August 5, 2016

Fort Matanzas

Semi-layover day to visit spots around St. Augustine. 

Drove down barrier island east of St. Augustine.  First stop to see lighthouse.

Then south about fifteen miles to visit Fort Matanzas NM.

Very small fort built to protect ‘back door’ water approach to St. Augustine.  Fort sits on small island across Matanzas River from the larger barrier island.  Reached by shuttle ferry courtesy of NPS.  No charge.

Very small fort. Manned by staff of five.  Four soldiers and an officer.

Approaching  fort

Closer view

View from top (observation) level of fort

Gun level

 

Ranger demonstrating to Sue how easily she can lift a cannon with aid of a lever.

Fort from ground level.

‘Matanzas’ is the Spanish word for slaughter.  If you are interested you can Google how the fort and river got that name.  Pretty gruesome.

The grounds near the visitor center have a board walk nature trail.

Across the highway from the National Monument is a public beach access.

 

Ahhh!

If she were wearing long pants you would not know.  Very natural gait in all activities.  A little while later she was in water up to her chest.

August 4, 2016

Historic St. Augustine

Took an Old Town Trolley tour of St. Augustine today.  Similar to the one we took in Savanah in that it has a running narration by the driver about the city and sights seen and has multiple stops at which you can get off, wander on your own, and then catch a later trolley and continue on.

St. Augustine is the oldest settlement/town/city in the New World / United States.  Has existed under five different flags.  Lots of old buildings of several different architectural styles and all in good repair.  There are many tourist attractions but unlike every other tourist destination we have seen the attractions here have a low key appearance or are even concealed.  There is no gaudiness at all.  Driving through the historic city is very esthetic and pleasant.

Former apothecary now is a wax museum.

 

This monument marks the start of the Spanish Trail.  Other end – San Diego, Ca.  It is made of a very interesting stone called coquina. Many of the buildings and the very formidable Castillo de San Marcos are made of this.  It is very forgiving to external stresses.

 

 

Historic entrance gate to the old city.

 

Oldest school house in North America

View down one of the streets in historic St. Augustine.

Oldest house in St. Augustine

 

One wing of the huge and impressive Memorial Presbyterian Church built by business tycoon Henry Flagler as a memorial to his daughter who died from complications after giving birth to his granddaughter who also died.  This total building time was less than a year.

 

This building was built by Flagler as a very large and very upscale hotel.  Over 400 rooms.  Had electricity before White House.  Electrical system designed by Thomas Edison.  Fun fact:  Flagler had to hire people to turn lights on and off for guests as they (the guests) were afraid to touch the switches.  This picture is very inadequate.  This building is HUGE.  Literally covers a whole city block.  The dining room can seat hundreds and has stained glass windows by Tiffany and valued in the millions.  The former hotel is now Flagler College.  Pretty pricy but an impressive place to go to school.

 

Castillo de San Marcos.  Very impressive.

 

The very first ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not’ museum.

July 31, 2016

Andersonville, Jimmy Carter, and Peaches

About a half hour drive to Andersonville NHS.  This site has several parts.  The visitors center has a museum and memorial to POW’s of all wars, not just the Civil War.  Excellent museum.  Every display and presentation grabs you and makes you think.

POW memorial

Adjacent to the visitor center is the site of the Andersonville POW camp where Union soldiers were held during the Civil War.  The entire site is laid out by posts and corner monuments and portions of the wall are reconstructed.  Today it is just a very large grassy field.  There are Civil War era pictures posted in various spots, taken from where you are standing, that show the horror that it once was.

 

Reconstructed  corner of prison site.  Two posts on right demark ‘Dead Zone’. Left hand post shows line of tall prison fence. Post on right edge of picture shows position of small sparse inner fence. Prisoners who crossed inner fence would be shot by guards positioned in watch towers.

Looks pretty bucolic now.  Small dot right side center is archeologic marker of one of several sites where prisoners dug crude wells in attempt to find water.

 

A few hundred yards from the POW prison site is the cemetery. Nearly 13,000  Civil War soldiers died at Andersonville prison during the 14 months it was in operation.  Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, played a large part in locating and properly identifying the graves of those buried there so that proper markers could be placed.

 

 

Another half hour drive to Plains, GA – home of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. Both were born and grew up in Plains, married there, and always returned there after military service and then again after private and political life.  They live there now.  The compound where they live is private but the rest of the town is available for public visitation including the high school both attended that is now a visitor center and museum, and Jimmy Carters boyhood home.  Many very good informative presentations on both the Carters throughout the town.

Back door of Jimmy Carter boyhood home

 

Current resident

 

Front of boyhood home.  House is open to walk through.

Following Plains, an hour drive north to the Lane Packing Company.  First peaches we have seen in the Peach State after driving through a lot of it.  They have a catwalk above the peach packing operation so visitors can watch the process.  Middle of peach season but it is Sunday so no packing happening.  Good descriptive signs on the catwalk give good idea of flow of peaches through the line.  Would have been fun to watch.  Peach soft serve was very tasty though.

July 28, 2016

Hilton Head, Savannah, Thurmond Lake

First – yesterday was Ken’s birthday.  We wished him a happy one in other ways but did not blog it.  So - 

Happy Birthday Ken !!

No blog for a few days.  Not very good internet for uploading and weather has not been very conducive to sitting and composing.  This area is approaching 30 straight days of highs above 95 degrees.  Last week has been 98-99 every day.  Add in humidity and heat index has been above 110 degrees every day.  Interesting side effect of 80 degree dew point – go outside at 7:30 in the morning (temp already 79-80) and car is covered in heavy condensation.  Not light moisture.  The whole car is WET.

Stayed at a campground about ten miles from Hilton Head the last couple of nights.  Drove to Hilton Head to check out the hype and aura.  I was under impressed and frankly rather put off and uncomfortable.  There is a parkway that runs the length of the island. The parkway is lined with dense trees.  So dense you cannot see what might be 30 yards from the main road.  There are shopping areas, gas stations, restaurants, theaters, etc. Typical of what you might see in any town in the country.  Except – you cannot see any of it.  Not a clue even. If you did not know exactly where an objective location was and how to get to it you would never find it.  Not so typical of other towns is that pretty much every side road off the parkway is gated.  Seems like the whole island is exclusive gated communities or exclusive private golf courses – also gated.  The place reeks of affluence on top of affluence.  There are a couple of public beach access points but no parking anywhere near them if at all.  The access is a 2 1/2 foot path between walls of massive private ‘homes’.  Lots of bike paths filled with upscale families on expensive bikes.  Many young women riding bikes in bikinis – just the bikinis, no cover up clothing.  They did have hats and dark glasses though.  Felt good to go back across the bridge to the mainland.

Yesterday we drove to Savannah – only about 20 miles from camp site.  Very nice day.  We took a tour trolley that had many stops at which you could get off, explore, and catch another trolley.  Driver of each trolley conducts a running narration of what you are passing.  Historic Savannah is laid out with 24 ‘squares’ – city block parks, as well as every street being lined with trees.

Many very old homes and buildings, most with history as to inhabitants, function, and/or architectural style.  Lots of history.  Many famous people, past and present.

Birthplace of Julia Gordon Low.  A few blocks away is the house she lived in as an adult.  Behind that house is a carriage house which is where she started this:

 

 

Interior of Cathedral of St. John The Baptist.

 

One could spend days just exploring  historic Savannah.  There are a couple of touristy spots but they are small and even then are filled with history.  For instance – in the waterfront area, the first floor walls of all the buildings, the sea walls and terracing walls between the river front street and the rest of the city, and the streets themselves (cobblestone) are all built with stones used as ballast by ships coming from Europe to pick up cargo (much of it cotton) to take back across the Atlantic.

Savannah is small enough to be comfortable but able to be contemporary if one wants.  There are miles of uncrowded beaches and open spaces less than a half hour away.  We spoke with several locals who were comfortable and proud of their city. Rightly so.

The Savannah Waving Girl.  Google it.

We are now a few miles north of Augusta in a COE campground on the shore of Lake Thurmond (or Thurmond Lake) which is behind Thurmond Dam across the Savannah River.  COE campgrounds are great.  Generally on a COE body of water.  Away from cities and traffic.  Big, level sites, often with water and electric. And, with NPS senior pass, half price. 

 

July 24, 2016

Charleston

No posting for a while.  Hasn’t been much really noteworthy.

Yesterday we arrived in Charleston area.  Spent the afternoon visiting a couple of quilt stores, several sweet grass basket makers, and Charles Pinckney NHS. 

Sweet grass basket making is a craft/skill/art form that came from Africa with the slaves and has been handed down for generations.  It seems to be pretty specific to this area.  Have not seen it anywhere else. Some pretty amazing basketry.

Charles Pinckney was a contributor to the drafting of the US Constitution and signed the final document.  His family had seven plantations in the area.  The NHS is on one of them.  House contains displays on Pinckney, some insights on drafting of Constitution, plantation life, and archeology.

Today we visited Fort Sumter.  Half hour boat ride from visitor center to island.  Time filled by very good narrative by ranger on history of fort before, during, and after the Civil War.  Approaching the fort is a bit underwhelming.  Nothing at all like pictures one sees of event that led to start of the Civil War.  Fort originally was a very imposing structure with 50’ walls bristling with canon ports.  War and time were not kind to the fort.  Walls are now one story high and even then one wall is replaced with wood.  The layout of the fort is intact and there are many descriptive and interpretive signs as well as a museum. 

Fort Sumter

Raising flag

Flag over Fort Sumter

Charleston as seen through Fort Sumter gun port.

 

Tourist

 

 

Center of picture is shell casing imbedded in inside of outer wall.  Shell cleared wall on other side and stuck inside far wall.

Fort Sumter as it looked prior to Civil War.

Longest cable supported bridge in country.  Cool to drive over.

USS Yorktown.  Highly decorated in WW II.  Last mission – retrieving Apollo VIII capsule.

We toured historic Charleston on foot and by car.  Wandered the Historic Market, walked the cobblestone streets of the French Quarter, saw many old churches and interesting old cemeteries, old buildings, and several quirky points of interest.

Very thin house

On the way back to carbus we detoured to see Angel Oak.  Wow!