Leaving Texas, Heading for Georgia

We left Texas and headed for Georgia.  The first day the ramp on the trailer fell down.  We had someone past us and blinked his lights.  Ed said I wonder what that is about.  Then the second car went around us and a woman stuck her arm out the window and motioned for us to pull over.  About that time I heard something rumbling in the back.  Ed pulled over right away.  When we got to the back we saw one on the ramps had fell down.  We had tried some new locks.  They seemed to work real well because they went in real easy.  They had a cable  and the cable had pulled out.  So Ed goes over to look at the other ramp and while he is looking at it, the cable comes out and the ramp falls down.  The really bad part about that was I am standing under it.  I yell, and raise my arm but I also step back and it just misses falling on me.  Enough with the excitement for one day.  These locks were evidently not meant for heavy duty stuff.  The good news was Ed had thrown the old ones in the back of the Jeep so we were able to put them back on.

I half caught it with my arm, better than my head

 The next day we are driving and we  hear a loud pop and Ed pulls over and we had blown a tire on the trailer.  Two days in a row, now this is really too much excitement.  So Ed gets out and decides he can change it himself.  We carry insurance, so I tried to talk him into letting me call them and have them do it.  But he figures it will take too long to get them out there.  But because of where it was, he couldn't get the trailer jacked up high enough to get the tire off.  He jacked it up 4 times before he finally was able to get it off.  We had it done in about 1 1/2 hours.  So it probably was quicker.

The wheel well was bent in, Ed had already straighten it out

See the board under the jack, Ed had to do this 4 different times to
get the tire up high enough

We spent the night in Louisiana about an hour north of New Orleans.  So we decided to visit New Orleans the next day.  We went over a 24 mile  bridge to get there.  That was something.

miles and miles of water

We took a tour bus around the French Quarter.  It seemed like a good idea because we didn't know where to go.  It turned out to be the right decision.

Streets of New Orleans

This is the bus we were on, it was nice riding on top

Very different

beautiful

Stately

See the beads in the tree

Look on the roof and you will see the beads they throw,
the roof needs some repair

 

Never know what you are going to see

Outside the building where they make the floats

In here is where they make the floats for Mardi Gras

For $5 they would give you a lesson

These looked so real

Jazz cats

Ed found a friend

crawdads, Ed asked if we could have a sample

Ed made me taste them, we didn't eat there

 We have been in Georgia for 2 weeks.  We are now in Northern Georgia.  We came here to Gold dig but found the places to dig are too far from here so we went to a gold mine instead.  This mine was opened in the 1900's.  There were a lot of quartz veins running through it.  They would mine out the quartz and then take it and crush it up and get the gold out.  They used mercury mixed in with it because the gold would stick to it.  Then they would burn the mercury off to separate it from the gold.  The mercury would make the miners lose their minds and their teeth.  So he said most of the miners were crazy and toothless.  Then later they added machines that drilled and they were loud, so within 3 months the miners were deaf.  For all this the miners were paid $1.00 a day and the ones running the drills were paid $1.50 a day. 

going down into the mine, it was our option to wear the
blue hats

This is iron from the water running down

They hammered spikes into the wall for the dynamite,  because of the iron
in the rock the spikes would sometimes break off, if the spikes broke,
the miner had 90 cents deducted out of his $1 a day wage

They left this little island so the walls wouldn't cave in

They went in these little holes when they set off the dynamite



They used to haul the rock out



A vein of quartz

This was the new machine to drill holes in the walls, the miners
that used this were paid $1.50 per day.  This was the machine that
made them deaf.

The lights in the mine is making moss

The lights are also causing grass to grow.

Today we got to do something we have been wanting to do for a long time.  We did the Zip Lines.  What a thrill.  Scary but fun.

I am glad we finally did it, the last line was 1/2 mile

All dressed up

Ed looks a little happier then me

I was hanging on tight

Hanging on was an option, we both decided we
would hang on

When you hit that metal piece it slows you down,
I wasn't sure I was going to slow down, this
was the first line we went on, I did relax a little
more later on

This one we landed on the ground, the
others we landed on the platforms

When clearing the land for the lines they found
2 stills,  Ed was able to take this from the air, I couldn't
even find it.

 They had water in here

one of the lines, going off the platform
was the hardest part

 

This was the 1/2 mile line
I am that little speck coming in, way
off in the distance

There I am

 At the end of the lines we had to repel off the platform.  This was 50 feet down, I can't believe they didn't tell us before hand.  You climb down a ladder and the guy pushes you out.  Ed admitted this one scared him.

Our final dissent, we climbed downed the
ladder and pushed off,  Ed said this was the hardest
part for him

then you slowly descend,

That was the platform we repelled off of

After all this excitement I don't know what we can do to top all this.



Happy Trails   Love Ed and Lyn

Remember the saying "when pigs fly"?  Well this is Ed's verse and picture that goes with it. 

,

Mark 9:23 Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."