Final entry

Instead of going to Alabama because Gene's brothers wife had doctors appointments, so we went to Memphis and visited with Jeff's friends. They heard I liked ribs so they made us delicious ribs. It was a fun evening.
We left Memphis about noon because there was ice on the roads. We drove to Hope and just camped and had some of those excellent ribs that they packed for us, and got home at 3:30 on the 24th. We drove 7600 miles this leg of the trip. Gene will be working for the next 4 months, so we will be home for a while, and then we will leave again.
Thanks for all the input and nice comments.

Sunday 21

It was only 30 degrees outside as we headed to the Steelers,Titan game. Our seats were great at the club house level on the sunny side of the field. We never used the blankets we brought. The game was less than great with Rothlensberger fumbling at least 3 times and threw 2 interceptions. The Titans played a virtually error proof game. It was fun seeing the hundreds of Steeler fans out there. Everyone was friendly. When we got home we said our goodbye's since Jeff and his friends are leaving tomorrow, also. The temperature is plummeting and now at 25 and going to 12. Tomorrow we hope Alabama will be warmer.

me down the slide

More ICE Arlene & Gene on slide

Mansion of the stars and ice

Dec. 19-20

Gene and I have been in Nashville since Friday. Saturday we met up with our son Jeff and his friends. We went out for dinner with Jeff and Scott. I had some great ribs at Jonny A's. Jeff and friends are staying at the Gaylord Hotel. It is really too big for us, but beautiful with all the lights. Saturday morning we went on a tour of Nashville. We visited the down town area, the beautiful old railroad station that has been turned into a hotel and then we road by all the mansions of famous country stars. Clint Black's house is the only one I remember in the pictures. We also saw Dolly Parton's, Tim McGraw's, Alan Jackson's houses. One of the homes was 27,000 sq. feet. We went out to lunch and then over to the Gaylord to see the group. From there we went to Ice featuring "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr. Seuss. You can see for yourself the beautiful ice sculptures. We also road down the ice slide. It is 9 degrees in there so they give you these beautiful jackets that keep your warm.

Dec 14-18

We are now north of Nashville. At one of the worst campgrounds. The large highway is right behind the campground. You can not tell that the highway is behind in the pictures and it would be great if that was not the case. We will stay here today & tomorrow and then head into Nashville to another campground that we have reservations. The past 2 days we were in Crossville, Tenn. and it rained on and off the two days we were there, so we did laundry and took a few short walks. It was frustrating because the place we were camping had a nice large lake and nice trails we would have like to have utilized. The only thing good was it was not cold.

Dec 13

This afternoon it was sunny and fairly warm. We drove around Bristol, Bluff City and Blountville, Tennessee.They are all old towns. One surprise was seeing a drive-in theater. They have movies until the Bristol Speedway openes and then they use the space for campers. The lake we are camped next to is really low. They are in a drought here and were happy with the big rain they just received last week.
Thanks for the emails. I will keep on blogging.

Wed-Fri

Because it is raining out we decide to read. Gene is reading "Team Of Rivals" and I am reading "Eat, Pray and Love".
Thursday we heard that the rain is going to turn to snow, so we decided to leave and head for Tenn. It rained the whole way down rte 81 until we got to Bristol, Tenn. This was nice so we did not have to set up in the rain.
Friday, it is cold and decided to keep reading.
I haven't heard from anyone for some time. There have not been any comments. Should I keep up the blog?

more pics

Dec. 9

Dec 9,
Gene and I decided to go back to DC one more time. These are really long, 10 to 12 hr., days. Our first stop was the Renwick Gallery. This museum exhibits the finest work in American craft. The 1858 building is an architectural landmark on the President’s Park. There was an exhibit of glass works that was breathtakingly beautiful.
We then walked over to the White House. There we met two women from Hawaii. One of the women went to the same high school as the Pres. Elect. She is going home and coming back for the election. She knows someone that works in one of the buildings that will overlook the inauguration. She also mentioned that his high school band will be marching.
We then walked to the war memorials and the Lincoln Memorial. The last memorial was the new World War II memorial that just was completed in 2004. The next stop was the American History Museum. We went through an exhibit about all the wars from the Revolutionary to today’s war. We then limped to another exhibit that had artifacts from Judy Garland’s red slippers to Roberto Clemente’s uniform (he was a great baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates and a humanitarian. By then our backs and feet were killing us. We had been walking for 5 hours. I have a blister on my toe. We went downstairs and sat DOWN for a sandwich and then left for home.
Don’t know if I mentioned it but all the museums are free in DC.

Dec 7.8

Dec. 7, 8.
Sunday is our day to watch football. Of course the best game was the Steelers’, Cowboy game.
Monday we took a riding tour of Front Royal which was a major battle during 1862 between the North and South. General “Stonewall” Jackson said at the time”If the Valley is lost, Virginia is lost.” The battle was unique in the annals of the Civil War because it was fought street by street. This battle was also rare in that it was fought by troops on both sides from the state of Maryland.
At the visitors center we found out this was also where Warren Beatty and Shirley McLain were raised. The person at the visitors’ center said a few years ago, Warren Beatty his Wife, Annette Benning, and their two children came to the center.
In 1949, Bing Crosby stopped here and at the time they were trying to raise money for a baseball stadium. Mr. Crosby gave them $1000. He came back again and they had raised all but $3500. He wrote a check for the sum. They have named the stadium the Bing Crosby Stadium.

Dec 6

Dec. 6
Since we did not get in till late last night, it was slow going this morning, but we got up and headed to DC, and the Native American Museum. Parking at the metro station was easy since it was Saturday, so we did not have to go through taking the bus.
I am more amazed at the beauty and layout of our nation’s capital. The museums architecture and building are unique.
The Indian museums building and landscape was beautiful. It was designed by Douglas Cardinal (Blackfoot) and a tem of Native architects and consultants. The building is aligned to the cardinal directions and center point of the capitol dome, “and is filled with symbols and forms that reflect the Native universe, including representations of nature, astronomy and objects from the collection.”, but we were disappointed in the contents. It seemed to us that at least 40% of the building was dedicated to shops and there were tables all around the entry with natives selling their wares. It was all too commercial. The exhibits that were there were beautiful. We especially enjoyed the Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian exhibit. My friend Esther gave me a poster of his a year or so ago, so it was nice to learn more about the man.
There is a café’ in the lower lever of Indian foods from all over the Americas. We decided on a buffalo burger for lunch.
We walked around the mall and water pools and over to the Capital building itself. They were constructing bleachers for the inauguration.
PS. Franco Harris' helmet in the Smithsonian Castle.