Settlers and Trains

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Yesterday was warm; today was forecast to be hot, and it was.  We spent the morning going round the Wormsloe Plantation, dating from the 1730s.  It belonged to a settler from Herefordshire, Wormsloe being the name of one of the hundreds there.  We saw the remains of a small fort constructed from Tabby, a lime-based concrete with oyster shells from Indian middens as aggregate.  We also saw a reconstructed wattle and daub house and blacksmith's shop.  Our guide was excellent, very enthusiastic and easy to hear!
The live oak 'allee' to the plantation was very interesting. Several hundred had been given as a birthday gift around 1895 to a member of the Jones family descendants of whom still live on the property. 



In the afternoon we had a look round the Georgia Railroad museum and had a tour of the workshops and a couple of the carriages specially fitted out for the president - of the railroad.  One of them was equipped with Royal Worcester china;  clearly a President of taste and discrimination.  American loading gauge is bigger that ours but there's still a limit to what you can achieve in something not a lot wider than a narrowboat.   


The cars AE a couple of 'station wagons' for transporting travellers and their luggage to and from the station presumably; one ModelT and one Model A. The chimney was for the boilers for the steam engine that drove the line shafting for the workshops.  

As we were leaving the wind was getting up and the air felt a lot cooler; by the time we left the supermarket with our supper the fog was rolling in and it felt distinctly chilly.  

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