Tuskegee, AL

We left Danielle’s yesterday and spent last night in Newnan, GA. Today we stopped in Tuskegee, AL, on our way back to Mobile. Our main sightseeing destination was the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, an excellent and moving exhibit documenting the African-American veterans who broke the color barrier in military aviation during World War II. President Roosevelt authorized the first squadron of black cadets to begin primary flight training in July 1941, after pressure from voters, the press, civil rights organizations and his wife, Eleanor. Tuskegee was chosen due its favorable year-round flying conditions and the existence of a successful civilian pilot training program at the nearby Tuskegee Institute, founded by Booker T. Washington. The first graduates had to overcome long-standing prejudices among Army Air Corps commanders, many of whom believed that black men did not possess the temperament and cognitive ability to fly or fight. The Tuskegee Airmen excelled at both, proving beyond doubt that they were more than equal to the task, and their collective combat record in Europe and North Africa was superb. One of the program’s mottos was “Double Victory”—their mission was to fight facism abroad and racism at home. They returned to an America where segregation and discrimination was still the norm—even the military wouldn’t fully integrate until 1948—and many of the former pilots, air crew and mechanics went on to became involved in the civil rights movement. 

Happy New Year!🎉

Yesterday we went to Eno River State Park in Durham, where we hiked past some mill ruins.

We ate dinner at home, featuring Kathleen’s homemade mac & cheese, then played board games, watched the Packers-Vikings football game (Go Pack Go!) and rang in 2024 watching the crowd in Times Square on TV.

On New Year’s Day we made pancakes, read, took a walk, played more board games, watched  college football and went out for pizza. Tomorrow, Kathleen and I are heading back to Mobile, while Amy is staying here for another week.

 

Second Christmas

We were waiting until the family was together to have our Christmas celebration. This morning we unpacked our stockings, opened presents and spent precious time together before enjoying a holiday feast, complete with homemade macaroons for dessert. 

The Greens are all together!

Today we did some some touring in Raleigh, North Carolina’s capital and second-largest city. After visiting the 1840 state house, which is no longer in use, we went to the Museum of Natural Sciences, an excellent facility in downtown Raleigh.

We passed a ramen restaurant with cool dragonfly door handles, then experienced rolled ice cream for the first time.

Our main event was picking up Amy at the airport, and our family is together at last for the first time since September 4. We took a quick family walk, then ate dinner and relaxed.

Merry Christmas!🎄🎁

We’re waiting for Amy to join us this weekend to officially celebrate Christmas, so we watched football, went to dinner and a movie. Hope all who celebrated yesterday had a wonderful day!

via GIPHY

Road Trip (cont’d)

After saying good morning and goodbye to the local elk herd, we left Cherokee, NC, and continued east. We had a hearty breakfast at Country Vittles Family Style Restaurant in nearby Maggie Valley, then drove on through the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.

We stopped in Asheville to visit the Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center. More gallery than museum, the center is dedicated to the private liberal arts college that became famous in the arts community. While the college only existed for 24 years (1933-1957), many of its students and faculty were or would go on to be influential artists. More importantly, it was where Kathleen’s parents, Wilma and John, met as students in the early 1950s. We had a very special moment when Kathleen discovered a photograph on display of her mother in a 1948 weaving class.

We arrived at Danielle and Jay’s house in Durham around 7:00 PM, where dinner was waiting. Also waiting was a large assortment of mail and packages that have been accumulating here for a month—one of our solutions to the challenge of being on the go for a year without regular mail delivery.

Great Smoky Mountains

This morning after breakfast we were treated to another visit by the local elk herd, who were nibbling on the grass in front of our motel, The Great Smokies Inn.

The motel is on tribal land owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee, descendants of those who avoided being forcibly removed from their homes during that sad chapter in American history, the Trail of Tears. 

There is a 1.5-mile trail from the town along the beautiful Oconaluftee River to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s southern visitor’s center. We took a chilly walk along the trail to the visitor center and Mountain Farm Museum, a recreated 19th century homestead. We learned a lot about the Appalachian way of life, including its challenges, and saw several more elk on the hike back to Cherokee.

After lunch, we drove to a couple other sections in the park, including Newfound Gap, where we hiked on the Appalachian Trail, which straddles the North Carolina-Tennessee border and reaches its highest elevation at nearby Clingman’s Dome.