A good (and bad) trip to Knoxville

We just returned from a business trip to Knoxville, Tennessee. I (Don) had a paper to present at the most recent Central Hardwoods Conference, and since it was relatively close to Monticello, we made a family "adventure" out of it. The drive over went pretty well, and we had a good supper and had just started swimming in the pool at the hotel when Hope slipped on the steps leading into the pool, caught the little toe on her left foot, and proceeded to dislocate and break said toe... This resulted in a 3+ hour visit to the emergency room in large city late at night, and many days of limping for Hope.

The rest of my meeting went well, and besides a family-wide meltdown on the way home, the trip was an interesting one. The cannons pictured above were at Shiloh Battlefield National Park in southwestern Tennessee, where General Grant defeated a Confederate army after two days of tough battle in April 1862. Shiloh is reminiscent of many of the other Civil War battlefields in the South, with numerous monunments to soldiers, army units, and states scattered across pastoral or wooded landscapes. In many ways, it is hard to picture the brutality and desparation of the fighting that raged in so many now peaceful spots. Let us pray our country is never torn like that again!!

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