24-THE TRIP HOME

Monday, November 26 rolled around early. It was a bit sad. We had kissed the kids and kiddies all goodbye the day before. We knew we wouldn’t be seeing them again for quite a while. But since all good things have to come to an end, we fired up the motorhome and headed west…toward home.


We had been this route a few times before, so we didn’t know of a lot of things to stop and see. Those that I thought might be interesting were either too far off the beaten trail or not open on the days we were coming through. So we just kept rolling.


Getting home was now the priority.  We wanted to arrive without getting caught in a snowstorm, so we chose not to alter our path and time schedule by much.

When we got to Mobile, Alabama, we stayed at Meaher State Park. We always stop here.  It is a really good RV park and it is right on Mobile Bay. The bridge you see in the background is I-10 crossing the Bay. The ocean is on the other side of the bridge.

Thanks to my uncooperative knees, I didn’t venture out to hike the raised walking trails that extend over the water and swamps. Last time here, I walked up to the edge of the water where you see the weeds in the picture. There was a sign posted that I couldn’t read from a distance.

I got up close to read, “Please do not harass the alligators.” You’ve never seen me do a high-speed backward walk while watching my feet like I did that day. Harassing the alligators was not on my To-Do List for that day or any other.

That evening we drove about two miles down the road to Felix’s Fish Camp Restaurant. We stumbled onto this place a few years ago and it was a Must Stop for us again this time.

Felix’s is deceiving.  Things like this old truck under the deck of the restaurant greet you as you approach may make you wonder what you got yourself into. This is intended to look like an old, junky fish camp in Bayou Country, very rustic!

In order to walk up the main level you pass this view through the under side of the building and out to the bay. (All the buildings around here are on stilts due to hurricanes and storm surges.)

Inside, there is still a definite feel of the Bayou, but here there are white clothed tables and the waiters address you by name, even if you don’t have a reservation! We heard, “Mr. Foster” and “Mrs. Foster” several times during our wonderful meal.

The food here is a mix of fresh fish and Southern cooking. (I had fried green tomatoes as a side dish with my snapper. Haven’t seen that on any menus in Bend, Oregon lately!)

From our window-side seats, we could view the sea grass and the lights of Mobile in the distance across the blackness of the bay.

The next morning it was hazy and overcast as we got on the I-10 and headed through Mobile and continued our trek west.

As we moved further westward, we crossed large bodies of water in cities like Gulfport, Mississippi and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Those states are in heavy duty Bayou Country…Going through Louisiana, we traveled over a raised highway for probably 20 or 30 miles. There was water and swampland below us. That had to be one expensive piece of roadway!

This water was Atchafalaya and Lake Bigeax. (Feel free to pronounce those names. I won’t even try!) There were big tree snags sticking up all through the fairly shallow water. Me? I was watching for alligators.

Just west of Beaumont, Texas, we decided to spend the night in a Highway Rest Area and pulled off.

This was a rest area like we have never seen before. It was obviously quite new and the state of Texas had spent a TON of money on it. The building in the background was the main building. The entire place was built in Bayou style.

The front building was one of five or six covered picnic areas. There were raised pathways everywhere connecting all the structures and all the walkways were made of Trex. (Google that if you are unsure what it is. It’s very nice and very pricy!)  By the way, that’s us parked in the background.

There were all kinds of flowers (most not blooming right now) and plantings in and around the walkways and buildings.

There were several informational placards like this one that describing Regional Birds. There was another one on dragonflies, one on snakes and spiders, butterflies and more.

One big platform area was dedicated totally to a carpeted playground.

 

Inside the main building (which in normal rest stops, only houses rest rooms) was amazing.

There were a big screen TV’s where you could play various videos of interesting events in Texas history.

I decided, since I was in there, to check out the women’s rest room. It was beautifully done. fancy tile work on the floor, glass inlaid tiles on the walls, and this beautiful floor to ceiling mosaic of a bird in a tree on the far wall. There were even very nice lights in the ceiling. 

I took a quick peek into the men’s rest room when no one was around. It was done the same way.

I was so impressed…until I washed my hands…no paper towels, just one of those air blowers…the old kind…where they might as well post a sign that says, “Just wipe ‘em on yer jeans, Honey!” because you could stand there with the air blowing till the cows come home and your hands just don’t get dry.

What an interesting contrast to the huge amount of money spent in this place, and this is where they decided to cut corners…funny. But we would stay there again if we were in the area. I’ll just bring in my own towel…

The next day we arrived in Fredericksburg, Texas. Our friends, Bill and Teri Smith were there in their motorhome recuperating from an energetic week with the grandkids and asked us to stop by. They said there was a museum there, which according to the reviews on line, we all needed to see. They were right.

Fredericksburg is a cute little, off the beaten trail, German touristy town. It is also the childhood home of Admiral Nimitz, of WWII fame.

On the main street of town is the Nimitz Hotel and Museum.  It was originally owned by Admiral Nimitz’s grandfather. He lived here in the hotel as a child.

Our time here was limited. We did not have time to tour the Nimitz Hotel/Museum or the area called the Pacific Combat Zone which was two blocks away.

The Pacific Combat Zone is an indoor and outdoor area that even has on display fully restored PT boat…

It occupies a 3-acre site and showcases the museum's large artifacts in their unique environments, including an invasion beach with landing craft and artillery.

However we did spend about three hours in the George H.W. Bush Gallery. It features a 33,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art exhibit on the story of WWII in the Pacific and East Asia. From Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay, the epic story of the Pacific War is told here as nowhere else.

We were given a hand held device that when we punched the number indicated on the wall next to each display, it would play information corresponding to that particular display and tell you about what happened at that point in the war. 

Everything was in the chronological order of the war. Eventually I began to feel overwhelmed by the number of battles, the islands and beaches that were fought for one at a time, and the casualties involved.

There were photographs…

…and videos.

There were artifacts large…

…and small.

There were airplanes…

…and boats…

…headlines….

...and newspapers.

There was a bomb, “Fat Man,” like the one that fell on Nagasaki.

…And Hirohito’s response to surrender.

A Japanese “Val” dive bomber that crashed, was brought up from the bottom of the sea and put on display.

Though difficult to see, this is a display of all the names of those who received the Congressional Metal of Honor during WW II, presented “For going above and beyond the call of duty.”

This is only a smattering of the things we saw in this amazing museum. It is well worth your time to stop when traveling the I-10 through West Texas. It is just about an hour west of San Antonio.

Also, Fredericksburg has GREAT German food…which we had with Bill and Teri after touring the museum.

The next morning it was once again, ‘pedal to the metal’ and we zoomed down the highway.

A couple days later we spent the night parked out on the desert just outside of Quartzsite, Arizona. This is another favorite stop for us. It is quiet and peaceful…and free!

With a little time to kill, we took the Jeep out to explore the surrounding desert.

Since there are no roads on the desert, we followed some “trails” until they disappeared, and then headed back to camp.

It was time to build a fire and just relax waiting for my favorite time, sunset.

The setting sun lights the sky on fire and reflects it off the side of the RV.

Then the color rapidly grows more and more spectacular…

…then a final show of glory!!

Now we are close enough to home to know that wind and snow are in the forecast, so we cautiously push ahead, planning our final night in a location where we can wait out a storm ahead of us if we have to. Thankfully with one eye closely watching the weather reports, we made it all the way without hitting anything more than rain.

Finally, nine days and some 3700 miles after we left Richmond, Virginia, we see through a wet and rain-streaked windshield, “Home Sweet Home.” 

It was a good trip but we are glad to be safely back home.

Christmas and the New Year are just around the corner. Then on January 21, I get a bright, shiny new knee followed by a second one a few months later.

After that I will be running marathons and climbing mountains and…and…well, maybe not. It will be an interesting year, but probably one where we will be staying closer to home.

Thanks for traveling along with us. You were good traveling companions. Hope you enjoyed the trip.

23-RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, PART 4-TREDEGAR IRON WORKS, WHITE HOUSE OF THE CONFEDERACY, THANKSGIVING AND CHRISTMAS

This day was our last foray into the historical locations of the Civil War in Richmond.

Tredegar Iron Works was our first stop. This was a location where, during the Civil War, they made things like canons and cannon balls and other related items. Part of it is ruins, some of it restored and turned into a museum.

Tredegar was one of the few firms in the Confederacy that could make a cannon.

By war’s end, Tredegar had made about 1,100 cannons, half of the Confederacy’s total. Part of Tredegar’s success was in finding new sources of raw materials. Tredegar also used innovative techniques such as melting down lighter cannons to make heavier, more modern guns for Robert E. Lee’s army.

This building was partially reconstructed and made into a museum.

It contained some examples of the cannons made there.

Tredegar sits on the James River. This is an old historic picture of it in 1865.

From here we went to the Museum of the Confederacy which is next door to the White House of the Confederacy. These are both wonderful places to go through. Interestingly, it is in the middle of Richmond and is not easy to get to.

This is the White House of the Confederacy. The Museum is in the building behind the tree.

The city of Richmond and VCU Hospital and its medical buildings have closed in very tightly around it over the years. You have to go into the hospital parking garage to park and then walk to the museum and White House. Definitely NOT convenient but so worth it.

We started out into the museum where you wait for the tour of the White House. Of course in both locations there are no pictures allowed so I was only able to get a couple before we got into the “pictures forbidden” area.

This was a large painting of “The Last Meeting of Lee and Jackson.”

One of the most heart-wrenching things I have seen in this museum is the text of a letter written to a father from his Confederate soldier son who has been shot and is now dying.

It begins, “This is my last letter to you…” In the middle it reads, “I knew you would be delighted to read a word from your dying son.” It ends with, “May we meet in Heaven.”

This letter tears at my heart and of course variations of it were no doubt repeated during this war thousands of times.

We were here a few years ago and a lot of the soldier’s letters were on display.  I happened to see the original of this one. It has never left me. This time there were only a few on display and they had been converted to text (to make them easier to read) and I was pleased to see that this one letter was included in the current display.

The Confederate Army didn’t have much in the way of finances and supplying the soldiers with uniforms was often a big problem. This hat was made, probably by the soldier’s family, out of corn husks. Since I make pine needle baskets and know the difficulty of such things, I found this particularly interesting. Whoever made this did a really good job.

Lucy Ann was the name given this doll by the family who donated it to the museum.  This doll was used for smuggling medicines during the war.  In 1863, the smugglers cut a 1.5 inch diameter hole in the back of the doll’s head and filled it with quinine, a medication used to treat malaria during the war.

We were called for the tour of the White House of the Confederacy. It is a very interesting tour. The house is completely furnished, some period, some original, and is in great condition. (Of course, no pictures allowed.) We heard a lot about Jefferson Davis and his family who lived there.

Again, if you ever get the chance to go there, fight the traffic and parking issues and go visit this piece of history. You won’t regret it.

There is a great Science Museum in Richmond that the grandkids wanted to go to during Thanksgiving vacation, so we loaded them up and off we went.

Now I know I promised not to bore you with Grandkid pictures, but here are just a few.

There was all kinds of things there they could experiment with. This one was centrifugal force.

First CJ climbed inside Friendship 7…

Then it was Alex’s turn.

I don’t know what Alex was building here, but she was really into it.

We spent 2-3 hours here and the kids had a great time…or maybe the time at McDonalds which was almost next door was the best time for the kids. Who knows?

We had Christmas and Thanksgiving, in that order, with the family when we were there. When we are not there for Christmas we always have an “Early Christmas” so we can see them open their gifts.

While CJ’s favorite gift was probably a huge Lego set, he enjoyed this cartoon of him as the in-house gamer, which he definitely is!

These were earrings for Alex but she preferred the Gift Cards which allowed her a shopping trip with Grandma and Mommy to pick out her own clothes.

I always make Leslie a pine needle basket and this year it had beads and a lid. I was worried I wouldn’t get it done in time, but somehow I did.

In fact, I managed to make one for Colin, sort of a take-off on his business card colors and design. He told me he intends to set it on the desk in his office and put his business cards in it. That pleases his mom.

Thanksgiving was at Colin and Leslie’s house with all her relatives. Don is always the “Turkey Master,” roasting, carving, and  making the gravy. I do the dressing and other people bring the trimmings.  It is always wonderful and we all eat too much.

CJ, 9 and Alex, 12

Leslie and Colin. Well, they don’t mention their ages…

Colin and Leslie have a wonderful little family. We don’t get to see them often enough and we had a great time with them. We will miss them.

Next blog: The trip home.