Helen Keller and the Rattlesnake Saloon

While everyone is busy getting repairs and home improvements completed in Red Bay, there are a couple of things to venture out and do for fun.

First up is Helen Keller's Birthplace-it's a short drive to Tuscumbia, Alabama on the way to Florence and Muscle Shoals.

Helen Keller was born a healthy girl but at the age of 19 months she contracted a high fever.  The doctor was summoned and he advised to let it work itself out.  When the fever finally broke, Helen could not hear nor see.  Her parents doted on her and she became a wild child of sorts.  At the age of 6 her parents took her to see Alexander Graham Bell for help and then decided she needed a teacher.  They hired Anne Sullivan and she came to live at the family home.

The cottage that Helen and Anne lived in early on

Anne Sullivan quickly determined that Helen needed to be away from the doting parents and came up with the idea she and Helen would live in the little cottage directly adjacent to the main house.  They drove Helen around in the buggy for a few hours so she would not know she was really at her home.

The water pump is still there where Helen learned the finger movements Anne was making on her hands and running the cool water were the same.  After that Helen quickly learned 30 words that day alone.  The world was open to Helen from then on.  She learned to write, read braille and even learned to use a typewriter.

The original water pump sits on the original spot

Her strong will and tenacity allowed her to become a Radcliffe College graduate.  She became one of history's remarkable women.  She and Anne Sullivan traveled the world together improving the conditions of the blind and deaf blind.

This is a replica of the bronze that sits in the US Capital.  Yep we saw that too!

Alabama's State Quarter is the only one with Braille

Helen and Anne Sullivan

Anne and Eleanor Roosevelt

Next up is the Rattlesnake Saloon.  This unique restaurant and bar is built into a limestone cave.  It is past the Coon Dog Cemetery out of town.  While one might think it has been there for a long while it has only been open for 5 years.  The food is basic burgers and we split one and an order of fries.  It was a bargain as our bill was minimal even with a pitcher of beer and apple fritters for dessert.  A fun place to get out of Red Bay.  We did not stop at the Coon Dog cemetery as the only thought that came to my mind was "Where the Red Fern Grows" about little Ann and Old Dan.  It is the saddest book ever written and I still remember it being required reading in Fifth grade.  

ou ride in the bed of a truck from the lot to the saloon

There were other things near Red Bay that we did not make it to such a Tupelo Mississippi,  the Natchez Trace trail and Natural Bridge.  Hopefully we won't be back to Red Bay, but you never know.

A little catch up-Who's heard of Oak Ridge, TN?

I'm enjoying a little bit of down time in Bluewater Key.  This gives me a little time to catch up.  When we were in Pigeon Forge TN we had the opportunity to visit the birthplace of the Atomic Bomb.  If anyone has watched the cable series Manhattan, you may have taken note of the little trip to Tennessee the New Mexico scientists took.

A little background-

Oak Ridge was built in secrecy during WWII.  The US knew it needed a secret spot to work on the bomb that would end the war.  Oak Ridge was created in 1942 as a major site of the "Manhattan Project", a massive wartime effort that produced the world's first atomic weapons.  It consisted of 59,000 acres and at the time the area was populated by only 3,000 people.  These residents were bought out by the US government.  The site was chosen as it was near highways and railroads, but still isolated between valleys.  The further you go into the site, the farther from the real world, the deeper into secrecy you go.

The gate to get in

Even the roads don't exist

Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt expressing the views of several leading scientists and explaining the potential of such a weapon.  When we visited the Roosevelt Library in Upstate New York in October, we viewed the original letter on display.

This trip is like a woven tapestry of events as one place leads to another.  It has given me a greater appreciation of our nations history and timelines.

While the scientists in New Mexico were busy trying to build the weapon and how it would detonate, the scientists in Oak Ridge were busy separating the uranium 235 isotope from natural uranium in sufficient quantity and quality to produce the fissionable material for atomic weapons.  The X-10 is where the original graphite-moderated reactor was constructed as a pilot facility for the larger plutonium production complex in Hanford, WA.  The X-10 facility was closed in 1963 and is today a National Historic Site.  We were lucky to visit this site on our little tour.

Two other huge buildings were instrumental to the building of the bomb-the Y-12 plant and the K-25 plant.  both plants were built to separate the uranium 235.  The Y-12 plant borrowed $300 million worth of silver from the US Treasury.  The silver was used as a substitute for cooper in the fabrication of equipment for the plant.  The silver was all returned to the US Treasury in 1947.  Today Y-12 is still used to manufacture, process, and storage of special materials that are vital to our national security and continues to contribute to the prevention of the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

The K-25 plant was one of the largest scale-ups of laboratory equipment in history and involved process systems of unprecedented vacuum tightness and cleanliness.  The original K-25 plant covered more than 1,500 acres.  The site is currently undergoing massive site clean-up and environmental restoration.  We were unable to visit Y-12 and K-25 for obvious reasons.

The fascinating part for me is how they were able to maintain the secrecy required to do this vital work.  The population of the area grew to 75,000, the amount of electricity used was huge and yet only the President and the people working on the gadget knew about it.  With today's instant information and satellites we could never pull it off again.

A typical housing for a small family 

quaint little house. 

What do they do in Oak Ridge now?  The site is an amazing collection of brainiacs and scientists.  They have scientists from all over the world come to work on their experiments.  Oak Ridge is home to the second fastest super computer in the world - Titan.  Scientists earn time on the computer and we listened to one who is studying what happens when a star explodes and what is the effect on the Earth's atmosphere and the Sun's rays.  ORNL operates the Spallation Neutron Source, one of the world's foremost facilities for the study of materials.  An intense beam of neutrons is delivered to 25 instruments, providing much more detailed information about smaller samples of physical and biological materials than ever before.

Did I enjoy our visit? You bet!  I loved every minute of it, although most was over my head and I struggled to keep up.  I was fascinated by the idea of a secret city located in the hills of Tennessee that functioned entirely in secrecy for so many years.  After this I put White Sands NM on my bucket list of places to visit.  After growing up in the shadow of the Nevada Test Site, I guess this stuff just gets in your blood and bones.

Charleston and Parris Island South Carolina

 Lake Aire RV Park
Wet and mucky

We pulled into the Lake Aire Rv Park as our stop for Charleston, SC.  We wanted to spend a few days there playing tourists.  The RV choices are limited to two and we picked the less expensive and a little bit out of town for the quiet.

An old carriage step on the sidewalk

The theatre.  A Christmas Carol was opening on Friday.  It is a beautiful theatre

Charleston is a beautiful city at the Bay Front with old houses and row houses overlooking the bay.  The area is friendly and well taken care of.  We took a walking history tour to get a little bit of exercise and to hear more about this place.  The morning started off chilly, but the fog lifted and the sun popped out.

We wandered about for 3 hours and worked up quite an appetite.  I wanted some good low country cooking.  The guide recommended Slightly North of Broad.  He was correct is saying their food was really good.  I enjoyed Shrimp and Grits, Eric had Chicken Livers with Grits and collard greens.  All was so flavorful.  Yum.

The next morning we took off early for Parris Island.  Eric did his boot camp there 34 years as a young Marine Recruit.  We arrived just in time for a graduation ceremony.  Awesome!  These Marines are so young!  It was a nice foggy morning and we took it all in.  Afterwards we drove around the Recruiting Depot and found Eric's old barracks and watched recruits being run through their drills.  I am impressed at how they can mold these young men into Marines.

Eric's old barracks.  Looks like a prison to me!

We made a couple of stops on the way home-the first was to the Carolina Cider Company for Peach Cider, the next was the Carolina Tea Plantation, and the best was Firefly Distillery for vodka, rum and moonshine tastings.  The Lemonade Vodka and Mint Tea Vodka were amazing!

The only tea plantation in the States

A cool spider

This machine cuts the young leaves off the tea plants

Making my list at the distillery

I love roadside stops!

Next Stop-Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.  Can't wait for a nice clean park!