The Slaughter Pen

I don't know if this is normal around these parts, but twice now I have seen ashtrays in the bathroom. Who's smoking while doing their business? Is that common? And the second place I saw it was a gas station where the attendant was smoking in the store! This was a gas station!

Well, I've got a lot to say so I'm breaking it up into two posts. Our week in Tullahoma came to a close with two good performances. The kids had a bit of trouble staying quiet and focused backstage which caused a few late entrances, but they were still good shows. The top photo is of Cinderella and the Stepfamily rehearsing with Mallory with our lovely set behind them. On Sunday morning I dropped Mallory off at the Greyhound station and hit the road towards Nashville. Along the way, I stopped at Stones River National Battlefield, home of the Battle of Stones River over New Year's in 1862/1863. My favorite spot was the Slaughter Pen, a name that really needs no explaining. It was a wooded area with rugged stony outcroppings, as you can see above, where the Federals were pinned while the Confederates attacked from the field beyond. I was the only one there and the day was very still. The air was heavy and portentous, courtesy of an oncoming thunderstorm, giving me the slightest feeling that an army would charge toward me, guns blazing from the thick underbrush around me.

Today the battlefield is peaceful, calm, and used by neighboring residents as a place to walk or bike. It was strange to look across the road to the Union cemetery, knowing that beneath the rows and rows of headstones lie the remains of those that died where I was standing. It is unusual to see those that died in battle just across the street from where they died. After touring the battlefield, I drove a few miles south to the remnants of the largest earthen fort constructed during the war. All that's left is a few mounds overgrown in the southeast corner of the fort's footprint. Cool to see at least a bit of some Civil War earthenware, as it's called down here.

I continued on to Nashville and took in a Nashville Sounds game, a AAA affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. Unlike Toledo, this was a sparsely attended game played in a gently roughed-up stadium. Pretty good game, the opposing team even had Chan Ho Park pitching, a big leaguer recovering from intestinal bleeding (I'm sure you wanted to know that). One of the guys from Lonestar sang the anthem, if that means anything to anybody out there. The next day was a good day, as I'll tell you in the following post.