REPORT FROM FLORIDA--HISTORY STOP ON THE WAY DOWN

 We departed Waukon on Monday, the 28th, and stopped for our first night near Jackson, TN, the home of Casey Jones.  Since we visited Casey's park last year, we continued on to Shiloh, TN to visit the Civil War battlefield located there.  After visiting Shiloh, we stayed our second night just south of Birmingham, AL.  Continuing on the next day, we arrived in Panama City Beach and stayed overnight at the Sleep Inn there.  We checked into our condo on the 31st.  Right now in this part of Florida masks are optional, but we continue to wear ours when we have to go inside a store or restaurant.  Actually we are hoping to get our Covid vaccines here shortly.

OUR STOP AT SHILOH

Shiloh is the third of the Civil War battlefields I have had the pleasure of visiting.  The first one was Chattanooga, on a guys' motorcycle trip, and the second was Vicksburg last year.  At all three venues, the US Park Service has done a fantastic job preserving these treasured historic sites.

The battle of Shiloh, sometimes called the Battle of Pittsburg Landing was fought on April 6-7 in 1862.  The Conferderates under the command of General Albert Sidney Johnson planned to attack the Union forces under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant. and his army of the Tennessee before it could be reinforced by troops from the army of the Ohio coming from Nashville.  After an initial Confederate charge forced a retreat of Grants troops, the Union reinforcements from Nashville under the command of Maj. General Don Carlos Buell arrived and the Conferderates were forced to retreat.  There is a lot of controversy surrounding this battle and if you are interested you can google up the battle and read about it.  The facts remain that of the 66,000 Union troops, there were 13,000 casualties.  While the Confederates had 10,700 casualties from their 44,700 soldiers.  This was the bloodiest battle of the war up to this time.  Troops from Iowa were very much involved in this conflict, and there are various monuments honoring Iowa soldiers in the park.

Here's some photos I took.

WE ARRIVE AT THE PARK

AN IOWA CONNECTION

AN IOWA MONUMENT

CANNONS

ANOTHER IOWA MARKER

IOWA GENERAL GRAVE MARKER

So far we have put on about 400 miles on the trike.  So far we haven't ridden with the Panama City GWRRA chapter yet, but I did venture over to Ft. Walton for their chapter meeting last Saturday, and then Sunday we went on about a 250 mile ride with them mostly on backroads.  The chapter meeting for Panama City was cancelled for this month due to Covid, but we were greeted by some of their members for a supper on Tuesday.  This next Tuesday evening, we plan to venture up to Dothan, AL for a chapter meeting there.

That's all for now, and we hope everyone is having a happy new year and staying safe.  Also--HOW ABOUT THEM CYCLONES!!!