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….