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@@ -569,28 +569,61 @@ People have forgotten how important the sun is. You can die from lack of sun.
 
 # Stories to Tell
 
-## Fortified
-From Edisto we worked our way south, stopping off a Hunting Island for a few dismal days in the cold and rain, camping in a site that was just a smidge above actual bog, then on down to Fort McAllister, the first of a string of forts on the Georgia and Florida coast.
+## Something Needs to Change
 
-These are the sea islands, a string of over a hundred barrier islands along this stretch of the Atlantic coast. From the mouth of the Santee river, just south of Myrtle Beach, all the way down the coast of Georgia into Florida.
+I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one's self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime -- Henry David Thoreau
 
-We've spent quite a bit of time in the South Carolina barrier islands, but we never made it here to the Georgia coast until this year. The Georgia coast lacks any of the maritime forests like you'll find in some sheltered spots in South Carolina, but makes up for my having quite a few more forts, which makes it a great place to explore early American history.
+Pastime \Pas"time`\, n. That which amuses, and serves to make time pass agreeably -- Webster's 1913
 
-We started at Fort McAllister and worked our way back in time, more or less. For McAllister is a civil war era fort, built by the Confederate army to defend Savannah. There were three forts defending the river leading to Savannah, for Fort McAllister was the first as you came up river.The interesting thing about the fighting here and at Fort Pulaski just up river (more on that in a second) was that this was where both armies tested their latest and greatest in both naval armament and coastal defenses.
+I enjoy making things. The things are often irrelevant though. It's the making that I enjoy, it reminds me of traveling. When you make something you are completely absorbed in that process to the point that you forget everything else, forget the world, save this tiny part of it that you are reshaping. Your concentration becomes sharplyh focused on the task at hand and everything else that makes up you, fades away momentarily. There is a freedom in that reminds me of traveling.
 
-For most of the war the main enemies here were heat and disease, but toward the end the Union navy came, and it came with some of the first iron clad gunboats. No less than four ironclads with huge 15-inch cannons bombarded the fort for 5 hours... and did next to nothing. The earthenware walls absorbed them and men rushed out and shoveled the dirt back in place. The fort shelled the ironclads and also did little. The shells bounced off the ships, though that had to be incredibly loud to those inside.
+When traveling there is only right now, a complete absorption, obsession even, with the world in front of you. The food on the plate, the bumps in the road, the birds calling in the morning air, whatever it is, there is only that. It's a state of ease, relaxed absorption, freedom. Realizing that you have nowhere to go, nowhere to be, nothing to do to maintain yourself in this world, save to be where you are, doing what you're doing. That is a kind freedom. The more often you can do this, the better life will be.
 
-Eventually the fort fell, but not because of the navy, because the army swung around south, bypassing Savannah to attack McAllister first. McAllister fell with very little fighting and the navy advanced to our next stop, Fort Pulaski, which I think of as The Last Fort.
+If done properly everyday tasks can be lent this same holiness. This is why there are elaborate ceremonines around tea, coffee, food, perhaps cleaning. All ordinary things made extraordinary by focusing attention on them and exluding everything else for a moment. 
+
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+Whatever the case, I believe these experiences, making, traveling, they are cut of the same cloth I think, one of the many threads back to the gods.
+
+That's the joy in making, the things are often incidental. That said, the best is when the making leads to a things that beautiful and satisying, perhaps even useful.
+
+
+
+
+For me they are threads woven together in stories I've lived. Some told here, some told elsewhere, some never told. I've been thinking a lot lately about stories, the stories I tell. This is why I did not write anything for many months. I wasn't sure about the stories I wanted to tell, but I also wasn't sure about the stories I was telling myself.
+
+If the stories you tell yourself diverge to greatly from the world as it is, you have a problem. We are the stories we tell. If you want to change, change the story you are telling yourself. 
+
+Before you can do that though, you have to figure out which stories you're telling yourself that are true, which ones you're the process of making true, and which ones you just wish were true. I find that there is progression here. You tell yourself a story you wish was true, then you tell yourself the story of making it true, and then you tell the story of it because it is true.
+
+That said, not everything --whether you tell it to yourself or to someone else -- is a good story. The story of the people who almost did something is not a good story. We all have that story in our lives, few of us want to hear other people's version. We want good stories. I spend most of my life looking for good stories.
+
+Increasingly, over the last few months, life in the bus has not been a good story. At first I couldn't put my finger on it, things just felt off. blah you might say. 
 
-Fort Pulaski was made of brick and withstood an incredible amount of shelling during the war until it met the new rifled cannon. At the moment the day and age of the fort ended. The rifled shell was too accurate and too devastating. The commander of the fort surrendered before the magazine was hit killing everyone. The rest of the world took notice. Very few forts were built after the shelling of Fort Pulaski.
 
-After Pulaski we moved south again, and it turned extremely cold for a few days, but we managed to find a nice day to explore Fort Frederica, a pre-revolutionary war fort on St. Simon's island. Frederica was the southern most outpost of the English colonies and responsible for holding off the Spanish, who controlled Florida at the time. It did its job under Oglethorpe, twice if I remember correctly, after which the Spanish gave up.
 
-For the kids this one was definitely the highlight thanks to a room full of dress up clothes and games they could play. I was more intregued to see something I'd read about in William Bartram's journals. Bartram passed through in 1774 and it was already in ruins, which makes it kind of amazing that there's anything here at all, but you can still see the stone outlines of most of the buildings in the town.
 
-After Georgia we headed down to a place that's been on our list for a long time, but we just never seemed to make it: St. Augustine, FL. : Castillo de San Marcos National Monument at 
 
-## Something Needs to Change
+
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+
+
+
+my greatest skill has been to want but little—so little capital it required, so little distraction from my wonted moods, I foolishly thought. While my acquaintances went unhesitatingly into trade or the professions, I contemplated this occupation as most like theirs; ranging the hills all summer to pick the berries which came in my way, and thereafter carelessly dispose of them; so, to keep the flocks of Admetus. I also dreamed that I might gather the wild herbs, or carry evergreens to such villagers as loved to be reminded of the woods, even to the city, by hay-cart loads. But I have since learned that trade curses everything it handles; and though you trade in messages from heaven, the whole curse of trade attaches to the business.
+
+As I preferred some things to others, and especially valued my freedom, as I could fare hard and yet succeed well, I did not wish to spend my time in earning rich carpets or other fine furniture, or delicate cookery, or a house in the Grecian or the Gothic style just yet. If there are any to whom it is no interruption to acquire these things, and who know how to use them when acquired, I relinquish to them the pursuit. Some are "industrious," and appear to love labor for its own sake, or perhaps because it keeps them out of worse mischief; to such I have at present nothing to say. Those who would not know what to do with more leisure than they now enjoy, I might advise to work twice as hard as they do—work till they pay for themselves, and get their free papers. For myself I found that the occupation of a day-laborer was the most independent of any, especially as it required only thirty or forty days in a year to support one. The laborer's day ends with the going down of the sun, and he is then free to devote himself to his chosen pursuit, independent of his labor; but his employer, who speculates from month to month, has no respite from one end of the year to the other.
+
+
+if we will live simply and wisely; as the pursuits of the simpler nations are still the sports of the more artificial. It is not necessary that a man should earn his living by the sweat of his brow, unless he sweats easier than I do.
+
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+
 
 We sprinted across Florida in two quick drives over to the far end of the panhandle. We stopped in the middle at the Tallahassee Car Museum, I weird little museum that has a few campsites out front (not everything in Harvest Hosts is a farm)
 
@@ -820,6 +853,80 @@ https://amazingribs.com/more-technique-and-science/grill-and-smoker-setup-and-fi
 https://www.vagabondjourney.com/you-cant-get-lost-anymore/
 
 # jrnl
+
+## Fortified
+
+From Edisto we worked our way south, stopping off a Hunting Island for a few dismal days in the cold and rain, camping in a site that was just a smidge above actual bog. We escaped that dreariness for the much more uplifting Fort McAllister, the first of a string of forts we wanted to check out on the Georgia and Florida coast.
+
+This area is a bit different than the [Low Country](https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2024/01/low), it's still coastal marshes, part the sea islands, a string of over a hundred barrier islands along this stretch of the Atlantic coast from the mouth of the Santee river, just south of Myrtle Beach, all the way down the coast of Georgia into Florida, but the land upstream is different, and the culture that's grown up here is different as well.
+
+We've spent quite a bit of time in the South Carolina barrier islands, but we never made it here to the Georgia coast until this year. Despite living in Georgia for over a decade, I'd never been to St. Simons or anywhere else around here.
+
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-10_153025_fort-mcallister.jpg" id="image-3921" class="picwide" />
+
+The Georgia coast lacks any of the maritime forests like you'll find in some sheltered spots in South Carolina, but makes up for my having quite a few more forts, which makes it a great place to explore early American history.
+
+Fort McAllister is a civil war era fort, built by the Confederate army to defend Savannah against Union forces coming upriver to attack. There were three forts defending the river leading to Savannah, Fort McAllister was the first as you came up river.The interesting thing about the fighting here and at Fort Pulaski just up river (more on that in a second) was that this was where both armies tested their latest and greatest innovations in both naval armament and coastal defenses. Right here, war fighting around the world changed forever in 1865.
+
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-09_135557_fort-mcallister.jpg" id="image-3916" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-09_135148_fort-mcallister.jpg" id="image-3914" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-09_064057_fort-mcallister.jpg" id="image-3912" class="picwide" />
+
+For most of the war the main enemies here were heat and disease, but toward the end the Union navy came, and it came with some of the first iron clad gunboats. No less than four ironclads with huge 15-inch cannons bombarded the fort for 5 hours... and did next to nothing. The earthenware walls absorbed them and men rushed out and shoveled the dirt back in place. The fort shelled the ironclads and also did little. The shells bounced off the ships, though that had to be incredibly loud to those inside.
+
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-09_135213_fort-mcallister.jpg" id="image-3915" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-09_141743_fort-mcallister.jpg" id="image-3917" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-09_065944_fort-mcallister.jpg" id="image-3913" class="picwide" />
+
+Eventually the fort fell, but not because of the navy, because the army swung around south, bypassing Savannah to attack McAllister first. McAllister fell with very little fighting and the navy advanced to our next stop, Fort Pulaski, which I think of as The Last Fort.
+
+Fort Pulaski was made of brick and withstood an incredible amount of shelling during the war. You can still see the pockmarks and shell scars on the walls of the fort.
+
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-10_133437_fort-mcallister.jpg" id="image-3920" class="picwide" />
+
+Pulaski held up until it met the new rifled cannon. At that moment the day and age of the fort ended. The rifled shell was too accurate and too devastating. The commander of the fort quickly surrendered before the magazine was hit and everyone in the fort killed. The rest of the world took notice. Very few forts were built after the shelling of Fort Pulaski.
+
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-10_125446_fort-mcallister.jpg" id="image-3918" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-10_132701_fort-mcallister.jpg" id="image-3919" class="picwide" />
+
+After Pulaski we moved south again, and it turned extremely cold for a few days, but we managed to find a nice day to explore Fort Frederica, a pre-revolutionary war fort on St. Simon's island. Frederica was the southern most outpost of the English colonies and responsible for holding off the Spanish, who controlled Florida at the time. It did its job under Oglethorpe, twice if I remember correctly, after which the Spanish gave up.
+
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-15_111727_crooked-river.jpg" id="image-3922" class="picwide" />
+<div class="cluster">
+    <span class="row-2">
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-15_112052_crooked-river.jpg" id="image-3923" class="cluster pic66" />
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-15_112110_crooked-river.jpg" id="image-3924" class="cluster pic66" />
+    </span>
+</div>
+<div class="cluster">
+    <span class="row-2">
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-15_133250_crooked-river.jpg" id="image-3927" class="cluster pic66" />
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-15_133407_crooked-river.jpg" id="image-3928" class="cluster pic66" />
+    </span>
+</div>
+
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-15_123942_crooked-river.jpg" id="image-3926" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-15_123601_crooked-river.jpg" id="image-3925" class="picwide" />
+
+
+
+For the kids this one was definitely the highlight thanks to a room full of dress up clothes and games they could play. I was more intregued to see something I'd read about in William Bartram's journals. Bartram passed through in 1774 and it was already in ruins, which makes it kind of amazing that there's anything here at all, but you can still see the stone outlines of most of the buildings in the town.
+
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-16_131348_crooked-river.jpg" id="image-3929" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-20_070543_crooked-river.jpg" id="image-3930" class="picwide" />
+
+After Fort Frederica we packed up and headed south, bound for a place that's been on our list for a long time, but we just never seemed to make it: St. Augustine, FL. St Augustine was built around the fort, Castillo de San Marcos, which has been restored and is now a national monument. Sidenote, did you know National Parks/Monuments no longer take cash? The government won't take the currency of the nation at the national monument, tells you everything you need to know about the future of that currency. Anyway, we paid. With a card. And walked around the fort, which was monolithic in way that showed its Spanish origins. Spain was a genius with stone in this era. You see it all over Mexico too. Massive stone churches, government offices, forts, everything was stone and hugely overbuilt. It looks overbuilt to this day. It's magnificent.
+
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-21_120702_st-augustine_vkbq782.jpg" id="image-3934" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-21_120819_st-augustine.jpg" id="image-3935" class="picwide" />
+
+We really liked Castillo de San Marcos, unfortunately we made the mistake of venturing across the street to see what the town was like and things went downhill. 
+
+<img src="images/2024/2024-01-21_122717_st-augustine.jpg" id="image-3936" class="picwide" />
+
+I was going to say, we're not really fans of tourist towns, where every experience is carefully curated and managed by someone, but, then, is anyone a fan of this? You might argue that since this exists all over the place, that people must like it, and perhaps this has some merit, but we've also reached the stage of civilizational decline where it doesn't really matter what we want, this (whatever this is) is what we're getting.
+
+Whatever the case, we spent about 10 minutes wandering around St. Augustine and were ready to head back to the bus.
 ## Low
 
 Oak leaves shimmer and dance in the wind. Morning sunlight filters in through the trees, the rays fighting their way through wisps of Spanish moss.