Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Out and about

We Crazies are out and about, seeing the world. DH and I are off this week, so we piled Curly and Moe in the car and headed to the hills. (Larry is home manning the fort.) And where are all the Crazies? Why, in Cleveland. Not in Ohio, silly. We're in Tennessee.

We're taking a vacation on the cheap. DH got us rooms with his hotels points, so we don't have to pay much. We had supper at a pizza chain. And what are we doing? Seeing parks and battlefields!

Today we spent the afternoon at the Chickamauga Battlefield, part of the National Parks system. The battlefield is huge, There were tons of cannons and rifles on view.  The visitors center has a huge collection of rifles, which Moe thought was the coolest thing ever.  (It's called the Fuller Gun Collection, some 355 long guns.)  


DH had a great time looking at all the cannon and monuments. 


The park is huge - 5500 acres, with a zillion monuments.  There are ones for each state that fought, plus each regiment and division, plus markers for the lines and each part of the battle, the headquarters, and where leaders were killed.


This is the marker for the Georgia soldiers, the tallest state marker in the park.  Moe is the orange dot, heading out to take a better picture.  BTW - it was pretty steamy today.


This is the Wilder Brigade Monument, named for Union troups.  It's ginormous at 85 feet tall.


Moe decided to go up the Wilder Monument.  He went through this nifty door,


up these stairs that went round and round and round,


then out to the top, where I took a picture of him.  Really, he's there.  Look hard.


Then he came down and got the camera and went right back up again.  And took this picture of me.  (I had NO interest in going up the tower even once, much less twice.)

It's an amazing place.  This is the site of the last major victory for the Confederate in the American Civil War, in September of 1863.  More than thirty-four thousand men were killed, wounded, or missing in this the battle, and supposedly the creek ran red with blood for two days afterwards.  DH is a battle buff - and not just Civil War battles.  He visits any kind of battlefield or historical place whenever he travels.  I'm not so into the battles, but I love genealogy and I have a ton of Confederate soldiers in my ancestry, so the Civil War sites have some interest for me.


I brought some tatting to do while we are at the hotel.  This is a variation on Jane's Winsome Drops, using DMC Metallic thread in light silver, size 15 Miyuki seed beads, and the center beads are some I got from Fox.  I think these will be pretty.  The thread is touchy to work with, but it looks great in the end.

Some other fun - DH and I celebrated 24 years of marriage yesterday. Hard to believe. And I still haven't smothered him with a pillow yet.

Tomorrow - into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park!

7 comments:

  1. A great place to visit, yes I did see DH up the tower! I have made a couple of dozen of Jane's Winsome earrings already and yours looks beautiful so far. Happy anniversary!

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  2. I haven't been up there for years, but we live right on the path of Kennesaw Mt. battlefield park so we tend to see other stuff. Best spring break trip ever was to Chickamauga and Chattanooga....see Ruby Falls!

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  3. You've just been down the road from me. About 45 - 60 miles.

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  4. Just think, if you'd smothered him just after the 1st argument y'all ever had (presuming that you had one w/in one year of marriage), you'd probably be out on parole by now. *evil grin*

    Your baubles look good. Metallic thread can be so touchy, but it looks so good.

    I bet that there was a good breeze at the top of the monument, though.

    Do they let you climb on the cannons like they do at Yorktown?

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  5. Hi! I'm a Canadian, and I love that Civil war stuff...well...I love history in general. You're lucky to be able to visit such interesting places, even the sad places where so many young men lost their lives. They appreciate your interest, I am sure...
    All this time I've been reading your blog from 'Hotlanta' and I never once tried to imagine your regional accent...but I can, now! It's elegant!!
    That tatting is gorgeous. I see that you can't sit still!

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  6. Thanks for the warm thoughts, guys. Sewicked, I mentioned the death by smothering to DH, and he said I would probably be out long ago, serving only 7-8 years, assuming good behavior.

    Leanna, I am told I have a very distinctively Hotlanta accent. I revert to the South Carolina one when I am among my relatives, ya'll.

    MotR, no Ruby Falls this trip! And no, we will not See Rock City! Maybe another time....

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