Tennessee

After our stop South Carolina we headed to Tennessee, Our first stop was in Townsend, TN at the Big Meadow Camp Ground. In the heart of the Smokey Mountains. The campground is along a peaceful little river that we walk along in the mornings. The walk is so beautiful. Along the way we cross over the swinging bridge. It was a restful two days.


On Tuesday, May 25, we headed to Manchester, TN, thin the heartland of Tennessee. There have been a few scattered rain showers around during the day, however all in all the weather is very nice!

On Wednesday we went out to see the local sights.... we began with the Jack Daniel's Old Time Distillery. The distillery, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is the oldest registered distillery in the nation. It was
established by Jasper "Jack" Daniel in 1866 as part of the Reconstruction era's rebuilding of battered middle Tennessee. The distillery is internationally known for its charcoal mellowing process, a traditional leaching process that "was handed down by slaves who made whiskey in the hills," according to a 1972 article in the "Tennessee Historical Quarterly. " In the hills above the town, you will see many metal-clad warehouses, where the distilled whiskey is stored while it ages. Our tour guide, Chris showed us first hand the special process Mr. Jack Daniel perfected back in 1866. It is here where they make every drop of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey. The tour lasted one hour and was very interesting! Although they make Jack Daniel's in Moore County, it can not be sold in the County as it is considered a "dry" County in Tennessee. Even after taking the tour they can not even offer a tasting.... very disappointing . Oh well.....

From Jack Daniel's Distillery we headed over to Cascade Hollow, the home of the George Dickel Distillery. For as large as the Jack Daniel's distillery is George Dickel is that small. Jack Daniel's has over 500 employees and George Dickel only has 28 employees. George Dickel is also considered a Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey. George Dickel spells the whisky with out the "e". He said that if it was good enough for scotch whisky, it was good enough for him! Once again the distillery is located in a "dry" county so no tasting!!!

Although both Jack Daniel's and George Dickel are both Tennessee sour mash, there are small differences in the way they are made If you are ever in the area I strongly suggest you tour both distillery's, you won't be disappointed.
There are several more photos in the blog below...

Tomorrow we are off to Nashville and the Grand Ole Opre!!! More on that later,.. until then.

Candy and Johnny

Distillery's in Tennessee

Here are some more photos from our tours, the top two are from Jack Daniel's and the bottom two are from George Dickel.

Cowpens National Park

Friday,May 21, 2010, John was off to Freightliner School for a second day so I decided to do some sight seeing in the area of Gaffney, South Carolina. The weather was overcast with the threat of rain, but off I headed to see the Cowpens National Battlefield.

Opened to the public in 1978, Cowpens National Battlefield encompasses 843 acres and protects the site of a crucial American victory over the British in 1781. This Revolutionary War site is located 3 miles east of Chessnee, South Carolina on Highway 11 - the Cherokee Foothills National Scenic Highway.


On a cold morning, January 17, 1781, American General Daniel Morgan led his army of tough Continentals and backwoods militia to a brilliant victory over Banastre Tarleton's large force of British regulars. When he marched his army onto this field the previous afternoon, Morgan was trying to elude a British trap. That morning, as his men cooked breakfast in camp on Thicketty Creek, scouts brought news that Tarleton had crossed the Pacolet River, 12 miles south, and was coming fast. Morgan broke camp and ordered his soldiers down the road. Their destination: the Cow Pens, a frontier pasturing ground on the road to a ford across the Broad River six miles to the northwest.

Tarelton and his British Legion were known for their brutality in cutting down unarmed or fleeing soldiers. Tarelton himself was widely hated in South Carolina after his troops butchered Col. Abraham Buford's surrendered Continentals at Waxhaws in May 1780.

General Daniel Morgan knew that Tarleton's force outnumbered his own. To even the odds, he sent for militia units from South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. These were men of great courage and experience, but that they were no match for British battle tactics. The militia's strength lay in their prowess with their rifle, a weapon of far greater range and, in their hands, deadlier and more accurate then the British muskets.

The battle was over in less than an hour. British losses were staggering: 110 killed, 229 wounded, and 600 captured or missing. Also captured with the British were a number of slaves. Morgan's losses were 24 killed and 104 wounded.


The movie The Patriot with Mel Gibson was based on this battle of the Revolutionary War.

It was a very interesting place to visit and one more National Park that I can add to the list of places that I have been to.


Off to Townsend, Tenn. for a few days and then working our way to Minnesota for the month of June.

That is all for now.

On the road..... Candy and Johnny

Summer 2010

The jacks are up and the Badgers are on the move once again for a summer of adventure and fun! We are beginning our journey a little early this year as John is going to the Freight liner School for several days to learn more about the workings of the coach. The day we were getting ready to leave the heavens opened up and we had a downpour!! Thank goodness the next day the sun was shining and we were on our way. The first night we travelled to Townsend, Ga. and stopped overnight at the Lake Harmony RV Resort. It is a lovely quiet resort with a beautiful lake in the center. The office is so cute, it looks like an old fishing boat. They even allow you to fish if you care to and as it is on private property you do not need a fishing licence.

We pulled into our spot and set up for the night and were having dinner when another RV pulled in several spots over and John said that he thought it was someone we knew..... and to our surprise it turned out to be Dick and Donna Carl! They had also left early and were headed north to see some friends and finally end up in Ohio for most of the summer. We did what all good RVer's do and had a drink together! How funny as neither of us knew the other would be stopping overnight in GA.

We said our farewells in the morning and we were off to Gaffney, South Carolina for several days. Again the weather was perfect for driving.

John is in school today and tomorrow. We are also going to have some routine work done on the coach while we are here and then off once again.

We hope that everyone had a wonderful summer!!! I will keep you posted on the places we go and the people that we meet along the way. Until later, keep in touch.. we love to hear from you.

Candy and Johnny

Cruise April 2010

On Friday, April 16th 2010 John and I left Florida for a 14 day cruise through the Panama Canal to San Diego, California. We left Orlando
International Airport on AirTran Flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to join the Celebrity Cruise Ship, Millennium.
Our Itinerary as follows :
Friday, April 16th Sail from San Juan, Puerto Rico at 8:00pm
Saturday, April 17th At Sea
Sunday, April 18th Cartagena, Colombia
Monday April 19th At Sea
Tuesday April 20th Panama Canal
Wednesday April 21st At Sea
Thursday April 22nd Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Friday April 23rd At Sea
Saturday April 24th At Sea
Sunday April 25th Huatulco, Mexico
Monday April 26th Acapulco, Mexico
Tuesday April 27th At Sea
Wednesday April 28th Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Thursday April 29th At Sea
Friday April 30th San Diego, California


There were many Europeans on board and we were told that there were about 600 people that had missed the ship due to the volcano eruption and the closure of the airports in Europe.

We sailed from San Juan and had a very pleasant day at sea our first day. Then next day we docked at Cartagena, Colombia. The weather was extremely hot and humid. The temperature was about 109 F and the humidity was about the same. Cartagena was founded in 1533 by Don Pedre de Heredia, and named after the port of Cartagena in Spain's Murcia region. It was a major center of early Spanish settlement in the Americas and continues to be an economic hub as well as a popular tourist destination. The old city is surrounded by a ring of massive fortress walls built by the Spanish starting in 1586. Picturesque wooden balconies hang over narrow streets, while church spires rise above tile roofs. We visited the church of Santo Domingo. Across the lagoon from the city lies the enormous Fortress of San Felipe, largest Spanish fort in the New World. Although it was extremely hot we did enjoy seeing the sights.

Monday was another day at sea and then on to the Panama Canal. More about the Canal below.


Candy and Johnny

Panama Canal

Tuesday April 20th, transit the Panama Canal. At 5:30am the pilot for the canal boarded our ship to take us through the canal. The process takes about 8 to 10 hours to transit. The weather was again very hot and humid (the canal is 9* north of the equator) and somewhat overcast.
The Panama Canal is a 48 mile ship canal that joint the Atlantic (actually the Caribbean Sea) and Pacific Oceans and is a conduit for international maritime trade. Annual traffic has risen from about 100 ships in the canal's early days to 14,702 vessels in 2008.
A ship sailing from New York to San Francisco via the canal travels 5,900 miles, well under half the 14,000 mile route around Cape Horn.
While the Pacific Ocean is west of the isthmus and the Atlantic to the east, the 8-10 hour journey through the canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific is one from Northwest to Southeast. The is a result of the isthmus's curving back on itself in the region of the canal.


The Americans may have built the canal, but the concept, at least publicly stated, can be traced to the early 16th Century, when King Charles of Spain commissioned a survey for a shortcut through the isthmus of Panama to speed ship traffic to and from Peru. While the Spanish shelved that plan, the relatively slim strip of land and its rich location between the Atlantic and Pacific worlds proved too strong a lure. In 1880 the French decided that an all water route between the oceans was the ideal solution, and the idea of a canal was enhanced by the success of the Suez Canal in Egypt. The French under Ferdinand de Lesseps began construction on a sea level (i.e. without locks) on January 1, 1880. The French began work in such a rush with insufficient prior study of geology and hydrology of the region. Disease, particularly malaria and yellow fever killed about 22,000 workers. In 1893, after a great deal of work, the French scheme was abandoned due to disease and the sheer difficulty of building a sea-level canal, as well as lack of French field experience, such as downpours causing steel equipment to rust.

At this time, various interests in the U.S. were also expressing interest in building a canal across the isthmus, with some favoring a route across Nicaragua and others advocating the purchase of the French interests in Panama. Eventually in June 1902, with the help of some yellow journalism, when a phony newspaper story about a volcano eruption (it was dormant) caused U.S. senators to back building a canal across Panama instead of Nicaragua. The U.S. under President Theodore Roosevelt bought out the French equipment and excavations for US$40 million and began work on May 4, 1904. John
Frank Stevens, Chief Engineer argued the case against a sea-level canal like the French had tried to build and convinced Teddy Roosevelt of the necessity of a canal built with locks and dams. The Canal was completed two years ahead of the projected date of June 1, 1916 and was formally opened on August 15, 1914 (also under budget!)

Initially the locks had been designed as 94 feet wide. The U.S. Navy requested a width of88 ft to accommodate Naval ships. Eventually a compromise was made and the locks were constructed to a width of 110ft. Each lock is 1,050 long with the walls ranging in thickness from 49ft at the base to 9.8ft at the top.

In 2006 a third lock lane project was started to create larger locks, thereby allowing bigger ships through. Some of the work on these locks could be seen from the ship. The completion date for this project is 2014.

TOLLS:

The tolls are based on the size and the cargo of the ships. All tolls are to be paid cash ONLY! and in advance. The most expensive toll for canal passage to date was charged on May 16, 2008 to the Disney Magic, which paid US$331,200. The least expensive toll was 36 cents to American adventurer Richard Halliburton who swam the canal in 1928. The average toll is around $54,000.

The Gatun Locks, the largest of the Panama Canal's three sets of governing mechanisms that raise ships some 85 feet above sea level, are most impressive. Gatun Lake, the one-time jungle flooded to facilitate the canal's construction and operation, has since evolved into an entirely new ecosystem, replete with islands, back channels and bays. The surrounding rainforest's harbor thousands of exotic birds, rare monkeys, sloths and iguanas.

It was truly an incredible experience! I have only included a few photos here, as there is not much room for photos. During our transit, we passed the sister ship, Celebrity Infinity heading the opposite direction.

This was our second time through the canal and every bit as exciting as the first time.

For more of our cruise please see below!

Candy and Johnny

Cruise throught Panama Canal

Photo of the sister ship Celebrity Infinity as we pass going through the Panama Canal.























Ships passing under the Continental Bridge at the continental divide. The hill on the left is called Gold Mountain (although there was no gold found there) and the hill on the right is Contract Mt.










Here we are as the ship is passing under the Bridge of the Americas. The highway that passes over this bridge takes you from Canada down to the tip of South America.

While the original Panama City (1510) fell victim to pirates and fire in 1671, the current Panamanian capital, founded in 1673 by French colonists, remains a huge draw for its Vasce Viejo or Old Quarter, home to a variety of architecture and spectacular ocean views.