Indiana, Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas

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The Solos are a chapter in a group known as “Escapees.” When the Escapees have a rally it is called an “Escapade;” there are a lot of teaching seminars and information seminars at an Escapade as well as a lot of fun with other Escapees. An Escapade was being held in Goshen, Indiana so about 20 Solos left Michigan and went there.
Indiana is home to a large population of Mennonites and Amish. Both groups live very basically although the Amish still do not use electricity or motorized power at all. The local Super Wal-Mart has stalls at the edge of the parking lot, (all fitted out with shovels and pans) for the horses and carriages. We had one evening off so three friends and I went to a great Amish restaurant. We ate “family style” which basically is all you can eat of a salad, two meats, two vegetables, mashed potatoes, iced tea and desert. All was delicious and cost $15. We all walked out completely stuffed.
The Escapade lasted five days after which I made a “B” line for Louisiana. Jacob and Ben had said that I had to go to see The Hermitage, which was Andrew Jackson’s home in Nashville. So Nashville and The Hermitage was indeed one of my stops. Andrew Jackson was born to Scots-Irish parents who had arrived in the U.S. two years earlier. His father died before he was born. At 13 he joined a local regiment as a courier during the Revolutionary War, he was captured and contracted small pox. His mother secured his release in 1781 and when she knew that he would recover she volunteered to nurse the injured soldiers on a ship in Charleston Harbour; cholera broke out and she died leaving him an orphan at 14. He worked in a leather tanning facility while he studied law, eventually passing the bar and becoming a successful lawyer. Approached to again employ his military expertise he was of course the general who defeated the “Bloody British” at the battle of New Orleans. Jackson Square in New Orleans is named for him. Although he was the owner of a large cotton plantation with 150 slaves, it turns out that he was the architect of the Democrat Party—Go figure! He was also known for the removal of the Indians from various parts of the country; The Trail of Tears. He purchased a large area of land from the Chickasaw Nation in 1818 – no conflict of interest there! He was nicknamed “Old Hickory” by his soldiers because he was so tough, and as “Jackass” during his campaign to become President; a title he liked apparently. Thus the jackass is the symbol of the Democrat Party.
Jackson died a very rich man; The Hermitage has never fallen on hard times and is still beautifully maintained.
Debbie and Bobby had told the kids that I would be arriving at the end of the week so they were very surprised when I knocked on their door on Monday afternoon. “Its Nanny, its Nanny”….. I enjoyed two very nice weeks with them all. Then I was off to Austin to visit with Bev and Casey. Their little company Live Love Paddle www.livelovepaddle.com is doing very well and they are booked solid every weekend and several nights during the week taking groups in kayaks under the Congress Avenue Bridge to see the flight of the Mexican free-tailed bat population. Austin calls itself the Bat Capital of America because the world’s largest bat colony (about 1.5 million spend their summers under Austin’s Congress Avenue Bridge. This is a maternity colony of female bats that give birth and raise their young while snuggled into the bridge’s crevices. Arriving from Mexico in April most free-tails (including about 750,000 pregnant females) settle into their summer roosts. They stay until the first cold front comes through Texas, and then start their southward migration into the caves of Mexico. With a tailwind the migrating free-tails can hit speeds of 60 mph and cruise as high as 10,000’.
On my way out of Texas I stopped in Pilot Point for a couple of days with Casey's folks. Super, super people, they made me very welcome and allowed me to park on their front lawn. Casey and Bev were able to come for a couple of days too so we had all had an enjoyable couple of days.

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Photos

Amish Buggie
It was rainy and cool al the time I was in Indiana. Most of the buggies were shuttered so that the occupants are protected from the elements.

The Hermitage
The inside of the home is off-limits to photography unfortunately. Typically of a plantation home, there is a large sweeping staircase going out of the entrance hall to the second floor. Something like in "Gone with the Wind."

Garden View
The original wall paper is still in tact in the entrance hall(maintained every year.) Imported from France and installed 174 years ago, it depicts a scene from a Greek legend. Fantastic how they put it up there 174 years ago.

Allie
Debbie took the kids and I to the beautiful New Orleans Zoo. I managed to get a photo of this alligator in swampy water; their natural habitat.

Ellie
One of the zoologists had a couple of babies for the kids to touch. Ellie was first to step up

Ben
Ben was more comfortable sitting on this bronze.

Jacob
Almost as tall as I am now. Jacob received the "Boy Scout of the Year" award earlier this year. He enjoys his boy scout group.

Live Love Paddle
I was a pro bono passenger on the Friday night bat trip. Great swimmer that I am, Bev and Casey made sure I was adequately equiped

Austin Sky Line
We got out on to the water about 45 minutes before sun-down. Good job because it took me that long to paddle to the bridge.

Live Love Paddle
When Bev and Casey conduct their trip they take about 10 kayaks. Some double and some single. It's a lot of work for them but is very successful. Casey also takes groups on river trips.

Architecture
The Austin skyline is very impressive. It is rumoured that the architect for one of the buildings was a Rice University graduate (Arch rivals of U of Texas) if you use your imagination you can see the Rice Owl in one 4th from the left.

Bat Flight
When the bats start out on their nightly hunt there are so many of them that they show up on Dopler Radar. By morning they will have eaten about 20,000 pounds of pests