May 31, 2024 - Clarksville, TN to Knoxville, TN

Tobey and I are both classic rock fans, so when we learned that Jimi Hendrix had some of his musical beginnings in Clarksville, we wanted to check it out. Not much to see, a couple signs, so I will give you the history lesson for the day.

Hendrix grew up in the Seattle area where his father bought him a five-dollar guitar in 1958. His interest in music and that guitar led to Jimi's first band, which furthered his musical interest and another guitar - this time electric.

On May 31, 1961, he enlisted in the Army joining the 101st Airborne Division in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, which is just across the Cumberland River from Clarksville. While on base, Hendrix continued to hone his guitar craft while also training as a parachutist. Jimi befriended a bassist, Billy Cox, and they played together - often in Clarksville. Not everyone at Fort Campbell was as entertained by Jimi's passion for the guitar. On May 24, 1962 (almost a year later) Jimi's platoon sergeant filed a report, stating "Private Hendrix has no interest whatsoever in the Army ... It is my opinion that (he) will never come up to the standards required of a soldier. I feel that the military service will benefit if he is discharged as soon as possible." Hendrix was granted an honorable discharge on June 29 that cited an ankle injury, and he formally left the Army after a brief parachutist career.

After his discharge, Hendrix went to Clarksville where he played at many of the clubs then began touring with bands and headed to New York City in 1963. After a move to Engand in 1966 he released his first solo single, "Hey Joe." His music influenced many other musicians before he died on September 18, 1970 in London.
We took a walk around the area and spotted this painting under a train trestle. We weren't sure if the song, "Last Train to Clarksville" was about here so I looked it up and found out that according to the songwriter, Bobby Hart, it wasn't specifically written about Clarksville, Tennessee. He also said, however, that the song is indirectly about a soldier leaving for the Vietnam War, and Clarksville's proximity to Fort Campbell does fit the storyline. I'm going with my first impression - it's about Clarksville, Tennessee!
The picture above is the first US post office and Customs House in Clarksville. It was built in 1898 and now houses a museum. The architecture was interesting.

We headed over to the Fort Defiance Civil War Park and interpretive center. They had a few canons along the path and signs explaining the back and forth control of the fort - first by Confederates, then the Union, back to the Confederates, and back to final control by the Union Army. The interpretative center had move information and we spent a short while checking it out.

Next stop on the agenda was Nashville. We were going to stop at the Opryland Hotel so Tobey could see it. I had been there in the 1990s for a convention and visited again in 1996 with Tyler and some friends and thought it was beautiful. WELL ... it is now a Gaylord property and they must think it is beautiful, too, because they charge $37 to self-park! We did not park or go in. After we got here to our hotel and I had internet, I found some information about places we could park and walk to it. Maybe we will stop on our way back to Colorado!

Our next stop was the Parthenon. "Isn't the Parthenon in Greece?" you ask. Yes, it is. However, the world's ONLY exact-size and detail replica of the original temple in Athens, Greece, is in Nashville, Tennessee! (Exterior only - the inside was an exhibition hall) When Tennessee celebrated its 100th year of statehood with the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, Nashville took advantage of its nickname "Athens of the South" and built the Fine Arts Building as a copy of the original!

The original building was built with plaster, wood, and bricks. After the Centennial Exposition ended in 1897, most of the other buildings were destroyed but the Parthenon remained as the centerpiece of the empty fairgrounds. In 1920 the building was deteriorating and the city decided to make the Parthenon a permanent structure made from concrete. The exterior renovation was completed in 1925 and became a city museum in 1931.

We can now say we have been to BOTH Parthenons - Greece and Nashville!
We decided to take a short drive to Music Row which is home to many record label offices, radio stations, and recording studios.

It was pretty quiet, but lots of big recording studios.

Back on the highway we battled more heavy traffic and made our way to Knoxville where we are spending the night. Tomorrow morning our first stop will be Discount Tire for a tire rotation before heading on to North Carolina.

May 30, 2024 - Farmington, Missouri to Clarksville, Tennessee

We had a slow start to our day because we really hadn't planned much for the day. Our first scheduled stop was the Bollinger Mill State Historic Site and Buford Covered Bridge but we had to make a quick detour to grab a photo of shoppers at the local Dollar General in Fredericktown!
It was fun to see since we had seen lots of signs to slow for horse and buggies!

After receiving a Spanish land grant, George F. Bollinger led a group of families from North Carolina to this area and in 1800 began construction of a mill and dam on the Whitewater River. It was successful and by the 1820s, a road linked Bollinger Mill with surrounding communities.

The mill and dam, originally constructed from logs, were rebuilt in stone in 1825 and the limestone foundation and dam are still visible today. When he died in 1842, his daughter, Sarah Daugherty and her two sons continued to operate the mill. During the Civil War, Union forces burned the mill to prevent the passing of flour and meal into rebel hands! Only the stone foundation survived. In 1867, after the Civil War, the mill was rebuilt again. It operated until the 1950s and was later donated to the Cape Giradeau Historical Society, then later to the State of Missouri in 1967.
We enjoyed seeing the displays inside the mill of the separators, scourers, roll stands, millstones, bran dusters, conveyors and chutes and learning more about the history of this area.
The Buford Covered bridge adjoining the mill is one of only four covered bridges remaining in Missouri. It is 140 feet long, 14 feet high, and 12 feet wide and was completed in 1868. It was originally a toll road and was made of yellow poplar wood. It has been renovated several times, as flooding and time have damaged the bridge.

From here we headed toward Metropolis, Illinois, home of the world's largest Superman statue. We crossed the Mississippi River along the way and the route soon changed.

We wondered several times what we had gotten ourselves into! Half the time we were in the middle of nowhere and had no cell service so we couldn't tell if there was a better route or not!

FINALLY, we made it to Metropolis!
The bronze Superman statue, located at the center of town, is 15 feet tall and 4000 pounds. There were plenty of tourists visiting while we were there and Tobey wondered if they came from another direction because we didn't see any cars on most of the roads we were on!

There was a HUGE store/museum with more Superman stuff than I have ever even imagined could be available!

It was a fun stop and we spent a while walking around the downtown area.

Back on the road, we made our way to Paducah, Kentucky to see the world's largest sewing needle.

Not nearly as exciting as Superman!

Along the banks of the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers is an interesting floodwall mural project. The first twenty-panel section timeline was completed in 2001 and the last painting in the three block section in 2022. The panels depict the history of Paducah and there were interesting information plaques describing each painting.

Paducah Coca Cola Bottling Company was founded in 1903 by Luther F. Carson. The business moved to this building in 1939!

One of the first Boy Scout Troops in the USA was in Paducah. This mural depicts the history of Boy Scout Troop 1 in Kentucky.

We also walked a little while along the river side and enjoyed seeing some of the boats in the water.

We made one last stop in Paducah before heading off - Hancock's of Paducah, one of my favorite fabric shops! It is huge - actually a warehouse that mainly does mail order - and even though I don't need any fabric, I did make a few small purchases. Tobey was a good sport, but thankfully the shop is air conditioned and has WIFI and a bench for non-shoppers to patiently wait for their spouses!

Back in the car, we headed on to Clarksville, Tennessee for the night. I need to do a little research to figure out events for tomorrow, so good night!

May 29, 2024 - Licking, Missouri to Farmington, Missouri

We had an early start today on our "springs and falls" tour, which was a good thing. Googlemaps is good, but not always right - especially if the operator puts the wrong information into the map. Yes, that was me. Fortunately, we only went a few miles down a gravel road before we got things sorted out. At least it was a pretty drive and circled back to the road we needed.

Back on the correct route our first stop was Alley Springs and Alley Springs Mill near Eminence, Missouri.

The Spring is now part of the National Park Service and we enjoyed visiting with the ranger about the history of the mill. It originated as a flour mill built in 1894 and eventually they added grinding wheat and corn. Lumber was also abundant in the area and they added milling lumber. Overlogging in the area led to the closure of the mill in 1918 and the site was turned over to the state for a park in 1925. The second level had some of the original equipment and history plaques to read.

It's difficult to tell, but this large pool is the spring. It is the seventh largest spring in Missouri and is know to extend at least 3000 feet underground and is at least 155 feet deep. Eighty-one MILLION gallons of water bubble out of Alley Spring every day and flow into the Jacks Fork River! The water is normally very blue, but there have been heavy thunderstorms in Missouri this last week so the muck from the bottom has been stirred up giving it the greenish/brown cast.

There is a small trail that goes around the spring with a bridge back across the outflow.

With suggestions from the ranger, we crossed one spring and another mill off our list of spots to visit and headed next to Rocky Falls. The large swimming hole known as Rocky Falls was formed from molten rock 1.5 billion years ago. The volcanic rock hardened into reddish-brown rhyolite. The rushing spring-fed waters created a stream that wriggled into little cracks, eroding any of the soft rock and left smooth hard rhyolite "shut-ins." Rocky Falls is unique with a 40-foot tall waterfall that pours into the large swimming pool.


A shut-in is a term for a narrow constriction, or gorge, in a stream. Usually they are confined to a narrow valley or canyon and have lots of rock formations. It was a quiet spot when we first arrived, but soon filled up with folks enjoying the water and bringing their picnic lunches.

Blue Spring was the next stop. Located by the Currant River, at 310 feet, Blue Spring is Missouri's deepest. To give you some perspective, if the Statue of Liberty stood on the bottom, her torch would be underwater! Normally very blue because of minerals being dissolved underwater, the spring is again more green because of all the storms in Missouri. Bummer! It was only a mile roundtrip hike to get to the spring and the rock formations were cool to see.
Blue Spring flows into the Current River at this point. Across the river there were lots of folks camping and swimming in the Current River. It is not allowed to swim or even wade in any of the springs.

We made a short stop in Van Buren for lunch before visiting Big Spring, the largest spring in Missouri. It is also one of the biggest springs in the United States producing an average of 286 MILLION gallons of water every day! It carries over 70 tons of dissolved minerals and it grows larger every day!!! The water is 58 degrees and drains into the Current River.

Big Spring Historic District was designated as Missouri's first state park in 1924. The CCC built roads, trails, bridges, and even a couple dikes during the 1930s in the park. Eventually, the area was given to the federal government to form the protected Ozark Scenic Riverways area. We took a small hike to see where one of the dikes was located, but the trees and growth made it almost impossible to see, let alone try to take a picture. Trust me, we did see it!

That was the last spring in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways that we had on our agenda to visit today so we traveled north and east to the Castor River Shut-ins. We followed the trail then made our way down the rocks to the river. It was about 80 degrees and there were lots of people enjoying the sun and water!

The shut-in found in this section of the Castor River is little more than half a mile long and flows through the Amidon Memorial Conservation Area. The rocks in this area are pink granite and are beautiful!

We just took a break and watched others swim!

We climbed back up to the trail from the river and made our way to Farmington, Missouri for the night. It's a little out of our way, but there are not a lot of choices in these smaller towns for hotels! Dinner was at the Catfish Kettle. Tobey had catfish and I had shrimp. Both were pretty good and we were both impressed with their coleslaw and garlic mashed potatoes.

Tomorrow we continue our journey to the east and so far only have one stop planned. I guess we need to do a little research!

May 28, 2024 - Salina, Kansas to Licking, Missouri

Today's journey first took us from Salina, Kansas to Sedalia, Missouri with a short break in Warrensburg for lunch at Mary Jane's Cafe. Tobey had the burger and I had a pork tenderloin sandwich - something I hadn't had since I lived in Iowa. It was good, but not quite as good as I had growing up! It was huge and I ended up leaving the bun and eating the meat!

We continued on to Sedalia to the Katy Depot. During Tobey's Katy Trail bike ride trip in 2020 we stopped here, but the Depot was closed due to the Covid pandemic. Today we were able to go inside and visit the museum. It was interesting and I am glad we stopped!
This is Tobey today and the second picture was us in 2020!
We continued on to Ho Ho Tonka Castle Ruins near Camdenton, Missouri and got our first views of the Lake of the Ozarks.
The Ho Ho Tonka Castle was the dream of a wealthy Kansas City businessman Robert Snyder. He wanted to construct a European-styled castle in Missouri and purchased 5,000 acres of land, including his very own lake, and began work on the mansion in 1905. The businessman even imported stone masons from Europe to achieve the correct style, but unfortunately Snyder did not live to see his dream house completed. In 1906, Snyder was killed in one of Missouri’s first car accidents. After his death, Snyder’s sons continued work on the building and it was completed by 1920. After completing construction, one of Snyder’s sons took up residence in the huge castle until the family’s money ran out due to land rights lawsuits surrounding the castle’s property. Depression and poverty forced the son from the house and the building was opened as a hotel and lodge until 1942 when the entire building was destroyed by a fire.

This is the house.
This was a view of the Lake of the Ozarks from the "castle" .
The water tower which served the entire property was at the top of the hill near the parking lot. It was not damaged during the fire in 1942, however, vandals set it on fire in 1976! The state purchased the property in the 1970s and has worked to preserve the crumbled walls of Snyder's dream home.

From the parking lot, we took the trail past the water tower to the spring which was used as the water source. Over 200 steps down ... 

The Ha Ha Tonka Spring is Missouri's 12th largest spring. It has an average daily flow of more than 58 million gallons! The spring water remains at 56 degrees F year-round. We made the trip down - and back up! It was more difficult on the way up because I forgot to bring a water bottle and it was about 80 degrees, but we made it.
One of the things we heard throughout the time there were cidadas! This guy buzzed my head. I was proud I didn't shriek, but I did jump!

Our last stop at Ho Ho Tonka was the natural bridge. It was an easy walk from the parking lot and very beautiful.

The bridge is formed in Gunter sandstone over Eminence Dolomite which is the "host" rock formation for many of the caves and springs in Missouri's Ozark Highlands area. It is approximately 550 million years old! Originally, a cave had formed here then collapsed, leaving the natural bridge and a sinkhole.

It was almost 6pm when we left the ruins and headed toward Licking, Missouri for the night. Much of the drive was up and down the rolling hills and through the Mark Twain National Forest. We enjoyed the winding roads and quiet scenery. 

Tomorrow we hope to see more new sights!