Super Bowl at Jen's

OH, it is good to be at Jenny and Brent's. It seems as if we drove forever to get here. Actually the miles were short, but the day's journey was long. We stopped to see things. Over and Over. First as we were headed up some interstate, G'pa saw a sign that read: Union Springs. He remarked that he had always wanted to go there. So Red curved to the right, and we ended up in that little town. It had a big statue of a bird dog, right in the middle of the downtown. No square. It was like Eldon, and the dog was in the intersection like where Harmon Bros, the Legion, Whitey's, and Hughes would be. (Info for the siblings, not the grandchildren...you don't even know those names!) So G'pa got out and went into the bank for information. G'ma and I moseyed up and down the streets, looking in the store windows. We had parked beside a liquor store, and many folks were getting their supplies for the weekend. That was kinda unsettling. Then, I had to stand out in the traffic and take pictures of G'pa pointing to the name Maytag because that was the Iowa connection to the owner of a big plantation. That was what he wanted to do next, go find the place. I think it was called Sedgewick. Or something like that. We drove through the backwoods and located the gates. Turned out that we were on the back edge of the place and never did see the bird dog sites.

The next stop was in Selma, Alabama. That was like being in a history book for me. We crossed the bridge where the Freedom March started, the people walked from Selma to Montegomery. There was a big park, a National Black History Site. We walked around the wooden paths, down through big trees hung with that moss. It looked wintry and southern. There were plaques for all the deaths that had occurred then. Sad. Then we went to a museum, where the director was an old black man with long white hair and an accent that we could hardly understand. We stayed there until the place closed. And so it went.

On Sunday after G'pa did his field trial thing, we drove on up to Corinth. Stopped in Tupelo to see the birthplace of Elvis. That was just cool. The weather was 65 degrees, sunny, blue skies. This place is all outdoors with statues and reading boards with comments from all of the hometown friends that Elvis had maintained thru his lifetime. The people there are sooooo proud of him. The little house where he was born was two rooms. The church he attended had been moved to the property and was also small. There was a car (replica) that his family used to move from Tupelo to Memphis when he was 10. It held all their belongings.

Then we drove the little bit to Corinth and met Jen & Brent at the Welcome Center. We loved watching the Super Bowl with them. Beautiful and hospitable home, their Faith in God and love for one another evident. G'ma snuggled up on the couch with Jenny, in her fuzzy pink housecoat. Jenny's head on her shoulder. I hope that I can be like that with my grandchildren someday. Today we are going to the Civil War sites around here, and Brent took the day off to be our guide. We could not feel any more welcome. I jotted down some "historical notes" from the Maynard conversation in the car. Maybe I will post that tomorrow. I don't know how interested everyone is in this stuff, but the stories are interesting. G'pa's long term memory is like an encyclopedia. How he can remember every dog whelped and every handler and every judge at a trial is way unbelievable. Then his short term memory frustrates him because he can't pull up the right word. He is starting to cope with that better, tho. Okay - we are off to the races. More tomorrow.

Grandma is cheering for the Iowa boy!

Red has had it (bad back)