The first half of our trip was all Florida. Warm but flat. So, for the second half we decided to go for more variation with canyons and gorges. Natural tunnel in Virginia was gorgeous even though it required a 1000 foot hike to get down to it! There is a chairlift for those not inclined to hike.

William Jennings Bryant said he thought it should be the 8th wonder of the world. It is a rock tunnel over 850 feet long and 10 stories high carved through a limestone ridge over thousands of years.There is even a train track running through that is still in use.

You could hike out to the platform and look into the tunnel but since it curved and was very long, you couldn't see out the other end. After we climbed back out of the gorge we decided to hike to the highest point in the park, Lover's Leap. Neither of us had any desire to jump!

Lovers Leap

Next, we decided to visit our nation's newest national park, New River Gorge in West Virginia. A bridge was constructed over the gorge in 1974. Prior to that vehicles had to zigzag down one side of the mountain, cross the river on a small bridge and zigzag up the other side.

The previous route

The route today

A crossing that now takes mere minutes used to take 45 minutes! 

We first went to an overlook of the New River but were unable to get close because of a foursome of people who had crossed the barrier to take selfies. After waiting about 10 minutes and dozens of pictures, we decided to take a short hike instead of standing around feeling irritated at their inconsiderate behavior.

We walked through a tunnel of 40 foot high rhododendrons covered with buds. Oh, how I wish I could be here when they were blooming!

The view from the overlook when we were able to visit it.

The next natural wonder was Natural Bridge in Kentucky. This one required a hike up rather than down. But, as we all know, what goes up must come down! The hike up gets you to the bottom of the stone arch where you access a set of very narrow steps and a narrow passage to get to the top. The stone arch is quite wide at the top and you are able to walk across it, The view over the edge is a bit scary though as there are no guard rails. No surprise that Denny refused to join me on the walk across. If he would have we could have gone further on the trail to access Lovers Leap but we settled for hiking back down. As it turned out that was more than enough for my knees that day!

The sign in our campground where we were camped next to a river with rain predicted for the next day. Yikes!
The path up was not an easy one but we made it to the top !

The very narrow stairs to the top of the arch. I was able to convince Denny to climb them!

I ran through this portion because it gave me claustrophobia and I was afraid someone would enter the other side. Very narrow!

What a pair we are, he's afraid of heights and I have claustrophobia! But, we push ourselves and sometimes we are able to overcome. 😁

The view from the top

                  View of the bridge on the way down. See the people on top?

Part of the trail down.

One of the many suspension bridges we crossed this year.

The last day here we hiked to a small hole in the ground (cave?) with a ladder down into it. I climbed down and Denny took my picture from a nearby sinkhole.

Our fun has now come to an end for this year, We are in southern Indiana and will be home in a few days. It's great to be on the road but always good to get back home!

 Since we left the Keys we have been busy visiting friends or having them visit us. First Jim and Linda Feeley, Michigan friends who are spending the winter in Florida. We had a nice hike and lunch with them but all of us forgot to take any pictures! 

Next, we moved on to Blue Springs State Park which is known for having large amounts of manatees in the warm spring. However, it was so hot there, that none bothered coming in to the spring to warm up! A friend and former Michigander now living in Florida, Dick Evans, picked us up for a day and took us on a wonderful sightseeing tour of the area. We had lunch at Crabby Joe's at a pier on Daytona Beach. His brother Ken was also along for the ride.

We hadn't been in Daytona in years and I was somewhat surprised that you can still drive on the beach.

Crabby Joe's on the pier

Spring break with seniors! Ken, Dick, Janet and Denny

A few seconds later, all of the men were distracted, They claim to have no idea what caught their attention but there were many young women in thong bikinis on the pier!

After a stop at a lovely state park near Savannah (Skidaway Island), we moved on up to South Carolina for a quick visit with Wendy and David, a lovely young couple that we met several years ago through Trevor. They were only able to come to dinner because they are working 7 days a week coordinating the logistics of a Covid testing site. However brief, it was great to see them!

                                         David, Wendy, Janet and Denny in the RV

Janet and Wendy

While at the park, we discovered many fairy houses on trees on several of the hikes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we went back into northeast Georgia, barely, to see beautiful Tallulah Gorge with many waterfalls and depths up to 900 feet deep. We hiked the north and south rim trails. This gorge was crossed many years ago by one of the Wallendas on a tightrope.

I really wanted to cross this bridge but we didn't have time for that hike.

Last year we had planned a trip to Asheville, NC with friends Pam and Joe, to see the Biltmore Estate. Unfortunately, we had to cancel due to Covid. So, we rescheduled this year and although there were some restrictions, we had a great time.

Unfortunately, the rose garden wasn't blooming yet.

You could get lost in here. The library had about 20,000 volumes on 2 floors!

Janet, Pam, Joe

This is the largest house in the United States.

An outdoor living sculpture. The kids were having fun running through it!

This has been an unusual trip. We rarely see very many people and this year even though we will be gone a shorter amount of time, we have seen a lot more people! Almost all were fully vaccinated or in Wendy and David's cases recently tested. It was so nice to be able to socialize again!

 We spent 5 glorious days in the Keys book-ended by 2 very bad travel days. On the way out of Miami we had rented a car to be picked up close to the park we were leaving. Unfortunately, since we had moved that was now on the other side of town. Driving through Miami in an RV is not fun. Miami traffic is worse than LA! When we got to the rental car place we were told that we were at the wrong place and so back across Miami we went, racking up tolls as we traveled. We finally picked up our car in South Miami (only 3 miles from where we had been camped) and headed to the Keys, There were several accidents and it took us 3 1/2 hours to go 87 miles. By the time we got to our resort on Grassy Key we were more than ready for a cocktail on the water!

The following day we headed to Key West since we wanted to be there before St Patty's Day figuring that day would be too crazy. It was just as we remembered it. Chickens everywhere, real and decorative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mile marker zero

 

A $50 light lunch and some expensive but good

Ben and Jerry's ice cream and our experience was complete! It was quite a hot day so after walking around 4 miles we were ready to head back to the resort pool!

The following day we headed to No Name Key for lunch at the No Name Pub.

Again, very busy. It is an iconic place with dollar bills stapled to the ceiling and walls and every available surface! The food and drink were great. While waiting outdoors, some Key deer visited in the parking lot. They are so tiny! These two seemed to enjoy looking at their reflections in the car doors in the parking lot.

We saw this guy after lunch. He has a half of a rack!

On St. Patrick's Day, after an afternoon at the pool, we ate dinner on the outside deck at the restaurant next door. Excellent food and drink capped off by a Guinness on our resort beach.

We had perfect weather for our entire Keys visit, few clouds, mid 80's day time and low 70's at night. Alas, the time had come to leave the Keys and return our car on the way to our next park. We left early, hoping to avoid the traffic and were able to out of the Keys easily. We made a stop at Key Biscayne National Park. The part we saw was lovely but there wasn't much to do there since over 90% is an underwater park. Since we don't dive or snorkel, we visited the displays at the visitor center and went on our way.

I carefully programmed in the Enterprise Car Rental location on Dixie Hwy and off we went. After traversing the horrible freeways in Miami again, we got off and I pulled over feeling like we were in the wrong place. Denny, who was following in the RV said he thought we should have turned quite a ways back. But, since we have no way of communicating (he doesn't have or want a phone), he just kept following. I don't know why he didn't honk at me! It was at this point that I realized that both of the car rental places were on Dixie Hwy (one north and one south) and I had again programmed in the wrong one. So, we came from the south, went all the way across Miami only to have to turn around and go to south Miami again. To make matters worse, we were supposed to be heading north so we had to cross Miami a third time. At least we were in the same vehicle this time! All of this put us 2 hours behind schedule and made for a very stressful day. Either we are going to have to start pulling a car or Denny is going to have to give in and carry a phone!

We arrived at our new park on Lake Manatee and after a quick set-up, a short walk and a beer, our stress has been defused and all is again right with the world.