Shiloh and Pickwick

The brass ensemble I am a member of performed at Shiloh National Military Park today. We played Civil War era music that helped set the stage for the artillery demonstrations we witnessed today.

We saw a lot of artillery and men who were portraying Civil War soldiers. We had a detailed explanation of how the cannons were used during the war. The man explained that the cannon fired lead at such a force that one soldier reported that the ball passed through six men and embedded itself into a tree. That's powerful stuff! We saw a demonstration that used only 1 pound of gunpowder, during the war, an average of 2.5 pounds was used on the battlefield! It was LOUD!

After the demonstration we headed back to the cars and I did something I haven't done in a long time. I walked off the edge of the sidewalk, caught the edge of it just right, twisted my ankle and BOOM! Hit the ground with a thud! I heard my ankle crack when I went down, and felt pain, but I have done this so much I think my ligaments are alread stretched to their limit. It's a little sore, some minor swelling, but nothing I can't deal with. I walk on it just fine.

Then we saw an unusual bug. We have no idea what it is! It was BIG and RED and UGLY! We took a picture to share...do you have any clue what kind of bug this was? It looked like a very large ant or something. It did not seem to be a bee with a stinger or anything and it did not fly. Bugs in TN sure are big! ICK!

Then Katie, Justin, Jonathan who is a friend of Justin's and I went to "the river". Katie and I used to have "God days" every Wednesday and head out to the Pickwick Dam. We'd find a nice spot out on the peninsula and do Bible study and just enjoy God's creation. Today, we returned and reminisced. We had a nice time with the boys, skipping rocks and grilling out.

Katie is such an awesome person. She prepared our picnic and didn't forget a thing. We ate well and really had a nice time together with the framily. Tif didn't go with us because she had obligations at church, and we missed her.

I've posted pics of our adventure today at Flickr...go check 'em out! Also, we filmed the artillery demo with my camera but the file is very large. Once I get some .mov editing softward, I can correct that problem and post the file so we can share this amazing experience.