Coaching for Pizza: An Over Coat, the Tennessee Aquarium and the Trip Home

Sun. & Mon., October 4-5, 2026

Another long post. Bring along a snack.

Our Sunday began bright and early with a mad rush back to the reenactment sutlers camp to find out if the Cincinnati Depot and Tent Manufacturing Loft sutler was still on hand after last night's mass evacuation of reenactors.

As you may recall from yesterday's post, before embarking on this weekend's adventure, Michael had tasked Jacob with the assignment to hone in on one particular item that he wanted to purchase amidst the hundreds of items that the sutlers would probably have on display.

Task accomplished, Jacob was on the hunt for a hand made Confederate over coat which we found with the Cincinnati sutler late Saturday afternoon. We closed the deal but hit a bump, he only accepts cash, no credit cards, thank you.

As it turned out we did not have enough cash on hand so he agreed to set the over coat aside so that we could find an ATM and then return on Sunday to finalize things.

Then the cancellation order for Sunday's reenactment arrived and chaos ensued before the expected deluge.

Thus, Jacob and I headed to a nearby ATM at 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning to get the needed cash before Michael and Jacob headed back to the sutler's camp to see if that over coat was still there and if any of their mates needed help packing up their gear.

Cash in hand, they found the

sutler's camp quiet in the morning

They were in luck!

The owner of the Cincinnati

Depot and Tent Manufacturing Loft

was still there!

While he was happy to make one last sale. Jacob was over the moon with joy!

Jacob had his longed for over coat and

the Cincinnati sutler threw in a tin

tapered cup into the deal as a way

to says thanks for returning during

these adverse conditions

Sporting his new, hand stitched

Army of Tennessee

3rd Kentucky Infantry

"Weller" F.H. Weavers Material

Confederate Over Coat

After packing up our gear, we set off for a slow drive back to Nashville with stops along the way.

Our Super 8 Motel was located in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, so before leaving town we explored their historic area.

Historic Youth Baseball, for sure

A tank in the town park

is a must in the South

Ritzy was a noble dog indeed

Mary would love this pink house

It even had a pink spider

Since Michael and Jacob were not with me when I took the driving tour of the Chickamauga Battlefield yesterday, I opted to let them experience it this morning.

First stop, a Rebel cannon battery

Our reenactment duo has been firing cannons in California reenactments for over a year now, time to let them do their thing.

Ready . . .

. . . Aim . . .

. . . FIRE!

Excellent 15th U.S. Infantry Monument

The 16th U.S. Infantry's

Monument was equally good

A mossy tribute to the 35th Indiana

Sharpshooter taking aim

The 70th Pennsylvania

Battery E of the 1st Ohio Light Artillery

The Col. John T. Wilder Brigade Monument

This watchtower honors the Lightning Brigade of the Union's Army of the Cumberland that fought at Chickamauga.

It is open to anyone who wants to climb it for the view of the field where this Brigade won the day.

While two of us walked up the

monument, one of us stayed in that

silver car you see in the distance

Michael and Jacob taking in . . .

. . . an amazing view indeed!

No, Michael, you can't ride this horse

Tennessee Cavalry

"The Yanks are THAT-A-WAY!"

The Union had cavalry units too

24th Wisconsin Infantry

Our tour of the Chickamauga Battlefield came to a close, time to start the trek north to Nashville via a stop in Chattanooga.

Roseville, Georgia appears to

have really fast school busses

Our stop in Chattanooga was for

a visit to the Tennessee Aquarium

As blog readers may recall, young Jacob still has his sights set on a career in the field of Marine Biology, so a stop here helped soften the blow of the day's reenactment cancellation.

The Tennessee Aquarium is divided into two large buildings, one for the study of fresh water species and the other for oceanic biospheres.

We entered the River Journey

Building first

One happy, budding Marine Biologist

Pumpkin Season in here too

Art made from plastics that are

choking rivers, lakes seas and

oceans all over the globe

That smile made my day

Two finger touch only, please

A real Florida gator

Jacob checking out the

same gators tail

An Amazon River snake

Creepy.

Also from the jungles of the Amazon

River, this poison dart frog is

DANGEROUS!

Turtles are always fun

Playful little creatures

My two hatchlings

A strange looking Paddlefish

This first building was quite interesting, but my biggest takeaway was that I will never enter any body of fresh water other than my bathtub or a swimming pool.

On to the Ocean Journey building

We were greeted by these two fine

Southern Belles

A Spotted Ray

Not sure how this ring-tailed

lemur got in here . . .

. . . nor this red-ruffed lemur either

Both of these species are native to the islands of Madagascar and Comoro.

Beautiful shell markings

Besides this surprise enclosure, this Ocean Journey also included a butterfly sanctuary.

Can you find the Monarch Butterfly?

On the left, a yellow and black

swallowtail butterfly

As for me, I'm a sucker for

penguin shenanigans

Jacob in a shark cage

He fit exiting through the bars.

I barely got in through the cage's doorway.

Two boys in a bubble

Note the Cuban flag on this

Hispanic Heritage Month decal

SHARK!

One BIG fish tank!

Riding this turtle is

MANDATORY!

Finding Nemo

Colorful sea urchins

A gigantic seahorse made out

of more plastic junk found in

the oceans around the world

Kicking back one last time

to observe the sea life

We all had a rewarding time in this well laid out aquarium, it was well worth the visit.

We found this statue just outside

of the aquarium overlooking

the Tennessee River

The Trail of Tears runs through

both Georgia and Tennessee

The Trail of Tears refers to the forced displacement and ethnic cleansing by the United states government between 1830 and 1850 of about 60,000 Native Americans of "The Five Civilized Tribes" that included the Cherokee Nation.

The other four tribes that were moved approximately a thousand miles to the west of Florida, Georgia and Tennessee to far off Oklahoma were the Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations.

Not the best chapter in U.S. History by any stretch.

One of . . .

. . . two cool murals near our

car's parking lot

We were all famished so where to eat?

Why Bojangles for chicken and/or

steak biscuit sandwiches of course

The road signs that you see

while driving up Interstate 24

We arrived at our hotel near the Nashville Airport without any further ado.

All of us a tad tired, we lounged about to our hotel room for a couple of hours watching the Dodgers lose to the Braves on TV.

Finally, someone magically mentioned food once again and off we were.

We ran into President Andrew Jackson's

home known as The Hermitage

It was closed by the time we got there but we all liked this sign.

Mexican food truck near The Hermitage

Also closed.

How Southern can you get?

Jet's Pizza got the call

We have had great success over the years dining at small, locally owned pizzerias like this one on our previous East Coast roadtrips. We would not be disappointed this time either.

Their pepperoni pizza with homemade ranch dressing on the side hit the spot as did the Baskin-Robbins ice cream just a few doors away in this convenient strip mall.

We were up early again on Monday as we had an early return flight to catch.

Our original purchase had been for a non-stop flight from Nashville to Los Angeles.

About six weeks ago, we were contacted by American Airlines telling us that our flight had been cancelled (Biden and Newsom were at fault we were told). Instead, we were leaving Nashville at the same time but now had a layover in Phoenix, Arizona.

We were almost ready to takeoff

Almost meaning that we needed

some tasty donuts to break our fast

They hit the spot.

Another cool mural spotted

on my way to the restroom

I am often gobsmacked at airports with the random, famous people that you run into.

Today was one of those days in the Nashville Airport.

Both Marvin the Martian and

Pappa Smurf were great guys,

both outgoing and friendly

Jacob can fall asleep on an

airplane faster than anyone I know

We made it to Phoenix in no time at all

Chick-fil-A for lunch during a relaxing layover made the wait easier.

Our final leg was on-time

We made it back to our car a The Parking Spot on Sepulveda and were on our way by 1:00 p.m. but we had one more celebratory stop to make.

That 74 years of service to the

great L.A. donut eating community

Their much more famous signage

The young man in front of us ordered FOUR of their Texas sized (HUGE) donuts. I asked them if they were all for him and he responded, "No, one is for me and the other three are for my girlfriend who is eight months pregnant and said she wanted them NOW!"

Now, that is one super dedicated Randy's Donut aficionado.

We bought four donuts today

Left to right, top to bottom:

Mary's cream filled spider donut

Laurie's Los Angeles Dodgers donut

Jacob's Texas sized sprinkled donut

My apple fritter

Michael was the only sane one in the group.

To be 100% transparent, this apple fritter was good but the one from Camarillo's Rolling Pin Donuts is far better in my humble culinary opinion.

I live for taste testing.

Mary was happy with the plush

Sewanee blanket that we brought her

While Sunday's weather cancellation of the Civil War Reenactment made me feel like a nincompoop for not being able to take any photos of the day's battles, there were many fine photos posted on-line from Saturday's skirmishes that I now pass on to you.

The Battle of Franklin map

Rebels atop a hill

An unshod but well fed Confederate

Rag tag but formidable

The reality of war

The reality of Mother Nature

That keg makes the post-battle

periods more palatable

Always recruiting more combatants

The ladies backing their men

It should be noted that, unlike California reenactments, the Union and Confederate camps were purposely placed far apart.

The Atlanta Campaign people in charge of the reenactment did not want any fraternization of the two armies other than in the sutler's high middle ground or at the dance on Saturday night also near the sutler's set-up.

In the Deep South, the War Between the States just means more.

Rebel Cavalry

A Franklin family now with the

Civil War on their front door

The Belle of the Ball on Saturday

night I would bet

More Franklin residents whose

town is about to get bombed

The Charleston Tin typist at work

She took a photo of Michael and Jacob's group that we'll hopefully receive in a few days.

Union Muster

Michael and Jacob are near the little boy on the left.

Banjo playing in the South?

Why not!

Union Cavalry milling about

Union soldiers firing into the fog

Now its getting serious

The Rebs are breaching the breastworks!

Hand-to-hand combat breaking out

The INTENSITY ramping up

Horses . . .

. . . LOTS of horses

Dapper and wet Franklin citizen

Federal Officer, 100th Ohio Infantry

entrenched at the Carter House

Union forces . . .

. . . on the march

A Confederate Artillery Battery

Field of Fire

The Lost Brigade

3rd Georgia Sharpshooters

Company A

Bedding down for the night

Firepower at dawn

Hail to our company battle flag

A better look at the 5th and 13th

Arkansas Infantry Regiments' flag

that recounts their nine major

Civil War engagements

The exact moment that a

Reb "bought the farm"

Trudging to the battle

FORWARD!

Confederate Sharpshooter

crawling into position

Handsome fellow

THANK YOU from afar to all of the photographers who posted these images from Saturday's event.

While we were having a great time in the South, the football world continued play games.

Rams (2-2) nipped the Eagles (2-2)

The Huskies (3-2, 0-2 BIG-10) report

card was dismal again this week

Dawgs host Iowa (4-1, 1-1 Big-10)

this coming FRIDAY at 6:00 p.m.

Again, I thought that we left unwanted Friday night and late Saturday night Kickoffs behind us when we exited our beloved PAC-12 days.

Yes, Iowa is ranked #20

The Huskies final seven games are vs. #20 Iowa, at Purdue, at Nebraska, vs. Penn State, at Michigan State, vs. #7 Indiana and at #13 Oregon.

The wins will be few and far between unfortunately I believe.