We spent the night in a Days Inn and had a fairly relaxing night, considering that we were worried about the RoadTrek and Jack’s laptop. But all turned out OK today. First thing in the morning, we called the auto repair shop where we left the RoadTrek last night, and they were already at work on it, saying that they thought it would be ready by noon. That was a relief. After breakfast, we decided to stroll over to the Casey Jones Museum and check it out. Surprisingly, for a small-town, low-key tourist operation, it was pretty busy. There was even a bus full of non-English-speaking Swiss tourists! Would they even know who Casey Jones was? Do YOU even know who Casey Jones was?
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| Carol at Casey Jones Village - Click photo to enlarge. |
I wasn’t sure I knew, but now I do. “Casey” Jones was the
nickname of J.L. Jones, an engineer for the Illinois Central in the late 1800s.
He was a tall, dark and handsome fellow, very popular and well-thought-of as an
engineer. He lived with his wife and 3 kids in the town we’re in right now,
Jackson, TN. On one ill-fated day in April 1900, he took an assignment to drive
an extra passenger train from Memphis into Mississippi, because the regular
engineer was sick. The weather was rainy and foggy, and Casey’s train ended up
crashing into another train that was stalled on the main track, killing Casey
and injuring several others. Casey told his fireman to jump when they spotted
the stalled train’s lights ahead, which he did and which saved his life, but
Casey stayed with the engine, holding onto the brake the whole time to try to
lessen the impact. He succeeded in
slowing his train down from 75 mph to 35 mph before impact, which undoubtedly
saved lives.
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| Large painting in museum depicted the the wreck in which Casey Jones was killed. |
No one would have ever heard of this outside of the
locals, because trains wrecked and people were killed all the time in those
days. But another man who worked for the railroad was extremely fond of Casey
and he composed a ballad in Casey’s honor, extolling him as a brave engineer.
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| Wallace Saunders thought highly of Casey Jones and composed the ballad that made Casey famous. |
The song eventually got picked up by a couple of vaudeville performers, and
became one of the most popular songs in America for a while—The Ballad of Casey
Jones. Since then other songs have appeared along with radio shows, TV shows,
and movies. There was even a U.S. stamp issued in Casey’s honor in 1950!
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| One of many rooms in the Casey Jones restored home. |
Casey’s house is preserved at the museum, with some of
the family’s furniture and possessions, and otherwise furnished with period
stuff. The steam train is not Casey’s real train, but is from the era. It was
an interesting way to spend an hour or so.
We got the call that our van was ready about noon. It
turned out that the water pump had frozen up and caused the belt problem. So we
got a new water pump, belt and new antifreeze to the tune of about $500. Could
have been worse—we’re happy. Also, Jack’s computer turned on OK today and seems
to be working fine so far. So, yay!
Got back on the road and drove through the rest of
Tennessee and a good part of Arkansas. A beautiful crisp and sunny spring day;
our ride took us through lots and lots of green farmland, both rolling and flat
as a pancake. We’re now camped at Lake Dardanelle State Park not too far from
Fort Smith, Arkansas. It’s a very scenic lake and well-kept campground—we get
water and electricity for only $21/night.
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| View from our RoadTrek. |
We strolled around a bit after dinner
to admire the sunset over the lake and around the corner we spied the
unmistakable outline of a… nuclear power plant! I guess this lake has other
uses besides just recreational! Oh, well…
State count: 6 [Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas]
Odometer count:
Surber, VA: 107,435
Lake
Dardanelle S.P., AR: 108,674
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