September 7th, Friday – Our New Toy, Think Cold; The Secret City of Tennessee

So today was a most uncharacteristic day for us as we actually were out of the house by 7:45 am.  Oh yes, that was way too early for us but we were on a mission to a special museum and bus ride.  The museum is the American Museum of Science and Energy.

The bus tour was a three hour Department of Energy tour of Tennessee’s World War II secret facilities.  So off we went intending to get our bus tour tickets by 9 am.

Guess what?  The Museum closed on July 29th since it is moving to a new facility and will not reopen until October 1st.  We just seem to have the best of luck when it comes to museums in general.  As for the bus tour there were directions on the door of the closed museum to the new location for its starting point.  Guess what?  The directions were wrong.  Are you sensing a pattern here?  After going in circles we finally stopped and asked a city worker for directions to the New Hope Center and were finally steered in the right direction.  Yes, we made it with time to spare and were able to get our tickets with no problem.  The nice part of all this?  Since the Museum is closed there was no charge for the but tour!  Sweet.

By the way, have you guessed yet what the secret city of Tennessee was?  I’ll give you a hint, it had to do with the Manhattan Project.  But we’ll wait till tomorrow to give you the

full details on this remarkable WW II city that for many years existed but didn’t exist.  We got back late and there is just too much to sort through, to put together a meaningful blog tonight.  By the way, consider this, even the governor of Tennessee (in the 1940s) had no idea this sizable city was where it was.  How about that?  OK, here’s a sneak peek at this city.

Well, we now have a new toy.  You just had to know that sooner of later we would find something that we really needed.  Yea.  What led up to its acquisition?   Warm beer.  Yup,

there was really no room in the refrigerator for the beer.  And beer left out gets warm.  How to keep it cold?  Get a cooler.  Not a big one, something reasonable like 26 quarts.

But a cooler needs ice.  OK.  Most RV parks have an ice machine.  But what a drag going to get ice every couple of days.  What was needed was a ready supply of ice.  We solved that problem by purchasing our very own handy dandy ice machine that was top rated.

We like it.  It makes ice on a steady basis.  Ice is good for the cooler.  A cold cooler is good for the beer.  Problem solved.  The only one who doesn’t like it is Marti.  The sound of the ice dropping into the ice bucket sends him looking for a place to hide.  We’re sure he will adjust in time to the new sound.  We do turn it off at night.

We’ve now come again to the end of our day.  It’s been a fun, fascinating day of learning and discovery.  I promise, a full report of all that we did today in tomorrow’s blog.  Thanks again for joining us today we’re glad you were able to travel with us on The Road of Retirement.   In closing, I discovered the following today and wanted to share it with you:

As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries, let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and eventually some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before