Atlanta - Carter Library

Today, we start the trek home.  We headed for Atlanta to have a stop at the Carter Library. What was surprising was how quickly Carter rose in politics, after he figured out that he could make a bigger contribution to the world by being a politician rather a naval officer. He ran for State Senate and won, serving two terms, then ran for Governor lost the first time, but won the second. And from there ran for President in 1976. His biggest accomplishments were the Israel-Egypt peace accord. This accord was negotiated at Camp David without Menachem Begin or Anwar Sadat ever negotiating directly over the course of 12 Days. He also negotiated for the return of the Iranian captives, which happened on the day Regan became President. 

Camp David Peace Accord

Of course, his biggest accomplishments were after his Presidency. The Carter Center started by encouraging and monitoring free elections in new democracies, worked to cure the common illnesses in 3^rd world countries, and helped with relief efforts in these same countries. For this work, Carter received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Nobel Peace Prize. In the evening, we had dinner with Bob and Lisa Biagoni in downtown Roswell, GA. They really have a nice downtown with lots of restaurants. Bob and I were both EE students at Illinois Tech and fraternity brothers. (The only fraternity brother with whom I still have regular communication.) We stayed that night at the Atlanta-Marietta RV Park. This is an older park with very small sites and poor WiFi. 

Presidential Medal of Freedom for the Carters

Charleston - Magnolia Plantation and Charles Town Landing

House at Magnolia Plantation

We headed to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, the oldest continuous public garden in the U.S. We started at the house which is the 3^rd on this property.  This was originally a rice plantation (the primary cash crop before the civil war). The first mansion was made with British bricks, but it burned. The bricks were used in a smaller 2^nd home.  The current home is built on the foundation of the 2^nd home which was destroyed by Sherman’s army in the Civil War. It started as a simple 4 room lodge, but has been expanded over the years. It is still in the family of the original owners. After our tour, we visited the romantic gardens. Rather than formal gardens, these gardens tie into the natural scenery around the plantation. Unique to this garden, was a biblical garden, built of the plants that are mentioned in the old and new testaments. Of course, these gardens would be most spectacular in spring with their azaleas and gardenias (though this year was disappointing because of an early warm spring, followed by freezing weather). But there were many flowers along the paths as well as deep wood forests. Bridges cross the many lakes on the grounds. We saw quite a few cranes and a few alligators on our walk. With the heat and humidity we were glad for our lunch break in the shade.

Strolling the Gardens

In the afternoon, we went to the Charles Town Landing State Park. This is the site of the original South Carolina colony. They’ve done their best to recreate the history as determined by the archeological digs. The Visitor Center did a great job of explaining the founding of the settlement. The original landowners, their servants, and slaves took 4 months to reach Barbados, where they learned about sugar plantations, which was the cash crop there. They continued on to find Carolina, but through mistakes, storms, and bad luck, it took another 5 months and two of the three ships were lost. They found Charles town 12 miles inland from the ocean, primarily for protection (fear of the Spanish who controlled Florida.) Even before they planted any crops they built a stockade and mounted cannons around it. Without the help of the friendly Indians, many would have starved. The climate was too cold, so what would be their cash crop? The first crop turned out to be timber. Barbados had been stripped of its forest, so they needed timber for fuel and building. Ships would take timber from Carolina, ship sugar and rum to New York, and cattle would be shipped to Carolina. After 20 years, the town was moved to Charleston on the harbor for easier shipping, and the land around the river became one of many plantations, most of which planted rice, and after the Civil War, cotton. The park has recreated the stockade, several feet from the original, which can be seen as a darker strip of soil. They’ve recreated typically housing and a cargo ship. It was quite interesting. They also have a plantation garden and a zoo of typical animals from this region. But we were pretty whipped after walking the historical trail.

Charles Town Landing

Historic Charleston

Typical House with side Portico

We did a walking tour of Charleston today. Most of the houses here were built in the 1700s. The old town is on a peninsula, so the houses are designed to be cooled by the winds that go from East to West. This places most of the porticoes on the side of the house, rather than facing the street to catch that breeze and the shade. The shutters on the first floor are solid to keep out the dust, while those on upper floors are louvered to let that breeze in. Most of these houses have beautiful gardens in the back yard. Houses are either single or double wide, that is one room or two rooms wide to let the air flow through the house. We also saw earthquake bolts on many of the houses, these were used to stabilize the house after the magnitude 7 earthquake of 1886.

 

Heyward-Washington House

We visited several of the houses: The Heyward –Washington House was built for Thomas Heyward, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Here we saw several beautiful mahogany pieces including a chest of drawers that could be un-stacked for traveling. The house added the name Washington after George Washington stayed in the house in 1891. A painted glass portrait adorns one of the fireplaces.

Edmonton-Alston House

The Edmonton-Alston house was originally built in 1825 in Federalist style, but the owner lost his fortune in the Panic of 1837. Charles Alston transformed it into a Greek revival house and it is still owned by a descendant of Alston. Confederate Generals watched the bombardment of Fort Sumter from its portico. The largest house in Charleston is the Calhoun house, built in 1876, and consisting of 35 rooms. The house was a gilded age house and sported objects from around the world. The house was sold and converted to other uses until recently. Today’s owner has his own collection of objects which filled each of the lower rooms. He bills the house as a museum, but you could only do a tour of the two lower floors, and barely got a chance to see each of these objects. Most impressive was some of the original wood work of the home as well as the Tiffany chandeliers. We tried to tour the Dock Street Theatre, but a show was about to start. Across the street was the Huguenot Church the last French Protestant church in the country. Its simple interior was a real change to the opulence of the many homes we saw.

Charleston - Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter

It’s only about a 2 hour drive from Savannah to Charleston. We arrived in plenty of time to take the 2:30 boat to visit Fort Sumter.  On December 20^th, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Six days later Major Robert Anderson moved his 85 man garrison into the still uncompleted Fort. The Fort had been built in the middle of the Charleston Harbor on an artificial island. It was strategically located, one mile from Fort Moultrie on one side of the harbor and one mile from Fort Johnson on the other, allowing the canons of the day (which could accurately shoot one mile) to control the harbor. 

Controlling the Harbor

On April 11, 1861 the first shots of the civil war were fired here as the confederate forces fired into the Fort for 34 hours straight. Major Anderson surrendered largely because he was out of food and water, for the fort was strong enough that no one was killed. The confederates took over the Fort. On April 7^th, 1863 nine armored Union vessels headed into the harbor in an attempt to retake the fort. Technology had changed when the rifled canon had been invested in 1863, far more accurate than simple cannon balls. Five Federal ships were disabled by the cannons. Having failed to take the Fort by ship, the Union army began firing shells every day for over 20 months. The walls of the Fort which once were 50 feet high were severely reduced and damaged, but during the entire time only 52 soldiers were killed. With the advance of General Sherman, the confederates abandoned the Fort to help General Lee in Virginia, surrendering the Fort on February 17^th, 1865. Today, as we visited the Fort, the walls are only about 1/3 of their original height and the center of the Fort in dominated by a black colored battery built in 1898 to defend the Harbor during the Spanish-American War. This battery served through World War II. The commentary while traveling to and from the island provided a lot of the history of Charleston and the Fort. That was supplemented by two brief ranger talks at the Fort. The first talk focused on how the technology of war changed during the civil war, not only rifled cannons, but ambulances, trench warfare, the red cross, and the roots of the Geneva convention occurred during this war. The second on the Union attempt to recapture the Fort. The Oak Plantation Campground is large, and well-kept as well as close to all the tourist sights, but once again the Wi-Fi is not very good. 

Cannon Placment

Savannah

Lafayette Square in Savannah

Savannah was founded in 1732 by James Edward Oglethorpe. What is unique is that the original town was laid out in wards, comprising of 8 blocks. A public square was in the center with government or church buildings in one direction from the square and 2 blocks of housing in the other direction. By 1851, the city had grown to include 24 of these wards. It really makes for a picturesque city with so much greenery in the historic part of town. We took the hop-on, hop-off bus to see the city and made 3 stops. The first was the Massie Heritage Center. Peter Massie bequeathed $5000 to create a school for the poor of the city. The school opened in 1856 and served until 1974. Upstairs in the museum is a replica of an 1800’s classroom. The museum also has a detailed exhibit of the City plan, the original plans up to what we see today. There are also other exhibits on architecture, native Americans, preservation, and a maritime gallery. We were surprised to learn that Savannah is the largest port on the Eastern Seaboard. We had brunch at Clary’s Café, which has been around since 1903.

 

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

Next we stopped at the Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It was completed in 1896. The original charter of Savannah forbid drinking, slaves, and Catholics. But today, there is a large population of Irish Catholics. Our final major stop was the Owens-Thomas house built in 1819. This home was one of the first in the U.S. to have running water for baths, showers, and toilets. It collected rainwater from the roof into 3 large cisterns for use by the household. The home is famous for the stay of the Marquis de Lafayette (who helped in the American Revolution). During his stay he addressed the people from the balcony in 1825. The old city is decorated with many original buildings of various architectures. Due to three different fires that killed several hundred people each time, most the buildings that survive are now brick buildings. 

Owens-Thomas House

Jekyll Island, Georgia

Playing Croquet at Jekyll Island Clubhouse

Jekyll Island currently is a Georgia State Park, but it is filled with history. After being the site of a plantation for about a century, it was sold to the Jekyll Island Club in 1886, consisting of many East Coast millionaires like Goodyear, J.P. Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer and the Rockefellers. They turned the island into a beach family getaway and hunting preserve. Their large clubhouse and many of their cottages are preserved today in the State Park. Two important historical events also occurred here. In 1910, a secret meeting occurred here that eventually led to the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank and in 1915, the president of AT&T participated in the first transcontinental telephone call, with the Woodrow Wilson in Washington, Alexander Bell in N.Y. and Dr. Watson in San Francisco. We learned this and other things in the historical museum (which was a little disjointed in its presentation) and then wandered some of the grounds to see a few of the cottages: the Goodyear Cottage, Mistletoe Cottage, and then Rockefeller’s Indian Mound Cottage. We took a tour of the inside of this cottage, where the first Living Room was created (as contrasted with the Parlor Room in most homes of the time, used for presenting the dead). The Living Room was intended as a room for family activities. Because of the fear of fires, each of the bedrooms had an escape door. A flick of a handle removed the door from its hinges, even if the door was locked. 

Island Mound Cottage

We also paid a visit to the Faith Chapel, which had animal carvings on the support beams and two beautiful stained glass windows. One of these windows was a Tiffany Window, one of four still remaining in their original chapels. Our final stop was the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, where we learned how they rescued turtles from around the area. This is a great stop for kids with lots of learning activities. We saw several green and leatherneck turtles, most of which are harmed by propellers when they come up for air. Our campsite tonight is the Savannah Oaks RV Resort. It is large and well shaded, and only 14 miles out of the center of town. Unfortunately, we’ve had little success with their WiFi. 

Tiffany Window at Faith Chapel

St.Augustine

Castillo de San Marcos

A cold front went through last night, so temperatures were in the low 80s, rather than the mid-90s that we’ve had for the last week. It made for a comfortable day walking the Old Town of St. Augustine. We started at the Castillo de San Marcos, built in 1695. We took the ranger tour to understand the history of this fort.  The Spanish used the fortress to store rice and other goods in the big store rooms and then armed the top of the fortress with many cannon that could shoot up to 3 miles. The British tried to besiege this fortress for over 50 days, but never succeeded. Their cannon balls would barely harm the coquina stone walls and the stores were sufficient to feed the town. In 1763, the British gained control of the Fortress and all of Florida (making the 14^th and 15^th American Colonies) by treaty. They used to Fortress to house over 500 soldiers during the American Revolution. The Florida colonies were not interested in participating in the American Revolution. In 1784, Britain ceded Florida back to the Spanish, and in 1821 Spain sold Florida to the U.S. The Fortress served as an unconquered Fort throughout this period. As part of the talk we also learned that 3 separate times the American Army used the fort as a prison for various Indian tribes, including survivors from the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado. Richard Pratt was in charge in 1875 and decided that they only way to end the conflict between Americans and Indians was to educate the Indians in the American culture. He started the Indian schools here, and in Pennsylvania and this spread throughout the U.S. So we had a connection to our Arizona trip last year, where we had learned about these Indian schools.

1684 book about Pirates in the West Indies

After the Castle we started the walking tour of St. Augustine at the Colonial Quarter, this would be a must stop with kids, because the tour demonstrates the work of a blacksmith and fires a musket gun. But having just heard the history of the city, much of it was a repeat. We took a combination ticket with the Pirate museum, and this proved to be a fun museum. It gives a lot of history of pirates in the area as well as displays with many artifacts from the pirate ships and their booty. 

Ponce de Leon Hotel

The pedestrian walk through the old town was interesting. The walk has many of the old buildings of the town or recreations of those buildings when they had been taken out by fire. At the far end of the walk were three hotel unique hotels built by Flagler in the 1800’s. We also walked into the great room of the Ponce de Leon Hotel with its domed ceiling, currently serving as a dorm room and dining area for Flagler University. We head already spent 6 hours here and we hadn’t visited two other museums on our list, so I guess we’ll have to come back some time. In the evening, we met Jennifer Kennymore for dinner at a seafood restaurant about 30 minutes outside of town.

Rained out in St. Augustine

We took the short dive to St. Augustine today. After six days of Disney World and 14 days since our last laundry, we didn’t mind that it rained most of the day. We’re at the Compass RV Park, which is pretty nice and close to the city center. Rather than go into town, we did laundry and relaxed. It would have been a miserable time touring outside. 

Last day of Disney World

John's ready for Space Mountain

We drove to Magic Kingdom to reduce our waits. Today, we concentrated on Tomorrowland and Adventure Land. I did Space Mountain, while Mary did the Buzz Lightyear ride. Our favorites here were Monster’s Laugh Floor, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, and Bear Country Jamboree. We had a fun day even getting another ride on Thunder Mountain. The Hall of Presidents was closed to add a president.

Daytime Jungle Cruise

We had decided to quit right after the 3 PM, took the monorail to the transportation system and we were home by 4. Since we missed Fantasmic last night, we tried again tonight. That worked out well, we had another chance at Toy Story and Fast Passes to Fantasmic. Not quite as good a seat, but it was fun. What we didn’t understand was why they did the Star Wars fireworks at 9:30 as we were leaving the show, we barely saw any of it. 

Mary in line for Toy Story

Hollywood Studios

Tower of Terror

We had hoped to do both the Tower of Terror and the Roller Coaster without Fast Passes, but I made the wrong first choice to the Tower, and the line was 90 minutes long for the roller coaster when we were done. Our favorite ride here is Toy Story and we had fun shooting at all the targets. They are adding a lot more Star Wars activities since we were last here, including a movie on how they film the series as well as character visits. The Star Tours ride had changed since we were last here and it was much improved. 

Darth in front of Star Tours

We ate a Mama Rosas for lunch and had a delicious Chicken Parmesan. It came with prime seating for Fantasmics that evening. We left the park at about 4 PM with plans to return about 7:30, but it was pouring rain and lightning was flashing, so much for Fantasmics.

Mary and a Sand Person

Epcot Day Two

Epcot Gardens

Test track was closed, so we didn’t get a chance to do that ride. But the rest of our day went well, we completed the rest of Future World (Mission Space, the Land, Imagination), that we missed 3 days ago, and then toured most of the World Showcase. 

China

We took in quite a bit of entertainment as we made the rounds: musicians, jugglers, pantomime, etc. Our highlight is usually the American Adventure with it’s great music and historical tour, especially when preceded by the Voices of Liberty. We always enjoy the 360 degree movies at China, France, and Canada. It took most of the day, we ended up missing Great Britain due to time constraints, and the new Frozen ride was closed when our Fast Pass came due, so we missed those. But we had a great meal at Chefs de France, and really enjoyed the Herman Hermits concert after dinner. Peter Noone is a superb entertainer. 

Herman's Hermits

Magic Kingdom Day One

Magic Kingdom

From Fort Wilderness, we had to take a bus to the Landings to take a boat to Magic Kingdom. I see why so many campers rent a golf cart in order to avoid two transportation delays. Our favorite rides are always Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. We also did many of the rides in Fantasy Land. The Seven Dwarfs roller coaster and Journey to the Sea, two of the newer rides were disappointing as adults, they’d be great for kids. Lunch was at Columbia House, their chicken pot pie was delicious. 

Splash Mountain

We left about 3 PM and returned about 7 PM. We love doing the Jungle Cruise in the dark and our guide had a very high jokes/minute rate. The fireworks were great, though we were deep in Fantasy Land when it occurred, so probably not as good had we been in other parts of the park. After the fireworks, we headed back to our boat to return to Fort Wilderness, we had over a half hour delay waiting for a boat. As exhausted as we were, we decided we would drive next time. 

Animal Kingdom

Maharajah Jungle Walk

For whatever reason, we had better viewings of the animals and birds on this trip then I can remember. I took quite a few pictures, particularly of the brightly colored birds.  The Everest Adventure was closed for part of the morning, which caused us to go back and forth across the park more than we wanted, we did ride Everest in the afternoon.  

We have quite a few favorites at Animal Kingdom: The bird show is entertaining as various birds fly around you. Dinosaur is a fun thrill ride and next door is the Primeval Whirl ride with its spinning and dips, which get us giggling (even without our daughters).  The woman next to me and I were the unlucky ones who got soaked on the Kali River Ride (always too short). We're always impressed how well the Safari ride feels like a real safari, though you'll see a lot more animals/minute than in real life. The Gorilla walk and Maharajah Jungle Trek expose you to lots of animals and colorful birds. You see more active animals at Animal World than the typical zoo, I think it's because they feed the animals during the peak traffic times. Of course, the tree of life with all it's animal carvings and the show a bugs life are worth it. Finally, our highlight is usually the Lion King show with its many acrobats. 

Lion King Celebration

We had done all the major items by 5:30, so rather than stay for the new night show, we decided to go back to our trailer and call it a day. 

Epcot Day One

In 10 minutes they found the problem with our trailer wheel, the brakes had a part that had broken off. When our pig tail came off, we had a lurch from the trailer before we could stop perhaps that is when the brake sheared. Of course, it is recommended that you replace all the brakes on all four wheels, so this was an expensive fix (and our third one for this trip). I think we’ll remember this trip for a while. They did have it fixed in early afternoon, and given our Epcot schedule, we only missed a few activities which we can pick up on another day.

We made it to Epcot!

We haven't been to Disney World for six years, for quite a while, we were going about every 3 years, so we're really excited to be back. We plan the trip based on picking up a copy of the Unofficial Guide to Disney World at the library. These are particularly useful for planning how to tour each park, figuring out how to choose Fast Passes to avoid lines, and picking out where to eat based on their ratings and the type of food offered.

Epcot has always been our favorite of the four Disney parks at Disney World. We have always enjoyed all of  'adventures' in Future World, and then exploring the World Showcase. The Energy exhibit is fun and educational at the same time. At the Land, we rode the new Soarin’ which flies you around the world, rather than just California – it was a great trip. Though having seen the real Taj Mahal, their computer version just didn’t have the luster to the stonework we had seen. We also enjoy the restaurant here for lunch. Then we visited the Sea, Disney's version of an aquarium. They always seem to have something different here. It was a short day, since we picked up our trailer in mid-afternoon. We returned for the highlight of our day - dinner at Japan. It was a typical Hibachi meal, but the vegetables were different with noodles and spinach added and our cook was an artist creating a Mickey Mouse from onions. We’ve seen Illuminations, their nighttime fireworks quite a few times, but I always find it absolutely fascinating. We had a fast pass to view it – which gave us great sight lines and a quick exit after it was over.

Our Onion Mickey

Orlando

Tiffany's Arts Window 1894

Another day, another unique museum. This is another must see! We went to the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park. This museum is most known for the largest collection of Tiffany glass in the world. We thought that Tiffany glass came from Tiffany jewelers, but no, his father was in the jewelry business. The son was an artist who specialized in ceramics and glass furnishings. The museum became established after a fire in Tiffany’s home after his death. Charles Morse had been a student of his, and agreed to take and salvage what they could. In the museum are blown glass, stained glass, the Tiffany lamps we all know, ceramics and two unique recreations.

Collection of Tiffany Lamps

The first is the Chapel created for the 1893 Chicago World’s fair. The chapel consists has several stained glass windows, a unique glass cross light fixture, the mosaic altar, lighted cross and baptistery fountain. This was the highlight of the museum. The second major recreation was several rooms of Tiffany's house, the entry way, living room, and most spectacular of all, the Daffodil Terrace. The terrace is supported by columns with capitals consisting of concrete with cast-glass daffodils.

We made it into the Fort Wilderness Campground which has the best Wi-Fi I’ve ever encountered in a campground – it supports video service. We also decided that it was time to check why one of our tires was deteriorating so quickly and luckily found the Camping Connection parts and service store that could get us in first thing the next day. 

Tampa

Button Bush

We started our day in the Pinewood Cultural Park in Largo, FL about half an hour from our campsite. This is a combination botanical garden and historical recreated village. Unfortunately, the village was closed on Tuesdays. We enjoyed the gardens, they explained a lot about how waste water is purified by going into natural bogs. The gardens focused on natural plants that can be grown locally, both flowering plants and trees. As usual, we found several species we’d never seen before. It was a pleasant morning walk, if a little hot.

Tampa Bay Hotel

In the afternoon, we visited a unique site, the Henry B Plant Museum. Henry Plant was largely responsible for turning Florida into a vacation paradise. After the Civil War, he bought up railroads and ship lines, creating a major transportation network in the Southeastern U.S. To encourage tourism he built several large resorts, and the one in Tampa could be called the first “Magic Kingdom” Built in 1891 at a cost of $2.5 million with $0.5 million of art and furnishings, the Tampa Bay Hotel has very unique architecture. The hotel has multiple turrets and most of the entry ways remind one of Moorish design. The history of the hotel is also closely tied to the Spanish American War of 1898. The railroads brought the army and cavalry to the port of Tampa to wait the beginning of the war (which only lasted 5 months), but resulted in the U.S. gaining possession of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The war was led by what were called the armchair generals who could often be seen on the veranda of the hotel. Unfortunately Plant died shortly after the war and his splendid hotel was bought by the city of Tampa for $125,000. It later became the site of the University of Tampa. The museum itself covers half the first floor of the hotel and tells the story of Plant, his hotel, and the Spanish American War. It is filled with many of the original furnishings of the hotel. I highly recommend a visit. 

The Arm Chair Generals

To Tampa

Luck was with us, the campground ranger had suggested that we try Calloway Auto and Truck Repair in Crawfordville, FL about 30 miles away. They were great. When I arrived they took a look at my cables, and said it would be about 20 minutes to get the parts in and then they would fix it. Sure enough, about 30 minutes later, they were working on our pig tail and we were done within 90 minutes of arriving. We headed to Tampa to Happy Traveler RV Park. This was a surprisingly inexpensive campground with lots of shady sites, not from the Museum of Science and Industry. We arrived out 4:00 PM, so our sight-seeing plans would have to wait. But when I parked the trailer, I also noticed that one of the tires was really in bad shape. What could be wrong?

Ochlockonee River State Park

This was not our best day. We crossed to the Eastern time zone today, so we didn’t get to our Ochlockonee River campground until almost 4:00 PM. This was the worst campground of the trip – the sites were strangely shaped, too close together, and muddy. My short walk in the park, led to chiggers and ticks. We also ended up dragging our trailer’s pig tail that controls the trailer’s brakes and lights. We found out when our trailer lurched, I think the trailer brakes came on, when two lines shorted. When we stopped the car, the cable was sparking, so we put electrical tape on all the exposed wires to separate them, and used duct tape to keep the cable off the ground and away from our propane tanks. Of course, It’s Mother’s Day, so nothing is open. We decided we would try tomorrow to get it fixed.  

Talahasee FL - National Naval Aviation Museum

We headed just across the Alabama-Florida border to camp at Big Lagoon State Park. This is a great State Park just off the Gulf Shore, nice spacious sites with trees, water, and electricity. The National Naval AviationMuseum was our primary visit today. We ended up spending 3 ½ hours here. We took a tour of the museum with a former Navy pilot and he was a superb guide. While we were waiting we took in about ½ the second floor. The plane engines and jets were the highlight of this floor. From the earliest air-cooled propeller engines to modern jet engines, each of them were cut open so you could see how they operated. We only had time for about half the second floor, which included exhibits on the USS Enterprise, lots of flight simulators, and educational facilities for kids.

Curtis A-1 Trainer

We spent most of our time on the tour viewing the World War I and II planes and hearing the stories from our guide. Most of the World War I airman were trained on a Curtis A1 trainer. The average World War I pilot only survived 42 days on the front. Because of the casualty rate, none could be married, but most had a dog as a companion. Some men ended up having 2 or 3 dogs as their friends died and they took care of the dogs. Some brought their dogs up with them. After one wreck, they couldn’t identify dog or pilot from the ashes, but there was the dog’s metal tag with his name. This led to our armed forces wearing “dog tags” for identification purposes. Our men originally flew French planes, but they had a problem – their front mounted machine guns would cut through the propellers. Then they were flying Sopwith Camels (Snoopy’s plane), which had metal parts on the propeller to avoid being cut down by the machine gun, but bullets would fly in all directions. The pilots also wore leathers because the castor oil used to oil the engine would end up all over the cockpit. The Germans were primarily flying Fokker’s which didn’t have a problem with the machine guns. When we captured one, we discovered that they had a gear on the camshaft that would stop the machine gun as the propeller went by. 

NC-4 Flying Boat

We all know that Charles Lindbergh was the first to cross the Atlantic, non-stop and solo. The first plane to cross the Atlantic, however, was the Curtis NC-4 flying boat and they did it in 1915! The biggest problem was they had to navigate across the ocean with no instruments and needed to refuel periodically. So the Navy stationed 30 ships across the Atlantic every 50 miles. The plane flew from one ship to another, often tracking the smoke from the boilers. Since the plane was the first American plane to reach France, the tradition is that all American planes have a trail number beginning in N since the tail of this plane was NC-4 (Navy-Curtis plane 4). This flight was over shadowed by the first non-stop transatlantic flight two weeks later. 

Our primary story about World War ii planes was comparing the Japanese Zero with the American F4F Wildcat.  We had no other fighters for the first 20 months of the war. The F4F was built like a tank and could take a lot of punishment, but it weighed a ton more than the Zero, which meant the Zero could significantly outmaneuver our planes. Their pilots had been at war for 10 years, giving them 1000’s of hours of fighting experience vs. our pilot’s minimal experience. We lost a lot of planes. But by having two F4Fs take on each zero and go into a thatch weave pattern, the zero would have to choose one of the planes, leaving the other in position to shoot it down. The first pilot to do this, was sent home before he could get his Ace (5^th kill) in order to train others. At the battle of Midway, the Japanese lost 800 zeros and their pilots, which turned the air war around.

German WW II Jet

We saw lots of other planes, especially flying boats, but I’ll end this story with the jet that Germany had developed in 1942. Lucky for us, Hitler was not impressed, and didn’t really start producing these jets until 1944. Two unique features on this plane. At the front of the jet engine was a pull bar that you pulled like starting a lawnmower to start a 2 stroke engine which started rotating the jet engine. The tires on this plane looked like tractor tires, because at this point in the war, most of the airstrips had been bombed. So the planes would take off and land on the autobahns scattered throughout Germany. This is where Eisenhower got his idea for our interstate system and funded it as a Defense Department initiative. 

Mobile Al - Bellingrath Gardens

Bellingrath Home

Walter Bellingrath bought this land as a fishing camp. He bought a Coca-Cola bottling franchise in 1907 and made his fortune with them. Bessie Bellingrath started to develop gardens around the camp in 1927. In April, 1932 she put an ad in the Mobile newspaper inviting folks to see her garden on a Sunday Afternoon, 4700 people showed up. A gatehouse was created and in 1934 the gardens were opened up permanently. In 1935, they built their 15 room home here. The home is still furnished with the original furniture.

Greenhouse

We arrived on National Public Gardens Day, just in time for a tour of their greenhouses. The budget for the gardens is over $3 million dollars annually. The green houses grow the plants that will be on display in the gardens 4-9 months from now. We had quite an explanation about how they grow mums to create the walls and globes of mums they decorate with in November. This requires them to light up their green houses in the middle of the night to fool the mums into continuing to green up until they create their displays in October. After the green houses we did the tour of the grounds and the house tour. As we left the house, it was pouring rain, cutting short our visit. We had planned to visit one of the historic districts in Mobile, but after getting soaked in the rain, perhaps another time.

Bayou walk in the Gardens

Biloxi MS - Jefferson Davis Home (Beauvoir)

Jefferson Davis House

We took highway 90 along the Gulf Coast as we entered Mississippi. Outside Biloxi, we stopped at the home of Jefferson Davis, the only President of the Confederate States of America. This is where Jefferson spent his later years in life, right along the coast. The home had a unique shape - sort of a boxy A shape – where the main rooms of the house were in the box and then master bedroom and the main dining room in the legs of the A going back from the gulf. In between the wings was a large shuttered porch. This configuration allowed for the winds to flow through the house, especially since the living areas were on the second floor of the house, the bottom used only for storage. 

Layout as seen from the back

As we approached the house, we could see that the shutters showed a lot of damage. This was a result of the house being devastated by Hurricane Katrina. In fact, the second floor had water damage 1 ½ feet above the floor. The original piano had been thrown out of the house and suffered major damage.

We also visited the Jefferson Davis Museum and Library. While we only knew him as President of the Confederate States, here we learned he had fought in the Mexican-American War, had been a congressman and senator from Mississippi, served as Secretary of War, was responsible for putting the dome on the capital building, and for negotiating the purchase of land from Mexico that became part of New Mexico and Arizona. After the Civil War, he spent two years in Federal Prison, but was then released and led a quiet life until his death. His funeral in New Orleans was a well-attended event.

Piano damaged by Katrina

Our campground for the next 2 nights is the Shady Acres Campground outside of Mobile, Alabama. We thought we had made a wrong turn in a residential neighborhood, when all of it sudden it appeared on our right. Another large campground, a little older with lots of shade trees.