Last week at Bahia Honda SP

This is our last week in the Florida Keys.  We leave Saturday and plan to go to the Everglades to dry camp a couple of days before heading up the Gulf Coast to the Sarasota area.  It has been beautiful here.  Above you see some of the beach combing treasures from here.  I just can't help myself!  Les actually finds most of them for me. 

We are getting some good beach time in here.  This park has the best beaches in the Keys.  The Keys really don't have much in the way of beaches, something most people don't know.  All the pictures you see from the Keys are taken at the few beaches there are.  The water everywhere is amazing though, so clear and gorgeous colors.  As you can see from the pictures, there is a lot of sea grass washed up.  There is much more on these beaches than at Long Key.  In some areas, inlets and mangroves, the grass is decomposing and really smells!  But that doesn't seem to happen on the beach, thankfully.

The birding here continues to be good.  It turns out that this park is loaded with warblers.  Above is a prairie warbler and the other picture is the very rare Great White Heron which is a variation of the Great Blue Heron and only found here in the Keys.  I'm adding to my bird album!  Our friends from Long Key have come down to this park now.  We are doing the park hop but they do it all winter here in the Keys.  We went to a jam session at a local Grille, Springers in Big Pine Key.  We had a good meal and nice entertainment.  We have a trip to Key West planned with Kathy and Bob Thursday.  Al is giving a concert Wed afternoon and we will all go to No Name Key Pub which I hear is a must while in the area.  Such a nice stay.

Bahia Honda State Park, Florida Keys

 We arrived at Bahia Honda SP Sat, Jan 18th.  Shortly after setting up we checked our email and there was a message that another couple we call Keys friends were here at the park.  Oh my, this is so nice to meet up with the same people each year.  It is like we just saw each other a few weeks ago instead of last year!  The weather here is lovely so far, some rain today brought the temps down again but still very comfortable.  

We enjoy the biking at this park.  The beautiful water is just amazing.

 Sunday we attended a blue grass festival in Islamorda.  A beautiful setting, city park/marina and wonderful music, food and arts.

Monday was perfect for a ride out to the reef for some snorkeling.  We had a wonderful time and saw lots of great tropical fish and coral.  A high light was a Goliath Grouper who visited our boat just before we left.  The water temp:  75o

We were treated by a visit from a painted bunting today.  He was feeding on some grass seed just behind our camper.  God's beautiful paintbrush.

The sunsets here are gorgeous, even after an afternoon of rain today, the sky cleared enough for another light show.  We will be here until Feb lst. 

Two weeks in Long Key completed

Wow, these two weeks in Long Key State Park have gone quickly.  It has been a wonderful stay and it is now time to move further south to Bahia Honda State Park at mile 30 on Hwy 1.  Below is a 2 mile fishing bridge we biked to enjoying the gorgeous views.  There are many bridges while traveling in the Keys connecting the island chain.  Many old bridges were converted to fishing/walking/biking paths.

Some beautiful views of our Long Key stay:

The view from our trailer door.

 Buoys and Beach finds.

Moonlight on the ocean.

Snowy Egret feeding on the shore.

We met up with our Keys Friends:  Kathy and Bob, and Inga and Al.  Many cocktail hours and dinners together made our time here go even faster.  What a wonderful benefit to following the same path each year.  We happened to get reservations that brought us together here and we will meet up with them for a few days in Bahia.  Lots of nice people to meet while camping.  We also joined up with friends John and Kristie and had many gaming sessions with them. 

Beginning our winter vacation in the Florida Keys

We arrived at Long Key SP Sat. Jan 4th.  The weather was overcast but warm temps welcomed us, in the 70's.  After setting up we toasted our arrival.

We were rocked the first night by strong gusts of wind which continued through the next day.  That is what you get here in the Keys.  Calm days and very gusty ones.  We dug out our stakes to tie down the ground mat and always roll up the awning when you go to bed so you don't have to get out in your pj's in the middle of the night!

We met up some Michigan friends and spent the day catching up with them.  Meeting up with our camping friends is a great blessing of our return travels to Florida.

Monday the winds stopped and the water was super calm.  Took advantage of that to get the kayaks wet.  The temp was 83o, make sure we use the sun block on this white northern skin!  More people are hunting buoys it appears.  We had to paddle out a long distance along the mangroves until we found any.  But we persevered and picked up a few buoys with some rope and fishing net to decorate our campsite. 

Last night the winds picked up again and it is gusty today.  Temps have dropped to the 60's but we feel fortunate to be missing the arctic blast PA is getting. 

Les has picked up a bunch of coconuts and is chopping into one as I write this.  Maybe we will have coconut pancakes for breakfast tomorrow?  Yum!

Jacksonville, FL

We arrived in Jacksonville New Years Day afternoon.  Again my cousin Jan and her lovely family welcomed us to a wonderful meal and allowed us to camp in their front yard!  Thanks so much!

We always enjoy this stop to touch base with the family.  Jan mixes the traditions of PA, pork and sauerkraut, with the traditions of the south, black-eyed peas.  Yum!

Her granddaughters are really growing.  Here is Stacia and Savannah (sorry if I miss spelled).  Nathan's family could not come this year.

We continued south the morning of Jan. 2nd through driving rain.  But a few hours and we were out of that and experiencing 80o temps!  Les had to put on his shorts.  But last night the wind started and it chilled down to the 60's today. 

Tomorrow we drive to the Keys and our 3 weeks there.  Hoping for warm temps and calm winds!

On the road again!

After plowing snow twice in December, Les was so ready to head down to warm Florida.  Of course, we hated leaving our grandsons.  This year Les's mom, Meda, rode with us to SC where we visit Les's brother Kevin and his wife Peggy.  She will stay with them awhile.  She did really well with camping for a night on the way.

We left Saturday, Dec. 28th, arrived here in Camden, SC Sunday afternoon.  Kevin and Peggy have a nice place for us to park the camper in their backyard.  We enjoyed a nice 3 days with them and Meda.  Marty had us over for fireworks and a movie for New Years Eve.  They have LARGE fireworks here!!

Ivan and Cricket were good host and hostess for us also.

Oh here is a picture I took a few weeks ago in Middle Spring!  Yes, that is zebra in Middle Spring, PA!  Mama, Papa and baby.

We head out tomorrow, Wed, for Jacksonville, FL. 

Leaving Alaska/Visiting Family and Friends

Sorry All, we are are still well and still on the road.

 We completed our trip to Alaska July 27^th. Traveled from the Kenai Peninsula East on the Glen Hwy; north on the Tok Cutoff; East on the Alaskan Hwy and South on the South Klondike Hwy. On route we saw more amazing mountains, this time it was the Wrangell-Elias Ranger with the Matanuska glacier. The ferry we rode north and back south through the Inside Passage was named for this glacier.

We arranged to board the ferry in Skagway to get a chance to visit that town. So glad we did. The drive through the White Pass exposed us to territory unlike any we had see yet on our trip. Amazing rock formations, pictures could not capture it. We stopped for pictures here at Emerald Lake, so pretty!

 We stayed in Skagway 3 days and it was quite entertaining. We got a campsite facing the harbor to get a beautiful view of the water, mountains and cruise ships! A stream just behind us had King and Pink salmon running, a train offers rides up the pass, and the town had interesting museums and loads of stores, thanks to the cruise ships. Skagway has a very interesting and colorful history. One evening we attended a play with some “gambling” before the show. Les turned his “$1,000” into $10,800! Maybe we ought to stop in Vegas on the way home?

July 25^th we boarded the Matanuska ferry to travel south through the Inside Passage. The trip was 1 day and 17 hours this time as there were longer layovers and an extra stop. We were able to get off the ferry twice and walk into Wrangell and Ketchikan. Both of these communities boast having a large number of totem poles. We were able to walk to a number of them. They are amazing.

July 27^th at 3:15AM we arrived in Prince Rupert, BC. Having gotten some sleep in our vibrating cabin, we felt ready to drive and drive we did! 14 hours! We stopped south of Prince George. So tired that we put our payment with information in a baggy taped to our door and after supper went to bed. We slept for 13 hours! On the drive the next day south to toward the US on Rt 97 then to Rt 1 the environment made a drastic change, it became very arid. We even had Big Horn Sheep cross the road.

July 29^th we crossed the border into the US for the last time on this trip. Drove south to Deception Pass SP to meet up with Chris and Lori for a nice day of camping. Then to Seattle for a few days. While we were there, we toured the Boeing Assembly Plant. That was very interesting. They took us to see the 747, 777, and 787 Dream Liner lines. A very large scale assembly line.

 Aug. 1^st we stopped in Tacoma to visit our friends, Ron and MaryAnn. They took us to a beautiful park with an amazing flower garden. We had a great visit with them and hope to see them in Florida this winter.

Our plan was to travel south down the Oregon coast to California. Oh my, we learned a very important lesson: Don't travel Rt 101 in tourist season! Especially without reservations. We were able to find a county park with ONE campsite for ONE night (did I mention we were there over a weekend no less?). The next day, Saturday, the traffic grew to bumper to bumper. We turned off Rt 101 and headed east to I5. Good bye coast and crowds. Maybe not crowds as the campground for this night had only primitive sites available, which was fine for us. The next day we took Rt199 south back to the coast and California, stopping at Oregon Caves Nat'l Monument. An interesting stop and great campground on a stream and few people.

August 5^th we arrived at the Redwood Nat'l Park. Our plan was to camp there, but our lesson continued, don't travel in peak season here without reservations. Again, God rescued us with the last site in a county park just north of Trinidad. The next day we drove to the Avenue of the Giants was started seeing the “Campground Full” signs, Oh my. At the Visitor Center there was a park with a few sites available! We were able to camp there 2 nights, but we had to move from site to site. That works fine with our RV. We had a lovely time hiking and relaxing in this amazing forest of giants!

 We arrived Aug 8^th in Petaluma where Aaron has relocated. In fact, we arrived just in time to take him to an appointment to sign a lease for his apartment. Jane, Aaron's dog, and Aaron stayed with us in the Navion to get some good visiting time and because his apartment is totally empty! ;-) Saturday, Aaron and I took a tour offered from this campground to San Francisco. It was a wonderful tour made better because the guide was born and raised in SF so he took us to a lot of out of the way places.

We plan to leave Tues, 13^th, and begin to work our way east to PA. Should arrive at the cabin around the 20^th. It has been a super trip with lots of memories.