Photos of San Marcos de Apalache
[23-Apr-2012] In cleaning up the forts site I discovered I dont have photos of a lot of places Ive been. Maybe there are on real paper somewhere. In trying to correct this went to St. Marks this weekend to take photos of the fort there.

The Raid on the St. Andrews Salt Works

[23-Apr-2012] Got up early sat to be at Panama city by 10am for the St. Andrews Salt works raid. Stopped at battery 155 out in St. Andrews park on the way. The only remaining structure is a circular platform for a 155mm gun. Its under a pavilion so im sure its overlooked by most people. There is a good sign in the center if anyone stops to read it. The St. Andrews Raid is one of the few reenactments to have a boat landing. Got there and the weather was miserable and only got worse. They called the reenactment (scheduled for 2) by noon because of pouring rain. Did get to see drill and sword drill as the troops and sea cadets practiced. One problem, there were no confederates in sight. If the reenactment had happened Im not sure who they would have fought.

New forts site finished
[13-Apr-2012] The forts are all converted to the new format now. Beyond a few unnamed batteries and some pictures I think are missing (maybe they arent digital?) its done. These things may never be corrected. The new forts site

More forts

[06-Apr-2012] Moved up the coast, s.c., n.c., Virginia. Moved over to England and ran into a problem with Castle hill in Thetford. System was drawing the map including Castle hill in Newfoundland. Had to rewrite code. for some reason a lot of the old index.php files are files not links like they should be. Have to revisit all pages and correct that before going forward. All that is really left is the mid-Atlantic and the lower half the NE.

I never finished the forts
[05-Apr-2012] Worked on them the last 2 days. Got all the Gulf Coast (LA, Ms, AL, FL) and GA done. Maine, NH, RI, The Canadian maratimes, Russia were done before. CT not done. MA needs work. None of the midatlantic is done.

Forts update

[01-Jun-2011] Making a lot of progress on updating the forts. All the major coding is done. Google maps works well when you use the right site and key (www.teuse.net). Converted to flags not icons. Ive worked down doing all the forts from Newfoundland to Maine and I think I finished Portland last night. Pictures and sites are slowly being moved over from the old folders to the new ones. Further improvements might be displaying some dates in the sidemenu bars for structures and some real info not just pictures.

Site changes

[20-May-2011] Updated the main page look, this will eventually filter down to everything else. Started to do the forts with the new style and got distracted rebuilding it completely since Tiger Maps no longer work. Switched to google maps and have some great code only to find out there is a site doing exactly what I was working on doing. Really annoying. It does mean I will finally document the 2002 road trip properly. The usb drive used for backups keeps failing. I found some evidence that it might be the number of hard links and xfs so converted it back to ext4 and will let it run before buying a new one. Gave up on the washing machine. It still leaks when I dont watch it. Bought a new one it should be delivered Saturday.

Thetford, Stonehenge and Portsmouth

[01-Jan-2009] Yesterday was kind of an off day. Didnt go anywhere, just walked around the local town of Thetford. It goes back to the Iron Age, has connections to the Iceni tribe (Boudicca's tribe), was raided by the vikings, had a Norman castle and was the birthplace of Thomas Paine. New Years day was a lot of driving, first to Stonehenge then Portsmouth. Stonehenge itself was better than expected, its in the middle of an empty plain on the hill and the fence is outside the area you can walk in. You still cant touch it but at least it wasnt closed off like I thought it would be. Portsmouth was a lot of time wasted, we got there to late and took to long to eat. Only got to see one of the three ships the HMS Victory. Forgot to take the geocache coords so didnt look for them despite being at the Round and Square towers.

New York Week 2: Repeat Visits

[16-Oct-2007] Saturday was the last day to do anything since my flight was early Sunday morning. Got up and took the Staten Island ferry back to Ft. Wadsworth hoping to get the 10:30 tour of Ft. Thompkins. Got there at 9:30. The visitor center was closed. Hung around till 10:20 when Gary, the you cant do that and doesnt know his history Ranger showed up. Asked him if there was a tour. He said he didnt know, and he guessed no since the VC was closed. My experiences at Ft. Wadsworth makes it the worst National Park I have ever visited. The Rangers tell visitors conflicting information about tours, one guy says show up, Gary says no you must have reservations, despite calling earlier and being told nothing about reservations. Tour lack any historical information. The rangers being more concerned with repeatedly telling you how unsafe the stairs and ledges are. The rangers also dont even know the basics of the structure under their care. I specificly asked Gary the name of a battery as we walked by it. He told me it doesnt have a name, its just for 3inch guns. The big sign out side the visitor center, and all the CDSG pages say it was Battery Bacon. Fort Thompkins wins the award for the most obscured fort Ive every tried to see. It is surrounded by an impenatrable mass of brush from all angles except the sea face along the road. The grass is mowed very nicely up to the brush so its clearly on purpose. The rangers are unhelpful. Never offering me a map and only pointing me in the direction of the fort when I asked directly what was the best way to get to them. So I left Wadsworth, took the Ferry back to Manhatten and tried again for the geocache in central park I couldnt find because of darkness. Daylight didnt help. There is no plaque. Returned to the AMNH for the planetarium show and mythic creatures exhibit. The planetarium how was dissapointingly short. The prices are crazy and the ticket agent jipped me. The $15 to get in is fine, you see a lot of stuff. Then there are the special exhibits (about 6), Imax, and planetarium. Each costs extra. There is a supersaver which online says it allows you into unlimited of the special stuff, but the ticket person said only 2. The signs inside the museum are unclear so I didnt argue at the time. Most the pictures will be added to previous sections since there arnt enough to matter.

New York Week 2: Ft. Wadsworth

[08-Oct-2007] Got a late start Sunday because I worked till 2am. Took the Staten Island Ferry ot to Ft. Wadsworth to see Ft. Thompkins and Battery Weed. Again I had problems getting in. Apparently there was a special tour and one Ranger said show up, the other tired to turn everyone away who didnt have reservations. In the end everyone went. The tour was of just Ft. Richmond which is now called Battery Weed. The tour was pretty lacking. Most of it was the rangers being overly paranoid about safety. They really didnt do any interpretation, and one Ranger was clearly wrong. I asked the name of one of the later batteries, and he said it was unnamed. The maps at the Visitor Center clearly call it Battery Bacon. Ft. Thompkins is almost invisible. They have done a wonderful job of completely obscuring the fort from almost every angle. Only part of the dry moat wall and counterscarp are visible as well as the sea face. Access to both forts is only when on a tour. Mornings for Ft. Thompkins, which I missed and afternoons for Battery Weed.

New York Week 1: Ft. Hamilton and AMNH

[08-Oct-2007] Saturday rode the subway way out to the Narrows to Ft. Hamilton. After some hassle at the gate where the Army thought the museum was closed, and the sleeping cop that didnt help, I got in after calling and confirming they were open. Then they didnt even bother to metal detect me. There isnt much left of the fort, the entire sea face has been removed. Only the land face and capponier. The museum is relatively new and takes up the whole small capponier. Came back to Manhattan and after stopping at work went to the American Museum of Natural History. Didnt see it all, mostly just saw the dinosaurs. I will have to go back for all the special exhibits and several floors.

New York Week 1: Trip to the Statue

[08-Oct-2007] Started early Sunday with a trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Had to walk down to Battery Park, its about 6 blocks from the apartment, to catch the ferry at Castle Clinton. The ferry gives some good views of Castle Williams. The Statue is built on top of Ft. Wood. and parts of Ellis Island on Ft. Gibson which is mostly buried. The Statue was pretty small in person, it seems much larger from a distance. Of course you can only go up to the top of the pedestal because of stupid security. Ellis Island was kind of disappointing. Only the main building has been restored, the rest are closed. Most the exhibits were pretty uninteresting. I didnt know about Ft. Gibson so that was a nice find, even better when I went outside and found remains uncovered.

I have returned
[21-Aug-2007] I am back here for almost 2 weeks before dragoncon. Got to go walk to Battery Park and Castle Clinton before I left New York.

Advanced Redoubt

[25-Apr-2007] Finally put up the pictures from the Advanced Redoubt of Ft. Barancas I took on the way back from the MS trip last month. Ive tried several times to get on the tour and usually miss it by an hour. I stopped by there knowing they only do them on Sat at 11 and got lucky. The volunteer ranger was giving a special tour for a guy leaving the country and I got there just as they started. Also added flowers from the trip back

Tampa Trip

[27-Jul-2006] Had to go to Tampa last weekend for a company fishing trip. The first couple of hours we got nothing. Once we moved further north it picked up. We caught about 15 makrel, 3 of which I got. Sunday I went to Ft. Desoto and took the ferry to Ft. Dade. Ft. Dade is in bad shape. The batteries are falling apart and being destroyed or buried by the sea. The island is hot, no shade at all and little breeze on parts of it. There is a lighthouse still in operation on the island along with the remains of the town that once supported the batteries. I ment to do several geocaches on the island but forgot the coordinate sheets in the car but the island was too hot and I wouldnt have done them anyway. The trip back took much longer than should have since we saw some dolphins and made a detour to take pictures. The detour also gave me the chance to take the offshore photos of batteries Laidley and Bigelow.

A record number of caches and Ft. De Soto

[29-Apr-2005] The last part of the drive from Palm Harbor to Sanibel was mainly stopping at geocaches. I did 6 in one day which I think is my record. First one was Old Fort. Which has nothing to do with a real fort. Missed the ferry to Ft. Dade because of the first cache but did get to revisit Ft. Desoto. I thought I remembered there being more than one battery here and Im sure Ive never been to Ft. Dade so it may just be that it was too long ago. There were 3 caches within half a mile of the fort, and after some confusion because I duplicated the coordinates on one I found them all. Continued on to the do virtual cache in downtown Ft. Myers The Attack on Ft. Myers, couldnt do the museum since it was closing. Came onto Sanibel island, and apparently Drew and Heather saw me at the intersection, then I went away from the hotel for the cache out at the lighthouse so they called. Did the cache and the one at the chapel before meeting them at the hotel. Caches Old Fort Fort De Soto Mullet Key Cache A Fisherman's Rescue The Attack on Fort Myers Seekin the Beakin Near The Chapel

Flooded Ft. Pickens
[20-Sep-2004] Added some pictures by Bryan Adams showing the flooding Hurricane Ivan did to Ft. Pickens and its batteries.

Key West Forts
[01-Jan-2004] Put up more pictures of Ft. Taylor, also the East and West Martello towers.

Lots of Photos
[01-Jan-2004] Photos from Fort Jefferson, and Fort Taylor. The 2 lighthouses in the Dry Tortugas. Fish and Scenery in the Dry Tortugas Photos my sister and mom took of Ft. Point, by accident when taking pictures of silly things like the Golden Gate Bridge. A submarine in the Key West harbor. Photos by both me and my sister of Christmas Tomorrow: the Martello Towers.

Live From Mississippi

[15-Nov-2003] I'm in Pascagula. Here to listen to John Weaver give a talk tomarrow in Ocean Springs. He wrote one of the definitve books on 3rd system forts (the red brick ones for thos eof you who dont read those books). He had asked me if I had any images or info on McReee to help his new book so I found out about this talk. Stopped on the way at the USS Alabama and Ft. Gaines. I'd been to both before but never managed to get inside either. Going to see Master and Commander now, which the dumb small town theater here calls Master of Commander.