Our recent tour of the Southeastern states

Sunday afternoon at the park.

This is another view of the rapids on the Potomac that Ahni has previously shown. It's pretty stunning to find these rapids on the river that we think of as the wide, placid water flowing gently through the D.C. area. I'd guess that we were less than 15 miles upstream from the Lincoln Memorial.

Meg, Garrett and I are standing by the flood marker post that Ahni mentioned in her blog entry. I would guess that the bottom of the post is at least 50 feet above the water level in the gorge on the day we were there. So, during a big spring flood, the water fills the gorge and then spills out all over the park. Farther downstream, where the river valley is very wide, perhaps it's hard to notice a spring flood at all.

There was a canal built on the west bank of the river, complete with locks to pass these rapids. It was built by a group that included George Washington. They began in 1785. His home, MT. Vernon, is probably 20+ miles downstream. He had seen this part of the Potomac as a young surveyor, and had long thought of building a canal to bypass the rapids. This older canal is only barely discernible now. A much larger and longer canal exists on the east bank.

We split up on Saturday and I went to Garrett's football game - where he intercepted a pass, and made many key plays. Kay and Ahni went to Meg's soccer game, where it was obvious she has improved her ball-handling. She plays on a team with 7th and 8th graders and the older girls cause the younger ones to play better than they have in the past.

Lots of card games, lots of great food and a fine visit with the Virginia Turners !

These two photos were taken at Kitty Hawk, or more correctly at Kill Devil Hill, where the Wright brothers flew in 1903. At the left is a life size bronze sculpture, complete with statues of all the people who were at the site on the day that they first flew. It is meant to capture the instant that the flying machine left the ground. The large monument on the right is built atop the hill. The informative signs noted that this had been a bald sand dune, and as such was prone to move south with the wind. It had moved 450 feet between 1903 and the 1950's when the decision to build a monument was made. They planted the whole hill to grass to keep it from moving out from under the monument.

We went south along the Atlantic Coast. Kitty Hawk is toward the northern end of a long string of barrier islands that extends for more than 100 miles south from that spot. We drove as far as you can drive, stopping to see the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse along the way. To go farther requires that you take a ferry to Ocracoke Island, which we did.

We stayed overnight on Ocracoke. It seems like a real Margaritaville. Only 800 full time occupants and warm most of the year. It's the island where the British navy finally caught up with and killed Blackbeard the pirate - in 1718. To continue south of Ocracoke requires another ferry ride of 2.5 hours. The above photo is the northbound ferry we encountered as we were on the southbound boat.

We continued south as close to the ocean as we could. Near the coast in South Carolina and Georgia is an area the locals call "the low country". There is an African-American culture that exists there called "Gullah". These folks speak a dialect of English/Creole that has retained many African influences. Along the main road we encountered a few of these Gullah locals selling sweetgrass baskets they had made. We stopped at Mary Scott's shop, chatted for quite a while and bought a few items. She is 78 and was a joy to talk with. She said, "be sure to send me a copy of da photo - I put it in me album". I can't begin to capture the sweet sing-song nature of her speech or the terrific accent. She was very arthritic and could barely hobble around.

We spent Friday night to Sunday night with Jason in Dothan, Alabama where he is training to fly the C-12, known as the KingAir to civilians. The left photo is the early morning flight line, complete with lots of humidity. The right photo is Jason (I'm pretty sure) barreling down the runway toward takeoff.

We had a great time with Jason, with lots of time "for a good visit" as my mother would say. We went to a Classic car show, a gun and knife show, church services, many fine meals, and even watched MSU beat Notre Dame in a football game. What a great end to a very fine trip! We miss everybody already.