One of the last things we did on Dauphin island was tour the fort that was on its Eastern most end.   This fort was here long before civilization crowded in.  The men had no stores from which to buy their food, so they depended on the oysters, fish and alligators for their meals.  It must have been a long, lonely tour of duty as there was not much to do but guard the coast, eat, sleep and find food each day.   Their sleeping arrangements were not the best either.

Hopefully feather mattresses were put on these narrow beds.

Or maybe they just laid down on this and covered up with a thin blanket.

This must have been an officer’s room as he had the fortune to have a fireplace to keep him warm at night.

There were many hand written letters home to family and they typed them up so we could read them as many of the words were hard to read and many were misspelled.   Notice this guy received some shirts from his wife, but the wristbands were too tight!  There were many  letters like this and I could have stayed and read them all, but we had more to see.

Another military man looking at quarters in which he is very happy he was never quartered.   But he had to sleep out in the woods a lot so it wasn’t much better.  He didn’t have to hunt for food, though.

This is another place I wish we could have stayed longer, but we had a ferry to catch.

Out to sea.

Past pelicans and seagulls resting on rocks in the bay.

Past oil rigs that looked somewhat alien in this scenery.

We were driving to Destin, Florida in hopes of spending a day at the beach before we headed north, but near Fort Walton our car starting bucking like a horse in a rodeo.  It would run well for a while until we stopped at a light and starting up, it would start bucking again.  Thankfully, we made it to our motel without hitting one red light after I said a prayer.   We found a repair shop and took it in.  Of course they could find nothing wrong. “Bring it back in in the morning,” They said so we did. David left the car running so the repairman could witness what was happening.  It was a relatively simple fix, but we missed our beach time. So on north we drove.

This will mean nothing to anyone but those who attend my church.  Our pastor talks about how he was saved in Piney Grove Baptist Church and wouldn’t you know it. We drove right past it!  I had to get a picture. There was a man there we hoped knew Brother Bailey, but he was just visiting the cemetery there and didn’t know him.

Then we found this wonderful museum of Alabama history.

I can’t even begin to show you all the pictures I took and how much was in this little museum, but it was wonderful.

Rooms set up to look like long ago.

So many antique quilts.  Many I didn’t recognize the pattern.

Set up for a quilting bee but…..

The quilters were on break.

This hat and purse were made from corn husks.

An old baby bed.  Kept the mosquitoes and flies off baby.

Besides the museum. there were buildings to see.

A general store that was full of old general store stuff.

A church heated by an old cast iron stove.

Lit by kerosene lamps. I told David it would be wonderful to decorate this church for Christmas with a tree and holly and have the lamps lit, the stove heating the room and having a church service at night. It would be magical.

And Pastor David said, “Yes, that would be nice.”

There was an old chicken house, but no chickens.

A covered bridge and several other houses to see.   And then it was time to move on.

Through more little southern towns with beautiful houses with big front porches.

Until we came to another town where we found this park.  Another place off the beaten path.  Not a tourist trap, but well worth seeing.

Over a bridge…

To a beautiful falls.  It was roaring like Niagra.

History tells us that an Indian maiden, betrothed to a man she did not want to marry because she was in love with another, jumped to her death at these falls.  No woman should ever have to marry someone she is not madly in love with.

I would have probably done the same thing if I were being forced to marry someone I did not love.

Back on the road again and what do I see ahead???????

We passed it, David, go back!

I can’t believe it. It’s a Haunted Chicken House!  Opens in October.  Road trip!!

So many cars with chickens on the top.  There was a big building there where the haunted part was, but I was loving seeing all these cars with the chickens.  So funny.   And I can’t even tell you what it’s near so we probably could never find it again.

Many times serendipitous things happen to us. Like when David missed his turn in a town and right at that very moment when he knew he had missed it, we saw to our left a part.  This park had log cabins on its grounds and a walking path.  “Let’s go in!”  And we did.  I walked  and looked at all there was to see.

A bridge to walk and fountains.

A log cabin with plaques of “dead mothers,”  There were a lot of them.

Another old cabin. I love cabins.  I would love to live in one.

There was a little free lending library there where you could take a book and leave one.  There was a book I really wanted to take, but I didn’t have one to leave so I passed it by.   The paths in the park wove round and round and it really was so easy to walk a mile without even thinking about it.  I walked around for quite a while an met this man walking his macaw.

He told me he walks it every day.  His name is Bobby.  The macaw, that is.  This guy is an old Navy man.    That bird was so tame, it just walked on his arm and sometimes over his shoulders and back to the other arm and he talked as it did it like it was the most normal thing in the world. You meet the nicest people and their birds while walking in a park!

Coming through Kentucky, we stopped at this Lincoln memorial.  There are exactly 56 steps up to the memorial.  The age President Lincoln was when he was assassinated.   So young.

This log cabin was inside the memorial. At one time it was believed the Lincolns lived in this cabin, but in recent years and with testing of the logs, they learned the cabin was too new to be of that time.  So it’s kept as a memory of log cabins.

We walked this wooden walkway back down.

There was  a little museum where we watched a movie about Lincoln’s life.  It told that although we have learned that Abraham Lincoln’s family was very poor, they were actually middle class and very probably upper middle class at that time in history as they had been able to buy a farm.  Sadly that farm was lost because the deal had not been done legally by the seller.   They bought another farm and it was lost too.  Evidently Abe’s father wasn’t too good at making deals.

I found this picture of Lincoln made from pennies very interesting.

The Lincolns probably did get water from a spring here on the property.

Then it was time to get home driving through rain over the Ohio River in Louisville.

We are in Indiana!  Yay!

And back to home sweet home.

To one of the prettiest gardens I’ve seen except for Bellingrath Gardens.   And I didn’t miss any of the blooms.

The magnolias were magnificent.

The daffodils had not faded.

The azalea was as pretty as any I had seen down south.

And the redbud was bursting with bloom.  It was good to be home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And David was so glad to get home because he was starting to look like that old man in “Up.”   Sorry I don’t know how to turn this picture, so lay on your side and look at it.  We have laughed so hard at this.   He did this playing with his cellphone one night.

Here’s to traveling and all the sights we’ve seen. Bye.

David and I love to travel.  We have been in every state in our country except for Hawaii for David and Hawaii and Rhode Island for me.  Some of the states we have visited several times. We love the west.  But we love the south, north and east also.  It was hard deciding where to go this year. Since we have not spent a lot of time in Mississippi except the time when my brother and his family lived there, we decided to travel that state to the Gulf.  We also planned a stop in a town where one of our favorite television shows is filmed.

I was having mixed feelings about leaving my pets this time as our favorite pet sitters have closed their business.  They are older than us, so I was not surprised that they had decided to do so, but I was worried at finding a new pet sitter. Then someone suggested a girl who attends our church so I called her and she came and visited and I at once felt calm about leaving my dogs and chickens with her.  The dogs loved her the first time they met her.  As dogs are very good judges of people, I knew she would be very good to them. She is a really sweet girl and very good with animals as she works at a dog daycare where I plan to take Molly this Summer for some play with other dogs as Belle would rather sleep than play.

So we left and I actually cried a little at leaving them and all the flowers that were in bloom around our house.  Crazy, isn’t it?

The daffodils and magnolias were blooming and here is my crab apple I really hope won’t bloom and be gone before we get back as I wait for it every year.

So off we set.

Down the road.

Through little Indiana towns.

Over the bridge over the Ohio River.

And south.

We stop at little out of the way places. Not a big tourist site, but interesting.

A park where we stretched our legs.   Walking around the paths twice was a quarter of a mile. Yes, I am counting my steps again.

This old house was next to the bridge park and there were feral cats coming in and out of it.  I think they have taken it over.

There is something about old, abandoned houses that interest me.  I often tell David if I were a billionaire I would travel the country and restore these old houses to their former grandeur so people could again live in them.  What history would this old house tell?

We passed many old houses the first day as we traveled further and further south.

Wouldn’t this house be beautiful if repaired and brought back to life?  Now a farmer keeps his tractor parked where the cars use to park.  I could see me having a sewing room in that upstairs room with the big windows.

There are still a few log cabins around. When I was a girl, there were two log cabins near my home. My brothers and I use to have walnut fights in one of them.  Those cabins are long gone.  It appears someone is trying to preserve this one with a new metal roof on the porch.

 

You don’t see these houses driving the interstate.  This one must have housed a large family at one time. I think of the Waltons looking at it.

Besides houses the trees and flowers were in bloom everywhere the farther south we got.

This is what my crabapple looks like every Spring.  At least I got to see a flowering crabapple this year.

Beautiful blooms everywhere.

Then, we noticed something strange ahead.

I believe they have landed!   Don’t know what this was.  But it looks alien.

I always think of the south when I see azaleas.  Even the most humble home looks wonderful with azaleas blooming in the yard.

Another park where I walked in a wonderful southern town with lots of old houses.

They really knew how to build them.  Many houses built today are all pretty generic.

This house looked like a castle.

David was trying to get out of all the pictures I was taking!

Big front porches where one could sit and rock and sip sweet tea.

I fell in love with this little house and it had a name.

If I were a little old lady(well, I kind of am) and didn’t have a husband(which I don’t want to happen), I would live in a little pink house like this with a dog at my feet and a quilt to work on in my hands.  I would invite people in for sweet tea and cookies.

I love the ingenuity of people. Who thinks of planting flowers in an old boat, but it works.

A pumpkin colored house.  We are getting our house repainted in a year or two.  Think this would be a good color!

Some of the houses had little carriage houses in the back converted to something else.

Then we got to one of our destinations.

Down tree covered streets with large live oaks covering them. Past beautiful parks. This town had so many parks.

Live oaks, a tree that is everywhere in the south.  Thankfully, many have been allowed to grow to this size.  Many dripping with Spanish moss.

Roses blooming in profusion.  Then we reached our destination.

We were in Laurel, Mississippi.  The site of the home renovation show Home Town. This is Ben and Erin Napier’s mercantile.  Of course I bought a few things here. It was a cute little store.  I was hoping maybe one of them would show up, but I am sure they have better things to do.

So on south we went.  I will write more soon. Bye.