As is our norm, as we left Golden Acres Ranch we set out toward Macon using US highways and state roads. We wanted to see more of Georgia than the interstates and we wanted to avoid going through Atlanta at any time of day. Along the way we elected, sometimes by choice and sometimes by inadvertence, to go directly through Main Street rather than take the bypass. We saw many beautiful towns and came across one Landmark House tour that was right along the route. We also passed by a large group reenacting a Civil War battle. That was in the appropriately named town of Gray.
Yesterday as we looked at the FMCA atlas we always have open to our route, we noted that we were going to be passing by Andersonville Historic Park and the National Prisoner of War Museum. They were directly on route 49 which we were traveling along.
A bit of a refresher, in 1864 the South was looking for a place to hold Union prisoners away from battle in a place where there were building materials and a food supply. They selected Andersonville and began construction of “Camp Sumpter” a 16 acre stockaded area with a stream, Stockade Branch, flowing through it to provide water. They later expanded the stockade to 22 acres. The original plan was for 6,000 prisoners then 10,000. Eventually they housed over 20,000 prisoners in a bare stockade forced to build whatever housing they could from material they had with them or could salvage. The death rate was terrible and through a novel written in the 1950’s it has become known as the most horrible of Civil War POW camps. There were northern camps that had death rates in the same order of magnitude, some believe to have been as high as 25% of all imprisoned. Here is a picture taken from the south. This is a view from a gun emplacement at the southwest corner intended to be able to sweep the entire northern end of the stockade as well as to turn and defend against the Union Army. The white posts indicate the location of the stockade and the “deadline.”
After a couple of hours touring the Prisoner of War Museum and then taking the CD guided driving tour of the grounds (in the coach with the car in tow) we headed on down the road, crossing to I 75 to get to our intended Passport America campground, Al Sihah Shrine Park, just outside Macon. We had been told there was an event on and we would have to camp “up the hill” with 30 amp and no sewer. No big deal until we turned onto the Mecca Rd. Cars were backed up a quarter of a mile waiting to get into the park. The road was lined with “Rally for Life” American Cancer Society signs. This is a Masonic Temple with very large grounds. I called the camp manager to ask if we were in the right place and he said he could see us and to just follow the flow. We did and eventually we were situated up the hill with water and electric and a large empty hay field in front of us. As time passed the field continued to fill until they were almost up to where we were camping.
I really needed to get up on the roof of the coach to get a picture of the place, but it was drizzling, as it had all day, and It was warm and dry inside. In the morning all the cars, save one, were gone. Their coming and going did not disturb us and did provide some additional entertainment.
Continuing up the road we eventually picked up US 441 headed for the Georgia-North Carolina border. But we stopped short at Tallulah Falls State Park in Tallulah Falls GA. We are making a note of this place for a revisit, maybe with some grandsons. There is a large gorge with several waterfalls,
a suspension bridge
and hiking and a very good visitor center. In warm weather there is a beach and water play in the lake formed by the dam above the park. The campground is very nicely laid out and maintained by Georgia Power!! the turns are such that a coach any bigger than ours might have an issue with at least one of the them. We arrived and Carol announced she had to get on her computer and I desperately needed a walk in the rain. We compromised, she stayed in the coach and did her work and I went for a walk. I was greeted with this sign declaring that there are 620 steps to the suspension bridge.
I will not argue that count. I went down every one of them and then climbed back up. I will discuss the condition of my legs the next day in my next post.
Did I mention is has been raining? It has been on and off for the past four days and does not seem to be ending for us for another 5 days. The rain gear is in use.
