Stroke Strikes Again

Locaton: Red River South Marina & RV Park (el 200 ft); Bossier City, Louisiana

It's been two weeks since I've made a post to this blog. In my last post I was in Nashville, Tennessee visiting the Hermitage. I left there on Friday the 15th and moved to Hollywood Casino RV Park in Tunica, Mississippi. On the third day there, I received a call from my X-wife saying our youngest son, Brandon, had another stroke. I left the following morning and arrived back in Mansfield, Louisiana on the 18th and set up camp in the Heart of the Haynesville RV Park. I have since moved to the Red River South Marina & RV Park in Bossier City to be closer to the rehabilitation hospital my son is currently in. 

He suffered his first stroke in July of last year and I documented it in this blog. I am very glad I did because it now serves as a reminder as to when and what he was able to do after the first stroke. I will be doing the same here. 

This stroke affected his right side again, but in addition to the arm, leg, hand and foot, it also got his speech, eye and swallowing. The doctors and hospitals performed all of the routine tests such as MRI, EKG, X-rays, Blood Tests, etc, which confirmed the stroke and location. The location was close to the last one but in a slightly different spot. The next step after testing is rehabilitation. He is currently on day 4 of a two week stay in a rehab hospital called the Pathway. It is an excellent place with a very knowledgeable and friendly staff. I moved Liberty to the Marina so I am only about 15 minutes away from the rehab hospital in case Brandon needs something. It is just a waiting game now to see how much he recovers during therapy and afterwards. Remember, it is a matter of "re-wiring" some brain connections that are needed to send and receive messages from parts of the body. The muscles are not damaged, just a part of the brain that controls things. 

It is hard to imagine the disappointment and frustration he is going through to have such a set-back. For nine months he had been making improvements from the first stroke, just to have those improvements swept away in a matter of seconds. He has always been a strong-willed and determined person; he will need those traits even more so now.

Typical flat floodplain of the Mississippi River near Tunica, Mississippi

Campsite at Hollywood Casino, Tunica, Mississippi

A nice visit to the Mississippi River to watch some barge traffic.

Heart of Haynesville Campsite, in Mansfield, Louisiana. One of my least favorite campgrounds but was the only one with a vacancy that was close to the house.

My current campsite in the Marina. One of my favorite campgrounds. This is the first campground I stayed in after buying Liberty and was here for about 4 months before I retired and hit the road. It felt comfortable setting up here.

The view in front of Liberty. Looking towards the partial Oxbow of the Red River and its boat ramp.

Sunset over the boat ramp. The Red River is still several feet higher than normal due to the excessive amounts of rain over the last couple of months. Although not as grand as some other sunsets I've seen, it was still a peaceful view.

I will post as often as I can. Thanks to all who were concerned about my delay in posting. For those who are of the persuasion, thoughts and prayers for my son are appreciated. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road. 

Andrew Jackson and The Hermitage

Location: Seven Points C.O.E. Campground (el. 510 ft); Hermitage, Tennessee

all pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 cell phone
(click pictures to enlarge)

This is another Corps of Engineers campground. They are reasonable priced, mostly well designed and the locations are very pretty. Once I turn 62 years of age, the campground fee will be half of the normal rate, super good deal. This campground is on the banks of J. Percy Priest Reservoir which is just outside of Nashville. 

The campsites are huge compared to private campgrounds. You can see part of the lake on the right.

The towing trip was all interstate and an easy trip except the weather. When I got up on the morning to leave, the weather looked good with storms due to hit the Nashville area late in the afternoon. That was fine with me since I was due to arrive no later than 2 in the afternoon. When I checked the radar at my first rest area stops, it showed the storms hitting Nashville about the same time as me. I thought, dang, not again. This pattern has to stop. I did some quick number crunching with lots of variables such as the speed of the storm and decided I could make it to the campground about 30 minutes before the storm hit if I sped up a little bit. I normally cruise at 65 mph with towing, but in this case I was bumping 70. Freedom can easily tow at higher speeds but I'm more concerned about Liberty's tires at the higher speeds. I kept checking the weather radar on my cell phone about every 15 minutes and pulled into the campground with the storm clouds brewing overhead. I hurried up and got un-hitched before it started sprinkling. Yep, sprinkling, as in drizzling, misting, barely raining, heavy dew, etc. The radar was right, but for some reason, the storm clouds split in two with one band going south and one going north. I think it may be the size of this lake that caused the split. I have seen the same thing happens with storms coming out of Texas and splitting north and south of Toledo Bend (big lake on the border).

Typical landscape for most of the eastern half of Tennessee.

I was curious as to the name of this tree at one of the Tennessee rest areas. I found one of the park attendants and after interrupting her crossword puzzle, ask her. She said she thought it was a Crab Apple tree. 

The lake was angry when I first got here. The wind was blowing and the birds were heading for cover.

The reasons for coming here was to see The Hermitage and the Country Music Hall of Fame. After doing some checking, I blew off going to the Hall of Fame. Something didn't seem right when I started checking the induction dates of some really good artists. Some that should have been in decades ago only recently got inducted. I didn't want to pay $25.00 to see something that didn't seem fair. 

I did go see the Hermitage and was somewhat disappointed. I'm not sure if I have become jaded at seeing these types of places or if this individually was just a letdown. 

The Hermitage was the home of Andrew Jackson. He called it his farm but it was actually a plantation that grew cotton with slave labor. This visit is like so many of my visits to other places in that it completes some of the circles.

The Hermitage. It ranks way down on my list of such places.

The carriage road leading to the entrance, lined with cedar trees.

The back side

Looking up at the back side of The Hermitage from the walkway among some of the out buildings.

Jackson was the General in charge of the American forces during the Battle of New Orleans at Chalmette which I visited a month or so ago. 

Jackson led the effort to relocate the Indians from east of the Mississippi to the Oklahoma territory. The infamous Trail of Tears. This was wrong in the way it was done. It was cruel and unnecessary. It mainly affected what was called the "Five Civilized Tribes". There is a great Indian museum in the town of Cherokee, North Carolina which I visited almost 2 years ago. 

Jackson also helped put down a rebellion by the state of South Carolina while he was president. South Carolina got pissed by Congress enacting a high tariff on imports. This was a good thing for the industrialized northern states but was very bad for the raw materials (cotton) exporting states such as South Carolina. South Carolina passed a state law called the Act of Nullification which said if the state thought Congress had passed an unconstitutional law or one that specifically singled out and hurt South Carolina, that the state could refuse to enforce that federal law. This meant the high tariff passed by congress would not be enforced in South Carolina so goods could be shipped in and out of South Carolina's ports cheaper. South Carolina also started putting together an army to defend the state should Jackson decide to send in Federal troops. Needless to say, Congress and Jackson didn't like any of this. Congress passed two more laws. One to give Jackson the power and money he asked for to send Federal troops to South Carolina to enforce the law. The second one reduced the amount of the tariffs. It was hoped South Carolina would accept the lower tariff and end the stand-off. They did and both sides backed down. Jackson had shown his will to use military force to punish a state for threatening to go against the centralized federal government. Lincoln would use the same arguments before the Civil War but was not as successful as was Jackson. The connection here is my recent visit to Fort Sumter and the beginning of the civil war. Although part of South Carolina's reason for seceding before the Civil War was related to Slavery, it was also related to laws passed by Congress and not enforced by the Federal Government or some of the Northern States. These laws were about the return of runaway slaves. Slavery is wrong, always,,,,period. It makes it a little clearer to see where South Carolina was coming from when you know that only 30 years before the Civil War, they were prepared to secede from the union over what they saw as an unconstitutional tariff law. 
  
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I have become a little disenchanted with parts of this eastern swing. I think part of it is the sense of being hemmed in all the time. As you drive just about anywhere east of the Mississippi River, trees mostly line the edge of the roadway. To me, this gives the feeling of going down tunnel without a top. You can only see the sky directly above you and are limited to about 200 feet of sight, side to side. The western part of the U.S. is mostly different with lots of places where your sight distance is only limited by the horizon. I may just be longing for some of the places out west that I've visited. I've been on the road two years now and was looking back on the places I've been over the last year. I'll be making a post sometime in the future about it, but I just haven't been able to trim it down in size.

Year one route. April 2014 to April 2015

Year two route. April 2015 to April 2016

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be heading to a casino campground in Mississippi just south of Memphis. I'm going to post this without proof reading it since my back has a little twinge to it today. I hope it is better tomorrow. I haven't had to hitch up with a sore back before and don't want to start now.  

Barney, your blog is saying it has been removed. Is everything OK?

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.

Driving the Cherohala Skyway in the Smoky Mountains

Location: Sweetwater Valley KOA (el. 960 ft.); Sweetwater, Tennessee

all pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 cell phone
(click pictures to enlarge)

First, does anyone know how to get a song out of your head. Sirius radio played "Mirage" by Tommy James and the Shondells yesterday and I can't get it out of my head. It's a good song and it was the first time I really listened to the lyrics, but dang, it needs to go away already.

One of the main reasons for me coming to this area of Tennessee was to drive the Cherohala Skyway. It is a National Scenic Byway in the Smoky Mountains. I had heard about it years ago and put it on my list of things to see and do but am just now getting around to it. The word "cherohala" is a combination of two words. They are Cherokee and Nantahala which are two of the National Forests in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. The skyway has plenty of places to pull over to see pretty views on a clear day. The elevation tops out at 5,400 ft. I had planned to make the drive on Friday in hopes of it be less crowded due to it being a workday, but it was too cloudy. Saturday was a clear day but very chilly with the temperatures in the low 30's at the tops of the mountains. 

This is along River Road which is a side branch of the skyway. It reminded me of the roads in Yellowstone that parallel the rivers. I like it.

After a few miles you're rewarded with the Bald River Waterfalls. 

A panoramic view

This was an empty campground/picnic area. I bet it will be slap-full come summer time

Another panoramic view. I sure am glad my cell phone has that option

another view

That was a wildcat/bobcat/lynx that crossed the road in front of me. It ran off into the brush on the right side and was gone. If reminded me of the old Jerry Clower story about "Knock Him Out John". If you want a laugh, check it out on Youtube.

There were about 6 pairs of these things. I'm not sure what they are, if you know please comment. They are treated timber round poles with a horizontal piece of wood at the top. There also looked to be several PVC pipes attached to the pole towards the top. It's still a mystery.

Mountain Lake

Fishing pier on one of the lakes. 

Nice lake front houses. Not sure about winter though since this was at about 5,000 feet.

Upstream (lake) side of the Cheoah Dam on the Little Tennessee River. Construction began 100 years ago in 1916 by Alcoa. They needed lots of electricity to make aluminum so they built several hydro-electric dams along the river.

Downstream side of the dam. Those openings at the top are the gates and the water spills down the face. They are only opened during extremely high water conditions. 

That big pipe in the left center is the penstock pipe that carries water down to the powerhouse on the right where the turbines are located. The fall of the water spins the turbines which produce electricity. At the time of its construction this was the highest overflow dam with the largest turbines in the entire world. Pretty impressive for a 100 year old structure. 

This is another dam which created another lake. It is the Calderwood dam and was also built by Alcoa in the mid -1920's. 

another panorama picture. Calderwood dam on the right and the lake it created curves around to the left. There are some interesting things with this dam also, but I will let it slide.

People talk about destroying nature and such. The dams shown here are an example of technology and nature co-existing. I'm sure there was damage to nature during their construction but it seems like a peaceful co-existence to me now.

Since it was my birthday, I packed a picnic lunch to take with me. I ate my healthy (yeah, I know) turkey sandwich will parked in a pull-off at the top of a mountain with the temperature right at 32 degrees. I was the only one there on a gorgeous day with clear skies. It was very quiet and peaceful. I guess the only thing that could have made it better, was if I had bologna instead of turkey, but we can't have everything.

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road. 

Georgia Guide Stones and Another Tornado??

Location: Sweetwater Valley KOA (el. 960 ft.); Sweetwater, Tennessee

all pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 cell phone
(click pictures to enlarge)

I arrived here last Thursday afternoon after a 200 mile tow. It was interstate highway all the way and even going through parts of Atlanta I was able to average 55 miles per hour. I ran into to some stopped traffic right around the Tennessee state line due to an accident ahead. It was slow going during that 30 minutes, but it didn't bother me too much since it was a nice weather day and I had just been reminded of how bad things can get.

Foul weather passed through the campground Wednesday night as a cold front went through. There were two waves of bad storms that were clearly seen by radar. The first wave passed through about 10:30 and shook Liberty a little bit before the heavy rains started. Once the wind died down, I went to bed and thought the second wave would be a lot less intense. Boy, was I wrong. I woke up about 1:30 with Liberty rocking and rolling pretty good. I've been through some strong winds before in Liberty and she handles it pretty good. She is built strongly and the shape of her roof seems to help when the wind gets strong. This time it was a little different in that instead of rocking back and forth like she did early, this time she had a little twist to her. No sooner than she would rock one way, she was going back the other. It was the first time I've felt her move that way and it seemed as though she was jumping up and down a little. It lasted for just a short time and at first I thought I may have been dreaming. When I was fully awake, she was only gently rocking and the rain was coming down hard. Even though the electricity clicked off, I went back to sleep with the rain pounding the roof again. About 45 minutes later, I was awaken again with a bright white light shining in the windows and lighting everything up inside of Liberty. I looked at the time and it was 2:10 a.m. I was puzzled as to where the bright light was coming from until I looked out the window and saw a fire rescue unit with all of its lights on. That's also when I saw my neighbors RV laying on its side. The owner of the RV was 87 years old man and he was inside when the tornado/straight winds hit. He  was not injured and crawled out to call 911. The rescue unit stayed for about 45 minutes and took the old man somewhere for the night.

Evening before the storm

Neighbor's RV blown over

Looking right into the sun to see the RV

The next morning was moving day so I got a quick picture of the RV on its side before starting to hitch up. While I was hitching up I got another surprise. Both of my plastic wheel chocks were gone. I quickly looked around and spotted one down by the edge of the lake. I never did find the second one. Normally, when I hitch up, I have to either pull forward or backward to get both chocks from the tires. The wind had to have moved Liberty in order to blow the chocks away. I am very lucky in several ways. The wind that took out my neighbors trailer only played with Liberty by bouncing her around a little bit. I am also lucky I use metal X-chocks between the tires on Liberty. Had those X-chocks not been there when the wind blew my plastic tire chocks away, Liberty could have started rolling down the hill towards the lake. Yeah,,,, big time lucky. After getting hitched up, I had to drive through part of the campground to turn around and head to the exit. I noticed about 4 RV's whose chocks were missing or were no longer under their tires. It is amazing more RV's were not damaged. I told the park ranger about the chocks and that they should warn the other trailers. He said it would be done immediately. I drove away in a sober mood. I've dodged a couple of bullets recently. Someone upstairs and God is looking out for me. Whew. I hope whoever is shooting, is using a six-shooter because they should be "pert-near" out of bullets by now. 

On Tuesday, I drove over to see the Georgia Guidestones which was one of the main reasons I went to this part of Georgia. There isn't much to say about the guidestones. They mysteriously appeared in 1980 and the people responsible for them have remained anonymous. They are located in the middle of nowhere, similar to Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. There is only one house within a mile or two of the stones. Some of the messages are right-on, while others are probably impossible. I'm guessing it is some old hippies that had some flash-backs from the 60's. These are the messages which are written in several languages:

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.

I particularly like the way they said,,, "Leave room for nature" twice.

Nondescript road leading to the stones 

I was the only one there and this is the
first view.

The flat stone on the ground gives some
information as to the alignment of the stones.
It is also a time capsule, but the date of opening
was blank.

The English version. The notch at the top right corner
used to have a cube with numbers on it. It was removed
by the owners. You can search Youtube and see the numbers and letters that were on the backside.

I took this picture as I was driving away so you can see what an isolated located was chosen. There is video surveillance on the stones to prevent mischief

The next moving day is Monday the 11th. This campground, while a little more expensive than I like is situated near a road I have wanted to drive for a while. It was too cloudy and misting rain for the drive today, but tomorrow is suppose to be partly sunny, so we will see.

My current campsite at Sweetwater Valley KOA

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.

Fort Sumter; The Beginning of the Civil War

Location: Old Federal Campground (el 1,085 ft); Buford, Georgia

all pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 cell phone
(click pictures to enlarge)

I'm a couple days behind on the blog because of being tired from lots of driving. I'm camped in a great little Corps of Engineers campground on Lake Lanier just northwest of Atlanta, Georgia. The water is within a stones throw of Liberty and the views are great. It was a long tow of 300 miles to get here but it is something I like to do now and then. It is great to have a sudden change in landscape such as one day on the coast and the very next day 300 miles away in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. The route was along Sherman's March to the Sea during the Civil War. The interstate systems in Georgia and South Carolina are dramatically overloaded with 18 wheelers. Of all my travels, I've never seen so many trucks on the road at the same time.

My lakefront campsite

View out the door of Liberty

Nice empty campsite but too small
Liberty

Sunset over the lake

Before I left the Savannah area, I took a day trip to Charleston, South Carolina. The round trip distance was 200 miles. The purpose was to visit Fort Sumter in the middle of Charleston Harbor. My original travel plans when I first hit the road 2 years ago was to go from Louisiana to Savannah then up the east coast to Maine. I planned to see the fort along that travel route but I changed my mind around Birmingham and headed north to Chattanooga instead of east to Savannah. So, Fort Sumter was supposed to be one of the first things I explored but instead it had to wait two years.

Nice ferry ride to the fort. It was a little chilly with the wind blowing but not too bad. The girl on left was going to the fort with the man and woman sitting next to her. They met just before the ferry pulled out. The girl wanted to go see the fort but her parents didn't want to go, especially at $20.00 each. The girl was too young to go by herself, so the parents asked the two adults in this picture if they would take her to the fort. They agreed. I think the girl said she was 13 and I could tell she was very smart and mature by the way she talked. It must have been a little apprehensive for the parents though, I don't think I would have done it when my kids were 13.

Looking down into the fort

It used to be two stories was this
is all that is left.

Looking down the row of cannons

Flag row

Cannon perspective

Outside of the fort with flag flying

Receiving end of the cannon

Entrance

View from the boat

Companion on the way back to shore

The construction of the fort began in 1829 and sits on a man-made island in the middle of Charleston Harbor. It was a very, very slow construction process and it wasn't fully completed by the time the Civil War began in 1861. The need of the man-made fort was due to the width of the entrance to Charleston. It was so wide that cannons on each bank couldn't reach the middle of the entrance to the city. Once the fort was completed to the point where cannons and men could be stationed there, the harbor was mostly secure from invasion. 

When I was in school back in the 60's and early 70's, we were taught that the southern states rebelled against the Union and attacked Fort Sumter which began the Civil War. Well, I guess that is literally true, but as with most things, there is a lot more to the story. As Paul Harvey used to say, "and now the rest of the story". As with all wars, the victors write the history.

First a few facts. I'm not an historian. I try to learn and understand all different points of view before making my mind up about a subject. It was hard to do that back in elementary and high school due to the lack of good resources. Although my family had a set of World Books, even they were written with a slant to the winning side of the war, the Union. Remember, starting at age 2, my family moved around the country while my father worked for a construction company. That meant we lived in both the north and south while I grew up. While living in the south, there were people that called the war by other names, such as The War for Southern Independence and equated it to the American Revolutionary War. Others called it the War of Northern Aggression since the majority of the battles were fought in the south and by the end of the war, most southern states lay in ruin. While living in the north, the name was The Civil War was the official name albeit a lot less descriptive than the southern names.

Fact: Slavery is wrong, always has been and always will be. Fact: Slavery has been around for thousands of years. In the past, as countries or groups of people went to war, the citizens of the losing side often became slaves of the winning side. People of all races have been both slaves and slave owners at one time or another. Repeat: Slavery is wrong!

Slavery was legalized in the colony of Massachusetts in 1641, more than 130 years before American Independence. It was the British, French and Spanish which brought slavery to this continent. The very sad and disappointing thing is that the founding fathers and states could not agree on the abolition of slavery during the writing of the Constitution and Bill of Rights in 1887. It should have been Freedom for All, but sadly it wasn't. The other part they left unclear in the constitution was whether a state could secede from the union at a future date. The good news is that the Constitution gave the means to handle both situations by way of Congressional Acts and the approval by the President. Less than 20 years after the Constitution was ratified by the states, President Jefferson signed into law the Congressional Bill, "The Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves". It didn't end slavery and only outlawed the import of slaves, but it was a start. The intent was to have slavery eventually end on its own. That didn't happen and the blackmarket of slavery flourished. Changing the laws of the land was purposely made difficult by the constitution probably in reaction to having lived under a kingdom where whatever the king said, was law.  

The process to end slavery was too slow. Several northern states outlawed it in their states and they refused to return runaway slaves. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made it a felony to not return runaway slaves. Some northern states and the federal government refused to vigorously enforce the law. The southern states, which still wrongly supported slavery, began to realize that the Constitutional way was not working. That's when they began thinking about secession. 

Lincoln, a Republican, was elected in November of 1860 with 40% of the popular vote. The Democrats could not decide on a single nominee, so three of them ran for the presidency which split the vote. This is similar to what happened when Clinton was elected and reelected with Ross Perot running as an Independent and splitting the Republican vote. It is not conclusive that it affected the election, but it may have. 

Between the time of Lincolns election and his inauguration on March 4, 1861, 8 states had seceded from the union and set up the Confederate States of America. As each state seceded, they would take over the Army and Navy bases within their state. The soldiers and sailors were given a choice to join the south or they could safely and peacefully go back to the north. Some joined the Confederacy while others joined the Union. There were a few places that resisted the occupation of military assets by the southern states. One such place was in Charleston, South Carolina. 

Six days after South Carolina formally seceded, Major Robert Anderson and 85 Union men occupied Fort Sumter which was the day after Christmas in 1860. South Carolina objected and asked the Federal Government to leave Charleston Harbor. The President at the time, James Buchanan refused and instead sent a ship with supplies and 200 reinforcements to Fort Sumter. When the ship arrived, warning shots were fired by the Confederates which forced the ship to leave and return to New York. No shots were fired on the fort and the south decided to just wait until Anderson ran out of supplies and gave up. War was still not imminent and the south was hoping that nothing more would happen. 

Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861. One month later, on April 4th, he sends another supply ship to Fort Sumter but this time he sends war ships to protect it. He also notifies the Confederacy about the ships. The south sees this as an act of aggression and orders the local General, P.G.T. Beauregard to prevent the resupply and to take the fort. On April 12th, Beauregard gives Anderson on hour to surrender. Anderson refuses and one hour and ten minutes later the bombardment begins. After one of the shells sets fire to some of the living quarters in the fort, Anderson realizes he can not defend the fort with only 85 men, so he surrenders. Nobody on either side has been killed in the action. Anderson requests and is granted a ceremony for the surrender. He requests a 100 cannon salute to formalize the surrender. Around the 30 something shot, a cannon blows up and injuries a northern soldier by blowing his arm off. Anderson changes his mind and says, 50 shots will be enough. After the ceremony, Anderson and his men load onto a boat and head to New York. 

Fort Sumter remained in Confederate hands until February of 1865 when it was abandoned due to the approach by General Sherman from Savannah. Sherman had just completed his "scorched earth" March to the Sea which was intended to break the spirit of the south. The war ended a couple months later on April 9, 1865 when General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court House. Four years of bloody war had finally ended. 

Today, there is a big move in many of the southern states to remove any reminder of the confederacy. One such event was by South Carolina when it removed a Confederate flag from the state capital grounds. Their reasoning was some people were being hurt by it being there and since it was on public property, it needed to be removed. It was flying on a confederate war memorial. I'm conflicted with this situation. I don't want anyone to feel offended or hurt by something that is in a public place where they need to go to take care of business that can't be done anywhere else. An example would be the confederate flag flying by the door to the DMV. That shouldn't happen since the people do not have a choice to go elsewhere. But, on a confederate war memorial? There is also talk of removing statues that are on public ground and scattered around the country such as General Lee in Lee Circle in New Orleans. Memphis is talking about digging up the remains of confederate soldiers. This is a very slippery slope we are about to go down. Remember, Arlington Cemetery is on land once owned by Robert E. Lee's family. The Union took it at the beginning of the war and started burying Union soldiers with the hope that General Lee would not want to return to such a place. Should the soldiers be dug up since visitors may be offended by being on property once owned by General Lee. What about "The Fighting Tigers" of LSU? Should they have to change their name since it is referring a confederate military company called the fighting tigers. Where does it end? Why didn't Lincoln just let the south secede? Why did the south want to hang onto slavery while the rest of the world was abolishing it? Why didn't the south stay in the Union and fight in Congress some more? Why don't we hear people complaining about the slavery going on today in countries like Russia, China and India? Is the cheap labor that is manufacturing Apple products overseas just another form of slavery? When people become more and more dependent on government, are they themselves slaves? Questions are all that remain. 

The U.S.S. Yorktown is on display at the point
where you board the ferry to Fort Sumter.

This is the second aircraft carrier with the name
Yorktown. 

Obviously she is sitting on the bottom since
you can see the marks from high and low
tide with barnacles growing. A sight like that
would make a Boatswain's Mate sick.

This Yorktown is CV 10 and saw duty
in the last half of WW2 after the other
Yorktown CV 5 was sunk in the Battle
of Midway

The other interesting thing I learned was that the Nazi's mined the Charleston Harbor during World War 2. The American minesweepers cleared them before any damage was done. 

This has become a very long post as I rambled on and on. Tomorrow is moving day as I head farther north and west into Tennessee.

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.