I Love the South

Words fail me. I am humbled by my heritage and the history that surrounds me. The town of Franklin has brought me to my knees with it's rich beautiful, humble beginnings and it's strong sense of faith, dedication and hard work that makes up the very roots that holds it's foundation together.

What a beautiful town, what beautiful buildings, people and heritage! The first treaty between a sitting president and a Native American Nation was signed here. It would be the cause and effect of the Trail of Tears.

The oldest continuous Masonic Lodge in the state is in Franklin and it is open one day a week to the general public. It was today and it was a historical importance to me because the Masonic rights are a deep part of who I am. My grandfather, his brothers, my dad and his brothers were or are still Masons, I am a former Rainbow and Eastern Star. It is an organization that was and is part of who I was growing up. This lodge has hand sawed timbers holding the roof in place and the bricks were all handmade by slaves from mud carried from the river. It is an amazing building with lots and lots of stories.

One of the things that was unique about the building was the bathroom - the "men's" bathroom so this one is for Bo

during the restoration process, they were painting and someone noticed some graffiti on the wall, with further research it was discovered that while the Union Army was in control of the building the soldiers marked up the walls with you got it "writings on the wall" Gives new meaning to I found your name of the bathroom wall ! Bo would have loved the fact I went into the men's bathroom just to get this picture !

We are proud in the south, the people of Franklin were so proud and smart that they turned their town over to the Union rather than have it destroyed. Stories after stories are in this town. It is one of the oldest Civil War towns to tour. I just couldn't absorb it all.

After the tour, we went to Michael W. Smith's home for dinner and entertainment by Michael West as well as some of Nashville's greatest songwriters and Michael. We as a group of 650 believers from 44 states, 5 countries raised over $13,000.00 tonight for project Rescue Haiti - enough to build 2 houses.

At 12:30 a.m. we found out the buses were no longer running and all of Michael's staff were using their own personal vehicles to transport all the guests to the other hotels. We rode with a young man named Josh who plays hockey for Mississippi State, His ride well, it didn't look anything like this

but his birthday is the same as Bo's and he's from the south soooooo all was well that ends well.