In preparing for this year’s road trip I aspired to keep the blog current by posting daily.  Here we are nearly four weeks after departure and I am obviously somewhat behind.  So much for good intentions.  In real life I have decided that enjoying the trip will come first.

We departed Nashville, TN shortly after 8 A.M. on Wednesday, May 10th.  The destination is Memphis with a planned direct route diversion to Shiloh Military National Park.  The scenery along the secondary roads is beautiful.  The extreme blue sky at the top of the pictures is from our tinted windshield.

For those who may be interested in knowing more about the battle of Shiloh visit the Wikipedia website at:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shiloh

The visitor’s center has a great film describing the battles.  The grounds are exceptionally well kept and there is an extensive automobile tour with many stops & walking trails  allowing an in depth exploration of the facility.  The two day battle covered a large area.   This is a must see park.

There is also a National Cemetery within the park.

The major effect of the Battle of Shiloh was that the Union Army gained control of the railroad depot in the town of Corinth, Mississippi just south of Shiloh.  We visited Corinth and then took the secondary roads into Memphis.

We arrived at the SpringHill Suites in downtown Memphis about 7:30 P.M.  After settling into our room we went to the Mesquite ChopHouse for dinner.  The building was probably built in the late 1800s, had a high ceiling, interesting features and was clean and cozy.  It was well suited for a late, relaxing & quiet dinner.  The food was on the pricey side with my New York Sirloin at $40 and Jeanne’s Filet being the same.  Everything on the menu was a-la-carte.  The steaks and wine were excellent.  What was not so good was my scalloped potatoes.  What they called scalloped potatoes was a baked potato sliced 7/8ths of the way through with melted cheese on top of it.  In my opinion this was a sink chef.   I did not let it spoil my evening but you can be assure I will not go back for another visit or recommend the place to friends.

We slept in the next morning and strolled around town for a while before we decided to enter the Blue Plate Cafe for brunch based on the recommendation of the Memphis “Blue Patrol”.  This is an organization of volunteer who patrol the downtown area looking for visitors to help find things and answer questions they may have about the area.  What a great idea and service to the community.  Brunch in the home style restaurant was good and we went back to our room to plan the rest of the day.

Jeanne:  Graceland was originally on our list of “must see touristy things to do” – until we saw the ticket prices!  If you want the full deal tour of everything there it will cost you $98.75 per person, BUT you do get front of the line mansion tour access AND a keepsake Backstage Pass.  If you don’t need all the frills you can opt for the $62.50 tour. Sadly, you do not get the Exclusive VIP exhibit, front of the line mansion access or the keepsake backstage pass.  If you just want to tour the mansion be prepared to spend $38.75. You can, however, add another $5.00 to see Elvis’ Airplanes.  Since the Presley family doesn’t think that you have spent enough money, there is a Facility Fee of $3.00 added to every ticket, no matter what one you bought. What is a Facility Fee you might ask? Don’t know, it is just an item in the VERY SMALL print at the end of the ticket info page.  We opted to miss this opportunity.

So we mostly hung out & enjoyed downtown Memphis.

Friday, May 12th we headed towards Little Rock, AR.

We arrived in Little Rock early enough to visit the President William Jefferson Clinton Library prior to going to our quarters at the Razorback Inn on Little Rock Air Force Base.  The library is a beautiful facility overlooking the Arkansas River.  It is very well organized and the displays are arranged in chronological order during the years of his presidency.  Memorabilia from childhood through presidency abound.  Heavy rain prevented outside picture taking of the building & grounds.

Jeanne sitting in the President’s chair in the Cabinet Room.

After checking in and getting settled into our quarters (even though I retired from the Navy 33 years ago they are still quarters to me) we decided to head to Papa John’s for a pizza.  We’ve been longing to try one for quite some time.  There aren’t any where we live in CT or FL.  It turned out to be amusing.  Most of the staff was new and not fully trained.  Along with being busy they were overwhelmed with duties.  A poor airman who was picking up 3 orders beside his own found that 3 of the 4 orders was incorrect so they had to be redone.  Meanwhile as the pizzas stacked up coming out of the automated oven they rolled onto the floor.  It was hilarious, but not so funny.  The line of customers were understandably upset.  We waited longer than we should have for our pizza but it turned out to be worth the wait.

Saturday, May 13th was an administrative & housekeeping day.  Laundry accumulates, bills still have to be paid, pictures need to be organized & edited and there is a blog to write.  Besides, you need time to just “hang out” and enjoy the moment.

Sunday, May 14th – Mother’s Day found us underway early for Wichita, KS.  We rolled along through Arkansas, Oklahoma and finally into Kansas.  With 454 miles behind us we checked into our quarters at the Air Capital Inn, McConnell Air Force Base, Wichita, KS.  We found a great, very crowded, family restaurant called the Red Rock Canyon Grill and celebrated Mother’s Day.