Final leg of the 2016 trip

We finished our trip a little early, so here we are in our small house in East Texas with a rental car on the new driveway. Junior (RV) and the Toad (CRV) are both in the shop getting a ‘face lift’ from the deer hit in New Jersey (Blog).

Our last post was Kentucky through to Heiskell Tennessee, our next stop was Nashville the State Capitol of Tennessee. There is a really imposing Capitol building at the top of a hill with 140 steps leading up to it – yes we counted them – on the way back down. The building overlooks the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park in Nashville, an urban state park opened in June 1996 to commemorate the 200^th anniversary of Tennessee’s statehood.

Tennessee State Capitol Building in Nashville – all 140 steps

A monument to the designers of the Tennessee State building made from broken columns of the original

View looking down on Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park in Nashville

One of the other sights in Nashville, apart from the Grand Ole Opry, is the full scale replica of the Parthenon, built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. The original structure was plaster and wood and was rebuilt on the same foundation in the mid 1920’s; it is now the home of an art museum.

The Parthenon Art Museum in Nashville

Front view of the Parthenon in Nashville – full size replica of the Greek building

After Nashville we headed to one of our favorite campgrounds – Tom Sawyer Mississippi River RV Park in West Memphis Arkansas, right on the banks of the great Mississippi river. We weren’t able to get a river front site this time, just one row back but still with amazing views of the barges pushing their cargo up and down the river, really peaceful – until the evening of 4^th of July.

The barge in the foreground was waiting for the other to pass

A smaller barge going down the Mississippi river

Barge going up river just before sunset

Rusty was due to be groomed so as we did in Montana, we took him to the groomers, went for some lunch and then headed for the Zoo. Memphis Zoo is very different and much larger than the small zoo in Montana – and it was very warm – so the shade and misters were very welcome havens.

Memphis Zoo – see how fast I am – now where are the fish?

Memphis Zoo – what big teeth you have

Memphis Zoo – Hear no evil see no evil and speak no evil

Lunchtime for Memphis Zoo Panda

Memphis Zoo Otter wondering what everyone is looking at

Memphis Zoo – Who gives a hoot?

Memphis Zoo – Leopard wants a belly rub just Rusty does sometimes – volunteers?

Memphis Zoo – a red panda – he seems to be smiling

From West Memphis we drove to Vicksburg in Mississippi and there we toured the Civil War site, not quite as big as Gettysburg, still impressive in size and the number of cannon and monuments, here is just a small selection of the monuments and battlefield views. Also some images of the USS Cairo, one of 7 ironclad gunboats built for the Union Navy at the start of the Civil War.

USS Cairo Museum – one of seven ironclad gunboats built for the Union army in the civil war

USS Cairo armament

USS Cairo side cannon

Vicksburg looking at the battlefield from behind a cannon

Vicksburg artillery line

Vicksburg – Dome and Eagle on the Illinois monument

Vicksburg view of the battlefield from the Illinois monument

Vicksburg – The Texas Monument

Nearly to the end of our shortened trip, leaving Vicksburg a couple of days early to stay one night at the Shreveport KOA so we could dump out our tanks ready for the short trip to East Texas. To say it was an eventful trip is an understatement – seriously considering ‘bull bars’ on the front of Junior or is a deer hit a little like lightening – rarely strikes twice?