It has been a long couple of weeks. While we were at Gettysburg, we had dinner with the Owner/CEO of NIRVC and the corporate sales person. They found a new Entegra 2026 Anthem 44V at their Surprise, Arizona location. They sent pictures, which we discovers did not do it justice, and between our trade in, a large sum of money from Entegra and a large discount from NIRVC we purchased a new motorhome. We drove to Arizona when we got home from Hawaii, drove the new motorhome home to load for our trip to Huntsville. Our old Entegra was nice but this is extraordinary. What’s amazing is the electronics in the unit which rivals a new luxury car. It has a larger engine and a tag axle for stability and is easier and more stable on the road. We will be at the hamfest until Tuesday when we head home.
We went to Hawaii with our good friends Kathleen and David. We had a fantastic time. On the tour of the big island, the highlight of the tour was Kilauea volcano. We were there during the day and we returned at night. At night, we were able to see the magma shooting in the into the air from the volcanic crater. What is unfortunate, there was a full eruption a week later. We did visit other areas on the island including a coffee plantation and a bakery. We also did star gazing and we both learned a lot from our guide.
During the same tour, we stopped at the beach to see the green sea turtles. There is a fence to keep people from disturbing the turtles as they climb from the water to the beach.
We flew to Oahu and went to Ford Island to the Arizona Monument. It was a very somber tour by the Park service and the Navy. We also toured a submarine, though Judy was not able to do the tour.
I do have additional pictures from the outside and inside the submarine, however, we are at a hamfest in Huntsville and I did not bring the big camera. I will post additional photos when we get home next week.
We did not complete the battlefield tours since Molly had a severe seizure and we were going to take her to the vet when she came out of it. We did go to the visitors center. They have a Cyclorama which is 377 feet long and 45 feet high. It encircles the complete viewing room. The hand painted cyclorama painting began in 1879. It depicts the entire 6,000 acre battle field. It shows over 20,000 hand painted soldiers, horses, cannons and buildings. The Park Service added a sound and light show to enhance the viewing experience.
The museum also shows musical instruments, weapons, uniforms and other relics form the battles.
We did a walking tour of Gettysburg. The tour was about a mile and a half and Judy and I saw damage still preserved from the actual battle in the city.
In mid-July, Molly had another severe seizure at home she did not recover from. Our vet had to put Molly down. We are really missing the old girl.
We are in Gettysburg for an AIM (All Inclusive Motorhome) Rally. Over the next four days, the club will take us on tours including the battlefields, a reenactment, museums and the Gettysburg historic district. The first day of activities begins tomorrow, though there is dinner and entertainment tonight.
The nice part of attending these functions, is they supply the campground, all meals including happy hour, nighttime entertainment, and all transportation to the various locations. We also have the opportunity to meet other motorhome people and exchange ideas and travel locations.
The Tennessee State Aquarium is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is separated into two buildings; one is salt water fish and the other is fresh water. Enclosures in both building are quite large and feature different ecosystems from various parts of the world. The salt water area includes a butterfly exhibit, penguin habitats, sharks and reef and tide pool fish. The fresh water side had a Tennessee fly fishing stream exhibit, an alligator habitat, and fresh water fish such as trout and bass.
We are currently at the Raccoon Mountain Caverns and Campground. There are caverns attached to the camp ground. There are about 5 miles of underground passages, though our tour was only a small portion. there are very small bats and several different types of salamanders and insects. The cave tour was about 45 minutes. Unfortunately, there is no flash photography in the cave, since the animal life is highly sensitive to light.
The small round mark in the center of the frame is a miniature bat
In the center of this picture is a black salamander
There were several sites we visited in Atlanta. Since we both like going to aquariums and zoos, we went to the Georgia State Aquarium and Zoo Atlanta. We also visited the Coca Cola museum.
The aquarium is located in the center of town in a museum district. It is advertised as the largest aquarium in the Western Hemisphere with over 500 species including whale sharks, beluga whales and manta rays.
Our net stop was the Coca Cola Museum. Coca Cola is based out of Atlanta. The museum goes over the history of Coca Cola eventually ending in a large room with Coke dispensers with not only every US flavor, but products they sell world-wide. We were able to spend all the time we wanted and taste the different products. Most were good but the were some that were not that good.
Our final stop was Zoo Atlanta. The zoo in known for its reptile and and amphibian collection. We walked the entire zoo and what was impressive were the large enclosures. Animals have lots of room to wonder including trees and dirt and rock hills to simulated their natural conditions. The reptile and amphibian houses were huge and has a large assortment of inhabitants.
Before leaving for Atlanta, we visited the Jefferson Davis Museum and Robins Air Force Base Museum of Aviation. just north of Macon, Georgia.
The museum was small but had some nice exhibits. This is the location of Davis’s capture near the end of the Civil War. There is no photography allowed in the museum. There are artifacts in the museum depicting his life.
The Air Force Museum is north of Macon, Georgia. The base is still an active duty base home to the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex with over 22,000 military, civilian and contractor personnel. The museum is free and is said to be the second largest air museum in the country behind Wright Patterson ir Force Base outside of Dayton, Ohio.
The most interesting planes we observed were the B-52 bomber, the B-1 bomber, and the SR-71. The museum has four hangers with planes from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf Wars.
This location has the National Prisoner of War museum, the Confederate Fort Sumter prison site, and a national cemetery.
The museum covers all wars the United States has been involved in. It is a very well done museum and includes videos of POW’s from WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf Wars. There are notes and pictures from the Civil War describing the horrible conditions at both the Confederate prisons and the Union prisons.
Fort Sumter was hastily built to reduce over crowding at other Confederate prisons. Over 13,000 Union soldiers died (28%) in the prison from malnutrition, bad medical care, scurvy, and dysentery. The camp, which was in operation for 14 months, was opened February 1864 was designed for as an overflow detention center but grew to 45,000 prisoners.
There are a number of monuments throughout the prison from various states in the North commemorating their soldiers.
The Park Service placed bench marks showing locations of wells.
Prisoners were forced to use this small stream for water. Further downstream, they used the stream as a bathroom. Unfortunately, the guards used the stream upstream from the prisoners to drink and to defecate.
Prisoners attempted to escape by digging tunnels, but were not successful. There are several fenced areas where you can see the holes.
The camp was surrounded by tall wood poles installed by slaves. The encampment was about 16 acres of this fence. Entrances were double doors with steel frames.
Guard towers were installed every one hundred feet.
Cement poles mark boundries.
The National Cemetery is still in use for our veterans. The cemetery is well marked making it easy to separate civil war soldiers from current soldiers.
There is an ongoing attempt to name soldiers and find their date of death. Most graves only have a number and identified name.
You will notice there are grave sites with headstones only inches apart. These were mass graves with the headstones identifying the bodies in the grave.
We took a lunch cruise on the Savannah River. It was suppose to be a paddle boat, however, it had a paddle but used a conventional propeller. Lunch was very good, with traditional Southern food such as shrimp with grits, southern fried chicken, and of course banana pudding.
The weather did not cooperate so we did not see a lot of wildlife but there were lots of brown pelicans. We passed Old Fort Jackson (built in the early 1800’s) and watched them fire their cannon for visitors at the fort. The guide pointed out the location where Liberty sips were built during the second world war and other city sights.
