May 18, 2021 A visit to Jeffy's

 

May 18, 2021

 

 

I really like exploring around here.  My humans let me roam free for a while!  What a treat!

At 5am, I heard the rain pelting down.  I am warm and dry but what does this day hold for us?  After my coffee, the rain had stopped.  It was quite breezy and the skies were still threatening so I put on my poncho and headed out for my walk.

I toured the neighboring cemetary.cemetery.  Some headstones went back to the late 1800’s.  The most recent I noticed was the 1970’s but I am sure there are later ‘guests’.  Onto the street, I turned west along the beachfront.  I stayed on the side of the street with all the houses and such as the beach side seemed more exposed to the wind.  Such a variety of buildings line the beachfront.  Some small houses, some larger houses, a hotel, vacant lots.  One block away from the beach are lots of smaller houses.

 

The sand has blown across the road onto this side of the street.  This sand is not native to here.  The sandy beaches were created with sand imported from Australia.  Before, it was just rock and tree stumps and native shrubs.  When I turned around to come back, the wind pushed hard.  I went up a block away from the beach so I could actually make forward progress.  The seas are choppy and there will be more rain.

Back at Hannah, we decided to go see Jefferson Davis’s home and presidential museum.  I do NOT intend to get political here.  He was the only president of the Confederacy.  Before that, he was a congressman, a senator, secretary of war, etc.  He was a respected patriot among many northerners and southerners.  While most people see the civil war as all about slavery, Jeffy boy saw it as an assault on states rights.  He had to go up against all the improvements he had made as secretary of war when he flipped sides .

The house itself still has much of its original floors, windows and furniture pieces.  The ceiling was handpainted and is still intact, even after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc.  His daughter Winnie’s piano alone hashad more than $1M damage to it.  It took 3 years to repair the damage Katrina did, but they were able to save so much of the house.

The museum has many civil war artifacts and is quite informative.  .  Bottom line, this was such a significant part of our history, it was well worth the visit. 

Now, a little lesson on how to use a GPS…  When we are on the road, I always have a map on my lap so I can either approve the GPS route, or shape it to my liking.  But when we are in a city, we have to depend on ‘her’.  So when we first were going to Beauvoir (Jeffy’s house), she gave us the freeway exit.  We saw a sign to go left, but the GPS said to go right.   While I have eyes in my head, Spouse follows ‘her’ blindly and turns right.  SHE IS WRONG!  Sure, maybe we would get there eventually, but THERE ARE SHORTER ROUTES!  I have seen this more than once (not just with this GPS but with others too).  YOU MUST USE YOUR EYES!  Spouse and I are having battles here.  He says to ask her for a restaurant…  I say let’s use our eyes and when we see one that looks interesting, let’s go.  So far, I have been right.  After all, it’s not like she has every restaurant on the planet inside her.  And a few she has steered us to have been non-existant.  EYES… 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…  We went into the Elks for a drink and our bartender Linda gave us a book on the before and after of Katrina along the shores here.  All I can say is … WOW!