Everything’s Better at the Beach…..Even Rain

We left Port St Joe today for St. George Island State Park and it's amazing beaches. A short drive today, only about an hour. Not a great day weather wise, cold and rainy.

Port St. Joe has to be our favourite Florida destination. Palm trees, pines, Spanish moss, pelicans and egrets. There are bears here and bobcats too.  I caught this Osprey having a shore lunch in a tree across the road from the park. He was at it for almost an hour and pretty much ate the whole fish.

pic 905a

Another thing about Port St. Joe, nobody really knows what time it is. That's because it is situated right on the line between Eastern and Central time zones. Cell phones switch back and forth with the time.

 

The sunsets have been amazing every night.

St George Island State Park was high on the list to re-visit after our stay here in November 2015. I recall the temperatures were in the 30’s C  then, an unusual heat wave.  Today was 10C and next Monday’s low may hit freezing. But it's nice to know the beach is near for when (if) it warms up.

Another unexpected unpleasantry, the park looks like it was razed by a forest fire. They deliberately burn the undergrowth every few years to let fresh vegetation flourish. The park at St Joseph's last week was the same only it was still smouldering in places.

I guess they know what they’re doing.

No WiFi here at the park and my hotspot's signal is too weak to send this out. I guess I post this later from a Starbuck's or something. Time to open the bar anyway.

Cheers!

Christmas in Dixie

…,it’s snowing in the pines….(somewhere maybe, but not here), although it has cooled off a bit.

That’s my favourite Christmas song.  I'm sure you've heard it before, but here it is anyway... (sorry, you'll have to listen to the ad before you get the music).

We’re just outside Port St. Joe at an RV Park which also has a small marina. We have wifi for the first time in a week, a welcome convenience since we blew through our Rogers monthly data allowance in 5 days while we were in the state park. This was the sunset tonight.

Port St Joe is a sleepy little town with about one of each amenity, although there are several restaurants. It has a smaller marina with some big boats. Seafood is abundant here. We picked up some crab leg clusters for Christmas dinner, a passable substitute for turkey.  We really like this place, off the beaten path, great beaches in the area, quiet and casual. The perfect place to live life in flip flops.

It’s Christmas Eve.

Here is our best attempt (believe me, there were many), at a Christmas card for all of you who may be riding along with us. Hope you have a wonderful one.  

 …and to all a good night.

Happier than a Seagull with a French Fry...

We arrived at St. Joseph’s Island State Park three days ago. What a wonderful place, very laid back.

The weather has been warm, low 20’s but mostly cloudy, and foggy just to make us feel at home.

The park is small with only about 100 sites between two campgrounds. The beach is just on the other side of the dunes, a 2 minute walk. The sand is very fine and white, just like snow.  This is our spot for the week.

Yesterday was unusual in a couple of ways. For the first time since we left on this trip, we had zero plans; no driving  the RV, no travelling into town or city, no need to get groceries, nothing. We just sat in the sun (when the fog cleared), read our books and took a few walks on the trails and the beach. And I rode the bike on the beach for a few miles. 

The second major departure from the norm of the past few weeks was…….. (drum roll please Robie) , we actually got to turn on the AC! I suppose that means we have truly arrived. The forecast for the rest of the week is low to mid 20’s during the day and high teens at night.

We found this little guy grazing beside the road yesterday, mama was watching  from a short distance away.

Here's something I've been meaning to talk about since our last trip but never got around to it. State Parks in the US have adopted an interesting way of running the parks, called the Campground Host Program. Instead of hiring Park Rangers to deal with every detail of running a campground, they allow campers to become Campground Hosts. These folks perform chores ranging from raking campsites to maintaining the washrooms and showers, working a few hours a day. In return they can camp for free for up to 3 months in a given campground. Our hosts here, came by and introduced themselves on our first night. Nice people, from Chicago and also escaping the cold.

We'll be here for two more days and then we head to Presnell's RV Resort and Marina in Port St. Joe about 40 minutes from here. We will be spending Christmas there. In all we'll be spending about a month in this general area, called Florida'a Forgotten Coast. It's quiet, not crowded, and there's no traffic.

One of those days....

Did you ever have one of those days where nothing went right? I have lots of them, but yesterday was not one of those days.
I had booked a horse drawn carriage "Historical Tour" of old Savannah. Since the private tour (one couple in the carriage) was rather co$tly, I opted for the "public" tour which would have 10 or 12 people sharing the tour - much less expensive.

We arrived in town early, planning to have lunch before the tour. We parked in one of the garages ($$$) in the old section. Since there was a cool breeze blowing, we found a nice outdoor patio restaurant at the Hyatt Regency which was in the sun, sheltered from the wind and had a great view of the river. The hostess seated us and said someone would be taking our order shortly. Twenty minutes later I went in search of a waitress. I found a different hostess who hurried the required help to our table. We ordered, we had a delicious lunch and then were told by hostess #2 that the lunch and drinks were on the house, because of the wait. OK I think to myself, bonus #1.

So we walk to the tour pick-up point at the pre-arranged time but there is only a private type carriage, no cattle wagon. The driver informs us that since there were no other tour bookings that afternoon we were being upgraded to the private tour. OK, bonus # 2. 

Now I'm thinking I should buy a lottery ticket. We have a very interesting tour with Saltie the horse skilfully navigating traffic and we decide it's time to return to the RV park. We climb 8 flights of stairs, get in the car and drive down to the cashier with a $20 bill in hand, and she says "that's OK, have a nice day". ???HUH??

So, a nice day it was. But it wasn't over before we stopped into the local Publix and bought a PowerBall Lottery ticket.
$250 million...the draw is tomorrow night. If we drop out of sight for a few years, you'll know how this turned out. 

In keeping with my "No Post Without a Pic." policy here is some river traffic that went by while we were having lunch.

We're in White Springs Fl. for a couple of days. The day after tomorrow it's BEACH TIME!!! 

Savannah

We arrived in Savannah on Monday around noon, after a short drive from Charleston. We are staying at Skidaway Island State Park, one of the most beautiful parks I have seen. Tall pines, huge oaks and Spanish moss draped from every branch. The sites are enormous and the park is only about 10 percent occupied.

This is our spot for the next four days.

On Tuesday we went into town. We stopped into the River House Hotel for lunch. I had Blue Chips, Darlene had half a dozen Raw (oysters). If you're wondering what Blue Chips are, I'll tell you, right after the picture.

OK, here we go. Home made potato chips sprinkled liberally with crumbled blue cheese, bacon bits, chives and drizzled with sour cream. I'm in heaven, all the basic food groups, the key to healthy living.

Another local delight we had a few nights ago, boiled peanuts. I always thought peanuts should be crunchy. And I stick by that. These peanuts are boiled from raw, in a salty broth and served in a bowl, soggy shells still on. Oddly they don't have any pea-nutty taste. They have the texture of chickpeas. And while Darlene and I sat there criticising the snack, we pretty much finished the bowl. Somehow they're addictive, just like potato chips (or even blue chips).

Today, Wednesday, it was quite a bit cooler, around 11 degrees. We drove to Tybee Island, a beachy hot spot. It was deserted. Had lunch at the Crab Shack. Great place, every table has a large hole in the centre with a garbage can underneath for table scraps. 

Tonight was a real "put you in the Christmas spirit" delight.
We went to Savannah's Coastal Botanical Gardens. Acres upon acres of lights, hard to put into words. Here are a few pics.

Tomorrow we have booked a historical carriage ride through old Savannah. Then on Friday we're off to the Gulf with a 2 day stopover in White Springs, near Lake City Florida.

And then there was..........SUN!!

Four miserable days of near constant rain, temperatures hovering just above freezing, and sometimes below at night, and today the sun came out. It only got up to about 10 degrees but it felt like a heat wave.

On the advice of a good friend "back home" we had Sunday brunch at the Hominy Grill in Charleston. Bloody Mary's, grits and eggs for breakfast, it doesn't get any better.

Speaking of back home, we have been hearing that the lobster season, which opened a few days before we left, is going gangbusters and they're only $5 per pound. Hope there are few left when we get home. We're having leftover chicken tonight.

Two nights ago we went to the Dock Street Theatre to see "A Christmas Carol", trying to get into the Christmas Spirit. It was a really good production. Christmas is a little different here. There's no snow even though most of the Southern States just got several inches. Not many homes in town display lights and the few that do use only white lights (bylaw?). I have a funny feeling that our next stop, Savannah will be much different. I've always thought of Savannah as Charleston's promiscuous sister.

We head to Savannah tomorrow.

I know! Where are the pictures??! Well if my new fangled phone would just talk to my old fangled laptop, we would have some pictures. It was so simple in Windows 95....
From now on I'm going to use my old fangled camera, which still has a conversational relationship with my old fangled laptop.

Here's a street in Charleston. They have some big old trees here.

See you in Savannah tomorrow.

Charleston

Six days and 1886 miles. Freezing night time temperatures in Walmart parking lots. But all is good. It's 18 degrees outside and pouring rain, which is pretty much the story for the next few days, except for the temperatures won't be anywhere near 18 . We arrived here a day earlier than planned. 

The game of chicken with the fuel gauge turned out well, more or less. Although the Unit didn't run out of gas, the generator did. The fuel pick-up for the gennie is some distance above the bottom of the tank so that you can't run the tank dry by using the generator.  Two nights ago, it ran for about 2 minutes and quit. That immediately brought back to mind the section of the manual that dealt with this exact situation.  The next morning I filled the tank. 110 gallons.......
So did we still have 40 gallons left? Or is the 150 gallon capacity legend incorrect. The next time I'm crawling around under the Unit I'll measure the tank and convert the cubic inches to gallons.....or not.
The take away jewel of wisdom here is, if you want power for the coffee maker in the morning, don't drive 300 miles on empty the day before. 

Here's a Walmart sunrise (or was it sunset) in Charlotte, (or was it Charlottesville).

So we're settling in for a nice QUIET night in the Oak Plantation RV Park. The oak trees still have some leaves on them but not for long I think.

Farther Than I Thought

OK. Four days on the road and we're still a couple of days from Charleston SC, our first non-Walmart destination. I really didn't think living in Nova Scotia would  add that many miles (days) to the trip to warmer climates. It's pretty much twice as far as it used to be from Toronto. But it is what it is, I'm not complaining.

So how do I amuse myself during the endless hours of driving? Well, I started playing chicken with the fuel gauge. It works like this. Ever since I got the Unit, I always filled the tank when it showed 1/4 and even pushed it to 1/8th sometimes. So a few days ago it was at 1/8th and I chickened out, and filled it. To my surprise, it took 77 US gallons. 

Now, the Unit, legend has it, carries a 150 US gallon tank. So if it showed 1/8th and it took 77 gallons, that means there should have been over 70 gallons left when I filled it, (in a perfect world). And 70 US gallons at about 9 MPG means I could have gone another 630 miles.

So today we did about 300 miles with the gauge on the empty peg. What fun! And (once again in a perfect world), there should still be about 25 gallons left in the tank.......
Stay tuned, tomorrow when I fill it, we will find out just how close we were to a roadside assistance call. 

No post is complete without at least one picture so here are our copilots, on the job. Tara is much happier now that we pushed a chair in between us so she can see out the windows too.

It's Just About That Time Again

The last time I wrote in this blog was May 1, 2016. The closing line was "Thanks for coming along, hope you enjoyed the ride, hope to see you next fall."

Well, that fall trip didn't happen. And nor did the spring 2017 trip. The reason for this absence was that we sold our house in Toronto and moved to Nova Scotia. Now that we are settled into our new home it's time to get ready for the next trip.

If you have been following this blog you may recall that we traditionally went south from Toronto in the fall for 6 weeks, parked the Unit in Texas and drove the car back home. Then in the mid March we would drive the car back to Texas, do another 6 weeks ending up back at home.

That won't work from Nova Scotia. We are now about twice as far from Florida. The car drive to or from Texas used to take 3 days. Now we would be looking at 6 or 7. Hotels alone would cost a fortune, not to mention a week in a car with the dog ..... Just not going to work.

But we believe we have found a solution. Pretty much the same plan as before, but we leave out the "driving the car back home" part. 

And in order to have a good chance of avoiding snow (and the accompanying salt, which is RV kryptonite) we decided we should leave by Dec. 1 and return by the end of April. Five months living in a tube?  Count me in! 

This plan brings up a whole new set of problems.
What about the cat? We don't have a pet sitter.
So the cat is coming along.
What about the house? We don't have a house sitter. 
We drain the pipes, set the thermostat at 15 and get someone to check on it periodically.

Income tax remittances, travel medical insurance, pet vaccinations, prescriptions, RV park reservations (unlike before, this is peak season). These are some of the things we have had to plan for.

We have a list of RV destinations that we like. We used to stay at the favourite ones for several days, now it's going to be several weeks. Topping the list are St George Island in the Florida panhandle, Gulf Shores Alabama (the Redneck Riviera), New Orleans, Galveston, Corpus Christie and Lajitas near Big Bend Texas. Instead of having to race home in a week at the end of our 6 weeks, we will be taking a leisurely 2 months. 

I always planned for this blog to be more pictures than text, but since we haven't left yet there isn't much to show. So here's a picture of the place we now call home. The Unit is waiting patiently in the driveway.

One thing to keep in mind if you are following this blog. The posts go from most recent to oldest, so if you want to start at the beginning, scroll down and start at the bottom.

Stay tuned, we're off in about 2 weeks.