Last Preparations

Well the departure is tomorow so today was the day of the last preparations. This morning it was the car stuff I had an appointment at the garage for an oil change, I like the syntetic it's better when towing and I'll be due for an other when I come back since I should do more then 15000 km on this roadtrip. Also I had a tie rod to replace on the left side and got the alignement done at the same time it makes for a more relaxing drive. Filled the gas tank, the winshield washer fluid and passed trough the car wash. I also check the air pressure on the trailer and the car including the spares.

Everything is packed up and ready to go including the note on the dashboard : (don't forget to unplug the trailer from the wall.) I only forgot once but my wife makes sure she reminds me once in a while. :)

Tomorow is a small driving day we have only 240 miles / 385 km. to do, we are going to Howes Caverns near Cobelskill NY. We should arrive early enough to visit the caverns, otherwise we will visit them the next morning.

Road Trip 2011 (Getting Ready)

Once again the vacation time is coming, this year the departure will be on October 26 for a 52 days trek. The main destination is San Francisco with scheduled stops in Nashville, Petrified Forest National Park, Death Valley National Park, Monterey, Joshua Tree National Park, Palm Springs, Yuma, San Antonio, New Orleans, Pensacola, Savanah and more..

Needless to say I plan to take a lot of pictures and share some of them with you on this blog. Our first planned stop is in Nashville Tennesse, we have tickets for the grand ol opry a staple of country music and the longest running live radio show in the US.

Meanwhile I've been keeping busy doing the research about the trip, finding the spots I want to see and photograph, tagging them in Google Earth and entering them in my GPS. Wednesday I go and pick up the Travel Trailer from it's summer spot in Dunham and bring it in the driveway so we can start to get it ready for that perticular trip.

More to come as the departure gets closer.

150th Anniversary of the Civil War

2011 is the 150th Anniversary of the begining of the Civil War and it is a great opportunity to visit some of the battlefield parks.

One hundred fifty years ago and for four bloody years the battle raged between the south and the north. This conflict that pitted brothers against one another killed two hundred thousand men and left close to half a million wounded. In the battle of Gettysburg alone the casualties are superior in three days of battle than all the American soldiers killed during the Vietnam war. The slave question is but one of the factors that started this conflict.

Today as you visit these battlefield it makes you realize the scale of the massacre, the markers and monuments are a reminder of real people who gave their lives for their vision of a country. I am interested by history and the civil war in perticular so it was interesting to go visit a few of the sites with my nephew who is very knowledgeable on history and the civil war, we went to Fort Sumter, Fort Pulaski and Gettysburg on this trip we took in january. He also enjoyed it I think.

Fort Sumter

When the first real battle of the civil war started on april 12, 1861 by a mortar fired from Fort Johnson east battery by Capt. George S.James signaling the beginning of the bombardment. Fort Sumter located at the entrance of Charleston harbour was just finished a few weeks before,most of the canons were in the courtyard and not yet installed in their battery position and the garrison was a fraction of what it should had been . The confederates started a bombardment that lasted 34 hours before the federals surrendered and the confederate flag was raised. Eventualy it would change hand again but not before being almost destroyed. the fort was rebuilt after the war and used until the end of WW2.

Fort Pulasky

Located at the mouth of the Savanah river Fort Pulaski was finished building in 1847 a mere 14 years before the beginning of the civil war. At the time it was built to defend against all the weapons in existence. The fort was captured by the confederates with no shots fired before the events a Fort Sumter the folowing april. I was easy for the confederates to take since the fort was occupied and defended by only 3 individuals. The retaking of the fort by the Union forces that started on april 10,1862 and with a bombardment that lasted 30 hours. At the time new experimental rifled canons and shells instead of canon balls were used and prooved that the improoved range and accuracy of these weapons would mark the end of massonry fortifications. The batteries on the fort that were of a very big caliber but without the new technology did not have the range to engage the attacking artillery, when the Union guns collapsed the east side of the forts and that a few shells came pretty close to the gun powder magazines the Confederates had to capitulate.

Gettysburg July 1,2 and 3 1863

This important battle was what is called a "meeting engagement" a type of battle where it starts with a small clash that draws in troups from both sides until you have two huge armies one in front of the others, in this case 95,000 Union troups facing 75,000 Confederates soldiers.

Although sparsely populated Gettysburg was a hub of more then 5 roads and even if it was not the target of an attack by the South it is not a big suprise that the clash started there. That summer of 1863 General Lee and his army were on their second invasion of the north and in the farmlands to feed his army. The position of Gettysburg made it a possible path to attack Washington by the north possibly gaining support trough Maryland who were on the fence at the beginning of the conflict and who had been forced into colaboration. The first day was a victory in the eyes of Lee having removed the yankees from the town of Gettysburg, In the eyes of George Meade the newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac it was a good day since that his foward troops having occupied the rebels in town long enough for the rest of his army to assume the defensive position from Culp Hill to Big Round Top. History would prove him right, although to a modern observer the attack from the south seems like suicide Lee had a strong plan that could have succeded, furthermore at this point in the war he had never lost a battle so his confidence was very high and prone to take risky moves. The result of the whole engagement was the near destruction of the Confederate Army of Northen Virginia and it put them on the defensive for the rest of the war. It was the fight that tipped the balance in favor of the north for the rest of the war. I was the site of the Gettysburg Adress by Lincoln and the point were it became official that this was a war against slavery. The cost in human lives was astronomical even in the prespective of the time.

Today it is a great site to visit, first you can do the auto tour where you drive to one spot, park, get out, take pictures and discuss the history of it with your history buddy, in my case my nepew prooved to be quite knowledgable and interesting in his prespective of it. Inside the main building there is of course the famous Diorama a 360 degrees scaled for prespective model of the battlefield with the walls covered with the remaining  view of the battlefield. The visual of it combined with the presentation give a very detailed and comprehensive view of the battle. A flashback to the nineteen century to be experience by anyone intersted in history.

Big Dan's Gator Walk

One thing I like to do when I come to Florida is to do some hicking on the
multiple trails that exist around here and take pictures.

Some of these trails
are more Gator oriented and since my nephew is visiting and interested in the
adventure we went for this type of trail.

As we approched the trail by the access road that parallels a canal there was a
good size gator on the right side of the road and we heard a splash on our left.
We decided to proceed foward very carefully and I setup to take pictures.
After a few minutes a police cruiser comes along and the officer warns us that
there is many gator around, that they are active and that a few days ago some
people found themselves surrounded by eight gators. Also there was the sighting

of one that is the size of his patrol car.

He recommends us to be very aware of

our surroundings, a reccomendation we take seriously, and by the way he says as

he is leaving... they can run up to 35 miles per hour.

So we proceed on the trail and minutes later we see the one we call Colossus,

without taking a mesure we are pretty sure it is the one the officer was talking

about, like a sniper with his camo suit the gator is covered with vegetation and

he is looking straight at us.

 

We pass by trying to keep our distance but not as
far as we would like since there is another gator on the other side of the trail.
After that we change trail since I want to show my nephew the vultures nesting
area it is a relax trail for a while but then at one point the trail is blocked by 3
gators and I know that past them there is a beach with god knows how many of them
on it.

So we decided to take an other trail that bypass this one, full of vultures but
no gators. After another 1 or 2 km. walk along the swamp my nephew and I are
happy to get back in the truck without having to do the trail backwards.

Next trail we go for the birds.

Kennedy Space Center

Thursday January 6,2011
So this morning we woke up and decided to do a little road trip up the coast to the Kennedy Space Center it's an 150 miles ride almost all highway. I haven't been there in twenty years and Felix my nephew only went when he was 4 so it should be interesting.

The place is better setup then I remembered and with a bigger exposition area, including an IMAX theater and a simulator. and lots of things to see.

The Saturn V (not the one pictured here) rocket is always impresive to see. The size of evrything is very impressive. All in all a good thay that ended watching Tron in IMAX and driving back to West Palm Beach when we got home it was close to midnight.

Dive! Dive! Dive!

Dive! Dive! Dive!
Says the captain of the boat and we all jump together in the ocean, it's my first solo dive fresh out of SCUBA school and I'm a bit nervous, but in a good way as I playback the procedures in my head I intend this to be a safe dive as I plan to do many more. The first good news of the day is that the ocean is relatively calm to the locals it is an unusual occurence at this time of year, for me Neptune decided to give me a break from pucking my heart out to feed the fishes, nevertheless I'm full of triptone a gravol derivative well recommanded by the natives, also I'm eating my ginger as I'm thinking about my fat free breakfast. I'm still nauseous but functional. This dive is a drift diving dive, it is new to me but of course as usual I have researched it and I know the workings of it. As I get on the boat I tell the Dive Leader that I'm new at this and that it is my first solo dive, he introduce himself as Woody and tells me that he's going to be my buddy on this trip. This is the second good news of the day, you can't help being confident when you dive with a diver that has that level of experience. The water is a nice 71 degrees Farenheit and the visibility is a good 25 to 30 feet. They set me up with a 100 cubic feet tank that gives me a nice 3300 psi for my first dive this way I will have enought air to do the entire 40 minutes dive at 50 to 60 feet. The only sad thing is that I can't bring my camera it is rated for 30 feet on that dive it would crush under the pressure. We are told to look for lionfishes that are an invasive species if spotted they will be killed we see quite a few on that dive and the 3 subsequent ones Woody is grabbing some lobster from the ocean floor, supper will be good tonight, as he grabs them I see them Thermidor, Armoricaine and au Beurre blanc. We come across giant turtles the size of small cars one of them swims right by us, how gracious they are in the ocean compared to their demenour on land. As we pass near sharks there is alway a little tought about that movie I saw years ago Jaws it was called. Anyway as Woody is petting the Shark on the nose I think that either he never saw the movie or that that he knows things that I don't (more research about sharks to do for me). On my last dive I can't believe my eyes there is a giant Manta Ray right bellow me, when I say giant I mean it, that thing could swallow my pickup truck.

Photo Time
So today I decided to go diving with a dive instructor that is also a photographer, I looked at his pictures on line before leaving home and that is what I want to do. The plan is for a beach dive (no boat no seasick) at less then 30 feet, I can bring my camera. I get up and it's cold as hell outside 51 F, I think I woke up in Montreal, Well a plan is a plan and I get my ass to the Dive Shop (Force-E Great place and great people) to meet with Mark. Already the locals (except one Tom a wonderful and interesting gentlemen in my age group that dives without a wetsuit) are looking at me strange with my shorty wetsuit and no hood, This time I think they might be right I might get cold the water in in the 65 to 68 degrees, so before we go I aquired a hood and took my gloves along. It is cold to get setup on the beach but once in the water we are fine, Mark told me that he saw a Seahorse on his last dive and that they are a rare occurence, ten minutes in the water and here it is posing for us. My camera works fine the water is clear and with some tips given by Mark before the dive I'm clicking away. Here it is two things that I like doing merge together in perfect harmony and with that big 100 tank strapped to my back I'll run out of batteries before running out of air. We dove for one and a half hour and I clicked away at my heart content and now out of air and batteries it's time to get out. After the feeling of exliration passed and out on the beach the first thing that hits me is the cold, a new experience for me, those who know me for a while or ever entered my office will agree. I took my hoody sweater that I got as a gift from my aunt and uncle and a good 20 minutes to regain my body temperature. The verdict is that I really enjoy diving and I wish I always would carry a camera as I do it, so I see the breaking of my piggy bank in the future.

Seahorse about two to three inches high

Small Stingray taking off after being startled.

Cumberland Island

When you enter Georgia from Florida on the I-95 at exit 1 there is the town of St-Marys, we stopped and camped there from the 29 of november to the 3rd of december before driving north to get home. We visited the region and it is quite interesting, first the little coastal towns of St-Marys in Georgia. and Fernandina Beach in Florida each side of the estuary of the St-Mary river have a charm of their own and are nice to visit. Also due to the presence of the Kingsland Navy Base and it's nuclear submarines there is a submarine museum in St-Marys. There is also Cumberland Island National Seashore that is a protected island that can only be visited with the park boat (reservations are necessary), on this island there is a population of wild horses and ruins of a castle owned and occupied in the late 1800 by the Carnegies. Also on the Florida side there is an old civil war era fort, Fort Clinch that can be visited, the 3 miles road to the fort is like driving trough a tunel of live oaks with their spanish moss. It gave us a chance to rest before heading home.

The Beach at Fort Clinch

Returning to St-Marys fron Cumberland Island