Trip Update Nov-Dec 2011 Part 1

Petersburg battle defenses
Tom, Pat and Julie touring Savannah
Christmas Boat Parade
Broken tow arm

After our return from Africa, we spent three weeks in MD/PA visiting friends, relatives and doctors. We did celebrate my father’s 89^th and Pat’s father’s 84^th birthday with our families. On Nov 21^st, we picked up our canoe trailer that Randy and Marti stored for us and headed south. We stopped at Petersburg Battlefield and took the driving tour of the battlefield. Grant said, “The key to taking Richmond is Petersburg.” A nine and a half month siege proved him right and led to the Confederate surrender seven days later at Appomattox.

We canoed 3 rivers on our route south: the Lumber River in NC, and the Little Pee Dee and Lynches River in SC. We enjoyed a private tour of Rivers Bridge Battlefield, a little known Civil War battle where a small band of confederates in SC tried to slow Sherman’s advance north. After Thanksgiving, we meet Tom and Julie in Hilton Head and shared a very nice timeshare with them for a week. We took a day trip to Savannah and took a bus tour of the locations where many movies were shot (Forest Gump and Glory for example).