We were lucky to take two trips this year. Some friends and relatives have asked me to share history tidbits and the pictures we take in our travels.  Some of you may have seen photos on Facebook.  I am still processing pictures from the October trip, so I will share more of those over time.

Here is a summary of our trip in October. That is followed by a chart listing different sites we visited.  Dave and I can talk easily about each stop at length.  As I mentioned before, we must stop every few hours when we drive so we try to make the most of our time.   We will stop sometimes at places we have visited before, but we also plan to visit new places each time we travel.  We traveled south from Pennsylvania and we passed through Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina to reach Georgia. We stayed at Villa Rica, Georgia, west of Atlanta, for the rest of our first week of the trip.   Then, after staying in Tuscaloosa, Alabama for the next week, we headed north via Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Maryland to get back to Pennsylvania.

The nickname for this trip became the Three Presidents Trip because we got to stop at the Jimmy Carter Historic Site when we passed through Plains, GA.   We also stopped at Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Little White House at Warm Springs, GA.  Those two places, in Southern Georgia were not far away from where we were driving or staying.  Finally, we made it to the planned stops during the drive North. We visited two towns in Kentucky to see Abraham Lincoln’s Birthplace (Hodgenville) and then, a few miles down the road at Abraham Lincoln’s Boyhood Home (Elizabethtown).

The trip started and ended at venues with family connections.  On Friday September 29, 2017, at the Frontier Culture Museum, in Staunton, VA, the volunteer at the 1740’s homestead used the life of Jost (Heydt) Hite for the history they teach visitors. We did not know this in advance. We believe that Jost Hite, who helped settle the Shenandoah Valley near Winchester VA, is my 6x Great Grandfather (King family line).  The volunteer had a lively discussion with Dave and I about Jost Hite and the way settlers lived.  She remarked on how singer Tim McGraw was related to Jost Hite. We added that his father, famous Baseball Pitcher, Tug McGraw is our relative too.    The last attraction on our trip on Sunday, October 15, 2017, was a tour of Friendsville, MD which was founded by John “Old John” Friend, Sr. This John Friend is my 5x Great Grandfather (King family line).  We learned after we got back home that Friendsville, MD is unique in that, with a few exceptions, every person who lives there is a descendant of the town founder.

As you can see below, there was a real mixture of history, nature, arts and science to experience.  There were things we did not get to do because they were closed, or our timing varied from what we expected, so we had to drop them. The weather made us rearrange some planned days, so we had to pick and choose in some cases.  We rarely get through a trip without some sort of change to the itinerary.  An example from this trip was the drive west of our son Scott’s home to a few towns about an hour away near the Mississippi border.   We found the museum we planned to visit but it was closed for Columbus Day.  It never occurred to us that places might be closed because I found no note on the visitor information on the various web pages. We did not think our plans for the day were unusual because, where we live, you can go to places every day of the year, holidays or not. So, we had a very scenic drive that Monday through the Alabama countryside trying to get into places that were closed for Columbus Day.

In the last few years, I have started to make charts or spreadsheets like the one below to help during the trip and to put together trip scrapbooks after we get back. We recently have decided to go back and organize the data from earlier trips.  It will be neat someday to see our travelogue from the last few decades.    Someone else may want to use those lists as a possible itinerary for a vacation trip.  You just never know.

Here’s a recent story.  When we get back from a trip, Dave will share some details with his coworkers.  They have joked around for years that they want to travel with us because of the list of places we visit.   Early this December, Dave’s Supervisor asked me to make a list of local sites that were having holiday activities.  Her brother was coming to town for a weekend, and she was frustrated in her search to find details of local things to do.  I totally understood her frustration as it is sometimes hard to pinpoint those details in a web search. I spent some time to put together a list of suggestions.   One of them was something going on in the town where she lives.  It turned out well.   Justine thanked Dave half a dozen times and sent home a gift for me, which was appreciated and completely unexpected.

Stop#	Day	Date	Place Name	Location	Note
1.	Fri	9/29/17	Frontier Culture Museum	Staunton, VA	Outdoor Museum-Old World & New World Farms & Homesteads
2.	Sat	9/30/17	Ninety -Six National Historic Site	Ninety -Six, SC	Revolutionary War Battlefield
3.	Sat	9/30/17	Augusta Museum of History	Augusta, GA	Town history through the decades
4.	Sun	10/1/17	Andersonville National Historic Site	Andersonville, GA	Confederate Civil War Prison, National Cemetery, & National POW Museum
5.	Sun	10/1/17	Jimmy Carter National Historic Site	Plains, GA	Multiple Stops Available- visited Plains High School Museum, passed Current Family Compound
6.	Sun	10/1/17	National Infantry Museum	Columbus, GA	Indoor and Outdoor Exhibits.  Very modern displays.
7.	Mon	10/2/17	Zoo Atlanta	Atlanta, GA	One of 3 places in USA to see Pandas. Vast Gorilla & Elephant Exhibits.
8.	Tue	10/3/17	Georgia Aquarium	Atlanta, GA	Hundreds of fish species. One of 3 aquariums in the World to see Whale Sharks– world’s largest fish.  Nice mix of animals.  Beluga Whales, River and Sea Otters, Penguins, Various Jelly Fish
9.	Wed	10/4	Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Little White House National Historic Site	Warm Springs, GA	Compound of Museum, Roosevelt Cottage, Servant Cabin and Guest Cabin, Geology Display in Park Grounds, Memorial Exhibit.  Visit also to Warm Springs Pool that polio stricken FDR frequented.
10.	Wed	10/4	Wild Animal Safari Park	Pine Mountain, GA	Vehicle Safari area that brings together animals from different continents.  Includes a walkabout area at visitor center where visitors can get close to some animals.
11.	Thurs	10/5/17	Pickett’s Mill Battlefield	Dallas GA	State Civil War Site. Walking trails for Union Confederate or Union point of view
12.	Thurs	10/5/17	Etowah Indian Mounds State Historic Site	Cartersville, GA	54 acres archaeology site with Museum, Indian Mounds, Nature Trails.
13.	Thurs	10/5/17	Booth Western Art Museum	Cartersville, GA	All Cowboys & Indians.  Pleasant surprise for this part of the USA.
14.	Thurs	10/5/17	Tellus Science Museum	Cartersville, GA	Traditional Science Museum. Dinosaurs. Great mining & minerals exhibit.
15.	Thurs	10/5/17	Allatoona Pass & Allatoona Pass Battlefield	Cartersville, GA	State Civil War Site
16.	Fri	10/6/17	Stone Mountain Park	Stone Mountain, GA	Amusement Park, Family Fitness Theme, Dinosaur Trail, Scenic RR, Historic Village, 60’ High Carving in Stone Mountain of Confederate Generals & Museum of the Carving.
17.	Tues	10/10/17	Southern Museum of Flight: Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame	Birmingham, AL	SE US Civilian, Military, & Experimental Aircraft. Tuskegee Airmen Featured
18.	Tues	10/10/17	Sloss Furnaces National Historic Site	Birmingham, AL	Former Pig Iron Blast Furnace and Railyard with Museum.  One of the first industrial sites in the US to be preserved and restored for public use.
19.	Weds	10/11/17	Birmingham Museum of Art	Birmingham, AL	Ancient through Modern Art.  Main exhibit is Wedgewood Pottery, more styles than you have ever heard of.
20.	Weds	10/11/17	McWane Science Center	Birmingham, AL	Family Friendly Science Center.  Four floors of mixed, hands-on exhibits and traditional museum displays. Minerals. Fossils. Dinosaurs. Native American Artifacts. Aquarium.
21.	Weds	10/11/17	University of Alabama Natural History Museum	Tuscaloosa, AL	National Fossil Day celebration. Fair/Exhibit held in great hall among the fossil collection
22.	Thurs	10/12/17	University of Alabama, North Lawn Hall	Tuscaloosa, AL	Kristi Curry Rogers lecture on her research- Dinosaurs of Madagascar & microscope use to see how dinosaurs grew so big.  Part of ALLELE seminar series, focusing on teaching the Alabama public about evolutionary sciences.
23.	Thurs	10/12/17	Birmingham Zoo	Birmingham, AL	Fun Halloween Decorations. Over 230 Animal Species. Highlight- African Animals Collection –Big & Small Cats, Elephants, Birds, Giraffes.  Zoo Staff walking an African Serval Cat stopped within one foot of us.
24.	Thurs	10/12/17	Birmingham Botanical Gardens	Birmingham, AL	Short visit means we must return here. Fabulous formal rose garden; greenhouse with cacti, succulents, ferns, fruit trees, etc; ponds/ waterlilies; education center.
25.	Fri	10/13/17	Fort Donelson National Battlefield Park	Dover, TN	Confederate Fort, Two Confederate (Upper and Lower) River Batteries on Cumberland River armed with heavy seacoast artillery, Dover Hotel Surrender House, Battlefield Tour, National Cemetery.  General Ulysses S. Grant earned nickname here; US. (Unconditional Surrender)
26.	Sat	10/14/17	Mammoth Cave National Park	Cave City, KY	World’s longest known cave system- over 400 miles. Dave took Domes and Dripstones Tour. He wants to go back again to take other tours.
27.	Sat	10/14/17	Dinosaur World	Cave City, KY	Museum, life sized dinosaurs in natural setting.
28.	Sat	10/14/17	Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park	Hodgenville, KY	Museum about early life. The first Lincoln Memorial.
29.	Sat	10/14/17	Abraham Lincoln Boyhood Home Historical Park	Elizabethtown, KY	Knob Creek Farm where Abraham Lincoln resided with his parents, Thomas and Nancy, and sister Sarah from 1811 to 1816 before the family moved on to Indiana. Displays created from documented memories of Abraham Lincoln.
30.	Sun	10/15/17	Friendsville History Tour.  (Town founded by my 5x gg John “Old John” Friend, Sr.)	Friendsville, MD	18 stops with sign markers. Picture taken in front of   Friend Family Association of America Heritage Museum and Genealogical Library