April 2, 2014

April 2, 2014

As we fly west we cross over the International Date Line and lose a day. Aimee and I keep ourselves amused watching three movies and trying to readjust our body clocks.

One of the reasons we picked this time of year to come to Japan is for the Cherry Blossoms. Our original plan was to go see our Capitol’s blossoms, but with the severe winter they are having, who knows when spring will arrive. It turns out those Washington DC cherry trees were gifts from Japan in 1910 and 1965. As we land in Japan, I can already see cherry blooms lining the airport runway. I think our timing is good.

After going through customs, we are met by a greeting service representative, who provides us miscellaneous travel tickets, and gets us on the right bus to our accommodation. I am happy to find our Tokyo hotel room has a great view of Tokyo Tower, a modern twin of the Eiffel Tower of Paris. Every night it is lit up differently. To immerse myself in this new culture, I try on the hotel-provided Yukata summer kimono and drink a Japanese beer purchased in the hallway vending machine. I feel like a modern Shogun (military dictator of Medieval Japan).

April 1, 2014

April 1, 2014

We are up way before dawn to catch our 5am flight to Los Angeles. After a long layover at LAX, we board the ten-hour flight to Japan. Japan is on my bucket list but I know very few people who have traveled there for pleasure. Mostly because I think Americans know so little about the country. Japan had a long period of isolation from the outside world and that attitude still seems to pervade the country. Japan does little to promote tourism to Americans. Add in the inscrutable Oriental writing system and we are in the dark. Our goal is to shine some light on the country. I have some lingering trepidation because we signed up for an independent tour. A travel agent provided the itinerary and made our hotel accommodations. But after that we are on our own in making our way around the country.

Even though the plane ride is the part of travel I don't look forward to, I am happy to find we are boarding one of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliners. This is the new graphite composite plane. Besides being much more fuel-efficient, it has larger passenger windows (oddly blue tinted) and more comfortable cabin pressure. My summer intern job with McDonnell Douglas 35 years ago was involved with gluing carbon components together for fighter jets. I can’t believe it took this long for the technology to make it to commercial aviation.

March 10, 2014

March 10, 2014

After running into Stephen Douglas’ tomb in Chicago, I was thinking that it has been too long since our last visit to Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield. So on our way back to Chicago we made a quick stop.

We first catch most of the park film. It is very good at laying the groundwork for Lincoln’s presidential run. In 1854, Stephen Douglas sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed new states to self-determine slavery. Fearing this would allow slavery to expand into the North, the new Republican Party was formed and Lincoln made a run at Douglas’ Senate seat. During the campaign Lincoln and Douglas held a series of seven famous debates, the last in my birth town of Alton. Interestingly, at that time, US Senators were not elected by the people, but by the state legislature. The Republican Party won the popular vote, but the Democrats won more seats. Douglas retained his seat but Lincoln gained nationwide attention.

The ranger tour was interesting even the second time. The house is filled with period furniture but only a few of Lincoln’s. Mary Lincoln lived in Chicago after his assassination and lost much of their furniture in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

March 6, 2014

March 6, 2014

Aimee and I are getting tired of the cold, so we pack the car up and head towards my parents’ home in Southern Illinois. We make a brief stop at the Limestone rest area where I read a blurb about the vast coal deposits in Illinois. That is prophetic, because just south of Springfield we make a detour to the little town of Virden. In the main square is a monument to the Battle of Virden. On a large granite wall is a beautifully detailed relief sculpture of the once-famous event. Somebody spent a lot of time creating it. Disappointingly there is almost no verbage explaining what happened. Fortunately I read up on the story before I came. In 1898, mine owners brought a group of southern blacks here to replace striking coal miners. When the Chicago & Alton train arrived, armed union miners surrounded the train and got in a gun battle with the security force. Seven were killed and many wounded. The train was driven off, the mine owner was forced to unionize, and the town of Virden became “sundown” (off-limits to blacks after sunset).

The dead miners were buried forty miles south in Mt. Olive’s Union Miner cemetery. Buried with them under a memorial is “Mother Jones”. Mary Harris Jones lost her entire family to yellow fever and her sewing business in the Great Chicago Fire. Somehow she resurrected herself as “the miner's angel” leading the unionization of mineworkers nationwide. When she died she requested to be buried here “with her boys”. Apparently she was enough of a liberal hell-raiser that a socialist magazine was named after her.

March 4, 2014

March 4, 2014

We are in the Chicago area and it is not snowing today. Yeah! With the winter they are having, that is cause for smiles. Throw in that it is also Chicago’s birthday (177th) and we have to celebrate. Instead of toasting next to the furnace, we go out to explore. I thought learning about Chicago’s left-leaning history would be enlightening.

Three of our stops today concern the May 1886 Haymarket Affair. Alternatively called a Riot or Massacre depending on your viewpoint, it started as a labor rally for the eight-hour working day. When police moved in to disperse the crowd, one of the protesters threw a dynamite bomb at the police line killing seven and wounding scores. Police fired in response. In subsequent trials eight radical protesters were convicted of conspiracy; four were hanged. Haymarket would be forever remembered every year on May Day, now International Worker’s Day.

We stop first at a snowy German cemetery where a memorial was built above the graves of the four hanged. Many other activists are buried nearby. Our second stop is a memorial to the police killed. It currently sits inside the grounds of the police academy. It was moved there because of repeated damage by labor radicals. Once it was run over by a streetcar operator who said he was sick of seeing that cop with his arm raised. The last memorial we visit is a 2004 creation designating the original Haymarket location.

What I found most troubling about American Labor history is the level of violence, on both sides. The number of shootings and bombings is more reminiscent of the Middle East than my own country. The labor movement during this time included a radical faction of socialists, communists and anarchists (mostly German immigrants) who believed the capitalist system should be dismantled because it exploited workers.

Much of this strife was caused by industrialization, amplified by massive immigration. Labor rapidly became low-priced, low skilled, and easily replaced. This produced unprecedented social unrest. Our next stop was a about a more peaceful response to the crisis.

Just west of the Chicago Loop is Hull House. Jane Addams, seeing the urban poverty and suffering, founded a settlement house here in 1889. The initial purpose was to teach middle class values to the poor, with art and literature classes. It evolved to providing social services, like child nurseries, that would help immigrants assimilate into US society. Hull House championed child labor laws and workplace safety. Jane Addams became a pacificist earning her both a Nobel Peace prize and the moniker “the most dangerous woman in America”. The Hull House complex was razed in the 1960’s to make room for the University of Illinois-Chicago. Two Hull buildings were preserved for a museum.

Our last stop was accidental but made me think about all the monuments that dot the city.  On the near south side just off Lake Shore Drive sits a huge monument, the Stephen Douglas State Historic Site.  Douglas was an Illinois senator and presidential candidate.  He is now known only for debating Abraham Lincoln.  When he died during the Civil War, his supporters built an impressive tomb on his Chicago property.  Unfortunately it now sits in a depressed neighborhood with few people aware of its existence.  This costly memorial makes me think of the innumerous monuments that have been built over time, the vast majority of which are forgotten to history or hidden away in cemeteries.  Does that mean we should stop building them or do we need to do a better job remembering our history?

February 28, 2014

February 28, 2014

I read about several Indian ruins in Phoenix so we thought we would explore them today. Our first stop was Mesa Grande Cultural Park. Here in the middle of a residential neighborhood sits a football-sized raised platform of the ancient Hohokam Indians.

We walked around the heavily eroded platform mound reading the many storyboards. Archeologists don’t know whether the platform was the site of a temple or the residence of the local chieftain. Although they lived here for a millennia, the Hohokam suddenly abandoned their homes around the year 1500.

From Mesa Grande we drove a few miles away to Park of the Canals. There we had a picnic lunch Aimee made. Afterwards we walked to see an old canal that the Hohokam used to irrigate the land. In their day, the Salt River used to flow year round and they built a thousand miles of canals to water this Valley of the Sun. And they were all hand dug with stone tools! After trying to dig a few holes in my very rocky Tucson yard, I am impressed. I am not the only one. The American Society of Civil Engineers awarded the Hohokam an award for excellence in prehistoric engineering (obviously posthumously).

The Hohokam thrived by turning the desert into an oasis. When settlers arrived after the Civil War, they cleaned the canals out and reused them to grow cotton. They knew they were building atop an old civilization so they named their town Phoenix, after the mythological bird that arose from ashes of its predecessor.

From Mesa we drove to Pueblo Grande near the Phoenix airport. It is similar to Mesa Grande except with a Movie, a nice museum and nicer walking path. Seeing all the pottery, basket, and loom artifacts on display, Aimee thinks she would have enjoyed living as a Hohokam squaw. She loves crafts. I have to remind her that she wouldn’t be able to buy supplies at the local Indian craft store, she would have to gather and make them.

Since it is still early we drive through the nearby Papago Park. In this large desert park (formerly Papago Saguaro National Monument) sits the municipal zoo and botanical garden. Also is a geological oddity, a rock window atop a small rock hill. We climb up to the top of Hole-in-the-Rock that was used for astronomical observations by the Hohokam.

Having enjoyed the awesome weather one last time, we park at the airport, change into long pants, retrieve our parkas and walk to our flight back to the chilly Midwest. Aimee and I look at each other and wonder why we are leaving.

February 23, 2014

February 23, 2014

I bought a Groupon coupon for half price tickets to the Amerind Foundation Museum three months ago. It expires in the next few days so we make the hour plus trek east of Tucson to Dragoon, AZ. I am not really into American Indian history so this place was never high on my list of must-sees, though it often gets rave reviews. Despite being in the middle of nowhere, the museum is in the beautiful setting of Texas Canyon, a geologic oddity in the desert. The area looks like a giant emptied his bag of massive granite boulders here.

The Amerind Museum was established by a Connecticut resident who visited the area, fell in love with the Southwest and bought a ranch here. He became an amateur archeologist and the museum holds the artifacts from digs he did in the area. Many Indian museums focus on crafts made in the modern era, mostly silver products and intricate beadwork. I like the fact that the artifacts displayed are from the pre-European time. A true Stone Age period of clay pots, woven baskets and tools of bone and wood. No metal tools of any kind.

Besides the abundance of ancient artifacts, the museum has a little on the history and lifestyle of the various Indian groups in the West. Because the horse wasn’t introduced until the arrival of the Spanish, most Indians lived a sedentary life in small groups, with little contact with others. (Your world becomes very small if you have to walk everywhere carrying everything you own) As a result their languages diverged so much that they were mutually unintelligible. The introduction of the horse revolutionized their culture. Many suddenly became nomadic hunters and raiders, greatly extending their range, and bringing them into conflict and war with their neighbors. For some reason this new short-lived lifestyle became our movie stereotype of the American Indian.

October 26, 2013

October 26, 2013

One of my nieces moved here for a job and has been living with us until her new apartment is finished. My sister and her husband came out to visit to make sure we are treating her well and to see why Tucson lured her here. Since they are only here for a long weekend, we took them to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. This popular attraction has everything the desert has to offer in one spot. It is a combination zoo, botanical garden and natural history museum.

We start off showing her the exhibits of the things most people associate with the desert, (rattlesnakes, scorpions, and tarantulas) and then walk the Desert Loop Trail to see the mountain lion, coyotes, and javelinas. All were hiding except for a group of the javelinas. Most people are amazed to think large bands of these New World pigs roam our neighborhoods.

The trail ends at the site of the twice-daily Raptor Free Flight show, one of the highlights of the park. For this demo, the museum releases a Barn owl and a band of Harris’ Hawks who fly around eating food set out for them. I got a great photo of the owl in flight just before he glided inches above my head.

Despite all the terrific wonders of this very popular Tucson attraction, my sister was enamored with one exhibit in the newly revamped aquarium. One tank held a dozen garden eels native not to the desert but the Gulf of California. I have to admit I thought they were delightful too. They stick their heads out from the sand but retreat quickly whenever a fish swims close.

October 3, 2013

October 3, 2013

Besides having a goal of seeing all 400 National Parks, we also want to see all the Presidential Museums.  The last thirteen presidents have their own library association.  We have seen all those but the two Bush ones in Texas.  Knowing that this Library group gets some funding from the Feds, Aimee calls ahead to make sure they are open.  She gets a recording but no mention of a shutdown.  From Huntsville it is an hour west to College Station, home of Texas A&M University and George H Bush Library.  We arrive early to beat the traffic.  On the door we see this sign.  Aimee calls the Library line again to see if there was a late addition.  Only when she dialed “0” in an attempt to reach a human did she get the closed message.  I am a little peeved because we drove a couple hours out of the way in a gas guzzling motorhome to stop here.

We spend the day traveling west through Texas only stopping in the Hill Country town of Fredericksburg for a short break. We stroll the shops lining the towns main street.

The next day we drive non-stop arriving in Tucson after dark.

October 2, 2013

October 2, 2013

Today we continue our long drive home.  We stopped at the travel center on the Texas border.  The Texas versions are usually very nice.  This one not only has free Internet but a boardwalk over the swamp with lots of storyboards.

In Beaumont, we stop for a visit to the Texas Energy Museum. It is well done. It has a little bit on how oil-bearing formations are made from decaying algae, a bit on the technology of drilling, and lots on the refinery process. Surprisingly it has a rather lengthy but interesting summary of US history, especially as it relates to our energy usage. For far longer than I realized, wood was a major power source. The Beaumont area became famous when the gusher well called Spindletop was drilled here in 1901.

From Beaumont, we head northwest to Huntsville, TX. This is the former home of Texas’ most famous President and governor, Sam Houston. Interestingly he also had been a governor of Tennessee and accompanied Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. He was the general who defeated Santa Ana at the Battle of San Jacinto. We are too late to do his museum justice, so we instead do a quick look around his homes, which were all brought to this memorial park. He died in the last one in 1863.

Outside town, off the highway is an enormous 67-foot white plaster statue of this famous resident. Before we can walk out to see it, we have to dodge a very friendly and talkative volunteer. The statue is pretty cool. Aimee notices a couple sayings of his that she really likes. “Govern wisely, and as little as possible”. She is turning into quite the Tea Partier.

We spend the night at the nearby Huntsville State Park.

October 1, 2013

October 1, 2013

I planned this trip to see the National Parks in the Southeast US. We saw twenty, with many more to go. Sadly, we learned this morning that because of our inept government, they are shuttering every National Park. And just to make sure it stings and they get maximum attention, they are also barricading outdoor memorials and monuments. With no end in sight, we have no choice but to head home. I look at Aimee and she can’t help but have a big smile on her face. She wants to go home.

We drive toward the coast, past the swamps that line this region. In Baton Rouge, LA, the sky opens and we are in a deluge of rain. We pull off and take a nap. That is one of the many benefits of traveling with your bed in the trunk. We can stay as long as necessary, even overnight.

September 30, 2013

September 30, 2013 

We are in the town of Warm Springs, GA. It has that name because of the mildly heated hot springs here. Our first stop is Roosevelt’s Little White House State Historic Site. When FDR contracted polio, he came here in 1924 in the belief the waters had healing properties. He bought the local spa and turned it into a polio treatment center. He kept coming back for over twenty years. We spend an hour going through the museum about his life with a focus on his polio and his time here. It is interesting but way over priced. We take a quick tour of his home that became the second White House during his presidency. He died of a stroke here in 1945 while posing for a portrait. The unfinished painting hangs in the museum.

A few blocks away we stop to see the Historic Pools that Roosevelt and other polio victims used to exercise in.

From Warm Springs, we drove west into Alabama stopping at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park. In 1814 Andrew Jackson led an army here from Tennessee and surrounded 1000 Creek Indians who had built a fortress here on a large bend in the local river. Urged on by the Shawnee leader, Tecumseh, this band of Creeks went on the warpath, during the War of 1812, slaughtering settlers. Accompanying Jackson was a list of future stars including Sam Houston and Davy Crockett. The Creeks lost the battle opening Alabama to American settlement.

We drove around the small battlefield. After 200 years there is not much to see. Aimee and I both think the Alabama countryside is very scenic. Too bad it is so hot and humid in the summer.

September 29, 2013

September 29, 2013 

Last night we took a shuttle bus to the base of Stone Mountain. Here Georgians have carved, ala Mt Rushmore, the likenesses of their three Civil War heroes, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis. The carving was started before Rushmore but because of financial problems not completed until 1972.

We went to see the laser show projected on the sculpture side of the mountain. It was excellent and included fireworks and music to add impact. The lawn seating was packed with thousands of families enjoying the show. It was a very festive atmosphere.

This morning we hiked to the top of Stone Mountain. While most of the mountainside is almost vertical, the west side is a gentler upward slope. The one-mile path is very pleasant. We make it up and down in an hour. We were surprised to see how much company we had. Compared to other cities, Atlantans are definitely active outdoorsy people.

After completing our morning exercise, we head south to Macon and the site of Ocmulgee National Monument. Ocmulgee is another Indian archeology site. This location has had evidence of habitation here for 10,000 years. The most impressive artifacts are from the Mississippian Culture of 1000 years ago, the same time period of Cahokia. The Mississippians built large flat-topped dirt mounds and had a hierarchical society. The museum implied this culture moved in and dominated the previous residents. They must have. How else could you convince people to move millions of basket loads of dirt. This site also has several large earthen lodges. One was reconstructed during the Depression years. It has clay-molded seats for the leaders.

On the way out of town, we stop briefly to see Fort Hawkins. This fort was built in 1806 when the Ocmulgee River became the new frontier with the Creek Indians.

From Macon we drove west to spend the night in Warm Springs, GA. While watching the news Aimee heard the government was going to run out of money and close all the National Parks. She is giddy in the hope we will have to head home.

September 28, 2013

September 28, 2013

We got up early to beat the Atlanta traffic headed downtown. Despite it being early and dark and Saturday, the highway was still crowded. Our first stop was Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site. We had breakfast waiting for the sun to show up. When it finally made an appearance, we walked around the historic district of Auburn Ave. where King was born and spent his developmental years. 

Since the Visitor Center doesn’t open till 9am, we decide to walk the 1.5-mile Freedom Trail to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. This is Library number eleven on our list. We only have the two Bush Presidential Libraries in Texas to go. The cashier decided not to show up for work, so the guard let us in for free. The Carter Library was interesting but is not as good as most of the others. Nor is it as good as his Carter National Historic Site in Plains, GA.  Carter was pretty conservative as Democrats go. He would have no chance of getting elected today. Unfortunately for him, a lot of bad luck occurred during his presidency, much of it out of his control. The Iranian Crisis probably sealed his fate.

After speeding through the museum, we take a break and walk back to the King Site. We look at some of the exhibits in the museum but both of us feel we have seen this material several times now at other sites. Instead we take a guided tour of his birth home. Aimee and I are both surprised to learn that his birth name was Michael. He and his father both changed it to Martin when he was five. King grew up in an affluent black middle class neighborhood where he had many strong role models that steered his development. It wouldn’t happen today. With today’s misguided social welfare programs, we incent mothers to raise their children in single households devoid of male role models.

Down the block we walk inside the Ebenezer Baptist Church where King and his father preached. Next door is the King Center that displays some of King’s personal items.

The King Site is very busy today because it is National Public Lands Day. Lots of volunteers are on hand painting and doing cleanup of the trail. The new Secretary of Interior, Sally Jewell, is also here. Her former company, REI, is handing out free t-shirts.

It is still early so we head east of Atlanta to Stone Mountain Park where we get a campsite and relax the rest of the afternoon at a site facing the mountain.  When we went to Australia last summer to see Ayers Rock, I didn’t know I didn’t need to leave the US.  Stone Mountain looks exactly like a white version of that Australian monolith.  This barren hunk of smooth granite rises over 800 feet above the flat surroundings.

September 27, 2013

September 27, 2013

During the Civil War, Sherman fortified the road cut here at Allatoona Pass, GA because all his supply trains from Chattanooga had to funnel through here. And they still do! Yesterday a noisy train passed within a hundred yards of us every fifteen minutes. I like learning about history, but not when it slaps me in the face.

A half hour closer to Atlanta we reach Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. We start with the obligatory film and then run through the large museum. The history covers Sherman’s 1864 progress from Chattanooga to Atlanta. Outnumbering the Rebels, Sherman was able to end run (or flank) his enemy’s every movement, forcing them to retreat. Everywhere, but here on this twin-humped mountain. Temporarily stymied, he made a frontal assault uphill against a fortified position. The attack failed and he went back to flanking. On September 1, the Rebels evacuated Atlanta to avoid a siege and total destruction.

We drove around the sprawling battlefield. It is packed with people pushing strollers and walking dogs. The park is pretty but is not terribly interesting militarily. This battle wasn’t that pivotal. From the top of Kennesaw Mountain we do get a good view of Atlanta in the distance.

From Kennesaw we drove east to Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. This park encompasses the lazy Chattahoochee River as it winds through Atlanta suburbs. It is a snoozer, not worthy of National Park status.

September 26, 2013

September 26, 2013

We woke outside Chattanooga, TN to better weather this morning. It is still overcast, but the clouds look higher. From our campground I can see the top of Lookout Mountain so we head up there. The eastern side of the Appalachians is a series of parallel steep ridges and valleys, akin to corduroy. Lookout Mountain is one ridge. As we head up the mountain we find it packed with nice houses with extraordinary views. At the top we drive to Point Park at the far northeast end. As we walk out to the Point, it starts to rain and the clouds descend obscuring our view. With clear weather you are supposed to be able to see for miles. We walk around the rocky precipice reading about the taking of Lookout Mountain during the Battle of Chattanooga. It is known as the “Battle above the Clouds”. With our weather today, I can relate to the soldiers involved.

From Chattanooga, we head an hour west to Russell Cave National Monument in Alabama. I was expecting this to be a cave visit but it turns out to be an Indian archeology site. Digging into the cave floor, scientists found evidence of habitation by Indians for the last 8000 years. I didn’t find the archeology to be that interesting but after walking out to the site, I was intrigued by the geology. Next to the cave is a large stream that disappears into a second cave. I notice the water source is a third cave. Then I realize that the stream is an underground river or spring that just happened to find the light of day because a section of roof fell away. 

An hour south of the cave is Little River Canyon National Preserve. I feel a little déjà vu because the park is atop Lookout Mountain. Apparently the ridge extends all the way here from Chattanooga. At the Visitor Center we watch a movie about it and then drive down the western rim stopping at several lookouts. One has a nice waterfall, but in winter, this stream apparently roars with flow. The canyon is nice but I am more intrigued by the fact that this is a river-cut gorge that runs down the center of a flat top ridge (called a mesa in Arizona). 

Afterwards we drive east into Georgia and stay at a lakeside campground. As we pull in, I notice a sign for Allatoona Pass Battlefield. Ooh, a bonus! Aimee groans. While she cooks dinner, I walk to check it out. It looks like just a plaque, or two or three. Wow, there is an extensive trail with tons of storyboards. It turns out to be a very cool battlefield. I don’t care that the battle was small and probably insignificant. After the fall of Atlanta, Sherman marched south. The Rebels decided to attack his supplyline from Chattanooga. Allatoona was a pinchpoint. Here the rail line runs through a narrow man-made ravine cut. On both sides, Union troops built small forts with supply bases. The rebels attacked on October 5, 1864, outnumbering the Union greatly. Fortunately they were dug in well and had a supply of new Henry repeating rifles. They survived.

September 25, 2013

September 25, 2013

The rain caught up to us again. It rained all night. Not a good thing for an outdoor park. We drive the couple miles to nearby Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. This is both the oldest and the largest battlefield park. It was preserved in 1890 six years before the more famous Gettysburg.

Since it is raining, we spend the first half of the morning watching the excellent movie and perusing the exhibits. Chattanooga with its railroad hub was a prize that the Union coveted. The Rebels pulled out all the stops to save it. General Rosecrans led the Army of the Cumberland from Nashville beautifully up to doorstep of Chattanooga. He then brilliantly flanked the Confederate general who gave up the city without a fight. Rosecrans was hot.

Unfortunately his opposition didn’t give up. Seeing Rosecrans stretched thin, the Rebels received timely reinforcement and attacked him here along Chickamauga Creek south of town. Rosecrans was prepared and would have repelled the attack but he made an unlucky error and left a hole in his line, which the Rebels walked right through. The Union Army could have been wiped out but for a stubborn Union officer and a bunch of new Spencer Repeating rifles that allowed an orderly retreat. In war, glory and success is fleeting and fickle. A hero is the man who beats the odds the longest.

Rosecrans was relieved of command and replaced with Grant. Grant had his work cut out for him. Chattanooga is surrounded by steep hills that gave the Rebels great defensive positions. Under his leadership, the Union rolled ahead easily. Now the road to Atlanta was wide open.

Last week was the 150th anniversary of Chickamauga and it was completely packed. Today we only have to share it with a dozen others. The rain has stopped so we spend the rest of the morning driving around the Chickamauga battlefield. Like Gettysburg, it is full of memorials. I would love to now head to the second part of the park atop nearby Lookout Mountain but with the rain, this tall hill is in the clouds. Instead we drive into Chattanooga along Missionary Ridge. It is here that Grant defied the odds, and took the high ground. The Ridge is now lined with expensive houses alternated with War memorials. The terrain falls steeply away. Maybe that was Grant’s luck. It was too steep and wooded to make defensive artillery very useful.

We decide to quit early and return to the same campground as last night. I am crossing my fingers we get clear skies tomorrow.

September 24, 2013

September 24, 2013

From eastern Tennessee we traveled west to Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. We stopped first at an overlook where we see a small river flowing inside a heavily forested valley. After stopping at the Visitor Center we went on to a river access area and walked the shore. Like West Virginia rivers, this area must also have exposed coal seams as highly polished river pebbles of coal litter the shoreline.

A half hour south is a similar park called Obed Wild and Scenic River. We drove down to the river and are surprised to see it is just a tiny stream. Reading the literature we find that in the winter the water rises and becomes a whitewater kayaking hot spot.

On our way south through Tennessee we pass through the town of Dayton that was made famous (or infamous) in July 1925.  At the county courthouse here, the Scopes Monkey Trial was held.  At that time the teaching of evolution was illegal.  A teacher named Scopes agreed to be the test case.  The trial was a national media sensation pitting the famous lawyer Clarence Darrow against William Jennings Bryan, a politician who ran for president three times.  The museum about the trial is closed already but I know the general story from watching the movie, Inherit the Wind.  Scopes was convicted but given a slap on the wrist.  During the trial, Bryan agreed to testify as a bible expert. The testimony tarnished his reputation and he died just days afterwards.  A statue of Bryan was added a few years ago in front of the courthouse.

September 23, 2013

September 23, 2013

Our campground last night just south Asheville, NC was full of snowbirds. Not the usual kind. This variety, known as a “halfback”, spends the winter in Florida but only goes halfway back north. They stop and summer here in the Appalachian foothills. I have to say I can see why. Now that civilization has come to the mountains, it is a very scenic place to spend serious time.

Our first stop is another Illinois man who thought the same thing; Carl Sandburg. We are at his Home National Historic Site. Sandburg was born in Galesburg, IL into poverty but went on to become a famous Pulitzer-winning author and poet. He is probably best known for his biography of Lincoln (all six volumes of it).

He bought this idyllic and beautiful farm when he was 67. We got a private tour of the house, which looks just like it did when he died in 1967. Sandburg was definitely a packrat. The entire house is filled with books, and more books, 16,000 of them. It was interesting to learn a little about Sandburg, but I think this historic site is a little of a stretch. He was an icon of popular culture in his day, but I would bet there are few today who have ever heard of him. This site is more than a museum to his life. It is also looks like a financial drain. The Park System employs many staff members mostly devoted to raising goats, the hobby that Sandburg’s wife enjoyed.

From North Carolina, we popped across the border to Greeneville, Tennessee, a town named after the Revolutionary War hero Nathaniel Greene we met yesterday. We are here to visit Andrew Johnson National Historic Site. Andrew Johnson was our 17th president, who was elevated to the office after Lincoln was assassinated. Mostly he is famous as the only president to be impeached (until Clinton). We learn a lot more about him in the small museum. Johnson, who started out a tailor, went on to hold just about every elected local, state and federal office possible. Although a Democrat, Lincoln added him as a running mate, hoping to broaden his support and win re-election. Despite being a southern Democrat, Johnson was anti-secession and grew to oppose slavery. He followed Lincoln’s Reconstruction plan, but Congress became controlled by more radical elements. Frequent vetoes prompted them to initiate impeachment. The ensuing trial failed to convict by only one vote.

Afterwards we toured the house he lived in as an adult and then rode up to his burial monument atop a steep local hill with a great view of the surrounding countryside.

We are tired so we stop for the night just east of town at Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park. Before dinner we walk to see his family’s log cabin sitting next to a beautiful river. The museum is closed but we learn about his life from a bunch of storyboards. He was a congressman for three terms who garnered fame for his outlandish frontier character. After failing to get reelected he left Tennessee for Texas where his reputation was immortalized at the battle of the Alamo in 1836.

September 22, 2013

September 22, 2013

Our stop today is Guilford Courthouse National Military Park outside Greensboro, NC. Here on the Ides of March, 1781, a major battle of the Revolutionary War was fought. After many years of stalemate in the northern colonies, the British under Cornwallis moved their focus to the southern colonies. They initially succeed capturing the major southern port cities. When they move inland, the Americans under Nathaniel Greene play a cat and mouse action until reinforcements arrive from the north. When he thinks he has enough troops Greene makes a stand here at this little hamlet in the forest. The British advance and send fleeing three separate defensive lines. The British win the battle but at high cost, one fourth of their troops lost. The result convinces Cornwallis to return to the coast and north to Virginia, where he meets defeat at the hands of George Washington and the French.

We start out driving the tour road but soon find the park is small enough to walk. I am surprised how forested it is. It must have made for a very confusing battle. I am also surprised at the number of monuments erected throughout the battlefield. That is usually what we see on Civil War sites. North Carolinians had planned on this ground being their state Revolutionary War cemetery. The most impressive monument is a mounted statue of Greene. The park is very crowded; there is even a handful of re-enactors encamped at one section of the park. Unfortunately since we are so close to Greensboro, the vast majority are here to walk their dog. If only they wouldn’t hog the road while they do so.

September 21, 2013

September 21, 2013

We drove an hour this morning arriving at Booker T Washington National Monument in southwest Virginia. By luck we arrived for their annual Harvest Festival and the park is filled with volunteers in period costume. While the docents were setting up we looked around the tiny museum. We met Booker before at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. A hundred years ago Booker was the most famous and influential black man in the nation. He believed former slaves needed to get educated and become financially independent. Respect will follow. That philosophy, which applies to all people, seems to have been lost today.

Booker was born on this farm as one of a dozen slaves. It was mostly a subsistence farm where only enough tobacco was grown as a cash crop to buy what couldn’t be grown or made locally. We walked around the farm talking to the volunteers. Their enthusiasm made this living history park quite interesting.  

After an hour we drove east to Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. This is the famous site where Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate Army to Grant essentially ending the Civil War. The hamlet of Appomattox has been preserved, as it would have looked on April 9, 1865. We first stop in the courthouse building Visitor Center to watch two movies and peruse the exhibits containing lots of artifacts from the surrender. We then listened to a living history talk and walked through the old buildings. The surrender was negotiated in the McLean House. Ironically, McLean’s previous home was caught up in the first battle of the War in Manassas. He moved his family here to escape the war. Instead it followed him here.

September 20, 2013

September 20, 2013

When the dam was built on the Gauley River, it flooded the town of Gad, West Virginia. By normal practice, it should have been named Gad Dam. That is also kind of how I am feeling. It rained all night, and our little home is not so water tight anymore. I think all the joints have expanded and loosened under the Tucson sun and heat. I need to caulk all the windows and corners when we get home.

The high humidity combined with the cold water off the dam is causing the whole area to be dark and enclosed in fog. Atop the dam we don’t see any evidence of a river below. I am glad we aren’t rafting today. We leave the Gauley and travel south back to the New River stopping at the Grandview Overlook. Here we have a great vista of a large bend in the New River. We can easily see the rail line that still runs along the bottom of the gorge. It opened up travel and industry to West Virginia in 1873. We continue on to the Sandstone Visitor Center where we learn more about the history of the gorge.

We follow the New River south to its junction with the Bluestone. The Bluestone is another National Scenic River. Two State Parks lie at either end. At Pipestem State Park we take a gondola ride down to the river. The Bluestone, while scenic, is a tiny river, more of an overgrown stream.
Since rain is still in the forecast we continue following the New River south as it cuts across the Appalachians, crossing into Virginia.

September 19, 2013

September 19, 2013

From the Ohio River, we traveled along the Kanawha River into the heart of West Virginia. Near the capital Charleston, we stopped so Aimee could spend the morning sitting at McDonalds. At noon we continued following the river upstream. It was very slow going. Situated in the middle of the steep-sided Appalachian Mountains, West Virginia cities are long and thin crowding the narrow riverbanks. There is barely room for a two-lane winding road and a rail line, let alone houses and businesses too.

Eventually we make it to the Visitor Center for New River Gorge National River. Here the Kanawha changes to the New River. Apparently an early surveyor seeing the river flow into an impassable gorge temporarily marked it as "new" on a map. Unfortunately it stuck. The name is also ironic since it is very possible the New River is actually the oldest in North America. It is one of the few rivers that doesn’t originate in the mountains but cuts across them indicating it is far older than even the ancient Appalachians.

The Visitor Center sits next to the New River Gorge Bridge, the world’s longest single-arch span and the second highest in the US. We take a rainy walk out to a vista point. Today the river gorge looks pristine and forested (and shrouded in fog). A century ago it was the opposite; the river was almost completely lined with coalmines, houses, smoke, and roiling with labor strife. After the coal seams played out, Mother Nature quickly reclaimed the land.

From the New River we drive a half hour north to the Gauley River National Recreation Area. The Gauley is a tributary of the New. When water is released from the Summersville dam, the Gauley becomes a torrent and is a favorite of white water enthusiasts. I got invited to raft it when I was younger and chickened out when I read how dangerous it can be. Older and wiser, we are again passing on the opportunity. Instead we watch the water shoot out from the dam and then spend the night along the lake above the dam. It is the exact opposite of the river; very peaceful and quiet.


September 18, 2013

September 18, 2013

We are just west of Cincinnati. Our first stop is William Howard Taft National Historic Site. Our route takes us across the heart of the city. I am shocked how hilly the city is. Taft’s boyhood home is on the top of one hill. For most people Taft is only known as the fattest president we have had. That is sad, for he had a long and illustrious political career. Theodore Roosevelt chose him to be his successor. He probably would have had a second presidential term except for a major falling out with TR who then ran against him. They split the Republican vote letting Wilson steal the Presidency. Taft spent the last years of his life as Supreme Court Chief Justice.

From Cincinnati we drove east to Chillicothe to visit Hopewell Culture National Historic Park. Indian mounds blanket the eastern half of the US. The mounds here are from the Hopewell culture 2000 years ago. Near my home town is Cahokia Mounds from the much later Mississipian culture.

We watch the film and tour the small museum where we learn the mounds were mostly ceremonial burial sites. In most they found cremated remains. Buried with them were items that indicate this culture traded for goods throughout the US. Even to far off Yellowstone for obsidian!

All the mounds lie within large earthen walled compounds of unknown purpose. In addition most mound sites of this culture contain a large square and two circles of different sizes. Aimee and I take a walk around the mounds in the earthen square in this site. As we do, the only thing I can think is that if I spent my time hunting and gathering to feed my family, the last thing I would do in my spare time was haul thousands of baskets of dirt to build these structures. Something doesn’t add up.

From Chillicothe we continued east. It started raining so we stopped early and spent the night at a public park just across the Ohio River in West Virginia.  Interestingly the campground is also the location of Fort Randolph, a Revolutionary War-era fort and battle site.

September 17, 2013

September 17, 2013

Tucson is still in summer heat mode so we decide to take our time moseying back. We head south around the bottom of Lake Michigan into Indiana. We soon cross the Kankakee River. It looks like a canal crossing expansive cornfields. For good reason. After watching a PBS episode a few days ago I learned this river used to be a swamp covering almost the entire northwest part of Indiana. In the 19th century industrial steam shovels cut a new channel draining the swamp and turning the land into the fertile farms they are today.

Another hour south we stopped in Purdue country to visit the Tippecanoe Battlefield. In 1809, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his Prophet-like brother were organizing a confederation of Indian tribes to resist further westward expansion of the US. They drew the battle line at the Wabash River and created an Indian center here called Prophetstown. When Tecumseh made a trip south in 1811 to recruit more tribes, the territorial governor William Henry Harrison marched troops here hoping to provoke a reaction. Tecumseh’s impulsive brother attacked, but Harrison was prepared. He won the skirmish, scattered the tribes, and burned Prophetstown. Harrison, now a hero, rode the fame to president in 1840 using the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler too.”

We toured the museum and then walked the small battlefield. A hundred years after the battle a large monument was erected on the site. We also drove to nearby Prophetstown State Park, but were disappointed to learn that none of the history of that settlement remains.

Another hour brings us to Indianapolis where we plan to visit Benjamin Harrison’s house. Like his grandfather, Ben was also a war hero and President (elected 1888). Unfortunately the highway is closed downtown so we decide to punt and bypass Indy. We end our day crossing into the rolling hills of southern Ohio stopping at a pretty little public campground in the Whitewater Forest.

September 14, 2013

September 14, 2013

Aimee and I came back to the Midwest to see our parents and attend the wedding of a nephew. By sheer coincidence we met the new couple on their first date when we visited my sister in Milwaukee ten years ago.