Fort Macon-NO but Tideland Trail-YES

 Location: Cedar Point Campground (National Forest Service); Cedar Point, North Carolina, about 10 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean between Morehead City and Jacksonville, N.C.

The planned exploration for the day was to Fort Macon State Park. The park mainly consists of the property surrounding old Fort Macon including the fort. The fort was built between 1826 and 1834 to protect the inlet to Beaufort Harbor which was North Carolina's only deep-water port. After many years of the fort being occupied, it was abandoned with the excepton of one old Sergeant and his family who served as groundskeepers. In April of 1861, shortly before the start of the Civil War (War of Northern Aggression or War for Southern Independence), the North Carolina Militia asked the groundskeeper to vacate the fort so they could take it over. He politely did so, and the Confederates occupied the fort. It was at this same time that the South Carolina Militia asked the forces at Fort Sumter to abandon their fort turn it over to the Confederates. Fort Sumter had a much stronger force and refused to do so. Knowing that President Lincoln was sending reinforcements to Sumter, the South demanded surrender of the fort. After refusal, the South attacked Sumter which was officially the beginning of the war. 

After a year of war, the Union forces laid siege to Fort Macon and within a month, the Confederates surrendered the fort. It sure sounds interesting and a good way to spend the day, uh? I went and sat through a very nice and informative documentary at the fort but didn't feel like wandering around like I had planned. I'm not sure of the reason, but after the film, I just went back to Freedom and left. It was strange, I've never done that before, not even at some of the places I had heebie-jeebies about. Oh well, it wasn't a big deal, just a strange curiosity that I will try to figure out later someday. I went back to Liberty.

The back-up plan (you got to have a back-up) was to check out the Tideland Trail that is right outside the entrance to the campground. It is a nice, well-maintained set of trails and elevated boardwalks through the tideland basin, or as a Louisiana native would call 'the marsh' or 'mud flats'. I hit the trail very early the following morning and was the only one there for a while before a couple of people showed up. The trail is kind of secluded so there could have been a dozen, and I wouldn't have been aware of them. The trail was about 1 1/2 miles in length and I enjoyed it. I hit it at the right time as far as privacy, temperature, weather, etc. It was such good timeing, I didn't pick up any ticks, chiggers or other freeloaders. The pictures of it are what will make up the rest of the post. If you camp at this campground, I think it is a must see, that is in addition to the Cape Lookout Lighthouse.

This is the trailhead which is just outside the entrance to the campground. It is also part of the National Forest Service

It is a combination of trails and elevated boardwalks.

Parts look a little swampy

 

Pretty locations and the builders of the boardwalk did an excellent job.

Blue bird house for a blue bird? The boardwalk blends in with the surrounding area nicely.

There were even an occasional bench but I didn't try them out like I usually do because of the insects I was warned about. 

There was even a rainbow bridge. I figure the builders got tired of just building flat grade ones. 

A nice viewpoint looking out over part of the bay. This is from one of the boardwalks

There were a few more strongly built bridges. Maybe heavier runoff?

One of the last "open views" from the trail.

This boat ramp is located at the trail head so if you bring a kayak or canoe it is a good launch spot real close to the campground.

Today day 6 and final for my stay here. I'm ready to move on down the road. Six days is way too long for me and the way I travel. Sadly, (maybe sadly, we'll see) there is a campground down the road that I have reservations at for seven days. I had to do that to reschedule campgrounds due to the Corps of Engineers cancelling one of my stops due to staff shortages. I'll see what I can find today to keep me busy.

Tomorrow is moving day, and I have a 220-mile tow along the coast to another National Forest Service Campground along the Intracoastal Waterway about 40 minutes north of Charleston, South Carolina. I'll ready for a night thinking tow.

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

The Atlantic Ocean & Cape Lookout Lighthouse

 Location: Cedar Point Campground (National Forest Service); Cedar Point, North Carolina, about 10 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean between Morehead City N.C. and Jacksonville, N.C.

Two road pics in this post. This one is eastern North Carolina where the land transitions to the coastal plains. 

Although this is a road pic, I took it to capture that low-lying cloud in the distance. This is about 30 minutes from the coast. I've seen those before and usually represents a weather front, but there wasn't anything that big in the area. It was and remains a puzzle.

This campground is a National Forest Service campground so I'm still getting the campsite at half price with my senior pass. The daily rate, with pass, is $18.00 which is a little higher than most COE's but I'm still satisfied. I consider myself very lucky to have found it and gotten reservations. I'll be here for 6 days. That's a lot longer than I'm used to, but at the time I made the reservation, I was looking to kill time before a possible Archery tournament in Myrtle Beach. That tournament was canceled, but I kept this reservation and adjusted some on down the road. It's a relatively small campground with the sites widely spaced. The sites are electric only but there is potable water at the dump station. That is another excellent reminder that I'm glad I always use my fresh-water tank and water pump, even if I'm stationary at my home base. I'm not concerned about the quality of the water in my tanks because I'm constantly turning it over by adding fresh. I'm sure some of the RV'ers that are staying here are a little concerned if they haven't used their tanks a long time. By the way, if you're looking for a Campground Hosting job, there is one available here. 

I'm really happy with my campsite, especially compared to the last one in the heavy woods. I much prefer these open ones. 

This is my view out the back window. It is in the direction of the entrance to the campground. This is the second time I've had such a view and am liking it. I can clearly see the coming and goings of the people in the campground. I've discovered I'm nosey, busy-body, a concerned camper.

After getting Liberty set up, I went to see the Atlantic again for the first time in many years. This is from a public area off of the Emerald Isle. I drove then entire length of the Isle and it wasn't worth the gas. There are very few public access points to the beach unlike the Texas Gulf Coast. I was disappointed. Of course I was a little tired from towing, so that may have played a part, but I doubt I'll go back. 

My main reason for coming here was to take a boat trip to see the Cape Lookout Lighthouse. Here is a quick history as to why. I was in the Navy from 1973 to 1977 and was stationed onboard the U.S.S. Manitowoc (LST 1180). The LST stands for Landing Ship, Tank or as it was nicknamed during World War 2, Large Slow Target. There were 1,051 LST's built during the war, and they were built so fast they couldn't be named, only numbered. I wasn't on one of those, mine was the new model, which was prettier but with the same mission. The ship was built to carry Marines with their tanks/trucks and deliver them directly onto the beach. We would drop our stern anchor as we approached the beach, and it would help pull us back into deep water. That's about as brief as I can get. I've written posts about my visits to the only surviving WW2 models, that I know about. One is in Muskegon, Michigan and the other in Evansville, Indiana. Instead of a link, I'll post the dates of those posts here so you can easily find them in the archives to the right>>>>August 2, 2014 and August 14, 2017

I said all of that to say why the Cape Lookout Lighthouse means so much to me and others like me. My ship was stationed at the Little Creek Amphibious Base in Virginia (about half-way between Norfolk and Virginia Beach. When we would deploy, we would sail to Morehead City to embark our Marines and their equipment. On our way there, we would pass the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and then wait for the Cape Lookout Lighthouse to appear. That is when we would make our turn towards Morehead City. We could see the Cape on Radar, day or night, about 20 to 25 miles away. During the day our lookouts could visually see it at about 15 miles and at night about 20 miles. We would pass the lighthouse about 4 miles to our beam and we could easily see its distinctive black and white diamond "daymark". Each lighthouse has its own daymark for visual confirmation as to which lighthouse you're looking at. For example, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is Black and White Spiral. I visited that one too and here's the date >>> May 7, 2014 so you can find the post in the archives on the right panel. Morehead City is about 20 minutes from this campground, and I drove through it yesterday on my way to explore the lighthouse.

 

The current lighthouse is the second one built at this location. The first was built in 1812 but was built 56 feet too short. The light couldn't reach far enough out to sea to prevent wrecks. It was replaced with a new one that was 163 feet tall in 1859. It became automated in 1950 so as to not need a lighthouse keeper. 

There were only 2 other people on my 30-minute boat ride to the lighthouse probably due to the drizzling rain and chilly wind. The weather improved once we go to the Cape. 

There it is, dead ahead.

Today's trip to the lighthouse got me to thinking back and remembering that feeling of leaving Morehead City after picking up our Marines and heading east. The next land was 4,000 miles away and it would take us nearly 2 weeks to get there. One of those trips across the Atlantic, we were by ourselves. One of the other LST's had major engine trouble and we were designated to wait and assist if needed while the rest of the fleet went ahead. After a week, it became clear the problem couldn't be fixed, so they limped back to Little Creek while we sailed to the North Atlantic by ourselves. That's a weird feeling being out there alone and knowing there is 2 miles of water between you and the bottom. After deployment, when we would return to the U.S., the Cape Lookout Lighthouse was usually the first thing we would see that belonged to America. When we saw it, we knew we were home. It was as if the lighthouse was the country's porch light telling us, "Welcome back". It made me think of all the sailors who saw lighthouses and probably felt the same way. Oh well, some flashbacks are nice while others not so much.

This would have been our view, through binoculars, from the Manitowoc, as we passed by the Lighthouse, 50 years ago. 

The lighthouse is on the bay side of the Cape, but they have built nice walkways to the Atlantic side.

It's not that far to the beach but they put a nice thinking bench on the way.

The view of the Atlantic Ocean from Cape Lookout. Nice, real nice. 

It's a couple of days past Memorial Day but this applies all the time, not just once a year. 

Today is only the beginning of day 3 of 6 and if the rain holds off, I plan to go explore an old fort on the tip of the Emeral Isle. 

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

Atlantic Ocean, Here I Come

 Location: Poplar Point Campground, North Carolina State Park, about 30 minutes west of Raleigh, North Carolina

This campground is massive in size with over 400 campsites. But it is surprisingly quiet and peaceful since the sites are separated, and the heavy woods act as a sound buffer. Most of the time when I reserve campsites, I can make an educated guess as to the condition of the site by using one of several apps. This one was a shot in the dark. It's been so long ago that I don't even remember why I chose this particular campsite. But I got lucky. It took two boards to level side to side but that was easy. My worry was the peat moss on the campsite. That was a first for me. I was concerned about ticks and such but after googling it, I found out ticks don't like moss. However, other insects do but in the four days I've been here, I haven't encountered any. That may be because I sprayed my stabilizing jacks, tires, cord etc with an extra dose of ant/roach spray. One bad thing about being camped in the heavy woods is the trees hold the smoke in and yesterday it smelled as if some dumba$$ was burning old creosote timbers. It lasted about an hour. Oh well, as with most things, it can always get worse.

This is from western North Carolina. As I head further east tomorrow, the hills will be left behind.

 

Campsite G6. I'd rank it about a 5 of 10

The view out my back window. I've only seen a couple squirrels but no birds. A little eerie when it gets dark.

This campground is the 20th one I've stayed at on this trip. Tomorrow is moving day and I'll see the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in many years. It will also be creating some flashbacks to my Navy days. I'm really looking forward to this next stop. I have boat reservations and hope for a nice sunrise.

I'm at campground 20. The next two will be near the coast. Campground 21 is for 6 days and 22 is for 4, so I have 10 of hoping for a sunrise but the weather doesn't look good. 

The short story I posted yesterday prompted a few questions. I posted it here and on my facebook feed, so I got some in comments and emails. To answer a few of them publicly, the short stories I post may have an inkling of my life but in no way is it a majority. They aren't autobiographical. A lot of times the subject matter of the story comes to me when I see something or someone and I try to figure out what they are going through or what they are feeling. Once that happens, that thought gets stuck in my head and I start expanding on it until I have to type it out so it will stop growing up there. It sounds kind of crazy, doesn't it? Once I start typing, I can empty the story from my head in a couple/three hours. I never had this affliction until I retired. Probably because there wasn't room for all this nonsense up there while I was working. Plus, Engineers aren't supposed to think this way. Everyone is a little crazy, so I'm not alone. 

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

Short Story,,,, "Our Team"

 Location: Poplar Point Campground (North Carolina state park on Jordan Lake), about 30 minutes west of Raleigh, North Carolina

Warning: this is a short story and NOT a travel post. I'll make a travel post next week since I have explorations planned for being on the Atlantic coast on Monday. 

These stories start swirling in my head and the only way to stop them is by writing them down. They come out quickly, usually taking a few hours and maybe two cups of coffee. Hope you like it. 

Our Team

 

She had the prettiest blonde hair and the deepest blue eyes. As soon as she looked at him, he knew he had to meet her. He made up a flimsy excuse, asking her about the importance of orange juice or something like that. She saw right through his act and told him, “If you want to meet me, just ask. Honesty is always the best way to do anything. Honesty builds trust, trust builds respect and respect builds love”. Little did he know how those words would play a role in their lives.

Using honesty, he won her heart, and they married just a short six months after their first date. They called themselves a “team”. Their dates were “team meetings”. It was a summer wedding, and the invitations billed it as a “team building exercise”. The bright blue sky was the perfect background to her stunning white wedding gown. All her friends and family knew she deserved and earned the right to be wearing white. Her sparkling blue eyes seemed to be competing with the sky as to which was bluer. They were both head over heels in love with each other and it showed. To everyone attending the wedding, they knew their marriage would know no limits and their unbreakable love would guide them into the future.

As the years rolled by, they became a little more financially secure. Eventually, after one of their “team meetings” consisting of wine, dinner and dancing, a vote was taken concerning a subject that had been postponed for a while. It was decided unanimously to increase the size of the “team”. The pregnancy was a difficult one. It was filled with gestational diabetes, fluctuating blood pressure spikes and weeks of endless bed rest. But through it all, they faced it together as a team. Two people, one team. As a team, they discussed options and decided that natural childbirth would be the way to go. The childbirth was long and arduous with heavy labor pains. He never left her side, saying “,,,they were teammates, and they would be together through it all.” During the more difficult pains, they would hold hands and stare into each other’s eyes until it passed. The hospital staff spoke, almost reverently, about their obvious love for each other. It would certainly become legendary as doctors and nurses spoke about what they saw. After sixteen hours of labor and no helping drugs, they finally saw what their love had produced. The “home team” had not only increased in size, but it had doubled. Twin girls!

Things didn’t go well after they got home from the hospital. She was not as attentive to the babies as most new mothers. He chalked it up to the intensive labor and proudly took care of the babies on his own as well as her. Weeks stretched into months with very little change. Doctors were talking about post-partum this and post-partum that but all he wanted was the magic words that would fix his wife. He tried everything, but nothing worked. She began to complain about some of the smallest things he did or didn’t do. He was walking around on eggshells and stress filled the house. She began talking about not being seen as a woman anymore but only as a wife and mother. It was as though she had lost her identity and was no longer a part of the “team”. She referred to herself as being invisible.  

One Friday night, she was invited to a girl’s night out party at the home of one of her friends. It was thought a party with her girl-friends would pull her out of her funk. He encouraged her to go, have fun and if she drank too much, to spend the night at her friend’s house. Neither she nor he knew that some of her girlfriends had other ideas about what was needed to help cure her. When she got to the party, six of her girlfriends were there. Most were single but not all. When a few drinks didn’t loosen her up, one of her friends offered her something that would ‘take the edge” off. She refused and said she had never taken drugs, not even in labor, and wouldn’t start now. The friends, thinking they knew better, put the drug into her next drink. It was then that the boyfriends of the single girls showed up. She knew nothing good was going to happen with mixed company, so she stood up to go home but fell back onto the couch. Whatever they spiked her drink with was beginning to take effect.

She woke up the next morning with her head hurting and was shocked to find a naked man lying next to her. She remembered everything and was crushed. She knew that she had let the entire “team” down. But what was she going to do? She couldn’t go home, not now, not after what she had done. The man woke up and said, “Good morning, hot stuff”, not realizing that she was crying because her entire world had just crashed around her. She asked who he was. He introduced himself as the friend of her girlfriend and said he was just passing through town on his way to the west coast. Her girlfriend entered the room and said, “I’m glad ya’ll have met. He is the one that had the drug that cured you. Then seeing them still in bed together, she laughingly added, I can see he gave you something else too”.

The drugs seemed to have pushed her completely over the edge. She felt totally lost and unsure what to do. Finally, she made her decision. She had proven she wasn’t worthy of being part of the team or raising two beautiful little girls. She turned to the man and asked him to take her with him to the west coast. He immediately agreed. She said they would have to leave quickly but she had to make one stop first. She knew her husband was at work and the babies were with the babysitter, so she drove to her house with the man following in his van. She gathered only a few of her personal belongings but nothing from the team. After placing her bag in the van, she turned and ran back into the house. She removed every picture of herself from the walls, gathered every photo album that contained her picture and placed them in the fireplace. With a flick of the match, they were completely set ablaze. She then turned her attention to the home laptop and scrubbed it clean of all pictures and erased those stored in the cloud. It was as if she was erasing herself from the team. She had felt invisible before and now she was determined to make herself truly invisible. As she reached the door to begin her new future, she turned and looked once again on what she knew was going to be her past, and a single tear fell.

As he turned into their driveway, he saw her car and knew she must be home. The twins were laughing as he carried them from the car. He was eager to have the team together once again so she could tell him how her night went. They passed through the door, and he immediately smelled the hint of smoke. He glanced at the fireplace and saw a few tendrils of smoke rising from a pile of ashes with small pieces of pictures around the edge. He was puzzled as he set the babies in their playpen. It was then he noticed the open laptop on the kitchen table. Alongside it was her cell phone, wedding ring, car keys and a single note, with two words, “Forgive me”.

Over the years he searched for answers everywhere, but none was to be found. He knew her girlfriends knew more than they were saying but he got no answers from them either. She was an only child, and her folks had passed away a few years back so there wasn’t any family to ask about her whereabouts. He and the twins had been the only family she had left. With few clues to go on, he admitted defeat and focused on being the best single father to the twins that he could be. After all, they were a team, right?

The call came on the first birthday of the twins. It was from an unknown number, but he answered it anyway. At first there was silence, then he heard her. Although low and sad, he recognized her voice immediately. The only words spoken were the question, “Forgive me?”. He didn’t respond, he was incapable of saying anything. After several seconds, he heard a muffled sigh, then the call ended. This event repeated itself every year on the twin’s birthday with her two words and his silence. One year he became worried because the call didn’t come. The following week he found a note taped on the front door. It had mysteriously been placed there during the night. It was a simple note that seemed to have been scribbled by a shaky hand. It read, “Team Meeting (original members only): 9^th Street Diner at 10:00 am.”

He arrived early and found a booth in the back where he could keep an eye on the door. She entered the diner with her head down and shoulders slumped. At first, he barely recognized her. Her hair was thinner and stringy. Her cheeks and eyes were sunken, and the blueness of her eyes had been replaced with a dull luster. With a long sleeve shirt, she tried to cover them, but he could see her piercing and tattoos peeking out. Both were things she said she would never do. When she finally got to the booth, she plopped down as if she had just run in a marathon. She looked exhausted and worn out.

At first neither knew what to say so they just sat in silence. Finally, she spoke. She said, “There isn’t anything I can say to make it right. I did something that night, 5 years ago, and I just couldn’t forgive myself. I knew that you and the twins could never look at me the same anymore, so I thought it would be best just to disappear. After disappearing, I did things that I’m not proud of and some things I was told I did but don’t remember. I’ve taken some drugs that took a hold of me and won’t let me go. I’ve also been given something by somebody, and the doctors say I can’t get rid of it. That’s one of the reasons for meeting in person. I don’t expect anything from you and I’m not asking for anything. I don’t deserve it. I just wanted to let you know in person that there won’t be any more calls in the future. I thought you at least deserved that. When I leave here, I’m going back to Oregon where there is a facility that will help me face the end.”

He started to speak, but she put a finger to his lips and whispered, “no, it will be easier if you don’t say anything”. “There is one final request I hope you can do for me.” She slid a worn picture, face down, across the table. She told him that it is the only one she didn’t burn that day and she’s carried it with her ever since.

She finished speaking by saying, “There will come a day when the twins ask you what I looked like. Give them this picture”. With that, she got up to leave. When she had taken a few steps towards the door, he said, “Hey Team-mate, I forgive you”. Hearing those words, she didn’t turn around but did straighten up a little more and raised her head as a little pride was restored. After she left, he turned the picture over and it was one from their wedding. They were standing together, smiling with love while her eyes were competing with the blue sky. At the bottom were the words, “Our Team”.   

 

 

Darrell Goza

May 24, 2025

Not Much More than a Nice Museum

 Location: Bandits Roost Corps of Engineers Campground; Wilkesboro, North Carolina

Getting here was one of the longest tows I've made in several years. The last time may have been about five years ago when I was leaving Idaho headed back to Louisiana. At that time, I couldn't find any campgrounds that gave good vibes, so I just drove. It wasn't the case this time. The shortest route between my last campground and my current one was a little over 200 miles which isn't bad. But, as I started looking at the roads, there were way too many miles of two-lane highways without descent shoulders. That's one of my worries is having a mechanical breakdown or blow out while towing Liberty on a road without room to pull over safely. So, I changed my route so that I was on Interstate or 4-lane highways except for about 15 miles. This change added an additional 80 miles to the trip and an hour to my travel time. I would do it again if it comes down to it. 

Probably south-western Virginia

I'm not sure of the location, probably Virginia but maybe North Carolina

Pretty sure it North Carolina

This campground is pretty quiet with mostly older local people. It is close enough to Wilkesboro that I could easily go into town to explore and eat out. The only exploration was a nice museum, Wilkes Heritage Museum. It ranks in my top ten due to the way it was laid out and the quality of exhibits. One of the exhibits was about Lowes, the hardware/lumber store. I didn't realize they started here in Wilkesboro as a local mom and pop hardware store. Only in America can a success story happen like that or the way Sam Walton built up Walmart. America is a one-of-a-kind country and the best in history.

I thought about jumping up on the soapbox, but I just didn't feel up to it. 

My campsite. I needed two boards to level up but it wasn't much of a problem. I am a little worried about not having enough room to turn around and head out. If I don't have enough room, then I'll have to back uphill about 100 yards or so. Fingers crossed.

I found a nice bench inside the campground about 1/4 mile away from my campsite. It looked comfortable but it actually wasn't. Very disappointed and felt deceived. That is the dam in the background and ducks with their ducklings swimming in the lake. It was a peaceful feeling/good vibe. 

Tomorrow is moving day and I'm looking forward to moving on down the road. My next campground will be a state park near Raleigh, North Carolina. I got an email from Recreation.gov today saying the Mobile District was closing several COE campgrounds in the southeast due to staffing shortages. One of my future campgrounds was one to be closed so I had to scramble to fill in those lost days by making new reservations. It's like dominos when you have long term reservations and you have to cancel one. If you're not careful, they will all fall. I got lucky and was able to extend my stay at another reserved COE campground. I'll be there for seven days which is way to long for me, but I'll suffer through it. 

Kind of a boring post, but I'm tired. I have some more exciting campgrounds coming up once I reach the Atlantic Coast. 

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

Daniel Boone, Cumberland Gap and Manifest Destiny

 Location: WIlderness Road National Park Campground; Middlesboro, Kentucky/Virginia/Tennessee (in the general location of the Cumberland Gap)

This is a great campground and since it is in a National Park, my senior pass works. The daily charge, with the pass, is $12.00 per night. But beware, choose your campsite carefully because some are very unlevel. I usually don't list my campsite numbers but will here for future reference if I come back. Campsite B-3 is one of the good ones. 

Campsite B-3. The weather has run the gambit too. It was heavy overcast on the first 2 days then heavy storms blew through on the night of the 2nd day that clear everything out. That was the storm that produced the tornados in London, Kentucky that killed several people. London is about 45 minutes north of here. 

A couple of road pics to follow. Somewhere in eastern Kentucky. By the way, Kentucky has some great roads. 

This one is near the campground, so let's call it Middlesboro.

I thought this was kind of ironic, the Cumberland Gap Tunnel. 

The Wilderness Road was the path that was used to cross the Appalachian Mountains back in the late 1700's to the early 1800's. The Cumberland Gap is a mountain pass on that road and had been used for a very long time by the local Indians and wildlife. The Appalachian Mountains were like an impenetrable wall stretching from New York down to Alabama. They were keeping the "white men" from going west. They were trapped between the Atlantic Ocean and the mountains. That is until the Cumberland Gap was discovered (actually re-discovered). There is a long history of events with many great stories in this area that affected American History. Today is my 4th and last day here and I went exploring on all 4 days. I'm a little bit tired and am looking at a long tow tomorrow. This blog post will have lots of pictures with captions, so I'll be brief as to the history.

Dr. Thomas Walker, while working for the Loyal Land Company back in 1750 was the first officially recognized white man to see the Cumberland Gap. He was surveying the property of Western Virginia (later to become the State of Kentucky in 1792). 

Daniel Boone was a hunter and outdoorsman. He would take long hunting trips to get furs and stuff from the wild and bring it back to the cities in the east. On one of his trips in 1769, along with 4 other men, he saw the Cumberland Gap. The Gap allowed him to easily (compared to going over the mountains) cross the mountains to get to the Kentucky area. 

When Boone returned, word spread throughout the east and people gathered up their belonging and headed to Kentucky, by going through the Gap. Boone took his family to Kentucky and established a fort/city, north of the Gap, and called it Boonesboro. Two of his sons died from Indian attacks while going through the Gap.  

Although he wasn't the first to travel the Gap, Boone's name became synonymous with it, freedom, exploring, free land for the taking, plentiful game, etc.  Between 1780 and 1810, about 300,000 people emigrated westward to Kentucky and beyond. That migration was about 6% of the entire American population at that time. Six percent of the current U.S. population would be about 20,000,000 people. Can you imagine that many people getting up and walking a couple hundred miles with everything you owned on your back or if you were lucky a pack animal?

Boone was a hero to many, but controversy followed him. Due to debts and land disputes, Boone again packed up his family in 1799 and headed west. Boone was 67 years of age at the time of the move. His plan was to leave America by crossing the Mississippi River near St. Louis and enter Spanish Territory. The Spanish welcomed Boone with big fanfare and gave him land and prestige. They did this because they knew that where-ever Boone went, people followed. They even appointed his to be a judge. But the joke was on Boone because in 1803, Spain gave control of the land to France who in turn sold it to the U.S. in the Louisiana Purchase. So, America caught up to Boone and it would be interesting to know his thoughts about that. My post about Boone Missouri home and burial site is covered in my old post located here >>>> https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1092960427378302566/459143345405690160

Boone died in 1820 at the age of 86. He may be buried in a grave along a small two-lane highway near the town of Marthasville, Missouri (about 50 miles west of St. Louis). I say "may be" buried there because the State of Kentucky says they exhumed him and re-buried him in Frankfort, Kentucky. The State of Missouri says they dug up the wrong guy. What is known for sure is that his wife, who preceded him in death, and he was buried next to, was exhumed by her family and returned to Frankfort, Kentucky. According to Kentucky, they are buried together. I like to think Boone would have preferred the burial site in Missouri which would have been nearer the frontier. When I visited his Missouri gravesite, I could picture him there looking to the west and watching the sunset. Some tales say, after he got the family settled down in Missouri, he went wandering and made it all the way to the Yellowstone area before returning. Maybe, maybe not. 

There were two main places I wanted to explore. The first was the local museum. It is now in my top 5, mainly due to the historian/director of the place. Very knowledgeable, informative and talkative. 

The other place to explore is a trip to the Pinnacle Overlook and Fort Lyons. It is a mountain with a nice road to the top with plenty of "kiss you a$$" curves and drop-offs. It's been a tourist attraction for several decades, maybe 10. 

One of the smaller "Kiss your a$$" curves

A view from near the top of Pinnacle. I think that's a natural lake in the distance. 

The north and south militarized the mountain by places cannons in several locations near the top.

This was from my first visit to Pinnacle. I was the only one there, probably because it was early and the weather was overcast. My second trip was more crowded with about 15 vehicles in the parking lot. 

They have very nice paths and the one to the overlook is wheelchair accessible. If you make the climb higher up to Fort Lyons, it is a much steeper climb and in my opinion wasn't worth the effort. 

A cicada on the handrail. They have been "chirping"/"singing" a lot at the campground and area. 

An uncomfortable bench on the trail coming down from Fort Lyons. That paint line is a state line. I think it was TN/VA

Getting close to the overlook. Nice paths, uh?

That's the overlook. This was from the overcast day.

One of the views.

Another view

I liked this one of the mountains in the overcast rather than on the clear day.

Time to jump up on the soapbox for a little bit. Manifest Destiny is something I learned about in school back in the 60's. The way it was taught was, America had no choice but to move our population westward. That we had a divinely ordained right and duty to expand westward across the continent. If anyone questioned it, those two words, "Manifest Destiny", ended all arguments. Of course, the westward expansion meant conquering and displacing the Indians, which we did. I don't have a problem with that since stronger civilizations always conquer weaker ones if they have something the stronger one wants. This was done by the Indian tribes as well. The best example is the Comanche Indians. They started out in Western Wyoming before migrating and taking land in the southwest and Texas. They conquered and displaced the Apache, Navajo and many others. It was and is a way of life among civilizations. But it all depends on how it's done, honorably or dishonorably. A lot of our displacement of the Indians was done dishonorably. But it was overlooked and passed off because it was "Manifest Destiny" and we just couldn't help ourselves (sarcasm). That is right but also wrong. Just like a lot of things in life, it falls into a grey area. One of the arguments that should have been used back then would have been, if it's Manifest Destiny, then what about expanding into Canada and Spanish Mexico. The reason we didn't expand into those area was because England and Spain were militarily powerful enough to stop us. Maybe we learned a little from that experience because after World War 2, we could have taken over several countries as the world's only superpower, but we didn't. Instead, we help rebuild them. In fact, we helped two of our enemies from that war to become economic powerhouses (Japan and Germany). I guess in a way, it all balances out in the long run. I'm sure the Indians don't look at it that way though. 

Making judgements on things that happened in the past must be weighed against the mores of their times. This is not a hard-fast rule either and has a lot of grey area. Oh well, it's something to think about. 

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be heading east into northern North Carolina to a COE campground. I changed my route and increased my mileage by 80 miles and 45 minutes in order to stay mostly on Interstate and 4-lane highways. It will be about a 4 to 5 hour tow. I figure I'll be nice and tired but with it being easy towing, I should get a lot of good "thinking driving". 

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