We woke again to the sounds of birds and not traffic. I could get used to this! The kids slept in a bit - I think we all are enjoying the quiet at night. After my morning shift I took Heidi for a run right as the rain began. It was actually still really a nice time and we both got some good exercise. The campground has really emptied out. Stacey decided to run a load of laundry and we were surprised when it looked like someone wanted the machines right after us as there are about three of us in this whole side of the campground!
I promised the kids fried pickles today if they behaved well and got their school done. They did pretty well minus a few flare ups but when the time came to decide to go out to eat or stay in Stacey did not want to go out in the cold and wet so we postponed our southern food experience until tomorrow or the next day.
Rain should end tomorrow if the forecasts are correct so I am hoping to take half a day off so we can go see Savannah a bit and then spend a full day there Saturday. No new ticks on the dog that we can find so maybe the ticks do not like wet weather much or the tick medicine is starting to kick in.
To round out the night we played some levels of Lego Batman that we got as a present for Christmas. Each kid takes a turn being my partner in crime or crime fighting depending on the night.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Fort McAllister State Park
Today we worked on getting our school and work done so that we could go tour the fort in the afternoon.
We didn't get there quite as early as we would have liked, but we were able to catch a gentleman there that we had heard was a real treat to see and we were NOT disappointed. He was a treasure trove of information about the fort and events surrounding it. He said he had been doing "this" for 40 years. Main story is that 4000 of General Sherman's troops attacked the 200 men who had stayed behind to guard the fort when the city of Savannah and the rest of the Confederate troops had been evacuated. The ground fight didn't last long and the fort fell on December 13, 1864. Sherman now had control of the Ogeechee River and an avenue to the sea. The fort was actually burned out and mostly destroyed by the Union troops, but because there were actual photos, it was able to be recreated fairly accurately, a project started initially by Henry Ford in the 1940's, I think.
We got to see this historian demonstrate the firing of the musket.
He said the enlisted men lived in tents for the first two years, but then when those wore out and they couldn't get canvas to make more, the men built their own little huts like those seen above. Each had a little wood stove, bunks and a table and chair.
We didn't get there quite as early as we would have liked, but we were able to catch a gentleman there that we had heard was a real treat to see and we were NOT disappointed. He was a treasure trove of information about the fort and events surrounding it. He said he had been doing "this" for 40 years. Main story is that 4000 of General Sherman's troops attacked the 200 men who had stayed behind to guard the fort when the city of Savannah and the rest of the Confederate troops had been evacuated. The ground fight didn't last long and the fort fell on December 13, 1864. Sherman now had control of the Ogeechee River and an avenue to the sea. The fort was actually burned out and mostly destroyed by the Union troops, but because there were actual photos, it was able to be recreated fairly accurately, a project started initially by Henry Ford in the 1940's, I think.
We got to see this historian demonstrate the firing of the musket.
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| Turns out there was a geocache at the fort and you had to go to four different points and solve a little clue and get 4 numbers that would open a combination lock on the cache which was located in the museum. That was fun! |
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| Still some "autumn" color here... |
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| The officer's quarters building |
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| Actually thought this spanish moss mixed with the maple leaves was quite pretty. |
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| As parents, if we had been willing to swear he was 16, the historian guy said the Confederate army would've taken him. |
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| Sky said this one is just a little big. |
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
On to Savannah
Today was a fairly low-key day. We got all buttoned down and ready for the road and pulled out of the Valdosta rv park by right around 11 am. We programmed our destination into Tom, the gps, and headed down pretty much all two lane highway and small towns for the next three and a half-hours. A pretty relaxing ride.
We are actually just outside of Savannah at Fort McAllister State Park campground. It is very uncrowded at this time of year. It is a heavily-wooded park. There are a crazy number of squirrels here racing around and driving Heidi absolutely batty.
Speaking of Heidi, we have been pulling ticks off of her right and left after our geocaching expedition. It is very creep-inducing. I'm even having dreams about ticks. We, too late, put on her flea and tick medicine when we got here, after letting it lapse for the last month. Hopefully the little critters will be repelled by her now. Also, hopefully, none of "our" ticks were disease-carriers.
Brock took the kids to the playground while I made dinner. We'd skipped lunch and just had pretzels on our drive so everyone was pretty hungry. After dinner, I tried to use as little water as possible when doing dishes. We are trying to conserve our "waste" here since we don't have sewer hookups, just water and electric. It's been awhile since that was the case and we are a little out of practice. I doubt we will be able to make it until Sunday without having to make a dump station run, but we'll see.
We are actually just outside of Savannah at Fort McAllister State Park campground. It is very uncrowded at this time of year. It is a heavily-wooded park. There are a crazy number of squirrels here racing around and driving Heidi absolutely batty.
Speaking of Heidi, we have been pulling ticks off of her right and left after our geocaching expedition. It is very creep-inducing. I'm even having dreams about ticks. We, too late, put on her flea and tick medicine when we got here, after letting it lapse for the last month. Hopefully the little critters will be repelled by her now. Also, hopefully, none of "our" ticks were disease-carriers.
Brock took the kids to the playground while I made dinner. We'd skipped lunch and just had pretzels on our drive so everyone was pretty hungry. After dinner, I tried to use as little water as possible when doing dishes. We are trying to conserve our "waste" here since we don't have sewer hookups, just water and electric. It's been awhile since that was the case and we are a little out of practice. I doubt we will be able to make it until Sunday without having to make a dump station run, but we'll see.
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