Apr 11, 2013 - Augusta - A day at The Master's; a day on the Canal

Our trip to Augusta revolved around our getting two tickets to the Master's for the Wednesday Par 3 tournament from my buddy Ray Hable. It was great to meet up with him and his friend Ed for a few hours, watching a good number of the pro's participate in the Par 3 event with their families in tow, and catching up on 20 years of each others life. Stopped at Founder's Circle for the obligatory photo, which is now provided by the Club free of charge. Just keeps getting better. Thursday was for relaxing and exploring, so a trip down to the...

Jan 29, 2013 - The Peach State - Georgia on My Mind

Tuesday, January 29, 2013 Greetings from the great state of Alabama, home of the Screaming Eagles – Auburn University. We gained an hour due to Central Daylight Savings Time. We arrived about 2:00 PM, relaxed got a shower, I took a Calhoun snooze, then we went to eat in Montgomery, AL. Adjusting to the new weather standards 70 to 75 degrees during the day and 50’d during the night. At 8:30 PM it is currently a calm 76 degrees. No wonder people go south in the winter time… It is predicted we are going to get some bad weather tomorrow...

Oct 11, 2012 - Here we go again.....

We left home about noon today and headed south on US25 to Augusta, GA. We are on our way to Waycross, GA for Saturday's Bates Family Reunion. John's mom was Dorothy Bates, the 8th of ten children. The reunion is for family members of those ten children....and there are a few. Only one spouse of the ten children, the wife of the youngest, still survives. John and I are the next generation, and we have family members who are our generation's grand- and great-grand children. Tomorrow we will get into Waycross and set up camp on the grounds of...

Jun 7, 2012 - Downtown Augusta

Today we toured the Woodrow Wilson boyhood home. It was the pastor 's residence for the first Presbyterian church. The church was very prosperous and the home had running water and gas lighting. It was completed in 1859. It was furnished with Victorian furniture. Woodrow lived here until age 12 and witnessed a medical care of both union and confederate soldiers in the church yard. This most likely helped to develop his aversion to war. His neighbor, Joseph Lamar, became a supreme court justice and his home houses the visitor center. We...

Jun 6, 2012 - Fort gordon

Yesterday, 6/5, we visited the army signal corps museum at ft Gordon. It is self guided and has wonderful informative displays of the history of the signal corps which Began in 1860. Just as we were about to leave, new recruits came marching in for a history lecture. We stayed and found out a lot about this part of the army. The corps was founded by Albert j. Myers in the new Mexico war, just prior to the civil war. He developed a system of flag signals to be used in battle -after observing ones used by the Indians. Later he developed use...

Jun 4, 2012 - Augusta, GA

we arrived in Augusta on 6/1. yesterday 6/3, we took the civil war tour in a replica petersburg canal boat on the historic Augusta canal. It was first placed in service in 1845 and led to Augusta being an industrial center before the war. During the war, 3 million pounds of gunpowder were produced here as well as uniforms and food. Augusta was a cotton mill center until late in the 20th century. We also visited the historical museum and viewed exhibits on James brown the godfather of soul, who is an Augusta native. The museum had an...

Feb 18, 2012 - I Love Atlanta

Quick update: Went to the Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the world. Pretty sure 5 million of the 6 million people that live in the Atlanta area also went to the Georgia aquarium that day. Parker especially liked the dolphin show. I thought the big kids liked it until I asked Easton if he liked the aquarium. "Not really." (me: why not?) "There was just too much fish there". Well, it is an aquarium. Easton's day was made MUCH better when we went to the World of Coca-Cola, especially the area of that place where you have all the pop...

Jun 6, 2011 - We are back...:)

Hey friends & family, We are hanging out at Petersburg Cg, on the J.Strom Thurmond Lake, located 22 miles north of Augusta. (15 miles from Terri & Harry's in Evans). This is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineer cg & the lake is 72,000 acres & has 1,200 miles of shoreline. We are volunteering on the weekends at one of their day use areas & will until Labor Day weekend. In exchange we have a site on this beautiful lake. We do a lot of kayaking, biking, hiking. The only draw back is it is HOT!!! We are planning on returning to Amazon in Oct. for...

May 28, 2011 - Our Day in August

From Charleston we headed west (other than north or south, that's pretty much the only way to go), to Columbia, SC to visit some old friends, Jeannie & Clarissa Childs. Clarissa went to school there on a golf scholarship and her parents followed her there about 5 years ago. Larry passed away last December and we would have loved to spend more time with Jeannie but had reservations waiting for us outside Augusta. State and National Parks are great places to stay when you can, because the sites are much bigger, more private and also less...

Apr 4, 2011 - Augusta, GA

Ventured into town yesterday despite the Master's Golf Tournament being this week. Actually, the traffic wasn't as bad as we thought and we even ate dinner out with no waiting. Lots and lots of people on the side of the road buying and selling tickets to the events. Passed the golf course but there was a guard posted at every gate so we obviously couldn't get in without a ticket. Did go to Riverwalk downtown which was very beautiful as all the dogwoods and azaleas are in bloom. Took a few pictures for the journal. Riverwalk is much nicer...

Mar 16, 2011 - Points West Army Resort

We're staying just outside Augusta at Points West Army Resort which is part of Ft Gordon. It's actually 30 miles from the base so we only go to the commissary when we run low on meat and produce. Milk and bread we pick up at the local store. We got lucky here. They had us assigned to a lot that was too small for the bus. It happened one of the maintenance men was out there at the time and he directed us to a lovely lot right on the water. When I went back to advise the office staff of the change, I found out the lot is designated for park...

Nov 27, 2010 - Georgia Welcome Center, Near Augusta

Greetings - we are now back on the road and heading south towards Alabama and a brief stay there to visit with Jerry's Mom who might be requiring some surgery early in the month. Then we have some recall issues with our refrigerator that might take us back up to Red Bay for a brief visit, and then hopefully we will be heading back out west. We left Camp Meade early this morning in hopes that we might beat some of the anticipated heavy traffic on the Thanksgiving Day weekend. And we certainly found it on the I-95 corridor. But it was as...