OLA: Driving the Natchez Trace Parkway

Fall colors at the New Trace

Not only Bill drove. I drove 10% of the Natchez Trace Parkway!

Fall colors at the Old Trace

We were in Tennessee last year, making our way back to the Northwest from our first winter in Florida. We only visited its largest cities: Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis. This time around, we passed through in the opposite direction….towards Florida for our second winter! We found the drive through the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina so memorable (and the blog post is one of the most popular) that this year, we chose to drive the Parkway. Besides we wanted to cover Mississippi and it leads there!

Falll colors at the lake in Natchez Trace RV Resort

                                        

The Natchez Trace Parkway (the Old was started in 1801 while the New began in 1930) gently winds among low hills from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee, crossing Alabama at its northwestern tip.  This All-American Road, like its sister Blue Ridge, is maintained by the National Park Service, to commemorate the original route following the ’traces’ of bison and other game. In essence, it was the original path of the earliest Americans on the move (much like us)! Parts of the Old Trace is preserved and an added bonus was the fall colors draping its sides (my favorite season!).

them ol' cotton fields back at Donnivan Slough

Improved communications (steam boats, stagecoach lines, and railroads) and the development of ports along nearby rivers made the route obsolete as a means of commerce. As a result, no major population centers were born or developed along it. Thus the Trace and its alignment between Nashville and Natchez come down to us today almost completely undeveloped and unspoiled as an unhurried forest lane, with the exception of the cities of Tupelo and Jackson, Mississippi which developed later.

native-American ceremonial mound at the Trace

                                                                       There are many hiking trails in this quiet forest lane. Clear streams, little falls, shallow swamps, gentle meadows, pretty trees, and wild turkey are abundant. At Donivan Slough, I was fascinated by the cotton fields that almost look like acres of pock-marked snow.  Then there were the native-American burial mounds, bigger and higher (though not in special shapes) than the ones we saw at the Mounds National Monument in Iowa.  There was even a grave site of 13 unknown Confederate soldiers.  And near the Northern Terminus at milepost 444, a 155-ft. double arch bridge commands the intersection of the Parkway and Tennessee 100 at Birdsong Hollow.

155-ft. double-arch bridge over Tennessee 100

Tuscumbia, Alabama

Despite being rendered blind and deaf from a high fever at the early age of 19 months, Helen Keller, through the dedication of her beloved teacher Anne Sullivan, was able to graduate from Radcliff, cum laude. She went on to write 14 books and was a sought after inspirational speaker until she died at age 88 in 1968. A moon tree, from a seed carried in the Apollo 14 space flight to the moon, is growing well on the grounds of Ivy Green, her birthplace and childhood home in Tuscumbia, Alabama, a short diversion from the Trace.

Helen Keller's birthplace and childhood home in Alabama

 My mother was the Principal of the Philippine School for the Deaf and the Blind for years, having been sent by the government as its scholar to the Central Institute for the Deaf in Missouri. As a matter of fact, my sister Julie is now Executive Director of a nonprofit school called the Philippine Institute for the Deaf which we founded in her honor.  Thus I was so interested to make the short diversion to the Museum of the First Lady of Courage. She was my mother’s heroine. And my mom was mine!

Elvis Presley's birthplace and boyhood home in Mississippi

Tupelo, Mississippi

Another draw to the Trace is Tupelo, Mississippi which is the birthplace and home of Elvis before he headed for Memphis and stardom. Gospel singing influenced the star’s music so much that the church which he attended as a boy and teenager was relocated to the site of the home and museum, only one block from its original location. We were surprised that the Elvis landmark had so many more visitors than Ivy Green. I guess pop music and rock n’ roll has a wider appeal than rising above one’s handicap! But I enjoyed holding young Elvis’ hand for a photo!

flock of wild turkey fleeing from Bill's camera

We were not able to complete the Trace. But we promised ourselves that when we cross the Gulf States again, plying between California/Arizona and Florida for snow birding, we will complete the southern portion around Jackson, Mississippi most especially to see the unique Windsor Ruins, the patches of red clover, and yellow wildflowers on a river bend!

Jack Daniel’s Distillery 

the natural spring from where Jack Daniels comes from 

Two weeks ago, I wrote that 95% of bourbon-making is in Kentucky. Well, a day when I was not feeling well, Bill went to Lynchburg, Tennessee to tour the only Jack Daniels Distillery. Daniels started working at the general store owned by the man that owned the still when he was only 7 years old. He bought it for $25 when he was only 13!  One morning he went to work early. Not able to remember the combination to the safe, he kicked it in frustration, breaking his big toe.  Gangrene set in and eventually resulted in his death.  (The lesson is: ‘Don’t go to work too early!’ ) The company now has 400 employees in a town of 500 in a dry county in Tennessee!   

13 gravesites of unknown Confederates on the Old Trace

                                                                          Next Stop: Atlanta and Macon, Georgia

Going, Going, Gone at Glacier National Park! OLA

Wild Goose Island on St. Mary Lake along the Going-to-the-Sun Road 

When we were at Lake Louise at Banff National Park in 2007, I was shocked at its diminished ice caps from a 2005 trip. At Glacier National Park I felt a deep sadness. In 1850 there were 150 glaciers and in 1910 it was established as a national park. Now there are only 26 and by 2030 they will all be gone!  Glacier National Park will cease to exist, only 120 years after it was born. We may have done our best to rescue wildlife from endangered status but conserving glaciers is beyond human capability or will.

the view from our RV

Erroneously, I thought that Glacier National Park would be ok in June! This year, unfortunately, it has not been true. Our transition from the tropics to temperate weather, from hot and humid to cold and (lows of 39 degrees Fahrenheit made colder by 20-30mph gusts of wind) has been anything but smooth. Everyone laughed when I donned my Burberry trench coat, alpaca wool hat, and felt gloves! Uncharacteristically, I literally forgot about form and went all the way for function.

a great view

Glacier National Park is a wondrous wide wall of glacier-topped mountains, six of them above 10,000 ft., many above 9 and more above 8, spanning 16,000 square miles, straddling both the northern border of Montana and the southern border of Alberta and British Columbia. As we drove around the Going-to the-Sun Road, in itself an engineering wonder at 50 miles of the most scenic mountain highway in the world, I told Bill that I thought that this is like the Tetons…although much grander in scale!

Mama Bear and Baby
along the road to Many Glacier

We saw picas prancing around small meadows, mountain goat herds dotting mountain ridges along the road to Many Glacier, deer cavorting on our campsite, moose and baby drinking from emerald blue lakes, and mama and baby bears feeding on berries along the Going-to-the-Sun Road! One of the most dramatic features of this geological overthrust is visible in the form of Chief Mountain, an isolated peak on the border, 9,008 ft. of solid rectangular rock standing singularly powerful amid the plains of aspens and evergreens. No wonder he is called chief!

Formidable Chief Mountain

As it turned out the 6 days we had planned to get ready for our northwest to southeast trek was not enough! From getting dental and medical checks to RV maintenance routines, on the last day we found out that we had water and heating problems! Unluckily, no slots were available at Camping World. Fortunately, Blue Creek RV near Spokane fixed our water issue. So we headed on out to the Park thinking we could dry camp. Boy, were we wrong.  Unsuccessful in trying to keep warm during with double blankets each, we transferred the following day to the KOA campground just a mile off the park.

the Vidallos and Colborns

My daughter Claudine, husband Arnold, and kids Ashton, Andre, and Enzo (my very first grandson!), drove from Calgary, Alberta for 3-4 hours to meet us there. For us it was a 6-7 hour drive from Spokane. Amazingly, we arrived at campsite 316 only 5 minutes apart!  Then the fun with the family began. From driving slowly to scope animals, to fixing smokes over a campfire, to getting mercilessly beaten by my daughter Claudine at Scrabble and Upwords (did I teach them well!), and the kids getting their Junior Ranger badges at the St. Mary Visitor’s Center at the East Entrance, the experience was way too cool!

Ashton, Andre, and Enzo
being sworn in as Junior Park Rangers

red shuttle bus

Our memories are even made better with the expertise in photography that Arnold brought with him. Although we are using photos from our camera on this post, Bill and I learned a lot of new tricks from him.  (Please visit his website @ http://3klixphotography.smugmug.com). Actually, we are now considering a wide-angle lens with longer zoom! 

mountain goats dot the mountain ridges

If only we came during the heart of the peak season (July-August), then probably our visit to Glacier National Park would have been perfect. However, knowing that 19 years from today all the glaciers would be gone, we are glad that we found time for it this year! After all, it is the first International Peace Preserve Park, shared between Canada and the US (the Vidallos are Canadians, we are Americans!) Enzo said it best, ‘I don’t wanna go home‘.  But, just like the Park, they were going, going, gone. Sigh!

Next Stop:  Converging at Yellowstone!

OLA: Reliving WWII in the Philippines

We are back in Seattle, Washington!

sunset at the Bataan peninsula from Battery Grubbs in Corregidor Island

At the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines to the US.  The US built three major military bases: Subic Naval Base in Zambales, Clark Air Force Base in Pampanga, and Fort Mills in Corregidor. The islands became a major battlefront in the Pacific during WWII. For a Filipino-American couple like us, this piece of history takes on significance of more than double proportions.

 

monkeys by the road in Subic

In Bill’s first visit to the Philippines in 2009, I took him to Subic and Clark. Subic Base, a major ship-repair, supply, and rest and recreation facility of the US Navy, was the largest overseas military installation of the United States Armed Forces after Clark Air Base.  Since the bases turnover to the Philippine government in 1991, it has become an industrial park, a tourist resort, and a residential haven.


People can find an online degree education at Guide to Online Schools. Many people who love reading about history stories such as this one are also interested in pursuing studies in the field of history.

Charo's home, former officer's at Subic

One of my friends, Charo Simons now lives in a great former officer’s home for a mere $50,000 long-term lease. She works for the Chairman of the Subic Bay Development Corporation which manages the area. The tourist duty free shops still offer many a bargain, the beaches still look very inviting, and the hills offer good jungle trips.  Regularly, planeloads of Asians are brought to its casino for a gambling weekend.

Clark International Airport

When we went to HongKong, we departed from the Clark International Airport. Unlike Subic, it looks like Clark is dying. It should be an ideal place for a major airport (bus trip from Manila, 1 ½ hours) because of all the facilities and land (14.3 sq mi with a military reservation extending north at another 230 sq mi). The base was a stronghold of the combined Filipino and American forces and was a backbone of logistical support during the Vietnam War. Bill was able to fly a plane at a Clark flying school in 2009.

an Aeta hut at The Villages

Goddess of Peace facing Japan
a similar one is in Corregidor

We had a few hours before boarding our plane, so we hired a van to take us around. We discovered a lonely Goddess of Peace memorial from Japan, the controversial white elephant project of former President Fidel Ramos, and empty hotels and duty-free shops. But the Villages, home of the native Aetas in the surrounding hills, is the great discovery. We even witnessed a cow being butchered in the fields.

a cow being butchered in in the fields

empty Centennial Expo

Coming back from HongKong, we stayed in Clark for the night and BFFs Ann and Jingjing picked us up in Dittas’s car (she is in Colombo, Sri Lanka, heading an IT company). We first had the famous pizzaninis at C! and then took the SCTEX, the new interchange connecting Subic and Clark, and proceeded to Montemar Beach in Mariveles, Bataan, where Jingjing is a member.

KM 00 of the Death March in Mariveles

On Dec. 7, 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Four months after, Bataan fell to the Japanese.  75,000 Fil-Am soldiers were forcibly transferred to the POW camp in Capas, Tarlac. The 60 mi Death March resulted in very high fatalities inflicted upon prisoners and civilians alike, and was later judged by an Allied military commission to be a Japanese war crime.

Las Casas Filipinas in Acuzar

It started in Mariveles near Montemar and markers are regularly placed on the road retracing the infamous route. On the way there, we paid tribute to Filipino heroes at Mt. Samat, the huge cross on top of the mountain, a memorial to those who suffered in the March.  In Acuzar, a town before Mariveles, is Las Casas Filipinas (Philippine Houses) by the sea, a neat cluster of restored ancestral Filipino homes brought there piece by piece.  Montemar is a very nice exclusive beach resort (we watched the Pacquiao-Mosley fight there).

water bikes in Montemar

hydrofoil and tramvias in Corregidor

The strategic location of Corregidor Island at the mouth of Manila Bay prompted the Americans to make it an ‘impregnable fortress’.  During World War II, Corregidor played an important role during the invasion and liberation of the Philippines from Japanese forces. The hydrofoil trip to the island was just 1 ½ hours from the Folk Arts Theatre area in the reclaimed land on Manila Bay.  Colorful tramvias, replicas of the trollies they used then took us around the island.

ghost of Mile-Long Barraqcks

MacArthur's I Shall Return

The skeletons of heavily bombed Mile-long Barracks (the longest single military barracks in the world housing 8,000 soldiers) and the remains of the cross-shaped Hospital which the Japanese destroyed  despite war treaties were spectacles of the gruesome battle that lasted five months. And the fitting tributes to the brave soldiers are many…the Pacific War Memorial (with its altar and Eternal Flame), the Filipino Heroes Memorial with 14 murals of Philippine history, and statue of Gen. Macarthur who  escaped to Australia where he declared, ‘I shall return’. Corregidor was retaken 3 years after.

Malinta Tunnel from our room at Corregidor Inn

The Malinta Tunnel Night Tour is the most descriptive of the life of soldiers on the fortress. It is a 2.5 mile network of laterals on Malinta (full of leeches) Hill.  At times bending low to pass through narrower sub-laterals, we experienced utter darkness, felt whiffs of cooler air from the air passages, visited the 1,000 bed hospital that replaced the destroyed hospital outside, and retraced the escape route of Gen. MacArthur, the quarters of President Quezon, the petroleum storage facilities, the quarters, and even the femur bone of a Japanese soldier. 

     

air passages for a lateral

Reliving WWII in the Philippines reminded us again of the closeness of Filipino-American relations. It also gave me memories of my father who fought with Americans and my mother, a teacher who learned Japanese and interpreted for Filipinos. Taking this trip with Bill, my American husband, made it even more significant!

the largest battery in the island

OLA: Marveling at Palawan's Beauty, Part 1

the entrance to the Subterranean River, 7th New Wonder of the World!

inside the Underground River

Palawan is the fifth largest (4,700 sq. miles) of 7,107 islands in the Philippine archipelago, after Luzon, Mindanao, Negros, and Samar. It juts out such that it has the westernmost point of the country.  Recently, it won a coveted spot in the 2011 National Geographic’s 7 New Wonders of the World for the world’s longest (8.2 km.) navigable Subterranean River! It is also home to the Philippines’ best dive spot: the Tubbataha Reef. Palawan is so isolated it is called The Last Frontier of the Philippines (just like Alaska is for the US. And it is beautiful for three special reasons.

One: It is a bastion of eco-tourism.

light at the end of the tunnel

For just under $100 each we took a one-hour flight to Puerto Princesa, the capital of Palawan, from Manila on a Cebu Pacific flight. The very next day, for just a little over $30 each, we joined a tour to the Underground River, a World Heritage Site, only a 2-hour van ride plus a 30-minute boat ride outside of the city. After a short walk through wooden planks in a forest inhabited by monkeys and monitor lizards, we took to paddle boats, marveled at the limestone karst mountain landscape outside and the stunning  formations inside its deep chambers, and sighed as the light at the end of the tunnel signaled the finish. Later we were treated to a scrumptious Filipino buffet on a beach resort on the way back to our hotels. 

an Asian bearcat

The efforts of Palawan at eco-tourism are quite admirable. The Palawan Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Center is home to about 2,000 endangered Philippine crocodiles (both salt and fresh water) in various stages of development. The largest at 17 feet is a 60-year old male. For just under a $1 per person, you can learn about them and the Asian bearcats, Asian white-bellied eagles, Philippine turtles, and other endangered species, endemic to the island.   

  

the Asian white-bellied eagle

a Christmas tree of fireflies

An interesting sidelight is the Firefly Watching Tour, at about $15 per person. After nightfall, sometimes even past midnight, more than 10 boats paddle waves of tourists to and fro the Iwahig River. This has been a protected area since 2008. Thousands of ‘lightning bugs’ cling to  nipa, nilad  (Maynilad, original name of Manila, means ‘with nilad’), and other trees on the lush 20 hectare mangrove forest on its banks, making a spectacle of Christmas trees year round! The river bed plankton also adds to the area’s luminescence when you dip your hands and wave them in the water on a pitch black night.

Pambato Reef in Honda Bay

Two: It is great natural playground!

We went on an island hopping spree for just a little over $20 each on Honda (meaning, open, deep as opposed to land-locked) Bay, home to 13 islands, 3 islets, emerald waters, and white beaches.  First stop was Pambato Reef, a man-made cluster of 2 floating connected huts where we fed schools of colorful fish and snorkeled around beautiful live corrals.

Snake Island off Honda Bay

Then our boat took us to Pandan Island where many pandan trees, whose leaves give rice and other dishes enhanced flavor and fragrance, prosper. There, not content with our Filipino buffet, we bought, for just $6, 6 crabs from a vendor who steamed them for us. Our last stop was Snake Island, shaped like a snake, its beach is 2 miles long.  Our guide pointed out an interesting islet: Lu-Li,  ‘lulubog-lilitaw’ meaning ‘sinking down/coming up’ depending on the tide.

the Lu-Li Islet of Honda Bay

Next: Part 2: Reasons Two and Three

OLA: Viewing the Work of Man and Nature

Mt. St. Helen's sliced off look

Day 24 of the 2011 Regular Session

This week’s day trip took us east of Elma, to the state capital of Washington, Olympia, to watch the goings-on at the State Capitol. Then south we went to Mt. St. Helens, to see how much of the mountain was lost in the 1980 eruption, passing through the small towns of Tenino and Kid Valley. It was a day of viewing the forces of man and nature and respecting their contributions to the world.

the Washington State Legislative Building

Not wanting to be late for the opening of the House and Senate sessions on Day 24 of the 2011 Regular Session, we woke up early and hurried on to Olympia.  At the Senate, the ecumenical prayer was followed by the Honor Guard establishing the flag of the United States and Washington in front. There were many of us at the Visitors’ Gallery. It was exhilarating to watch the wheels of democracy turn!

the State Seal

Washington was carved out of the western territory ceded by Britain in 1846 and became the forty-second state in 1889. The beautiful Legislative Building houses the State Legislature where 48 senators and 98 members of the House from 49 legislative districts work. The executive branch is headed by a governor who has a corner office there. On campus also stands the Temple of Justice which houses the State Supreme Court. 

Olympic Mountains from the State Capitol

At the north end of the state government complex, one can look northwest and gasp at a picturesque scene in nature, the majestic peaks of the Olympic Mountains.  Then further south towards Tenino, are wonderful works of man. The first is the almost 200 fine sculptures in Monarch Sculpture Park, a 10 acre park where there are also a 1-acre maze of hedges, a butterfly haven, and a lagoon. The second is the International Wolf Haven which provides lifetime sanctuary to 150 rescued wolves.

the entrance to Monarch Sculpture Park

International Wolf Haven

Bill and I have wanted to see Mt. St Helens because its eruption (which he saw) was very much like that of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines (which I saw). We tried in 2007 but ran out of time so this time we took a shortcut and we were already an hour ahead from Olympia, 50 miles south of Seattle. On the way, we had glimpses of an unfamiliar southern view of Mt. Rainier in a pure white cloak of snow.

Mt. Rainier from the south

Very long-haired white, brown, and black llamas were silently witnessing all the beauty around them. Then, at 25 miles before the National Monument, we were surprised to see a 28-foot statue of Bigfoot in a little town called Kid Valley. Folklore has it that the legend perished here from the massive mudflow of Toutle River after the eruption. A buried A-frame house even stands as a gift shop beside him.

Bigfoot at Kid Vvalley

Mt. St. Helens is famous for its eruption on the morning of May 18, 1980, the most economically destructive in US history. 1,312 feet of its dome exploded, shooting 24 megatons of ash and pyroclastic flows sideways and not upwards, leaving a gaping mile wide horseshoe-shaped crater. Smoke still rises from this crater even today.

llamas along the road

11 years later, Mt. Pinatubo also erupted in the Philippines. Although it was half the size of Mt. St. Helens, this eruption is the second most destructive in the world in the twentieth century. It shot 1 megaton more but did so much higher up into the atmosphere, affecting other countries and destroying more parts of the country.

 

the crater of Mt. St. Helens coming up from the highway

Apart from the sliced off look of Mt. St. Helen’s and the still muddy Toutle River in the valley below, after 30 years, you see everywhere else bright new young trees and lush vegetation growing, testament to the life that continues to thrive even after such a destructive force of nature. And, 235 years after the US declared its independence from Britain, democracy still reigns supreme in the halls of government.

It was a winter day well spent! And we cannot wait for next weekend’s scheduled visits to Tacoma, Seattle, Roslyn, and Snoqualmie, Washington