Charleston, SC - Day 1

We left the mosquitos behind and headed into Charleston intending to find our way to Fort Sumter.  Luck was on our side when we found the tourist office in Mt. Pleasant, on the north side of Charleston.  We bought our tickets for the boat as Ft. Sumter is about two miles out in the harbor.  The god of lost travelers was smiling on us again when the tourism people informed us that also in the harbor docked near our Ft. Sumter boat was the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier and the USS Laffey, a destroyer.  We bought tickets to tour both.

The first Lexington was sunk during the Battle of Midway early in WWII.  Almost immediately, a new carrier by that name was built and pressed into service in the war.  After WWII, she saw service in Vietnam before retiring.

The Laffey has just as compelling a story.  She saw sevice in the Pacific in WWII. During the invasion of Okinawa, the crew found themselves alone and under attack from 22 Japanese kamikase pilots.  The ship received help from carrier based fighter planes but was still hit by 6 Japanese planes and 4 bombs and, amazingly enough, survived.  The Laffey went on to service in Korea and was used to track Soviet submarines during the 1970's.

Okay, time now to do what we came here for - visit the site of the beginning of the Civil War.  South Carolina was the first southern state to secede, in 1861.  Ft. Sumter, in Charleston harbor, remained a Union outpost and a huge thorn in the side of the south.  President Lincoln ordered a ship to deliver supplies to Ft. Sumter and that was too much for the newly seceded South Carolina fire-eaters.  They began a two day bombardment of the fort and the war was on.

    

Francis Marion National Forest

In our route from central Georgia to eastern South Caroline we crossed path of General Sherman's famous March to the Sea in 1865.  After he reached Savannah, he turned north toward Columbia.  We stopped for lunch at a small and fairly obscure historic site in  western SC that was on the march.  A small Confederate force held up Sherman's horde for two days in a very swampy forest.  Here we met Mr. John White, an employee of the SC Parks Department.  He gave us a thumbnail history of the battle and then warned us to watch for copperhead snakes.  Needless to say we didn't go tromping through the woods after that.

Our goal for the day was Francis Marion National Forest, Buck Hall campground.  We found the campground and it was full and had been reserved for months.  Full of big Rv's and even bigger boats because this is the season for fishing for Whiting with shrimp.  Our choice now was a KOA and a primitive campground in ther forest.  We went for primitive and free.  There were campsites and a latrine but no water and swarms of mosquitos AND chiggars.  We listened to Barred Owls screaming at each other and Pileated Woodpeckers.  Now we were within commuting distance of Charleston.

The intercoastal waterway at Buck Hall campground.

Magnolia Springs State Park, Georgia

We are both okay and we have finally emerged from the swamps of South Carolina to reconnect.  Magnolia is a beautiful park in eastern Georgia.  Very quiet and not full. We didn't make the detour to Andersonville prison camp but we received a gift here. This was called Camp Lawton in 1864 and was created to relieve the extreme crowding at Andersonville.  It was only open for 4 months but had 10,000 POWs.  The park was built by the CCC in the 1930's.

This is what remains of the fort that guarded the camp.  The earth walls are eroded but still visible.

Selma, Alabama

The drive to Selma was hot, sunny and uneventful.  I-20 was smooth and fairly quiet. We then turned onto US 80 which was almost empty of traffic.  Selma occupies a large place in the Civil Rights history of the US.  It was the beginning of the famous 50 mile March from Selma to Montgomery.  It is also the location of the infamous Edmund Pettis Bridge that the marchers were first denied a crossing and then were allowed to cross.

We bought groceries and then went on a search for ice.  Yesterday was Saturday and apparently everyone needed ice.  Searching for a campground is becoming a daily event.  There is a Corps of Engineers campground south of Selma but it was closed. We ended up at the Flea Market RV Park and it was about what one expect with a name like that.  Most of the RVs were long-term residents and of course, had their own showers and toilets so the campground facilities are somewhat . . . neglected.

We are now having second breakfast at a truckstop in Montgomery which has internet and grits and pancakes and bisquits and gravy.  I haven't gotten Jeremy to try gravy yet.  Today we'll make as far into Georgia as we can and then tomorrow Charleston.

Vicksburg

We have made it to Vicksburg but we made a decision about backroads.  They are beautiful and the driving is much easier and quieter but the driving is very slow. We are never in a hurry but we do have to set up the camper and then try to make it to the battlefield before it closes at 5:00 pm.  There was no nearby National Forest so we had to pull into RiverTown which is a very big RV park for the big campers.  With our pop-up camper, they gave us a spot on the group W bench.  It wasn't too noisy and the temp over night was okay.

Vicksburg was not conventional battlefield.  General Grant tried to attack the city but was beaten back twice.  He realized that a siege was necessary to capture the city. Union soldiers entirely surrounded the city and on the west bank of the Mississippi River and the cannons began firing into the city.  The barrage became so intense that many residents of Vicksburg took refuge in caves in the river bank.  Seven weeks later on July 4th, Vicksburg surrended, and President Lincoln received two gifts: a significant victory on Independence Day and the Union Army finally had a general that would fight and win.  Vicksburg would not celebrate the 4th of July until 1964.

A Union artillery battery just east of Vicksburg.

This is the USS Cairo, a Union gunboat used on the Mississippi for the seige of Vicksburg.  It sank and was raised and partially restored.  It made me think of a massive great white shark, low in the water and deadly.

The Cairo had 13 cannons capable of firing a 24 pound cannonball.

Dallas and east to Louisiana

Robyn found a Super 8 in Grapevine, Texas, just a stone's throw from DFW AND with a shuttlebus to the airport.  That means that I can leave the pickup and camper and take the shuttle and I don't have to drive.  Sweet!  After seeing the non-passenger side of DFW I can say with confidence I don't ever want to drive there and try to navigate five parking structures - one for each terminal.  I reached terminal D which is where the international flights are all handled.  The big board didn't show Jeremy's Lufthansa flight.  I realized that the last leg of his flight was from JFK to DFW, a domestic flight and not terminal D.

A helpful Lufthansa employee directed me to Terminal E where Delta/Lufthansa planes unloaded.  How to get there?  The orange terminbal link buses, of course. Jeremy was right on time and I called the shuttle and soon we were back at the hotel.

Next morning and we had to escape Dallas.  It was much easier than the arrival.  We were doing fine and had almost reached the border when I saw the dreaded flashing lights in the mirror.  Pull over and say,  good morning Officer.  I had been following the truck ahead of us too closely.  As I remember, I was about 100 feet behind, yes too close, but really?  Following to closely? This was a level of scrutiny that as a New Mexican, I was completely unused to.  He gave us a warning and we said goodbye Lone Star State.

The remainder of the drive was uneventful until we reached Minden, Louisiana and spent almost an hour trying to locate the campground.  There seems to an issue with signage here.  The town of Minden gets you headed in the right direction but then fails to close the deal by providing enough signs.  Tomorrow a rest day to wash some clothes and blogage.  Below is photo of Jeremy and Mr. Moe in Dallas and our campsite in Kisatchie National Forest.

US 380

The first leg of the journey was to drive to Dallas to meet Jeremy as he arrived from the UK.  Easy, right?  Turn east at the Owl Bar in San Antonio and continue to Dallas, about 550 miles.  Straight, flat, hot and scenic to the Texas line.  Once I reached Texas, the road was straight, flat hot and green.  I drove through about a hundred miles of cotton fields until I reached Post, Texas where I planned to stop for the night.  Tommie and Steve warned me about the RV park in Post.  It's right between the railroad track and the busy highway connecting I-40 and I-20.  I got the camper set up and then was ready for a cold beverage.  At the grocery store I was informed that beer was sold in a liquor store but since Post was in dry county, I would have to drive across the RR tracks to the other precinct which was not dry.  How can a county be dry but one precinct be wet?  The politics of alcohol in Texas.  I could stand on the running board of the pickup and be the highest point in West Texas as you can see from the photos.

The Preparations

We bought this little camper several years ago to use for weekend trips to nearby campgrounds.  We would always just take the minimum and usually scavange kitchen utensils, etc., from the house.  This trip is different.  I've had to assemble a complete set camper equipment.  And whether the trip is for a weekend or a month, we still need all the stuff.  So we have a canopy because there might be rain.  And a few tools in case some repairs are needed.  And comfortable chairs and a cooler and food and water containers.  And duct tape because, you know, it's duct tape.

This is the back of the pickup prior to lift-off

The Plan

I plan to leave the farm on Monday morning September 19 and take two days to reach Dallas.  The distance is about 650 miles so I will likely stop for overnight in Post, Texas.  Jeremy arrives Tuesday evening at about 9:30 pm after an all-day flight starting in Glasgow, then Amsterdam, New York and finally Dallas.  Robyn found a Super 8 near DFW with a shuttle bus to the airport so we will crash there and escape the city on Wednesday. 

I want to use National Forest campgrounds as much as possible so I'll give a running commentary on some of the famous forests of the southeast US.  The first Civil War site on the trip will probably be Vicksburg, Miss.  The sites that we must see are Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, Antietam and Shiloh.  Beyond that we'll take it day by day.  There are about 350 major battlesites and approximately 10,000 sites where fighting occured.  In addition to Civil War history, we will be close to Colonial Williamsburg, the Jamestown Colony, Monticello and Washington, D.C. 

We have a month to spend on this history tour.  We'll be searching for Confederates, hush puppies, crab cakes, microbrews and minnie balls.

The Idea

I'm soon off on a new adventure: a tour of the Civil War historic sites from the Mississippi River to Gettysburg and back again.  The idea for this tour began several years ago when Robyn and I were in the UK and met up with my friend Jeremy whom I have known since 1973.  He mentioned that he was interested in the American Civil War.  I impulsively responded that when we both retired, he should get himself to the US and we would take our truck and camper and see the battlefields.

Last winter I received an email from Jeremy saying that he was ready and where should he fly to and how much would the trip cost.  Holy Toledo!  He wants to go! What have I done?  At that point, our old Rodeo had died and we didn't have a puller for the camper.  Drive from Socorro to Pennsylvania and back.  I don't even want to know how many miles that is.  Relax, breathe.  We bought a pickup which is a story in itself and named it Mr. Moe.  It now has new shock absorbers, U-joints and a camper shell.  Preparations are nearly complete.  Jeremy arrives in Dallas on Tuesday 20 September.  I will leave here Monday and take two days to reach Dallas.

Here is Mr. Moe and The-Little-Camper-That-Could.