For Saturday, the 9th of April

Saturday was a good day.  We went hiking on a part of the Appalachian Trail that my wife and I only recently realized the awesomeness of.  The AT goes right through an area that was once a CCC camp, but also a POW camp for Germans and Japanese during WWII.  I did a post on this awhile ago, so sift through my posts if you want more info on this very interesting area.  We found some new stuff this time, such as a big cement star in the ground and a tiled floor (just in the middle of the woods) but more importantly, we found a bridge that had been carved into by someone while it was the POW camp.

POW Engraving

I created a composite image from a couple shots of this engraving on the side of a bridge.  I didn't want to use a wide angle and just crop everything else out because I didn't want sacrifice detail or quality.

My Attempt to Decipher

Much of this makes sense.  The date was May 25, 1945.  The engraver was Lt. Momberg.  The area that this was found in was, at the time, a POW camp for German and Japanese soldiers.  But much of this does not make sense...at least not to me.  I don't know if Treu(g)or(y) Ovenccl is the rest of his name or something else entirely.  The 35 and 07 mean nothing to me.  And the part in the bottom right seems to have parts that faded away.  I know that Kassel is a town in Germany and that Alt(e) would insinuate age.  So perhaps he was born in Kassel and was 56 at the time of the engraving.  The part between alte and 56 is the hard part, so I'm not sure if it is listing an age or if the word is actually altemeter/altemeiter, which is the altitude guage on a plane.  Another possibility is Alte Meister which, oddly enough, is in Kassel, Germany.  That would seem to make the most sense.  But Alte Meister is an art museum (from what I can tell).  Why that would be engraved with the rest of this information makes little to no sense to me.  

Fountains of Slag

I can't go to this place without taking pictures of slag.  I find it to be fascinating and beautiful.  No wonder it was used as a decoration on this fountain.

Slag

See!  I can't even limit it to one photo of slag.  I love this stuff.

 

A Phoenix From the Ashes

Our fire was going out.  Only a few glowing embers were remaining, so I attempted some long exposure shots with added motion to make tiny embers become something much bigger.

Long Exposure of a Brother

The night sky was a cloudy one.  There was no hope for star-gazing, so my brother and I did some long exposure shots.  No matter what you attempt, they always come out as bad attempts at dramatic, dark images.  Here is my brother looking...well, dramatic and dark.