Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Tourist in my Own Backyard





While I love traveling overseas almost more than anything on this earth, I am a fan of playing tourist anywhere. And Tennessee has plenty to see. Last summer I was too busy working and goofing off to do much. This summer I have a list of places I have to see that are within a couple hundred miles of where I live. I have seen most of the sights to see in Murfreesboro, a few in Nashville, and that is about it.

On Sunday, my brother accompanied me to Fort Donelson National Battlefield. He was very cooperative, considering that he does NOT like historic sites. Then today, I went to Nashville and saw Fort Negley, Belle Meade Plantation, and Travellers Rest. All are Civil War sites.

It is interesting to visit historic sites. I love history and that love has both given me an appreciation for visiting these sites while at the same time taking away from the visit. I am always evaluating the sites. How well did they interpret the site? What do they talk about? What have they neglected? How can this be done better? I do this for myself mostly. I want to be able to work in a place where I share history with an average visitor and they walk away with a better understanding of the place and the history attached to that place. How do I do that? If a site does something well, I want to store that in my head for future use. If they didn't do well, I want to figure out why and how can I improve wherever I work (or end up working in my future)? So I don't just get to walk into a museum or visitor center and remain carefree. I am always evaluating. I think that is why I like theme parks so much. When all is fantasy, I don't have to evaluate. I need to take a trip to DisneyWorld. But I think I will settle for Chattanooga next.

1 comment:

kristen said...

i wanna go places with you.