This is the state of my birth. I am the seventh generation in the state on my mother's side. Fourth generation Memphis. Deep roots!

Three reasons to be here on this trip. One, some family history research in Memphis. Two, Stones River national park that I had to skip by a few years ago on a rainy day that caused a long-delay traffic jam near Nashville. Three, a college sign in Lebanon on my way to Kentucky.

The day started pretty well. I left Arkansas a bit earlier than I needed to, knowing I would probably have to wait in my car for a half hour or more until the library opened at 10:00 am. I went to the two cemeteries -- Elmwood and Calvary -- where some of my ancestors are buried. I quickly found the headstone of the two in Elmwood. It is a historic cemetery that is well kept. The two in Calvary (where my grandparents are also buried and I visited many years ago) I knew did not have headstones. And, since the great grandmother had remarried after great grandfather died, she is buried in a different section from him. But, neither have a headstone (I contacted the cemetery a couple months prior to arriving to learn this fact). But, I took photos of the area where great grandmother is buried. This cemetery also looks very nice.

After a brief stop at Christian Brothers University to take photos of the college campus sign -- a couple of my cousins attended here some years ago -- I went to the library hoping to find obituaries of the four ancestors whose graves I had just visited. Found three. The fourth one died before the newspaper started.

While driving along I-40, about halfway between Memphis and Nashville, is Jackson, the town where I spent most of my growing up and school years. It was fun seeing the highway signs to various parks and attractions that I had visited as a kid. I even saw an exit sign (#126) that told of Camp Mack Morris (it is just south of the town of Camden). I have long remembered being sent there one year (about seventh grade) for a special camp that was just the senior patrol leaders for all troops in the West Tennessee Area Council of the Boy Scouts. I recall it so well because I still claim that I was never more cold in my life than the night I slept in my tent there!

But, Jackson itself had a 4 - 5 mile long construction zone like Little Rock that I encountered the day before. Narrow and curving concrete barriades on both sides of the narrow two lanes with numerous large trucks there with us. Made it through okay.

Next destination was the Stones River National Park just southeast of Nashville. I had planned it so I would arrive with enough time to visit the park facilities before it closed. But, 22 miles from my exit on I-40, and, 9 miles from ANY exit, the plans changed due to a 90-minute traffic jam (I believe that is the longest delay I have ever encountered on a highway, beating out Idaho, Washington state, Colorado, Kentucky, California and Maryland who all did one around an hour each with Kentucky giving me TWO of those in the SAME DAY!) So once again -- and for the fourth time in two years -- Tennessee traffic caused me to miss seeing a national park -- twice for Smoky Mountain National Park and twice for Stones River National Park. Maybe I should give up on Tennessee, including my Bucket List item of attending a Tennessee Volunteers football team game in Knoxville (I have been waiting for twenty years for the Vols to be ranked top ten in pre-season with a chance of beating Alabama at home, the game I have wanted to see in person).

I head to Kentucky tomorrow morning to visit Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace -- a national park. Goodbye Tennessee!!!