Elko Georgia near Andersonville Prison

Tuesday June 11, 2013
  
The trip from Citra FL to Elko Georgia was an easy 244 miles that we did in 4 hours.  It is so good to get back “on the road again”, thanks Willie.  It was a beautiful sunny day with temperatures around 90 for most of the trip.  We stopped a couple of times along the way, once to buy oranges and once to make sandwiches. 

Place we stopped along the highway for Florida oranges.

This is us parked along the highway in front of the orange stand.

Arriving in Georgia.

The weather changed a little about 10 miles south of our stopping point in Elko.  A small but heavy storm went over I75 and snarled up traffic for the last half an hour.  It was over by the time we arrived at Twin Oaks RV Park so we could set up without getting wet.

Our site for 2 nights in Elko Georgia

Rosey is going to need her own room soon!  She is really growing!

 
Our travel routine is to stay a minimum of 2 nights when we are repositioning.  So we leave Elko GA this morning and head to Chattanooga TN 240 miles north west of here.  We are traveling north on I75 so that means we will travel through Atlanta GA on our way.  We have been told by many to avoid pulling a rig through Atlanta, not completely sure why though.  I did a little research last night and found a roughly 50% split opinion on traveling through Atlanta.  The people who say it’s not a problem suggest that we go through late morning between the rush hours.  So we are going to try going through around 11:30 am this morning.  Next blog I will report how that went.

Yesterday, Monday, we decided to travel the 25 miles to the old Confederate Civil War prison in Andersonville GA.  Friends of ours (Christiana and John) recommended that we not miss seeing this so we went to see it.  

Entrance to Andersonville Prison site

The National POW  Museum

The day was on and off rain all day.  We were lucky in that when it would really rain we were in the truck or inside somewhere. This area of Georgia is very rural with a lot of farms and trees.  The prison site now houses the national POW museum.  The entire prison area and the museum are free and are well worth the visit.  Patty who is not much on history liked the place which is really saying something.   We felt that the whole place was very well done and was better than places that charged a fee.  If anyone is going south on I75 we suggest that you stop and visit the Andersonville Prison site.

Memorial to POWs in the back of the museum

Site of the Providence spring.  The union soldiers desperately needed drinking water and  during a thunderstorm this spring came up inside the prison walls.

These white markers depict the outer prison wall and the deathline.  If a prisoner got beyond the deathline they would be shot.

A view from a corner of the prison showing the wall and the deathline.  The stone marker is where a guard tower was.  Prisoners were held out in the open.  The latrines for the 30,000 were in that dip in the foreground

Touring the site by vehicle

This area of the prison has been restored.  The poles were put in in their exact original positions.  They dug down to the original pole stumps to find the positions.  Note the death line inside the wall.

Entrance to the cemetery.  This is a national cemetery so any veteran can be buried here.

The prison inmates who died there are buried here.  The prison was only open 14 months and held 30,000 prisoners.  14,000 died there.  They were buried in long trenches shoulder to shoulder with no casket.  

After our visit to the prison we stopped to fuel the truck with $3.69 diesel for a total of $130.  This will get us to Chattanooga TN and probably support our site seeing there.   Patty got a recipe on Facebook and she made it last night.  It is a chicken breast stuffed with asparagus and mozzarella cheese.   It was so good that we now have a new staple for dinners. Yum!!

Patty's delicious Asparagus stuffed chicken.

We will be pulling out of here around 10 am so we hit Atlanta around 11:30 this morning.  That should put us in Chattanooga TN around 2 this afternoon.  We still do not have reservations for site in Chattanooga though.  Breaking news, as I was editing this we received an E-Mail confirmation for our next place in Chattanooga TN!  The place we originally picked is sold out.  We need to be careful now that we are in the northern tourist season with places filling up.  Chattanooga is a tourist area with places like Lookout Mountain.  We are planning to stay in Chattanooga for an extra night for a total of 3 nights as there is a lot to see there.  Yes, we are tourist too!

Ok, just finish my second cup of coffee and we start our departure routine.

Stay tuned!