Mother's Day 2022 Mini-Vacay: Red Clay and Georgia

Well we were going to celebrate Mother's Day a day early by going to Cookeville. And on our way there we decided to go itinerary free. So we changed directions from going North to East.

First unplanned stop? Red Clay State Historic Park. Red Clay was the Cherokee Capitol in Exile while fighting the forced removal from their lands to Oklahoma. The hallowed grounds at Red Clay were utilized as assembly areas for general councils of the Cherokee Nation from 1832 to 1838. Forcible removal to internment camps and then to Oklahoma began in 1838. The Trail of Tears is just a horrible historical legacy of our country -- all in the name of gold and land.

There is a connection here at Red Clay. A grandfather-in-law and a grandmother-in-law were half Cherokee. My wife and children are connected to this hallowed place.

The Eternal Flame of the Cherokee Nation - a very moving sight to stand there and wonder why it happened. 

The beautiful acreage surrounding the Eternal Flame and a pastoral look at the Red Clay Capitol of the Cherokees.

The beautiful Blue Hole Spring that sat on the opposite side of the council seats. It is here the Cherokee Nation designates as the starting point of the Trail of Tears.

There is a large sign by the council area stating the reasons why the Cherokee Nation in Exile said no to forced removal. They said no. They said no despite being surrounded by federal troops. 

If you ever get a chance to visit Red Clay State Historic Park, it is worth the time to wonder and to learn. There is a giftshop inside the park entrance building. Dogs can be on leashes on the walking paths.

We drove the 100 feet from Red Clay park into Georgia and made our way to highway 71 and headed south.  We decided to head to Dalton and then cut back east on 76 to Chatsworth. You can tell you are getting to the higher elevations of the Appalachians near Chatsworth.

Then we decided to go even further east to Ellijay. At Ellijay we found a place to eat lunch. I had purchased several gift cards for G for Mother's Day. We used one of the gift cards for lunch. Then we used another gift card to reserve a hotel room in Canton while we were eating lunch.

We got on the four-lane state highway 515 to head south to Canton, which turns into interstate 535 about halfway there from Ellijay. 535 was built to handle commuter traffic to and from Atlanta. 

We found our hotel - a brand new Holiday Inn built on the outskirts of Canton. 

We picked up dinner from Longhorn and got some snacks at the Publix next door. The next day, we took highway 20 out of Canton and found Interstate 75 to head north back to Chattanooga. On the way there, we stopped at our first Buccees in Calhoun and picked up some delicious fudge!

The Seal of the Cherokee Nation, Red Clay.

2022 Tennessee Parent Teacher Association Convention

 The 2022 Tennessee PTA Convention was held in Chattanooga on April 23 and 24. It was my first convention as president of TNPTA. And it was so much!

The planning for the convention took everything out of me. All of the preparation work! I learned that July is the board meeting to set up location and theme and prospectus. And Convention work needs to be done over the holiday break.

Another thing I learned - preconvention board meetings leaves your board and president super tired before convention even begins!

The convention was held at an elementary school - East Brainerd! The first time I ever attended an entire state convention at a school and it turned out really good. Very proud of what we accomplished in networking, informing, and celebrating. We had an awesome awards dinner with great entertainment from Loftis Middle, an awesome speech from Wayne Brown, good food from Ooltewah High, and plaques to celebrate our best!  That dinner made everything worthwhile!

Student Awards Ceremony was great!  Larry and I did a great job and we had a great emcee in Scottie.

Now for some random pictures.

As president, you have to be worth your salt as a leader and that means putting in the physical labor as an example as a leader, even if you are still in physical therapy from knee surgery - here I am moving chairs for the meeting space.

Student awards ceremony was awesome. The smiles from students and families just connects so well to what we do as Tennessee PTA.  And I of course look very suave with a sports jacket on as an accessory to my business meeting clothes.

Because my installation convention was a virtual event, we finally had an officer reception for the installed officers. I was very humbled by this.

The meeting set up was a little different as far as AV and location (gymnasium) but it worked out well for the small delegation that was sent to attend the convention. And as always, a great treasurer makes a president look good! Thank you, Charles!

One of the many pictures from our awards dinner!  What an awesome night in the land of Tennessee PTA! Probably one of the best nights in TNPTA history!

None of this convention would have been possible without the board - the convention planning led by Gail, the convention program book, the student awards book, the plaques, the entertainment, the workshops, the meetings, and so much more! Thank you, everyone!

2022 Tennessee Library Association Conference

Just about 6 weeks after my knee surgery, I was in Knoxville for the 2022 Tennessee Library Association Conference. The TNLA conference is held each year in various cities across the state. But this one was a bit different, I was coming into the business meeting and the conference as the incoming president of TNLA. That meant speaking during the business meeting, handing out awards, and trying to find board member volunteers for my term.

The conference was April 12-14 at the Knoxville Convention Center. The hotel was in walking distance for most normal people across the street at the Marriott Knoxville Downtown. I've been a long time awards member so I scored a parking space near the hotel entrance and early check-in.  The room TV already had my name on it when I walked in.

The Knoxville Convention Center is in the same location where the 1982 Worlds Fair was held. Remnants of that fair are the World's Fair Park and the Sunsphere. The Sunsphere is a golden orb that people can travel to the top if they wish. I didn't do any exploring - I considered myself luck getting across the street on a knee still in physical therapy. But easy enough to take a picture of it.

The conference was really good, and I picked up a lot of names for the board. People just came up right to me and said they wanted to volunteer! Gotta love the volunteer spirit of librarians and of library staff! I attended the 2023 Conference Committee and impressed everyone with a theme already. Let's go!

One of the best conference workshops was on the topic of algorithms. Algorithms are not neutral - when we are searching databases and search engines, we need to be aware that there are built-in biases in the search engines that ignore large swaths of society.

 Now onto the 2023 conference planning and forward!

On July 1, 2022, I became president of the Tennessee Library Association.

Thanksgiving 2021 Trip to Kansas

Beauty in spacious skies

We made the decision to visit mom and my family for Thanksgiving back in August! A twist in what we used to do which was to travel for Christmas. But we had stopped traveling to Kansas for Christmas after 2008. The trips were more random and not based on any typical expected family meetings. We probably should do Thanksgiving trips more often! It was great to see everyone and all in one house!  I know my Dad would have loved seeing it.

What was really great for my benefit in reconnecting: this was the second trip in one year back to Kansas! If roots mean anything to a person, going back to visit them every so often is essential for personal balance and harmony, I think. We've been a little sporadic in our visits there and the two trips in one calendar year really gave me the boost I needed.

Unlike in May where we seemed to take our time going out, which in hindsight might have been a mistake, we made great time and stopped in Columbia, MO at a Drury Inn.

We reached our vacation destination at an airbnb in Great Bend. Enough bedrooms for everyone coming in! We would be here for three nights.

Thanksgiving Day was the next day and we cooked up a lot of food! Too much food! It was great to have families visit: grandmother, aunts, uncle, cousin. It's too easy to grow separately and not see the connection.

On Friday, we drove a lot of miles but we saw a lot of things along the way!  Driving two cars, we made a convoy to see Mom/Grandma in her new assigned room at the home.  We spent some time talking and seeing her inside and outside of the place.  Her new room is so much better and has a great view of the school. Pixel enjoyed being with grandma and running around on the grass!

We then drove highway 183 all the way up to northern end of Rush County to stop at Pat's Beef Jerky in Liebenthal. If you haven't tried Pat's - it's worth stopping in or ordering online to have it shipped to ya. The name of the town came from Liebenthal, Russia where many of the settlers immigrated. Then we made it to the big city of Hays!  Well, big in comparison to anything around it for many miles. We saw the buffalo again. The babies we saw in May were getting so big!

 We then made the round trip from Plainville to Webster Lake via Webster Lake County Road out of Zurich, then to the family cemetery, the always heart-crushing stop at where the farmhouse once stood, then to Stockton and back south again to Great Bend.  

G had the awesome idea to have a Christmas tree with ornaments next to Dad's grave. This picture was one of my most liked on Instagram during 2021.

The three D's left flowers on everyone's grave site, even great-grandpa who is buried on the other end of the cemetery. 

The Thanksgiving trip ended too soon the next morning on Saturday. We each drove our three cars in separate directions. But each one of us had to take highway 156 out of Great Bend to I-70. I reflected that each of us now have our lives but we are still greatly connected not only as immediate family but with those family members who supported G and I growing up. One car headed north from Salina on 81, one car headed northwest out of Topeka on 4, and G and I headed east I-70 and south on I-55.

The two carloads heading north made it back in one day. We had the longer drive and broke it up into two days. I decided I did not want to go through all of the Illinois construction on I-64, I-57, and I-24. It was just too much for the expected holiday weekend traffic on Sunday. And the next day, I was right! Just a good guess!  

We stopped at the Drury Plaza hotel in Cape Girardeau, MO. Unlike the one in Columbia, we checked in on time for the free hor-doeurves!  And free breakfast the next morning. I was thinking of driving to Dyersburg to catch I-40, 840, I-24 but as we approached the I-55/I-57 exchange the traffic delay was getting larger and larger for that route.  I finally decided at almost the last minute to have G turn east onto I-57 to cross over on two-lane highways to Paducah and I-24.

What a route! We took highway 62 which is basically just an elevated roadbed through the Mississippi River floodplain. We were in the area where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers merge. It was interesting to see how barren of human life was through there. Then we crossed two bridges, one was familiar one was not and it was scary.  That bridge is called the Cairo Mississippi Bridge. It is so narrow and long that semis have lost side mirrors to opposing traffic. The bridge pops and clanks and all kinds of noise when driving over it. Here is a picture of it from commonwiki photos.

After crossing that bridge, we immediately crossed a bridge much more familiar to us, the Cairo Ohio River Bridge which landed us into Kentucky. From there we made it home in great time about 5 and half hours. Just enough time to unpack, eat, and get ready for work the next day!