More Military Stuff (GA 03-23-13)

Fort Pulaski

Visiting nearby Tybee Island was on our list of “must do” things while in the Savannah area, but we held off, waiting for better weather.  Finally we had no choice- we headed to Tybee even though it was still pretty cold-and very windy- out.  We did a drive by of the island but since it wasn’t a beach day, we elected to head to Fort Pulaski (yes, yet another fort).

  I admit, I feel like I’ve seen enough forts for a while, but Paul really enjoys them, and the weather was not cooperating, so what the heck. It turned out to be one of my favorite fort visits. After the war of 1812, President Madison ordered the construction of a series of coastal fortifications, to protect the U.S. against foreign invasion. It was during that time period- 1829- that construction of Fort Pulaski began. After 30 years, this state-of-the-art fort was finished.

The fort is still in remarkable condition and is a great example of a Civil War era fort.  After the war, the fort was abandoned and not used again, so it never had additions or modifications done to update it for more modern warfare.

It still boasts a drawbridge and moat.

 

The interior parade grounds- each of the arched doorways would have had doors like the gray door in this picture.  They were all numbered, to keep confusion to a minimum, and a commander would say “go get me the rifles behind door 13”.

We took an awesome ranger guided tour of the fort where we learned that these wooden boards, called Blindage, would be put up all along the interior walls, then dirt would be piled up about to about halfway up the wood.  That essentially made the interior bomb proof.  Or so they thought.

So, that brings us to the role that Fort Pulaski played during the Civil War. 

Originally this fort was designed to hold more than 40 cannons and hundreds of men, but because it wasn’t actually needed for defense when it was finished, only two caretakers were sent to occupy the fort. It sits at the mouth of the Savannah River, protecting, in part, the port of Savannah.  In 1860, nearby South Carolina seceded from the Union, and anticipating that Georgia would soon follow in South Carolina’s footsteps, Georgia’s governor ordered that the fort be taken.  It wasn’t difficult, since, as I mentioned, there were only two caretakers there.

Fast forward to 1861. The Union army has decided that they need to secure access to the port of Savannah, so they set up an army of men on nearby Tybee Island.  Meanwhile, Robert E. Lee, one of the original architects of Fort Pulaski, comes to assess the fort’s defenses .  He assures the commander that the fort is impenetrable. Unfortunately, he did not know about a new invention- rifled artillery. I have mentioned before that it boggled my mind that forts in the 1700-1800s were built over a period of 20-30 years, and they were state of the art at the time they were built, but the minute rifled artillery was introduced, all forts became obsolete.  The Battle of Fort Pulaski played a huge role in that part of history.  It was here that the Union army decided to test the use of rifled artillery.  They pounded on the fort, firing over 5000 cannon shots, mostly trying to hit the same area of the of the wall. Within 30 hours they had drilled a hole clear through the wall of the fort. The Confederates didn’t surrender at this point, but they did soon after. 



Paul in the Powder Magazine



Why?  Because a cannon ball came through the opening in the fort, and landed in the hallway that led to the powder magazine.  A magazine that held 40,000 lbs of gun powder.  The white flag flew shortly thereafter.

The success of rifled artillery in this battle brought warfare into a whole new era, immediately transforming most existing forts into historic relics.

Mighty 8th Air Force Museum

 

Moving on from the Civil War to World War II, we took advantage of yet another rainy day to tour the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum.

The 8th airborne flew out of Savannah and were stationed in England during World War II. Paul enjoyed the museum tremendously and surprisingly, I found quite a few exhibits very interesting. I liked this one just because it was cool looking.

   

Inside the museum there were two rooms that were set up like a small French Safe House.  On the walls were pictures and notes  that told the personal stories of people who risked their lives to rescue and hide downed pilots from the Germans. Some people went so far as to build secret rooms in their homes, and some individuals helped rescue and return more than 100 pilots to England.

The first women to fly for the U.S. Military were the Fly Girls of World War II.  Due to a shortage of pilots, over 1000 women were trained to fly advanced military aircraft. Once trained, they took over such jobs as flying new aircraft from factory to air base.  One of their most dangerous jobs was Target Pilot.  They would fly planes towing targets behind them so that anti-aircraft and aerial gunners could practice using their weapons- using live ammunition.

38 of these women died in the line of duty, but because they were considered civilians, they weren’t accorded military benefits- there was no insurance, and the military didn’t even pay to have their coffins sent home.  Decades later, they were all awarded military recognition for their role in World War II.

It’s Savannah, y’all (03-21-13)

Although I have no desire to visit Savannah in the summer when the temperature and humidity both reach 100, we could have used a little more warmth for our visit here!  We delayed our trolley tour of the city, hoping for a warmer day.

  When we are touring a largish city, we consult Trip Advisor to see what the “must do” attractions are, so we spent our first day in the Massie School. It was built in 1856 and now houses information about the history and architecture of the city. 

On one of the desks were sheets of paper with examples from an 1895 8th grade final.  This one is the Grammar final, but they also had the arithmetic including questions such as:

1. Name and define the fundamental rules of arithmetic.

2.  Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.

I bet we could all use an 8th grade refresher course!

 

Savannah was founded in 1733 by James Oglethorpe and a group of settlers from England.  Oglethorpe designed the city using a ward system (I wish he had founded Boston!!).  Several neighborhoods were created, each one centering around it’s own public square.  Actually, the layout that was painted on the floor gave me a good sense of what the organization looked like.

There was also a scale model of the city, which gave us a great sense of how it was laid out.

Savannah is a city full of beautiful architecture which is best seen while meandering around on foot.  Since the weather required winter jackets, and/or raincoats, we didn’t do too much of that, and my pictures of the beautiful buildings are extremely limited. I didn’t realize how limited until we’d left the city.

We saw several of the squares while walking to and from whatever parking spot we managed to find for the truck. 

Eventually we took the trolley tour of the city, getting off at several stops along the way.  It wasn’t the best day we’ve ever had, but we managed to go with the flow pretty well.  It started off badly when we bought our tickets.  No half price deals here, so we paid full price for the tour, making it a little expensive, but we figured it would be worth it.  We opted to include a discounted ticket for the Savannah History Museum in our trolley ticket purchase, but when we got off at the stop for the museum, we discovered that our ticket was for the Massie School.  So, back on the trolley we went, to straighten it out.  They apologized for the error   ( they don’t sell tickets to that museum anymore, but had forgotten to take the info off the menu board).

Take 2 of our trolley tour led us around the different squares, and gave us information about some of the buildings.  We got off again at the river front to meander through the stores.

Problem 2 of the day happened \when we tried to re-board the trolley.  We stood with another couple, waiting for the trolley to show. We stood, and stood, and stood. When we’d seen about 4 trolleys go down the street a few blocks away, but not stop where we were, we called the company.  They once again apologized that we had not been informed that although stop 12 is still on the map, they, in fact, do not stop there anymore (Paul’s point: how hard would it have been for them to cross out the 12 on the map they give out??). We got convoluted directions to the “new” stop, that required another call to them for clarification.  Once there, we had two trolleys go by that didn’t stop for us. At least one had no room. We are not sure why the other driver ignored us trying to flag him down! After another call to the company, they sent a trolley out specifically to pick us up.  Whew.  Once we got back to the parking lot, however, our 3rd issue of the day occurred. We couldn’t get our truck out.  Someone had parked behind us in a place that wasn’t a parking spot, taking away our maneuvering room.  Luckily the guy parked next to us showed up and we then had enough room to make a 20 point turn and get out. 

Surprisingly,we didn’t eat out very much while in Savannah, but we did have lunch at a restaurant that I’ve eaten in before- Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room. This restaurant is only open 3 hours a day, and the line starts forming outside an hour before it opens. We waited in line for over an hour to get seated for lunch.  So, what makes this place so special?

Well, besides the fact that the food is great, the  experience is unique. There are tables of 10 set up, and each table gets filled with the next 10 people in line, so we sat with 8 people we didn’t know.  Then they start bringing the food.  It’s all served family style, and there is an amazing amount of food.  It gives you a chance to try different southern style dishes.  I tried Black Eyed Peas, Collard Greens, okra, and candied yams, and that was just the ones that were new to me. 



There was a total of about 14 side dishes, in addition to the 3 types of meat served.  We met some great people- my only wish would be that dinner last a little longer so we would have had more time to chat.

The day we ate there we also visited the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.   This is a beautiful church.  Originally built in 1876, a fire destroyed everything but the exterior in 1899.  It took a full 13 years for the interior art and decoration to be finished.

The stations of the cross are carved out of wood and are absolutely beautiful.  We were going to go back on Sunday and attend mass, but realized it was Palm Sunday and the place would be mobbed.


















This last section is for all my animal lover friends:
The campground we stayed at had a resident Australian Shepard that was always off leash.  We found out that her name is Disco.  When we talked to one of the workers, she said if you make the mistake of throwing the stick Disco offers you, she will guilt you into playing for as long as your arm holds out.

Every day that we sat outside she would come over and ask us to throw sticks. One day, she couldn’t find a good stick for us to throw so after searching for a while, she brought over a small piece of firewood.

The next day she was really desperate and brought us a pine cone to throw.

 
She is such a well behaved dog, Paul and I really enjoyed her company.  We discovered how well trained she is when we got tired of stick throwing and told her to “go home”.  We were totally surprised when she actually left when we said that!

Dozer didn’t enjoy Disco’s company very much and it didn’t surprise us at all when he tried to chase the dog away. Disco handled herself very well when the cat was outside, and never approached.

Golden Isles of Georgia (03-19-13)

Georgia’s barrier islands and the nearby forts were our first stop in the state.  We stayed in the town of Brunswick Georgia and made day trips to Jekyll and St. Simons Island. These Islands couldn’t be more different from each other, although they are separated by only a few miles of water.
Jekyll Island, these days, is pretty much a huge playground.  There are beaches, bike trails, volleyball courts, a campground, picnic areas.  Very nicely done.  I didn’t take any pictures, strangely enough.  We took our bikes over there and after walking on the beach for an hour, we biked part way around the island- about 15 miles.  The water here is not the beautiful blue that it is in Florida.  It’s quite brown and not at all pretty.  Maybe that’s why I didn’t take any pictures?

  The following day we drove to St. Simons Island, and toured the ruins of the town and Fort Frederica. There is very little left of the buildings themselves, but the foundations have been shored up, and a plaque describes what the history of each building is.  The town was originally settled by General Oglethorpe of England, with the express purpose of deterring the invasion of the Spaniards from Florida in the early-mid 1700s.

Because for many years, France, Spain and England claimed all  this area as their own, it earned the name “the debatable lands”. Several Forts, including Frederica and Fort King George, were built by the English to rebuff the French and Spanish.The English also brought in some Scottish Highlanders to help man the forts and fight off the would-be intruders.

The fort itself was situated right on the banks of the river, with the town laid out in perfect rectangular plots directly behind it.  Each settler was granted a 60’ x 90’ plot to build on.

  Although in 1743 over 1000 people lived in Frederica, a peace treaty signed by Great Britain and Spain in 1748, sounded a death knell for the town.  Without the need to defend against Spain, the troops were disbanded and the local economy collapsed.  About half the townspeople stayed on, until 1758, when a fire leveled most of what was left of the town.

We also toured Fort King George in Darien, which has been restored to a greater degree, but both forts were actually really interesting to explore. At Frederica, the small plaques did a great job of describing what the town was like, whereas at Fort King George, the information was much more visual.

I get somewhat bored touring a fort that focuses on the battles and the armament of the fort itself. I like to know about the people and how they lived.  Fort Frederica, even though there wasn’t much actually there, gave me  a real sense of the life these settlers lived. 

Fort King George did that too, in a different way- by recreating what the the buildings looked like, inside and out, back in the mid 1700s.

St. Augustine, FL (03-14-13)

St. Augustine was settled in 1565  by Pedro Menendez de Aviles, a Spanish explorer. It wasn’t acquired by the United States until 1821.
 

Paul and I decided that the best way to see this city, whose roads resemble sidewalks to a truck as large as ours, is by trolley. We chose “the Red Train”.  They run continuously throughout the city, with the driver rattling off interesting information as he drives.  You can get on and off at will, exploring as long as you like. The bonus to this approach is that when we had a driver that spoke so fast we couldn’t understand him, we simply got off the trolley and waited for the next one.  Problem solved.

Being on the water, St. Augustine boasts both a lighthouse and a fort. Standing at the top of the lighthouse  affords great views of the beaches and the city of St. Augustine. During the Civil War, the confederacy ordered the light to be removed. The mayor had it buried and when the Union army arrived and demanded it, he refused to reveal its whereabouts.

The Fort is named Castillo de  San Marcos, and the current fort was built in the late 1600s after the previous 9 wooden forts burned down.  It is the oldest masonry structure in the U.S.  Built of locally available Coquina stone (shell fragments and quartz grains), the walls were painted white, with red accents, to match the Spanish flag. The 17 ft thick walls have never been breeched by fire power, and the fort  has never been captured by force- it has always changed hands through treaties.

The Spaniards inside the fort used an interesting psychological weapon when attacked.  After a day of cannon bombardment, they would sneak outside under cover of darkness and  re-paint any damage to the wall white again, psyching out the enemy.

The town grew further in the late 1800s when Henry Flagler, co-founder of Standard Oil,fell in love with the town and spent a lot of time and money improving rail access to the town and building luxury hotels. The early hotels were only open 3 months a year, and were so exclusive, if you rented a room, you had to rent it for the entire 3 months, regardless of how long you actually stayed in it. He hired Thomas Edison to run electricity throughout the hotel Ponce De Leon, but the concept was so new, the guests were afraid they would be electrocuted if they flipped the light switch.  Flagler hired almost 100 people to go from room to room, turning lights on and off for guests. This hotel now houses Flagler College.

Another of the Flagler hotels, Hotel Alcazar, now houses the Lightner Museum.  It was bought by Otto Lightner to house his many collections.  He was a “collector of collections”, which sounded interesting to us, so we checked out the museum.  

My favorite collection was of old musical instruments- mostly player pianos.  We were there in time to see and hear a demonstration of several of them.  I also enjoyed the old typewriter collection.  This one was made before the QWERTY keyboard design.  Other than that, it was just a bunch of…..stuff.  A collection of buttons, a room full of leaded glass, etc. We were in and out pretty quickly, not really having felt we got $20 worth..

We made a brief stop at the Presbyterian Church, also built by Flagler.  It was built to honor his daughter, who died in childbirth.  He paid for round-the-clock labor, so the church would be finished in time for the first year anniversary of her death.

This church is gorgeous, both inside and out.  We were hoping to take a tour, but instead, we arrived just in time for the weekly organ recital.  With hundreds of people in the audience, we decided the tour would be too crowded and moved on to explore something else.

 

Our trolley route took us down Magnolia Street, supposedly one of the most photographed streets in the world.  The Live Oaks that line the street make a stunning canopy over the road, which is actually much prettier than it shows in this picture.

With one of the museums we were interested in being closed for renovations, we had a spare few hours on our hands.  Paul was interested in checking out the  nearby Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, so we made that our last stop in St. Augustine.

About half of the displays were things I not only had no interest in, but things I didn’t even want to look at.  I dodged past those to get to the things I found of interest to me. 

I enjoyed this display of a matchstick model of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. It took 3 years to build and contains 174,000 matchsticks.  The artist, Patrick Acton, used 3 gallons of glue to put it together.












Any boy would love to play with this display- the worlds largest moving Erector model.  It is 1/12 the size of the original Ferris wheel and stands 21.3 feet tall and contains 19,507 pieces.  It was moving the whole time we were there.

Believe it or not, this  portrait is made completely out of Lego blocks.

Last but not least, this was fun.  The idea is to read the colors.  But you have to say what color the word is, not what the word says.  It takes a little practice to be able to do it!

Originally, we planned to spend a week in St. Augustine, and there was certainly enough of interest there to keep us busy, but we couldn’t find an RV park that had more than 4 nights available, so we stayed the 4 nights, then moved on.

The Very, Very (Very) Slow Trek North (03-06-13)

I’m not sure you can really say we have started the trek north, since we are still in Florida and will be for another week or so.  The weather in Georgia, the next state in our path,  is starting to warm up, but we still have plenty of time.
We moved over to the east coast of Florida to see some “old friends”.  They’re old because we’ve known them a long time, not because they’re old! I met Les and Alane  when I started boating, 20 years ago, and we’ve been friends ever since. They sold their boat a few years before we sold ours, and split their time between Cape Cod,  MA and Boynton Beach,  FL.

Of course,  most of our visit centered around eating:

 In restaurants,

 

 At their house...

and at our house.

I wish I could burn calories vicariously because the only real activity that took place while we were visiting was tennis, and I wasn’t the one playing! 

Alane took up tennis several years ago and actually has participated in several competitions in the last week.  We were able to watch her play (and win) while we were visiting.  If Paul and I keep practicing, maybe next time I see her, we can play a game!

After a great, but, as usual, too short visit, we left our friends and moved north to Kennedy Space Center.  It was only 100 miles or so. I did say we were moving slowly!

Kennedy Space Center is one of those places that if you have a chance to see it, you probably should, but man, it’s expensive.  Basic admission is $50 per person.  We paid it, and made sure we got there early so we would have time to get our money’s worth.

Included in our admission was a 2 hour tour around the grounds, which took us past the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).   The building was used to assemble manned launch vehicles from 1968-2011. It is one of the largest buildings in the world and covers 8 acres of land. The flag on the side of the building is 209 feet tall.

Since the shuttle program has been discontinued, the building will be used by the commercial entities that will take over the task of keeping the space station supplied.  My favorite part of the day was actually a 45 minute 3D movie about the space station.  It covered everything from the station being built to every day life in earth’s orbit.  The fact that the U.S. went from a tense “truce” with Russia, to sharing responsibilities for the space lab, in my lifetime, is awesome.

We stopped to look at the Apollo building that houses a Saturn V rocket- a rocket that stands as tall as a football field is long.

The fuel alone weighs over 5 million pounds and accounts for 91% of the weight of the vehicle. In the 2.5 minutes it takes  the five F-1 engines to propel the rocket 40 miles above the earth’s surface, 534,000 gallons of fuel are burned. By the time the rocket leaves the earth’s orbit, it will be traveling at 24,000 miles per hour.

The Apollo space missions were “fueled” in large part, by President Kennedy’s speech to Congress in 1961 when he stated “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”  The Apollo missions got off to a rough start when the crew of Apollo 1 was killed in a fire while sitting on the launch pad. Even with that significant setback, though,  Neil Armstrong, Mission Commander of Apollo 11, walked on the moon on July 20, 1969, less than 10 years after Kennedy’s speech.

One building is dedicated to information about the robots that play a huge role in space exploration- traveling to places that humans can’t get to, and gathering information to send back to us.  My favorite robot in the building has nothing to do with real space exploration, however, and everything to do with one of my favorite TV shows!