On the rod

6-15-2016

First thing is to catch up on the pictures for this year. While we were in Little Rock we visited the Big Dam Bridge which is a bridge on a big dam. We saw the Old State House Museum, the River market District, ESSE Purse Museum, Historic Arkansas Museum, Mount Holly Cemetery and the River Bottom Winery. We also visited a number of Antique shops

Little Rock Pictures

From Little rock we moved to Dixon Tennessee which is about 40 miles west of Nashville.   We visited the Clement Railroad Hotel Museum. The railroad was extended to Dixon during the Civil War. There was nothing there at that time. The town grew up around the railroad. The museum is in an old hotel that was built soon after the railroad.

Dixon Pictures

The next stop was Campbellsville, Kentucky for Blake's graduation. As you might imagine it was in the high school gym. The dress attire was everything from a suite or fancy dress to t-shirts and bib overalls.

Graduation

The next stop on our journey was in the town of Clinton Tennessee which is just outside of Knoxville. We visited the James White Fort, Knox County Old Grey Cemetery, Blount Mansion, Ramsey House, Museum of Appalachia, and several Antique Malls. We also visited the town of Oak Ridge and The Oak Ridge Museum of Science & Energy. The history of Oak Ridge is an amazing story. The Federal Government purchased 59,000 acres. They moved 3000 people out of the area. The entire area was secured and under strict secrecy. Three plants were built to separate uranium, each using a different method. The largest plant known as K-25 covered more than 1500 acres. They are now in the process of tearing this facility down.
The city of Oak Ridge is 10 miles long and 2 miles wide. It reached a peak population of 75,000 people in 1 1/2 years during WW II. In 1949 Oak Ridge was opened to the public. Six years later the Atomic Energy Commission sold the government owned houses and land to city residents.

Knoxville Pictures
Knoxville, Oak Ridge Pictures

The next stop was Ashville North Carolina where we visited three glass works where we saw them blowing glass. We have been looking for replacement stoppers for our apothecary jars for 3 years with no luck but in the one glass works we found a young man who said he could make us two new stoppers. I talked to him today and they are almost done.
We also visited the Basilica of St. Lawrence, Pinball Museum, Thomas Wolfe Memorial, Riverside Cemetery and Cathedral of All Souls. As usual we shopped 4 or 5 antique shops.

Ashville pictures


The high lite of Ashville was the Biltmore Estate. The mansion is beautiful, amazing art and furniture. We took the tour with audio devices that gave a lot of the history. The mansion includes a bowling alley and swimming pool. The views from the mansion are beautiful. They have a large winery that makes great wines. While we were visiting the area where they have their horses the farrier was shoeing one of their draft horses. We had a good time talking to time about blacksmithing. He gave us the old shoes he took off the horse.

Biltmore pictures


Our next stop was Gaffney South Carolina. Here we attended a two day school at Freight liner to learn about the chassis and associated equipment on our motor home. It was an intense two days. We learned about the braking system, transmission, engine controls, tires and many other things. It was a very educational class. The next day we toured the factory.
We also saw the Cherokee County History Museum, Hub City Railroad Museum, Walnut Grove plantation and the Peachoid(water tower).
I have been shopping for RR spikes to make things from. They are $3 to $4 each in the second hand shops. I have seen them as high as $9. I noticed that they had done work along the tracks in Gaffney. I stopped and walked along the tracks on two occasions and collected 40 RR spikes, what a find. I found out later that picking up the spikes is illegal. He told me a company comes by, after the work has been completed, with a magnet to pick up the tie plates, clips and spikes for scrape.

Gaffney pictures


Our next stop was Roanoke, Virginia as we are now headed north toward Maine. We visited the Museum of Transportation which was very nice. They have a large model train layout and a number of old RR engines. We visited the Center in the Square which is a building with 4 museums, aquariums and a butterfly exhibit. One of them is another pinball museum. For the admission fee you can play all the machines.

Roanoke pictures

Today we are in Harrisburg , PA. I will cover this stop in the next post.

Dick and Judy