JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA

We left Columbus driving south to Florida and stayed at a really nice RV park at Mayport Naval Station. We overlooked the St. John's River and had to go just around the corner to the Atlantic Ocean. Just beautiful!! For most days we had good weather and a continual ocean breeze. Walks on the beach, playing in the surf...just perfect!! This is the longest we've stayed in one spot for a long while (almost 2 weeks). The purpose of our visit here is a Class of '66 West Point mini-reunion.



While the majority of the attendees played golf, John and I went kayaking on a marsh on the road to St. Augustine. It was very tranquil. The only sounds were the barking/growling of the mother alligators checking on their babies. The babies had all hatched about 2 weeks ago. They have no fear and do not submerge or race away from the kayaks. (But, they are very hard to see in the water. They are small and look like little bits of wood. No good photos to show you.) Lots of pretty blue herons, cormorants, egrets. Kayaking is fun and we will do it again. I'd like to try it in the ocean!! That would be exciting!!

Our next outing was a Segway tour of St. Augustine. FUN!! But, riding a Segway is not easy. A Segway is a 2 wheeled scooter with a platform that you stand on. To go forward, you lean forward; lean right, go right; lean left, go left. Sounds easy... not!! It is a delicate balance and not easy to stay upright right away. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the USA having been settled by Ponce de Leon. Must admit we didn't really see a lot as we were too busy trying to stay on our Segways, but we put St. Augustine on our list of return visits along with riding Segways and kayaking. And John is stuck with me forever & ever. We kissed until a tree that is entwined with a palm tree. Supposedly if you kiss under it, you are bound to one another into eternity. No way out for him now!!

Also, while in Jacksonville, we got to visit with my niece Natalie and her family. I had never seen Cole who just turned 3 and have seen Megan & Madeleine only a few times before. Cute kids! My niece is into jogging and recently did 10+ miles. Don't know where that gene comes from! This was not our first West Point mini-reunion. We attended one in September 2006 in San Diego. This one went much better. John did not pass up and wind up in the hospital for 3 days!! Much more fun!!

COLUMBUS & ANDERSONVILLE, GEORGIA

We stayed at Lake Pines RV park again. Nice place, if only the train tracks were a little farther away!! But, it is not an active track; no trains hourly like at some places. It was good to see Lance and Branden. They had a busy summer with their Mom and her family in Bogota, Columbia. The boys got to see a lot and were treated warmly by their Colombian family. They must have eaten non-stop as they both grew a lot. While we were there, Clara baked me an early birthday cake shaped like a purse and, since it was Labor Day, decorated it in red, white & blue. That's not lipstick on John's lip. It's red icing!!

Partly as an excuse to get the boys to ourselves, we took them to Andersonville National Cemetery and Memorial. If you recall your history, Andersonville was the site of an infamous POW camp during the Civil War operated by the Confederate Army. It was really horrific, but we Northerners should not be smug. Ours weren't much better! (I was surprised to learn that there had been a POW camp for Confederates in Elmira, NY - that is just down the road from where I grew up!) Andersonville was in existence for only 14 months, but, within that time, 13,000 Union prisoners died. One of the prisoners wrote "it takes 7 of its ocupiants to make a Shadow". Some 12,000 of those who died here are buried at the adjoining National Cemetery. The site also serves as a Memorial to American POW's from all wars. The museum was very interesting showing the various places of imprisonment through our many wars. We then went to the adjoining National Cemetery looking for ancestral history. (I did find some Grogans & Connollys, but not sure if they are related.) Plus seeing all those white headstones kind of puts it all in perspective. Finally, kids, dogs and adults had enough of the heat, humidity and GNATS!!

HEADING EAST

Well, we're wending our way to the East Coast again! From Mount Rushmore in South Dakota we travelled across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania to New York. We spend a few days there to see my Mom and sister Mary Jane. Mom's doing okay, but had been feeling poorly. She's feisty and toting oxygen hasn't dampened her enthusiasm. Well, maybe some... Got to do some "home" things like visit Wegman's (a local grocery store chain that is the best in the world!!) and eat speidies (a local marinated kabob type thing that Broome County is famous for). Then we head out again across Pennsylvania where we stop to photograph some old, old cemeteries where various branches of my family are buried. You would not believe some of the roads we've gone down in our little Prius!! On this jaunt we would never have found the Dymond Hollow Cemetery had we not talked to a neighbor at Fitch. Fitch was really interesting for me as I have so many ancestors there. John and I are both working on our family trees and these stops help us validate our research. They are also very interesting. We photo other gravestones, too, to post for others who are researching their families.

Then, onto Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to see the beautiful 4 month old Eva Grace! Eva started off a month early, tiny and not an eager eater. Well, any worries are over. She is a lively, all smiles little butterball. She's learned how scootch backwards and is ready to get moving. Eva had her first sleepover at Oma and Opa's RV. John and I had forgotten how busy a little person can keep you... feeding, diaper changing, burbing!! But, we sure enjoyed it!

And, lest they think they are forgotten, we enjoyed our visit with her parents. I stayed a few extra days while John drove on to Red Bay, Alabama, to get our windshield replaced. It was a nice, relaxing visit with Eva, Hans & Andrea.

Life doesn't get much better than this... travelling around the USA with John and getting to see family and all the grandchildren. We leave here to head to Columbus, Georgia, and Lance and Branden for Labor Day weekend!! Got to see Rennie and Tess in Northern CA before heading East.

MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL

The Park newspaper calls Mount Rushmore the "Shrine of Democracy". I don't agree. I think that should be Congress - even if the inhabitants there sometimes forget it. Even still this is pretty impressive. Did you know that each face is 60 feet tall; each eye is 11 feet wide; noses are 20 feet long except Washington's which is 21 feet and his mouth is 18 feet wide. It took about 14 years to do and, get this, cost under $1million ($989,992.32). Any bets what that would be today?

From the NPS website and the newspaper we learn over 90% of Mount Rushmore was carved by using dynamite. Dynamite blasts removed approximately 450,000 tons of rock from the mountain. The 4 images represent Birth (Washington - Revolutionary War), Expansion (Jefferson - Louisiana Purchase), Development (T. Roosevelt - New Century) and Preservation (Lincoln - Saved the Nation during the Civil War).

Betcha didn't know all this!! And, it is a very pretty drive with at least one 10% grade!!

CUSTER STATE PARK, S DAKOTA

Well, I am very behind with this blog. It is now Sept. 17th and I am just starting on Custer State Park which was early August. It was a beautiful spot. South Dakota in general is a pretty place, a lot of greenery and nice people! We really enjoyed our drives through the park. The biggest thrills were the prairie dog village, the closeness of the buffalo and the wild burros. I thought I was over my buffalo fascination, but, needing a restroom and not being able to get to it because of buffalo in the way, rekindled the interest. The burros were a hoot!! They have no fear of humans or cars. You just better have some carrots or apples for them!!!

The prairie dogs are really cute! They can dig SOOO fast and are fun to watch! This was a small "town" of maybe 15 holes. At one time, there were 1000's of these towns all across the prairies. They are rodents, related to ground squirrels.

As true for so much of our journey, the vistas are incredible!! I just cannot describe how expansive and pretty all the mountains are. And, pictures just don't measure up to the reality!

DEVIL'S TOWER & CRAZY HORSE MONUMENT

Remember "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind"? Well, this is THE rock. It really looms over the surrounding countryside. Then, there were one or two areas with these reddish rocks. Everything else was grayish. Really strange! Very pretty drive here. The Black Hills area is just gorgeous. We stayed at a really pleasant RV Park. It is on our return list.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

After leaving Grand Teton and a beautiful drive we arrived at Yellowstone!! A truly wonderful place!! We were here 4 days and didn't see 1/2 of it!! Saw lots of antelope, elks and buffalo, but no moose or bears!! We'll have to go back just for those! And, of course, we had to go see Old Faithful!! All throughout the park, the mountain backdrops are spectacular!!

Buffalo are huge!! Amazingly, a buffalo skin is very soft and very warm. You know those massive heads they have. Well, by swinging their heads back and forth they clear away snow drifts to get to the plants and grass buried in the snow. Buffalo also stand motionless for hours at a time. And, they don't care where that is...in the middle of a field or the middle of the road!! There were nightly traffic jams as buffalo posed for photographs and crossed the road!!

The elk are everywhere! They love the park and thrive there. Ample food and water plus lodgepole pine forest to shelter the newborn calves in May & June. A massive fire in 1988 destroyed huge expanses of the pine. It also caused the new growth of acres of new pines. The effect on the elk is still being watched. Oh, we also saw a nesting bald eagle. We couldn't get very close as it was a restricted area, but we did get 1 0r 2 photos from just outside the restricted area. The prettiest part was our drive and quasi-hike around the North Rim. We wanted to go down to see the waterfalls and river, but it was over 600 feet down a steep incline and we were at about 7000 ft. altitude. We got halfway down when the pups and I said, "That's it!" To be honest, I stopped before they did....

A wonderful visit...despite cool weather (high 30's at night) and awesome thunderstorms nightly!! No moose! No bear! Gee, we have to go back...