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.

We spent 5 days in an old favorite, Alafia River State Park. This park has something for everyone, mountain biking trails, equestrian trails, bird watching, hiking trails and tons of geocaches. We got 38 caches in 5 days while hiking every trail! It was fun watching the ospreys build their nests.

Unidentified hawk, maybe a red-shouldered?

Some ospreys are better builders than others!

We also saw this really cool thing, an airplane refueling 2 helicopters in the air!

It was a long drive to our next park where we planned to spend 2 days in an air-conditioned cabin in a state park. It is close to the Keys, our next stop. Lots of construction and traffic made us arrive a bit later than intended. Still, our cabin wasn't ready until 4 so we checked out the park. I was told when I reserved that there was room to park the RV. There was, however it was in a parking lot over a half mile away! We were uncomfortable with not having it where we could see it, especially with the bikes on the back. We decided to only spend one night and look for another spot for the next night. At 4 pm we picked up our keys and went to check out the cabin. It smelled awful! Musty and way too many smelly cleaning products. We agreed neither of us would be able to sleep there so we left. I found a county park about 45 miles away and we headed there. We had no idea what we were heading to but at least we would be with our camper. Best decision ever! It is a great park, the rates are reasonable and we are very comfortable in our own beds! I wish we had gotten a refund for the other park but you can't have everything. This new park is right in Miami but it feels like you are out in the country!

Lots of feral cats in the park

I was very happy to see that they were ear-tipped!

This beautiful blooming tree is a golden trumpet tree.

This very cool guy is an African redheaded Agama (identified by Rochelle)

Echo moth caterpillar ,(also ID'd by Rochelle)  is cute but has poisonous spines!

Next Up: The Florida Keys!

 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The last 6 days were spent in a campground near Marco Island chosen for its proximity to friends Bill and Julie. 

The Good:

We spent several days visiting at their lovely apartment, going out to lunch and dinner (outdoors),and enjoying our new vaccination status as well as learning to socialize again.

Janet, Bill, Julie

Drinks on the lanai on the ocean

View from the 10th floor balcony

The Bad:

Because of our change in schedule due to our late departure this year, we found ourselves having to switch sites within the campground. Denny writes all of our reservations down in a book. So, the morning we were supposed to move to site 85, we kept driving down to see if the current occupants had left. Check out is 1:00 and we were packed and ready to move. But, site 85 hadn't even started to pack up. The park rangers came by at 1:00 to see why we weren't out. They told us to stay put until they got the biker dude and his woman out of site 85. However, the rangers were given a lot of grief and were told the couple operated on "island time." Meanwhile, the person who was supposed to move into our site began harassing us. We explained that we had been told to stay put and technically check in wasn't until 3 anyway. Finally, after they were threatened with the police, biker dude and woman moved out. We went and set up camp and then went to check in before we left to meet our friends. That's when we discovered that we were really supposed to be in site 86! So, all of this could have been avoided! Then we had to go break camp and re-set up on the adjacent site. Arrgh! No decision has been made about whether I told Denny the site wrong or he wrote it down wrong.😂

The Ugly: 

On the way to some Everglades boardwalk hiking we saw an alligator that had been hit by a car and was covered by about 30 black vultures. We decided to stop on the way back about 2-3 hours later and take a picture. By then, they had made a lot of headway and were inside the alligator!
Tis the circle of life! I just wonder how the car and driver fared that created this vulture meal?!

We did see a bunch of live alligators also!

Giant head and big teeth!

Sun time!

Juvenile red tail hawk (?) visiting our campsite.

Strangler fig and victim

 

After a couple of days in Georgia, we headed on to Florida.  We did a quick one-nighter in central Florida arriving in early evening. We went for a quick walk to burn off the stress of a long drive made longer by construction and accidents. Neither of took our cameras so of course we saw a Roseate spoonbill, a blue heron, a wild boar and some deer and it wasn't even a long walk!  The next morning we met up with Ed (Denny's brother) and his wife Shirley who were visiting her brother nearby. We hadn't seen them in over a year!  After a quick visit we moved on to southern Florida. There is record heat in Florida and we set up in southern Florida in 90 degree heat in February! 

I bought a pedal assist e-bike last fall that was delivered after my knee replacement meaning I couldn't try it out. So I was excited to finally get a chance to try it out. And, I love it!

 This is definitely our latest start for our winter trip. Damn Covid! But, now that we are both vaccinated we feel a bit safer in hitting the road. Florida here we come!

Our old cat Kismet, (she'll be twenty this year) is with us again!

We lucked out with Georgia having unseasonably warm weather. We are camping on the top of Lookout Mountain at Cloudland Canyon State Park. There is a canyon and waterfalls, something I didn't expect in Georgia. So, we took my new knee out for a spin and hiked 5 miles. Up and down hills and many steps down (and back up) to the waterfalls. A little knee icing was in order but I did it! 

Denny and a Big rock!

We made down it down 174 steps to this waterfall!

Another waterfall

It truly is a canyon!

To quote the Grateful Dead, "What a long strange trip it's been". Our itinerary changes daily as states continue to close their parks. We are still in South Carolina but this is our last campground and SC parks are now closing. They have had self registration with no park employee contact at the last several parks. Our reservations in North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee were cancelled. The only state on our way home that still has open parks is Kentucky. We will stay there 2 days to break up the trip and then make a big press for home, staying in rest areas if need be. Luckily, we have our own bathroom and kitchen on-board as well as plenty of food so will not need to interact with anyone or anything other than a gas pump (with glove on, of course!) Parks have been quiet with very few people on the trails and those we do see have been politely keeping their distance.

Spring is when the Redbuds bloom!

Nobody allowed on the beach!

Rochelle is going to stock the pantry and refrigerator so that we can all quarantine together (she is working from home) for 14 days.
We were trying to get 100 Geo-caches this year but will probably fall a couple short since we are shortening our trip.
I wrote the above a few days ago. We reserved a campsite at Devils Fork Park in South Carolina originally because it had beautiful waterfalls and high gorges only accessible by boat. But, of course, we had to cancel the boat trip. We left that South Carolina park early when we were told that we weren't allowed to walk on the trails. They continued to allow big congregations at campfires, boating and fishing! Of all of those activities, I think trail walking is probably the safest! No boat trip, no hiking = we're outta here!
North Carolina really didn't want us! So, we sailed right through it!

On the way to our next park on way home we stopped at Cumberland Falls to break up our drive. It reminded me of Tahquamonon Falls without the tannin.

Cumberland Falls, one of the top 10 waterfalls in the nation.

We actually only stayed one night in Kentucky. Apparently, social distancing has not made it here yet. One lady asked me where I was from and when I said Michigan, she asked if we had the virus there. I tried to explain to her (from a distance) that it was everywhere. Duh! Then, she told me that Jimmy Buffett had died from it, which turned out to be untrue. Apparently it was another singer!
Anyway we made it home safely after a long 12 hour drive the last day. We are currently quarantining in the driveway in the RV to protect Rochelle. We have had little to no contact with people in the last two weeks other than as safe as we could make it grocery shopping and keeping a 6 foot distance when outside.
We did have enough toilet paper to last for the whole trip and a few rolls left over which is good since there is still none to be had locally. We traveled 5100 miles in 16 states, wore the tread off the bottoms of both of our shoes while walking 376 miles, found 98 Geo-caches and arrived home 12 days earlier than planned. At least most of the snow is gone at home but it's damn cold!
Until next year.....