Day 14 Week 2

Visited the ‘Home of the Tuskegee Airmen’ today. Moton airfield was the primary flight training field for the Tuskegee Airmen. The hanger that the National Parks Service has set up the museum up in, is the original hanger used by the Black trainee pilots. All the surrounding buildings are preserved in as close to the original condition as possible. It is quite a good display.

After this, I travelled slowly through the Georgian back country heading up to the battle field of Chickamauga in the north of the State. I met a number of colourful characters along the way.

Steve Shirah

 Steve and his brother Wayne

This is the 'old' Georgian State flag that Steve gave me. It was the official flag from 1956 - 2001. The Government caved in to pressure to replace it because it had the Conferderate Battle flag on it. There were heaps of protest marches and petitions to keep it but the government went ahead and changed it anyway.

The countryside is beautiful around here.  A lot of ruins scattered throughout the bush.

I am in the town of Rome tonight. I will push on up to Chickamauga in the morning and then travel east through Georgia’s Blue Ridge Mountains into North Carolina.

Day 13 Week 2

I Took the ferry back over to Gees Bend this morning to get Laraine her quilts. I ended up getting two. Both handmade by the local ladies.  The ferry didn’t leave until 11.15 so I had a bit of time to look around Camden and talk to the locals. Met some really nice people.  

These are the quilts I bought her.

The houses are really cheap around here. This house had a for sale sign out the front so I went for a look. It was empty so I took a look around the outside.

I checked out the realtors website and it is listed for $187,000. A lot of the smaller 3 bdrm homes are around the $30,000 mark.

After I had finished with the ladies, I headed off towards Georgia. I stopped at the town of Selma and spent a few hours looking at museums and touring the town.

Tonight I am at Tuskegee, the home of the ‘Airmen’. Tomorrow morning I will be visiting the museum dedicated to them and then heading to Atlanta.

Day 12 Week 2

Had a bit of a look around Indianola, Mississippi this morning. Went to the BB King Blues museum. BB King grew up in Indianola and comes back every year for a welcome home parade. Indianola is in the heart of the ‘Mississippi Delta’ the home of the Delta blues etc. The Delta that they are referring to, isn’t really a delta but a Mississippi River flood plain that extends from Memphis in the north to Vicksburg in the south.  The soils are rich in nutrients from previous floods and make for excellent agricultural use. Cotton is very big around here. The true Delta is the Mississippi River Delta where it joins the sea about 300 miles south.

From here, I headed over to Alabama to a place called Gees Bend. You won’t find it on the maps because it is so small. I had a heck of a time finding it. If you look up Boykin AL in Google maps you are in the right vacinity. You can even see the path the ferry takes on the river. I had to flag down a local for final instructions. It is way, way off the tourist routes and deep in Alabama. Every local I speak to says “What are doing here?” They never get visitors down these parts. I am here on an errand from Laraine to see some ladies about quilts. Their web site is:

http://www.quiltsofgeesbend.com/

This is Mary Ann Petway. She is the Director of the Gees Bend Quilt Collective 

To get back to the nearest town with accommodation, Camden AL, I had to take the ferry or do about a 40 minute drive. I was the only car on the ferry. Total cost....$3.00.  I will going back over the river tomorrow to finish up with the ladies.

Coming in to dock

The houses around here are lovely. Everything is lush and green and all the trees have their spring leaves. Most the homes have expansive lawns of about 3-4 acres by the looks of them.

Tomorrow after I finish, I am headed towards Georgia. I’ll see how far I get.

Day 11 Week 2

Today I am in the heart of the Confederate States of America. Well, what used to be. I am in the Deep South, Indianola Mississippi. Home of the Delta Blues.

 Crossing the Mississippi River

It's a big river

I'm home at last

I travelled across Oklahoma and through Arkansas today, right across Tornado Alley, during the Tornado season, hoping to see at least one and just my luck, the sky was blue and not a leaf on a tree was moving. It was actually really HOT today. It was 81 degrees which is about 27.5 Celcius. Not too hot normally but the humidity really added to the hotosity factor.

Arkansas was really nice. Everything was lush and green and thick with trees. I mean thick. You would really struggle to walk through the bush.

 Typical Arkansas countryside

I couldn’t get over the amount of eagles in Arkansas. There were a few in Oklahoma but in Arkansas, they were as common as Magpies back home. Every few miles there would be one or two circling the Interstate. There was a lot of road kill, so I suppose they have it worked out. One spot there was about 12 of them circling around. I tried to take a pic but it didn’t work real well.

It has been really interesting noticing the changing accents as I travel east and now south as well. I was talking to a fellow in a service station in Pine Bluff Arkansas and his southern drawl was such that I could hardly understand him and he couldn’t understand me so it was like a comedy act. Both speaking the Queens English but asking each other to repeat what we were saying. We had a laugh about it afterwards.   He was filling his car on the other side of the bowsers to mine.

So far I have done 3096 miles or 4982.52 Kilometres since picking up the car. About a quarter of the way.

I think I will spend a few days in the South poking about. There is a lot of Civil War history down here so I will see how it goes.  The people here have been really nice.

Day 10 Week 2

Quiet day today. Drove from Trinidad in Colorado to Shawnee just outside Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 519 miles. Very little to see in NE New Mexico or through the top of Texas for that matter. As flat as a billiard table with farm paddocks dotted with oil rigs. They are everywhere. In the main street of towns and people even have them in their yards.....as you would I suppose.

North East New Mexico

Texas

Miles of nothing in Texas

I stopped for a snack at a little rest stop just north of Shamrock TX. It was still early so I pushed on into Oklahoma. I am making up some time today because I have decided to head further south because I have to run an errand to Alabama and pick something up.

Oklahoma is full of Wind farms.

Oklahoma City - Dirty windscreen

Tomorrow I am heading for Arkansas and maybe Mississippi if I get that far.

Day 9 Week 2

Today was a great scenic driving day. I was able to get off the Interstate again and travel the back roads. The scenery over the Rockies was unbelievable.

Glenwood Canyon

As I climbed higher, the air was noticeably thinner. I arrived in a little town called Leadville. The elevation here was 10,500ft.

Leadville

It looked like a lovely old town so I went for a walk around the main street. Walking even the shortest distance was difficult because the oxygen just wasn’t there. It wasn’t hard to breath, you just didn’t get anything out of it. I stopped at a Pawn shop and got talking to two of the local boys. I ended up buying a Dewalt 18 volt Cordless drill that was brand new for $75. It was too good a bargain to pass up.

Leaving Leadville

I spent about an hour in Leadville, just looking around and enjoying the high Colorado atmosphere. After I headed off, I hadn’t gotten more than about 20 minutes out and had to pull over for a nap. The thin air was making me really tired.  I decided that was a good time to refill the esky.

Refilling with High Colorado snow

As I continued South, the elevation was dropping and I was noticeably becoming more alert. Just north of a small town of Salida, I had to dodge a herd of Deer that were crossing the road.

I decided to stop at Salida, where I had Taco Bell for lunch. I have attached a picture of the prices to give you an idea. I had the Doritos Locos Tacos for $5.49. 2 x Tacos, a Burrito and a bottomless drink for $5.49, what's with that! That would cost about 13 bucks in Australia.  I met a lovely couple who introduced themselves after they had finished lunch. They had heard me talking to the cashier and were intrigued by the accent. He is a truck driver and she works at the local prison. They had a lot of great advice on what to see and do.

I am at the town of Trinidad tonight. Tomorrow I will be heading through New Mexico to Amarillo Texas or somewhere around there.

Day 8 Week 2

“I'll tell you where. Someplace warm.  A place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I'm talking about a little place called Aspen." - Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey), Dumb and Dumber 1994.

That’s right. I’m in Aspen.  Well, today I was. I have retreated back to Glenwood Springs for the night because accommodation is expensive in Aspen. I had to come back out this way to leave tomorrow anyway.  Aspen is the vacation spot for all the Hollywood celebrities. The houses on the hills around there are massive.  Some of the roads around here are still closed so I had to hire a snow mobile and guide to take me up into the mountains to a place called Maroon Lake. The mountains behind are called the Maroon Bells. Very famous spot for photographers. Most photographed mountains on the Northern Continental United States.  Apparently it is elbow to elbow around the lake in summer but because I came at the wrong time, I had it all to myself. Still pretty impressive though.  Aspen is at an elevation of about 7900 feet so we are pretty high. The air is crisp and clear and the sky is incredibly blue. The pictures don’t do it justice... again, I am starting to sound like a broken record with that saying.

This is what the Maroon Bells look like in summer.

 The sky is incredibly blue up here!

On the way up here this morning, I stopped in Grand Junction CO, for fuel (Gas), they look at me weird when I say “I just have to pay for some fuel” Petrol is worse, they haven’t got a clue. I have to say Gas straight off or it becomes like ground hog day for me, repeating the whole thing again with Gas instead of fuel. I haven’t come across a service station that lets you pump first. They are all ‘Pay before you pump’.  You just have to go in and give the attendant an amount $50, $100, whatever and they give you change back at the end. I also had breakfast here and went to Walmart and bought some new shirts.

I also bought another TomTom from a Pawn shop in Grand Junction today for $40. My other one was useless. I have been navigating old school with a map for the last 3 days. Good fun and no problems but a bit difficult trying to read a Rand McNally Atlas spread out over the steering wheel while belting down the freeway at 75mph.

I went and visited the memorial to ‘Doc’ Holliday who is buried here in the Linwood Cemetery. After the shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Doc headed up north, like the Earp’s, and finally ended up here at Glenwood Springs. It is believed he came here for the hot springs to assist him with his consumption. He had chronic tuberculosis. He wasn’t here very long before he was bed ridden for the last 3 months of his life. Dying in bed at age 36.

"I'm your huckleberry. Why Johnny Ringo! You look like somebody just walked over your grave."

Val Kilmer - Tomestone 1993

Tomorrow, I am heading off in the direction of Denver but I think I will turn off before then and head south again. Leaving Glenwood Springs, I get to travel through the Glenwood Canyon. This is the most remarkable feat of engineering. From all reports from the locals, it is an incredible journey.