myretroperspective

I headed out this morning for New Echota which was the Cherokee Capital before all of the Cherokees from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina were forced to move to what is now Oklahoma.  That removal from their homelands, which resulted in close to 4000 deaths, is known as the Trail of Tears. After watching the movie in the Visitor’s Center, I took some time in the small museum to learn more.  The Cherokees were the only Native Americans to develop a written form of language.  They also produced a newspaper on these grounds before they were removed. There are a number of restored structures on the grounds that you can view on a self guided tour. The Vann Tavern is typical of Cherokee buildings that served travelers as a restaurant, store, and inn.  There was a small opening under the stairs that served as a ‘take out service’ for those customers that the Innkeeper did not allow inside.  This building was moved here in 1955 from Springplace, Georgia. The Trai

Rain overnight, and a cloudy morning left me reluctant to venture out this morning.  This being a bum for three months can grow on a person. Eventually, Emma and I headed out to find the Corps of Engineer Visitor’s Center a ways over on another side of Allatoona Lake.  I had a map of the lake, but no address for the VC.  I did, however, take my GPS with me just in case I needed to find my way home.  That was a good decision. As we wandered some of the back roads, we came upon several COE day use areas and visited each one.                                                  At one such stop we came upon an historic iron works. Most of it was destroyed by Sherman during the Civil War as he made his march south.  This is what’s left.  I can’t imagine all the work it was to fit all of those large stones together just right to make the iron works. As Emma and I decided to take a walk on a nearby nature trail, about 30 seven year old kids came bubbling off of the trail.  They all h

After a very busy and slightly hair raising drive through and around Atlanta, Emma and I reached our destination of the COE McKinney Campground in Acworth, GA.  My goodness there were a lot of truckers on the road this morning!  It was as crowded on the road as any other good sized city, and Jack-in-the-Box did an excellent job of getting me through the melee. As I drove the 110 miles, I made up my mind to go with site #64 that I had originally reserved.  I value privacy and quietness over the sardine packed ambiance of a lake front site I guess, and it would be hard for any of the first come first served sites to compare with the site I had at Holiday with my own private little beach. I did, however, begin to wonder about the quietness of this site as I arrived to pull in.  Tenters on my right had the most God awful music (?) deafeningly blaring from a large boom box.  Thankfully, their time was up today, so by the time I was set up, they had packed up and left.  Getting i

It’s been a rather nice 13 night stay I’ve had here at the Holiday COE campground on West Point Lake.  I’ve gotten to see several very historic sites, had a marvelous soak in the warm springs pool, and have basked in my own private little swimming bay each evening before coming inside.  Most of the celebrating crowd made their exodus from the park today so things have really quieted down once again.  I’ve spent the last two days very slowly packing things up to get ready for my departure tomorrow morning. Everything, including cleaning the inside of the rig and doing laundry, has been done.  All that’s left for tomorrow is to unhook the water, electric, and pack away the DISH.  Normally, I stow the DISH the night before leaving, but I’m DVRing several movies tonight with a military theme.  Since it’s Memorial Day, there are lots of those good old was movies like “Sergeant York” and “The Longest Day” on today.  I’m stockpiling some movies in case I don’t have satellite reception

Yes, this morning was my appointment to soak in the mineral warm springs pools that FDR established when he was hoping to cure the effects of polio.  So I left the campground this morning clad in my swimsuit covered by a shirt and shorts. All three pools are connected, and you can walk in the water from one to the other without having to get out. The two lady rangers remembered me from last week and were thrilled to see that I actually showed up for the 90 minute soak.  Hey, I paid $20 in advance for this unique experience, so it would take something really dramatic for me not to show up!  Considering that these pools were established to help people with polio, there is a ramp as well as stairs for entrance to the waters.  I chose the ramp since stairs aren’t really my friend at the moment.  The first thing I noticed upon getting wet is that there is a reason this town is called Warm Springs and not Hot Springs.  The water bubbling out of the the und

If you’re looking for a fun and games time, don’t go to Andersonville, GA.  Camp Sumpter, as it was officially known, was the location of the Andersonville prisoner of war camp for Union soldiers during the Civil War.  Since 1998, it has also been the location of the National Prisoner of War Museum which is dedicated to the men and women of this country who suffered captivity.  It is not a happy place to visit, but one that tells the story of sacrifice and courage. Other than these two outside images, I have no other pictures of the Prisoner of War Museum.  I was too moved by the tales told inside to want to take any pictures. There were many first person video accounts of what POWs experienced, and the effects on them and their family members.  As I walked through the various rooms of the museum, I found myself with a lump in my throat, and near tears at times.  It was certainly a sobering experience. Outside, I was able to participate in a ranger lead program on t

dear buddah, thank you for being born, and thank you korea for recognizing it as a national holiday and therefore taking off work. we're heading out saturday morning on the motorbike and heading to a nearby island to go camping on the beach. dear korea, thank you for your amazing beaches that we can camp and build epically awesome bonfires on. we will be thoroughly enjoying it this weekend. dear sister, just saw the latest of your pregger photos. you have exceeded my expectations for not being on bed rest yet (she's tiny at just 5'1", i thought she'd be laid up by month 4!) AND my expectations of how cute we all said you'd be knocked up. can't wait to hold my niece in august! dear hubs, i think it's sexiest when you wake up early and make me breakfast. i won't argue if you decide to do it more often. dear motorbike, i'm not thrilled about the idea of sitting on you for two hours tomorrow and you making my butt more sore than an hour of squats. p

Last night as Emma and I were taking a walk around the campground loop, a women called out to me, “Hey Judy, is that you?”  “You don’t know me from Adam, but I read your blog.”   It turned out to be Claudia and Tom Litton, fellow fulltimers.  We had a nice chat.  They are originally from this area, and suggested I might not want to take my planned route to my next destination.  Well, this morning I wasn’t feeling like a nut, so I changed my itinerary for the day.  I decided Emma and I would once again scope out both routes to the next COE park I’ll be staying at instead of me going to Andersonville today.  I figured any COE campground is going to be busy as a hornet’s nest on Friday, and maybe people would be so busy getting somewhere that fewer folks would visit Andersonville. I also wanted to see what the site I had reserved on line looked like, and see if there were any first come first served sites that might be available after the holiday weekend.  While the roads I took to ge

There were two more major stops along the way on our auto tour of the gardens. Since the major azalea bloom happened earlier in the year, the John A. Sibley Horticultural Center was the best place to see blooming flowers at this time in May.                                We had a pleasant walk among all the garden settings.                                    The insects were certainly busy gathering pollen from the blooms. I got a real kick out of what looked like giant Chia pets!  One of the elephants was covered in what looked like a creeping vine that we used to call creeping Charlie when I lived in New York.  It was the bane of my vegetable garden.                                     There was also a lion that appeared to be having a bad hair day! The colors along the walking paths were like eye candy.  What a gorgeous place.  I can just imagine how beautiful it was when the over 4000 azaleas were blooming last month. Gerri t