Craig & Maureen's Travels and Such "embrace the journey"

Great little Texas Town we found running the back-roads.

Maureen’s Bucket List check mark!!  Visited Magnolia Silos’s, Store and Bakery!

GREAT Campground!!!! 

Mark, my LONG Time friend from back in the Office Depot Days, he in Myrtle Beach, me in Wilmington, NC when we met! Dinner with Mark and Linda, we reunited in Charlottesville, VA a few years ago, then went separate ways again!  Good Friends last a life time!!!!  What a GREAT time at there home, the World Famous, BayouMark, from the Green Egg world cooked us a primerib meant for a king!!  Oh and “the Bread”, just spank me! What great host, great friends and wonderful time!!!! Love you Mark and Linda!

January 26th, 2018, breakfast then long drive to Lafayette, LA to see our friends, Mark and Linda Tate! 

January 25th, 2018, 

Cool to see, not a stupid fan, but when in Memphis ...

The Legend of the Ducks How did the tradition of the ducks in The Peabody fountain begin? Back in the 1930s Frank Schutt, General Manager of The Peabody, and a friend, Chip Barwick, returned from a weekend hunting trip to Arkansas. The men had a little too much Tennessee sippin' whiskey, and thought it would be funny to place some of their live duck decoys (it was legal then for hunters to use live decoys) in the beautiful Peabody fountain. Three small English call ducks were selected as "guinea pigs," and the reaction was nothing short of enthusiastic. Thus began a Peabody tradition which was to become internationally famous.® In 1940, Bellman Edward Pembroke, a former circus animal trainer, offered to help with delivering the ducks to the fountain each day and taught them the now-famous Peabody Duck March. Mr. Pembroke became The Peabody Duckmaster, serving in that capacity for 50 years until his retirement in 1991. Nearly 90 years after the inaugural march, ducks still visit the lobby fountain at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. each day.

a MUST go for lunch if in Memphis, across the street from Main entrance to the Peabody Hotel.

.... gobs of fresh catfish, shrimp and oysters, grilled fish, shrimp cocktail, fish cocktail, crab legs, burgers, chicken and mudbugs (crawfish) in season. A specialty selection of grilled salmon, trout or tilapia is also offered each day. Ice cold Tap and bottled Beer, wine and home made margaritas are also served. 

We tried to eat lunch at the top, they wanted $10 each for us to ride the elevator! NO WAY!!! , cool place to visit.

“…nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people.” – Mark Twain

The endless river traffic of the Mississippi is the main attraction at Tom Sawyer’s. The atmosphere is relaxed, laid back and peaceful while the RV Park is clean, well maintained and totally natural.The view of the sun rising over the Mississippi River is rivaled only by the full moon rising in the fall. Plenty of trails and wildlife compliment the nicely mowed fields and long, level concrete sites. Across the River is unspoiled Tennessee flood plain and just one bend upstream is the Memphis skyline. If it’s fishing you are looking for then look no further since we have a lake and two ponds stocked with an amazing array of fish.

At an astounding 630-feet tall, the magnificent Gateway Arch remains the tallest man-made national monument in the United States. Its unique shape and stainless steel facade remarkably represent the history made in the city of St. Louis. An enclosed tram inside the Arch takes you to the top, where you will experience breathtaking views of modern St. Louis – up to 30 miles in each direction on a clear day. Along with the surrounding Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, the Gateway Arch opens up a world of history about how St. Louis served as the Gateway to the West for early settlers.

In 1947, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association conducted a contest to create a structure that would commemorate Thomas Jefferson and those settlers’ expansion into western America. Renowned architect Eero Saarinen won the contest with his concept of a stainless steel arch. His vision was completed in 1965 when workers installed the last exterior shell piece of the Gateway Arch.

It cost $13 million to construct the Arch. The foundations extend 60 feet into the ground, and in its entirety, the Arch weighs 17,246 tons, including 900 tons of stainless steel. Built to withstand earthquakes and high winds, the monument may sway up to one inch in a 20 mile-per-hour wind.

“America’s Largest Cross” we visited January 24th, 2018

Effingham, Illinois

Lording over Interstate highways 57 and 70, the "Cross at the Crossroads" was built for broadly noble religious reasons -- and to out-size every other big American crossout there, especially the giant cross in Groom, Texas, which was both its inspiration and its toughest competition.

198 feet tall and 113 feet wide, forged out of over 180 tons of steel anchored in untold fathoms of cement, the cross can withstand winds hurled by evilest of forces at up to 145 mph. Its stark, slab-sided design conveys the corporate utility of a logo -- no distracting crucifixion blandishments, just the plainest symbol of Christianity. The structure also conjures aspects of the World Trade Center towers, which came crashing down in 2001 less than three months after the cross went up.