Wrapping up our 3rd traveling season

It's hard to believe we have lived in Max over 3 years now and are finishing up our third season of traveling. We consider our annual return to Texas for a few months every fall to be our "recharge" time in a way.  But I'm getting ahead of myself!

Our last post had us arriving in Indianapolis, Indiana, for the wedding of one of Jeffrey's brother's grandsons. In addition to connecting with family who live there and those who traveled in for the event we also got to explore downtown a little, even knocking off another Presidential site -- 23rd President Benjamin Harrison. He was the only President from Indiana to date and his family home is downtown. Interestingly enough, he is the grandson of William Henry Harrison our 9th President and great grandson of a singer of the Declaration of Independence. More about grandpa below.

We also visited the Indiana Medical History Museum, which was an 1890s - 1950s pathology facility as part of a large insane asylum-- making it a perfect place to study scientific psychiatry in an attempt to understand the diseases that caused mental decline.  Other than the age of the contents, frozen in time, it looks like the staff just walked away leaving everything intact.

Indiana Medical History Museum

Thankfully the wedding was lovely and went off "with a hitch" as planned and we continued our journey on to Vincennes, Indiana so we could visit Grouseland, President William Henry Harrison's mansion and museum. Unfortunately, his Presidency was very short as he made the mistake of giving a 2-hour inaugural speech on a very cold winter's day, caught pneumoia from it, and only lived 1 month afterwards. We also checked out the new Red Skelton Museum of American Comedy. It was small but entertaining and definitely worth a stop.

Since we didn't get into western Tennessee when we toured it earlier in the year, we planned a stop in Memphis on the way home.  We stayed at the Tom Sawyer RV park -- notable because it sits right on the west bank of the Mississippi. There are times when it floods and isn't usable, but we were lucky and got to enjoy the amazing view of barge after barge being pushed up and down the mighty river.  At this point the temperatures outside were also starting to climb in a big way. Ah, the joys of summer!

Barge on the Mississippi

Memphis has a lot to see, but the big things we picked were Graceland, the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel (where Martin Luther King was assassinated), the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, BB King's club, and the Bass Pro Shop. Everything was really amazing, especially the efficiency with which they can get the huge quantity of visitors through the first two places. They actually give you a personal iPad for Graceland so you don't have to try to keep up with and a human tour guide. It talks you through the entire home and other buildings and gives you lots of links to extra content along the way. Though it looks original on the outside, the Lorraine Hotel has been transformed inside to the fascinating museum it is today. It is only when you get to the location of the 2 rooms where King and his friends were staying that you remember you are inside the hotel.

Graceland

Odd that we put a Bass Pro Shop on the itinerary, isn't it? Well, this one is special. It is housed in a huge pyramid that had the shop, a restaurant, a bowling alley, gun range, boat dealeship, hotel rooms -- and lots and lots of water features filled with fish, floating boat displays, ducks and more. If you were willing to pay $10, you could even ride up the free-standing elevator to the very top and get a great view of the city!

Our final big stop before Texas was in Hot Springs, Arkansas. As its name implies, the city has a collection of natural hot springs that continually pump up 143-degree water from great depths. There are still a collection of bath houses where you can go and experience the "healing waters" that have attracted folks from around the world for almost 2 centuries. Hot Springs also attracted an interesting collection of gangsters as well as corrupt politicians and law enforcement who protected them. The local Gangster Museum does a pretty good job of sharing this local "history".

Bath House "row" in Hot Springs

The hot/healing springs were identified as a significant national resource before there were anything called  national parks, so it was designated a national reservation to protect it early on -- and is now the Hot Springs National park. There are still active bath houses, both modern and more "original". As much as I wanted to, I just couldn't work up the desire to have a "spa day" when it was over 100 degrees outside. That said, the park visitor's center is inside the Fordythe Bath House which is now preserved as a museum so you can see how it all worked. Another bath house has been converted to a brewery and they make their beer with the naturally pure spring water. I could work up the desire to sample the local beers.

Now for the "living in a motorhome" segment of this blog post :-) We actually ended up extending our stay in Hot Springs 4 extra days because Max had a nice shady parking spot and we were caught in the middle of a "dangerous heat index" weather pattern.  Unfortunately, we didn't realize until too late that we were parked under a Hackberry tree infested with woolly aphids.  Yup, that's what I said. Furry little white pests that excrete a sticky substance which proceeded to coat Max and the car (named Moby). Boy, what a mess!  It was no fun washing them after we left!

Hot hot day in Hot Springs!

And for those of you who have been following this blog for awhile, you may recall that the last 2 years we drove into Texas we had a engine-coolant overheat because our big radiator fan stopped and didn't re-engage in the 100+ Texas heat.  Well, we are happy to report it didn't happen this year! Guess the replacement of the fan clutch last fall did the trick -- yay!

So that's it for traveling season #3! Thanks for following along -- we'll reach out again later this fall!

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