Sax On The Road

Those of you who have known us for awhile know that we like to go on cruises. Although our lifestyle has changed significantly over the last 4+ years, the desire to get out on the water still exists and so every now and then we like to get off the land and set out to sea. We last took a cruise in the later part of 2021 while some COVID restrictions were still in place (testing to get on board, masks worn while indoors, etc.). We tried what was for us a “larger” ship in Azamara mainly because we knew the captain and the fare was a real steal.

Fast forward to last December and a deal popped up for our favorite “cruise” line which is really too small to be called a cruise ship. In fact, they refer to it as “Yachting, not cruising”. They are called Seadream Yacht Club and it consists of two ships that can carry up to 112 passengers and 95 crew. Over the years, we’ve spent 75 days on board these yachts sailing the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and even a trans Atlantic cruise. So, we decided to book a 7 day April trip on Seadream I which would start in St. Thomas and end in San Juan.

On Friday, April 14th we departed on a morning flight to St. Thomas, an island we had visited twice before but never really explored. Fun fact: We spent our honeymoon back in 1987 on St. Thomas! We were picked up by Harmonie, who would also be our tour guide of the island on Saturday before we embarked. She drove us up to our hotel, Mafolie which provided a great view of the harbor and also had a great bar and restaurant attached.

View from our room at Hotel Malfolie

Bar at hotel

Charlotte Amalie and the harbor from restaurant

Saturday morning was an early wake up so we could enjoy breakfast and be ready for pick up at 9:00 am for a tour of the island. We were greeted with a beautiful sunrise and the sight of Seadream I coming into port.

Sunrise from our room

Our ship/yacht coming in

We toured most of the island, visiting beaches and mountains and everything in between. We fed goats and had a drink on the water. We even saw Seadream I in port. It was a full 5 hours of history, stories and views.

At 2 PM we arrived dockside and after a very quick check in and a run thru a brief shower, we were welcomed on board with champagne and smiling faces. The ship had received a total refresh and it looked great!

By 5 PM we were loaded up with 72 passengers and on our way, next stop just a short hop over to St John.

Now, it’s at this point that we need to share an interesting story that was to follow us throughout the week of our cruise. We’ll tell the story as it unfolded so you’ll follow along on this amusing and confusing tale. After our first night’s dinner, we made our usual stop at the piano bar on deck 4. George was there playing songs and offering others to sing along if they wished. Andre was behind the bar pouring and mixing drinks upon request (see above chocolate martini as exhibit 1). All was good and as it should be. And then entered mystery woman with a very unique companion. She approached the bar and left an item on the stool next to Dan. And thus we had met “Barbie”.

Now, we weren’t exactly sure what to make of this. We kind of chuckled and whispered thoughts with another couple at the bar. Is this a joke? Is this an Emotional Support Doll (ESD)? We weren’t really sure what to say or do so we just had another drink!

Later, the woman decided to bring out Barbie for all to see and so Barbie could enjoy the bar some more.

Soon, the woman and her companion left the piano bar and the conversation really picked up at that point. The bartender was besides himself, never having seen anything like this in all his time working a bar. As the evening ended, the conjecture (and activities related to Barbie) continued but we said our good nights and headed to our cabin.

Sunday morning dawned cloudy with scattered showers as we approached St. John Island. Dan had signed up for a snorkeling trip to Trunk Bay, one of the best beaches on St. John and thus he was up early to capture our approach and anchoring.

At breakfast, we were able to get the latest on the Barbie escapades. Evidently, after we left, somehow Barbie was kidnapped. A ransom note was left behind requiring that $3 in unmarked bills be left at the bar and she would be returned. And supposedly that happened.

Dan took the tender into town where everyone was picked up for the shuttle to the beach. As skies cleared, they were able to see some of the beautiful scenery that makes St. John so special.

Along the way, they passed by the remnants of Caneel Bay Resort. The Rockefellers bought the property back in 1952 and opened up what came to be known as the Caneel Bay Resort. The resort officially opened, along with the Virgin Islands National Park, on Dec. 1, 1956. In 1960, Rockefeller donated the Caneel Bay Resort to the Jackson Hole Preserve, Inc., a nonprofit conservation organization.

In September 1983, Rockefeller decided that he wanted the property turned over to the National Park Service on September 30, 2023. It was then that he crafted the language for the Retained Use Estate agreement (RUE), which the property continues to operate under today. Under the RUE’s terms, the resort could be passed down to subsequent parties until it was handed over to the National Park Service in September 2023.

When Hurricane Irma hit St. John on Sept. 6, 2017, it devastated the island, Caneel Bay included. The once-posh resort was left in ruins. The resort’s operator, CBI Acquisition, opted not to rebuild without an extension of the RUE. They tried to get an extension through an Act of Congress, and it failed. At present, no one can venture onto the property or enjoy the pristine beach and waters due to hazards and safety issues. The NPS is still working to determine what will be done with the land when it officially transfers over this September.

Upon arriving at Trunk Bay, Dan picked up snorkel and fins and headed to the beach. The beach is wide and beautiful with a small bunch of islands in the middle of the bay. The Trunk Bay Snorkel Trail covers the left side of these islands. The underwater trail at Trunk Bay introduces visitors to the magically colorful world of the coral reef. Visitors snorkel along above the trail and read the underwater signs to learn about the many animals that depend on the coral and ways to protect these fragile reefs. We were free to wander over to the islands to get up close views of the coral and fish in the crystal clear water. It nice refreshing morning swim.

After an enjoyable swim, it was time to shuttle back to port and then tender back to Seadream just in time for lunch. It is a regular tradition for Dan to have the lunch special on the first full day onboard which is always mussels. That day was no exception. The rest of the day was spent relaxing in “The Office” and at the pool while the ship remained anchored. Later we departed for Nevis and St. Kitts for a day anchored offshore and a dinner on the beach (more on that to come).

Our approach to St Kitts was beautiful, with a larger cruise ship pacing ahead of us (but bound for a stop farther ahead since they could not stop at this small port).

We had no plans for this day so we remained on board and just enjoyed out time on deck as well as a nap or two. Dan wasn’t feeling great by that evening (a bit of a tummy ache, nothing big) so we decided to pass on the dinner ashore. This is something new for Seadream and we were bummed to miss it but just didn’t think we’d enjoy it much since we would be tendered over for pre-dinner drinks, dinner, and then entertainment after – just too long an evening for us. As it turns out, that was a very fortuitous decision as we found out the next day that the entire landing party was attached by swarms of mosquitos for about the first 1 1/2 hours. For the rest of the cruise, we would see evidence of that evening in the huge number of bites we saw on quests’ legs. It sounded like a mixed outcome where some still enjoyed while others could not overcome the idea that they had become the dinner that evening.

Tuesday found us approaching Saint Barthélemy, otherwise known as St. Barts. Saint Barts, a French-speaking Caribbean island, is known for its white-sand beaches and designer shops. The capital, Gustavia, encircling a yacht-filled harbor, has high-end restaurants and shops.

Dan was up early again to watch the approach and anchoring in Gustavia harbor. The Captain was kind enough to invite him onto the Bridge to watch as they maneuvered into the anchorage

One thing that makes Seadream so special is the relationship and bonds that are made between guests and crew. The crew seems to instantly know your name and figures out your preferences within your first day on board. As the trip progresses, we are able to have lots of conversations with the crew, learning more about them and their family. With nearly a one to one ration of guest to crew, it is easy to get to know everyone onboard.

One such crew is Mikee, one of the guys who is always there to serve you whether it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner. He has a great attitude and sense of humor. Dan discovered this in particular on Tuesday at breakfast. He requested a fruit plate and received what you see below:

As Dan struggled to figure out what he had gotten wrong, another crew snuck up behind Mikee with a dish closer to expectations. We all had a great laugh and this type of banter continued the entire cruise.

During breakfast, we found out that Barbie had again disappeared. Upon arriving at the concierge desk, we discovered where she had gone.

We’re not sure how she ended up there but her owner soon came by and found her and was later seen at the pool looking extremely happy.

While at the pool, we ended up sitting next to two of the ladies from the group that included Barbie’s friend. We were able to get a lot of additional information at this point. Evidently, this was a group of 6 women who were celebrating the 60th birthday of one of them. They evidently like to travel a lot as friends and have a lot of fun and do silly things along the way. In this case, the lady in question had never had an Barbie doll in the past and just showed up at the yacht with the doll (who we discovered is named “Sassy”). At this point, one of the women informs us that she, in fact, was the kidnapper and they were still keeping this a secret. Her friend had no idea and was still trying to figure who the culprit was. We had quite an enjoyable conversation and lots of laughs about the whole Barbie doll thing.

Our other entertainment was a sailing regatta that was going on near the anchorage. We really couldn’t figure out what was going on but it was nice to see all the sailboats cruising thru the waters off our starboard side.

Wednesday found us with an early arrival at Philipsburg in St. Maarten. This island is split in half, one part being Dutch and the other side being French. We arrived ahead of two much bigger cruise ships which helped to appreciate the size differences (yes, size does matter but bigger isn’t always better).

We had originally planned to take a tour of the island but changed our mind and just caught a water taxi into town. We got out ahead of most of the people on the other ships which meant town was still pretty empty. We strolled along the shops and restaurants as well as the beach but didn’t really find anything we were interested in and headed back to the ship.

Days on board are very relaxing wherever you are. You can relax by the pool or hot tub on the stern, find a place in the shade at a table at Top of the Yacht Bar, get a massage at the spa, or take a nap in your cabin. We tended to hang out at the pool or bar and always had a few people to chat with. Even after so many trips, we still find things that are new to us. Such as this unique rule at the hot tub…

We always enjoyed the food on board which is 5-star perfect. Sometimes we’d eat indoors at the restaurant on Deck 2 (our first evening we ate with the Captain) and when weather permitted, we’d eat outside under the stars. We didn’t get many pics of our food, too busy eating it. But here’s a pic of one of our desserts…yum!

Thursday morning found us anchoring off of Virgin Gorda for the big tour of the trip – a visit to The Baths.

The Baths is situated about 1.2 miles south of the town of Spanish Town at the southern tip of the island between Spring Bay and Devil’s Bay. The Baths is an area of unique geologic formations and one of the BVI’s major tourist destinations.

Although volcanism accounts for much of the Virgin Islands, The Baths was formed by granite that eroded into piles of boulders on the beach. Granite forms from the slow cooling of magma at depths nowhere close to surface volcanoes. The granite only appears at the surface after geologic ages have eroded away all the overburden covering it. Once exposed, erosion continued to isolate the granite into large boulders and round their surfaces. The boulders form natural tidal pools, tunnels, arches, and scenic grottoes that are open to the sea. The largest boulders are about 40 feet long.

Since 1990, the area has been a BVI National Park as are the adjacent bays, and the area is a major tourist attraction, with swimming and snorkeling being the main attractions. It is a very dry landscape on the approach, with cactus being the main type of growth. Before entering The Baths, we arrived at a lovely isolated beach at Devil’s Bay. After a short swim, we headed into The Baths where at times we were climbing up and over boulders, crouching down and thru cracks, and walking thru knee deep water. After about a 30 minute walk, we arrived at the other end which had another beach and a place to grab a cold beer before heading back.

We made it back to the ship in time for lunch and another chapter in the Barbie/Sassy story. The group of ladies that included the one with the doll had lunch at the table next to us. Sassy was getting a champagne shampoo by having her head dunked in a glass of bubbly. At one point they left for a few minutes and at that time Sassy was left on the table alone to dry out and one of the bartenders decided it was time to hide her again. Before long, the women returned and immediately started asking where Sassy had gone (even Dan was a suspect). The bartender fessed up to the crime and for his punishment, had to hold Sassy in his hands while having his apology taped by the owner.

As we finished lunch, the yacht maneuvered to our next destination, White Bay off of Jost Van Dyke in the BVI’s. Dan wandered up towards to bridge to catch the sunset and was lucky enough to be present for couple renewing their marriage vows for the 10th anniversary. We enjoyed cocktails outdoors on the pool deck as we arrived at our anchorage off the beach.

Friday dawned sunny with a beautiful view of the beach and where we would be enjoying a barbecue and the famous champagne and caviar splash. This is a huge logistical challenge for the crew as all food and supplies have to be taken over in the morning before passengers can then be shuttled over to the beach in zodiac boats for a wet landing. There were plenty of beach chairs and umbrellas and the water was wonderful. At one point, we took a walk down the beach to the Soggy Dollar but otherwise hung out on our part of the beach enjoying pain killers.

We enjoyed one more wonderful dinner as the ship set sail for our port of disembarkation, San Juan Puerto Rico. After dinner it was one more round of the bars (Piano and TOY) and the culmination of the trip – the reveal of the kidnapper. It was announced that one of the women in the group had actually been the kidnapper and Sassy’s owner never knew (she still suspected Dan or the bartender!). And we found out that the group always likes to have a little fun on their trips and this was just a silly idea she had cooked up prior to departing on this one. Definitely an additional bit of entertainment for all.

This is always the saddest evening as you are required to have all your bags packed up and out in the hallway before you go to sleep. Luckily, we still had a full day and night in San Juan before we headed back to Atlanta so we had one more day of fun! We had an early wake up as everyone was expected to be off the ship by around 8:30 due to local customs and immigration rules. That was OK for us as we caught an Uber to our hotel (La Terrazza de San Juan) to drop our bags, have a coffee and then meet up for a 10 am food tour of Old San Juan.

Old San Juan, founded in 1521, is home to the San Juan National Historic Site, with buildings dating from the 16th century, including the San Felipe del Morro and San Cristóbal fortresses and the old city walls. The Bautista Cathedral houses the tomb of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. Brightly colored houses line cobbled streets and shady plazas, alongside cool cocktail bars and renowned Caribbean fusion restaurants.

On our tour we learned about the history of the city and island, the many nationalities that came and how they influenced the culture, and tasted a variety of foods including local coffee, mofongo and the pina colada. In fact, we made our own mofongo which is a uniquely Puerto Rican dish with plantains as its main ingredient. Plantains are picked green, cut into pieces and typically fried but can be boiled or roasted, then mashed with salt, garlic, broth, and olive oil in a wooden pilón (mortar and pestle). The goal is to produce a tight ball of mashed plantains that will absorb the attending condiments and have either pork cracklings (chicharrón) or bits of bacon inside (although ours had chicken). It is traditionally served with fried meat and chicken broth soup.

Since Jill did not want her pina colada, Dan got to enjoy two on the tour! Although it is agreed that the drink was invented in Puerto Rico, exactly where and by whom is still disputed to this day.

The Caribe Hilton Hotel claims Ramón “Monchito” Marrero created the Piña Colada in 1954 while a bartender at the hotel. According to this account, Marrero finally settled upon the recipe for the Piña Colada, which he felt captured the true nature and essence of Puerto Rico. The hotel was presented with a proclamation in 2004 by Puerto Rico Governor Sila M. Calderón celebrating the drink’s 50th anniversary.

Barrachina, a restaurant in Puerto Rico, says that “a traditional Spanish bartender Don Ramon Portas Mingot in 1963 created what became the world’s famous drink: the Piña Colada.”

In 1978, Puerto Rico proclaimed the cocktail to be its official drink.

We checked into our hotel that afternoon after walking several miles and having very full bellies. Later, as rain swept in over the city, we enjoyed some cocktails at the hotel bar, strolled around town and grabbed a bite at a local bar.

Sunday dawned sunny, hot and humid. We had booked a late flight back to Atlanta which allowed us to have a laid back first half of the day. While Jill remained at the hotel enjoying breakfast, Dan walked over to one of the fortresses and thru Old Town one more time to see a few more things. The highlight of the walk was a visit around the exterior of the Castillo San Felipe del Morro also known as El Morro. El Morro is a citadel built between 16th and 18th centuries.

Lying on the northwestern most point of the islet of Old San Juan, Castillo San Felipe del Morro is named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. The fortification, also referred to as el Morro or ‘the promontory,’ was designed to guard the entrance to the San Juan Bay, and defend the Spanish colonial port city of San Juan from seaborne enemies.

In 1983, the citadel was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in conjunction with the San Juan National Historic Site. Over two million visitors a year explore the castillo, making it one of Puerto Rico’s leading tourist attractions. Facing the structure, on the opposite side of the bay, a smaller fortification known as El Cañuelo complemented the castillo’s defense of the entrance to the bay.

After the fortress, Dan traveled back thru Old Town, stopping off at the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista where Juan Ponce de Leon is interred.

Juan Ponce de León was a Spanish explorer and conquistador known for leading the first official European expedition to Florida and serving as the first governor of Puerto Rico. He was born in Santervás de Campos, Valladolid, Spain, in 1474. Though little is known about his family, he was of noble birth and served in the Spanish military from a young age. He first came to the Americas as a “gentleman volunteer” with Christopher Columbus’s second expedition in 1493.

By the early 1500s, Ponce de León was a top military official in the colonial government of Hispaniola, where he helped crush a rebellion of the native Taíno people. He was authorized to explore the neighboring island of Puerto Rico in 1508 and to take office as the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish crown in 1509. While Ponce de León grew quite wealthy from his plantations and mines, he faced an ongoing legal conflict with Diego Colón, the late Christopher Columbus’s son, over the right to govern Puerto Rico. After a long court battle, Columbus replaced Ponce de León as governor in 1511. Ponce de León decided to follow the advice of the sympathetic King Ferdinand and explore more of the Caribbean Sea.

In 1513, Ponce de León led the first known European expedition to La Florida, which he named during his first voyage to the area. He landed somewhere along Florida’s east coast, then charted the Atlantic coast down to the Florida Keys and north along the Gulf coast; historian John Reed Swanton believed that he sailed perhaps as far as Apalachee Bay on Florida’s western coast. Though in popular culture he was supposedly searching for the Fountain of Youth, there is no contemporary evidence to support the story, which most modern historians consider a myth.

Ponce de León returned to Spain in 1514 and was knighted by King Ferdinand, who also reinstated him as the governor of Puerto Rico and authorized him to settle Florida. He returned to the Caribbean in 1515, but plans to organize an expedition to Florida were delayed by the death of King Ferdinand in 1516, after which Ponce de León again traveled to Spain to defend his grants and titles. He did not return to Puerto Rico for two years.

In March 1521, Ponce de León finally returned to Southwest Florida with the first large-scale attempt to establish a Spanish colony in what is now the continental United States. However, the native Calusa people fiercely resisted the incursion, and Ponce de Léon was seriously wounded in a skirmish. The colonization attempt was abandoned, and he died from his wounds soon after returning to Cuba in early July. He was interred in Puerto Rico; his tomb is located inside the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista in San Juan. If there was a Fountain of Youth, he never found it and it wouldn’t have helped him with his wounds, that’s for sure.

At noon we checked out and left our bags at the hotel and walked up the street to a marvelous place for Sunday brunch. After one last meal, we were off to the airport and arrived back in Atlanta around midnight and settled back into our own land yacht.

it was a wonderful time away and reminded us how much we enjoy our cruises (oops, yachting) on Seadream.

You know that you’ve had a good and busy time when you haven’t had time to update your travel blog for over a month! And it’s true, we’ve been having a great time traveling through parts of Florida from the panhandle to the west coast, to the center of the state (we’ll get to the east coast soon). So, let’s catch everyone up!

On January 10th, we loaded up the RV and headed south, first stop being Eastpoint, Florida. This is a very small town to the east of Apalachicola with St. George Island just across the sound. We stayed at a nice campground across the road from the water (no beach, unfortunately) and had a good week adapting back to life on the road.

Since we’ve visited this area many times in the past, we really had no big plans or things to do for the week. Mainly we worked to get back into the full time living in the RV after a month in a house (we were so happy to be back in our little house on wheels!), doing some cleaning and resting (us and the dogs!). We enjoyed some food and drink a few times and caught up with a friend (Karen Oliver) who lives on the island and just allowed us to get back on slow retired time 🙂

Next stop took us around the Big Bend area of Florida and down the coast a bit to the town of Homosassa. This area is a popular hang out for manatees in the winter as the natural springs in the area open out to the ocean and maintain a temperature of around 74 degrees all year long. Manatees need warm water so in the winter they swim up the rivers to the springs and congregate together. We’ve seen them in the past when we visited Crystal River which is just north of Homosassa but we were looking forward to seeing more at this stop. We stayed at Camp N Water Campground which, much like the area, harkens back to the days of old Florida. Lots of old oak trees covered with Spanish Moss provided lots of shade at our site.

The only real activity we had while in the area was the visit to Homasassa Springs Park which was very close to the campground. As noted, lots of manatees to be seen at the park. Until the 80’s this park had been a private zoo for many years. They built and underwater observation area as well as having many other exotic animals on display. When the state of Florida took over, they retained the observation room, removed the exotic animals (to other zoos) and the zoo area is now used to house injured animals and/or those who cannot be released since they were kept (illegally) by humans and had no natural instincts to live on their own.

After enjoying time with all the manatees, we strolled thru the rest of the park which includes birds and other animals that are no longer able to live in the wild. The highlights included Lu the Hippo who is the only original inhabitant of the previous zoo and was retained at the park due to a huge effort from locals who wanted him to stay. He was about to have his 63rd birthday at the time of our visit. There was also a bald eagle that had lost a good part of one wing and thus could no longer fly but nonetheless was beautiful to see up close.

After a peaceful week in Old Florida, we headed further south to the Tampa area. We stayed at LazyDays RV Resort. We have found that the term “resort” can really be stretched to be attached to almost any campground these days. This park had seen better days (although it did have a nice screened in pool area) to the point that it was scheduled to close at the end of March to be totally torn up and rebuilt to meet newer expectations. We had a nice site (but forgot to take a pic!) near the back which helped.

Some friends and family were traveling and/or not able to meet up so we ended up with more free time on our hands that expected. To fill the open time, we signed up for a food tour of historic Ybor City. We learned a ton about the area as well as enjoying food from 5 restaurants! It was founded in the 1880s by Vicente Martinez-Ybor and other cigar manufacturers and populated by thousands of immigrants, mainly from Cuba, Spain, and Italy. For the next 50 years, workers in Ybor City’s cigar factories rolled hundreds of millions of cigars annually.

Ybor City was unique in the American South as a successful town almost entirely populated and owned by immigrants. The neighborhood had features unusual among contemporary communities in the south, most notably its multiethnic and multiracial population and their many mutual aid societies. The cigar industry employed thousands of well-paid workers, helping Tampa grow from an economically depressed village to a bustling city in about 20 years and giving it the nickname “Cigar City”.

Ybor City grew and flourished from the 1890s until the Great Depression of the 1930s, when a drop in demand for fine cigars reduced the number of cigar factories and mechanization in the cigar industry greatly reduced employment opportunities in the neighborhood. This process accelerated after World War II, and a steady exodus of residents and businesses continued until large areas of the formerly vibrant neighborhood were virtually abandoned by the late 1970s. Attempts at redevelopment failed until the 1980s, when an influx of artists began a slow process of gentrification. In the 1990s and early 2000s, a portion of the original neighborhood around 7th Avenue developed into a nightclub and entertainment district, and many old buildings were renovated for new uses. Since then, the area’s economy has diversified with more offices and residences, and the population has shown notable growth for the first time in over half a century.

Ybor City has been designated as a National Historic Landmark District, and several structures in the area are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In 2008, 7th Avenue, Ybor City’s main commercial thoroughfare, was recognized as one of the “10 Great Streets in America” by the American Planning Association. In 2010 Columbia Restaurant, which is Florida’s oldest restaurant, was named a “Top 50 All-American icon” by Nation’s Restaurant News magazine.

The Cuban Sandwich was actually invented in Ybor (not Cuba) which makes sense because it has ingredients from all the immigrant nations represented. We were told a tourist in Cuba once asked where to get the best Cuban Sandwich and was told to go to Tampa!

While at the campground, a rally was being held for RV owners whose motorhomes were built on a Freightliner chassis. Although we didn’t attend the rally, we did get to see the chassis demo unit displayed. Interesting to see the skeleton of what we ride on, laid bare.

Another day found us driving into Tampa for brunch at the Oxford Exchange. The venue is as interesting and wonderful as the food. It encompasses several areas in a renovated building that includes a bookstore, coffee shop, gift shop, champagne bar, and a restaurant (with seating under a glass skylight.

While in the area we walked by the Henry Plant Museum (it was closed the day we visited, unfortunately). It is located in the south wing of Plant Hall on the University of Tampa’s campus. Plant Hall was originally built by Henry B. Plant as the Tampa Bay Hotel; a 511-room resort-style hotel that opened on February 5, 1891, near the terminus of the Plant System rail line, also forged and owned by Plant. We later discovered that Plant was to railroads in central and west coast Florida as Henry Flagler was to the eastern Florida railways. In addition to the hotel, you will also find Plant City outside of Tampa named for the same man (not because they have a lot of plants there!).

After a week, we were glad to be moving on. The LazyDays Campground had seen better days. In fact, it was scheduled to close at the end of March so that they could completely tear it up and rebuild a new campground. Next stop, Ocala!

We stayed at a new RV Resort called Champions Run. It was close to a lot of things around the Ocala area include lots of horses. In fact, in 2007, Ocala/Marion County was officially named the “Horse Capital of the World,” a testament to the County’s unique involvement in all things equestrian and its record of producing some of the finest champions in the sport. With a beautiful, mild climate all year long and soil rich with limestone calcium for strong bones, Ocala/Marion County is home to more horses than anywhere else in the country. (yes, I copied this from the county website :-).

But before we could get to the horses, we had other things on the schedule. After settling in, we discovered the park had many planned activities including hot dog roasting over open fire pits, happy hours, etc. But the highlight was the chili cookoff with several categories. Jill made a wonderful version with a mix of meats and some unique spices and flavors but she was up against so really great entries – over 15 in all! She ended up bringing home the award for “Most Unique Chili”. Yeah!

Next up was a short drive to the Don Garlit’s Museum of Drag Racing.

Opened in 1984, it chronicles the history of the sport of drag racing. Some 90 racing cars can be seen in the Drag Race building, while a further 50 vehicles are in the Antique Car building. Many of the Garlits “Swamp Rat” cars are here, but he also turns out to be a pack rat with an accumulation of cars and memorabilia from other top names in the sport. The iconic cars of Dean Moon, the Mooneyes gas dragster and the Moonbeam sports car are on display. We aren’t that much into the sport so it was a relatively short visit for us but I’m sure someone who was really into this could spend hours!

The campground was new and well laid out. We had a corner site that gave us lots of grassy area around us (and the dog park was just behind us so easy to get to with the dogs). It was a nice place to relax, both for us and the dogs.

On a very nice day, we took a 3 hour tour of several active horse farms in the area. We saw some being exercised and trained for racing, while at another farm we visited the stud farm where the active guys were housed in a gorgeous barn and those who had retired were free to roam the pastures. We met a lot of nice horses along the way, quite a nice introduction for those who know next to nothing about the industry.

As we travel around the country, we are amazed how many times we have been able to connect with old friends and acquaintances along the way. During out travels through North Carolina last year, we were able to meet up with a former work colleague of Dan’s from the 1990’s – Lisa Smallwood. Lisa, in turn, was able to help Dan connect with another colleague from the same time, Lindsay Kaas. Lindsay is now living in Florida and while we were in Ocala, we were able to connect up with her for lunch one day and had a great time catching up on years of history!

We also love to enjoy local arts and always check on local theaters to see what plays or music we might be able to enjoy. This time, we were able to catch a tribute band for The Eagles – they call themselves the Alter Eagles. It was a great performance, near perfect copy of the sound!

The campground had a Super Bowl Watch Party but we chose to remain “home” and watch the Puppy Bowl prior to the start of the big game. The dogs were quite excited about the Puppy Bowl!

On Valentines Day, we headed farther south to Lake Wales. We had stayed at Canopy Oaks back in 2021 and were excited to spend more time in the area. The campground has a busy activity schedule and it’s also nice and quiet.

One of our favorite spots was the on property Tiki Bar. They had music several nights, food trucks, corn hole, and Boozy Bingo several days and nights!

The biggest attraction in the area is Bok Tower Gardens.

Edward William Bok, editor of the magazine The Ladies Home Journal, and his wife, Mary Louise Curtis Bok, spent the winter of 1921 in Florida, near Lake Wales Ridge after his retirement. The Boks loved the beauty of the area, and created a 25 acres bird sanctuary on the ridge’s highest hill to protect the land from being developed. They commissioned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. to transform what then was an arid sandhill into “a spot of beauty second to none in the country”.

Olmsted’s plan included the planting of 1,000 large live oaks, 10,000 azaleas, 100 sabal palms, 300 magnolias, and 500 gardenias, as well as hundreds of fruit shrubs such as blueberry and holly. The gardens are currently ten times their original size, and feature acres of ferns, palms, oaks, pines, and wetland plants. The plantings also include camellias, tree ferns, creeping fig, yaupon and dahoon holly, Asiatic jasmine, Justicia, crinum and spider lily, monstera, wax myrtle, date and sable palm, papyrus, philodendron, blue plumbago, and horsetail rush. The site is a refuge for more than a hundred bird species. Wild turkey and groups of sandhill cranes are also often seen wandering the grounds.

By 1925, Bok had decided to replace the bird sanctuary’s water tower with a stone water-and-bell tower. He hired architect Milton B. Medary to design “the most beautiful tower in the world”. The 60-bell carillon occupies only the top of the Singing Tower, some of the rest contained large water tanks to irrigate the gardens, with Bok’s baronial study at the base. The 15-foot (4.6 m)-wide moat surrounding the tower’s base now serves as a koi pond.

The Gothic Revival tower was built at the highest elevation of the site, south of a reflecting pool that reflects its full image. The tower is 51 feet square at its base, changing at the height of 150 feet (46 m) to an octagon, with each of the eight sides 37 feet wide. It is built of pink Etowah marble and gray Creole marble, mined in Tate, Georgia, and coquina stone from St. Augustine, Florida.

Medary assembled a team of top artisans in their fields—the Art Deco architectural sculpture was designed and executed by Lee Lawrie, and depicts Florida flora and fauna; metalworker Samuel Yellin designed and executed the iron interior staircase, the iron gates to the two bridges over the moat, and the Great Brass Door, which features 30 scenes from the Book of Genesis; J. H. Dulles Allen designed and executed the ceramic mosaics, including the eight 35-foot-tall grilles at the top of the tower. Horace H. Burrell & Son, of Philadelphia, was contractor for the tower. Construction began in 1927, and was completed two years later. Outgoing President Calvin Coolidge dedicated the tower on February 1, 1929. Bok died on January 9, 1930, and was interred before the tower’s Great Brass Door.

While at the Gardens, we took the time to tour a home built at the same time as the Tower. Called “El Retiro” (also known as Pinewood Estate) it is a historic home adjacent to Bok’s property. The 12,900 square foot house was designed by architect Charles R. Wait for the original owner, Charles Austin Buck. The design specified a “barrel-tile roof, thick walls, substantial carved doors and woodwork, and intricately detailed wrought iron … and three large porches”. The gardens were designed by William Lyman Phillips of the Olmsted Brothers firm. The work on the property was completed in 1929-1930. Interestingly, Buck only visited it for 6-8 weeks each winter. The rest of the time, the home was only occupied by a caretaker.

Buck owned the home until 1947. It was purchased by Nellie Lee Holt Bok in 1970 and renamed Pinewood Estate. A subsequent restoration of the gardens, to their original design, was completed by landscape architect Rudy Favretti. Since 1970, the estate has been part of Bok Tower Gardens, and is again known as El Retiro.

For those who may not have read our blog from our visit in 2021, as a reminder, Dan’s Grandparents once lived in Lake Wales back in the mid 60’s. Unfortunately, we were unable to find any pictures or documents that could tell us where their house was (if it even still existed!?). So we started doing some sleuthing. First attempt – we contacted the county property office to see if they had any records to search. Unfortunately, their records only went back a few decades. Next up, we decided to try the other end of the spectrum and reach out to the National Archives in hope they would have digital records such as property tax info or even phone books! We got a response in just a day with bad and good news. The bad news was that they did not have the info we were looking for. The good news was that they suggested the State Library of Florida and provided contact info for them. We contacted them and what do you know? They did have digital copies of phone books for Lake Wales for the 1960’s. AND, they confirmed that there was a listing for Chester and Esther Hartman in 1964 and 1965 and they provided the address.

We anxiously drove over to the address which was just south of the downtown area and low and behold, there it was. There had been many changes over the nearly 60 years since Dan had last seen it but it was definitely the same house. Interestingly, the house directly to the left was gone with only a block basement and foundation remaining. We later found out this house had been severely damaged in a past hurricane and torn down. But Dan’s grandparents’ house is still there. We took some pics and even were able to search on Zillow and find some interior pics from the last time it was on the market back in 2017. Below are some comparisons as well as some additional pictures from April of 1964.

The other exciting thing that happened while in Lake Wales was an opportunity to catch Jill’s BFF’s oldest grand daughter playing college softball. Gracie Folds is a freshman at Truett McConnell University in Cleveland, GA but happened to be on a road trip to central Florida and was playing Warner University in Lake Wales. So we drove over to campus and watched her and her team win both games of a double header as well as see the rest of her family (Chad Folds and family) as well as Shelley Dillingham and her family too!

A few days later, we traveled over to Winter Park for a boat tour of the Chain of Lakes. The Chain of Lakes is a famous series of lakes in Central Florida. There are two chains of lakes, the northern chain and the southern chain (we toured the southern chain). The southern chain is located almost entirely within the city of Winter Haven. It has 16 lakes connected by a series of canals. The canals were built during World War I to connect the lakes so that citrus grown around them could easily be transported by boat to a central location for loading onto Henry B Plant’s trains (remember him from past discussion about Tampa and the Plant Museum). The 16 lakes on the southern chain are Lake Howard, Lake Cannon, Lake Shipp, Lake Jessie, Lake Hartridge, Lake Lulu, Lake Roy, Lake Eloise, Little Lake Eloise, Lake Winterset, Little Lake Winterset, Lake May, Lake Mirror, Lake Idylwild, Spring Lake and Lake Summit. Along the way we saw a lot of wildlife (birds, turtles, alligators, and fish) as well as some expensive waterfront homes. We also passed by Legoland which used to be Cypress Gardens. Cypress Gardens was a botanical garden and theme park that operated from 1936 to 2009. The main attraction was the skiing show which featured men and women forming pyramids while skiing. As of 2011, the botanical garden portion had been preserved inside the newly formed Legoland Florida. They still have skiing shows but they are now focused on pirate and related children themes.

On the last day of February, it was time to head to Florida’s Space Coast with plans to visit the Kennedy Space Center (or, as they call it now, Space “Port”). We spent the week at a mediocre KOA (our site was nice but the overall campground hasn’t had much attention since the 70’s).

The day after arriving, we drove along the shores of the Indian River and could see across to the Space Center including the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and a SpaceX launch vehicle set up for launch. We learned that this was a rescheduled launch for Crew 6 to the International Space Station and it would be visible from our campground late that night. Dan woke up to see the launch at 12:35 am. The pictures don’t do it justice at all.

Before heading over the the Kennedy for a tour, we had other things to accomplish. First up was a food tour in the old part of the village of Cocoa (on the mainland across from Cocoa Beach). As usual, we had a delightful time learning about the area, seeing some great buildings and trying some yummy local food. We didn’t get pictures of all of our stops (we never do!) but we did get a list of our stops and what we ate:

Pub Americana- gator bites
Ossorio – Curried Chicken Salad
Cindy Lees -Key Lime Pie
Crydermans – Brisket
Crydermans Meat Market – Butchers blend burgers
Thai Thai – Drunken Noodles

Below are pictures of us with our guide, some of the food, and views along our way.

Next. up was a visit to Cocoa Beach and the Wizard of Oz Museum. You might wonder why there is a museum for the Wizard of Oz in Cocoa Beach? Well, turns out there is a guy who is a big fan of the movie (and the books) and so he decided to open up a place to display all of his “stuff” as well as an immersive experience of the Emerald City.

We never knew that The Oz books form a book series that begins with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) and relates the fictional history of the Land of Oz. Oz was created by author L. Frank Baum, who went on to write fourteen full-length Oz books. While he was alive, Baum was styled as “the Royal Historian of Oz” in order to emphasize the concept that Oz is an actual place. In his Oz books, Baum created the illusion that characters such as Dorothy and Princess Ozma relayed their adventures in Oz to Baum themselves, by means of a wireless telegraph.

After that experience, it was time to head over to the huge Ron Jon Surf Shop. Ron Jon Surf Shop is a surfer-style retail store chain founded in 1959 in Ship Bottom, New Jersey by Ron DiMenna (and here we thought it was started in Florida!). The store specializes in surfing and bodyboarding equipment, and their Cocoa Beach, Florida, store is currently the largest surfing shop in the world with over 52,000 square feet of retail space.

After all this excitement, it was time to grab a late lunch at a great little place our food tour guide had suggested that was located at Port Canaveral. Port Canaveral is a cruise, cargo, and naval port. The port is the world’s busiest cruise port, with over 4 million passengers passing through during their 2022 financial year. This means that they have passed Miami as the busiest port. Over 5.4 million tonnes of bulk cargo moves through each year. On average, ten ships enter the port each day. This includes ships from cruise lines such as Carnival, Disney, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and more.

Another beautiful day on the Space Coast allowed us to explore a local park dedicated to manned space flight and then to cross over to Merritt Island to visit a bird sanctuary.

There is a small park in Titusville that faces the Space Center across the water and it has various statues, memorials, etc. honoring all those who flew into space as well as many who helped the get there. Each major manned program has its own area and monuments to commemorate that specific program. For those interested, below is a compilation of the US manned space programs.

Program	Start date	First crewed flight	End date	No. of crewed missions launched	Notes
Project Mercury	1958	1961	1963	6	First U.S. crewed program
Project Gemini	1961	1965	1966	10	Program used to practice space rendezvous and EVAs
Apollo program	1960	1968	1972	11	Landed first humans on the Moon
Skylab	1964	1973	1974	3	First American space station
Apollo–Soyuz	1971	1975	1975	1	Joint with Soviet Union
Space Shuttle program	1972	1981	2011	135	First missions in which a spacecraft was reused
Shuttle–Mir program	1993	1994	1998	11[c]	Russian partnership
International Space Station	1993	1998	Ongoing	65	Joint with Roscosmos, CSA, ESA, and JAXA; Americans flew on Russian Soyuz after 2011 retirement of Space Shuttle
Commercial Crew Program	2011	2020	Ongoing	6	Current program to shuttle Americans to the ISS
Artemis program	2017	2023 (Ongoing)	Ongoing	0	Current program to bring humans to the Moon again

We crossed the bridge from Titusville over to Merritt Island and the National Wildlife Refuge. Within the refuge is Black Point Wildlife Drive. This is a 7 mile one way drive that takes you among the marshes, grassland and waterways within the preserve in order to observe wildlife such as alligators, water birds (both local and migrating) and flora.

On one of our last full days in the area, we visited the Kennedy Space Center. We could have spent a full two days exploring every display and area but we selected only a few areas based on our interests. First up, was a bus ride over to the Apollo/Saturn V Center that sits close to the VAB. The Apollo/Saturn V Center pays homage to the people and machines that made the improbable possible and the future seem bigger than we ever dared to dream. Included in the center is a gigantic Saturn V, the largest rocket ever flown, laying on its side and separated into each stage. The actual Apollo 14 capsule is on display as is an example of a lunar rover and lunar lander. They have reassembled the actual mission control center that existed at the time of the Apollo missions down to ashtrays and jackets used by the numerous staff as they monitored the mission. There is also a nice tribute to the Apollo 1 astronauts who lost their lives during a test on the launchpad.

After taking the bus back to the main Visitor Center, we visited the Atlantis Building. This building is all about the Space Shuttle.

The Space Shuttle was operated from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development. The first (STS-1) of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights (STS-5) beginning in 1982. Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. They launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Operational missions launched numerous satellites, interplanetary probes, and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), conducted science experiments in orbit, participated in the Shuttle-Mir program with Russia, and participated in construction and servicing of the International Space Station (ISS). The Space Shuttle fleet’s total mission time was 1,323 days.

The first orbiter, Enterprise, was built in 1976 and used in Approach and Landing Tests, but had no orbital capability. Four fully operational orbiters were initially built: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis. Of these, two were lost in mission accidents: Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, with a total of 14 astronauts killed. A fifth operational (and sixth in total) orbiter, Endeavour, was built in 1991 to replace Challenger. The three surviving operational vehicles were retired from service following Atlantis’s final flight on July 21, 2011.

You start by entering a large viewing area where you watch a short video about the history of the development of the Shuttle on a large full wall screen. At the end, the screen rises and the Atlantis is right in front of us as we walk into the building. It was quite a site and the way they display the shuttle allows to to see it from all angles.

They also featured a very stirring memorial to the astronauts lost on the two shuttle disasters. Challenger exploded soon after liftoff while Columbia disintegrated during reentry. Pieces of both shuttles were displayed along with individual memorials to each astronaut lost.

Next up was a stop at the newest exhibition building called Gateway. This building featured the next steps in space exploration and included actual vehicles being used now by private contractors such as Boeing and SpaceX. It also included an Artemis capsule where you can compare it’s size to Apollo’s capsule. While it has the same shape, Artemis has 50% more habitable space than the spacecrafts of Apollo’s time, allowing more room for the crew, tasks, and supplies. While Apollo allowed three crew members to travel in space for up to 14 days, Artemis allows four crew members to travel for up to 21 days.

Our tour ended with a visit to the Heroes and Legends building with information on all the amazing men and women who have served in the program over the years.

After a full week week on the Space Coast, it was time to head back across the state and return to Homosassa. We had a few reasons for returning to this area. Primarily, this return was scheduled to coincide with plans with some of Jill’s childhood friends from back in her Lithonia times. We’d be meeting up with Linda Cahill as well as her sister Cheryl Siler and her husband Bob. Secondarily, this stay would fall over Dan’s mother’s 91st birthday. Thus, while Jill was hanging out with her friends, Dan would drive back to Atlanta to celebrate her birthday for several days. So, basically it was a week of fun and celebrations for all!

After all this fun, it was finally time to head out of Florida until later in the year. Next stop was Hilton Head Island and Hilton Head Motorcoach Resort for two weeks. We have been returning here every year since we started RVing back in 2018. We always consider this our special “vacation” stop because the sites are so nice, lots of foliage, and quiet while still being close to everything and being completely bike friendly.

Even after visiting so many times, we still find new and fun things to do. For our first adventure, we headed to the north end of the island to explore the remains of a civil war fort. The fort was built in 1861 by Union Army forces as part of the defenses of a coaling station and ship maintenance facility at Seabrook Landing. It was named for Brigadier General Ormsby M. Mitchel, and is a rare surviving example of a semi-permanent fortification built by the Union in the South Carolina Low Country.

Soon after arriving, we got a message from Chuck Krivanek, a former colleague of Dan’s from IHG, that he was in Jacksonville for business. Even though it was a 3 hour drive, that never stops Chuck! We enjoyed a great visit, catching up on 5 years of news and stories! The dogs also seemed to enjoy Chuck’s visit!

When we first arrived, it was pretty cold which figures. Earlier, while at campgrounds with no shade, we encountered record-breaking temps in the upper 80’s. Now that we had the shade, it was so cold we found ourselves search for some sun. Eventually, it warmed so that we could enjoy the outdoor seating (including fire pit!) and even watch some NCAA!

Given how many times we have visited the area, we’ve never explored the historic town of Beaufort, SC. Since the weather was warming up, we signed up for walking tour of this lovely town. Chartered in 1711, it is the second-oldest city in South Carolina, behind Charleston. A city rich in history, culture, southern hospitality, and a seaside charm, Beaufort is affectionally known as the “Queen of the Carolina Sea Islands”. Beaufort is located on Port Royal Island, in the heart of the Sea Islands and South Carolina Lowcountry. The city is renowned for its scenic location and for maintaining a historic character by preservation of its antebellum architecture. The city is also known for its military establishments, being located in close proximity to Parris Island and a U.S. naval hospital, in addition to being home of the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.

The city has been featured in the New York Times, and named “Best Small Southern Town” by Southern Living, a “Top 25 Small City Arts Destination” by American Style, and a “Top 50 Adventure Town” by National Geographic Adventure. Beaufort has been the setting or the inspirational setting for several novels by long-time resident Pat Conroy and a popular filming location for major motion pictures, including The Big Chill, The Prince of Tides, A Walk to remember , The Great Santini, Forrest Gump, Something To Talk About and G.I. Jane. The “garden” in the title of John Berendt’s non-fiction novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a cemetery in Beaufort. The voodoo practitioner Minerva, based on Beaufort resident Valerie Boles, lives near the cemetery.

Scenes from Beaufort including the house from The Big Chill (upper left), the church where Forest Gump sang (upper right), and the bridge that Forest Gump ran over (lower right).

One of our last outings before heading back to Atlanta was the most “physical”. It involved 18 holes of golf (no golf cart, had to carry our clubs), over 7 miles of trails, fighting thru jungles of wild animals, and finally, enduring grueling winds and cold on the beach. Well, actually it was 18 holes of putt putt golf, 7 miles of bike riding (with our e-bikes) along Hilton Head Island bike trails (where we saw birds and gators) and a meal at Pool Bar Jim’s next to the beach with a slight breeze and low 70’s.

We’ll still be in Hilton Head for a few more days, heading back to the Atlanta area on March 29th. Not much planned during the next few days (cleaning, washing the rig, some shopping, etc.) so we figured we’d go ahead and post now since this blog covers sooooo much! Our next update will probably not involve the RV….

Lola 2.0 needed to go into the shop for some (self inflicted) repair work and so we took this opportunity to rent a house for the month which turned out really great! We had lots of space to spread out and relax and got lots of time with our grand girls! Jill was particularly crafty over this period, engaging the girls in various projects as well as some cooking and baking. We celebrated their 3rd birthdays and Christmas (we even had a little felt wall tree that the girls decorated!). We also had time to visit with friends and relatives. Instead of talking about it, enjoy the pics from the month. January 10th we headed out for Florida so we’ll get back to our regular travel blog soon.

On Saturday, September 25th, we headed out for our annual trip to the Gulf Coast, spending the first week near Gulf Shores, Alabama and then shifting over to the Florida panhandle for a couple of months. Our first stop was Bella Terra RV Resort in Foley, AL. This is less than 20 minutes inland from the beach. We splurged as this was heading into our anniversary month (more on that later) and we checked into a wonderful site that had tons of amenities on its own, above what the resort itself offered. We had a gorgeous view of the lake out our front window, we were parked next to a shaded patio area that included a full kitchen (gas stove, gas grill, sink, wine fridge, ice maker, bar where you could eat) as well as several sitting areas and a gas fire ring that would come in handy on a few cooler days/evenings.

Not much to report during this week. We relaxed a lot, finally having down time with no particular plans or schedules to keep. We rode bikes around the resort, enjoyed the infinity pool, and walked the dogs a lot! We did enjoy several great seafood meals while in the area which would be just the start of a few months of yummy meals to come.

One unique amenity at this park was an indoor dog washing station which is really a purpose-built shower room for dogs. It was a fun and different experience washing the dogs at the station versus in our kitchen sink!

After a week on the Alabama coast, we were ready to head east to Navarre, FL. We have visited this area and park since we started full timing in early 2019 (and were there much longer than planned due to a particular “break down” – see posts from early 2019 if you don’t know the story). We have a great site where you can look straight south down to the Santa Rosa Sound. This will be our home thru the end of November.

October (and November) we are celebrating our 35th Wedding Anniversary! Thus, we have lots of things planned to celebrate this amazing time. First up was a trip to one of our favorite restaurants, Jaco’s on Pensacola Bay. We had a great meal and celebrated with a bottle of champagne!

A few days later, we drove back over to Pensacola to see the Broadway Musical, Chicago! It was a great show in the historic Saenger Theater which has been restored in downtown Pensacola.

Later in the month, we traveled up the road a few miles to visit the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge. This organization takes in injured wildlife as well as wild “pets” that are no longer able (or legally should not have been) kept at home. Most of the 100+ animals they had were not available to be seen since they were being rehabilitated to be released back into the wild and they did not want them to get comfortable around humans. There were, however, some animals that had been rescued from homes and had already lost their fear of people and are now permanent residents of the refuge.

The girls (Sugar & Spice) really started to enjoy their camping life on this trip. They continued to grow and explore every day. We soon got into a daily routine of taking a morning walk that included a stop at the campground office where they were greeted by everyone and usually received lots of petting as well as treats. They also became well known around the campground. People didn’t know our names but they knew Sugar & Spice! They had many firsts during these two months:

• First introduction to a sandy beach
• First taste of salty ocean water (but not interested in swimming in it yet)
• First walk over water (the park’s 365 foot pier into the Santa Rosa Sound). They loved it!
• Learned to go up and down the steps of the rig (so no longer needed to be carried in and out)

Our next celebration was a visit back to Pensacola to attend “Radio Live”. As the name implies, this is a live radio show put on by the local PBS station (WUWF) every month that features touring artists who usually focus on the folk and blue grass. Our show featured Joe Crookston, Ed Gerhard, and Amy Speace. The venue is the Commerce Museum in downtown Pensacola and it is a very nice, small space that is perfect for this type of show. We really enjoyed getting out and hearing these great artists!

Late the same week, we returned to Pensacola once again for a Food Tour, specifically Seville Savories’ Palafox Trot. This included stops at the following: Polonza Bistro, Pearl & Horn, Dog House Deli, 86 Forks Bar & Table and Bubba’s Sweet Spot. Along the way, we were treated with a walking tour of part of historic downtown including facts about the city as well as info about the different types of food and even the history of some of the buildings we were eating in. We had all intentions of taking pics of each stop but after the second stop we got so involved with listening and eating that we failed to fully document all the food…but it was all great! At the end of the tour on the way back to our car we walked by “Bubble Alley”, a portion of a downtown street that had been closed to traffic with plastic bubbles suspended above for a magical look.

We had great weather most of the two months we were in the panhandle. We did have some rain but most of it came thru as part of cold fronts and were in and out in just a few hours. It did lead to big swings in temps. One week high temp records were broken and in the next it would be in the low 40’s. One restaurant we visited had the perfect take on the weather.

We saved one of the biggest and best highlights of our two month anniversary celebration for last. The Navy’s Blue Angels are based out of Pensacola NAS and we were in town for the homecoming which are the last two shows of the year. The show is held on the base and is free and open to everyone. They were expecting up to 100,000 people and people end up sitting on the grass, parts of taxi ways, etc. We wanted to ensure the best seats so we splurged and bought a table for two on the “Flight Line”. This gave us front row seats at the center of the show and included food, non alcoholic drinks and much to Jill’s delight, upgraded toilet facilities in trailers (no port-a-potties!). The show started at 9:30 AM (gates opened at 8) but since we had reserved seats we didn’t rush to get in for the beginning. However, traffic was still very heavy funneling onto the base and what normally would have been a 45 minute drive turned into 2 1/2 hours. We still saw almost all of the other performers before the Angels started at 2 PM since many returned for multiple shows. Prior to the Angels, other planes included an F-4U Corsair, A-10 Thunderbolt, F-35 Lightning, a stunt biplane, several single wing planes built from kits, and a special Yak-10 that was actually 2 planes joined together. The biplane and Yak had additional power provided by a jet assist engine mounted below their fuselages in additional to the traditional propellers. On the ground, there were several planes on display and a jet powered pick up truck that reached over 350 mph down the runway (but did not take off).

After a short break, shortly after 2 PM the main event kicked off. The 6 Blue Angel Boeing F/A 18 Super Hornets had been parked in front of us during the entire show but now the pilots and ground crews came out and readied for take off.

While the fighters were readied, their support plane, a United States Marine Corps Lockheed C-130J Super Hercules, nicknamed “Fat Albert” took to the air and did a few passes over the field.

Before we knew it, the Blue Angels were taxing for takeoff in formation and then spent the next hour plus flying amazing formations and fly-bys. Below are just a few of the pictures we took during the show.

One of the most amazing formations was done straight towards us as all 6 fighters separated in different directions. Below is the sequence:

After so much excitement, it was back to a more regular routine of hanging around the campground, walking the dogs and catching up on some shows. Sugar explored various ways to relax.

And at some point, Spice grew what we are calling “pantaloons”.

Spice also seemed to discover the TV and was particularly interested in watching “The Crown”.

As we headed further into November, we made one more visit to Pensacola, this time to visit the weekly Saturday Market. We found a wonderful gluten free baker so we wanted to stock up before we left the area. We also spotted the armed forces pelicans!

Then it was one more visit to Peg Leg Pete’s and a drive along the National Seashore.

Thanksgiving arrived and the park hosted a very nice pot luck where they furnished the turkey and everyone brought something yummy to share. The activity center was filled with over 50 people and it was a wonderful way to spend the holiday.

On December 1st, we pulled out of our site and headed back to the Atlanta area. Our plans for the next month include:

• Put the RV into the shop for repairs (we aren’t talking about that) and some warranty work.
• Move into a VRBO for 3+ weeks
• Visit with our grandchildren (Jill has tons of crafts planned)
• Visit with friends
• Make the obligatory doctor visits while in town

We are hoping/planning to be in the area until January 10th when we will head back into Florida for the winter.

Hoping all are well and wishing everyone a very merry Christmas and New Year. Here’s to 2023!!!!

We’ve been pretty quiet lately but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy. Those of you who follow us on Facebook will probably already know this but soon after we got back to Georgia, we got two new puppies to join us in our adventures! Here’s a little background and how we ended up with our two new pups.

We’ve always had some sort of pet in the house from way back. When we started full timing, Adele and Brandy joined us (reluctantly) on our new journey. They were real troopers thru the whole thing but definitely missed their bigger house and yard at times. Within the past year we lost both of them which was really heart breaking. We decided it would be best to take a break, particularly since we had the North Carolina Trip planned and didn’t want to have new dogs at the same time. While traveling, we talked about adding a four-legged companion back into our home and started to discuss our needs and best fit for our current living situation. We loved Adele and Brandy with all our hearts but there were many things we needed to change for our next dog. Given our travels and history, here was a partial list we created:

• Wanted something small, a real lap dog that could sit with us.
• Wanted a non/low shedding dog (the hair really piles up in a small space!)
• Needed a dog with a very friendly and tolerant personality since they’d be meeting lots of new people (and other dogs!)
• They needed to travel well (Adele never got used to traveling in the rig, was a nervous wreck)
• Be healthy since we traveled a lot, wouldn’t have access to the same vet care

In the past, we had always adopted rescues and this was our original intent when we decided to start looking. Unfortunately, it was nearly impossible to find a dog that met all of our requirements and in addition, many shelters required us to remain in the area for a long time to ensure a good fit (which makes good sense but obviously eliminated us since we move so often) and others required us to have a fenced yard.

We finally agreed we’d be getting our dog from a breeder and settled on a mini Australian labradoodle breed. We found a breeder in the Atlanta area that was pausing their business due to family issues and were ready to let go of a couple of litters of puppies they had recently had that were ready for new homes. We arranged to meet them over the July 4th weekend. Needless to say, we were overwhelmed when we arrived to a pen full of small, cuddly, happy puppies! How to chose one from all this pile of furry cuteness? We spent a lot of time talking about raising a puppy (most of our previous dogs were already adults when we got them), expectations for our type of lifestyle, etc.

After a couple of hours, we decided we’d go ahead and dive in and thus the selection process began. We wanted the smallest of the small. This breed is similar than bigger Labradoodles you may have seen but gets the “mini” from being bred with a miniature poodle instead of standard. The “Australian” part comes from the introduction of a third breed – cocker spaniel – that originated from Australia (the idea, not the cocker spaniel). This gives you a non-shedding, hypoallergenic, friendly, low key dog that is small (from around 15-25 pounds).

After much holding and face licking, we settled on a flat coat (the breed is usually going to have a curly coat but this one had a recessive gene that removed most of the curl). She just had the most adorable face and gave the best friendly kisses we couldn’t resist. But then talk began about this poor little 8 week old being alone and maybe it would be best if she had a little buddy to play with. We very quickly decided if one was good, two would be great (which is mostly true :-). We picked out the smallest of the bunch, a curly little bundle of hair with beautiful golden eyes. After another hour or so, we were on our way back to camp with two little bundles of joy.

By the end of the evening, we had already settled on names. The fluffy girl would be Sugar and the flat hair would be Spice. We briefly toyed with them being called Sugar and Honey (additional irony since Jill has Diabetes) but Spice was already living up to her name, finding things to chew on, places to pee, etc. so we stuck with our original decision.

Upon arrival, Sugar weighed in at 5 pounds while Spice was a bit over 7. Sugar is eventually expected to reach around 15 pounds while Spice will be somewhere over 20. Most of the month of July was learning how to deal with two very hyper little dogs, teaching them (and us) how to behave and work together in our small space. Have to admit, there were several times that we asked ourselves what in the world we had gotten ourselves into! But after several months, it’s amazing how many things had fallen into place. They responded to their names, walked very well on their leashes, were starting to let us know when they needed to go out (which sometimes was as early as 5 in the morning) and generally getting into a regular routine.

Here are some pics of them during the first month:

On July 22nd, we headed to Kentucky for our next short adventure (two weeks) with our pups! This would be fun!!!

First stop was Cave City where we would be close to several caves and other attractions. Our first outing would be to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green. This sits near the factory for the Corvette which, unfortunately, was still not open for tours even after everything else seemed open post-COVID. The museum had the requisite huge assortment of cars of all ages and styles since the Corvette was first manufactured all the way up to the new present day mid-engine car.

In addition to reading and seeing all the history around this iconic car, there is also a special exhibit surrounding the amazing story of the museum sinkhole. In 2014, eight priceless corvettes were swallowed by a 40-foot-wide, 20-foot-deep sinkhole that opened up in the facility’s yellow Sky Dome wing. The museum unofficially estimates it caused millions of dollars in damage. All but one of the cars were restored after recovery from the hole. Today there is a section dedicated to how the sinkhole occurred and the recovery and aftermath. Today, one car is on display that was believed to be beyond salvaging.

Next up was a tour thru part of the Mammoth Cave system. We did not realize how huge this cave complex was or how many tours/walks you could select.

Since the 1972 unification of Mammoth Cave with the even-longer system under Flint Ridge to the north, the official name of the system has been the Mammoth–Flint Ridge Cave System. The park was established as a national park on July 1, 1941, a World Heritage Site on October 27, 1981, an international Biosphere Reserve on September 26, 1990 and an International Dark Sky Park on October 28, 2021.

Mammoth Cave is the world’s longest known cave system with more than 420 miles of surveyed passageways, which is nearly twice as long as the second-longest cave system, Mexico’s Sac Actun underwater cave.

Jill was less excited about being underground so Dan took this one on his own. And since availability was limited (tours book online and many book up in advance) his best choice was the Grand Avenue Tour. At 4 hours long, this lengthy tour explores the geologic diversity of what Mammoth Cave has to offer. Going through slot canyons, tubular passageways, tall canyons, and tunnels sparkled with gypsum, this tour is the longest walking tour offered. The tour included hundreds of steps and ascends and descends many tall, incredibly steep hills.  The tour covered a wide variety of the history and geology of Mammoth Cave.  The tour included the entire Frozen Niagara Tour route and all of the Domes and Dripstones Tour except for the 280 stairs descending the vertical shafts at the entrance. It truly was a great overall experience and would be worth going back to see more.

You start at the visitor center where it is a good idea to check out the exhibits that help explain how the caves were developed and have been explored over the years. Since there are many access points, you are then usually bussed to your specific tour entrance and then later picked up when you come out at the other end. The start of the Grand Avenue tour begins in a long running cave that seems more like a huge tunnel. It is completely dry with no signs of water or dripping, thus very few stalagmites or stalactites. This area was formed by underground rivers flowing under very strong sandstone that today, acts like a cement roof. As we hiked along at a brisk pace, it was amazing to see how large and open some of the spaces were (sometimes many stories high) and yet realize you were still several hundred feet below ground.

After an hour or so, we moved into an area that was more like slot canyons, with some areas barely wide enough to squeeze thru. Here, the rock tended to be very smooth from the water that had passed thru far in the past. The last portion included wetter areas of the cave where you could find water dripping from the ceiling, running along below us and coming off of various rock formations. Amber lighting helped highlight some of the more striking formations. After 4 hours, we emerged from our underground journey, picked up by another bus and soon were back where we started at the visitor center. So many other tours to be taken, hope to get back there some day.

This was also our first camping trip with the dogs. This mean it included many firsts for them. They got to meet many people and dogs while walking around the park as well as experiencing so many new sounds, sights, and odors! Because they were still getting many vaccines, they were not allowed to actively socialize with other dogs or go to the dog park just yet but they seemed to enjoy getting out in the world. A neighbor got into the habit of stopping by every morning when the dogs were out in the fenced area so she could get her “puppy fix”.

After a week, we moved on to the small town of Salvisa, KY and a campground located right on the Kentucky River. Although this seemed like a great campground on paper, it lacked some things. Being down in a gorge next to the river meant no cell signal at all. Even though they promised high speed Wifi, we found it to be lacking after the first couple of days. And since they had recently done some work around the sites and it had rained a lot before our arrival, it was quite muddy, buggy, and the grass was pretty high!

While in the area, we drove over to Danville, KY to visit the Doll House museum before grabbing lunch. Wasn’t really sure what to expect but we were pleasantly surprised at the detail of the houses as well as the dioramas and stories that were told in them.

Next up was a visit to a historic Shaker Village located at Pleasant Hill near Harrodsburg, KY. Many of the historic buildings have been completely restored. During our visit, a market was also going on so there were opportunities to see local crafts and listen to music. We even had lunch at the restaurant in the village and they have rooms to rent if you want to stay in the village over night.

The Shaker religious community was active from 1805 to 1910. Following a preservationist effort that began in 1961, the site, now a National Historic Landmark, has become a popular tourist destination. Many visitors to Pleasant Hill, observing the nineteenth-century architecture, crafts, and clothing, mistakenly assume that the Shakers, like the Amish, rejected technological advancements. In fact, the Shakers were inventors or early adopters of many new tools and techniques. For example, in the early 1830s the Shakers of Pleasant Hill constructed a water tower on a high plot of ground. A horse-drawn pump lifted water into the tower, and from there a system of pipes conveyed it to the kitchens, cellars, and wash houses. It is believed to have been the first in the state. In the wash houses, the members built washing machines (also powered by horses) to reduce the heavy work of laundering the community’s clothes and linens.

As mentioned earlier, we were not very happy with our campground and with more rain predicted, we decided to depart earlier than planned, find a campground somewhere halfway back to Atlanta and just settle for a day or two. We lucked out and found a nice campground in Tennessee that fit the bill. We never left the campground the two days we were there but enjoyed ourselves very much. They had a gazebo with an overlook as well as a nice trail to a waterfall. The dogs even got a bath!

We returned to the Atlanta area on August 8th and stayed in the area most of the time until the latter part of September. We did make three trips to north Georgia for long weekends – two to the Hiawassee area and one to Dillard. In our first trip to Hiawassee, we actually rented a cabin for a week which was a new experience for the dogs who, up until this point, only knew about living in an RV. It presented many new experiences to them including lots more space to run around and make trouble (like places to pee!), furniture to explore and the wonders of glass doors.

We didn’t do much but relax all week at the cabin but we did drive up the road to Bell Mountain for some great views of Lake Chatuge.

Of course, while in the Atlanta area, the dogs had to visit all their relatives including our son Chris and the girls, Savannah and Skylar.

And they had to visit their Grandma Jean too.

Given the heat and humidity, a lot of time was just spent in time doing what puppies do when not playing – sleeping in any place and position they can find.

And then, in mid September, it was time to get the girls spayed. This turned out not to be as bad as we had thought. We were able to get them special collars that kept them away from the incision without having to deal with the dreaded cones of shame. And the vet gave us some meds to keep them calm and cut down on the puppy “zoomies” while recovering. Unfortunately, while trying to get an IV started on Sugar, they shaved one leg and when they couldn’t get good access there, they shaved the other leg. That left her with a very odd “poodle cut” on her front legs!

On September 24th, the dogs were ready to roll and we headed south for a week outside of Gulf Shores, AL before heading over to our regular stop in Navarre for two months. Before we left, we got the dogs weighed again and Sugar was now 11 pounds while Spice was 16. That means they have doubled in weight since we got them 2 1/2 months ago!

On June 8th we temporarily left our itinerary thru North Carolina for a short stop in Gaffney, SC. This is where Freightliner has their main production facility for the chassis that our RV is built upon. The chassis includes the foundation, the engine and the generator. Like any machine and related parts, this needs a good annual inspection and regular work and we figured it would be good to visit the factory service center for the work. We made an appointment and pulled in the afternoon before to park behind their service center so we’d be ready at 8 the next morning. Nothing glamorous but they did provide power.

All worked out well with the servicing, no problems found so we were able to leave after work was completed and drive about 1 1/2 hours north to the small town of Marion, NC. where our next week would be spent at a nice little campground on a creek with some shade and views of a huge open field.

While in the area , we visited Linville Caverns. We had previously visited this area last year, camping north of Linville Falls but never made it to the caverns so this was another chance to visit. It wasn’t really much to see, run by a private company that tended to run lots of tours thru so things backed up and it was hard to hear the guide at times. But it was still interesting and a cool place to be on a warm day.

The following Sunday, we travelled over to Tom’s Creek Falls which was an easy walk to a very nice waterfall. We were greeted with some wonderful views of this 60 foot waterfall.

After a relaxing week along the creek, we headed further west to one of our favorite places, Maggie Valley. We stayed at Cross Creek RV Park with a great view of the field and woods next to the campground. We’ve visited this area for the last several years so not a lot to report at this stop. We made our regular stops for fresh produce at Christopher Farms, a beer alongside Jonathans Creek at BearWaters Brewing, and a great meal and drinks at Boojum’s in Waynesville.

Although much of the south was experiencing temps in the 90’s and above at this late part of June, we were lucky to have cool enough weather to leave our windows open at night and even get in a good wash and wax on Lola 2.0

With regards to entertainment, it was pretty quiet at the campground. We did, however have some native visitors. On one occasion, a turkey wandered thru our campsite. One evening, the campers behind us were unlucky enough to be visited by a skunk. What made it way worse was that their dog attempted to chase the skunk, got sprayed, and then ran into the RV and jumped all over the furniture! Needless to say, they had a lot of work to do in trying to get the smell out of their dog and their RV!

On one of our last nights, we treated ourselves to a local production of Steel Magnolias which was put on at a very small intimate theater in Waynesville. It was very well done!

Our next and last stop was not officially in the state of North Carolina but still counts as we would complete our trip to the end of the state from this campground in North Georgia. We returned to Bald Mountain RV Resort in Hiawassee at a spot along the creek with some great shade. This was a busy week of meeting up with friends.

Over the course of the week, we met up with a lot of Jill’s friends from back when she lived in Lithonia. This included sisters Linda and Cheryl (and Cheryl’s husband Bob), Bill Mays, and Donna Moss (and her husband Jack). Linda and Cheryl just happened to have planned a family camping trip at the same campground at the same time so we were able to hang out at each other’s campsites. Donna and Jack had recently moved nearby to Hayesville, NC so we were able to see their new place as well as join up with them at a local winery. And not to be left out, we were able to meet up with our wonderful friends Bob and Sonja Short who we have known from way back in our whitewater paddling days! Overall, a great way to spend a week in the mountains!

Finally, it was just about time to wrap up this journey. To make it official, we travelled west to the very end of the state, reaching the state line at Tennessee.

As the sign indicates, we were now standing 563 miles from Manteo having travelled the width of the state of North Carolina. But, we didn’t take a straight line in making this journey. Here are some bits of data related to the trip:

• We departed April 25th from Dallas, GA and arrived back at the same location on June 28th. This totaled 64 nights
• We camped at 11 different campgrounds along our journey
• We travelled a total of 1,669 miles in the RV plus additional miles in the car
• Including our quick step across the line into Tennessee, we visited 4 states

We’d return to our friends’ property outside of Atlanta where we would remain until near the end of July when we’d make a few short trips. More on those plans with the next update but this gets us pretty much up to speed on our big trip for the year. Hope you enjoyed traveling along with us and see you down the road.

Dan & Jill

On May 24th, it was time to bid goodbye to the Atlantic coast until 2023 and start heading west across the state of North Carolina. Our first stop would be a wonderful campground south of Raleigh in the small town of Fair Oaks. Given we’d be staying over the Memorial Day Weekend, there were lots of activities planned including several food trucks and fun at two pools!

This was going to be a pretty laid back week after so much activity while on the coast with only a couple of trips scheduled out of the campground. Before the long weekend, we drove into Raleigh to tour the History Museum of North Carolina. It was a very educational (and free) 3-level museum located downtown. The most amazing artifacts on display were two complete buildings, one from the 18th century and the other from the 19th. The Moore-Whichard house is the 4th oldest known dwelling in North Carolina and it was lifted into the museum thru the roof during renovations and then preserved to show how it would have looked when first occupied in the 1700’s. A restored building that once housed enslaved African Americans has also been installed and restored and again, shows how the building may have looked when occupied in the 1800’s.

Another interesting and historic display was an entire recreation of David Marshall “Carbine” Williams’ workshop. Williams was a firearms designer who invented the floating chamber and the short-stroke piston. Both designs used the high-pressure gas generated in or near the breech of the firearm to operate the action of semi-automatic firearms like the M1 Carbine (and now you know where that name came from). These inventions helped in developing weapons that helped the US to victory in World War II.

The last display of interest was restored portions of an old fashioned Drug Store including various medicines and an original soda fountain bar. Some of the items found in the medicine display were quite interesting…

After finishing up at the museum, we traveled over to the original Raleigh Train Depot. Built in 1912, it is a wonderful example of restoration and reuse of an historic building. It now houses a coffee shop and, more importantly, a chocolate factory! We toured the small facility and bought some of their wonderful product for later consumption…yum!

We enjoyed several days at the pool, getting our meals from food trucks and just generally relaxing. But before we could move on, there was a friend of Dan’s from back in the early 90’s when they worked at the now defunct Hayes Microcomputer Products (if you don’t know who this was, look them up – basically the founding father of communicating with computers over phone lines back when 9600 bits per second was considered blazing fast!). Lisa Smallwood and her husband Tal live in Raleigh and we were able to catch up with them for a nice afternoon lunch. Again, one of the best parts of traveling is reconnecting with people we haven’t seen in years!

Our next stop was Winston-Salem. This is a wonderful town with lots of history and places to discover. Our campground was a real gem, Tanglewood Park. This is a county park that rivals most state and even national parks. The campground featured long sites with lots of shade. We had direct access to several paved bike trails and if we had wanted, we could have also gone to the county pool, taken a horse ride, or gotten a meal at the inn located within the park. Quite an impressive little park.

Our first day out, we visited a restored Shell gas station originally built in the 1930’s. The Shell Service Station in Winston-Salem, was a filling station constructed in 1930 following a decision in the 1920s by the new local Shell distributor, Quality Oil Co., to bring brand awareness to the market in Winston-Salem. It is no longer operating, but has been restored to its original condition for all to admire.

Next stop was Körner’s Folley. It was built in 1880 by Jule Gilmer Körner, and is a 6,000 square foot, 3+1⁄2-story, eccentric brick dwelling with a shingled, cross-gable roof. It measures 48 feet on each side, with four bays. The house is said to have served originally as combination dwelling, stable, and carriage house, and featured an open carriageway running through the center of the house. Körner made his fortune by spearheading one of the first national advertising campaigns by painting murals of Bull Durham Smoking tobacco bulls on buildings and barns across the American east coast. In the 1870s he moved back to his hometown Kernersville, NC, to build Körner’s Folly and start an interior decorating and design business. The 22-room interior features unusual architecture and many examples of Victorian furniture and interior decoration since Körner used the house to showcase his business.

The third floor of Körner’s Folly contains “Cupids Park,” which the museum says is the oldest private theater in America. Jule and Polly Alice Korner built the theater as part of their “Juvenile Lyceum,” which was a philanthropic project providing local children with access to the arts. Today, the theater is used by local theatrical groups and by the Körner’s Folly Foundation for a puppet show, which is performed several times a year for children and visiting school groups.

You can see in a couple of pics where Jill and I seem to be giants in the rooms but in actuality, when he had children he took some very high-ceiling rooms and split them horizontally for children rooms. Just the right hight for small kids, a little low for adults! There were also many passageways and corridors where family and help could get to different rooms without having to pass thru “public” rooms.

Continuing our history tour, another day we travelled to Old Salem. Old Salem was originally settled by the Moravian community in 1766. This small city features a living history museum that interprets the restored Moravian community. The district showcases the culture of the Moravian settlement in North Carolina during the 18th and 19th centuries with communal buildings, churches, houses, and shops, many of which you can tour.

The town’s restored and reconstructed buildings, staffed by living-history interpreters, present visitors with a view of Moravian life in the 18th and 19th centuries. The features include skilled interpreters such as tinsmiths, blacksmiths, cobblers, gunsmiths, bakers and carpenters, practicing their trades while interacting with visitors. Approximately 70% of the buildings in the historic district are original, making this a truly unique living history museum.

This area of North Carolina is also a great wine making region. Taking a break from our history lessons, we spent a day visiting three different vineyards.

Our last stop was at Mrs. Hanes’ Cookies where the wonderful art of making Moravian cookies continues. Moravian spice cookies are a traditional kind of cookie that originated in the Colonial American communities of the Moravian Church. The blend of spices and molasses, rolled paper thin, has a reputation as the “World’s Thinnest Cookie”. Today they have flavors such as black walnut, butterscotch, chocolate, and lemon as well as the more traditional sugar and ginger. We bought several bags for our travels…yum!

The remaining days at this wonderful park were spent relaxing as well as riding our bikes on the many bike trails across the park. In additional to wide paved trails, the park also features many dirt bike and horse trails.

Our next leg of the trip would take us on a short detour to Gaffney, South Carolina for some annual chassis maintenance work before continuing into the western mountains of North Carolina. More on that with the next update!

Leaving Wilmington, we headed up the coast of North Carolina to the small island town of Emerald Isle. Not a lot to do on this stop as this was planned as a jump off to catch the ferry to Ocracoke Island (more on that later). We paid top dollar for a campground on the ocean and a site up on a hill with views to the water.

Much of our time was spent enjoying walks along the beach and the views from our campsite.

However, our peaceful campground became quite windy after we arrived, with day after day of gale-force warnings up and down the coast. These were accompanied by cool temperatures that got to the point that it was hard to sit outside (you could bundle up against the cold but the wind was really pretty constant!). This would become a key factor in our upcoming plans as well as impact many others along the coast in the coming week but more on that later.

Only two main excursions were taken while in the area. The first was a drive to Fort Macon, a brick fort built in the early 1800’s and very well preserved. Blackbeard and other infamous pirates were known to have passed through Beaufort Inlet at will before the construction of the fort. Fort Macon was built between 1826 and 1834 and is made up of 2,379,546 bricks—more than any other U.S. fort. It saw action during the Civil War, the Spanish American War and World War II. It also served as a military prison from 1862-1877. Located on Bogue Banks near Atlantic Beach, the fort opened as a state park in 1936. Fort Macon State Park is the second most visited state park in North Carolina, with an annual visitation of 1.3 million, despite being one of the smallest state parks in North Carolina.

Our next excursion took us out to Harker’s Island on the other side of Bogue Inlet to visit the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum. This museum focuses on the history of the local area including exhibitions on waterfowl decoys, history of storms and hurricanes, library with reference materials, local community exhibits, and a lookout tower. It provided an interesting look into local life and how it developed in the area.

After all this culture and education, it was time to wander over to the lovely little town of Beaufort (the one in North Carolina!) for a stroll along the marina and some lunch.

About two days before out scheduled departure, the weather had really gotten interesting. Although we had mostly clear skies, the wind had picked up to the point that the entire coast was under gale-force advisories (winds running between 39 and 54 miles per hour). These were not gusts but sustained winds. The rig was buffeted a lot and sitting outside ensured your hair would be really messed up! Walking the beach was not that comfortable given the sand blasting you received from the airborne sand.

We were supposed to depart for Ocracoke Island which would involve a 1 1/2 hour drive to Cedar Island, then a 2 1/2 hour ride on a large ferry (that could carry big vehicles such as our RV). We’d then spend 3 nights on Ocracoke, an island that can only be reached by ferries (no bridges connect it to the mainland or to other islands) before catching another ferry to Hatteras. Checking the NC Ferry website found that ferry schedules were being disrupted by the high winds which were also kicking up high seas. Each day found the ferry from Cedar Island being cancelled due to weather. The day before our scheduled departure, we called the ferry terminal to determine if we would be able to get across the next day. The answer was a very firm “no”. On top of this, the ferry is booked months in advance meaning that when the weather did clear up, we would not be able to rebook. Thus, we had to make the decision to give up on our plan to visit Ocracoke during this journey. At the same time, we needed to find somewhere else to stay in the interim. After a quick search, we found a quaint little campground outside of New Bern, NC. called Turkey Quarter

This turned out to be a lovely little campground owned and operated by “James”. James was larger than life, stopping by our campsite to chat and see how we were doing, working on extending the campground, working on his dump truck in an empty site and chasing the geese out of his pond to keep them from eating his newly seeded bank. But the most amazing part of our stay was Sunday morning when James and his wife stopped by with fresh baked biscuits and sausage for breakfast. They evidently do this every Sunday for everyone in the campground. Quite an amazing little place!

We really loved this little campground but kept trying to think of who James reminded us. After a few days of contemplation, we finally realized it was Ernest T Bass from the Andy Griffith Show!

Another great byproduct of our detour was the fact that we were able to discover and explore the fine little town of New Bern. This town has several things going for it. It’s small (population of about 30,000), it’s geographically located near many bigger cities (It lies 112 miles east of Raleigh, 80 miles north of Wilmington, and 162 miles south of Norfolk), it is located at the confluence of the Neuse and the Trent rivers, AND is the birthplace of Pepsi!

We first took a self-guided walk thru the historic part of town where many large old homes still stand from the late 1700’s and 1800’s. Many sit with views of the Neuse River.

We happened to be lucky enough to be visiting while they were having a classic car show in the downtown square so we were able to enjoy a walk down memory lane while admiring the various restored automobiles.

We even found an older version of an RV..

And of course, no visit to New Bern would be complete without stopping by the birthplace of what would become Pepsi Cola. A cute little “soda shop” still exists where the original pharmacy stood but it ain’t the World of Coca Cola!

After this short detour, it was time to finally head to the Outer Banks (OBX) so we could officially start the Manteo to Murphy portion of our trip. But that’s a story for another blog…