A Taste of the South

"I have good news and I have bad news."

We were hoping that my brother, Mike, would be able to fly into Chicago on Friday afternoon, July 1, and drive with us, via Nauvoo, to the bi-annual Spendlove Family Reunion in Tennessee. Mike was informing me of the situation over the phone, a few days before the trip.

"The good news is that I'm going to be able to fly into Chicago."

"Great. What's the bad news?"

"The bad news is that I'm actually flying into Milwaukee on Friday night."

Milwaukee is 90 miles north of Chicago. Tennessee is south.

There are few transportation options from Milwaukee to Chicago at midnight, and Jenny and I were excited to spend time with Mike, so we decided to turn the change of plans into a day trip. We drove up the coast of Lake Michigan on Friday, passing mansion after mansion. We explored towns like Glencoe and Kenosha, and spent the evening in Racine. The Milwaukee suburb fits somewhere between Brigham City and Park City on the charm scale. We ate at a Spanish restaurant, visited the Racine Art Museum, and joined hundreds of people in the streets for "First Fridays." Every other storefront on the main street had a band or a soloist playing out in front. We waited in line at the ice cream store on the main plaza, and asked for directions to a bowling alley. I taught Jenny how to score bowling on a sheet of paper, and she taught me how to bowl.

We picked Mike up at about 11:15, and drove straight back to Chicago. Early the next morning, we drove the 250 miles through rural Illinois to meet our family in Nauvoo. We stopped at an interesting ice cream shop just outside of Nauvoo. The shop itself wasn't too out of the ordinary. It was the location. The ice cream store (and pitch n' putt) was located adjacent to the Missouri state penitentiary - literally 100 feet away.

In Nauvoo, we did all the normal stuff. Two highlights included our tour guide at the Community of Christ (he was an Ohio State religion grad student, unaffiliated with any religion, and he had very interesting perspectives on the "LDS Movement"); and our trip to the Nauvoo Temple. The Temple was absolutely spectacular, and it was interesting to compare the similarities and differences between the Church-owned Nauvoo Temple and the Community of Christ Kirtland Temple. (This trip completed a three-month long Church history "tour" for Jenny and me that started with Camille in Vermont and continued with Dave and Shelly in New York and Ohio -see previous posts).
Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum Smith's graves.
The John Browning gun shop.
The view of the Nauvoo Temple from behind the Browning shop. After living in evergreen Illinois, I can only imagine how difficult it would have been for the early saints and pioneers to uproot and travel to the middle of the desert in an era when one's livelihood depended on planting and harvesting.
Learning about brick making and "Nauvoo Red" bricks.
Stopping by the blacksmith's shop. Mike won the miniature horseshoe (for the third time in his life) but kindly allowed one of the many youngsters to have it.
The Nauvoo Temple.
The statue of Hyrum and Joseph outside the Temple.
Carthage Jail.

After stopping in Carthage, we went back to Nauvoo to watch a sub-par evening musical performance (it was free so I can't complain, but I'm not going to sugar coat it). Afterwards we went with my parents, my sister Lisa, and all her kids to a Mexican restaurant south of Nauvoo. We had a great time.

The next day, we drove all the way to Tennessee, but Mike, Jenny and I stopped in St. Louis to see the Gateway Arch. I still have fond memories of learning about St. Louis as the "Gateway to the West," and learning about the reasons why Chicago surpassed St. Louis in transportation. It had to do with the inconvenience of the swelling Mississippi river in St. Louis vs. the more convenient grain elevators along the Chicago river.

We were in for a treat as the St. Louis Fair was going on, complete with music, expensive carnival food, and an impressive air show.

While we waited our turn to go up to the top of the Arch, Jenny, Mike and I engaged in some perspective photography around the park. Mike was the talented one among us, as evidenced by the fact that there are no pictures of him below (I took the pictures of him, and I couldn't get it right).


After summitting the Arch, and walking through the accompanying museum, we headed for Tennessee. Unfortunately, I took very few photos of my family with my camera (or the photos I did take didn't survive). I'll have to resort to the written word.

Activities that were not photographed included: boating on the lake behind our condo; teaching the rest of the family how to play ping pong; engaging in nightly bouts of Wizard, Trivial Pursuit, and Ticket to Ride; participating in Spendlove Family classics such as the auction and the Candy Bar Game; hiking to a secluded waterfall that could have been the backdrop for Hawkeye's pensive moments in Last of the Mohicans; climbing around an 80-room treehouse that was built by a religious enthusiast (only in the South?); watching Cars 2 with the nieces and nephews; trying out the Waffle House and being utterly underwhelmed; enjoying the cadence of the southern accent at that same Waffle House; and just talking and hanging out with family.

On day 1 in Tennessee, we drove through the Great Smoky Mountains. Unfortunately, it rained heavily on our picnic just as I finished building a turkey sandwich. We had to run for cover.
Once the rains cleared up though, the whole place was beautiful. It actually reminded me of a greener version of northern Utah.
Plenty of wildlife:
Including black bears (we saw 3 or 4 that day including this one straight out of Blueberry's for Sal). One of the highlights of my day was watching a bear bounding down a hill. He honestly looked like a cartoon.
Pleasant mountain scenes.
Jenny and I went hiking with my Mom, and my nephews and niece: Michael, Kirsten, Spencer, and Grant.
We came to a waterfall and enjoyed swimming and skipping rocks.

After a week of fun, we began the trip home. Our first stop with the family was in Nashville, where we stopped at Andrew Jackson's home, The Hermitage.


This cow wanted to get friendly.
The garden surrounding Jackson's grave.
Jackson's grave.
Jenny and my family went to the Country Music Hall of Fame, while my brother-in-law Steve and I went to Centennial park with two of his youngest kids. While we were there, he told me that his friend had stopped through Nashville in the past, and stopped at the Bluebird Cafe. The friend said that he had loved the live music there. While it wasn't a feasible stop for Steve's family or my parents, Jenny and I decided to go early and try to get in off the waiting list. We were very glad that we did. We got a seat at the bar, and enjoyed the best live music we have heard. Every night, 4 of the top songwriters in Nashville sit "in the round" and alternate playing their favorite songs (i.e. the songs that they wrote for big time musicians). The particular musicians on the night we were there had written for Tim McGraw, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Kelly Clarkson, and others. Some of the music was being played live for the first time. It was all amazing music.

Elated by the night's activities, we drove to Kentucky, talking about the Bluebird Cafe the entire way. The next morning, we woke up early for a walk through Mammoth Cave.
I thought it would be cool to do the "Violet City" walk, where the only light you get is your lamplight. It turned out to be just okay. We were able to feel how the early (i.e. mid to late 1800s) tourists might have felt, but we would have liked to have been able to see more of the cave. Still, it was neat to be in the world's longest cave (over 600 miles of caves).

After Mammoth Cave, we went to Louisville, which was a surprising high point on our trip. Our first stop was the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, where we got to swing Mickey Mantle's and Cal Ripken Jr.'s baseball bats. We walked through the factory and saw how all the pro bats are created, lacquered, and finished.


Outside the museum is a 6-story baseball bat.

Our bed and breakfast host informed us that Louisville has the largest collection of Victorian era homes in the country. It has the 3rd highest number of National Historic Registry residences in the country to Beacon Hill and Georgetown (which have large numbers of homes from different eras). Jenny and I enjoyed walking around the neighborhoods with gas-lit lamps, nice gardens, and beautiful houses.

We stopped by Churchill Downs (home of the Kentucky Derby) and walked right out onto the grandstand.

Inside the main building, two large murals depict the jockeys for winning horses, and the trainers (or owners?) of the horses.

Outside Churchill Downs.
At night, we went to a free showing of As You Like It, performed in Louisville's Central Park by the Kentucky Shakespeare Company, which puts on the oldest free Shakespeare program in the country. It was actually better than any play I have paid for. Afterwards, Jenny and I went back to our Victorian B&B.


We drove home the next day, having totally enjoyed our family reunion and our side trips as well.