As we drive through Mississippi, I am curious to know the purpose of the ponds that I see on the side of the road. Row after row after row of them.

It turns out that they are catfish ponds, and farm-raised catfish is the largest aqua-culture industry in the U.S with an annual sales value of more than $450 million.

Commercial production began in Mississippi in 1965 and it has led the catfish industry ever since. Each year the state produces over half of all the farm-raised Catfish in the U.S, about 350 million pounds grown in only 100,000 pond water acres.

Channel catfish, which are ideally suited to a pond environment, quickly became the standard species for commercial use. These fish are hardy, tolerate dense stocking, and thrive in a wide range of environmental conditions. They are easily spawned under proper conditions, yet will not spawn when placed in the grow-out ponds, which gives the farmer control over the production process. Fish newly hatched from the egg, called fry, readily accept manufactured feed and continue to eat feed until they are harvested at a weight of one to three pounds. The catfish’s most important asset is its good taste which drives the demand for this healthy food. The white channel catfish flesh is firm with a mild flavor allowing it to be prepared and seasoned in many ways, such as fried, steamed, grilled, or baked.

Before catfish were commercially grown in ponds, Mississippians supplied their kitchens and their fish-fry events by either catching their own catfish in nearby rivers or buying catfish from fishmongers or commercial fishermen. Restaurants serving catfish have always been popular in Mississippi. At times, commercial catfish fishermen could not supply enough wild-caught river catfish and pond-raised catfish began to fill the need. Over time the consistent quality and quantity of pond-raised catfish produced by farmers was preferred over the commercial fisherman’s wild-caught river catfish.

A great evolution in catfish processing occurred in the 1980s when hand filleting of catfish became automated. The result was an enormous increase in the amount of catfish fillets that could be processed in a day. Around the same time, service companies began developing special harvesting boats, nets, and gear while other companies developed electric or tractor-powered paddle-wheel aerators.

If there is one thing that Mike and I both love to eat, it is well cooked Catfish! To date, Uncle Larry’s restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee is our gold standard. We went in search of Catfish for lunch yesterday, it was OK but not up to Uncle Larry’s standard!

Photos to follow as the internet is horribly slow!

 

 

Today we drive from Memphis, Tennessee to Marksville, Louisiana some 300 miles and the first leg of our journey home! We have been on the road for three weeks and it’s time!

I think Miss Poppy needs to get home too. She is a real trooper and is happy to be anywhere we are … except that at home she spends all day, each day, playing what we call the “in and out game.” She places her head on the back of the settee, and looks out into the garden trying to spot a squirrel. The minute she does, she’s at the back door and letting us know that it’s time to go out and chase the pesky critter. The minute the door opens, she rushes out at the speed of light and only returns to the back door wanting to come in and repeat the whole process! It’s very cute to watch.

Our route takes us through Tunica, Mississippi, an immaculately kept small town where everything looks somewhat new. There is not a speck of rubbish anywhere; there are beautiful trees planted in neat rows to keep the winds away from the local crops of corn and rice; the road we are on is well-kept and for a Friday on a holiday weekend, it is empty.

What is interesting is that Tunica has not always been like this and was once one of the most impoverished towns in America. Life became dramatically different for the town’s residents when in 1995 Jack Binion, the son of a Las Vegas gaming legend, opened the Horseshoe Casino as part of a casino development centre of three gambling facilities side by side. The money began to flow into the town and it had the resources to regenerate itself into what it is today.

We head onwards and through Greenville, Mississippi. Greenville is the birthplace of Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets and the voice of Kermit the Frog until his Henson’s untimely death in May 1990.

Based on the early life and career of country music star Johnny Cash, “Walk the Line” is a film starring Joaquin Phoenix as Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, his long-time love and second wife. Phoenix and Witherspoon perform all their own songs in the film which was nominated for five Oscars.

Cash and his first wife Vivian Liberto move to Memphis, Tennessee in 1954 where he sells appliances while studying to be a radio announcer. Cash works up enough courage to visit Sun Records studio, where eventually he wins over the producer with songs delivered in his early rockabilly style. In 1955, Cash makes his first recordings “Hey Porter” and “Cry! Cry! Cry!” which meet with success on the country hit parade.

Cash’s next record, “Folsom Prison Blues”, makes the country top five, and “I Walk the Line” becomes number one the country charts and enters the pop charts top 20.

In 1957, Cash is Sun Records’ most prolific artist but he feels constrained by his contract with the small label partly due to the owner’s dislike of Cash recording gospel music and that Cash is receiving a three percent royalty versus the standard rate of five percent. Cash leaves to sign a lucrative offer with Columbia Records, where his single “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” becomes one of his biggest hits and his second album for Columbia is a collection of gospel songs.

In a somewhat unusual pairing, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash form a mutual admiration society even before they meet in the early 1960s. When the young Dylan arrives on the scene in 1962, Cash is so impressed that he writes a fan letter to the young Dylan and they begin corresponding.

When they meet at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, Cash gives Dylan his guitar as a gesture of respect and admiration. Five years later, when Dylan is in Nashville recording his ninth studio album, Cash is recording in the adjacent studio. Dylan drops in and over the next two days the duo records more than a dozen duets. Only one of them, a version of Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country,” makes it onto the album, Nashville Skyline. The others are never officially released, but have long been circulating as bootlegs.

When I was working, and if the Friday-night traffic became too much to bear, I would tune-out of my beloved BBC news and listen to music. My “go to” Friday-night relaxer would be Johnny Cash especially “A Boy Named Sue.” which Cash recorded at the San Quentin State Prison in February 1969.

His Album “At San Quentin,”, was certified gold on August 12, 1969, platinum and double platinum on November 21, 1986, and triple platinum. The album was nominated for a number of Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and won Best Male Country Vocal Performance.

 

Greetings from Memphis, Tennessee home to Davis Motor Homes where we took delivery of Roxanne, and Graceland, home of Elvis Presley.

When Elvis was a young boy, he promised his parents that he would make a lot of money and buy them the finest house in town, putting an end to years of struggle. For Elvis, Graceland – a charming and stately colonial revival-style mansion for himself and his parents – was the fulfillment of that childhood promise.

It all really began in 1956 which was a year like no other for the music legend. In January, he was a regional sensation, but by year’s end he had become a national and international phenomenon. He made his first two albums for the RCA label, both became million sellers, signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures, and starred in his first movie “Love Me Tender.”

Elvis also appeared on national television 11 times and because of his unconventional appearance and performing style caused nationwide controversy. Elvis outraged adults, mesmerized teenagers and the new youth generation, and soon became the leader of the cultural revolution sweeping across the country.

On Saturday, March 17, 1957, Vernon and Gladys Presley (Elvis’ mother and father) called real estate agent Virginia Grant to see what she had to offer. Grant wasted no time. That day she showed them two properties, leaving Graceland to last. By 6 p.m. she had accepted a $1,000 deposit from the Presley’s and drawn up a provisional sales contract detailing the terms of sale, including an asking price of $90,000.

At 10:00 a.m. on Monday, March 19, 22-year-old Elvis, accompanied by his parents, met the realtor at Graceland. At this time, the property was a 13.8-acre ‘farm’ about 10 miles south of downtown Memphis in Whitehaven, an area that was still largely rural at that time.

Elvis surveyed the property for a few minutes, then baptized the house by playing some Rock ‘N’ Roll at a piano. Elvis, Vernon and Gladys Presley signed the sales contract on the spot as purchasers, and a closing date was set for Tuesday, March 26, at 4:30 p.m.

Elvis lived at Graceland until his death in August 1977.

Elvis looks on during playtime of Hound Dog Poppy!

 

 

 

 

As we head to our next stop, we pass a city called Oak Ridge in Tennessee which is home to one of the most amazing real-life stories as told in the book “The Girls of Atomic City: The untold story of the Women who helped win World War II” by Denise Kiernan.

In 1942, the United States government chose the area of Oak Ridge as the site for developing materials for the Manhattan Project: A research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear bombs which were dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Oak Ridge was chosen because of its small population which made compulsory land acquisitions affordable; its accessibility by road and rail; utilities such as water and electricity were readily available; and, due to the local topography, the area was protected from public scrutiny and against the spread of any potential disaster.

Starting in October 1942, the US Army Corps of Engineering began acquiring more than 60,000 acres of land in the Oak Ridge area for the project. Many residents came home to find eviction notices tacked to their doors. Most were given six weeks’ notice to evacuate, although several had as little as two weeks.

By March 1943, the Corps of Engineering had removed the area’s earlier communities and established fences and checkpoints. Because of the large number of workers recruited to the area, the Army planned a town for project workers at the eastern end of the valley. The time required for the project’s completion caused the Army to opt for a relatively permanent establishment rather than a camp of enormous size.

The secret town soon had 300 miles of roads, 55 miles of railroad track, 10 schools, seven theaters, restaurants and cafeterias, and 13 supermarkets. A library, a symphony orchestra, sporting facilities and church services for 17 denominations all served the new city and its 75,000 residents. For security reasons, no airport was built.

Thousands of the workers were young women from small towns in the South recruited to work in the secret city enticed by good wages and the promise of war-ending work. Most never guessed what was really being made in the enormous factories in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee until the end of the war when the secret of Oak Ridge was revealed to the world.

Today, Oak Ridge is home to the Y-12 National Security Complex, a US Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration facility.

 

Miss Holly listens intently to the ideas for tomorrow’s blog! 

 

Today we are out and about exploring four new towns in North Carolina; Waynesville, Sylva, Cherokee and Maggie Valley.

About 25 miles west from Asheville sits the quaint town of Waynesville. Its downtown area has a surprising number of art galleries, specialty shops such as local mountain trout and cheese, a dog bakery selling hand-made dog treats, jackets and apparel, and everything in-between that man might like for his best friend. The town also has a creatively named ice cream shop, “Jack the Dipper,” a theatre and several pet-friendly micro-breweries including Boojum where we sit on the terrace with Miss Poppy and enjoy lunch.

Trekking up the mountains, we sneak around two houses which are for sale, both having over ambitious price tags of $1+ million and both seemingly empty and having been so for some time. One property has particularly magnificent views of the Blue Ridge Mountains which I would think would be such a distraction that it would be impossible to do anything but sit and gaze at the view!

We take a drive through Sylva, another lovely little town sitting at the base of the Great Smoky Mountains. Downtown Sylva has many restaurants and shops along its tree-lined streets, and, of course, two craft breweries!

On to Cherokee, the ancestral homeland of the Cherokee Indians. The town offers family attractions, outdoor activities and the rich history of the Great Smoky Mountains. There are 30 miles of well-stocked trout streams making the area a paradise for fisherman. Every Friday and Saturday evening throughout the summer, Cherokee story tellers relate tales of Indian lore around a camp fire. There are tribal bingo rooms and an enormous casino which considering the number of hotels located around it would seem to be the town’s main attraction.

And, finally we drive through Maggie Valley a very pretty town some 35 miles west of downtown Asheville. Home to Lake Junalaska, the Soco Falls – a twin waterfall, dancing at the “Stompin Ground”, Elk tours at the Cataloochee Valley (what a great name!), and in winter, skiing, the town has something for everyone all year round!

 

View from the Orchards’ Overlook on the Blue Ridge Mountain parkway.

In the summer of 1896 Orville Wright fell seriously ill with typhoid fever. During his convalescence, Wilbur read aloud to his brother about Otto Lilienthal, a famous German glider enthusiast who had just been killed in an accident.

Reading about Lilienthal aroused a deep and long-held interest in the Wright brothers. They began to read intensively about birds and flying. They had no experience, no formal technical training, and no funds, but, a dream had taken hold.

The Wright brothers’ first aircraft was really a large kite, made of bamboo and paper which had two wings, one over the other, with struts and criss-cross wires connecting them. A system of control cords enabled its flight to be directed from the ground. Although they ended with a crash, the brothers felt that the tests were sufficiently successful for their work to continue.

In 1900, they headed to Kitty Hawk, a wide strip of land on the Outer Banks of North Carolina noted for its good weather, reliable winds and only occupied by fishermen. It was an ideal location where the brothers could conduct their tests.

Down the sand slope headed into the wind they would trot the glider until it began to be airborne, and Wilbur would pull himself up onto the lower wing, take hold of the controls, and, with mooring lines still attached, briefly fly.

In the autumn of 1902, they returned to Kitty Hawk with a new, larger glider, they began flying it first as a glider, unmanned, and then, cautiously proceeding, piloted.

On December 17, 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina with an icy wind, stronger than they would have liked, Orville started forward and at a speed hardly greater than a walk lifted and—with the engine turning the propeller—flew unevenly for 120 feet. Later that day on a fourth try, Wilbur was able to fly a little over 850 feet. Although the Wright brothers were not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, they were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible.

Since then, their “first in flight” status has been commemorated on the North Carolina license plates.

A replica of the Wright brothers’ first plane called “The Flyer”.

On Thursday, we drive some 330 miles across North Carolina from Four Oaks to Flat Rock where we plan on staying five nights.

There is certainly something drawing us back to this area as this is the fourth time that we have visited the region in the last two years! So here we are again and using Flat Rock, located just outside the town of Asheville, as our base to continue exploring.

Today, we have been looking around a new housing development called the Cliffs, some 25 miles from Flat Rock and across the border into South Carolina. The drive was simply breathtaking as the entire region is framed by the Blue Ridge Mountains … trees, trees and more trees. The landscape is magnificent and my only frustration is that I cannot find enough places to stop and take pictures as that’s really all I want to do!

We visit a small town called Travelers Rest, South Carolina which was re-developed about 10 years ago. The town is full of character with interesting restaurants, pet-friendly micro-breweries, and boutique shops such as one called “The Flop Shop” specializing in flip-flops and jewelry. The people are also incredibly friendly and we chat to two different couples like they are long-lost friends!

After Travelers Rest we head into Greenville, South Carolina which is a pretty large city and the North American headquarters for the French tyre company Michelin. Lockheed Martin aircraft also has a facility and logistics centre in town as do 3M and Honeywell. We believe that Greenville also has a happening and somewhat European-style downtown area with a vibrant restaurant and music scene which we have yet to explore!

Breathtaking views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Imagine having that view every day!

In the late 1880s, George W. Vanderbilt, then a young man of 25, found the perfect spot in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains for a 250-room French Renaissance château to be built by his friend, architect Richard Morris Hunt. The great château would be called “Biltmore House” and it is the largest private residence in America and a National Historic Landmark.

Construction of the house in Asheville, North Carolina began in 1889 and while 1,000+ workers toiled away for six years, the house was far from complete when Vanderbilt officially opened its doors to friends and family on Christmas Eve in 1895.

The centre-piece of the 8,000-acre estate is a four-story stone house with a 780-foot façade. The house is a whopping 175,000 square feet (four acres) with 33 bedrooms, 65 fireplaces and 43 bathrooms!

Inside, works of art by Renoir and Sargent, among others, adorn the walls. A chess set and gaming table, belonging to Napoleon when he was in exile on St. Helena island, are on display in the salon and Chinese goldfish bowls from the Ming Dynasty can be admired in the library.

At the time of its completion, Biltmore House, with central heating and electricity, was considered one of the most technologically advanced structures ever built and is still admired today for its innovative engineering. It used some of Thomas Edison’s first light bulbs, boasted a fire alarm system, an electrical call box system for servants, two elevators (lifts), elaborate indoor plumbing for all the bedrooms and a relatively new-fangled invention called the telephone!

The front view of Biltmore House.

The side and corner angle of the house.

Ava Gardner was born on December 24, 1922 on a tobacco farm in Grabtown, North Carolina. She is buried at the Sunset Memorial Park, Smithfield, North Carolina, next to her brothers and their parents. Smithfield is just down the road from where we were staying and the town has an Ava Gardner museum, dedicated to her life.

Gardner first came to fame after her brother-in-law posted a photograph of her in the window of his New York photo studio. At the age of 18, MGM Studios became aware of her and signed her to a film contract based strictly on her beauty.

At 19 she married Mickey Rooney but they divorced a little after a year due to Rooney’s serial adulterer tendencies!

Gardner married for a second, and equally brief time, to jazz musician and band-leader Artie Shaw. Third time lucky was to Frank Sinatra whom she remained married to for some six years. In her autobiography, she says that Sinatra, who left his wife Nancy for her, was the love of her life. Allegedly, Sinatra and Gardner remained good friends for the rest of their lives.

In 1955 after three failed marriages and dissatisfaction with Hollywood, Gardner moved to Spain. She remained there until 1968 and a tax issue forced her to move to London, England. She lived out the remaining 22 years of her life in the London.

In January 1990 Ava Gardner died in Westminster, London at the age of 67.

Gardner mainly appeared in small roles until she drew attention for her performance in The Killers, 1946. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in Mogambo, 1953, and also received a BAFTA Award and award nominations for other films.