October 23, 2015

October 22, 2015

On the 19th we drove over to Plains, GA to visit the President Jimmy Carter National Historic Site.  We began our tour at the old high school where the President and Roslyn went to school.  After that, we drove out to his boyhood home.  On the way out there, we actually passed by his home that he the President and Mrs. Carter built in the 1960’s and where they still live.  Of course, you couldn’t see the house for all the trees, the Secret Service fence and gate.

 The President does some painting.

This is the store or commissary that the Carter's owned.

 These signs are all over town.

After that we drove back into Plains and stopped at the Plains Historic Inn and Antique Mall.  Miss Jan, who is the owner, once worked for the Carter’s and spent time with them in the White House.  She also plays the organ at the Maranatha Baptist Church where the Carter’s are members and where the President Carter teaches a Sunday school class on selected Sunday’s.

After talking to Miss Jan a little while, she told us that lasts Sundays class had over 400 visitors.    The President’s classes are so popular, folks line up at 5:30 in the morning to get a good seat.  However, if you stay at the inn, you are guests of Miss Jan and she saves preferred seats.  Joyce and I thought it would be cool to do that so we made reservations for January 30th.

Next on the agenda was to check out Billy Carter’s service station.  Miss Jan told us that the station was closed but guess what?  She gave us a key to the place.  And yes, there are several cans of Billy Beer on the shelves.

After all that sight-seeing we were hungry so we had lunch at the Buffalo Grill at the Old Bank.  We didn’t see anything on the menu that would help you maintain your diet but the food was great.

We left Americas about 10AM and made the short run up to the Honeysuckle Farm RV Park in Dublin, GA.  This was just a stop to break up the drive over to Charleston, SC.  Nothing fancy here but with our Passport America discount we got a full-hookup, 50-amp site for twenty bucks.

Yesterday we made the drive to the Foster Creek RV Park and Villas on the Naval Weapons Station, Joint Base Charleston.  We’ll be staying here until the end of the month before heading down to Florida.  While we are here Joyce and I will be flying up to New Haven, CT to visit Justin and Adrian and to meet Travis, our brand new grandson.

More later!

Barry & Joyce

October 19, 2015

October 12, 2015

We left Lynchburg on Saturday the 10th and made our way to the Raccoon Mountain RV Park in Chattanooga, TN.

Yesterday, we went down to the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Battlefield.  After seeing a very informative film about the battle, we took the seven mile driving tour.

October 13, 2015

Yesterday was a kick back day.  First, we did our laundry and then Joyce had her hair done.  While she was gone I did some work on a genealogy project I’m working on.  Later we went to Sticky Fingers in downtown Chattanooga for some really good BBQ.  Yeah, it’s a chain but it came highly rated and it turned out to be outstanding.

October 14, 2015

Joyce and I took a cruise on the Tennessee River aboard the Southern Belle Riverboat yesterday afternoon.  It was billed as a Fall Foliage Cruise but since Chattanooga hasn’t seen much “change” yet, the fall color’s were mostly just some yellows.

Lookout Mountain

Some very nice homes were along the route.

After being served a so-so lunch, we made our way up to the top deck to take pictures and listen to Hubert, the Historian/Narrator for the cruise.  Mr. Hubert was very knowledgable about the Chattanooga area and especially the Civil War.  We could have listed to him for hours.

October 15, 2015

Yesterday we hooked up the CRV and headed down the interstate to Lake Tobesofke-Claystone Park near Macon, GA.  On the way out we stopped at Walmart for some of the $1.96 diesel fuel, the least we have paid on this trip.

Claystone is a very nice county park but most of the parking sites are not even close to being level.  We had to park in the back end of our site, use several leveling blocks under the right wheels, then almost max out our leveling jacks to finally get level.


October 16, 2015

Yesterday, after doing some grocery shopping we went to see the new Matt Damon movie, The Martian.  Although a little hokey and predictable, it was exciting in places and the special effects were spectacular.


While here, I toured the Robbins Aviation Museum.

C-141B 65-0248

This lady was once stationed at Travis AFB, CA.  I flew a lot of hours on this very airplane.

 Named the Caboose because it was the last C-141 to have depot level maintenance at Robbins.

October 18, 2015

On Friday we had supper at the Fish n Pig on Lake Tobesofke and it was one of the best, if not the best meal we have had on this trip.  For an appetizer we ordered the Blackened Alligator which was very tender and tasty.  Joyce then ordered their Low Country Boil which she said was delicious and I had the Fired Catfish Fillets with a baked tater and collard greens.  Delicious!

After a leisurely start, we made the 85 mile run south to Americas, GA yesterday, arriving at the Brickyard Plantation Golf Club and RV Park.  This is a great little park with full hook-ups that is Passport America affiliated so our daily rate is $20.  The laundry is great with free washing and only $2 a load to dry.  The monthly rate here is $495 which includes unlimited green fees.

October 19, 2015

There are a couple of things in the Americas area that were on my bucket list so yesterday we went to check off a couple of them.

The Andersonville National Historic Site, National Prisoner Of War Museum and the Andersonville National Cemetery are all co-located a few miles north east of Americas.

After getting a briefing from the ranger we watched two films, one about Andersonville and another about American POW’s.  Both were very informative and very graphic.

The POW Museum is dedicated to POW’s from all our nation’s wars.  The displays are both interesting and moving, especially the ones associated with Vietnam.  Having been at Clark AB during Operation Homecoming, touring this outstanding facility brought back a lot of memories.

We then picked up a CD audio tour and then drove to several sights around the perimeter of where the prison walls once stood.

Next, still following the CD, we toured the National Cemetery.  This hollowed ground contains the graves of almost 13,000 soldiers who died at Andersonville.  The cemetery is still active and performs abut 100 burials a year.  If interested, you can read more about the prison and cemetery here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andersonville_National_Historic_Site

One of the guys broke the rope.  The guards made sure he died when he was hung the second time.

The dove figure "miraculously" on this stone the same day as the Maine monument was dedicated.

This web site has more pictures:  https://www.google.com/search?q=andersonville+national+cemetery&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CDwQsARqFQoTCPKlrtS0zsgCFY-ViAodvVAHNA&biw=1680&bih=948

Later.

Barry & Joyce