2023 July 18-21, Trip to The Alpine Village of Helen, Georgia

 Tuesday, July 18:

We left home about 6 A.M. stopping at Jacks in Athens for biscuits and gravy. 

We continued through Huntsville, taking Hwy 72 toward Scottsboro through (hwy 35)Mento crossing the Tennessee River,  to (Hwy 40) Hangar, Valley Head, and Mento crossing into Georgia.

In Georgia, we traveled through Summerville, Rome onto the I-75 bypass of Atlanta. We went through Cartersville, Marietta taking 400 north bypassing Atlanta to Dahlonega, Cleveland, and 75 to Helen.

We checked into the Castle Inn around 2:25 p.m. and took all our luggage up two flights of stairs (they had no elevator.)

We walked down the front of the hotel to the nearby Troll Tavern. The Tavern was along the Chattahoochee  River with a gate covered in locks weighing it down. There was a sign that said no more locks and all locks had to be removed. It was causing the gate to be unstable and unsafe. 

Troll Tavern with Gates full of locks 

While we were waiting for a table we watched hundreds of people tubing down the Chattahoochee River on green, pink, and blue tubes.

We ordered Reuben on toast with mashed potatoes and Diet Coke. I think they were short-staffed because there were lots of empty tables and people waiting to be served.

Reuben on toast with mashed potatoes

We walked around the town and some of the places we saw were: The Wooden Toys, Assay Station, Welcome to Wildwood, Hansel & Gretel Candy Kitchen, Wilkommen, Helen Hat, Grimm's Weg, Sock Store, Christmas & More, Christoff's Seventy-six, Helendof Inn, Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf, Pepper Place, Dizzy Bear,  Cowboys and Angels, The Christmas Shop, just to name a few. 

Gone Squatchin in Helen 

It was a beautiful day but very hot so we walked back to the Castle Inn and rested until around 7PM. 

We left the Castle Inn and walked across the bridge stopping for a picture at the Cafe International (head in the hole), the Mural of Helendof Inn. I continued walking passed the Alpine Wedding Chapel, Fashall where they were playing bingo. I saw the Pirates Cove Miniature Golf and Alpine Village Inn. 

I walked to Wendy's where I had left hubby and he bought us a strawberry frosty and Diet Coke. 

We walked back to our car and rode to Cleveland stopping at the White County Courthouse to take a few pictures. 

Wednesday, July 19:

Early morning I took my journal outside onto the balcony and began to write. I watched as the town slowly came alive. I could hear the birds chirping in the distance and could feel the cool breeze and the sky was full of clouds. The only people that I saw were early-morning workers. 

We were at the Waffle House when it opened at 8AM. I ordered 3 pecan pancakes with whipped cream and Diet Pepsi. Hubby ordered 2 eggs, sausage, 3 pancakes with gravy, biscuits and hash browns.

We rode to the visitors center there they gave us a map of Helen and suggested places we should visit. 

She said Anna Ruby Falls, Sautee General Store, Hardman's Farm & Indian Mound, and the Covered Bridge. 

We walked through Veterans Park taking pictures the park was behind the Visitors Center. 

We rode to Unite State Park to see Anna Ruby Falls but before we began our climb uphill to the falls it began to sprinkle so hubby went back to the car for the umbrella. 

We had to stop several times to rest during our climb uphill. There were stone benches along the path. 

It was getting slippery with all the light rain but we finally made it. Hubby stopped just short of the falls Hubby talked to a couple while I walked to the top. 

Anna Ruby Falls 

I ask a red-headed girl to take a picture of me standing in front of the waterfalls.

We also met a family with teenagers walking up the hill and they passed us coming down. Several people were visiting Anna Ruby Falls. 

Our next stop was Baby-land The Cabbage Patch Doll Hospital. Baby cabbage patches were planted all around the hospital. When you walked inside there were pictures of famous people on the walls. 

There were several different rooms of dolls and scenery it was overwhelming.

Cabbage Patch Kids

It was hard to choose which baby to adopt but I settled on Sandy Sue. 

Everyone crowded around to watch the birth & the storytelling of a baby boy Cabbage Patch Doll. 

Our next stop was the White County Courthouse Museum.

It had already closed the day before so we rode back today. 

Several ladies were sitting around a table talking they were members of the Historic Society of White County. 

One of them told us the history of the museum. 

We could hear music coming from upstairs. There was a man in the Old Courtroom playing a fiddle.

I saw a replica of the Covered Bridge and asked questions about it and its location.

Our next stop was the Hardman Farm State Park.  We had to park on the hill and walk down several flights of stairs to the Visitor Center so hubby did not want to walk around the farm. 

Hardman Farm Historic Site Sautee Nacoochee, Ga 

He bought me a ticket and I walked around taking pictures of the building and historic markers.

I met a couple of women also taking pictures of markers to be read later. 

Hubby was in the car waiting for me at the bottom of the hill.

Next, we rode to Stovall Covered Bridge and Old Sautee General Store.

The Stovall Covered Bridge has been washed away three times. 

We stopped at Walgreens in Cleveland for shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and a couple of Heath Bars. 

We stopped at Nora Granary Mill where we bought some stone mill cornmeal. 

We ate dinner at Wendy's then back to Castle Inn. (Hamburger and fries)

We watched the new Ghost Buster Movie.

I walked outside to talk to my daughter and to write in my journal. 

It had been a full day. 

Thursday, July 20:  

We rode to McDonalds in Cleveland bought a muffin with sausage and hubby ordered a big breakfast. 

Today we rode to North Georgia Wildlife and Safari Park in Cleveland, GA.  We walked through the petting zoo and then drove through the Safari where we saw buffalo, Elk, Deer, Emu, Ostrich, camels, Zebra, and several small animals. 

I was not too impressed.

Next, we rode to Brasstown Bald Hiawassee, GA (the highest point in Georgia) and paid $8 to ride the shuttle van up to the overlook and visitor center. 

It was too foggy to see very far but we did enjoy the Visitor Center museum. 

Brasstown Bald Overlook and Visitor Center

In the museum, we saw several handmade quilts hanging on the walls.

We saw several different forest animals, a log with a saw, a train engine, displays, etc. 

Saw several barn Swallows and Gray Catbirds. 

We rode the shuttle bus back down the mountain. 

We stopped at Chick-fil-A in Cleveland for dinner. I ordered a kid's chicken finger meal with waffle fries and ice cream. 

It was raining when we returned to the Castle Inn. 

I sat outside on the balcony listening to the band in the restaurant across the street. 

It was a stormy night and very few people were outside. 

Friday, July 21:

Check-out Castle Inn 

2022 Feb 1, Day trip to Lake Guntersville Birding Guntersville, AL

 Today we rode to Lake Guntersville stopping at Lake Guntersville Park on Sunset Drive. 

We stopped at McDonald's in Decatur for a couple of apple pies and drinks before heading to Guntersville. 

We sat down on a bench near the water's edge then I heard this pecking sound, I looked up and to my surprise, I saw a red-headed woodpecker pecking on a rotten tree. He flew from the rotten tree to a Sweetgum tree. I followed it from tree to tree. Then I spotted a sparrow scratching in the dirt for food when it saw me it flew up into the trees.

Red-headed Woodpecker 

Another of my favorite birds the downy woodpecker was aimlessly pecking away on a rotted stump. It was hard getting a picture because the downy was in a shadowed area. I did get a couple of good pictures.

Downy Woodpecker 

We also saw several Canada Geese, white and spotted ducks, and lots of white terns.

We could hear several fish crows above in the trees.  Also saw and heard several bluebirds. 

We rode to Marshall County Park where we saw several ducks and a great gray heron. We also saw a  marker of Major Paramoris Federal Bombardment of Guntersville. 

Major Paramores Federal Bombardment of Guntersville. 

The hill to the immediate left was the site of the 1862 shelling of Guntersville during the War Between the States.
On July 28, 1862, a Federal force under the command of Major J.W. Paramore placed two Parrots guns on the hill and shelled Guntersville from 7 a.mm to 6 p.m. Captain Cyrus Loomis' First Michigan Battery carried out the shelling, which sent more than one hundred of Guntersville's women and children to the ravine south of town for protection.
The rifled Parrots guns fired six-pound projectiles greater distances than older smooth-bore cannons and enabled the Yankees to reach across the Tennessee River. Trenches had to be dug to steady the Parrot's guns and they can still be seen on top of the hill.
Most of the shelling concentrated on cotton warehouses and boat construction facilities south of Henry Island now inundated. The Federals attempted to send an attractive force across the river but failed. 
As a result of the bombardment, several homes near the riverbank were burned and many other homes suffered damage from the shells, including the Nickels and Gilbreath residences. 

Fortunately, both these houses still stand today.
The Chattanooga Daily Rebel reported that the shelling resulted in only two deaths. One was the wife of military General Samuel King Rayburn.

We left Guntersville and rode to Hartselle, stopping at Krogers Grocery for some bottled Mountain Dews and other items. 

We ate a late lunch at O'Bryan's where I ordered a sirloin Steak with sweet potato and diet coke.

We came home by way of the old paper mill road where we saw a red-tail hawk.

We also stopped at Wheeler Dam where we saw several American White Pelicans floating down the Tennessee River. We also saw a couple of Gray herons flying overhead. 

American White Pelicans 

It was a great day for birding. 

Fred McDowell-Como Miss US 51 Blues Trail Tanger Outlets South Haven, MS

Miss US 51

Fred McDowell -Como 

Fred McDowell, a seminal figure in Mississippi hill country blues, was one of the most vibrant performers of the 1960s blues revival. McDowell (c. 1906-1972) was a sharecropper and local entertainer in 1959 when he made his first recordings at his home on a farm north of Como for noted folklorist Alan Lomax. The depth and originality of McDowell’s music brought him such worldwide acclaim that he was able to record and tour prolifically during his final years.

Fred McDowell Miss US 51

“Mississippi” Fred McDowell, as he was usually billed, was actually born and raised in Rossville, Tennessee. He never knew his birth date–January 12, 1904, is often cited, although census and Social Security documents point to 1906 or 1907. His music blended the sounds he heard from local guitarists in Tennessee with the pulsating juke joint grooves of the North Mississippi hills and the hard-edged blues he picked up during several years spent in the Delta.  Spirituals were an important part of his repertoire, and one, “ You Got to Move,” recorded by McDowell in 1965, gained widespread fame when the Rolling Stones recorded it on their 1971 album Sticky Fingers.

Fred McDowell 

Fred McDowell 

"Mississippi" Fred McDowell, who learned to fret his guitar strings with a bottleneck or metal slide after seeing his father’s cousin play with a steak bone, honed his skills under the tutelage of longtime friend and neighbor Eli Green, who was said to possess magical powers. Green’s song “Write Me a Few Lines” became a McDowell signature piece and was later recorded by one of McDowell’s biggest admirers, Bonnie Raitt. McDowell was also so well known for the rhythmic tour-de-force “Shake ’Em On  Down” that he earned the nickname “Shake ’Em.” His music laid the groundwork for generations of hill country musicians to come, most notably R. L. Burnside, who started out by playing McDowell’s guitar at a house party.  Alan Lomax described  McDowell as “a bluesman quite the equal of Son House and Muddy Waters, but, musically speaking, their granddaddy.”

The highly acclaimed albums that McDowell waxed during his belated recording career (1959-1971) proved that some of the greatest country blues music had gone undiscovered by the record companies that scoured the South for talent in the 1920s and ‘30s. McDowell found himself in demand at folk and blues clubs and festivals, yet kept a job pumping gas at the Stuckey’s candy store and service station on I-55 during his final years, even when he was at last able to support himself as a musician. Stuckey’s became his social hangout and his office, where he would receive phone calls from booking agents and record producers. In earlier years, McDowell held a variety of jobs, including picking cotton, driving a tractor, and working for an oil mill, a dairy, and a logging company.  In 1940, when he applied for a Social Security card, he was employed by the Hotel Peabody in Memphis. Fifty-one years later the Peabody was the site of McDowell’s posthumous induction into the Blues Hall of Fame. McDowell died at Baptist Hospital in Memphis on July 3, 1972. He is buried in the Hammond Hill M. B. Church cemetery north of Como.

Captions

In the 1960s McDowell entertained at fraternity tea parties at the University of Mississippi. He recorded the album I Do Not Play No Rock N’ Roll in Jackson at Malaco Studios in 1969 for two Ole Miss graduates who booked an act for those tea parties, Tommy Couch and Wolf Stephenson.

Fred McDowell and Bonnie Raitt, Philadelphia Folk Festival, 1971

Much of Fred McDowell’s best work appeared on the California-based Arhoolie label. His recordings included both blues and gospel songs, some featuring McDowell’s wife, Annie Mae, his sister Fannie; and the Hunter’s Chapel Singers. 

McDowell’s first recordings for Alan Lomax are released for Atlantic Record’s Southern Folk Heritage series in 1960. 

McDowell at Ann Arbor Blues Festival, 1969

Napolian Stricklin (1919-2001) of Como, shown here playing a homemade cane fife, learned guitar from Fred McDowell and sometimes accompanied him on harmonica. 

Johnny Woods from Looxahoma played harmonica with Fred McDowell and with R. L. Burnside. 

Memphis bluesman Daddy Mack Orr was born in Como in 1945. Other blues and should performers with Panola Country roots have included Jessie Mae Hemphill and Ranie Burnette; also form Como Big Daddy Kinsey, form Pleasant Grover, Ollie Nightingale from Batesville; and Big Amos Patton and Lucius Smith from Sardis 

Capitol Label “I do Not Play No rock N’ Roll” side 2

Everybody's Down on Me

61 Highway

Glory Hallelluha

Jesus is on the Mainline

Produced by Tommy couch 

for Malaco Productions 

Album Coordinator Waybe Shuler 

Welcome to one of the many sites on the Mississippi Blues Trail 

Visit us online at www.MSBluesTrail.org 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15710062/fred-mcdowell

🎈🎈🎈2017 May 27, Hot Air Balloon Festival Decatur, Alabama

You have to get there early if you want to see the balloons ascending into the sky.
I hurriedly dressed and left home right behind hubby, on his way to work.
He was going to Huntsville and me Decatur.
I took highway 72, to highway 101 turning left on the highway went past the paper mill (now being torn down) to hwy 20 which took me to Decatur.

The sun was just coming up and it was a beautiful site so I pulled over on the side of the road to take a couple of pictures. 

Traffic was already lined up going into the park, which took quite a while. I did get a park in the parking area on the concrete.

Twitty Bird Balloon

People everywhere waiting for the balloons to ascend into the sky 

Balloon being filled with Helium

Preparing the balloons

Walked over to the park and watched the balloons being filled with Helium
I was walking around the park taking pictures of the balloons when the announcers said the balloons would not be going up because of the weather.

I stopped at McDonald's in Rogersville for a bagel, with bacon, cheese, and egg but McDonald's no longer serves bagels so I ordered McGill with bacon, egg, and cheese.

No balloons going up!!! No bagel!!! Should have stayed in bed!!!

🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈

History of the Mound House in Lee County Fort Myers Fl

Mound House 

People and Plants

People and Plants

The story of people and plants provides a continuous thread from the Calusa to early Estero Island settlers, and to the present and future generations. With all the great advances in science and technology, people still rely on natural resources to provide food, medicine, rules, building materials, textiles, and dyes. 

 Plants Fuel a Society 

Fire is important to the development of cultures. The Calusa used fire to cook, and to help carve out logs to create canoes. Archaeologists who studied this shell mound gathered a sample of the soil to be tested for botanicals. The test yielded 19,340 botanical items - 90% of which were charred wood. The most common was mangroves (77%), followed by pine or oak (21%). In addition to wood, researchers identified nutshells and nutmeat, seeds, and grass stems. 

 Edible Plants 

The Calusa diet was centered on aquatic foods, yet research shows they also gathered seasonal nuts, seeds, and fruit. Nuts found during the excavation were primarily high-protein acorns and 91% of the seeds collected were saw palmetto seeds. Many of these seeds were found together indicating the Calusa gathered the seeds when seasonally available. 

 Frond Shelters 

Whether it was the Calusa, the Cuban fisherman who set up ranchos or coastal fishing camps, or the late 19th-century settlers-everyone needed shelter. They survived by using natural materials to create protective structures. Palm fronds and tree trunks could be assembled together with twine made from Spanish moss. Perhaps their “houses” were similar to this circa 1910 palm shack. Records indicate that the first homesteader, Robert Gilbert, built a thatched structure on the mound site.

Plants and Progress

Plants and Progress

It is hard to imagine now, but when the earliest settlers arrived on the Mound the surrounding habitat was very different. Native plants dominated the landscape. Years would pass before the Estero Island settlers could profit from agricultural pursuits. 

 A Case of Fruit From the Case Grove 

By the early 1900s, settlers were raising tropical fruit crops with some success. The coastal hammock or hardwood tree grove, west of the mound was converted into orchards and fields. This is where William and Milia Case raised figs, bananas, grapefruits, mangos, papayas, tomatoes, and limes. They likely sold their fruits to local markets. 

 Fort Myers Cash Crop 

Farming was a predominant industry on the island as well as on the mainland. Many farmers experimented by growing a wide variety of products including grapes, oranges, avocados, grapefruits, pineapples, sapodillas, coconuts, and peaches. Eventually, grapefruit emerged as the leading cash crop in the Fort Myers area. By 1915, statewide citrus production reached 10 million boxes a year. 

 Walk Through the Garden of History 

You walk along the paths of the Mound House site and look for a variety of tropical fruit trees. While the Case family planted similar botanicals, these are newly planted to show the diversity of the crops grown on the setter’s properties over the past 100 years.