Tuesday, November 3, 2020 - FDRSP Sunrise, Dowdell Knob, FDR’s Little White House, Sunset

Marilyn wiggles my toes at 6:30 and we throw on some clothes and drive off for sunrise.  We need to get through the park gate, which doesn’t open until 7:00 and are happy to find that it will let us out, and we know it will be after seven when we return.  

We have scoped out an area behind the Visitors’ Center and manage to get a few decent shots, even though there are no clouds to add texture or refract the sun’s rays.

We get home and find that Connie is already up.  She was just about to start our coffee and I step in so that she can make her own.  We three decide that today is a good day for scrambled eggs with cheese and lots of veggies and sausage patties and banana muffins!  Connie chops up all the veggies, I beat up the eggs, and then we go on hiatus until Ginger makes her appearance.  We had just decided to begin cooking when she joins us.  Marilyn scrambles the eggs and we’re ready to feed our faces with a big and glorious breakfast to hold us until dinner!

We clean up, gather up, and head off for the day’s adventure.  We’ve been taking Ginger’s car because it is roomier and today is no exception.  Our first stop is Dowdell Knob, which has a glorious view of the valley.  It was one of FDR’s favorite places to come and contemplate life.  He fell in love with Warm Springs when he came the first time to swim in the springs in hopes of curing his polio.  In all, he made forty-one trips to the area, over a span of twenty-one years.  In fact, he died in the Little White House just down the road.

There is a trail at Dowdell Knob that leads to the site of an Air Force plane crash and, further on, to Elephant Rock.  Connie decides to go back to the car after the crash site while Ginger, Marilyn and I continue on, hoping we’ll spot the elephant.  We are pretty surprised to find that it actually looks like an elephant!  The hike back is uphill and takes a bit longer and while we’ve been making our return trip, Connie has been doing laps in the parking lot!

From here we go to the Little White House, which was FDR’s home whenever he came to Warm Springs.  There is a charming museum where a park ranger tells us that if it weren’t for FDR she wouldn’t exist!  It seems her mother had polio and had to be in a wheel chair for a period after an operation. While at the facility that FDR supported she met her future husband, who was a wheelchair pusher!

There is a twelve-minute movie narrated by Walter Kronkite, at one time America’s most trusted voice, which explains FDR’s love of the area and how he became personally involved in the lives of the poor farmers who were suffering.  When he became president, during the Great Depression, he enacted numerous programs to put the nation back to work and to improve the plight of the poor, including bringing electricity to rural America.  We learned that FDR loved children and often played with them in the warm springs’ pool.

After the movie we toured the rest of the museum and another park ranger told us about FDR’s “king maker” Louis Howe, who groomed Roosevelt for public office, as well as training Eleanor for public speaking.  We learned about the Gate Keeper, Marguerite “Missy” LeHand.  Anyone who wanted to see FDR had to go through her.  And, of course, there was his Scottish terrier, the outlaw John Murray of Falahill, otherwise knows as Fala.

We went on to tour the Little White House, which really is a small, two-bedroom cottage with a separate guest cottage and servants’ quarters.  After that we got to see the Unfinished Portrait for which he was sitting when he was taken ill, dying that same day.  The artist later did another portrait showing what she thought the finished portrait would have looked like, and it, too, is on display.

On the grounds there is a walkway lined with stones representing each of the fifty states with their state mottos and the date when they joined the Union.  And we are delighted to see that there are a few trees actually starting to show their fall colors.

We’ve had a full day and return home for dinner.  Connie has brought a cooked turkey breast and Brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes.  Marilyn has broccoli and cauliflower to roast and the two of them decide to work on dinner while Ginger and I go off in search of sunset photos.

We drive down to the lake and get some pretty reflections and see a great blue heron.  But sunset itself is kind of a bust.  We might find a better place tomorrow.  When we get home the table is set with a table cloth and dinner is nearly ready!  There is just enough time to finish the puzzle!

Our buffet is ready and delicious!  There are all the goodies listed above with the addition of individual salads and cranberry sauce.  Our wine tonight is Twisted Sisters Silver-Tongued Devil, which Connie brought from Myrtle Beach.

After dinner I’m surprised with a chorus of Happy Birthday and a goodie bag as well as homemade Irish Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies!!  And an enormous bag of salt and pepper pistachios, all of which I am happy to share.  (I don’t plan on sharing my lavender “Whisper words of Wisdom” t-shirt!)

I haven’t yet mentioned it;  but it is election day and we turn on the TV after dinner to see what our future might hold.  Marilyn gives up first and goes to bed.  Connie is sitting out here with Ginger and me, reading her book, while Ginger works on her holiday table cloth and I play with this blog.  As the night wears on, Ginger gives up her project and Connie puts down Scarlet and begins reading Ginger’s book about her mother, discussing all the most interesting parts.  

The results aren’t looking promising as we pass the eleven o’clock mark.  We know that there are many, many early votes and mail-in ballots yet to count, so nothing will be certain for hours or even days.  I’m ready to give it up for the night and hope for better news to come.