Days 22 & 23

We've been pretty much off the grid for the past two days; no internet & no showers, but we're loving it!

Our first stop of the day was the National Cemetery in Chattanooga where, among many others, are buried Andrews Raiders who stole the train in Kennesaw, Georgia.  The eight raiders who were caught were all hung; nine others escaped.

The grave of James Andrews who led the raid.

An adorable display in front of a dog kennel in Chattanooga.

The Smoky Mountain Railroad Model Train Museum in Bryson City, NC.  Over 4000 cars & engines combine to make this display, and another 3000 cars & engines are in storage awaiting another layout.  For those who want to know, these are 99% "O gauge" trains.

One of the many tourist traps in Cherokee, NC.

Poplar Tulip

Our campsite, B-24, at the Smokemont Campground in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

We may have been off the grid, but that didn't stop us from celebrating Derby Day with a couple of Mint Juleps.

We started Day 23 at this museum in Cherokee.  This museum not only focused on the Cherokee tribe, but covered the earliest Native American settlements in North America.  Although there was a lot of repeat information that we'd encountered in other museums, it was still very informative and we were glad we went.

This simple map gives an indication of how large the Cherokee lands were before they were forced to give them all ups and move to Oklahoma.

Plotting our next stops for the upcoming days.

After leaving the museum in Cherokee, we returned to the Smoky Mountains National Park, driving over the Newfound Gap, elevation 5,049 ft., which crosses the Appalachian Trail.  Newfound Gap is also the dividing line between Tennessee and North Carolina, with Tennessee to the north.

This stream ran parallel to our campground and provided just enough white noise to block out any noisy campers who were running air conditioners or portable generators.

Sunday night dinner:  pulled pork, brisket, baby back ribs, beans, & a biscuit.

Our travels for days 22 & 23.

Day 21

Our last pix from Red Top Mountain, Georgia

 We were on the road at 8:45 AM, heading north to Georgia’s Fort Mountain State Park which is about 50 miles south of Chattanooga.   It was raining this morning so we decided to just have cereal and juice in the van,  then pick up some coffee an everything bagel and a raspberry scone in nearby Cartersville.  

Continuing north, our next stop was the settlement of New Echota, which was the capitol of the Cherokee Nation.  The Cherokee were a peaceful people who quickly adopted and assimilated most of the customs, names, speech, dress, housing, government, and religions of the European settlers.  

The settlement of New Echota resembled many other communities in the United States in the 1800’s.  The Cherokee developed a written language, they had a newspaper, and a court system.  Touring the buildings of the restored village was no different than touring through Sturbridge Village in central Massachusetts.

The Cherokee Nation was recognized and operated as an independent country inside the United States.  However, in response to a continual series of treaty revisions and violations, the Cherokee sued the US government and won!  The lawsuit ended up in the US Supreme Court whose Chief Justice was John Marshall. Despite the fact that the Cherokee won the lawsuit President Andrew Jackson refused to honor the decision, and ordered US troops to enforce resettlement of all Cherokee people to Oklahoma.

The forced migration of the Cherokee to Oklahoma, which started in the fall of 1835, was known as the Trail of Tears.  Approximately 15,000 Cherokee started the 800 mile journey by foot, horse, wagon, and boat, but over 4,000 died along the way due to disease, exposure, and starvation.

In Georgia, the abandoned lands. farms, homes, and possessions were distributed to new settlers via a lottery!  The original village of New Echota was completely abandoned and essentially disappeared until it was rediscovered by archaeologists in the 1950’s.

This is the home of one of the most successful Cherokee, Chief James Vann, a businessman whose 1000 acre plantation employed over 100 Black slaves.  Vann was considered one of the wealthiest Americans of his time.  He was murdered, most likely by a disgruntled Cherokee who believed Vann was corrupt and taking bribes in order to agree to treaties that none of the Cherokee people supported.

Vann Plantation 

Leaving New Echota, our next stop was the town of Dalton where we had a fabulous lunch, probably our best meal of this trip, at “Cyra’s Simple Goodness”.

Knowing our dinner would be at the campground, Joni and I went big, sharing an appetizer, a mango curry burrata:  fried burrata (cheese( served over mango, cranberry and curry chutney, and accompanied with grilled stiratto bread.

My main dish was shrimp and zucchini fettuccine:  house made zucchini noodles tossed with a fresh chili garlic beurre blanc and served with grilled shrimp, spinach, corn, and peppers.

For a main dish, Joni chose a fried green tomato BLT with thick cut Nueske bacon, iceberg lettuce and a jalapeño bacon jame on grilled stiratto bread, served with Yukon Gold roasted potatoes.

We continued our splurge, sharing an Indian bread pudding with strawberries, raspberries, and whipped cream!

Leaving Dalton, which appeared to be a very prosperous and charming small city, we made one stop to take some pictures of the Vann Plantation, and then headed into the mountains to our campsite for the evening at Fort Mountain State Park.  The park, elevation 2500 feet, is nestled among the thick forests of the  southern Appalachians, very close to the southern end of the  Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain.  This was our 4th or 5th visit to Fort Mountain….obviously we love it.

Day 20

 Our last full at Georgia's Red Top Mountain State Park.  We couldn't ask for a nicer site!

Site #12, Red Top Mountain State Park

We started the day making "Gary Gardner Specials":  egg & bacon breakfast sandwiches on a brioche!

Leaving our campsite around 10 AM, we headed to the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw; two of my favorite subjects ever since I took a course at Middlebury on Civil War Railroads.  Don't laugh, Bill Carlough!

The first exhibits focused on the Civil War with lots of photos and pieces of military equipment. Later exhibits focused on the development of the railroads in the U.S. with particular emphasis on the role the railroads played during the war.  

Railroad construction technology was in its infancy, so both rails and ties (aka sleepers) did not last more than 6 months and were very easy to sabotage.

A trestle bridge being constructed over the Tennessee River

Barrels of pine syrup, used for many purposes such as turpentine, being loaded onto the ships in background in Savanah.

Downtown Richmond with the Thomas Jefferson designed Capitol building.

Another view of downtown Richmond, focusing on the Tredegar foundry where the majority cannons and cannon balls for the Confederacy where made.  Today what's left of the foundry is now part of the American Civil War Museum which we visited earlier in this trip.

Railroads demanded many parts made of iron and steel, so machine shops were in high demand.  There were many exhibits of such shops in this museum.

One of the major exhibits at the museum focuses on the Great Locomotive Chase that took place in April 1862 when James Andrews led 21 Union volunteers to capture a Rebel train  near Kennesaw and tried to take it to Chattanooga. In the process the raiders hoped to destroy as much of the track and telegraph lines as possible. Most of the raiders were eventually caught from behind by another train.  They were put in prison, tried as spies, some were released in a prisoner exchange, but some, including James Andrews were hung.  Andrew was eventually awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and in fact was the first civilian to receive this award. 

That chase has been celebrated in two different films,  a silent film starring Buster Keaton in 1927, and the second film, produced by Disney in 1956, starred Davy Crocket himself, Fess Parker! The General, is now on display in this museum.

More info on the Great Locomotive Chase

Another interesting exhibit in this museum was this "Dukes of Hazard" wrist watch.  More fascinating than the watch itself, was the explanation about Confederate battle flag, which many of us would equate to the Nazi swastika

To those of you leaving comments:  First of all thank you very much for the comments you have left, I do read them and I love hearing from you.  Many of you have let me know via email that you can't figure out how to leave a comment on the blog itself.  You're not alone, I've tried to reply on the blog to specific comments and can't figure out how to do it.  You'd think after publishing a blog on the same website all these years I'd be able to do it, but right now it escapes me.