June 23: Old Business

First off, we're in Nashville now, but I wanted to finish some things from our last camp ground.

The birds were extremely noisy - just the way I like it. We saw blue birds and one indigo bunting; but we heard many other warbles/song birds - they were beautiful. Also, we had a pair of house wrens trying to build a nest in our fifth wheel attachment. I stuck a T-shirt into the hole, but they were still building. Discovered there were holes in the bottom of the fifth wheel they were going into. Pushed the T-shirt further down so that the holes were covered but they found a niche around the T-shirt as shown in the photo. Larry had been trying to deter them by keeping it clean - but they were determined. So we finally let it go and just drove off the next morning - 240 miles and we haven't seen them since.

On our last day at T.O. Fuller State Park, which was originally built in the 1930's by the CCC and called the Shelby County Negro Park, I washed windows and we washed and waxed the front of the camper.





We had met a couple from Florida earlier in the week and they were tired from traveling so much and hadn't gone into town at all. I told them where we had gone grocery shopping so the next day they ventured out to buy food. When they got there, Doug told his wife "We ain't getting out of the truck." So they drove another 15 miles to a Wal-Mart on the other side of town. I don't think I have mentioned it, but the area we're in is at the edge of a very black part of Memphis (hence the original name of the park). Actually, I don't think we saw a white part of Memphis until we went to visit Larry's friend. That area reminded me of the College Hill area of Wichita. Made me think that Larry and I were pretty adventurous.

And I have found that I can't upload my blues band video - it's either a corrupt file or an unfamiliar format. Worked once - don't know why it won't now.

Now, on to our children, because they have lots going on in their lives too. I want to let you know that Larry's first born, Greg, lives in Washington close to Yakama. He married about 5 years ago and has been a diligent, hard worker, building and remodeling homes in the area. They just bought their first home. We are really proud of how well he turned out considering he got two parents who were not well versed in raising children. That he has turned out well is a credit to him and him alone (and maybe a good woman).

Our daughters have been busy too. Rebecca, the oldest of the two, for the last two years has been taking full college hours, with a full time job working 40 hours a week, and raising two boys - 3 if you count William, her husband, as most of us women like to count them as part of the raising process. She also joined Weight Watchers with me two years ago and lost 60 lbs while doing all of the above (I lost 50). Rebecca has now graduated from Cowley County Community College with a 4.0 GPA AND graduated Summa Cum Laude. Now she will be working with Wichita State University to complete her degree.

Trina, our baby, has been working really hard to get into the Wichita Police Academy. She passed all of the interviews and the obstacle course. All she had left was to run 1 1/2 miles under 14 minutes. She tried 4 times and finally made it today in 13.35 minutes. Classes start July 7th and last for 22 weeks. Her work has been very supportive of her efforts, too. After she passed the Command interview, the one with the police chief and several Lieutenants, the next morning she came into work where she was presented with a dozen donuts. If you want to keep track of her, a link to her blog is on this one. Trina attended Pratt Community College in 1997 on a volleyball scholarship and also graduated Summa Cum Laude.

We arrived here at Cedar Creek Corp of Engineer Park yesterday about 2:30, set up camp and went to eat. We're about 20 miles from downtown Nashville and 4 miles from the local Dairy Queen. Came right back to camp and went swimming. The park has a swimming area and a boat ramp. We're on the Cumberland River but it looks like a lake here - nothing like the Arkansas River or the Mississippi River. No current that we can see and much cleaner. It looks like Tablerock Lake - a wide river.

We did lots of stuff today and spent too much money, but I'll wait until tomorrow to put that in print.