An Airstream Tri-State Crooked Road Caravan

The Music and Story Telling Journey Along the Crooked Road to Tennessee’s Oldest Town, Jonesborough, Caravan began in Fairy Stone State Park in Southwest Virginia. Our leaders, Della and Cecil, made a great selection for our first caravan stop. The park is the only location where fairy stones can be found. They are staurolite crystals in the shape of Roman, Maltese or St Andrew’s crosses and are considered charmed. Many famous people such as Presidents, T. Roosevelt and Wilson as well as Thomas Edison and Charles Lindbergh carried them to ensure good fortune and/or as jewelry. Anyone can search for them on the ground but cannot dig up any of the fifty acres where they are found. We found them in the park gift shop, and Gloria converted them to earrings.

While camped at the park, we carpooled to the AAF Tank Museum in Danville. The museum collection is exhibited in a 330,000 square feet facility. It houses over 110 tanks along with hundreds of artillery items, uniforms, and over 50 small arm weapons. There is an exhibit of bicycles that were used to carry messages in both World Wars, women in the military, and 300 women’s uniforms dating from 1509 to present. Another room holds a collection of general officer uniforms from many countries. Bill, the curator and founder rode around the museum on his three wheel cycle wearing a sidearm. He answered many of our questions in addition to giving us information on how he acquired some the foreign tanks. After lunch at Mary’s Diner, we returned to the museum to complete our tour. The gift shop on the first floor and a flea market on the second floor also had many interesting items.


There was also an Elvis exhibit. He was our age during our military years in Germany and served as an officer's driver in a tank battalion, while Jerry was in an armored cavalry unit patrolling the East-West German Border in 1958-59. Elvis, a draftee, was greatly admired in those days for requesting duty in a line outfit rather than in Special Services. In 1959, at the age of 24, he began dating Priscilla, age 14, the daughter of an Air Force officer. After living together at Graceland, they would eventually marry eight years later, but the courtship lasted longer than the marriage. While many Army wives were twittering over Elvis in Germany, we were eagerly awaiting the birth of our oldest daughter born on July 14, 1958. Just before delivery, Gloria was driving to the 10th Army Field Hospital in Wurtzburg for her final checkup when she was sideswhiped by an Army truck similar to the one at left. Although there was significant damage to our 1957 Ford station wagon, Gloria and the unborn baby emerged unharmed. Gloria did have a lap full of broken glass. Robin is still as resiliant as when she was a fetus.

The next morning we drove to Ferrum College, a rural liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located about 35 miles from Roanoke. We first visited a colonial farm, authentic buildings that had been moved log by log to the campus. The farmhouse had been home to a family with German roots in the late 1700s. Our guide was most adept at handling a beautiful team of oxen, each ox weighing over one ton. The barn was most important to early settlers as it was their family financial center. A blacksmith shop was in operation—smoke and all.

Back at the college, after lunch, was a nostalgic display of the history of rockabilly music, popular in the mountains of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia during the 1950s. Featured artists were Elvis, Carl Perkins, Janis Martin, Bill Haley and several others. The music was a fusion of country with rhythm and blues and a black music beat. The upbeat style waned during the 1960s and 1970s but resurfaced in the 1980s and is still popular in parts of the Southeast Mountain Area. We celebrated our two days at Fairy Stone that evening with a group camp meal prepared by Pat and Louise; Jerry grilled the hot dogs.