Over the last several years I have been visiting the Mobile, Alabama area where my daughter and her family live.  The city of Mobile is on the west side of Mobile Bay.  On the East side of Mobile Bay are several suburbs, including Daphne and Fairhope.  In the last 5 years the east side of Mobile Bay has grown over 11% in population.  Among the reasons for the growth are the shipbuilder Austel and the Airbus North America aircraft plant.  My daughter and her husband work at the Navy Federal Credit Union International Call Center located on the Alabama-Florida state line, just off of I-10.   East Shore  is the 40 miles between Mobile Bay and Florida.  My daughter and her family live in Daphne.
There are many things to do for the tourist in the Mobile area.  The newest attraction is the Gulf Quest National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico.  At the museum you learn about how to pilot a ship, about the shores of the gulf, sailing, navigation, steam engines, gps satellites, propellers, operating a crane, signal flags, and numerous other interesting facts of the port of Mobile and the ships being built there.  On the top floor is an outdoor observation deck where you see the ships currently being built (US Navy), and ships being unloaded and loaded at the harbor.
Also at the harbor area is the USS Alabama Battleship, now a museum.  You can explore this WWII battleship as well as the USS Drum WWII Submarine, and 25 aircraft, including the SR71 and the B52 bomber.
In downtown Mobile is the Gulf Coast Science Center, the History Museum of Mobile in the Old City Hall, and a rebuilt fort (Fort Conde) which is a museum and Visitor Center.  South of Mobile is the 65 acre Bellingrath Gardens with the best Japanese Gardens I have seen.  A drive further south to the coast, you will find the Estuarium at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.  You will see many off shore natural gas derricks and can take a ferry across the bay.
Mobile is an interesting place to visit.
April 2017   

march 2017
My new novel "Goshenhoppen" is now available from Amazon in print or Kindle.  The story follows the Griesemer family from 1730 to present.  J. Valentine Griesemer brought his wife and children to Pennsylvania looking for a better life on fertile land.  His brother and his family stayed behind in the Rhineland-Palatinate area of what would become part of Germany.  I am a direct descendant of Valentine Griesemer.  These related families on both sides of the Atlantic found themselves caught up in world events.  Follow the adventures of a family as it passes through the decades, even as they face each other in war.  My sisters and my wife were my editors.  My novel "Winds from the Mountains"  is also available from Amazon.

 

May 2016

     The Augusta Canal Museum is located in an old brick cotton mill.  The Canal was built in 1845 to power the mill.  In the area the river dropped 50 feet in elevation allowing for enough force to spin water wheels.  Water from the Savannah River flows into the canal.  The water spun turbines that turned looms in the textile mill.  Cotton was grown in the area and had been shipped to mills in New England until the canal was built so Augusta could have its own mill. 

     Later the city water system got its water from the canal.  In the 1890s the mills and town got electricity from generators that spun by the water of the canal.

     Today the mill where the museum is housed is not a mill, but there museum receives electric power from two old generators turned by the water of the canal.  Also housed in the old mill building is offices and some apartments.

           Machines from the old mill at the museum.

 

May 2016

     The Ducktown Museum covers the history of the copper mining area known as the copper basin located in an area in southern Tennessee near the Georgia state line where copper was mined for many years.  Copper was discovered in 1843 near Ducktown and the area grew in population as several mines opened.  Trees were cut and used to fuel the smelting of the ore.  This released sulfur dioxide into the air.  The area's vegetation cover was killed by the sulfur fumes.  The area was soon void of all vegetation.  With no vegetation the hills eroded away with each rainfall.  Over 32,000 acres became a desert.

     At the turn of the century a breakthrough in technology allowed the sulfur dioxide gas to be recovered in the form of sulfuric acid, needed in the fertilizer industry.  This greatly reduced the amount of fumes being released and made it possible to begin reclamation of the area.  In the 1930s revegetation work began.  Over the years more than 16 million trees have been planted to reclaim the land.  Grass seeds and legume seeds have been spread over the area by helicopter.

     The museum covers the history of the mining towns and mines.  The last mine closed in 1987.

        View of part of the copper basin from the museum.

      

may 2016

In Hollywood, Maryland there is a 300 year old tobacco plantation that was made into a museum over 50 years ago.  The Sotterley Plantation house still remains as do the necessary (brick outhouse), smoke house, slave cabin, corn crib, among others.  You receive a tour of part of the owner's house.  The corn crib has a museum and old agricultural equipment.

     The original owner was James Bowles in 1703 who besides growing crops, imported and sold slaves.  The next owners were the Plater family until the 1820s who had as many as 90 slaves.  The Briscoe family next owned the plantation during the Civil War and had 50 slaves.  Three of the sons fought for the Confederacy and some of the Sotterley slaves fought for the Union.

     In 1910 the Sotterlee family purchased the plantation continuing it as a farm.  In 1949 ownership passed to Mabel Sotterlee Ingalls who started a nonprofit foundation and the Sotterley Plantation opened as a museum in 1961.

May 2016

A visit to the Gettysburg National Military Park is not complete until you visit the Eisenhower Historic Site.  It can only be reached by bus from the Park Visitor Center,  In 1950 Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower purchased the farm next to the Gettysburg Park.

     In 1915 his West Point class toured the battlefield.  In 1918 he was the commander of Camp Colt in Gettysburg.

     The 189 acre farm was not far from Washington DC.  The 1840 house was remodeled and finished in 1955.  It became the weekend White House, as he was president from '53 to '61.  He would bring world leaders from DC to his farm by helicopter.  He and a friend bought 300 acres next to his farm and raised black angus cattle and bred them.

     They retired there and wintered in Palm Springs, California.  Eisenhower painted on canvas for relaxation and did over 200 paintings over 20 years until his death in 1969.  In 1967 the Eisenhowers willed the farm to the National Park Service.  The cattle are still grazing on the farm.