On To Fries (May 11-15)

 On Monday, May 11, we moved to our next location in Fries, VA.  It was a rainy, foggy drive on mostly mountain roads, so we decided to drive separately rather than tow the car.  Fries is an old mill town, with a population between 330-441 according to various estimates. Fries is pronounced “freeze”, and 🎶 baby it’s cold outside🎶!  39 degrees this Tuesday morning.  

The first “whoops” of the trip happened on the drive to Fries.  Somehow the glass, one-burner induction cooktop shattered.  Amazon won’t be able to deliver a new one until after we leave so we’ll have to figure something out.  We have options, though, including a small built-in convection microwave that we still haven’t fully figured out how to use.  And our 30+ year old Coleman stove takes a beatin’ but keeps on heatin’ (sorry, Timex).

Tuesday we took our bikes in to New River Trail State Park, which is a 57-mile linear park.  Essentially one big long bike path mostly along the New River. It was great to get out on this fairly flat, hard-packed dirt & gravel trail. 

Wednesday started with a trip to the dentist.  A filling of Jenny’s popped out while flossing while on the trip.  Looks like it’s back to the dentist Thursday morning for a proper fix.  Wednesday afternoon we took a road trip to two other state parks: Grayson Highlands and Hungry Mother.  Some really twisty steep mountain roads and some great views as well!

Thursday morning we finally got Jenny’s tooth fixed.  Later, we drove to another state park, Claytor Lake, and the Shot Tower along the New River Trail to check them out.  But the evening event was the best part of the day: a Bluegrass jam at the Fries Theater. 

Imagine 20+ string musicians (ok, one washboard), all acoustic, playing Bluegrass and some old-time Gospel together.  There was a dance floor between the musicians and the perhaps 200 seats, which were half filled, mostly by locals.  A few people flat-footed, a solo dance style I’d never heard of before, and a few couples two-stepped.  

After an hour there was a cake walk.  In this, cards with numbers face down were placed on the floor around the musicians.  One card per person wanting to participate.  When the music started, everyone walked around the players.  When the music stopped, you get to the nearest card.  Someone calls out a number, and if that’s your number, you win a cake.  We didn’t win.

This was a really fun event that happens every Thursday.  More importantly, I felt a real sense of community among the people in the theater.

Dick & Willie? Really? (May 10)

 Yes, Virginia, that really is the name of the bike trail we rode today. It’s a rail trail that was originally the Danville & Western Railroad, but locals nick-named it Dick & Willie. Some nice scenery, reasonably flat, paved and smooth. And now you know the rest of the story. 

Fairy Stone State Park and Floyd, VA (May 7-9)

 We’re sitting here listening to a Bluegrass duo at the Floyd Country Store on May 9 at noon and reminiscing the last couple of days.

We packed most of the outdoor stuff Wednesday afternoon to avoid doing it in the forecasted rain later on. And it did rain overnight and most of the way to our next stop at Fairy Stone State Park. 

Friday started with a walk to hunt for fairy stones, which appear either as rods or crosses with hexagonal cross sections and are almost always embedded in a larger rock. We’ll try to dremel out what we found when we’re back home. That afternoon Jenny painted and I hiked the Little Mountain Falls trail. Nice view from the Blue Ridge Overlook!  Then for dinner we cooked a way-too-big flank steak on the fire ring. 

Which brings me back to this morning. We drove to Floyd and had a great breakfast at the Blue Ridge Diner, wandered the farmers market, peeked in many of the shops, and ended up here at a stop on Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail. 

We drove back to camp the long way, via the Blue Ridge Parkway, and this Rock Castle Gorge overlook. 

On The Road Again! (May 4 - May 7)

We’ve begun our second extended road trip in the RV!  On Monday, May 4th we left home and traveled south to Occoneechee State Park near the North Carolina border.  I must say, Jenny continued her streak of finding great places to camp.  Our site has lots of trees, an obstructed water view, and a nice extra spot with a picnic table and fire ring.

We prepared for this trip by sanitizing and flushing the water systems, and getting a couple things repaired - most notably the hitch for towing the car.  The hitch shifted position a bit after towing the Equinox 2,600 miles on the last trip.  Without going in to too much detail, we had the hitch fastened better to the RV’s frame.  Of course we — which is to say Jenny — prepared and froze several meals in advance.

New things for the RV include better mattresses (the old ones were thinner and hard, and toppers did not help), and bug screens for the driver and passenger windows.  Now we can open more windows for a better breeze through the rig.  We also upgraded our e-bikes to ones that are a bit smaller and much lighter.  

Hooking up on Monday afternoon to the site’s water and electricity went smoothly.  We drove to nearby Clarksville (no, not that Clarksville) to pick up a few groceries.  We cooked burgers on our old Coleman stove and made salads for dinner with them.

Tuesday morning we rode bikes about 10 miles to check out the park.  It’s really nice.  After lunch we checked out Staunton River State Park and Staunton River Battlefield State Park.  The latter features a bridge, rebuilt in 1906, that was the last to be burnt down by the South’s retreating army before General Lee surrendered at the Appomattox Court House.

Wednesday the 6th has been rainy so far, with lots more rain expected over night in to Thursday when we leave for our next stop.  We might just have a lazy afternoon, but we’ll want to cover or pack things up this evening before it gets wet again. 

Epilogue:  Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the brewery Wednesday afternoon.  We turned left out of Occoneechee on to Route 58 and ended up behind a camper van.  Turns out they were going to the same place we were.  After parking, we noticed it was a Hymer van.  We know that Hymer owners are a close-knit group so we asked them if they know our friends in town who also have Hymers.  And they do!  Small world.  We ended up sharing a table for beers, lunch and conversation together.

Congaree National Park (Feb 25 & 26)

 On Wednesday the 25th we drove to our next stop at Poinsett State Park in Wedgefield, SC.  This is near Congaree National Park, the purpose of our stop in this location.  

Congaree is the oldest (and only) preserve of old growth bottom land forest left in the country.  It sits on the flood plain of the Congaree River and relies on the periodic flooding of the river.  We walked the Boardwalk Trail above the wetland - which wasn’t that wet at the time.  The forest was a little eerie.  There were lots of playful squirrels.  New bird we heard or saw were the Northern Flicker and Pileated Woodpecker (below).  Still no Grey Goose or Wild Turkey!

Thursday, February 26:  The forecast calls for rain today and tomorrow.  There really nothing else we need to do in the area, so we packed up and decided to head home a day early.  As I write this, we are about 40 miles from the South/North Carolina Border.  Homeward bound!

 

Tuskegee and Ocmulgee (Feb 23 & 24)

 As we continue our way northward, we stopped in Tuskegee near Auburn, AL on Monday the 23rd, and near Macon, GA on the 24th.  In Tuskegee, of course, we went to the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site.  This is where the airmen trained.  There was a good documentary and museum displays that described not only the accomplishments of the airmen but the racism barriers they faced — and, to a large extent, overcame due to their bravery and excellence in battle.

This double V insignia was actually developed by a cafeteria worker in Pittsburg and it caught on for the Tuskegee Airmen.  One V for victory in battle against fascisim, and the other for victory against racism at home. The plane is a P-51, which the airmen eventually flew.

In Macon we stopped at the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historic Park.  Ocmulgee is pronounced with a long O, a hard C and G, and with the accent on the second syllable.  The Ocmulgee people built large mounds for meetings, prayer, funerals, etc.  This Large Temple Mound in the picture is their largest, measuring 270’ x 300’ x 55’ high.  The mounds were built between 900 and 1200 CE.

Tonight we stay at a park in Mitchell, GA and tomorrow on the 25th move on to South Carolina.

Powerful and Sobering (Feb 20 - 22)

 I can’t believe this is our last week on the road.  It really has been a great trip that lived up to hopes and expectations of RV life.

Yesterday we drove up from Gulf Shores to our site in Hope Hull, AL which is near Montgomery, but also not too far from Selma.  Today we drove up to, and then followed, the route of the civil rights march in 1965 from Selma to Montgomery. We stopped at an interpretive center in Lowndes County where we saw a movie and exhibits about the civil rights struggles of the time, but with a particular focus on events in Alabama.  Powerful. Sobering. Moving. 

From there we continued on to Selma, crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge where Bloody Sunday took place.  After lunch, we gave ourselves a driving tour of Selma, passing by some historic sites. The downtown area seems depressed with a lot of apparently-shuttered businesses.

Our next stop was back in Montgomery.  At the Civil Rights Memorial Center we saw another documentary that was made during the worst of COVID, and so more up to date than the first one we saw today.  There was a special quilt exhibit honoring Senator John Lewis.

On a lighter note, Sunday we went to a Jewish Food Festival at Temple Beth Or in Montgomery.  There was not a spot to be had on the parking lot, so we left the car at an Aldi down the street.  The place was crazy!  We managed to escape with matza ball soup, kugel, stuffed cabbage, latkes, quajado and praline & chocolate covered matza.  Oy vay, if we eat it all we’ll plotz!

We then continued our return north, stopping at Chewacla State Park near Auburn, AL.  The temperature is forecast to dip in to the 20s overnight, so I’ll wait until it warms up in the morning before connecting the water.

Roll Tide With a Banjo On My Knee (Feb 16-19)

We went back to the state park on St. Joseph Peninsula for a bike ride on Feb 16, our last full day in Port St. Joe.  We really like this area and hope we can return soon.  The next day we drove to Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, Alabama.  My first time in this state.  There was a road closure close to the park for a Mardi Gras parade.  We could just see a bit of the crowd driving by the end of the parade route, and there were thousands of people. According to the park ranger, public schools get the week of Mardi Gras off down here, and then a couple weeks later they get another week off for spring break.

Gulf State Park is really nice.  And really big.  This morning, we started the day with a bike ride on a couple of the 28 miles-worth of trails in the park.  We ate breakfast al fresco in what would become a 77 degree day. In the afternoon we a dolphin/sunset cruise on Portage Creek and Wolf Bay. We did see several dolphins but they were up and down so fast that we couldn’t get any good pics.

Thursday started with another bike ride around the park, followed by a talk on pirates in the Gulf.

St. George Island, Apalachicola, and Turtles! (Feb 14 & 15)

On Valentine’s Day we had a nice big breakfast and drove to St. George Island, which is another long, narrow island east of our campsite.  As we’ve come to expect, St. George is beautiful and well-kept.  Expensive houses line the waterfront on the bay and especially the Gulf side of the island.  The houses are built on tall stilts.  

We entered St. George Island State Park which, like St. Andrew’s State Park near Panama City, was free for the Presidents Day long weekend.  Another beautiful park and beach, but it was 64 degrees and very windy on the Gulf side, so we didn’t linger.  Rather, we walked part of the nature trail on the bay side, which was very pleasant.  We heard, but did not see, Grey Catbirds and Yellow Warblers.

On our way back we had an early dinner in Apalachicola. Here’s a sunset shot from our RV park.

On Sunday the 15th we went to the Forgotten Coast Sea Turtle Center in Port St. Joe.  The Center is run by the Florida Coastal Conservancy, a non-profit.  They monitor and advocate for sea turtles, do some turtle rehabilitation, and take some turtle “donations” since as pets, they can outlive their owners.  They have several turtles in pens, and we enjoyed an educational turtle talk by one of the volunteers.  We were impressed enough to “adopt” a nest.  This basically means we donate money, they send us a certificate, and let us know how productive the nest is.  Yet one more reason, from our perspective, to really like this area.

Port St. Joe and Panama City (Feb 12 & 13)

February 11 was a travel day.  We drove to our next stop: Port St. Joe, which is about half-way across the Florida panhandle.

Port St. Joe’s population is estimated to be about 4,100, similar to Colonial Beach.  But it’s downtown area must serve a broader area, because there are many more restaurants and shops than CB.  On Thursday we drove to the beach on T. H. Stone St. Joseph Peninsula.  Look at a map: the peninsula is a narrow strip of land connected to the mainland, which soon takes a 90-degree bend northwestward.  We went to a state park on the peninsula.  

This beach is one of nicest I’ve ever been to.  And it helped that hardly anyone else was there.  The only thing less than great was the 58-degree water temperature.  The sand was nice and soft, and not rocky even as you enter the water.  We’ll be back.

The next day, Friday the 13th, we had no bad luck at all.  We drove to Panama Beach City, a little west of Panama City, to see the Man in the Sea Museum.  The museum is mostly about Sealabs 1, 2 and 3, but also has displays about the history of deep sea diving.  It was interesting enough, but left us wanting because their documentary and exhibits essentially ended in the early ‘70s, after the investigation following Sealab 3’s mission failure and the death of an aquanaut.  

After the museum we went to St. Andrews State Park, which is at the end of a peninsula coming out of Panama Beach City.  We took the beach road to get there.  I figured there might be a “strip” but was surprised by the miles of high rises - hotels and condos - and restaurants, amusement businesses like arcades, etc.  There was traffic in mid-February; it must be crazy in the high season.  The park was very nice, although sand had more broken shells in it.  Yesterday’s beach on St. Joseph Peninsula is still our #1.

Homosassa Springs State Park (Feb 10)

 The full name of the park is Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park.  A mouthful, I know.  The park is less than 1.5 miles from our RV site, and we liked it a lot.  On one side there’s a paved birding trail that’s 1.4 miles out and back.  I did the walk a couple days prior.  On the other side is a great assembly of wildlife including several species of birds, manatees, and a bear, bobcat and panther.  Many of the animals were rescued and cannot be returned to the wild.  They did such a nice job of providing habitats for the animals.

We watched as park volunteers fed pelicans fish and tossed heads of romaine lettuce to the herbivore manatees.

There’s also a pond that is well-populated with several species of fish.  There’s an underwater fish observatory.  I think the fish were as curious about us as we were about them because many of them stuck close to the glass.  We mostly saw Common Snooks and Gray Snappers.  The Homosassa Spring feeds in to the pond, which becomes the headwater for the Homosassa River.  The spring’s temperature, 74F, is comfortable for the manatees.  68F and below can be deadly for them. Fun fact: a group of manatees is an “aggregation”.

In the afternoon we went back to the Withlacoochee Trail for another bike ride.  On the way back we bought more oranges and grapefruits, which we are really enjoying.

Way Down Upon The Suwannee River (Feb 9)

 I always thought the “Swanee River” as it’s spelled in the song lyrics was different than the Suwannee River as it’s spelled in geography.  And I never associated it with Florida, just Georgia.  The river does start in Georgia but flows through Florida in to the Gulf.  I guess that’s why “The Old Folks at Home” is Florida’s state song.  I’m glad I’m still learning.

On Monday, Feb 9, we went to the Suwannee River by visiting Manatee Springs State Park.  And it’s a very nice state park: quiet, clean, really nice forest, and the water is extremely clear.  And they have a nice boardwalk that takes you along a creek to the Suwannee.  But the day was warm so the manatee that otherwise hang out in the creek went out to the warmer river.

And cypress knees - they grow out of the roots of cypress trees.  I don’t recall ever seeing these before.  They lend a certain eeriness to the forest.

In the afternoon we drove to Cedar Key and checked it out.  It’s a small island right on the Gulf with 750 year-round residents. What a nice little town!  Some beaches, nice houses on stilts, several restaurants on the strip along the water.  Jenny and I agreed that we’d like to come back.