Where is this Festival vanishing to?  Somewhere between bliss and exhaustion.  Last night, Monday, we had big plans that somehow got sidetracked.  Alfredo Rodriguez Trio at 6 at Kilbourn was the first stumbling block.  We couldn’t leave our seats.  We didn’t stop moving, couldn’t actually, but there was no way we were leaving while they were playing.  His take on Cuban music and his use of electronics and the drummer and bassist were all captivating.  The music was certainly not traditional Jazz, but it was clearly in the modern Jazz idiom with lots of interchange among the musicians and experimentation with new sounds along with really solid musicianship.  The drummer was among the best we can remember.  We are planning to hear Rodriguez solo tonight at Hatch at 5:45. By the time we got out of the hall it was 7:20 and too late for Max.

We really felt we needed to continue with high energy music so after a stop on Jazz Street for fuel we went on to Abilene for Chris O’Leary on Harmonica with two saxaphones, drums, guitar and bass.  The music was Blues and . . .  and answered our need for high energy.  We left there by 9 and knew that we wanted to hear Eric Alexander-Harold Mabern Quartet at Montage at 10 so we went to get on line.  We got in early and got seats near the front.  Carol really wanted to hear Michael Mwenso at Christ Church so she left me holding a seat for her.  When she returned she found me with Roz and John Goldman and John’s brother and sister-in-law Jim and Carol.  It was a nice party while we waited for the performance.  I will skip over the Goldberg/Goldman/Goldstein stories and get to the music.  It was wonderful classic Jazz with Alexander on sax, mostly, and Harold Mabern on piano, mostly.  Mabern must be 80 and his piano playing was wonderful.  He got to the mic and told a few stories before singing some blues while Alexander took the keyboard.  Then they returned to their original arrangement and entertained us until past closing.  I must not finish before mentioning the drummer who, in one ride, switched between sticks and brushes every measure for many measures.  It was quite a feat and he did it while keeping the beat and the thought intact.

It was over, almost.  We stopped by the apartment for a snack before heading across the river to State Street Grill and the late night jam session.  There we finally heard John Sneider, trumpet, playing with his brother Bob who leads the Jam session and who we know from various venues in Rochester.  Harold Mabern found his way to the keyboard and seemed content to sit in with whatever was happening with the group on stage.  John Nugent took the stage for a while and there was another trumpet who we could not identify, but who had the chops to be in there.  As the music was ramping up at 1 AM Carol I called it quits.  The only way to stay up later is to sleep until noon, not in our book of tricks this year.

Tonight we have laid out an easier program, maybe.  Hatch to begin with to hear more of Rodriguez, then maybe a stop at Lutheran Church for Eero Koivistoinen Quartet before going to Xerox Auditorium for Anat Cohen and finishing at Max with Michael Wollny.  No late night Jam as I made a plan to have breakfast at 7:30 AM.

We slept in Sunday morning, well 7:55 is sleeping in for us.  A walk in a park and lunch at Revelry with grandson Josh started the day and set us up for more fun come late afternoon.  The line up started with  Stretch Orchestra at Montage.  I could refer you to the review in City http://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/rochester/jazz-fest-2013-citys-daily-jazz-blogs/Content?oid=2240080 for our opinion since we agree wholeheartedly.  We couldn’t sit still and certainly were not thinking about leaving before the last note had been played.  Have you ever seen a guitarist (for lack of a better description) turn the instrument over and rub the strings on his shirt to get the sound he wanted?  He also played electric mandolin and mandocello.  The rest of the group included a drummer who seemed almost normal and a cello (yes, that is not a typo) playing the part normally assigned to a bass and also mixing in as cello.

Next stop Harro East for Beau Soleil avec Michael Doucet.  Fun time with Zydeco a little tamed down from what we are used to in the Louisiana dance halls, but quite suitable for sitting and listening in a concert setting.  We stayed on through and had a chat with the Towlers before moving on to Abilene and Marti Brom.  Picked up some food and grooved to the sound for the last half of the set.  We really enjoyed the music and we even were able to crowd forward to see the stage and performers. By now it was 8:45 we decided our next choice at Christ Church would be a pass so we wandered over to the Big Tent where Carol picked up a lovely salad from the Bricks&Motor Food Truck on Main and I got too much popcorn.  We wandered into the tent to look at as well as listen to Ritmoseis.  It was worth the stop and we didn’t even need earplugs, maybe we just don’t have as much hearing left as we think.  From there we hopped to Rochester Club and Mike Brignola.  We didn’t last long enough to order a drink.  Reading the chart off a music stand at Jazz Fest, I don’t think so!  Quick shift to Max where Rafael Zaldivar was performing with his trio.  His playing was interesting if somewhat disjointed.  It was here that our late night on Saturday caught up with us and we both dozed in our seats.  Fortunately the applause, tepid as it was, woke us when the set ended.

Looking back, it appears we listened to at least two numbers in each of seven venues last night.  No wonder we skipped the Jam Session and fell into bed exhausted.  Today started with a lovely lunch at 2 Vine with Marianne Zeitlin and her daughter Leora.  We hadn’t seen Marianne since last summer nor Leora since we visited in Las Crucis for Passover.

Tonight the plan is Alfredo Rodriguez at Kilbourn with a possible jump to Tsukamoto & Takeshi at Max followed by Greenfield-Rosenberg at the Little.  If we have the stamina on to a wrap at Montage for Eric Alexander.  That’s four, somehow I suspect that will change as we meet others and hear what they like.  Jam Session is a maybe since we have no plans for the morning.

We started the night on line for Dr Lonnie Smith at Kilbourn at 4:15 PM (6 PM show).  We were well within range to get in but way back in the pack.  For those who know the layout we were in stinky pass way down the alley between two rows of port-a-johns.  The crowd was friendly and we made new friends who I am sure we will see on line again this week.  He is Tim, no idea what her name is.

Dr Smith blew the house down with his Hammond B3 organ and synthesizer and Apple computer, not to mention a great drummer and guitarist.  We couldn’t sit still and were sad when 7 O’clock rolled around, but we had to leave to get on to another performer.  We missed his encore 🙁

We ran to Abilene for John Mooney & Bluesiana, talk about a change of pace!  We got in before the crowd had peaked and were able to get some food from the Tavern 58 table before the music started.  We really enjoyed listening and bopping to the group.  Mooney was playing mostly on a National Steel Guitar with resonator and he was accompanied by bass, keyboard and harmonica from there . . .

we trotted to Christ Church where we found ourselves back in line to hear YolanDa Brown on Sax with a quartet backing her up.  She was playing a great show when we got in just short of half way through.  Late in the show she came down into the audience to acknowledge her family members who were present.  She elected to climb through the row in front of us while continuing to play the soprano sax.  When she was directly in front of us she found the seat empty and sat down and continued playing.  We really enjoyed the performance, but were ready to move on to. . .

Rochester Club where Halle Loren trio was performing.  We got seats with our knees pressing against the stage.  In found myself staring at her knees and had to work to look up when she was using the stage front microphone.  The City review was gently unkind.  She is much more of a quiet club performer, suited to an environment where people engage in quiet conversation with her in the background.  Carol left early to get an Abbots (soft ice cream), I had enjoyed some salsa and chips and stayed another couple of numbers before rejoining her on the street.

We moved on towards the apartment with a detour to The Rochester Plaza State Street Grill for the late night Jam Session.  Along about 12:30 Terell Stafford took the stage with John Nugent (producer) and MIke Cottone along with Bob Sneider and his trio.  They rocked the place for about 25 minutes and after they took a break Carol and I decided it was too far past bed time to even consider waiting around for the next set.  Well we thought about it but we had to get up to spend time with grandson Josh at 10:30 so we called it a night.

Tonight we are starting at Montage with Stretch and planning on closing at Rochester Club withMike Brignola and Friends.  In between we will try to fit in The Sneider Brothers, Christian Wallumrod, and Rafael Zaldivar.

To see the actual lineups click on http://www.rochesterjazz.com/artist_lineup/?option=view_by_date for City Newspaper Reveiws click here.

Until tomorrow!

We really slept well this morning.  The Jazz last night was wonderful and we never made it to the Jam session because the last show we went to at Max went on and on and we couldn’t leave.  But back to the late afternoon: We walked over to get in line at Harro East for Nikki Yanofsky at 4:15 expecting to be almost at the front of the line – WRONG! We were further from the door than we have ever been and questioned the likelihood of getting in.  We made it! and so did the next hundred or so behind us, the place was packed and many were standing as the show began.  There was almost no turnover so standees remained standees.  We had great seats at a table down front.  Nikki sang with power and emotion.  The selections ranged from Louis Armstrong to pop music we didn’t recognize.  Her group were wonderful providing her with great backing and showing a lot of talent.  Some of her Ella F scat was enough to bring tears of joy.  We drifted out of the Ballroom on a cloud of excitement for what was to come.

A stop at Christ Church was disappointing as Cleveland Watkiss was not there, just his group playing solid jazz trio, but not what we were looking for.  The Little with Kat Edmonson was sold out with a long lone waiting to take any seat that might be vacated, we kept moving.  We had already eaten by this point so we made our war to Lutheran Church for Trondheim Jazz Orchestra.  The intro left us wondering if we had wondered into a different land.  Two “performers” who never played any music, drifted around the hall with bronze bowls making them ring in what seemed to be a cleansing of the spirits and they finished by diving their hands into a glass bowl filled with what turned out to be a white powder and coating their faces.  The musicians appeared from the back of the hall and worked their way onto the stage playing as they came forward.  The music was discordant and disconnected.  Knowing the nature of Nordic Jazz events we stuck around to see where it all was going.  As the hour progressed the weirdness never entirely stopped but the music became more coherent.  I could comment on the section where the tenor sax player put an empty aluminum soda can in the bell for a ringing effect.  Also the vocalist who vocalized without words or even recognizable scat.  We stayed for the entire show and were rewarded with an extraordinary performance.  They are performing tonight again at the Xerox Auditorium.

We got in line really early outside Max to hear Patricia Barber.  She is definitely different.  She sings and plays piano and her group included guitar, double bass and drums.  That is one huge understatement.  Her facial expressions must be mirroring what is passing through her mind as she extracts wonderment from the piano.  She speaks out as she plays, and as the group plays, at one point yelling “shit” in excitement.  Her hand gestures guide the performance.  At one point, late in the show, she got up from the piano, leaving her group to play on while she went out of the hall to get another cup of coffee.  She never seemed to notice the 11 PM closing time and kept on playing until 11:30, very few left at anytime and the hall was packed and rapt though out. It was a great first night.

For anyone attending who is reading this our preliminary plan for tonight is Lonnie Smith at Kilbourn, Yolanda Brown at Christ Church, John Mooney and the Bluesianas at Abilene and Halle Loren Trio at Rochester Club.

There are several others we would like to hear, but the evening is only 5 hours – well 6 – and four performances are a lot if they are good.  If we are disappointed, we will move on and might make a couple of others.  See you on Jazz Street!

For those of you who have followed this blog over the years you know we are go just a bit crazy for the Jazz Fest.  It is nine nights of way too much music to really take in.  We are plotting how to get to six performances tonight!

But first I must back up to last week, the Good Sam Rally in Syracuse.  We arrived at the NY State Fairground in rain and mud.  Somehow we got the coach positioned and had a really great spot so we could walk to the exhibit hall, unless we had stuff to carry, then we had to drive all the way around the outside of the fairgrounds, fortunately we had exhibitor parking permits.  We stood on our feet on a concrete floor from 9 to 5 for four days.  Fortunately we had been forewarned and had a nice cushy pad to stand on.  In all my years of working I never worked so hard for such an extended period of time.  I’ve always wondered how the exhibitors at these events do it day after day and show after show.  Now I wonder even more.  I doubt we will do it again, but we really did have fun while we were doing it.

Today, the first day of summer, the first day of Jazz Fest is the also the first day of our 49th year as a married couple.  Yes, we were married June 21 1964, it was a hot sunny day just like today promises to be.

So we are working through the schedule and it looks like we will start at 5:30 at Harro East to hear Nikki Yanofsky.  See you fans in line outside the Harro East by 4:45.  After that it depends, we are hoping to hear Patricia Barber, Cleveland Watkiss, Trondheim Jazz and for laughs and giggles the Hackensaw Boys, oh yes I left out Christian McBride.  Full report on actual results with a lineup for tomorrow in the morning.

As I have noted before, we sold our townhouse and moved into an apartment in downtown Rochester. The result is we are much closer to the center of the Jazz Festival and even closer to The Rochester Plaza where the late night jam session starts at 10:30.  It is just the other side of the river so I expect we will stop in for a bit.  Couldn’t do that from the townhouse as the walk back late at night would have been too far and to drive meant finding parking.

More tomorrow.

It certainly is strange to have Gee Whiz in storage, mostly powered down and us not living aboard.  We have been living on board continuously since November 2012.  We will be back on board on June 11 as we roll down the road to Syracuse, 90 miles, to the Good Sam Rally being held at the New York State Fairgrounds just west of Syracuse.  Before I get into that I want to note our unusual route from Covesville to Rochester.  For the RVers among you our coach is a DP (Diesel Pusher) and only requires oil change and preventive maintenance every 15000 miles or one year.

May 8 we had owned Gee Whiz for one year and had put on 13,000 miles.  I located a Freightliner (chassis manufacturer) Service facility that was listed as being motorhome friendly in Canonsburg PA, just south of Pittsburgh.  This lead to our rather unusual route north.  The first map routing suggested US 250 to I 79.  Seeing the twists and turns on the map I was doubtful.  Research by asking on RV.net/forums yielded the information that motorcyclists considered that route to have some really challenging turns!  We opted for more miles and stayed mostly on interstates – very unusual for us.  I 68 across northern Maryland turned out to be among the most challenging and beautiful Interstate drives in the East that we can remember.  We arrived at Fyda Freightliner at 6 PM to find the service operation in full swing, the last techs leave at midnight.  We set up in the parking lot with no indication of when they would call us into the a bay.  Eventually we went to sleep and I got up in time to be at the service desk at 6 AM.  They had us in a bay by 10 and then the waiting became serious. How long does it take to change the oil and filters and lube the chassis?  Not very, but they did not have an oil filter in stock for the generator and had to send out for it.  After an hour and a half wait, I learned that the Napa store they ordered it from was 1 1/2 miles away and I prepared to drive over and get the part myself.  This triggered renewed activity in the parts area which located the part which have been sitting in the wrong place for over an hour.  Once again we found ourselves delayed by poor communication in a service organization.

We rolled out by 3:30 PM and located a KOA campground on Lake Erie in Westfield NY.  We arrived in time to prepare dinner and did not care to disconnect the Jeep and go exploring.  We walked across the highway to a town park that sits on a bluff above the lake.  The area might be worth exploring some day.  We took the opportunity to renew our acquaintance with US 20, traveling from Westfield to just outside of Buffalo on that route, avoiding the NY Thruway as long as possible.  We got on it where it crosses US 62 because we planned to stop at Flying J in Pembroke to top off the fuel tank before putting the coach in storage.  Our worst mishap of the entire year happened as I pulled into the parking lot at Warner Lofts.  I refused to listen to Carol and attempted to make a right turn into the lot.  The angle is too tight from that direction and I left a bit of paint on the gate post before getting out and disconnecting the Jeep while messing up traffic on Pleasant Street.  With the car disconnected I was able to back out and reenter with no further damage.  Our departure, backing out onto Pleasant, was equally aggravating to motorists as it took a large number of very small moves to get out without making contact with any of the many obstacles.

Next week we will be vendors at the Good Sam Rally, selling memberships in Harvest Host and giving a seminar  “Free Overnight Stays at Wineries & Farms” Friday 6/14 @ 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. in Seminar F.  Please visit us in the booth #252.  As those of you who know us on the road, FREE is the operative word, and we have had plenty of good times enjoying the Free!

Several days have passed since I wrote the above.  I am not even sure what we have done, but we have the material for the Rally and have set up the credit card processor.  We have visited friends and are working on filling our calendar, summer is getting booked and it isn’t even here yet.

We are all still vibrating with the joy of Alexander’s Bar Mitzvah.  It was held under a tent in the orchard below the house.  The day started out cool (actually chilly) and we all dressed just a bit warmer then planned.  The glow under the tent kept many of us warm and others moved out through the open walls to sit in the warming sun.  Most of the family from Dan’s side were there and many from Malena’s as well.  All the grandparents were present and one couple surviving from the prior generation as well, that was my Aunt Gloria and Uncle Josh.  Dan had invited them to stand in for my parents for the tradition of handing the Torah down from “generation to generation” so it passed down through three generations to Alexander the forth generation of our family.  I must admit I could not stop sobbing through most of the service and here with my Aunt and Uncle I was moved beyond tears.  For them this was the beginning of yet another trip as they headed off to Paris the next day.  May I live to have the strength for that kind of travel in my late 80’s.

Alexander delivered the “Words of Torah’ or drosh, with aplomb and fervor.  After all he had found a way to talk about his favorite subject, chickens, and how they are mistreated in Concentrated Animal Feedlot Operations.  He had worked on this very hard and I was the “scribe” taking down his words and making the occasional amendment, which he mostly found and further revised into his own words.  This was a drosh that no one could say had been written for him.  He followed that with a chanting of the part of the Torah portion in his rich controlled voice with a minor error which he acknowledged with a smile and an “oops” and continued on as if it had not happened. If there is any doubt, I am a very proud grandfather.

Pictures?  We were so wrapped up in the event that we took very few – I took none – so I will share when I get them from others.

The party never did seem to end as we moved to a wonderful luncheon at the back of the tent and a continuation for the family from out of town that seemed to seamlessly emerge as a Memorial Day hots and hamburgers supper accompanied by a bottle of fine Scotch and much beer and wine.  Sunday we continued on to brunch at L’Etoile and some more goodbyes.  In the evening there was a meal of leftovers and a bonfire for the kids to make s’mores.  And then more farewells as people with early flights on Monday gathered their hugs in preparation for departure.  By Monday the only “out of towners” left were our niece Erica and grandson Josh (and of course us).  As I write, on Tuesday, Erica, Josh, and Carol and I are preparing to go our separate ways.  We will reconnect with Josh in Rochester within a week or so.  Our California family will rejoin us in Rochester in July and we will be back in Covesville in September.

Tomorrow, Pittsburgh, to have Gee Whiz get its first chassis service since we bought it a year ago.  Then on to Rochester.  We called Sarah at our summer home on St Paul St to arrange to bring the coach right to the loading area on Friday. She was very sweet and offered the help of staff to control traffic when we are ready to back out.  Looking forward to visiting with our Rochester friends over the next couple of months.  I will probably post less often as we will not be “On Board Gee Whiz.”

We arrived in Charlottesville – actually Covesville, VA – after three nights on the road from Asheville.  We spent two nights in Boone, at the KOA – still haven’t found a really nice place to stay there.  We made a stop at AmRhein Winery (Harvest Host) just into Virginia and not too far off the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We had a bit of a hurry up wine tasting because our arrival was delayed by a motorcycle accident on the Parkway – our second that day.  We met Russ, the owner, on the way in, he commented on how well Carol had handled the coach coming through their very narrow gate.  We set up on a fairly out of level piece of ground.  When Carol put down the levelers they continued right into the ground, oops.  We bought 6 bottles of wine.

We had a beautiful and relatively uneventful drive the rest of the way to Malena and Dan’s. Setting up in the driveway we decided to have Carol at the wheel and me giving ground guidance as opposed to the usual order of things.  It worked out very well and we may make that a normal approach for tight circumstances.

Since arrival we have been very busy helping prepare for Alexander’s Bar Mitzvah.  There is much yard work to be done

  swarming from one of the hives.  The next day they returned to the hive they had left while Malena was there to watch.

Much of my time has been spent with Alexander as my assignment has been to help him prepare his drosh (speech based on the Torah portion he will be reading).  The most difficult part for me is to get him to write it in his words so when he presents it it sounds like him not me.  Of course, I have a lot of help from his parents so we are doing most of our work on the motorhome out of earshot.  They have plenty to do without taking on this added work. It has certainly been fun for me as I have not had an opportunity to spend serious intellectual time with Alex before this and we are getting to know each other even better.

Every time I look at the “to do” list that Malena keeps on a spreadsheet it seems to get longer.  Mixed in with the preparations are baseball games, rehearsals for a play and the usual demands of life.

Two days later:

The list does not appear to be any shorter, but a lot has been done.  It seems my role has been “helper” in the yard.  I have helped move the chickens out of the way and helped build an animal pen in the woods to move some four legged critters out of the way and helped put together a new grill and helped myself to the occasional beer and glass of wine.

The drosh is written and has been rehearsed.  I have been learning my Torah reading and Carol has been busy assembling the siddurim (prayer books) which needed amendments for this service, they are in three ring binders.  As soon as I post this I will get to working on that task, unless I am “assigned” some other job that is deemed of higher priority.  Carol continues to prepare meals while everyone else is off on errands and running her own errands as well. Family starts arriving tonight and continues to arrive until late Friday night.

and it continued to rain, all the way to Asheville and while we got set up in Bear Creek RV Park in Asheville.  Then, miraculously the rain stopped.  We rejoined Anna Lee and Jerry Braunstein, whom we last saw in Austin, for dinner at Nine Mile in Asheville.  They are not Tiffin owners, but they found their way into Bear Creek as an ideal place to tour Asheville and surroundings.  That was Sunday night, our rally was set to start on Monday although there certainly were plenty Tiffin coaches already in the park.

The rally consisted of daily happy hour(s) with food variants from pizza, to pot luck to catered Italian as well as “on your own” a couple of nights.  On Tuesday we participated in the White Trolley Tour, something we often avoid, and learned how much of Asheville we had been missing.  Wednesday the group went to the Biltmore Estate, a wonderful thing to do, which we have done several times, including last year, so we skipped.  We learned that Jerry and Anna Lee’s coach had developed a malady requiring parts and service which would not happen until later in the day so we picked them up and went to the River Art District.  In the first building we stopped in we met and spoke with a wood turner, some potters

 and a woman painting with encaustic.  We got excited as our friend and neighbor in Rochester, Jack Wolsky, is the only artist we know who works in that old medium.  Lets just say that there is encasutic and there is Wolsky.  We delivered the Braunsteins back to their coach in time for the service man to arrive and install the new inverter.  After lunch on board, we returned to the River Art District and continued to visit with craftspeople for most of the afternoon.  By 5 we were in the Rally Room with the survivors of Biltmore and the wine tasting.

We got to renew acquaintance with Tiffin Travelers we met in Bath NY last summer and we made friends with members who were not there.  It is a wonder to me how a group of people drawn together merely by the ownership of a brand of motorhome can have so much else in common. It approaches being a granfalloon (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granfalloon). We are blessed with many retired teachers and nurses not to mention retired lawmen and military.

On the left Bill Murton, group photographer and incoming president, on the right Lee and Richard Beers

Along the way we had a mishap with a wonderful recovery.  On Monday Carol lost her rig keys, this includes a remote for the door.  This is uncharacteristic, somehow she failed to stash them in the glove compartment of the Jeep and they must have fallen out of her purse.  We were appalled at the likely cost of replacing the remote, not to mention the aggravation.  At the suggestion of one of the rally participants I emailed the Tiffin customer service department with a plea to direct the email to the appropriate person to sell me a new remote.  The next morning, Tuesday, as we rode the Trolley, I determined to follow up with a phone call when we got back.  Mid morning, my phone rings and it is Ray Tiffin (!) on the phone confirming my email and telling me they would send a replacement out overnight delivery.  I was stunned.  Later in the day Anthony, from parts called to get the VIN number of the coach so he could send out the right part and the complete shipping address.  He said he was sending us a couple of remotes.  I objected saying I only needed one.  End of story, at noon on Wednesday a box was delivered to us, free of charge, with two brand new remotes and coding instructions.  Thank you Tiffin.

This morning, Saturday, we set out to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway yet again.  We made it as far as Boon, about 65 miles.  We had an extended stop at the Folk Art Center where we saw a sheep being sheared and we avoided spending any money because we have no space and no desire to recreate the collection of wonderful things we have chosen to part with.  We will probably stay here two nights and wander the territory in the Jeep.

Next post will most likely be from Covesville unless I decide to write sooner.

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.”