Eastward, Ho! Day 39: Bardstown Museums and a VRRV part swap

 Wednesday, July 14

Martha and I went with Jane and Larry H. to check out three museums in nearby Bardstown, KY.  

The first one was the Civil War of the Western Theater museum.  As the name states, it concentrated on historical artifacts/documentation from the Civil War battles in the western half of the states established back then.

The museum had several great displays of artifacts, weapons, photographs and militaria, this is but one of many:

Battlefield medicine back then involved a lot of amputation.....

Union Artillery Officer's Hat

The CSA's Merrimac rampaging against Union Navy Ships

which were blockading the CSA

Jane, Martha and Larry by the Hunley replica

Hunley replica, I shudder to think about going to war inside

something like this....I wonder if they actually thought they'd survive.

The second museum was the Lieutenant General Hal Moore Museum.  Honoring the famous officer who led his troops in a famous battle during the Vietnam War.  Author of the book: "We were Soldiers once...and young".  The book was the inspiration for the movie with Mel Gibson.  LTG Moore authored other books on military leadership as well.

Hal Moore and his Command Sergeant Major

The rest of the museum shows militaria from all the wars that the USA has been involved in.  It's a small museum and the concentration is on the contribution made by Kentucky natives with an emphasis on Bardstown natives such as Hal Moore.

I found this picture of a Chinese-descent Marine Officer interesting:

The third museum, Womens Museum of the Civil War, as the title states, showed artifacts, photos and examples of Women who did their duty as they saw it during the war.  Besides the big name women such as Clara Barton, there were others as well who are mentioned.  

Of particular interest to me, were the women who disguised themselves as men, in order to join their husbands at war in some cases; or women who just wanted to fight for their country.  This during a time period when women were not permitted in the armies on both sides.

The rest of the women's museum showed domestic scenes, dresses of the time and such.

Nice trio of museums to be sure and worth your time if ever in the area.  The Hal Moore exhibits were very nicely done and the Civil War displays are worth careful reading and examination.

After lunch back at the campsite, Martha, Jane and Larry departed for one more Distillery tour at the Limestone Branch Distillery.  I stayed behind to swap out the Fuel Rail Pressure Sensor which had failed in Uma's engine compartment.

I got the part through Amazon and USPS general delivery.  Took me longer to figure out how to easily remove the engine cover inside the driver compartment of the VRRV than to do the actual fix!

Red arrow in the picture below indicates the location of the sensor to be replaced.  Fortunately it was in an easy to access area!

The green arrow indicates this big nest of shredded paper and some kind of vegetation collected on top of the engine by rodents!  Yep, a rats nest complete with little rodent turds....I cleaned it out as best I could before replacing the engine cover.

The fuel pressure sensor

Took me some time to google and figure out how to "clear" the Check Engine Light afterwards.  Finally got it to go out after not only disconnecting the negative terminal for the chassis battery but also removing both PCM fuses.  Or perhaps, it was because it was the third time I turned on the ignition after disconnecting things that the computer cleared the Check Engine light, not sure now.

The trio came back ready for some relaxation and dinner.  The rest of the evening was pleasant conversation around a campfire, a bit of bourbon was had and we all retired to our respective RVs around 10PM.  Another good day in the books!