Merry Christmas - 2008

We arrived home on December 3rd and by the 11th we had all the decorating, shopping, wrapping and shipping done. Then snow hit and we were home bound for over a week with multiple snow and ice storms hitting until right up to Christmas. We kept thinking how lucky we were to have everything done so we could just enjoy the holidays and a very special white Christmas.

We stretched Christmas out over a week first with Lee's kids and grandchildren.......

......and then with Millie's daughter and grandchildren. Lots of fun, laughs, good food and lots of love.

We are heading for the ocean for a few days and into the new year. We hope all of you have a safe new year's holiday and a very happy and prosperous 2009.

Happy Thanksgiving to all

We are in Lafayette, LA for Thanksgiving and we wish all of you a very happy and meaningful day of thanks for all the good that we share in this life. There is much to worry about, but we all have many wonderful people and loving memories in our lives that far outweight the worries.
After leaving Kennedy Space Center we drove across Florida to the western shore and started our trek around the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way we saw many beautiful sunsets like this one. It was nice to have the sun setting across water again. As westcoasters, that is how it is supposed to be.

We stayed at several state parks in FL, AL and LA. Many were right on some form of water and most had warning signs like this. Needless to say, we did not do much swimming or even walking around at night.

Our journey across to New Orleans was very different. As we approached the LA coastline we started seeing more and more piles of rubble, empty foundations and torn up neighborhoods. Many closed roads and many, many boarded up stores. The hurricanes that this area has suffered through over the past three years, namely, Katrina, Gustov and Ike, have been almost more than they can handle. The news stories that we have all seen have not done justice to the wide devestation that we saw along the way. Once we got to New Orleans we saw many closed stores but very little damage that had not been repaired. The problems seem to be outside the tourist areas. Lots of blue tarps on roofs, piles of storm debris still waiting to be picked up and a population that has declined by 70%. Big problems and not too many solutions in the works it seems.

We did enjoy New Orleans and the French Quarter. It is still very lively and LOUD! We did our part by lots of eating, spending some money and enjoying the street bands and entertainment.

We are on our way to pick up the Nachez Trace Parkway north to Jackson, MS where we will park the motorhome and fly home on Wednesday, Dec 3. We are looking forward to seeing everyone and enjoying the winter at home before resuming our journey in the spring. See you all soon.

After leaving

Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour

On our list of things to do in life was to watch a live shuttle launch. As fate and planning would have it, we managed to be at the right place at just the right time. After much research we found the best, non - VIP place to view the launch is across the Indian river at Titusville, FL We arrived about 7 hours prior to launch and got settled in with about 5000 of our closest friends. Under a full moon and at precisely 7:55pm the sky lit up in a brilliant orange flame that turned white as it rose into the sky. About 13 seconds later the sound of the launch reached us with a rumble that shook the ground and rattled our teeth....incredible sight and a remarkable achievement for everyone involved.

Dry Tortugas National Park and the Florida Keys

The Florida Keys are connected by US 1 also called the Overseas Highway. This road extends from the southern tip of Florida out 120 plus miles to Key West. We crossed 42 bridges like this to get to the end. Beautiful green water on both sides of the road; but very busy.

You can just make out our motorhome perched on the shore. This was our "camp" at Bahia Honda Key State Park.

Sunset view from our park the night before we head out to Dry Tortugas National Park.

This is the most remote national park in the lower 48 states. It sits about 70 miles or so from Key West and is the largest brick structure in the northern hemisphere. We took a ferry out from Key West; very rough seas; many people got sick (yuck!) but we were okay. Very glad, however, that the trip ended when it did.

It seemed strange that they would build a moot around a fort out on an island but it served as a barrier from stormy seas and also prevented any enemy from directly assaulting the fort walls. This fort was under construction for 35 years starting before the Civil War but was never fully completed.

The island does not have any drinkable water so the design of the fort includes cisterns in the foundation to store rain water collected from the tops of the fort walls. The cisterns are still working and provide fresh water for the park service staff.

There are 7 islands around Dry Tortugas that are all part of the national park. Most are just sand bars a few feet above the ocean but some are nesting sights for over one hundred different species of birds. The seas around the park are littered with sucken ships and are a mecca for divers. We had planned on snorkeling but the sea was too rough....maybe next time.

National Parks of Southern Florida

We have been stationary just outside of Miami, FL for about 4 days visiting Big Cypress Nat'l Preserve, Biscayne Nat'l Park and Everglades Nat'l Park all within about 30 miles of our RV park. Lots of critters, water and beautiful sights that are like none anywhere else in the world.

We took an airboat trip out into the Everglades "River of Grass" which is a 50 mile wide river that is only about 6 inches deep that drains Lake Okeechobbe as it overflows during the summer wet season. The river is home to lots of snakes, alligators, birds and other things that will kill you.

The river only flows is the slowest flowing river in the world and has an elevation drop of only about 6 feet over about 150 mile length. A change in elevation of only a few inches can change a grass wetland into a mangrove forest and then into a pine forest and then back again in just a few feet.

Today (Sunday) we drove into Miami and Miami beach to take a look at the chaos along the beach drives. Millie also wanted to see the city again since she had been here many times on business. As it turned out the only things that Millie recognized are in what is now called the "historic district".?????

Tomorrow we head out to the Florida Keys (the latest hurricane has just blown by and is no threat) to see the last Florida Nat'l Park - Dry Tortugas - which is located 30 miles off the coast of Key West.

South Carolina and Georgia Coastline

We are settled into a RV park in Orange City, FL to watch the election returns. We noted that we have never been on the east coast for an election so we are not used to having to wait until late into the night to get projected results. Usually, the race is called before dinner on the west coast. Exciting times but we will be glad to get the campaign over and let the winner start doing something rather than just talking about what they plan to do.

Over the last several days we have had the opportunity to tour various cities along the southern east coast including Charleston and Savannah; also we visited a number of beautiful barrier islands along the Georgia coast.

Charleston, SC is one of those beautiful southern cities that, at least for a visitor, depicts the the "true old south". It is full of history and wonderful old buildings. Almost all of the homes have porches that either open to the street or open to a courtyard between the homes.

We went out to the Magnolia Plantation outside Charleston. Some of the old rice fields are flooded swamps now and are the home for a wide variety of birds as well as several alligators.

We took a very relaxing hop-on, hop-off tour of Savannah, GA which has many more ante bellum homes since Savannah was not burned in the Civil War like most other cities in SC and GA.

We happened to be in Savannah on Halloween and it felt right to take a walk through this pre-civil war cemetery with the spanish moss hanging from the oak trees.

Hilton Head Island is one of the barrier islands that has become a resort haven. It has many modern "plantation" style resorts and some very beautiful white sugar sandy beaches.

Then on to Jekyll Island, GA. At one time during the industrial revolution in this country, this island was the preferred summer home for very wealthy families like the Rockefellers and Vanderbuilts. In fact, the families that owned these homes accounted for one-sixth of the total wealth in the entire world at one time. Now the homes and clubs have been restored and are rented out to anyone seeking privacy and simple, elegant luxury.

Our last stop in GA was at St. Mary's and a quick boat ride out to National Seashore Park on Cumberland Island This is the old Carniege family island that has been allowed to go back to its natural state as a barrier island. In that process, about 150 wild horses have become the local residents. Visitation to the island is extremely limited and we felt privleged to be able to visit. The island has miles of sand dunes, saltwater swamps, sea turtle nesting beaches and wonderful live oak forests.

As we walked around the island we shared the trail frequently with the wild horses, wild turkeys and a few other critters. Just after these horses past us, two of them got into a very violent horse fight. No injury, but it was a reminder that these guys were, in fact, wild and very territorial.

We spent much of our time wandering around the saltwater swamp. It really was beautiful in its own way. We didn't see any critters here but we saw many signs that they were around.

Now here is a critter that let us take his picture. This armadillo is one of many that came to the island sometime in 1974 and are thriving.

We got to watch the sunset as we took the boat back to the mainland at St. Mary's, GA. Great day!

Congaree National Park, SC

Just after we left this beautiful park in the Blue Ridge Mountains they got 3 inches of snow. So far we have been very lucky with the weather.

On our way out of the mountains we had to stop and take a last look at some mountain streams before we head to the lowlands of South Carolina and Georgia.

We arrived at the Congaree National Park outside of Columbia, SC this morning and took the 2.5 mile boardwalk through the swamp and rain forest. Congaree is the newest National Park (2005); as a matter of fact we just found out about the park about a month ago and added it to our trip.This is the largest floodplain forest in the world. Part of the eco-system of the forest is to have insects eat out the center of the trees as they age. We reached in and snapped this picture up through the center of one of these 150 year old trees.

The swamp walk was very pleasant since all of the bugs were asleep from the cold. We had beautiful blue sky and 50 degree weather. Just perfect for a walk in the woods.

The boardwalk allowed us to walk the swamp comfortably and still see much of what there was to see. We saw some wild pigs, many birds and squirrels all over the place. The best way to see this park would have been in a canoe along the many guts and sloughs but (thankfully) there were no canoes available.

Next stop, Charleston, SC.

Great Smoky Mountain National Park

We can now say that we have been to the most visited National Park in the entire NP System. We were very surprised to hear this fact since Yellowstone and Grand Canyon are so popular but GSM gets more than twice the visitors than any other park.

While there is no doubt that this is a very beautiful scenic park, the traffic and crowds (even in October) were terrible. Bumper to bumper with parking on every usable shoulder. Perhaps if we could have gotten into some of the back country it would be different, but every trail head parking lot was jammed.

The name Smoky Mountains comes from the blue tinted clouds that form in the valleys and look like smoke. Pretty cleaver, huh?

Take away the crowds and this would be very much like our Olympic NP. It has one of the highest concentrations of deciduous trees anywhere else in the world.

Outer Banks, North Carolina

On our way out to the Outer Banks of North Carolina we came across our first cotton field. More than likely we will be seeing more of these but we promise not to post pictures of them all.

The Outer Banks are the chain of coastal islands and sand bars that we hear about everytime there is a hurricane off the Atlantic coast. We drove almost all of the 120 miles of this barrier. There as not been any major storm for several months, but, because the land is so low, we still had several places where the surf had broke through the dunes and flooded the roadway. It must be incredible to be here during a storm.

Almost everywhere that is not a protected wildlive preserve is covered with homes like these. The bottom floor is open to allow the sea and sand to pass through without obstruction.

There are the occasional crazy person out here too.

The Cape Hatteras lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse in the world. It was recently moved 2900 feet inland to protect it from errosion.

The cape is also the site of the Wright Brothers first flight at Kitty Hawk but we got there too late to go see the monument....

but this is what it would have looked like had we been there before it closed.