Oklahoma City, OK

Well, today was a rough ride, Oklahoma’s I-40 must be one of the worst highways I’ve been on. Our primary stop was the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. The museum starts with a lot of Western Art, including many paintings and sculptures by Russell and Remington. We were particularly impressed by one painting (I don’t remember the painter) which was of a cowboy leaning in a door, it looked 3 dimensional, and his boots seemed to point at you, no matter which angle you were looking from. We particularly enjoyed the display of cowboys from movies and TV – a lot of familiar names and many memories as we watched the film shorts. They also had a sizable section on Indian art. There were also sections on rodeo events, the soldier and cavalry in the west, a model Western town, and of course, guns and revolvers. If you are into Western Art, this is a top attraction. For us, it was an interesting museum. We ended the day by visiting the Oklahoma City National Memorial, commerating the 1995 bombing of the federal building. Here between the gates of time are the 168 chairs representing the people who died in the bombing.

The Memorial with gates of time, reflecting pool, and empty chairs

From here, we’re heading home without any major stops. We accomplished our major objectives: seeing the new museums and monuments in Washington D.C. a lot of civil war battlefields, and visiting all 50 states. What sticks in our minds most though is re-living so much of the civil rights movement from the 50's and 60s.

Little Rock, Arkansas

Today’s visit was to the Bill Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. The museum started with his campaign for president and then went through the years ticking off the major accomplishments of his administration. In separate alcoves were major themes, like health care, economics, environment, the fight against terrorism. Here they summarized their positions and what progress as made. Now to some extent this was quite self serving on the other hand, it seemed amazing how much better off we were at the end of Clinton’s term than we are now: the economy was booming, worker productivity had soared, the government was running a surplus, we had helped Kosovo and Bosnia, but weren’t in the mess of Iraq; the new welfare system was working, and we had worked on preserving Social Security. Now some of this was the luck of the times, but some credit most go to his administration. The tour ended in a duplicate of the Oval Office, which was kind of neat.

Memphis, TN

In the morning we visited the Shiloh National Battleground. Here General Johnston and Beauregard of the Confederates attacked Grant’s Union Army to stop their advance into Western Tennessee and Northern Mississippi. As in many of the other civil war battlefields we visited, one army delaying another army made the difference. The confederate army had come up from Mississippi without being seen, until a chance encounter at 5 AM in the morning. They took the Grant’s army by surprise, but one line in the center that held a low road, managed to hold off the Confederates for over 10 hours. In fact, it took the largest artillery bombardment so far in the war to weaken them, enough to be dislodged. They were finally over-run, but that gave Grant enough time to form a second line of defense further back near the Tennessee River. Even more important it gave a second army enough time to reinforce Grant’s troops. That night the Union cannons shot into the Confederate troops all night, not allowing them any sleep. The next day the Union soldiers with their superior numbers attacked and the Confederates had to retreat. One of the inventions of this battle was the first field hospitals, saving many lives by having doctors so close to the battle to handle the wounded.
In the afternoon, we visited Elvis Presley’s Graceland. The audio tour of the mansion was well done, displaying the public rooms on the 2 bottom floors with stories from Elvis or Lisa Marie to go with each room. But probably the highlight of the tour was seeing the many gold records, awards, and especially the costumes – all with your favorite Elvis tunes in the background. They finish up with a video tape of one his concerts in the 70’s. It makes you appreciate what an emotional singer he really was. We also toured his cars, including the famous pink Cadillac, and his airplanes. It was an enjoyable afternoon of reminiscing.

Elvis Outfits

Huntsville, AL

Our first stop was the NASA space and rocket center in Huntsville. I’d have to say that I was disappointed. While this is where they have space camp with lots of simulators, not much of that was included with admission to the museum. They did have two Saturn V rockets, one of which was laid out horizontally so you could examine all the rocket engines, and the Apollo capsule, another mounted vertically outside. Most of the museum seemed to emphasize the role of Werner Von Braun and the Huntsville center in building the rockets used in the 1960’s space program, with a little on the Space Lab and shuttle. We learned a lot about the rocket and Space Lab hardware, but except for Von Braun, the human aspect seemed to be missing (compared to the Astronaut Hall of Fame in Florida).

Later in the day we visited the Rosenbaum home in Florence, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The home is built next to the river and consists primarily of cedar and red brick. The home emphasizes its horizontal lines to fit into the terrain. Inside are 20” doors, lots of windows (which double as doors) and lots of cedar and red colored tile. As in most of Wright’s homes, he also designed the furniture and part of his architectural agreement is that you can’t use other furniture.

Birmingham, AL

We arrived here about noon from Atlanta. First stop was the Arlington Antebellum plantation. This house had been built in the 1850’s and had been through 4 owners before becoming a museum in 1954. Not much of the furniture was original, but saw and heard new things: A corner chair was designed for men with swords, so they could wear the sword while sitting, or for a lady with a hoop dress. There was a piece in the reception hall that had a low mirror, so the ladies could see if there petticoats were showing before they left the house. Then there were stairs to one of the beds (because it was so high), that also stored the chamber pot. Since ladies often had pock marks from small pox or chicken pox, they would wear beeswax on their face to hide the blemishes. This led to expressions like “cracking a smile” or “don’t melt your beeswax”.
Our second stop was the Civil Rights Museum. This followed up very well with our Martin Luther King visit yesterday. Birmingham was one of the hold-outs to desegregation, and had a large share of violence. Here was where Rosa Parks didn’t give up her seat on the bus, eventually leading to the desegregation of public transportation. Downtown businesses remained segregated for years, until over 800 youths were arrested in a march. The businesses finally backed down. Here too, was a lot of violence, when the freedom buses rode through town. Freedom buses were ridden by a mix of black and whites in accordance with the court decisions. Unfortunately, about half the museum was being renovated, but I would highly recommend this museum if you’re interested in the history of black gaining equality.

Atlanta, GA

Stone Mountain

Our campground is in Stone Mountain Park, which is largely a tourist trap, but because it is the off-season things are relatively quiet. (I'd highly recommend this campground, beautiful sites and close to Atlanta.) We got a view of the carving of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson on the mountainside. I must admit I wasn’t impressed compared to Mt. Rushmore or Crazy Horse. We saw it briefly at night and then again in the morning.

Mary and the Coke Polar Bear

Our highlight of the day was the World of Coke – it gave quite a lot of the history, particularly about how it was a marketing miracle. They put the Coke logo on just about anything, since everyone needed a calendar that was the most common item. They also had several movies showing many of the famous Coke advertisements from around the world, including the famous ones with the little boy offering his coke to Mean Joe Greene, and the “I want the world to sing…”. Of course, they had a miniature bottle plant and then ended with a 4D movie trying to find the secret ingredient of coke (unique taste, universal availability, uniform quality, and you).
Then we spent a brief time at the Martin Luther King Historical site, near his birthplace. They did an excellent job of covering his life, largely through video clips and in his own words. Though I had remembered how he advocated non-violent protest, I hadn’t realized that he had actually studied Gandhi’s use of non-violent protest in India. He concluded that it was the best method to gain civil rights in the U.S.
That evening we visited with a college fraternity buddy, Bob Biagioni. We hadn’t seen each other since 1981 and since then he had moved to Germany, several places in the U.S., divorced, remarried, had a daughter, and retired. So we had a lot to catch up on.

Charlotte, NC

Last night, we found a superb Italian Restaurant, DeMarco's Italian Grill, 1741 Gold Hill Road near the Charlotte/Fort Mill KOA. They had a very tasting house dressing, which was different from anything we'd ever had, and the bread! Delicious! And the main dish was great too.

We opened the Museum of the New South this morning in Charlotte. The museum covers the history of this area from the Civil War through the Civil Rights movement. Economically, this area went from primarily tenant farmers growing cotton to entire families in mill towns working in the cotton mills. After the civil war, the restrictions that you had to own at least 100 acres to vote went to universal suffrage for males, allowing quite a few blacks to hold office. Then in the 1890’s, the poll tax ($2 paid in the spring, when you needed money to plant), and literacy tests (what does the right habeas corpus mean?) were added, preventing blacks and most poor whites from voting. In the early 1900’s the official segregation began – different schools, and public accommodations. The museum spent a lot of space showing how typical people lived from unpainted wooden shacks to company housing. After World War II, blacks started going after their rights, through a series of court decisions and defiant actions (sit-ins at lunch counters) they eventually gained equality. Charlotte has become the second biggest banking center in the U.S. with Bank of America and Wachovia two of the major banks headquartered here.

Appomattox Court House

McLean House at Appomattox Court House

Today, we went to the town of Appomattox Court House where General Lee surrendered to Grant. Now I always thought that meant he surrendered in the Court House, but no that was the complete name of the town. He actually surrendered in the McLean House in that town. This was after Sherman’s troop had captured the last of 4 railroads entering Petersburg, VA. This was the primary rail center that supplied Richmond. At the same time, Grant’s army had stretched out the smaller Army of Northern Virginia, allowing them to attack through the thinned lines. Lee had to move his troops west, trying to get resupplied with food and then rejoin the other Confederate troops outside Danville, VA. But the Union army moved faster and managed to capture their supplies before the Confederate troops could reach them. Meanwhile, Lee lost about a 1/5 of his troops fighting the Union on the way. Finally, at Appomattox, they ended up surrounded on 3 sides with a swelling river on the fourth. The fight was over. General Grant was generous, he asked that they lay down their arms, and then he would parole the Confederate soldiers allowing them to return home, as long as they promised not to renew the fight. Both sides treated each other with dignity through the surrender. We learned a lot through the combination of 2 films, a talk from a confederate solider, and touring the grounds.

We ended the day just south of Charlotte, NC. On the way, we paid a short visit to Cannon Village with a small museum on the textile industry here (Cannon towels). It was not worth the time.

Richmond, VA

We had decided that one of the themes for this trip, was the Civil War, so today we visited two battlefields in the morning, Spotsylvania and Chancellorsville.
Chancellorsville occurred in May, 1863 as Lee was moving his troops North eventually to get to Gettysburg (Harrisburg, PA was his target again, just like in 1862). The brilliant move by Lee, was to have Stonewall Jackson to a quick march around the Union’s flank and attack them. This allowed them to roll up the Union army, but in the process, Jackson was shot by his own troops.

Spotsylvania occurred in 1864 as Grant was moving his troops to take Richmond. It was a several day battle and resulted in both sides losing about 20% of their troops. Grant kept on attacking because he had superior numbers, but Lee managed to hold throughout. In the end, Grant disengaged, and worked his way around Lee.

Our final stop was the Confederate museum, including the Confederate White House. The white house was most interesting. Even though most of it’s contents had been sold at auction in 1870 and the house converted to a school for 30 years, they managed to restore it, and get back much of the furnishings (including a bed, purchased on Ebay in 2004). Something we hadn’t seen before was a removal floor covering in the receiving area. It looked like a stone flooring, but was actually a carpet, so that they could remove the mud and dirt dragged into the house. The Confederate museum, had many swords and uniforms from various confederate officers. What it did best, however, was to provide a chronological line of the various Civil War battles.

Holocaust Museum

Today we spent about 3 hours in the U.S. Holocaust Museum. After visiting the holocaust museum in Jerusalem, and the documentation museum in Nuremberg; we were quite amazed at how much we learned here. The top floor of the museum provides a lot of background on how the Nazi party blamed all of Germany’s problems on the Jews and Communists. When Hitler was appointed Chancellor in 1933, the Nazi’s quickly took power, outlawing all the other parties, and began their crusade against Jews, Gypsy’s, homosexuals, and the mentally retarded. What was sad was hearing how countries refused to accept the Jews - they didn’t want to import a problem. This background was better done than other museums, we’ve been to. The next floor was on the war years – all of the Jewish ghettos and death camps. They had many artifacts from the piles of shoes, to a table where gold fillings were removed. The final floor told the story after the war, and how many Eastern European Jews were fearful to return to their homes because of discrimination, thus began the move to Palestine. Again, most countries refused to accept the many people who were displaced and lost everything during the war. We finished our day by going to the World War II Memorial and a special exhibit in the Smithsonian about Jim Henson and the Muppets.

World War II Memorial

International Spy Museum

We had to wait for the repair on our trailer which was completed about 1:30 PM. It turns out that a spring on the trailer brakes had broken, eventually causing damage to the drum and the tire.
Then it was off to the International Spy Museum. This was a fun museum. It starts with the tools of the trade: disguises, cameras, microphones, lock picks, radios from World War I to the present day. Then a section covers spy history – this starts with the Trojan war and includes our Revolutionary and Civil War, and then finally the 20th century, especially during World war II and the Cold War. As part of the gimmick, they give you an identity and a mission which you have to remember as you go through the museum. We spent over 2 1/2 hours there, well worth the price of admission.

Washington, D.C.I

Iwa Jima Memorial

I spent these days at the World Congress for Software Quality. My talk was the first day, it went well. I had a few people come and tell me how useful they found the talk, and others who referenced it during their talks. Mary spent the first 2 days at the trailer, working to get the drum on our trailer repaired (one of the studs was completely sheared in West Virginia). On the 18th, Mary went to the brand new “Newseum” which just opened this year. It provides the history of recording the news from early papers, to TV national news, to the latest blogs. The FBI has also moved a lot of their museum here, so you can read about their big cases. On Thursday night, we took a tour of the monuments at night. The key stops were the Iwa Jima memorial, the Korean, Vietnam, and Lincoln memorials, Jefferson, and the Roosevelt memorials. I actually don't recommend this night tour – while you need to see Washington at night; the Vietnam and Roosevelt memorials should be seen in daylight.

Antietam, Maryland

Before heading to D.C., we stopped at the Antietam Battlefield. We learned a lot about this battle, since we watched 2 movies, heard the ranger talk, and then took the car tour around the battlefield. The battle occurred on September 17th, 1862. This was General Robert E. Lee’s attempt to bring the war to the North. His target was Harrisburg, PA, but McClelland’s army caught up with them here. They could have ended the entire war here, because Lee had split up his army in order to capture Harper’s Ferry, but McClellan thought he was outnumbered by Lee. The Union army was not well organized, and they made 3 separate attacks, and Lee moved his troops around to hold his lines from each attack. They could have been caught against the Potomac, but just when all was lost, the troops from Harper’s Ferry arrived behind the Union army. The battle ended a draw, but 23000 soldiers were killed, the bloodiest day in the war. Even though it was a draw, most of 1862 had been Confederate victories, with this battle, Lincoln felt he could now proclaim the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

Virginia

Mary with John and Betty

Today is primarily a drive and visit friends day. We started off with a scare, however. When leaving the campground, I looked behind me and noticed my trailer wheel was wobbling. The entrance to the park was 10 miles of very winding road, and it must have loosened the nuts on one of the wheels from all the bending back and forth. One of the bolts was actually sheered off, but I managed to tighten the other 5 nuts and we rode the rest of the day without incident (checking the lug nuts at every rest stop).
Tonight, we had dinner with John and Betty Calabria, whom we had met on the Machu Pichu trip. We had a delicious dinner primarily fruits and vegetables from their garden with the family recipe for Italian sausage. Of course, we shared travel stories for most of the evening and witnessed a beautiful Appalachian Mountain sunset.

Frankfurt, Kentucky

John Brown's House

Our primary stop today was Liberty Hall in Frankfurt, Kentucky, the capital city. We got a little lost because of poor directions and road construction. But when I stopped to figure out where we were, we were right in front of Liberty Hall. We tried to stop at the Frankfurt cemetery to see Daniel Boone’s grave, but there wasn’t any parking for our trailer nearby, so we returned to Liberty Hall for the noon tour. The first house was built about the turn of the 19th century by John Brown. He was instrumental in Kentucky becoming a state. For a while, some had considered becoming part of the Spanish empire (remember the land west of the Mississippi was claimed by Spain at this time). He also became the first senator from Kentucky, re-elected twice. The house he built was the first brick mansion of Frankfurt. What was amazing about the house, was the fact that most of the furniture was still the original furniture that John Brown had bought. Our tour guide was knowledgeable about the house and family to a fault – he went on for too long. We also toured the house next door, built for Orlando Brown, his son. The Brown family played important roles for many years, both nationally and in Kentucky.

Tonight, we’re just inside West Virginia at a Beech Fork State park. It has over 200 sites and we’re living in luxury with air conditioning on, water and sewer. It’s been over 90 degrees, so the AC is needed.

St. Louis

Gateway Arch

We continued traveling east on I-70 to St. Louis. Here we visited the Jefferson Memorial Park, better known as the Gateway Arch to the West. Of course, St. Louis was the gateway to the West for many years, when the primary means of travel was originally the Missouri river, then the wagon train. It’s the Jefferson memorial because he completed the Louisiana purchase and commissioned the Louis and Clark expedition. We watched the National Geographic special on this expedition while we were there.
With the advent of the railroad, the gateway to the West moved to Chicago, because the trains went west from there, crossing the Mississippi at Rock Island, Illinois. St. Louis to regain its status decided to build a bridge across the Mississippi. The Eads bridge still stands today, at the time it was a fairly new concept, a cantilevered bridge, with 3 huge spans across the river. You can get a good view of the bridge and the entire downtown area of St. Louis from the top of the arch. To get there, we took these claustrophobic tram cars, each of which sits 5 people. Mary closed here eyes as went up. When we were ready to go down, we had a ‘red alert’. The tram we were planning to use stopped part way up. They finally made it to the top, but we were asked to use the North tram as they inspected the South tram for problems. This really increased Mary’s confidence in the system.

We camped in a beautiful National Forest campground with electricity that evening. We asked for a restaurant for dinner and went to a tavern in Leopold, Indiana about 5 miles from our campground. Since it was Friday night, the place was packed with locals out for the evening. (The ribs were very good.)

Kansas City

We’re on our way out to Washington, D.C. because I’m going to give a paper on software quality at the World Congress on Software Quality next week. So we decided to make this an RV trip to Washington and then pick up our missing states (S. Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama for both of us, and Arkansas and Oklahoma for me) to have visited all 50 states. So this will be a quick trip out to the East Coast with a more leisurely return. Yesterday, was all driving through Colorado and Kansas. Today, is our first tourist stop, the National World War I museum in Kansas City, MO.

This museum is not quite 2 years old. We’re here because last year, we found out how little we knew about WW I, when we visited Canada’s War Museum. The museum starts with a glass bridge over 9000 poppies, each representing a 1000 lives lost in WW I. An introductory film leaves you with the impression that no one is really certain why WW I began – yes, there were a lot of secret alliances built between countries over the previous decades, a lot of countries had built a lot of war munitions, Europe was beginning to taste more democracy rather than being ruled a monarchs, and, of course, there was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Slovakia. But it seems like it just started, and then escalated quickly to a world war because of the alliances.

Germany’s plan was to quickly conquer France by going through Belgium to conquer Paris, then handle the Russians on their Eastern Front. But they got bogged down north of Paris, and the French counter-acted through a hole in their lines. This led to the trench warfare of the western front. The combination of several lines trenches, barbed wire protecting them, and machine guns meant little forward progress was made by either side for years. While there were many offensives, they were costly in the lives lost, and seldom were permanent gains.

Another movie explained how the U.S. finally entered the war. It was partly the German U boats sinking passenger ships, but mostly the Zimmerman letter to Mexico asking them to go to war with the U.S. This finally persuaded President Wilson and congress to enter what they considered a European war. The combination of American troops and tanks that could clamber over barbed wire and protect the soldiers from machine guns allowed enough of an offensive against the Germans to end the war.

World War I Tank