Elite Dangerous System Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40 - The Grand Tour - Satilla River Tuplar

Satilla River Tuplar
The Grand Tour, PAGE 4

NOTE:  All 138 facilities built in this system are listed (and shown) in order of distance from the sun.  At least, according to the in-game architect’s view.  There's a total of slightly over 18 hours of video, so the video, and the descriptions, are broken into smaller portions across multiple posts.
Some descriptions were written by myself, some with the help of AI.  I've personally edited all of them, so if you must blame someone, blame me.  :^)

Photo of Tuplar Tree
Picture of the Tuplar from back in the 1970's. 
(The link goes to a previous blog about the Tuplar, from when I deployed the Dodecahedron station bearing its name.)

03 Orbital 00
Satilla River Tuplar
Dodec Starport (T3)
Dock: Large

This one is highly personal. I spent much of my childhood visiting my grandmother near the Satilla River in Georgia. All the grandkids called her Nanny, but her name was Gladys Thrift. Mom grew up there, one of seven children in an extraordinarily rural area.
When Dad retired we moved there permanently. I got to spend my favorite growing-up years fishing on the Satilla, exploring the surrounding woods and swamp.

The “Tuplar” tree (local dialect, it was actually a Swamp Tupelo) was the absolute best place in the entire world. It was the prettiest cove, with the tree standing out on a spit of land, like an isthmus.  Sometimes, I'd just come there to read.  There was a bent tree near the bank that grew horizontally for about 6 feet, then curved upward.  I could slouch into that curve, and read for hours.

It was also one of the best places to fish.  Just cut a couple of forked sticks, put them into the ground, cast your line out, and set the pole on the sticks.  Anchor them firmly, because some fish were strong enough to drag the rod and reel into the river.
I liked to fish with two lines, and if the fishing was slow enough I'd take my book, climb up that tree, and read while waiting for a bit.  (I always had a book, because you never knew when you'd get a good chance to read.)  

That Tuplar tree stood guard over at least four generations of my family; Mom tells me it was there when she was little, her parents fished there before her time.  She and her siblings grew up fishing there, and my sister and I grew up fishing there.  We each brought our kids to it as well. 

After standing guard for generations of our family, erosion and age eventually brought the Tuplar down.   I'm not sure if my son was grown up when it fell.  I was in the military and couldn't visit as often as I liked.  

Now I live about an hour's drive away, and return home regularly to visit Mom.  Don't go back to the river any more.  The fallen trunk and tangled roots are still there, but I don’t like seeing it that way. Things change, time passes… I don’t have to like it, though.  

In my mind, and my heart, the Tuplar Tree will always be standing guard on the Satilla.