Charleston/Tallahassee/Savanah 2018 — Trip Launch

For our Fall 2018 Camping trip, we chose to take a lowland (alligator) tour of the South-East US. Peter and I picked up a van and packed all of our camping gear and headed south. We travelled by way of Pittsburgh and West Virginia, stopping overnight just short of the Shenandoah Valley. The next morning…

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Fort Donnelson – 2018

For our final trip from our base at NBF state park, we headed north to Fort Donelson. This (along with Fort Henry — now under the water of Kentucky Lake) was the battle that started U.S. Grant on the path from relative obscurity to the becoming the Lieutenant General in command of all Union forces….

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Shiloh National Battlefield – 2018

During our stay at NBF State Park, we made a day-tour south to the Shiloh National Battlefield. Even folks who haven’t learned much about the Civil War have probably heard the name ‘Shiloh’. Mostly from exposure to too many Western movies :-). The battle was fought between U.S. Grant and A.S. Johnston, During the battle,…

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Nathan Bedford Forest State Park 2018

After our tour of the Parthenon, we headed west to the Nathan Bedford Forest State Park. This park is a great little park with some excellent campsites right on the western edge of Lake Kentucky (Tennessee River, but a flooded section). We arrived in time for ‘Willow Fly’ season and there were *thousands* of them…

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Nashville 2018

I’ve been through Nashville more times that I can remember, but I’ve never stayed in the city. This was about to change. After our tour of Stones River, we headed to Nashville and Opryland. Trust me, we had no interest in Opryland, but the hotels are plentiful and cheap. We did try to go to…

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Stones River Battlefield 2018

Departing Cloudland Canyon, we headed north to Nashville. On the way, we stopped in at the Stones River Battlefield. Stones River (or sometimes 2nd Murfreesboro) was another battle fought between Rosecrans and Bragg, but earlier than Chickamauga. Rosecrans was marching out of Nashville to force Bragg out of Tennessee but Bragg struck him first. Bragg…

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Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield 2018

On our third day at Cloudland, we decided to make a long(ish) trip south to Marietta (just north of Atlanta) to visit Kennesaw Mountain and the Civil War battlefield. This park is a set of fragments preserved long after the Civil War after much of the mountain had become the site for homes of the…

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Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain Battlefield 2018

On our second day camping at Cloudland, we took a tour of the Civil War battlefield parks of Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain. The battle at Chickamauga was a successful repulse of the Union advance into Georgia. The Union command was held by William (Rosey) Rosecrans and the Confederate command was held by Braxton Bragg. Bragg…

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Cloudland Canyon State Park 2018

After we left Mammoth Cave, we were headed to Cloudland Canyon State Park in the North-west corner of Georgia. We took a round-about route as we planned to stay in a hotel in Chattanooga before heading to Cloudland in the early the next morning. I wanted to scout the Cumberland Plateau area so we headed…

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Mammoth Cave National Park 2018

After a rendezvous at Louisville, we dropped down to Elizabethtown to spend the night. While there, we collected groceries and other supplies. Early in the morning we headed south the Cave City and then in to the Mammoth Cave National Park to camp. We had two days to complete two separate tours of the cave…

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