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My Journal - March 2000 |
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Today we went to the Jean Lafitte National Park Acadian Visitor Center in Lafayette. We watched a very emotional movie of the Acadian history. They were French who befriended the Indians in Canada and Maine and were forced out and seperated by the English. They were shipped to southern states like Louisiana. They were not accepted for a long time in their new home and when they were accepted over half had already died! Then we went to the Acadian Village. One thing I learned was that to reach a girl's room, you had to go through the mother's room. Guess why! The mother would protect her daughter from tempted brothers and even fathers. The blacksmith's shop was especially interesting! Number one, there was a real blacksmith in it. Number two, he was making things!
First he would put a piece of metal in the fire, then he would take it out when that end was red hot. Then he would take a hammer and pound it into a shape while ite was still hot. If it was done, he would hang it up to cool. If not, he would put it back in the coals. He even made me a lucky horse shoe for free! (It has my initials on it) Meanwhile, he made fireplace tools like a fire poker and a steak turner! We left the village to go along the River Road and to camp.
Today we went to Laura Plantation. (This is going to be a long day, so get comfortable!!) The founders of the plantation were American Revolution veteran Guillaume DuParc and his wife. They had 3 children, 2 boys and a girl named Elizabeth. Guillaume died during the making of the house, so his wife ran it until her retirement in which time she passed it on to Elizabeth. Elizabeth married a French man, but before she married him she made him promise to give here title to his land in France! He owned grape fields that made gallons of wine! Elizabeth had a soft hearter son so she sent him to military school. A few weeks after he was supposed to graduate and still hadn't come home, she sent him a letter that said if he didn't marry land have a baby, then he didn't get the plantation! He came home and married right smart quick! His wife had two miscarriages before she had Laura! Laura's father became owner of the plantation. Oh, I almost forgot, they grew sugar cane on the plantation!
Laura used to play on the covered well and pretended that it was her stage when she was young. One day, a slave came by and she saw he had scars on his forehead so she asked him what happened. He said that when he was a teenager, he tried to run away, was caught, and Elizabeth had branded her initials into his forehead! Laura didn't want to be like her grandmother after that. Her father named the plantation after her, to entice her to come back home. She did come back but only after his death and she only stayed for 10 years before selling it.
Now I'll tell you the history of the house instead of the people who lived there! First of all, it was built in 1805. And second of all it was Creole French, not American they are proud to say! You can tell it's Creole because of it's color. It's a dull yellow on the outside with a red front door, which was added much later and I'll tell you why in a moment.
The house used to have two connecting wings. Elizabeth's brothers lived in them. The oldest brother went just across the border (of their property) and planted a crop of sugar cane. The minute he did this, he was kicked out of the house (as they thought he was competing with them). So….he took his part of the house and moved it to his land! After that burned down, his brother got to thinking that Elizabeth was taking too much space so he moved HIS wing over to the land that been his brother's.
After she died, Elizabeth's son added a middle wing for a children's mess hall! (They had 34 children between them) Now back to the doors. The front door was for show and was only opened once in all it's history! Instead , if the gentleman came to greet you, you went through the gentleman's salon before going into the main salon. If the women of the house met you, you went through the women's salon before the main salon. That was because all your valuable and most beautiful things were in the main salon and a Frenchman would never think of flaunting their wealth! We also went through the kitchen and the dining room. Most of the exciting things of the day happened here says Laura (in her diaries)
The house was about to fall down when it was purchased by a group of investors. They redid it to look just as it did before it got run down! Then we went to Baton Rouge and went to look at the Louisiana State University Tiger stadium which has dormitories built right into the stadium! We also looked at a castle-like capitol building, then went to get a well earned SLEEP!
Today we woke up in the Baton Rouge Wal Mart parking lot. Then we drove to Natchez Grand Village built by Indians that are now extinct! We walked in a loop around the Great Sun's (ruler of the Natchez Indian people) Mound and Temple Mound. We looked at a model of their home and granary. They were farmers and lived widely spread around the area in family farmsteads. Also they had a calendar based on moons. March is the first moon, Deer. Then we went to Melrose National Historic Site. We looked at recreated house and slave quarters and left. We then had a wonderful time in downtown Natchez (Mississippi) looking at historic buildings and walking where we pleased.
We then drove to Mount Locust Stand on the Natchez Trace, a trail that goes from Natchez to Nashville, Tennessee and then on toWashington, D.C.! The inn is the only remaining of fifty that once stood along the Natchez Trace. For 25 cents you had a meal and a nice hard floor to sleep on! (The travelers along this trail were Indians and men who took their things to sell down the Mississippi River. They couldn't take the boat back upstream, so they sold the boat for lumber and usually walked home using this route.) We also went to see the family cemetery and then went back to the car. We were intending to go to Vicksburg for the night but decided not to. Instead, we went to the state park on the site of a city destroyed by the civil war called Grand Gulf! Me and dad looked around then went to bed! The END!
This morning we explored the remains of Grand Gulf. There was a jail and a water wheel, plus horse stables. We went to the look out tower and watched two barges go down the nearby Mississippi River. We then drove to the ruins of Windsor. Windsor was a beautiful house that survived the Civil War only to be destroyed by a careless smoker in 1891. We moved on to Vicksburg, where we made a brief stop at the Vicksburg National Military Park. We hunted for an RV Park and found one so we went to bed!
Today we went back to the Visitor's Center. I got a Junior Ranger booklet and watched a movie. We then went and parked in the middle of the park. We walked 2-2and ½ miles in a circle. Then we went on a quest for landmarks for my booklet. The monument of Illinois was HUGE! Louisiana's was stuck by lightning last year and had to be taken down because of a safety hazard. (They plan to rebuild it) We then drove to the U.S.S. Cairo Museum. The Cairo was an ironclad gunboat that was sunk during the war. Later they brought it back to surface with a crane (that was also coincidentally named Cairo!) We got to walk inside it. One reason it was sunk was it was wooden! We watched a very interesting movie then drove back to the Visitor's Center. I got my badge and we went back to the campground. I played for a while with two girls (one was from Texas and she told me I was lucky to be from Alaska because I lived in the biggest state!) Then I went to bed!
Today we drove to Jackson, Mississippi to do errands. I read through all but two of the stops, the first to Borders Books the second ice cream at Baskinrobins! Then we went to Vicksburg and bed!
Today we drove around Vicksburg and went on a tour of a Civil War time old Bed and Breakfast called a Balfour house. Union Army Headquarters for General James B. Mcpherson, the highest ranking officer to dye on the Union side in the whole war! What dad found interesting was a oval staircase that did two 360s! then we drove along the Natchez Trace in search of a campsite in Jeff Busby Campground. Me and dad went on a little walk and we where out till dark then we had a shrum dinner and went to sleep!
Today we drove farther up the Trace stopping at the Tupelo Visitor Center. I did the junior ranger program and got my badge. We then went to Shiloh in Tennessee off the Trace. We built a huge fire and cooked smores over the coals! We where up till 10:30!
Today we wandered around Shiloh for a whole day! We watched a faulty movie from the 1950's and got some books. Today wasn't all that interesting to me so then we went to camp!
Today we went to Jackson. On tha way we watched a "small" barge that looked really big to me, go through a lock! We then went to Savanna, Tennessee named by a lady from Savanna, Georgia! We went to a museum there to look at Savanna's history! Then we drove to Jackson, Tennessee to meet John and Marilyn Knight who mom and dad knew and who moved to Tennessee when I was 3 and a ½! Then we all camped out in the house for the night and I watched a few movies from the cupboardful before bed!
Today we went to Kenten with John and Marilyn. Kenten is the "home of the White Squirrel!" we saw dozens of them too! Plus if theres a brown squirrel found there, they catch it and "throw" it out of town! It was in the 30's today where as yesterday it was in the 80's! Then we went to lunch and back to Jackson. They had a wonderful supply of movies as I said last night! So I watched movies and ate for the rest of the evening until bed!
Today, we went to WalMart for an unexpected 2 hours! Then we went to Cypress City Park for a walk. We looked at a good number of injured birds (at the Raptor Center). We then went back to John and Marilyn's house, watched movies, ate, and went to bed late (at least 11:30 or 12:00!)
Today we left Jackson and went to a visitor center at Fort Donelson. We watched a movie and left. We went to a very old inn in which the Fort Donelson surrender took place. We then went to the border between Tennessee and Kentucky where a campsite was waiting. We then went to sleep!
Today we went first to the Bison Range, which was really a small pen like a cow's pen. You were guaranteed to see some there, but in the Elk and Bison Prairie they were in a bigger pen with woods so you weren't guaranteed to see them. We saw them anyway! There must have been more than 100, too! We saw only one elk that looked dead at first but then a bison moved in to it's hollow and the elk must have gotten away because when the bison got up, there was no squished elk in sight! (Bison weigh over 1,000 pounds each) We drove ever so slowly through the herd as they were next to the main road. We left the park at lunch and set off for Chattanooga. Only we didn't get there… We did sort of a loop-de-loop and in the process found a couple of interesting places.
Near Shelbyville, we went to a horse farm that breeds Tennessee Walker horses. We got to walk around the stables and my favorites were two babies with their moms. We also found Russell Cave National Monument (in Alabama) It, of course, was closed so we went through South Pittsburg (Tennessee) and stopped for groceries. Mama asked if there was a WalMart nearby. There was so here we are once more in a WalMart parking lot. We did two quick trips in, of course, to show our gratitude, and on my part, entertainment. Both times were long and I almost got bored. I reached page 210 today in Math. Then as always, we went to sleep.
This morning we went to Russell Cave National Monument. This limestone cave was inhabited from 10,000BC to 1565 AD! That's really old! There were three periods- Archaic, (meaning OLD), Woodland, and Mississippian.
The Archaic people lived by the Tennessee River in the summer and in the cave in the winter and fall. They depended on meat and wild plants. They weren't farmers but the Woodland people were and they also spent much time by the river. The Mississippians lived almost all the time by the river and competed for land there. We watched a movie with all that information before leaving. Then we sat for 45 wasted minutes on Highway 24! We tried in vain to get in to Chattanooga Battlefield and finally went to bed at a state park (Harrison Bay)
Today we went to Red Clay State Park. Red Clay was the last stop for the Cherokee Indians before they walked the Trail of Tears from Georgia (we're in Georgia now) to Oklahoma. (That's a long walk! Look at a map!) They have examples of guest cabins, which are very drafty looking with huge openings in between the logs. We also saw a barn, main house, counsel meeting place, and the Blue Hole (a sacred spring) They had their own government , laws, alphabet, and supreme court! They were fine in Georgia but things got worse when they were moved by Andrew Jackson, the president at the time. They also had an eternal flame that actually was eternal and is still burning! They took hot coals from the counsel fire before leaving for Oklahoma. They made new coals as they traveled and so on! They returned the flame to Georgia for a memorial flame about twenty years ago.
We then watched a very bad quality movie and went to Chickamauga Battlefield to the visitor center where I started but haven't yet finished a junior ranger program. They had the largest Civil War time gun collection in the U.S! (Trying to find particular guns with 5 minutes before the center closes is hard, too!) Then we went on a driving tour of the grounds and climbed up into one really big monument. Then we went back to the State Park and went to bed!
Today we went first to Lookout Mountain by way of the Incline Railroad, the steepest passenger rail in the world! So we went up that, came back down, and went to Angie's house. (In Louisville, TN near Knoxville) She has four tiny dogs (Pomeranians) by the name of Ashana who is the tiniest black one with the biggest eyes I have ever seen! Zuritsa, a black one that doesn't' like to be picked up. Electra, a very shy one so I don't know her personality, and last, but not least, Nicky! She's orangish like Electra and likes laps and is a very good beggar! Then there's Rob, Angies' husband, who before he met her wouldn't allow a dog in his house, much less in his bed!
Now every dog in the house sleeps with them! The house is very solid with a loft, a basement, a kitchen in the basement, and best of all, an elevator! It's the only way up to the loft except for a ladder that Rob set up. We got an elevator ride. We also watched DVD movies in the basement, ate dinner, and talked for awhile. Then we went to bed!
Today we left at 3 in the afternoon. We went to the Great Smoky Mountains visitor center, which was closing soon, so we went to a campground for the night!
March, Monday 20, 00We visited an imitation farm at a Smoky Mountain Park ranger’s station called the Mountain Farm Museum. It had everything from a main house to the apple house, and a molasses making thing-a-ma jig! It also had a barn, pig sty, meat house, two corn houses, even a horse and chickens! They also had a black barn cat that came right up to us! The horse liked grass on the other side of her fence and the chickens were content just to be annoying.
We then went to the Cherokee Museum. It was very sad what President Andrew Jackson did to the Cherokee people! Over 2/3rds of the tribe died during the Trail of Tears (a long trip) of sickness, starvation, and exposure! They also had a great selection of legends that I paged through. We then went to a tire place for an hour or so and never got the tires! We then went to a campsite and went to bed!
Today we had the best time at the Biltmore Estate! This place is a country home for George Vanderbilt. It was HUGE! I can’t even begin to explain! First of all to give you an idea of the size of this place, the driveway is measured in miles, the floor plan is measured in acres! We went on a self-guided tour.
First there was sort of an indoor garden with all sorts of interesting plants. Then there was the billiard room, being rehabed. A HUGE dining hall that can fit 60 people at the table comfortably! The exquisite breakfast room and my favorite room, the lady’s drawing room with it’s bed ceiling.
The music room wasn’t finished by George. The living room had huge wall hangings. The library had 10,000 of his 23,000 books! Then, we went upstairs. We saw Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt’s rooms. They had everything! From a bed to electric appliances (unheard of luxuries in the 19th century) Also upstairs were 4 guest rooms and 4artist quarters.
There wasn’t a whole lot to do past that upstairs so we went on tour of the gardens…in other words, more than one! We walked to a building with plants from all over the world! (Conservatory) We had ice cream for lunch and made a quick trip to the winery! Then we went to a campground and hit the sack!
March, Wednesday and Thursday, 22-23, 00
This morning we did errands. Then we drove to Vicki’s house (a friend of mama’s who lives in Mebane, North Carolina) She was really funny. Plus she had lots of animal stories, mostly dog stories. She was really fun! We stayed the night there. After breakfast, we did more errands and then we drove to Cary to visit Dennis, another of mom’s friends. We didn’t really spend much time with him because he got sick and because I read my book most of the time! So then we went to bed.
Today we drove and drove and drove! We went to meet my friend Claire at the airport in Atlanta, Georgia and then went to our campsite and went to sleep!
Today we drove from Atlanta to Savannah. We saw raccoons at the campground near Savannah.
March, Sunday 26, 00 Our Sea Kayak Adventure Begins……
Today we set off in our kayaks. Half way to the campsite, Christopher (one of the guides) "motivated" us (me and Claire in the double kayak) by attaching a rope from his boat to ours! He wasn’t really pulling us, only if we stopped to look at something or rest. We would wait for the ‘tug’ which helped us get moving again! We were also very hungry! But the place where we stopped for lunch had no-see-ums galore! We ate our lunch and got out of there as fast as we could! When we reached the campsite, we set up out tents but I couldn’t go to sleep, and kept getting up, waking Claire up, laying down again. Finally, we both moved into Nancy’s (Claire’s mom’s) tent and finally went to sleep.
This morning we went to the beach. Then at about 10am we kayaked to Long Island! At first, we had a trail to follow, but then our guide, Brian jumped back. A very pretty green and yellow snake’s head was out on the trail! Christopher shooed him away and we went on a different unused way. There was supposed to be an old plantation ruin that we could not find. We headed back to where we had the kayaks. OK, let me get this straight. We’re on rivers only so far. We then kayaked back to camp and again we slept in Nancy’s tent.
Today was rather exciting! First we went to Twin Palms Island and had lunch. Then Dad volunteered to "motivate" us through the 40 knot winds going back to our beach camp! It was very exciting being the "wave breaker" up front in the kayak! When we reached camp it was gray. Then, while walking on the beach, we got soaked by a sudden downpour before we made it to our tents. Our tent nearly collapsed on MY SIDE!!! After the storm, we went back out to have our dinner on the beach and saw fantastic heat lightening! Then, once more, we went to sleep in Nancy’s tent.
Today, we really did SEA kayak! On the way back to Tybee Island near Savannah we went on the Atlantic Ocean route in high winds. We got up a system so that if, say Claire got tired she would tell me and she would take a break for 13 of my paddle strokes, then if I wanted it I could do the same! Our joint breaks were however long it took before we felt the rope tug!
We saw two dolphins during this trip. We took a short snack break, then paddled in to our final beach to finish the trip. That night we went to the Crab Shack for dinner. Claire and I had Alaskan King Crab for dinner of all things! Then we went to bed.
Today, we drove to Orlando, Florida with a rain cloud over our heads! We registered at the Shades of Green Hotel at Disney World. Soft beds! Heaven!
Today we went to the Magic Kingdom. We had the best time ever! There’s not much more to say except that at the moment, I really, really miss my friends! So skip it. Then we went to bed!
