Perry, Georgia

Heading South out of the cold

It was a cold (-2 wind chill), windy day when we picked up this Winnebago unit, a 39 ft Latitude with a 340 hp diesel Freightliner engine. Lots of room even without the slide outs extended. We were pleasantly surprised with the good gas mileage (9mpg) for a unit this size, especially with the price of fuel. The highest price we saw advertised was $3.89.
We chose to take a route south into St. Louis, MO, discovering that we had followed a storm that went through that area the day before leaving up to 10 inches of snow and ice. The trees were covered with ice all the way to the Kentucky border. The interstate had been cleared, but the side roads were snow packed.
Finally some green grass in the ditches, trees are starting to bud, barges are moving in the Tennessee River and daffodils blooming in southern Kentucky.
Driving through the Cumberland Mountains in Tennessee we saw some pink blossoms on trees making a nice contrast to the green pine trees. The ornamental pear trees were blooming in the rural areas and cities.
Sunshine and warmth! Found the staging section for Winnebago units at the Georgia National Fairgrounds in Perry, site of the RV Show, and checked in.

Lane Packing Company

We drove on state highway and county blacktops on our way to Lane Packing Company. If you have purchased Georgia peaches they might have come from this farm. It was out-of-season, but we took a self-guided walking tour of the facilities, which let you walk over the packing plant and view the machines. The peaches are hand picked at the orchard, put in 18 bushel crates, transported to the plant where they are dumped into cold water to be cooled. Each peach is hand checked and sorted, defuzzed, waxed and stamped with a small label printed with Lane Packing Company number before they are packed in boxes and stored until shipped. All of this is done as the peaches ride on conveyor belts. Some of the peaches that are sorted out are disposed of, some are processed into jams and other food items and some are sold as 2nd grade at their fruit market in season.
Walking through their store we were surprised at all the items that are made with peaches. From salsa to candy to jams to peach cider. That we purchased and are enjoying. Their speciality at the restaurant on the premises is peach cobbler and peach ice cream!

Growing Peaches

In season they have farm tours, but off-season they have a video showing how they grow their peaches. (and those lovely,I want one,white, high backed wooden rocking chairs for us to sit and watch!) 3,000 acres for growing 30 varieties of peaches that mature from May through August.
It takes 12 years of growth to produce peaches after the 16 inch peach tree twig is planted using a machine that makes holes for a person to plant. Their seed stock comes from a nursery in Tennessee. Another 3 years to have peaches mature enough to pick. It takes 30 leaves to make 1 peach! 80% of the peaches are removed when small in order to let the remaining 20% become large enough to pick. The trees are pruned each year with the twigs chopped and left as a mulch. They are watered often with large tanks and sprayers. It was interesting to learn that if they wanted to change the variety of an orchard they would take a bud of the one they wanted and graft it into the tree, wrap it with a rubber band and the new bud would change the variety.
After the trees become too old to produce they are pushed over and burned. The field is planted with new seedlings.

Georgia Pecans

1,000 acres are planted to pecan trees. New trees are started in a nursery plot then lifted with a huge machine and carefully moved to the orchard where they are spaced further apart. They are watered with a hose/sprinkler system at the base of the tree. Pruning is done each year. Pecans are ready to harvest from October to January. A special machine is placed on the trunk just below the branches and it shakes the tree causing the nuts to fall to the ground along with branches and leaves! Another machine pushes all of these fallen items into a row and a pecan combine comes along and picks it up. Inside the combine the pecans are separated and flow into a wagon. The twigs and leaves are chopped and returned as mulch to the ground. Pecan trees produce for many years.
One of the items that was for sale in their store was Pecan Oil that could be used for cooking, frying, baking,etc. It was expensive. I have this rule of needing 3 good reasons before I purchase an item and could not think of the 3rd one until we were several hundred miles down the road!!! (But I'm ready for the next time!)

Strawberries

Four acres of strawberries can be seen from the highway. They were mounded up with black plastic as a mulch cover, green and one one variety had white blossoms. You can pick yourself starting in April or purchase already picked fruit at their market.

This visit makes me even more thankful for the produce we have at the grocery store and the people who grow it!

Jarrell Plantation State Historic Site

Off the beaten path, but so interesting is the Jarrell Plantation State Historic Site north of Macon.

History:
In 1820 after this land was opened up for homesteaders, pioneers, Blake and Zilpha Jarrell moved their family and two slaves from North Carolina and started a plantation. By 1850 , their oldest son, John, had settled nearby on what is now called Jarrell Plantation with his wife, Elizabeth, their seven children, and 19 slaves. John invested his money in land and slaves and by 1863 there were 42 slaves valued at $37,800, and 600 acres of land valued at $5,280 with considerable livestock (cows, hogs, sheep, oxen, mules and horses)valued at $2,840. The farm produced cotton, wheat, Irish potatoes, yams, peas, wool, honey, syrup, pork, beef, and ginned cotton. With $50 in cash he had a value of $45,770 placing him in the upper third of Georgia planters.

Over the years generations of there family endured through typhoid epidemic, burned buildings and stolen livestock and food by Union soldiers during General William Sherman's "March to the Sea", rebuilding and diversifying by having a store and post office in their house. After the boll weevil arrived, ruining cotton farming the family grew more wheat, corn, rye & sugar cane, added a wheat threshing service, set up a steam engine that was used to gin cotton, grind corn, saw lumber, make shingles, produce sugar cane syrup for themselves and as a business. They terraced their fields to prevent erosion and used manure for fertilizer to maintain production.
Many farmers gave up and and moved out West or to towns to work in the mills. Many African-American families moved to northern cities, but the Jarrell family stayed and worked the land until 1974 when the family donated their plantation and artifacts to the state of Georgia. Today the former cotton fields are forests providing wood pulp, lumber and wildlife habitat.

Interesting Items/Information:

The weather is mild enough for them to have our "cool" weather garden plants growing all winter. Peas, cabbage, mustard, etc.

Salt was scarce during the Civil War so Mr. Jarrell took his syrup kettles to Savannah and boiled sea water to get salt for himself and to sell to his neighbors.

He used a 1927 Humpmobile car motor to power his first mill and gin before he set up the steam engine for power. (Isn't that the Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang car?)

Corn husk was used for mattress and to make pallets (like sleeping bags). They would take the clean inner husks because they were the lightest and softest. As they dried they would curl up. No insects would lodge in them. The dried husks were placed between pieces of cotton material.

A mop was made by pulling husks from an ear of corn through holes in a board and attaching a handle. The wood floor was soaked with water, sprinkled with sand and the corn husks used to scrub. Then the floor was rinsed with cold water.

A box was on the wall with pieces of newspaper rolled into tight cylinders about the size of our straws. These were used to light the lamps and candles. Only one could be used each nite to light all of them.

A piece of furniture made like a sideboard with long legs called a huntboard. Often the men stood and ate from the top of this while the children slid together on the benches beside the table. The huntboard was originally made for the fox hunters, who did not dismount their horses to eat. It was tall enough for them to ride up and take their food!

The front yard has a flower pit for storing houseplants in the winter and for keeping foods cool in the summer. It is a four foot deep pit lined with handmade bricks and covered with a board.

Talladega SuperSpeedway

3,000 acres near Talladega, Alabama are used for the 2.66 mile track, stadium for over 170,000 people and parking. There are 143,000 seats and room for thousands more in the 212 acre infield. The tour bus that took us inside the stadium and onto the track infield did not do a lap of the track! We could see why when we saw the banking on the North and South turns. We were told it was a 33 degree bank, but looked more like a 90 degree when you looked down from the top of the track! You need to be driving 70 mph or you will slide to the bottom of the track. 47 stalls line the Pit Road. The old dirt track is still in the infield and is used by Harley Davidson for testing motor cycles and for some dirt track car races.
"Talladega is considered the biggest, fastest and most competitive motor sports facility in the world.

International Motor Sports Hall of Fame & Museum

This is located adjacent to the Talladaga Speedway. The museum allows you to see the history of racing with the variety of vehicles on display. From stock cars, Indy cars, drag racers, motor cycles,and pick-ups to a world record off shore power boat, turbo-powered(faster than speed of sound)racer, and an airplane.
Personally it was interesting to see the changes made in the safety gear in the cars over the years. I was surprised to see that the cars were low, most only about 3 inches off the track and the driver sits on the floor of the car, just like in a go-kart!!

An unusual Hall of Fame driver: Louise Smith
This is an excerpt from her autobiography:
Louise was borne in Barnsville, Georgia, but her family moved to a farm near Greenville, South Carolina when she was four. When she decided to learn to drive, Louise started her father’s T-Model and had a wonderful time until she realized she did not know how to stop. So, she drove the car through the chicken house and had the first of her spectacular crashes. “Needless to say, the chicken house was destroyed, and the car did not look good either. My father tanned me good,” recalls Louise.

Another story tells about her going to watch the Daytona Beach races in 1949 in the family's new car. But she could not just watch. She entered the race in the family's new car. She crashed. Her hometown newspaper had pictures of the wrecked "new car" allowing her family and the whole town know about it before she got back home.

We saw her 1938 Ford race car with "Jesus Loves You" written on the side at the Museum. Her bio in the Hall of Fame room states that she had broken every bone in her body during her racing career. She was the first woman to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999 and lived to 90 years of age.

That evening we watched the History Channel--all about safety equipment improvements for race car drivers. The next evening we watched the movie, "Herbie, Fully Loaded",a story about VW racecar and a racing family. We did obey all speed limits on the way home and am thankful for a safe trip even with the snow/ice in Alabama!


A sign in front of a service station in Alabama read, "News Flash: Empty tomb in Jerusalem!" What a blessing for us as we travel the road of "life" knowing that our relationship with Father God is based on our faith in Jesus-- His shed blood and His resurrection!

Prairie Schooners

Heading South to Buda, Texas

Out of the Deep Freezer, Hopefully!


It was a cold morning with frost covered trees and a beautiful pink/violet sunrise as we drove to Forest City to pick up the unit. Even more beautiful and clear as we looked through our new windshield without rock chips! After two weeks of the influenza virus, below zero windchill temps, and snow & ice it was great to be out and anticipating some warmer weather.
Our unit for this trip was a View. A small one with a Mercedes diesel engine that gives double the gas mileage, 13mpg, from other units. But we cannot pack our "stuff" in the cupboards so there is not a lot of room to move around. It does have a double bed in the back and a sofa bed, but no table. The colors blended to make it look "smart"--Bay Mist/ Calypso Spice/Honey Cherry--even sound good!

Kansas Turnpike

Snow cover was gone by the time we were through Kansas City. Flocks of wild turkeys were out feeding in the fields beside the trees. Flint Hills were brown, acres of prairie grassland ponds full of water, herds of cattle, some very small calves, some buffalo, signs showing where the cattle pens and truck entrances were located.
One of the towns along the Turnpike is Council Grove. It was named after treaty negotiations between U.S. commissioners and Osage Indian chiefs were conducted here in 1825. This treaty granted whites safe passage along the Santa Fe Trail. The trail was used to move cattle to shipping yards. Here at Council Grove Native Americans, explorers, soldiers and Santa Fe Trail traders met and camped. It was a rendezvous point for caravans moving west on the Santa Fe Trail and provided both Hispanic and American travelers a place to repair wagons and get provisions. Ample water, grass and abundant wood was available.
Oh, No, rain, sleet and snow! A good place to stop for the night and let it pass!

Oklahoma

I-35 South through Oklahoma has a scenic area that goes through the Arbuckle Mountains. The highway was chiseled through the mountains leaving interesting rock walls on either side and a view of the valley cutting through the country side.

Texas

Everything is BIG in Texas! Big buildings, Big ranches, Big fields. Wonderful--first sightings of green fields of winter wheat. Motorcycles are out! Convertables with tops down! It is 61 degrees as we drive through Ft. Worth. Back in cactus country! They grow wild here in the pastures and ditches.

Buda, Texas

Buda, about 17 miles south of Austin, was established in 1881, when Mrs. Cornelia Trimble donated land for a townsite at an International-Great Northland Railroad depot. This area had earlier been settled as part of a Mexican land grant. The common explanation for its name is that it derives from the Spainish word, viuda, meaning widow. The town had gathered a reputation as a popular eating stop for rail travelers. The name may refer to a pair of widows who cooked at the establishment in the late 1800's!
We washed the unit, delivered it to the dealer, Crestview RV Center and took off north and west on Farm to Market Roads and State Highways. It is 90 degrees and sunny. Yes!! Out of the deep freezer!!

Texas Hill Country

You don't think of Texas as having hills, but west of Austin there is an area of rolling hills. It was very dry with burn ban signs posted, no green grass, trees are scrubby and short, water only in the largest rivers, and rocks all over. Many limestone quarries. We saw signs stating,"Blasting Area Active Quarry".

It is interesting to see the wide variety of "gates" to the ranches in Texas. In the hill country that is all you see of the ranches. They use rocks, stones, cement, cedar branches, wood, fencing, gates and design a walled area on each side of the driveway with their ranch name inscribed in the wall or over the top. The driveway winds it's way through the scrubby treas and over the hill.
Large areas are being developed and are advertised for sale.

There is a huge dome of high-quality pink and red granite, that is prized worldwide, near the town of Marble Falls. Quarrying began in the 1880's for construction of the Texas capitol. Even though an unending flow of this material has continued every since, the bulk of the dome has hardly been diminished. There is a roadside picnic area on R.M.1431 just north of town where you can view the quarry. We missed that corner, but did see the pink dome from the highway.

Ft. Hood, a modern Army post covering 339 square miles is located in Kileen, TX. Visitors are welcome to tour the 2 museums on the base. We spent the night at the Super 8 and enjoyed our supper at the China Star Buffet. The food was fresh & delicious. The restaurant was clean. The service was fast and efficient. They have take-outs and delivery service, too. We tried several "new to us" foods--Lobster balls, Potstickers, Bugoli, Green clams and a Sesame ball.

Prairies and Lakes Area of Texas

We are heading north and west into the prairies and lakes area of Texas. Acres of ranch farms with row crops along with prairie grassland for the herds of cattle and horses. Daffodils are blooming and iris is up ready to bud. Mistletoe, a parasite, grows on the trees in this area, too. It is very green even when the trees have no leaves. Yes, it is sunny and 70 degrees!

In the 1850's pioneers like Cleng Peerson and Ole Canuteson brought groups of Norwegians to the area around Clifton along the Bosque River. This is designated the "Norwegian Capitol of Texas"

Creation Evidences Museum at Glen Rose

Glen Rose is located on the Puluxy River just above the spot that it flows into the Brazos River. In the Dinosaur Valley State Park the Paluxy River flows over solid rock that contains the best preserved dinosaur tracks in Texas. The first sauropod tracks in the world were discovered here. It is in this area that human footprints have been found in and around the dinosaur tracks. They are under water now, but in the summer when it is dry they can be seen. Several years ago, we did see them.
The Creation Evidences Museum is about 4 miles west of Glen Rose. Their new building is scheduled to be finished this summer. You can see fossil displays, Acrocanthosaurus bones, dinosaur footprint casts and view a video showing a scientific look at creation. They are experimenting with a biosphere that will show how plants and animals grew before the flood. Because of the atmospheric pressure controlled by the vapor barrier and the pink light that came through from the sun, plants and animals grew larger and lived longer.

North and Home


Evading Ft. Worth we headed north on state highways and FM roads. Two of the towns we drove through, Grandby and Weatherford, were county seats with large historical courthouses in the center of a square. One had a round-about, which is a circle road one way around the square. You keep driving around until you come to the road you want to take.

Because we wanted to be politically correct and diverse we ate at a local Italian restaurant, Luigi's, in Gainsburg. Very clean, good service, good menu selection and delicious food. The Super 8 had Texas shaped waffles for our breakfast!

As we drove north it got cooler. Saw our first snow in Kansas City on the north sides of the slopes. Had a super meal at the Texas Roadhouse at Liberty, Kansas. Be sure to have their baked sweet potato!

We did drive in snow for the last 2 hours and are back in the deep freezer again!

Hall of Fames along I-35

Did you know that you could see the following Hall of Fames as you drive down I-35 from Iowa to Texas???
Agriculture Hall of Fame, Teacher Hall of Fame, Wrestling Hall of Fame, Texas Ranger Hall of Fame, Texas Sports Hall of Fame

Again we Thank the Lord for His provision for us as we traveled and for the opportunity to see His creation in another part of the US!
Prairie Schooners