Columbus,GA (Mon/Tues)

We got a pretty early start on Monday, pulling out of our very restful Ho Hum Campground on the Florida Panhandle.  It rained again during the night and pushed more seaweed up on the coastline, but it wasn't raining when we left.  We just had a biscuit with our tupelo honey for breakfast, so we were on the move by 9:15, headed to Tallahassee, then on into Georgia.  We drove right through downtown Tallahassee on US 27, turned right in front of their awesome capital building, passed a couple WhataBurgers (but didn't stop), and fueled for $3.41.  Their state capitol building is a 22-story building with 3 additional stories underground and was built in 1978.  It was an attention-getter when it came into view.

We found a very nice campground in Columbus and pulled in there about 2:30, just as it started raining again.  This turned out to be a Passport America campground (I almost forgot to ask) so we are staying here for $18.50/night.  It is the Lake Pine Resort, and is about 14 miles from Fort Benning.  The host who checked us in very extremely helpful, recommended things to see, and their information brochure has directions for all kinds of local places -- restaurants, malls, hospital, etc.  I would recommend this place to anyone coming through here.

We are making this stop because this was the Joe's last post when he was in the Army and we thought it would be interesting to drive through the base and around the town (see if we run into any of his old girlfriends!).  We waited out the rain, got set up and then went to find dinner.  Joe was tired (he drove 234 miles today) so we didn't do any sightseeing.  After we ate at Olive Garden, we came back to camp and relaxed for the rest of the evening, read, played on the computer, and watched a little TV.  Just before dark, they started firing artillery on base and we could hear the explosions here at the campground.  We sat outside for a while, soaking up the cool evening (low 70s) and listening to the artillery rounds firing in the distance.  They didn't stop at dark either, but I don't know how late they went on.  It didn't keep us awake, anyway.

Tuesday morning we drove out to Ft. Benning.  We were able to get right in, just had to show ID, but they no longer have a visitor center.  We drove round and round the base, but Joe didn't see anything that looked familiar from 45 years ago when he was stationed here for about 6 months.  This fort specializes in infantry training, and there is an awesome Infantry Museum on base. 

We didn't take any pictures on post, but we circled around several times, and found the campground which is just off-post.  It has a boat ramp right in the campground, which is on an inlet off the Chattahoochee River.  We called Tiffany, who happened to have a copy of Joe's DD214 on her computer, to find out what Division Joe was in when he mustered out of here (it was 818th Engineers), but we never found any signs about that so they may no longer be stationed here. 

Next we stopped at the National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center (my dad was in the Infantry in WWII).  This is a "WOW."

 The first part of the museum is the "Last 100 Yards Ramp," which has life-size exhibits of 8 different wars.  This was too spectacular to describe, with action figures, video clips showing right on parts of the exhibit.  For example, there was a full-size parachute open, and the video clip showed up in the top of the parachute, with hundreds of paratroopers descending.  Joe took a few pictures but they no way do it justice.

The motto here is "the last 100 yards belong to the Infantry."  Downstairs were several more exhibit theatres, covering different periods of wars.  Part of the WWI theatre included trenches where we walked through a cave-like area, dark and moist, with, again, full-size exhibits of soldiers climbing ropes getting out of the bunkers, or hunkered down.  There was video in most of the areas depicting battles.  Another area that was really interesting was an "in-country" jungle of Viet Nam.  We walked in a dark hall, right between tall jungle-like trees, with bamboo-spears buried under a grate that soldiers would accidentally step on.  Joe could really relate to this area.

We had not been able to find any barracks that Joe recognized on post, but from a window in this museum he caught sight of some.  We found out they had actually been moved from the fort and are now part of a tour, where you can go into them.  We had missed the last tour of the day, but we did drive over and take some pictures through the fence.  These are exactly like the barracks he stayed in here.

We finally left here and wound our way, round and round again, to get off the base.  We did finally drive through the upscale housing area were the brass live.  We felt we covered the base pretty well.  From here, we headed into Phenix City, Alabama, where Joe sewed a few more wild oats during his time here.  He was trying to find a country western bar he sometimes visited (when he had money) but, again, he didn't see anything that looked familiar.  I told one gal I was looking for his old girlfriends, or his children, or his grandchildren.  He said he didn't think so!

We stopped at a great Mexican restaurant for dinner about 7:00, then headed back to camp.  Joe took a picture of our bulletin board where we have our grandchildren on display.  We have officially added Andrew Thomas to the gallery.  But we need a bigger picture.