Randomness - Travels

January 2023 - Toronto ON

This post should be called Randomness as it is based on unrelated conversations John and I had recently.

He mentioned Fort Knox and I reminded him that when we were there, I had borrowed by BIL's expensive camera (no digital then) and had forgotten I had it on my lap when I got out of the car so of course, it had broken. I had it fixed when we got home without telling my BIL, a very expensive fix! When I finally confessed by BIL said I should have just given it to him and he would have claimed it on his insurance!!

This led to whether we had any photos and when did we go there.

It was 1992, on our first trip to Memphis. I do have a scan of our visitor's pass.

I was curious why it said "Armor Center". I always associated it with money!

Fort Knox is a United States Army installation in Kentucky, south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. It is adjacent to the United States Bullion Depository, which is used to house a large portion of the United States' official gold reserves, and with which it is often conflated. It is named in honor of Henry Knox, Chief of Artillery in the American Revolutionary War and the first United States Secretary of War.

For 60 years, Fort Knox was the home of the U.S. Army Armor Center and the U.S. Army Armor School, and was used by both the Army and the Marine Corps to train crews on the American tanks of the day; the last was the M1 Abrams main battle tank. The history of the U.S. Army's Cavalry and Armored forces, and of General George S. Patton's career, is shown at the General George Patton Museum on the grounds of Fort Knox.

In 2011, the U.S. Army Armor School moved to Fort Benning, Georgia, where the Infantry School is also based. In 2014, the U.S. Army Cadet Command relocated to Fort Knox and all summer training for ROTC cadets now takes place there.

Another memory from that trip was a trip to the Football Hall of Fame. We had also stopped there in 2013.

Proof he was here in 92!

This was the first time we went to Graceland as well.

Along the way we stopped in Berea KY for lunch.

Claremont KY

Lynchburg KY

We visited Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, 10 miles east of downtown Nashville.

1992 Nashville.

Click here and here for a 2015 visit.

Click here for our 2013 visit to Printers Alley and Ryman's Theater.

Ryman

Quite a change to the new Country Music Hall of Fame!  This one opened on April 1, 1967. The original building was a barn-shaped structure located at the head of Music Row, erected on the site of a small Nashville city park.

Wonder what happened to these guys?

1992 Memphis TN

This 2017 Memphis post has links to other visits.

Peabody Hotel

These signs are still on Beale St.

Us in 1992 on this trip!

We stayed here on our way home.

Foto Tunes

  Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

I love reading Peter Robinson's DCI Banks series. But it takes me longer to read as he is an avid music fan so I am always stopping to look up the song/artist to listen and learn more.

In Many Rivers to Cross he mentions going to a Richard Thompson concert and listing some of the songs.

Note - Claddagh is in Galway. Click here for the story of the Claddagh ring.

From Galway to Graceland - Richard Thompson

I had to see what I could find out about the meaning of the song. I found an article that mentioned that Eleanor Shanley had a better version, as the song is meant for a woman to sing. 

From Galway to Graceland
Richard Thompson

Oh she dressed in the dark
And she whispered amen
She was pretty in pink

Like a young girl again

Twenty years married
And she never thought twice
She sneaked out the door
And walked into the night
And silver wings carried her
Over the sea
From the west coast of Ireland

To West Tennessee

To be with her sweetheart,

Oh she left everything
From Galway to Graceland to be with the king

She was humming Suspicion,

That's the song she liked best
She had Elvis I Love You
Tattooed on her breast

When they landed in Memphis,

Well, her heart beat so fast

She'd dreamed for so long,
Now she'd see him at last
She was down by his graveside

Day after day

Come closing time they
Would pull her away
Ah to be with her sweetheart,
Oh she'd left everything
From Galway to Graceland to be with the king

Ah, they came in their thousands

From the whole human race
To pay their respects
At his last resting place
But blindly she knelt there
And she told him her dreams
And she thought that he answered
Or that's how it seems
Then they dragged her away
It was handcuffs this time
She said "my good man are you out of your mind?"
Don't you know that we're married?
See, I'm wearing his ring.

From Galway to Graceland to be with the king.

I come From Galway to Graceland to be with the king.

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Richard Thompson