We took our bikes to the Imeson Road trail head of the Jacksonville-Baldwin Rail Trail this morning. The trail extends for about 13 miles, but we didn't plan to ride the entire length. It's a wonderful trail that runs through farmland and wetlands, paralleling I-10. The trail is shaded most of the way by large trees on both sides of the trail.
We were at 5.7 miles out when we arrived at a restroom that clearly marked another trail head. After using the facilities, we followed a sidewalk to find out where it led and found ourselves in the Camp Milton Historic Site.
The preserve includes the remnants of defensive earthworks designed by General Beauregard after the Battle of Olustee in 1864. We were most impressed by the over fifty trees with descriptive plaques. Each was grown from seeds harvested by hand from historic trees at important Civil War sites. For example, there's a Southern Magnolia from a tree at Andersonville Prison.
One of the more touching plaques commemorates the Battle of Gettysburg.
On the way back to the trail head, we were amused by this fence. It reminded us of a similarly humorous decorated fence we saw on the Katy Trail near Sedalia.
We went over to Aunt Iris's house for a final visit. She had a really bad night again, with pain running from her hip down to her ankle. Beth brought over a delicious dinner of chicken cacciatore with pasta, spinach, and broccoli. After dinner we watched some TV, including the usual Jeopardy. We also watched Duck Dynasty--the first time we've seen that show. It's one that Beth likes but Iris doesn't.
Aunt Iris called Uncle Jesse, and I had a chance to talk with him. Everything seems to be going along okay in New Bern. My cousin Penny is home from the hospital.
Tonight we did our laundry again and stopped on the way home for diesel, so we'll start our trip tomorrow with clean clothes and a full tank of fuel.
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