1968

Talk about being tired!!! Oh my goodness! Getting to sleep around 2:30 AM doesn't help the next day when you know you are driving 350 miles. I normally don't need an alarm on travel days and this morning was no different. 7:00 came and my eyes were wide open. After unplugging and getting ready to leave town, we finally pulled out around 8:00. The traffic wasn't too bad. We made good time. In fact, we were making such good time, I decided to exit south of Louisville, KY and head on over to the Ft. Knox area. Many of my friends know I was raised in Mississippi, but most people don't realize I was born in Ft. Knox, KY and my dad retired from the Army when I was 4 or 5 years old. The reason I know I was that young is because I started first grade in Thaxton, MS in 1968. (Google that town if you want to have a good laugh.) So, I do have a few memories of Kentucky life. (Probably because I am so intelligent.) NOT!

As I exited off of I-65, the sign said to the right -----> Birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, and to the left <----- Radcliff 12 miles, Ft. Knox 16 miles, etc. By this time I'm thinking how cool it is that people can choose either to visit Lincoln's birthplace or come see my old stomping grounds. Now that I've admitted to myself of being in the middle of a mid-life crisis, I turned left with intentions of re-discovering my past. Here are a few of the more pleasant things I remember of Kentucky life:

- No. 1 pleasant memory: the mobile home and park where we lived. (Go Springer!)
- Our Volkswagon beetle bug. Don't ask me how a family of six survived with a beetle bug.
- Snow-sledding down a hill on a car hood turned up-side down (possibly at a city park)
- At church there was an upright bass and an accordian (there is a possibility of the accordian being a tuba.) I admit, I may be getting the tuba mixed up with a church in South Mississippi combined with one marching bass drum.
- The 45+ minute drive on curvy roads while going to church.
- One day my dad (maybe my mom was present also) took me to see the Ft. Knox gold vault! I was told if we walked across the painted lines on the driveway, that tanks and guns would come up out of the ground to ZAP us into dust!

I realize that is quite an impressive list for a little tot like myself. Today, the timing was perfect. Colton was asleep up top, and Tate was crashed on the couch. Can I be honest here? It was very strange for me to be returning to my birthplace after being gone forty years. I've never gone back in all these years. There's been no reason to ever go back... until today. And there I was, heading straight toward 1968 as fast as I could go. I drove into Radcliff where we once lived and could hear the pavement making the same noises I remembered it made when I would sit in the back seat, unable to view the road since I was too little. I also remember seeing the power lines crossing the road from the back seat... and as I looked up this morning, there was a continuous string of power lines crossing the road. Now I realize that probably wasn't even the same road. And it probably wasn't 4-laned back then. But none of that mattered to me today. It was the sights and sounds that got my attention. About three miles of highway driving reminded me just how powerful memories can be. The mind can be so haunting. I noticed how unattractive the town looked. I passed by two mobile home dealerships and thought about stopping to ask where the most popular parks might be where military families might have lived. My heart was racing. I drove past them and continued on. Then I passed a couple of parks myself, but decided to keep going. I wasn't sure I could handle all that I was feeling inside. Lucky for me, the boys were still asleep and I wouldn't have to explain why I was crying and a total mess.

I began to think backward to the past 45 years and wondered if those were the best years of my life. I simply divided the years by the two seasons of my life (the places I've lived), while rewinding my life's video on high-speed. There I saw the good and the bad, the mountain tops and the valleys, the joy and the pain. I easily decided the best is yet to come. Suddenly, a calmness came into the RV. I began to see the potential that lies ahead. All the good that can be transferred into the lives of so many... that was encouraging to me. Faces of those who surround my life now flashed in front of my face. God began to show me the rewards of taking the high road in life, while allowing Him to handle situations and people on my behalf. The future suddenly seemed so much brighter!

I gathered my emotions, and woke the boys up to eat breakfast at Burger King, only to find out it was 11:30 and they were serving lunch. I was trying to remember when and where we left the central time zone and entered back into the eastern time zone. We decided not to eat at BK, and drove into Ft. Knox. Actually, what happened was I took what appeard to be the only exit around, which was called E. and W. Bullion Road. I turned eastward and immediately drove past what I remembered to be the GOLD VAULT! I felt like a billionaire! But not for long because we were directly in front of the gate of the military base. The nice officer met us out front and motioned us into the U-turn lane. I'm thinking, what could be giving us away? I felt so discriminated against. Ha Could it be the RV??? I explained to him about my mid-life crisis, and he smiled and allowed me to make the u-turn. We then stopped in front of what I believed to be the same gates my dad took me to years ago, and I looked up the long driveway to the gold vault! Just as I snapped the picture, I heard a man's voice on the speaker system say, NO BLOCKING THE DRIVEWAY! I pulled out into the road, scared for my life, and read the sign that said ABSOLUTELY NO PICTURES! I must have used about $35 of fuel in the next quarter of a mile!

The boys voted on White Castle (again), and then we cruised through Louisville as I answered Colton's question of why there are so many Jewish Hospitals in Louisville. My answer was, "Hey, did you know Muhammed Ali is from Louisville?" It was a lame answer, I know. We crossed the river into Indiana and the corn fields put us all to sleep. I didn't wake up until we were sitting in the parking lot of the mall, north of Indianapolis. We took our time and finally made it to Lafayette, IN around 7pm. It has been an interesting and rewarding day for me! Oh great! Thanks to the time change, it is now almost 1:00 AM!