Pike's Awesome Journey Across America

  Before we left Savannah, we went out to Fort Pulaski Ntl. Monument. Robert E Lee engineered the fort & set up the drainage system in 1829. In 1847 it was completed with the help of many slaves. It had 71/2 thick walls. In 1861, 150 men from Georgia took the fort with the beginning of war. In 1862,  Union ships closed off Savannah Harbor. 11 batteries were erected on neighboring Tybee Island. Heavy shelling for 10 hours by the Union army  destroyed one end of the Fort where the magazines were. The Commander of the Fort knew if the magazines were hit it would kill his troops & destroy the fort. The Confederates surrendered Underground passages were added in 1869 to the magazines. The quartermaster room Officers quarters for sleeping Officers dining quarters. Steve on the ramparts The fort served as a prison through the end of the war. Notice the moat. The fort was made a Ntl. Monument. In 1933 restoration began. We saw the Tybee Island lighthouse. This may be the ...

 On Wednesday we just drove from the Atlanta area down to the Savannah area. We planned to go to the Augusta Riverwalk but there was no parking for a trailer. We ended up picnicking in our car again, but we went to the aqueduct & at least had a nice view. In Atlanta it was in the 60's & breezy. We noticed on the drive how humid it was becoming. It's been in the 70's & beautiful down south. The drive was 5 hours without the stops. There are few freeways down in the South (several states) There are a lot of small highways that have traffic lights on them & go through towns. Everything just seems to take a long time. But I will say those meandering roads are beautiful & green! Today, Thursday, we went into Savannah. Our first stop was the Savannah History Ctr. This is an Eli Whitney cotton gin. This revolutionized cotton processing which was very labor intensive. This is a copy of the bench in Forrest Gump. The US pretty much cobbled together uniforms durin...