Today was a very short riding day so that we could take some time and visit Shiloh National Military Park. The morning started with rain. We waited for a while hoping it would quite. It was pretty light rain and so finally we just decided to launch. It's warm enough we don't bother with rain gear. Just let the rain fall. It feels good.
Traffic heavier near town, but thinned the farther out we rode. We still had some traffic, trucks and otherwise, but mostly I found the riding okay. The land is changing. The swamps are gone and we are into rolling hill country.
Abandoned building along the road. These are very common.
Another one cross the street.
selfie
About 16 mile in, we made it to Shiloh. It's a big park with a lot to see. We first went to the visitor center where we talked bikes with a couple from Seattle before heading into the building to view some of the displays and to watch a video about the battle. The video gave a nice overview of the battle at Shiloh. I know I studied the civil war in school, but I've forgotten all but the most common details. The battle at Shiloh was grueling. nearly 110,000 troops with 23,746 casualties.
Next we visited the National Cemetery. The headstones went on and on over the hills and out to an overlook of the Tennessee River.
Cemetery entrance
Tennessee river in background
I'm no videographer, but I made a short video with the phone. If you listen you will hear the hum of Cicadas in the background. We've been hearing this for several days, since Tishomingo. I like that we are here when the cicadas are out.
Cicada. Love their little red eyes.
Ace and Jo left early to head to our next destination. Roger and I wanted to stay and tour a little bit of the park itself. May also did a driving tour separate from us. Our intent was to do one loop section then head out, but the map we had was not very good and markings on the roads were confusing. Yeah, we were lost a couple of times and ended up meandering about 8 miles. It was interesting though, to be in the actual spot and imagine what it had been like all those years ago. We didn't get a lot of photos, because we were so intent on how the heck to get back out of this maze.
Jones Field
We did finally find our exit and rode about 5 more miles into town and to our motel. A good day. The rain was mostly a non-issue and most of the day was dry. I enjoyed the visit to the park.
Sorry Dom, no food porn again. I had a hamburger and onion rings, but it was after 3:00 before we had lunch. Needless to say photography was the last thing on my mind at that moment.
Warning: Long post alert! A week or so ago Ron and I took a hike at Silver Falls State Park . Warm summer afternoons will find hundreds of people hiking at the park. It's a constant battle of passing slow hikers...usually in groups, and bumping past oncoming hikers. Not exactly a peaceful forest experience. Take a hike on a cool, wet afternoon, and you'll find far fewer hikers. The hike is called the Trail of Ten Falls . On this day we will visit 6 of the 10 falls, and be treated to a number of unofficial falls running off the slopes of the canyon. South Falls is probably the most visited of all the falls. It's close to the day use area, and can be viewed without hiking down the canyon. The trail goes behind the falls, but we opt to take the foot bridge for the better view. An aside, my co-worker claims to have repelled over South Falls (and came up short on rope). South Falls, 177 ft. Canyon Trail Off we go down the trail and to a series of stairs taking ...
March 1-2, 2026 Shake down cruise, er camp. Found us a teeny, tiny camper van to run about the countryside wreaking havoc wherever we go. Meet the new money pit. God help us it’s another Dodge, or rather a Ram. A Promaster with the infamous terrible transmission. What can we say it hit a price point that no Sprinter could meet. We actually adore her. I just hope she doesn’t fail us on some dark and lonely road. We spent too much time and money getting her appropriately outfitted, then took ourselves to the coast for a night of camping in the rain. If anyone knows our past camping history you would know it always includes rain. Fortunately the rain wrapped up over night and the next day was pretty nice. Spent some time at Yaquina Bay on Monday. The sea lions were busy hunting lunch and having a very successful hunt. The water was this wonderful color of blue and turquoise. Didn’t know it at the time but per another post the color is from herring that are spawning in the bay a...
Our son brought us along to be the voices of reason, strength in the face of temptation, shining examples ruled by the mind and not by passion. He probably should have brought someone else. He sold his pickup, and was looking for it's replacement, a four wheeled replacement that is. There were several options to be viewed up in Portland then after that a visit to one of the motorcycle stores to do a little shopping. I wanted try out some jackets - the never ending quest for the perfect jacket. We should have known it was a mistake to even point the car in the direction of Portland. We knew there was a bike up there, exactly what he was looking for. The whole auto shopping thing was just a ruse, a deception. We were really there to look at bikes. We were only fooling ourselves. I went to the apparel department, father and son went to the showroom. The bike of his dreams: 2006 Yamaha V-star 1100...with ape hangers Later when I joined them I found my own Yamaha...don'...
I like the sound of the cicadas in the video. Though there sounds like there are millions of them ready to swarm you kind of like Hitchcock's birds...
ReplyDeleteNo sweat re no food porn Bluekat....I can well understand what hunger is like that late in the day. As to the Cicadas' red eyes....freaky.
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