This Adventure Called Retirement

After a good night sleep in Knoxville we suffered our first casualty – I somehow lost my fitbit. I’m pretty sure it was on my wrist when we went to sleep, but on waking it was nowhere to be found. We searched the entire room and all our bags – no fitbit.

We hit the road, and after some traffic leaving Knoxville., we had smooth sailing across Tennessee. Our first stop was in Jackson, the home town of the famous train engineer, Casey Jones. We stopped at the Casey Jones Museum and home to understand this real character that has been immortalized in the Disney Casey Jones Railroad ride. It was a fascinating stop. Casey Jones was famous for his ability to always keep his train on time and prided himself on this ability. Born John Luther Jones, his family moved to Cayce, Kentucky. When he joined the railroad, they asked him two questions: his name and where he was from. He responded John Luther Jones from Cayce, Kentucky. His new boss responded “welcome to the railroad, Cayce Jones”! The nickname stuck and eventually transformed to the Irish spelling, Casey. On April 29th, 1900, Casey took over for a sick engineer and took out the Engine 382, Known as the Cannonball to run a passenger train to Mississippi. Running fast to make up lost time, he came around a blind curve and spotted a disabled freight train blocking the track directly ahead. Casey yelled for his fireman to jump but Casey stayed in his position, reversed engine, pulled the brake and pulled the whistle cord. The train slowed rapidly but plowed through the last three freight cars, derailed, and rolled off the track. Although the train was filled with passengers, there was only one casualty – Casey gave his life to save all those passengers on the train. His lifeless body was found with his left hand on the brake and right hand on the whistle.

There was also a cute little village where we had lunch. A play area had a little play train engine and a Tennessee steel band play wall.

We stopped a second time at the Mississippi River. This massive river is always a sight to see and we took a walk out the raised footbridge in Memphis to get a good view of the river expanse.

Our day ended when we arrived in Conway, Arkansas. This is the childhood home of David’s mother, Kay Portner. David was named after his uncle and Kay’s older brother, David Anthony Lachowsky. David Lachowsky died from measles at the age of 2 years old, three years before Kay Portner was born. His death certificate indicated he was buried in Conway, but his burial site is unknown. We hope to visit the cemetery at St Joseph’s Church, which was the only Catholic cemetery in Conway at that time, to see if we can find David Lachowsky’s final resting place.