A Week of Southern Mansions



Bouvoir after Katrina



Our week in Biloxi, MS and Vidalia, LA turned into a week of mansion and plantation tours. In Biloxi, we toured Beauvoir, the last home of Jefferson Davis, the reluctant president of the Confederacy. He wrote his book "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government" in one of the outbuildings that he converted to a library/studio. The house sits just a few hundred feet from the Gulf, and was badly battered by Hurricane Katrina 7 years ago, losing its porches, part of its roof and 30 of the 60 foundation support pillars. It has been restored to its original splendor through some fairly amazing historical research and restoration. The trompe l'oeil ceilings are something to behold.



Bouvoir today; Living room ceiling at right -
what looks like moldings and plaques is just paint!

 

In Vidalia we were guests at the FMCA Texas Roadrunner's chapter rally, and met some very warm and friendly folks. The first night of the rally, we were treated to Gringo Pie from Fat Mama's Tamales, a scrumptious dish of small spicy tamales topped with chili and cheese. We had lunch at Fat Mama's a couple of times when we were in Natchez in 2010 and had planned to return, but instead they came to us. Over the next two days, we toured Stanton Hall, Rosalie, and Longwood in Natchez, MS and Frogmore Plantation just west of Vidalia, LA. Boyce and Lisa Eldridge from Tyler, TX carpooled with us, and we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them. Since Natchez had no rail line, it was not of particular importance to the Union during the war. Many of the plantation owners who lived in Natchez were anti-war, and they agreed to allow the Union to occupy the town on the proviso that it not be burned, as were the towns along the river where resistence was met. Had the town resisted, the incredible mansions we toured would undoubtedly have been destroyed. Unfortunately, none of the mansions we toured in Natchez allowed interior photography, so our photos were limited to exteriors.



Stanton Hall front view



Finished in 1857, Stanton Hall is noted to be "one of the most palatial residences of antebellum America." In typical Southern style, it has very high ceilings and rooms on either side of a long, wide central hallway. This design, with tall windows that opened to the floor and large, high doors, ensured good air circulation during the long hot summers. Many of the original Stanton family furnishings have been returned by descendants - all dark rosewood with ornate carving. I'm not sure how people lived with all of the rich fabrics, floral designs, and heavy furniture that filled this house. We had lunch at the Carriage House restaurant on the grounds of Stanton Hall - Tom had their signature fried chicken, but Barbara went for the daily blue plate special, soft shell crab - which turned out to be the biggest soft shell we've ever seen. Both dishes were very good with crackling crisp breading - and reasonably priced as well.

Rosalie, which was finished in 1820 and served as the Union Army Headquarters during the Civil War, sits on a high bluff above the Mississippi river - the view from the second floor veranda looking upriver is spectacular. Although smaller than Stanton Hall, Rosalie has the same floor plan, with rooms opening onto a wide, high central hallway. The valuable furnishings were stored in the attic during the Union occupation, as the commander of the troups did not want them damaged during his tenure. We were therefore able to see the house as it was in its antebellum days of splendor. The picture here is one Tom took in April 2010, on a sunny day with the azaleas in full bloom.

Longwood, which was partially constructed in 1860-61, sits still unfinished on its spacious grounds. The architect and carpenters were from Philadelphia, and when war was imminent, they departed never to return. Fortunately, the exterior was finished, as were the 9 rooms on the basement level of this unique octagon-shaped structure with its onion-shaped dome. The family lived in great luxury on that first level, and many of the original furnishings remain. Dr. Haller Nutt, the owner of Longwood plantation, died of pneumonia in 1864, and the building was never completed. Each level was to have had eight rooms and 4 verandas surrounding a central rotunda. The rotunda was open to the dome from the principal floor upward. Had it been finished, this home would have had 32 rooms on 6 levels, and totaled 30,000 square feet. The finished basement level was 10,000 square feet - so it certainly didn't feel like a basement. The Haller children probably had a great time playing on the unfinished main floor, where they could run in a complete circle through the unfinished rooms.



As usual, if you click on this photo you can see an enlarged version of the planned bottom 4 floors



On a cold, blustery Saturday, we visited Frogmore Plantation, a still-working cotton plantation 14 miles west of Vidalia. As we sat in the early 1800's plantation chapel with its original pews, owner Lynette Tanner provided a history of cotton cultivation and plantation life, and the changes resulting from Eli Whitney's cotton gin, the 1884 Munger steam gin, and further developments up to the modern 900-bale-a-day gin that is still the mainstay of Frogmore. Interestingly, the Tanners do not charge farmers for ginning their cotton - they just keep the cotton seeds, which are valuable for oil, feed, fertilizer, and many other applications. We toured the well-preserved, rare Munger steam gin, and several of the early 1800's plantation buildings - the overseer's cabin, slave cabins, and kitchen house. Tom only took photos of the plantation store front and interior. 

At the plantation store, we bought a most interesting book, "Twelve Years a Slave" by Solomon Northup, a free black man  from New York who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. He was rescued in 1853 and narrated his experiences in the following year. This book is considered by many scholars to be the most accurate accounting of lower Louisiana plantation life, as Solomon was a educated man who provided a most detailed accounting of the daily life on cotton and sugar plantations in the mid 1800s.

We've spent the last week in Greenville, MS and West Memphis, AR - subject of the next post in this blog!



On the Road Again

After 5 months spent mostly in Barbara's daughter Jennifer's yard in Gainesville, FL (broken up by rallies with our Florida Manatee's chapter of the Newmar Kountry Klub), we are again traveling with Shelby.
Last Wednesday we went south to Ocala to finish the towing set-up for our new-to-us Saturn Vue, then headed north to Monticello, FL just northwest of Tallahassee. The first part of the trip was uncomfortable, as the smoke from brush and forest fires in central Florida was so thick that visibility was down to 1/4 mile in places. Our eyes burned and our noses were sore for days.

The small town of Monticello is centered around a classic county courthouse, which sits in the middle of the road in a traffic circle. Many stately old homes sit on the tree-lined streets. Five miles north of town, we turned into a half-mile long dirt driveway leading to Golden Acres Farm, one of our Harvest Hosts overnight stops. It's fun for Tom, who was raised on a small family farm, to visit places like this and chat with the owners.

We were a little dubious about the trees arching overhead, but had no problems slowly wending our way up to the farmhouse, where we were warmly greeted by the owners, Bobbi and Fred Golden. They raise goats, sheep, chickens and guinea fowl, and sell lamb, goat meat, eggs, and jellies. They also have a dog boarding operation. We bought some very pretty (and tasty) light turquoise eggs.

Bobbie walked the grounds with us and said we could park wherever we'd be most comfortable - we ended up in a nice level spot at the edge of the woods.If you increase the size of this photo, you'll see little black spots all over the front of the motorhome - these were the stickiest bugs we've ever run into - instead of squishing like most bugs do, they just stuck to the motorhome intact. After I moved my tomato and basil plants from the shower stall to a sunny spot near the motorhome, we went for a walk back out to the road to stretch our legs a bit. The goats were very curious and watched us carefully as we passed by their pasture. The sheep didn't acknowledge our presence. Walking in the shade was very pleasant, but out in the sun we were very warm. Shelby was very interested in all the new smells along the way.

The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast, and departed for Vernon, FL (just south of I-10 north of Panama City). The drive along US 90 between Monticello and Tallahassee was like driving through a park - crepe myrtle trees were planted years ago along both sides of the road, and even now when they are not in bloom the peeling pale trunks and fresh green leaves are very pretty. We stopped at the Costco in Tallahassee to do a bit of stocking up before heading on to Three Oaks Winery in Vernon, another Harvest Hosts site. In contrast to our previous stop, here there was no driveway per se - we had to pull wide to the left of the parking area and make a u-turn close to the tasting room in order to park on the grass.

A motorhome with a larger turning radius than ours would have had difficulty getting into this spot. The site was level, my tomato plant had sun, and the winery actually had some interesting wines, so we weren't unhappy. The wine maker George was unlike any other winemaker we've encountered - most are very eager to talk about their operation, their wines, and their vines. George countered our questions with the most vague of answers: "How many cases of wine do you make a year?" "Some." "Where do you grow your grapes?" "Out back." Tom walked a mile back through the property, past the motocross course George built for his son, and never could find any grapevines.

On Friday the 13th we made the short trip to Orange Beach, AL, where we stayed two nights with Newmar friends Ginny and Jack Pitts. They have a lovely house on a canal that leads to Perdido Bay and thence to the Gulf of Mexico, a driveway long enough for us to park, and 50 amp power. Jack and Ginny were wonderful hosts - they drove us on a tour of Orange Beach, and treated us to a lunch of some of the best fried shrimp I've ever had at the Sea-n-Suds in Gulf Shores. Saturday morning we all went for a long walk on a pedestrian/bike trail near their house, then that afternoon they drove us over to Pensacola and treated us to lunch again, followed by a visit to the biggest fish market I've ever seen, Joe Patti's Famous Seafood Market. Even though it was late Saturday afternoon, the place was mobbed, but they've got so many people manning the counter that we didn't have to wait long at all. They had all kinds of fish I've never heard of, and also have a little gourmet market and bread bakery. The fish are very reasonable priced, but the gourmet stuff was not.

Sunday morning we said our farewells to Jack and Ginny, who were heading to their principal home in Lowndensboro, AL. We surely hope to see them again, as we had a great time getting to know them better, talking genealogy and our own histories, enjoying wine and good conversation.

Later that morning we packed up again, and drove over to Biloxi, MS, where we will be until Thursday. We are at Cajun RV park right across the road from the beach - haven't been out yet, as it's really warm and windy. The sand on this long beach is blindingly white. This morning was clear, but now it's cloudy and windy with a chance of rain. We actually had to close up and turn on the A/C, it's so hot and humid. We are clearly here at the end of the season - the park is only about a third full. Nice manager, and Tom met one of the work campers when he was up getting coffee this morning who is from McLeansboro, IL, where his sister lives. They had a good time talking about growing up in southern IL.

Cape Spear and Signal Hill, St. John's, Newfoundland, 11 & 12 July 2011

After our morning of whale and bird watching outside Bay Bulls, we drove back north to

Cape Spear, the easternmost land in North America. Cape Spear is the finger of land at the far right center on this map.

On the way to Cape Spear, we stopped briefly in Petty Harbour on Maddox Cove for some picture taking; this tiny harbor is accessible by the narrow opening in the breakwater that shields the moorage. Unlike many of the harbors on the Avalon Peninsula, this one faces northeast, open to the worst of winter's winds.

We were again lucky with weather - when we arrived at Cape Spear the wind was blowing, but it was warm enough to shed our jackets.

The Cape Spear lighthouse was first built in 1836, as a stone tower with a frame house for the light keeper's family built around it. It is the oldest surviving lighthouse in Newfoundland. The same family, the Cantwells, have been keepers of the light since 1846, with each generation assuming the duties in turn. I imagine that today's supervisor of the fully automated light has a much easier job than his great grandfathers did - they had to clean the lamp every day, climb the stairs toting heavy cans of oil, and keep watch through the night to ensure the light kept burning. The current lighthouse, built of concrete in 1955, houses the modern light that was installed in the old lighthouse in 1912.

As we walked around the cape, we marveled at the tenacity of some of the plants - this blue flag iris is managing to survive in a most precarious position.

The coastline here, as with most of the Avalon Peninsula, is very rugged, with constant wash of waves and wind shaping the great mound of rock that makes up the land. The colors of the water ranged from deep blue to icy turquoise on this nice sunny day.

During World War II the country of Newfoundland cooperated with both the Americans and the British to man gun batteries designed to keep the port of St. John's safe from enemy incursions. The guns have rusted and the lifting mechanism is long gone, but the bunkers survive, and are cold and dank.

Looking northwest from Cape Spear, the entrance to St. John's Harbour is visible as a low spot to the left of Cabot's Tower atop Signal Hill - just barely visible in the center left of this picture of St. John's Bay.

The next day, we toured Signal Hill (so named by the British in the late 1700's, but popularly still called by its original name of "The Lookout"). From the early 1700's through 1962, spotters would watch from the top of the hill and signal down to the businesses along the wharves when an incoming ship was seen. Each company had its own flag that would be run up the pole by the spotter and seen by watchers down below in the harbor so they could prepare for the arrival of one of their ships.

Cabot Tower was built in 1897-1900 to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee and the 400th anniversary of John Cabot's landing in Newfoundland. St. John's Harbour is completely landlocked except for a narrow entrance protected by Signal Hill on the north and a smaller hill on the south. At the Battle of Signal Hill in 1762, the French ceded St. John's to the British. In 1901, Gugliemo Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless radio transmission here, sent from Cornwall, UK.


The narrows are 600 feet across, with just a 200-foot-wide, 35-foot-deep shipping channel. The entrance is marked by a light on Cahill point, which was protected by gun batteries during WWII. The old concrete bunkers are all that is left of these gun placements, but the lighthouse remains active to the present.

The harbour itself is quite small, 1.2 miles long and only half a mile wide at its widest. Approximately 1200 commercial ships visit this harbor every year. Looking down from Signal Hill, one can see the entire harbor, all of downtown St. John's, and beyond. Since the mid-1700's, gun batteries have been placed around the hill to protect the harbor. Several of these are recreated by Parks Canada as part of the Signal Hill National Historic site.




This is the view of the eastern end of the harbor and downtown St. John's, which marches up the hillside with a convoluted series of narrow roads - clearly a city that was built before the advent of the automobile. The church in the upper center of the photo is the cathedral of St. John the Baptist, which will be featured in the next post to this blog.

Whales and Birds in Bay Bulls and Witless Bay, NL 11 Jul 2011

Although the day started out cool and misty, we again enjoyed great weather for our boat trip out of Bay Bulls, south of St. John's. Bay Bulls was the first permanent English settlement in Newfoundland, being occupied at least seasonally since 1635. Over the next 2 centuries, French forces repeatedly invaded and burned the town during the struggle between France and England for control of Newfoundland. Each time, the English and Irish inhabitants rebuilt the town and continued their successful fishery. The deep bay is sheltered by headlands on both sides, and opens to the southeast, providing a harbor sheltered from the worst winter storms.

After an initial engine problem and transfer to a different boat, we were off. We motored along the shore, and wondered how the boat in this photo ended up way up above the water line.
















All through Newfoundland, people paint their houses in bright cheery colors - perhaps to offset their long, dark winters?

A pretty waterfall cascaded down the rocky face of the headland. This picture really illustrates why they call Newfoundland "The Rock" - the whole island is rock covered by very thin soil.

The first whales we saw were fin whales - the longest of the whale family, with just a small fin set way back on their bodies. This whale has its head to the right, and the fin on the left - its back end and flukes aren't visible. Be sure to click on the photo to see a larger version. These whales move very quickly, up to 12.5 miles per hour, and we were lucky to have them in sight long enough to get several good pictures.

As the fin whales swam off, we spotted a group of humpback whales, who came right up alongside our boat. A mother and her calf were so close we could almost touch them.

When a whale exhales, you don't want to be down wind - their breath is quite odoriferous. Whale poop on the otherhand, is actually quite pretty!

After watching the whales for a good long time, we continued south along the coast to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, a group of 4 islands that serve as a nesting colony for puffins, murres, and razorbills. Only research scientists are allowed to land on these islands - the rest of us look from the sea. Since these rocky islets rise quite steeply, we were able to get close enough for a good look. If you click on the photo, you can see many birds flying overhead (all those black spots in the sky).

Puffins dig burrows in the hillside as their nests, and what looks like just a grassy hillside is actually pocketed with hundreds of puffin homes.

Tom was able to get a much better picture of the razorbills here than at the Cape St. Mary's rookery. The razorbills have interesting white cross-hatching on their heavy bills.

More puffins:

The green tent is a shelter/blind for the scientists who observe the colony. I can't say I'd like to spend much time perched right above all these birds with their smelly output!

After we returned to Bay Bulls, several of our caravan members met at a local restaurant for what was becoming our standard Newfoundland lunch - fish and chips made with incredibly fresh haddock, and seafood chowder that was different at every place, but always delicious.

In the afternoon, we went to Cape Spear on our way back to our temporary home at Pippy Park in St. John's - Cape Spear and Signal Hill will be the next subject covered in this blog.

Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve, July 9, 2011

We arrived in Argentia, NL, early in the morning and were situated at the nearby RV park by 10 am. Since it was a beautiful day we decided to drive to Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve, about 50 miles down the coast. This reserve has the most accessible seabird colony in North America, and hosts thousands of nesting Northern Gannets, Muerres, Razorbills, and various sea gulls. The interpretive center is staffed by knowledgeable rangers, and houses interesting displays of the natural inhabitants of this peninsula.

We did the easy walk out to the cliffs where the birds were roosting, and were lucky to find a ranger out at the point helping people identify the various birds.

When following the path across the barrens that cover the Cape, it was hard to imagine what lay just beyond:

This low, sparse vegetation is typical of the area - high winds, harsh winters, salt spray, and shallow soil all combine to keep the plants in check.

Soon we began to see the rugged cliffs, some 425 feet high. The center section in the photo at the left is actually a sea stack, completely separated from the land behind. The separation provides excellent protection for the nesting birds from land-based predators.

The rocks appear white from the thousands of birds roosting on the tiniest of ledges. By the time we were this close, we could hear the cacophony of screeching birds.

In the crevasse in the cliff, common muerres and the occasional razorbill crowd close in their precarious nests.

These are Northern Gannets with their fluffy chicks. The two in the center were engaged in quite a bill-rubbing, head-bobbing, wing-spreading dance. Be sure to click on the photos to be able to see the details!








While we were busy watching the birds, the ranger spotted this minke whale just off shore. All the little black specks on the water are actually birds floating on the surface, and the big white dots on the left are flying gannets.

As we were walking back across the barrens, Tom spotted this male willow ptarmigan in his colorful summer plumage. We figured that a female and her nestlings were probably close by, but we could not see them.

 As with so many of our days in Newfoundland, we were fortunate with the weather - on the day we went Cape St. Mary's, it was sunny and fairly warm. The next day, when we drove the 83 miles across the Avalon Peninsula from Argentia to St. John's was quite stormy, with intermittant rain and high winds. Barbara was very glad for our Comfort Drive steering, which makes handling the motorhome relatively easy even in adverse conditions. The roads were good, and we arrived at Pippy Park, a very nice municipal park with a big RV section, without incident.

Over the next week, we will post three more posts about our adventures in the St. John's area.