We are camped in White Springs Florida which is a short drive to the Okefenokee Swamp across the border in Georgia. This afternoon we drive to the west side of the swamp to Stephen Foster State Park. There is a visitors center and boat basin to visit. They are in a drought so there are no boat rides out of this area, only canoes can get out of the boat basin. We walk a boardwalk out over the swamp and it is all dried up. A short palm looking plant is everywhere in the swamp and woods and is a Sawtooth Palmetto. We have seen this plant everywhere in Florida and now in Georgia. Would like it see it when there is water. Next we go to the Suwanee River Visitors Center which is located on the Suwanee River to see a short movie on the swamp. A lot of places around here are named after Stephen Foster but only because he wrote the song about the river, he never lived or visited the area.
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| Entrance to the Okefenokee |
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| Sawtooth Palmetto |
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| Suwanee River |
Jan. 24
It is sunny and nice today as we head to the east side of the swamp to the Suwanee Canal Recreation Area. There is a visitors center and a boat basin with more water so there are boat rides through the swamp. We take a 2:00 boat ride were we saw numerous alligators, shore birds, owls sitting in trees and even raccoon and otter. Okefenokee is a vast bog of 402,000 acres, inside a huge saucer-shaped depression that was once part of the ocean floor. Peat deposits up to 15 feet thick cover much of the swamp floor. The slow-moving water are tea-colored due to the tunic acid released from decaying plants. Our guide is a 5th generation swamp man and we had a very good trip through the swamp. We stopped at an old homestead where the Chesser family settled on Chesser Island in 1850's. The home we saw was built in 1927 by Tom Chesser. Outbuildings include a smokehouse, syrup shed, chicken coop, corn crib and hog pen.
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| Spanish Moss covered tree |
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| Alligators basking in the sun |
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| Chesser Island Homestead |
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| Cooking pot for syrup |
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| Sugarcane Mill |
There is a light rain this morning as we move to Mexico Beach down on the gulf. The campground is sand with puddles everywhere. They had a down pour this morning. After lunch we drive to the town of Apalachicola which is famous for Oysters and have a great seafood dinner.
Jan. 26
Sunny and nice again today as we take off back to Apalachicola where there is St. Vincent National Wildlife Reserve visitors center. St. Vincent is on an island so we do not see the reserve. There are a few displays in the visitors center but it is pretty small. We go about 50 miles further east to St. Marks National Wildlife Reserve. This is a better reserve with a 7 mile drive out to St. Marks Lighthouse, built in 1831. The lighthouse isn't open to climb but is in good shape. Along the road we see alligators and many shore birds. On the way back to our campground we stop in Apalachicola at a seafood market and buy fresh oysters and shrimp. That will be a good dinner.
Jan. 27
Cloudy today as we leave to go further west to Gulf Shores Alabama. The campground is not as nice as it looked on the Internet. The area is full of restaurants and all kinds of shopping and definitely a snow bird destination. We drive back into Florida in the Jeep to check out a National Park Service campground located on Gulf Islands National Seashore. It is on the gulf by Pensacola Beach and we decide to move here on Saturday.
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| Road out to Gulf Islands National Seashore |
Jan. 28
This is our last day in this campground so we decide to explore the area around here before moving back to Florida. We start the day going to Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge. This is located on a finger of land with water on both sides, Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. At the end is Fort Morgan and a ferry to the other side of Mobile Bay. Homes and condos line the beach on both sides of this area. It is hard to tell when we are in the refuge and we don't see any wildlife. It was a nice ride out to the end of the road. In 2004 Hurricane Ivan made landfall at Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge as a category 3 hurricane. It devastated communities from Dauphin Island, Alabama, to Pensacola, Florida. We checked out Gulf State Park with 500 sites. It is full now and with reservation full for the entire year. They let people camp by the month for as long as they want. All the recreation activities are in this campground, swimming pool, tennis, volleyball, golf course and boat launch. People traveling through will never be able to get into this campground. We drove to Orange Beach and Gulf Shores and high rise condos line the gulf shore. We stopped at a public beach and walked on the sand and picked-up shells. It's a beautiful beach and I see why it is so popular. We pick-up some groceries and I did laundry before moving to the next campground.
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| Offshore oil drilling platform in the Gulf |
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| Condo at Orange Beach |
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| Gulf Shores, Alabama beach |
Jan. 29
The weather is sunny and nice today as we move to Fort Pickens Campground on Gulf Islands National Seashore. We drive through Pensacola and over a long bridge to Gulf Breeze then over another bridge, this one with a toll, to Pensacola Beach. I was surprised to see such a large town with beach houses, large condos, restaurants and shops. We drive out to the National Seashore through a gate with costs $8 but we are free with the senior pass. Now all we see is white sand and water on both sides of the road. The sand is so white in color that it looks like snow and the water is a beautiful blue green color. The campground is large and there are lots of sites. We have water and 50 amp elect. and it is only $10 a night with our senior pass. This campground was destroyed by hurricane Ivan in 2004 and has only been reopened this year. We will stay here for a few days. The weather is going to be rainy off and on so we will wait out the weather before we move again. Armadillos are in the campground and don't seem to mind people taking their picture. After lunch we go to Fort Pickens at the end of the island. Fort Pickens is the largest of four forts built to defend Pensacola Bay and its navy yard. The fort was completed in 1834 and used until 1947. It is constructed of over 21.5 million bricks and built by African-American slave labor. The only real action the fort endured occurred during the Civil War. Fort Pickens was one of four seacoast forts in the South that remained in Union control during the Civil War.
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| Armadillo |
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| Fort Pickens |
Jan. 30
Cloudy and rain is in the forecast. After breakfast we drove into Pensacola Beach and drove east to the other end of the island. Many beach houses and condos line the shore. We came to another section of National Seashore and then to the town of Navarre where the road ends and there is another bridge over to the mainland. We see large pieces of asphalt scattered in the sand along the road. The road on this island was destroyed by hurricane Ivan in 2004. The eye came right over Orange Beach. On the way back we stopped at some of the shops in Pensacola Beach. We found a good seafood restaurant to have lunch before going back to the campground. In the afternoon we did a little bike riding and went across the road to the beach. There are crews working on the beach cleaning up the crude oil that is washing in on the beach after the oil spill of last spring. The oil is dry to the touch and looks like little black rocks but you can make an indent with your fingernail or break it in half. They walk along the beach with long sticks with a screen on the end to pick-up the oil. They have sand carts that look like golf carts to carry the buckets and equipment. The crew numbers about 20 and they are getting paid to do this. They work 7 days a week and don't quit until dark. The only thing is, oil is being washed up daily so their job will never be done. I was at the beach the day after they had been through that section and found lots of large globs washing in the surf. There is a machine called a sand shark that cleans the sand down a couple of feet but they don't seem to want to use it. I don't know who is paying the bill but I think the crews walking the beach is a huge waste of money. The rain finally came late in the afternoon and it just pour during the night.
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| Large piece of asphalt from the road before Hurricane Ivan |
Jan. 31
The weather is nice today so we decide to go into Pensacola to the National Museum of Navel Aviation. The museum is located on the Pensacola Naval Air Station so we had to show ID to get on the base. What a great museum. There were all kinds of military airplanes on display in two indoor buildings and many more outside which we rode on a trolley to see. This is the home of the Blue Angels and there were several retired Blue Angel planes on display. They practice Tuesday and Wednesdays the middle of March through the first week in November and it is open to the public. They practice in California the rest of the year. Their show schedule runs from March through November also. Across the road is the Pensacola Lighthouse that we visit next. We decide to climb the 177 steps to the top. What a view from the top. We can see the island where we are staying across the bay. The lighthouse light is still in operation and we could see it as we went back to the campground that night. There was also a museum and the keeper's house, which was attached to the tower, was furnished as it would have been when a family lived there. This was a very interesting lighthouse to visit and we enjoyed our day in Pensacola. We stopped for a seafood dinner on our way back to the motor home. You probably think we eat way too much seafood but that would not be possible as Dick and I both love it.
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| Blue Angel plane you can climb in cockpit |
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| Blue Angel display |
Feb. 1
The weather forecast was showing rain and wind so we stayed around the campground today. The weather down along the gulf states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama does not look good. The bad weather should be through the area and further north by morning so we plan on moving into Mississippi in the morning. There is another campground in the Mississippi section of Gulf Islands Nat. Seashore located by Ocean Springs that we are going to move to tomorrow. We will stay there for 3 nights until the next window of good weather. Tonight I am making chicken noodle soup with the homemade noodles we bought in Amish area of Pennsylvania. Good dinner for a rainy night. We have been on the road for 5 months and traveled over 10,700 miles. Definitely Happy Travels, Barb
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