James K. Polk and Home at Last!

On Thursday, I drove from Murfreesboro to Columbia, Tennessee, to see the ancestral home of President James K. Polk.  Polk, one of three Chief Executives from Tennessee (Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson were the others), was a Congressman and Governor before he was elected President in the 1840s.  This is the home his father built, and he lived here for about 5 years when he was around 16 to 21 years old.  None of the homes where he and his wife lived are still in existence, except for the White House of course.  So, some of the rooms in this home are kept as his parents would have kept them, and some have been decorated with furnishings from his other homes.  I read a book about Polk last year, and greatly respect him as the President who basically expanded the U.S. from the area of the Louisiana Purchase all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  He worked hard for four years, and died less than a year after leaving office in his early 50s.

After leaving Tennessee, I spent part of a day in Atlanta then headed home.  Here I am at the back door.

I'm going to come back to the blog tomorrow and add some final thoughts.  Thanks for following my trip!!!

Shakers and Country Music

While still in Kentucky yesterday, I made my way to a village called South Union where the religious group known as the Shakers had a community from the early 1800s til about 1920.  They were celibate, strictly religious, hard working, and wanted to keep life simple and free of sin.  They utilized technology to the extent that it allowed them to make a good living in the world of their day, and they tried to leave peacefully with all people.  The Civil War caused their community great economic hardship from which it never really recovered.  The need to constantly recruit members became a problem as the frontier moved farther west and people saw greater adventure and fulfillment there.  They are credited with inventing the modern flat broom, and some of the furniture they built is considered priceless today.  There are six buildings open to the public, beautifully preserved and interpreted.

I drove to Nashville, Tennessee, to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame museum.  On the way, I stopped at a small community called Lutons to visit Grandpa Jones' gravesite.  I saw him on Hee Haw for many years, but I bought an album of his banjo music and mountain harmonies a few years ago and greatly enjoyed it.  It's a small Methodist church cemetery.






At the Hall in Nashville, what a joy to see all the stars I have enjoyed for so many years!  Their instruments, stage clothes, and other memorabilia are all over the place in the three-story modern museum, and the Hall of Fame Rotunda has the plaques with the names and likenesses of all of those who have been elected to the hall.  Whether you like old-time music like the Carter Family or the newest stuff from Taylor Swift and Jason Aldean, there's something for every music lover.

John Hartford's banjo.  The yellow pages
are his original copy of the lyrics of Glen
Campbell's "Gentle on my Mind"

Jim Reeves' red blazer

Bill Monroe's mandolin

Spent the night in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the home of Middle Tennessee State University.

Indiana and Kentucky

On Monday, I toured the Toyota assembly plant in Princeton, Indiana.  Over 4700 people and a lot of robots put together Toyota Highlanders, Sequoias, and Sienna vans.  It was very educational and enjoyable.  They only allowed pictures in the visitors center.

Abraham Lincoln was born near Hodgenville, Kentucky.  The site has a neoclassical memorial building with a log cabin from the original site.  It's probably not the cabin in which he was born, but it comes from the same property in the same era.  A nearby spring was the reason his dad wanted this particular farm, and that is located right at the foot of the hill which houses the memorial.

I spent the night in Bowling Green, Kentucky.  The Lincoln birthplace was in the Eastern Time Zone, but Bowling Green is Central.  I'm right on the line here, but I think I'll be in Central Time for one more day.