Montgomery, Alabama 9-30

We are in Montgomery, Alabama. It is the state capital and the scene of many historical events. We drove all of 71 miles from Opelika on Thursday. Whew, tough day.

The RV Park is off the freeway, but you can’t see it because of lots of trees. It is also behind just about every fast food restaurant you can think of…cruel and unusual punishment! The sites are large and spacious and the park is mostly empty. The weather has been perfect. We are staying until tomorrow, when we’ll be heading into Mississippi.

When we got here on Thursday it was still early and we hemmed and hawed about going downtown to do some sight seeing. But we just decided to hang at home, do laundry and lots of nothing. It was a good decision because around one a Police Officer was shot during a traffic stop downtown and I suspect we would have been stuck down there for a long time. They had to hunt for the suspect. He turned up in Georgia yesterday. The Officer is in critical condition, they say his spinal cord was severed. A lot has changed in 40 years. When my father was slain it was front page, headline news and now you only hear about a cop being shot locally. Sad.

So yesterday we went to downtown Montgomery. We went to the Capital Building. It has been beautifully restored and has a beautiful double staircase and the dome is stunning. At the top of the outside steps are where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the President of the Confederacy and where the historic Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ended. The trompe l’oeil painting that has been done inside on the ceilings and walls was really nice and looking up at the dome was like looking into a kaleidoscope. The details were stunning.

Then we went over to the First White House of the Confederacy (Larry says the only one) that Jefferson Davis and his family lived in. It had been moved several blocks from its original location. It was a beautiful home with lots of period pieces and pieces that the Davis family actually owned and used. Its plaster is cracking and starting to fall off. I don’t know if they are going to restore or just preserve.

Today we are just kicking back again. I did some laundry and am catching up on my blog. Love this sunshine!

I've been two days trying to get this posted. It wouldn't let me put any more pictures on so I'll have to put the ones I took of the Davis house in another post! Hopefully!

Mail day 9-27

Today was a lovely mild fall day. We drove to the Post Office to get our mail, which was new pictures of Seth. Yay! Then we drove through Auburn and oohed at the beautiful college buildings. Then it was on into Opelika to Super Walmart to get produce and silicone spray and various other things. Back home it was just a crash and relax day. We only have a short drive tomorrow, we are going as far as Montgomery. The highway is really noisy here, lots of truck traffic.

Isn't he precious??????!!!!!!!!!

Opelika, Alabama 9-26

WESTWARD HO! We are now in Opelika, Alabama at Lakeside RV Park.

We did not spend much time in Georgia, no particular reason, just nothing cried out to us! As our windshield was once again bug free I got some pictures of Georgia from the truck. We could see some lovely vistas as we crested hills. Rolling hills covered in trees for miles. The leaves are just starting to turn. There are just no places to ever stop and rest when you aren’t on an interstate. We find old parking lots in some towns to pull out in, but it is always a challenge.

We traveled 136 miles today and as we didn’t have very many towns to wind through it went pretty fast. We left Cochran, GA. at 9:50 and landed in Opelika at 12:45. Then while we were trying to figure out the T.V. channels and show times we realized we had crossed over into the Central time zone. Up north there were signs telling us when we crossed time zones, but not down here. So we gained an hour!

We are right on the highway so it isn’t as peaceful as it looks, but the weather is wonderful! Low 80’s, sunny, clear skies and low humidity! Love it, love it! Lots of trees all around, but Larry was able to get a shot at the satellite through them. We are staying here two nights. Thirteen-fifty a night for full hook-ups and cable…Passport America again. We love ‘em.

More Georgia 9-25

Another lovely day. Sunshiny and warm. The last few days have all been in the 90’s with high humidity. No new photos, these are just random ones you haven't seen yet.

Last night we had a “suthern” supper. Fried catfish, hush puppies, french fries and our table overlooked a lovely little lake. The best part was the restaurant was just 50 feet from us…it was in the RV park.

We awakened this morning to the sound of acorns being thrown down on us by a mean squirrel. When it was time to pull in the slideouts Larry went up to sweep them off and the squirrel was yelling at him.

We headed out at ten and traveled 57 to 84 to 341 to 23. Reading the Georgia map is a trial, every highway has a minimum of 3 numbers and you get to the highway interchanges it is comical trying to read all the different numbers and arrows. I would just find the biggest town’s name and just head for it, it was easier that way! We got another coating of “lovebugs”. Larry was sore after washing the trailer-front 6 times yesterday trying to get the little superglue carcasses off…he was not looking forward to doing it again.

We found our destination, Hillside Bluegrass RV Park outside of Cochran, Georgia around 1:45. This RV park is 100 acres and pretty empty. They hold music festivals here and it is south of Macon, GA. It is another Passport America park and is $10 for full hook-ups. They gave us a nice open site so we could get satellite, it is heavily wooded here. We pretty much just saw pine trees today. All were man planted, they were in rows, logging seems to be a big industry right through here. We passed a couple of large mills. Saw a little cotton and houses were few and far between. We passed through a few good sized towns. We traveled 141 miles. AND Larry had to scrub the trailer front again. They are so difficult our decals were starting to come off while he was scrubbing.

Here is a piece of trivia for you. Larry was really surprised to see that Piggly Wiggly stores really exist. He had heard them talked about on “Mama’s Family” show and thought they were fictional. They are very abundant here in the east. I just love to say the name, just makes you smile! Larry went on the internet to find out about them and discovered that in 1916, Clarence Saunders opened the first Piggly Wiggly in Memphis, Tennessee. He revolutionized grocery shopping. Piggly Wiggly was the first true self-service market. Until that time clerks took your list and pulled things off the shelves for you. Piggly Wiggly had the first shopping carts, open shelves, no clerks to shop for you, check out stands and price marked every item. Now you know some grocery history!

The weather is real pleasant here. We took an after dinner walk for the first time in a couple months. No blood suckers, lower humidity and lovely sunshine. Life is Good!

Georgia 9-24

We had a short travel day. The interstate speeds things up, but they are all boring. We left at 10 and got into Townsend, Georgia at 1:15. We traveled highway 17 to I-95 down the coast of Georgia.

The most exciting discovery we had today was that South Carolina and Georgia have armadillos. We thought they were only in Texas. Now, mind you, the ones we did see were road kill, but hey, we learned something today!

We also learned about “lovebugs” today. They are flies (don’t look like flies) that fly around coupled most of their lives (takes 12 ½ hours to mate) and make it hell on cars during a couple spring and fall months down here while they fly around "loving". Our trailer was black with them and after reading that they excrete something after being squished and can etch car paint if they remain on the paint, Larry has been outside washing away. It is 92+ here and he will be dragging when he is done. He had to scrub the front of the trailer 6 times to get the bugs all off! These bugs get so thick along the interstates that they clog up vehicles radiators! They don’t bite or spread disease or anything, they are just annoying cause they land on you while you are outside. You’ll have to look them up on the internet to learn more if you want.

We traveled 137 miles today. When we left SC this morning it was almost 80 and 85% humidity, the low was 74. Tomorrow we start turning westward.

I got these photos of turtles yesterday at Drayton Hall. We wondered how the little guy enjoying the sun on the point of that log got up there! His little legs were stretched out in the air and he looked like he was pretending to fly!

Drayton Hall, Charleston, SC 9-23

Today we decided to see Drayton Hall. It was built between 1738 and 1742 and is the only plantation mansion along the Ashley River to have survived the Civil War intact. Two interior doors and a fireplace mantel are the only things missing from the structure of the mansion. It was family owned until it was purchased by the National Trust from the last surviving owner. This was written in the brochure: after seven generations, two great wars, and numerous hurricanes, and earthquakes, the main house remains in nearly original condition. It has never been modernized, no running water, electricity or central heating. Candles were the only source of light for all those generations! After the Civil War it wasn’t lived in permanently ever again. The family just used it occasionally.

The guided tour was wonderful and brought the house alive. The only other building remaining is the outhouse which is the small brick building in one of these photos. It reportedly had seven holes. Quite posh! You had free rein of the grounds to explore as you desired. The grounds were pretty devastated after Hugo seventeen years ago, but today you would never know it had ever happened.

The big oak that I’ve included here is over 300 years old. Larry looks miniature under it! It was old when the house was new!

The Ashley River was the main access to the house back in its hey-day. The roads were hellish. The view across the river almost changed in recent history when a developer planned on buying the land and building high rise buildings. The National Trust raised the money to buy the land so it will be preserved for future generations. It would have spoiled the historical feel so much!

We were standing on the upper level of the portico when this little green guy ran up above the doors. He looks like he was keeping his good eye on us all!

I forgot to mention the mansion’s architecture is Georgian Palladian and it is the oldest preserved plantation house open to the public in America. It was empty too, no furnishings or decorations. All the bricks were hand made; thousands! All the interior walls are brick too.

The oak in this picture was planted after Hurricane Hugo.


This picture below is the view of the house coming up from the river and was considered the front of the house.

Calhoun Mansion, Charleston, SC 9-22

The Calhoun Mansion was built in 1876 by a wealthy merchant. He spent $200,000 at the time and that was a huge amount of money then. The builder used a lot of things in his design that denoted wealth like the use of stone and brick. The rope motif around everything was the sign of a wealthy shipping merchant. It has 35 fireplaces, the wealthier you were the more fireplaces you put in to show off your wealth too. As I said in my earlier post it is 24,000 square feet, which makes it the largest house in historic Charleston.

It was due to be condemned in 1976 when a lawyer bought it for $200,000. A hundred years later he paid exactly what it had cost to build it. He lived in it while restoring it over 15 years to the tune of 5 million dollars. He decided to sell it and the present owner has owned it for three and a half years and lives in it.

The house and grounds are gorgeous and the history was interesting, but the fee was steep and you saw very little of the house. The reason for that supposedly was because the other rooms were being lived in, be that as it may, we felt kind of ripped off when we discovered how quickly the tour was finished.

The rooms we were allowed to peek in were packed with the current owners collections of stuff. I’ve said it before, just because people have tons of money, it doesn’t mean they have good taste!

I still enjoyed what I did see of the craftsmanship that went into the building of the house and the gardens were meticulously maintained and some of the treasures inside were beautiful.

I highly recommend Googling for reviews of things. It has helped us immensely, when we remember to do it!

Historic Charleston SC 9-23

We saw so much today, I would just confuse you all trying to get it all in! We went to Historic Charleston and I’ll try to keep the overview brief.

Charleston’s historic district has very narrow streets and the day before we had ran into some people that had just come through and they suggested parking at the Visitor’s Center and just walking everywhere. That’s what we did and it worked great. You wouldn’t really see much driving because of the traffic and peds.

The first estate we went to was owned by the Historic Charleston Foundation and they are into preservation, not restoration. The Aiken-Rhett house had been virtually unaltered since 1858 and it still had the stables, kitchen house and outbuildings. Most all the others in the area have all been torn down or converted into other uses over the years. Pictures were not allowed inside and the outside was all draped in scaffolding and sheeting so no pictures at all. Preservation means suspended in time, no painting or fixing up of anything is done. They do what is needed to maintain the integrity of the structure, but the paint and what may be left of wallpaper and carvings are just as they’ve been for decades and sometimes centuries!

It had been recommended by the people I had mentioned previously that we could see the best of the area by taking a carriage ride. We did that next and I took a lot of pictures! So many gorgeous homes, many restored and in stages of restoration. Several of the mansions gave tours and we did tour the Calhoun Mansion which was 24,000 square feet and is lived in by its current owner. The Calhoun is the largest and has quite a colorful history. It was facing the wrecking ball and is now completely restored and is still a single family residence. Some developer wanted to turn it into condos…crazy! I’ll put pictures of its outside and gardens in another post. No pictures were allowed inside.

We timed our lunch just right because after we came out of the restaurant, it was just finishing a very heavy downpour! We checked out a few shops and stopped for peach cobbler on the way back uptown to our truck…didn’t want to run out of steam of course!

On the way home we stopped at Costco and restocked our freezer and then did laundry after we got home. Just wanted to get everything done.

I am not going to try to identify all these pictures, this program doesn’t give me a lot of control dropping the pictures exactly where I want them and trying to label them will take too much time, especially if I want you to see them now versus a week from now! By then I would be buried under! We really enjoyed our tour of Charleston.

South Carolina 9-21

We left at 10. It took us awhile to get through Myrtle Beach, SC. That is a huge amusement/attraction filled area fronted by the Atlantic ocean. Lots of golfing related stuff and HUGE miniature golf places. It is definitely a vacation destination. It took us so long to get through the outer area we opted out of taking the business route through the heart of Myrtle Beach, too crazy with towing the trailer.

We were going by one of the historic plantations, Hampton Plantation so I called first to be sure we could get in there and park. It was built around 1750 as a six room farm house and by 1780 it became the mansion it is today with the addition of six rooms including a ball room. To me it just looked like a farmhouse with a big high ceilinged room that they called a ballroom. None of the rooms were particularly large or outstanding. It was impressive standing in something that has withstood so much history and in a place that George Washington had visited. This oak that I have a picture of was a baby tree when George visited this place in 1791. Harriet Horry, the owner, was talking of removing it because it blocked the view of the house and President Washington suggested she leave it and she did. This is it today. Huge. There are a lot of equally old oaks and big old magnolias too all over the place. This waterway was down behind the house that was lined with big old Camellias. There were hermit crabs skittering this way and that in the mud and I wanted their pictures but I was mosquito beverage and had to get moving.

The park has purposely left the mansion unfurnished and it is stripped down to its bones so people could see how it was built. It was interesting if you like to know how things are built and have an interest in historical building practices.

After that little detour we headed on to Charleston. We opted to take 526 around Charleston as 17 went right down through the historic part of the city with a lot of interchanges. The lights were timed so badly that we were glad to get on the freeway around it so Larry wouldn’t have to keep slamming the brakes on, the trailer wasn’t as tossed as I expected cause he had to lay on the brakes pretty good a couple times and Larry doesn’t speed.

We got into our new home around 3:30 and we had traveled 153 miles. We paid $2.70 for diesel and then several miles down the road we saw it $2.44. Rats. Right here where we are it is $2.47.

We took a walk after dinner and shockingly, nary a mosquito! It was a still, gorgeous evening with the serenading of the bugs. This park is quiet except for the train that seems to go by every half hour or so…ahh we’ve missed that sound so. Oops, they are getting closer together, there goes another one, hmmm, could be an interesting night.