PLAY BALL !!!!

Today we jumped into the Jimmy James way back machine and took a trip back to the early 1900’s to visit with the greatest baseball player in the history of the game, Ty Cobb ‘The Georgia Peach”

We were just cruising around looking for neat things, and there it was a big sign that said, “Welcome to Royston, Ga – Hometown of Ty Cobb”. Now since we’re two of the biggest baseball nuts and both being big Tiger fans we knew we were going to be making a few stops in this town. The next sign was pointing us to the Ty Cobb Museum so that’s where we went. After giving up our $5 we ran into the museum and found a display of a hundred bats with the 100 high points of his life engraved on them, from there we moved on to the displays with old and rare pictures showing his rise from a small town baseball team to being the first player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. They had one of his old playing gloves with three fingers, the gold metal that was given to him when he won his first batting title and a photo of him at an old timers game with a young Al Kaline. We found out the Ty Cobb holds more baseball records then any other player and was always known as an aggressive, mean and fierce (SOB) competitor but after touring the museum and watching the 20-minute movie we changed your minds about that. Cobb was the first sports player to endorse a product, he picked a little down home company in Georgia that was just starting out, Coca Cola, which made him a multimillionaire. He used the money to build the areas first hospital, in Royston, that is now the center of their healthcare system, which serves thousands in Northeast Georgia each year. He set aside 25% of his fortune to establish the Cobb Scholarship Fund, more then 6000 Georgian boys and girls have received an education at over 200 different colleges because of it. Yes the greatest hitter in the game of baseball, the master of the base paths, the man with the sharpen spikes had a very generous heart, he just never showed it on the ball field.

As Casey Stengel once said “I never saw anyone like Ty Cobb. No one even came close to him as the greatest all-time player. That guy was superhuman, amazing”.

And of course we had to find the cemetery that he was buried in, when we found the family tomb, we discovered that some fan had left a beautiful basket of Georgia peaches on the steps.

A hiking we will go

Today was our hiking day on Lookout Mountain, which means we won’t be able to move for the next few days. We started out on a little short trail called “Sunset Rock”, it was only about a quarter mile long but it was straight up the side of a cliff. Everything on Lookout Mountain is on a cliff. This is one of those places without guardrails and it was a long, long way down. It’s amazing that no one has ever fallen off the edge.




Next we drove around for 20 minutes trying to find a place to park where the car would not be towed away, they don’t like visitors in their neighborhood. We finally found a place and had to walk uphill for about ½ mile to get to the trailhead or the “Natural Bridge”, and then it was straight down for about 60 feet to get to the start of the trail. I slipped and fell that last 20 feet but I didn’t get hurt, fortunately I landed on Cathy and she broke my fall. This used to be one of the big attractions years ago but they have let it go lately and it’s getting quite over grown, after a few hundred feet of fighting through the underbrush we found it. It really is kind of neat and it looks like the city is going to fix up the trail to make it a little easier to get to. We didn’t want to try and climb out the way we came in so we just kept following the trail and about ¼ mile later we came out at the place where we had parked the car. That will never happen again.

After 30 minutes of sitting in the air-conditioned car and catching our breath we were ready to go find the trailhead for Glen Falls, this one looks easy, we can park right at the trailhead and it looks pretty flat. A half a mile down the trail and it was a piece of cake

Now we just need to climb about 100 feet up the granite wall and find the falls, we can hear it just not see it. OK 30 minutes later we made it to the spot where you can see the falls, well kind of see them you have to cross a little bridge climb about 100 stone steps try to get through a little stone tunnel that we now call fat mans squeeze and there it is. Not a lot of water coming over it but it drops into a little pond and was nice and relaxing.
Time to head back to the car, back down the granite cliff to the trail and we discovered something, the reason the trail was so easy coming in is because it was all down hill. That half mile trail turned into a 20 mile march with full packs on the way out, when we finally got to the car all I could hear was the thump thump thump of the blood rushing through the veins in my ears although I could swear that I heard Cathy in the background cussing me out about something. Go figure.

A lot of catching up, Chattanooga Area

Fort Oglethorpe & the Sixth Cavalry Museum
We stopped by the 6th Calvary Museum, it is a small two story building filled with displays and exhibits, which include photos, maps, uniforms and much more, most of which were donated by members of the 6th, who hold their reunion here every year. Not only do you learn the history of the 6th Cavalry, which has served on the Texas border during the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, and the Boxer Rebellion, in pursuit of Poncho Villa and is currently stationed in Korea. They also tell you how to float a jeep across a stream or small river if you ever need to, also on display is a Patton Tank & a Cobra Gunship.
The curator was a really nice lady and gave me the keys to the Patton Tank, really, not to drive but to open the top hatch so I could climb inside. I climb up top and looked inside the turret and decided I was a little too old and round to try and squeeze through the hatch. The museum is of the grounds of the old Fort Oglethorpe, which is now the city of Fort Oglethorpe; several post buildings have been converted to new uses. The gymnasium is now a restaurant and antique shop, the PX is now an antique store, one stable houses a gift shop, one of the officers’ houses is a bed-and-breakfast and the rest private residence. At the entrance to the parade grounds, the Post Chapel and the Post Theater are still in use. The original flagpole and the original post bandstand can also be seen. The fort held German POWs during both WWI & WWII, over 180 of them died while being prisoners here and are buried at the Chattanooga Nation Cemetery, which we are going to next.


Chattanooga National Cemetery
This is one of the oldest and largest Nation Cemeteries in the country, started in 1863 to bury the Union soldiers killed during the battles of Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. At the office we picked up a Self-guided Historical tour pamphlet that an Eagle Scout made up to honor his grandfather who is buried here, it sure made finding things much easier. Like everything around here, it’s hilly, we parked at the Circle of Honor where there are about 20 memorials covering everything military from the civil war to the woman of WWII to Vietnam. This is on the highest ground so when were done playing mountain goat we still had the worst climb to get back to the car. We spent about three hours here (a lot of that time was catching our breath) there are so many interesting and unusual things to see, a Memorial archway that was built in 1868 is one of five built in the National Cemeteries, they are 40 feet tall and are modeled after the triumphal arches of ancient Rome.



A monument erected by the German Government in 1935 to honor the 78 prisoner who died during WWI, another 105 German POWs died here in WWII. As far as I could find out this is the only National Cemetery with Foreign POWs buried in it. We also found the Fourth Army Corps Obelisk monument, the Armed Forces Pavilion, the two limestone caves (closed in 1930s when two explorer died in them) and four of the Six Medal of Honor Recipients that are buried here.








Also the Andrews Raiders Monument, otherwise known as “The Great Chase”. James Andrews along with Union troops from Ohio in an attempt to destroy Railroad bridges and the telegraph lines stole the train known as the “General” they went on a 90 mile chase being pursued by the Confederate soldiers, when the train ran out of fuel they continued on foot until they were all captured a few weeks later (Disney made a movie about this). Eight of the raiders including Anderson (a Civilian) were executed. Their actions are what inspired the US Government to come up with a special medal to honor this type of courage, “The Medal of Honor”. They were the first to receive the medal.


Chattanooga Zoo
Time for a Freebee the Chattanooga zoo, this one is on the small side, they house about 21 different exhibits and a petting ranch for the kids. This is very well run zoo with very nice exhibits, better then some of the really big zoos that we’ve been to. It’s almost impossible to find since it’s hidden behind a baseball stadium in Wagner Park, you just keep driving through parking lots until you see the signs and there you are. Our absolute favorite was the albino anaconda, a mixture of snow white and sunshine yellow, we could have watched it for hours. This place is hidden so well that they looked shocked when you walk through the door; there were probably only 20 people in the zoo while we were there.


Old Coke Ovens of Chickamauga
This is another reason to just stumbled around on back roads; we came across these
100-year-old coke ovens just outside the town of Chickamauga. The Durham Coal Company used these ovens to convert coal into coke, which was then shipped by train to be used in the foundries of Chattanooga (we’ll hiked this old railroad bed a little later). The coke ovens were in operation until the Depression when they ran out of coal. The ovens were restored in the 1990’s and a few railroad coal cars were put on display. There are about 50 beehive style ovens here with plaques explaining their history and how they operated, a small pond with a footbridge and picnic tables with grills. It always amazes us at what you can find on the little back roads. Then it was into town were Cathy spotted a great little southern cooking style restaurant “The Melon Patch” great food and plenty of it.


Lula lake Land Trust
Here is were the railroad bed comes into our visit, the old railroad bed runs right through this land trust and is now the main trail that takes you to Lula Lake and Falls. This place is run by volunteers and is only open to the public on the first or last Saturday of the month between 9am – 5pm. We got our map from the guide and immediately folded it up and put it in our pocket because who needs maps. There are about ten miles of marked trails so we choice was the easy one that takes you to Lula Lake and then Lula Falls, it follows the old railroad bed all the way their and back. It took us right along the side of the creek for about a mile until then we came to the new footbridge, (the old one was washed out during a storm) from there we could see the lake and the top part of the first falls.
On a little further and we found a little picnic area with a fantastic view of the lake and smaller falls, Cathy found a small path made for stones that she insisted that I take you down to the lakes edge. The water is crystal clear in the creek; the lake due to its depth (65ft) is a beautiful emerald green. Another quarter of a mile and were at the big falls, Lula Falls, I would guess that they are about 80 to 100 feet tall. Again Cathy spotted a trail that leads down to the base of the falls, this is a very steep, muddy and slippery, Cathy decided to stay at the top, she said it would be easier for her to dial 911 from there. I wanted to get some pictures so down I went. I made it to the bottom with three slips and no falls, after taking a few pictures I saw that you could walk around behind the falls to a small cave like opening, hey as long as I’m down here. Right then wind decided to change a little so I ended up getting pretty wet from all the mist (really it was the mist, I didn’t fall in). I chalked up another five or six slips with one where I buried my hand in the mud to keep from having a muddy bottom.
When climbing out it was like climb ten steps and stop to caught my breath, repeat, repeat, repeat until I got to the top (probably 15 minutes but it felt like an hour). Twenty minutes of sitting to catch my breath with Cathy’s fingers poised over the buttons 911, I was ready to move on. It took about two hours to get rid of the rubbery legs, which we spent most of it in a little café on top of Lookout Mountain.




A little side trip to Cleveland
We spent one day doing a little side trip over to the City of Cleveland, no not the one on the lake. Our first stop was to see one of the “Whispering Giants” that was carved by Peter Toth to honor the Indians that were on the “Trail of Tears” which started near here at Red Clay.

Only a few blocks away is the Bloody Mausoleum made famous by “Ripley’s Believe it or Not”, so off we go in search of blood. As the story goes Little Nina was out for a buggy ride with her Grandfather, he had done this many times before, and Nina absolutely loved riding. Apparently, Dr. Thompson lost control of the horse and buggy, because it went directly into the path of a train. Dr. Thompson was thrown to safety, but Nina was killed. Mr. Craigmiles (Nina’s father) had a mausoleum built behind the church in memory of his daughter. She was laid to rest inside, as was another infant son who died, and Mr. and Mrs. Craigmiles. Mr. Craigmiles met an untimely death after falling on some ice, which apparently triggered blood poisoning. A third member of the family had met a tragic death. If you visit the mausoleum, you will notice red streaks the color of blood appear on it. The stories say that the bloody stains first began to appear on the Craigmiles mausoleum after Nina was interred there. With the death of each family member, the stains grew darker and more noticeable. Some of the locals began to believe that the marks were blood, coming from the stone itself, in response to the tragedies suffered by the family. They have washed and scrub the stains with bleach and even replaced some of the marble but the bloody stains always reappear.






Red Clay Historical Park
Take a few roads until you think that you’re lost and you’ll find the Red Clay Historical Park, this was the Cherokee Council Grounds from 1832-1838. They moved here from Echota Ga. when the State of Georgia stripped them of all the rights to sovereignty. After a few years here the U.S.A. decided that they wanted the land and that was the start of the Trail of Tears to their relocation out west. This is a nice little park with a visitor’s center, Blue Spring and Mill Creek, a recreated village and the Eternal Flame of the Cherokee.









Nancy Ward
Make a few more wrong turns, look up on a hill and say what the hell is that and you’ll find the grave of Nancy Ward. This is her story according to the plaque that was there. Nancy was called upon to show the depth and strength of her character as a young bride while assisting her husband during a battle against the Creeks. When he was shot and killed, Nancy picked up his gun and continued the battle, rallying the Cherokee to victory. The Cherokee paid homage to Nancy and made her a Beloved Woman, a
position reserved for brave and wise women who have served the people well.
As a Beloved Woman, Nancy had full voice and full vote in all tribal councils, held the power of life and death and, with the other Beloved Women of the Council, was the final arbitrator of any and all disputes and decisions affecting the Cherokee. Her first official act as a Beloved Woman was to save the life of a white woman condemned to die.
Nancy was a devout believer in peaceful co-existence with the whites. She earned the respect of both the white government and her own people by her successful negotiations and mediations. Moravians who had been allowed to settle in the area had educated her, and she served as interpreter when the need arose. Nancy constantly traveled the territory diverting conflict between the European settlers and her people, and was the driving force behind many peace agreements - she was a true politician.
Nancy was instrumental in negotiating the very first treaty between the white government and the Cherokee, known as the Treaty of Hopewell, and was present at its signing. During the years, Nancy watched her work being destroyed as treaty after treaty was broken, and she became increasingly suspicious of the white government.
She began to speak out against the continuing sale of Cherokee lands to the whites, but her fears were not taken seriously. She moved into Tennessee where she operated a successful inn until her death.
Nancy Ward is highly regarded by the Cherokee Nation, and many honors have been bestowed in her name. A Tennessee chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution is even named for her.
Here endth the lesson.

Cumberland Island

I can’t believe that we left the sun and warm weather of Florida and started heading north already. We made our first stop in St Mary’s Georgia for three days (you have to do this in baby steps) to get used to the temperature change. While we were there we went to the Submarine Museum, which is not on the base but right downtown. The museum is in a little disorganized but if you’re interested in subs this is the place to go, there are a lot of exhibits and hands on things to see and do.

The last day there we had reservations on the ferry to Cumberland Island National Seashore, we packed the backpack with sandwiches, water, snacks, sunscreen, insect repellent, wind breakers, cameras and some other stuff, don’t worry Cathy’s a hardy girl she can handle all that on her back. Then it was on the ferry for a 40-minute ride to the island, on arrival we were met by Ranger Arron (call me Ron) Crawford. He answered questions for about 15 minutes then we started our tour of the south end of the island, which is called the Dungeness Trail tour. He gave us a very good history lesson of the island as we walked through the forest of Live Oaks all of which are at least a hundred years old, one that he pointed out had a trunk with a diameter of over 7 feet and was named Lucy. Then we arrived at the main part of the tour, which is the Dungeness Mansion. There were two mansions at this location the first built by Revolutionary War hero Nathaneal Greene, the second was built about a 100 years later by the Carnegie family. The Carnegie family had over 200 servants living here with them and were totally self sustained with a farm, ranch, hot and cold running water and even electricity 2 years before the mainland had it. After the fire of 1959 all that remains are the ruins, which now houses the rattlesnake population of the island. The tour ends at the gravesite of Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee, another Revolutionary War hero and father of Robert E. Lee, who died on the island when he was a visitor of the Greene’s.

From here we had a few choices, take the main road back to the dock, take the center road about a mile and a half to the beach area or walk out to the beach and take that back to the dock. Since there was a cold wind blowing off the ocean we decided to take the center road through the forest, after about a two-mile hike we came to the beach trail, which took us out to the beach. The tide was out and we had a beach that was 300 feet deep and 17 miles long all to ourselves.

The island hosts a herd of about 250 horses that run wild, we saw about ten during our stay, we also saw wild turkeys and a ton of armadillos.

Cathy and I were the first ones back to the ranger station so we grabbed the two rocking chairs on the porch and refused to give them up to anybody, even if they were older and more feeble then us. They showed us a 30-minute video about the history of the island and then it was time for the ferry back to the mainland. We were both sound asleep by 9:30 that night.

Then it was a long cold wet rainy drive across Georgia to Elko (about 10 miles south of Perry). Were resting here for three days (another baby step) before heading to Chattanooga were we will be staying for a month, including the trip up to Michigan (giant step) to spent winter break with the kids.

More when we thaw out in March.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner

Legend says that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it "From Your Valentine".

Pope Gelasius set aside February 14 to honour St. Valentine, and this became the date for exchanging love messages and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. Sending poems and simple gifts marked the date.

Think of five or six names of boys or girls you might marry, as you twist the stem of an apple, recite the names until the stem comes off. You will marry the person whose name you were saying when the stem fell off.

If you cut the apple in half and count how many seeds are inside, you will also know how many children you will have.

In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

In Wales wooden love spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favourite decorations on the spoons. The decoration meant, "You unlock my heart!"

But in Southeastern Michigan they celebrate Valentine’s Day by contacting our daughter Suzanne Squier at the Candy Bouquet in Walled Lake and ordering a beautiful bouquet made from the finest chocolates and candies. So give her a call at 248-669-4480 and get your order in NOW!

Remember, Flowers are nice... Balloons are Okay...But for a lasting impression send a Candy Bouquet!

The proceeding message was paid for with hugs and kisses from my grandkids

Upchuckchoobee, Florida

Well we spent a month in the Naples – Cape Coral area and had a chance to visit with all our friends that live in this area. The weather was great for most of the month and to our joy the HONEY BELLS were in, these are the sweetest and juiciest oranges that you will ever taste.

We had a great home cooked meal (even though it wasn’t Italian Bill) with probably my oldest friends and by that I mean friends that I have known the longest, of course they are getting up there a little in years. (Just kidding Raglob’s) I love the hat.

A boating picnic that took us down the Caloosahatchee River through Pine Island Sound and into the Gulf of Mexico where we anchored right off the shore of Captiva Island to enjoy a few hours of sun, friends and food. On the way home we ran into something that you don’t see everyday a floating Dairy Queen, you just tie up along side and place your order and there was a line of boats waiting to get in.

We would have liked to stay a lot longer but the court order states that Cathy cannot remain in any one jurisdiction for over 30 days, (don’t ask) so we had to move on.

Right now we’re in Upchuckchoobee and will be exploring this area for two weeks. Correction they just sold the lot that we’re on and told us that we would have to move to another lot, to which we replied, “Gimme my money back and we’ll move to another park. This worked out pretty good since one week of Upchuckchoobee is about all we can take, we just went to the store and anyone of the people there could be playing Dueling Banjos, if you know what I mean.
Here is a sample of the Upchuckchoobee People

This is our schedule for the next few months: If we’re going to be near you give us a shout and we’ll try to get together for lunch or something.

Okeechobee, Fla Jan 25 – 31

Waulachua (sp) Feb 1-7

St Marys, Ga Feb 8 – 10

Elko, Ga Feb 11 – 13

Chattanooga, Ga Feb 14 – Mar 15,

With a road trip in the car to Wixom, Mi Feb 17 - 25

Jim n Cathy

I didn’t forget the Blog its just that we haven’t done too much lately. The weather in Ocala was a little on the cold side and we had a lot of rain. We moved to Bonita Springs, which is just north of Naples and will be here until Jan 25^th. Hopefully between football games we will have some nice weather and get out and do a few thing. Hope everyone had a nice Christmas and have a safe New Year.

Just another boring day

M*A*S*H
The reunion that everybody has been waiting for Radar and Hot Lips together again, or at least Gary Burghoff and Cathy. Since Gary (Radar) lives in Citrus County they gave him an honorary day at a little park near where he lives so we decided to go say hi. We got there about an hour early and were sitting in the car listening to the Michigan – Ohio game; there were about 30 people already in line when he came walking up. He walked up and got in the end of the line behind a 75 year old lady, after a few seconds he asked her “what time is that guy suppose to get her” she turned around and said at 1:00 o’clock then she turned her back on him. After about 3 seconds it must of dawned on her because she let out a little scream and said “you’re him”, it was a great way to make an entrance. We were probably 40th in line and it took us about an hour and a half before we got up to him, he didn’t rush anybody, he posed for pictures signed whatever you brought with you and answered any questions that you had. He told a few stories about being on the set of M*A*S*H, and was really very funny. When we left there were probably another 80 to 100 more people in line.
Oh, by the way Michigan lost it in the 4th quarter.
more later

The Mighty Eighth

We spent the better part of the day walking through the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. If you ever saw the movie “12 O’clock High” and who hasn’t, then you’ll know what this museum is all about. The movie was filmed on location with the Mighty Eighth and just about all the film footage in the movie is actual footage of the air battles. Probably 75% of the movie was taken from the experiences of the crewmembers of the Mighty Eighth. They have tons of exhibits and five different movies, the best part is a big room that is designed like the airfield in England that they flew out of. You start by entering the Nissen Hut (now called a Quonset hut) here you get a pre-flight briefing for your bombing mission in a B-17. They will also teach you the difference between a B-17 & a B-24. Then you go out with the maintance crew to make sure the aircraft is ready for flight, then it’s off you go into the wild blue yonder. They have what they call the “immersion theater” which has about 6 different screens and you’re right in the middle of them, flying a bombing mission to destroy the oil refiners in Germany. Other then a flight simulator this is as close as you’ll ever come to being Gregory Peck on his 25th mission. In another part of the building the have it set you where you’re a waist gunner with a 50 caliber trying to shot a bunch of MIG’s out of the sky. The guide we had was 8 years old when the war started, but his big brother was old enough to join up and he did. He was one of the original pilots and flew his plane and crew from the USA to England; he was also one of the first to fly 25 missions just to have them raise the number to 30 for rotation home. He flew his 30 missions and only lost two aircraft but also a few crew men, After his 30 missions (which he flew in 52 days) they told him if he flew 5 more missions they would promote him to Captain, which would have made him the youngest Captain in history, he had just turned 19. He declined their offer and rotated home to enjoy life until he died in 1989.


The other thing that we found fascinating was the Memorial Garden, It’s kind of set up like an old English garden with some broken gates and small brick walls, each plane had it’s own name and logo painted on it, pretty much whatever the Pilot wanted. In the garden the have carved stone, granite or marble plaques with the name & logo of the aircraft and names of the crew members for most of the planes, also listed behind the name is whether they were, KIA, MIA or POW. During WW II the Mighty Eighth had over 24,000 killed in action & over 28,000 taken as prisoners of war.
When the museum opened in 1996, General Jimmy Dolittle’s son had his tombstone moved from Arlington to a place in the garden here, he said it’s what his dad would have wanted.
They have a nice little English pub style restaurant in the corner of the museum for lunch.
Admission is $10.00 a head but well worth it, we’ve already decided that we’re going to stop again next year.

Halloween in Savannah

As most of you know Cathy and I have a hobby called Geocaching, it involves using a GPS and finding things that have been hidden by other cachers around the world. Sometimes it's little pill bottles or large ammo or Tupperware boxes. Some of them contain Travel Bugs, which is an item that you take from one cache and put it in another farther down the road. Well that's what we were doing today, we had picked up a Travel Bug that was named Mr. Bones and it is a small skeleton that likes scary places. Lets see it's Halloween Eve, we have Mr. Bones and there's a scary cache in the Bonaventure Cemetery in downtown Savannah, so here's our story.

We had spent most of the day walking around downtown Savannah and the Riverfront and had just enjoyed a great meal at a little café when we decided to walk over to the Bonaventure Cemetery and drop off Mr. Bones at the 'Legend of John Daly Cache".

Legend has it the John Daly passed away on a cold wet autumn day just before Halloween and that he was laid to rest on Halloween Eve, 1899 at Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia, the one made famous by the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, this is a large, eerie cemetery at the bank of the river. But it doesn't say how he died.

One year after his death, his wife, Hazel, decided to visit his grave on the anniversary of his death. She went there after dinner, even though it was late and getting dark, she told a neighbor that she would just be there for a minute and would be home in about 30 minutes. The neighbor forgot all about it until the next day when she went to Hazel's house and found the doors open and no one there. The neighbor got her husband and they went to John Daly's grave, where they found some fresh turned dirt, lying on top of the dirt was Hazel's gold wedding ring. She was never seen or heard from again.

Fifty years later Hazel's granddaughter, Janet, who had heard tales of her grandmothers disappearance wanted to try and figure out what happened so she decided to re-enact what her grandmother had done. She went to her grandmother's old house on Halloween Eve, and walked the same streets to the cemetery. When she didn't return home by 8 o'clock that night her husband called the police and told them the entire story. The police and her husband drove over to the cemetery and walked up to John Daly's grave where they found some fresh turned dirt, and lying right on top of it was a gold bracelet that had belonged to Hazel, and Janet had worn everyday since her mother, Hazel's daughter, gave it to her. Janet was never seen or heard from again.

Some storm clouds have moved in while we were eating dinner, it's starting to get dark and the wind is really picking up and blowing in off the river. You can feel the rain in the air, there's a huge flash of lightning and a loud crash of thunder so we were moving pretty fast now. After placing Mr. Bones in the cache container, which was hidden right behind the headstone, I stood up and noticed some fresh turned dirt on the grave, and right there on top of the dirt was my gold watch………………… and I was never seen or heard from again.

So sleep well tonight all our friends out there in blog land…Oh! And have a Happy Halloween.

Grave Hunting in CHARLESTON

The first two days here in Charleston were sunny and in the 80's so we sat around watching baseball & Football. Monday we decided to do a little grave hunting and of course it had dropped down into the 60's and was raining, good weather for cemeteries. The tomb to the right is that of Francis Marion "the Swamp Fox". Ever since the movie The Patriot came out we've been bumping it to this guy, either a historical marker about his exploits or a location where they filmed part of the movie. We did a little Internet research and found where his grave was, gee it's only a 125 miles round trip from where we're camped so we figured why not. He's buried in a little family cemetery off of a very small side road, once through the gates you drive back on a very narrow one lane road for a mile to the tomb which is very well maintained. Surprize, surprize, in the middle of no where in the rain, back in the woods of the old Belle Isle Plantaions, there were already two people back there. A couple of construction workers who got rained out of work today. One of their daughters was doing a book report on the General and he decided to come back here and check things out for her, we bs'ed for about 45 minutes and he told us about some neat things at a hidden cemetery in Charleston.

Magnolia Cemetery.
This is a photo of the first crew of the Civil War submarine the HUNLEY they drowned when the ship was just pulling away from the dock and the wash from a passing ship went into an open hatch. Their graves were just discovered a few years ago and moved to this location, with full military ceremonies. They were doing some work on the football stadium at the Citidel Military Academy and dug up the bodies. It turns out that the stadium is built on top of an old Mariners cemetery. When the bodies were recovered from the sinking of the ship they were quietly moved to the cemertey for burial, much like today we don't need the bad press. especially when one of them was a 13 year old boy.

This is the monument for the second crew of the Hunley, that drowned about 10 days after the first crew did. This time they made it away from the dock but apparently not to much futher then that. If you notice the designer of the sub Horace Hunley waited until the second sailing before he got on board. Of course the third crew of the Hunley drowned the first time the ship went into battle and it along with their bodies were not recovered until a few years ago.
This cemetery is really hidden and took us awhile to find, even with directions, but any cemetery that has a sign just in side the gate that sez "Five hundred dollar fine for feeding the alligators" well you just have to love it. We ended up spending about 2 hours walking and driving around looking at some of the great tombstones, there are a lot of famous people buried here.

The Greatest Free Show in Charleston. That's how they bill it.
The Citadel Cadets.
3:45 every Friday at the Citadel parade grounds the entire student body of cadets, 1900 strong put on a one hour show that you don't want to miss. They start with the bagpipers then the fife and drums and then the full assembly. This week happened to be the home coming so there were a lot of past graduates there. This included three federal Judges, a few General Officers and a whole bunch of guys with big gold class rings. It was kind of neat, at the end when they march by the stands for review, the alumni in the stands wait until the platoon that they served in is passing then they stand and salute.

This is the schools mascot, When one of the graduates (and later an instructor at the school) was killed in Viet Nam (1965), every cadet in the school donated their brass belt buckles, buttons and head dress. They then had them melted down to cast the statue. A few yeas later this Officer's son ( a citadel grad) was also killed in Viet Nam, the statue is dedicated to both of them.


We leave Charleton tomorrow and are heading to Savannah for another week of adventure.

Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Our main reason for stopping here is we have an appointment at Camping World to get the air conditioner on the motor home fixed. The good news was it was less then a hundred dollars and we were expecting it to run around 500, so that made us happy.

Most of the Campgrounds in the area call themselves resorts which means they charge about 4 times more then they should, we found one a few miles north of town that was in one of our camp clubs so we got away with half price, which is still ridicules. The nice thing about this park is it's right next to the Barefoot Beach complex which a bunch of stores, restaurants, nightclubs and golf courses. Everything from a Tee shirt shop to the House of Blues or Alabama, and Johnny Rockets Hamburgers to Greg Norman's Australian Grill. Its right on the Inter Coastal Waterway and half the buildings are built over the water and have boardwalks going to them. Every morning we do our walk around there and decided which place we'll go to for lunch, so far we've been to Johnny Rockets & Greg Norman's. Johnny Rockets was nice, good burgers, onion rings and paper plates in the middle of the complex, at Greg Norman's we had a table on the water with a very fancy dinning room. I had the Crab Cake sandwich and Cathy had the House Quiche, great service of course and it was only four dollars (total) more then Johnny Rockets.

The downtown area is really congested and since this is a slow time for tourist everybody is doing their clean up work getting ready for the Thanksgiving travelers

It's been sunny and in the 80's all week with the nights dropping down into the mid 60's.

Next stop one of our favorite places, Charleston, S.C. Hopefully WILMA will take a very wide path around the east coast heading to the New England area. We have a World Series to watch.

Macon's Grave-Roanoke Rapids, VA.

When you travel a bunch of back roads and stop at just about anything that looks interesting you come across some very strange things. The picture about is one of those things, but more on that later.

We were going to stay in Richmond for a week but we had trouble finding a campground in the area, we did find one but we decided that I didn't have enough guns in the rig to make it a safe stay. We were going to spend the weekend at the National Folk Festival, which was being held in Richmond this year except Tropical Storm Tammy decided that she was going to make it the wettest weekend of the year so we just kept heading south. After a very long drive in a very heavy rain we got off the freeway at Roanoke Rapids for dinner and found nice little campground, since it was going to rain non-stop for the entire weekend we decided that this was home and we would spend the weekend watching football and the baseball playoffs.

It's Monday morning, and sometime during the night the rains have stopped so we jumped in the car and decided to check out the area, the town has an old canal with a couple of mills and an aqueduct that went around the rapids. Today it's a seven mile walking path which takes you from one side of town to the other following the old canal, actually the canal is dry and you walk in the middle of what was the canal and across the old aqueduct. After the walk we took a drive out around the lakes and came across what the historical marker said was Macon's Grave 2 miles north, now how can you not make a right turn to find out what this is all about.

Macon's Grave is a small family cemetery across from where the family farm was located. Nathaniel Macon was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, serving at the surrender of Fort Moultrie, the fall of Charleston, the rout at Camden, and with General Nathaniel Greene in his retreat across Carolina. When he left the military he refused a pension and all pay for his military service, he went on to serve as a congressman and US Senator for the next 37 years, Macon, Georgia and Fort Macon are both named in his honor. Now after all this you have to wonder why some thugs would dump a truckload of stones on top of his grave, well they didn't. He requested that at his death no grief be expressed and that dinner and a grog be served and that all his friends cast a stone on his grave, which they did. Over the years the tradition has continued and anyone visiting his grave brings a stone to throw onto the pile, which now covers the graves of his wife, son and grandson. Really it's true, you could look it up.

Jim n Cathy

Charleston, W. Virginia

Capitol Bldg

The view from our camp site

We spent two days in Charleston W.V. so Cathy could get in a little genealogy research. We stayed in the St Albans city park with is right on the Kanawah River, they have about 5 sites and the best part is they're FREE.

The capitol dome is being real done and they only have half of it revealed, the Gov. and his wife are having a big party on the 14th when they unveil it. I spent about an hour walking around inside the capitol bldg, I walked into the Governors office and talked with his receptionist, stepped in the Sec of States office to say hi and a few other places. During the hour, I did not see one security person or cop, everybody was just as friendly as could be and wanted to know if they could help you with anything.

This is a realy great area if you like driving UP & Down mountainsides.
When we left here we took the Midland Trail (Hwy 60 east across the state) this is the original two lane hwy that looks like they built it around 1800. We were either doing 20 mph up hill, 20 mph through one of the switchbacks or riding the brakes down hill. I don't think I'm going to like seeing what our gas mileage is next time we fill up. Fortunately it was only 90 miles long and we covered it in about 3+ hrs and of course we found a spot right in the middle of it that we want to go back to in the spring for a week if I can find another road.

Right now we're in Charlottoville, Virginia for a week catching up on our history lessons.

Lancaster, Ohio

Lancaster Ohio

We�ve been here for about a week and will be leaving on Wednesday. Just been doing a lot of back road trips this week, the other day we did a 90 mile loop and discovered about 15 covered bridges and about 9 sites of the old Erie Canal with the stone locks. A ton of little towns, and a million cemeteries for Cathy to roam. Of course we did a day in Columbus for genealogy. That�s about it for this week.

The Toledo Zoo

Well I don't think that we drove far enough south, We set up at our new camp Wednesday and the first thing Thursday morning we get a call from Nick wanting to know when we were going to come get him and his sister to spend the night and go to the Toledo Zoo. Well I've had enought of this so I put my foot down, right down on the gas pedal and we drove up to Wixom to get him and Rachel. Good thing this park has WIFI because it kept Rachel busy all night so Nick and I could watch the Tigers lose another one.
A beautiful day at the Toledo Zoo, 80 degrees and sunny and all the animals were moving around alot rather then just sleeping. The kids had a really good time as always, except for the long drive home to Wixom from Toledo, a little over two hours. How do you keep the kids quiet that long, easy you just stop every 30 minutes and get them more ICE CREAM, I mean we're dropping them off with their parents, let them handle the suger high.
I slept very well tonight.

The GRAND Opening

August 30th 2005, Suz held the grand opening of her Candy Bouquet Store. It was a double grand opening with the busness next door. It was a nice sunny day and she had a lot of friends show up to help her on her way.

The Ribbon Cutting

This is one of her display areas, they can make up a bouquet for any occassion that you can think of.



Here are two that she made for Aunt Sandy to take to their tailgateing party for the opening of the MEEEECHIGAN football season.

M GO Blue

With that all done Cathy & I packed up and moved south about 25 miles to a little RV park in Monroe, Michigan. With everything going on in the Gulf of Mexico we decided that we'll stay here for 3 to 4 weeks until things stabilize a little with gas prices and supply. The other day we were excited to buy gas for only $3.00 a gallon. It's going to make travel a little bit more expensive but what are you going to do.
We've spent the last few springs along the Gulf coast between Pensacola and Baton Rouge just laying back and relaxing, after seeing the films of the area it looks like it will be a long time before anyone can return to that area for any reason.
As always if we get in your area we'll give ya a call.

Charlotte, Michigan

Time to do a little catching up, when we left you we were in Lapeer, Michigan, well we moved a grand total of about 80 miles to Charlotte (pronounced Char-looooootte) if you say it like the girls name you�re in big trouble. Were at the fairgrounds and so far they�ve had a circus, rodeo, and that thing were the cars race through the mud pit, and all free. Of course when we�re here we spend every other day in Lansing at the library so Cathy can do her research. We did manage to go to a Lansing Lugnuts Baseball game, double a team for the Toronto Bluejays. With our luck it was bring a drunk get in free night, really it was 2 dollar beer night so we were in the minority that wasn�t falling down the steps for throwing up in the stands. We did a few back road tours, a day in Marshall and a day in Grand Rapids. And that�s about it, we�re leaving here Wednesday and heading down by the kids for a month, Suz is doing her Grand Opening on the 30th. Hopefully they will be packed, she's been doing pretty good for just getting started. Finally got the new car clean so I thought I would post the picture because it may never be clean again.
We�ll see everybody when we start our winter migration.

Port Huron, Michigan

Kids at the Blue Water Bridges

Watching a Big Ships pass by

We brought the kids up to lapeer for a few days and spent one in Port Huron. We walked the entire river front from north of the bridge to the Huron Light Boat. We toured the Huron Lightship. This was the last lightship used on the Great Lakes and has been turned in to a museum. Then we walked to the Thomas Edison Museum which is located right under the bridges. There are now two bridges side by side in order to handle the traffic. The kids got a chance to see some of the big ships as they passed under the bridges, Nick thinks that maybe he could have thrown a baseball to one of the ships since they were so close. We then drove up to the Gratiot Lighthouse & Beach for a little picnic lunch, while we were there the Canadian Coast Guard boat showed up and was doing manuvers about a 100 yards off shore and the local lifeguards were doing their rescue training. The kids really liked the Campground that we're in, it's near a rails to trails park and the trail circles two lakes and there is tons of wildlife to see.
Nick & Don's birthdays are August 2nd so we'll be heading back down to Wixon for that.
Later

Trading up

We decided that it was time to trade up to a new rig and Move on up to the east side to that deluxe motorhome.
Were camped in Lapeer Michigan for about another 2-3 weeks. Cathy looked out the window today and saw this thing driving down US24, the main drag through town. When we went to dinner a few hours later we saw it parked and stopped to get a picture. This is how itwas when it was driving down the road, the pop up was open.
I think thats a pair of bloomers hanging in the door.
Taking the Grandkids to Port Huron for the day next week, going to let them see some real blue water.

Another Landmark Day.
Suz opened her store today, The Walled Lake Candy Bouquet is now open and available to take your order. It was rush rush rush right till the last minute but she opened on time. The big Grand opening will be sometime around the first part of August. Nick and Rachel were a little disappointed that there wasn�t a line waiting to get in when they unlocked the door.
So if you�re in the area of Walled Lake Michigan she located on Pontiac Trail just east of Commerce Rd.
We�re so proud of our little girl, and we get free brownies and candy.

Catching up on things

Well I guess it’s time to do a little catching up on this Blog thing. We got back to Michigan about mid June and watched the grandkids while Suz & Don went of to Little Rock Arkansas for their Candy Class. They have the franchise for the Candy Bouquet in the Wixom area, they have all types of candy and instead of sending a floral bouquet they make them out of chocolate and candy. Very unique. We spent just about everyday with the kids at the beach swimming and as Rachel calls it Cardiacking, the rest of us call it kayaking. After a week of this I started to think she was right and I was heading for a Cardiack arrest.
We got BOLO’ed in Livingston County (BOLO police slang for Be On the Look Out for), We had picked up the new car a few days earlier and decided to take the kids to the Zoo in Lansing to put a few miles on the car and get the engine broken in. Well we’re on the freeway in the right lane doing 60mph, minding our own business when this Bandana head Willie Nelson wanna be comes flying up on our butt at about 90 and locks on his brakes about 3 feet off our back bumper. With no other cars in the other lanes he starts beeping and signaling me to speed up so of course I hit the brakes instead which I believe caused everything on his front seat to hit the floor. Now he decides to pass us on the shoulder of the freeway, while he’s doing this he flips Cathy and the grandkids the bird, I still can’t figure out why he was mad at them. He then starts to pull in front of us forcing us into the second lane which is now occupied by a semi truck. Being a fast thinker I threw my badge up in the windshield, he immediately pulled back onto the shoulder and took off at about 90 mph. He got off at the next exit and we continued on our way to the zoo. About 15 miles down the road we see a Deputy standing outside his car shooting radar. As we go by he looks up his jaw drops open and his head swivels around watching us go by. I made the comment to Cathy that this must really be a great looking car. So great that he chased us down with his lights and siren running. It turns out that the Willie Nelson wanna be got off the freeway and called the sheriffs office and told them that there was a crazy guy flying down the freeway hanging out the window with a badge in his hand running everyone off the road. So the Sheriff orders all his deputies to the freeway overpasses to catch us. After fifteen minutes of talking with a K9 unit deputy (the dog was the friendly smart one) and waiting for them to call Detroit PD to verify I was a real cop, they decided to give us a break and let us go. About half way through all this Rachel pops up with “It shouldn’t take this long just to write a ticket”. We did finally get to the zoo and had a really good time. On the way home Nick had us drive by Michigan State’s Stadium to get a picture of him standing in front of it, to make a screen saver for his mom (a University of Michigan Grad).
Suz & Don got back and we let them visit the kids for a day and a half before we loaded them in the motorhome and took off for Mackinac Island for a week. The weather was in the low 90’s everyday and only about 30 minutes of rain all week. We did 4 crossings of the BIG MACK Bridge and spent one day walking around the Island eating fudge and saltwater taffy. The kids got to swim under the bridge, this is the dividing point for Lake Michigan and Lake Huron so Nick named it Lake Michuron, of course the water temp was just a tad above freezing. Fortunately we found a little beach on a bay in Lake Michigan that was pure white sand shallow and about 75 degree water temp so we pretty much lived there for the rest of the week. Cathy wouldn’t let us use the campground pool any more after I beat up the eleven year old (he was a really big eleven year old in my own defense). But that’s another story.
When we left Mackinac we followed US 23 down the coast past the 45th parallel to Oscoda, this was the start of the 4th of July week in Oscoda for the family. Normally we camp near by but this year we just met Don & Suz and dropped off the kids, then went to Wixom to house sit the dog and cats. I was able to spend 5 days washing and waxing the motorhome and 5 evenings at the chiropractor getting straighten out. The kids had a great week and came home and tanned and bronzed from the time on the beach.
Pack up the motorhome and we’re gone for a month of relaxing in Lapeer Michigan. Of course we have to go back for the opening of the store and then for Nick and Don’s birthdays and probably 3 or 4 other things, who knows or as Rachel always sez “Who cares”.
The car we bought is a PT Cruiser, I spent more time in line at the DMV then I did in the dealership buying it. It’s a nice car with lots of room and so far we’re both happy with it. I’m trying to get Cathy to wear a Pink mohair sweater (tight) a Poodle skirt and saddle shoes so we can go down to the drive-in but she’s not having any of it.
Time to relax, later

In Honor of Cathy's 49th Birthday

Louisville "Hometown of Jackie"

Downtown Louisville


Louisville Slugger Museum


Building down the street from the Bat Factory

We're camped right across the river, in Indiana, from Louisville. The other day we took of on the bicycle to ride along the river and we were gone for 5 hours. We went to the Falls of Ohio, a ton of little parks along the river and in the little town centers. We took a tour of the Louisville Slugger Bat Factory and Museum, had to buy a Babe Ruth signature bat for Nick. It takes about an hour and half to see everything and is well worth the trip. They have the big bat out front as you can see in the picture, then about 1/2 a block down the street is the Plate Glass Building with the ball through the window.
We went to both National Cemeteries in the area, New Albany, which is one of the original 13, and the Louisville National Cemetery which is in the Cave Hill Cemetery.
It was raining today (Thursday) so we just did a little shopping and tried another restaurant. Before we leave Sunday we want to get to Locust Grove, last home of George Lewis Clark, and President. Zachary Taylors Grave site.
Looks like we're going to have to save the Chuchill Downs Museum for our next trip here.
Gotta go turn the steaks.