Van Tour 90 Florida 2002

Roadtrek Tour No. 90

South to FloridaFebruary 2002

26 Days

3,435 Miles

Itinerary

Feb 17- Mar 14, 2002 Tour No. 90South to Florida (28 Days)

Canal Walk, Richmond, VAHoliday Trav-L-Park, Smthfield, NCFayetteville, NCSantee State Park, Santee, SCSun City, Hilton Head, SCDarien Inlet Harbor CG, Darien, GAFort King George Historic Site, Darien, SCMarjorie Rawlings St Site, Cross Creek, FLSouthern Pines RV Resort, Eustis, FLFrog Creek CG, Palmetto, FLGamble Mansion, Ellenton, FLMarie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota, FLRingling Mansion, Sarasota, FLSelby Gallery, Sarasota, FLMadria Bickel Mount State Site, Palmetto, FLYulee Sugar Mill Site, Homossa Springs, FLManatee Springs State Park, Chiefland, FL

Natural Bridge State Site, Natural Bridge, FLSt George Island State Park, Eastpoint, FLApalatchicola, FLCotton Hill Corps of Engineers CG, Ft Gaines, FLFort Gaines Village, Ft Gaines, FLConfederate Naval Museum, Columbus, GAClemson University, Clemson, SCParis Mountain State Park, Greenville, SCBMW Factory, Greer, SCFurniture Discovery Center, High Point, NCHagen-Stone Park, Greensboro, NCDuke Homestead, Durham, NCRichmond-Americamps, Ashland, VA

Richmond, VA

Log Entry: Stopped in Richmond, VA to have lunch and walked the Canal Walk next to Shockoe Slip. Had a heavy snow shower while eating but it cleared and we were able to walk the canal next to the James River, which opened a few years ago. It was cold and windy but invigorating. Several new businesses have rebuilt buildings in the area and the cleanup is impressive.

Canal Walk

NC & SCLog Entries: • Arrived at Holiday Trav-L-Park at 4:15 PM. The campground owner has an extensive HO train layout, which is open for campers to see and he also, collects miniature state police cars. • Stopped for a walking tour of historic downtown Fayetteville, NC. There is a lot of renovation going on with many old buildings being fixed up or torn down and new wide brick sidewalks and large flowerpots installed along the streets. There is lots of free parking. Walked around the renovated old slave market building in the middle of town. • Arrived at Santee State Park at 1:30 PM and got a flat pull-thru right on Lake Marion.

Lake Marion HO Train Layout

Old Slave Market

Darien, GALog Entry: Stopped in Darien to tour Fort King George Historic Site, a reconstructed fort on the Altamaha River and the first settlement in Georgia. The tour started with a 10-minute film and visit to a small museum. We walked a nature trail leading to a recreated Indian settlement and then on to the moated and palisaded earthen fort with blockhouse, officer’s quarters and barracks. The original fort burnt down during the Civil War. The blockhouse has many openings in the floors and walls for firing muskets and a guide in period costume demonstrated the loading and firing of a musket. The English, French and Spanish all fought for this coastal area. The site was also used as a sawmill from the late 1700’s through the early 1920’s and the remains of a mill pond and circular sawmill still are there. The town of Darien is a shrimp boat homeport. Fort King George

Brunswick, GA

Log Entry: Continued on to Brunswick, GA where we took a walk along the Riverfront Park with private marinas and commercial docks. The area also has many shrimp boats.

Shrimpers at Riverfront Park

Cross Creek. FL

Log Entry: Stopped Cross Creek to tour the Marjorie Rawlings State Historic Site. Rawlings wrote the Pulitzer Prizewinning novel the “Yearling” and later “Cross Creek”, a chronicle of her life in the area. The local residents sued her for her portrayal of them in the second book. She bought the house, a four-room structure built in the 1800’s with two additional houses later added to it, in 1928. Her house is shown as it was in 1941, with original furnishings, crude rural electricity and indoor plumbing. There was never a phone because she didn’t want to be disturbed. The yard and adjoining orange grove even has chickens running through it. A cream colored 1940 Oldsmobile, similar to hers, sits in the nearby carport. The typewriter she used to write the “Yearling” still sits on the front porch where 6 of her 7 novels were written. She sold the movie rights to the “Yearling” for $25,000 and the book was published all over the world. Our elderly guide was a “friend of a friend” of Rawlings and had many wonderful stories. The house was willed to the University of Florida, Gainsborough who turned it over to the state after 16 years. The grounds include walking paths through a hammock of many trees including cypress and palms.

Marjorie Rawlings Home

Ellenton, FL

Log Entry: Drove to Ellenton, FL just south of us on the Manatee River to go though the Gamble Mansion, the manor house for an 1850’s sugar plantation and the oldest building in Manatee County. To open the Florida wilderness, the U.S. Government gave 160 acres of land to any man who settled here. Gamble bought additional land to total 3,500 acres and he planted sugar cane. Two hurricanes and a fire resulted in his bankruptcy. The property was sold to Major George Patton in 1872 and the family later abandoned it to avoid the cost of maintaining it. In 1920 the Daughters of the American Revolution bought the property and eventually gave it to the state of Florida. They operate it as a memorial to Judah Benjamin, Secretary of State of the Confederacy, who hid there after the Civil War to avoid capture. He eventually made it to England. The house is grand with 18 columns supporting the roof, which spans over a three-sided veranda. There are actually two buildings, to separate the kitchen, under one roof with a “dog trot” between them. The structure is built of stucco over “tabby” brick, which is made with Oyster shells. There are unusual artifacts in the house, which is decorated in two periods. The first, in the front section, as it was in the late 1800’s and the second, in the back, as the Gamble’s office. There is a large cistern along side the house for the collection of rain water off of the roof, since the local well water was not safe.

Gamble Mansion

Sarasota, FL

Log Entry: Drove down to Saratota, FL to tour the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. There are 9 acres of gardens and a Tropical Display House, which features epiphytes, or air plants and varieties of orchids. An elevated boardwalk winds through mangrove swamps and a second one goes right through the middle of a grove of Banyan trees. There were many flowers in bloom including Hibiscus in every color, Roses, even some cactus. There is a butterfly garden and a separate building housing poison dart frogs from the rain forest. They are very colorful: blue, green, black and white and there skin is rubbed to get the poison for dart guns. There is also a tarantula that is fed live baby crickets. Banyan trees including Fig trees, which are parts of the Fiscus family is located in a separate grove. We had an enjoyable few hours and the staff was very nice and knowledgeable.

Selby Gardens

Sarasota, FL

Log Entry: We next stopped at the Ringling Museum, hoping to go through the Ringling Mansion, Ca d’Zan, with tickets we had from last year when it was closed for restoration. It was still not finished. The exterior is Moorish design with a marble piazza and dock. The main entrance is lined with royal palms and there is a lot of statuary.

Ca d’Zan

Palmetto, FL

Log Entry: Arrived at Frog Creek Campground at 2:45 PM after inquiring at a couple others. It was the only one with space, which surprised us. The campground filled in the PM. Got a sandy site in live oak trees and had to level with blocks because of big tree roots. We are near the creek which the campground is named for.

Frog Creek

Florida

Log Entry: We drove to nearby Madria Bickel Mound State Site which is a flat topped temple reached by 30 steps and then continued on to the beaches on Anna Maria Island. On the bay side, we walked out a fishing pier where pelicans entertained us. We then drove over to the gulf side to walk the beach, which has very coarse sand with a lot of broken shells in it.

Log Entry: Stopped in Homosassa Springs, FL to see the Yulee Sugar Mill Site and that's about all it is, a site. There are the remains of a boiler, steam engine and breaker rollers to crush the sugar along with some large vats to cook the sugar. David Yulee, Florida's first senator, built the original 1851 mill.

Yulee Mill

Anna Maria Birds

Manatee Springs, Florida

Log Entry: Arrived at Manatee Springs State Park at 1 :00 PM and got a flat, sandy site in heavy woods. Walked to the springs and then down to the Suwannee River along a raised boardwalk in the cypress swamps. There are many "cypress knees", which are roots that rise up for oxygen and look like bent legs. The trees along the river are full of buzzards. Saw five manatee in the river but they never surfaced, they only put their breathing holes above water every few minutes for air. There were 5 scuba divers and 1 snorkeler diving at the spring which is a constant 72 degrees. The spring appears blue because of minerals.

The Springs

Natural Bridge, FL

Log Entry: Stopped in Natural Bridge, FL to visit Natural Bridge State Site. The natural bridge is an earthen section across the St. Marks River where the river goes under ground for about 40 feet and rises on the other side. The road across it is unpaved. During the Civil War, Union troops were attempting to go up the shallow river to capture Tallahassee but they went aground. They were repulsed in a battle with Confederate forces made up of men as old as 70 and boys of 14 to 16 from the West Florida Seminary, now Florida State University. The Union troops returned to Key West. A monument marks the site of the battle.

State Site

Eastpoint, FL

Log Entry: Arrived at Saint George Island State Park at 1 :00 PM and got a flat site in trees surrounded by vegetation. We were going to spend two nights here but could only get one. We walk the nearby beach, which was strewn with dead starfish. We did get to have cocktail hour outside. We were 12 miles from the Central Time zone and most of the TV stations were an hour behind us, very confusing with the national shows on at 8 Central and the local programming on at their regular time. In the morning, at 7:15 AM we put on Good Morning America only to find it was only 6:15 in Panama City where it was coming from.

The Beach

Apalatchicola, FL

Log Entry: Drove into Apalatchicola, FL (CST) for a historic walking tour. Most of the homes are from the 1800's and many are being renovated. The town was a cotton port in the 1830's and later a port for shipment of lumber to France. The French maintained a consulate here in the Grady Building and there was a local Customs House. Longtime resident Dr. John Gorrie invented the ice machine in 1850 during his battle against yellow fever and there is a state museum in his honor. We didn't go through it because on Central Time it was too early. Today, the town is a sleepy little shrimp port with many antique shops. There are window boxes full of petunias and snapdragons at many shops.

Shrimp Boats

Customs House

Fort Gaines, FL

Log Entry: Arrived at Cotton Hill Campground (Corps of Engineers) for a two-night stay and got a flat graveled sight in scattered trees, overlooking Walter F. George Lake on the Chattahoochee River, for $8 a night (Golden Age). Had our own private "gaggle of geese". The violets are up, Fay's favorite flower.

Cotton Hill

Fort Gaines, FL

Log Entry: Drove into Fort Gaines in the morning to see Fort Gaines Village. It is high on a bluff overlooking the river and has log cabins, mills and a replica of the 1814 fort.

Fort Gaines

Columbus, GA

Log Entry: Stopped in Columbus, GA to go through the Port Columbus Confederate Navy Museum. Today was the first anniversary of the newly rebuilt museum and there was a special event called "Riverblast" with many Confederate and U.S. Navy and Marine Corps re-enactors who spent the weekend in a tent city on the grounds. The museum has raised the hulks of the CSS Jackson, the Confederate Navy's largest ironclad and the CSS Chattahoochee, a gunboat and both are on display. The museum has a partial replica of the USS Hartford, the ship where Admiral Farragut said, "Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead" during the battle of Mobile Bay. The ship has furnished quarters and a replica of the "sick bay".

Confederate Naval Museum

Columbus, GAContinued: There is a timeline of the Civil War with artifacts and several original battle flags. The original "Anaconda Plan", now being used in Afghanistan, is explained as Gen. Winfield Scott's blockade of the Confederacy's coastline and up through Texas to Indian territory to squeeze the south and keep it from receiving supplies. The timeline is very well done. The Confederate Navy Band (re-enactors) played during our tour of the museum. A theater, reached by boarding a replica of the ironclad gunboat, CSS Albemarle, had a film with a cannon volley sinking the ship as the end of the show. Outside, the re-enactors fired a naval cannon raised with the CSS Jackson and fire was returned from a small ship in the river.

Confederate Naval Museum

Greer, SC

Log Entry: Stopped in Greer, SC to go through the BMW Factory Museum called "Zentrum". There were no current plant tours because of model changes. The visit started with a 15-minute long "virtual reality tour" 3-screen film of the assembly line. It was in a Disney like theatre where you stand against padded rails and see the screens as if you were in a car being assembled. After the frame and body are complete, they go through a four-bath rinse and prime against corrosion. The car is spray painted by robotic arms, which open and close the doors and trunk as they paint. The doors are removed for sub assembly and then the car is completely assembled and the drive train installed.

BMW Factory

Continued: We next saw a model X5 SA V (SUV) which was crash tested at 40 MPH t>y the Insurance Institute. A film of the crash showed the collapse of the front end with no apparent damage to the dummy driver or the passenger compartment. We next looked at a gallery of autos and motorcycles produced through the years by BMW. They included an early model roadster, an Isetta mini-car with a front that opened for entry, an older motorcycle and a Z3 model convertible driven by James Bond in a movie. The license is SC 007. There was a Z1 Roadster with doors that retract down so you can jump in when the top is down.

Greer, SC

BMW Factory

High Point, NC

Log Entry: Our next stop was at High Point, NC to see the Furniture Discovery Center. The center starts with a display of fumiture woods from around the world and where they grow. For the kids, there is a talking tree called "Harvey Hardwood" who tells a story about woods. The history of furniture styles is shown in various pieces of period furniture. There is a display on how wood is veneered and hands on displays on how wood is shaped by machines. There is a multi-station wood lathe that shapes many spindles at one time from a tracer pattern. A mockup of an assembly line for a highboy chest shows how components are assembled and then finished. Another display shows how textiles are designed and cutaway pieces of upholstered furniture show how it is constructed. There is a series of miniature bedroom scenes with furnishings of famous people in history, including King Tut, Queen Elizabeth I and Kubla Khan.

Furniture Discovery Center

Durham, NC

Log Entry: Stopped in Durham, NC to tour the Duke Homestead, a state site. Washington Duke started his farm in 1852 on 300 acres of land, which he farmed without slaves. He was drafted into the Confederate Army in 1963 after the outbreak of the Civil War. When he returned after the war, he found that Union soldiers had taken much of his tobacco and he had little to take to the auction.

Duke Homestead

Log Entry: He decided to process the remaining tobacco as "smoking tobacco" by beating it with sassafras branches to break it up, adding a sweet flavor, and then sifting the broken leaves through a sieve and packaging it in muslin bags in order to make more money. The product proved popular and the family next began making hand rolled cigarettes at about 4 per minute. In 1874 Duke quit farming and moved into Durham to concentrate on cigarette production with tobacco.

Durham, NC

Duke Homestead

Gregg Graphics Gradyville, Pa.

A Presentation of