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.....

Camping and traveling in these new times is certainly different! Going to the grocery store, doing laundry and getting gas are all fraught with peril. We are very careful with sanitizing and distancing but certainly enjoy our time in campgrounds by ourselves much more. It is much easier to practice social distancing while hiking and geocaching!

We have been in South Carolina for the past week. First in Edisto Beach on the ocean and now at a campground mid-state on a large lake. There had been a lot of rain this spring so trails are still pretty flooded causing us to find ways around or get wet feet!

Lots of boardwalks over swamps this year

I've seen better bridges!

This stairway ends in the water.

Our last beer at an establishment before everything closed.

Edisto Beach-pretty deserted

Enjoying the wind and waves, Edisto Beach

Our current campground is mid-state on a large lake and was pretty deserted when we got here but is now filled up for the weekend by many people who obviously do not believe any of the warnings since they are gathering in large groups to eat, party and make campfires. Looks like fun but not very wise!

We, on the other hand, went for a hike/geocache walk and walked much further than intended, nearly 10 miles. Other than my knees, we felt surprisingly okay except we wished we would have taken more snacks and drinks since the temperature got up to 84 and we were gone nearly 5 hours!

When we had the place to ourselves

Once the crowds arrived, we spent our time on the trails which we had all to ourselves. Never saw another person while on the trails!

I-95 bridge in the distance

We continue our slow journey home, staying to ourselves as best we can and sanitizing well when we must interact with the public. We have already had two changes to our itinerary due to closures and hope there aren't many more. If there are no additional closures we should be home in less than 3 weeks. And, due to Denny's excellent preparation, we have enough RV toilet paper for the rest of the trip. I'm not sure there will be any when we get home, though!

For the last 10 days we have been in Georgia. Temperatures have been above normal and the parks are lovely. They also have a robust geocaching program, and we now have over 600 lifetime finds.
All parks have some flooding as evidenced by this trashcan which I doubt belongs in the water by the dam.

We did quite a bit of walking and only got caught in one rainstorm. The rest of that day I spent sewing. The following day was bright and sunny and so, on another walk, we happened upon this vine which was nearly the size of a tree and twisted upon itself looking like a very thick piece of rope art.

The Georgia state reptile is the gopher tortoise and Reed Bingham State Park had a trail full of tortoise gopher burrows. Despite walking the trail several times, we never saw one. But we did see this guy using one of the burrows.

Next, we stopped off for a few days at Fort McAllister State Park where we visited the fort one day and went into Savannah another day. The fort was a confederate civil war fort.

These pointed sticks were supposed to slow down any invaders who made it to shore.

Cannonballs were heated in this oven so they would set ships on fire. Also, the cause of many soldiers burns.

Underground hospital where soldiers were treated for burns and malaria.

It was both of our first times visiting Savannah which is lovely. We made use of the Hop On/Hop Off bus and did a lot of walking through the many beautiful flowering squares in the historic district.

The fountains all had green water for St. Patrick's Day

The city was getting ready for St. Patrick's Day. They have the second largest parade in the country, after New York City. It was later cancelled due to Covid-19 and there were a lot of angry people. It is their largest income producing time of the year.

There were many sets of these "historic stairs" leading from the waterfront to the town. All labeled "very steep, use at your own risk".

People must have had much longer legs in the old days. I had to use the handrail to haul my fat butt up these steep stairs!

This was the home of cotton in the south. The cotton gin was invented here by Eli Whitney.

It is also the birthplace and home of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts. We walked along the riverfront, stopped in for a beer and made it home before dark. We have been trying to eat in due to the corona virus and being vigilant with hand sanitation while not letting it keep us from still doing things.

Our beer joint