February Recap

From Miami to Chattanooga, through FL, GA, SC, NC, SC, GA, and TN (when we take the back roads we usually aren't following a straight line), we went 1450 miles – less than 52 miles a day.   Got regular gasoline as low as $1.81 and diesel as low as $1.79.

Dean got to keep his mind active when we had a combination of RV "issues" occurring while visiting Laurie's aunt.   The incoming AC power transfer switch only half-switched.   Of course, it was 28 degrees out and we were looking forward to using an electric heater.   Then the charger went into an error mode, we guess, and didn't charge anymore on generator power (we were dry camping).   And finally, the jacks didn't retract.   Dean cleaned the contacts on the transfer switch, the charger seems to have fixed itself (for now), and working through the jack troubleshooting manual, we came to "if nothing happens, you need a new shuttle valve".   And that's what it was.   Of course, getting the jacks up required pumping hydraulic fluid out of the system.   Fun and games.   My hero, mechanic Dean.

The Battles at Chickamauga and Chattanooga

This route took us through Chattanooga. We expected the town to really work the Chattanooga Choo-Choo angle but found only the Holiday Inn got with the program.

Again we got involved with learning of the Civil War battles in that area, the strategies and the reasons for them.

Near Chattanooga, TN, we visited the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, Civil War battlefields.

They've placed 1,400 monuments and historical markers at the places where all the various U.S. and Confederate battalions were. (Same as Gettysburg.) 58,000 U.S. troops; 66,000 Confederate. Casualties were near 30% for each side.

 The Union troops had occupied Chattanooga, and the Confederates wanted them out as Chatt was a key transportation center for rail and water. A big battle ensued on a couple of farmer's fields and a wooded area east of town. The Feds held them off for the first day, and spent the night cutting trees and making "firing positions". The Confederate Commanding General planned a before-dawn attack on the left side of the U.S. position, but his instructions to the general at that position never got delivered! They finally got around to it at 9:30, and by then the Feds had finished their fortified firing positions, and cut the Confederates down like hay. (Remember, the standard way of fighting in both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War was to just have your troops STAND and fire at the other guys, who were standing and firing at you.) The Feds also had a seven-shot repeater rifle that could shoot three times as fast as the Confederate muskets could be reloaded.

But then, the Fed Commanding General got an erroneous message that one of his battalions was out of position, and that there was a gap in his defensive line. So, he ordered the battalion next to the "missing" battalion to move over, thus creating an actual gap. By luck, a Confederate group was just starting a charge, and simply walked through the hole. The Feds had to retreat back into the city.

So, around here, the story is that the Feds were "routed in disarray", but they were routed back into the city, whereas, the "winners" were sitting in the dirt in October-November. And in November, the reinforced Union charged the two hills on which the Confederates sat (The Battle of Chattanooga and the Battle Above the Clouds) and sent the rebels packing (to Georgia).

We've seen before, and commented many times, about the lack of communication that plagued the commanders in the Revolutionary and Civil wars. With radios, recon planes, satellites, and all our current goodies, we can't appreciate how "blind" those guys were.

And another thing we have noted before and re-discovered in the last few weeks: The South still isn't sure it lost the war. And for sure, by gosh, they think they had the right idea when they seceeded.

The final Civil War battle for Chattanooga took place in several different places. One of these was atop Lookout Mountain. During the time of the battle in late November, the clouds were low covering the top of the mountain. This battle was called the "Battle Above the Clouds".

We could appreciate the weather conditions they had during the battle, while we visited we couldn't even see 100 feet ahead of us while driving. As steep as this mountain is, what a terrible job to climb to the top to attack.

SEE ROCK CITY

Of course, I wanted to "See Rock City" while in Chattanooga. "See Rock City" was painted on the roofs of 900 barns starting in 1936 as part of an advertising ploy to get folks to come up to the area and buy land in a new housing development. Rock City became a tourist destination in itself.

We have seen a number of SEE ROCK CITY barns in our travels in the south. The day we went to visit, Rock City was in the clouds and rain. They offered to let us tour the City and knock off $2 a head. It wouldn't have been crowded. They had no customers for the day!

Now Where?

Decided we'd like to finish the rest of the 440 miles of the Natchez Trace Parkway.   How to get there without going where we been before and stay on "blue" roads?

Our selection took us through the foothills of the Appalachian chain.   Up and down.   Up and down.   Since the hills all go NE to SW direction and we were headed west we went up and down.

We traveled along the Ocoee (Oko-E) river and found another site used during the 1996 Summer Olympics.   This was a quarter-mile of the river, with "enhanced" white water rapids for that event.   How far afield the Olympic events were.  This site is 100 miles from Atlanta and 350 miles from the sailing events in Savannah.

Charleston, South Carolina

After a fiasco at the non-"helpful" Visitor Center (which was in the process of rebuilding with nothing open – hard time even finding an entrance open – with no information available….."they'd be ready during tourist season") we headed downtown, shoved all our coins in the meter and hiked around.

Beautiful architecture. Charleston started preserving their homes in the 1800's, whereas in Savannah, they didn't until 1955.

Learned about "tenements" – original meaning was any home with more than one family, ie, apartment. Learned about "single" and "double" houses. "Single" houses were only one room wide. They ran perpendicular to the street, with no doors, and sometimes even no windows, on the street side. Entry was at the side, where they had a piazza porch the full length of the house at each story. Each room opened onto the porch or onto another room. No halls.

"Double" houses had a hall through the middle with rooms opening off left and right. The house entry faced the street as did the first room on each side.

Seen along the highway in S. Carolina: A homeowner, whose home sat way back in the trees, had a fifteen-foot cross in his front yard, next to the road. On the horizontal part of the cross was neatly printed "Jesus Christ". On the vertical part was printed "Died for our sins". Brought a lump to your throat, although the effect was somewhat diminished by the satellite TV antenna attached to the top of the cross!

We've never traveled the south during the "green" time for the Kudzu bush. We've just heard the horrors of the vine taking over. We can appreciate the damage it can cause by seeing the areas affected by it.

AUNT MARGIE'S, North Carolina: Stopped to see Laurie's Aunt Margie at the beach east of Wilmington, NC. Good catch-up visit. She's having a hard time with arthritic pain and we were able to get some chores done for her including hanging new drapes in the living room and dining room.

FREIGHTLINER: As long as we were traveling the east coast we took the AMZN.BUS to get some nice Preventative Maintenance at her birthplace. It's nice to get the work done by the folks who build the chassis.

Savannah, Georgia

Fifteen miles south of Savannah, GA we stayed at a nice state park. It is the site of Ft. McAllister, an earthen "fort" that was built (and defeated) during the Civil War.

We also toured Ft. Pulaski, east of Savannah. A brick (7 feet thick!) fort that was built by the U.S. between 1829 and 1846.

It had never been manned, and the Confederates "confiscated" it in 1861. In April, 1862, it was defeated in 30 hours, because the Union army had developed rifled cannon, which shredded the brick walls that "ball" cannon fire had only bounced off previously.

In reading about Pulaski, we found that it was one of 30 forts built for protection of the entire eastern seaboard. Lo and Behold! The layout and structure was virtually identical to Ft. Pickens, the Fort at the park that we tried to get into near Pensacola. It must have been one of the 30. The literature says all thirty are still standing. (Don't think we'll have to see them ALL.)

A lot has changed in Savannah since we were last there. Many big box hotels have been built right in the historical downtown river section. We assume that was for their part in the 1996 summer Olympics.

We think the downtown has lost a lot of it's charm. There are still the 25 park squares scattered through downtown.

Timing and rain kept us from hiking the city this time. Another reason to visit again.

Final Thoughts on Florida

Lots of things built to blow down in hurricanes, like porches, carports and signs.   We finally figured out that the blown-out billboards we were seeing alongside the roads were built that way: The outer three feet or so is solid; the inside is just a bunch of 1 X 4's fastened in a grid on which the sign itself is fastened. When the BIG wind comes, the center of the sign blows out, but the frame itself is OK.   They just replace the grid and paste on a new sign.   We did see a few where the entire sign was tipped over, but most had only the center blown out.

Enjoyed the roads of Florida.   Many of their backroads have green grass shoulders firm enough for our big rig to drive on, if necessary.   Something we could probably never do in wet western Washington.   Guess the limestone just below the surface in most of Florida allows them to do that.

Florida drivers were mostly ok.   Only bad habit was that they would pull out in front of you.   We finally figured out that they had a formula: If the oncoming vehicle is going 50 miles per hour, you can pull out in front of him as long as he's more than 50 feet away.   If he's going 30, you can pull out 30 feet in front of him.   Pretty simple.

Blue Springs State Park

Saw more manatees.  

Had a great day a Blue Springs State Park where we saw about 15 manatees.  

We want to camp in this park next time.  

We found that in the cool of the morning – just after dawn,

all the manatees in the area are in these springs.  

They had counted over 100 the morning we were there.

Heading North in Florida

Dear friends:
Think we are headed back but you'll have to look closely to see if we are truly making any progress west!

We spent a lot of time in February visiting friends and relatives.   We managed to stay away from big cities and tourist traps.   Both of us caught colds.   Harrumph!   We expect that if the Florida weather had been warm as advertised instead of sometimes stormy, sometimes frigid winds, and sometimes freezing we would not have succumbed.   Bah humbug!

Heading North in Florida

Dean got his air museum "fix'" for the month at the Fantasy of Flight museum.   Lots and lots of spare parts for WWII piston aircraft.   The owner of the museum will trade parts with other collectors, working toward making all the planes in his collection operable.

We camped on the shores of Lake Okeechobee and are amazed at how much growth there is in these shallow bodies of water.   Instead of looking across a vast expanse of the lake (approx 30 miles each direction), we could see up waterways crowded with reeds and trees.   A look at a chart of the lake shows specific marked channels but don't expect to go waterskiing.

We drove past many commercial nurseries in the Miami area, through sugar cane country near Lake Okeechobee, and finally up to citrus groves in Orlando and fresh strawberries in the Plant City area (in February, no less).   Tomatoes at 49 cents a pound and wonderfully juicy Honeybell Tangelos.