Adventure Number Next

Back to the airport early on Sunday morning hoping to find a hole in the sky we can fly through. The mission is to get the airplane to Mena, AR for a paint touch up but that weather is still sitting out there to our west and looks menacing. Blake takes our car and will drive John to Huntsville to ride a pass back to Dallas before heading home to Shelbybville where he will leave the car for us to pick up later. Gene, Lewis and I go out for a good breakfast and later Mike pulls out the pasta again for a late lunch. And we sit and watch the weather channel all day. Finally about 4 PM we give up and check into a motel, just as the rain begins and lasts most of the night.

Monday dawns with clear skies and we are at the airport at 6:30. Our devoted host, Mike, is there to see us off. Breakfast (and dinner last night) consists of cheese crackers and blond Oreos eaten en route. Lewis is Captain, Gene is co-pilot and I am in the jump seat for a better view. We see evidence of the weather in the flooded fields we fly over. I have never been to Arkansas and we fly most of the way across it. Mostly it seems to consist of yet to be planted farmland. Because Mena does not offer ground transportation, we land in Hot Springs to rent a car that I will drive to pick them up. There we meet Bill Adams, an American Airlines pilot, whose parents were pilot and stewardess for American and therefore likely worked on our plane. He is excited and Gene urges him to join the Foundation and get to fly the plane.

The drive to Mena is pleasant, through a national forest and low mountains, with a good lightly traveled road. After picking up the guys, we begin a mad dash to Little Rock to put Lewis on a plane to Nashville until realizing that we can drive to Kentucky and take him home quicker. My desire is to see Hot Springs and I am allowed one hour to scratch that itch. I toured the restored Fordyce Bath House from the early 1900s and it was a treat. The town is picturesque nestled against a mountain and has a lot of elaborate buildings from its heyday. I learned that the area was a national park from early on and land was leased by the government to the bathhouses, one of which still operates today. Many others are available for lease. Then we are off to Murray, KY. When we arrive at 11PM, it has been a very long day and we fall in bed exhausted. Gene is leery of the grizzly bearskin rug on his side of the bed, I have a zebra on mine. But that king sized bed looks and feels like heaven!

The next morning Lewis and wife, Ann, who we met on the Greenville trip, take us on tour. They dismantled and reassembled a three room log house to form the rear of their home, then built a modern addition around it, doing a lot of the work themselves. This area, near Kentucky lake, is a hunting and fishing paradise and they have recently built a lodge within their barn to house sportsmen. The first hunting season's income has paid the debt on it. It is quite well done! After a Cracker Barrel breakfast we tour their business. They are international dealers in antique guns. Of course Gene is in hog heaven. They also sell collapsible campaign furniture like was used on early safaris and have leather bags made with their logo plus there are several mounts, an Arctic Wolf being most startling in his size. Lewis is a master machinist and makes cartridges (and sometimes parts) for some of the rarer guns. He also bow hunts here and abroad and demonstates his technique...Gene cannot pull the bow all the way back. Though they urge us to stay and tour the area, Gene has a presentation to give in Atlanta on Wednesday evening.

Leaving Murray, we head off to Duckiworld where Gene hunts each year. It belongs to his brother in law and is located only about 20 miles away. We hop on a four wheeler and I get a tour of soon to be cornfields surrounded by levies which will become lakes next fall. One time driving off a levee I am unexpectedly thrown backwards, lose my grip on Gene and almost take a backwards swan dive. We both wish we could have seen our faces as he was as frightened as I was, of the wrath he would have endured had I fallen.

Now we head for Shelbyville to get the car. We have to detour in Clarksville for what we assume is a bridge out. In Nashville, there is still a lot of water in parts of town, like 18 wheelers with only about four feet showing, but no problems getting through on the interstate. We gather our car and I follow him on to Chattanooga. Toward the end of this journey, I am tiring badly. We reach the airport there at dusk to turn in the car, there is a mix-up and they want to charge us $800. We leave again still in two cars and find a place to stay the night until we can call the Hertz people in Hot Springs in the morning. Again, a long day. We have dinner at 10 PM. We get the rental car thing straightened out the next morning and thankfully are back home in Covington by noon. We had a great time, but these treks are quite tiring and we are thankful for our own beds.