Summer Road Trip 2014

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

We met friends John and Fran at the Riverview RV Park in North Little Rock, the park overlooks the Arkansas River and Downtown Little Rock. John and Fran are on their way home to help take care of their daughter, Alison, and her kids while she has a pacemaker installed. John and Fran are going to be the Wagon Master’s for the SMART Alaska Caravan for 2015, and we are going to be the Assistant Wagon Masters. So, it is going to be a busy week trying to put as much of this caravan together before we go our separate ways. There is lots to do, I am going to arrange the campgrounds, Fran is going to arrange the meals and entertainment. I’m so excited about this caravan, Alaska has been at the top of my bucket list for a really long time!!

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Diamond Chapter members Jim and Ali stopped in for a nightly stay on their way to Foley, AL, we all went to Larry’s Pizza for dinner.

Friday, May 2, 2014

Friends Tom and Sandy surprised us today, arriving one day early, meeting us here for a trip to Foley, AL where we are going to a SMART Regional Meeting.

Meanwhile, John, Fran, Phil and I are still working frantically on the caravan details.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

We said our goodbyes to John and Fran, and got ready to leave with Tom and Sandy for the first leg of our trip to Foley. We were in the lead, and pulled out of the park, but Tom and Sandy didn’t. We drove back, and Tom is having trouble with the truck, it is stalling out. He is thinking it’s nothing but bad gas and decides to go for it. So, we put them in the lead and took off again.  Our goal today was Vicksburg, MS.  After some very tense moments, we did make it to the RV Park in Vicksburg, but it was touch and go many times.

After we got to the park and got set up, Phil noticed that two of the trailer tires, the oldest, were bubbled.  So, off they came so that he could take them to a tire store the next day. Thank goodness for the automatic leveling system!! Meanwhile, Tom goes to get his truck filled with fuel hoping that will solve his problems.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Phil took the wheels to the tire store this morning and left them to be replaced.  While we were waiting, we went to do a little site seeing, Tom drove and the truck seemed to be ok, until we were on the way back to the trailer, then it died and we didn’t think it was going to start again. Murphy is now leaning hard on all of us!!

We limped into the campground, then Phil followed Tom to the Dodge dealership to see if they could figure out what the problem was. They couldn’t get to it right away, so Phil brought Tom back and the decision was made that we would go on by ourselves tomorrow on schedule.

Meanwhile, we decided to go over to the casino, have dinner at the buffet and Sandy and I would try our luck on the slots. After switching machines a couple of times, I hit one that was paying and stayed there for awhile. When it quit paying, I moved. When I finally cashed out, I had $200.00, off of my initial investment of $30.00, so I had a really lucky night!

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

We left this morning around 10:00 am, it was tough to leave Tom and Sandy behind. We had an uneventful trip, even with some really rough roads in Jacksonville, MS. Pulled into Foley, AL around 3:00 pm. We are here for the SMART South Central Regional Muster. Some of you may remember that we did this in North Little Rock last year, gives a person an appreciation for how much work goes into one of these events.

One of my main goals while we are here is to meet with John Farrell who is the Travel Coordinator for SMART.  So I want to pick his brain on the ins and outs of caravan planning and preparation.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Got up really early this morning to make waffles and sausage for the rest of the regional attendees. We had 5 waffle makers going, that was all the  electrical system in the meeting room would handle. But we managed and everyone had hot waffles, and they were good!!

We went home and took a nap!! 

Sunday, May 11, 2014

This morning Tom and I (Tom and Sandy made it in on Thursday) did a seminar on recruiting and retention for SMART, which turned into a brain storming session on the problems facing the recruiter. We expected this to last about 30 minutes, turned out to be about 1-1/2 hours, so I think it was a successful meeting.

Today is also the last day of the muster. People will be leaving out tomorrow. Tom and Sandy and Phil and I are staying a couple of extra days to see some of the sites in the area that we haven’t had time to see before.

Monday, May 12, 2014

We decided that today would be a day for washing and relaxing, and after the wash was done we played a game of Hand and Foot.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Out and about in Foley. We went to the old downtown and went through a couple of very large antique shops and had ice cream at the old drugstore/soda fountain. We also went to the model railroad display and watched the guys in charge run the various trains. Tom is a model train enthusiast, so this was right up his alley.

 The Foley model train station. The building with all the firetrucks really looked like it was on fire. It was fun to watch the guys there run the different trains.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Travel day, drove from Foley, AL to The Engineer FamCamp at Fort Rucker, AL. This base is out in the middle of nowhere in south central Alabama. Ft Rucker is a helicopter training base. Tom did flight school here and he wanted to check this base for a possible flight school 50^th anniversary next year. Based on location alone, I would say that it is a no go. Even though the base is located in the middle of nowhere, the base itself is huge. The campground is on a little lake and surrounded by trees. We have a couple of pull thru sites next to each other.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Today we got together with Tom and Sandy and went to the Ft Rucker Aviation Museum that is located here on base. This is a really nice museum dedicated to the development of the helicopters from the inception, thru the Viet Nam War to the current use.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Another travel day, drove to Fort Benning, GA and the Uchee Creek FamCamp, located just outside of Columbus, GA. This famcamp is undergoing renovation and has been expanded. They are in the process of switching over from their own well water to city water, but haven’t done so yet. Currently there is about 6 lbs of pressure, so we had to fill the fresh water tank and use the pump in order to have enough pressure to take a shower. The office staff and the reservation leave a lot to be desired! They truly did not know what they were doing, or what spaces were available.

Small herd of deer wandered through the campground at dusk

Monday, May 19, 2014

The guys had a guys day out to visit the Infantry Museum on base, Sandy and I had a quiet day at home. I slept in and then worked on my campground stuff for the Alaska Caravan we are going on next year. Phil and I are tail gunners/Assistant Wagon Masters.

Sandy and I were very glad we didn't go with the guys, they left at 10 this morning, and they didn't get home till after 5. That’s a lot of museum!

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Today we got up a little earlier and drove over to Andersonville National Historic Site. This was the site of the most horrific prison of the Civil War, and most of the men that died here, died of dysentery and diarrhea. This was not a prison in the way we think of prisons today, but just an open stockade, with no provisions such as shelter or blankets offered, the men had to make do with what they could find. Water came from a shallow stream that flowed through the grounds and in the summer it was reduced to a small trickle. The water was also contaminated with human waste.

This prison was built to relieve crowding at Richmond prisons and to relocate Union prisoners away from the battle front. Camp Sumter Military Prison, more commonly known as Andersonville, was an unfinished, undersupplied prison pen when the first prisoners arrived in February, 1864. Intended to hold 10,000 men, the 16-1/2 acre pen had a 15 foot high stockade wall and two gates. Nineteen feet inside the stockade was the “deadline,” marked by a simple post and rail fence. Guards stationed in the sentry boxes shot anyone who crossed this line. The stockade was expanded to 26-1/2 acres in June of 1864, but POW’s continued to arrive and by August, 1864, over 32,000 struggled to survive .

Interesting statistic, whether held in the North or South, a prisoner of war was more likely to die than a soldier in combat. Exact numbers of prisoners who died are not known. Surviving records suggest that of approximately 195,000 Union POW’s, 30,000 (or 15%) died. Of the Approximately 215,000 Confederate POW’s held, about 26,000 (or 12%) died.

 An example of what some of the men did for shelter from the harsh Georgia weather.

 The 19' deadline, where the only shade available was beyond reach, cross that line and you are dead.

The stream that ran through the stockade. This is in May,  in the hot heat of summer this probably dried up to nothing.

After visiting Andersonville, we stopped for lunch, then headed for Plains, GA, about 21 miles away. Plains is where our 39^th U.S. President was born and raised…Jimmy Carter. Included in the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site are the Plains Railroad Depot (completed in 1888), the Carter Boyhood Home and Farm and the Plains High School, which was attended by both Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. We spent about 3 hours exploring the area, then finished off the tour at the Plains Drug Store where we all had some Peanut Butter Ice Cream. It was pretty good!  

 Jimmy Carter's Boyhood Home and Farm.