Bob and Jan’s Eagle; Ironclads; POW/MIA Memorial; CBS Sports Bus; Bad Scenery; Almost Home

Our great friends and neighbors Bob and Jan Blythe called this morning to let us know they were getting underway from Rhode Island in their new (to them) American Eagle motor coach (Their Bus). It’s the same year as ours (2003), but a slightly different layout, and we are so happy for them. Since they live directly across the street, not only will we be able to compare Eagles side by side, but we can totally block the street! Our other neighbors will be thrilled!

 On a bike ride yesterday, we saw the ship’s bell from CSS Atlanta, a Civil War ironclad which was converted from the hull of Fingal, a Scottish blockade runner. She fought briefly trying to raise the Union blockade at Wilmington, NC, but was captured in 1863 by Captain John Rodgers, USN, aboard USS Weehawken, an ironclad Union monitor. Rodgers was also in command of a much heavier naval squadron. Atlanta was recommissioned in the US Navy, but sank in 1868 off Cape Hatteras, known then as now as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. 

Coincidentally, I had the privilege of commanding the destroyer USS JOHN RODGERS (DD-983), shown here on the right, named after the Civil War captain’s father, who was a naval hero of the War of 1812. His home in Havre de Grace, Maryland, was specifically sought out and burned by British marines (but directed by a British Army general) in 1814. Rules of war were a bit looser in 1814, but what the Brits did was considered extraordinarily bad form even then. Ships have also changed a lot!

On the way out of Dobbins ARB, we passed a memorial to US Prisoners of War and Missing in Action (POW/MIA). You often see the black POW/MIA flag flying below the US flag, and it recognizes the hundreds of thousands of Americans who died or were mistreated by our enemies in wars throughout American history. 

In a rest stop south of Atlanta, we saw the CBS College Football Road Trip Sports Bus. They were probably driving from the Georgia-Tennessee game on Saturday (GA 51, TN 44). Regrettably, I couldn’t find anyone around to ask for tickets for the next game... 

Georgia is a beautiful state, but I have one complaint: their numerous roadside signs are truly obnoxious. I could not live near billboard after billboard advertising everything from hotels to ambulance-chasing lawyers to “gentlemen’s clubs”. On our trip this summer, nowhere we have been has had the number of billboards that we have seen here in Georgia. 

Our last night on the road is being spent at Grassy Pond Recreation Area, part of Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, GA. Surrounded by towering pines and oaks hung with Spanish moss, situated next to a (what else?) grassy pond, and pestered by mosquitoes for the first time in months, we are now really back in The South. We are only 5 miles from the Florida state line... tomorrow, Home to The Villages; Hoo-Ray! We are really looking forward to seeing our Villages friends and neighbors again.