Dave and Judy Moss

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.

SAVANNAH CITY HALL BELOW.

SUNKEN DREDGE

THE LAST THREE PICTURES ARE THE OLD FORT JACKSON.

The buildings were first built in 1833 by the Central of Georgia Railroad and Canal Company. The yard is still mostly the same as it was when originally built, though part of the round house was removed. During the civil war, General Sherman of the US Army was given the task to stop the trains, which he accomplished by destroying engines and track. Many of the buildings were built by Slaves and there are still areas you can view their fingerprints on the bricks.

They still have a number of cars and engines. The original machine shop and paint shop are still there. There are several unique features still visible. The builders built underground tunnels to vent steam and smoke from the work areas to the main smoke stack. At the bottom of the smoke stack is a cistern which collected rain water which was heated by the hot smoke and used for employee showers at the bottom of the smoke stack. They used wood bricks in the round house rather then bricks or cement. Oil leaks and lubrication would sit on the bricks but would hit the wood and sink to underground pipes which routed the lubricants to lubricate the turn table. This is the largest facility of its kind in the world.

The museum receives no public funds. Admissions and donations run the program. The also have been a number of films shot at the facility including the 2019 Lady and the Tramp. and The Birth of a Nation.

Below is the large smoke stack.

Below, are the wood bricks which helped funnel lubricanr to the turn table.

Below is the turn table which is so well balanced, one person can turn it with an engine on board by hand.

The next two pictures are the original machine shop tools with the exception of the fan.

The picture below is the cistern and on the bottom, the heated showers.

The fort was built in the mid 19th century on Cockspur Island by the US military. It was captured by the Confederates’ during the Civil War. The fort was recaptured after a 24 hour battle where over 5,000 artillery rounds were exchanged. What helped the US military win the battle, was a new type of cannon with a rifled barrel.

While we were at the fort, two cannons were fired, without projectiles, to demonstrate the procedures used. The outer wall has not been repaired; you can readily see where each eimpact occured from the US military.

Bugler calling artillery men to action.

in the next picture, you can just make out a cannon ball in the hole on the center of the picture.

The next picture shows damage on the east wall side of the fort.

We got up at 5am this morning to watch the Space X launch from Cape Canaveral, which is about 60 miles east of us. The sky was clear and it was cool watching the launch and separation.

We are currently at Hamcation in Orlando, Florida. We won our tickets to attend at the Huntsville Hamfest.

We left Vegas mid January. Our first stop was at the Distant Drums RV Park on the Yapapai-Apache reservation by Sedona to visit our cousin Jason.

Next, we went to Katy, Texas to visit our friend Paul and his wife. We arrived right before the freeze struck. The campground we stayed at had car ports for large motorhome homes like ours, so we were shielded from the rain and ice though it was in the 20’s at night and 30’s in the day. I’m glad we had our electric hose for water.

We were there for several days until the weather broke and interstates were clear of ice. We did visit Kenny and Ziggys deli in Houston for a delicious lunch.

After leaving Texas, we stayed in New Orleans. We visited the World War II museum which is very well done. This is our second time there. The first time, only half the the museum was complete so this time we went to the new side. We also went on a 3 hour Mississippi River tour on a steam paddle boat and had a great time.

Our next stop was Panma Beoach, Florida. The first few days was cold and then the weather changed to very nice. Unfortunately the fish were not bitting though we had a good time fishing. The pier was 1500 feet long and did not require a license

We also visted the Gulfarium on Okaloosa island. It was small but very nice.

Finally, we made to the Hamcation in Orlando, Florida. This is our first time here. They say it’s the second largest ham radio hamfest in the country behind Dayton, Ohio. The big difference here is they use the entire State fairgrounds with over 200 attendees camping at the location in their RVs. The fairgrounds supply water and electricity at each site and a honey wagon is available to pump out holding tanks.

We are in Escondido, California, visiting our daughter and her husband Andrew. We are staying at the Escondido RV Resort, which is one of the nicer sites we have visited.

We will be staying here until after New Years when we will head back to Las Vegas for some doctor appointments. Unfortunately, there is not enough room to raise my ham antennas so I am using our Jeep mobile antennas.

While here, we are about 9 miles from the San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, so we did visit and enjoyed our tour. This park is part of the San Diego Zoo, where they try to make larger enclosures for the various animals. The animals are placed to place aggressive animals away from the none aggressive. The largest enclosure is over 60 acres.

One of the enclosures is the aviary, which is quite-a-bit smaller then it’s counter part at the San Diego zoo.

They no longer have the train which tours the 60 acre enclosure, but we were able to capture pictures of some some of the free roaming animals from our seats on the park’s tram. They do not allow visitors to walk in the enclosures, though, you can purchase tickets to ride in a duce-and-a-half open truck inside the enclosure.

Once leaving the tram, we were able to view other animals in 3 and larger acre enclosures.

We belong to Harvest Host, which is comprised of various locations throughout the US and Canada. Self-contained campers can stay for free at places such as vineyards, distilleries, brewery’s, and museums. While we were heading west, we stayed at an entertainment center for two days which even had free 50 amp power for us. We spent the day an the Air Zoo, a nice air museum at the airport.

AND OF COURSE, THE GUARDIAN OF THE CASTLE, DUCKY

AIM is the All Inclusive Motor Home club. This years life member rally was held in Petoskey, Mi. We stayed at the Hearthside Grove Motor Home Resort which is probably the nicest resort we have been too. At the AIM rally’s, everything is supplied including the camp site, all meals and transportation to various sites. We went to some local sites including the Perry Hotel where we had a delicious lunch and the Gypsy Distillery where we tasted the spirits and had a delicious catered dinner. The highlight of our trip was a visit to Mackinac Island. They took us to a ferry for our trip to the island. There are no cars or electric bikes allowed; we toured via horse drawn carriages. They do allow motor vehicles for emergency services and for construction vehicles which need special permits and must stay on the construction site. We had a fantastic lunch at the Grand Hotel and then a carriage tour of the island.

LUNCH AT THE GRAND HOTEL

8/28/25

We took the train from Dover, NJ to Penn Station, NY. We went to the Anne Frank House Exhibit at The Center For Jewish History in New York City. Once entering the exhibit you were not allowed to take pictures. The exhibit was extraordinary, and well worth seeing. It not only went through her life and death, their life in hiding, but also the history of Hitler and the rise if the Nazi Party. They were hiding in the factory that Mr. Frank formally ran behind a wall and bookcase. They could only use the bathroom when no one was in the factory. Unfortunately, after being arrested Mrs. Frank was put to death at the camp she was sent to. Anne and her sister, Margot, both died of Typhus in their camp just before liberation. Otto Frank was rescued after the fall of the Nazis.

8/30/2025

We took a Hop-On Hop-Off Bus around Manhatten. We got off the bus and we went to lunch. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Katz’s, a Jewish Deli. Then we went back to the bus.

8/31/2025-9/7/2025

We remained at Panther Lake Campground and watched various activities such as Karaoke.

Karaoke campground style

9/7/2025-9/9/2025

We left Andover, NJ and we started our trip to Nappanee, Indiana. 9/7/2025 we spent the night in Clearfield, PA in a Walmart parking lot. 9/8/2025 we left Clearfield and drove to Sandusky, OH and stayed at a KOA. On 9/9/2025 we headed to Wood Design in Nappanee, IN.

The lazy dogs, Ducky and M olly

9/9/2025-9/12/2025

We arrived at the Wood Design parking lot where we stayed through Friday. Wood Design and JSC RV Repair put a dishwasher in our motor home. The dishwasher is wonderful and looks like the motor home came with it.

9/12/2025-9/14/2025

We left Nappanee and drove 60+ miles to Angola/Hogback Lake KOA. We visited with Michelle and Duane Sheffield. It was great seeing them again. Michelle made a kick-ass chuck roast with veggies for dinner.

9/14/2014-9/20/2025

We left Angola, IN and drove to the Wayne County Fairgrounds in Belleville, MI. We toured around the area until we went to a fantastic restaurant called The Grand Traverse Pie Company in Ann Arbor, MI on 9/18/2025. Dave’s cousin, Laurel Federbush, played her harp there. Friday, Laurel came to visit us at the motor home. We had a great visit. She joined us for dinner at Ruby Tuesday.