[See original typed version here:] 1967 Biloxi Trip
Sunday, July 16, 1967
Trip with David to Biloxi MS to vist Kathy and Don Decker.
8:30 AM 13,335
Leaving Terradise, David and I, in our ’66 Ford Country Sedan, on a beautiful Ohio Sunday morning. Temp 57 and as we came past Bogers a pair of bluebirds flew up– so it will be a good trip.
9:15
Onto I-71 at Worthington and traffic picks up. As we pass Hospitality Inn I feel a little guilty that I’m not there attending the Ohio Florists Association Summer meeting.
10:00 13,423
Near Xenia on I-71. Switch to Trella driving. Listening to a J.C. Bach concerto for bassoon.
13,458
I-71 and Ohio 123 Sohio Gas 17.4 gallons $ 33.9 – $5.90 (near Lebanon)
2 PayDay candy bars and a can of Mountain Dew – $.35
11:25 13,493
Crossing Ohio River into Kmtucky on Interstate 75 in Covington. Suddenly there’s hills
Welcome to the Bluegrass State (We already had our Mountain Dew!)
Turnpike driving made an easy trip through some bluegrass horse farm country around Lexington (of which we saw very little). The cuts through the limestone rock laid down flat made it possible to ‘look inside a hill’ and realize why there was only an occasional corn field (in tassel) or a small tobacco patch.
We seemed to fly over the Kentucky River and I remembered the tortuous road that used to lead down to it, and the long hard climb back up.
We keep passing “Holiday Ramblers” a kind of delux camper, with signs that they are going to a National Camporee in Kentucky. Sure glad we have a freeway to pass them on.
1:40 PM
As we came near Bardstown we saw peaks -tree covered-on the horizon. We are travelling on the Blue Grass Parkway since Lexington. Decided to go into Bardstown and get something to eat. Picked up a chicken dinner and picnicked at “My Old Kentucky Home” and then toured the Rowan Home built in
1800, and lived in by the Rowan Family until 1922. Here Stephen Foster wrote “My Old Kentucky Home” in 185?. The furnishings were left with the home when it was willed to the state. I think we visited here in my childhood, but the
memory is dim. This time I’ll remember the sterling silver pot in the bedroom!
3:00 PM
Back onto the Blue Grass Parkway, after a quick look at the 1779 tavern and slave block on the square as we came through Bardstown. Now the country is rugged and the road cuts deeper. Off the Parkway at Elizabethtown on the I 65
and we pay another 10¢ Tolls on this road were $1.40.
3:35 PM
South of Elizabethtown I 65 ended, ,just in time to get into the congested “Cave” area of Kentucky, with the roadside stands displaying chanille bedspreads and plaster montrosities, along with table filled with rocks, that looked like colored glass, but David said it was my polaroid glasses. The roadsides are
solid with motel billboards and every farm has it’s own cave. No wonder David thought he could go home and dig one after we were here in 1956. No hope of passing aiyone in the whole 35 miles of this area as we followed a cautious 40 miles per hour driver. I’m sorry for future generations that won’t appreciate the super highways because they won’t experience the frustratiom
of two lane driving.
6:00 PM
As we came into Nashville, a punk kid, driving crazy for several blocks finally smashed into a car just ahead of us and involved two others, and as we pulled around them, on a side street another car was engulfed in flames!
Found McGavock Road without any trouble, but drove past Francis’ house and had to back track so we arrived at almost exactly 5 :30 Central Standard Daylight Saving time as we had planned.
This is a truly delightful fanily. Each member has an interesting
personality, all different, and Francis and Jessie Mai’s pride in all of them is more than earned. They were all there–Tommy and Beverly, with Kathy Sue and Everett. Tommy has just been named associate professor of botany at Middle Tennessee University at Murphressboro, with life tenure. They came in late as they just got back from a camping trip in a new 16 ft
camper. Tommy had led a field trip to a virgin stand of red cedar over the week end.
Harry and his dark and lovely wife Kathy of Italian descent have two boys, Wayne, who took David for his own, and climbed on his lap immediately, and the baby of the group, Patrick who is just beginning to walk. Kathy took the children to Church, but Harry stayed and had supper with us and Kenny and Rachel, who have no children. Kenny also teaches-biology-at Middle
Tennesee, and Rachel in elementary schools. During the evening Joy, who was Dale’s (Harry’s twin) widow and her husband Glen came in with their 3. Dale, and two girls by Helen. David brought out the letters written to Conrad & Elizabeth Sigler by Frederick Sigler in 1850 and the boys read as avidly as we had. They are all interested in everything. Harry is
a real estate broker, having passed the test without having had any experience. Jessie Mai is working with him now selling real estate, and she says at the rate he ‘s going he will be able to retire in 5 years and live off his property! His current project is a film on the “Nashville Sound” which shows that it isn’t all country music. They hope to sell it to the networks as a “special”. He had $1,400 in it and was telling David about the production problems, which of oourse is the sort of thing David has worked with all through College.
Francis showed pictures of trips and I showed a few of the shop and Terradise and before we knew it it was midnight. An evening we will long remember.