Conclusion

If you have stumbled across this blog and wish to read it properly then as soon as you have read this entry scroll to the bottom of the page and work up, as the oldest posts are at the bottom.
Links to the journals of three of our four previous trips can be found on the right hand panel.
If you find them of interest please take a litle time to post a comment.
You can read of our current journey on our blog www.09fall.blogspot.com

This is the final post for the blog of our Spring 2009 U.S. Road Trip.
We have visited Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky.
History: We have seen Davy Crocket's house, Jimmy Carter's house, A.P. Carter's house, Martin Luther King's house,
During which we have been to Bluegrass festivals at Palatka, Waldo, Palmdale and Brimstock, as well as a Bluegrass Party at Connie and Jim's.
We have been entertained at Dixie Stampede, Grand Ole Opry, Lake City Rodeo, The Carter Family Fold, Kingsport Muncipal Center for a bluegrass concert and The Epcot Center, as well as taking an airboat ride at Sleepy Hollow.
We have visited Columbus Stockade, The Rosa Parks Museum, The church where Martin Luther King preached, Huntsville Space Center and Museum, The Old Rail Depot at Huntsville, Constitution Village in Huntsville, The Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel, The Birth of Country Music Museum in Bristol
We have visited the Civil War Battlegrounds (and POW Camp) of Andersonville, Chicamauga, Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain.
We have seen many big rivers, Withlecoochee, Itchtucknee, Tennessee, Clinch, Cumberland, Holsten. Driven through The Smokies, Clingman's Dome, Cade's Cove.
Visited Americus, Columbus, Montgomery, Huntsville, Chattanooga, Pigeon Forge, Kingsport Bristol, Nashville and Knoxvillle.
We have been to bluegrass jams in Rocky Branch near Townsend, Netherlands Inn in Kingsport, with friends at Kodak, at Marilee's in Istachatta, as well as at festivals.
We have driven about 5000 miles, 2217 of them towing the trailer.

Final Thoughts

We completed the cleaning, despite the rain, and the trailer and truck are now safely stored for the summer. I even had time on Sunday night to get to a jam with David and Mike, our internet jammers. I certainly had a great time and they say they did as well, though we spent a fair amount of time talking about local mountain music, which I found fascinating.
We have started to get to know George and Kay, who are part of the family who's land we are storing the rig on. We got on like a house on fire, they are lovely people and we feel that our little home in America is in safe hands for the summer, even if Tim, Kay's brother, had to tow the trailer for us because the ground was muddy after all the rain we have had recently.
On Wednesday George and Kay dropped us at Knoxville airport, we flew to Clearwater (near Tampa), where we picked up a rental car. We had arranged to stay with Marilee for one night before driving to Orlando for our Transatlantic flight home. We were quite surprised when we arrived at Marilee's to find a lot of our friends waiting for us, for a little party!!! We had a lovely reunion with them for one evening. Thankyou so much for that.
On Thursday we set out for Orlando and home.
We have arrived safely and driven down to Derby to see our children, grandchildren, niece and nephew and their children for a weekend reunion.

Turning for Home

We have been to the Grand Ole Opry.
The best of the bunch was Del McCoury. For his three songs.
I don't like to be critical, but we were not over impressed. Give me a dozen friends round the fire outside Connie and Jims RV anyday.
However, Lebanon State Park was lovely, no one there but us for 2 nights. Then three RV's came in and parked one opposite, one next to us (with a dog) and one a couple of sites along. You would think with all that space they would want some privacy, we certainly did, but didn't get it. Still we left the next day. Saw some lovely spring flowers there.
We drove back East to Knoxville, to Raccoon Valley, where we are going to leave the Trailer. It is beautiful, a secluded area amongst tall oak trees, yet only a few miles from Knoxville. The only problem is that it has rained almost non-stop since we arrived, so cleaning the outside has been tricky and we have been concentrating on cleaning the inside.
You may remember we met up with some people to jam with, following a search on the internet for a local jam in Pigeon Forge. Well we are close by again so will try to see them.

Return to Nashville

As we have tickets for the Grand Ole Opry on Tuesday night, we have returned to the Nashville area. However we are on a different campground, this one is called the Cedars of Lebanon State Park, although they are actually Juniper trees (no I don't know the difference, they looked like cedar trees to me). It is set out in ,what they say, is the largest stand of Cedar trees n the USA. It is very peaceful and we have seen lots of birds.
Most memorable sight was the discovery of Fireflies as we sat round our campfire on Sunday evening. We could see the little flashing lights amongst the trees. This is the first time we have seen fireflies since we were in Westchester, Pennsylvania in August 1978. It was interesting to follow the aerial pathway of a firefly as it flashed on and off. I timed one at about 2.5 seconds per flash cycle, another one seemed to be on a 4 second cycle. This was on a different night, so other factors could be involved). Fascinating.
Yesterday, we drove into Lebanon town centre. It is built on the traditional town square format with one road in on each side of the square. Looking at the buildings, they all seemed to be Victorian, good old Americana shopfronts. In one corner an old log cabin has been placed by a natural spring, to remind people of the origins of the town back in 1802. Today, we roadtested A White Castle fast food joint. Bought their celebrated mini burger, it was not very nice. The meat looked quite miserable and the whole thing had a soggy texture, so it is an historically interesting place, but the food is lousy. I will write more about the history of the hamburge at a later date.
Overall, as with so many U.S. small towns, it is a Fascinating Place.

Brimstock 09

Clay County TN is the least most populated county in Tennessee. By coincidence, this is where The Brimstock Bluegrass Festival is held. We drove up there (it is on TN’s northern border with Kentucky) on progressively smaller roads. The countryside is more rolling hills than mountains, mostly limestone/shale/sandstone layers, badly distorted by continental drift. The instructions said to follow the road, until it became a gravel path, then you are there. True to the directions, we followed a winding road through a lovely valley and when the road gave out, there was the farmstead that is Brimstock. It is the most beautiful place; narrow winding, steep sided valley, flat meadow bottom land, river running through it. We pitched by the river in the shade of some trees (still not fully out, as we are still chasing the spring north). As the weekend progressed, the banks of the stream turned multicoloured as the wild flowers bloomed. Very, very pretty.
We had a great weekend as the weather was amazing and there were some good acts, a mix of local and national bands. Most impressive was Johnny Butten, who is actually English, but an excellent musician. He has moved to Minnesota and is making it as a bluegrass musician. There was also some brilliant clawhammer banjo playing from Phillip Steinmetz and His Sunny Tennesseans, nephew of ‘Old Grandpa Jones’ a famous Old Time Music player (who, for those of our readers in Florida, will be appearing at Palatka next year).
We really enjoyed meeting with some local lads and did some jamming over the weekend. The festival hosts, Garry and Dianne, were absolutely brilliant as they bent over backwards to make sure that we were OK and they worked hard to put on a great bluegrass weekend.
As we left on the Sunday, we were invited to stop off at the house to watch the Humming Birds. This was fascinating, it is the first time we had seen them.

Terry 's Cynical thought about Tourism

One of the problems I have noted with modern tourism is that many of the places that were famous for a specific function are now tourist traps . e.g. Broadway became famous because it was where talented performers and writers could go to be seen by record producers or A&R men. It used to be packed with people in the industry, doing their job. Now, because it is famous, it has become a tourist spot, so much so that performers now play for tourists and people from the industry are no longer seen there, so it has now lost its core function and is just another tourist package, almost like Disney. At least Disney does not disguise that it is simply a product of tourism.
This is a sad observation that we have made several times on our visits to places. The tourism industry brings in more revenue than the core function, so why not cash in on the tourists.
However, on a brighter note, Sally thinks that I am being too subjective and that the true function of Nashville does continue and needs, as it always has needed, tourists to fill the audiences.

Nashville

Today we descended upon Nashville to taste the musical delights of the area.
Oh! We couldn't find anywhere to park easily.
Once we had found a parking meter, we went to the visitors center to find out what we could see. After talking to four different Visitor Center staff, we eventually were told that handicapped do not need to pay on parking meters.
The attractions seemed to be quite pricey and fairly well spaced.
So we looked at the musical attractions and found that there are a lot of music venues, each with their own schedule.
We eventually worked out that there was actually nothing we wanted to see, though David Peterson was on in one venue it was not until 9.00 at night, too late for us old fogies.
So we settled on taking a trolley ride round the city, that was very interesting, taking us through the government district, then the Music Square, where all the record companies are, then down Broadway, where all the cafes are. It was very interesting to get some of the history.
After the trolley we had a meal at Demos, (Italian) then strolled up Broadway, going into Hard Rock Cafe, The Bluegrass Cafe and Tootsie's, to see the bands playing. Also went into Gursche's the guitar shop and looked at all the very expensive guitars. Looked being the operative word.

After that, we fought the traffic to get back to our campsite, built a fire and considered our plans for the weekend.
On reflection, I don't think I was over impressed with Nashville, though it was nice to see a whole lot of live music, you could also see a lot of no hopers trying very hard. Nashville may be well known, but it has had its five minutes of fame with us.
So we are packing up this morning and going off to a small bluegrass festival at Brimstock, about 80 miles north east of here.

An Evening at The Carter Family Fold

That brings us to Saturday, and our search for the origins of the Carter Family. We started the trip by having lunch at the Riverside Restaurant, an excellent seafood grill in Kingsport. Sally had a very nice jumbo (yummy) shrimp stuffed with crab meat, while I dived into a hamburger (no, not literally). We had a table on the patio overlooking the River Holsten. We then drove north over the state line into Virginia (another first for us), into the wilds of the Appalachian Mountains and sought out the place where the Carter Family lived and worked. A.P. Carter’s store still stands and the old homestead where he was born and raised has been moved to the same place. We took the long route to get there. Two valleys run side by side. Poor Valley is a dry limestone valley with high limestone ridges on either side (one of them is Clinch Mountain), with only a very small stream, but it had the railway (because it was straight). It was called Poor Valley, because everyone in it was poor. Parallel to it, is Little Valley, which has a big river which meanders quite incredibly in and out of rocky sandstone hills and outcrops. This valley had water, but is so twisty that you have to travel miles to get quite short distances. The Carters actually were raised in Little Valley, but moved over to Poor Valley when A.P. Carter started his general store. We really enjoyed motoring up the Little Valley, on a quiet road which hugged the river bank, then crossing into Poor Valley to get to Mace Springs, where the Carter Family Fold is.
As evening came on, the quiet country village started to fill and cars now lined the narrow country road. When the car park became full, people parked in adjoining fields. We went in to the show building and were immediately greeted by a couple of ladies I had met the previous evening. They waved aside my money and took us to seats they had reserved for us. Then began an evening of great bluegrass music by the Big Country Bluegrass Band. Most amazing of all was that as soon as the music started up, people streamed on to the concrete floor in front of the stage and began to dance. Most were wearing taps. What a great night. People came up to us and talked to us. There were kids all over the place, one woman even danced with her dog!! There was a food stand where we could buy BBQ pork sandwiches and Alison’s Homemade Potato Soup and crackers, amongst other things. Well, we had a great time. We were always conscious that we were in the heartland and capital city of mountain music. We drove home happy and tired.
Here is a great video of the evening on youtube
And also some pictures of our day

Finding Music in Kingsport

We have tried to find as much music as we can on our trip and this area is no exception. We have found some really good music.
Scanning the internet, World Wide Bluegrass, a radio station, I happened to chat to someone from Kingsport, who happened to be in a band (The Fall Creek Band), who happened to be having a concert on the Thursday we arrived. So we went. It was a great evening, in the local Civic Hall. Run by volunteers. Three bands, The Ball Sisters, local, nice girls, voices were a bit soft, good fiddle player. The next band was The Next Best Thing, daughters of Rhonda Vincent, nice sound, good voices. They had some very good musicians - Dobro, banjo and guitar - all good leads. Very enjoyable performnce.
Lastly The Fall Creek Band, very nice sound, phenomenal 15 year old girl on fiddle and vocals. The guy I had spoken too on the internet was her Dad. He played guitar. We had a great evening. Also got invited to a jam session on the Friday evening, went to that, enjoyed it, though everyone was really good. It is held in an old stage coach station and boat dock. We were playing in the little cabin next to The Cabin that Daniel Boone grew up in. It was a very pretty place and very historic.

Almost out of Tennessee

We have now moved on to stay at Warrior's Path State Park, almost in the middle of Kingsport. It is a beautiful park and we have taken some very nice pictures of views, plants and animals, which are on our Picasa site

We have come here for 2 main reasons.
1. To find out more about the roots of bluegrass/country music
2. To see, what on Google Earth looks like, some amazing geology.

Kingsport is a large town/small city in the top right hand corner of Tennessee, not easy to get to. It is part of a trio of towns called The Tri-Cities, including Bristol and Johnson City.
Kingsport is tucked on the wrong side of the Appalachians from the more prosperous North Carolina, with its rich piedmont and coastal plain. However, on arriving here, we have found it to be an extremely interesting area. It is a communication gateway. It was the first area outside of the13 colonies to be settled and many pioneers came through here. It is home to Davy Crocket and Daniel Boone (close anyway). It was an important area in the war of independence, though it seems to have got off lightly in the civil war.
It was on one of the old Cherokee Indian pathways, hence the name of the State Park, Warriers Path. More recently it has become the recognised birthplace of Country music (and hence its offshoot of Bluegrass). It is an area rich in mountain music.

Jamming in Kodak

After a couple of quiet days in Pigeon Forge Sally and I were ready to meet up with our Internet Bluegrassers (see Sunday) for a jam. except they are nont bluegrassers, but play more Old Time, which in these parts is often called Mountain Music, or Country music, not to be confused with Country And Western Music. Anyway we followed the trusty GPS to a lovely house overlooking a gentle valley and river. We were made really welcome and had a very pleasant evening playing with these three local chaps. Once again we returned to our trailer tired, but happy.

A major expedition to climb Clingman's Dome

The Smoky Mountains National Park is all about mountains. It's centrepiece is Clingman's Dome. It rises 6643 feet and is the third highest spot east of the Mississippi. (and then it is only less than 100ft lower than Mount Mitchell, which is the highest). It is the backdrop to Pigeon Forge. As you drive down the massive strip mall, there is Clingman's Dome in the background. Sunday was a beautiful day, with sunshine forecast all day. We decided that this mountain had to be conquered. We drove up in to the Smokies (as they call the park round here). True to the day the sunshine made the countryside look fabulous. Spring flowers were in abundance and everywhere we stopped there was a carpet of flowers, purple violets and white violets, little blue flowers and some little white ones that had fringed petals. Every now and again you could see a much bigger white flower, almost like a lily. Each plant had a single large flower, which was framed by three large leaves. We found that this flower is called Trillium, very pretty.

The road ran alongside a mountain stream, which became narrower and faster as we climbed, until it became one long cascade, tumbling over rocks and through gullies. The road was well made and not too steep, just a long grind uphill. In one place the road actually spiralled round on itself. We stopped at the Newfound Gap to gawp at the awesome views. But as we had further to go, we took the little road off the main highway which led us as high as we could go by car. We found a place to park the car and took with us enough supplies to last the entire trip, our lunch that is. Now we climbed on foot (or motorised chair), following the steep path to the very top. It was about a half mile walk. The air was noticeably thinner, so I did take it very carefully. On reaching the top there is a large concrete viewing platform which rises above the wooded dome, which is accessed up a long sweeping ramp. Sally made it up about halfway before deciding that her fear of heights was more important than the view. She then returned to the base camp back on solid ground. I continued to the very top of the tower. Oh! Oh! Oh! the view was spectacular. In the foreground mountains were all around, with their 'balds', ridges and deep valleys. As the eye swept to the horizon to the north you could see Pigeon Forge, then the high lands away on the other side of the Tennessee river. To the south you could see nothing but mountains away to Springer Mountain in Georgia, which is the start of the Appalachian Trial, which passes within an mile of the Dome. To the East, the Blue Ridge mountains stretched away. The rounded hump of Pisgah Mountain could be seen and alongside it the broader dome of Cold Mountain (which we saw up close in October), which overlook Maggie Valley and Asheville in North Carolina. Then, by looking carefully, I could see faintly on the horizon the long rump of Mount Mitchell, which according to the map is 73 miles away. Today was a clear day. The mountains were definitely blue.

When I returned to the bottom of the tower, Sally was swapping life histories with Hobbit, an Appalachian Trail walker, who had left Springer Mountain some three weeks before (200 miles of walking) and was making good progress towards Katahdin, Maine, a further 1978 miles up the trail. (The name is assumed for the purposes of the trail walk). We walked back down to the car park in the lovely warm afternoon sunshine and then returned to our trailer. What a lovely way to spend Easter Sunday. God's amazing creation in all it's glory.

Since arriving at Pigeon Forge I had been trying to find some Bluegrass music. Well ,using MeetUp on Facebook I found a group in the Knoxville area. One of the people I was in touch with was coming to Pigeon Forge for the weekend, so on Sunday evening Sally and I took our instruments across for the evening and we sat round a camp fire, drank a beer, talked and played until about 10.30. A nice way to end a great day.

Saturday: Dixie Stampede

Last night we gave in to the glitz of Pigeon Forge and went to Dolly Parton's Dixeland Stampede.
Pigeon Forge does not summon images of 'kiss me quick', amusment arcades and shows. But that is exactly what it is!!! Right in the middle of the Smokie Mountains a resort has grown up of Blackpoolian proportions. One huge Strip Mall alternating motel, crazy golf, restaurant, gift shop, amusement arcade or attraction.
Anyway we decided to go to the Dixe Stampede. We had a great evening, loads of food, a whole (but small) chicken, jacket potato, corn, soup, apple pastry and coffee. All the while we were entertained by horse riding, cattle stampede, buckboard races, and other showmanship.
It was great fun. Unfortunately, no pics were allowed, so we have no evidence of having been apart from memories, oh and a little plastic boot/mug, a flag and a pencil.

Today is Easter Sunday when we remember what Jesus gave for us on the cross. Happy Easter to everyone.

Friday: Another tornado Watch

Friday the weather was miserable and we sat and watched a big storm come through. Hail and tornados were predicted, but did not materialise, just rain and thunder.
In the evening we went to a music session.
I had found this session through MeetUp on facebook, also a Park Ranger had described it to us.
It takes place every Friday evening in The Rocky Branch Community Center, just outside of Townsend. The center has several rooms and a hall.
At about 6.00, people start to arrive and get together in little groups to play. When we arrived we were given a tour of the place then left to join in wherever we wanted.
One room had gospel music, another 'mountain' music, which was open for anyone, from 6 to 90.
In another there was an obviously tight little band playing, with people watching.
One corridor had a group of instrumentalists (mainly), elsewhere there were groups that just sat together and played then moved on.
There were probably about 100 people there altogether. It was an exciting and interesting evening. Sally and I joined in the general 'mountain' music and had a great time, I took a picture of the band..
Later I sat in with the instrumentalists, who enjoyed taking music at a great pace. Particularly good were Alabama Jubilee and 'the shorter version' of Orange Blossom Special, which went on for about 10 minutes, getting faster and faster as it was driven by a couple of fiddlers. Excellent (thank you Paul for your coaching on that number).

Wednesday: Pigeon Forge and Cade's Cove

On Tuesday I took delivery of a new Data Card from Verizon and it seems work ok, so life is more rosy now. We can move on from Chattanooga.
Drove to Pigeon Forge on Wednesday and found a nice campground called Creekside RV. We have a spot just by the little creek.
Thursday we took a day trip to Cades Cove, it was beautiful scenery. Too many people though.
Came back on the road from Cades Cove to Gatlinburg. That road is really spectacular as it runs alongside a stream which has lots of rapids and water falls.

The Indecisive Battle of CHickamauga

On Sunday we toured the battlefield of Chickamauga (they pronounce it Chicka-mugger).
This was the site of one of the biggest battles of the Civil War. A Union army, led by General Rosencrans had forced the Confederate army, led by General Bragg, to retreat to South East to Chattanooga, then to abandon the town only to make a stand south of Chattanooga at Chickamauga. On 19th September 1863 Bragg ordered an offensive to take place against the Union on the next day. Braggs orders were misunderstood or went astray, so only part of the offensive happened, with mixed results. However on the Union side there were also mix ups, which left a gap in the defences, which were capitalised on by the Confederates. It ended up with the Union army retreating to Chattanooga and the Confederate army winning the day on the battlefield, but not defeating the Union. So they lay siege to Chattanooga for 2 months. It was a stalemate, however it gave time for the Union to strengthen its forces and for the Confederates position to become weaker. In November the Union advanced and defeated the confederates at the battle of Missionary Ridge (also the skirmish on top of Lookout Mountain). Bragg was forced to retreat and the road to the south lay open for Sherman. The next summer he advanced and took Atlanta, by Christmas he had marched Eastwards to Savannah, then North to Lafayette, where in March he defeated General Johnston at Bentonville and accepted his surrender at Bennetts Farm, Durham in April of 1865. The final act of the war.

Da,di, da,di, da, da. Pardon Me Boy

We have arrived in the land of the Choo Choo! Chattanooga. The name is synonymous with Glenn Miller and his big band from the 30’s, so I expected to see a small town with an Art Deco station. How wrong. Chattanooga is a large industrial town, built on the Tennessee River. It is a crossroads for east to west and north to south roads and rail, as well as being a port. The traffic is awful. Because of its position it became the focus for an important battle in the Civil War. Once the town had fallen it was the supply depot and starting point for Sherman’s attack on Atlanta and his March To The Sea. It is, however, good to know that the famous railway station is still there and preserved as a hotel. We spent a pleasant afternoon riding the electric trolley from the Riverside area to the Choo Choo Hotel and exploring its shops, antique carriages, which are now hotel rooms, lobby and restaurants. The whole building and railyard had been renovated as a very posh hotel. It very nicely reflected the mood evoked by Glenn Millers music.
We started our visit on Saturday by going to Lookout Mountain, which is a 2000 ft finger of a mountain that stands above Chattanooga. There is a National Memorial Park on the point as a memorial to the ‘Battle above the Clouds’ which formed part of the battle to break the siege a couple of months after the battle of Chickamauga. The view of Chattanooga is quite amazing, you can see the Tennessee River snaking away to the North, the flat uplands of the Cumberland Plateau to the West and North. Across the North East you can dimly see the Blue Ridge Mountains. They say you can see 7 states from there, however I think we could only see four. Alabama to the left, Tennessee in front, Georgia to the right and those blue ridge mountains of North Carolina way in the distance.

Friday: Sad goodbyes

Today we are moving on (how often have I started a blog page with this sentence). Unfortunately this mean's that having had a lovely week (tornado watch apart) we must say goodbye to our good friends. They are returning home to Florida, to continue with their life, while we will hitch up the trailer and move on to Chattanooga in Tennessee, just (read on). We have had an uneventful journey today. The Tennessee River is very impressive, so big, so far from the sea, bigger because of all the rain we have had this week, many fields and streams are flooded. Huntsville is on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains, which start at Birmingham, Alabama in the south. Our drive today takes us well into the mountains, though they aren't as tall as those further north they are quite impressive. Chattenooga is bigger than we had thought (expecting only a railway station), it has one major road passing through it, which takes local traffic, I75 North and South and I56 east to west all together. The entire length was almost at a standstill the whole time. We have parked in a small campground in the middle of Chattenooga, part of the Camping World store. The bad news is that it is close to I75. The good news is that we cannot hear the traffic. The bad news is that the noise of traffic has been drowned out by the local speedway track right next door. Oh well.
Camping World is right on the border between Georgia and Tennessee, the office is in Georgia and we camp in Tennessee, the good news here is that we only pay 7% sales tax, rather than the 9 1/4% sales tax for Tennessee.
We have come to Chattanooga to visit famous Civil War Battle sites: Lookout Mountain and Chiccamugua, as well as to find out about the train. More tomorrow.

Thursday: More Museums and some excitement

We had bought tickets to three museums, but only had time to visit two of them, so today we went to the third museum, the Old Railway Depot. Here we learned about how important the railways were to the war effort, for both sides in the Civil War. The Depot at Huntsville has remained virtually unchanged since 1850 when it was built. It shows the scars of when it was occupied by the Federal forces in 1862. It was never retaken, so meant that an important railway remained useless to the Confederate forces.
We returned to camp after lunch to do some laundry. The day had started out clear and blue, however the weather had deteriorated and it was now raining. We planned to move on the next day to Chattanooga, but had not booked a campsite, so when we had finished the laundry Sally had a rest and I took the computer and went a mile or two down the road to get a good signal (the mountain top is the first place where I could not get a signal from Verizon). Meanwhile the rain was getting heavier, so while I was stopped I thought it a good idea to check the local radio (I was actually was parked in the grounds of the radio station WAAS), only to find that they were in the middle of a special weather report. There was a weather front on the way, We were in a Tornado Watch Area! A tornado had touched down to the north (Meridianville) and another was touching down at a place called Big Cove and headed for Green Mountain (we were on Mont Sante), so I looked for these places on the GPS, only to find that they were actually about 2 miles to the south, uh oh! At that moment a siren went off, long and continuous, the sign for Tornado alert, the signal to find shelter. I scooted back up the hill to Sally, and sat in the car next to the trailer, checking exactly what was happening with the weather and waiting for the torrential rain to ease up. The ranger came round with his pick-up, blue and red lights blazing and using his loud speaker to warn us to go to the shower building as a tornado may be imminent. I then collected Sally, even in the rain, using poncho and umbrella we kept reasonably dry, though we both got wet feet as the truck was now standing in a three inch deep river of water carrying run off from the slope we were on.
We drove the truck to the shower building and took shelter there, with all the other campers, for about half an hour while the storm passed over us. The rain had been so loud drumming on the trailer roof that Sally had not been able to hear the Rangers warning. On our return to the trailer the water had been so fierce that it had shifted decorative logs that I could only just lift to move back into place. Interestingly, though the tornado had passed within a couple of miles, there was no appreciable wind where we were.
Our friends come to our trailer for the evening and we had a pot luck supper (mostly the Chile left from earlier in the week). An exciting afternoon. Now we know what to do when on a campsite when there is a Tornado warning!!!!

Wednesday: Museum Day

Today was a great day for weather; the weather seems to come in cycles as fronts pass over. There was not a cloud in the sky all day. We chose to go to with our friends to the family museum and then the Constitution Village. We had a great time as the kids dressed up as pioneers and we found out a lot about the past presidents and some more about Alabama’s history. In the evening it was warm enough to sit out and jam.

Tuesday: Space Camp

We had decided to go to the Space museum on Tuesday as the weather looked bad. We were right, it was cold damp and drizzly. We had a great time going round the museum . One section of the museum is set aside for the famous ‘Space Camp’, where they filmed the film ‘Space Camp’ (though they made it look like Cape Canaveral). There was lots of interesting space junk, including a complete Saturn V. There is now a lot more information about the new Ares rocket, the successor to the Shuttle. It looks like it will be big and the first part of the programme will be launched this summer. Why a space museum in Huntsville? Because Huntsville is the place where Werner Von Braun was located back in 1950 with the supply of V2 rockets he brought with him. They took over a disued chemical warfare facility. This grew into the Redstone Army Rocket Range, which then became home to NASA as the Marshall Space Center. It is really the centre for development of rocket engines, rockets, satellites and manned vehicles, including the lunar landers.

Monday: A Walk in the Woods

The weather today promised to be good. The forecast for tomorrow was wet, so we took the opportunity to explore the mountain top campground we were on. It had a number of trails along the top and sides, so we set out from a car park to find ‘The Three Caves’, only for Sally and I to have to turn back because the trails was not wheelchair friendly, even though it started that way. So we went to the caves by car, while they walked. The caves were actually an old limestone quarry but they had continued to mine the limestone right under the mountain. There were three huge entrances and you could see back for about 100 yards that they had used ‘room and pillar’ mining to extract the limestone. The quarry was overgrown and very pretty.

Sunday Moving on to Huntsville

Reasonable drive to Huntsville, met up with our friends Jay, Christie, Noah, Myah and Sarah, who were on a Spring Break Adventure from their home in Florida. It was nice to see a friendly face again. The weather was chilly, but we still managed to eat round their campfire, using their new campfire cooking equipment. It was quite satisfying to use the campfire to cook. We had chile.

Saturday: Recovery

Saturday we set aside for a bit of relaxation, Sally found a Salon in Wal-Mart and had her hair done, while I did a bit of shopping, tried to work out finances and where we were going next.

Warning: Long and Boring Blog Bit

Our visit to Mongomery has many memories which we wish to preserve. The blog may not therefore be logical, so I have split the blog into sections: Our visit, My thoughts, Montgomery as a place and its historical importance. Readers may wish to skip parts. Feel free to only read relevant bits.

Montgomery: Personal Memories

The highlight of our trip to Montgomery has been a tales of two people, I will try and relate what their stories are.
While in the Capitol (the building, not capital, the city) We talked to the visitor greeter who worked for the Alabama History Commission, he was a black guy about our age, we talked about where we came from, he talked about himself. I mentioned that I really wanted to talk to someone ‘who was there’. Quite amazingly he said that he had been in Montgomery during the troubles, on further questioning he took part in the march from Selma to Montgomery. Further he was on the bridge when the State Troopers refused to allow them to pass and brutally beat the peaceful protesters. He showed us the scars on the back of his head where he was clubbed. He told us that he knew he would be alright, because his mother had said that he would be (his mother is still alive and is 100 years old). A trooper had come over to where he was lying and pointed his pistol at him, in his own words he saw his mother stand between them saying that he was not going to die. The Trooper pulled the trigger of his pistol five times and it did not fire! The man, Aroine Irby, told us that he then continued on the march (after several days it was eventually allowed to continue) and walked up Dexter Avenue, past the Dexter (now King Memorial) Baptist Church with Martin Luther King to demonstrate outside the Capitol building. He went on to say that bears no malice towards the State Troopers, but rather, he pities them for the hell they have to live through either now or later. We found this conversation to be quite moving, particularly as he is just a ‘normal person’, not a reenactor or employed to relate his story, but truly he was relaying his-story. Here we were at a crucial time and place in world history and able to speak to a witness and participant.
While visiting the Dexter King Memorial Baptist Church, in itself a humbling experience, we were part of a tour group. While waiting for the tour to start we got into conversation. He was a man, a doctor, named Robert Baldwin. He had come from Birmingham that day, to lobby state congressmen. His mission was to lobby for the abolition of the death penalty in Alabama. Quite interesting I thought. To support his case he had written a book called Life and Death Matters, which he carried under his arm, he was going to give it to the pastor of the church and hopefully gain his support.
In casual conversation he said that he had been a doctor who had to give up his practice because of a neurological disease and cancer in 1999. He had returned to university and on studying the civil rights movement had come to the irrevocable conclusion that inequality in man was wrong, that he was a sinner and that Jesus was the only way to salvation.
He gave the revelation that in 1963 he had stood on the steps of Alabama State University with Governor Wallace as a part of the movement to maintain segregation and had lived as a right wing reactionary until his conversion to Christianity in 1999. He was now spending the rest of his life trying to get the death penalty abolished principally because it was such a symbol of inequality. In Alabama more black people were executed than whites (I think he said 85% were black) and more blacks than whites are murdered.

Mongomery: Civil RIghts

There is also a lot about the Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery. Two episodes in history are particularly important.
December 1st 1955, when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus for a white man. This began a boycott of the buses which lasted 385 days and culminated in the city being forced by the federal government to remove segregation from the buses (though they were able to keep segregated bus stops!). This is one of the most famous incidents where peaceful protest has produced a positive result.
March 7th 1965, known as Bloody Sunday, was the day that a group of blacks ried to march from Selma to the Capitol in Montgomery, only to be beaten back by state troopers. The march was completed by March 25th 1965 when Martin Luther King led the march up Dexter Ave, past his own church, to the entrance of the Capitol building (they were not allowed in). The publicity that this generated led directly to blacks being allowed to vote (they had been entitled to vote since about 1879, but a variety of rules and laws had effectively removed their franchise).

Montgomery: The Civil War

Because of the importance of cotton to this area Alabama needed to maintain slavery and hence was very important in the civil war. It had money, it had resources, it had manufacturing capability, it was safely away from the action. The civil war for Alabama retained its romance long after it had become a bloody war of attrition for the rest of the country. Montgomery was declared the first capital of the Confederacy and the first action, firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston, was ordered from Montgomery. Because it was so far from the fighting many of the antebellum houses still remain.

Montgomery: Background

What a place. We have found out so much. I want to remember my experiences with people, but need to record what we saw and comment on the events that have made Montgomery so central to American History. Before today I thought that Montgomery was a backwater in the Deep South, should we even go there? As we moved north we began to find out about it. Montgomery is the State Capital of Alabama, which is in the centre of the Deep South. It was central to the construction and development of the Confederacy; it was the capital of the Confederacy for a short time. Before that it was the pivotal point where the French were forced to retreat from the British (1750). The British were forced to retreat from the Americans (1812 war) under General Jackson and the focal point of the war between the Cree Nation and America. It was the centre of the cotton growing industry and merchants and farmers became very rich. It also had a lot of slaves, I think because it was a long way from the sea (and easy communications) it felt a long way away from Washington, nearly 2000 miles by sea and 700 miles by land.
Anyway, there are two main spheres of history that Montgomery is famous for, both to do with emancipation, The Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement.

Friday in Montgomery

Though there was a storm overnight the weather dried up and we ventured into Montgomery once more. This time we visited the Roas Parks Museum to find out more about the Bus Boycott. It was very interesting. We then had lunch a Lunde’s, which is a café that is in the Bell Building, which was Montgomery’s first skyscraper, built in 1899. It was full of ornate stone work, very interesting, the Roast Beef sandwich was good as well. In the afternoon we visited the house where Martin Luther King and his family lived when they were in Montgomery, this was interesting and also moving to be where you could picture Martin Luther King living there, perhaps relaxing, drinking coffee with family and friends. It was also where the boycott was organized from.
On the way home we picked up a Strawberry Pie from Shoney’s, bringing back memories as we had shared a really nice one with Bob and Ginnee when we were at Hiawassee.

Thursday In Montgomery

The weather is miserable, looks like rain, or worse, so we are going get done what we can and visit Montgomery.

We started out at the Visitors Centre, then took the trolley tour (cost us a dollar between us) which gave us an overview of the places in Montgomery centre.

Since it was still dry we decided to take the car to the Old Alabama Town district to look at the old houses, but because access was difficult decided against paying the fee. We then went to the city square and saw where Rosa Parks waited for the bus on that fateful day. The square is also the site of the telegraph office where the order went out to attack Fort Sumter, which is officially the start of the Civil War. This also gave us a view up Dexter Ave to the Capitol. Our next stop was the Capitol itself, this was very interesting and we were able to see where the two houses met and where President Jefferson Davies read the Oath of Office for the Confederacy.

Following this we joined a tour of the Dexter King Memorial Baptist Church, this is the church that Maritn Luther King was the Pastor of from 1954 to 1960, which included the time of the Bus Boycott, for which he was a central character. While we visited the church we were allowed to walk around inside, I even stood in the pulpit where Martin Luther king delivered his Sunday sermon every week from 1954 to 1960.

This had been a packed and quite emotional day, seeing places we had only seen on TV or on films or in history books

Warning: long and boring blog bit

Our visit to Mongomery has many memories which we wish to preserve. The blog may not therefore be logical, so I have split the blog into sections: Our visit, My thoughts, Montgomery as a place and its historical importance. Readers may wish to skip parts. Feel free to only read relevant bits.

The Picture of the Song 'Columbus Stockade Blues'

Today we moved on from the very agreeable State Park of Georgia Veterans to Fort Toulouse Park, just North of Montgomery, Alabama. Only to find that like most of the south at the moment it was pouring with rain. Still it is only the second lot of rain we have had since January.
One of my favourite songs is Columbus Stockade Blues and since we had to go through Columbus we could not resist looking for 'Columbus Stockade', to see if it really had existed in real life as well as song. After some searching we found that it did exist and still exists today.
Columbus Stockade was a prison and police headquarters from 1850's until it became a prison in 1906. It is still operating as a prison today. We found it in a very run down area of Columbus, standing alone close to some railway sidings. It is not even identified by name, only the historic marker enabled us to identify it.
So here is a picture of Columbus Stockade mentioned the in the song.

From 25 mar 09

I now know where I am singing about. Though the song does not identify which era it was written for, it was written in 1927.
Fascinating isn't it.

Tuesday: Hope and Desperation

Today we visited Andersonville, the site of the Confederate POW Camp Sumter. It was a fascinating, yet disturbing day, to see how man can treat other men when they are in a position of power over them. The site is a museum and memorial for all US POW's and their history is depicted in several graphic displays, including a film.
The Museum is built in the grounds of the prison. We followed a ranger who explained some of the details of the camp. The reality of it was horrendous. Up to 33,000 men packed into 20.5 acres, That works out at about 1.5 square yards per man, barely enough to lie down in. There was no shelter, only what the prisoners could scrape together. In just over a year 13,000 men died there.
After Andersonville (by the way the little town is very nice, we got 2 coffee's at Patsy's for just $1.63) We drove south to Americus, past Souther Airfield. This is where Charles Lindberg bought his first plane and learned to fly, about 4 years prior to flying solo across the Atlantic. Here then was a symbol of hope that man can overcome adversity and climb to the heights.
Tomorrow we move on, we have decided to move west to Montgomery to find out more about the Civil Rights Movement.

Monday: Just Plains Jimmy Carter

Today we went to Plains Georgia to see the home of Jimmy Carter. It was very interesting. The main attraction is the visitors centre, which is housed in the High School that he and Roseanne attended. It was fascinating to see the recreation of classrooms from the forties. JC's history was interesting too, trying to read between the lines of the presentations to find the crucial points in his life which enabled him to become President. He apparently came from a normal rural family, living in in a normal Main Street Town in Georgia, He joined the Navy, took over Dad's business, then became a State Congressman, then Governor, then President - easy. One pivotal point was his membership of the School Board. He had to make a decision about integration in 1966. He chose to go with the crowd and refuse integration, yet later, when his Baptist Church voted to remove blacks from all access to the church he (and his family) were the only people to vote against it, making him very unpopular. When he became Governor he spoke out strongly against racism, but then he didn't have to live in Small Town America then. He was also very fortunately placed to step into the Democratic nomination when it was obvious that Nixon/Ford Republicans would be thrown out of office. His Presidency ended as a disaster caused by the Iran Hostage affair.
This was a very informative and interesting visit.

Check out the Monkey video on You Tube

I have managed to put the monkey sheepdog trial on to You Tube. The quality is not very good, but hey, we had fun.
Monkey video

Georgia - for the second time

Monday

Yesterday we packed up and said a sad goodbye to Cathy and Jimmy, who have been wonderfully generous and hospitable - many thanks. We drove North, over the border into Georgia and ended up in the Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park, which is a beautiful place. We are camped on the edge of a beautiful lake, surrounded by trees, loads of squirrels, birds and fish. It's very peaceful and just right for us to have a restful time - might be difficult as we want to visit Jimmy Carter's neck of the woods - Plains and do the Anderson trail which takes you through Byron, Fort valley, Warner Robins, Perry, Marshallville, Andersonville, Americus and Plains. We do find it difficult to just sit and relax when there is so much of interest to see.

Friday - Ride 'em Cowboy

Yeehaa!! We went to our first Rodeo in Lake City. What a great night - ringside seats, funnel cake, flags waving, horses galloping, barrel racing, steer roping, bareback riding and bull riding, not forgetting the entertainment in between which was hilariously funny. Seeing cowboys in full 'uniform' of stetson, fancy shirt, chaps, cowboy boots, spurs and fancy belt buckles riding bucking horses, huge bulls, tackling steers and roping them up was one of the most exciting things we've seen for a long time. The bulls were massive and one poor man got bucked off and the bull came crashing down on him before he managed to get out of the way. Dangerous sport!! His mother was sitting next to us and had been very helpful explaining things. She was somewhat relieved when he got up, but distressed to see him limping heavily as he exited the arena. She very quickly went behind to see if he was alright. We hope he was. There was a comedian who was in the ring the whole time and was very funny telling jokes and dressing up. He was in a fat suit and tried to jump in a barrel only to get stuck and then shouted that something had popped!! His suit was deflated. The climax had sheepdogs herding sheep ( with very large horns) a bit like 'one man and his dog', but each dog had a live monkey riding on it's back, there was loud music (Ghost Riders in the Sky), loads of glitter, cheering and hollering. Hilarious! We both turned to each other and said "This could only happen in America". Terry was convulsed with laughter and Cathy was worried that he might have apoplexy! It was a very good night.
Check out the monkey video on You Tube

Thursday - On The water again

Jim, Cathy, Ron, Terry and I went in Jim's boat up the Sante Fe River. Picture a large pontoon boat with plush seats, large sun canopy, cool drinks, a picnic and a lovely, hot sunny day. We went up as far as a large fresh water spring, then back down river to where the Ichetucknee River joins the Sante Fe, where we beached and sat eating our picnic watching large butterflies flying round and various sizes of fish swimming in the warm shallow water. We then headed off downstream again to where the Sante Fe converges with the Suwanee. ( Way down upon the Suwanee River was sung again!) We saw large herons, a little blue heron, egrets, vultures, an osprey, a kingfisher, dozens of turtles and many other small birds. We saw an otter diving and playing and a large 8 feet long alligator basking on the mud in the sun. It's very pretty just now as it's spring and the trees are all in spring green, with golden rod and beautiful lilies flowering around the trees, not to mention the dogwood trees being covered in white blossom. The trip took about 5 hours and we arrived back feeling tired but very happy. Supper was a large loin of pork that had been cooking in Cathy's crockpot all day (very tender) and everyone had brought a dish to pool. There were 8 of us altogether, and we finished off with a lovely lemon cake that Barbara had made. another memorable day.

Thursday

We have accepted the kind offer of Jim and Cathy to visit them at their beautiful home in Northern Florida. It is very close to the Ichitucknee River. Their house is built in amongst a Live Oak forest and is very open so that you keep getting lovely views of all the trees which surround them. It is incredibly peaceful. The Ichetucknee River is a spring fed river, which means that it flows quite fast, is crystal clear and is about 72 degrees all year round. A very popular activity round here is to tube ride the river. Not a thrill ride, but on a hot day there is nothing better than to float for a couple of miles down the river looking at all the wildlife in the forests, perhaps with a beer or two floating beside you (not allowed now for fear of trash being left). In the State Park you can even get a bus back to your car.
Yesterday was a nice quiet day, Jim, Ron and I went to an RV scrapyard to find a light fitting, fascinating place of course, but I didn't buy anything. In the evening we went to Phish Heads, a seafood restaurant, for a Chicken Wings supper. It was a very pleasant meal. We found out that there are two types of chicken wings, called Drummers and Flappers, obvious when you think about it. For some reason (which may be my English accent, which we forget can be difficult to follow. Down here in the south it seems to be a very rapid speech compared to the southern more relaxed way of talking) they forgot my starter (a Caesar salad), then they forgot my wings order (only by a couple of minutes), but then they also forgot to charge me for the wings (they realised they had messed up the order), so everything turned out fine in the end.
We all then came back,via Walmart, to Jim and Cathy's for Strawberry Shortcake, which was delicious as a neighbour had given them a couple of 'Flats, or 'large punnets' of fresh picked strawberries.
Did I say 'All', yes, having given our 'final farewell' to our Florida Friends and started our Northern Trek, (only stopping at Jim and Cathy's because its on the way, oh and because they asked us, oh and because they are lovely people) we find that another couple of friends Ray and Barbara (recognisable because she often wears a 'hug a tree' Tee-shirt), who we met most recently at Palatka and then Waldo, live just round the corner and they usually go with Jim and Cathy to the Wings Night. Oh and did I mention that Ron and Judy (yes, I did mention Ron, when we went to the RV Salvage, come on stay with the programme) turned up at Jim and Cathy's yesterday. So having said a fond farewell on Monday we have met them again, which is really nice. Some neighbours of Ray and Barbara, Jim and Darlene, also joined us for the evening, so great fun was had by all. I must admit I do like bigger crowds of friends because I am shy and bashful, so I can hide behind the conversation of others without appearing too ignorant.

Post Party Catch up

Yes folks, we are alive and well and living in Connie's back yard.

We have kept telling ourselves that we would use this month to relax and soak up the sun. To an extent we have done that, but I always seem to have something that needs to be done and have not been diligent in keeping up to date with the blog.
We had a great weekend at Palmdale, there was some excellent pickin' going on. Our friends, Marilee and Jan, performed brilliantly and have been booked to appear next year! Well done.
The news for that festival is that James King is to appear on the Friday night next year!! So book your place now. I will write a more full report when I get the chance.
We contacted some friends we met on our first trip. They live in West Palm Beach and they came over to see us and stayed for the Saturday night. It was really great to see Sandy and Don again and it made the weekend very special. Thank you, Sandy and Don, for making a special weekend for us.
Palmdale is way down in the south, but close to a good road, so after the festival we decided to travel all the way back to Connie's in one go. We had a good clear run and arrived by 3.00. Sally was exhausted, but able to 'lay up' (nautical term used when you take a boat out of the water for repairs and refurbishment) the next two days to recover.
However we did manage to struggle to Walmart with Cathy, of Fred and Cathy on the Wednesday.
We also tried to give a hand with the party. If you want some understanding of the level of these preparations you should read the section in Lord of The Rings about Bilbo's Party. The only difference is substitute the firework display for a shuttle launch which we watched from their garden on Sunday evening. This was spectacular, at 7.43 the sky was darkening and the vapour trail of the shuttle turned red with the setting sun (the launch was in the east). But otherwise pretty similar.
We had a great time, four days of meeting people who are now old friends, eating, talking and playing. There were 0ver 300 people for the weekend and Connie fed everyone with amazing food. eg. Sunday breakfast - omelettes cooked to order, pancakes, eggy bread, hash browns, bacon, sausage patties, biscuits with sausage gravy, fruit salad, fruit juices, sweet rolls, muffins, coffee, tea. What a spread! Not to mention the deserts Connie keeps putting out - cookies, eclair cake, chocolate cake, carrot cake, choc. brownies, creme de menthe brownies, chocolate mocha square ( Sally's favourite), strawberry shortcake, ice cream sundaes, etc etc. - all home made. We have both got expanding waists!!!! Thank you Connie and Jim for being such wonderful, generous people.
It's warmed up - temperatures in the high 80's (30 C) (highest was 87 F )and no rain for the last week. Wonderful weather for the party. As we plan to go North, it may get cooler.
We are now preparing to move on.

Friday: New Toy

Today we had a relaxed morning and I started to jam with a fiddler who did Old Time Music, so we played quite a few English type folk tunes. Sally joined in on the Dobro, then we were joined by another guitarist, then a base, then another dobro, then another guitar and pretty soon we had a jam session going.
This afternoon my new toy arrived, Marilee had taken delivery of our new generator and had brought it down to the festival with her.
I carefully unpacked it, put oil in, filled up with petrol and pulled the starter. After about 6 pulls to get petrol to the carburetta is started right up, ye ha, we now have a little 2000watt Honda Generator. It is a lovely piece of kit, only 46lbs, only 53 decibels. Shame it doesn't produce 240 volts otherwise would bring it home (it is not called a suitcase generator for nothing).
We have just had tea (burger cooked outside on our new electric grill) and we are getting ready to go back to the evening concert. Tonight it is Valerie Smith, but tomorrow we have Carolina Rose!!!, who I jammed with last night. And who is she you say? None other than the living daughter of the Father of Bluegrass Bill Monroe (who is now sadly passed away). Watch this space for more news of this great link with the past.

Thursday: Even Further South

After leaving our friends we moved south on route 27, another of America's interstate roads, which ends in Florida but starts in Michigan, right up by the Canadian Border. We drove down through mile after mile of Orange Grove, past the famous Sebring race track to the little town of Palmdale where we pulled into the campground for the festival. We made ourselves at home and had a pleasant eveing pickin' with people around and about. Good Time.

Wednesday: Heading South Again

We set off from Marilee's and headed south to see an old friend. Teri is Canadian and we met her and Roger on the day we picked up our trailer 2 years ago. Though we only met for a few hours we have kept in touch, never really expecting to meet again, but somehow not doubting that we would.
Unexpectedly they had returned to Florida and we were able to drop in and see Teri (Roger was away on business). we had a lovely afternoon catching up on all that has happened over the last 2 years. However eventually we had to move on as we were expected by some friends in Winter Haven. They are a lovely family and although we did nothing special it was a special time as we became immersed in a normal american family (that is not an insult)for an evening. Husband, wife and three kids, all of whom were delightful, interesting and well behaved. We fell about in hysterics when Sarah (the youngest) sat on the floor and let rip with the longest and loudest fart, we all looked on in horror as she laughed and pulled out a tub of Flarp, at which point we all laughed as well. After dinner they treated us to a demonstration of tap dancing. It was a real shame that we had to leave next day.

Marilee's Birthday

Monday

Sally had a quiet day to recover from the weekend, I took myself down to Dorothy to play with her music group, it was great fun I played some jazz and some rock and had a nice time.

Today we have celebrated Marilee’s birthday, by going to the Margarita Grill, which is a Seafood restaurant built out over the river at Homosassa, managed to get some nice pics. of Great white Heron and another large heron. We had great fun at the meal, there were twelve of us. We went back to Marilee’s for cake and ice cream.

Tuesday

Today we dossed and Jim invited Marilee and us to go for another celebratory meal, this time for a steak. We were persuaded. We would go to the brand new Texas Roadhouse, only 15 miles away in Brooksville. When we arrived it was packed and it looked like an hours wait for a table, so instead we piled back into the car and headed for Cody’s (which to us discerning diners is the best steak house around this part of Florida). We were not disappointed. Great service, unlimited salad, fresh hot rolls and cinnamon butter and that was before we got our main course. Prime Rib, medium rare, red and runny, slightly to runny, so it was taken away for a bit of a warm up, came back perfect. Sally and I shared one between us. After the meal the staff clustered round us and presented Marilee with a birthday Muffin and sang Happy Birthday. We came home, I was stuffed, they brought a box. This was another lovely evening.

We have really enjoyed being with Marilee, Istachatta has so much to offer to the discerning traveler.

Tomorrow we move on

Church On Sunday

Today we accompanied Marilee to her church. It is a small church in Floral City, which is a small town in Florida.
A congregation of about fifty welcomed us warmly. We sang several rousing songs. Their church does not use instruments, but has a song master and the hymn books have shape notes as well as ordinary notes. We took communion with the rest of the church and then received a fine sermon by a young preacher who was in training for the ministry. The meeting was finished off with an adult baptism. Sally and I both enjoyed the meeting. Afterwards we were again warmly greeted by many of the people there. Thank you Floral City Church of Christ.
Sally and I had the rest of the day to ourselves, our plan was to visit John and Dorothy, two friends from the Soggy Bottom Bunch who are really nice. We had a lovely afternoon and they taught us how to play Rummikub, which was very entertaining. Jack and Julie (also from Soggy Bottom, who live next door) came over and chatted for a bit. We had a lovely time and have arrived back at the trailer exhausted.

Back Porch Pickin'

Thursday

On Thursday we set off for Marilee’s and managed to squeeze the trailer into her back garden. We have done lots of sitting and playing. On Thursday evening we joined in a Back Porch Pickers rehearsal. This is a band in which Marilee and Jan play. They have a gig on Sunday, playing for a Church leader's inauguration - Bluegrass and BBQ- the Bishop and other church leaders will be there, so quite important.

Friday

On Friday we had a bucket of KFC chicken, Checkers Apple Pies and stuff and a whole bunch of friends came round to play in Marilee’s front room. Great fun.

Saturday

Went to Sleepy Hollow for breakfast. There were 7 of us and we all enjoyed a huge breakfast for $5 each. Ed and Lois joined us after breakfast. This is a great place, a real bikers paradise, set on the edge of a lovely lake. There is a large area outside with picnic benches and they serve breakfast, followed by BBQ alongside a bar. It's very popular place for bikers and airboats, as they can pull up along the canal, and others who come by road. There was a live country singer and we sat and watched people coming and going in airboats. One got stuck on some dry land just opposite us and we all enjoyed watching his antics as he tried to get off (if your goin' to make an ediot of yourself, why not do it in front of two hundred bikers). Terry and I had a ride on an airboat - quite an experience - always wanted to ride one of these. We saw an alligator's nest with 9 babies swimming in the shallow water with a 7 foot Mamma alligator keeping watch! Amazing sight! There were loads of birds on the lake - ibis, herons, vultures etc. etc. The canal leading to the lake was very pretty with the cypress trees just turning green with new leaves.

We then went to Fort Cooper State Park for a walk round the nature trail. Supper was KFC Chicken etc left over from the night before!

EPCOT

From Our day at EPCOT

Sunday

We have arrived safe and well at Connie and Jim’s. We are here for two purposes, (apart from seeing Connie and Jim, who are the nicest people) one, to get some rest and two, to go to EPCOT Disney for the day. Our joy was complete when we found out that you can get in for free on your birthday, because Sally’s birthday is on Wednesday!

Wednesday

Our day started early on Wednesday (you have to work really hard to enjoy leisure), we were away by 7.30. True to their word Disney gave Sally a free pass to Epcot. They give you a big badge with Happy Birthday and your name on it so most of the cast say “Happy Birthday, Sally” to you as you go round. Corny, but it makes you feel quite special. Epcot is all about the Future World - big buildings looking at Spaceship Earth, Universe of Energy, Mission Space, Innoventions, The Seas with Nemo and friends, The Land and Imagination. Then there is the worlds showcase where they give you a flavour of some of the countries round the world. We enjoyed some of the rides - especially the one about Nemo and friends in Sea - we went on twice. They have a huge tank with dolphins, all types of fish and sharks - great. We also enjoyed the last ride in Future and a simulator ride taking you up to Mars. Jim and Connie were great guides, steering us round the park, showing us the best bits. We had booked a table at the Mexican Pavilion as we have never eaten Mexican before, it was very nice.

To round off an exhausting but great day we called in at Steak n’ Shake for an Ice Cream Sundae.

Waldo Festival

Sunday
Well we have enjoyed another Bluegrass Festival.
Some excellent bands.
As I have noted before, this is a much smaller festival than Palatka. The effect of this is that people are friendlier and things are more laid back (not so tightly organised).
Most of the bands we have seen also performed at Palatka, however this time we had seats on the second row and could see them clearly.
Carolina Sonshine are quite entertaining, they do nice vocals, the lead singer has a really good voice.
Bluegrass Brothers Are very entertaining, they are a "high energy" band, concentrating on mountain music, either bluegrass or old time.
The Moron Brothers are a great comedy bluegrass act, catch their river boat video although I don't think it is actually their own boat. They have some very funny stories and some nice bluegrass songs inbetween. Well worth listening to.
Nothin' Fancy, though already reviewed, thought I would put them in here as well. We really enjoy their style of bluegrass, it is fun yet well delivered. They are also excellent musicians.

Although the temperature has been up in the 60's and even 70's at times, Friday night was really cold, below freezing and since the Pavilion is outdoors, we all froze as well, so it was a good job the music was good. Sally even took a hot water bottle to cuddle under her blanket!!
There have been several groups pickin' during the week. Despite invitations, I seem to have spent most of the time with our old crowd, guess I still lack confidence, still I am getting better at it. Biggest problem is remembering all the words to a song. Practice is needed really badly, don't seem to get enough time, even when we are supposed to be doing nothin', we seem to be too busy.
This morning there is a Gospel Hour, so I guess we will join in that.
Later today we are going back to Connie and Jim's, looking forward to our visit to Epcot.
We have also signed up for another festival at Palmdale, way down in the south, near Lake Ocachobee.

Goodbye Palatka, Hello Waldo

Saturday is the main event day at the Palatka Festival.
The Line up brings some of the top names in American Bluegrass together on the same stage.
The Bluegrass Brothers (excellent on stage entertainment).
Rhonda Vincent, top female singer.

From Palatka Festival 2009

Ricky Skaggs, top bluegrass and country singer, since the 60's!
This was an exciting and entertaining days bluegrass.
Ricky Skaggs was a bit low key, but delivered some great music. He also did appear out front after his second performance, though not immediately.
It was a memorable occasion.
Afterwards we had a jam session at Connie's RV.
A great day.

Sunday
Today we had a quiet day as we were going to move on to Waldo on Monday.
In the afternoon we drove into Palatka to visit the Ravine Valley Gardens State Park (I think, though I must check back, that this is the 39th Florida State Park we have visited), we were hoping to see some of the azealias that it is famous for. There were some, but recent cold weather and being a little early meant that the show was sporadic. Also access was difficult for Sally (no, it was impossible to get into the Ravine Gardens, we had to drive round the rim).
We had a pleasant evening with some friends who we are travelling to Waldo with. We watched the Daytona 500 race fizzle out 40 laps from the end because of rain.

Monday
Today we have travelled in a caravan( four RV's) to Waldo for another Bluegrass festival, this one is smaller and I think will be more laid back. We are looking forward to a more relaxing time, with a bit more time to practice music.
In the evening we ate out at a seafood restuarant. This was an outstanding meal, outstanding because of the number of basic errors made by the staff. Almost every dish came to us cold, so one by one we returned all the dishes to be cooked properly, the poor waitress was being driven demented as she was the go-between from the kitchen to the table. Eventually she arrived with a complimentary desert for everyone, having also provided an extra plate of fried shrimp for us, she also allowed me to take a box home of a nearly untouched plate of broiled shrimp (I had the 'all you can eat' option). Finally, she gave a 50% dicount on our bills. Which enabled us to make it a very entertaining evening rather than a disaster.

Palatka: Friday

Ok, so the heady rush of being a celebrity has now worn off. People are no longer coming up to us to ask for autographs. We are working hard to return to a life of being normal hard working tourists, just out to blend in.
Today the concert artists stepped up a gear in popularity.
Goldwing Express were entertaining, but we both thought they were not as sparkling as we have seen them in previous performances (perhaps it is because we have seen them for the fifth time).
Dailey and Vincent were excellent, they have amazing vocal harmonies. One of the characteristic sounds of bluegrass is the use of a high powered high tenor voice in harmony with a lead singer, or as a lead singer. They are the experts.
Doyle Lawson and his band are a living legend, but in my opinion was not as tight as other bands.
Nothin' Fancy provide excellent entertainment and are instrumentally very tight. really enjoyed the fiddle playing.
Pretty good line up though.
Had a nice jam afterwards at Connie and Jim's.

The Palatka Gazette

Yesterday we were interviewed by Bob Hays of the Palatka Gazette.
It was fun explaining to him what our aims are in being in the States.
So far we have only been here for a few days, so here is a reminder that you can read about our previous trips on these pages
Last fall: Georgia and the Carolinas
Last spring: Spring into Florida
Fall 07: Florida in the Fall
The record of our first trip is not available at this time.

Palatka: Thursday

Today the festival starts proper.
You can see the line up at the festival site.
As I write this (8.30 a.m.) there are small showers of rain. Hope it’s a good day.

Palatka: Wednesday

Our first evening. By now the temperature has climbed into the 80’s, so setting up has become something to get in a sweat about. However all was accomplished by mid afternoon and a small nap was taken by most. We are all parked near each other, making a small ‘U’ shape, just in case the Indians attack I suppose. High priority task was to take chairs down to the pole barn as it fills up on a first come first served basis. We have seats about 2/3rds back, not too bad considering.
We had a pleasant evening unpacking rusty instruments and rusty voices and picking a few tunes, with a lot of talk. Later a guy from Kentucky came over and gave us a masterclass comparing and contrasting the playing styles of Merle haggard, Chet Atkins and Doc Watson. Very interesting.

Wednesday: Convoy!

We set off for Palatka, collecting Connie’s sister, Brenda, on the way. Now we were four units all travelling together. It’s a Convoy! Very exciting, until we (being at the rear) got caught at a red light and watched them disappear over the hill. It took about 15 miles to catch up with them again, they had even stopped to wait for us. Still its all good fun.
Interestingly enough, in the States they call RV’s travelling together a caravan. So after 2 years of RVing in the states we at last spent time in a caravan!

Wednesday: Banks

Banks are in the news today, also in our lives. If our experience of Wachovia is anything to go by no wonder they have gone bust.
October: Set up bank account, very good. Got temporary check book.
December: collected check book. Got home found that they had made an error in our address (PO box number 1059, instead of 1095). Phoned and was assured of address correction and new checks.
Feb. Each received a letter from bank, now they had Sally’s PO box right, but the house number wrong. Also Terry’s house number right, but still the wrong PO Box.
Went to bank to collect new check book. They had corrected the PO box, but had the wrong house number and misspelled the name of the road! After a couple of attempts with the nice lady at the bank we eventually got it sorted out.
Scary thought that they are dealing with our money! Especially when I realized that each mistake they made with our address reduced the numbers in the address, hope they don’t do that to our money in the account!

Tuesday: Sandhill Cranes

Sandhill Cranes are a feature of the birds in Florida, although not common (wikipaedia says about there are 5000 Florida Sandhill Cranes) they are large (bigger than a swan) and do not appear afraid of humans, so they are quite easy to see. They are ‘famous’ for their migration habits. They are famous for gathering in huge numbers in Nebraska (?) where they make one of natures fascinating sights. My interest in them is that while at Connie and Jim’s last spring (Feb 4/5th) I had been enthralled (well almost) by seing that large numbers of Sandhill Cranes were gathering over Harpers Hideaway, circling to gain height then flying off, en masse, to the north, forming a characteristic V formation.
One photo I took enabled me to count more than 300 birds. Well surprise surprise. On Tuesday morning while working away I heard the disctinctive sound of a Sandhill Crane in Flight (the sort of noise a goose, or swan makes in flight, but different). I looked up and once again saw large numbers of cranes gathering, wheeling in the sky, finding updraughts, waiting for others to join them and then disappearing northwards. Of course I was amazed (as I have said before I am very easily pleased). Now either this is common, happening on a lot of days, in lots of different places, or else it is one of those amazing animal activities whereby Sandhill Cranes gather in the same places, at the same time each year, possibly the same Sandhill Cranes each year. I want to believe the latter of course. Either way it is an amazing sight, compounded by seeing it repeated exactly a year later, in the same place.