Isaac Is Gone

Report from John…..Everyone is doing fine.  Since the hurricane changed course we missed the main effect.  Certain roads were flooded (like the road to Fort Pickens) but otherwise things are fine in Pensacola.

It rained a lot overnight.  At least one of the sites flooded at the park.  Inside the RV we had a few leaks, but not too bad.  Today was windy, but that helped in drying out everything.  There have been no problems with losing utilities like power.

We were lucky!

Isaac Update

Isaac is heading toward New Orleans instead of Pensacola so we’ll be missing the eye of the storm.  The forecast is still a lot of rain, winds between 30-40 mph, and a surge at the beach (we’re miles from the beach so we’re OK).  Schools are closed and everyone's hunkered down waiting.

Isaac Preparations

I’m behind on the blog, so I’m going to jump to real time.  We’re in Pensacola Florida right now.  Hurricane Isaac is on its way.  We haven’t been in a hurricane before and certainly not with an RV. 

The news says that people are in grocery stores buying food and in hardware stores buying plywood.  Well, we don’t need plywood and we’re OK for food.  If you live in an RV you have extra water and a generator if we lose utilities.  John is planning on filling the water tank later today.  I read online that the extra weight can also help in the wind. 

The park took in the picnic tables so they won’t fly around in the wind.  A few people are moving to new sites so they won’t be under a tree branch.  We’re all packing away loose items.  No one is in a panic.  People in the park are more friendly and talkative.  Some are going north while some are coming into the park from other areas.  The park is expected to be full by tomorrow.

Oh, and I’m traveling on a business trip on Monday and returning on Friday.  I’m going to miss the whole thing.  I’m pretty disappointed that I’m going to miss this hurricane.  I’ve given John directions to take pictures and be prepared to blog about it!

 

Mayan Pyramids in the US

Today we stopped at Letchworth-Love Mounds Archaeological State Park where the highest Indian Mounds of Florida are located.  The large mound is now covered with trees and wasn’t identified as an Indian mound until 1975!  Since then scientists have done selective digs and used ground penetrating radar to map the area.

 

The complex is interesting.  There is one large mound, but with several smaller mounds located in the surrounding land.  Apparently there used to be over 20 smaller mounds but many of them were leveled in farming the land over the years.  The small mounds are subtle swells and only 2 – 3’ high.

Earlier in our trip we stopped at Kolomoki Mounds in Georgia (http://tandtrv.blogspot.com/2011/10/yankee-perspective.html ).  These mounds were made at a similar time and by associated people.  Some people (not necessarily main-stream archeologists) believe both sites were designed by Mayans who had escaped from Mesoamerica.  The belief is that the shape is similar to Mayan temples.  In addition, some of the symbols on pottery are similar to Mayan themes and the movement of corn into the area from Mayan Central America occurred at the same time.  Interesting thought!

Naked Trees

Earlier in our trip we saw a lot of trees we started calling “Naked Trees’.  They had no apparent bark.  There really weren’t any leaves or blooms at that time and we weren’t familiar with the type. 

Turns out they were crepe myrtles (also spelled crapemyrtle).  They are big in the South. They are bright (can be any color but mostly pink or white) and have long lasting blooms.  We see them everywhere, occasionally with Spanish moss hanging from the branches.   The Japanese name for them translates as “monkey slip”, referring to the smooth slippery bark.  

 

One long section of road between Montecello and Tallahassee had these trees planted all along the sides of the road for 25 miles.  Turns out this was a Depression-era road beautification program with thousands of trees planted by workers earning 30 cents an hour.  I tried to get a picture of this, but it’s hard to get the sense of these blooming trees running for miles.

They are pretty, but in my mind they are still naked!

On the Road Again

After a long stay in Pensacola, we’re heading out.  After some difficulty remembering all the steps of getting the RV ready, we got started.  Things rattled and we stopped several times to readjust while we were still in the driveway, but we finally were on our way. 

Our first stop is near Tallahassee at a really weird RV park.  A 2^nd sign saying “Estate Sale” was added to the entry sign.  Apparently the owner had recently passed away.  The semi-deserted park has only 3 long term campers here and nothing is mowed, but they took our money and the utilities still work.  Bizarre!

We drove through Montecello, a town with some gorgeous and large old homes.  It is also the seat of the county with a large courthouse.  It was built in 1909 in the Classical Revival style.  Sounds fancy!  It is said the motto, Suum Cuique, Latin for “To each his own”, which is inscribed over the doors of the courthouse, is jokingly pronounced “Sue ‘em quick” by some local residents.

Paleobotany at 30,000 Feet

The day seemed bad with a full flight in Denver with everyone squishing their too large luggage into the small space of plane.  On the humorous side, one lady brought a small pillow hanging from the back strap of her purse.  Her pillow was accidentally hitting every person she passed in the aisle.  At one point she had to stop in the aisle, but she was antsy and moved back and forth trying to see the obstruction ahead.  With every movement she hit the same person over and over.  All we could do was laugh!

But the cool part was that I met a paleobotanist who had spent a month in Worland Wyoming collecting fossils.  Think the science of Dr. Ellie Sattler from Jurassic park but with a deeper voice since it was a guy!  Instead of studying ancient animals or dinosaurs in particular, the gentleman studied plants.  He even worked for the Smithsonian and has an office in the Natural History Museum. 

We had a great talk about ferns, flowering plants, petrified wood, global warming, searching for fossils, camp conditions, writing papers, and the joy of hundreds of 8^th grade groups visiting the Smithsonian every spring. Did you know that scientists can determine how much CO2 was in the atmosphere long ago by counting the number of pores in a gingko leaf?   I found out that, unfortunately, it’s not true that everything comes to life like in the “Night at the Museum” movies; however they did a lot of the filming in several of the Smithsonian museums. 

Turned a blah flight day into something quite interesting!

Post Falls Idaho

Post Falls is a small town right across the state border from Spokane.  I took a couple of hours to drive over and hike in some the town parks.  Back in 1871 Frederick Post purchased 200 acres from Native Americans to develop the area around the falls.  That’s why it’s called Post Falls.  Treaty Rock has an inscription by Frederick Post along with some pictographs below it.  It is said to be rare for a town’s founder to carve a rock with their name like this.

The falls powered several lumber and grist mills at one time or another.  A power plant has been here since 1906.  Not only a power plant, but a great view!

Parks and Falls

Spokane has a Riverfront Park.  This water feature looks fun and wonderful for a hot summer afternoon.  

A squirrel running away from me!

The Spokane park has hikes and falls to view.   I attended a business dinner at a restaurant nearby.  This is the scene out the window.   This picture is by a colleague Luke who had a camera phone.

Scenes from a Post Falls park.  It was full of families enjoying the day.

Gonzaga University

I flew on Sunday so that I could have extra time at the plant during the week. But that gave me a few extra hours to see what Spokane has to offer.  Unfortunately, many of the touristy things were closed on Sunday and I didn’t have the energy after 10 hours of flying to do the hikes that were possible.

Bing Crosby studied law at Gonzaga University in Spokane. Bing wasn’t from my era, but my mom was a fan so I grew up listening to him. The university has a room displaying his Oscar (for “Going My Way”), gold records, and other memorabilia.  The room was closed, but I could peak in through the windows. According to imdb.com “He had 38 No. 1 singles, which surpassed even Elvis Presley and The Beatles.”  His most famous song “White Christmas” was the bestselling single for over 50 years.  Besides singing and acting in his road movie comedies, he is famous for his love of golf and died of a heart attack after a game.  So it is appropriate his statue includes a bag of clubs.

The university also is home to St. Aloysius Church.  The Italian marble is especially gorgeous.  It’s quite a spectacular church for a college setting.

More Travel Stories

I’m off the Spokane for a week of work.  Traveling is always interesting.

First, as I’m getting ready in the morning at the RV park I suddenly see a lizard on the wall of the bathroom.  It’s about 6” long and moving around on the wall heading toward the toilet area.  I left the stall to see if I could move to another but the other one was locked.  As I returned I realized that I couldn’t see the lizard.  The only thing worse than seeing a lizard is NOT seeing where the lizard is.  I’d say it scared the sh__ out of me, but that’s too old of a joke.

I flew on Sunday.  Sunday’s are good since it isn’t busy but it’s bad because you have all the people traveling who don’t seem to understand flying.  Had a lady in front of me in security that loved to chat with security about her travel plans while taking her time getting ready.  I say hello, but that’s while I’m pulling out my computer and liquids, getting my shoes off, and pushing everything through the x –ray machine.  The flights were full of babies crying and lost adults.  I’m not sure why, but many of the people were sitting in the wrong seats.  It took a while to sort out plus we had a 13 year old sitting in the exit row where you have to be 15 or older.  On one flight a person stood up and walked along the aisle after landing while the plane was still taxiing. There was even a lady who couldn’t figure out how to flush the toilet.  Sigh.

Newbies are cute.  I noticed quite a few of them actually listening to the safety talk. I always love learning how to use a seatbelt!  On one of my flights the safety talk ended with “If you have any problems please contact our junior flight attendant.  She is new and she still cares!”

Interpreting Art

I’m not big into art museums, but I like going every once in a while.  The Pensacola Museum is not what I was expecting.  Definitely no Rembrandt’s, Van Gogh’s, or Monet’s.  Instead it’s a few rooms with changing exhibits. But it was entertaining to try to interpret the idea behind the weirder pieces of art.

This one “Brainenome” depicts a brain coral below the vase.  Why? (though I like the colors)

A big section was on surfing.   Not really sure why this is art.  But some of the boards were gorgeous and there was surfing photography which is always cool.

What the heck?  I can’t even comment.

This one was hilarious.  I visited the museum right after the museum opened for the week.  I figured this broken piece fell down over the weekend and even reported it.  It turns out this is a commentary on Florida politics (Florida is broken).  Funny, plus I’m impressed / amused with the wording on the plaque (click on the photo so see this better).

Victorian Life

Traveling is all about learning new things.  This is a Victorian place setting (late 1800’s to early 1900’s).  The crescent shaped dish is a “bone dish” for your fish bones.  The little glass dish is for salt instead of a common salt shaker.  Very fancy but I kind of like this.

Making things from hair was popular in Victorian times.  They might make jewelry, a purse, a book mark, or a framed picture like this.  Personally, I find this creepy but it does show a lot of creativity.

Love this display of ladies undergarments. The black item is a bustle.  A bustle had several purposes. The heavy fabric of skirts tended to droop so that a bustle kept the material from dragging.  A bustle made a lady’s waist look smaller (sexier?).  Plus, there’s a rumor it allowed some extra air flow in back. 

I like the look of this piano.  The next room in this house had what looked like another normal piano.  Turns out that piano didn’t have the mechanism to make sounds.  It was used for practice when no one wanted to hear you!

Everything is fancy.  Look at this stove!

Strolling Through Time

We spent an afternoon at Historic Pensacola Village.  It’s a group of homes in “Old Pensacola” right near the water.  It is interesting how one house may be a part of the village and open for tours while the next building is a lawyer’s office.  Actually, I guess that’s pretty nice to see how older homes are still in use.

There were two museums in the village along with numerous homes and a church.  I liked the wicker seats on this bus.  I’ve never seen that material being used in a bus before, but I guess it was popular for several years.  Cool looking.

OK, I know the high wheel bike (or penny-farthing) isn’t anything special but as a short person I’m always amazed how you get on a bike with a seat that is this high.   It turns out mounting the bike wasn’t as dangerous as riding it.  If you hit a rock or rut, you could flip over the front wheel hitting your head on the ground.  This is where “taking a header” was first used.

We got a good story with this bed.  The base of the bed used to be made of rope instead of slats.  As the ropes sagged, they would be tightened. The mattress was made of organic materials like Spanish moss.  Bugs would live in the mattresses and would be periodically killed by cleaning with boiling water or using sulfur fumes.   The phrase “Sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite” came from this.

Living in this era (1820’s) doesn’t sound reassuring.  This piece of beautiful wood work is chained from the ceiling.  It’s designed to hold bread and other food so that rats wouldn’t be able to get the food.  The cage the guide is holding was used to trap rats.  I definitely wouldn’t want to be a child during this time.  One of your jobs was to kill the rats and then skin it so the fur could be sold.  Yuck!

Historic Pensacola Village featured different eras.  This home displayed items from the 1920’s.  Love the look of the refrigerator!

Diverse Cemetery

St. Michael’s Cemetery is the 2^nd oldest cemetery in Florida.  Back in 1807, the King of Spain designated the land as a cemetery.  The earliest grave that is still marked is for Jose Roig.  He was born in Spain in 1727 and died here in 1812.

There are over 3200 marked burials and numerous unmarked graves.  Over the years people from countries all over the world moved to Pensacola and were buried here.  With all the different cultures, the types of graves and monuments vary greatly.  There are mausoleums, raised graves, underground graves, and all sorts of monument stones. In the past many of the areas had wood fences.  Now there are cast iron fences around sections.

Given the age and that it’s a cemetery; this is another spot that is supposed to be haunted.  People say that they’ve seen lights circling grave stones and heard voices at night.  I didn’t go at night so I can’t say!

Around the park

I enjoy my mornings sitting outside the RV under the awning.  Sometimes I remember to bring my camera outside with me.  For entertainment we have squirrels who like to chase each other.  Occasionally they come up close, but only when I’ve forgotten my camera!

Two pictures of the same resurrection ferns depending on how long it’s been since the last rain.  Amazing the difference after a rain!

More pictures of the stunning skies here.