Texas to Georgia (STR-2022-26)

Monday, 5 September

After spending the weekend visiting family, Sprinty started for home. The weather forecast for driving had improved from a few days ago when it forecast light rain for most of the day. Instead, we had lovebugs. Lots and lots of them.

Photo taken before the worst of the swarm:

From Wikipedia:

The lovebug is a species of march fly found in parts of Central America and the southeastern United States, especially along the Gulf. During and after mating, matured pairs remain together, even in flight, for up to several days.

Lovebug pair

Localized lovebug flights can number in the millions. Male/female pairs (joined tail-to-tail) will hover in the air, drifting slowly. Two major flights occur each year; the spring flight occurs during late April and May, and the summer flight occurs during late August and September. Flights extend over periods of four to five weeks. In south Florida, a third (but smaller) flight can occur in December. Mating takes place almost immediately after emergence of the females. Adult females live only three to four days, while males live a little longer. They have to stick to each other at all times.

Their reputation as a public nuisance is due to its slightly acidic body chemistry. Because airborne lovebugs can exist in enormous numbers near highways, they die in large numbers on automobile windshields, hoods, and radiator grilles when vehicles travel at highway speeds. If left for more than an hour or two, the remains become extremely difficult to remove. Their body chemistry has a nearly neutral 6.5 pH but may become acidic at 4.25 pH if left on the car for a day.

Suffice it to say, Sprinty captured a record number of bugs, far exceeding his previous record of daily bug collecting. Leaving Darrell with scrub duty for over two hours.

Our campsite for the night was at the River View RV Park and Resort in Vidalia, LA. A very nice campground located right on the Mississippi River. We almost stayed here a few years ago, but their sewage lift station was shut down due to high river levels. We enjoyed seeing the tugs and barges going past on the Mighty Mississippi River.

Tuesday, 6 September

We made today a golf day. When we called yesterday afternoon, they said they did not do tee times on weekdays. And when we arrived at Eagle Ridge Golf Course, part of the Hinds Community College in Raymond, MS, we learned the mens group that usually plays on Tuesday were plying a tournament at a different course.

Very few people were playing, perhaps due to the humid conditions and possibility of rain. We both played well and enjoyed playing at our pace, finishing in under three hours.

With an early finish to golf, we skipped our Plan A and Plan B overnight destinations and cruised to Jennings Ferry Campground, a Corps of Engineers campground in Akron, AL. The campground was rated Five Stars on AllStays - a rarity. And Sprinty only caught a few love bugs today.

Wednesday, 7 September

With our stretch drive yesterday, we had a leisurely start before heading to Tannehill Ironworks State Historic Park in McCalla, AL, a place that was on our list of places to visit. In the 1800's, rural Alabama became an early center of iron manufacture. Here, all three ingredients for making iron - coal, iron ore, and limestone - were found in abundance. At no other place in the world do all three elements lie in such close proximity.

In 1830, Daniel Hillman, a Pennsylvania furnaceman, first built a bloomery forge on the banks of Roupes Creek, where he had found the richest deposits of brown ore in his experience. He wrote his son: "I believe, George, that my prospects for making a handsome property are better than they ever were..." Hillman died two years later, the family's fortune unmade. Ninian Tannehill later took up the forge as a sideline to his farming operation.

 

In 1859, Ironmaster Moses Stroup built the first blast furnace at Tannehill which was intended to make iron for plows, kettles and machine parts. Equipped with hot blast stoves and steam power to increase production, the Roupes Valley furnaces were among the most modern of their day. Experiments with red iron ore opened the door to iron manufacture in Birmingham. No other place in Alabama made iron for as long as did these works prior to the Civil War.

In 1862, with help from the Confederate government, two more furnaces were built here to aid the war effort, primarily for iron needed for shot, shell, and all the munitions of war. To make just one ton of iron in a furnace like those at Tannehill required about 140 bushels of charcoal, 5,000 pounds of iron ore and 600 pounds of limestone. Tapped every eight hours, the furnaces ran day and night and were operated by a workforce of several hundred.

On March 31, 1865, it ended in fire and destruction. Three companies of the Eighth Iowa Cavalry swept through the area as a part of Union General James H. Wilson's raid on Alabama war industry sites. Smoke rose from the charred remains of the ironworks and cabins that housed several workers. At day's end the furnaces were no longer operational, and the foundry, tannery, gristmill, and tax-in-kind warehouse were in ruins.

Remains of Civil War era stacks still stand today at Tannehill, aided by restoration once the park was established around 1970.

Tannehill Ironworks State Historic Park has many historical homes from the 1800's which were relocated to the park. Several are used as craft houses where artisans demonstrate period crafts on the weekend. Along the front of the craft cabins was a plank road, which were used prior to the advent of railroads.

Tannehill Ironworks State Historic Park is also home to the Iron and Steel Museum of Alabama, an interpretive center on 19th century iron making technology featuring both belt driven machines of the 1800s and tools and products of the times. It focuses on the Roupes Valley Ironworks at Tannehill which operated nearby, first as a bloomery beginning in 1830 and later as an important battery of charcoal blast furnaces during the Civil War. The ironworks gave birth to the Birmingham Iron & Steel District.

After visiting Tannehill Ironworks State Historic Park, the pull of home became too strong to resist. We meandered home in a rather melancholy mood as we reflected on the amazing memories made this Summer to Remember 2022.

The journey started May 1st and covered 12,181 miles. With exploring the Pacific Northwest as the overall objective, Sprinty joined 15 other RVers in a 47-day caravan following the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806 from St Louis, MO, to Astoria, OR. 

Sprinty camped in 19 states and completed camping in all of the Lower 48 states (added North Dakota, Montana, Washington and Oregon). Sprinty visited 9 more National Parks and revisited Zion NP. The summer included visiting old friends, visiting family and making new friends.

Location of Sprinty Travel Photos 2017-2022