The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1919-02-12

miles out we stayed over night at an
old southern plantation where they
raised Gotten, peanuts and tobacco.
The work here is all done by negroes
and mules. This plantation consist
ed of 1000 acres. They had an i'm
mense quantity of tobacco and he
had marketed that DAY, one horse
load, which Melted him $1,000. He
also raised large quantities of cot
ton. In fact from now on scarcely
saw anything but cotton Every few
miles passed cotton gin where great
stacks of bales were to be seen. On
the 22nd we drove to Raleigh, N. c.,
then to Bcnsal. Just out of Bonsal
we met a party of campers consist
ing of three cars from the state of
New York which we joined and by
mutual consent we all decided to
keep to gether, that being our first
night of camping. In the a. m. we
continued on cur journey. At San
for, N. c., we stopped for supplies.
The other cars drove on. We followed
later a short ways but we had tire
trouble which put us farther behind,
losing our party entirely for the day
and night, in fact, they all got separ-
ated. We camped just out of Rock
ingham, N. c., with another car also
from New York state. In the q. IN.
car from Vermont went over the
bank just few rods from our camp,
damaging the car badly but injurine
none of the occupants. We worked
all the forenoon finally getting the
car back in the road with the aid of a
set Of chain falls which party from
Connecticut were carrying in their
outfit. There was scarcely Is min
utes of the day but what there were
tourists passing, mostly equipped
for camping. Breaking camp in the
p. m. we only had driven few miles
until we met our party, part of them
driving in just ahead Of US. This
being Sunday, we drove no farther.
In the a m. we started for Camden,
s. c. Then drove to Columbia, all
camping a few miles out. Here
Southern Pine is plentiful and we
had a rousing camp fire and jolly
evening. Breaking camp at $3.50 we
started for Aiken, S. C. Here the
roads were very bad and short ways
out one Of the cars broke a spring.
Two of our cars went on leaving the
other cars for repairs. At Aiken we
camped over night driving to Angus
ia, Ga, the next day, camping at Au-
gusta over Thanksgiving where the
ladies of the party were invited to
Thanksgiving dinner at Camp Han
cock miles out of Augusta, where
there were $4,000 soldiers and they
served 10000 pounds Of turkey, leav-
ing camp Friday at 8:15 for Mains
boro, Sylronia and Springfield where
we camped in the rain, which contin-
ued until Monday a m. Leaving
| <ha~a for Cararrah than tn l.rson
where we camped. Leaving in the
morning we ferried across rivers,
swamps and rice fields for six miles
on a flat car ferry, there being 10
cars costing SO a car. From here
on to Jacksonville the roads were al
most impossible. From Darion to
Brunswick where we visited the ship
yards where they were building ves-
sells for the French government. Be-
tween Savannah and Jacksonville we
| ferried 5 rivers, four of them being
on flat boats that were propelled by
long oars.
At Jacksonville we ferried the st.
Johns river on a real ferry which
carried numbers Of trucks, cars,
teams and foot passengers. Camp
ing at So. Jacksonville and leaving
the next a m for st. Augustine
| which is the oldest city in the u. S.
and very interesting, where we rented
a cottage and remained one week.
| Among the interesting things we
saw was old Fort Marion which was
Used as a defense by the Spanish
against the English. The old city
gates still stand and also the old
slave market We also saw the place
where Columbus landed and the old
est house and schoolhouse in America.
The old Spanish cathedral is beau
tiful structure and there are many
beautiful hotels, the most magnificent
being the Ponce DeLeon. Our cot
tage was located where one could see
the tide ebb and flow and when the
tic was low we could go CIT and
gather oysters. There was excellent
fishing of which we got our share.
We left St. Augustine on Friday,
18th and started for Mt. Dora going
by the way of Daytona, then to
New Smyrna where we pitched camp
for the night. On the 14th we drove
| to Mt. Dora wnere we rented a cot
tage and Ill settled down for the win
ter. Mt. Dora is located on a chain
of seven beautiful lakes in Lake coun-
| ty which boasts of over 100 lakes.
| ~ w ahiWa PiihS q lew AhiAto liOAh
| here is a freak of nature where a
whole river large enough to float a
steamboat boils out of the earth,
where alligatvrs can be seen basking
in the sun.
Oranges and grapefruit are so plen-
tiful all we have to do is go and pick
them. There are palmetto trees
everywhere and the forests are coz.
cred with long sweeping punches of
gray Spanish moss.
There are many other things of in
terest which we cannot put into de-
tail at this writing, but we hope to
see you all in the near future and we
know you are having an enjoyable
day and the usual big feast.
With our kindest regards to all,
from,
The Cooks,