Day 26 ALMOST HOME! MESA VERDE

It's hard for me to grasp that my amazing journey across the US is almost over.  The countless things I've seen, learned, the people I've met and the history that is now like family to me...the miles, the questions, the egg mcmuffins and wine....the gorgeous campgrounds and not so gorgeous showers...the daily terror of driving alone in unfamiliar places and always seeing so much beauty out my windshield....it's been the most fulfilling trip...much more than I ever imagined.  

Seems fitting to end it close to home in a place I never grow tired of with a story I've never understood.  The Anasazi Indians came to the high plateaus of Mesa Verde around 475.  They stayed, built some non permanent dwellings and moved on.  100's of years passed and the next group of natives came along and built more permanent dwellings and started planting corn on the mesa top.  Then somewhere around 1200 the Anasazi decided that they needed to 1.  get away from the heat and cold of the mesa top by moving under the rim  2.  built incredible fortress like villages tucked into the most unreachable indentations of the mesa lip to protect themselves from......WHAT?? other tribes, Sasquatch, disease?????? We've never been able to put a finger on the reason these people put on their best engineering hats and built mega cities hanging in the air, unreachable by just about everyone.  And then, within 100 years, they left it all.  WHY??? Drought? Disease? sick and tired of climbing up those walls?  Too many creeps to fight off?  We don't know that either.  But for over 600 years the canyon metropolis was left in silence til a couple of cowboys stumbled on the Cliff Palace in 1888.  The rest is history.  The last time I came here 30 years ago you could climb all over the dwellings.  Now you have to buy a ticket with a Ranger (but even that is finished for the season now).  Still, we saw plenty but never really felt like we understood why they did it or HOW?  Pity the poor indian whose job it was to haul all those rocks up the cliff face!  How did they do it??? 

Maybe that's the secret here.  People can do the most amazing things when they want to.... like fight in the most gruesome battles for 4 years in the Civil War and somehow survive or build the most impossible structures high up in the cliffs brick by brick 1000 years ago or drive clear across the country learning about a whole new part of the world.  YUP, THAT'S IT!  People are only limited by what they tell themselves they can't do.  

Hugs from the road.  I will miss it.  

"the more I paint it, the more it will be mine" Georgia O'keefe Day 25 Abiquiu New Mexico Ghost Ranch

A long journey.  The first time I tried to get here was almost 40 years ago but my two tires blew and I ended up staying at Carol King's ranch.
The next time was about 25 years ago.  My vw bus engine blew up in Santa Fe and by the time they fixed it, I was out of time.
So today was a big day.   GHOST RANCH....ABIQUIU NEW MEXICO.  Home to the most famous woman artist of the 20th century, Georgia O'Keefe.

Years ago my next door neighbor, an old but beautiful Hispanic woman told me she'd been O'Keefe housekeeper in Abiquiu.  She showed me the little sketch O'Keefe made for her for a xmas gift....can you imagine what that's worth now??

Brent and I managed to drive the 6 hours from Carlsbad Caverns to Ghost Ranch today just in time to take a Landscape Tour of Ghost Ranch.  Wendy, our lovely guide, took us over the 21,000 acres Ghost Ranch and showed us so many of the places O'Keefe painted, where she lived and how she lived.  The best part was seeing the painting up against the real backdrop.

Georgia lived also in a house in Abiquiu town and I was able to get a few pix before I got kicked out...I think Georgia would've been proud of me for not backing down....that was the way she was.

The scenery on Ghost Ranch reminds me (and I'm sure, you) of home in Southern Utah but it's how she translated that to canvas that's remarkable.
No question, she was temperamental, cranky, an absolute perfectionist and a visionary far beyond anyone during her time period.

I'm just glad I finally got to see her space.  Hugs from the road.

Day 22 Dallas....me and POTUS...or POTI???

WOW!  It really really rains hard here.  Driving into Dallas this morning was a white knuckle float with trucks and cars spinning out all over the place and visibility near zero so I was very glad to make it safely to the Book Depository Building to relive some history....
YOU VOTED RIGHT???? RIGHT???? ok.  On this ELECTION DAY (hey Lincoln was also elected on November 8, 1864 but no, I didn't know him) it seems like I need to review my long and weird history with multiple POTI...sounds a bit illicit?

I was 6 years old at a Catholic school on Nov 22 1963 when JFK was shot.  We were playing on the playground and all of the sudden the bells started ringing like crazy in the bell tower of the Cathedral and the nuns came running out and rushed us into the church.  We could tell they were very upset, some were crying and all I could figure was another world war or something was upon us.  The Monsignor climbed the pulpit and told us all that our POTUS had been brutally shot and that school was closing.  Confused, I walked the 8 blocks home, sure no one would be there (it was early afternoon and mom didn't get off work til later) but mom was home...crying...watching tv.  Scared me.  And so it went for the next few days...mom crying, watching tv. Me trying to figure out what was going on.  (that's me front and center)

Fast forward to 1969.  My amazing mom is National President of Executive Secretaries Inc and she's got to speak at the convention in Dallas.  I had to go. (no one to watch me at home and I was pretty used to being hauled all over the place and how to behave with the grownups....smile and wave and BE QUIET).  The highlight of the trip was going to be meeting LBJ...this was after he'd been president and he was quite ill.  What I remember is this really old guy with longggggg hair in a pony tail....yup, LBJ, who wouldn't do more than wave at us from his porch BUT LadyBird got one look at lil ol me and said "come on honey, let's go in the kitchen...you can help me fix things up for dinner." Of course all I did was stand around and smile and say thank you and yes ma'am.  But she was really nice to me and of course mom quizzed me for hours later.  (that's me, front and left)

Fast forward again to 1974.  Mom is now living in DC as the head writer editor for the BLM under the Carter administration.  I'd embroidered her a levi jacket years before and Ms. Carter decided she really loved that jacket and could I make her one....not realizing that this hand embroidery took YEARS of my oh so busy life....but I did it anyway and got a very lovely letter back from her...it's somewhere in my stuff.   (sorry, no pix)

Fast forward to about 1996, before I was doing ships but playing the harp a lot.  I get this call one afternoon from my agent that he's got a gig for me playing a private birthday party up in Park City and can I do it.  It's SNOWING like crazy but I had studded snows so I said I'd try.  Then he tells me he CAN'T tell me who it's for but it's special...uh...ok.  So I white knuckle it up the canyon and get to this huggggeeee house and there's two very big, very wet and grumpy guys in suits that stop me at the gate.  I have to get out??? Ok.  But when they said they had to take the harp out to inspect it I said NOPE.  NOT IN THIS BLIZZARD!!  So after they checked the whole car, they let me pass.  I set up in a nice room next to a small dining room set for 4 people....small gig indeed.  Still didn't have any idea of who it was for til NON OTHER THAN OUR FUTURE PRESIDENT, HILLARY CLINTON strolls in and says hi, then comes Chelsea and a bit later comes good ol' POTUS himself.   Was I scared?  Actually no.  I was more scared of the drive home.  We had a great time.  Once they knew I took requests...and could play ANYTHING they requested (pretty easy stuff), we started yakking and I even taught Chelsea how to do some wicked glissandos.  It was a fun night and yes, the drive home SUCKED.

Fast forward a few years.  I get a call from said agent who says he's got a gig for me that night playing for a private party Mitt Romney is throwing for GW Bush.  Am I available.  The answer was a very emphatic NO, I HAVE TO CLEAN OUT MY CAT BOX.

Lastly, fast forward to 8 years ago shortly after Obama took office.  I spotted a little blip in the newspaper that he'd appropriated a gob of cash to fix up old houses and make them more energy efficient.  My 1880 house was the poster child for energy INEFFICIENT.   So I called and they came. Long story short, 6 months later POTUS OBAMA has dropped over 70k in my house....new windows, new appliances and one great big new boiler.  I have written multiple thank you notes to him and I have been steadfast in my support (I was before the gift).  I'm hoping some day I can say it in person.

So today is all about POTUS.  And today, standing on the grassy knoll

 and in the street where the X is where Kennedy's brains went flying up in the air

 and up on the 6th floor of the Book Depository Building  where Lee Harvey Oswald took at least one shot (2nd from the top floor, far right window)

and remembering that horror of that day with mom crying, I think I figured it out.
The POTUS is US.
We make them win or lose, live and sometimes die and we ask them to give every ounce of their energy to us so that we can have the best American life possible.  I'm hoping that tomorrow when this horrific election is over, we can all reach out to each other, listen to what works and what doesn't and WORK TOGETHER.  Because really, it all starts with US, not some woman or man in a really tough job but US.....PEOPLE of the United States.    Hugs from the road.

"Give me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy" F. Scott Fitzgerald Day 19 Montgomery Alabama

Today was another huge surprise.  Not sure what I expected to see in the capitol city of Alabama but I sure didn’t expect such a beautiful city, again, filled with gorgeous architecture and NO PEOPLE?!?Maybe it’s because it’s a Saturday and there was a big game going on but seriously, the whole city was completely deserted.  Suited me fine. 

And there was this amazing chain of connections…Civil War plus Civil Rights plus the Gatsbys.  But I didn’t know it was all connected till the end. 

The original White House of the Confederacy is right next to the Capitol Building.  The White House saw all the main players in the Confederacy including my beloved Mary Chesnut who complained to her husband James that the carpets were “squishy with tobacco spit” and the accommodations were definitely not first rate.  I stopped here briefly to pay my respects before walking across the street to pay my respects to the front steps of the capitol where Martin Luther King made his amazing speech AFTER the long walk from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 (I remember that on the news).   But then I noticed William Sayre,  the architect for the White House across the street was also involved in the capitol building and that’s when the connection happened.  

ZELDA SAYRE.  WIFE OF F. SCOTT FITZGERALD….I had spent the morning after I arrived in Montgomery taking a wonderful tour of the house she, Scott and Scottie, their daughter lived in.  

  The whole story was very sad on every level.  Not because she was a diagnosed (and badly treated medically) schizophrenic  and was locked up til the mental hospital burned down but because her “loving” husband Scott cheated on her over and over, stole her one goal in her life: to have a book of her own published which she did 10 years after Scott was nothing but a drunkard.  The horrible part is whilst she was in the hospital trying to recover from a bout of the crazies,  her book was at the publishers and they sent it back saying it was ready to go but needed a few changes made.  HE DID IT!  Without telling her, he basically re wrote the book and sent it back.  They rejected it!  She found out and re re wrote it back to as close as she could remember the original and it was finally published…to good reviews but rotten sales.  

Then he ran off to Hollywood and had Zelda committed.  He died shortly after (at his lovers apt) and Zelda died years later in the fire.  Amazingly, critics HATED the Great Gatsby saying it was too late to be glorifying rich folk in the 20’s by the 1930s.  It roared to popularity in the 40’s and seems to be going strong.   Zelda’s other passion in her life was drawing and she was obsessed with paper dolls.  She wanted to make a history book of nothing but paper dolls.  Her dolls and her artwork was racy, cutting edge and very unique (quite Erte).   

the hospital where she died in the fire

Their graves. They were both paupers when they died even though Zelda was the grand niece of the famous architect of so many buildings in Montgomery…too many hospital bills.  

 

And that leads me to the election.  There are some people that believe Trump will abolish the ACA if he gets elected.  He can’t.  That would take congress and there are too many people on it to do that but there’s a pretty serious problem with the ACA now.  It was never intended just for sick people to use.  It was only going to work well if EVERYONE got on it.  (sick people only will overtax the system which is exactly what has happened).  The good news is that LOTS of people are seeing their premiums not change or ever go down.  Some are certainly seeing theirs go up.  PLEASE BE PATIENT AND GO THRU THE PAPERWORK TO FIND A PLAN THAT WORKS FOR YOU.  They’re out there.   

Tomorrow I will cross the famous Selma bridge and head to my last Civil War site,  VICKSBURG.  Tonight and am camped by the spectacular Alabama river…it’s huge, the fish are jumpin’, the sun is setting and I’m sending you all hugs from the road.    

Little Italy in Macon Georgia...Day 18 Macon

What a lovely surprise Macon turned out to be!  Of course I knew it was the hq for the Allman Bros and Otis Redding and Lynnyrd Skynrd (sp???) but I certainly wasnt' expecting a mecca of magnificent Colonial Greek houses and certainly NOT this Italian gem...built by none other that Jefferson Davis' Treasury head, William Johnston (he did build it BEFORE the war tho on his own dime).  Johnston married a lovely young thing and took her off to Italy for 3 years of knick knack collecting before they returned to Macon and built this little shack on the hill in 1860. 24 rooms, 5 floors jammed packed with enough Italian art that the Ufizzi should worry BUT that's not the thing that jerked my chain....between Johnston's ideas and the architects balls, things are in this house that I've NEVER seen in a house of this age!  Read on below...

Have a good look at that lovely marble staircase for the entryway.  This is form and function at it's best.  Macon gets HOT and Johnston liked his wine so he built a HUGE wine cellar UNDER the front porch where it would stay cool under the marble and underground.  THEN the doors in the basement to the wine cellar could be louvered down (see below) so that the cool air from the wine cellar (and it was like a cold wind tunnel in there) would filter into the room that was the pantry.  CLEVER STUFF!! 

Have a close look at the entryway of the house.  CHECK OUT THOSE AMAZING CURVED DOORS WITH THE ETCHED GLASS.  But have a good look at the walls...they're not marble, they're painted....but whoever painted them did a truly expert job.  Common in Italy...not so common in Macon Georgia. 

And here's what really was amazing...look at this gorgeous door between the two ballrooms... it's a POCKET DOOR!!  THE LARGEST EVER MADE....EVER.  Slides perfectly into the hallway back wall after 150 years.  And (gasp) there were 4 SETS of CURVED (the wood and the glass) pocket doors!!!!

Mrs. Johnston was quite taken by the sculpture at the Uffizi so she had an artist there make her one...this is Ruth Gleaning, Carrarra marble, the most famous piece in the south.     

And this one I spotted immediately.  Charles Lefevre was a famous romantic French painter early 19th century.  Somehow Johnston managed to take this off the Met Museums hands when they were cleaning out the basement....we should all be so lucky! 

Tiffany was busy but sent the design for this magnificent CURVED glass window in the dining room and...

something else I've never seen before... bas relief wainscoting!!!  

Hitchcock would LOVE this staircase BUT it serves a very important purpose.  Not only does the house have hot and cold running water, in floor heating, an intercom and modern plumbing...before the White House did but this magnificent curving staircase is actually the air conditioner.  It forces hot air up to the cupola which opens to draw the hot air out.  

Needless to say, I had a great day in Macon and right now I'm sitting outside at the most beautiful lake surrounded by autumn foliage and way too many yappy ankle biters but hey, no complaints.  

hope you all have a great weekend....hugs from the road!!!

First Lady of the Confederacy Varina Howell Davis Day 11 Richmond VA

Although so much of the focus on Richmond is on Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy from 1861-65, not much is said about his second wife, Varina Howell Davis and that's a mistake.  But those that knew her during those war years and later would heartily agree that Varina wore the pants, and wore them well.  

Raised by a distinguished family in Natchez Mississippi with all the proper education of a young woman of the era, Varina decided at a young age that she wanted more...more education and more experience, much to the dismay of her family and neighbors.  She began getting tutoring from Judge George Winchester, a Harvard grad and family friend who stated that 'if ever there's a top notch legal mind, it's Varina.'  After she married Jefferson Davis, 20 years her senior and during the war years, it was Varina who was often asked at war conferences with Generals abounding, what she thought and she was much more adept at seeing a potential pitfall or success in a battelplan than her often ill husband.  Most of the books in the house on Clay street in Richmond (the White House) were hers and she read and wrote profusely of the political situation.  She bore him 7 children, none of who survived her.  

After the war and capture of her husband Varina spent one year with him, caring for him in prison then returned to her home.  Jefferson Davis had long been a philandering husband and after his release from prison, he moved into a mansion in Florida, a gift from a female friend.  Varina stayed away, caring for her children and family and only returned when Davis was on his deathbed.  

She moved to New York City after that and became a very successful writer for the New York World, the newspaper owned by her friends the Pulitzers.  She passed away there at the age of 80 October 16th 1906 and is buried next to her husband in Richmond.  

Today is a big day of bloody battles....Chancellors and the Wilderness and then I'm off to my most north eastern stop, Norfolk and the OCEAN.  I MADE IT!!!!  Hugs from the road and thanks so much for your comments on my blog....makes me very happy to hear from you all.   

Susie King Taylor Day 15 Savannah Georgia

They really call you 'honey or sugar' and I really did like it.  Savannah is a lovely little gem of a city.  I was surprised at its small size but huge history and then there's those moss covered trees everywhere....

My interest of course was to hit as many Civil War spots as I could but Mathew was having none of that as Fort Pulaski outside of town is closed til further notice but just by luck I was able to get a personal tour from the nicest man setting up for a film at the Green-Meldrim house, where W Tecumsah Sherman set up HQ and sent the famous "Mr President I give you Savannah for a Christmas present" telegram.  And of course the flip side....the spot where Forrest sat and talked about life and chocolate.....see my fb post earlier....Anyway, it was just a beautiful day.

But there's a very special story about a woman dedicated to serving others regardless of her color or theirs.  I'm speaking of SUSIE KING TAYLOR 1848-1912, who was Georgia's FIRST BLACK TEACHER OF FREED SLAVES AND FIRST BLACK NURSE.  Susie, a slave, was sent by her owner to Savannah when she was 7.  Somehow, she found a teacher who taught her the 3 r's and she was a stellar student.  When the war broke out in Savannah she attracted the attention of the Union army who needed a teacher for their black new freed slave recruits.  But not content to just teach, she trained to be a nurse and cared for the sick and injured black union troops first there and then in multiple field hospitals.  She met and married her first husband, a union officer who was later killed and then married years later after she had moved to Boston.  In 1890 she wrote a highly acclaimed book called Reminiscences about her experiences as a black woman nurse in the Civil War.
It's hard to imagine what her life must've been like during those years with the Union Army....hard enough for the Union to accept black soldiers but a black teacher/nurse that's a woman???

I'm camped at the most ridiculously beautiful campground complete with goats, a huge lake and alligators.  Should be a lovely night.  Missing you all and sending hugs from the road.  

Mary Boykin Chesnut Day 14 Camden South Carolina

   Sometimes you just have to believe that a higher power stepped in and made it all happen.  That was today.  My “Famous Civil War Woman Poster Child” and the reason for this trip has been Mary Boykin Chesnut (image 1 below), married to a Confederate statesman and soldier but against slavery herself.  She wrote what most historians agree, and won her a Pulitzer Prize posthumously, the best personal diary account of the Civil War.  Many of you will remember her as a staple in Ken Burns’ series The Civil War.  He quoted her over 100 times during the series….and for good reason.  Objective as she tried to be, Mary could see clearly that it was never going to work out for the south and that 1000s and 1000s of people would die for it.  She lost her home in Richmond, Charleston and just about every single person she cared about.  She and her older husband James Jr moved to Camden SC, first to his family home called Mulberry Plantation and later to a smaller house, Sarsfield, where both James Jr died and Mary followed him the next year at age 63. 

   The Chesnut family that she married into was famous for being one of the largest land owners  (over 4000 acres between to two plantations of Mulberry and Knights Hill) and more dubious, the most number of slaves (probably around 1000 between the multiple houses). 

   Sadly, by the time Mary’s husband James Jr inherited the land, it was heavily entailed in debt and James could only barely maintain a fraction of it.  When he died Mary was left with nothing but debt and Sarsfield house.  A sad end to such a prestigious family. 

   Mary wrote the diary from the beginning of the war to the end (1861-65) and was in most of the places where all the horrible stuff was going on because her husband was stationed there and they were buddies with President Jefferson Davis.  She revised it multiple times after the war with the intention of publishing it but died before that could happen.  Having no children, Mary left the diary with her best friend who had it published almost immediately.  One of the later revisions won it the Pulitzer.  I’m hoping that makes sense why she was so important to my study of Women of the Civil War….she lived it.  She had the money and clout to move all over the war torn areas and spoke her mind eloquently but also with a tremendous amount of fact, without it, we wouldn’t have this invaluable perspective. 

Ok, so I finally get to Camden SC today and head immediately for Mulberry Plantation (James Jr’s home where he took Mary after they wed).  Image 2. But the gates are closed.  Screw that says I.  I didn’t drive 3600 miles to be thwarted by some iron gates.  I won’t say how…but I walked all the way up onto the spectacular Chesnut front porch and set a spell in a rocking chair admiring the house and grounds. All I needed was the mint julep.  Really really beautiful and I’m glad I had it to myself.  

Then it was off to find Sarsfield, Image 3 where Mary and James spent their last years in Camden.  Bear in mind folks that NONE of this info (addresses, details, ANYTHING) is readily available….digging is the only way to find it and then dig some more.  But I did find Sarsfield and this one was locked up tight and looking very old, weedy and neglected.  (that’s when I discovered some money grubbing couple had purchased Sarsfield and wanted to turn it into multi condos.  NOOOOOO!  So far….

Lastly was to find the cemetery “knights hill cemetery”  (image 4) but nothing was coming up on google as to a location so I called the visitors center, chamber of commerce and the city archives and they all said the same thing “WE WON’T TELL YOU AND YOU WON’T GET THERE SO FORGET IT!”  And of course, you all know what that did….I WENT OUT AND FOUND IT.  But here’s where the angels stepped up to the plate…. 

I found the site of the Knights Hill Plantation that the Chesnuts built in the late 1700’s but there was a big fancy gate for a new development there.  So I just drove thru the gate to have a look around and was immediately met by a lovely gentleman, Scott Griffin who turned out to be the owner of Knights Hill Plantation now.  I explained what I was trying to do and he said he’d have someone meet me and take me to the site!!!!!  Hallelujah!!   That man, Ross, turned out to be the nicest guy and not only did he drive me to the cemetery (image 5) wayyyyyyyyyyy the heck in the wilderness of the 3000 acre plantation where I was able to take pictures, video and try not to weep but then he took me to the “slave cemetery” (image 6) also wayyyyyyyy off on the property.  But this was NOT a slave cemetery anymore.  Slaves didn’t get nice headstones and there were plenty of them here.  Turns out (I went to the archives and dug up the info) one of the descendants of  one of the Chesnut slaves stayed on the land and their descendants LOTS OF THEM, are all buried there, the last one in 1964.  Sooooo much work could be done at this place…I would truly love to come back and do research and restoration as nobody seems to know who any of these people are.    A million thanks again to Scott, Ross and Paul for their incredible kindness to a complete stranger.  I’ll keep you posted and send you a copy of the film when it’s finished. I couldn't have done this without you.  And cute puppies too!!!

Mary’s tombstone reads  "Rest and Drink Thy Fill of Pure Immortal Streams".  With a little luck, we'll keep her incredible legacy going around the world.  

Mary and James Jr Chesnut

Mulberry Plantation

Sarsfield House

the entrance plaque at Knights Hill Plantation

John Chesnut Civil War

one of the descendants of the original slave family

I’ll process all the video and pictures when I get home.  Tonight I’m treating (hey, happy Halloween!!) myself to a hotel room, a big bed, a hot shower and a hot meal.  Life is truly one big fat gift.  Hugs from the road.  

IRONCLADS Day 13. Norfolk VA.

Norfolk VA.  Since I spend 60% of my life these past 20 years living on great big metal floating cities, it’s a no brainer that today I wanted to see the place where the 2 first ironclad ships in America duked it out so I hustled off early in the morning to make the drive to Monitor Merrimack point or Sewell’s Point.  Sadly, only one small plaque (above) is there to commemorate this piece of history….but everyone there told me it was the best place for fishing….

The Confederates were the first to take an old wooden sailing ship, the Merrimack, which was sunk in the bay, and raise her up and cover her with iron plates right there in Norfolk harbor.  The engineers were copying the already existing ironclad ship in the UK but none of this was going to be an easy job.  How do you cover a ship with a ton of iron which almost sinks her and then get her to float and steer and shoot?  But they did it and changed the name to CSS Virginia in 1861.  

The Union Army wasn’t about to be left out of this game so they got busy and built a more nimble (well, sort of...when she wasn't banging into things and going completely off course)  ironclad, the Monitor.  

Fast forward to March 9, 1862.  The Virginia is protecting the harbor as it’s a huge supply base and along comes the evil twin, Monitor, looking very much like a not submerged sub

.  The Virginia up to this point had blown anything and everything out of the water that was wooden but here comes not only an ironclad but one that's faster and has more guns (altho they tended to go off in the wrong direction).  8 hours they went at it.  Bonging shells off each other, even ramming each other.  The outcome?  They both didn’t sink altho they were both pretty damaged and nobody won.  The Monitor crept off and never fought again, sinking 9 months later.  The Virginia limped off to heal her wounds and was scuttled one year later in 1862. 

But the important part of the story is that the US now had iron covered warships that would someday turn into one of those big floating pleasure boats I live on. 

I’m camped at a KOA in the middle of absolute nowhere.  Huge sugar pines everywhere and cotton fields in every direction.   It seems ironic to me that so much cotton is still grown down here.  No black slaves to pick it anymore….just those raping, murdering Mexicans that this whole area of the US is totally in favor of building that wall and kicking out all their cheap help.  Come on people!!! Please don’t let Trump destroy this country.  And please remember that either not voting or voting for someone else besides Hillary is basically a vote for Trump. You may not agree with everything she's about (please do your research first!) but the race is close.  It's a sea of Trump signs down here for the past 6 states I've crossed.   Please make your vote count.   

Hoping you are all enjoying your Halloween weekend.  Hugs from the road.  

"a very black day"

Today was another big Civil War day for me, visiting the battleground of the Civil War's longest and most absurd battleground, Petersburg VA.  The site is huge, not walkable.  Drivable over a 20 plus mile range.  This area was the last stronghold protecting the capital of the Confederate States, Richmond from the Union Army.  Petersburg was determined, at all costs, to hold back the Union troops and it turned into a 9 1/2  MONTH siege.  That alone should give you an idea of the casualities and calamities facing both sides, not to mention the innocent people of Petersburg town.  From June of 1864 to early April 1865, 10's of 1,000s of troops did the death dance back and forth, gain some ground, lose some ground.  

It should've worked, it could've ended the war if it had but bumbling Burnside (who clearly invented the SIDE BURN) couldn't get his act together and instead managed to create one of the most horrific embarrassing loses for the Union.  But it could've worked....

Union troops, frustrated with the neverending battle dug a 500 yard tunnel directly under Confederate lines and packed that tunnel with enough dynamite to blow up a city.  On the early morning of July 30th, Burnside ordered the fuse lit and, as they hoped, the hole it blew was monumental (because the dynamite for the rebels was there too).  100s of feet in every direction which were filled with sleeping Confederate soldiers and supplies. (picture on top) And then the Union troops, INCLUDING A BLACK CORPS OF UNION SOLDIERS rushed in to finish the job.  BUT somehow things went so very wrong.  The Union troops were stunned at the damage inside this giant crater but were ORDERED to go into the crater to finish off the rebels there.  They did, MOSTLY the Black Corps IX.  Problem was, the walls were so steep from the blast that no one could get out!  That gave General Mahone (looking very wild west) of the Rebels a chance to organize and boy did he ever!  Like mad hornets, the rebels swept around the lip of that crater and killed anything that moved BUT THAT'S NOT THE WORST OF IT!!!!  (and this doesn't get much press but I have been assured it's true).  The UNION troops fighting with the rebels there turned THEIR guns on the Black troops!  They said they didn't want to be killed along with the Black Troops.  SO MUCH FOR EQUALITY FOR ALL.  

The good news is Burnside got sacked for the whole mess but it certainly didn't bring back those 2,000 Black Union soldiers and Rebels.  

Tomorrow is Richmond.  It will be a busy amazing day.  Hugs from the road.