Back Home - Last Post for This Year!

Yep - we're back... we got home on Sunday afternoon (April 4). Today is Tuesday, so we've settled back into "normal life" and our trip is already beginning to feel like a memory. We're always amazed at how quickly that happens. Of course, our first two days home have been difficult because we miss Foster so much - it was very painful to come home to his dog dish and all his little "babies" (i.e. his tennis balls!) and just not having him running around on the deck and everything. But we've agreed - we have a "dog-sized" hole in our life, which we'll be filling shortly. And by the time we start NEXT year's blog, we'll have trained the new dog on how to ride in a motor home and be a good dog at campgrounds!

So - we left Hunting Island on Tuesday, March 30 and drove across Georgia on US16 (what an awful road!) and stopped at High Falls State Park, about halfway between Macon and Atlanta. What a nice park! We'll definitely remember this for future trips home - it's only about a mile off I-75 and is perfect for a couple of nights (which is what we stayed). It's a smaller park, but it is next to this beautiful little cascading water falls (hence it's name). I've attached a couple pictures - very pretty place. Our campsite was right on the side of the river, below the falls, so Dave had a nice place to camp and he caught a nice BIG bass (which we're actually having for supper tonight!). And there were very nice hiking trails along both sides of the river and a nice 2 mile loop back into the woods and hills. The park is actually the site of an old "ghost town" and there are still remains of the old grist mill and power plant. Kind of neat.

Anyway, we stayed there for two nights - that left us one full day for just spending time in the park, which was perfect. We got up Friday (April 2) early and headed out - we got through Atlanta around 9:30, which was a perfect time. For Atlanta, the traffic was "relatively" light (we HATE driving around Atlanta!), and we drove throught Chattanooga and to just south of Nashville. The traffic was getting pretty heavy by mid-afternoon so we pulled in earlier than we normally would have. When we found a decent spot in the Walmart parking lot, we went to slide out our living room slide so we could move around more easily and discovered that our house batteries were almost completely dead. We tried to start the generator, but there wasn't enough power to even do that, SO... we ended up sitting in the parking lot in the dark, with no power at all. Kind of weird! We ended up putting our lawn chairs outside the RV and just sitting there watching the Walmart traffic! OK - that was kind of weird way to spend the evening! But it got kind of interesting - some young couple with four tiny kids in tow came over and chatted with us about camping and traveling and stuff - they were actually very nice. And then about 10:00 I walked across the parking lot and got an ice cream at Baskin Robbins, and while I was gone Dave saw an old blue van pull in fairly close to the RV's (by now there were a couple more overnighters) and he watched them sit in the front seat and pass "something" back and forth between them. About an hour later, one of the guys stumbled out of the front seat and fumbled around in the back of the van for about 15 minutes and he finally opened up a sleeping bag, crawled into the back of the van and (we assume) passed out! The other guy was sitting in the driver's seat, completely passed out. When we got up the next morning they were still there and the guy in the driver's seat was still sitting up, but with his head completely hanging down. OH BOY! You never know who your fellow residents will be at the good old Walmart!

Anyway, when we left there we got through Nashville and then Louisville, but the traffic was absolutely HORRIBLE - solid bumper-to-bumper. We realized we had made a big mistake. It was April 3, the snow birds were flocking north, it was Easter weekend, so everyone wanted to get home and it was the end of a spring-break week. AWFUL! Plus, to add insult to injury, it was terribly windy. Since we knew we had to battery power, we decided to actually pull into a campground overnight (no Walmart this time!) so we stopped at the Indiana visitor's center and located a nice campground just south of Indy - outside of Columbus, a town that we know we like. It was a very nice little campground and, again, one we'll remember for future trips home. It was nice to have electricity! Toward evening, we drove into Columbus and went to the Buffalo Wild Wings (where we've been before) and watched the first of the two Final Four games for the NCAA playoffs. Really interesting, because it was Michigan State vs Butler (which is actually located in Indianapolis) - so guess who EVERYONE was routing for except us! We kept our Michigan cheers and claps VERY lowkey! But Butler won, so everyone (except us) was happy. Then we went "home" and watched the second game.

The next morning was Easter Sunday and (what a relief!) there was hardly any traffic at all, and the wind had died down. We zipped home really quickly and when we got home our neighbors and some friends spotted us and came over for a little "welcome home" party on our deck. It was nice to be welcomed back, and nice to see our friends again. So now we return to our normal life, which is a good life!, and I'll be starting back at Kerkstra's and at teaching so things are great. Other than losing Foster, and the fact that the weather was the worst we've seen in our five years of traveling, overall we had a wonderful, wonderful trip! And I'm already planning next year's trip!

Thanks to everyone who read our blog and sent e-mails to keep in touch. It was great to hear from everyone. Love you all!

Leaving South Carolina

Well, tonight is our last night here on Hunting Island (only 6 day stay here). It's actually been a nice spot - nicer than I probably thought it was going to be. So to catch up... after our Friday trip to Charleston, we decided to just stay in the park on Saturday (by the way, this is the inside of the "church" bar I mentioned in my last post). Anyway, I went on a nice hike from the camping area to the lighthouse area, but the cut-off to the lighthouse was closed due to flooding so I just turned around and hiked back. But the trail was much nicer than I expected it to be. Dave did some biking and threw a line in one of the "creeks" during high tide, but didn't have any luck of course (his fishing has been really down this year). On Sunday it was supposed to be cooler with a possibility for rain, so we just took a day trip down to Hilton Head. It's not really our type of place but we thought we should at least check it out since we're so close. And, yep, it is definitely NOT our type of place. It is probably VERY nice if you're looking for a resort, with golf courses, condos, lots of shops and restaurants and very limited beach access! But to us it was just a nightmare - WAY too crowded and too commercial. We had brought our bikes along but the bike paths just didn't really appeal to us, plus it had gotten windy and cooler so we just drove around the island and came right back home - but at least now we can say we visited Hilton Head! On our way back we made our third stop at this cute bar/restaurant that's just before the bridge that crosses onto Hunting Island (there's nothing actually on the island itself). It's called the Johnson Creek Tavern and it's pretty neat - it's basically a house that was made over to a restaurant in the 1970's - and it's one of those fun places that has dollar bills stuck all over the walls and the ceilings and basically on every inch of available surface. People write on the dollars, sign them, date them, draw pictures on them, whatever.

So today was our last full day here, and it was gorgeous out - probably 80 or very close (which I understand is about the same temp as at home!). Anyway, I took the hike again and this time just walked on the road to get to the lighthouse. It was pretty cool, plus you could climb up to the top for $2, so of course I did - it actually wasn't too bad - 167 steps. The view was wonderful and definitely worth the climb. When I came back down I asked the volunteer if I could get back to the campground by walking the shoreline and he assured me I could, since it was low tide. (I tried it on Saturday and couldn't do it, so it must have been high tide.) It was a beautiful walk back along the shoreline - we are still kind of amazed at the whole "tide" thing - it's unreal how far out the tide goes and how much "stuff" is exposed during the low tide. When I got back I took my beach chair and went down to the beach for a couple of hours and Dave took a long bike ride along the shore, which he really enjoys doing.

So tonight we'll put things away and tomorrow morning we'll leave. We decided against going over the mountains - instead we're backtracking just a little ways down to Savannah and then heading up toward Atlanta via US16. I reserved just two nights at a Georgia state park, called High Falls S.P., slightly north of Macon. This'll get us a nice chunk of the way home plus it looks like a really pretty place. If we like it, we'll add a couple more days on; otherwise, we'll head further north. Either way, we are definitely on our way home!

Park #16-Hunting Island State Park

Well, we are now at our last "planned" park - we were supposed to have one more (Edisto Beach) but we've decided to cancel that one and gradually begin moving back toward home. Right now we are at Hunting Island State Park, which is in South Carolina, maybe 50 miles or so north of Savannah, Georgia. It is right on the ocean, slightly to the east of Beaufort, S.C. The park itself is "ok" but, to be honest, we were kind of spoiled on Jekyll Island. There is a nice enough campground, although it is pretty old and the bathrooms are kind of scary. The whole park is maybe 5 miles long, but you have to go out onto the road and drive down to each separate section. After the campground, you drive another mile or so and go into the middle section of the park - this is primarily the visitors' center, a pretty cool lighthouse (which I plan to visit tomorrow) and a lot of parking for day use of the beach. This whole section is THICK jungle-type brush, with very narrow, old roads running through it, so it's not really nice for biking, plus we'd have to go out onto the road which has no shoulder and is surprisingly busy - apparently the Island is the entry point to the very last island (called Fripp Island) which is actually a gated community with only this road for getting on and off the island, so there is a LOT of traffic. The final section of the park is the fishing pier and a small nature center. We drove through the whole thing on Wednesday when we got here and will be spending tomorrow (Saturday) in the park.
This is really different terrain - the area in general is referred to as the "low country" and it's primarily miles and miles and MILES of tidal salt marshes - when the tide is out it just looks like lot and lot of mud, and when the tide is in it looks like lots of grassy marsh areas. It's interesting to us, but we've decided this is not our favorite type of environment - we probably won't make a point to return to this area again. Once is probably enough.
Our next park (Edisto Beach) is just a few miles up the coast as the crow flies, but about 80 miles by road (!) and we decided that it is probably going to be almost identical to this park, so we are changing our plans and next Tuesday will begin moving upward through South Carolina, eventually getting to Knoxville, Tenn, and we plan to just take our time coming back. We're a little anxious because we've never driven over the Appalachians before - we've been in the foothills (i.e. Chattanooga) a number of times, but we're a little nervous about driving the RV across the top of the mountains, especially pulling the car. So we decided we'd rather start a few days early and not feel any pressure about covering any specific number of miles per day.
So - anyway - we got here on Wednesday and just settled in. On Thursday we went into Beaufort - there is an AVA walk there so we did our "bike and walk" routine - Dave rode his bike around town, while I did my AVA walk, and we agreed to met at a specified time down on the riverfront - there is a great riverwalk area right on the water so it seemed like a great spot to meet. Well - Beaufort is VERY nice - it's a smaller city (pop. 13,000) but it's very pretty. There are lots of old historic buildings, some dating back to the 1700's! There is a very interesting old National Cemetery, with hundreds (thousands??) of identical white grave markers - according to the plaque the majority of the graves are Union soldiers who died during the Civil War! But I saw lots of Vietnam and other graves also. The walk was very nice, and Dave enjoyed his bike ride, and we met up at a really cute bar right on the river. The riverwalk area was very attractive with lots of swings set up for people to just sit along the edge of the river and swing - very cool. (I can't believe I didn't take ANY pictures, but I didn't! Normally, the longer the trip goes the less pictures I take - I've noticed this in previous years too.)
And then today we made a trip up to Charleston. Everybody has told us "if you like Savannah, you'll love Charleston." And Charleston IS very nice - the historic area seems to be a lot bigger than Savannah and there are a LOT of beautiful antebellum mansions - beautiful three and four story homes with gorgeous porches running all along the length of the house, and on each story - so a three story home has three huge porches. Very beautiful (but no pictures!!!). The harbor (or maybe it's called the wharf) area is also very VERY nice. A few blocks from the wharf area is where the bars and restaurants are - and there's a big market area that runs for a number of blocks. But, to tell the truth, Charleston is almost TOO big (pop. 96,000). We actually like Savannah better - the historic area is more "friendly" - it's smaller and easier to walk - plus, one of the most beautiful things in Savannah are the squares - there are probably 25 or more squares, located about every 3 or 4 blocks, and they are just SO pretty. Charleston doesn't have the same "feel". We are glad we went there (and, of course, I did an AVA walk while Dave biked) but we don't think we'll be returning. We DID have a drink at a very cute bar after my walk - Dave had found it, about a block away from the market area - and it is an OLD church! Very different! According to the waitress, the church dates back to the early 1800's and there is a "ghost story" attached to it - apparently the pastor's wife killed him in the church, in front of the whole congregation! Ultimately it became a chapel for seafarers, and then in 1964 it was "deconsegrated" - and now it is a bar/tavern/resaurant. Weird - there are still stained glass windows and everything - I DID actually take a picture of this. Very unusual!
Actually, we may have a slightly negative attitude toward Charleston because we had a HORRIBLE time getting in and out. Apparently tomorrow (Saturday) is some big 10K run - we read that 40,000 people come in for it! - and I think they were ALL downtown. The traffic was an absolute gridlock - with dozens and dozens of frazzled-looking police directing traffic at virtually every intersection. We were trying to get to the Visitors' Center and simply could NOT get to it - we kept getting sent down different streets. People were laying on their horns and it was absolutely INSANE. We finally parked about 10 blocks outside of the historic district (NOT a very nice neighborhood! I definitely woudl NOT have parked there without Dave!) and then we got our bikes off the car and rode them to the Visitors' Center where we got maps and were told that the "bar and restaurant" area was the Market place. So we rode our bikes there and then I locked up my bike and started my AVA walk from there. The actual historic area was very easy to move around in - there was almost no traffic at all, because it was ALL being directed away from the area. Then, when we were done with our day, we rode our bikes back to the car and fought our way through the traffic to get back to the highway - by now it was about 4:00 and there were still a jillion cops and the traffic was just as snarled up as it had been when we came in. Our fault - we had NO idea the run would create this type of a mess. But we were pretty stressed on both the drive in and out. But we made it home ok - thank God - we were exhausted! - and now we're sitting here watching the last of the Elite Eight March Madness games. Tomorrow we are STAYING HERE! Geez!

Savannah

So - we've been on the Island most of the this week, but on Friday we took a day trip into Savannah. We were there two years ago, so we already knew that we really liked the city. It proclaims itself to be one of the most walker-friendly cities in the U.S., and we totally agree. The downtown historic area dates back to the late 1700's and has wonderful old buildings on the river, with canals running parallel to the riverfront (...these are where the cotton barges used to come through so buyers could bid on the cotton). There are beautiful old houses dating back to the 1800's, and every few blocks there is another "square" - there are probably more than 20 of the little square throughout the historic district. The streets are primarily all one-way and there are just dozens and dozens of tour buses and stuff, along with hundreds of pedestrians, so traffic moves very slowly and carefully. We got into town about noon or so and parked at the visitors' center which is on the outskirts of the historic district - very easy to reach by car. I stopped at the visitors' center and picked up the map for the AVA walk that is set here in the downtown Savannah area. Then we unloaded our bicycles and rode into the heart of the historic area, right down to the river - and at that point we locked my bike up and I took off on the 10K AVA walk - I had to "find myself" on the walk instructions and start at that point, but since the walks are always a loop, I just ended up returning to my starting point. I walked for about two-and-a-quarter hours - and it was absolutely fantastic. SUCH a beautiful city. Dave, in the meanwhile, rode his bike all over the place (he loves doing that!) and stopped at the City Market for a couple beers and some people-watching. Then he met me back by my locked-up bike and we rode for a while, then we went down to the river area and had dinner at the Shrimp Factory (very good!). We spent some time walking along the Riverwalk and then rode our bikes back to the visitors center (which took about 5 minutes!). We loaded our bikes onto the car and then walked across the parking lot and picked up the "Ghost Tour" trolley for our 7:00 tour. It was ok - but we really enjoy hearing the narrator talk about the history of the city, and this was more just ghost stories about various houses and stuff. They were kind of interesting stories, but not exactly what we most enjoy - next time we'll definitely focus more on the historical tours. The best thing about this one was the fact that it got dark during the tour and it was really fun to see the squares and the houses after dark, with all the lights and stuff. We got done about 8:30 and were back on the Island about 10:00 or so - what a great day! What a great place to visit!

Park #15 Jekyll Island

What a great place this is. For anyone who's not familiar with Jekyll Island, it is about 30 miles north of the Florida/Georgia state line, right off the coast of Brunswick. The island is about 10 miles long and around 3 miles wide (maybe not even that). In the late 1800's through the early 1940's this was the site of an "enclave" of the very wealthy. The island was owned by The Jekyll Island Club, which include J.P. Morgan, the Goodyears, the Rockefellers, the Pulitzers, etc. There is a gorgeous old "club house", and a number of "cottages" (if you can possibly call them that - I've attached some pictures to this and the next posting). There were 53 members, plus of course their families and all of their servants. They came here from December through April and then closed it up for the rest of the year. In the early 1940's it fell into disrepair, primarily due to the advent of World War II, and the state of Georgia bought it for $675,000 and turned it into a state park. There are a large number of smaller residential houses on the island along with a number of motels (but nothing really "fancy" other than the old Clubhouse). There are only two main roads that go around the island with a number of shorter roads that serve the residential area in the middle of the island. At one end there really isn't anything much other than a water park that's open in the summer; at the other end is a great fishing pier and the campground where we are staying. There are beautiful beaches all the way around the island and about 20 miles of terrific bike paths. There are a number of small bars and restaurants, but overall it's pretty low key here on the island. We love it! We will definitely come back here for a longer stay next time. We've only left the island once, and that was for a daytrip to Savannah (...more on that in a second). Tomorrow is our last full day here and we've just really enjoyed our time - we've biked a number of times, spent time in the historic district (that's where the beautiful old cottages are), I spent one afternoon out on the beach, we've biked on the beach itself (which is really fun to do) and Dave has done a little fishing. Just very relaxing and nice (plus, of course, since it's a private campground we have cable which has been nice for watching the March Madness basketball games at night). I'm going to throw some pix onto this posting and then do a separate one regarding our trip to Savannah....

Oops - Time to Catch Up!

Gee, I guess with being here for two whole weeks I've gotten a little lazy about keeping my blog up to date. And now, here we are, with only one full day left before we move again. It has been really nice to be here for two weeks - I'm definitely planning slightly longer stays for next year's trip. It's been nice to feel that we have the time to do whatever we want, with no rush or feeling like we "have" to get everything squeezed in. And now, having said that, I can't think of a lot of "big" things that we've done over the past 5 or 6 days. I'm still getting in my AVA walks - I did the one here at Fort Clinch, which was very nice, plus I did the one in the town of Fernandina Beach. It's a nice walk, but basically I had already covered all this ground between this trip and when we were here two years ago. But it would be a great walk for someone new to the area. And I also did the St. Mary's (Georgia) walk today. This is the first one that's actually been kind of a bore - there just isn't anything that spectacular - it's a nice old town, but there isn't really a big historic district with "grand" old houses or anything. On the other hand, this walk was my number TEN, so I get to send in my record book for my first "award" recognition - I'm SO very excited. Actually, it's been a lot of fun doing these walks. I think the next "level" is walks number 11 through 30, and then 31 through 50. I had a couple questions about how to submit my book and get a new one, so I talked to a nice person in Texas today. She said they have LOTS of snowbirds who do the AVA walks; in fact, she said they have a lot of people who actually plan their winter trips around the walks! It would be easy to do, with over 1800 year-round events!
On Friday, Dave and I drove into downtown Jacksonville because there are three separate walks that start at the Omni Hotel downtown, so I wanted to kind of check out the area. It is kind of a neat downtown - as with much cities on a major river, there is a well-developed riverwalk area with lots of bars and restaurants, and some pretty neat looking bridges going over the river. I planned to come back on Sunday and do one of the three walks, but at the last minute decided I'd feel safer walking downtown during the week, when all the buildings are full - when we left Friday evening, it looked like right after 5:00 it gets a little deserted downtown, especially if you go more than a couple blocks from the heart of the city. It's too bad you have to consider things like this, but I want to be sure that I only do walks that I feel safe and comfortable with - so I guess I'll safe these until our next trip through the area.
We DID get to St. Augustine, and, yes, it is really nice! We walked around in the old section for quite a while - Dave actually did fairly well with his bum knee! - and we went through the old "Castile" fort - VERY cool - probably the biggest (and oldest) of the various forts we've visited. We also checked out Anastasia State Park, which everyone kind of raves about, but to tell the truth we weren't overly impressed with the park - the camping lots are really small, and other than its proximity to St Augustine (which is great - it's less than two miles) there isn't a lot else to rave about. I imagine the beach is quite nice - we didn't actually go down to it - but there are a LOT of campgrounds along the Atlantic coast. So we probably won't make a point to try to get into this park next year.
So - let's see - what else have we done? We've gotten in some nice bike rides, some great hiking, and a little bit of kayaking (it's been pretty windy most of the time, and even on the harbor that means whitecaps). There's a cute little bar right outside the park called Sandy Bottoms and we've stopped in there a few times. We've had two nice bonfires. We walked out on the great fishing pier - although we actually haven't seen anyone fishing - we estimated it to be the length of about four football fields - really long! We've done lots of little "errand" type things - watched quite a few movies, caught up with the laundry, etc., etc., And, of course, now that I've started another Davenport class I've spent a fair amount of time doing homework online - but it's been fairly painless so far and I'm already on week #3 (out of 7) so I think I'll make it!
All in all, I guess I haven't done a lot of updating because we've just been doing a lot of "hanging out" - but it's been great. We're hoping to get in one last kayak ride tomorrow if the wind dies down - it's supposed to - and if not, I'll probably find another AVA walk (...have I mentioned I love these?). And then - time to pack up and move up into Georgia. The next park is actually a private campground (as opposed to a state park) - it's on Jekyll Island, which is a really cool place (we were there two years ago for just a day visit and really liked it) so we're kind of looking forward to spending a week on the island. I'll have lots of pictures from there. And, of course, Thursday starts off MARCH MADNESS - and I still have to fill in my brackets, so gotta go! Next update we'll be done with Florida and into Georgia (and only three weeks left in our trip!)...

Jacksonville Beaches

First things first - yesterday was my mother's 82nd birthday - happy birthday, Mom! - and although I wasn't there to share the day in person, Gary and Dolores took her out to dinner and sent me the attached picture - quite a "babe" for 82, huh? And, I tell you, when I'm that age I hope I'm half as alive and vibrant as my mother is! She works four days a week in a Sparta first grade classroom and on the other day she volunteers at Radio Bible Class. Way to go, Mom!

So, meanwhile, we're still down here, doing nothing with any social significance but having a ball nevertheless! On Monday, we did go back over to the beach area - I did another of the AVA walks (the Neptune Beach walk, as opposed to the Atlantic Beach walk that I did last Friday). Dave brought his bike along and rode it all over the place for almost three hours - he loved it! He rode on the beach for a couple miles, which he loves doing, and spent the rest of the time riding up and down the streets that are along the beach front - checking out the beach houses, the bars and restaurants, and no doubt the girls on spring break (but that's ok!). The area is really cool - there are basically three beach areas strung together - Atlantic to the north, then Naptune, then the Jacksonville Beach, which looks like the most popular for vacationers. There are a ton of bars and restaurants, lots and lots of hotels, a great fishing pier from which you can watch all the surfers, etc. My walk was 11K, a little longer than the normal 10K walks, but it was very nice - lots to look at. About the time I was at my further point out (i.e. away from the car) I suddenly heard this voice and, of course, it was Dave - I was amazed that he found me. We were in the middle of Jax Beach (that's what they call it here!) so I took a break from my walk and we went into this really neat bar called Sneakers. It was a really big bar, and it had 3 of the biggest TV screens I've ever seen - almost the size of movie theater screens. Plus it had a big outside patio area so that's where we sat. (I only had a Coke because I didn't want to be sluggish on the remaining three miles of my walk!) I had to do the last two miles walking on the beach and it was just beautiful - the long foamy swells coming in from the ocean were gorgeous, the sun was shining, people were out walking and playing on the beach - it was great. When I got back to the car Dave was just putting his bike on the rack, and then we stopped at this neat little place right on the beach called The Lemon Bar - it was on Lemon Street. I had this wonderful frozen ice cream drink called (of course) the Lemon Bar - it was lemony, but not too tart, and creamy and tasted wonderful after walking 6.5 miles!

Tuesday was supposed to be in the 70's again, but it was overcast so didn't seem quite as nice. We spent the afternoon on a kayak ride right off the beach of the campground. Because we are on the far side of the peninsula, instead of right on the ocean, it was a nice kayak paddle. We paddled up the shore line past some shrimp boats, past the public boat ramp, and then up a large creek and past the marina. Dave has already been out here two or three times and tells me that he's seen dolphins and lots of jelly fish swimming past him, but I didn't spot anything on this trip. But it was fun to change the pace and get out on the water for a few hours.

Today we're going to finally go to St. Augustine, which everybody has told us is a "must." I'm up early doing this post because I needed to get onto the reservation system at 8:00 on the button to make my reservations for our stay starting on Feb 10 next year (you can make reservations for periods starting 11 months from today). The problem is that's the START date, and the person making the reservation then locks up that site for up to the next 14 days. When I went out yesterday to look at the park I was interested in, there were only THREE sites that were opening up for reservations on March 10. So I set the alarm and when my computer clock said 8:00 I hit enter - and I got my spot. After I finalized my reservation with my credit car and stuff I went back to check the other two that had been available and they were already taken - and this was at 8:05AM! Unreal. But I've finally realized this is what you have to do if you want to get into the state parks on the ocean - sounds ridiculous, but you have to do the same thing back home if you want to get into Ludington, so you just plan accordinging (...and set the alarm!).

I'll let you know how we liked St. Augustine...

Park #14 Fort Clinch State Park

Well, we are now at Fort Clinch State Park, on Amelia Island (which is maybe 20 miles north of downtown Jacksonville). The park is just outside of Fernandina Beach, which is a great old town dating back to the early 1800's (maybe earlier???). Anyway - I'm told it's sort of a MINI St. Augustine (which we still haven't visited - but will during this stay). We were here at Fort Clinch two years ago, and really liked it, so we reserved two weeks this time - and I'm really glad we did! It's nice to know we aren't already leaving on Wednesday! The park is exceptionally nice - the sites are ok, not totally great, but the amenities of the park are terrific. There is a great old fort which has "period costume" staff members on weekends - they shoot off the cannon and all that good stuff, and once a month they have a candlelight tour of the fort with just torches and stuff for lighting. We did that two years ago and it was great - not sure we'll be here for one of those during this trip. They also have an ocean-side beach and campground and a huge long fishing pier - it was closed for reconstruction when we were here last, but now it's open and is really cool. On the other side of the park (which is kind of on a peninsula) is the more wooded campground - that's where we are - with another beach area, but not as nice of course as the ocean side. There are miles of trails - they say they are for hiking and biking, but you really have to be into mountain biking to ride them - they are all twisty and turny and have lots of little up-and-down hills and stuff - GREAT for walking on! And there's a nice nature trail that goes around some alligator-type ponds. Just a little bit of everything. Plus it's only a 1.5 mile bike ride into the town, which is very quaint and has some great bars and restaurants. (Of course, it's a 3 mile ride just to get OUT of the park, but still - you can be in town with about 5 miles of biking.)
So - what have we done so far? Well, as usual the weather started off less than great - it was pretty cool (low 50's) on Thursday - so we went into Jacksonville and went to the Zoo. Overall it's a very nice zoo - not the biggest we've ever been to, but very nice - we like how the exhibits are pretty big and "natural" and the visitors sort of go around and over a lot of the exhibits on miles of boardwalks. Plus it was very clean and nicely landscaped and just attractive.
On Friday, I did another of my AVA walks (I'm totally in LOVE with these walks). This time I drove to the southern Jax area and went over to an area called the Atlantic Beach. The walk started at a coffee shop in the town center (which was WAY too cute) and went to the north through some great beach front residential areas and then away from the beach into a beautiful older residential section, with narrow winding roads and lots of old trees - it was really pretty - then it took me back down to the beach itself and I returned to the starting point by walking about two miles of gorgeous beach right on the ocean - VERY nice! Plus, the other cool thing is - there are actually two separate AVA walks that start at the same coffee shop - the other one is Neptune Beach and heads south instead of north from the town center. So tomorrow (Monday) I'm taking Dave there and he's going to ride his bike around while I do the second walk. Dave spent Friday afternoon in the kayak and seemed to enjoy his day even though he didn't catch any fish. He was pretty amazed at how strong the current was along the ocean shoreline and how much he could feel the pull of the receding tide.
So - on Saturday we did the bike ride into Fernandina, which we really enjoy. We rode into town and then just leisurely rode up and down the streets, stopping to watch the boats going in and out. We stopped at the Palace Saloon (which was established in 1878!) for a cold one, and then on the way back to the park we stopped at a little farmer's market that was set up in one of the little city parks along the main road. When we got back by the park entrance Dave wanted to show me a little bar that he had stumbled across on Friday, so we stopped in there for a little while. It's a nice little place, with a great deck looking out over the ocean. It was too cool to sit outside but we plan to return during the week because we are SUPPOSED to be coming up on a warming up spell (...right!). Anyway, when we got back to the park it was really chilly, but we went for a walk along the beach by our campground. We followed the beach around a point and were surprised to see that we were really close to the town - can't quite figure that one out! - and there was a really nice marina and boat ramp - really close to the edge of the state park. We stood out there until it was almost sunset and then realized we'd better hustle back to the park or we'd get caught out walking in the dark (there are no street lights in state parks!). It was a really nice day.
Today (Sunday) was supposed to be warmer, and I guess it was - a little - might have hit 60 degrees. Based on the (incorrect) forecast, Dave had decided to spend the whole afternoon out fishing - which he did, but with no luck (although he had dolphins swimming by him part of the time). I did the AVA walk here at the park - I had picked up the map but waited until today to do the whole 10K walk. It was a little intense - it started out with maybe a mile and a half or two of the hike/bike trails, then around the nature trail loop, then on a paved road over to the ocean-side beach, and then all around the end of the peninsula (on the beach) back to the fort and our campground. It was pretty easy walking on the ocean side because the beach sand is kind of packed down, but on the far side the sand was much softer and I sunk into it a little with each step - and I had a LONG way to walk like that - so it was a little harder than some of my other walks - but I did it and now I get my stamp!!! (Did I mention that I love these AVA walks?)
Tomorrow is supposed to actually be in the low 70's and I'm taking Dave over to the Atlantic Beach area so he can ride and I can do the second walk (I might have already mentioned that) and later this week we are FINALLY going to go to St. Augustine. We are having a really good time and can't believe we are down to only four weeks left. More later!

(PS - that ugly thing is a big old jelly fish - there are dozens of them washed up on the beach - they're almost a foot in diameter and are very rubbery and slimy -yes, I had to touch one. Gross!)

Blue Springs

Well, today is our last day at Blue Springs. It seems like this week (along with many of the previous weeks) has gone by way TOO fast. For the last three years we've kind of followed a protocol of spending one week at a time in a state park and then moving on to the next. People sometimes react as though it must be a lot of hassle to move so often, but in reality it isn't at all - we can set up our site in about 15 minutes and we can be packed up and ready to move out in less than 30 minutes. However, having said that, we have decided that, on future trips, we'll probably stay a little longer - a week-and-a-half or two weeks at each location. It's not the "hassle factor" - it's that we're realizing we simply don't have enough time at each park to enjoy it sufficiently. This park is a great example. I only got out on my kayak one time. I did the very nice bike trail here twice. We never did make it over to the ocean, even though Daytona is really close. We just run out of time! So - for the next trip - longer stays!

OK, having said that, we have enjoyed the rest of our time here. I know I gushed on and on about the kayaking with the manatees thing - and it was GREAT! But the next day my sister Dolores and her husband Gary were stopping in for a visit - they are down here for one week - and I definitely wanted to spend time with them. So Dave and I went on the bike trail for a morning ride (about 8 or 9 miles, I would guess) and then I sent him out onto the lake for some fishing - and when he got back he told me he actually touched one of the manatees - apparently it came up out of the water right next to him, and he simply reached his hand out and stroked its back. How cool! Dolores and Gary came a little later in the afternoon and we took them down to see the manatees in the springs area - they both really enjoyed seeing the manatees and all the fish and were amazed at how clearly everything could be seen through the crystal clear spring water. (I'm attaching a pictures, but it doesn't really convey how clearly you can see the manatees - a camera just doesn't capture it!) Gary and Dolores were flying home on Tuesday, so didn't spend too much time but it was great to have visitors - our only ones for the whole trip, so thanks, guys, for stopping in!

Today was supposed to be rainy, so we just planned on doing little things - we wanted to check out DeLand a little more and find our way around Lake Beresford, plus we had a coupon for McDonalds (which we always want to use, of course!), so we just goofed off all day. Tomorrow we pack up and leave. We feel kind of bad about leaving in one regard - there's been a little black kitten with white paws hanging around (I named him "NIKE" because he looks like he's wearing little white sneakers). We've been putting out cat food for him every day - he looks like he's maybe two or three months old. At first I felt terrible for him - poor little stray - but I think we've seen his momma around here - plus he looks pretty good, not at all skinny, so I think campers probably feed him on a pretty regular basis! There would have been no way to try to catch him anyway - the second he hears us move he scampers. But it's been fun to watch him this week. Probably a good thing we COULDN'T catch him, because I would definitely have wanted to take him home!

Anyway, tomorrow we move up to Amelia Island, just north of Jacksonville. We're looking forward to that, because we've been there before and really love it, and we're staying for two whole weeks - yay!

Park #13-Blue Springs State Park

Well, we are now at Blue Springs, in Orange City, Florida. It's about 35 miles north of Orlando and is a really pretty park! The big attraction here is the MANATEES!!! (More about that in a minute.) Anyway, the park is a really popular destination point and is definitely the most crowded park we've been in, at least as far as the "day use" area. The focal point is the Blue Springs themselves, which are gorgeous - BOY, have we seen a lot of springs during this trip! There is a really nice boardwalk that runs alongside the spring run, for probably a quarter mile or so, maybe even longer. There are also two tour boats that run up and down the river (the St Johns River, actually) three times a day - and there are literally busloads of people who come into the park to see the manatees and go on the cruise. In fact, every day there are cars lined up outside of the park waiting to come in - and they can't GET in until other cars LEAVE the park. It's kind of incredible. Since we've been here, there have probably been somewhere between 20 and 40 manatees in the spring run at any given time - and the water is SO crystal clear that you can see them perfectly. Plus there are a jillion fish in the clear waters, as well as turtles and "fishing" birds - and someone said they saw an alligator swimming in the run a couple days ago. (On the other hand, when Brenda and Arnie stopped at this park during their vacation in January, they said there were probably 150 manatees in the springs - but we are certainly NOT complaining about the number here now!) Anyway, there is also a kayak/canoe rental concession which provides us with a perfect spot for launching.
So - what we've done so far: Wednesday we just got settled in, bought some groceries, picked up some movies, etc. It was kind of a rainy day so we were fine with that. On Thursday, Dave took his kayak out fishing for the afternoon and I did the 6.2 mile (10 K) AVA walk that is actually in the park - not really a great walk, to tell the truth. Part of it was on some nice trails, but the majority of it was on kind of boring service roads running along the outer edge of the park - but I got the stamp for my book! On Friday, Dave did the same thing even though he hadn't had any real luck fishing the previous day - but he told me that the river is so pretty to be out on that he didn't really care. I, in the meanwhile, went into the next little town north of here, called DeLand, and did the AVA walk in the town. I had to get the walkbox at the Volusia County Library. And THIS walk was much, much nicer. It was basically a walk through the historic residential area, through the college campus (Stetson University) and along the main downtown street. The city of DeLand has done an excellent job of renovating their downtown and it is very attractive. Plus, there are some great old homes and mansions. The Stetson mansion was owned by the same man who "invented" the stetson hat - and obviously he also founded the university of the same name. Anyway, I had a great walk and was proud to get my FIFTH stamp in less than two weeks.
Saturday was cold, rainy and windy - NOT nice at all. I told Dave I wanted to show him DeLand because I thought it was so nice, so we took a drive into town - and ended up hitting road blocks. Saturday was actually the first day of the Daytona Bike Week (...motorcycles, that is) - and the first "event" of Bike Week is a rally in DeLand. It was SO sad - they set up a great venue - two live bands, tons of food and merchandise booths, and the downtown is so cute, with a large choice of bars and restaurants - but the weather was AWFUL, so they had about five blocks closed off for the event and there were probably barely 100 or so bikes. We walked around with our umbrellas, but got tired of the weather REALLY fast so headed over to the Beef O-Brady's just outside of town. I felt so bad for the city - they obviously put a huge amount of effort into this one day event, and it just rained ALL day long!
So - today - is Sunday and I finally went out in my kayak and paddled around where Dave had already gone twice - OH MY GOD - it was INCREDIBLE! There were manatees swimming all around us. We had one "pod" of four that we just slowly paddled alongside of for a really long distance - and when I say alongside of, I mean they were swimming so close to my kayak (...on both sides of me) that I could have easily reached out and touched them. It was amazing. They swam under my kayak, and under Dave's, and just gently bobbed up and down to get their air. It was SO cool. I tried to take some pictures, but realized almost immediately that the camera can't begin to capture this experience - the pictures are just gray stuff (which is the back of the manatees but you can't really tell), so I just put the camera away and just enjoyed the experience. It was kind of windy and a little bit cool - probably low 60's - but tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful, with no wind and temps in the low 70's. So I plan to spend almost all of the afternoon on the water, with the manatees - what a great experience!
(Just as an aside - I started an online Forensic Accounting class today, through Davenport, the third of four classes I need to take in order to teach for them. It's great that the technology allows me to take a class while on the road, but now I have to find time to read chapters, do case studies, and participate in online discussions - I hope it doesn't cut into my FUN time too much....!)

Mardi Gras and AVA

What a busy two days. Yesterday I did my first "event" with the AVA - what FUN! It was at Universal Studios in Orlando - the starting point was a Starbucks outside of the attraction, and the route took us around the outside of Universal and then into the grounds - we walked along the City Walk which goes along the waterways in the park. We walked around the grounds of the two huge hotels and past all of the bars/restaurants - Hard Rock, Margaritaville, etc. I got to Starbucks about 9:30 and ended up walking with two guys - one was named Bill - he was 72 and had been doing walks with Volksmarch for over 40 years, starting with walking in Germany when he was in the service. (I forget the others guy's name - this was his first walk too.) It took about two hours to do the whole thing, and it was a really, really pretty and interesting walk. The people at the registration tables were really nice and gave me all kinds of information and insight into doing AVA walks - they all agreed that, with our RV traveling, these walks are a perfect thing for me to do. I am SO looking forward to doing these on a regular basis (hint: I'll be reporting on my next walk later on!)

So after I got back and showered, Dave and I headed up to Leesburg, about 30 miles northwest of here. We had seen an ad for a local Mardi Gras celebration in a little hospitality magazine and decided to give it a shot - and we were SO glad we did. What fun! We got there about 4:00 - at that time, there was a band playing in a bandshell set up in front of the City Hall in Leesburg, and there were dozens of good, greasy food stands and a beer tent. We got a couple chairs, had a beer, ate some junk food, listened to the music and people-watched until 7:00. Then the PARADE started - I had assumed it would be VERY hokey but cute. But in reality it was a very nice parade - lots of floats with people throwing tons of beads, people on stilts, music and dancing girls. VERY cute! And then, after the hour-long parade, we went back to the town square and listened to the second band, which was excellent. It was a blues band named The Bobbly Blackmon band. We stayed for the first set and then decided to head back home - we got back about 10:00 (which is WAY late for us!). We had a lot of fun and would definitely come again should we find ourselves in the area in another year. We were both pretty tired when we got home - that's a BUSY day for us vacationers!

Today was another really nice day - when I got up around 9:00 it was already nice enough to open the outside door and leave it open. Not a big deal, until you realize this is the VERY first day that's been true since we left home in November! After a quick run to Walmart, Dave was planning on taking a long bike ride and then going out fishing for the afternoon. So I decided to do another AVA run! This time I did the Winter Park walk - it was less than 20 miles away and Bill (who I walked with yesterday) had said it was a really nice walk. And it was. It started at the YMCA and wound its way through the college campus, the downtown area, past the cemetery, through a VERY expensive residential area, and along the side of a couple small lakes. It was a very pretty walk - and I got another stamp in my books! I am LOVING having these walks to do and am so glad I came across this program. And what a nice day it turned out to be - I'm sitting here writing my blog and it's still over 70 degrees outside. Finally!

Nice Week at Wekiwa Springs

It IS kind of nice to be here for 10 days instead of our normal seven. Normally tomorrow would be our last full day at this park, but now we have until Wednesday - cool! We've had a nice week here - the only kind of lousy day was Tuesday - it was cool (low 50's) and quite windy, but we decided to go on a bike ride anyway. There is a bike path running through Orange County, called the West Orange Trail, and we wanted to give it a try. It crosses the main road through Apopka (SR 436) via a pretty elaborate overhead bridge - so we parked by that and headed north, but it ended after about 3 miles. So we turned around and headed back the way we came, crossed over the bridge, and then went about five or six miles further south. There was a "station" (which was really just a small local park) at that point, so we turned around there and came back - RIGHT into a pretty strong headwind. We figured we put somewhere between 16 or 18 miles on the bikes, so we were pretty proud of ourselves that we didn't just sit home and sulk about the less-than-perfect weather.

On Wednesday we just stayed in the park for the day - I went on my AVA (American Volksmarch Association) trail again and Dave tried his hand at fishing on the smaller lake on the park property (no luck!). So on Thursday we left again - this time we went to the Central Florida Zoological Park, right outside Sanford (only about 20 miles or so from here, so a quick drive). I noticed that the admission was only $8.95 so I warned Dave that this might be a pretty hokey little zoo - and I was right. But it was cute... a lot of it seems to be geared toward educating children so that's great. There were a number of little school groups being lead through the zoo by zoo employees/volunteers - it was SO cute - they all had their little clipboards and pencils and little "worksheets" so they could get answers to the tough questions like "what does THIS monkey like to do?" (answer: CLIMB). And, yes, we could ALL say the word ENRICHMENT together (that means something we don't NEED but it makes our lives better) - we think the kids were probably in the first grade - adorable. So we spent a few hours there - probably wouldn't recommend it to our friends - except they did have one thing that I thought was pretty cool! They have these "aerial adventure" routes - they consist of ropes and zip lines that you hook up to and then you follow this route through the tree tops - there are ladders and rings and logs and planks and all kinds of things you have to cross as you progress through the route. There was a little one for smaller children - mom and dad could actually walk along with the tykes and zip them in and out - it was probably only four feet off the ground. But the other two were for bigger kids and adults - one is supposed to take 1-1/2 hours and the other one is an hour. They looked like FUN - I can easily see my daughter Brenda and her girls having a RIOT doing these (not Arnie, though!). I never think of myself as too old to do anything, but somehow I wasn't thinking that having a 60 year old grandmother trying to go through the route would be a great idea!

Today was a nicer day - it was in the low 60's with thin high clouds, so we took the kayaks back out into the spring runs again. We went up the Wekiwa Spring run again, but took a left at the "fork" and went up the Rock Spring run a little ways. There was quite a strong current so we didn't go terribly far, but BOY was it pretty. For some reason the water, which is coming out of a spring about seven miles up the run, is quite "orange" in color - the water in some places almost looked RED. This was kind of strange because the water coming out of Wekiwa Springs is crystal clear. Anyway, we floated back down that run and then continued up toward the river a little ways. We got as far as we did on Monday, which was at this landing called Wekiwa Island. What a weird unusual place - but very cool! It's this "party" place right on the edge of the river - they rent kayaks and canoes, and they have a "tiki" bar and all these adirondack chairs set up along the edge of the river where people just come and drink their beer and watch people canoeing. They also have these little cabanas that you can rent - for parties, I guess - with all kinds of things - some have couches, some have TV's - one has a pool table - and they are all out in the open air except for this cabana roof. Crazy. So, of course, we pulled over and sat in the Adirondack chairs and drank a beer and watched the canoers - what else could we do? It was pretty fun! When we got back from kayaking, about 5:00, we went into the big town of Apopka and went to this sports bar called Mug Shots (cute name, huh?) - it was pretty big and turned out to be a hangout for young people - like 20 or so - with lots of video games and stuff. But there were 6 pool tables, so Dave and I played about 4 games. It was fun to shoot some pool again, but it's the strangest feeling to be the "old people" in a place like that - it's like the kids take one glance and realize we're "old" and we basically become invisible. I kind of liked it, because I felt completely comfortable playing pool with other people around - I KNEW no one was watching us! But it's a strange feeling...

So - tomorrow - Saturday - is my son's birthday (...happy birthday, Alan)
and I will be doing my first AVA "event"! There is a 10K walk in Orlando, around the Universal properties, and because it's a one-day event it will be staffed, so I can get my new walker package with my record books and get my first "official" stamp. I'm SO excited (...is this kind of weird???). I'll let you know how I do (me and the six other 75-year-old walkers)....

PS - I'm also attaching a picture of our little Olympic athlete - she is a contender in the "dash-boarding" competition and is doing SO well. It seems like each time we move from one park to the next, Vixen is getting braver and braver about sitting up on the dash board for the first few miles - it is SO cute!

Park #12-Wekiwa Springs State Park

Yesterday (Sunday) we moved from Silver River down to Wekiwa Springs. Wekiwa is about 60 miles south of Silver River, in Apopka (so, yes, we backtracked a little, which is sort of against our religion!). We kept busy the last couple days at Silver River, in spite of the fact that it never did really warm up very much - probably topped out in the upper 50's. On Friday, we went to this huge flea market - called the Marion Market (named after the county it's in). It was absolutely pouring all day, but there were still a jillion people at the market - it's under a roof, so was probably one of the only things for people to do on such a lousy day. Knowing us, nobody will be surprised that we didn't buy much - but Dave did buy a big thick yellow tow rope. The package said it was 14 feet, which is exactly what he needed to more securely tie down the front of the kayaks to the front bumper of the car. But when he went to attach it (the next day) it turned out to only be 12 feet long - so we assumed that's why it was at the flea market, and for only $5!!! (PS - made in China!) By Saturday morning it had stopped raining, so we took a trip over to Rainbow Springs State Park, just to check it out. What a nice surprise - it was SO pretty! It was a beautiful clear springs, surrounded by gorgeous landscaping - lots of flowering bushes, with some man-made waterfalls and stuff - we had no idea what this whole thing was all about (because state parks are NEVER this "fancy") - but then we found out that it actually used to be a private "attraction" back in the early part of the 1900's. They had some really cute examples of postcards and brochures from back when it was a big tourist attraction. The state of Florida ended up buying it in the 1970's (...I think, anyway) and turned it into a state park. We spent about two hours just walking around in it - it was very cool. The campground is actually located about six miles away and we somehow missed the turnoff but decided not to go back. I was disappointed that I hadn't brought my camera - but we had just intended to do a quick "check" on the park and I wasn't expecting it to be someplace we'd spend so much time at. Anyway, when we got back to our park, we went down and got the kayaks - WHAT a long haul to pull them back up to the parking lot - not sure we'd do this again, at least not without some type of cart or something for pulling them. Then we went out to Sonny's Bar-B-Que for our big Valentine's dinner - actually, we both really like this local franchise - they have EXCELLENT pulled pork and barbecued chicken. Then it was good-bye to park #11 and on to park #12.

So Sunday morning we packed up and made the 70 mile drive down here to Wekiwa. It was actually quite pleasant and very sunny, so an easy day for driving. I had some concerns about whether this was going to be a nice park, especially since we are staying here for 10 (rather than our normal 7) days. But now we think it's going to be great! The park is based around another of the beautiful springs that are so common here in central Florida (our next park is Blue Springs, and then we'll be done with springs for this trip!). There is an excellent canoe/kayak launching area and it is NOT a half-mile trip from the parking lot (which is a relief!). In fact, that's what we did today - we went out onto the springs run for about 2 to 2-1/2 hours - VERY pretty! We saw two alligators and also two otters, which are really fun to see out in the wild. Because it was President's Day (so no school) there were a LOT of kids and families out on the water. We don't mind this, of course, but we agreed that it'll be fun to go back out in a couple days when the river is a little quieter! It was actually VERY nice today - YAY - in the mid-70's and really sunny and clear until late afternoon (then it clouded over and rained just a little). In the morning (before our kayak ride) I went out for a hike on one of the trails and Dave went on an hour-and-a-half bike ride. The trails here are EXCELLENT - in fact, one of them is a Volksmarch trail so I plan to do that one and get my stamp! For anyone not familiar with this, Volksmarch is a non-profit organization that originated in Europe years and years ago and is intended to promote walking events for health and family enjoyment - there are hundreds of AVA (American Volkssport Association) walks across the county and throughout the whole world. You can either join a chapter or just walk in any of the events on your own - and you can either just walk them for free, or you can pay a small registration fee and then get a stamp to put into your record log. Once you reach a certain number of events and/or a certain number of miles, you can "trade up" to a more advanced record log, get awards and patches, etc. It's just for fun, but it kind of gives you another reason to go for walks in places you wouldn't normally go. Some of the events are date-specific, but many are year-round, i.e. the trail or route is just there and you can do it whenever you want (this is how the trail here is set up). Most of the trails are 10 kilometers, which is 6.2 miles, but many of them also have a 5K option available. Some of the walks are in places like state parks, but a lot of them are a walking route through a town or city - in fact, there was a Volksmarch event during Art Prize in Grand Rapids! I know there is a chapter in Holland and I'm seriously thinking about joining it when I get home! (Anyone interested???) So, we're looking forward to the rest of our time here and are THRILLED to see that it's supposed to get up into the 70's in a couple days and supposedly STAY there - but we'll see!

Park #11-Silver River State Park

I know no one from Michigan or Ohio will feel sorry for us, but we continue to be disappointed by the weather this year. This trip will definitely go on record as the lousiest weather year for us! We are now at Silver River State Park, which is right outside of Ocala, Fl. The park is gorgeous - just as we remembered from being here two years ago. The sites here are about the biggest sites we've ever seen - Dave thinks our site is probably almost an acre of ground - and they're really nice, with a nice level gravel pad for parking the rig. We're here from last Sunday to this Sunday. We had an easy 70 mile run up to here, from Lake Louisa, and watched the SuperBowl (after fiddling with the satellite for a while). The Saints won - YAY! Monday was still a pretty nice day - close to 70 with sunny skies. The park is right outside this Ocala National Forest, which is a huge tract of land (383,000 acres!) with numerous lakes (600 according to the brochure!). We picked a nice lake to spend the day at - Half Moon Lake. When we were here two years ago, we visited quite a few of the lakes so had a pretty good idea what to expect. The lake itself was very pretty, but we had to go forever down this long, very bumpy road to get to the boat ramp. We spent the afternoon paddling (me) and fishing (Dave), and we built a nice fire when we got back to the site since Tuesday was supposed to be rainy. And BOY were they right - it poured almost all afternoon. We kind of killed the day with running around - we took a drive up to Salt Springs, in the national forest, to check out the campground (...not!). Then we went into Ocala and picked up a bunch of movies and stopped at one of our favorite bars - the Beef O'Brady (which is a franchise down here). We sat at the bar and got talking to this nice couple who live around here. They have 14 year old twins and were a wealth of information about the local and surrounding areas - they knew a lot about the whole "nature coast" over by Crystal River and Cedar Key. We will definitely be going back there on our next trip down this way! Anyway - it was kind of fun to just sit and chat with people - we always enjoy that.

It wasn't raining on Wednesday, but it was pretty cool - like mid-50's. We ran errands - found the Toyota dealership and got the oil changed, found a petstore and got catfood and kitty litter - all kinds of fun stuff like that (...do we have an exciting life down here or WHAT?). When we got back here we dragged the kayaks down to the landing on the Silver River so we could go for a paddle on Thursday. And when I say dragged, I mean it - the landing on the river is a good half mile from the parking area. Whew! This is the only thing we don't care for about this park - there isn't an easy way to get your boats in. We could have driven down to the public launching area, but then we would have had to load the kayaks back up - plus we wanted to paddle up into the actual springs and the state park landing is the half way point (i.e. if we put in at the public launch we'd have to paddle all the way up to the state park and then about the same distance again to get into the springs). So we dragged them! Anyway - today (Thursday) we spent the whole afternoon out on the river - and it was well worth the effort. What a beautiful river - it is crystal clear and there was no wind at all (compared to yesterday). It was still cool - again in the mid-50's - so we were kind of bundled up, but what a nice paddle. It's kind of different, because the springs are in the Silver Springs Nature Preserve Park, which is a commercial park that people pay admission to get into - we did this two years ago and it was very nice. There are glass-bottomed tour boats that take people all around the springs and everything, plus there are a couple of rides and lots of animals in cages to look at. The park and the springs are quite interesting - a number of movies and TV shows were filmed here, including a bunch of the old Tarzan movies and the Sea Hunt TV shows with Lloyd Bridges (doesn't that date us???). As I said, the park is a commercial enterprise - but they don't own the actual WATER - so people can come up the river in boats and stuff and paddle around and there's nothing they can do about it. It's so weird - you're paddling around inside of this park and there are all these tour boats in the river with you, with tourists all over the place - and there you are in your litttle kayak. Kind of funny! Anyway - the springs are really beautiful, deep and clear and a gorgeous turquoise color - I'm attaching a picture and I hope some of the color comes through. And FISH - oh my God, there were hundreds and hundreds of fish and we could see them like we were sitting on top of an aquarium - SO cool! We saw lots of turtles just swimming around underneath us and all kinds of different fish, including some really big alligator gars. There were also tons of birds, but we didn't see any alligators this time - probably too cold - nor did we see any monkeys. (There is a "colony" of wild monkeys along this river - they were accidentally turned loose in the woods years and years ago and populated like crazy. When we were down here two years ago we saw dozens of them, but I think they must be downriver from where we were today). Anyway - we went out onto the river before 1:00 and didn't get back to the landing until after 5:00 - we were pretty chilly but had a wonderful afternoon. I'm proud of us that we just keep finding stuff to do even though the weather is less than ideal - we just keep reminding ourselves that we're in Florida, it is sunny, and there isn't any snow! We have a few more days here, then we move on to park #12 - unreal!

Park #10-Lake Louisa State Park

Well, it's already time to leave our 10th park. We're at Lake Louisa State Park, in Clermont. The park is about 25 miles straight west of Orlando - it was about a 100 mile drive to get here from Fort DeSoto. We got here on Wednesday and only stayed four days - normally we stay either 7 or 14 days at each park, but I had a little scheduling trouble with the next couple parks so had to piece together a slightly different pattern. Florida state parks allow you to make reservations eleven months in advance, and for some parks if you don't get your reservations in that early you're going to have trouble getting in. It's crazy! So - anyway - we were here at Lake Louisa two years ago and weren't overly fond of the park for some reason - this was when Florida was having drought conditions so the lakes here were really low and we weren't able to use the kayaks and Dave wasn't able to fish from the docks. Plus, it seemed like there were a jillion rangers just riding around and around so we had to be VERY careful about letting Foster outside without his leash on (which we sometimes were kind of "casual" about since he was SUCH a good dog). So I booked us in here as a short "filler" in between other parks - but to our surprise we have really enjoyed our time here this year! The water levels are back up, so the lakes were much nicer, and Dave had good luck with fishing. The park is really large - 4,500 acres! - and the campground is almost 3 miles back from the main entrance, so Dave was able to get in long, hard bike rides every day. Plus there are over 23 miles of trails so I got in hours of hiking (which is still weird for me without Foster, especially since I hiked a lot of the trails two years ago WITH him). There are six lakes within the park, plus lots of smaller "ponds", and there are lots of rolling hills and many different types of habitat - it is a REALLY pretty park. For some reason I didn't take any pictures - I think maybe because it's so big that there isn't a single shot that would begin to capture the "whole". The campground is also very nice - large open lots and a gorgeous bathroom (...it's amazing how you become a very critical judge of bathrooms on these trips - it's one of the first things we report back to each other on when we get into a new park). Because there were so many things to do in the park, we didn't really do any "day trips" out of the park at all, other than to drive back to Plant City today to pick up my new glasses (...I can SEE again!). One other thing happened here - there's a guy here who has a beautiful Samoyed that he walks every day (a Samoyed is virtually identical to an American Eskimo, just a little bigger). The second day I went out and asked the guy if I could pet his dog - she was a 51 pound female and was really sweet - she was five years old and just loved being petted. She stood there and leaned up against me while I petted her. I stood there for about 15 minutes, talking to the guy - he was quite nice - and of course told him about losing Foster. After about 15 minutes I found myself starting to tear up and told him that I was going to go now, and have myself a little cry. He was very sympathetic and totally understood - he actually has always had Samoyeds and his last one just died about a year ago at the age of 12. It was so nice to just crouch down and hug her and pet her, and I think it was good for me overall. I'm kind of amazed by how painful Foster's death still is for us - we lost him on January 2nd, so it's been just over a month. OK - back to the park... We had quite good weather these last four days other than it being quite windy, so we just enjoyed the heck out of being outside in the sun - I'm actually get a LITTLE bit of tan on my arms - YAY! Dave, of course, is brown as an Indian. So tomorrow (SuperBowl!) we leave this park and go about 75 miles north to Silver River State Park, another one of our favorites from two years ago. We plan to get there early in the afternoon, make a run out for junk food (which we almost NEVER do!) and then have our own two-person SuperBowl party - I'm pulling for New Orleans and Dave's for the Indianapolis Colts, so it should be fun. The next update will be from park #11 already!

Time to Leave Fort DeSoto

It's Tuesday night - tomorrow we leave for Lake Louisa. Other than somewhat disappointing weather, our stay at Fort DeSoto has been just great. We really like it here and will definitely return at some point in the future. To go back a couple days - Sunday was predicted to be kind of rainy and cooler, so we kept our plans pretty low key. There was a street Art Fair out on St. Pete's Beach so we went there in the afternoon. We had been looking for some nice wind chimes recently and ended up finding a nice set at the fair - they were hand-made (or should I say assembled?) by a woman from Minnesota. We ended up chatting with her and her husband for a little while, and after we bought the chimes she had to give us each a big hug - apparently she is a VERY "huggy" type of person! Then we stopped at a billiards hall named "Stix" and played pool for a couple of hours. This was the first time we ever played at a hall like this, and it was actually pretty fun! There were 12 tables there, and only one other one was being used, so it was nice and private.

Monday was also not supposed to be very nice, so we just hung out at the park most of the day - Dave went fishing, while I went for a nice long walk and did some reading. Later in the afternoon we went back to Billy's-on-the-Water and had dinner. It was fun to just sit there for a while and watch the sunset and chat with our waitress (who was from Flint).

Today was really fun - we went into Tampa and spent the afternoon at the Lowry Park Zoo. I kind of picked it because there was a chance of scattered rain and I thought the zoo would be a good way to spend an "iffy" afternoon - I wasn't expecting too much because I could tell the zoo was pretty old. But, boy, it was REALLY nice. And because the weather was kind of cool and overcast there were hardly any people there at all! We spent about four hours just strolling around, enjoying the exhibits. There were a number of babies, which are always fun to watch. There was an adorable baby hippo with its mother. There were elephants, giraffes, rhinos, white tigers, etc. The exhibits were pretty cool, especially the Asian and African sections. We both enjoy seeing different kinds of birds - and there was one really different bird that we didn't remember ever seeing before. Dave asked one of the attendants what it was and he told us it was a Shoebill - and that there are only about 11 or 12 of them in the country. The last section we went through was the monkeys and apes - and the last exhibit we saw was the orangutans (...not sure if that's how it's spelled!). While we were looking at the mother one, holding its little baby in her arms, a zookeeper walked by us and the mother orangutan grabbed a couple handsful of POOP and threw it at us - hard! It was pretty funny - Dave was jumping around trying to avoid it. We asked the zookeeper what THAT was all about and he said that they normally only throw stuff at the zookeepers, so we agreed that in the future we should avoid standing by one of them! On our way back to the park we agreed that this was one of the nicer zoos we've visited (and we REALLY like going to zoos) and we would definitely come back here again. On the way back, crossing over all the bridges and seeing all of the water, we kind of said "good-bye" to the Gulf - we'll be leaving early tomorrow morning and will be heading to the center of the state. It was nice to spend time in this area and on one of our next trips we'll probably try to come back here and probably spend two weeks the next time - and we'll hope for better weather the next time!