More Georgia Tourists

There is so much history right here in Macon and in the surrounding areas.  We are having fun discovering new things, eating local foods, just being tourists in general, and of course, caching along the way!

The Hay House is another home in Macon from the 1850's.  This place is 8 stories high, 18,000 square feet, had hot and cold running water, a type of forced air furnace, and a tube system to communicate with the servants.  Unfortunately, no picture taking inside!!

This is the marble front porch.  The circle in the middle is a glass skylight that goes into the wine cellar.

One of the double front doors.  Made out of wood, but painted to look like bronze, they each weigh 500 pounds!

Even the tops of the chimneys were a work of art!

This beautiful church's  spires can be seen towering over downtown Macon.

Just one of the many stained glass windows.  One of the groundskeepers told us that a few years ago they brought someone over from Italy that took all the stained glass windows apart, cleaned the glass, and releaded them.  You can also see the pipes from the organ in front of this window.

After touring the cathedral, we walked downtown to look for some geocaches and found this little park with a memorial to Viet Nam Vets,

and to the two times Martin Luther King visited the city.

I think we would have to qualify this as the most interesting geocache we have seen so far.  It is a magnetic strip, stuck to the inside of the bars of the trash can holder.  To log in on it we just initialed and dated the magnetic strip itself.

We finished our downtown exploring at a little corner Greek deli and had baklava cheesecake - yes it was as amazing as it sounds.  The waitress told us that the owner also has a Greek pizza parlor close to where we are staying and the specialty dessert there is baklava tiramisu.  We haven't tried it yet, but it is definately on our list of Macon activities!!

This was the site out our window after a rainstorm!

I found this growing on some wood after the same rainstorm!

Eatonton, Georgia is the home of the Uncle Remus Museum.

The Uncle Remus cache that was supposed to be in these mill stones seems to have been muggled!

This 4 story tower is just north of Eatonton.  From the top of it you can overlook the Rock Eagle.

This is the Rock Eagle.  The age of it is unknown as the Native American tribes said it was already here when they first settled the area.  It has been restored and maintained and of course fenced off to keep vandals away.

Vince with the Rock Eagle cache with Lake Oconee in the background.  This was a good day for caching, we dropped a Travel Bug that we had picked up in Texas and a Geocoin.  We also found a Pathtag and Geocoin.

And, in true geocacher form, we have now made our dog Fritz a cache!  He hasn't been found yet but we will be attending a Leap Day event in Warner Robbins on the 29th, and he is sure to be discovered there.

Stay turned for more episodes of Georgia Tourists...........



Georgia Tourists

The Rose Hill Cemetery sits on a hill in downtown Macon over looking the Ocmulgee River.  It is a beautiful place, and since we love poking around old cemeteries, it was a great place to visit.

There are always so many babies and children in these old cemeteries.  Life, and health care, was much harder then; makes us grateful for the health of our children and grand children.

The art work on these headstones is amazing!!

Wrought iron fences everywhere,

and crumbling brick walls.

I thought this headstone was very interesting.  The carving on the top show surgeons tools of the time; an amputation saw and a tool for bleeding patients.

Daughters of the Confederacy!

Nest stop was the Holt House, also known as the Cannonball House, as it was the only building in Macon to be hit by a cannonball fired from across the Ocmulgee River by the Union Army.  The cannonball went thru the pillar to the left of where I am standing, thru the wall, into the hallway floor, obviously without exploding!

The details in this home are beautiful and have all been very carefully preserved.

This is the hallway where the cannonball landed.

A Confederate cannon, manufactured in Macon.   And, bonus, this cannon in the front yard of the Holt House is a virtual geocache!

This is an old clay drainage pipe, still working.

Carriage road.

  The pipe and this road are in a small park across from the Holt House.

Some of the blacktop has worn off exposing the original brick roadway.

This was how we spent our Valentine's Day.  There is so much history in Macon and we are really enjoying wandering around here, when we are not spending time with Vince's dad.

Georgia on My Mind

We left Blythe, CA on Saturday morning after picking up the Tracker.  Vince's Uncle Kay has a stepgrandson who has worked as a Chevy mechanic and fixed the Tracker's 4 wheel drive problems in his driveway for a greatly reduced price!  Thank you Doug!! And we were off to Georgia!

Driving thru Arizona into New Mexico, we finally had to pull over to take pictures of the gorgeous sunset.

Fritz is a great RVing dog!

We try to check for geocaches at every rest stop we stop at, but didn't have much luck until we found this one in Texas.  It had a Path Tag and a Travel Bug in it, so it was a good find after so many disappointments.



We made it to Livingston, Texas on Sunday evening and got parked at Rainbows End, home of the Escapees.  Monday I got my drivers license renewed, a very easy process in Texas, although I must say, I think my new picture is the worst ever taken!!  Some of my friends have described theirs as "axe murderer","morgue photo";  mine seems to be a picture of an old lady!!
I also finally took the tour of the park.  Very interesting, especially the mail sorting facility!  And I got to see where apartment #11483 is located!

We had plans to geocache in Livingston on Tuesday afternoon, but it rained non stop, so we spent the time relaxing, getting ready for the next few days drive.

This was the view out the motorhome window driving into Louisiana.

The next morning we woke up to this!

We found this cache at a Loves Truck Stop in Alabama!

We made it to Georgia on Thursday evening, then to Macon on Friday morning.  As we traveled across the south, we stayed at all our favorite "stopping just for the night" spots; rest stops, WalMart, behind gas stations!  The price is always right at these places!!

Crossing into Georgia.

When we got to Macon, we decided to check out the Al Sahih RV Park, listed in our Passport America guide.  We had no idea what to expect.  It is owned by the Shriners, is over 2000 acres of ponds, open fields, forest.  The campground hosts came out to greet us, parked us in the best spot, told us that Fritz was welcome to run free.  It is $300 for a month, full hook ups of course, and the 145 site campground is occupied by us, the hosts, and a working guy who is never home.  It is just a couple of blocks from the freeway and less than ten miles from Vince's dads house.

That's our rig to the left of the building.

Sunrise over one of the ponds.

Shriners Fire Truck

Fritz is in doggy heaven running around on this property!!

We are really enjoying staying here!  It is quite, beautiful, lots of places to walk and explore.  The campground host are great and we are having fun hanging out with them.

Vince has been spending time with his dad, Mark.  Between the stroke, Parkinsons disease, and Sundowners, he is doing okay, has good days and bad days.   He cannot be left alone, so his daughter stays with him so his wife can get out of the house on Fridays and Vince has been sitting with him on Sunday mornings so his wife can go to church.   It's hard for Vince, but it is good that he has this time with Mark.

Last Tuesday we went to the VA in Dublin, GA and Vince finally got the results of the MRI he had done in Sept. in Salt Lake.  He has 3 bulging discs with severe nerve impingement.  They gave him a cane and a walker!!  But cannot get him in for a nuerology consult until June, so we are jumping thru hoops to see if he can get approved to go to a private physician.  At least the cane is helping and he can use the walker for some of our other adventurers where he needs to walk a lot!

We have not had a lot of down time since we got here, but did look for one geocache.  It was in the parking lot of the Piggly Wiggly!

Hopefully now that we are settled we can start doing more exploring in the area!