Author: tmrlwn

Oklahoma City – 11/18 – 11/28

106 miles to Oklahoma City

5,858 miles traveled

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Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum

The Oklahoma City National Memorial is a memorial that honors the victims, survivors, rescuers, and all who were affected by the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995

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National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world’s most extensive collection of American rodeo artifacts

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Oklahoma State Capitol

Oklahoma’s first capital was Guthrie, Oklahoma, but it moved to Oklahoma City in 1910. Construction began on the Oklahoma State Capitol in 1914 and was completed in 1917. The present structure includes a dome completed in 2002. The state capitol complex is the only state capitol grounds in the United States with active oil rigs.  Was able to go the inside, but lots of construction so wasn’t able to see much.

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Tulsa   11/7 – 11/18

128 miles to Tulsa

5,752 miles traveled

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Philbrook Museum

Philbrook Museum of Art is an art museum with expansive formal gardens located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The museum, which opened in 1939, is located in a former 1920s villa, “Villa Philbrook”, the home of Oklahoma oil pioneer Waite Phillips and his wife Genevieve.

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Woolaroc

Woolaroc is a museum and wildlife preserve located in the Osage Hills of Northeastern Oklahoma. Woolaroc was established in 1925 as the ranch retreat of oilman Frank Phillips.

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Springdale Ozarks- 10/17 – 11/7

198 miles to Springdale

5,624 miles traveled

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Eureka Springs

Weather said some rains, but turned out to be thunderstorms and lightening. Only had a chance to see the Christ Of the Ozarks before weather tuned for the worst.

Christ of the Ozarks statue is a monumental sculpture of Jesus, atop Magnetic Mountain. It was erected and stands 65.5 feet high.

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Pedestal Rocks & Kings Bluff

Nice hike in the Ozarks

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Little Rock   10/3 – 10/17

138 miles to Little Rock

5426 miles traveled

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Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden

Nice stroll along the river.

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Big Dam Bridge

Originally intended to be called Murray Bridge, the Big Dam Bridge in Arkansas spans the Arkansas River and Murray Lock and Dam between Little Rock and North Little Rock and is open only to pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

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Little Rock Central High School

Little Rock Central High School is an accredited comprehensive public high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States. The school was the site of forced desegregation in 1957 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional three years earlier.

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Capitol Park / Capitol

Tours were currently unavailable, only pictures of the outside and captiol park.

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Hot Springs National Park

The area was made a national park on March 4, 1921. Until the redesignation of Jefferson National Expansion Memorial as Gateway Arch National Park in 2018, Hot Springs was the smallest national park by area in the United States. The hot springs flow from the western slope of Hot Springs Mountain, part of the Ouachita Mountain range. In the park, the hot springs have not been preserved in their unaltered state as natural surface phenomena. They have instead been managed to conserve the production of uncontaminated hot water for public use. The entire Bathhouse Row area is designated as a National Historic Landmark District that contains the grandest collection of bathhouses of its kind in North America, including many outstanding examples of Gilded Age architecture.

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Nashville 9/13 – 9/27

215 miles to Nashville

5079 miles traveled

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Capitol Park / Capitol

Tours were currently unavailable, only pictures of the outside and capitol park.

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Tennessee History Museum

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The Parthenon

Who knew… a full size re-creation of the Parthenon in Nashville TN.

The Parthenon stands proudly as the centerpiece of Centennial Park, Nashville’s premier urban park. The re-creation of the 42-foot statue Athena is the focus of the Parthenon just as it was in ancient Greece. The building and the Athena statue are both full-scale replicas of the Athenian originals.

Originally built for Tennessee’s 1897 Centennial Exposition, this replica of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece serves as a monument to what is considered the pinnacle of classical architecture. The plaster replicas of the Parthenon Marbles found in the Naos are direct casts of the original sculptures, which adorned the pediments of the Athenian Parthenon dating back to 438 B.C.

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Memphis 9/27 – 10/3

212 miles to Nashville

5288 miles traveled

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Pigeon Forge  9/6 – 9/13

148 miles to Pigeon Forge

4864 miles traveled

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Foothills Parkway

Nice drive around the foothills of the Smoky Mountains

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Titanic Museum

Interesting museum, unfortunately no pictures allowed inside.

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Hollywood Wax Museum

First time visiting a wax museum…  pretty amazing 

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Lots of hiking and driving though the park, amazing views until I got fogged out..   

Decided to try hitting the road to continue my venture for 2020. Next stop for September : Tennessee – Chattanooga, Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis. Then Arkansas in October, Oklahoma in November and Texas in December. Thanks for joining me and lets see what ventures we can discover for 2020.

The month of March has been an interesting month…  Did 2 side trips – one to Austin for work and the other to Jacksonville Beach to support my BIL during his Triple Ironman race..  yes you read that right.  🙂  After the race I decided to fly back to Shreveport to pick up my truck and headed back to Jacksonville Beach to wait out the virus venture.  Once there is an all clear to travel I’ll see where we are in 2020 and re-plan my 2020 venture.  Stay tuned and be safe.

Lake Charles 2/16 – 2/28

133 miles to Lake Charles
4716 miles traveled

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Lake Charles

 

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Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras is the culmination of carnival celebrations before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. The term Mardi Gras only refers to the final day, also known as Fat Tuesday.
Mardi Gras is believed to have arrived in North America on March 3, 1699, when the French-Canadian explorer Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville camped about 60 miles downriver from the future site of New Orleans. Knowing it was Fat Tuesday back in France, Iberville named the spot Point du Mardi Gras and held a small gala. A few years later, French soldiers and settlers feasted and wore masks as part of Mardi Gras festivities in the newly founded city of Mobile (present-day Alabama). To this day, Mobile claims to have the oldest annual Mardi Gras celebration in the United States.  The first recorded Mardi Gras street parade in New Orleans took place in 1837.

Mardi Gras Parades

The ‘floats’ in Lake Charles are not as elaborate as New Orleans, but definitely more family friendly.

Mardi Gras Gala

Mardi Gras Museum

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Baton Rouge 2/9 – 2/16

174 miles to Baton Rouge
4583 miles traveled

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Capitol & Baton Rouge

The Louisiana state capitol building is a very unique capitol building. At 450 feet tall (34 stories), it is the tallest building in Baton Rouge, the seventh tallest building in Louisiana, and tallest capitol in the United States. On a clear day you really can see a lot of Louisiana from the top of the Capitol Tower!

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Capitol Park Museum

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Oak Alley Plantation

Oak Alley Plantation is a plantation located on the west bank of the Mississippi River, in the community of Vacherie, St. James Parish, Louisiana. Oak Alley is named for its distinguishing visual feature, an alley, created by a double row of southern live oak trees about 800 feet long, planted in the early 18th century. Unfortunately no photos allowed in the mansion.

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