana prepared a delicious brunch. We
took it easy watching a movie on TV and generally relaxing. Rachel and Deana prepared another nice meal
for dinner with our traditional pork (tenderloin), greens (kale), rice and
black-eyed peas. So here’s hoping that
we are fortunate to have good luck in 2014 and that it is better than 2013 for
sure.
Thursday both Rachel and Deana took off work and we all
drove north to Richmond, Virginia, where we met Gretchen and
Sophie-Claire at the Richmond Children’s Museum. It was heart-warming when Sophie-Claire saw
us from a distance and ran into our arms screaming “grandma, grandpa”. There were kisses and hugs all around. We followed energetic Sophie-Claire all
around the museum which was perfect for her.
After a few hours we left for a local favorite called the Dairy Bar
where we had delicious chili burgers and milkshakes. Sophie-Claire loved her milkshake even though
it was so cold she was shivering as she drank it. After a while they had to return to Washington, DC, and we
had to drive back to Durham. We were sorry to say good-bye.
Friday Rachel and Deana both went back to work while Rita
did our laundry. At noon we met Rachel
at a local favorite restaurant called Tyler’s. The only problem was deciding which of the
scores of draft beers I wanted to drink.
I settled on a local amber ale and a nice Cobb salad. Rita had fish and chips while Rachel had
their barbecue plate.
Saturday we drove to the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh and toured the
exhibit called “Porsche by Design: Seducing
Speed”. It was a great exhibit with
several famous Porsches starting with one of the first produced in 1937. There was one owned by Janis Joplin and race
cars belonging to Steve McQueen and others.
After that we drove to Durham
where we went to a theater and saw the “Walter Mitty” movie. And after the movie we went to one of Rachel
and Deana’s favorite Turkish restaurants in Chapel Hill
called Talula’s. We ate like sultans and
discovered a nice Turkish red wine called Kavaklidere.
Sunday we followed Rachel and Deana to a nice breakfast
place called Nosh. After a big,
delicious breakfast we said our good-byes and headed out of Durham
on I-40 to I-95 south into South Carolina and
then I-26 east into Charleston. Our first stop was a way out of town to visit
the Confederate submarine Hunley, only raised in 2000. The tours are only conducted on weekends and
our informative guide was a retired US Navy submariner. The story behind the Hunley is very
interesting and too long to go into here.
After the tour we drove into downtown Charleston and checked into our centrally
located hotel. We immediately started
out on a walk as it was late afternoon.
From our hotel on John
Street we headed south down King Street first full of restaurants and
shops but eventually along old, historic homes in the Charleston style of architecture. We walked to the water front called The
Battery where we could see Ft.
Sumter in the
distance. We walked along the water
front to the Old Exchange
Building on East Bay Street and then to the Waterfront Park and City Markets. Near the City Markets we stopped as it was
getting dark and had a delicious seafood dinner at Hanks, a 1940s style
restaurant with style and great food. It
felt cozy and we started with a martini for me and a gin and tonic for
Rita. Both went down good. Then we had seafood combination dinners –
mine with flounder, crab cake, scallops and shrimp. Hanks goes into my books as a favorite. Finally we walked back to our hotel in the
dark.
We had planned to visit Savannah but since we had done that before
and wanted to get back home because of the news of an Arctic cold front, we
decided to just head home as quickly as possible. Monday we headed out of Charleston
on US highway 17 to I-95 and around Jacksonville,
Florida, we took I-210 to I-10
west. Here we drove with only occasional
stops for gasoline past Tallahassee and Pensacola to Mobile,
Alabama, where we had
reservations for the night. In Mobile the temperatures dropped to 17 degrees on Tuesday
morning and we got an early start taking I-10 west through Mississippi
and Louisiana to Beaumont, Texas,
where we stopped for lunch. Then we
continued west through Houston
and finally arrived home about 7 pm after a stop at a grocery store for
breakfast essentials. All was fine at
home and we were happy to have completed another fine road trip to see our
daughters.
