One American's History

Two Great Books on GIS

When I was visiting Monmouth this summer I met up with a guide in the Visitor Center. James (Jim) Raleigh from the Friends of Monmouth was giving tours to anyone willing to listen. Jim not only took us around the battlefield, but around the town and surrounding area. He mentioned a project he was working that I found fascinating. He was using a GIS (Geographic Information System) to reconstruct the battlefield. Most of our Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields have been lost to progress and are covered by strip malls and suburban sprawl. My employer has started to use GIS for demographics and I have the opportunity to learn this new technology. I received a couple of new books in the mail today from Amazon which blend GIS and history. The two books are  Past Time, Past Place and Placing History. Both books are edited by Anne Kelley Knowles. I will have post a review when I have had a chance to dig a bit deeper. My initial impression is that Placing History is the more academic of the two.

Gatlinburg

On the way back from Williamsburg, we decided to spend the night and some of the following morning in Gatlinburg. Our Garmin Nuvi GPS was set to shortest route and so it calculated a route over the mountain via State Road 321. We knew it was going to be interesting when we exited the Interstate and passed a hydro-electric plant. I had to use a bit of human judgment/override when the planned route was going to take us past a small mountain cemetery and up a 20% slope gravel road. We have an all-wheel drive Subaru Forester so we should be able to navigate anything that resembled a road but it was getting dark. We did make it down to Gatlinburg and it was an amazing drive. I took some video and will post it on the web.

Gatlinburg is a great town! It has a ton of hotels and every type of family activity imaginable. We are planning a return trip and will bring our camping gear next time. We are planning to camp for a couple of days, do some white water rafting and come into town for some shows, miniature golf and go-carts.

Pigeon Forge is north of Gatlinburg and has even more family activities. It's a Las Vegas for families. While Pigeon Forge has more things to do, we liked the atmosphere and layout of Gatlinburg.

Ghost Stories

In addition to the historical buildings, actors and taverns, Williamsburg has a full set of evening programs. A couple of these programs are ghost tours. We decided to go on the "Ghosts Amongst Us" tour. Another family with an eight year old was in our tour group of a dozen or so. Madeline immediately gravitated toward the other girl. They wanted to hang out together during the tour but they also wanted to make sure that Dad and Mom were close at hand. The tour guide carried a candle lantern and led us through three houses where actors told some of the ghost stories of the town by candlelight.

We heard three different ghost stories. The first one was from a Revolutionary War soldier buried behind the Governor's Palace. The second ghost story was told behind the Randolph House, supposedly the most haunted house in the historical park. Our guide told us that a security guard was trapped in the cellar one evening.He promptly quit the next day and never spoke of his experiences while in the cellar. The final ghost story involved the Skipjack sisters and the Wythe house. These two sisters apparently took their sibling rivalry into the afterlife. This story was particualy well done and had Madeline burying her head into my shoulder at several points in the story.   

Road Trip....Then & Now

I have noticed a few differences in 2010 road trips vice 1980. The amount of entertainment that Madeline has is much greater. She is packed down with books, a Nintendo DS, stuffed animals, books and movies. Unfortunately she does not have the luxury to freely roam the cargo section of a Town & Country station wagon. My parents and grandparents spread a large blanket in the back and we could sleep or play cards as the miles clicked away.  Madeline's DS is so superior to our LED Mattel Electronic Football and Baseball games. 

We did run across one complication with the DVD's. We started using my laptop to view the movies but we found all the cables to be a disaster for an 8 year old in the back seat of the Forster. I had a power cable, an external DVD drive cable and a headphone cable. This didn't work so well so we picked up a portable DVD player along the way.

On the good side, cars are so much more reliable than 30 years ago. We have GPS and the internet for planning out our stops. We have only noticed one Stuckey's during our travels. The restaurant was a main stay of road trips in the 1980's. But Cracker Barrel has filled the void in this area of the country.

We stopped at the Arkansas, North Carolina and Virginia information centers and picked up some fliers on new destinations. Of the information centers, I think Arkansas had the best.

The Road Trip

I am not sure how many Americans take the long road trip during the summer. I am certain that affordable air travel has taken reduced this rite of passage for many kids and families. I fondly remember traveling with my grandparents to Branson Missouri and Northern Oklahoma, For some reason, I vividly remember those trips, I was speaking with a co-worker and he too had fond memories of his long road trips. This year we are traveling from Dallas to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, NC. We will continue our trip to Williamsburg, VA. I guess you could call this a Southern Heritage tour.

There are three of us traveling together; my wife and my eight year old daughter. My wife Teresa grew up taking long road trips from her home in California. Her family had an RV and made great use of it. My daughter has only traveled to San Antonio via car, so we will see how she does.

There are two types of road trip warriors. The first type is the Mileage Tyrant. His main purpose is the put miles on the car and to arrive at each checkpoint at a specific time. Side trips and stops are not allowed under any circumstances. The next archetype is the Drifter. The Drifter starts with a general goal in mind and arrives at their goal within a couple of days.

We are more of the drifter types. We are heading to Williamsburg but will stop if something looks interesting. we may even take a detour or two.

Off we go.....

July 4th Holiday

July 4th is a special day for most Americans. It has evolved into a day that everyone celebrates all things American. Most of our other days seem to focus on a particular group; Christmas, MLK Day, Cinco de Mayo. But this is a day all Americans can share together. This year I am visiting my brother in New Jersey. We are planning to see several points of history including the Statue of Liberty, Monmouth Court House Battlefield and the site of the 911 attack.