I'm back on the boat.

When last we left our hero....    

I was in Kemah Texas.

Wednesday I finally left Kemah heading East, I wanted to stop in Mobile AL to visit Ken and Keke, but they were out in West Texas for Ken's fathers 90th birthday.  So instead I stopped at Middendorf's for thin sliced Catfish.  Then the next night i stopped in Valdosta to visit with Doug and Peggy Lester.  After Valdosta i went North to Americus GA to see Tina Larson a sailing friend I met last year in the Abacos.  She was a great hostess and carted me around to two local landmarks before i finally turned south again and cruised down to Fort Pierce.

A very special thank you to EVERYONE 

who took me in and cared for me on my month long travel to Arkansas!

I got home and back on the boat last night.  Departed July 3rd and returned August 4th.  It was a whirlwind tour of the south.  Lots of great food, friends and southern accents, like words mixed with cream and honey then poured out with thick molasses.  The heaviest accents were in Americus, Georgia!  A special shout out to Thin Lizzy in the old Floyd bar... "the little girl with tiny arms."  Too Cute.

VALDOSTA, GA  and the wake board park

When I was leaving Valdosta headed north (away from the boat toward Americus) I saw a water park and decided to turn around and check it out.  The park is in a circle with lots of 'obstacles' to jump, ride and slide across.  Tall structural poles with pulleys and ropes pull skiers in a big circle.  It was really cool and makes me wish i could have tried it back when i was younger.  Or had lots more time and energy that day to give it a try!

 a few rental spots on site at the wake park

Americus GA

Tina waving goodbye when i depart.

stop number 1: ANDERSONVILLE , GA

The Andersonville National Historic Site, located near Andersonville, Georgia, preserves the former Camp Sumter (also known as Andersonville Prison), a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the final fourteen months of the American Civil War. Most of the site lies in southwestern Macon County, adjacent to the east side of the town of Andersonville. As well as the former prison, the site contains the Andersonville National Cemetery and the National Prisoner of War Museum. The prison was made in February 1864 and served to April 1865.

The site was commanded by Captain Henry Wirz, who was tried and executed after the war for war crimes. It was overcrowded to four times its capacity, with an inadequate water supply, inadequate food rations, and unsanitary conditions. Of the approximately 45,000 Union prisoners held at Camp Sumter during the war, nearly 13,000 died. The chief causes of death were scurvy, diarrhea, and dysentery.

"The unsanitary conditions, compounded by disease and malnutrition, led to the death of more than 12,000 prisoners. Over 900 prisoners died each month. The dead, both Union prisoners and their Confederate guards, were laid in mass graves at a site 300 yards north of the stockade.  Trenches three feet wide and 200 feet long accommodated hundreds of bodies, laid shoulder to shoulder."

This is the actual prison site.  note the white posts showing the 'dead zone' where you would be shot if you got too close to a wall.  You can also see the four corner brick towers to show you the corners of the fence.  Imagine the tens of thousands of men on these two hillsides.

Note these actual Raider graves are placed apart from everyone else.

On some headstones they had both husband and wife on either side. (same penny)

stop number 2: PLAINS, GA.

A lovely local out on the main street after attending a funeral.

 THIS is Plains, Georgia.  You are seeing all of it in this shot.

 An oil painting of Jimmy Carter hangs in the back hallway staircase of the hotel.

 This building sells peanut butter ice cream.

 The building on the far right is an antique store downstairs and hotel upstairs.  

Rosalynn Carter picked out all the hotel decorations and helped furnish it.

The manager of the hotel asked Mr Jimmy Carter to help them by removing "the old worn stairs, to be sanded and refinished."  Jimmy did it. (i didnt realize that President Carter is an accomplished wood worker.  till i saw his book.) She told me that the Carters often go for walks and stop by the hotel to visit.  She asked him "again recently to refinish the stairs" but at 95 he chose not to.  this is the hallway where Jimmy Carters painting hangs.

the upstairs hotel

antique store downstairs

MY peanut butter ice cream with chocolate sauce and roasted peanuts.

A tourist from Florida visiting his uncle and stopping for ice cream.

A visit to Plains Ga takes only as long as you want it to.  But a trip all across the south seems to take a solid month...        -skip