From Phoenix to Vermont and back to Phoenix, Part 3

 On Saturday, we stopped in Columbia SC for lunch at the Blue Marlin Restaurant.  It is in a former train station in an area known as the Columbia Vista - a revitalized section of the old city that now has many restaurants and arts centers and events.  After lunch, we walked down to the riverfront and canal which is still being rebuilt.  There is now a new boardwalk to view the river and where the water comes from the generating plant at the end of the canal.  There were many birds fishing in the river including several herons (you have to look closely at the center of the photo).

The bridge was to our left and the outfall from the generating station and canal was to our right.

The walkways were so new, in some places you could still see the saw dust from the holes drilled to attach the railings.  It is clearly a nice addition to the water front.

There is much new landscaping around the museum and canal.

 

 On Sunday, we visited Andersonville National Park and Cemetery.  This was the site of the infamous POW camp run by the Confederacy for Union POWs.  Based on photos, drawings and archeological drawings, they have a very good idea of what the camp was like.  Here is a recreation of one of the two gates to the camp.

Here is Providence Spring.  After a lack of water for the thousands of POWs, one day a spring erupted naturally from the side of the hill.  Forty years after the war, this memorial was built where the spring was and water was flowing from the spring when we were there.

The Visitor Center and Museum are dedicated to POWs (and MIAs) of all wars and has some amazing artifacts, stories and photos.  Patty's dad was captured during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, marched to the train station in Koblenz GE, then spent four months in the Stalag in Leipzig until liberated in April 1945.  In the later 1990s and early 2000s, he became active in the Vermont Chapter of the POW/MIAs.  When Andersonville first opened, they had living quarters for ex-POWs to stay in while they spent time at Andersonville answering questions from visitors.

We also  drove through the cemetery.  While the 13,000 plus Civil War POWs are buried there, it continues to be an active National Cemetery where veterans of later wars are being buried still today.

We then went to the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site.  We visited the old Plains High School which has been converted into the visitor center.  Many interesting photos, memorabilia, exhibits and short videos about both Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter.  To me, the most interesting aspects were about Carter's positions on implementing voting rights in Georgia and what the Carter Center has been (and continues) doing since his presidency.  Many say Carter is a much better former president than he was a president.  What ever one's opinion of his presidency, his work with Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center has been truly amazing.  Patty had me sit in the simulated oval office for my photo.