Storm Shelters and Confederate Flags

If you have been reading our blog, you probably noticed that we are usually positive and upbeat about the places and sights we’re visiting.  This isn’t an attempt to just have a happy blog.  Doug does most of the planning and we can go wherever we please and do whatever we want (for the most part) so it stands to reason that we are going to like everything.  One of the reasons we are committed to this lifestyle is because we want to see this country and experience all the things it has to offer.  We are not in this to critique but to observe and learn.  And so we usually accept what is around us and enjoy.

With that said, today’s blog may not be so Pollyanna-ish.  In spite of Doug’s efforts to avoid tornadoes, we have stumbled upon an early and unpredictable tornado season.  We have had to confront the real possibility of being in a tornado-prone area.  We’ve learned that a Tornado Watch is the first step in the weather forecasting process.  The Watch covers a large swatch of land – sometimes a whole state or a bunch of counties.  This means that we can’t really get around it.  We can’t just start driving and hope we land in a safe space that has a site for us.  So we just keep watching the weather reports and hope for the best.  For me, these watches usually mean sleepless nights.

When the Watch turns to a Warning, it means that there is a likely chance of a tornado coming your way.  The weather reports get very specific and can tell you almost to the minute when you should “go to your safe space”.  We now know that a safe space can be a basement or an inner first floor room in your house without windows.  Not anything that exists in an RV.  And we’ve all seen the photos of how devastating tornadoes are to RVs and mobile home parks.  This is when my anxiety goes crazy.  So we have had to check out storm shelters.  We took a few photos – until we hit Oklahoma I had never seen a shelter like this except for the one Aunty Em went into when the twister took Dorothy to OZ.

The shelters are almost as frightening to me as the impending storm.  We did see some that are above ground and can hold up to 60 people.  But we also saw these reinforced holes dug into mounds of dirt with air pipes sticking out of them.  Some of these are designed for maybe 4 people.  I think that the tornado wind would have to actually push me into one of these in order for me to get in it.  So we don’t like being in this weather!

We do know of one beautiful storm shelter.  Our friends the Chatfields in the Osage Forest of Peace have constructed an underground shelter and commissioned an artist to turn it into a place of peace and serenity.  It is truly beautiful and since we left there, every time we have had to deal with twister worries, I think of that peaceful retreat and wish we could have that near us as we travel through tornado country.

As we move through the deep south trying to avoid tornadoes, we can’t avoid the Confederate flags.  They are flown from trucks and in front of homes and businesses.  I recognize that we are both Northerners who don’t have any personal history with this symbol and to us it seems to say “let’s go back to the pre-Civil War days” and all that implies.  A sighting of that flag leaves us uncomfortable and squirming.  We didn’t want to take any pictures of these flags. Now the people we’ve met here in the South are pleasant and welcoming to us, but we can’t forget that we are white and their welcome may be different if we were different.

On a lighter note, our conversations with the local folks in Alabama, Florida, George, and Mississippi are amusing.  If I ask a question, I invariably hear “Where y’all from?”  It’s hard to get a real answer as we clumsily try to understand each other. We can’t seem to adjust to their heavy accents and colloquialisms.  We do feel like foreigners here.

And then there is the kudzu.  It’s a plant that has been described as the “plant that ate the South.”  It is a viney, twiggy mess that covers other plants, trees and buildings.  I looked it up and saw that it often has pretty purple flowers on it, but at this time of year, it is a gray tangled web of ugliness.  Its rampant and rapid growth makes it hard to control and driving through the back roads you can see how it just takes over everything.  Between the kudzu and some pretty run down buildings surrounded by all kinds of rusted and ruined stuff made for some depressing drives.

So, given all that, this is the first time that we eagerly turned away from an area.

After our stay at McKinney Campground, we went to the Hidden Cove RV Park in Arley, Alabama.  Now Arley was a really small town, a little run down but our campground was really nice with a new large covered deck on the lake.  We hit lots of rainy weather while we stayed there but one nice day we went to the Clarkson Covered Bridge and had a picnic lunch there.  I shopped at Son’s of Arley Food Market – where there was lots of meat, a little produce and a full aisle of fishing equipment.

Then we went to Red Bay – back in the Tiffin campground where we had some work done on the RV. It was a pretty uneventful time there but one day when we couldn’t get into the RV to eat we took the recommendations about a good Mexican restaurant in nearby Belmont.  We didn’t hold out much hope. After all we consider that our 18 years in Tucson have made us into food snobs about really good Mexican food.  But, we learned a lesson – you can find excellent Mexican food even in a tiny town in Alabama.  We ate at Costa Oaxaqueno.

During the week we had to stay on call to be brought into the repair bays but we took advantage of the weekends.  On  April 1^st, Saturday, we drove to Tupelo, MS to see Elvis’ birthplace.  It was a sweet tour of the two-room home he was born in and a nice walk around Tupelo.  We thought we would eat lunch at Johnny’s Drive In where Elvis liked to eat burgers, but it was too crowded to even park. Sometimes, it’s good not have a plan.  We wound up eating a terrific lunch at Nautical Whimsy on Main Street in Tupelo in a picturesque alley with really good food.  Doug ate a gigantic plate of yummy homemade raviolis while I munch down on a seriously wonderful muffalatto sandwich.  Jason, our server, was excellent and we hope to go back there someday.  On Sunday, we explored Tishomingo State Park.  We ate lunch near Swinging Bridge, did a little hiking and then drove a bit on Natchez Trace Parkway.

Our rig was finished a little early, so we happily left Alabama and on April 5^th landed at Nashville East KOA in Lebanon, Tennessee.  Tennessee is our 19^th state on this trip.  We loved Nashville and walked around the Grand Ole Opry and enjoyed lunch at a food court that had a Which Wich – a fast food sandwich place that brought back nice memories of eating at one by the University of Arizona with our daughters and Doug’s parents.  We also saw a good movie – Kong on Skull Island (I am a great fan of Kong movies and I don’t think I’ve missed one of them).

It is one of the pleasures of this trip to get to see friends and family around the country and here in Nashville we met up with Nick and Chelsea, our nephew and his wife.  We had to miss their wedding 2 years ago due to a medical issue and this encounter was a wonderful way to meet Chelsea and enjoy a great dinner with them.

We spent a pretty day in Centennial Park smack in the middle of Nashville.  The park is really nice and its major attraction is spectacular – an exact replica of the Parthenon.  Yes, there it stood in all its splendor – complete with gryphons and reliefs of the Greek gods and goddesses.  And then, inside is a gigantic replication of a statue of Athena.  Looking up at her greatness was breathtaking.  We enjoyed the art collection inside this museum – lots of landscapes that were beautiful.

Next blog – More of the Volunteer State of Tennessee – as we head north and east towards our family in New Jersey.