Art

Tuesday 15 March 2011

How many creatures can you find in this part of Disney's Tree of Life on Discovery Island in the Wild Kingdom?

We drove to Dallas, Texas, to see the Dallas World Aquarium. But the line to get in wound around two sides of the block it was on because school was out in Dallas. Parents had brought their first to fourth grade children. When we saw that we changed our minds and headed for the Dallas Art Museum. But BJ hadn't eaten and suddenly decided that was higher priority. So we dashed in one door of the Art Museum, hurried to the café which charged $24 per meal, and ran out the far side of the museum. What I saw was some large colorful modern art paintings in peeks, and a lot of fancily dressed people looking down their noses at us shabby tourists in a hurry. We finally found a Subway sandwich shop after about six blocks of walking around before BJ completely melted down. So we hopped in the car and started driving. We are sleeping tonight in Wichita Falls, Texas.

On the road today after Dallas we passed a church with aluminum sides on a hill. Between the church and the freeway was a large, dark-colored wooden cross standing on the ground. Between the cross and the freeway was the dark metal silhouette of a cowboy, hat in hand, on one knee, head bowing humbly toward the cross and holding the reins of his silhouette horse standing behind him. I liked it a lot better and it gave me more insights than any of the art I peeked at in the fancy museum. Sometimes there is no accounting for tastes in art.

Rain, rain . . .

Monday 14 March 2011
We woke near Mobile, Alabama. It took three tries to finally discover the way to the hotel we wanted last night. That was a frustrating experience. We travelled most of the day and made it to near Shreveport, Louisiana. Between Jackson and Vicksburg, Mississippi we had to drive through the most intense rain I have ever had to drive in. We slowed down about 20 m.p.h. and still the rain was so heavy for awhile with the wipers going as fast as possible we could barely see out the window.

The image today is from Ft. Pickens. Yesterday we passed the border of the time zone but today find the time in the new Central time zone is the same as in time in the old Eastern time zone. Then we heard the switch to daylight savings was yesterday. Very confusing!

FL Caverns & Ft. Pickens

Sunday 13 March 2011Florida Caverns is a smaller cavern (round trip ¾ mile). It has the flowstone, stalactites, stalagmites, bacon and other formations. I would guess there are about ten major rooms and connecting passages. The guide showed us a sharks tooth, a nautilus shell, and a sand dollar in the ceiling of the cavern.

But the highlight of the day was Fort Pickens. It was a struggle to find it. There are two barrier islands and Ft. Pickens is on the outer island at the extreme west end.The island it is on has been partially converted into a casino resort somewhat like Ft. Lauderdale. But turning the rest of the island into a National Seashore preserved the white sugar sand beaches and keeps the highrise hotels at a distance. Fort Pickens was a lot different than I remembered from visiting it in about 1966. One bastion of five was accidently destroyed in 1899. The walls were stuffed with gunpowder and set to blow up if an enemy ever took the walls. A fire in 1899 blew up that powder. But it is an old brick pre-Civil War fort that continued in use to about World War I. A reinforced concrete battery was built on the parade grounds of the old fort in about 1904. I was surprised to learn an inverted arch system was used to disperse the weight of the fort on the white sand. The park service did almost nothing to interpret the new batteries for WWI.

Mission San Luis

Saturday 12 March 2011
Mission San Luis was the main Spanish Franciscan Mission of West Florida near present-day Tallahassee. Founded in 1654 it was mainly a mission to the Apalachee Indians, the strongest tribe in this area. In 1704 the British from South Carolina attacked and the village was burned by its own residents to prevent it falling into British hands. The inhabitants scattered. Some of the Indians went west to live with the French in Mobile. Some scattered into the forest. The Spanish also split up. Some went back to St. Augustine and got yellow fever there and died. Others went to Mexico City or Havana. They had lots of contact with Spanish colonies in Mexico. The Apalachee Indians built a meeting house that was a log cone covered with thatch. The one built here was the largest individual Indian building in the American Southeast. The picture above shows the rebuilt size. In the tree shadow you can just barely make out the door, normal size to give a perspective of how big this thing is. The Spanish eventually built a stockade. Since both societies had commons this worked very well with Indian meeting house, stockade, and mission church all built around the commons.

I noted that the story of the real first Thanksgiving as told by the people of Florida does not involve Massachusetts but rather St. Augustine, Florida. In the year 1565, the grateful Spanish and their Indian friends of New Spain held a thanksgiving feast together 56 years before those Johnny-come-latelies, the Pilgrims of New England.

Jupiter Springs

Friday 11 March 2011
We hunted for the Blowing Rocks near Jupiter Florida. Instead we found windswept rocks by a channel and a nice beach. Then we drove a long way to the Ocala National Forest and found a beautiful swimming hole that just happened to be called Jupiter Springs. The CCC built a water mill to help keep the swimming hole level the same. Water bubbles up out of a spring here and forms a gorgeous pool. BJ went swimming in the 70 degree water but I thought it was a tad too chilly for me so I only went in up to my ankles. BJ found a picture of this place in her guide book and has wanted to visit it ever since.

Little Cuba, Miami Beach, Ft. Lauderdale

Thursday 10 March 2011
We visited a little Cuban eatery in Miami called Palacio de los Jugos. Then we drove through Coral Gables a bit more up-scale with "Mediterranean" style housing. Then we drove to Miami Beach in a downpour. I was floored by the opulent high rise hotels next to the beach. I have never seen so much wealth concentrated in one space, not even on Waikiki in Hawaii. It was much more highrise than Hawaii and cram packed in together. BJ was a little freaked out by the combination of being in a highrise canyon crowded with people and the flooding driving through about four inches of rain on the road. So we left and went to Ft. Lauderdale. There we walked on the beach at a state park that kept the highrise hotels at a distance, see the beach picture. It was much more calm and relaxing. Finally we drove to a KOA near the Lion Country Safari.

Southernmost

Wednesday 9 March 2011
We returned to Key West and did a walkabout. We visited the "Southernmost Point" monument. It really isn't southernmost but the laid back Key West attitude is that details like that are not important. And we walked Duval Street a little. It has lots of shops. I was happy to see a few tourists with ashes smeared on their foreheads (good Catholics). BJ snorkeled John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and saw several fish. We sleep in Homestead, Florida on the mainland tonight, which took a direct hit from hurricane Andrew.

Key West vs. Sugarloaf Key

Tuesday 8 March 2011
You learn so much when you travel. The Greeks taught that you were not really educated until you toured the world. I learned that Key West is beautiful but way crowded with tourists and traffic, at least on Fat Tuesday otherwise known as Mardi Gras. I've spotted the same kind of thing at Sun Valley in Idaho, and certain villages in Maine. It is a sort of pattern that wealthy easterners like to descend on quiet little towns and make them tourist destinations with too many beautiful people crowding the shops, the tours, and the streets in a crowded pedestrian/auto traffic jam. A lot of good looking girls and guys are showing off their gorgeous bodies in nothing but bikinis and bathing suits in Key West. There are also a few old guys like me who go without shirts and thus commit crimes against humanity. During his most productive period Earnest Hemingway lived here. That connects him with both Key West and Sun Valley Idaho. Maybe that is why the wealthy easterners like to crowd together in search of Hemingway in places like this. BJ always gets on edge in crowded places like this. I love to people watch, especially how the beautiful people live.

BJ has always wanted a conch shell horn. In a tourist shop at the far end of Key West she bought one. This is particularly appropriate because the name for people living on the Florida Keys is conchs. And in 1982 they seceded from the United States, created the Conch Republic, declared war on the United States, broke a loaf of hard Cuban bread over a cooperative U.S. Naval officer' head, surrendered a few minutes later, and applied to the United Nations for a billion dollars to help rebuild their devastated nation. This was all because the U.S. border patrol put up a road block near the only bridge to the keys and searched everyone coming off the keys. This backed up traffic for miles and for weeks and got the mayor irritated. He said if the United States wouldn't treat conchs as equals they wanted out. Having a conch from the Conch Republic is way cool. She picked one the size, shape and color she preferred.

Somehow I'm not interested in collecting those kinds of "things." I figure I only have a few more years left in this mortal coil, and since I can only take the things I have learned, and the relationships I have formed, it is only the memories and my family that are precious to me. But BJ wanted to see some old shops at the marina and so did I. It makes me happy when she is happy. I showed her a bumper sticker that said, "We don't skinny dip, we chunky dunk," and BJ giggled about that one most of the way back to our camp.

In driving to mile marker 0 on Highway 1 you reach the west side of Key West. If you want to go farther west to the Dry Tortugas it will cost you a $160 ferry ride. On this drive we learned that there are only two or three smallish towns on this string of Florida Keys. They are all very low lying barrier islands (see image above). The weather is warm with a cooling sea breeze. I'm at the KOA on Sugarloaf Key. BJ is doing laundry, I'm typing this blog, and this evening we will probably go swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. The campground here is crowded with RVs for a KOA, but it is peaceful and relaxing with that wonderful sea breeze. Many of the shops in the Florida Keys are named "Southernmost" and sure enough, our KOA on Sugarloaf Key is called the "Southernmost KOA."

Rock Reef Pass elevation 3 feet

Monday 7 March 2011
The Everglades in March are not the soaking wetlands I expected. It is the dry season and there are certainly gator holes, ponds, and sloughs, but the majority of the park is covered by dried out saw grass about four feet high. BJ took lots of alligator, and water bird pictures at the Royal Palm Anhinga Trail. But the state bird of Florida should be the ubiquitous black vulture. BJ and I sat on a bench a few feet from two of these cheeky birds resting on the bank of a slough. It wasn't long before they started eyeing us in such a way that we decided we needed to "look alive."

The Everglades and all Florida are VERY flat. When the high point of the day was a pass all of three feet in elevation you might begin to picture how incredibly flat it really is. Most of Florida is a limestone table about one to four feet above sea level. But the stands of trees will fool you. Any place that can rise a few inches higher than the surrounding land becomes a tree colony. In one place it might be mostly tall pine trees. In another it might be bald cyprus, and in another it might be mahogany trees that dominate. During the rainy season the Everglades is covered by a sheet of slow moving water. Where the trees are clumped together soil builds up a few extra inches and a sort of island of trees is formed above the sheet of rainy season water. This island is called a hammock. The American Indians formerly lived on some of these hammocks and built their villages on some of them. There are hundreds of these elongated hammocks all pointing downstream from the very slow moving current. In some places they are separated by a few hundred yards, in other places by miles of saw grass plains that become a wetland water sheet in rainy season May to November.

We have come to camp at Flamingo about as far south as you can get on the mainland of Florida. It also happens to be the only place in the whole world where alligators and crocodiles live together. I haven't spotted any crocs yet. But from where I'm sitting I can see Florida Bay which separates the mainland from the Florida keys. Before today I thought the keys were a string of islands ending near Key West. I learned that any coastal island in Florida, including thousands on the Gulf Coast side of Florida are also called keys.

Lions and alligators and bears

Sunday 6 March 2011
Oh, my! We saw a stuffed Florida panther way bigger than any Utah cougar I've ever seen. Alligators were sunning on the bank of the Myakka River and BJ got some pictures. We saw a bear crossing sign on the highway which struck me as odd because we were in the middle of nearly endless orange groves. BTW, orange groves have a really nice fragrance. And the bees splattered on our windshield have very clear see-through guts.

We spent some time at the Myakka River State Park and visited the Canopy Walk Nature Trail. This was about a half mile trail through a mixed oak and palm, and palmetto forest. About 100 feet of the trail was on a raised suspension bridge at tree top level. At the end of the bridge was a tower about twice as high as the bridge, way over the canopy. We didn't see much in the way of critters but we saw forest as far as the eye could see (and one high voltage power line set). Somehow I had failed to realize there could be forest with about half the trees being palms or palmettos. The nature trail signs explained that in the summer this whole area is flooded. After climbing this tower both BJ and I agreed our leg muscles were sore, but would have been much worse if we hadn't been exercising them with long walks at amusement parks.

The Venice, Florida Ward where we started the day is friendly and I liked most of what I heard. The nice folks there had a testimony meeting that went about ten minutes too long, and then Sunday School went too long, and by the time we got to Priesthood Meeting after announcements there was only three minutes left for the lesson. The smart teacher summarized in three minutes and did a good job.

Tonight we sleep near Clewiston, Florida, and the evening breeze carries the scent of orange blossoms. Clewiston is south of Lake Okeechobee, the source of much of the Everglades water, so you could say we are in the Everglades except we are among too many people here. But tomorrow . . .

Dali Museum

Saturday 5 March 2011
Salvador Dali was for awhile the surrealist artist extraordinaire, or just a little eccentric. BJ and I both agreed the best painting of his in the museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, was Columbus and the New World. Actually, I thought most of his stuff was mildly boring. His life was crazy but he was good at self promotion. He liked to do things with his thin little moustache such as wax it into a figure 8 or straight up to the level of his pupils. We saw lots of melting watches. I was surprised to learn he turned away from modern art as to lacking in spirituality. His last works were more theological in tone. He also had a very interesting portrait of Abraham Lincoln that at first glance was a scantily clad young lady, but if you stood way back, squinted, and allowed for pixilization you could actually see Honest Abe's portrait. But we are now out of Orlando and meandering our way toward the Florida keys. We are camping in Venice, Florida tonight and it is hot.

Rango

Friday 4 March 2011
We returned to the Wild Kingdom in the morning and BJ took hundreds of pictures this time. She took some great rhinoceros and some good bird and tiger pictures. The only rides we went on were the ones we had to go on to take animal pictures.

In the evening we went to see the movie Rango and it was totally bizarre, much more so than Raising Arizona, and pretty clean as far as I could tell. I absolutely loved it. It was obviously making fun of lots of things in the movie industry. But they had "The Spirit of the West" which looked and sounded an awful lot like Clint Eastwood with a serape driving around a white golf cart in Rango's dream sequence. Ahhhh it is fun to be on vacation.

Our dinner was at Golden Coral.

A peck for Minnie

Thursday 3 March 2011
Waiting for the Epcot Center to open this morning Minnie Mouse came out to entertain the crowd and invited me to plant a peck on her cheek. I saw lots of fun things today but kissing Minnie was the most memorable. We saw Spaceship Earth, Ellen's Energy Adventure, The Seas with Nemo, Living with the Land (saw a really interesting "tomato tree" plant where the Japanese pulled tomato vines off the ground and held them in the shape of a tree which produces thousands of fruit for nine months), Mission Space, Test Track (longest ride in Disney history), Oh Canada, British street theater, Impressions de France, Moroccan belly dancing, Japanese beautiful store (BJ bought some bowls), American Fife and Drum, German chocolate store, Reflections of China, Maelstrom (Viking boat log flume ride), and Mexican boat ride with the three caballeros (Donald Duck and two other birds).

Good eats

Wednesday 2 March 2011
We took a "day off" to rest. We skipped a kingdom and just went to Downtown Disney today. This is mostly shops and restaurants. The Earl of Sandwich makes a good hot sandwich. (Image: BJ at Vicksburg)

Let the memories begin!

Tuesday 1 March 2011
Beginnings and endings are special in the Magic Kingdom. The last thing I saw above the exit out of the Magic Kingdom was the phrase "Let the memories begin!" Today we saw Stitch's Great Escape, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (I got a higher score than BJ both times we went), People Mover, Carousel of Progress, Monster's Inc Laugh Floor, Pirates of the Caribbean (no soundtrack), Jungle Cruise, it’s a small world, Peter Pan's Flight, Mickey's PhilharMagic, Snow White's Scary Adventures, and Mad Tea Party.

Symbols can be powerful. I was really impressed with it’s a small world and the change from color to all white. It was beautiful and memorable. I was also struck by the number of little girls with Minnie Mouse ears and polka-dot bow tie ribbons in their hair compared to the number of boys with Mickey Mouse ears. The ratio was about five Minnies for every two Mickeys. I wonder what that symbol means. I think girls are more free to express themselves these days. The boys are trained from early on to disguise or hide their loyalties and interests. Almost any boy from the first grade on has learned their thoughts are chauvinist and socially unacceptable, so most avoid displaying their feelings.

Some good jokes were heard today. On the jungle boat in Adventure Land the boat driver told us as we approached the charging hippo to cover our ears. We all obeyed and he pulled out his revolver and then yelled very loud at the hippo to leave his boat and tourists alone because he had a big gun. He also told us about his friend that went to the witch doctor. His friend had a piece of pineapple in his left ear, part of a banana in his right eye, and gooseberries up his nose. When this friend went to the witch doctor for help he was told he wasn't eating right. The old joke under the waterfall about the backside of water still causes a chuckle. The Carousel of Progress attendant also got us laughing by saying he was starting his favorite song, and then mumbling under his breath that he heard it in his sleep and every waking hour. (Image: "The Window" in the Chisos Basin at Big Bend Nat'l Park looking down into the desert. This is where BJ got stung.)

The tram driver taking us to the parking lot at the end of the day urged parents with strollers to completely fold them before stepping onto the tram, and even reminded the parents that their children would appreciate it if they removed their children before folding. When you are exhausted at the end of a day such things can strike you as hilarious.

Have a wild day!

Monday 28 February 2011
Driving into Disney World today the parking attendant lady was so sweetly separating us from our money and kindly wished to us, "Have a wild day!" We went to the Animal Kingdom and had a pretty good time. Attractions seen: Expedition Everest (otherwise known as the Matterhorn but here they call it by another name and you get to see the Yeti's shadow tearing up your rollercoaster track ahead of you and so you go part way down the mountain backwards), Kali River Rapids (see Blutos barges of yesterday only BJ wanted to get even more wet and we went a second time in one day today and were mostly dried out by the time we got home except at the belt line), Maharajah Jungle Trek (cool giant fruit bats), Flights of Wonder (BJ had a Harris Hawk nearly tap her on the head), Wildlife Express Train to Rafiki's Conservation Station (BJ was irritated at me for listening to Rafiki's conservation propaganda but failed to realize I was just enjoying a chance to sit down, not particularly paying much attention to the words of a monkey), Kilimanjaro Safari (where they trained all the lions, white rhinos (originally called wide rhinos because of their wide square jaws), black rhinos, elephants, antelope, cheetah, Watusi cattle, etc. to come in for the night), Pangani Forest Exploration Trail (baby gorilla was biggest star, but dad thumped his chest at us), and the amazing Tree of Life (roots carved into about 30 animal heads).

I'm learning to take aspirins before I start hurting, stay hydrated, eat regularly whether hungry or not, and at the end of the day I am still able to stagger out of the park in my own two legs. If you aren't somewhat crippled at the end of the day you must not have done it right.

Invite Jesus In

Sunday 27 February 2011
Disney Hollywood has lots of "attractions" and we saw: Great Movie Ride (James Cagney won an Oscar for song and dance not as a bad guy), Lights Motors Action extreme stunt show (the car driving backward over a jump ramp was driven by a driver and steering wheel facing the back window), Studio Backlot Tour, Journey into Narnia, Walt Disney: One Man's Dream (Roy took over planning the Florida resort when Walt died), Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Magic of Disney Animation, Rockin' Roller Coaster, and Fantasmic.

The most interesting impressions of the day included the sky writing. An enterprising pilot wrote in perfect lettering above the park, "INVITE JESUS IN." I thought that was pretty cool, but I'm not sure if that would work for us Mormons. Since the rest of the Christian world claims we are not Christians I suspect that inviting Jesus in or having faith in him is not really what they believe is required to be saved if you happen to be a misguided Mormon.

The stunt drivers that were whirling around and around burning rubber sure were interesting. The flaming motorcycle driver had to be put out fast (it gets hot fast even under five layers of insulation from the flames). The good red car could spin around and race around surrounded by bad black cars. They would be going fast and slam on breaks almost bumper to bumper but not crash into each other as they spun out.

The evening closed with Fantasmic. This show projected animations through sheets of water sprayed up to create a viewing screen. There were lots of fireworks and burning water and electric boats as Mickey Mouse remembered dozens of animated good and bad guys and managed to defeat the bad and let imagination triumph.

But the most amazing Disney feat of all is the way they can empty their parking lots so fast. They have busses, trolleys, pedestrians, and cars all organized so they can get around each other and safely and quickly exit. Well done!

Kennedy Space Center

Saturday 26 February 2011
The Kennedy Space Center Visitors Center has a Space Shuttle Launch simulator. It tries to give you the feel of lifting off in the shuttle. Do you know what the "twang" is? It is when the main engine fires at T-06 seconds the whole launch vehicle wobbles forward once because of the push of the engines on one side. Then it bounces back and they ignite the solid rocket boosters. Those two guys cannot be turned off, so once they start you know you are going to go somewhere. At T-0 they blow apart the explosive bolts holding the vehicle in place and you start moving faster than the speed of sound in less than one minute. The two solid fuel boosters separate, and then the shuttle's main engines have to power down to around 74 percent for a short space because the air resistance against the shuttle is so intense. Then you power back up to 104 percent once the atmosphere thins out. Before you power down completely you feel three Gs of gravity pressing you into your seat and the remaining portion of the vehicle is going about 17,500 m.p.h., orbital speed. The simulator gives you the sensations of most of those things happening.

You are looking at the Vehicle Assembly Building, where they put the extra (moveable launch pad, orange tank, solid rocket boosters, and shuttle together in one piece). The size is deceptive. It’s the largest one story building in the world. The roof would cover Yankee Stadium and eight acres of parking. One of the stripes on the American flag is as wide as a freeway lane. Other interesting statistics: If you were 400 feet away at launch the fire and heat would kill you. If you were 800 feet away at launch the sound alone would kill you. If you were 1200 feet away at launch the alligators might kill you because the subsonic rumbles drive alligators nuts at launch time. By the way, we saw an alligator in a pond while there.

We also took a bus to see the old gantry used as an observation tower for the two main launch pads, and visited the old command center for the Apollo 8 launch first trip of a manned vehicle ever to leave the earth's gravitational field. But the most fun, beside the shuttle simulation, was probably the Saturn V museum that taught about the manned moon missions. Since more than half the visitors spoke other languages I assume this is a pretty good public relations tool for the United States.

Harry Potter and Thing 2

Friday 25 February 2011
Harry Potter’s ride is pretty good. You go flying around Hogwarts behind HP’s broom. So is the hypogrif rollercoaster. The get soaked rides are refreshing: that would be Jurassic Park and Bluto’s barges. I was about 30 percent dry above the waist, and BJ had one spot about the size of a slice of bread on her bum that wasn’t completely soaked after Bluto’s barge. BJ couldn’t help herself and bought a Harry Potter dragon. I’m exhausted. But I got to shake hands with Dr. Suess’ Thing 2 while eating a spagetti lunch at the Circus McGurkus. In Universal Studios Islands of Adventure you can see Toon Land, Dr. Suess, Sinbad, Jurassic Park, and what we came for, Harry Potter’s World. Zonko’s Joke shop in Harry Potter’s World was so crowded we could hardly move . . . just like the movie. Thing 1 and Thing 2 are really nicer than you would expect given their reputation in Cat in the Hat.

Discovery

Thursday 24 February 2011
When I was young I wanted to be an astronaut. Life didn't take me in that direction. I didn't want it bad enough to choose to study and do the things that would help me qualify for that job. But it was serious enough that I had friends roll me around inside large tires and other assorted things to get used to being tumbled around. I watched on television with awe. I know exactly where I was at the first moon landing. I remember things like the Apollo 11 fire, the Challenger explosion, and the breakup of a shuttle on re-entry over Texas.

Today, for the first time I personally witnessed a NASA rocket lift off and fly into the sky—the shuttle Discovery headed for the International Space Station. I was way too far away to be sure people were aboard, but I believe they were. I can personally testify that I saw something go up and it looked an awful lot like the smoke trail of a rocket to me. We stood in the parking lot at Cirque du Soleil in Orlando, Florida, and faced east at nearly 5:00 p.m. and waited. Then for a few seconds we saw the smoke trail curving into the sky from the Kennedy Space Center between puffs of clouds. BJ took this picture for me.

An hour later BJ and I got to see the Cirque du Soleil. This is pretty expensive, but wow, it was by far the best circus I've ever seen. Every act—the clowns, florescent jump rope, trick bicyclists, tight wire walkers and bike riders, trapeze artists, juggler, little Chinese yoyo flippers, trampoline jumpers, and silk flyers—went way beyond any circus I've ever seen. They were all outstanding, but for some reason the juggler was the most astonishing to me. He never made a mistake and while juggling about eight disks, bowling pins, or balls could bounce on his head a ball or balance a pole on his head and juggle the balls into tiny cups on the pole.

Dog gone the torpedoes . . .

Wednesday 23 February 2011
The far east side of Dauphine Island has Fort Gaines (Alabama). This was one of the two forts Admiral Farragut had to pass to capture Mobile Bay. So you might hear someone shouting "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" as you look over the remains of this Civil War fort. Can you see the oil rig out on the ocean on the left side of the photo?

We finished at Gainesville, Florida today.

Davis' Beauvoir & Bellingrath Gardens

Tuesday 22 February 2011
Jefferson Finis Davis was an interesting man, a tenth son. His father wanted him to be a scholar. But when he complained about this it only took three days of working in the field to learn he preferred being a scholar. He didn't want to go to West Point, but was talked into trying it for a year and did like it after all. He helped build forts in Iowa and Wisconsin. He eloped with the commander's daughter and resigned. But when the Mexican War started he served as a Colonel. He was also U.S. Sccretary of War and later when the Civil War started he expected the same role in the Confederate government, but got appointed and then elected President. After the war he spent two years in prison, then wandered around Canada and Europe looking for a job. But what he really wanted to do was write his memoirs. He finally settled at Beauvoir between Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi, and spent the next 12 years there.

But the story of Beauvoir is also the story of Hurricane Katrina—the same one that wiped out New Orleans. That storm tore off part of the roof and parked for eight hours a foot of water on the floor boards already 23 feet above sea level (storm surge). They have clean it up, restored it, but there is still a lot to do to get back to where they were. It is the same way with the entire Mississippi coast, lots of property where there was once some building but now lying vacant. All the surviving houses, like Beauvoir were on stilts.

Bellingrath Gardens in Alabama is beautiful even in February. They have added a Bayou boardwalk and an Asian-American section since we last brought the family. They had a few magnolias in bloom, a few daffodils, but mostly purple and white decorative cabbages for color. Mr. Bellingrath made most of his money with a Coca-Cola bottling franchise. The bank was worried they could only sell Coke in the summer so he thought up the idea of having Santa Claus advertise his drinks. Yes, it was Bellingrath's advertising that led to our concept of Santa Claus in a red and white suit.

Tonight we sleep on Dauphine Island, Alabama. The fort a few hundred feet from where we sleep was part of the battle of Mobile Bay during the Civil War.

Vicksburg

Monday 21 February 2011
Why did the Indians build the mounds? The smaller house sized mounds were built as the foundation of the house of the chief. Each new chief built his new house on top of and slightly larger than the old chief's house. But the huge mounds, like the Emerald Mound in the picture yesterday, were ceremonial centers. (Doesn't an archeologiest always say it was for religious reasons?)

Vicksburg, Mississippi was one of the keys to winning the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln gave U.S. Grant the job of capturing it. Until I visited it today I had no idea how difficult an assignment that was. High hills, good fortifications and a large Confederate army made Vicksburg a very tough nut to crack. Grant tried digging canals (to get ships by?) troop movements and lured the Confederates out of their forts when he attached Jackson, Mississippi, and beat them there. But when they ran back to their forts they were still hard to root out. So finally Grant tried good old fashioned siege warfare. The sick and hungry Confederates finally surrendered. We saw the hills each side fought over. We saw nearly countless memorials, statues, plaques, and state-by-state monuments to various state regiments. I was amazed at the large number of cannons scattered around the battlefield. The most interesting exhibit was the remains of the gunboat Cairo. It was the first armored ship sunk by a mine detonated by electricity. Five of these guys were built near St. Louis and they were heavily armored above the water. They had a lot of weaknesses but they were big and their guns were really big. The National Park Service raised the Cairo from the river bottom and put her on display. See the picture.

We drove to Gulfport a few blocks from Jefferson Davis' last home and walked on the beach. It was windy and the sun had set.

Natchez Ward, Indian mounds, Natchez Trace

Sunday 20 February 2011
BJ's been soaking her hand and stung finger in Epsom salts and hot water twice a day. The results are encouraging. Most of the swelling has gone down. It isn't normal yet, but it is way better than twice normal size on the segment closest to the palm that it was two days ago.

We found the LDS Church in Natchez, Mississippi was having a ward conference and linger longer after. They cook really great for freeloaders like us! The best lesson of the day included an explanation that there are many levels of understanding about TV. There is the "can push on" level. There is the slightly more advanced plug in the cable in the back, and then there is the can plug in three cables in the back, until you get understands the impediments of copper wire to electrical current level. It was a bit of a cheap shot to say the Baptists are at the "can turn the power on" level of religion—but I cracked a smile anyway. Both BJ and I enjoyed this very friendly ward.

We visited the Natchez Indian Central Village mounds. At the time of first contact with the French this was the HQ of the mound building cultures on the Mississippi River. These two mounds were about as big as a modern house. They were also the southern terminus of the Natchez Trace. This was a very important trail from Natchez to Nashville that played a key role in the settling of America.

Next we visited Emerald Mound. This is the second biggest Indian mound in America. Only Cahokia is bigger. This thing is huge. You have to be on it to understand how monumentally gigantic it is. It was build basket by basket of dirt. My guess is it is larger than two football fields on the top and about 60 feet high. See the picture.

We then drove 41.5 miles north on the Natchez Trace Parkway to the "Sunken Trace." I have to say the Parkway is the most beautiful road I have ever encountered. Commercial traffic is prohibited and the speed limit is a very relaxing 50 m.p.h. The trees are cut way back and the lawn up to the road kept cut. The road curves gently over graceful bridges surrounded by forests and bayous. Occasional on-off ramps are the only contact with cities. In every way this is a delight to the senses. The "Sunken Trace" is a section of the old trail that goes through loess soil and creates a 30 foot gorge in the soil for about 200 feet. It was really interesting to think there was a good chance that we were hiking where Hernando De Soto and Abraham Lincoln hiked.

country breakfast and plant nurseries

Saturday 19 February 2011
We ate a big breakfast at Kelly’s with the biggest pieces of bacon I’ve ever seen just outside of Galveston. Then we drove through Louisiana. The most interesting part of the drive was Forest Hill where we encountered about 20 plant nurseries in about five miles. It must be the plant nursery capital of the United States. We briefly crossed the Mississippi River into Natchez, Mississippi and decided to go back to more promising prospects in Louisiana. So we are about three minutes from the river pirate capital of Natchez.

Epsom salts for BJ’s finger seem to be helping slightly with the swelling.

Spanish missions, Great Storm, Texas BBQ

Friday 18 February 2011
We visited Mission Concepción. This was the Franciscan mission just south of the Alamo in San Antonio. There were four missions in the San Antonio area and this is the best preserved. This tiny National Park is surrounded by modern houses. The new Indian converts at the mission were called novices until they became acculturated to the Spanish way of life and live their religion like a Spaniard. The mission was brightly painted to attract Indian interest. The church is still standing and used as a modern place of worship.

We drove to Galveston Island. Instead of sunshiny beaches we found fog on that side of the island. We watched a movie about the "Great Storm" of 1900 in which about 6,000 people died in the tidal surge that wiped out the ocean side of the city. Pictures of the damage showed nothing but rubble in some parts of the city. The seaport museum seems to be the home of the Elissa, a tall (sailing) ship.

I wanted to try Texas BBQ and we found a restaurant. We had BBQ beef enchiladas. The meat was very sweet and had a mild vinegar taste. Hmmm mmm good!

Desert fog, US Border Patrol, Mexican cinema

Thursday 17 February 2011
From Fort Stockton and their giant plastic roadrunner named Pete we headed southeast toward the juncture of the Pecos River and the Rio Grande. On the way we encountered fog, in some places fairly thick fog. Now keep in mind this is the middle of the Chihuahuan desert! The Pecos River for six miles before it reaches the Rio Grande has dug a gorge several hundred feet deep. When the railroad came through they built the highest bridge in America to cross it. To see picture click here. That bridge is gone now. But nearby is a road bridge, highest in Texas. We crossed it and took pictures.

The border patrol has many trucks that patrol a white dirt side road parallel to the main paved highway. When we passed the border patrol station their flag was at half mast in honor of the agent killed a few days ago in Mexico.

In San Antonio we visited the Museo Alameda. This is a museum dedicated to the Latin influence in San Antonio. Apparently much of the Mexico revolution was plotted in San Antonio. I was impressed by two things. A Mexican artist made flyers with skeleton caricatures of Mexican politicos. He was merciless to many capitalists, but put an actual face on Poncho Villa. I hadn't realized how communist many of the Mexican artists were. The other thing that impressed me was the Mexican films. The were screening their songs which were lively, and beautiful. And after the song was finished they would whoop and whack each other with their sombreros.

BJ's finger is swollen badly from the wasp sting and getting a little scary.

Santa Elena Canyon and a wasp conspiracy against BJ

Wednesday 16 February 2011
In the Big Bend National Park we did the Santa Elena Canyon hike. The Rio Grande emerges flowing north from the sheer cliffs of Santa Elena Canyon and we hiked the west (USA) side headed south into the canyon. It was shady and cool in the canyon. The Rio Grande is a big stream at this point. So how did it dig straight down through hard rock and dig a canyon as deep at the Church Office Building in SLC? In the Big Bend Park there are two other mountains the Rio Grande has cut through like a hot knife through butter. My theory is that the mountain ranges slowly rose up while the Rio Grande cut through them. The river is probably older than the mountains. I just don't see how a suddenly draining lake could have cut such sheer cliffs. It must have been done very slowly as the mountains raised up.

The Chisos Basin part of the park was high, tree covered, and cool compared to the surrounding deserts. But BJ got stung by a wasp there (she must have a target painted on her when it comes to wasps). At the end of the day we went to the Rio Grande Village part of the park. There were two cars on fire in the parking lot of the Visitor's Center so we couldn't go in. Instead we went to the Boquillas Canyon trail. It was very hot, 96 degrees Chihuahuan desert. This is where the Rio Grande enters the third mountain range through sheer cliff walls. On the trail we could see a tiny Mexican village of Boquillas just across the river. And at little unmanned stations on the trail we found Mexican art objects for sale on behalf of Mexican school children. There were painted walking staffs, fluorite chunks, and pretty wire scorpions and dragonflies, and tiny bobble head turtles, all colorfully painted Mexican style. The signs told the price of each object, and there was a plastic bottle to place money for things hikers might purchase.

It couldn't get much better than this!

Tuesday 15 February 2011
We bought a hat for BJ at the Pecos, Texas Wal-Mart. Then we headed off to Jeff Davis County. Before the Civil War Jefferson Davis served as the Secretary of War. In 1856 a fort was built in the west of the Pecos River part of Texas and named after him, Fort Davis. Apparently the surrounding mountains came to be known as the Davis Mountains, and eventually Jeff Davis County was formed. Not bad for a guy who would later become the Confederate President.

BJ and I got to see Fort Davis. It ended up protecting the Butterfield Overland Mail route in this part of Texas. The route was used by stagecoaches headed for California. The fort also helped subdue the Apaches like Victorio. This fort was where the first "Buffalo Soldiers" units were formed and later they were moved to other places to continue their fight against renegade Apache Indians. They have rebuilt many of the quarters of both officers and enlisted, and turned them into a museum. I really liked the commander's house which was really nicely outfitted with period furniture.

A little up the road we explored the McDonald Observatory. This has the third largest telescope at 107 inch mirror and was used to bounce a laser off the moon after the first moon landing to help prove they had actually planted a reflector when they landed. They also discovered that the moon was over 20 feet farther from the earth than they expected and this somehow helped prove Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Then we drove south the Big Bend National Park. This is Sonoran desert. It looks a lot like Las Vegas or Tucson with bare peaks and lower down mesquite, occatillo, and lots of rocks. We entered the park from a town called Study Butte. I was a beautiful drive to the former town of Castolon. It is now a Visitor Center. As we walked in one ranger was sitting on the porch bench watching the sun set. When I asked him how he was doing he replied, "It couldn't get much better than this." The other ranger was irked that a building crew cut the telephone line by accident so there is no communication with the outside world. Like the man said, it couldn't get much better than this. At our nearby "Cottonwood" campground they have a sign warning us not to feed the javalinas. It was about 86 degrees before the sun went down, but it is cooling off fast here in the moonlight. I think we are only a few hundred yards from the Rio Grande so I'll go hunting for it.

Wildlife we've seen includes roadrunners, a woodpecker, a flycatcher, and longhorn cattle.

Sun so hot, I froze to death

BJ has a rough night at Great Grandma Dilts' house. Great Grandma has two electric heaters in her room bedroom that draw so much power that when BJ tried turning on the electric heater in BJ's room, it blew the fuses. It was easy enough to reset the fuses, but BJ was cold most of the night. I found her curled up in a ball covered with blankets.

Grandma started making the arrangements to have the ivy removed from her house. The guy she called told her about the problem in her attic before she told him.

By the end of the day we left the snows of northern New Mexico, and entered the sunny deserts around Roswell. I had a hard time talking BJ into stopping in at the UFO alien shops for tourists, so we tried the local Wal-Mart and made off with an out-of-this-world buy, $7 pair of shoes.

New Mexico has zones. The northwest is Navajo country and moderately prosperous with lots of churches and non-Navajo casinos. We stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Allens' graves in Farmington. Albuquerque is big and prosperous. Clines Corners is a ghost town and very poor. Roswell was lots newly washed sports car convertibles driven by attractive blonds in high-heeled knee boots—really wealthy and much bigger than I remembered. Carlsbad was poor and full of empty shops. The weather has gone from chillingly cold to over 70 degrees. But best of all, BJ enjoyed lots of sunshine, and is finally warm. Near the Texas border we spotted a couple of Joshua Trees, but the most prolific plant is oil well pumps.

We are now settled in at Pecos, Texas.

Billboards and ivy in the attic

Driving through Farmington, New Mexico we had a bit of culture shock. It seems the good and the bad are contending a little differently than one might find in Zion. We passed an "adult video" store with a huge billboard right next to it that nearly hid the store with a portrait saying "Jesus is watching you."

We slept on a sideroad near Farmington. The rolling hills and fields were covered with about an half an inch of snow. When we woke in the morning there was thick frost on the inside, but not the outside of the car windows.

In Albuquerque we found Great Grandma Ruth Dilts' backyard neighbor was concerned for her safety. It seems the ivy all around her house has grown up through the eves and into the attic. It is fairly thick in the attic and poses a fire hazard near the heating ducts and electric wires. They discovered this a few days ago and begged BJ and I to help Great Grandma remedy the situation. So I wrote up some instructions to help her hire some workers to clean up the problem. She is reluctant to take down her ivy but I think she sees the need.

It was sunshiny and about 61 degrees in Albuquerque . . . nice! We walked around the park with Grandma. There was a little ice left in the shadows from the previous storm (when it was -6 degrees) complete with frozen pipes that led to the discovery of ivy in the attic. I like it much better today than I would have liked it a week ago.

Getting ready to go

BJ and I are heading for Florida, the sunshine state. We are packing and putting our things in order to start the trip. Hope all the children and grandchildren will follow along on this blog to learn about our adventures.