December 18 -- Joshua!

Twas just a week before Christmas and a gift of life came to join David, Samantha, Hannah and Riley.  Joshua Robert joined the family just after 7 AM!!  Coming forth at 9 lbs 7 ozs he shows up weighing 50% more than either Hannah or Riley and seemingly healthy in all respects.  David and Samantha have this thing about making beautiful babies and Joshua is no exception.  So... here's Joshua!!

 

Minutes old :)

 

The kid is definitely a bruiser!

 

Already good at one of the three things babies do.

 

Peace to all.

 

Hello there, Joshua... welcome :)

 

 

 

Turkey Shoot

Thanksgiving 2013 turned out to be a most delightful 6-day adventure with the kids over in NC.  David had worked on Veterans Day which resulted in his being able to take Friday off to make it a real 4-day holiday weekend for him as well which was certainly nice.  David cooked up a turkey in the new outdoor fryer and it was incredible moist and delicious.  Samantha had worked in the kitchen for 2 days putting together all the fixings to go along with the bird and of course it was all delicious.

In addition to the wonderful Thanksgiving day meal there were other adventures during the trip.  Included was a number of very fun times in the backyard shooting a pellet/BB gun I had brought along with me.  I'd gotten the gun up in CT where it was used to take out some voles that were making an absolute mess of my lawn in the back.  Since then, it has sat in the box waiting for some action.  Turned out it got plenty of action!  David and I had a pretty fun time with this thing and it meant a lot to me to do it with him.  We're both rather experienced but had never shot together except for the times, many years ago, when I bought him a BB gun and got him going on it.

Hannah wanted to give it a go so that's what we did.  The first day out it was pretty much just letting her get used to holding and shooting a gun, learning some safety issues, and just shooting basically for the fun of it.  The second day we went out she really got the hang of it!  After some instruction to get her to understand a 'sight picture' a bit she proceeded to really shoot well.  More times than not she was able to hit a soda can 15-20 yards out and that's a pretty good shot with this little thing!

Hannah listening to a bit of instruction and then having a go at it!  She found wearing my hat with the brim turned to the side to block the sun worked quite well.

 

And of course Riley just had to follow big sister Hannah!

 

It was just so wonderful to visit with David, Samantha, Hannah and Riley!  Here it's me and Riley after a day at the range.

 

The kids got out the Christmas decorations and of course Riley had to help.  Is this kid cute or what?!?!?  Looking at this photo now I start to think what next year at this time will be like.  Joshua will be going on 1 year old and Riley will either have trained him as an accomplice and the two of them will be tearing into the goodies together, or she will have locked him in his room.  Time will tell :)

 

 

 

Happy Boy

David and Samantha, my son and daughter-in-law, are getting pretty close to bringing another child into the world.  When David and Samantha were planning for their first child, Hannah, David was wanting a little girl and he got his wish.  Hannah, now six, is the most delightful young lady in all regards.  When David and Samantha were planning for their second child, Riley, David was wanting a little girl and he got his wish.  Riley, now two, is the most delightful young lady in all regards, albeit delightful in ways different from her sister.  When David and Samantha were NOT planning for their third child but found out the third was on the way, David seemed to indicate having another male in the house might not be a bad idea.  Well he got his wish when he and Samantha learned that the new child was indeed to be a boy.  Joshua is expected to join them around December 18th if memory serves me correctly.  Now David has never been any good at all at masking his emotions and the pictures I got this morning from Samantha seem to indicate that David is, in fact, one happy boy over the impending arrival!

This is David playing with Joshua's pajamas!  Holding them up proudly... flying them through the air so the little bat cape flutters.  Do you think he's kind of going to have a good time doing this same stuff when Joshua is actually in those pajamas?!?!?  I'm thinking that smart money would be put down on the 'yes' side of any bet.

Mission Accomplished

Sometime last summer my son, David, told me about this new activity of his... geocaching.  I'd heard the term and had a slight idea of what it was about but that was the extent of it.  At that time I was trying to figure out how to be retired and figured this geocaching thing might be a hobby worth investigating.  I got myself a little GPS unit and took to locating some geocaches in the area.  It was kind of fun and I continued.  Sometime in early August of 2012 while perusing the geocaching site (www.geocaching.com) I discovered that the state of GA had an 'official' geocaching challenge that involved finding the state geocache container in over 40 of the state parks.  I figured that was something I could get into.  Associated with but separate from this state park challenge was a state historical site geochallenge.  Fourteen sites of different types.  I made it a goal to complete them both, and I have :)  My first state park cache was found on August 13th, 2012.  My 42nd state park cache was found on October 25th, 2013.  On the same day I visited the final historic site.  It has been a most wonderful adventure for me!  By the way, you really couldn't cheat at this.  In each state park cache container was a rubber stamp of a letter that you stamped onto your 'passport' as proof of the find.  The historic site caches held a site card that had to be matched with the site cards of like categories.  To get the 'reward' for accomplishment (more on that later) you have to submit these proofs.  Pretty great program all around.

The Georgia state parks were all beautiful in their own way and each of them had unique qualities as well.  From the mountainous parks in the northern part of the state, to the flats of the coastal parks, to the swampy areas of the middle/southern area of the state I saw incredible things that I am quite sure I would never have taken the time to see and explore had it not been for David coaxing me to give this a try.  Mountain tops, canyons, waterfalls, rivers, swamps, you name it.  I think visiting all these places I've seen pretty much every ecological environ there is except snow.  I guess I've become pretty good at this along the way, at least better at it than when I started out.  After experimenting a bit with gear and equipment, a good deal of which is boxed up as unused, I'm pretty set on my little backpack, walking stick, fanny pack and, of course, my visor.  Having recently taken up camping out in the parks, sleeping in my van, I've learned a lot there as well.

The historic sites are a very good assortment of historical places and types.  Included in the challenge were 4 Native American sites, 3 fort sites (revolutionary and civil wars), 2 historic homes, 3 plantations, and 2 civil war battlefield sites.  I learned a great deal at all of them.  Most poignant for me were the Native American sites where I quickly developed a real loathing for the people running our country at the time over the incredible injustices done to these peoples.  Also impacting me were the battlefields where I was incredulous as to how small the area was where so many people died.  This wasn't my first time seeing and feeling this... the exact same feelings came to me when I visited Gettysburg some years ago.

A bonus to visiting all these locations was driving between them.  I drove little-used roads through little-visited areas of the state and really, really enjoyed it.  Georgia is the biggest state east of the Mississippi River (by land measure) and while I have no idea how many miles I drove I'm confident it was a lot.  I saw the most charming little towns, lots of 'poor' living conditions along with lots of what I'd call plantation mansions, plenty of cotton and peanut fields, and miles and miles of flowers along the roads.  There were plenty of other historic and meaningful sites visited during these drives as well such as the Andersonville Cemetery.

Now what?  Well, I certainly intend to get back to many of these parks just to enjoy the beauty of them again, plus there are many 'unofficial' caches in each that I can go back for.  I have found that the surrounding states have a similar geochallenge so I won't be giving up the hobby.  There are also many cities/counties in GA that have their own challenges.  Challenges aplenty!  Right now I'm kind of thinking Alabama is the next state to investigate in a similar fashion since I'm only 35 miles from the border.  Oh yes... my 'rewards' for completing these challenges... can't forget them :)

Ta da!!  Proof of accomplishment!!  My gold, silver, and bronze state park challenge medallions along with the 5 path tags, one for each of the historic groups completed.  Value of all these pieces?  Maybe a few bucks.  Value of the experience?  Of course... priceless :)

Coastal Georgia

I just finished a grand 2-day tour of some of the coastal areas of Georgia from Savannah down to a bit below Brunswick.  I've never been to these areas before and they were very lovely to see.  Of course it was the Georgia Geocaching Challenge that once again gave me the impetus to get my butt out to see and experience new things!  A few highlights of the adventure:

 

OK... you're not supposed to be taking pictures while driving down the interstate at 75 mph but I was alone, afterall, and I had to get a shot of this.  It's not the first time I've seen it but it is the first time I got a shot of it... miles and miles and miles and miles of wildflowers growing in the median area of the highway.  I've seen this in lower NC as well and with some frequency in GA.  It's really magnificent and efficient for the state... you don't have to mow the areas!  Anyway, it's beautiful.

 

The first stop after the drive over... Wormsloe State Historic Site.  The little office is just to the right of this shot and that's where I parked.  I had to get a shot of this entryway!  All the architectural 'splendors' being built today and exactly none of them can hold a stick to this.

This entryway was long... very long... so I took another shot as I was driving though it.  This time I was doing less than 10 mph though.  These huge, moss-draped oaks are all over this region and they're all magnificent.

 

My first visit to a coastal park.  This is Skidaway Island.

 

And so is this.

 

Walking through these coastal parks was really something else.  This is actually the 'path' I was following to get to the cache.  Kind of looks like Jurrasic Park to me.  I do not think I would like wandering through this stuff on a summer day.  As it was, after a somewhat chilly morning, it was a glorious day of about 70 degrees... perfect!

Ground Zero... the cache lies beneath this collection of moss and palm fronds.  Really, really liked these places.

 

One of the historic sites visited was Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation.  Learned a lot here.  This was a rice plantation, not cotton.  It's a very large site and while searching for the answers to the questions to get the combination to open the cache box I saw, and learned, a good deal.  Of course I couldn't stop being overwhelmed by the oak trees.  I mean these suckers were HUGE!  Pictures are pretty much worthless in trying to capture the grandeur but this one definitely got my attention.  Nothing like getting shade by having an oak tree dwarf your house :)

I don't know if this was the biggest one I saw or not... doesn't really matter.  If you click on the photo you should be able to see that there is a bench under this one.  Perhaps a vain attempt to try to add some perspective to the size of this tree.

 

It was a wonderful little trip with many areas found that I intend to get back to.  Two state parks and six historic sites visited and every one of them a fun and great experience.  One of the parks visited late on the second day is smack in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp and I've never walked through/over a swamp before.  Very interesting but I did manage to pretty much run out of sunlight by the time I came back from finding the cache.  Got home late after a 701 mile trip through parts of the state, and the country, I'd not seen before.  I am loving this :)



 

 

 

 

 

Mom

A couple of weeks ago I drove up to visit with Mom and had a most delightful 9-day stay with her.  At 91 3/4 years of age she continues to be an alert, caring, thoughtful and absolutely delightful person in every regard.  I know... I know... lots of good moms out there but my mom just happens to be the best of them.   We played a lot of cards, got in a single game of Scrabble, and talked a whole bunch.  I guess I should have taken dozens more photos but alas, these will have to suffice as a pictorial journal of the visit.

The last time mom called me to rescue her she had fallen down the basement steps and broken her hip.  This time the summons was for something a bit less dramatic, but necessary nonetheless.  While getting dolled up to go out she had managed to hook the thin chain of her necklace into her earring and couldn't free it by herself.  She remained a good sport while I went back for my camera to document the tragedy.

We talked... a lot.  We chatted about so many things and she remains a good listener and advisor.

She loves hearing stories about what is going on in everyone's life and the happiness she shows is obvious.

And the laughs... and laughs... and laughs!!  I don't remember the last time I laughed until I cried but it happened several times during this visit.  I miss this... a lot :)

 

Out Again - Still Learning

I went out again, this time heading to southwest Georgia.  A longish but rather nice drive to begin the day, once again traveling though parts of the state I'd not been to before and seeing a good number of little, sleeping towns.  First stop was the Kolomoki Burial Mounds which was a very pretty park and historic site.  Wandered around a bit, found the state geocache and also the historical site geocache.  I like the historic site caches as they all involve searching for answers in order to get the combination to the lock on the cache box.  Finding this one completes another 'set' of sites in Georgia's historic site challenge, my third.  No pictures of this little walk... don't know why now that I think about it.

From there I moved further west and visited George T. Bagby park, my first state park that pretty much bordered the lower Chattahoochee River which is the border between GA and AL at this point.  Actually, due to a dam, the 'river' here is actually a reservoir which forms a rather large lake.  A nice park and a good walk.

 

Kind of an eerie walk.  I think my first through a forest where most all of the trees had spanish moss hanging from them.  Pretty evident that this area floods with some regularity.

Next up was a visit to Providence Canyon State Park.  This park does not have a cache but it's a place I wanted to see.  Much better pictures than I have can be seen at:  http://gastateparks.org/ProvidenceCanyon  Do take a look at this as it is quite an extraordinary locale.  I arrived at the park at about 4:00 PM and the gates locked at 6:00 PM so I didn't have a lot of time but I did enjoy myself.  I got down to the bottom elevation of the canyons and sort of followed signs from there, I thought.

Getting to the bottom I found the 'path' was a bit wet with flowing water.  Kind of expected, I guess, what with this area being carved out by erosion and all.  Wasn't very deep but there really was no option to walking around the water.

 

I kept following what I thought was a path or trail.  There were boot prints so it wasn't like I was exploring unknown territory.  But, it did get very narrow and very steep.  I shot these photos looking up the path and you can't tell how steep it was.  You also can't tell how narrow.  This path is pretty much a boot-width wide.  Figuring I was doing the 'right' thing, I just kept going up...

... and up...

... and up.  I made it up to what can be seen at the top of this photo and the 'path' just ended!  I was on the face of a vertical wall and nowhere to take another step.  I knew I had to get out of the park so looking at the time on my phone, which now showed the wrong hour, I noticed that I had no telephone service... no signal.  Oh, this is not good.  I take a dive off this place and they won't find me until they build a mall here.  I just went back down.  It probably would have been much easier if I had turned around and went down as though coming off a ladder.  Well, now I know, but I didn't then.  Facing forward it was a bit of an experience :)

 

Retracing my steps to get out of the canyons I came across this trail which I guess I missed.  This provided a bit easier access out.  Along the way there were MANY signs warning that it was illegal to climb the canyon walls.  Well, they should have had a sign right where I did it.

 

The last stop for the day was at Florence Marina State Park which is where I planned to camp for the night.  It was pushing 7:00 PM when I arrived and I knew the sun was going down but I really wanted to get to this one instead of waiting until morning.  I took off on what I thought was the right trail but when the GPS was showing I was within 400 feet of the cache I knew something was wrong as I was standing at the edge of the water, looking at a dock that extended maybe 50 feet.  Of course, about 400 feet away was a pennisula which I realized was where I was supposed to be... now.  Off again I go, determined to get to the cache.  It was worth the trip!

 

The walk out the penninsula was soooooooo pretty.  Going to these parks on week days has pretty much given me the parks to myself and this was no exception.  The sound of a small motorboat approaching actually made the total experience more enjoyable.  I let the boat pass but did shoot a couple of pictures.  This is the direction the boat came from...

... and this is the direction the boat was heading.

At the cache site.  It was so pretty and so dog-gone peaceful.

It was getting dark pretty quick so I walked rather quickly to where I left the van, drove maybe 1 minute to the camping area and got settled in.  It was a very, very good day.

As for my 3rd camping experience, I'm telling you, things just keep getting more luxurious as I learn to do this better.  Notice the plush improvements:  A foam seat pad AND a placemat!  As for my dinner, a step up there as well as I brought along a nice, fresh kaiser roll onto which I placed my perfectly cooked Bubba Burger.  Life is good... life is good :)

 



 

 

 

Heritage Days

With my new-found enjoyment of things to do within GA I've been looking at some web sites that list activities and what not and recently came across an announcement that the annual Heritage Days activities were this weekend in the little town of Fayetteville, GA... maybe 40 miles south of me or so.  Yesterday it rained all day but this morning the forecast was for beautiful weather and it was.  So, I ventured down to this place called Minters Farm to see what this was all about.  I'm glad I did.

Basically I guess I would liken this to something like a farm-related exhibit and home-grown/made foods.  Blacksmiths working, brooms being made, corn being shucked on old machines, all kinds of old machines and trades being demonstrated.  The area covered was pretty big and I had a good time wandering around looking at this and that for about 3 hours.  Oh yeah... no admission charge but they did ask you to buy a program for all of $2.00. 

Lots of antique tractors and other farm equipment.  There were a couple of steam tractors but they weren't running... darn.

I liked walking down this area.  Hard to see but that blue canopy place had a white sign that said 'Beef Jerky' and that's where I headed.  I bought a few pieces, tried it, and then bought a lot more pieces.  This stuff is good!  I spent a little time talking to the man and woman at this booth -- if that's what it's called -- and they were very free and open about just how they do it.  Evidently the woman is the one who really does it.  Other than making the house smell rather 'sweet' for a few days afterwards, nothing to it she said.  We'll see :)

 

This was soooo cool!  This is a belt-driven rough saw mill.  I have never seen a tree cut into boards and was quite fascinated with this.  There were maybe six fellas working it.  The person calling out instructions and actually controling the feeder and blade appeared to be perhaps 107 years old and has probably been doing this for 102 of those years.  The blade on this thing had to be 4 feet in diameter and nowhere on this maching could I see any kind of safety feature!!  My kind of machine!! I got here as they were pretty much finishing with a tree but then they just started on another.  To me, these logs were big.  You can sort of see them on the left.  Maybe 18-24 inches in diameter.  Just watching five of them roll the next log up the log ramp to the thing that holds it for cutting was rather fun to watch.  Those suckers have to be heavy.

I've never seen a drive belt as long as this one.  The main belt continues perhaps another 50 feet, at least, to the lower left in the picture where it's connected to what appeared to be a 100 year old tractor that was driving it.  The shorter belt is driving a planer.  They cut the board, a guy takes it and runs it through the planer, and...

... then it's over to the stack pile.  I'd say it took about 20 minutes to completely cut up a tree into various types of pieces.  I just watched, facinated, for about an hour :)  While I was there a truck came in carrying more logs so I guess they're going to be at it for the afternoon.

As I was leaving I walked around the other side of the mill and saw this pile of sawdust.  This too was so cool.  You can sort of see the chain running around the pully in the upper right.  This thing runs (I guess) to somewhere under the blade and drags the sawdust away from the mill.  So simple but it obviously works like a charm.

 

Lots of food stands and I had some very good barbeque in addition to the wonderful jerky that I was chewing on the whole time.  Actually went back and bought more :)  I'm kind of walking on my way to leave and I see this stand.  I went over to chat with the folks because I didn't know what a fried oreo is.  Turns out it's just what it says... an oreo cookie, fried.  The nice lady told me "You know, there ain't nothin' that you can't fry."  She asked me if I wanted a sample and handed me one.  Sure enough, an oreo cookie surrounded by some kind of batter/dough, fried, and covered in powder sugar.  Three weeks of exercise wiped out by one cookie.  But, it was rather tasty.  The texture was a bit like an orea dunked in milk but this one was just battered and dunked in lard for a while :)

 



That's it.  Had a nice drive home though some little towns I never saw before the drive down, got out the hose to spray the mud off my tires and lower part of the van (yesterday's day-long rain had turned the ruts in the field where they parked cars into pretty deep mush for the most part) and made a note in my calendar for this time next year.  A good day out!

 

Eastern-Central GA

I got out for another overnight trip visiting some more state parks and working on my Georgia geocaching challenge this week and once again had a wonderful time of it.  While not the rugged, mountainous terrain of northeast Georgia, the areas I visited had their own beauty and interests and I did see an awful lot of beautiful scenery.  At one of the parks I even saw my first alligator in the wild in Georgia; saw plenty while living in Florida some years back.  I think the gators here are far more ferocious what with living in the swamps and things but since I was probably 300 feet away from this one, maybe more, it was hard to tell :) 

I didn't take that many pictures this trip but couldn't pass up not taking a picture of this covered bridge and mill dam.  Placard says this is the longest in-use covered bridge in the country... eat your hearts out New Englanders!  The water coming over the dam made that lovely, loud sound.

The path headed toward the cache at this park stayed pretty much along side the river and the river was flowing quite quickly with plenty of little white-water sections to keep the sounds up.  Really, really nice.

It was hot and this was a pretty good trek.  When I got back to the van I decided to slip out of my hiking clothers and put on a pair of shorts and I headed back to this area to wade around a little bit.  The water was deliciously cool and had I not had a itinerary planned out I could have just sat in one of these pools for hours.

 

Camping:  I learned a lot my last trip out with the van and things went really well this time.  I did make a couple notes for next time but nothing worth shouting about.  Biggest improvement... dinner!

 

 

No hotdogs this time.  This time it was a perfectly cooked and very delicious Bubba Burger with a side of potato sticks instead of those yucky Pringles and, thanks to a suggestion by my friend Darcy, a delicious apple for dessert.  Nice... really nice.  After dinner I met the most delightful older couple who I enjoyed visiting with and hearing of their adventures as they are now working on their third visit-every-state adventure!  Holy smokes!



 

Andersonville.  Not a state park and no geocache on the property but it's a place I wanted to see.  Earlier in the day, my second day, I had visited the state park at Magnolia Springs which has on its grounds the remains of Fort Lawton, another confederate prison camp built to accommodate the overflow from Andersonville.  During the last couple of years college students from Georgia Southern have been doing extensive archeological digs here.  Anyway, I wanted to see Andersonville, a National Park and Cemetary built around what once was Andersonville prison camp.  Also on the grounds is the national POW museum.  Regretfully the museum closes at 4:30 PM and I arrived later than that.  Regardless, I'm glad I made the visit.

 

The POW cemetary part of the national cemetary.  No way my camera could capture the many thousand tightly-spaced headstones.  It was an awesome sight.

Row after row after row of POW headstones.  While here I learned that they are so close together because the POWs were buried in mass graves, shoulder to shoulder.  Hence, the proximity of the headstones to one another.

Every POW headstone is numbered and all but a few identify the individual.  This identity and numbering system was done by a prisoner who kept a journal that was found after the camp was abandoned.  The headstones were placed many years after.

 

BUGS!  STINKIN' LOVE BUGS!!  I thought love bugs were restricted to Florida and further restricted to certain secions of the interstate system.  I certainly had my full of them when living in Florida and would have considered my life pretty darn complete if I never saw, or ran into, another one again.  Then again, you never run into one of them... always two!  Anyway, during my second day out while traveling from one park to the next I get hit by some bugs.  First thought, based on the color and splatter pattern... love bugs.  Impossible, thought I.  More and more and then I knew for sure. 

 

After the first hits.  These things really stink, too.

Hard to see here but in a short while my windshield was pretty well covered.  The meetings with these disgusting creatures continued throughout most of the day and the coverage was pretty complete.  Driving home, mainly west/northwest, as the sun started going down it became harder and harder to see out of the windshield.  Only one way to get some relief...

... all better, for a while :)  Those who have had the misfortune of getting their vehicle plastered by these suckers know that they are NOT easy to get off.  Blasting with the high-pressure did all right and I certainly could see better driving into the setting sun but the real scrubbing happened the day after I got back. 

 

A wonderful trip.  680 miles in parts of the state I've never been to and 7 official geocaches found.  I will indeed be doing this again :)