Category Archives: Attractions

Attractions, People, Texas

Where the Ghosts Dance

San Antonio is an interesting oyster–not much to see from the outside, dazzling on the inside.  We took the kids down to experience the Alamo. You round a maze of parking garages and high rise hotels and wham! It’s just there. The iconic front wall of the simple church that was never meant to fortify anything.photo(22)

Like Gettysburg and Antietam and other geographic accidents of history, it’s a place for reflection and pause. The signs remind you: no hats on men, keep your voice low, no photographs.  Here is the place where, as Colonel William Barrett Travis said to the “People of Texas & All Americans in the World”:

   The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days.  If this call is neglected, I am determined  to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country. Victory or Death.

It is hard to imagine in 2014 a former Congressman stepping over the line in the sand to stand alongside him facing certain death.  But Davie Crockett did just that, after an election loss where he famously told the people of his district, “you might go to hell, but I am going to Texas.”

And it raises questions in older men’s minds about what one might have done in a similar situation. Travis was 26, his whole life at his feet. What is worth offering a life dearly for?  Having once been admonished, “Don’t tell me what you believe. Tell me what you do all day and I’ll tell you what you believe,” would I have stepped across the famous “line”?  It’s good to think on these things occasionally.

It seephoto(24)med so fitting that our last night in San Antonio was a party in the shadow of the Alamo. It is a place one can easily imagine the  ghosts dancing.

adventure, Attractions

In Dallas, Cowboys Out, Perot In!

We fervent Washington fans (and one rogue Vikings fan, a birth anomaly) actually looked into doing a tour of Texas Stadium in Dallas.  Officially known as AT&T Stadium, it is, apparently, the largest domed structure in the world.  What else would you expect in Texas? And ever since I read Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, I’ve had a morbid curiosity about seeing the inside of the Cowboys locker room.  That was my rationale. 

What tipped the scales was the price tag for the tours–$17.50 for adults, $14.50 for kids. For the self-guided tour.  Granted, it would have included access to the locker room.  The Cowboys organization made it easy to Just Say No.

Okay, the week was also blacked-out for tours of any kind.

Instead, we took advantage of the singular accomplishment of another towering Texan–the five-foot, five-inch Ross Perot.  Many of us know him as an unsuccessful, but compelling independent candidate for president in 1992 and 1996.

He is also the major benefactor of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in downtown Dallas.  Just opened at the end of 2012, this may be the single coolest museum we’ve ever seen.  Hiphoto 4(2)ghly interactive and geared to kids of all ages, the museum’s biggest challenge for us was to keep the kids moving through the four floors.  Each stop captured their attention and imagination, and wouldn’t let go!

We only had four hours to spend, and we could have easily stayed threphoto(19)e times as long.  The staff was helpful, and manned special-activity tables to entertain and educate.  What a gift–to educate while mesmerizing. Now I know why magicians loves schools! We dug for dinosaurs and raced cheetas and professional athletes in a footrace and built our own biphoto 5(3)rds!

We joined the Perot Museum to gain access to partner museums across the country. It also got us into their special Dinosaurs exhibit in advance of non-members!

In the museum’s Sportscenter, I stumbled across this–signed by Roger Staubach of the Dallas Cowboys, the man every ‘Skins fan loved to hate back in the day.  And we didn’t even have to tour Texas Stadium to see it!

 

Attractions, featured

The Sixth Floor

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I paid a pilgrimage yesterday, to the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.  And to Dealey Plaza visible out its windows.

Everything’s been said about November 22, 1963.  And still so many questions linger.  I looked for something new, for me, and found it. In listening to the inventory of items found at the window, I heard, for the first time, something I’ve probably heard a hundred times before: “…a partially consumed lunch.” Let’s see…maybe eat half my liverwurst and cheese, set up the boxes in the window…” If I live to be a hundred, so many elements of that day won’t compute.

Suffice to say if and when I ever make it to heaven, one of my first five questions will be, “…about Dallas, 1963….” and judging by the respectful crowd on a Tuesday morning in March 2014, I won’t be the only one.

As I walked the solemn exhibits, I wondered if the seniors around me in the museum were split as I was, so viscerally between the present and the past.  I have never been so emotionally impacted by a place before, and at my age, I have seen a lot of places.

I know how arrogant this next part will sound, but it’s the truth.  I had to come to the museum to make sure they got it right.  It is one thing to study history–the noble and the shameful elements that make up our today.

But Dallas is my history.  Just like millions of others my age and older, it happened to me.  I know that because images of those four days are poised in the wings of my mind, clear and young and indelible.  I lived it and live it.  And so I wanted to be sure they got it right.  For myself, and for my kids, about which 1963 is to them what World War I was for me: a chapter in a book.

Amazingly, they did get it right.

No display calls attention to the fact that Jack Kennedy was no saint. The exhibit is a shameless tribute to the man.  But it avoids the temptation to sidestep the host of  questions that linger about the many factions that both revered and reviled Kennedy, and how one young, career loser leans forward at the end of a chain of dark coincidences to set aside his sandwich and obliterate Camelot.

 

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

John F. Kennedy

February 8, 1963

 

adventure, Attractions, featured, Outdoors

No Fiery Diamonds in Hot Springs

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Sunday we packed up after a great week in Hot Springs, AR at the Catherine’s Landing RV Resort on Lake Catherine.  It still felt like a campground in many respects, but there were some new twists–at least for us novices.

One one side of the complex is an open-air pavilion that covers probably two acres.  In addition to a bathhouse that takes up a small bit of one corner, it has a host of picnic tables, and some large fire pits.  Since we had rain pretty steady for several days, it turned out to be the perfect place for the kids to ride scooters and meet other kids.  The resort included a frisbee golf course, which the kids also loved!

One evening my youngest and I shared a campfire with the Walker family from southern Arkansas.  Mike is the principal at Star City High School, and gathered with wife Jennifer and kids Emily and Caleb for a spring break gathering with family.  My youngest developed his first crush, on Miss Emily.

Can you guess what the assembled are up to here on a field in Murfreesboro: The Hunt ? We journeyed on a day trip to Crater of Diamonds State Park to stake our forIMG_20140328_154734_736tune.  Midway through it rained,  hard, so happily we’d not done the week’s laundry yet.  When the boys got bored panning for diamond chips, they moshed in the 37 acres of muck.

We wandered through the Fordyce Bath House Visitors Center in Hot Springs National Park and “quaffed the elixir.” Touring the basement for some reason reminded me of scenes from the Overlook Hotel in Stephen King’s The Shining.

On Saturday, the first sunny day, we loaded up the fishing gear and lunch on a pontoon boat out of Lake Catherine State Park.  Jen waphoto(14)s our captain, without complaint in the morning cold, until we realized she was frozen to the boat’s wheel.  Can you spot the turtle on the log behind Jen?

We are now in Dallas.  At 10:30 this morning, we are touring a place that I’ve known about since I was almost ten years old, but never seen in person: the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.

 

 

adventure, Amusement Parks, Attractions, Outdoors

Dolled up in Dollywood

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I come to this post a bit conflicted.  Dollywood was highly recommended by several of our friends, and it had its share of really cool things.  We loved eating at Miss Lillian’s, never suspecting we’d be serenaded by the grand lady herself.  photo(10)Miss Lillian is charming, funny, and worth the price of admission. The chicken was great too!

The Dollywood Express, an artifact from the Alaska-Canada Railroad, took us up into the Smoky Mountains–the real draw for us here in the region.

On the five-mile loop, there was perhaps a half-mile that could be reached by foot from a public area. I had the good sense to dphoto(12)rop my phone in one of these rare spots just after taking this photo. Once again, I prove there is a God watching out for fools.  And it was a pretty ride.

The Wings of America bird show was extremely entertaining, and easily rivaled Busch Gardens.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed both the information and the show.  One of those rare education-disguised-as-entertainment moments.photo(11) They even had a bird that collected donations in its beak! NPR may want to consider something like it. A line formed quickly to give dollar bills to the Foundation.

On the minus side, we are spoiled by Busch Gardens and Hershey Park, with online apps to show ride locations and wait times.  The park map was hard to decipher, and did not include show times and locations.  We stumbled upon a great Mother Africa show that reminded me so much of Gymkana on America’s Got Talent!

Finally, the trams.  Granted, it was opening day, and the place was packed.  A woman working the tram line assured us that, even for a day when everyone knew Dolly would be there, this was a crowd no one expected.  But to be herded into one more serpentine line just to get to our car….photo(13)I guess I am a whiner sometimes after all.

So we have four days in Hot Springs.  Your suggestions?

Attractions, People, weather

Cave City, Kentucky

First, to start the week, a big thank you to those who have recommended places-to-see so far.  Thanks to Bill C of Eldersburg, who suggested we stop in to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where the Oak Ridge Boys of Elvira fame take their name.  Bill recommended the American Museum of Science and Energy, where IMG_1566 we witnessed spectacles that stood our hair on end! Oak Ridge is the Secret City created to provide the enriched uranium for Big Boy and the fateful choices that brought World War II to its climactic conclusion.  Awe inspiring and spine chilling.

Thanks also to Jen’s friend Bev from Maryland who recommended Mammoth Cave.  We have a tour scheduled for 9 am today.  And we are now citizens of Central Time!

Thanks as well to Resa D  of Parker, CO, who suggested we visit Cade’s Cove in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. She suggested hiking, and we did photo(8), but the boys also love discovering their own fishing holes.  photo(9)

Thanks, very much, to Eileen O of Maryland, who suggested we take in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Dollywood deserves its own post, so look for that in the next day or so.

It may just be coincidence, but I assume the town we’re in this morning gets its name from the nearby Mammoth Cave.  It is 27 degrees outside as I write, and in case you wondered, the campground shut off water just after we arrived yesterday afternoon so the pipes don’t freeze.

Because of our need for internet, for Jen’s work, and of course these vital posts, we are staying in campgrounds we don’t normally frequent. Of course, we’ve never had a 29-foot motorhome along either.  This is our second campground on the trip, and the second one that looks more like a drive in, for those who remember them, than  a park.

It’s really a flat expanse of grass squares dotting a crushed gravel drive, with a few picnic tables and fire rings (our site has neither), and a few trees that stand barely higher than the four-foot posts for the electrical and cable hook up. Yes, our kids have only ten channels to choose from.  Why, I remember a day…

But to its credit, it has a dog park where Shadow can run free if she can talk anyone into daring the bitter cold to walk her there.

 

 

adventure, Attractions

Gatlinburg, Tennessee

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Just a stone’s throw east of Pigeon Forge is the resort town of Gatlinburg. Both Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg have grown gangbusters since Franklyn Roosevelt designated the Great Smoky Mountains a park in 1940.  And both have attracted an astounding array of shops, attractions, and amusements to occupy every rainy day ’til the Rapture.

Speaking of rapture, The culture is a fascinating mix of overt Christian themes and symbols, and a reverence for all things Dukes of Hazzard.  In the midst of a grand log cabin facade on a row of shops is the message, Jesus Saves.  In Terry Evanswood’s Wonders of Magic at Wonderworks, he threatens jokingly at one point to lock the doors and preach for two hours.  (Read Jen’s and son 2’s review of the show here. )

Our kids delighted yesterday, returning from Gatlinburg’s very impressive Ripley’s Aquarium, in reading off the number of signs that advertised knives.  “Tobacco, beer, knives.” “Linens, moccasins, knives.” A dizzying array, including the selection for the discerning Christian: King James Knives. Open 24 hours. What do tourists do with all those knives?

For several wonderful hours yesterday we fished at Herbert Holt State Park outside of Gatlinburg, and our four-year-old made a steady stream of friends on the playground. IMG_6504Okay, we didn’t catch anything. But with the park rules limiting fishing to children only, nobody seemed to care much that fish weren’t biting.  It was a great spot for a picnic snack.

I expected the Ripley’s Aquarium to be, well, you know, two-headed sharks and blurred images of mermaids in grainy newsreels. Instead, I would have to say that while it lacked the grandeur of the National Aquarium,  the Japanese Crabs– about the size of a mastiff skeleton–were compelling, as was the exhibit devoted to slime in the natural world.

While twoIMG_1492 hours was probably enough, the collection is impressive, including a very cool feature that allowed the kids to control the sIMG_1527peed and direction of videos explaining the animals on display.  Nothing like watching a killer shark dismember a dolphin in slo-mo, then regurgitate the whole mammal, over and over!

adventure, Attractions

Pigeon Forge

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We rolled into Pigeon Forge just before dark on Saturday.  Two days of rain have given way to cool, sunny skies.  The main drag of Pigeon Forge must look much like Las Vegas at its heart, or Ocean City, Maryland, on steroids.  So many miniature golf, live shows, and attractions to choose from! Not really what we were seeking, and so incongruous here on the western foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.IMG_6449

We are adjusting to motor home life.  Sunday, as my oldest and I considered how to raise the awning, I followed my son’s confused stare to a point behind me, where an older man was waving his arm’s in the international “stop what you’re doing before someone’s killed” sign.

Bill, from Ontario (do those Canadians loving driving or WHAT?), took a few minutes to set us right.  Since he didn’t seem to be in a hurry, i asked him about the secret workings of the hot water heater as well.  Now I can wash my dishes in hot water under the shade.  You never find this kind of friendly help at a Sheraton, I assure you.

IMG_6447We’ve done a couple day hikes, to commune with nature, and even taken in a couple of attractions . Each of the boys gets to choose one activity. Our youngest had to play miniature golf, and we had a great time at Gator Golf Putting Course.  

School’s starting soon, so see you after class!

 

 

 

 

adventure, Attractions

One Day to Float

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To say we were unprepared for the final days of our home sale would be a monumental understatement.  What began as a steady, somewhat disciplined effort so many months ago ended in a cartoon-like scene of jettisoning anything not breathing to empty our mother ship. The morning of our home closing Friday, we found ourselves in a lifeboat 29 feet long, full of God-knows-what. Somewhere in the clutter, three kids, including our very sick youngest.

Hands had been extended, and we took one. Or several. The trip that had waited this long could wait one more day. So before we set out on points south and west, we rested and recovered in Mount Airy, MD, at Rich and Teresa”s.

Snow was on the way again, so we couldn’t wait too long. But that one day was priceless.

Long ago, standing on the side of some dusty exit ramp on another journey, I realized that the freedom to travel, at least for me, comes part and parcel with having an umbilical cord that connects me to a home. We are free, emotionally, to make this trip with our kids because we rest in the certain knowledge that if we fall, we will land in a safety net of love that extends further than we can ever drive, or sail, or walk.

As the magician Terry Evanswood said during his WonderWorks Magic Show last night in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, realizing how blessed we are is the real magic.  We left a house in Eldersburg last week.  We will always have a home.

This week we are in eastern Tennessee, at the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.  Suggestions, anyone?

Next, we discover Pigeon Forge, and the teacher learns valuable lessons while road schooling.