Thursday, December 23, 2010

Florida and Florida Keys

Dec. 15

Yeah, finally made it to Florida and decide to spend a few days in Daytona Beach.  It has been so cold that we are looking for warmer weather.  It is much warmer here in Daytona and can be outside without a coat.  We turn on the TV and saw they are testing tires on the newly repaved Daytona track and it is open to the public for free so we head there.  There were three cars on the track and we were able to stand right by the fence and watch.  The noise when a car passed by us was unbelievable.  They will be testing the track again tomorrow so we will come in the morning.  Many big name drivers are here, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Juan Montoya to name a few.

Dec. 16

A beautiful sunny day as we head to the Daytona track this morning.  We find seats in the grandstands and see 14 cars running this morning.  There are lots of people here today and we stay until lunch time.  After lunch we drove to the beach and were able to drive on the beach in the Jeep past many high rise condos.  It is a beautiful white sandy beach and it's finally warm enough to put our toes in the Atlantic Ocean.  I pick-up sea shells and walk in the water which isn't too cold.



pace car


Daytona Speedway



putting my feet in the Atlantic


Dec. 17

Sunny and warm again today.   We head down towards Cape Canaveral.  Our first stop is a lighthouse not far from Daytona.  We stop at Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse which is a beautifully restored lighthouse with museum buildings surrounding it.  Next we go to Canaberal National Seashore and drive to the end of the road and stop to walk and pick-up sea shells on the beach.  The water here is a  deep turquoise blue color.  We stop at a place called Turtle Mound.  It was a place for Timucuan Indians to gather and process clams.  Today the mound is 18 feet high with a walkway built over it.  We saw a small armadillo along the road.  Next we went to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.  We drove along a road were alligators were out sunning themselves and many shore birds along the way.  We saw egrets, blue herons, brown pelicans and a pink colored shore bird called a Roseate Spoonbill.  We don't go to the Kennedy Space Center but could see in the distance the buildings and a rocket being readied for launch in February.




Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse


Dec. 18

Rain this morning.  We are moving south to Pompano Beach.  The rain is coming down in sheets and it is hard to see.  Traffic is going slow because of the hard rain.  We finally get to the campground and get soaked getting hooked up.  We are near my nephew, David so call him to make arrangements to see them tomorrow.

Dec. 19

It is still cloudy today and stay around the motor home where I do some laundry.  Around 4 we go to David and Makebas house which is about a mile from our campground.  They have a cute house in Lighthouse Point that has been totally remolded.  The kitchen and back yard have been recently redone.  We had a delicious dinner and ate out by the pool.  It was great seeing them again after seeing them in Chicago and Boston.

Dec. 20

Sunny and warm today as we head down towards Miami.  We go to Biscayne National Park and stop at the visitors center.  This is the only part of the park on land.  We watch a movie about the park which protects and preserves a significant marine ecosystem with mangrove shorelines, a shallow bay, undeveloped islands, and living coral reefs.  There is a boat ride out to an island but the next one was at 1 in the afternoon.  We decided to go on to the Everglades National Park instead.  We took a side road that went to another visitors center and walked on a boardwalk over the marshy area.  We saw many birds, turtles, and about 20 alligators in one spot.  We took the road which ends at Florida Bay to Flamingo Visitors Center and marina.  We only saw a small portion of the Everglades and will probably see it from the gulf side later.

Alligatores in The Everglades


Egret



Great Blue Heron


Dec. 21

Sunny and nice again today.  We stay around the campground in the morning and after lunch we go to Deerfield Beach which has public access to the beach.  We walk along the wide beach.  It is warm so lots of people are on the beach and some even swimming.  It is a beautiful area with inter coastal waterways with large yachts and ocean going boats parked in front of houses. 

Dec. 22

Sunny and blue sky today as we leave to go south to the Keys.  We are going to spend Christmas and a total of 5 days in the Keys.  We are going about halfway down and staying in a campground near the town of Marathon.  We will be able to explore the Keys in both directions in the Jeep. 

Dec. 23

Today is sunny and warm again.  After lunch we head down to Key West.  We plan on doing a little shopping and eating dinner down there.  We go to the southernmost point in the continental US. which is a large concrete painted marker.  We are only 90 miles from Cuba.  Next we go to Mallory Square where people are preforming for donations.  We have dinner at Sloppy Joes which was Ernest Hemingway's favorite restaurant.  After dinner we go back to Mallory Square to watch the sunset.  This place is known for its beautiful sunsets and many people were gathered to watch.  We pick up 2 pieces of key lime pie to take home for our desert and head out of town to the motor home. 


Southernmost point in continental US



Sunset in Key West

We will spend 3 more days down here in the Keys and go back on the mainland on Dec. 27th.  The Keys are very tropical feeling with everything so green and many blooming bushes and flowers.  The water color is a beautiful turquoise blue.  The water is at different depths so the water takes on different hues of blue/green.  There are many bridges to cross all the way down to Key West. 

We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  We will miss spending Christmas with our children and grand kids but we feel fortunate to be able to follow our dream while we are able to.  This country is so large that we are only seeing a small portion of it.  We have loved visiting the many cities and states and have fantastic memories of each place we have seen.  We are finally enjoying the warm weather and look forward to our trip across the gulf states.  We will head up the gulf side of Florida and plan on meeting our son Chad, Melanie and Jacob in Disney World on Jan. 7th for 6 days.  We have been on the road almost 4 month and traveled over 9600 miles.  Definitely Happy Travels, Barb

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Knoxville, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia

Dec. 4, Dec. 5 and Dec. 6

Still in Knoxville.  It's cold here and keeps trying to snow but not much is sticking.  We have been here for 21 days and tomorrow we are leaving.  They have fixed everything except the pac/compression break.  It won't hurt to drive the motor home the way it is.  We will probably get it worked on when we get to Texas.  I bought another Christmas tree, an artificial one with lights.  I bought small ornaments to put on it. 


my little tree

Dec. 7

Snow this morning and it lightly covers the ground but it is a very dry snow.  We said our good-byes and left for North Carolina.  We spend the night near Winston Salem. 

Dec. 8

We move on today to Shawboro N.C. which is close to the Otter Banks area of North Carolina.  The closer we got to the coast we saw acres and acres of cotton fields.  They had already been harvested but balls of cotton were everywhere, even along the road.  We found a great seafood market/restaurant for dinner. 

Dec. 9

It's sunny and cold today.  The east is still getting cold weather.  We got up early  to head to the Otter Banks in the Jeep.  Our first stop is Wright Brothers National Memorial four miles south of the town of Kitty Hawk.  The reason the Wright Brothers selected Kitty Hawk to work on a successful flight is because of the wind there and sparse population.  The visitors center has full-scale reproductions of the 1902 glider and the 1903 flying machine.  We heard a ranger talk about the Wright Brothers and the four flights they took on Dec. 17, 1903. The first went 120 feet for 12 seconds.  Each flight that day increased in distance with the last one going 852 feet in 59 sec.  After that last flight a gust of wind rolled and damaged the plane beyond easy repair.  Outside there is a marker were the first flight took off from and markers were the four flights landed.  Next we stopped at Bodie Island Lighthouse which is being restored and covered in scaffolding.  We drove across a very long  bridge to Roanoke Island and visited Fort Raleigh National Historic Site.  The Otter Banks area has large homes along the beaches.  They are built on stilts at least 8 feet off the ground because of flooding.  Most houses are an additional three stories high with roof top decks.  We drove along Cape Hatteras National Seashore and stopped at Cape Hatteras Lighthouse which is the tallest brick beacon in the country.  We enjoyed our day on the Otter Banks. 

reproduction of 1903 flying machine
 

reproduction of 1902 glider



actual picture of first flight

first flight marker


markers where the 4 flights landed



Cape Hatteras Lighthouse



Bodie Island Lighthouse

Dec. 10

Heavy frost covers the ground this morning and we leave for Myrtle Beach South Carolina.  The campground we are staying in is large with about 750 campsites.  It was pretty quite this time of the year but probably full in the summer.  We can see the ocean from our motor home.  It is great hearing that ocean sound. 
Dec. 11

Rain in the night and still raining this morning.  It stopped long enough for us to walk on the beach.  We did a little shopping and had a good seafood dinner. 

Dec. 12

Decided to move further south and maybe it will be warmer.  We are camping by the town of Yemassee S.C. and staying here for 3 nights.  We are close enough to drive the Jeep into Savannah Georgia.  We got here around noon time so I can do laundry this afternoon. 

Dec. 13

It's Sunny but cold today and there is a cold wind blowing also.  We drive the Jeep to Hilton Head Island.  This is a very up scale area with lots of golf resorts.  Had a great fish and chip lunch in a little restaurant.  We went to Fort Pulaski National Monument at the mouth of the Savannah River in Georgia.  It was part of an extensive chain of coastal forts built to protect the United States from foreign invasion.  During the Civil War in 1862, Union forces on Tybee island bombarded the fort for 30 hours and forced the surrender of the Confederate garrison.  The bombardment tore gaping holes in the walls of the fort.  The fort has a moat around it and a draw bridge.  This is one of the best forts we have visited on this trip.

Dec. 14

Got down to 22 in the night.  Sunny this morning with a slight wind blowing.  We drive the Jeep into Savannah this morning and take a trolley tour of the historic downtown area.  There are many historic homes of different styles and 22 park like squares about 2 blocks in any direction scattered in this historic area.  There are museums, famous houses and churches to see on this tour that lasted 90 minutes.  We enjoyed seeing the beautiful historic town from a trolley with narration.  On the way back to the motor home we stopped at Savannah National Wildlife Refuge.  It was established in 1927 as a preserve and breeding ground for native birds.  We watched a movie about how the area was once a rice plantation dating back to the mid 1700s.  We leave here in the morning and head to Daytona Beach Florida for a couple of days.  Will be glad to finally get to Florida and hope the weather is warmer,  then we will go to Orlando area for a few days.  Definitely Happy Travels, Barb

Friday, December 3, 2010

Knoxville Tennessee

Nov. 25
Thanksgiving

Here we are still in Knoxville TN getting the motor home worked on.  They have ordered a part which should be here on Monday.  We are all by ourselves in the campground today and maybe all weekend.  People who live close have left their motor homes to be worked on next week.  It is a beautiful sunny day up into the 70s.  We stayed around the motor home most of the day and went to the local BBQ restaurant for dinner.  We had the best smoked turkey dinner for Thanksgiving. 

Nov. 26

I got to sleep in today and that felt good.  In the afternoon we went to the nearby mall and did a little shopping.  The roads and mall was crowded.  I picked up some uncooked chicken to make chicken noodle soup for dinner.  We bought some homemade noodles when we were in Amish country in Pennsylvania and homemade soup sounded good.

Nov. 27

It got down to about 28 in the night but the sun was shinning in the morning.  There was a cold wind blowing though.  After lunch today we decided to go back down the Pigeon Forge area to see the Christmas lights.  We looked on the Internet at Dollywood and decided we didn't want to spend $60 each to see it.  The traffic was terrible when we got close to Pigeon Forge.  We took another road out to the country side and found a little BBQ place where we bought pulled pork and beef brisket to go.  There were stores to stop at along this road.  Thanksgiving weekend is big down here and traffic was bumper to bumper and lots of people walking along the streets.  We went to the last town before the Smokey Mountains which is Gatlinburg and stopped at a sports bar to have beer and potato skins.  That should hold us until we get back to the motor home.  The lights were beautiful and I'm glad we came back to see them.  Everything is decorated and the towns go all out with lights and Christmas decorations. 

Nov. 28

Cold in the night again and sunny and clear in the morning.  We stayed in the campground today.  In the afternoon the service manager called to see if were here in the campground.  He brought us some smoked ribs he had cooked and we had them for dinner.  They were delicious and that was really nice of him to think of us.  We sent him home with some crappie from our freezer.  Motor homes started coming into the campground in the afternoon.  By night the place was full again. 

Nov. 29

It's cold and cloudy today with rain on the way.  They worked on the coach today but didn't get it fixed. 
We had leftover chicken noodle soup and ribs for dinner tonight.  The rain started around dinner time and it's coming down hard all night.


Nov. 30

It rained all night and continues today.  Flash flood warnings our out for the entire area.  I don't think I have ever seen it rain so hard for so long.  Motor home still not fixed. 

Dec. 1

Cold again in the night and the rain stopped during the night.  A light snow was falling in the morning.  They have a man from Cummings Diesel coming to look at our motor home and hook it up to a computer program to try and find the problem with the pac break.  Cummings did an update and they are now looking for a broken wire and it is now just finding it.  Hope we will be fixed soon.



SNOW!
Dec. 2

Sunny but cold today.  Glad we have winter coats with us.  It has been getting below 30 in the night but gets up to the 40s in the day.  Found one bad wire today and replaced it.  The mechanic says he is getting close to a fix.  We have been on the road for 3 months today and traveled 7,700 miles.  This country is BIG!!

Dec. 3

Today is Friday so we hope the MH is fixed by the end of the day.   It's sunny again today but cold in the night.  Even though we have been here in Knoxville for over 2 weeks it hasn't been too bad.  We are comfortable in our motor home every night and have met lots of nice people.  I'm going to sent this blog this morning even though we haven't done much sightseeing and just been staying around the campground.  We want to get further south and into warmer weather soon.  Definitely happy travels, Barb