Marine Museum

Today was a beautiful day though a little cool (light jacket weather).  Very nice compared to the snow in Tennessee.

We visited a local maritime museum.  One section was on La Salle.  He's the explorer that claimed the Mississippi River basin for France in 1682.  Apparently he was smart but a jerk and very arrogant.  Some of his sailors mutinied and one eventually killed him.  His boat was recovered off the coast near here.  It was very well preserved and they found lots of things including navigational equipment, the boat's wood frame, ropes, and a human body. The best part of the museum was a film that looked like a scene from the TV show "Bones".  They removed the actual brain matter from a sailor found on La Salle's boat.  Very creepy!  Did you know that brains float in water? They then showed how they reconstructed his face and could determine things about his life based on his bones.

Tomorrow we take off for Padre Island National Park.  We'll be off the grid for a few days.

Smiling Fish

Today we drove to Port Aransas.  First, we had a great time riding on a ferry to get to the island.  While many people take their full rigs of RV's and toads to stay a few days, we just drove our car.  It's been a long time since I've been on a ferry.  So, it was pretty cool!

At a Marine Science Institute we saw plants, fish, and birds from this area.  The bird is Great Blue Heron.  The "smiling fish" is a Striped Burrfish.  We also went to a birding center.  It is amazing the number of birds we saw.

Things we’ve learned (Sometimes the hard way)

The last couple of days have been wild.  Saturday, I was able to get in a morning walk to the dock area, but the afternoon weather was heavy rains.  Sunday was cooler and so windy the RV was rocking at times.  That meant a few days curled up inside relaxing and watching TV (Syfy channel had a storm movie marathon!).  After doing so much sightseeing, it was nice to just zone out for a while.

At this point we’ve been full-timing for almost two months.  In honor of this, I’ve made a list of some of the things we’ve learned along the way.

-       A car dolly is a pain.  It takes too long to connect the car, you get dirty while doing it, and it’s an extra piece of equipment that wears out.  A tow bar is 2-3 times more expensive, has to be specially ordered for the tow vehicle, but seems worth the price.
-       Mixing RV parks and state/national parks is worthwhile.  RV parks are just plain boring when it comes to hikes.  They are more expensive, are relatively ugly, and are noisy and bright at night.  But, they have internet, cable, and are close to stores most of the time.  In towns, they’re a good base for sightseeing.
-       Two-three hours of driving is about right.  RV driving is definitely tougher and more tiring than car driving.  This allows you to leisurely leave around 11 or 12 am and get there around 2 or 3 pm to set up for the evening.  Sometimes that early arrival is needed to get a good spot.
-       Take time off from traveling or sightseeing once in awhile.  We're retired!
-       Continuous cleaning is important.  While there is less to clean than a house, it’s such a small space that keeping it clean is important to your mental health.
-       Updating your GPS should be done often but only when you have enough time. 
-       Sometimes reservations are good.  Or, have an alternative campground ready.
-       Syfy storm movies are more fun during a storm!

Big Tree

No Black Friday sales for us.  Instead, we took a short drive to see the largest tree in Texas.  It turns out there is an official method of measuring a tree with points given for the trunk circumference, tree height, and branch spread.  While it's not a very tall tree, it's large for circumference and spread.  The tree is officially "in excess of 1000 years".   Wikipedia says it may be closer to 2000 years.  A bit of a spread.

Big Tree is fenced off, but there were several other large oaks in the area that looked perfect for climbing.  After waiting for a few kids to climb out of the tree, I had to give it a try!

Thanksgiving at the Gulf

We spent a couple of days at an RV park near Austin Texas doing errands.  Just doing a major load of laundry and groceries was enough to keep us busy for a day.  The next morning I started an update of our GPS.  After 4 hours of downloading it still wasn’t done.  It was getting late in the day and we had several hours to the next place, so I just shut it down.  It turns out that I didn’t download some of the maps so the GPS didn’t work half the time.  We had to rely on an atlas map.  We got there OK, and then found that the state park was full.  I didn’t realize that Thanksgiving was a major day for camping! 

Our philosophy is that we pretty much take our chances.  We haven’t made reservations so that we can adjust our schedule depending on if we want to stay longer or if we change our mind where we are going.  Luckily, there was an RV park that was well reviewed within 20 minutes.  Took a phone call to find since our GPS was out, but we got there.  We may need to start making more reservations if the Winter Texans start filling up the parks. 

More terminology.  Snowbirds are people (like us) who travel where it’s warm in the winter.  In Texas, they are called Winter Texans.

We’re on the Texas gulf coast for the next week or so.  Seems like a great place for Thanksgiving!  We spent a little time at the beach where we saw a LOT of jellyfish along with a few hermit crabs.

We had an RV version of a Thanksgiving meal.  We have turkey (fillets only), cranberries (in a bread from Walmart), potatoes, stuffing (from a box), and pumpkin pie (small ones from Walmart).  Not bad for the size of the kitchen!

In honor of Thanksgiving, we are thankful for family, friends, and that we said "what the heck" and took the chance to go on this adventure.



Dinosaur Valley

South of Dallas is a state park with fossil dinosaur prints in a riverbed.  These were made 113 million years ago by two types of dinosaurs.  One is similar to a tyrannosaurus and has three claws.  The other is similar to a brachiosaurus and has a large oblong back foot and a curved hoof type of front foot.  The tracks here were the first ever found for these type of dinosaurs (sauropods).  The tracks were used to determine speed and other habits of these creatures.

I was surprised how much of an adventure it was to find the tracks.  Some spots had no paths to reach them.  Perhaps in the summer you can walk in the river to get to them, but the water was way too cold for it now.  Other places had paths, but it required climbing up and around large boulders.  Some of the footprints were well marked, most were not.  It was exciting to find the tracks, both for the difficulty in getting there and the knowledge of their age.

  

The park also had dinosaur models from the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City.  Apparently they aren’t accurate (there’s a long but good story about rivalries involved), but they are fun.  Plus, John caught this picture of deer in the area.

Dallas

We stayed for a couple of days in a state park near Dallas.  The campground had a few good hikes.  One was an old farm that was built starting 1859.  Visiting places like this is unsettling to me.  I grew up in a home that was built soon after the Civil War.  The stuff we’re seeing is the stuff I saw as a kid.  While we had indoor plumbing, it was an add-on with attached rooms for the bathroom and kitchen.  Things like corn cribs, cisterns, valances, irons you heat on the stove, and old farm equipment were normal on our farm.  To see these things in a museum or outdoor display is weird.  I’m not sure if I’m getting old or it’s just the way I grew up. By the way, I don’t want a crack from anyone that I’m old enough to be in a museum!

While it’s been raining on and off this week, Texas is still in a major drought.  The drought has even pulled apart the roads in the park.  There are cracks up to a foot deep in the road!

Dallas has to be the worst city for driving.  The roads and ramps are so jammed that the GPS lady was telling us “Merge on highway.  In the next 500 feet, cross 5 lanes full of speeding traffic to exit on left.  Be ready to die.”  Maybe not quite those words, but that’s what she wanted us to do!  Anyway, we survived the drive into the city.

We visited the site where Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963 (almost 48 years ago).  There is an excellent and even an emotional museum on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.  You can see the view he had along with an amazing audio tour of Kennedy’s life and era.  Outdoors, you can see a memorial, the grassy knoll, the fence behind it, and an “x” on the road where Kennedy was shot.  The picture you see is taken as we drove the same street and about where he was shot.  The window is on the end on the right side on the 2^nd from the top floor.

The thing that surprised me the most was the crowds of people.  Given that it is November, there have been very few people at most of the places we go.  Matter of fact, the last place we went we didn’t even see a ranger or caretaker.  There was a long line to buy tickets to get into this museum.  At times it was difficult to see the displays with all the people.  More people were outdoors walking around and taking pictures.  I’m not sure what it is about Dallas and President Kennedy that made this such a popular spot, but I’m glad we went.

Texas Tea

We're in Texas now and plan to travel around the state until after Christmas.  Right now we're in East Texas.  The town was the site of a major oil boom in 1930.  There used to be thousands of oil wells in the area.  The town is proud of oil and even Halliburton.   Oil wells still can be seen everywhere.  I even saw one beside Chili's Restaurant in town. 

We went to an oil museum.  While some of it was good, it started weird.  They showed 2 movies as propaganda to tell us how important oil is to our life.  Environmentalists were bad names in the museum.  I don't know about you, but I go to museums to learn, not be brainwashed.  Luckily there were some educational displays too.

We also stopped at another cemetery (yes, another).  This one was for only slaves, former slaves, or other blacks in the area.  It's strange to think there were white and black cemeteries just like there were separate water fountains.  The white crosses at the top of the picture were unnamed slaves.



Louisiana Creole

We stayed a couple of days in Louisiana.  Perhaps we should have stayed in New Orleans, but neither of us wanted to fight the crowds and traffic.  Instead we stayed in the northern part of the state (Natchitoches was the town), but still a Creole area.  Many of the town and street names are French (though Natchitoches is an Indian name), sugar cane is a major crop, and you see fleurs-de-lis everywhere.  The fleur-de-lis is widely used in France, basically to show how fancy you are.  I loved that even the trash hopper had a fleur-de-lis!

 We visited a couple of local plantations.  The houses had large verandas to sit outside.  A lot is done to encourage air flow to stay cool.  A row of trees (Live Oak Allee) was planted to direct air flow into the house. Finally, mansion dining rooms have a punkah above the table.   A punkah is that white thing you see hanging from the ceiling.  It's a fan that is powered by a child or servant pulling a rope over and over.  Not only does it cool, it keeps flies off the food.  

The house was an interesting mixture of years.  It was built in 1821, but the same family lived in it until 1999.  Furniture and household items are from varied years.  So, at one point the guide talked about rotary-dial phones on a party line (something that I grew up with) and then spoke about slaves that were summoned by pulling a cord (not something I grew up with!).

 

Of course I had to see a cemetery.  The one we saw was weird.  Many of the gravesites were like New Orleans with graves above ground, but many were underground.  Not sure why both types were used.





Natchez (Town)

The town is full of pre-Civil War era houses and plantations.  We visited the house of a freed slave and barber named William Johnson, a military academy/college (Jefferson College), and the capital town of the Mississippi Territory.  We ate in Natchez Under-the-Hill which is the ‘bad’ section of the town where brothels and taverns were located.  We also toured the antebellum Melrose estate.  By the way, we were hearing about the live oaks trees here.  It was like “duh, I hope they’re live”.  Turns out that it’s a variety like burr oak or pin oak.

We finished the day at Old South Winery.  They make Muscadine wines, which are wines made from the local grape variety.  They had a small tour plus a tasting.  Perfect way to end the afternoon since all we wanted to do afterwards was take a nap.

They were filming a movie in Natchez.  We couldn’t get very close for the actual filming, but could see much of the rehearsal portions.  We watched for at least 30 minutes as they set-up, rehearsed in slow motion, rehearsed again, set-up some more, and finally shot a single scene with explosions and smoke.  This is a small independent movie and not one you’ll see in big theaters.  We heard it’s called “Rise Again” and will be a combination Civil War, vampire, and zombie movie.  I love this!!!

Natchez Trace

Natchez Trace starts in Nashville Tennessee and runs all the way down to Natchez Mississippi. Originally, it was a series of trails from different Native American tribes.  In the late 1700’s, boats were coming down to Natchez and New Orleans with crops.  The boatmen would sell their products along with the lumber of the boat then walk back up the Trace (6 weeks of walking!).  By 1810, it was the most heavily traveled route of the Southwest.

The original road is still there in places, but they’ve also built a modern 2-lane road along it.  It’s a scenic drive with over 100 places to stop at different sites.  When we were in Tennessee we stayed at a campground along the beginning of the trace.  Here we visited several places along the end of the trace.  One was an old inn for travelers.  However, it started as just a house and plantation.  People walking the road would stop and ask for a place to stay and maybe something to eat.  The owners would allow them to sleep on the porch or on the grounds.  As more people traveled the trace, it grew into an inn. 

Emerald Mound is along the trace, along with 3 other mound sites further north.  Several small cemeteries are situated along the trace too.

Natchez Indians

We seem to go in themes.  Much of the lower Florida and Alabama area was devoted to military bases and forts.  Birmingham Alabama was devoted to the metallurgical theme. Vicksburg was Civil War. Of course the Florida beaches were devoted to beaches.  This area seems to have 3 themes: Natchez Indians were the tribe living in the area between 700-1700 AD, while the Natchez Trace is a road that was an important early route in the United States, and finally the town of Natchez peaked in importance near the time of the Civil War.

I’m going to start with the Native American tribe. In the 1400’s, a mound was built now called Emerald Mound.  It is immense.  I thought the largest Kolomoki Mound in Georgia was big, but this one is larger, especially in length.  The eight acre mound is big enough that it has 2 smaller mounds on top of it.  Until this RV trip, I really had no idea how many and how large the mounds are in the United States.

The Natchez Indians built a Grand Village as a ceremonial center near what is now the town of Natchez between 1682 and 1729.  They built a mound as a place where their leader lived and another where leaders were buried.  These mounds were much smaller, but still cool!  The picture is a reconstruction of one of their homes.

With all the mounds we’ve seen, it has been interesting to think about the archeological studies involved.  Over time, the things they can observe has improved and the thought processes change.  Scientists look at pollen or small details to understand what they ate or who they traded with.  Digging up a major portion of a mound was normal in 1960.  Now, more sonic readings are taken and the ground is less disturbed. 

The South and the Civil War

While I've heard about the interest that Southerns have with the Civil War, it's something else to see it in person.  Yesterday at the Vicksburg National Park we saw plenty of memorials, but these were from both the North and South.  Today we went to Old Court Museum.  The museum is put together of artifacts that people donated to the museum.  There are sections of clothes, tools, medical implements, boat items, guns, shelves of different bullets, letters, flags, momentos, etc.  All had notes explaining the item, but especially who donated it.

Also, anything that Jefferson Davis or his family touched is special and deserves to be in a museum.   For instance, this piano was played by Jefferson Davis's daughter.  Ok, I have to admit if I had something that Lincoln touched, I'd think it was something special too.

The museum was definitely more homey than most that we've seen.  We found 2 cats sleeping on the furniture!

The best part was the pregnant minie!  The picture shows a minie ball (bullet shaped) on right page of the book.  This minie supposedly pierced the man-parts of a solder then traveled into a lady which made her pregnant.  She later gave birth to a child.  Supposedly the doctor introduced her to the solder father who married her and had more children with her.  I love this story!

By the way, this was all incredibly interesting to see. We expected to spend only a little time at the national park and the museum. We ended up spending 4 hours at the park and 2 hours at the museum. Interesting stuff!

Campaign of Vicksburg

Today we spent several hours at the Vicksburg Mississippi battlefield.  This is a great park to see on a beautiful day.  First we saw a movie then we listened to a CD while driving through the park and stopping at various important points in the campaign.  The battles and then siege at Vicksburg killed or wounded over 10,000 union troops and 9,000 confederate troops.  It finally ended when the confederate army surrendered on July 4, 1863.  It's said that Vicksburg refused to celebrate the Fourth of July for 81 years after.

Within the same national park is the USS Cairo.  It's a Union ship that was blown up by a Confederate mine.  It was partially restored for this museum.  The museum includes lots of the items from the ship and personal items of the sailors.




Finally, the park has a National Cemetery. Not only were the Union solders from these battles buried here (Confederates were buried in a city park), but solders from other battles are here too.   Of the 18,000 graves, 2/3's are unidentified solders.  These are the smaller gravestones in the picture.

Mississippi Wild Life

We stayed at Davis Bayou Campground for a couple of days.  No major attractions, just wonderful hiking in a salt marsh area.  The pictures include wildlife we saw along the paths.  We saw snapping turtles, box turtles, gopher tortoise (never saw this one before, it sort of looks like a helmet), oysters, muscles, snails, armadillo, squirrels, and the coolest was an alligator.  The picture isn’t the best, but I wasn’t about to get closer or to tell the gator to smile for the picture.

If we were birders, this would be the place to be. The large white bird is a Great Egret plus there were plenty of herons.  There were dozens of different species in the park.  Unfortunately I could only identify a few.  It appeared that some of these (like red-winged blackbirds) were Northerners vacationing in the South like us.

At the next park, I had planned that we would see a nearby military museum. Unfortunately I missed where it said it was closed on Monday.  Instead we took a short hike at the park. This park was 70 miles inland.  Even so, there was plenty of sand and very little dirt.  Some upgrades were needed.  Several rickety structures (tower, bridges, raised walkways) had signs with YCC 1979 (Youth Conservation Corp) on them.  I realized that these were built at the same time I was a freshman in college.  No wonder they were rickety!

RV life

We’re still adjusting to the RV life.  We purposely went small with our RV so we can park in more campgrounds.  But living in the small space takes getting used to.  For instance, we rarely buy spare groceries anymore. While we have a couple of spare paper towel rolls, we don’t have the space for the large pack.  Imagine only having half your refrigerator and for dry goods a couple small shelves and a thin pull-out pantry . When we get back from grocery shopping, we remove a lot of the packaging to save space.   I’ve been surprised, though, that this is enough space for our food.  Plus, we can see our food so things don’t go bad without being used.


While congress debates dropping Saturday service from mail, we have found that getting mail once every 2 weeks works just fine.  We have a mail forwarding service in Arkansas.  When we know we'll be at a campground for several days, we ask them to throw away the junk mail and send the regular mail to the campground.  Less hassle going through mail.  We haven't had a problem due to the 2 week delay so far.  The few bills we have are paid on the internet. 


Loved the large oak trees at this campground!  We're off to Mississippi next.

Forts and Houses

No ghosts or even orbs yet!  Today we went to see Fort Pickens.  While we didn’t see ghosts, the history was great anyhow.   These forts have a tremendous amount of bricks.  Fort Barrancas had 6 million bricks while this one had 24 million.  Love the brickwork!  BTW, only I can stand up straight in this area!

Here’s an “oops-ah-shoot”.  Years ago a fire accidently broke out in one corner of the fort.  The explosion blew up that portion and sent bricks 1-1/2 miles.

I know there has been a lot of snow in the East.  Here we have white sand.  The park even has equipment to clean sand off the road.  It looks like snow!

Courtesy of my brother John’s recommendation, I checked out http://www.roadsideamerica.com/ and found some interesting homes near the fort.  The 1^st is called a Futuro or UFO House.  Only 100 of these were made back in the 1960’s.  The 2^nd is Dome House.  This was featured on Extreme Living on TV.  Very cool!