FORT DEFIANCE, CLARKESVILLE RIVER WALK

Fort Defiance at Clarksville was named by Union Soldiers after its capture. It was formerly Fort Bruce, and then Fort Sevier. You see remnants of the  dirt embanked fort with few cannon and not even a reasonable shot at ships in the Cumberland River. In other words, little protection was offered by this fort.

It is unique because no great battle occurred here and the interpretive center and park preserve is a story of a city then of 5,000 to 8,000 people during the occupation of Union Troops. Clarkrsvillians certainly joined the war, some on both sides. Many  Kentuckians who were Confederate sympathizers joined in Clarksville since Kentucky was a Union stronghold.

But, back to the fort. While the Tennessee Governor was making speeches about providing 50,000 men for the Confederates to defend their honor and  chosen way of life, the City Fathers quickly made haste to put up a white flag to surrender as soon as they knew forces were marching on their city, a smart decision for two reasons.

First, they were the richest most successful city in Tennessee, and they were industrialized. They had a concentration of 8 great pig iron furnaces and abundant timber to keep them firing. They had the river and the railroads to ship to the  industrialized north their finances were tied more to the North than their slave holding farms were tied to the south.

Much of the information about what occupation was like comes from diaries. Serepta Jordan above…

…and Private Robert Tarpley kept extensive diaries. Union soldiers tried their best to keep commerce flowing, but war has few friends and the people suffered deprivation, lived on hope and made do with little as much as they could. The role of women in this war is extensive. The Union advertised for women and  their ad read like this: “….past thirty, maternal, healthy, plain almost to repulsiveness in dress, and devoid of personal attractions.” They didn’t want young women attracting men away from the war. 20,000 women served in the Civil War on both sides, making blankets and bandages, working as unskilled nurses, cooking and providing food and supplies and so on. Four hundred women disguised as men served in the fields of battle on both sides.

A new business resulted in the need for prosthesis’  Local residents were slowly registered and made to take a loyalty oath to the Union. Many resisted. Some avoided it for as long as possible. Women, too, were required to take the oath and would cross their fingers hidden in the folds of their skirts  so it wouldn’t count.

The war dragged on for what seemed like forever. Slaves rushed to leave and the farmers hands went missing affecting the economy. Everything, including food was in short supply. Plus, oath takers were considered traitors by some guerrilla types hanging out in the woods who would come into town and punish those who “changed” loyalties by burning their house down. Farmers suffered also because the marauders stole their chickens and turkeys. They were difficult times for everyone and risky for all.

And, it was a great stress for people who had to register in order to move about, and get food and other needed privileges, to be overseen by black enlistees.

An aside about Virgil Earp. From the area, he served in the Civil War along side Marion Morrison, John Wayne’s great-grandfather. The interpretive center did a great job in humanizing the civil populations reactions and sufferings during an occupation.

It rained the night through and morning was still wet and threatening when we went out. We decided to try the River Walk and Museum.  The barges were floating on a full river.

The little museum was closed and the river walk flooded.

We drove away and looked back at an old bridge with a high water mark.

 

Natchez, Mississippi – Day 1

Note: Mary flew from Baton Rouge Airport, Louisiana on March 12 to her home in California. I’m hoping to get her back with me by mid-April. My current plans are to drift SLOWLY north along the Mississippi River to Memphis, Tennessee where I’ll then turn northeast heading for New England for the Summer. Can’t go north too fast because it’s still cold up there!
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Yesterday I drove the motorhome the about 110 miles from Baker, Louisiana to Natchez Mississippi. I could have taken an Interstate highway but elected the little longer back-roads route. I could have stopped at a remote Corps of Engineers campground about half-way, but it was hot and humid with no Internet signal and I knew there was an electrical outlet and a fan or air conditioning waiting for me in Natchez.

Along the way I went over the new bridge near St. Francisville. When Mary and I were in this area in 2010 we had to cross the Mississippi River on a ferry. You can read about that crossing by clicking this link…
http://wp.me/pDCku-iq

It’s obviously a lot faster and more convenient…but not as quaint. Another piece of America’s lost.

You can read about this new bridge by clicking this link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_James_Audubon_Bridge_%28Mississippi_River%29

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

A few more miles along the way I went through the small Village of Morganza…population 659. You can read about Morganza by clicking this link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morganza,_Louisiana

Despite being small…it does have a claim to fame. The cafe scene portion of the 1969 classic movie Easy Rider was filmed here. If you do not remember the movie, you can refresh your memory by clicking this link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Rider

You can watch a portion of this scene as it appears between 1:44 and 1:55 on the official film trailer video by clicking this link…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjlxqANj68U

The cafe was torn down a number of years ago and all that remains is a sidewalk monument in front of where the cafe was located…

To read about the making of the movie here, click this link…
http://www.myneworleans.com/Louisiana-Life/November-December-2010/At-Last-a-Monument-for-Easy-Rider/

To see some photos of the making of the movie here, click this link…
http://www.pointecoupeehistoricalsociety.org/apps/photos/album?albumid=8134769

To the left is a Baptist Church and the main intersection of town…

Where they still have a little old gas station…

Continuing along on Louisiana old Highways 1 and 15, the roads narrowed and have been patched over many times since they were built back in the 1930′s. This made for slow going…sometimes below 20 miles per hour. Out into the remote back country for many miles where the main occupations are farming and keeping the mighty Mississippi River in its banks.

Here are some photos…

Reaching civilization once again…I crossed the Mississippi River once again into Natchez, Mississippi…

Where I’m now parked at the Loyal Order of Moose Lodge #1662. Here’s the front view…

And the back view showing the swimming pool area…

And my usual dinette window shot…

Here I have a very convenient location, an electrical and water hookup along with a very fast Internet signal compliments of the Moose Club. I expect to be here about a week.

Enjoying friendly Moose Clubs is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Mississippi. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

Lake Charles, Louisiana – Day 4

The motorhome is parked at the 1,086 acre Sam Houston Jones State Park about 12 miles north of the city. We are here to enjoy Mardi Gras and will depart on February 13th.

You can read about Lake Charles by clicking this Wikipedia link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Charles,_Louisiana

You can read all about the history of Mardi Gras in Southwest Louisiana by clicking this link…
http://www.swlamardigras.com/about/history.cfm

Yesterday was our fourth day in Lake Charles, but the first one with Mardi Gras activity. Before we departed the motorhome Mary got into her Mardi Gras costume. First the R-rated version…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

A close-up while she gets into…

her PG-rated costume…

Off we went to the Lake Charles Civic Center alongside the lake. First event of the day was attending the World Famous Cajun Extravaganza/Gumbo Cook-Off. In a very large room with 1,000+ people and about 30 booths offering their own kind of Gumbo, we wandered in. For only $5 per person you could taste and enjoy as much Gumbo as your stomach would allow and all the time a Cajun Zydeco Band provided some great music. Here are some of the photos from that event…

Then we moved outside for a parade…

A view of the Interstate Highway 10 Bridge as it crosses Lake Charles…

Near the pet parade…

Where there are pets there are going to be kids…

Then back into the building on the second floor for a Zydeco Dance. This couple was the best on the dance floor…

A shot of Mary across the floor taking photos of the band…

I made a couple of videos, but because they gobble up so many megabytes, I have to keep them short…

The first is entitled…Mary Loves A Good Time!!!… (just click the link…)
http://youtu.be/4pViYrkMeug

The second is entitled Washboard Zydeco…
http://youtu.be/G2wbem9EAn4

Moire Mardi Gras stuff on tap for today!

Enjoying Louisiana Mardi Gras is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Louisiana. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

Yesterday Was Our Final Day…

of being tourists in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We had originally planned to depart Albuquerque next Monday, but finally decided we’ve seen all that is worth our time here in Albuquerque and will now leave on Saturday.

On our final tourist day we…

first went back to Old Town so Mary could get to see somethings she didn’t get to the other day. Since they were girlie-type things, I sat in the Bronco and read.

Then we went to the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park…right in the middle of Albuquerque. Here’s the official website link…
http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/prd/rgnc.htm

Here are some photos that I took…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view...

The nature center has an unusual entrance…

I like creating patterns…

The viewing room…

which looks out at this…

the first signs of wildlife…

a couple of Canadian Geese…

we then took a walk along a .5 mile trail…but other than some ants and a few birds saw no other wildlife. Hey, after all, it’s in the middle of Albuquerque. Despite seeing little wildlife we both enjoyed the 1.5 hours of peace and quiet. Being in a large city is really noisy…that’s why I don’t like them.

Here’s a couple of shots of the entrance tunnel on the way out. Like I said earlier…I like creating patterns…

Then we went to see the Rio Puerco Bridge on old Historic Route 66 where I saw some more wildlife…Mary going through a barbed wire fence to fetch a couple of hub caps for her new totem pole back in California…

Here’s some photos of the bridge…

On the way back into town we got to see some older Route 66 Motels we didn’t get to see the other day…

and Jerry Unser’s (of the Unser racing family) old garage…

Finally we stopped at our favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch…

where I had two chicken tostadas…

This restaurant has the best tasting Mexican food ever! The salsa is SO GOOD…we bought a quart of it to take home. All in all…a nice final tourist day in Albuquerque.

Today we will dump the motorhome’s waste tanks and fill the fresh water and propane tank in preparation for tomorrow’s departure. In addition, laundry and food shopping will also get done.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2012
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

McPhaul Swinging Bridge

Jim says:

McPhaul Swinging Bridge: Located 18 miles North of Yuma, Arizona on Highway 95, the McPhaul “Swinging Bridge to Nowhere” is a Yuma oddity. Originally the Dome Bridge, the McPhaul Bridge was constructed by Yuma County and the State of Arizona in 1929. Built to allow users of the Yuma-to-Quartzite road (now Highway 95) to cross the Gila River, this suspension bridge, with a span of 798 feet, currently spans only desert sand and rocks after river was diverted in 1968. Although damaged in 1990 by fire, this bridge outlasted its replacement which was destroyed by the flood of 1993. See 5 photos below I took in 2007.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2011
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.panamaorbust.com

SLIGHTLY BATTY

I currently maintain a tub of water for bats, but I was totally unprepared for a gift of a bat house even though I’ve been accused of being slightly batty.
You will never know how delighted I was to receive a bat house given that bats are the best thing that ever happened to a mosquito, in my opinion.
I’ve had several encounters with bats. One got caught in an old fashioned fly strip, those sticky spirals one hangs in the barn to keep down the flies. Its wings were not removable without doing the bat fatal damage and, in the end, I had to kill it. It taught me that the bat would most likely have eaten twice the number of flies in my barn and I never put up another fly strip.
As kids we used to throw rocks wrapped in white cloth up in the air and watch the bats dive bomb them. One time, I scored by clunking a bat on the head and it came down with the rock. We kids stood in awe and opened its wings and got a good look at it. It trembled for a bit before it was able to fly away.
But the most exciting encounter was in Austin, Texas. A bridge there attracts millions of Mexican red bats under its corrugated structure. At dusk, tourists like myself sit comfortably about the banks and watch as the bats take flight in enormous waves from under the bridge to launch themselves on the insect population up and down the river. For me, what is memorable about that experience, is my husband’s reaction. He grumbled for days claiming: “I can’t believe I’m going to Austin so you can see a bunch of !^#*) bats.” When we returned home, all he talked about was those bats. It was quite a sensation.