A Visit to The Parthenon -- in Nashville, TN!

During our visit to Nashville, TN, we heard about the Parthenon recreation that is near the downtown area. Rick was skeptical that this would be worthy of a visit, but Orinda was enthusiastic, so we took a look. WOW! Rick was wrong on this one. As you can see, this is an exact copy of the famous Greek Parthenon in full scale.  

Here, you can get an idea as to the scale of this building -- it is huge at 65' high and 238' long. There are 46 huge columns supporting the structure and the bronze doors entering the interior weigh 7.5 tons each. We were just about ready to enter the lower story museum area when several school bus loads of excited middle school students pulled up and they charged in. We decided to content ourselves with a calm outside tour! 

We learned that Nashville was considered the Athens of the south back in the day and as a result, when the Tennessee Exposition of 1897 celebrating 100 years of statehood was scheduled, a recreation of the Parthenon was to be the centerpiece. The first iteration was built of plaster and lathe, but had to be dismantled due to wear. Then, in 1921, this full scale reproduction was begun using permanent materials. Finished in 1931, this remains a very impressive structure. 

One major reason why the Parthenon exists in the park is this man, John W. Thomas. President of the 1897 Exposition as well as a local railway, he provided the guidance for the creation of the Centennial park where the Parthenon is located.

Here, Rick takes a break while sitting on the memorial bench for John Thomas. This sculpture, located right next to the Parthenon, is a beautiful monument. 

The Tennessee State Military Museum in Nashville

Located in the ground floor of this huge state building in downtown Nashville is the State Military Museum. Apparently, not too many folks find the museum, which is a shame since it is very interesting. 

There is a wide variety of exhibits in the museum, starting with these two ship models of the battleship Tennessee. These are actually of the same ship, with the Tennessee being commissioned in 1920. Damaged at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, she was totally re-built as shown at the right and served throughout WWII.

The next exhibit was this exact replica of the Little Boy Atomic Bomb dropped on Japan at the end of WWII. At first, we wondered why this would be in this museum, until re remembered that the Oak Ridge National Atomic Lab was just up the road. 

There were several ships named for the state or for cities within the state,such as the cruiser, Nashville. Here, Rick stands with a collection of artifacts from several of these ships along with descriptions of the ships themselves.

Moving from the WWII area, we entered the WWI section and were greeted by this Maxium machine gun from the 1912 era. The machine gun totally changed warfare during WWI and led to another Tennessee hero -- Sgt. Alvin York.

Sgt. York won the Medal of Honor for his incredible actions while storming the German lines. In a single battle, he and his small command, captured 32 machine guns like that above, killed 28 and captured an additional 132 other German soldiers.  This pistol is one that Sgt. York personally captured from a German officer during this attack.

Of course, Rick is always interested in the high tech of the day. Here it is displayed in this exhibit of the "Paris Gun" used by Germany to fire artillery shells some 80 miles traveling in an arc 25 miles high. The German gunners had to aim the gun by adjusting for wind, barametric pressure, and the curvature of the earth. That is some math problem!

Here, Rick poses with his nephew James as they look at the model of the USS Memphis. Launched in 1906, this ship met a very unique fate as it was destroyed by a huge tsunami wave in the Dominican Republic while at anchor. 

All in all, this is a very worth-while museum to visit if in the Nashville area -- plus, it is all free!

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

 Our RV park in Sieverville, TN was close to the Great Smoky Mountains where we were going to tour. However, Rick was delighted to see this early 1950's Cadillac parked behind an RV. Now that is a real tow car!

A few miles away is the famous National Park. This is one of the most visited parks in the country and we could certainly see why. The trees were in full leaf, but in that new, light spring green color that is so beautiful.

The road passed through this archway of tall trees and we learned that most of these trees had been planted by the CCC back in the 1930's. 

Orinda learned that the CCC workers were paid $30 a month, but sent $25 of it home to their family. The workers built the road we were on, retaining walls around streams, and the scenic turnouts such as this one. 

 While the visibility was not great due to these low clouds, we still greatly enjoyed the mountains. It is also easy to see how the park got its name -- the Smoky Mountains. We could see how the clouds made the mountains look smoke covered as you can see here.

Orinda liked the many, small steams that gurgled past moss covered rocks. While this drive only took a morning, we really enjoyed it and would recommend it to folks in the Gatlinburg area.

The Flowers in Biltmore Gardens -- Amazing!

Located a short walk from the Biltmore Estate are the famous gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (he also designed Central Park in New York, among many others). These are magnificent gardens planted with a very wide variety of plants. 

While Rick is not a great horticultural expert, he does love flowers, so enjoy these pictures even though Rick did not remember to get all the correct names. How about this gorgeous "Purple Star Flower" (not its correct name, I am sure!).

Orinda loved these as well and was amazed at all the flowers.

These roses are spectacular with varieties that we certainly have never seen before.  

In addition to the fabulous gardens, there are also many hot houses to tour which contain all sorts of exotic plants such as these located below. 

It was hard to move through the houses since there were so many wonderful plants to look at. This was just a kaleidoscope of color.

A Visit to Biltmore Estates

Biltmore Estates in Asheville, NC, is the largest private home in the US. with over 175,000 square feet of interior space. Built by George Vanderbilt, the house is truly amazing with 253 rooms, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces. 

We approached the house down these ramps. Notice the small steps in the middle, which apparently were used by horses pulling carts up the ramp. 

This garden with reflecting pools is on the left of the estate and is huge. Rick was very happy that he does not have to mow this!

 The left side of the house, seen above, looks over the mountains. What a magnificent structure.

 There are many fountains all around the estate which provides a wonderful sound of running water as you walk around the estate. We were able to tour the inside of the house, but could not take pictures inside.

 On the outside of the estate, there are many gargoyle statues that were carved by master stone masons as unique decorations. The details on these are amazing and there are many, many of these around the home.

Orinda was very impressed with Biltmore and loved wandering around the estate, although she said several times that she would not want to try and clean it!

After touring the estate, we wandered down to the famous gardens -- which is a subject for our next post!

A Quick Repair on our Progressive Surge Protector

Four years ago, when we began fulltiming, we installed a Progressive Industries 50 amp Surge protector on our coach. Since then, we have had several occasions when the surge protector saved us from low voltage or power surges, which has been great.  

A couple days ago, we plugged into our RV site as normal and suddenly heard a loud buzz than a pop from the surge protector. The display on the protector showed normal voltage, but displayed an error state. 

Rick called the Progressive Industries support line and was delighted when a knowledgeable tech asked him to pull the cover off (after unplugging the coach!) and checking the main circuit board. 

Sure enough, the board showed a distinct black mark (lower right corner) showing where the failure had occurred. The tech said that would be no problem and they would be happy to ship a new one out -- since our unit has a lifetime warranty! Rick was really pleased at this news since he had forgotten this point since it was purchased. Further, they shipped it to the next RV park we were visiting and it was waiting when we arrived a couple days later. 

As an aside, Rick also learned that even with this failure, the protector was still operating and only the display was having a problem. This is one robust surge system.

 Here is the nice, new board ready for installation. After a quick replacement, the protector once again performed perfectly. We are very impressed with the Progressive Industries product and their support!

Having Coach Service Work Done at Freightliner in Gaffney

 

We traveled to the Freightliner Customer Service Center in Gaffney, SC to have some service done on the coach. They can do anything on the chassis since they actually built it right down the road in the Freightliner factory. 

 Here is one of their chassis that we could take a close look at while our coach is in the service bay. These chassis are very impressive and it is fun to see exactly what is "under the covers" of our motorhome.

There is room for about 25 coaches in the parking area of Freightliner. They provide hookups and a dump station for folks in the service area which is ver convenient. Coupled with excellent customer service, this makes for a great visit.

We decided to take a very interesting plant tour at the Freightliner chassis factory. They build RV chassis as well as school bus and delivery van chassis in this location. We watched as the chassis emerged from raw steel to a full chassis as the large Diesel, transmission and all the components were added. At the end of the line, the engine was started and the chassis driven away.

 After our tour, we checked out Limestone College, located in downtown Gaffney. This private college was started in 1845 and continues to offer higher education today.

Of course, Orinda was ready for lunch, so we drove into nearby Spartanburg to the Beacon Drive in of Drive-ins, Diners, and Dives TV fame! 

It turns out the TV fame is richly deserved! This huge plate of food is the chili-cheeseburger with the "A-plenty" option which consists of fries and fried onions! We split this and still had way more than we could eat. All this, with iced tea, for about $10. Very cool!