And so my story ends, for now. It was a good trip all around, I reckon.

My Helm is alee. On my way thru Stamford, Connecticut I said ‘hello’ to my old sailing buddy, Jack, and then headed south, towards Charleston, thru the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Much like the Chesapeake Bay itself, the little towns along the shore seem endless. Saint Michael’s, Maryland, is a decent place with the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, shops, and some nice harbor side restaurants. Crisfield, is a backwater; I ate a decent crab cake sandwich at The Crab Place there, but missed ‘Ms. Hattie’ pickin’ crab.

Mystic Seaport, Connecticut. I hadn’t been there in 50 years and it was a great place to spend a Sunday. The museum is a private and public partnership of some sort, with the mission of restoring and preserving old wooden boats and keeping the craft of wooden boat-building alive.

The jewel of the museum’s crown is a wooden whaling vessel, the Charles W. Morgan. It’s currently up on land in the midst of an extensive refit, but one can go aboard to tour. It’s impossible to imagine that the ship & crew sailed for years at a time, chasing whales all over the oceans, before returning home.

The wooden boat group was at the Seaport, showing off their wonderful old cruisers and runabouts. It’s always a joy to look at the beauty of teak & varnish, and think about bygone days.

They had a nice display of the history of the art of tattooing, and the sailors over the years who have sported tattoos from every port of call.

I got to drive a radio-controlled tug & tow; probably the only tug I’ll ever drive, more’s the pity.



One could tell the true stories of high-dollar off-shore sailboat racing, but the names would have to be changed. Newport, RI, wasn’t my first port of call in the sailboat ‘bidness,’ but it was, in the early 1970’s, where I graduated to the real deal. I’m happy to report that it has been built up a bit, but it hasn’t been ruined.

I had a nice girl there, back in the day; I wouldn't mind hearing how she ended up...if only I could remember her name!

Truro Synagogue

Marblehead, MA. This is a very sleepy town that I’d read about forever. The harbor, though, was full of boats on their moorings and the yacht club launches were staying busy.

Down East. I may never have been to Maine before, or, I have no memory of being there. I drove to Boothbay Harbor and found a decent waterfront motel right in town. That worked out pretty well. I was beat from the climb and too much driving, and so I just wandered around, snacked on a few small dishes and slept pretty well. In the morning I wandered some more, took some photos, and drove a few miles to Ocean Point where I’m writing this right now. The weather has changed several times within an hour or so, from sun to clouds to spitting rain and back to sun.

Mount Monadnock, New Hampshire. They say that it’s the 2d most climbed mountain in the world, second only to Mount Fuji. Could be. On the morning of 20 July I ‘ran’ up in and ‘slid’ down in two hours and twenty minutes. It was quite a workout and much more of a challenge than I remember from the last time I climbed it. Maybe it was a different trail, but maybe not. Either way it’s incredible to think that my sister, at about 45 years of age, climbed it in a cotton sun dress and ‘China-boy’ shoes. I reckon that we come from good stock.

View from the top

http://www.mountainsummits.com/mountains/newhampshire/monadnock.htm

Erie, Pennsylvania / Presque Isle State Park. Wow…the park is a gem! A 15 mile peninsula that juts into Lake Erie, the park has a running and bicycle path around the perimeter and some developed beach and recreation areas, but it has been left largely undisturbed. Early in the day it was just about empty, as has been the case of most everywhere I’ve been.

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/presqueisle.aspx

I had never driven across New York State before, and I hope to never do it again. It’s beautiful country that’s probably worth a visit, but the drive was painful.

A Bit of the Mid-West. Across the river from Louisville you enter Indiana. The really new thing I saw there was a huge wind farm of about 400 giant windmills. It was just the most fanciful sight with all that machinery rising right out of the cornfields; I’m not sure why, but it brought a smile to my face.

http://www.earlparkindiana.com/windfarm.html

Chicago is a great city during the summertime. During the 8 months of winter? Not so much. I visited with my mother & sister, ran on the lakefront every morning and saw a play, a bit of dance and a performance by the Second city comedy group. They are the same as they were 30 years ago but some of the stuff they do is genuinely amusing. One can see how many of the players graduated to SNL over the years.

"Memphis Midnight; Memphis Morning"

A song I like, written by Eric Taylor and sung by Lyle Lovett and others:

“The sun went down like a curtain
Memphis looks bigger at night
All the tattooed boys in uniform
Step in and out of the light.
She bought me good whiskey in Memphis
She bought supper and she paid for the room
And as best as I can remember
She paid dearly for loving me too

She said hey don't I know you
Now ain't you the one
The one with the guitar boys
And all them sad songs
About men in the rain
Did you ever miss a plane
In Memphis?

We laughed at the strangers we were in the bed
Two cigarettes lit up the room
Like two backseat lovers can't wait to get started
Knowing everything's over too soon

Now Memphis ain't bad in the morning
Good coffee well it's just hard to find
But let me suggest that you never leave Memphis
With anything on your mind

She said hey don't I know you
Now ain't you the one
The one with the guitar boys
And all them sad songs
About men in the rain
Did you ever miss a plane
In Memphis?”

It’s good to finally be here. I’ve wanted to visit for a long time and I’ve always just passed through. Beale Street is ‘Tourist Central,’ and that’s not a bad thing; there’s real history there with names like Carl Perkins, B.B. King and Elvis getting their starts in and around that neighborhood. Sun Records is just a few streets away. I ran and walked the whole downtown area. It’s pretty, but it’s also pretty distressed financially. I hope that things improve.

Million Dollar View 

I Didn't Know This! 

 I KNEW That The King Hadn't Left The Building!

"Now its a mighty long way down rock'n'roll,
Through the Bradford Cities and the Oreoles,
'N you look like a star, but you're still on the dole
All the way from Memphis." 
                             - Mott The Hoople 'All The Way From Memphis'

Nashville, too. A couple of square blocks of bars, nice music and more history.

He's everywhere



Day 5. Yuck! With me it’s never what I imagined or hoped for. The Park was OK, but 3 days was enough. On Thursday afternoon I drove 15 miles up to Cherokee, NC. It was one of the most UNappealing places I’ve ever been thru: wall-to-wall Native American ‘craft & souvenir’ places, each one the same as the next, for blocks on end. And, a casino, proudly owned by the Eastern Cherokee Nation. Not a drunken squaw in sight, which would have been a saving grace. Give me a break!

But do not despair for Tonto & his ilk, because what’s off the reservation isn’t much better. Friday afternoon was spent on the road thru some beautiful scenery in Nantahala National Park, along river rapids that were the sight of the kayaking events during the Atlanta Olympics. I believe that I rafted down that river way back when in was working for the TVA, in the mid-80’s, but everything is so developed now that I don’t recognize a thing.

On Saturday I arrived in Natchez, MS, to have lunch with an ‘Internet Buddy’ who’s a police Captain there. What a depressed and depressing place. Except for a little downtown that caters to the rich folk it is a place that’s dying, with loss of population, revenue and everything. The PD is a wreck from my perspective. I’d never apply for a job there, so that’s one good lesson learned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natchez,_Mississippi

Then, it was on to Vicksburg, MS. I have to say the Natchez Trace Parkway is a gem. Read the link and you’ll know as much about it as I do. I drove on it for 40 miles or so towards Vicksburg and then traveled thru Port  Gibson, which has some history and is on The Mississippi Blues Trail.

http://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm

Vicksburg is a lost cause. In the 15 years or so since I last drove thru it has turned into a riverboat casino town. The waterfront is ruined and virtually inaccessible, and the ‘Historic Downtown’ was empty of people at 1700 on a Saturday. Fully half of the storefronts were empty as well.

http://www.houseofisraelhcc-vburg.com/default.html

This is a Black-persons accomplishment 'museum.'

The reference to House of Israel is a mystery!

On Sunday I drove thru miles and miles of corn and soybean growing on true bottom land along Hwy 61. Then I drove thru miles and miles more. Where the fields were irrigated things looked good to this city boy, but where they were not, things looked beaten down by drought.

One stop on the way to Memphis was Lake Enid, a Corps of Engineers facility just south of town that was quite beautiful and only sparsely used. The Ranger said it was too hot to be out on a boat!?