AMERICA 2017: The Overview with Bob and Peggy in GA

Remember that I said our October trip to America was in three basic parts, of which I shared the first week with Ted and Jane in Connecticut last post.  This week I'm sharing our shorter time with Bob and Peggy, from late Sunday to early Thursday in the middle of the following two weeks.  In other words, only 3 full days.

What Astrid and I posted on Facebook was short and sweet but I'm also filling in some of the blanks:

That Monday we drove approximately 60 miles to Warm Springs, GA,

to visit Franklin D. Roosevelt's Little White House and museum.

(FB post)

FDR was the 32nd President of the USA, from 1933 to his death in 1945 (my birth year).

Because of his polio at age 39, he found the warm springs in GA therapeutic,

after which he founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in 1938,

leading to the development of polio vaccines.

Even though I had non-paralytic polio 7 years later, I feel I owe much to him!

For those of you wondering, Franklin was the 5th cousin of Teddy Roosevelt,

the 26th President of the USA, from 1901-1909. 

Later that afternoon we drove the short distance from Warm Springs to Pine Mountain, GA,

to spend the rest of the day, an overnight, and the following day at Callaway Gardens.

(FB post)

I had visited the gardens way back when Bill and I were married and took my mom and dad there.

That was eons ago but I have no clue when (after we moved to GA in 1987?).

The memory hung on long enough to make me want to go back and have Astrid see it with me.

What I most remembered about the place was the Butterfly Center,

so that late afternoon, after getting settled in our hotel, we went there first.

And now you see Bob and Peggy waiting patiently while we took photos.

Here's what Astrid put up on FB...and she nailed it.

Since coming back home, I've found a few of my own.

And yes, the two top-left are "doing it."  :)


Look what Bob captured!  Don't you wonder what the butterfly was thinking?!

After the Butterfly Center, we drove to the Chapel and the stream nearby.

Too bad for us, the chapel wasn't open, but we enjoyed the environment.

We then went back to the hotel to eat Peggy's picnic supper before calling it a day.

For breakfast the next day we had a Southern Georgia spread to which we couldn't say NO.

Then it was back to exploring.

We had seen the log cabin on arrival but this time stopped to check it out.

Then it was back to the gardens where butterflies were plentiful outside...

as were the bees, making us very happy campers.

Thank God for the butterflies and bees!  We need them.

Even though it was off-season in October, there was plenty to see of the gardens.

There was no way to be disappointed.

Our last hurrah before driving back home was the Birds of Prey show.

Well worth the time and energy as well as a nice good-bye.

Back at Bob and Peggy's the next day, Astrid and I took a walk-about, as we do each year.

(FB post)
Oh, and a last day of relaxing with good friends and food!

THANK YOU, Bob and Peggy (and Roscoe), for making these times so special each year.
So, where will we visit with you the next time!

America 2016: With Bob and Peggy

As I said in my last post, this happens every year like clockwork.  We fly to Atlanta from Amsterdam, spend a few days with my kids, then a few days with Bob and Peggy south of Atlanta, 5 days with the kids at the cabin in the North Georgia mountains, and then back to the Atlanta area before flying back home.

THIS is the post with Bob and Peggy!

And with Roscoe the Dog, of course!

When we aren't out-n-about, it's all about food.

In this case, it's a low-country boil...one of our favorites.

While both Bob and Peggy share the cooking, sometimes Peggy supervises

(as in the low-country boil below).

And they love to try new recipes...every year.

Have you ever had grilled pineapple?

We are so lucky!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

This year we made two excursions, the lesser of which was to nearby McDonough's Fall Festival on their market square, just 16 miles away.

Small towns all over Georgia are often built on squares, with the courthouse as the main landmark.

And because we were there on October 24th, it was all about Autumn/Halloween,

exhibited by the different companies/stores in the area.

This was also at the end of our 2016 Presidential Election campaign.

Remember, this is The South.

Yup.  

"Kiss my grits" has always been one of my favorite Southern expressions.

October is also Breast Cancer month, don't forget.

We topped it off with Rita's creamy frozen custard.  Yum-yum.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The longer of our two excursions was to Andersonville, where we got the education of our lives.  We had watched the 1996 Andersonville movie the night before, "the story of the most notorious Confederate prisoner of war camp in the American Civil War."

The Andersonville National Historic Site is 100 miles south of Bob and Peggy's home,

where both the National Prisioner of War Museum, Prison Site, and National Cemetery are.

We first spent time in the museum.

From the museum we walked to and drove around the prison site,

where reconstructions showed what living conditions had been like.

Anything they had/found was used for shelter within their 26.5-acre stockade, surrounded by walls.

"The Camp Sumter military prison at Andersonville was one of the largest Confederate military

prisons during the Civil War.  During the 14 months the prison existed, more than 45,000 Union

soldiers were confined here.  Of these, almost 13,000 died here."

Most died from disease or starvation.

At the North Gate we saw where the new prisoners arrived and where the "deadline" rails were.

Our word "deadline" comes from this prison, where if you crossed over/under the rail, 

you were shot on the spot, giving new meaning to the word!

What's left of the stream running through the camp is but a figment of the imagination.

Which is why soldiers dug for water whenever/wherever they could.

They quickly learned that drinking from the polluted stream could be fatal.

A stone shelter covers the Providence Spring, honoring the place where a spring 

suddenly erupted from the ground within the stockade.

"The prisoner's cry of thirst rang up to heaven.  God heard,

and with his thunder cleft the earth, and poured His sweetest waters gushing here."

The Star Fort still holds cannons kept to protect the Confederate troops

and to quell possible prisoner breaks.

Silent monuments pay tribute to the soldiers from the North:

Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee.

At this point, we were more than ready to take a break, our hearts heavy by what we had seen and imagined.

The town of Andersonville is just a hop, skip and a jump away, with a population ca. 255.

That's where the Anderson Station Confederate Restaurant is.

You can't miss it.

If you like Southern cooking, you've come to the right place.

As you'd assume, they thrive on the "notorious history" of this place.

In fact, they celebrate every year Captain Henry Wirz, the man responsible for the 13,000 deaths.

He remains the most famous of the officers executed for war crimes at the end of the war,

and was hanged on November 10, 1865, in Washington, DC.

After lunch we drove to the Andersonville National Cemetery, to finish our excursion of the day.

The Yankee soldiers from the North were buried shoulder-to-shoulder in their graves.

Their names were carefully documented from handwritten name-tags pinned to their clothes.

The 6 Raiders known for their criminal activity within the prison were buried separately 

from the others (middle-right), as told in the movie we watched the night before.

Only ONE Confederate soldier is buried here.  All the others are Union soldiers (damn Yankees).

But soldiers of other wars are also buried here:  WWII and Vietnam.

In fact, veterans of any war can still be buried here to this day.

The cemetery contains more than 20,000 interments, 500 of which are Unknown US Soldiers.

More silent monuments pay tribute to our Northern soldiers:

Maine, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Jersey, Connecticut, Iowa, New York, Illinois, Minnesota.

It was enough to break our hearts,

and felt like a fitting climax to a contentious "civil war" in our 2016 election season.

Astrid said:  "I have a new understanding of what's happening in America right now.

The South has never gotten over the fact that The North won the Civil War."

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

But not to leave on that note...(this is what it was and we ponder it in our hearts)...

we are thankful for friends and family who, whether they agree with us or not, still love us,

and vice versa.  As we keep saying, LOVE ALWAYS WINS.

THANK YOU, Bob and Peggy.  We LOVE these times spent with you.

Next year, Callaway Gardens.

For Bob and Peggy: Food, Glorious Food, etc., etc.

By now you know the routine:  we fly to Atlanta, take care of appointments, spend a weekend with the kids, spend the next Sunday - Thursday with Bob and Peggy while the kids work and Nicholas is in school, and then go to the cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains before winding down to fly back home.

This is the time with Bob and Peggy when we weren't at the Skyview Atlanta Ferris wheel or the Candler Field Museum and airport.  And this is the time when Astrid in particular finally relaxes and says "This is vacation."

Fasten your seatbelts, especially if you like good food and drink.

First of all, Bob and Peggy got married in 2004 while I worked in assisted living before retirement.

Peggy was the executive director and I was lucky to attend their wedding.

Shortly after that, they started building their house out in the boonies south of Atlanta.

THIS house.  And I've been there every year since...now with Astrid.

In case you wonder why we like to go there, it's the FOOD, stupid!  HA!

Let's start with breakfast.  Look at who makes the waffles.

To tell you the truth, they both do the cooking.

And we all do the eating.

See, Peggy does her own part, this time for lunch.

And we all do the eating.

To cater to our Dutchness, they even make their own split-pea soup.

And we all do the eating.

By late afternoon, it's time to test the home brew!

This year we got to taste Bob's Chateau Roscoe Chardonnay and Chilian Malbec.

Roscoe is their dog!

See!?!?!  That's Roscoe.

We first celebrated the fabulous brew out on the wrap-around porch.

If it wasn't his wine, it was Bob's Brew of beer, Horansky style.

He's been making beer for years, so we knew what to expect.

We Cheer Beer!

And if that wasn't enough, Bob even made us a mean banana martini.

By now I know what you're thinking:  what boozers.  HA!

But you couldn't be farther from the truth.

Everything in moderation, one drink at a time...over several days, of course.

And to show you the truth whereof I speak, check out the basement.

I suppose if it were meth it would be Breaking Bad (which I've yet to see)?

By the time you get to supper, you'd better have an appetite...

as though you hadn't eaten all day, of course.

See how Bob and Peggy both do the cooking together?

It's a beauty to behold.  A joint collaboration.

And we all do the eating.

Then there's the fun-n-games, like with Bob's 1951 GM toy.

Last year he was just starting to restore it.

This year we were queens for a day, taking a ride.

Every morning Astrid and Bob took Roscoe for a walk.

Astrid put the GPS watch on her arm one day (above left).

The next day she put it on Roscoe's collar (above right).

Isn't that the cat's meow!

In the afternoons Astrid and I took our own walks together,

once to Jackson Lake right down the road.

That particular day and time the kids were getting out of school.

Did you know the Dutch have a few of these American school buses that are party buses here?  Yup.

Another day we walked two miles down the road to the corner store,

and luxuriated in the autumnal abundance in front of us.

And since it just happens to be Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, how's that for an ending note!

Good God, good friends, good food...let's eat!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!