GTT (Gone to Texas)

7 am  North Carolina

9:15   South Carolina (Gas is 30 cents a gallon cheaper!)

10:55 Georgia state line

12:07 Atlanta and onto I-20

1:12   Alabama state line and I'm in Central Time Zone (I gained an hour!)

2:47 CST   Birmingham

4:13  Tuscaloosa

Oops.  Flat tire.  I (ME!) changed it.  Cut.  Had to find a tire shop and buy a new one.  Decided I wouldn't push on to Texas and home. 

7:33 Found my favorite Country Inn and Suites just inside the Misssissippi state line, filled up with gas (29 mpg)



6:00 a.m.  Left the hotel

7:25    Crossing the Natchez Trace

8:19    Vicksburg and crossing the Mississippi River

9:18    Monroe, Louisiana

10:43  Shreveport

11:06  TEXAS !!

12 noon Exiting I-20 - only 10 miles to HOME!

12:15  There she is!  Our HOME!

Bethabara

Pronounced beth-ab-bra, it is the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus, and the basic tenet of the Bethabara Moravian faith is based on John 14:6, that Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father but by Him." 

Jan Hus began the movement in the late 1300's in Moravia, a Czech province, to protest some of the Roman Catholic tenets, hence it being one of the earliest "Protestant" faiths.   Hus was martyred by the Roman Catholics in 1415. All of this was nearly 100 years before Martin Luther, who some consider the "father" of the Protestant reformation.

Fast forward to 1753, when fifteen men from the Moravian Church came to North Carolina and established Bethabara.  It was never meant to be a permanent settlement - just a stopping place to scout the area and decide the best location for what was to become the permanent location, Salem (now known as Old Salem.)  The men came to this hundred-thousand acre tract known as Wacovia because the church back in Moravia had purchased it.  It was 1771 before (Old) Salem was completed and folks began to relocate there.  Bethabara became just a farm to provide produce and medicinal herbs for the settlers.

The original 1753 village was to the northeast of the garden.  Moravian's actually planned the location of structures in their towns before building them, so there are actual maps of where each structure was built and what it's use would have been.

Later, in 1756, a five-sided palisade fort was constructed to the southwest of the garden for protection against attack because of the ongoing French and Indian War (1689? or 1754? - 1763):

 complete with bastions:

At first I wondered if maybe these were nifty little niches to park their wagons in.  Then I thought, that's a LOT of work for wagon garages... Finally I saw a plaque that 'splained it to me:  They are built out from the corners of the fort so guards could look down two sides of the outside walls for attackers.  Pretty smart, huh?

Bastions.

This (reconstructed) palisade fort is the only one in the Southeast from the French and Indian War era still located on its original site.

Inside the palisade are rock cellars excavated in the 1960's.  The buildings over the cellars were much larger, but these are all that remain.  After moving to Salem, these foundations were filled in with dirt to provide a larger area for farming.  By 1773 the Bethabara community contained over 75 major structures.

Doctor's Laboratory 1759

A period diary reveals:  Our doctor, August Shubert, today performed an operation on an English woman, removing a dangerous growth."  January 4, 1763

Apothecary Shop Foundation 1763

During the month careful survey was made of the native herbs, with an eye to their medicinal value, and several useful ones were found, for instance, "Squasweed" for rheumatism, "Milkweed" for pleurisy, 'Indian Physic" for preventing fevers, "Robert Plantain" a valuable antidote, as is also "Snake Root," and much Holly."  May, 1761

Pottery Dependency 1756

 (I can't get over how they called "outbuildings" dependencies.)  Now, don't think of your local Pottery Barn full of pots for house plants when you see this.  A period diary states:   Br. Aust burned stove tiles, and when they were ready he set up stoves in the Gemeinhaus and the Brothers House, probably the first in Carolina.  November 1756.  Think about it.  The "stove tiles" were for actual stoves.  Pretty important for keepin' your man happy, eh?  What potter-man wouldn't make stove tiles!

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Someone at the hospital wondered why John and I hadn't been to Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  I asked John what was IN Winston-Salem, and he said they said there was a huge mall there.  Oh, wow.  I hate shopping, but John wanted to go, so off we went.

When we got close to Winston-Salem, we asked Miss GPS for POI (Points of Interest), then "Tourism," and found "Visitor Center."  So we asked her to take us there.

They highly recommended a walking tour of Old Salem Museum and Gardens which was just around the corner and down the hill.  It is blocks and blocks of original structures and populated by period dressed folks doing period things.  They also assumed we would want to see Reynolda House, R. J. Reynolds home built in 1917, and Reynolda Village.  It seems Winston-Salem is a major arts area, too.  (Yea!! There's more to do than shop!!)  The Visitor Center itself used to be an old cotton mill, and it was cool itself.

Winston-Salem, NC Visitor's Center

I love the chains that go from the overhead beams to the balcony support beams.  So cool...  I LOVE old architecture.  (I would bet these buildings are a whole lot better built than what they're putting up today.)

John wanted to have lunch first as it was nearing noon, so I asked Miss GPS for POI, Restaurants, "any" (as opposed to Mexican, Asian, Italian, etc.)  Up pops one of John's favorites, Golden Corral, so off we go.

Just as we get there we see a sign for "Historic Bethabara Park."  The Visitor Center folks had given us one of the guide magazines, and I looked up that place.  Seems it is the REAL old Salem, the one built out of the wilderness "full of bears, wolves, Indians, and outlaws" by a small group of Moravians in 1753.  (NOW we're talkin'!  This is before the Civil War!  This is before the American Revolution!  This is French and Indian War time!!  Woo-hoo!  Can you say, Jackpot!  History is awesome!)

We eat, go around the corner, down the hill, and we're there.  First thing I see is a place marker:

(For those of you who are trying to read this on your iPhones:) 

1753 Great Philadelphia Wagon Road

The most heavily traveled in Colonial America

passed near here, linking areas from The Great

Lakes to Augusta, GA.  Laid out on animal and

Native American Trading & Warrior Paths.  Indian

treaties among NY, PA, VA and the Iroquois 

League of Five Nations in 1685 and 1722 opened

Colonial Backcountry for peaceful settlement 

along this road of the Piedmont.

This just keeps getting better 'n better!

Across the road is the settlement, between the road and a creek.  (Folks always tried to build close to drinking water...)  We park and walk across the road to the reconstructed 1761 Moravian Medical Garden - "the earliest known examples of well-documented colonial gardens of their kind."

"This reconstruction reflects Christian Triebel's carpenter skills and the existence of the Bethabara saw mill."
 Look at the notching and wooden pegs.

I love this grape arbor.  Moravian's were German-speaking Protestants - I'd bet they drank wine.

Down the road a tad was the Bethabara Visitor's Center - oops.  Closed for the winter.  Will re-open in February (Hey!  That's next week!)  But there's still LOTS to see in a self-guided way.

I've seen a bunch of wagons, but I've never seen one like this... and the pavilion it was under was beautiful, too. 

Look at those arched, laminated beams!  (This, of course, was built recently - but I'd bet the Moravian's could have done it, too.

There is so-o-o-o much more to share with you - but you'll have to come back tomorrow.  Ta-ta for now!

Guess Who Came to Dinner

Every evening we put out deer corn beside our lil' farmhouse, turn on the spotlight and wait for our deer visitors.  Most evenings we can count on the Faithful Three to be first to show up.  Throughout the evening we have had as many as 18 deer come a callin'.

Tonight was the first time (to our knowledge) that a buck has dared to enter the spotlight.

He was very cautious and very skittish the whole time he was feeding.

Who's there!

He finally decided his nerves had taken all they could.  We surely do hope he decides to come back...

Deer Me, My Little Chickadee

Aw, isn't she sweet?

How much closer do you want us to get to these critters anyway?  Again this is right up beside the house, and they are after the deer corn we put out.  I've put out orange peels; not interested.  I've put out apple peels; not interested.  Corn?  They'd practically give up their lives for it.

We've set up a spotlight, turn it on at dusk, and turn it off before going to bed.  We've had as many as eight deer coming into the spotlight at one time to feed on the deer corn.  Because it's right beside the house we're not worried about hunters taking advantage - even though I think it's against to law to hunt with a spotlight.

This is an American Robin - I think it's the very first robin I have ever seen!  Robins eat worms a lot so you see them down on the ground so lawn pesticides are a real danger to them.  They also eat fruit and berries.  If they eat honeysuckle berries exclusively they get totally snockered!  Robins can produce three broods in a single year and sometimes live up to 14 years.

Add this would be a Purple Finch.  I know.  I know.  It's not a good picture - but it's the ONLY time we saw this guy, so it's as good as you're gonna get - unless you want to go to this website:  http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/purple_finch/lifehistory/ac .  The reason we may not get another shot at this little guy is because the common House Finch is takin' over their territory - 95% of the time the Purple Finch loses out to the House Finch.  I feel pretty lucky to at least get to see one.

This guy is looking at the seeds in the bird feeder like a kid looking at a gumball machine.  Red-bellied woodpeckers can live over 12 years.  Their tongues can stick out up to two inches past the tip of their beak - all the better to eat bugs buried behind bark or in holes.  I can't figure out why they're called red "bellied" when it's their HEAD that's red...  they can only be found in the eastern U.S. (including east Texas where we're from.)

We've only seen this guy a time or two.  He's either a Downy Woodpecker or a Hairy Woodpecker.  (Hairy?  I thought birds had feathers, not hair?)  They live to be almost 16 years old and can be found all over North America into Canada, Alaska and down into Central America.

This, of course is a (Northern) he Cardinal.  (That square of black face always makes me laugh.)

and this is a she Cardinal. She is one of the few female song birds to actually sing. Cardinals can live up to 16 years.  (Who knew?  I always thought most birds lived only a couple of years.)

We have here a Tufted Titmouse (a mouse with wings maybe? I don't think so.)  These guys take a LOT of seeds from the feeder.  They are hoarders.  They take one seed at a time, though, so I don't know that you could say they are greedy...  Somewhere, within about 130 feet of this feeder are all kinds of stashes full of our seed.  And they hoard something else: hair.  They steal hair from everything - opossums, raccoons, woodchucks, squirrels, rabbits, cats, dogs, PEOPLE.  And they'll steal live and in person!  All of this to line their little nests for those babies in the spring.  (Maybe that's where John's hair has been going to :-)

Last, but not least, we have Mr. Titmouse's relative:

my little chickadee.  A Black-capped Chickadee to be exact - and way cool!  In the Fall, chickadee's allow some of their brain neurons to die and replace them with new neurons so they can imprint where they hid this winter's stash of seeds.  How cool is that?  There sure are some things in my life I'd like to forget...  Also, when a Chickadee sings, chickadee-dee-dee, the more "dee's" the greater the threat of danger.  No dummies here!

Eeewww! Stinky!

They're advertising "Hot Booties" on TV.  Mmmm.  Sounds warm and snuggly.  Wait a minute.  How do they get warm?  Microwave them?  Well, maybe...  

NOT!  Get those things out of MY microwave.  Microwaves are for FOOD not FEET.  Oh my golly, feet STINK - they have all kinds of icky things going on between those toes, not to mention TOE JAM!  And the bottoms of those booties have been draggin' around on the FLOOR? Who keeps their floors clean enough to eat off of?  This idea has to be the ultimate in yukky poo.  Sorry guys, but you're not gettin' MY money, and if anyone tries to put their Hot Booties in my microwave I'm gonna wallop 'em!

* * * * * * * * *

Have you seen the new laptop computer carts?  They are on casters, are height adjustable, have shelves that fold out or pull out for the mouse, pens, paper, thumb drives...  I'm seriously thinking about getting one.  They're not cheap though - well, I saw one at Big Lots for about $40, but a quality one online is triple that.

I've always wanted an adjustable height desk so that I could stand up instead of sitting on my ever-expanding rump for hours at a time.  It would exercise my leg muscles increasing my balance (a major concern ever since I struggled with that vertigo a few weeks ago), and it would exercise my back muscles, too.  Being as it's on casters it could move from me during the day to where John is in the evening, from the den to the living room or bedroom - or even kitchen for recipes or webcam chats while I'm cooking.  Everything is wireless now.  We could tether it to the charger at bedtime...  Now, if I could just get it to follow me from room to room like a puppy dog.

* * * * * * * * * *

I've discovered a new eye drop.  The form of arthritis I have causes serious dry eye (dry everything, really).  I have prescription eye drops, but I can only use them twice a day.  This new stuff, Systane Balance, provides "prolonged lipid layer restoration."  It really makes a difference in how often I have to use non-prescription eye drops throughout the day.  At Wal-Mart it was $11 for a one-ounce bottle.   Considering you literally use it one drop at a time, one ounce lasts a long time, but still, 's not cheap.  My eyes surely do appreciate it though.

And speaking of eyes, I also take PreserVision (as in Preserve Vision) AREDS 2 Formula.  It has Lutein and Omega-3 along with a plethera of daily vitamin and minerals. (For all you young whipper-snappers out there, "AREDS" stands for Age Related Eye Disease Syndrome.)  This stuff is not cheap either:  $ 28 a bottle.  Put that with the eye drops and it tears a $50 bill all to pieces...  

But my momma talks about her namesake, Aunt Jo, who apparently lived with her folks for a time - or momma remembers it that way - and this Aunt Jo would just sit in her rocking chair in front of the fireplace all day.  Now momma is wondering if it was because Aunt Jo was blind or maybe lost so much vision from AREDS that she didn't feel safe getting up and about.  Momma's vision is going from glaucoma and macular degeneration (she'll be 92 in a few months), and my arthritis-related vision may be headed in the same direction.  Vision is priceless.  If daily eye drops and vitamins might help keep me from being dependent on family I just bet I can afford them - and I just bet I'd be lookin' into a seeing-eye dog, too!  HE'D follow me from room to room whether the computer cart would or not!

Official Confederate Flags

From 1861 to 1863 the official flag of the Confederacy apparently resembled the U.S. flag so closely that it caused confusion on the battlefield.  Hmmm.  I don't think, other than the colors, that they look so very much alike...

34 stars

Seven stars

but then, I'm not looking at them through the smoke, dusk, dawn, cloudy, rainy, snowy, horror of battle either!  So, they came up with other official flags.

The first flag had seven stars representing the original Confederate states:  South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

The second flag was BASED on the square Battle Flag, or "Southern Cross," which had 13 stars representing all eleven states of the Confederacy, including Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina, plus Kentucky and Missouri (though votes to secede failed in those two states.)



They put the Southern Cross on a rectangular field of white.




Oops.  Too much white.  It was often taken as a white flag of surrender!  or was that wishful thinking?  (The colors were especially hidden on a calm day when the flag hung limp.)  So, back to the drawing board.

 In March, 1865, just before the collapse, the third official flag was adpoted:




I guess the red bar on the end, when the flag was hanging limp, would show and therefore decrease the chances of it's being mistaken for a flag of surrender.

What I think is really odd?  None of the above flags are the one everyone thinks of as the Confederate flag.  That honor goes to the Union Jack, the flag of the Confederate navy:

 

And, no, it in no way now or ever before was a part of neo-Nazi, red-neck, skin heads.  Those groups highjacked the image.  Shame on them.  Not being smart enough to come up with a flag of their own!  (But I guess you see from this post that it's not as easy as it looks to come up with a flag that works, huh?)

Thanks to this website for help in finding images and information on the Confederate flags:
http://www.usflag.org/confederate.stars.and.bars.html

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Generations

I suppose you know that George Armstrong Custer (of Custer's Last Stand fame) cut his military teeth during the Civil War.  He graduated from West Point Military Academy the year the Civil War started.  He died in Montana in 1876 at the hands of the Sioux and Cheyenne.

You're thinkin', Wow, that was a LONG time ago.  Ancient history stuff.

No, not really.

Custer's wife lived until 1933.  My momma was 13 years old in 1933.  My daddy was 25.  Either one of them, had they met Mrs. Custer, could have had long chats with her about personal, real-life, day-to-day experiences of the Civil War.  My momma is STILL alive (she'll be 92 this year) and healthy as a horse.

Time is an interesting thing.  John loves to look at timelines.  Did you know that the Brooklyn Bridge was under construction when Custer was out west fighting the Indian Wars?  When did baseball form the National League?  1876.  Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone and made the first telephone call in 1876, the first public exposition of the electric light took place in San Francisco, Bissell patented the first carpet sweeper, and the first practical pipe-wrench was patented in 1876.  Tsjaikovsky wrote "Swan Lake," the first transcontinental train run from New York City to San Francisco took only a little over 83 hours, Colorado became a state, the James gang was robbing banks in 1876, and the first black to receive a Ph.D. from a U.S. college was in 1876.

Time is a relative thing.  The first people in the Bible lived hundreds of years.  Ever heard the term, "As old as Methusala?"  He lived to the ripe old age of 969.  Yet, the American Constitution says one has to be at least 35 years old to run for president of the United States.  Sounds young, but in 1776, that was considered old age.  Now folks are routinely living to be 90, and with stem cell research, who knows, we could get back to the 969 age!

Time puts things into perspective if we would simply study the past.  People are the bridges that tie generations of time together.

Virginia

Did you know that there are 450 Civil War sites in Virginia?  Again, so much to see, so little time.  Not to mention Colonial Williamsburg, American Revolution sites, and the Atlantic shore!

So I did the only touristy thing:  I sent off for a 2012 Virginia Travel Guide.  Got back a wowzer magazine, a 2012 edition Virginia map, a scenic roadway map, and a supplement map that takes you to Civil War sites via scenic roads!  Now we're all mapped up.

You might say, it's winter time (with uncharacteristically no snow) WHAT scenic roads?  Well, when the leaves are off the trees, guess what?  You can see BEHIND the trees.  We are discovering old log homes and more (yes, more) tobacco barns, bridges, animals...  I kept wondering where all of the horses were.  I thought Virginia was big on horses.  We discovered all of the horse farms were in NORTHERN Virginia.

Turns out, on our visits to Richmond we missed a "fascinating" medical museum located at the site of one of the largest hospitals during the war, a really cool bridge called the Goose Creek Stone Bridge built in 1801, the Aldie Mill built in 1809 that was milling grain for the troops, an 1889 engraving showing the first Confederate flag was almost identical to the U.S. flag which caused a lot of confusion for both sides of the Civil War ...  suffice it to say, we've lots more to do here before heading off to another location.

I also learned that the McLean home, where Robert E. Lee officially surrendered to U.S. Grant, had been completely dismantled in 1893 to be moved to Washington, D.C. for display.  It wasn't until the late 1940's that it was reconstructed on it's original site!  Who knew!  (Now you do!)  (Can you imagine the Yankees flaunting that surrender for eternity?  Good choice not to rebuild it in D.C.)

So, stay tuned for more Virginia, Virginia.  ( A  lil' play on words there - very little.)  See ya' on the highway!  Bye-bye!

Woolworth's Lunch Counter

Does anyone remember eating at a lunch counter in a Woolworth's store - or at any soda fountain?  Asheville, North Carolina has preserved this piece of history for us.  Back in the 1950's, when girls wore felt skirts with poodle appliques, bobby socks, and pony-tail hair styles, soda fountains were the thing.  Guys lucky enough to get jobs as soda "jerks" (so called because they had to jerk the handles of the dispenser to get the carbonated water added to the cola syrup or chocolate to make the sodas, or "Phosphates" as they were originally known), those guys got to meet all the girls all the time.  Adding a little extra whipped cream or cherries to their drinks made it easy to let those girls know they were special!  They also got to experiment from time to time and create drinks like cherry-cream-vanilla-Cokes or sour-lime sodas.

So, I see this Woolworth store front, and I just HAVE to go in.  Surprise, surprise!  They still have a working soda fountain in there.  It was only 11:00, and we're full from breakfast, but I'm not gonna pass up this opportunity to re-live a few memories.  We take a seat and look at the menu, expecting to see maybe ice cream cones or something equally as simple.  But no-o-o, they have a full menu - including Reuben sandwiches.  (Now, that would be taking a chance.  Reuben's can either be really, really good -- or really, really bad.)  Aw, what the heck, I'll take a Reuben.  John got the safer BLT (Bacon, lettuce, and tomato on toast, for you folks in Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain who are following our blog).

I watched the lady make the Reuben and was getting kind of concerned, but  I was determined to think positive.  Meanwhile, the rest of the store had been turned into an art gallery for local artists.  Some of the things were pretty good - and some were excellent!  Another good shopping experience in Asheville.

The Reuben is served!  Mmmm-mmm-mmm!  This thing was made with LOVE!  Hand-crafted by a skilled culinary artist!  Best Reuben I think I ever had!  BTW, it was only $6, too.  If I ever get back to Asheville, I know where I'll be havin' lunch!  Mmmm-mmm-mmm!

Biltmore's Farm Animals

This is a terrible picture of me, but it's the horse I'm tryin' to show you.  Isn't he magnificent!

 

A few years ago, our grandsons had a couple of goats, Gizmo and Fred.  We learned then that goats will eat ANYTHING including the siding off your house and window screens!

One way to tell if a chicken (or rooster) is healthy is by the comb on the top of their head.  If it stands up straight and strong, he's a pretty healthy rooster.  Would you expect anything different from a Biltmore chicken?

I don't know why these sheep weren't out in the pasture with the rest of them - maybe just so we could get a close up look at a couple of them.  This was actually all set up so we would be reminded that George Vanderbilt wanted this estate to be totally self-sustaining.  With over 100,000 acres, there was certainly room for any kind of animal he might want!

This is my daughter-in-law.  It's one of my favorite photos of her because she is not just a horse whisperer, she's an animal-of-every-kind whisperer.  Their goats aren't housepets, but this one came in for a hug anyway.

The End

Downtown Asheville, North Carolina

The day after we toured Biltmore Estate, we moseyed around downtown Asheville.  If you park at the Visitors Center it's a short walk to downtown.  One of the first things you come to is this mall.  It's just a building in the middle of the block that might have originally been an office building.  Tourism being what it is, I'm thinkin' the owners found retail tenants easier to find.  I think it was called The Grove.  There were such cool shops in here - especially the first one we came to.  If we weren't conscious of every inch of space for packing I'm afraid we would have bought the place out!

One of the neat things we found up here in Virginia and North Carolina is the raw wool for spinning into yarn.  One could buy a full size spinning wheel or a hand-held spinner.  I'd love to try my hand at it!

 

 

 

As we were leaving the building we found some of the National Gingerbread entries.  I love these mushrooms made out of pinched up marshmellows.  (100% of Gingerbread entries must be edible.)

 Below is a more traditional Gingerbread House.  I like the jelly bean cobblestone walkway!

 Whoever thought of making a teapot and teacups out of gingerbread?

 This "music box" gingerbread presentation was another clever idea.  Remember, it has to all be edible.