… for this road trip, anyway!

We arrived home on Sunday and have spent the past two days emptying and cleaning the motor home and today returned it to storage.

It was a great trip, our longest to date, spending 50 days away! We traveled over 5,400 miles, taking-in the sights and experiences in over 10 states. And, wow, have we seen and done a lot of things!

Everyone is pleased to be home especially Miss Poppy-dog who is free to chase her squirrels on a whim and without being held back by a lead or her owners!

Thanks for being a part of our journey and I look forward to sharing with you our next adventure which, I think, won’t be much before the middle of March next year.

I’ll update the website March 1st, 2019 when, hopefully, we will have worked out our schedule for next year.

Until then, Happy Holidays, Happy Christmas, Happy New Year and health and happiness to you and yours.

Amanda

In 1857, Irish immigrant and cotton merchant Frederick Stanton began construction of a replica of his ancestral home in Ireland: a palatial Greek Revival-style mansion in the heart of downtown Natchez in Mississippi.

Stanton named his home “Belfast” and it occupied an entire two-acre city block and cost over $83,000 before it was even furnished.

The inside of the home is as opulent as the outside. Marble mantel pieces were imported from New York, ornate gas-fired chandeliers were purchased from Philadelphia and immense mirrors were imported from France.

Sadly, the home was completed only months before Stanton’s death in 1859 and was occupied by Union troops during the Civil War. The family remained in residence until 1894, at which point the building was transformed into the Stanton College for Young Ladies and re-christened Stanton Hall.

Stanton Hall is a two-storey brick structure, plastered and painted white. Its front entrance features a Greek temple portico, with four fluted Corinthian columns and delicate cast iron railings.

In 1938, the Pilgrimage Garden Club purchased and restored Stanton Hall to its former splendor. It was officially designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974 and is now furnished much as Stanton originally intended. Photographs are not permitted inside the house!

Built along the ancient paths that became known as the Natchez Trace (a roadway), Emerald Mound is the second largest temple mound in the US, the largest being Monks Mound in Cahokia, Illinois.

This eight-acre mound, constructed from a natural hill, was built and used from about 1300 to 1600 by the Mississippians, ancestors of the Natchez Indians.

Unlike dome-shaped mounds constructed only for burials, Emerald Mound supported temples, ceremonial structures, and burials of a complex society’s civic and religious leaders.

Archaeological tests in 1949 indicate that this platform mound was constructed in several stages. Beginning with the natural hilltop, Natchez Indians gradually transformed the hill into a flat-topped pyramid. First leveling off the hill, they later added thousands of tonnes of earth from near the base.

Using primitive tools of wood, stone and bone, the Natchez Indians loaded the dirt into baskets or skins which they carried on their backs or heads.

This is a 30-foot secondary mound on which once stood a temple containing sacred Indian images. On important occasions the mound was the scene of elaborate civic processions, ceremonial dances and solemn religious rituals where worshipers sought favour of their gods.

The speck on top of the mound is me, the blogger! Although I am standing on the 30-foot secondary mound, pictured above, this view gives a much better idea of the scale of the mound! 

Haller Nutt was a successful planter and plantation owner with sites in Mississippi and Louisiana which grew crops of cotton and sugar cane. He owned over 40,000 acres of land and 800 slaves.

In 1840, Nutt marries Julia Augusta Williams in Natchez, Mississippi and over the next 23 years they go on to have 11 children, not all of whom make it to adulthood.

The Nutts decide to build a home for their blossoming family and in 1860 work starts on a six-story, 30,000 square feet mansion designed by Samuel Sloan of Philadelphia.

Called Longwood, the house is the largest and most elaborate of the octagon houses built in the US, as well as being one of the finest surviving examples of what’s known as an Oriental Revival style residence that was popular in mid-19^thcentury America.

Eighteen months into construction and the exterior of the Oriental Villa is largely complete when rising tensions over the Civil War halts work as the workmen return home to the North. The home’s interior is left unfinished except for the basement of the home and has remained in this state ever since.

Longwood is the largest octagonal house in America and is listed as a National Historic Landmark. Pictured above is the front of the house.

Longwood was the last burst of southern opulence before the Civil War brought the cotton barons’ dominance to an end. Longwood survived decades of neglect and near abandonment to become one of the most popular attractions in Natchez! Pictured above is a view of the house from another angle.

Red Bay, Alabama is home to Tiffin Motor Homes, the manufacturer of our rig. It is where our motor home was built and where one comes for maintenance if it is a problem unique to Tiffin or if you don’t have access to a good local supplier, which we do, but as we are en route home, we thought we’d give it a try.

The way it works in Red Bay is that maintenance is undertaken on a first come, first serve basis, unless it is a specific problem when an appointment is made.

We arrive on Saturday afternoon to find the Tiffin RV campground is totally full (some 90+ sites) and all-around town there are motor homes parked everywhere! We are sent to another campsite and find 15 more Tiffin motor homes parked.

Apparently it is Tiffin’s busiest time of year as full-timers want to get stuff fixed before they head to warmer climates for the winter; and, there are a lot of Floridian license plates with folks sitting in Alabama after Hurricane Michael hits their home state.

While in town, we popped in to see the organizers of the rally we attended earlier this month in Essex Junction, Vermont. They kindly provided us with a couple of photographs of all the volunteers which I’m happy to be able to share with you.

Here’s Mike and I en-route to our mandatory rally briefing alongside our fellow volunteers!

Here we are, the Essex Junction volunteers!

In 1963, Virginia Wynette Pugh attended beauty college in Tupelo, Mississippi where she learned to be a hairdresser. She renewed her cosmetology license every year for the rest of her life!

To earn extra money, Pugh began to sing of an evening while working as a hairdresser during the day. In 1966 she moved to Nashville, Tennessee to try and land a recording contract. There, she auditioned for the producer Billy Sherrill who signed her to Epic Records and changed her name to Tammy Wynette.

Her first single, “Apartment No. 9”, was released in December 1966, and just missed the top 40 on the Country charts. It was followed by “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad”, which became a big hit and launched a string of top-ten hits.

During 1968 and 1969, Wynette had hits including “D.I.V.O.R.C.E.” and “Stand by Your Man”, which was written in the Epic by Sherrill and Wynette and was released at a time when the women’s-rights movement was beginning to stir in the US. The message in the song was that a woman should stay with her man, despite his faults and shortcomings. It stirred up controversy and was criticized initially, and it became a lightning rod for feminists. Nevertheless, the song became very successful and Wynette won her second Grammy award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for it.

Wynette sang for five US Presidents including Reagan.

Although Wynette was born near Tremont, Mississippi she always called Red Bay, Alabama home. The town of Red Bay named a highway after its famed adopted daughter!

Elvis’ meteoric rise to fame was fueled by his natural music talent as well as his photogenic appearance and magnetic personality, all amazing gifts that lifted him onto stage and screen and crowned him King.

He scored his first number one single recording in 1956 with “Heartbreak Hotel” and went on to chart 17 more top hits. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

Even his signature state apparel had star appeal. For his 1973 “Aloha from Hawaii” concert, Elvis wore an eagle-themed jumpsuit to symbolize America to his global audience. This was the first concert by a single entertainer to be broadcast live by satellite to millions worldwide.

The dynamic combination of talent, charisma and luck propelled a poor young boy from East Tupelo, Mississippi to musical royalty as the King of Rock and Roll.

On September 26^th, 1956 Elvis returns to Tupelo to perform two shows at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, pictured above. Elvis donates the proceeds of the concerts to the City of Tupelo which purchases his birthplace and develops a park for the children of the neighbourhood.

Elvis’ parents, Vernon and Gladys Presley, pictured above join him as he returns to the town of his birth as a big star.

It was in this humble, two-room house, lit by a single light bulb in each room, that Elvis Aaron Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8^th, 1935 to Vernon and Gladys Presley. Elvis was one of identical twin brothers born to the Presleys but sadly, his brother, Jessie Garon Presley, was stillborn. The property stands on its original location and has been fully restored.

Financially, times were hard for the Presleys, and they moved out of the house when Elvis was two-and-a-half years old. Vernon and Gladys worked at various jobs while in Tupelo and moved a few more times during their 13 years living in Mississippi.

For his 11th birthday, Elvis asks his parents for a rifle. Being a good Mum, Gladys took him to the local hardware store and persuaded him that a guitar would be a much better present. His pastor taught him how to play, and from then on Elvis was rarely seen without his guitar in hand.

This is the actual building where the Presley family attended church services which was re-located to the Elvis Presley birthplace park in Tupelo. It was here that Elvis was first exposed to the rich, Southern gospel that became a staple of his musical repertoire. The plain, humble, wood-framed structure greatly contrasts with the lively and intense nature of the sermons and music that he was exposed to. Elvis never realized his dream of joining a gospel quartet, but he recorded many of the songs of his youth, the emotional and uplifting music of the church!

The Memphis Pyramid, initially known as the Great American Pyramid, was built in 1989 as a 20,000-seat arena located in downtown Memphis, Tennessee on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Opening in November 1991, the pyramid hosted everything from a Grateful Dead concert to a Cher concert. Even Michael Jackson shows up for an Elvis-related event with Lisa Marie Presley! The building was shut down in 2007 following a concert by Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band.

After five years of negotiations, the City of Memphis signs an agreement for a 55-year lease for a Bass Pro Shops megastore.

Bass Pro at the Pyramid contains 600,000 gallons of water features and the largest collection of waterfowl and hunting related equipment in the world. I certainly didn’t expect to be photographing a catfish and an alligator when we walked through its front doors!

In the middle of the shop is the tallest, freestanding elevator in America that takes visitors to the apex of the building where there is an observation deck. At the base of the pyramid is a 100-room hotel!

By all accounts, the Memphis Pyramid is the tenth-tallest pyramid in the world and plays on the city’s namesake in Egypt, known for its ancient pyramids. It stands at over 320 feet high (98 m), its base sides are 591 feet (180 m) high.

A good-looking Catfish in the aquarium at the Bass Pro at the Pyramid.

Downtown Memphis, Tennessee as viewed from the pyramid’s observation deck.

The Mississippi River.

While in Marion, Illinois, Mike takes a walk down memory lane, re-visiting the campus of Southern Illinois University (SIU) where he went to school.

Mike was on Navy leave traveling to Gulfport, Mississippi when he sees a sign for Southern Illinois University. Curious, he decides to deviate from his route and see what the campus is like.

As he parks his car and walks through the doors of the student centre, out walks Dave Ondyak, an old high school friend. Ondyak stops in his tracks and shouts: “Hey, Krywanio, what you doing” … rather than a brief visit to see the campus, Mike spends the next three days sleeping on Ondyak’s apartment floor and partying like there is no tomorrow!

Fast forward to the autumn of 1975 and Mike arrives at SIU where he is signed up for a degree course in Construction Technology. As he approaches the check-in desk, he is informed that the course has been cancelled. The lady behind the desk offers him a degree course in mortuary science, he declines, she offers him a dental hygienist course, he declines, she hands him a book with all the degree courses the university offers and suggests he reads through it.

Mike takes the catalogue and retreats to a quiet part of the student centre. He thumbs through the catalogue and selects Mechanical Engineering, not knowing anything about what he is letting himself in for. The die is cast.

The Salukis is the name for the SIU football team! Mike in front of the SIU school of engineering.