TAMPA, FLORIDA

We have arrived in Tampa and are spending the night.  Tomorrow we have an appointment to have our engine looked at and we should be home by tomorrow night.  We don't think we have a big problem with our engine but we need to have it checked before we store it.

THIS POST WILL END THIS BLOG!  WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED OUR TRAVELS WITH US THIS SUMMER AND THAT YOU WILL JOIN US AGAIN NEXT SUMMER.  WE'RE HAPPY TO BE HOME!

UNIDILLA, GEORGIA

This is the location of our home RV park in Resort Parks International, a discount club we’re members of.  It’s located on I75 south of Perry, Georgia.  We stopped here for a couple of nights on our way home. 

Nearby is Andersonville, which was the location to one of the most infamous Civil War prisons.  Because of the huge number of soldiers that died in the prison here, they decided to build a museum here dedicated to ALL prisoners of war from all of our wars.  It’s a neat museum that tells the story of Andersonville but also tells of the story of many different prisoners of war.  To understand how bad things were in the Andersonville prison you need to start by knowing that during the short 14 months the prison was open they had over 45,000 prisoners and 13,000 of them died in the prison (that’s an average of 31 dead prisoners every day the prison was open).  The stockade picture above shows just a small corner of what the prison would have been like because there was no housing for prisoners and they fended for themselves once inside the walls.   The commandant of the prison was later found guilty of cruelty and hanged but in reality all he was doing was following orders (no more, no less).  The north wasn’t much better with their prisoners.  The museum was very well done and very interesting.  In addition to the prison, there is a cemetery where many of the prisoners are buried and it has been designated a National Cemetery, where veterans of today can be buried.  It was an interesting afternoon!

HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA

 

Huntsville is the home of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.  They have a very large museum of space artifacts ranging from small moon rocks to complete full size rockets that were used to launch us into space.  They also have the actual moon rover that was used to drive on the moon and several real space capsules that were used at the beginning of our space explorations.  Also on display is one of the actual space shuttles that were used until just recently.  There are only a couple of them in the world.  This museum has been there for many, many years and, in some areas, it shows it’s years but all and all it’s a very interesting place.

LEXINGTON, ALABAMA

We always know we’re home when it’s time to visit our great friends, Jim and Sue Quillen, who live in this small northern Alabama area on their 13 acres.  We love our visit with them each year and use it to wind down from all our travels before we reach home.  They have been our friends for many years and I hope for many years to come.  While visiting them we really don’t do anything except relax and that’s wonderful.  It was great seeing them again this year.