Saturday, November 17, 2007
Back On The Road - Problem-Alabama-Joe Wheeler, et al!
Left Tampa, 3pm Thursday, November 15th.
On the road two hours and heard a sharp crunching sound....Stopped and looked the coach over....nothing. Back on the road and a fellow in a pickup pulls up beside me on I-75 near Lake City, FL....He points at my roof. Stopped...and in the dark, climbed atop the coach...12 feet up! Exploration proved my Central AC Unit cover was broken. Hit by something? Who knows, but it is broken and flopping in the wind. Took 20 minutes to solve as I used our onboard clothesline to tie the cover down. Spent night 1 in Valdosta, GA.
Day two we angled from Tifton, GA across to Alabama and began to see some fall foliage....This pic is a street in Eufala, Alabama.
Night two spent in the Oak Mountain State Park just South of Birmingham off I-65. Lovely place and snapped this pic of the camp area as we left.
Day two we continue to Northern Alabama to see.....Joe Wheeler Dam, a part of the TVA system. My visit is actually a coming home of sorts. The dam was my home for a year while Dad was in Europe in WWII. My grandparents opened their home to Mom and I while he was overseas. The picture is across the dam from an East end overlook. The dam stretches for 6,000 plus feet and at the far side you can see the locks where boats pass through.
While we have seen some fall foliage, it is either not too special in color, or it is past peak. This red tree...beside the overlook where I snapped the picture of the dam was in full glory.
Finally, I found the highlight of the visit. House #5 on the "Managers Row of homes" above the dam and overlooking Lake Wheeler. My Grandfather, Harry Hage, was Superintendant of Joe Wheeler Dam for several years. The then-five homes went from small to large with the Supt. in the biggest. Now they have added a lot more brick homes, and they rent them out. But this #5 is still the home to the Supt. of Joe Wheeler Dam.
The visit was semi-sweet. I remembered nothing of the nearby community Town Creek. Nothing about the dam clicked, except the overlook. The home I knew through the trees before I even got there.
You can go back....just don't expect to see what was.....cause it ain't!
Now we are near Tupelo, Mississippi in a campground for the night, having traversed 60 miles of the Natchez Trace Parkway. We'll continue South on the Parkway tomorrow and hit I-20 to begin the trip West to our destination, Dickinson, Texas for Thanksgiving with kids/grandkids there.
More tomorrow night.
Duke
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On the road two hours and heard a sharp crunching sound....Stopped and looked the coach over....nothing. Back on the road and a fellow in a pickup pulls up beside me on I-75 near Lake City, FL....He points at my roof. Stopped...and in the dark, climbed atop the coach...12 feet up! Exploration proved my Central AC Unit cover was broken. Hit by something? Who knows, but it is broken and flopping in the wind. Took 20 minutes to solve as I used our onboard clothesline to tie the cover down. Spent night 1 in Valdosta, GA.
Day two we angled from Tifton, GA across to Alabama and began to see some fall foliage....This pic is a street in Eufala, Alabama.
Night two spent in the Oak Mountain State Park just South of Birmingham off I-65. Lovely place and snapped this pic of the camp area as we left.
Day two we continue to Northern Alabama to see.....Joe Wheeler Dam, a part of the TVA system. My visit is actually a coming home of sorts. The dam was my home for a year while Dad was in Europe in WWII. My grandparents opened their home to Mom and I while he was overseas. The picture is across the dam from an East end overlook. The dam stretches for 6,000 plus feet and at the far side you can see the locks where boats pass through.
While we have seen some fall foliage, it is either not too special in color, or it is past peak. This red tree...beside the overlook where I snapped the picture of the dam was in full glory.
Finally, I found the highlight of the visit. House #5 on the "Managers Row of homes" above the dam and overlooking Lake Wheeler. My Grandfather, Harry Hage, was Superintendant of Joe Wheeler Dam for several years. The then-five homes went from small to large with the Supt. in the biggest. Now they have added a lot more brick homes, and they rent them out. But this #5 is still the home to the Supt. of Joe Wheeler Dam.
The visit was semi-sweet. I remembered nothing of the nearby community Town Creek. Nothing about the dam clicked, except the overlook. The home I knew through the trees before I even got there.You can go back....just don't expect to see what was.....cause it ain't!
Now we are near Tupelo, Mississippi in a campground for the night, having traversed 60 miles of the Natchez Trace Parkway. We'll continue South on the Parkway tomorrow and hit I-20 to begin the trip West to our destination, Dickinson, Texas for Thanksgiving with kids/grandkids there.
More tomorrow night.
Duke
