We drove our shortest drive day of the trip today.
Last I wrote we were looking forward to a nice southern meal. Well it turned out to be an excellent southern Italy meal.
We ate at Giardiano’s. I had the pappardelle bolognese and Connie had the veal marsala. Both were excellent.
We made the drive to Huntsville today and lost an hour along the way (CST) and arrived around 11:00 but were fortunate that the hotel (Holiday Inn Express) had a room ready for us.
We dropped off our stuff and headed into town for lunch and for a drive around. Really nice town. Some old majestic homes. The population of Huntsville is around 220,000. It has an old town flavor under the covers but is quite modern as a lot of the space and automobile industry resides here.
Tomorrow we have tickets to Space Town. I’m really looking forward to that.
Tonight for dinner we went to a little place about 15 miles out of town. It was recommended by the lady who checked us in earlier. Good southern cooking.
Place is called Greenbrier Restaurant and is tiny but lots of diners.
I had the catfish with their coleslaw (made with vinegar and sugar) and a baked potato. Connie had the shrimp with coleslaw and sweet potato. They served the best hush puppies I’ve ever had. Light and tasty.
Nice easy ride over 2 days. We had originally planned on leaving on Sunday and driving the 688 miles in one go however we decided to leave a day early and split it into two easy days so that we could enjoy Chattanooga and Huntsville.
Spent the first night in Valdosta Ga where we arrived after an easy drive day of only a 5 hour drive.
Our second day was easy as well.
We had to stop at Buc-ee’s to stretch our legs.
We arrived yesterday around 2:30 and took a ride into town to take advantage of the sunny afternoon.
We had a very nice dinner at Puckett’s. I had Smoked Meatloaf, mashed potato’s and collard greens. Connie had chicken wings with BBQ sauce. We then walked around a bit to walk some of it off and enjoyed seeing the city. I’m glad we did as the weather turned on us today.
Well, the portion above here was typed up this morning. We were waiting around for the weather to break a little as it’s been raining overnight. We eventually headed out as we wanted to visit Lookout Mountain.
We went to the train station at the bottom and took the trip to the top of the mountain.
It was still quite overcast and had begun to rain again. We pressed on and walked the loop out to the overlook.
As you can see in some of the pics, it was raining here and there and once we had walked all the way in it started to really come down. We hung out in a small museum building and read up on the photographers from during the Civil War. The area we visited was the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. The Civil War battle of Lookout Mountain took place here on and around November 24, 1863. There were 6,667 Confederate soldiers killed, wounded or Missing and 5,824 Union same.
After returning to the bottom of the mountain we stopped for ice-cream for Connie and Taco Bell for me.
Tonight we hope for some more southern cooking.
Tomorrow we’re off to Huntsville Al and Space Town!
This summer we are visiting Chattanooga Tn, Huntsville Al (SpaceTown), friends Bill and Pam in Pekin Il, Connie’s brother and his wife in Napierville Il then on to the Little Big Horn Natnl Monument and then Bellevue Wa visiting Chuck, Heina and Leah (she is 9 now) where we will spend the month of July.
Following that we head directly home and expect to be back first week in August.
Not sure how often I will be posting but I will try to do so as we visit some of the friends and places.
We sailed into Auckland early this morning. Beautiful sunrise.
We were up early (5:45) to get breakfast and take the early included tour.
Took a number of pictures…
You (not me) can bungee jump from their needle.
Were back for lunch then off again for an afternoon excursion.
Naval base in Auckland. If you see more than four ships you either have guests or are under attack (their navy has only 4 ships).Interesting architecture. When New Zealand received notice that the Russians were going to invade they removed guns from old warships and built trenches. To fire them the men would drag them out, fire them then bring them back to protect them. Black swans in the southern hemisphere.
Our ride back to Auckland from Davenport village…
Auckland across the harbor.
A few notes. Auckland is a city of about 1.6M people. Earthquakes are not as big an issue this far north. Many extinct (for now) volcanoes all around. Most boats per person (1 for every 3 or 4 people depending on who is telling the story) and huge marinas (I believe he said 7) all over (and plenty in yards all around town). There are several beaches and the climate is moderate. No frost in the winter and 75-80 in the summer. Ocean Temps get up to near 70 degrees.
Dinner, shower, bags outside the door by 8 pm tonight. Out tomorrow by 8 am to Auckland airport. Tomorrow is Wednesday at home but Thursday here (we cross back over the international date line) and should be home Thursday evening in Florida. 28 hours of travel including a layover in Dallas then flight to Tampa where we get the truck and drive home.
Should work out as we’ll have dinner, unpack, rest a bit then go to bed. Friday will be a quiet day.
We drove out into the kiwi agricultural area. New Zealand exports 622,500 tons of kiwi a year totaling $4B (Au). Its a cornerstone industry. We stopped at this center where they gave us samples of fruit and juice.
Looks like grape vines but it’s kiwi.
On the return trip we drove along the coast.
Auckland tomorrow. Our last day before our return flight…
We took a quick bus tour of this coastal New Zealand town this morning. It’s a beautiful town of 66,000 people on the east side of the north island.
The town, like so many in New Zealand, was drastically transformed last century. Here is what I found in Wikipedia.
“The 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake, also known as the Napier earthquake, occurred in New Zealand at 10:47 am on 3 February, killing 256, injuring thousands and devastating the Hawke’s Bay region. It remains New Zealand’s deadliest natural disaster.”
So much of the town has been rebuilt. Any of the older structures that survived were wood framed. Concrete or stucco structures did not.
These quakes, of which all the towns we’ve visited have endured, have lifted the seabed as much as 6 meters (almost 20 feet) redefining the coastline. We are routinely showe sea walls far from waters edge. Napier is no different in that sense. Seawalls can be found hundreds of feet inland.
Tsunami warning systems are also in all these cities. Our guides have mentioned go bags under people’s desks at work in case of a quake and, like our hurricane evacuation routes, clear markings to high ground if Tsunami warnings are issued.
Another problem with hillside buildings is mus slides from heavy rains. Threats galore.
Another common practice is the building of homes on these steep slopes. You’d think that the risk of quakes would preclude this practice however, being that these coastal towns/cities are all along mountainous slopes, there are no other options.
The town, being on the ocean, is like any seaside town. Full of hotels along the water along with many beach homes.
Inland a few streets was a neighborhood filled with art deco style homes.
This row of buildings known as the Six Sisters on the seaside “strip” were wood construct and survived the quake.
Six Sisters
Here are some pictures from our drive.
Like all the cities we’ve visited (as they are all port cities) many homes are built on the side of hills which are very steep.Back of a truck…
Some of the art deco homes which are typically boxy in shape with flat roofs.
Following the bus ride our driver dropped us off in the vibrant shopping area in town.
Not surprisingly, shopping was done.
We left Napier port at 2:00 pm and are now heading to Rotorua where we be touring tomorrow.
We began our day on one of the highlights of our tour so far at the “Shenandoah Ranch”
The farm has been in the family for generations. Simon is the gent here.
He was introducing himself and welcoming us in two languages. He is half native and half American. His role in life is to preserve the farm until his death when the farm, which is in his dad’s trust, reverts to the government to be kept as conservation land.
Simon and his family have a place in their hearts for the Americans. Early in WW2 the Japanese appeared poised to take New Zealand. They even printed money with the emperor on the face.
New Zealand put out requests for assistance and nobody came to their aid until America was brought into the war.
At that time the US marines showed up. The average age of the soldiers was 17 and the natives adopted the troops as family.
I could go on and on about the visit. It was full of Simon’s stories. Some made you smile. Others brought tears to your eyes.
Here are some pictures.
Marine corps 2nd division and New Zealand combined in this patch.Americans buried many items when they left. Some were dug up and restored. Simon was working on this motorcycle with his dad when his dad died suddenly. He couldn’t finish it. Highland cow. Stock brought over from Scotland.
As the story goes, the Americans weren’t to fond of mutton and that’s mostly what they were fed however a local farmer raised turkeys and they began to go missing.
The farmer complained to the base commandant who said he’d look into it.
This continued (Simon was pretty sure that the commandant was getting his share of the turkey) until the Americans left (which they did without telling the locals).
The farmer entered his barn the next day to find a brand new, right out of the box, Willey’s jeep.
Simon explained the farmer found a thank you note on it for all the turkey.
It was a hit around the village to say the least.
The jeep got plenty of use over the years and has been fully restored.
What a visit.
We were late getting back and wolfed down lunch after which Joanne and Vicky took the shuttle into town while Connie and I took the city tour offered by Viking.
It was a hoot! The driver, John, drove like I would. For those who don’t know me that well he drove like he had to get places post haste.
We drove the city entertained by his anecdotes (and driving) and visited the Rose Garden, cable car and lastly Mount Victoria.
Just a hint on his driving. We stopped at a church he was pointing out when another driver came to the door and informed John of a bus jammed at the entrance to the Rose Garden.
John quickly drove to the exit (which was a one way street out) and maneuvered the bus so he could back it into the venue (and it was so tight a street sign scratched along the window of the bus).
At the cable car sight John bottomed out the nose of the bus onto the sidewalk while pulling in… Enough. You get the picture.
Speaking of pictures…
Old cable car in the cable car museum. Note the angled seats.Current car. Travels down and back every few minutes. Free too!Local beach and, as it’s a beautiful summer day, it’s packed.
Frank and Connie Catanese 