Archive for the ‘On The Road Again…Travels of Gray Gaia’ Category

Atticus Finch: I remember when my daddy gave me that gun. He told me that I should never point it at anything in the house; and that he’d rather I’d shoot at tin cans in the backyard. But he said that sooner or later he supposed the temptation to go after birds would be too much, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted – if I could hit ‘em; but to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird.
Jem: Why?
Atticus Finch: Well, I reckon because mockingbirds don’t do anything but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat people’s gardens, don’t nest in the corncrib, they don’t do one thing but just sing their hearts out for us.

(To Kill A Mockingbird, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056592/quotes?qt=qt0425293)

I am not from the “south” but living in Alabama has not been wasted on me. As a historian and chocked full of tradition and nostalgia it doesn’t take much for me to appreciate the things that make Alabama famous for its ageless stories.

Alabama is full of story tellers. I love a good a story teller. One such story teller is Harper Lee. Harper Lee is best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)—her one and only novel. She is from Monroeville Alabama where every year in the Fall they stage the play To Kill A Mockingbird on the Courthouse lawn. The Courthouse is where the movie was filmed. When I visited this place, the museum and the Harper Lee information center I fulfilled one of my childhood dreams. I have loved To Kill A Mockingbird since childhood. It is a great piece of literature that stands the test of time. I usually am drawn to the theme of the story about social injustice but today I revisited the dialogue when Atticus Finch explained to Jem why it would be a sin to kill a mockingbird.

I came around the yard to the back gate. There on the utility pole was a mockingbird singing at the top of its lungs. He would take flight about the pole and flit here and there while he sang. I thought of Atticus Finch explaining that these birds are music makers for us to enjoy. And like this mockingbird in my yard they just sing their hearts out. They are not a colorful bird, gray and white. A medium size bird about ten inches long. They just sing, feed on unwanted insects in the yard and eat weed seeds. What is not to like about a mockingbird?

Mockingbirds are famous for their vocal imitations. They have many characteristics I never knew about like:

“The song is a mixture of original and imitative phrases, each repeated several times. It will imitate other species’ songs and calls, squeaky gates, pianos, sirens, barking dogs, etc. During the mating season the mark his territory with song. You will see them singing incessantly. Both night and day, hopping from one song post to another. If you see him jumping up and down in the air, he’s catching a few insects! In the Fall, both the male and female will mark their territory to protect Fall and Winter food sources.” (http://www.birdsforever.com/mock.html)

I never thought about any of these things until I moved to the south. Up until then all I knew about a mockingbird was pretty much summed up in the lesson Atticus Finch was teaching Jem about fairness and propriety. It is near impossible to overlook a mockingbird when you see them every day. There is not a morning that I miss waking up to their strong songs beginning each day anew. I agree with Atticus Finch, “ I reckon because mockingbirds don’t do anything but make music for us to enjoy”. Mockingbirds are unmistakeable in their song.

I look forward to mockingbirds flying into the yard and landing on our utility pole. Many times I step out into the yard while on the phone and just about every time the caller comments on the song bird they can hear in the background. That is our mockingbirds reaching through the phone line to anyone no matter where they live.

What a great weekend! We “unplugged” (okay well, except the phone) and drove to the furthest point south in the State of Alabama. Dauphin Island. The weather was perfect. The first morning we started the day watching the rosy dawn with the sound of the Island Ferry docking in the distance. What a great way to wake up. Throughout the day we could see the bay with boats and the ferry coming in and out. And off on the horizon could be seen oil rigs that turn on lights at night that remind me of Christmas lights lit up reflecting on the water’s surface.  Not a cloud in sky, mild nights and refreshing sea air. Ah, we were on “Island Time”.

This little tiny island has so many things to do and within walking distance. You can walk from the campground directly down to Mobile Bay which takes all off 5 to 10 minutes. On the bay there are two great points of interest. The Dauphin Island Sea Lab offers an aquarium as well as the estuairum. The Estuarium is an exciting educational facility highlighting the four key habitats of coastal Alabama: the Mobile Tensaw River Delta, Mobile Bay, the Barrier Islands and the Northern Gulf of Mexico. It includes the 10,000 square foot Exhibit Hall and Living Marsh Boardwalk.

Then further down within site of the Estuairum is Fort Gaines. This is one of my favorite places because I am a history buff. Best known for the battle of Mobile Bay during the Civil War you can stand on the wall facing the ocean and imagine hearing the words of Admiral David Farragut as he said, “Damn to the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

And right outside our camp was the famous Audubon bird sanctuary, Dauphin Island Audubon Bird Sanctuary has my heart  because I have been into birding my whole life. And while we were there the birds were migrating. ” Many species of birds, called neotropical migrants, nest in North America and spend the winter in Latin America. Twice each year these birds migrate the long distances between wintering grounds and spring nesting locations. Each spring millions of birds that wintered in Central and South America are driven north by the urge to establish breeding territories and select mates. They first push north to the Yucatan Peninsula and the adjacent Mexican coast.

Beginning in early March, migrants reach the tip of the peninsula and if the weather conditions are favorable, just after sunset, migrants leave Mexico and head north across the Gulf of Mexico. The trip across the Gulf is 600 miles and with good weather takes about 18 hours. Arriving on the Texas coast midday, some of these birds stop on the coast; but most will fly inland until nightfall.”

As you can tell it was quite a treat to spend part of three days and two nights on the Island this past weekend. And even our dogs enjoyed it. We nestled our small motor home in the middle of four oak trees. The squirrels and birds did not disappoint. They showed up and watched us eat in hopes of getting a morsel. Our dogs, Pip and Lizzie, guarded our campsite until they were exhausted. We have been home a couple of days and they are still recovering from the necessary job of guarding.

This was one of more pleasant mini vacations we have taken. If you get a chance I highly recommend a visit to Dauphin Island, Alabama.

Roll on Columbia

(Woody Guthrie)

  Roll on, Columbia, roll on
  Roll on, Columbia, roll on
  Your power is turning our darkness to dawn
  So roll on, Columbia, roll on...

The other day I was watching a PBS show on saving the salmon on the Columbia River run. It got me to thinking about that area. I am from Washington State and sometimes I forget about growing up in such beauty because I traveled and then traveled some more.

But Washington and the Columbia River region will always be my first love of the outdoors. I was reminded that I grew up so close to nature that I could just step out the door and start walking out of the neighborhood and be in it. One time in grade school I just wandered out the back door to the local Yakima River. Right past the Boise Cascade lumber mill down the banks where an old railroad trestle crossed the “River”. Just wanderin’ along enjoying the river.

I recently reread the Adventures of Tom Sawyer which reminded me of such childhood ramblings. Only the big difference is I was a girl not a boy. So when I got home after ambling along for a while I would “catch it” from my mother. I never understood why until I got older.

The PBS show also talked about the Ponderosa Pines. I now live on a piece of property that has a row of Lombardy Pines that sway in the breeze. They remind of Washington. I love my trees and I found myself reminiscing when I saw this PBS show that the Ponderosa Pines were where that love started for the outdoors. As a teen I would go with my friends up the “pass” and do hiking and overnight rustic camping. Drinking ice cold glacier fed stream water. That was so darn cold! One time I thought I was hot and the water looked so refreshing. I thought I will dive in and get cooled down! I came up gasping for air from that cold water! Gave me a healthy respect for glacier melted water! Another seasonal memory during the Fall was when we would go the “pass” to see the elk coming down for fresh salt licks set out for them. Traveling down memory lane has been pleasant.

Then I moved with my young family to California to a whole new kind of camping. The Redwoods became a favorite as well as the Mount Shasta area. As I got older I traveled to Utah and visited the Wasatch Mountain Range where Park City is located. Taking occasional drives through the Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons only to find Elk on meadows of wildflowers in the Spring.

My love of mountains and hiking continued to grow and my husband I took on the “bois” or forest in Europe. While the terrain was completely different than the west coast of America it certainly was not any less in grandeur. The Waterloo de Bois became somewhere I went several times a week to walk my springer spaniels. And being a history buff I was reminded of the Battle of Waterloo when I would take my walks.

But now I travel the mountains of the southern states of Mississippi. Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. I love mountains where ever I live. And the lower Appalachians are magnificent. Like the Waterloo de Bois these southern states are smack in the middle of history from the first Native Americans to the Civil War.

The PBS show on the Columbia River came just in time for me to think about the need for a break. The words of Woody Guthrie’s song “Roll on Columbia” keep traveling ever so gentle on my mind today….

This month we decided to take a mini vacation. For me vacation usually means taking some school work or office work with me. But this time I decided not to. This time I wanted to go to Ivy Green, the home of Helen Keller.

We, meaning myself, my husband and our two Springer Spaniels decided to hop in the RV and go to Tuscumbia Alabama to see the home that Helen Keller lived in. Since I was a child Helen Keller has been an inspiration to me. So it was hardly an effort to go.

The Keller home is on a tract of land that is 640-acre property. The grounds are kept up by the local Master Gardeners. It was a pleasant day for a stroll through the grounds. If you have seen The Miracle Worker then you are familiar with the water pump where Helen learned her first word, “water”, located behind the main building. It wasn’t long after that she learned everything had a name.

I was excited to visit the cottage that Anne Sullivan demanded that she and Helen live in away from the family so she could help Helen. It was very moving, reliving scenes from the movie! Enjoy!

Ivy Green, home of Helen Keller, Tuscumbia Alabama

When Helen's parent hindered her learning Ann Sullivan demanded they move in the Cottage

This last week we bought a new energy efficient vehicle. We decided it would be a great time for a day trip. Our destination would lead us into places all over Georgia we had no idea existed! My goal was to go to Juliette (where Fried Green Tomatoes was filmed) but when I mentioned to my neighbors, whom are long term Alabamian residents our goal they mentioned a few other places we could travel through. Let me share this journey with you.

As we headed out of Alabama across the border there is a small town called Warm Springs. This cute little place is put on the map because of one of our most famous president’s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who made his vacation home here. There are pools here that are supplied by warm springs which, he believed would aid his polio.So sure was he that the springs were medicinal that he had a vacation home there called “The Little White House”. Of course today it is set up in the Pine Mountain area as a museum. We stopped here and took a trip down historical lane.

Once I got my fill of the pools and his home we moved on to Juliette.  Juliette locals have kept the town set up the same as when the movie was filmed.   According to local information in the early 1900s it “was a booming community along the railroad tracks and the Omulgee River”. It soon became a “ghost town” then producers discovered it in 1991 putting it back on the map. “The river, the railroad and the quaint old buildings provided just the right ingredients for the movie”. And so this was our next stop! I have wanted to go there for a long time.  If you would like to check out more information you can at www.forsyth-monroechamber.com.

That was about as much as we could handle for the first day so we stopped at La Quinta Inn in Warner Robbins. Which is great because we brought our dogs along and La Quinta Inn allows dogs, just an FYI if is important to you.  After a restful night and an early morning walk we decided it was time to travel down to Andersonville where Union soldiers are famed for being prisoners of war during the Civil War. But! What we didn’t know is we would pass through Americus, the home of Habitat for Humanity. (I guess it needed to get its start somewhere.)

I have to say though, as a history student, my goal was going to Andersonville.   My great-great- grandfather spent Fall and Winter of 1864-65 there as a POW. He survived when the war ended in 1865. Andersonville housed 45,000 prisoners-12,920 are buried in there. It was a somber experience.  When my great-great-grandfather was eighty years old his local newspaper wrote an article about his experience whereby he said he “enlisted the 22nd day of July, 1862, at Columbus City, Ohio in the 95th Ohio Infantry. He was in W. T. Sherman’s command”. While his most famed Civil War experience was Andersonville as a POW he also was present at Vicksburg, MS. I was so stoked to be there and experience this family memory.  http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/ms011.htm

And just when I thought I had seen it all we rounded down the road to Plains. Plains is the home of former 39th President of the United States and 2002 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Jimmy Carter. We didn’t get to spend too much time here but it was obvious from the huge fence surrounding his home where he lived. The locals say he is often seen in the local church giving the Sunday sermon. Plains will require a second visit as it has the church, the business where is brother, Billy Carter, had his business, the downtown area, Mr. Carter’s boyhood home, farm and the cemetery where Mr. Carter’s parents are buried. Needless to say it was a great experience.

This was just such a moving experience I couldn’t wait to share it with you. What was really exciting is how close all these sites were to each other. They were all one half hour to and hour to each destination. We spent more time stopped than driving! Great day trip!

Pools of FDR's Warm Springs

Whistle Stop Cafe, Juliette, Ga

Whistle Stop Barbeque pit, Juliette, Ga

Andersonville GA



Andersonville GA



Andersonville GA



Jimmy Carter Visiter Center, Plains GA