We’re “On the Road Again”! 7/24/2022

 We left Venice yesterday about 11:30 am after days of planning, packing, servicing the RV and settling all the issues necessary to do with the house. Our first visit-style destination is just north of Atlanta at Lake Allatoona, where we’ll meet up once again this year with Wendy’s brother and sister in law (Bill & Laurie Arnold). The lake is huge and the campground is directly on it with a full service marina and beach - no sharks or Apex predators here.

Because this leg is almost 600 miles in total, we’re taking three days to get there, which translates to 200 miles a day and 4 hours of pure driving time, plus lunch stops at rest areas and fueling stops roughly every other day.

Our first night was spent in Alachua, FL, and tonight we’re in Perry, GA.  Since we have already spent several nights in Perry at the end of 2020, we’re not taking time to stop and explore again this time. But for those of you interested in history, I’m posting some pictures taken on our first visit to the area.

Perry is close to one town familiar to you all - Plains, GA, boyhood and current home to Jimmy Carter. We drove around town, went to the family’s peanut warehouse (the first floor now hosts an eclectic gift shop), toured his boyhood farm, and visited his old high school which now serves as a Carter family museum.




















The other local sight is the home of the infamous Andersonville Confederate Prison, holding thousands of Northern POW’s in a large stockade encircled open field during the Civil War. Conditions were horrible with prisoners sleeping in shelters made with sticks and clothing or sleeping completely in the open. Fetid water and open sewers were the norm.
Today this camp is located next to two other sites. One is the National POW Museum (closed due to Covid when we visited) and a large National Cemetery containing the remains of Northern soldiers who died at the prison, along with some veterans of more recent service to the nation.
Notice the tiny headstones in the photo. These stand about one foot tall and are spaced very close together.  So many prisoners died here during the Civil War that to save space, each was buried (without a casket) lying on his side and packed tightly against the next prisoner.
Both the Cemetery and the Andersonville camp are adorned with large monuments given to the sites by Northern States wishing to honor the sacrifice of their soldiers.
These are two of the most moving sites that we have ever seen.














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