My 32 Ducks

A week ago today I was at party in Charleston, Illinois and today I am in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It seems a lot longer ago than that. When we are traveling from place to place it seems that time has little meaning. I think that fact is very desirable. I have known people that thought that every day was a week long, and that would not be a desirable to live. I like what I do and the way I am living.

One the way down here we stopped a couple days in Nashville, TN. I did not know that the town was as large as it is. We drove across town a couple times and I was surprised at the distance across town. Across town was the Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson. I was very surprised to find out that he was the only President to ever pay off the national debt, and leave the treasury of the USA in the black. We sure need another President like him. We had quite a tour. We were given a set of ear phones and a small device that had a recording for numerous stops around the plantation. It was recommended that we allow two hours for the tour and we could have taken twice that much without any problem except we were getting hungry and to be honest tired of walking. It was a great place to visit. One of the buildings was a detached kitchen that was built of brick with deep grooves between the bricks. Evidently there were bugs that would get in those spaces because there were the prettiest little yellow birds that clung to the bricks and seemed to be getting bugs. With all the people around in the area scaring them I felt lucky to get a picture. They did not spend much time on the side of the building. I have not had a chance to find out the variety.


YELLOW BIRD SEEKING BUGS ON THE SIDE OF THE SEPARATE KITHEN

Every person has heard about the Country Music shows and performers that call Nashville home. It is also the home of the only full scale replica of the Parthenon. It was built in 1897 for Centennial Exposition. It was only supposed to last a few years but it proved so popular that in 1920 it was repaired and converted to a museum. The building is used as a backdrop for plays in the summer and has been featured in scenes in movies. It is impressive. I will never go to Athens, Greece but at least I have seen a replica of one of the most famous building in that city.


THE NASHVILLE PARTHENON AT NIGHT

We had barely gotten into this camp before we had a bunch of two legged visitors. There must be at least fifty small brown ducks running around the camp. Some of the little guys came running around hoping for handouts. I promise you that when a duck comes around wanting to be fed if I have anything available they will be fed. We had thirty two (if I counted right) that came around to the Vectra the next morning. These are wild ducks technically, but when they are willing to sit on the ground six inches away from your feet the word wild does not seem to be proper. It would be better to call them free roaming ducks I think. This town must have ducks near any body of water or river that is around here. Some business's have signs that encourage the people to fee "their" ducks. When we drove around the camp to check out the route that I will use to leave in a few days we saw small groups of ducks sitting close to many of the campers. I think that they get fed by every person that sees them. A lot of them are very young ducks or at least they looked young to me.


FOUR OF THE LITTLE BROWN DUCKS BY OUR VECTRA

Tomorrow we are going to meet with some friends that we made when we were down in Florida. It has been several years since we have seen them so it will be a good day. They are very familiar with this area so they may be able show us places that we should see.

Till later this is Uncle Duck (I would like to think I look like the one on the upper left.)