Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012

The front of the Oconee Co. Courthouse
 



The memorial for all the wars
 

The Silver Rose

The Patriot Museum



One of the murals going up the stairs to second floor.  These are so well done but hard to capture in a photo.  They are a new addition to the museum.
 



Can you imagine fighting a war in these shoes?  From the Civil War.

About 11 am, Mike took us to see the Vets memorial at the Oconee Co. Courthouse.  Took a gagillion photos, a few of which are below.  It is a really awesome collection of memorials, incorporating all the wars, those who died in them, and one that we weren't aware of - the Silver Rose, dedicated to all those who fought in the Vietnam War and later died due to their exposure to Agent Orange Dioxins. 

Then he took us to Patriot's Hall - Oconee Veteran's Museum, It is free (of course we gave a donation.)  Run all by volunteers and put together not too long ago.  It has an awesome display of military artifacts, documents, photographs and artwork.

As we viewed the two stories brimming with displays, I thought of several things I have at home that they would probably appreciate having.  More Vietnamese money for their Vietnam room, (from Jerry's Dad who worked in Viet Nam for ARMCOM after Jerry was there), a lighter with trench art on it to add to their trench art display, (trench art was made by patients in WW I who were recuperating from wounds in the hospital.  They would grab whatever they could find and carve pictures on it), a picture of my Mom in her Red Cross uniform marching in a parade.  (During WW II, she volunteered for the Red Cross, mostly cutting and wrapping cloths for bandages.  Also, they don't have any WWII Ration tokens and Mom put a couple in my baby book.  (Sugar and gasoline were rationed and you only got a certain amount of tokens each month.)  Am pretty sure I will probably find some other things once I get home and get to rubbling around in our "stuff." 

The volunteers here have done an awesome mob gathering memorabilia.  Most of it is original with very few reproductions. 

We will go back!  John Busch, one of the volunteers opened up the museum just for us.  He was a font of information and guided us through.  He had interesting facts, tidbits and stories at just about each display which made it even more interesting and real.  Thank you, John!


Then they called and said our truck was ready, so we went to get it.  We could tell as soon as we pulled out of Action Automotive's drive that it had more power.  It turns out the injection pump was bad - very underperforming, so that was replaced.  They also replaced the lift pump which was factory located on the engine block and it's plastic material was subject to heat and vibration.  So standard operating procedure when you start modifying the Cummins engine, is to relocate it to the fuel tank where it is more efficient and cooled by the fuel and not subject to vibration.  Because if it fails, then the lift pump fails, too, since it isn't getting enough fuel.  (I think I got that all right - like Greek to me, but I heard enough about this before and after we did the repairs that I may have some of it right.)  LOL

Back to  the base camp and heated up some Jack Daniels pulled pork (awesome), made cornbread and cole slaw - dinner!  Said goodbye (hard) to Stormy who will be at work Friday when we leave.
Jerry loaded the BMW in the garage, I put things away and then he aired up all the tires and we put all the Pressure Pro sensors on the tires x 10!  Should be good to go first thing in the AM. 

Want to be sure Stormy and Mike know how much we appreciated their hospitality (and putting up with us extra days while the truck was in the shop.)  We had a wonderful time, saw amazing scenery and did lots of fun activities!  We loved doing a PGR mission with the SC folks and meeting some of Stormy's friends.  Thank you, guys!