Nashville - Andrew Jackson

Arriving Nashville I stayed seemingly surrounded by the winding Cumberland River. 

Not far away, inviting a walk, was a restaurant with a name associated with Andrew Jackson. As I strolled up the walk to the entrance there appeared a long porch with chairs and a couch occupied by 8-10 folks chatting. I worried that the line extended outside... how long is the wait?  Passing through the door I entered a very large room with 30-40 more people comfortably seated along a wall covered with Jackson memorabilia. Others in rocking chairs. It didn't look good for dinner!

The Cock of the Walk

After the sad experience of crossing the Hopi and next, the Navaho, reservations, I began to wonder if I could find anything likeable about Andrew Jackson. Son-in-law Nelson assures me that Jackson was liked among his close relatives. I suppose that should count for something.

 

The Cock of the Walk sported three sizes of rocking chairs. The kid size, the adult size, and the obese adult size. All the rocking chairs were occupied and the place was crowded. I gave my name for a party of 1. People were streaming in and out of this place. I heard, "Jones party of 10", and "So and so Party of 12" and sooner than I expected, "Kent, party of one!" I was led into the Andrew Jackson room.

Perhaps they were all Andrew Jackson rooms? The walls were lined with primitive handmade signs praising Jackson. 

 

People at the next table were holding hands with heads deeply bowed in prayer. I ordered the fried chicken and chips and ate half taking the remainder back to the Sprinter for tomorrow's dinner. 

The second day in Nashville I drove to the city center. It was streaming with young people and church groups (it was a Sunday). I stare at the crowds but with COVID everywhere, I remain in the Sprinter. Later that afternoon, I visited The Hermitage, Jackson's home before and after his election as President.

I ended up finding three things about Andrew Jackson that should be considered "good", as in "a good man".

1). The War of 1812 had ended by the Treaty of Ghent, but the news had not reached American shores. The Battle of New Orleans pitted the United States Army detachment commanded by Brevett Major General Andrew Jackson against Great Britain. The British were roundly defeated according to Wikipedia. That was, in my view, a good thing as it disabused the Brits of ever regaining a foothold in the land populated by native peoples and our forebears.

2). The second good thing. At the age of 13 or 14 Jackson and his older brother enlisted in the earlier Revolutionary War against Britain. They were captured, jailed, likely on a ship, and both contracted Small Pox. His brother died in captivity but Jackson's mother negotiated a release of her younger son. 

 

Now, one of the likely consequences of contracting Small Pox is that it's victims are often impotent, as was the case with Andrew Jackson. So his gift to the world was that he never passed on his genes to any offspring. And that's a good thing.

3). In touring The Hermitage, his home near Nashville before and after his Presidency, one learns from the docent that President & Mrs. Jackson provided housing for orphaned children who were fed & clothed by the house slaves. Exercising his rights (he thought), they adopt an orphan and renamed him Andrew Jackson Jr. Perhaps later in life he attempted to be a better human being. The story of John Fulton purchased by Jackson when the boy was 12 years old—>

 

 

 

 

 

 

My view remains that Andrew Jackson was a terrible human being because of his treatment of native peoples, including death marches, virtually sport-shooting, and removing the first people from good land to bad, very bad, land.

   

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Russellville, Arkansas

 

Having driven I-40 from OKCity to Russellville, Arkansas, I’m at La Huerta, a Mexican restaurant where I ate dos enchiladas, lemonade and watched Uruguay defeat Bolivia's national team in the prestigious Americas’ competition. Luckily for Uruguay, I had on the team colors & shirt! Uruguay eventually won 2 nil. This may be a run up to World Cup set for November 2022.

That’s just about the best thing after witnessing the 50 miles in 8 sections of I-40 through Oklahoma where extensive road work both East and Westbound including at least 4 bridges are being replaced, and roads broadened and resurfaced. One section advised “Road work for the next 30 miles”. And all this before the Infrastructure Bill being considered by Congress will be voted on. This expensive road/bridge repair may have been the quid pro quo to enable Trump to mount his ill fated Tulsa, Oklahoma political rally. Web savvy teens reserved 13,000+ seats but in protest didn't attend leaving the huge site that seats 19,000 to appear nearly empty.

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Pampa, Amarillo, Canyon, Palo Duro Canyon State Park

Texas BBQ is truly delicious!

Right after lunch I got a timely call from brother Ken & Bev and pulled off the road for a chat. They both enthusiastically suggested a visit to Palo Duro State Park in Canyon, TX just South of Amarillo. I was glad to have some local knowledge. Bev had grown up in North Texas and visited this State Park many times.

On arrival in Canyon I found a golf course. To my great surprise I started off hitting the ball 40-50 yards further than usual. It was not until this updated post made me check the altitude of Canyon, TX: 3,500 above mean sea level. Damn!  thought I'd made a breakthrough! Oh well, another day. But I did find a great RV spot on the road to Palo Duro. 

Most interestingly that is where I met Bob O. and his wife, Carol. They would head to the same Canyon in the morning. Bob was a retired Air Force Captain who had worked on the Titan 2 missile project as a young officer. Unknowingly, Bob and I had crossed paths years before at the Tucson site, and now again here as we sat and chatted until dark.

More now on Bob and his post-USAF time with Honeywell. As a successful, veteran manager of a Honeywell division Bob and 5-6 other division managers were called to meet by Honeywell Corporate Executives. It appeared to Bob as a shakedown as two managers were roundly criticized for not making their numbers, and having excessive overtime. In a sense Bob was comforted by this because his division had nailed its numbers and had scant overtime. The meeting ended and as Bob and others arose to leave, the lead Executive asked if Bob would mind staying for a few minutes.

 

Bob was congratulated for his good work, then told that Honeywell had decided to move his division to Mexico. Further, the Mexican division team would soon arrive in his office, and that Bob's staff would be tasked to train the Mexicans in the jobs of every single employee. Bob was offered early retirement, but first he would have to fire everyone of his 150 employees.

 

This happens every day it seems. Honeywell is a government contractor. And when the political appointee is told to tighten the belt on this or that project, the Honeywell executives are told their funding had dried up... well, we see the warnings of Eisenhower's "military industrial complex" speech. It left Bob embittered with big business but happy in retirement. A kindred spirit Bob is.

 

 

These photos of Palo Dura State Park, Canyon, TX don't do
justice to this remarkable landscape.
It ranges 60 miles through the land
30 miles south of Amarillo.

Rocko please identify these dinosaur remains. The University
Museum in Canyon, TX provided
labels but I thought you might
give it a try.

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Creede, CO - Fly fishing the Rio Grande

The Antler RV park view up the Rio Grande

I left Farmington, NM on the San Juan River early morning for the 3 hour plus drive to Creede, CO. Now a town of artists, entrepreneurs and working folk providing services to campers, fishing buffs, and Summer Stock Theater goers. Creede was a 19th Century mining town situated on the Rio Grande. Today Creede Repertory Theater mounts contemporary and classical theater productions at several venues both indoors and out. I visited there with a friend 20 years ago at the 35th anniversary of the CRT’s founding. What I recall most vividly is the fly fishing on the Rio Grande and for years I’ve wanted to return.

Today I took a break from driving and fished the Rio Grande. I felt relaxed for the first time since leaving Anna at the TUC airport.

 My light fly fishing tackle had not been used in several years. It took me an hour to get set-up. I found access to the Rio Grande a few miles West of the Antler RV park where I stayed. Colorado has a generous share of free RV camping spots along to Rio Grande.  

 My camping and fishing site with the picnic table appears below. I felt lucky to find an available site. Several rafts with guides rowing hard appeared; one with a sizeable trout, caught, netted and released as it floated by. I'm getting excited. Pulled a small box of #18 trout flies out of my creel. Picked what looked like a new Adams. It's challenging to tie that #18 fly to my leader... but after several failures, I did it.

 Then tossing the Adams fly into the eddy next to me, I immediately hooked up with a very large trout. In fact, initially I thought I was hooked up on the bottom. It was THAT big.  Challenged as I was to find secure footing, I was sitting on the ground, my fly rod was bent over sharply, I couldn’t believe my luck. I tried to stand to move closer to the water. That was a major multi-tasking effort as my balance is poor. The fly rod bent even further.

The fish, supposed to be my dinner, spit out the fly! The rod snapped flinging the fly up into the pine tree next to me where today, and perhaps every day for the next 100 odd years, it will remain. I never got another bite, but it didn’t matter because I discovered I still have the love of it, and some of my fly-fishing chops.

Happy Camper

Noisy but harmless Salmon fly seems uncertain of where he was.The size of a dragon fly was he.

This cow stared at the truck for a long time.

 

Looking down the Rio Grande. Beautiful here; not so much these days when it reaches the Texas border.

 

 

 

 

 

The bridge captured in the previous image looking down the Rio Grande.

                                  Moving on after three days

Tucson - Sedona - Farmington NM - Creede, CO

 

Heading due North. Passing Phoenix I see 120 degrees on the outside air temp. RON Sedona AZ. Baked Blueberry muffins. Gave away 2 to the couple next to me; ate 7 (not all at once!), then a week later, thru away the remaining 3. The convection oven worked well for this assignment. Bought more Blueberries. 

I leave the tony town of Sedona and find canyon-like overlooks, cross a barren Hopi Reservation, divert to Canyon de Chelly, destination Farmington NM for the night. 

The highlight of my evening was a link to granddaughter Piper (14) playing the roll of Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz via live video from Wenatchee WA. I watched the entire performance on my iPad while recording the first act of The Wizard of Oz.  I sent it to Piper with congratulations! And a comment that she was terrific and "eating up the scenery which is something any good director would love to work with".

Then continuing the next morning I climb to the Continental Divide and on to Creede. At South Fork (of the Rio Grande) I passed a public golf course thinking that Creede would be a perfect destination for a family golf outing.

Leaving Sedona another impressive overlook.

Leaving Sedona was complete with dramatic landscape

Soon the drive is desert dry, and empty.

Stopped midway thru Hopi Reservation simply stunned by the poor quality of the land where these native peoples were forced to live. To make that move more palatable the US Government spins this as though this desert had been happily occupied for a thousand years. Likely not exactly in this manner, in my view. Homes are situated about a tenth of a mile apart with long dirt driveways, a truck or two, no water, no greenery, no trees. 

Based on historical records and demographic models, it is estimated that the Native American population in the territorial United States in 1800 was between 600,000 and 1 million people. This represents a significant decline from pre-contact estimates of the Native American population in North America, which some scholars estimate to have been as high as 50 million people.  Once saner heads realized that Colonial America had virtually wiped out original populations, they managed to give them a place to live together. What I find is that they were, and many still are, reduced to beggary. More on Jackson when we get to Nashville. 

 

The Hopi Reservation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Navaho Reservation

 Canyon De Chelly sports a drive to a rim views on the North and South sides. The land is part of the Navaho Nation. The National Monument station was closed, but the Navaho stores and hotel were open. 

 

 A sad and bewildering moment occurred when I was viewing the Southern overlook and was approached by a young native (Navaho) girl who displayed a simple artifact for sale. Her apparent father appeared at the next overlook. He drew an item from his pocket and perhaps sensing I was not interested in buying returned it to his pocket without saying anything.

These canyons lend themselves to a stereographic treatment. If you go to my Argentina Blog or the Sailing to Greece Blog (links will open in a new Tab) you will find instructions and samples of Stereograms. Here's my attempt (directly above) at stereographic images here viewing from the southern overlook. It's a big job, and my present is jammed with my balance issues (by the end of this year, I have a diagnosis: CIDP (chronic inflamatory demyelinating polyneuropathy), work issues on the darker side, and improving golf scores on the lighter side. It's still too easy to fill my days with pleasant distractions.

Here's how to view this stereogram, above. Focusing on the brown rock wall extending from the green bush at the bottom, cross your eyes. Initially it become blurry, but very soon you will be able to see both walls move together. If you are patient and relax but maintain your crossed eyes view those two walls near the bottom center of the image they will overlap and become one image in the middle of the other two, that image will appear in 3D.

A night in Farmington NM I’m located on the San Juan River also known for its great trout flyfishing. The next day found me crossing the great divide. After 20+ years I'm returning to Creede, CO on the Rio Grande, a great tourist town with Summer Stock Theater presenting high quality theater from University of Kansas in Lawrence where the theater department in essence "moves" to Creede for the Summer.

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                                      On to the Creede CO post