Inspiration and Introspection (in a very minor way, of course)

I am chasing a the proverbial spring. When I left Montgomery, all the azaleas were drooping, dogwoods had lost their luster. Moving 150 miles north to Gadsden in northeastern Alabama, I have found spring again. Although my impression, based on very limited experience, is that Alabamans are not as showy as Georgians. If there is a hole in the landscape, Georgians will fill it with something that flowers profusely. Alabamans, not so much.

I read a lot of RV blogs. I get a lot of ideas about where to go, what to see from these blogs. I also get to know these fellow bloggers, in a literary sense. It seems that most of them have some sort of goal with their travels. There are the lighthouse fanatics, the aeronautic zealots, the pickleball enthusiasts. I have come to the conclusion, subject to change at any moment of course, that besides weird museums, my reason to be might just be waterfalls. A waterfall is a powerful force – there is no stopping it, yet the farther it falls, the lighter and frothier it gets. They are constantly changing, yet staying the same. I could sit for hours watching waterfalls.

So off I go to see Noccalula Falls, yet another waterfall where another Indian Maiden jumped to her death. I wonder how many Indian maiden legends there are that are tied to waterfalls. Noccalula Falls is an impressive 90 foot drop into a gorge. The city of Gadsden has done a great job by building a park around the falls. There are hiking trails, a wedding chapel and a miniature train that you can ride. The RV campground overlooks the falls and the gorge. Full Hookups, great WiFi – all for $21 a night. Originally I was just going to stay the one night, see the falls and skedaddle, but I ended up staying two nights. Good WiFi is a powerful draw.

 

Notice Indian Maiden on the right side all ready to jump

 

Looking down river

 

Actually, I found another Junior Ranger opportunity. Geez, sometimes I get so obsessed with things.

Somebody else evidently got a little obsessed with this Junior Ranger thing - Quite the inspiration

From the Little River Canyon National Preserve brochure:

It is one of the nation's longest rivers that forms and flows for most of its length atop a mountain. Then it plunges off the Cumberland Plateau at the head of Little River Canyon. The result is one of the most extensive canyon and gorge systems in the eastern United States and one of the South's clearest, wildest waterways.

Little River Canyon National Preserve was about an hour away and there was a waterfall. Imagine my surprise when I got to the visitor center and Miko was invited in to watch the movie with me and she also got a dog treat. Score! We saw the 45 foot tall waterfall and we drove about 25 miles down one side of the Gorge Rim. This gorge happened to be 600 feet tall in some places. It was a lovely day for a drive. Again, pictures don't do it justice.

 

 

A lovely waterfall

 

The gorge
 

Mushroom Rock - in the middle of the road

 

Montgomery At It's Finest

No matter how I struggle and strive, I'll never get out of this world alive.”   Hank Williams

Greetings from Montgomery, Alabama. I thought I should start heading north, maybe just a little bit. Not too fast – don't want to get into those freezing snow filled days. So I will just meander along.

I am staying at Gunter Hill Campground which is a great find. It is a Corp of Engineers Park. I have always like their parks. I'm not too sure what their mission is, but they build some really great campgrounds along rivers. Another plus is that since they are a national organization and I am a geezer, I get to camp here for half price. I am paying $9 a night. Inconceivable!!!! There are two sides to this campground – one side has just been redone with level cement slabs and full hookups. Of course it being the weekend, that side is completely packed. The side I'm on – the Antioch Loop is a lot more rustic. Gravel sites with just water and electricity which suits me just fine. The other side is more like Suburbia while my side is more like camping. Of course I am glamping but still - give me that woodsy private feel. I have now stayed here for three nights. All the weekend warriors have gone home and there are only a few other folks in the campground.

 

My view from my lawn chair

I've been busy though. I went downtown Montgomery on a Saturday which sort of reminds me of St. Paul on a weekend. You don't have to look right nor left when crossing the street. Hardly anybody around. My goal was the Hank Williams Museum, a rather pricey museum but an excellent museum. It cost $10 to get in – no photography allowed and if you needed to talk or text on your cell phone, you needed to come up front and be supervised.

 

Downtown Montgomery - just me and him hanging out

 

This museum was what a museum should be. It showed through its exhibits Hank's journey from a poor shoeshine boy into one of the most influential musicians of the current day. The exhibits showed birth certificate, contracts, 17 stage suits including Nudie (famous suit maker for the Opry), custom made boots, cowboy hats, tie collection, awards, furniture, portraits, records, horse saddle, rare film footage, piano, family history, lots and lots of photos and more! There was also a lot of space allocated to people he played with in his various bands. They had a few Grand Ol' Opry set lists which were interesting. For example: 7:00 – 7:30 five bands would play. 7:30 – 8:00 another five bands would play. It sort of boggles the mind how quick they would have to move people around to make this all happen. It was fun seeing on these set lists from the early fifties, many names that I had actually heard of. They also had the 1952 Baby Blue Cadillac in which Hank “took his final journey on Jan 1, 1953” plus the blue jump suit he was wearing when he died. In fact, they had most of the personal contents from the car (suitcase, overcoats, gun, etc) on that fateful day.

I then got walking directions to the “life size” Hank Williams bronze statue. Since I couldn't take any pictures of the paraphernalia in the museum, I figure I had better walk over there. It may have been life size but all his limbs certainly didn't seem to be to scale.

I then had directions to go see his and Audrey's(wife) grave. Got to the cemetery and got totally lost so I called it a day. I couldn't spend a lot of time looking for the graves because my next sight to see was closing at 3 and it was already 2:00. I scurried over to the F. Scott and Zelda Fitgerald Museum which was a house where they lived in Montgomery(Zelda came from Montgomery). The Fitzgeralds only lived in this house as a family for about six months.

 

 

When I told the tour guide that I was from St. Paul, she wanted to know all about the Fitzgerald houses in St. Paul and wanted to know why St. Paul did not make a bigger deal about the Fitzgeralds since St. Paul had such a big influence on F. Scott. I vaguely remember seeing his house on Summit Avenue but did not have enough details to make my tour guide happy. Oh well.

I watched the movie which was great because I only had cursory knowledge about the Fitzgeralds and the short documentary helped pull together many of the facts of their lives. The young tour guide stayed past closing time to give me my own personal tour. She was very enthusiastic about her subject. There was not anything said about the house itself. The house was more of a vehicle to present the life details rather than how they used the house. Each room had displays laid out by year. 1931, this happened; 1932, this happened. Lots of photos, lots of personal letters. I felt rather badly about my tour guide having to stay late, so I didn't spend near enough time looking at all of the exhibits. I came away much more impressed by Zelda than F. Scott. The woman had severe mental illness, which caused hospitalization many times over her life, yet, she was an artist in her own right. From designing paper dolls to her Georgia O'Keefe influenced stage to finding her own voice. The docent said that she was diagnosed as a bi-polar schizophrenic and her paintings would show what stage she was in. When she was depressed,her paintings were very somber and dark. When she was happy, the paintings just exploded with color. The docent said that Zelda was responsible in some ways for the introduction of art therapy in the treatment of mental illness because the doctors studied Zelda and her art extensively during her hospitalizations.

The House

I'm a little bummed.  There is one museum that I will not get to see.  It is the Mooseum.  It is a museum sponsored by the Alabama Cattlemen's Association and it is all about one of my favorite creatures....The Cow!!!  I am just going to have to put it on my list for the next time I come through this way

Should I Worry?

I didn't quite leave the coast.  I stayed a couple of days at Crooked River State Park.  It is down in the almost farthest southeastern section of Georgia that you can get.  I think that if I had stood up, I could have seen Florida from my campsite.  Originally, the plan was to go to the Cumberland Island National Seashore but since I've sworn off oceans for a bit, I'm just camping.  This park is really nice - long private sites.  I am in the middle of a Palmetto forest.  There are a few hiking trails that Miko and I explore but we are basically just hanging out. 

View out my side door

Miko in a contemplative mood overlooking the salt marshes

One of the trails - can't get much flatter than this

Drove to the Tallahassee area of Florida. I'm just passing through. I found a little county park on the west side of Tallahassee where I could stop for a night. COE Landing. It is on the Ochlockonee River. I asked for a pull thru site since I was only going to be there for one night and lucked out in that I got one with my own private deck overlooking the river. Of course on the back side of the RV was the campground road which was only about 10 feet away. That is ok – I had a deck. We were right next to the boat launch area and Miko and I walked over to check it out. There were several signs saying “Buzzards will ruin your vehicle” and then there was a pole with a rubber buzzard hanging upside down on it. Strange.

 

My Deck overlooking Ochlockonee River

I get woken up at about 6:00 the next morning by something that sounded like an airplane engine right outside my door. Turns out that air boats are a big deal on the Ochlockonee River and those fisher people like to start early. Ok, I'm up. I pull open my front curtains and what do I see? I'm not sure if they are buzzards or vultures, but there was one right in front of my rig. Then there were two, three – no a whole flock of them all sitting there staring in at me. Perhaps they know something I don't?

These guys are really really big birds

Bugs

Today is a sad day. Lou and Davey are heading north and I am going south. We have been convoying for three weeks and it is time for each of us to move on.

Each year, after not using the RV for a few months, something is always bound to go wrong – something will not work. Davey has been my hero. He has that keen engineer's eye where he can just look at something and say – why aren't you doing this this way? – something that I would never have thought of. For example - I was having a lot of trouble with my tow bars – it was getting really hard to get my towed car disconnected. Davey says “Do this” and it is like a miracle – it is so easy now to disconnect my car. Sometimes I have some mechanical issue and Davey just walks into the RV and it is magically fixed. How does he do that?

Lou – she has special talents also – besides keeping me extremely well wined and dined, she pushed me onward. I probably would have chickened out on the zip line activity if she hadn't pushed me. She always made us walk the extra mile and made sure we knew what we were seeing as we wandered on.

Starting to sound sort of like a eulogy for these two folks so I will stop. It will be a big adjustment for me. It was great fun but as they say – Onward.

I headed south down I95 which is the main thoroughfare between Florida and New England. There are so many RVs heading north that I decided to count them. I took three samples – how many RVs would I pass in a three mile area. The answer – between 12 and 14. That is a huge number when you think about it.

I have been having a hard time finding places to stay. Every RV park has been full. Spring Break so that every park is full of families. And then there are the snowbirds who are starting their migration north. I wanted to hang out in Charleston for a bit, but every park I called was full until the middle of April. Ok, skip Charleston. Let's move on to Savannah. Same story there. No room at the inn.  I was a little bummed because even though I have been to both Charleston and Savannah in the past, they are beautiful cities and well worth spending a great deal of time in.

I got the very last spot in Colleton State Park in South Carolina. I could only stay there for one night because somebody else was coming in the next day. Nice park – it is right along the Edisto River and had some nice ( I think) trails – the trails I tried to walk were all under water and I really didn't feel like strolling through the muck.

I am now down on Blythe Island in Georgia. This is a regional park and the sites are amazing. My pull through site could easily fit three long RVs end to end. Lots of trees, lots of foliage. Each site is rather private. I have somebody from Minnetonka, Minnesota on my left side and somebody from Brainerd Minnesota on my right side. Beautiful trails and a beautiful park. Bad things are that it is super expensive and the Wi-Fi sucks. Oh well. I have wheels and will move on eventually.

I needed to go to Fort Frederica – on my list of National Places to visit. I also wanted to do another Junior Ranger – The National Park Service has unleashed a Junior Ranger monster, I tell you.

First, a little bit about the fort. This was a British fort that was built in the 1730s as protection against the Spanish. This particular part of now Georgia was a disputed region between the British and the Spanish. Since that time, the surrounding town and the fort has pretty much completely disappeared and has become a great favorite site for archaeologists.

This Junior Ranger program was pretty cool – they give you a haversack filled with articles that you need to complete all the Junior Ranger assignments. There was a spy glass, a old compass, a protractor and several maps. You had to figure out how far the cannons could fire on the river – deliver messages to various pretend town people and a whole series of other tasks. Whoever designed the Fort Frederica program really went out of their way to try to engage kids. I now have badge #2(I lost my Congaree National Park badge someplace – probably in the Congaree swamp) proudly displayed in the RV.

 

That moss can make anything look creepily majestic

 

This is all that is left of the fort and it is just the arms magazine

But they had a nice view of the river - that is a cannon in the lower right

All that is left of the town - the trees were not there though

Since I am so close to the ocean, Miko and I went over to Jekyll Island. You have to pay $6 to even get on the island and the we drove around the whole island. I was looking for Driftwood Beach which was listed on various websites as one of the most beautiful places on the island. It is also a dog friendly beach. We arrive just about sunset, the wind has died and the biting gnats have come out in droves. I am walking with one hand on the leash with a wave-crazed dog on the other end, talking to Tony on the phone and had absolutely no hands free to try to stay bug free. My ankles and wrists, my neck and hairline are all covered in itchy red welts.

The worst part is that Miko, in her wave mania, swallowed a ton of salt water. I had no idea that this was rather toxic to dogs. I pull her out of the water after about fifteen minutes, get in the car and start home. Me with a zillion bites and Miko throwing up half the Atlantic Ocean in the back seat. When we get home, I read up on what to do with dogs who have ingested salt water and they say that you should give her as much fresh water as she can drink because the salt has now made her severely dehydrated. Well, once she drinks a ton of water, that needs to be thrown up also. It was a long night but Miko seems to have recovered and is back to her old self.  Myself - I'm still scratching.

I am now not fond of the ocean in any shape or form. I'm leaving this place and heading inland. Enough of this sea to shining sea crap. I shall admire all future oceans from afar.

 

  

The beach

 

 

Besides this, there was only one other piece of driftwood at Driftwood Beach....well,Ok, then.

 

Boll Weevils and Topiary

We seem to move pretty fast. Again, we need to slow it down but circumstances just seem to keep us “movin on”. We move on to a small little town called Bishopville. There must be something in the water because this town has quite a few rather “different” sights to see.

We started off with the South Carolina Cotton Museum. You could touch cotton, all the way from the seed cotton to bales of cotton to cotton yarn. The museum explained the growing process – showing planting tools through the centuries; the harvesting process – weighing the cotton, bills of sale; carding and weaving the cotton. I was especially interesting in the looms that were there – everything from an old barn loom to looms that were used in the mills to produce thousands of yards of cotton in a single day.

 

 

 

Of course they needed mules to plant and harvest cotton

 

Of course we all know what Guano is - who knew it was used as a fertilizer

And of course the dreaded boll weevil - the cotton scourge.  The actual size of a boll weevil is only 1/4 inch

Of course the highlight of the museum was the Lizard Man. Back in the 1980s, a young man was driving along the backroads outside of Bishopville. He got a flat tire and stopped in a rather deserted area to change the tire. While changing the tire, he was attacked by a seven foot tall Lizard Man with glowing red eyes. He lived to tell his tale and local law enforcement officials took his story very seriously. They had casts of Lizard Man's footprints to look at and also Lizard Man t-shirts to sell.

We also tried to go to the Button King Museum. Again, back in the eighties, this man had a terrible case of insomnia. To pass the late night hours he started sewing buttons on things. Then he started gluing buttons. He glued buttons on his casket and also glued buttons on a hearse so he would be ready to go when the time came. Alas, after driving way out in the country and finally finding a metal Quonset Hut , there was nobody home to let us into the Button Museum. A missed opportunity.

I think something strange happened in Bishopville in the eighties. We have Lizard Man and the Button Museum happening. 1980 is also when Pearl Fryar bought a cornfield and after a three minute topiary demonstration in a garden center started going nuts with topiary. I walked into this garden and was awed, amazed and just filled with joy. Everywhere you looked was something to make you smile.

Most topiary gardens that you see are in the shapes of animals or teapots. Not Pearl's garden. His topiary is free flowing and surprising. He also branched out and started creating metal sculptures to add to his garden. As we were walking around the house and garden, Pearl himself came out and talked to us. He told us that he grew up in a sharecropper family where he would get beaten for being creative and making things out of found objects. He now gives lectures at universities and has a positive outlook on life. Bishopville is sort of out of the way – actually it is way out of the way, but Pearl's garden is something really worthwhile to see.  These pictures are just a small sample of what he has in his ex-cornfield.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And We Lived To Tell The Tale

The golf carts were too much for me – I just couldn't handle all that cruisin' going on. We moved farther northeast to a state park called Sesque-Centennial. It took me three days to figure out how to say the name of this park. Really a nice state park, lots of trees and space between the sites. I was in Site #36 (just in case I ever come back, it is good to note a good campsite)

The main reason to come here is to give Lou a chance to also become a Junior Ranger. She has the opportunity to do it big time because we aren't going to some little monument or historical park. We are going to a "National Park". Congaree is the only National Park in South Carolina. It was established in 2003.

Congaree is “the largest tract of old-growth hardwoods in North America. Located in the floodplain of the Congaree and Wateree rivers, the park is known for its outsized trees – loblolly pines, oaks, cypress, hickory, tupelo and bald cypress – that form one of the highest canopies in the world.”  from Chimani website.

Since this park is in a floodplain and floods all the time, the park has built a 2 ½ mile long boardwalk. Best part is that we got to take Miko along for a boardwalk walk. Before we started out though, we had to pick up our Junior Ranger workbooks and also had to watch the short movie on the park. Dogs are not allowed in the building so I was just going to wait outside while Davey and Lou watched the movie. All of a sudden, Davey is sneaking Miko and me into the back of the theater. Sometimes his philosophy of asking forgiveness instead of asking for permission pays off. Miko was cool and very inconspicuous, she lay down with her head under one of the chairs. As the end credits rolled, Miko and I snuck out under the cover of darkness.

 

After checking the Mosquito Meter, we headed out on the boardwalk. Lots of big trees, lots of cypress knees, lots of brackish looking water, lots of upturned ground where the wild pigs had dug up. Lou read to us from the informational brochure so we were well educated.

 

The Boardwalk and yes, it was as tilty as it looks

There are Water Tupelos - their bases swell with water when it floods - the moss shows how high the water gets

Swampy Stuff

Then the day turned on us. Part of the boardwalk was closed so we had to go across country. We missed the turnoff that we were supposed to take and ended up walking through some trails that seemed to go on and on forever and forever. Davey was calling it a death march. There were some other lost souls on the trail and there were other people on the trail who claimed to know where they were, but it was all lies. 

We eventually decided to turn around and retrace our steps back to familiar territory. We finally saw a couple of park rangers in their natural habitat who helped us get back to the visitor center. I think we were out there for about four hours when it should have only been an hour and half. All is well though - Lou got her first Junior Ranger badge. We rolled on home, put our feet up and celebrated the fact that we had survived.

 

Notice Lou's shiny badge

 

Ninety Six

Where to go? Where to Go? Ah – South Carolina – just a five minute drive away. Sounds good.

We head for a tiny little town called Ninety Six. Supposedly the town was called this because it is 96 miles from Charleston and also 96 miles from a major Cherokee village. It is also where the Ninety Six National Battlefield is. Great – another battlefield. Not my favorite place to visit but if one is a completist and needs to see all the National sites, one has no choice but to visit another (*^&%^% battlefield.

Ninety Six is one of the lesser National Sites in terms of visitation. Only about 65,000 people visit each year. It is a little bit out of the way, which might explain it. Also, it is a battlefield which in itself explains the lack of interest. Sorry, my prejudices are showing through.

Ok, I can admit when I'm wrong. This was really interesting. Revolutionary War – British have built a star shaped fort. Nathaniel Greene comes along and commences the longest siege of the Revolutionary War. It lasts for about a month. General Greene is not just sitting around though, waiting for the British to give up. Nope – he is busy having his men digging trenches. He starts out about 70 feet from the fort but that is too close so he backs up a bit. The first trench is parallel to the fort so I guess that is why they called them Parallels. Then they dig some zig-zag trenches called Saps to connect to the second closer Parallel. Sort of like little ants, building their tunnels creeping ever closer to the fort. One dark night, the Patriots built a thirty fort tall tower so they could shoot down into the Star Fort. So the British added more sandbags on the top of their fort walls. The Patriots tried to dig a tunnel to go under the fort walls but that proved unsuccessful. It goes on and on. It was like slow motion warfare. Eventually the Patriots gave up and left, then the British also left burning the fort and the town. It was a pleasant day and we could take Miko on the battlefield grounds which is always nice.

 

Replica of the 30 foot tower that the Patriots built

 

More flowers

 

We stayed in Lake Greenwood State Park. We had a couple of wonderful sites overlooking the pines and the lake. Weather is beautiful. What was the problem with this place? Evidently South Carolina has it's Spring Break the week after Easter and Lake Greenwood was packed. The really unique feature of this park is that they allow golf carts. Every single camper seems to have a golf cart. Back in the late sixties, the big thing for teenagers to do in Minneapolis was to cruise Lake Street – up and down the street – checking out all the other teens cruising. Carloads of girls. Carloads of boys. Well, here at Lake Greenwood cruising is done by golf carts. Golf carts loaded with girls. Golf carts loaded with boys. There were golf cart traffic jams. It would be pretty funny if I weren't such a curmudgeon. At least golf carts are electric and quiet so that was a positive.

 

Local Dog Park - Miko loved hanging out up top