We had a warm but restful Shabbos at Ralph’s house. Oreo is ready to hit the road:
We said goodbye to Ralph and his family and drove west to our first stop, Fort Donelson National Battlefield. The visitor center has some interesting displays:
The Confederate battery that held back Foote’s Union gunboats during the Battle of Fort Donelson:
With M and I driving the motorcycles, and B riding with me, we visited a local iron furnace. The furnace was similar to the one at Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site:
It was here that then-Colonel George Washington was defeated and surrendered his fort after starting the French and Indian War at Jumonville Glen a month earlier:
Looking embarrassed:
We walked down to the fort:
The fort was hastily built, so there’s not much to it:
We saw this fancy fellow on the sidewalk:
The visitor center placed the battle of Fort Necessity in its historical context:
During the war, Washington built a road through the area for moving troops and supplies. 50 years later, Albert Gallatin would use Washington’s road as a portion of the National Road. It was an interesting tie-in to our next stop, Friendship Hill National Historic Site, the home of Albert Gallatin:
Gallatin was a Congressman, Secretary of the Treasury, and US Ambassador to Great Britian and France, among many other accomplishments.
The house was burned by arson before becoming a National Park Service site. The new roof line shows the location of the old roof lines of the various additions to the home:
We continued south to a dispersed camping location at the foot of the Summersville Lake dam, but it turned out to be more like a homeless camp, so we continued south, but first stopped at an overlook for the lake:
We’re overnighting at the Walmart of Fayetteville, West Virginia. It’s pretty warm here:
See the alternating yellow line in the trip map for today’s drive.
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