Monday, May 19, 2014

Rain-Soak-A

This past weekend, Dudeboy and I joined a few of the 9th Ky. for the reenactment in honor of 150th anniversary of the Battle of Resaca.  This was the first major engagement in the Atlanta campaign with some 6000 casualties.

A Boy and His Dog . . . dog tent that is.  This is what he wanted for his birthday and we purchased it on the way down to Resaca.  He is quite proud of it, but I daresay come weather in the teens (like at Ft. Donelson) he'll be in the A-Frame with me!  Speaking of my A-Frame, look at the nice open area to the right of it.  By the next morning, that area looked a little bit different, as you will see in the next picture.

We had a steady rain for the majority of the time while we were at Resaca and these were some of the results. Dudeboy dubbed the event "Rain-Soak-A."  However, we consider ourselves very lucky for our tent stayed fairly dry, but as you can see, the water was encroaching.  A number of others were not so lucky.  While we slept soundly, a good many of the others in our area were inundated and "maybe got an hour of sleep!"

Dudeboy and his tent-mate . . . 

"Say hello to my little friend . . . "


While in the area we visited a few of the sites pertaining to the battle . . . like the cemetery for the Confederate dead.  I should mention that the reenactment took place on a portion of the original battlefield.

I recommend that you take the time to read a great short story pertaining to the battle that Ambrose Bierce wrote entitled "Killed at Resaca."

It is impossible to tell from this photo, but Dudeboy is standing in front of the remains of some earthworks of a large redoubt located at what was Fort Wayne.  This fort was built in part to protect the Western and Atlantic railway bridge over the Oostanaula River.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day . . . in what has apparently become a new tradition, the Fife Clan returned to Red Boiling Springs, Tn for Mother's Day.  This year we ate at Armour's Hotel, where one can also partake of the mineral baths and the like . . . and of course sample the sulfur water.

The next few pictures are of Avi "taking the waters."  As wikipedia states in their article about Red Boiling Springs: "The various waters contained several minerals but sulfur was predominant, giving the waters the scent (and some would say, the flavor) of rotten eggs."  More like rotten eggs seeped in sewer water.