John James Audubon State Park

We're on the home stretch heading north to MN, hoping for good weather, and so-far-so-good! Today we stopped at John James Audubon State Park in western Kentucky after a lovely drive. The park was once the location where Audubon studied and painted birds near his home in Henderson, KY. It houses a museum with many of his paintings and prints and is home to two buildings constructed by the CCC. We have lost the tree pollen but are enjoying the many spring flowers and great birding in the park. Best of all, we have the campground to ourselves which means Blue has had several long walks already.

Fort Mountain State Park Georgia

After leaving South Carolina with bad weather heading in we decided to head for the southern tip of the Appalachian mountains and Chattahoochee National Forest to stay in Fort Mountain State Park. Great park if you are a goat (which we are) with its beautiful hills, lakes and vistas that span 80-miles. We took a 4 mile hike to the top of the mountain to see the remains of an ancient stone wall with prehistoric origins steeped in legend and tower. Generations of archaeologists and historians have unsuccessfully sought to unravel the riddle of the wall, one of several stone assemblages scattered throughout the southeast. More than 150 years after its discovery, with no artifacts having been found, answers still evade us as to who built the wall.

A stay at Mitch's and a visit to Columbia Zoo

Gary and I had the pleasure of staying with my brother Mitch and his 3 boys for a few days. We went to dinner at Shealys Bar-B-Que for the Pulley bones and other southern specialties. The next day Mitch took Gary and I to the Zoo and we had a great time watching the may species of animals and walking the botanical gardens. His boys have grown, Nick and Erick have their own condo near the University of Columbia campus where they they are going to school and the youngest, Alex enjoys soccer and playing poker on-line with friends when he is not at school.

Congree National Park

Along the meandering Congree River sits a National Park that only the locals seem to know about. The newest of the National Parks (joining the ranks in 2003), Congree protects over 24,000 acres of the only old-growth bottomland forest remaining in the US. As a floodplain forest it was left untouched due to the difficulty retrieving timber in swamp land. We walked the boardwalk trails through the wetlands and two other trails that take hikers past the parks two lakes and Cedar Creek. As I walked the trail the thought occurred to me that the sticks on the trail looked like snakes and then one of the sticks actually was a snake. We gently coxed him of the path and went carefully on our way. And our 7 miles of hiking today only scratched the surface of the park which has many more miles of both hiking and canoe trails running throughout the system. Last night was the Super Moon and the park held it's annual Owl Prowl. It was warm enough to walk the two miles in shorts and with the moon at it's closest to the earth, it was bright enough to see the shadows cast late into the night by the huge stands of Loblolly Pines and Cypress. We heard Barred Owls, frogs and watched the fire flies dance in the tree tops, what a wonderful evening. So much to like about this park and best of all the park and dry camping is all free!

Caw Caw, best $1 in SC

Todays journey took us to Caw Caw Interpretive center which was without question, the best $1 (admission fee) we have seen this trip. As is true of much the low country in this area, the park was once a rice plantation. I had no idea how much rice came from South Carolina until we saw the stats which say that this was the leading rice producer for the US for many years. The park has several trails ranging from a boardwalk swamp trail to the rice fields and a maritime forest trail. And yes, we are still in gator country. All the trails are nice easy walks. The only difficultly we had was the tree pollen which on a scale of 1 to 10, is a 10. When we get up in the morning the car and everything horizontal is covered in a layer of yellow green powder. At one fork in the trail we looked up as the wind caught the tree tops and it looked like colored snow!

South Carolina Plantation, Middleton Place

Middleton Place, a rice plantation was first settled in 1705 as a family residence and acquired by Henry Middleton through marriage. The property was badly damaged and lay neglected following the Civil War and Earthquake of 1886. One of the descendant restored the plantation and gardens in the early 20th century. As a southern plantation there is the darker side with it's slave history. Middleton Place had a long history with the Middleton family for many generations owning the plantation and an even larger history with over 2,612 slaves on this property alone. There is one slave house left and is an example of the quarters built for the freed slaves after the Civil War, referred to as "Ned and Cloe's Palace" (former freed slaves that worked at the plantation)it is not an example of the original quarters which were much worse.

We spent the day walking the gardens and checking out the farm. We enjoyed our time but thought the $25 per person cost a bit too much, but we made the mistake of comparing Middleton to the gardens we visited in the Chateau region of France at $7. Probably not a fair comparison.