Saturday Adventure

The other day, I told Charming he had to come up with something for us to do that would get us out of our rut. It needed to be something that we hadn't done before. I gave him a bunch of suggestions on what we could do. He decided what it was going to be and then wouldn't tell me. Friday night I finally got me to tell me a couple of things. All he would tell me was that we weren't going out of the state of TN, we were heading west, we were going to be outside, and I would probably want good shoes instead of my standard flip flops.

That intrigued me, but I narrowed it down to 2 things. I thought we were either going to go to Shiloh or the Memphis Zoo. So, at 9 o'clock Saturday morning, he picked me up, and we started our adventure. We stopped to get some drinks, and then we stopped at Walgreen's to get some new sunglasses and sunscreen. I have 2 colors, red and white, so I have to make sure I'm slathered with the sunscreen. Charming, luckily for him, is one of those people who just gets nice and brown. It makes me sick!! LOL



So, we hit the road again. I had decided that we were heading to Memphis. I don't know why I had decided that, but I had. We're driving down the road, and all of a sudden, Charming takes a left and starts heading south. I hadn't seen any signs saying there was anything that direction. I told him I was thoroughly confused, and he looked at me like I had two heads. Then I saw something saying Shiloh and, obviously, knew where we were going. We get to the park about 11:30-ish...We go into the visitor's center to look around and get the info for the day.





When we got there, they told us there was a movie about the battle that was going to start in a few minutes. So, we start looking around the museum at all the stuff there. While we're doing that, they make an announcement that there's about to be a walk-thru of the cememtary. We decide that that's what we're going to start with. The movie plays every half hour, so we've got lots of time to see it. We walk over to the cemetary and wait for that to start. It was extremely interesting to do. I LOVE stuff like that!! I'm such a history buff!!



But, I’m also a huge cry baby with stuff like that. There are these small white, square headstones. Row after row after row after row of them. The ranger said that there are around 4,000 people buried there. Of those 4,000 people, the identities of only about 1,000 are known. It made me so sad to see all those men who no one knew. I got all teary eyed and sniffly, and I told Charming that all those squares made me sad. I can’t imagine sending my husband, or son, or brother, or father off and then never knowing what happened to them. You don’t know where they died or how they died. That not knowing is just so sad to me. So, we finish up the walk-thru, and I made Charming take me to get some lunch. I had been stupid and skipped breakfast, and I was hungry.



We got some lunch and came back to the park for another ranger guided walk-thru of a place called The Hornet's Nest. The Union lost that skirmish, but they held their line long enough for Grant to set up his line of defense near the river. That would lead to the Union winning the battle. So, this was an important skirmish. First we took the walking tour of the Union side. Then we got back in the car and drove to the other side of the field to see all the Confederate cannons and their side of the field. So, we get out and look around, take a few pictures, read the signs telling what happened. I start walking back to the car while Charming took a couple of more pictures. I was stepping off the road, onto the shoulder, to get back in the car. That's when it happened. My ankle went out from under me, and down I go!! Charming hurries over to make sure that I'm okay. I was. My ankle hurt some. I was mainly just embarrassed. So, we get back in the car to finish the rest of the driving tour.








Our next stop was Shiloh church, which is where all the fighting started. There is a new church there that is being used by a regular congregation, and at the edge of the parking lot is the old church. We get out to go see the old church. I was thinking how nice it was that we were on a flat paved parking and I wouldn’t trip on that when all of a sudden, my knee goes out which twists my ankle and down I go again. Again, Charming hurries over to see if I’m okay. This time I had to sit there for a few moments before I could get up and keep going. I limp up the stairs to look inside the church. Charming didn’t want to go in, but I did and took a few pics. As I was coming out, he made sure that he was there so I could hold onto his hand and not fall…again.


We get in the car and keep going looking at all the different places there was to look. We stopped at a couple of other places but didn’t do much walking down any paths thanks to the klutz striking that day. We did stop at a place called the Bloody Pond. It was where a lot of the injured men crawled to get some water to drink or clean their wounds. So many men did this or died there, the water was stained with their blood. Hence the name.

Back into the car we go to finish the tour. We go back to the visitor’s center to get the kids some souvenirs and to see the film we missed earlier. I also hadn’t seen everything in the museum and I wanted to make sure I saw it all. The movie wasn’t all the great. It was from the 1970’s, and didn’t really tell you anything that you didn’t get from the rest of the tour. But, I didn’t want to miss anything!!



I told Charming that I want to go back when the weather is cooler. Take the kids, pack a picnic lunch, and spend all day there. There were several other tours I would have liked to have done. I think the kids would like all the cannons and stuff. I’d also like to visit a couple of the surrounding towns to see the headquarters for both sides. We’ll see though.

One more thing with my injuries. It became a running joke with us that I couldn’t get out of the car unless he was there or I’d get hurt. When we were done, Charming brought me back to his house. We got there, and I (very smart alecky) asked if I could get out of the car on my own. He said yes, so I turn to do it. I banged my head on the door frame, so I guess I couldn’t even do that.

Even with all the injuries, I really enjoyed the day. I’m glad that we got out and did something different. That was the point of the whole day. I was exhausted when I fell into bed last night, but it was a good tired. Now, I’ve got to figure out what we can do Saturday that’s the same sort of thing being new and different. Wish me luck!!!