The Savage Traveler

Chapter 7: Collier-Seminole State Park & The Everglades Part 1 (Feb. 5-11)

2012-02-08T20:23:00.000-08:00

The drive from Ross Prairie to Collier-Seminole would be one our longest inside Florida of our trip. We got on the road by 9:30 with a packed lunch. It was a straight shot south on I75 until it turns east. We stopped only to eat our lunch at a rest area and continued south when the freeway went east. From 1:00 on we enjoyed listening to MSU men beat u/m. (Later we found out that MSU women also won their game against u/m!!) The park is just east of Marco Island and we arrived about 3:00. The campground is pretty discouraging; the bathrooms are old and our site is extremely narrow and pretty short. There is no TV reception and only a weak phone signal. But at least we are on the outside of the loop with “jungle” behind us—there are sites crammed on the inside of the loop with nothing between them and other campers. So we’ll make the best of it and be glad we’re well situated for exploring the Everglades. The area has a variety of protected lands including Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Reserve, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, 10,000 Island National Wildlife Reserve and Collier-Seminole State Park, as well as the Miccosukee and Seminole Reservations that all fit together like puzzle pieces so there are 1 or 2 million (we heard both; I believe the latter is correct) acres of land. After eating the leftover hot dogs we jumped in the truck and ended up driving out to Marco Island, where we happened across the Marco Island Brewery at which to watch the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. Yea Eli Manning!!!

Monday we rode our bikes about 3 miles around the park, exploring and taking the one trail within the area of the campground. The Royal Palm Hammock Nature Trail/Boardwalk was a one mile loop with a spur out into a marsh. It had rained most of the night and although it wasn’t raining during our time out it was very humid and steamy. We saw some Royal Palms and the Gumbo Limbo (nicknamed the tourist tree for its red peeling bark) in the hammock before the marsh. The mosquitoes are the worst we’ve seen but we have been assured they will be much worse during the wet season. After finishing our nachos from the night before as our lunch today, we drove to Everglade City. We took about 12 miles of the Tamiami Parkway and saw egrets, a flock of storks, anhinga, and many, many alligators trying to soak up the occasional sun that would peak through the clouds in-between occasional showers. There are many road signs in this area warning of bobcat and Florida Panther crossings. Seeing either one would be quite rare and exciting. We also saw the most expensive gas yet--$3.89—and were happy we didn’t have to buy there. There is an Everglades National Park Visitor Center (one of five) in Everglade City and we caught the end of a ranger talk that was an introduction to the park in that area which, like Florida City to the southeast, is really an aquatic attraction, not land-based. Afterwards we went to the gift shop to buy a few things and Marv realized that he must have left his credit card at the Brewery the night before. When we called to check on it the person who could open the safe to look for it was picking his kids up at school and wouldn’t be back till 3:30. We started driving back towards the island but stopped by the 10,000 Islands National Wildlife Reserve Marsh Trail. It was 78° but the 87% humidity made it seem much warmer. We walked about a mile along it and climbed the observation platform to look out over the marsh, which was full of anhinga, ibis, herons, egrets, and all the birds we can’t identify yet. There were also alligators in two sizes, and gar (fish) in the pool near the platform. The Brewery did have the credit card so we went back to Marco Island to get it and to do grocery shopping to last us the rest of the time in the Everglades. We made “pizzas” for dinner with flour tortillas and had big salads and spent the evening trying to dry out the inside of the camper (and our bedding) with the air conditioning. We ended up running it on low all night long.

Tuesday was our day to see the Shark Valley, another of the entrances to the Everglades. The day was somewhat cooler and the humidity was around 66%, making us much more comfortable. There was more sun than yesterday but we still had 3 or 4 20 second showers through the day. We packed a picnic and took off right after breakfast to drive about an hour to the entrance. This was Marv’s chance to buy his National Park Senior Pass which is good for his lifetime. The $10 pass saved us four dollars right off the bat when we bought our tickets for the tram ride, which is a guided two hour ride on the 15 mile drive through the area. We learned all about the “River of Grass”, which is the outstanding feature of the Everglades. I realized I had always thought they were more jungle-like, similar to the Okefenokee Swamp, but the latter is a Cyprus swamp and the Everglades are grasses in flowing water. In 2000 a bill was passed for a massive restoration plan that will take 30 years to complete and hopefully stop the damage humans have caused in the last 100 years or so to this delicate and complex environment. We saw and learned about many different birds including herons, egrets, wood storks, anhinga, and purple gallinule. We saw several kinds of turtles and fish and, most of all, we learned all about alligators while seeing so very many in all sizes. Our guide waded out into the shallow water to show us handfuls of the life-giving substance called periphyton. The sponge-like mass floats on top of the water during the wet season and sinks to retain water and sustain egg masses and microorganisms during the dry season. At the halfway point there is an observation tower and we had about 20 minutes to stop. We intended to take the short trail along the water there but we had barely begun when we came across one of the largest alligators of the trip which was lying right in the middle of the trail! There was no arguing with or moving it so we settled for the views from the tower. At the end of the ride we walked back about a quarter mile so we could get pictures and movies of a mother gator with about 22 babies right next to the road. We ate our picnic sitting on a log and then headed back towards the campground. As we left the park there were about 7 cars lined up, waiting for their turn to come into the park so we were very happy we had begun the day early. We stopped at three places in Big Cypress, two visitor centers and a long boardwalk. The first visitor center had a short video and then we walked on their boardwalk along the canal that goes the length of Tamiami Trail. It had many, many alligators who were actively feeding on the “walking catfish”. An enthusiastic ranger was available to answer questions and she mentioned several times how unusual it is to see the alligators feeding and how lucky we were. We had the nearby boardwalk nearly to ourselves as it headed into a strand (Cyprus trees in a gathering around deeper water). At the second visitor center there were two manatees floating along like giant phantoms in the canal. They had been there for most of the day and soon after we got there and watched for awhile they suddenly dived deeper into the dark water and we couldn’t see them. We considered ourselves very lucky to have arrived before they disappeared. Back at the campground I took a shower and washed my hair before we grilled chicken and made a black bean and rice mixture for dinner. I also made most of our picnic lunch for the next day. We went to bed early so we could rise before the sun and get on our way to the main Everglades visitor center on the east side of the state.

Chapter 6: Ross Prairie (Feb. 3-Feb. 5)

2012-02-08T20:14:00.000-08:00

Marv had found Ross Prairie when we were looking for anyplace we could make a reservation over a weekend (not easy to do in Florida). It was only about an hour from Juniper Springs campground and we weren’t in a big hurry, but since we had to drive right through the city of Ocala on our way it took awhile. We got to Ross Prairie and were set-up by about noon. It was built in 2003 as an Equestrian-only campground in the Ross Prairie State Forest but it seems like it has been taken over by the State Park system—it’s all a little unclear. There are only 16 sites, all pull through, in a sandy “field” with few trees, and it’s right on the Highway. But there were only a few sites taken (one which has horses with them) so it was pretty quiet other than the highway noise. We ate lunch and then took the 2.1 Holly Hammock hiking trail. Even to our untrained eyes, there was a different look to a holly hammock than an oak hammock. The forested part consisted of mostly long leaf pines with a few old, big live oaks, and an assortment of other oaks. But the understory was made up of a couple of kinds of holly and fewer palmettos than we had seen in other areas. And there wasn’t as much Spanish moss hanging from the oaks. We also saw several dry low areas, as small as 5 acres and as large as 50 acres, which apparently fill with water in the wet season but are dry and prairie grass-filled now. It was pretty in its own way with the breeze blowing the grasses and no sound but the wind and occasional birds. Later, after relaxing at our camper for half an hour or so, we headed into nearby Dunnellon to do 3 loads of laundry, get a bite to eat, and get groceries. This was also our chance to do some “housework” as we cleaned all the counters and the bathroom, swept the carpets, and wiped up the linoleum floor. That should hold us for another 2 weeks.

For having no plans at all, Saturday turned out to be a very nice day. We saw that the Crystal River Archaeological State Park, Crystal River Preserve, and an historic sugar cane mill were about half an hour away so we packed a lunch and left for the day. The Visitor’s Center at the Preserve was technically closed but a very helpful guy was locking it up to go across the canal to a meeting and he gave us lots of information on the area. He also told us that a group of volunteers was working across the canal on building a replica of a Civil War-era flat bottom boat. First he showed us the scale model that was finished and then he encouraged us to go over and see what they were doing. It was very interesting to watch the 10 or so people work and they were friendly and willing to chat. Next we drove to the Archaeological Park. It is a complex of mounds left from native people who built and used them between 400 BCE and 500 AD. Two are temple mounds, two are burial mounds and others are thought to be “priest” mounds and shell “middens” or trash heaps. There is a nice visitor center and an elderly but very knowledgeable volunteer gave us about a 20 minute introduction and demonstration of the exhibits and then we watched an 8 minute video about what they have discovered about the area. We walked more than a mile on the paths, pausing to listen to the recorded messages on boxes at different points. We also enjoyed our picnic at a table right on the river as it leads out into the Gulf of Mexico. The volunteer also told us of a nice bike path we could take that was about 10 minutes away. It is a paved rail-to-trail along a wide canal that was very nice to pedal. It’s very natural and wild all along it and leads first to a tidal estuary and then to the shore of the Gulf, looking out towards many islands. Along the way we saw an osprey nest on which a pair of osprey were sitting, two deer, and many fisherpersons at the frequent roofed shelters along the canal. The day was sunny and 80 degrees and it was a most pleasant 10+ mile ride. We stopped for ice cream on the way back to camp and the servings were so large we both took about half back to put in the freezer to enjoy later. At the campground we both took showers before we enjoyed a hearty salad of couscous, canned salmon, feta, and lots of veggies.

Chapter 5: Ocala National Forest (Jan. 31-Feb. 3)

2012-02-03T19:51:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, our travel day, didn’t work out quite like we expected. Sitting next to the camper Marv had noticed that one of the trailer tires had a bulge so he put on the spare. We found there was a Discount Tire place in nearby Gainesville, which we were traveling through anyway. Our plan was to go back to the Spring Diner and have their breakfast special, stop off in Gainesville to replace the tire and fill a propane tank, and be on our way to the Ocala area. The breakfast was great but when we got to Discount Tire they didn’t have the tire in stock. But he said he could call the distributor and, if the truck hadn’t left, he’d order one and it would be there by the afternoon. Luckily the distributor had one and he got it ordered by just 10 minutes to spare. So we had three or more hours to fill. We got the tank filled nearby and went back to Paynes Prairie, where we had a good chance to talk to the ranger about the area and watch the video we passed on the other day. It was so interesting to learn how the prairie filled with water in the late-1880s when the sink that drained the creek that ran through it got stopped up like a bathtub. For several years there was enough water that steamships ferried goods across the “lake”. In 1895 the plug just as suddenly let go and the entire area drained in just 5 days, leaving fish high and dry on the bed. Since then it has remained mostly marshy prairie lands with a creek running through it and several ponds in the center. Now they are in the middle of a two year (at least) drought and there is no water at all out there. They have had to take some of their many alligators to lakes and the prairie is brown and dry. That hasn’t bothered the bison, cracker cattle and wild horses who graze the large area. She encouraged us to bike the Cone Dike Trail, which we did for about 5 miles. We saw two wild horses but that was about all. Since we hadn’t heard from the tire guys we bought groceries on our way back to Discount Tire and then found out that they had called our home number (not my cell, which we had given them) to tell us when the tire was done. Doh! We were on our way to Ocala by about 5:00 and passed by the spot on I75 where the terrible accident had taken place Sunday morning. Chilling. We got to Juniper Springs Campground at 6:00, as the sun was going down. But we picked out a site and got set-up without a hitch and then enjoyed the chili I had made the day before.

Wednesday we puttered for much of the morning and then drove to Alexander Springs, in the southeast corner of the National Forest, to check it out. We had been told it would be a good place to kayak and, after looking around, we decided to do it on Thursday, after getting other things out of the way in the back of the truck. We ate our picnic at the tropical looking spring and then hiked just over two miles on an interpretive trail. It passes through 4 distinct ecosystems: Cyprus swamp, aquatic, sand scrub pine, and oak hammock. Signs explained how the Timucuan native people used the flora and fauna here as many as 10,000 years ago. Along Alexander Spring Creek we enjoyed watching river otters and herons. On our way out we checked out a possible put-in spot for the kayak but decided it would be better to go from the spring and paddle back up stream to the same spot. We drove back to 19, the main north/south route through the Forest, and drove two sandy off-trail roads to hike a little over a mile and a third on “The Yearling” trail. The sand scrub pine area typical of Cracker farms was the setting Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings used to write “The Yearling” and “South Moon Down”. I don’t remember reading either one, but now I’m interested in finding them. While hiking we came across a large sink hole. It was deep enough that we looked down on the many full sized trees growing at its bottom. When we got back to our campsite we were disconcerted to hear jet fighters overhead and the sound of bombs exploding. No problem though as there is a Navy bombing range is just a couple of miles south of us. Marv greased the truck, I took a shower, and we enjoyed spaghetti for dinner and a quiet evening.

Thursday, after a hearty breakfast of egg and bacon wraps, we took our coffee for a walk around the Tropical Loop and saw where we would have been placed if we hadn’t chosen our own site (ours is much nicer). It had been a cloudy night with temperatures only down to the high fifties and the clouds were already breaking up and the temperatures rising. After a bit more fussing around we packed a lunch and went back to Alexander Springs to kayak. It was a wonderful trip with something to see wherever we looked. In the crystal clear waters we could see many types of fish and turtles swimming, including an alligator turtle. On the water we saw more turtles, anhinga, river otters, and an alligator gliding silently along. In the shallows along the banks we saw otters, more turtles, herons, and two more alligators sunning themselves. And in the trees along the creek we saw anhinga drying their wings, heard hawks screeching, and even saw a juvenile bald eagle glide in and perch in a high tree. We went downstream until we got to the bridge where we understand the creek narrows and becomes more challenging so we turned to go back by paddling against the current, which was very easy. The only things that spoiled the trip were glimpses of McDonald’s cups and beer cans glinting up through the water and a couple of spates of Naval bombing in the distance. Back at the spring we enjoyed our picnic before packing the kayak back up and returning to the campground, stopping along the way to wash the truck. We relaxed a bit and then rode our bikes over to Juniper Spring, We hiked the trail there, bringing our walking for the day to just over 2 miles, and then took a refreshing dip in the 72° spring. Marv built a small fire at the campsite so we could cook our hotdogs. We were grumbling a bit about our new next-door neighbors who were 1) running a generator and 2) playing a radio loud enough for us to hear. I said I didn’t know why they were running the generator since he was gathering up a huge armful of the firewood he had been chopping all afternoon to add to an enormous pile, so they must be planning on a campfire. Imagine my chagrin when he walked the armful over to us and invited us to help ourselves to as much more as we wanted. Blush!! They soon turned off the generator and built their own roaring campfire. We added to ours and set-up the Ipod nearby playing “Peter, Paul, & Mary Sing Around the Campfire” so we couldn’t hear their music. We finished our evening by walking by the bright light of the ¾ moon to a clearing at the top of our loop and using my Google Night Sky app to identify some of the many stars and planets we could see in the clear heavens. It had been another lovely visit to Ocala National Forest.

Chapter 4: O'Leno State Park (Jan. 27-31)

2012-01-30T17:28:00.000-08:00

The truck was very happy as we drove east and then south on perfectly flat highways with speed limits of 60 miles per hour, and so we got around 17 mpg. During the 180 mile drive we happened to stop at the same park in Perry, FL to eat our picnic lunch where we ate last year. We arrived at O’Leno State Park, which is about in the middle of the peninsula, north of Ocala, by 3:00. We had the camper half set-up before we realized we were on the wrong site so we had to take down and set it up again next door. ARGH! We found out from our next door neighbor that there was a gathering of about 200 Indian Princesses at the park for the weekend. This could be interesting!

It got down to 42° during the night, but we stayed cozy with blankets and our comforter. By the time we enjoyed scrambled eggs for breakfast and packed a lunch in a backpack it was warming up nicely and there wasn’t a cloud in the brilliant blue sky. Most of Saturday was a comfortable 68°, perfect for hiking and biking. We rode our bikes to the day use area, where we learned history of the area. Originally named Keno (changed to Leno because of the gambling connotations and then Old Leno and finally O’Leno) there was once a booming town of 600 people with hotel, general store and several mills driven by the Santa Fe River. The Santa Fe runs for 44 miles to this spot, where it disappears underground for just over three miles, and then reappears for 35 miles before joining the Suwannee. The first Federal road through Florida once passed nearby and the town flourished until the railroad came and did NOT come through town. By 1896 there was no sign of the town or its people, who moved to other communities and took even the lumber from the buildings with them. During the Depression the CCC and the WPA built a suspension bridge and some buildings and people began visiting the site again. We hiked over 3½ miles of trails and rode our bikes 4½ miles as we explored the area. Much of it is the palmetto/long leaf pine/live oak vegetation with which we became familiar last year. We learned from “Bob”, an ancient looking volunteer in the Nature Center, that we could get the combination to get in the gate at the nearby “River Rise State Park” to see where the river reemerged from its underground passage. It was very peaceful and pretty there and we chatted with an old guy, his daughter and his two teenage grandkids who were fishing at the rise. The river is very low and both the sink and the rise show no sign of flow or turbulence or anything. If we hadn’t been told of the interesting geography we would have had no clue. That night we enjoyed a fire to help us stay warm as the temperatures took another nose dive under a canopy of stars.

Sunday turned out to be a very interesting day. We wanted to go to the Dudley Farm State Park, which was about 20 miles away. The historic farm was donated by 88 year old Myrtle Dudley, the last of 12 children of the only surviving son of the original founder. It has been returned to its 1890 state and is maintained as a working Cracker Farm. It was very interesting to wander around the old homestead, which is well back of the highway so one feels like one has stepped back in time. We walked a mile and a half there. We bought four giant grapefruits that were grown on the farm and shared one and had a cheese stick at 2:00. We decided that would hold us and then we would have an early dinner at the “Outdoor Café” in High Springs, near the park. Because two people within an hour of each other had recommended it, we decided to go on to Paynes Prairie State Park which was about 27 miles further, just southeast of Gainesville. The GPS had us get on I75 briefly but no sooner had we entered it then we came to a standstill. It took us about half an hour to crawl to the next exit and then we wound our way to Paynes Prairie. At the park we found out that there had been a terrible accident in smoke and fire about 5:00 in the morning on I75 that killed 10 people and so they had closed that part of I75. We also found out that the fire we had seen just outside the park gate was a wild fire turned bog fire that was not a ”prescribed burn”. They were controlling it and none of the trails was closed but we were going to be aware of it from the ash in the air and the smell. By the time we made our way to the Visitor Center it was 3:35. Right next to the path to the center there is a bald eagles nest with a nesting pair and we could clearly see one of the parents sitting next to the nest. The Center closed at 4:00 so we didn’t spend much time there and we didn’t take the time to watch their 20 minute video. Instead we took the circular one mile hike there to the edge of the prairie and saw a small herd of wild horses, descendents of the horses brought by the Spanish Conquistadors in the 1500s. Then we drove to the nearby Bolen Bluff trail and hiked 3.34 miles through a highland hammock of huge live oaks heavily laden with Spanish moss. Halfway back, at the edge of the bluff, the trail dropped down to the natural prairie and there is a sort of raised land dike that goes half a mile into the prairie with an observation deck looking over it. While on the dike we walked right among another small herd of the wild horses who continued grazing as we walked through. One white mare had what appeared to be a newborn foal nursing and yet none of them paid any attention to us. As we made our way back to the truck at twilight two deer bounded away through the trees. The freeway was still closed going south but we got back on it going north at the same exit from which we had exited and drove back to High Springs. The recommended Outdoor Café appeared to be very busy and we were pretty hungry by then so instead we went to the authentic High Springs Diner and had their Sunday special of Broasted Chicken. The four piece dinner left us with lunch for Monday! We were looking forward to having the campground to ourselves when we returned. And there were indeed only 4 campsites taken on our loop (other than volunteer/host sites) but to our dismay we saw that one of them was right next door in the closest spot to ours. L

After a 36° night, Monday was really a five star day. I made chili in the Crockpot (but not for tonight—for Ocala, when we won’t have electricity) and packed a lunch with our leftover chicken pieces while Marv loaded up the bikes, in hopes of taking the kayak to the Ichetucknee River, drop our bikes, and then kayak back to them. We drove the truck to the nearby Ichetucknee Springs State Park. The sign at the south entrance said that the park often closes for overcrowding. But it was clearly not a concern on a winter Monday as all entrances had no ranger and offered self-registration. But there was a ranger working outside there and when we told him our plans for the day he told us that we should put the kayak in at the tubing take-out site (closest to the river and only open in the winter) and paddle up the river because the current wasn’t too swift and then float back to the same spot. We drove to that gate and found one other vehicle parked, but it soon left. Because it was still cool we decided to bike the 4 mile round trip on the Tram Road (the only way to get to the river in the summer), eat our picnic and then kayak. At the mid-point dock we enjoyed watching a river otter on the bank across from us and saw one kayak go by from farther upstream. From there to Dampiers dock we took the nature trail along the river. After lunch we got the kayak ready and climbed in. A snowy egret was feeding as we left and an anhinga led us the whole way up the river. We heard the “hoo hoo hoo-hoo” of owls, screeches of hawks and, twice, incredibly loud drumming of a pileated woodpecker, which we saw the second time. The crystal clear spring water revealed schools of fish and waving grasses the entire length. We also saw many turtles sunning themselves on logs. We saw only one other person—a park employee in a kayak monitoring the river flow at Dampiers dock, where we chose to turn around. After having worked pretty hard to paddle up stream, the easy float back was a welcome respite. The wild and protected area, full of cypress trees and knees, Spanish moss, and towering oaks, was incredibly peaceful and lovely. Apparently in the summer one can practically walk across the river on tubers but today we had it to ourselves. Take-out was easily accomplished and we loaded up the truck and then drove to the north entrance to the park. The north and south areas of the park are connected only by the river; there are no roads or trails to get from one area to the other. There we hiked just over a mile to Head Spring, the beginning of the Ichetucknee River, and Blue Hole Spring, a tributary to the river which is also open to scuba divers who wish to explore the underground depths. We saw a couple of snorkelers but no scuba divers. Back at camp we found that our right hand neighbors had been replace by a left hand neighbor. One wonders why they put campers right next to one another when the entire loop had only two other campers?!?! We got most of our packing done for a quicker get-away in the morning and enjoyed leftover pork chops and beans for dinner.

Chapter 3: St. George Island State Park

2012-01-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

Chapter 3: St. George Island (Jan. 24-27)

We had another uneventful drive from Montgomery to St. George Island on back roads and several National and State Forest Scenic Byways. The temperature rose into the low seventies and we drove mostly in sunshine and then in and out of light showers. When we got to the coast just east of the causeway to the island we encountered a lot of fog. After getting some groceries we drove over to the island, arriving at the park by around 3:00. Last year when we were here it was windy, rainy, & cloudy with temperatures in the fifties. Even in the fog, we knew this trip would be better. We did a minimal set-up and then rode our bikes the half mile or so to the closest beach access and walked along the sand for a while on the Gulf side of the island. There were lots of Portuguese Man O’ War (deep, inky blue with edges of pink and purple) and Cannonball jellyfish (nearly clear with short stubby tentacles like bundles of cables) along the tidal lines. Back at our #27 campsite we did more setting up and moved many of the items in our back seat into the camper and made a light supper. We marveled that we could hear the waves crashing right from our campsite. After a good night’s sleep in temperatures that didn’t go below 60 we rose to a sunny day and temperatures that would soon rise into the low seventies. We spent a leisurely morning until about 11:00 when we took the Eastern Slough Interpretive Trail through the slash pine forest and beside the Slough. It came out at the park road so we crossed over and walked back up the beach and to our campsite. Along the way, near one of the freshwater ponds, we saw mergansers, a Great Blue Heron, an egret, and a majestic Bald Eagle. Lunch at 2:00 was very welcome after what was about a three and a half mile hike. After some reading in the sun we drove over to the boat access point on the Slough to put in our inflatable kayak and enjoyed a quiet hour’s paddle on the protected water which we shared only with the leaping mullets and a few herons and a merganser. Marv grilled pork chops for dinner and we finished the evening by listening to MSU defeat Minnesota in basketball on Spartan Radio on our very tenuous phone connection at the camper.

Thursday we wanted to ride out to the eastern point of the island. We had done so last year on a bitterly cold, windy day where the enjoyment of doing so lay in the finishing. Today it was sunny and in the low seventies with a breeze out of the south from which the dunes protected us when we left about 11:00. What a difference! The 5 mile “road” is mostly crushed oyster shell gravel but about a mile in the middle is still the original black top of the old County Road 300 which apparently used to go down to the point. About the half way along there is a bisecting bit of black top that goes about 50 yards each way to Apalachicola Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. We walked out to the Gulf and saw only two other people (far in the distance) as far as we could see in both directions. At the end of the road we walked a while to the left and then for a long while to the right and around the point. There were many different kinds of birds/ducks/gulls in the water right off the point and when we had walked around it we found hundreds if not thousands of sea stars that had washed up. I filled my pockets with complete ones and interesting shells and we stayed about an hour before biking back. The sky had clouded over, winds had turned to the west (so we biked into them), and it appeared that the predicted thundershowers were on their way. It was a bit cooler and our return wasn’t quite a pleasant as the ride out had been. Surprisingly, though, when we got back to the campsite, the sun came out again and the rest of the afternoon was very nice. About 4:00 we walked over to the bay side shore on the short path behind our campsite and watched the pelicans, grebes, mergansers and even a couple of loons. Two women joined us and we talked about favorite camping spots and travels and life. They left and we talked to another couple before going back to the camper to batten down the hatches for the severe weather that was on its way. When the rain hit us it was pretty spectacular with lots of lightning and thunder. But the high winds for which we had been warned didn’t get down into the protected campground. It rained most of the evening but quit sometime in the morning and we awoke to bright sunshine and about 60°. By the time the camper was packed up and we were ready to leave things were dried up and we had no problems getting on our way to our next stop.

Chapter 2: Analyn's First Birthday

2012-01-25T14:53:00.001-08:00

Chapter 2: Analyn’s First Birthday

When we made our plans for the camping part of our winter trip we thought we’d have three full days to pack up the camper and close down the house before going to Carmel on Saturday. However, the weather report sounded pretty grim with as much as 6 inches of snow expected overnight Friday and into Saturday morning. So we decided to do everything in time to leave Friday afternoon and stop at Ken and Jen’s in Fort Wayne, where they were only supposed to get an inch or two. We got everything done AND I played Scrabble with my monthly group AND we both got our hair cut and did everything else we had to think about to be prepared. Because of the weather we put things that needed to go in the camper by the back door, pulled it out of the garage, put it up, packed it, immediately closed it back up, and put in back into the garage, all in a small window when it was cold but not snowing. But the timing meant that we couldn’t put much food in the fridge and even some of our clothes couldn’t be packed yet. So we started out with a very full back seat in the truck. Our plan was a pretty good one, although the snow came a little earlier and went a bit farther south than predicted. As we drove from Auburn to Fort Wayne the roads were getting slick and the snow was becoming more earnest. We arrived about 5:00, just a bit before Ken got home from work (Jen had had the day off). For dinner we went to 800 Degrees, a woodfire pizza place near them, and the car had several inches of snow by the time we came out. We woke the next morning to 5 or 6 inches and Ken and Marv had to dig out the driveway and the truck and camper, which we had left on the street and the snowplows had had to go around. After a hearty breakfast which Ken made us, we all got on the road to go to Carmel by about noon. The roads were clear once we got to the freeway and there was less and less snow as we went south. Linda and AJ and Connie and Bill were already there and we all went into full blown party preparing mode to get the food ready for the 4:00 Birthday Party. Linda kept the three boys entertained with a book on Super Heroes which resulted in them all dressing up and flying around the house part of the time. Three other families with little ones came and a good time was had by all. Cessa had made two adorable teddy bear cakes and Analyn went at her “personal bear” with increasing gusto, occasionally shaking her hand to try and clear off some of the chocolate frosting. It was all very cute and she was a perfect one year old birthday girl. All the kids went to bed without complaint after the very full day they had had. On Sunday Ken, Marv & I sang with Sarah in choir at St. Peter’s. Craig had taken Eli to mass with Connie and Bill and then he dropped Eli off at St. Peter’s, where Linda, Jen and AJ joined us for the service. Craig had a few minutes of peace and quiet at the house after his parents left. He was listening to coverage of Joe Paterno’s death and the two play-off games that were being played later in the afternoon when we got home. We had Linda’s yummy gumbo and cornbread for lunch and then Craig took his two boys and Ken over to see CSO’s building, because Ken hadn’t seen it yet. Because AJ fell asleep while the boys were gone Linda ended up staying later than she had planned so they could play a bit before heading back to East Lansing. Craig and Sarah did a smoked pork loin and rice for dinner and we all curled up in front of the play-offs to watch the New England Patriots beat Baltimore Ravens and then the New York Giants beat the San Francisco 49ers. Our grandson Eli was very happy because he wanted #10 Eli Manning to win and he did! The next morning we got up with the rest of the fam, ate a quick breakfast and left just before Sarah and Ana took the boys to school. The temperatures had risen overnight and it was in the forties when we left. There was some drizzle for the first few hours but the rest of our drive south on I65 was smooth sailing as the sun slowly worked its way through the clouds and the temperatures rose into the mid 60s. Stopping only for meals and gas we made it to just south of Montgomery, AL before we pulled into a Days Inn to spend the night.

Winter Adventures 2012: The Beginning

2012-01-24T05:36:00.000-08:00

Because we could find no other way to work it out, we made two trips to Florida this winter. Larzeleres invited us to spend some time at their condo in Cocoa Beach and we could come anytime between January 3 and January 21, when they would be returning to East Lansing. But we needed to fit our camping trip between Analyn’s birthday on Jan. 23 and Jordan’s birthday on Mar. 8. After many tries we decided the best thing to do was use Frequent Flier Miles (which we never manage to use anyway) to fly to Larzeleres’ from Jan. 11 to 19 and then begin our camping trip the weekend before Analyn’s birthday.

CHAPTER ONE: Cocoa Beach, Jan. 11-19

Patty Good drove us to the Lansing airport early Wed. morning and we flew Lansing to Detroit, then Detroit to Orlando where Mary Anne and John not only picked us up, but had packed a lunch for us to eat as we drove to Cocoa Beach. We had a marvelous 6 days with them at their time share at Los Olas (The Waves). Their three bedroom suite on the fifth floor is right on the beach, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, and affords wonderful sunrises over the water. We had plenty of time for the beach, lounging in the pool or hot tub, playing cards, reading and just plain relaxing. I found myself magically awakening nearly every morning at 7:10, just in time to watch the sun rise, which never disappointed. Our planned activities were only three. On Thursday Marv, John and I took a 3 hour kayaking trip on the Banana River, which with the Indian River and the Intracoastal Waterway, forms a long lagoon that is an entire ecosystem of its own. It straddles temperate and tropical zones and so has a vast array of plant, animal and bird species. We enjoyed seeing horseshoe crabs, comb jellyfish, sting rays, dolphins and many herons and other birds. The weather was sunny with just a slight breeze and temperatures in the upper 60s so it was a perfect day. Our second planned activity was to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Preserve. This area was set aside when NASA expanded Cape Kennedy to accommodate the Space Shuttle Program. It is extremely rich in bird species particularly. At the Visitor’s Center we even saw a painted bunting! As we drove the 7 mile nature drive we saw large flocks of ibis, egrets, roseate spoonbills, and white pelicans as well as occasional Great Blue Herons and Storks. We stopped at two spots to view a large bald eagle nest, which had a pair of adults that were easy to see and we were told there are two babies in the next. Towards the end of the drive we saw many alligators lounging in the sun on the banks of the waterway. Our final planned activity was to watch the MSU/Northwestern basketball game at Beef O’Brady’s with the Brevard County Alumni Association. First we stopped by to meet up with Melody and Bill Glick. Melody was Sarah’s second grade teacher and she and Mary Anne have become friends through the New Horizon’s Band in East Lansing, then were surprised and pleased to find that they winter just a few miles from each other in Florida! The six of us drove to a nearby canal where Jess, our kayaking guide, had virtually guaranteed we would see Manatees gathering to find some warmer water during the cool nights they were having. There were probably 30 or more of these gentle giants in the water that was only a few feet deep and about 15 feet wide. One could have practically walked across their backs to the other side without getting wet! It was a fascinating sight. We then went on to Beef O’Brady’s where about 25 people gathered in good spirits but sadly watched MSU lose their first Big Ten game of the year. L After the game we all went to the Glicks’ fabulous condo at Satellite Beach, where we enjoyed Bill’s yummy pork bar-b-que sandwiches. It was a lovely evening enjoyed by all. Our time in Cocoa Beach ended much too quickly and our gracious hosts drove us back to Orlando (where it was in the low 70s) on Tue. Jan. 17 to return to East Lansing (where it was in the low 20s).

Back home to East Lansing, a day earlier than planned

2011-09-25T17:57:00.000-07:00

More of Thu. Sept. 22: Just a few miles away it began to rain more earnestly and continued from Rogers City to the Presque Isle area. As we turned to go north towards the lighthouse, the sun came out and we were treated to a beautiful rainbow! The first lighthouse is the “Old” lighthouse, built in 1840 and restored with a small museum in the keeper’s quarters. It was an easy climb to the top to see the lens that is still in it and a nice view of the harbor. About a mile north is the “New” lighthouse, built in 1870 after there were too many shipwrecks in the area because the old one was too low and too far in towards the harbor. The Presque Isle Historical Society has big plans for the complex and we hope they can accomplish all they dream of doing. Time was getting on and so we didn’t climb the new, higher lighthouse, instead driving on down the Lake Huron coast to the Sturgeon Point Lighthouse, south of Alpena. They have a nice restoration area there, including an old one-room schoolhouse and several out-buildings, besides the lighthouse itself, which was also built in 1870. Unfortunately, while we could enjoy our picnic on the grounds and walk down to the beach, the buildings were not open so we couldn’t get inside any of them. The day was passing quickly though, and we had decided to make it home in time for choir practice, so south of Tawas City we drove west to I75 and took it to I69 and home. We bought gas in Flint, happy to find it for $3.41 a gallon but when we got home we found we could actually have gotten it for $2.98! We had traveled over 1300 miles, biked only about 17 miles, and hiked a lot. We were very happy with the Provincial Parks and especially appreciated how they seemed to have turned most of their pit toilet/outhouses into cold water flush bathrooms. Camping, beer and gasoline were more expensive than in the States, but it was a really nice trip that we both enjoyed very much.

Sunrise over Lake Huron

2011-09-25T17:48:00.000-07:00

Thu. Sept. 22: There were a few long clouds all around at 7:00 Thursday morning but nothing to interfere as the sun slowly came up from the water. Those clouds became rosy and pink and then lined with gold all around the edges. Then quick as a flash the sun popped up and blazed across the water. It was a very satisfying sunrise, indeed, and well worth rising early to see. Interestingly, as we waited, I saw a black blob on the sand a little way off from where we were. I went over to check it out and was surprised to see it was OUR binoculars, which Marv had unknowingly dropped the evening before. They were safe in their cloth case; however, something had chewed the strap into about four pieces and nibbled at the case itself. Judging from the footprints in the sand around it, I guess it was a fox. Happily, the binoculars seem to be alright. The higher the sun rose, the more the clouds rolled in until the sun disappeared into them and we returned to the camper for ham and eggs and more coffee. After doing dishes we cleaned up the camper and readied it to take down. The end was a bit rushed as we heard a few raindrops pinging on the roof. But they stopped as we finished and got on the road. (See the next posting for the rest of the day...)

The West coast of Lake Huron

2011-09-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

Wed. Sept. 21: The rain continued pretty much all night, letting up for short periods of time but then starting in again. We had about a 10 minute respite as we got up in the morning but it came back with a vengeance. We dashed over to Ross & Pat’s trailer with our microwave S’more maker because we really didn’t want the trip to end until Ross had had a chance to try one. As we lingered over coffee they decided to go directly to their cottage without a stop in St. Ignace to camp together at the Straits of Mackinac, as we had originally planned. We bid each other good-bye and they were quickly on their way. Marv & I readied the inside of the camper and hoped that the rain would let up for us to close up, but after half an hour or so, we decided to put on rain gear and just get it done. Of course, within a half an hour more as we left The Soo, the rain finally did let up. We drove back-roads to our favorite café in St. Ignace, Bentley’s, which has been there since 1945 and still has the old soda fountain. Before this we had only had breakfast there, but Marv enjoyed a good beef pasty and I had a grilled white fish salad for lunch. After crossing the Big Mac Bridge, we continued down the Lake Huron coast through Cheboygan and south as the weather became nicer and nicer. We decided to stop at P. H. Hoeft State Park, just north of Rogers City and found only a handful of other campers there. Our site was right next to the path leading over the dune and onto the beach. After setting up the trailer we took chairs and our books down to the completely deserted beach and enjoyed the sun and gentle waves in solitude. Combining left over chili, left over spaghetti sauce, and a can of black beans make for a very hearty “last supper” of our trip. Bedtime came a little earlier than the rest of the trip in hopes that there would be a good sunrise over Lake Huron to end our voyage and we were not disappointed.

Back in the USA!

2011-09-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

Tue. Sept. 20 Back to the USA: The trees dripped all night long but the next morning was perfectly clear and it had only gotten down to the low fifties overnight. We packed up the trailers and were on our way by our customary 10:00. Just north of Grundy Lake we pulled over at the French River Visitors Center (which was closed) so we could walk on the suspension bridge over the river that we had seen from the nearby highway. It turned out to be the longer of two bridges built by the Voyageurs Snow Club for snowmobiles to cross over the Pickerel and French rivers. It afforded us a nice view up and down the river from 100 feet over it. Back on the road we drove north to Sudbury and then west towards Sault Ste. Marie. We stopped at a roadside park to enjoy our picnic lunches and continued on to “The Soo”. The autumn color along the highway was the best we had seen so far, the sun was shining, and it was in the low seventies all afternoon, which made for a really pleasant though long day of driving. In an attempt to get back to The States without a lot of extra high priced gas we made several stops to add just a bit more. Once again we breezed through Customs and we were back to Michigan. Pat knew of a campground right on the Saint Mary’s River that was cheaper than what we had been paying in Canada and had water and free WiFi at our site so we set up on two tiny lots and went to get dinner. Ross and Pat treated us to a dinner at Clyde’s Drive-In to thank us for planning the trip and the extra driving Marv had done on side trips. Each couple shared a “Big C” burger and an order of onion rings and we each had a shake or a malt to complete the experience. As we ate in the truck, we watched a couple of freighters pass each other in the river and saw the Sugar Island Ferry make a trip from the island to the mainland and back. Back at the campers we had to batten down the hatches because there was a 60% chance of rain tonight, tomorrow, and tomorrow night.

More time at Grundy Lake

2011-09-20T19:06:00.000-07:00

Mon. Sept. 19: There was a 60% chance of rain, but I still hadn’t seen any moose and the trails at Grundy Lake appeared to be my best chance. So after peaches-and-cream oatmeal with extra nectarines and doing a few small chores like putting away the kayak and making spaghetti sauce in the Crockpot, Marv and I rode our bikes over to the Gut Lake Trail to see what we could find. It was just starting to sprinkle a bit but the temperature was in the upper fifties and so we were plenty warm while hiking. The 2.5 km. trail travels by two different areas: the rugged rock of the Precambrian Shield (which supports most of the life in this area) and the lakes, streams and wetlands which drain excess water into Georgian Bay. It was a nice hike which took us longer than the predicted hour and half but we made lots of stops to take pictures and search for wildlife, to no avail. All that we saw were a few birds and one other hiker, with her dog. Arriving back at the campsite about 1:30 we were happy to find out that Ross & Pat had eaten lunch without us, but had Reubens ready to grill for the two of us. They tasted great after our long hike and bike ride! While we ate and chatted the rain began to come down in earnest. We returned to our camper and prepared to do a load of laundry while Marv took a shower. When the wash cycle finished we put the clothes in to dry and returned to the camper to read (me) and work on pictures from the morning (Marv). The whole time it rained hard but when we were ready to return to get the clean clothes, the rain had let up a bit. So I talked Marv into getting the laundry and then going on to the Swan Lake Trail. It was about 4:30 by then and I thought the conditions ideal for seeing moose. The trail is a 1.5 km. look that winds through a special area in the park set aside as a nature reserve. The trail was much like Gut Lake Trail but it includes a boardwalk over a wetlands area. Sadly, once again, no moose appeared in the heavy mist/light sprinkles. We stayed dry enough in our rain gear and Marv got a few more pictures before we returned for the last time today to our campsite. Ross & Pat came over for spaghetti and salad. We hoped to top off the evening with microwave S’mores but just as we finished dinner the power went out in the campground for some reason. So they went back to their trailer and Marv & I did the dishes and then looked at pictures on the computer until bedtime. As the evening wrapped up the rain showers seemed to finally end for good and the dripping of the trees slowly diminished.

A Day trip to Killarney Provincial Park

2011-09-20T19:01:00.000-07:00

Sun. Sept. 18: It was a perfect day for our trip to Killarney. So, after scrambled eggs at our trailer and preparing chili in the Crockpot, we all (Jake, the dog, too) piled back in our truck to drive a little more than an hour to Killarney Provincial Wilderness Park. About 20 minutes north on 69, we then turned on new-in-1962-Highway 637 to drive 62 kilometers down into the park which is on a peninsula that sticks into the Georgian Bay and serves as the gateway to the North Channel of Lake Huron. The park itself encompasses over 64,000 hectares of protected landscapes and is comprised of globally unique Great Lakes coast, white quartzite hills, exceptionally clear blue lakes and intact ecosystems that support wolves, bear, moose, and deer. After a short stop at the Registration Center we drove through part of the small George Lake Campground to see the nice big sites along the lake outlet. Because Grundy Lake has a “boil water” advisory Marv & I took this opportunity to fill our blue water jug with water from Killarney. From there we drove a short way into the village of Killarney at the tip of the peninsula. It was begun in 1820 by Etienne Augustin Rocbert de la Morandiere and his native wife Josephte Sai sai go no kew (“woman of the falling snow”) to establish a fur trade post. Though as tiny as Britt had been, it is a nice, neat little village that looked more thriving than Britt. We drove straight into town and to the dock area on the river and were happy to arrive at Herbert Fisheries Fish & Chips. Served from an old schoolbus beside the dock where their fishing boats pull up, we had been told it was the best place in the area for fresh whitefish and fries. And it was GREAT!! Their “6 piece” box was actually more like 9 or 10 pieces and a large order of fries was more than enough for two to share. We ate at a picnic table on the dock in the sun and agreed it couldn’t have been any better. By the time we finished we were eager to go back to the park and take the Granite Ridge Trail. The trail was 2 kilometers and moderate, with some steep sections, winding through old fields and forests. It took us up on a ridge that offered two lookouts over the park. To the south, Collins Inlet and Philip Edward Island follow the shore and the Georgian Bay stretches as far as the eye can see. The north lookout opens onto the ridges of the La Cloche Range. This white quartzite landscape is what Killarney is renowned for. The return loop involved a challenging climb first up and over, then down, large smooth granite outcroppings. Upon approaching them I took a deep breath and said, “Okay, Jan Oien—this one’s for you!” She would have loved it! We were pleasantly tired by the end and gratefully returned to the truck to drive back to Gurney Lake. It was still beautifully sunny and 68° by then. On the way back we stopped at Beausejour Inn again to use the WiFi while Ross and Marv each had a piece of (mediocre) strawberry-rhubarb pie. It was wonderful to return to the Crockpot of chili all set to eat. Ross and Pat called it an early night, but Marv and I opted to go down to the lake to look at the bright stars before the moon rose at 10:00.

On to Grundy Lake

2011-09-20T18:58:00.000-07:00

Sat. Sept. 17 Grundy Lake Provincial Park: It didn’t get as cold as we expected; in fact, the temperature stayed right about 44° all night and rose quickly on a clear, sunny morning. We took the time to make oatmeal for breakfast before packing up the trailer to continue north on Highway 69. Before leaving Killbear, though, we wanted to see the Visitors Center, which was opened on Saturday. They have a nice display there on the history, animals and geography of the park which we enjoyed very much. Then we got on the road. We only had about an hour and a half’s drive today so we didn’t need to hurry. We wanted to check out the Little Brit Inn, which our brochure said is listed in “Where to Eat in Canada”, to see if it was worth coming back down to for dinner. Not realizing that there isn’t a bridge across the Magnetawan River, I tried to take us to Britt from the south side of the river at Byng Inlet. The tiny First Nation village had gravel roads and no businesses that we saw. There were some tense moments as we searched for a way to turn around but then the GPS showed us how we could go around a “block” and get back to the road into Byng Inlet. But we were glad we made the detour because on our way into town a large, glossy black bear ran across the road in front of the truck. On the way out of town in the same place near the town dump Ross said he saw a bear lying in the road ahead of us, but neither Marv nor I saw that one. Retracing our steps, we got back on Highway 69, crossed the Magnetawan River, and then turned west to find Britt. Britt is a sleepy little enclave that may have a bit more going on in the summer, but by fall it is really quiet. The only grocery in town had closed and was for sale. We did find the very unassuming Little Britt Inn and it was opened but in talking later we all agreed it didn’t look worth the return trip, since we were still going to have to go north to find some groceries. We soon arrived at Grundy Lake Provincial Park and were happy that they could give us two electrical sites next to one another. This is our first park that isn’t on Lake Huron or the Georgian Bay but it sits on three small lakes next to each other, Grundy, Gut & Gurd) and has several littler lakes sprinkled throughout, as well. All the sites in our campground (with the boring name of “Trailer” while all the others are named White Pine, Red Cedar, etc.) on Gurd Lake are pull-through and we were worried it might be a field of tightly packed trailers but it is as wooded and nice as all the other campgrounds we have experienced in Ontario. After setting up we walked with Pat over to the lake and found that there are a couple of sand beach areas where the campgrounds are situated and the rest of the shoreline is rocky and lined with pines. The sky was nearly cloudless and the temperature had risen to 63°. So we came back and got out our inflatable kayak and took it out on the lake. There was a busy loon fishing and we had a great time paddling around about half of the lake. When we had enough we came back to the campsite and I decided to get a shower and wash my hair. The nearby Comfort Station is closed for the season so I had to drive to the farther away one. When I got back Ross & Pat came over to our camper for Happy Hour. As we were leaving the campground for dinner and to find a grocery store, a small red fox was trotting down the camp road towards us on the other side of the road seemingly without a care in the world. We drove in our truck north to French River and then east to Alban, where the young woman who checked us into Grundy Lake had told us we could find a grocery store. After buying a few things we needed, we drove on to the Beausejour Inn for dinner. They had two fish dishes, a pickerel dinner and a fish and chips basket, but the waitress/owner, Wendy, told us that neither used local fish. When I expressed my disappointment she said that the Georgian Bay whitefish was local. “We didn’t see that on the menu!” we exclaimed. To which she smiled and replied, “It’s not on there.” So we all ordered the whitefish dinner and were very happy with it. It was lightly breaded and fried but not greasy; in fact, it was a little dry but it still tasted good. As we were leaving we asked where the closest WiFi would be. Again Wendy smiled wryly and said, “My restaurant.” So she gave us the code and Marv & I Skype-called Ken, who told us that MSU had lost to Notre Dame L and that he had more possibilities but nothing yet in his job search. Then we tried to call our respective Moms, neither of whom was home at 8:30 on Saturday night. Not bad for a couple of 90+-year-olds! We got back to our campsites by soon after 9:00 and retired to our own campers to prepare for our day trip to Killarney Provincial Park tomorrow. Marv and I walked down to the lakeshore to look at the stars but were surprised to find they weren’t as brilliant as they might have been because the still pretty big moon was just rising and giving off a great deal of light.

Killbear Provincial Park

2011-09-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

Thu. Sept. 15-Fri. Sept. 16 Killbear Provincial Park: The day dawned clear and 47°. Marv made us Deviled Eggs for breakfast and we packed up the camper quickly. Once again we got on the road a bit before our hoped for 10:00 departure time. After a stop for gas we took Highway 12 to the northeast until we joined the TransCanada highway 400, which was limited access all the way to our ending point for the day. As Marv drove I read about the areas through which we would be passing and found Port Carling in the Lakes area just to the east of the highway. There are three major lakes there and historical locks that were put in in 1861 so that tourists could come to Gravenhurst, at the south tip of Lake Muskoka and travel by steamboat up that lake to Lake Rosseau and then to Lake Joseph. I learned that there is an historical museum overlooking the locks and it sounded like someplace that would interest us all, so about an hour and a half into our drive we led Ross & Pat on a 20 km. side trip. The Muskoka Lakes Museum proved to be a gem with a little bit of everything explaining what life was like in the area since prehistoric times. There were several wooden boats and a good explanation of boat making and the regattas that have been held on the lakes for 150 years. Ross and Pat talked quite a bit to the curator while we wandered about as pretty much the only visitors. As we left he offered us an apple from the tree right outside the Museum. They were delicious. We strolled back to the trucks, which we had parked in the Community Center parking lot a few blocks away, and sat on their steps in the warm sunshine out of the wind to enjoy our picnic lunch. But clouds were moving in and the temperature never got above 53° all day. We continued north on Highway 400 for about an hour, just about to the end of the limited access, and then turned west above Parry Sound to go to Killbear Provincial Park. The park itself is on a peninsula with a very protected cove and over 1400 sites on six loops but several are closed for the season. Several signs greeted us with warnings of an active bear in the campground. As we arrived it began to rain a bit and it continued to spit a bit while we got set-up on sites 87 & 88. I was a little unhappy when it seemed that our site backed up to two outhouses and was a long walk to the Comfort Station. I was much happier when Marv paid the men’s a visit and found out that they were actually individual cold water bathrooms with a flush toilet and a sink with soap dispenser. Ross’s delicious pork roast with asparagus and a wild rice mixture made a delicious dinner. Afterwards Marv & I returned to our camper and played two hands of Cribbage (Marv won both) before going to bed. The temperature was down to the low forties by then so we were happy to have electricity! The overnight low was 38° but we stayed cozy and actually were a bit too warm in the morning when Marv got up and turned the heater back up at 7:30. He cooked the rest of the bacon out on our grill and we took it over to Ross & Pat’s to go with more blueberry pancakes. Then we all walked with Jake down to the water’s edge and along the campsites there for awhile. Pat returned to their camper with Jake while Ross and I continued walking and then circled back along the shore to our road. Ross went back to their campsite from there and Marv & I continued all the way around the cove to the day use area and boat visitor mooring spot before we came back to our campsite. Ross & Pat wanted to go to the “Killbear Mall” to get some groceries and use the WiFi so Marv and I packed a lunch in a backpack and took off on our bikes to explore while they were gone. There is a 6 km., hard packed gravel, recreational trail that parallels the road that runs the length of the park. Along the way we startled three grouses, who took off with their trademark thumping flutter. We took the path to the Visitors Center. We were very disappointed to find that the Center was closed Thursdays and Fridays for a few weeks so we couldn’t see it. But we walked from there down to the shore and took the “trail” that really involves clambering over the rocks all along the water lining the bay. It was still in the forties but the sun was shining brightly so we stayed warm enough with our exertions. We found a large rock, warm from the sun, on which we sat to enjoy our lunch. The waves were splashing on the rocks and the wind was blowing and it all made for a stunning picnic area! After eating we climbed on up the rocks thinking we might find a path to take back through the woods. Finding nothing we returned to the shoreline and got back on our bikes to continue riding the pathway to its end at Lighthouse Point. There is a short “trail” there that took us over the rocks again out to the warning light at the narrowest point of Parry Sound before it opens into a larger bay and harbor at the town which bears its name. After resting a while on the sun warmed rocks we began the return trip by bike. We stopped along the way to see the Pet Beach and ride through Lighthouse Point campground (closed for the season). We crossed paths with Ross & Pat in their truck as they headed to the Pet Beach with Jake and then continued back to our campsite, having ridden just over 9 miles. We collected our chairs and books and walked to the campground beach to enjoy the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sun. Pat had been cooking a venison roast in the Crockpot all day, which we enjoyed with the rest of the corn on the cob and tomatoes. After dinner the four of us drove in our truck back to the Visitors Center, seeing many deer along the way. We walked down the path next to the Center to a picnic table on a large rock at the water’s edge. We sat there to enjoy a lovely sunset over the water and into the trees on the far shoreline. Back in the truck afterwards we saw that the temperature had dipped to 44°. Since it was still very clear we foresee an even colder night ahead! When we got back to the campground we noticed how it was filling up now that it is Friday night. Coffee and sliced peaches on butter pecan ice cream made a delicious end to our day, and then Marv and I returned to our camper to begin cleaning up and writing before bed. It had been a really lovely day!

Moving on to Awenda Provincial Park

2011-09-18T13:28:00.000-07:00

Tue. Sept. 13-Wed. Sept. 14 Awenda Provincial Park: The next morning dawned cool and perfectly clear. Both couples ate breakfast in respective campers, and then closed up camp to be on the road by 10:00. We had cereal with raspberries and had no problems getting cleaned up. Highway 21 hugs the Lake Huron coastline and passes through pleasant farm country with very little traffic. There was, however, a lot of construction along the way that held us up frequently. We passed through Goderich, which had suffered a lot of visible tornado damaged just a few weeks ago. Many of its lovely old buildings will need new roofs and windows because of the storms. At Pine River we pulled into the Pine River Cheese Cooperative and bought some of their products, but were disappointed to find out that they had no curds because of a fire they had had this summer. Along the way the sunny skies and temperatures in the low seventies gave way to clouds, a few hit-or-miss showers and dropping temperatures. At Southampton we stopped at The Lighthouse for a late lunch. Our original plan had been to continue up a little way into the Bruce Peninsula to visit Sauble Falls Provincial Park and hike into the falls. However, we had driven for nearly 3 hours and weren’t halfway to our next campground so we reluctantly decided to go east on 21 to Highway 26. We checked out a small maritime and rail museum in Owen Sound and passed by The Blue Mountains before going north towards Midland and Penetanguishene, ending up at Awenda Provincial Park. This campground of 325 sites is way out on the tip of the peninsula, sticking out into the Georgian Bay in the “30,000 Island” area. The office gave us adjoining sites, 95 & 96, and then realized that ours wasn’t an electric site, but we can go several days without electricity so it wasn’t a problem. We each got set up and then Marv & I made a big tossed salad that we took over to Macks’ trailer to have with Ross’s smoked chicken. Tired from all the driving, we called it an early night and went back to our camper to read and finish setting up. The skies cleared again overnight and the temperature got down to 52°, but we stayed snug and cozy. The next morning we all had bacon and eggs in our trailer for breakfast. Then everyone (including Jake, the Dog) piled into our truck to do some exploring. Marv headed around nearby Farlain Lake and then down to the shore of Severn Sound. A quick stop at a Farmer’s Market netted us some local sweet corn, apples, & peaches and Marv and I split a yummy Date Bar. We traveled slowly through the town of Penetanguishene and into Midland as our trusty GPS took us to Sainte Marie among the Hurons. This historical village is a replica of the Jesuit Mission that was in the same place for approximately 10 years in the 1640s. From our trip to this area in 1979 I remembered the tale of the martyred Jesuits who were killed by the warring Iroquois. I’m not sure if the rebuilt village was here then or not but we were happy to get the chance to visit it now. After visiting their museum and watching an interpretive film about the Mission, the wall of the theater opened on to the front gate of the village and we walked in with our Audio Tour Wands in h and to immerse ourselves in what life was like long ago. It is very well done and we learned much in the nearly 3 hours we spent at Sainte Marie among the Hurons. Although it is late in the season, they still had a handful of people in period clothing to talk to us about what we were seeing and help it come alive for us. When we finished at 2:00 or so we opted to have lunch right there at their restaurant, where we could sit out on the patio and enjoy the warm but waning sunshine. Clouds were once again filling the sky and some of them looked threatening and the temperature never got much above the mid sixties. Our next planned stop was at the Wye Nature Preserve, where their most prominent feature is a large flock of Trumpeter Swans. But when we found out that it would cost over $8.50 to visit, we all agreed we didn’t think we had the energy to do it justice and instead voted to return to the Park to see its beaches. We were sorry that the historic naval base at Discovery Harbour, which Marv & I had visited on our previous visit to the area, was closed for the season, because Ross, particularly, would have really enjoyed it. But we knew that Jake would be happy to pay a visit to the Pet Beach at the park. We hiked a ways into the beach, stopping along the way to read interpretive signs and gaze across the water to nearby Giants Tomb Island, where a metal structure and a small light are all that remain of the lighthouse that used to stand sentinel over the tricky waterway. Jake was a bit put-off by the crashing waves and so he didn’t spend much time in the water. So we soon returned to our campsites. Ross & Pat chose to rest awhile in their trailer while Marv & I hiked around the camping loop to see the handful of other campers in Hawk campground. Then he built a fire and the Macks came over for brauts cooked over that fire. Just as we got things started, however, it began to rain. The men managed to cook the brauts while Pat & I set up in our camper and I cooked the corn on the cob in there. We ate indoors but then the rain let up enough for us to all go out and make S’mores over the fire. After three quick games of Banagrams in our camper, they returned to theirs in a light sprinkle. Marv did the dishes while I added to the Blog and then we read a bit before going to bed with the sound of rain drops dripping from the trees above onto the camper roof. With the temperature already down to 51 degrees it was likely to be another snuggly night.

Blue Water Tour: camping around the Georgian Bay in Ontario, Canada

2011-09-18T13:24:00.001-07:00

Sat., Sept. 10—Mon. Sept. 12 The Pinery Provincial Park: Ross and Pat planned to arrive at our house during the MSU/Florida Atlantic football game. But as they left Valparaiso, they discovered they had no brakes on their fifth wheel. So Ross spent about three hours repairing it before getting underway. Ken & Jen ate “their” dinner at our house, along with Thelma, who had hoped to see Ross and Pat. But eventually they did arrive and we chatted while keeping one eye on the US Open Tennis semi-finals and the other on the Michigan/Notre Dame football game, both on mute. We got to bed and Sunday morning we went to Edgewood to sing and hear our new interim pastor preach for the first time, while Ross & Pat went to All Saints Episcopal church, where they found one elder who recognized him as June Mack’s son, after all these years. We got on the road by about 1:00 with a quick stop for gas ($3.59 a gallon) and lunch at McDonald’s. We made our way to the Blue Water Bridge and crossed into Canada without incident. At the Welcome Center we got a booklet called “The Blue Water Tour” which leads the traveler clockwise around the Georgian Bay, going up the Bruce Peninsula and taking the ferry across at Tobermorey. Both the Macks and the Dunns had already been to that area, so we chose to go counter clockwise and circle across the top of Lake Huron and come back through Sault Ste. Marie. So from Sarnia we headed north along the Lake Huron Coast. The Pinery Provincial Park is about an hour north of Sarnia, on the shore of Lake Huron. It has over 1200 campsites on a large track of land, with beaches and sand dunes reminiscent of the east shore of Lake Michigan. Although it had been full over the weekend, like in the States, there remained only a few campers, nearly all retirement age. They gave us campsites 1 & 5 with electricity just over the dunes from the shore. There was one campsite in-between us but it worked just fine. Ross & Pat grilled hamburgers for dinner to which we added baked beans and potato salad. After dinner Marv & I tried to walk over to the lake in time for the sunset but found that we missed most of it and had to settle for the color remaining in the sky. As we walked back to our camper the nearly full moon was rising and bathing the whole campground in its light. We got to bed early and slept well with temperatures in the low sixties. Monday dawned clear and sunny. We took our chairs and our coffee to Ross & Pat’s campsite, where Ross made wild blueberry pancakes for everyone. Most of the morning was wiled away, chatting and sipping coffee, sitting in the sunshine. At nearly noon, Marv and I took our bikes to ride around our camping loop (just over a mile) and out to the main drive, taking it to its end about half a mile away. Leaving the bikes in the parking lot we walked into the beach where I found the water to be just perfect—cool and refreshing. Vowing to go to the “Dog Beach” with Jake, Ross & Pat’s golden doodle, for a swim we headed back to the campers. Ross made us Reuben Paninis for lunch. He wanted a nap and Pat wanted to go to town to fill up their truck with diesel. So Marv and I opted to go with her to Grand Bend for gas and groceries. When we returned about 3:00 we all piled in their truck and drove to the one beach in the park where they allow dogs. Along the drive we saw a large flock of wild turkeys. At the sandy beach Jake and I went swimming, Marv dipped in briefly and Ross & Pat got their feet wet. But by then our eighty degree, sunny day was cooling off and a big thunderstorm was building in from the southwest. Reluctantly, we headed back to the truck and as we drove back to the campers it began to rain. We all hurried to close windows while the skies opened up. During a lull in the rain, Ross & Pat came down for happy hour, which we began outside but eventually moved into our camper because of the heavy rain. Marv managed to grill salmon steaks under the awning and we had those with couscous and marinated veggie salad. Ross & Pat headed back to their camper right after dinner, leaving us to read until about 10:00. Marv went to get a shower and realized that the full moon was out and the skies had cleared so we headed back to the beach to enjoy a romantic walk in the moonlight. The breeze was mild and the moon was very bright as we strolled along the sand. Marv took a few pictures before we headed back to bed in the camper with the temperature in the mid-fifties.

Heading Home

2011-06-27T19:52:00.000-07:00

Fri. & Sat. June 24 & 25: We were all up by 6:00 again to have a quick “Continental Breakfast”. Macel, Kari & Laura left quickly to try and get Laura to a family gathering in Kalamazoo Saturday afternoon and Kari home to prepare to lead the service Sunday morning. The van with Alex, Eli, Carol, Linda and Sue left next. When Jackie, Ed, Marv & I left, only Mary, Emily, Karen, Katie, Summer, and Maddie remained. They were heading to the North Badlands unit to do some hiking since we missed out on that on Sunday with the rain. We decided to drive up to Wounded Knee one more time. As we walked around, Dakota came up again. He was taking a picture of the grave of his uncle, which now bore a small Swedish flag. It turned out that his uncle had traveled to Sweden and married a Swede. Dakota has cousins and other relatives there and has visited them, near where Ed once lived. The relatives sent decorations for the grave and he was taking a picture to send back to them. Then the four of us got on our way, stopping only to get postcards in Nebraska to mail to James & the McCoy kids for their collections, and for lunch at a local café in a small town in Nebraska (Marv & Ed had the special—chicken fried steak—and Jackie & I had the Navajo taco salad, served on Indian Fried Bread.). Along the way in the morning we saw several deer and prong horn antelope, and more evidence of flooding. We stopped at another small town café just inside the Iowa border and then drove on until about 10:00 to stay in Waterloo, Iowa. The first place we found was a Howard Johnson’s that had no vacancies, but the desk person kindly called 4 places before finding a Motel 6 that would take us. It was not nearly as nice as our stay on the way out and didn’t offer breakfast. We got a sandwich at Subway and plowed east, stopping at Wendy’s south of Chicago and Panera’s in Battle Creek for faster meals than our first day. We got home about 8:30, looked at the yard and gardens as twilight fell, checked in with our moms and kids and fell into bed. In the next few days I finished the wonderful book, Neither Wolf Nor Dog, by Kent Nerburn, which was so helpful in putting much of what I had seen on Pine Ridge Reservation in context or me. I recommend it highly! Marv found a Pandora program online that recovered most of the pictures he had deleted, but none of the videos. Once we were home we again had access to the internet and our email. So I am able to offer this latest adventure, with pictures, to you on The Savage Traveler.

Final Work Day

2011-06-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

Thu. June 24: Our final day dawned sunny and less cool than the day before. Marv, Mary, Macel, Maddie, Emily, Alex, Elijah, Katie, and Karen got up at 4:45 to climb the hill and watch the sunrise. I got up and saw that I could see the sun rise from my bed and decided that would do. After breakfast my group and one other went back to Agnes’ trailer to finish up while Marv’s went to continue the roofing job at a long, added-on-to house. There was a nice breeze that kept the roofers cool enough but Marv said that the shingles were really too hot to have so many people walking on them. They finished the job, though, and that was very satisfying. They stopped for ice cream and got back earlier than scheduled. Our group finished the front porch/deck, repaired and remounted the back porch with the old steps from the front, and completed the corner caps for the skirt. There were plenty of jobs for everyone there. Then we headed to the Grandma’s nearby trailer to repair gaping holes in the floor. There were not so many things to do there and most of the group ended up sitting around and chatting. Karen and I measured and cut while David and Mark did the repairs inside. We fixed two and, although it was getting pretty late, David really wanted to do a third. I suggested that Marisa take the van full of people back, leaving Karen and the men to finish and Maddie to play with the many kids (that was her preference). When we got back to Re-Member we found that two groups were still out and that everyone who had returned had done the cleaning on their own. We began packing and, when one of the groups was back, we enjoyed a Pizza Hut dinner that no one had to prep or clean-up. We had Wrap-up of the experience with just our group again, telling the Greatest Gift from the week and the thing we would like to leave here when we go tomorrow. I found it interesting that about half of the people talked about negative ideas or behaviors that they hoped to “leave behind” and half spoke of the ways they hoped they had had an impact to “leave behind”. The final activity was ice cream sundaes and then Marv and I climbed the hill one more time and watched the sun set from the same place he had watched it rise. We got our Prayer Partner gifts and tried to finish all but the last minute packing. It had been an emotional, and in some ways heart wrenching week, where we all learned a great deal and could leave with the feeling that we have had an impact on this very impoverished but culturally rich community.

Touring Day

2011-06-27T19:22:00.000-07:00

Wed. June 22: Today dawned sunny and breezy. Teams 1-6 were “Touring” so after breakfast we all loaded in to the flat nosed Blue Bird Pine Ridge Bus and headed to our first destination, Red Cloud Indian School. Those who had seen it before were given a tour of the High School. The rest of us were given the history of the school by Tina, an alum turned staff member, who met with us in the lovely, lofty sanctuary that was rebuilt a few years ago after the original 1893 building burned down. Their chancel area is made from bricks and the cornerstone from the old building. We learned that Red Cloud demanded that the “Black Dresses” that had treated him well be included when they formed the school and that is why it is Catholic. They are a Preschool through high school and 92% of graduates go on to College. They have a high number of Bill Gates Scholarship recipients. There is no tuition charged but students must “test into” the school and they offer no Special Education Services. After her presentation we went to the cultural center to see the Art Show and purchase crafts made by students, if desired. From there we drove around the town of Pine Ridge. They made a quick stop at the gas station and then we proceeded to KILI radio station to look around. The DJ who was featured in the video we had seen Sunday was there and we had a good chance to talk with him. The view from the station is really beautiful and it was a good chance to enjoy the lovely day with temperatures in the 70s. The Reservation is very large and everything is quite a long drive so we spent a great deal of time riding in the bus between stops. Along the way I saw several magpies and an antelope lying in a field which was still there half an hour later when we passed it again. Everyone was really ready to eat lunch when we arrived at Betty’s Kitchen. Great Granddaughter of Black Elk, Betty serves preordered lunches at her double-wide on a hill side, eaten outside under a pine bough shelter looking over the rolling countryside. We both had a turkey sandwich that turned out to be much like what we had been eating all week. But it had hearty potato salad and pork and beans with it too. We also bought a piece of Betty’s chocolate cake for dessert. Many people made the steep climb up the hill behind Betty’s to enjoy even better views. But I was having trouble with vertigo and just couldn’t make it up. That was a first for me and I found it very discouraging. From Betty’s the bus took us to Singing Horse Trading Post. It is a small place under a log house with a variety of items for sale but we didn’t buy anything there. Our final stop of the day was at the cultural center at Oglala Lakota College. They played an audio guide to some of the paintings, photos, and maps that gave a history of the area. We were hurried out of the center before we could watch the video that was supposed to follow. But the group mutinied a bit and did manage to stop at the College Bookstore, where I finally found postcards and Marv bought a t-shirt. We arrived back at Re-Member just about exactly at dinnertime and had hamburgers. Kari’s group continued working for some reason and they arrived an hour late for dinner. They were pretty exhausted! Several Lakota artists were invited to bring their work for us to peruse and I finally managed to buy Dreamcatchers for the grandchildren and we bought a painting by a “ledger artist” named Joe Pulliam who, like some other artists, is doing paintings on old ledgers pages, the way Lakota artists had to do when they couldn’t get any other paper for their artwork. The evening presenter was a dancer who worked with the US Park Service named Corbin Conroy/Good Man to Walk With. He explained his Regalia and dressed one of the young volunteer men in most of it, telling the history and story behind the pieces. He had a dry sense of humor and made it very enjoyable but the whole presentation took about an hour and a half. Our group had hoped to climb the hill behind the dining hall to watch the sun set but it was too late for that. So we returned to our Kiksuya for Prayer Partner presents and to practice our song for which Kari had written a verse. While trying to work on pictures on the camera Marv inadvertently erased everything on the card, deleting about 200 Pine Ridge pictures and our anniversary dinner pictures as well. It was a sad note to end the day on as we wearily got ready for bed.

Second Work Day

2011-06-27T19:08:00.000-07:00

Tue. June 21: This was another cloudy, breezy day that threatened rain; cooler but with only a bit of drizzle. The same three groups went with one of the same Project Managers (Marissa) to continue a different skirting job with a different Construction Manager (Dave). The big van got stuck in the mud going down the wrong driveway but a man came out of the trailer and masterfully backed it up and got it out. Dave told us to forget everything about how Matt does skirting and do it his way. He proceeded to give us much more instruction and we got more done. Four kids came out and spent the rest of the day with us, playing with volunteers and sharing our lunch. We only stopped skirting when we ran out of fiberglass insulation batting. We began making a deck for the same trailer and then made the nearly one hour drive back to Re-Member. We ate spaghetti for dinner and then had my favorite speaker thus far. Larry Swallow/Cetan Tanka Tokahe Kin Ye/Hawk Who Flies First used song, words, drum, and projected slides to tell The Lakota Creation Story. He is a gifted and mesmerizing story teller and I enjoyed it immensely! Marv & I bought a copy of his DVD where he does his presentation in his Ceremonial Regalia. After practicing the song and getting our Prayer Partner gifts we tried to do a better job of getting lights out on time at Kiksuya.

First Work Day

2011-06-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Mon. June 20: Although we were well prepared for hot, sunny weather we were less so for the cool, breezy, rainy day that greeted us. After a quick breakfast of hot and cold sweetened cereal all 50 or so people went down to the Workshop to unload lumber across the deeply rutted, muddy lot. It seemed best to do by “Bucket Brigade” and took about an hour to finish. We then took some of the lumber just unloaded into the Workshop and semi trailer and put it BACK onto two of the trailers to take to worksites. Groups 1, 2(mine), & 3(Marv’s) went together to put a skirt on a mobile home about a half an hour drive from Re-Member. The highway is being redone along our drive and, especially right where we needed to turn off, it was pretty dicey as we dealt with the slippery mud. We settled into diverse roles of varying expertise only-sort-of guided by an Oglala construction leader named Matt. There was no safety equipment and many half-charged power tools and there was a great deal of standing around wondering what we should do. But despite the nearly all day drizzle we managed to get nearly half finished before it was time to go back. The van and trailer became hopelessly mired in the mud as we tried to pull away, but a helpful 4-wheel drive pick-up came along and managed to give enough assistance to get it up the drive, onto the new but unpaved roadbed and back on the temporary highway. Along the way we found out that, along with not having a director this week, the Cook hadn’t been seen for 2 weeks so the kitchen was being managed by the Project Managers with help from the volunteer teams. The potatoes hadn’t adequately cooked for a potato bar so they creatively put out chips instead and it became a nacho bar. The evening’s speaker was a Lakota musician named Will Peters/Ta Canku Luta Waunspewicakiya/Teacher of the Red Way who wanted to mainly talk to the Youth about respecting themselves and others. He spoke for about an hour, sang one song, and gave us the opportunity to buy jewelry and his CD, made with his son. I bought a turtle necklace and Marv bought the CD. Afterward the Edgewood group returned to Kiksuya for “Thorns & Roses”, to work on our “group” song, and to get Prayer Partner gifts.

Our First Full Day

2011-06-27T16:34:00.000-07:00

Sun. June 19: HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!! Today only we got to “sleep in” until 7:00, as opposed to our usual 6:00. My team was on Breakfast Prep so I went up early to cut oranges and put out milk. All the cereals are sweetened, underscoring that Re-Member is really more geared to Youth Groups than intergenerational groups such as ours. One of the staff read verbatim, in a stumbling monotone, the Wisdom of the Elders quotes, which was pretty disappointing. (We would hear many times through the week how wonderful the Wisdom of the Elders and the Reservation Tour are when presented in context by the missing director.) We left right after that for Wounded Knee. The rain was spitting a bit but we stayed mostly dry under a shelter of pine boughs as a young man named Dakota welcomed us and gave us the history “as he learned it from his elders”. It was pretty much the story as Marv & I have learned it, since we have both done extra reading and study, but it was sobering and moving to hear it from Dakota at the sight. He did a nice job and then sent us up to the graveyard to look around for a while. Kari suggested we also go down to the Museum at the bottom of the hill, which dealt more with the problems in the 1970s. It was raining harder and harder as we drove on to the White Cloud Visitors Center for the south part of Badlands National Park. When this part was added to the Badlands National Monument it was put under Oglala Lakota management with native Rangers and Interpreters. The Lakota people had access to this land until it was procured for bombing practice during World War II. They call it not “Bad” but White Land, for the light color of the rock formations. They allowed us to eat our picnic in their “basement” as the rain picked up. After a bit more time in the Center we climbed back on the bus, thinking we were going to hike in the Bad Lands. To my great disappointment, we learned that the rain caused the roads and trails to be too slippery to proceed on, so we just drove back to Re-Member. After killing some time, we watched an interesting documentary about the reservation radio station, KILI, called “No More Smoke Signals”. After chicken for dinner, we had a speaker whose Lakota name, Inila Wakan, means Quiet Spirit. He first blessed us each individually with burning sweet grass and then offered an ancient prayer-song, turning us all to the directions of the four winds. In a VERY quiet voice, which unfortunately some people were unable to hear, he told us about the history of the White Land/Wilderness. He is a land acquisition leader in the Oglala Lakota nation and has taken back his own family’s lands, where he lives with three generations “off the grid” with no plumbing or electricity. His is the only one of his extended family that hasn’t succumbed to alcohol and drug abuse and the ramifications of them. He held us mesmerized for over an hour. When we returned to our building we got our Prayer Partner packages, talked about the growing bed bug problems and went to bed.

A Journey to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation: Time with Re-Member

2011-06-27T16:29:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 17—Saturday, June 18: We left Edgewood Church for Re-Member at about 8:00, half an hour later than planned due to late arrivals. Marv & I are riding with Ed & Jackie, and the other 14 people are in two minivans and a truck. Friday was a VERY long day of driving, with brief stops for lunch and dinner. We arrived in North Sioux City, SD, barely inside the state line out of Iowa, about 10:30 “our time”. The Comfort Inn & Suites was very nice, with an indoor pool, cookies, and a large room for Marv and me to share. After a good breakfast we got back on the road. We saw a lot of evidence of the record flooding of the Missouri River in the area and even had to take some detours to get around closed roads and exits. Most of today’s driving was on highways, not freeways, and we had little traffic and only a few small towns across Nebraska as we made our way to Pine Ridge. When we arrived we found we were all staying in the smaller, “extra” building called Kiksuya. There is more than enough room for us there and it gets us away from the bustle of the main building, where they are dealing with an infestation of bed bugs. At our orientation we were warned about that and also learned that the Director is gone this week, fetching his family to come live with him here. That leaves about 60 volunteers, mostly youth, in the hands of about 6 college-age workers. We had dinner then went to a Pow-Wow, held at the nearby Oglala Lakota College (Associates, Bachelors, & Masters Degrees). It was interesting and entertaining to see all the dancers in their Regalia and some of our group joined in on the dancing. Marv and I especially enjoyed going from Drum Circle to Drum Circle and watching them. We got back to Re-Member late enough that we met only long enough to get our Prayer Partner gifts and go to bed. With a fan in the window making white noise and ear plugs in my ears I was soon asleep in a room with 4 other women.

To Summarize...

2011-04-18T18:12:00.001-07:00

Summary: The Shuttle got us to Heathrow with plenty of time (2½ hours) before the flight. We are the breakfast the hotel had put together for us and killed time until 8:45 boarding. We were on a plane with individual touch screens in front of each passenger offering an array of TV, movies, music and games. Other than a male flight attendant with a bad attitude it was an easy, uneventful ride home. Detroit had a light layer of snow and temps in the mid-thirties. Quite a shock after the fine weather we had for the trip! After all, in the two and a half weeks we were gone we had only had a bit of light rain while driving to and then from Mont St. Michel and the temperature stayed mainly in the sixties and seventies. We breezed through customs and had an hour and a half wait before we could take the Michigan Flyer back home. This had been a wonderful trip with no glitches to speak of at all. We saw and learned so much covering over 3000 years of history. The Euro was about $1.43 most of the time and the Pound was $1.65. We paid €1.52 per liter for gas for two fill-ups of the rental car in Normandy. We left things undone and places not visited in Nice, Paris, Normandy, and London so, should we ever have the opportunity to return, we will have plenty to do.

An interesting addendum: While we were gone it was bothering Marv that our Federal Income Tax refund, which we had filed before we left town in March, never got deposited to our account. He checked on it as soon as he could only to see that we hadn’t actually submitted it after we printed it and the Michigan form. As luck would have it, the IRS gave us until midnight TONIGHT to submit since the 15^th was on a weekend. Disaster averted—we have now filed it for real and have the paperwork acknowledging it. WHEW!!

Our Journey Draws to an End

2011-04-18T17:57:00.001-07:00

Sun. Apr. 17: Palm Sunday. After another hearty Continental Breakfast, our plan was to get to Westminster Abby, which is closed to tourists on Sunday, in plenty o time to make the 10:00 Matins Service. But they had a new schedule up by then and directed us to the smaller St. Margaret’s church next door for what had been changed to a 9:30 service. So we attended it with a small group of worshippers and enjoyed the cozy service but thought it would have more music than it did. We regretfully decided we didn’t have time to wait for the big West Minster Abbey Palm Blessing and Processional at 11:15 and went to Westminster dock to take in our ”free” boat ride on the Thames. It proved to be interesting with some new information and some new views of London from the top deck, sitting in the sunshine. They were holding the London Marathon (after the Paris Marathon last Sunday!) and things were pretty crazy with streets cut-off by crowds and the race path. We got off at the Tower of London and decided not to spend the £40 (over $60) to tour the Tower. Marv had seen it and I didn’t care that much, especially since there were other things we wanted to see on such a beautiful day. In effect, we traded his not seeing Versailles for my not seeing the Tower of London and we’re both okay with that. After wandering around St. Katherine’s Dock area, looking for a “loo” and trying to get a good shot of the Tower Bridge in the sun, we fought the Marathon crowds and got to the starting point of our final Rick Steves Podcast walking tour, “Historic London”. This took us through the square mile of twisting streets and alley ways of the true, 2000 year old, City of London, which has only about 7000 residents! The area had been devastated in the 1500s by the Black Plague, in 1666 by the Great Fire, and in the 1940s bombing raids of the German Blitz s, but it has always come back, bigger and better. A highlight of the tour was when he led us to “Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese” the favorite haunt of Dr. Johnson, the eccentric who wrote the first English dictionary, and Charles Dickens, who described the tavern on page 147 of A Tale of Two Cities, an original copy of which they have on display. That seemed the perfect place for us to have a Sunday midday dinner. Marv had Bangers and Mash and I had a buttery sauced chicken breast. We each had a pint and for dessert we shared warm pudding (Butterscotch and Ginger, not Dickens’ favorite Spotted Dick) with custard sauce. The whole experience was just perfect!! We finished in time to dash to the nearby St. Paul’s Cathedral for the 3:15 Evensong, which was quite simply spectacular. It was a Stations of the Cross service with the full choir, many clergy carrying a 20 foot rough hewn wooden cross to the four points of the nave and the amazing organ playing with all the stops out, quit literally. The leader of the processional was swinging a large incense ball and the fragrant smoke floated ethereally up towards the towering dome. Part of the time the sun shone through the windows, showing its rays through the smoke. As we all faced west for the beginning of the Processional, a full length purple cloth was suspended over the railing of the whispering gallery 30 meters above our heads, reaching to the floor behind the altar. It hung there waving slightly in the air currents during most of the service. The service was a mix of readings, anthems, hymns and prayers that took us through Passion Week until the crucifixion, with a “glimpse” of the joy of Easter Sunday. During the part of the crucifixion, the purple cloth was released, so it fell with a loud whoosh to the floor of the nave. Later it was draped all over the cross that was now leaning on the later, so that it covered the cross, strongly invoking the image of a covered body. The choir was amazing, with their beautiful sound echoing through the cathedral. It was a very moving and powerful service that ended with a thundering organ postlude. I thought of how much my dad would have enjoyed the postlude and hope that at some point he had a chance to listen to that organ. Back out in the sunlight we completed the Historic Walk, ending with a visit to Christopher Wren’s Monument to the Great Fire. The fire had destroyed more than 70 churches in London and he had designed 50 churches to replace them, 23 of which remain today. Enough time remained for us to find our way back to the Cartwright Garden area where Marv lived the summer he studied Humanities in London with Maury Crane, who told them, “You might as well study Humanities in London because the English have stolen all the artifacts and brought them there.” Much had changed but Marv managed to recognize the dorm where they lived and a bit of the neighborhood. It was getting cooler but was a nice evening so we bought a sandwich (again at Pret) and a salad to share and took them to eat on a bench in Green Park. There were many people enjoying the end of the day, lots of soccer balls being kicked, and even a football being tossed around. The sun was setting as we made our way back to Earl’s Court to buy Cadbury Fruit & Nut Bars (Don Filcek’s recommendation) and pack for our 5:50am pick-up Monday Morning

Our First Full Day in London

2011-04-18T17:39:00.000-07:00

Sat. Apr. 16: We tried to get an early start and were the only ones in the breakfast room but it was still about 9:00 when we hit the Tube to go from Earl’s Court to St. Paul’s. We thought we’d take a little time to do Rick Steves’ walking tour there but the high admission cost included an IPod with an audio/visual guide to the Cathedral so we did both. And it was worth it as different things (the IPod included footage from Prince Charles and Princess Di’s wedding and a virtual tour to the highest level of the dome) were highlighted and they were very different in tone (Rick’s is lighter and funnier). The cathedral is the 4^th biggest in Europe, and was constructed by Christopher Wren beginning in 1667, after the big fire burned London pretty much to the ground. He lived to see his masterpiece completed and his son put the cross on the top of the towering dome. We climbed, not all the way to the top, but to the second of three levels where we could walk around outside and look down across the vast city. By the time we had explored it all, including the crypt in the basement, it was after 1:00 and we were well past the time we had hoped to be on the Hop On/Hop Off Tour Bus so we climbed aboard for an overview of the town. It was partly sunny and nice to sit up on top once there was a spot for us. The sites of London are far more spread out than Paris so it was good to have this chance to be driven and have the route explained to us. After quite a long time we got off at Buckingham Palace, just as a minor guard change occurred (not the big pageantry that happens once a day) for us to film. The area is in full bloom but partly barricaded in preparation for the Royal Wedding in two weeks, with Press Stands blocking off the entrance to St James Park. We walked to Victoria Station and took the Metro to the British Museum. In between as some point we found Linda Filcek’s recommended restaurant for sandwiches, Pret A Manger, or “Pret” as the new ones seem to prefer. Marv had a grilled chicken Panini and I had a FABULOUS brie, basil, and tomato on a baguette. We were therefore ready to take on the huge museum with the help once again of Rick Steves. He took us to the Rosetta Stone, followed by the ancient Egyptian exhibits, with the mummies, Assyrian, Roman, and Greek exhibits. We ended with the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon, so named for the procurer (he says he saved them, the Greeks say he stole them). Once again we closed the place down; as Rick Steves was closing they were shooing us out the doors. With a little extra wandering we got back on the Tube and returned to Westminster Abbey to get pictures and find out what time the services would be on Palm Sunday, because it looked like that would be the only way we were going to see the Abby. We dropped in at the Red Lion to have a pint. As we sat, it was getting dark. We decided that it would be nice to get pictures of things lighted, so we had a Sharing Platter of wings, sausages, potato wedges and garlic bread for dinner and then walked down to get our pictures. There was a full moon between the Parliament towers and Big Ben so we got some pretty spectacular pictures and even a movie as the bells chimed for 9:45. By the time we returned to the hotel we did some emailing and called Marv’s mom (with limited success) and went to bed.

Getting to London: Read and you'll see why there are no pix!

2011-04-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

Fri. Apr. 15: It was an early morning to a full day of travel for us today! We got up at 7:00, finished packing, and enjoyed another fine breakfast. First Challenge: Getting from Honfleur to the Le Havre Train Station—After checking out, Marv went to get the car so we could load our bags without taking them so far. We had rush hour traffic but no problems getting to Le Havre to return the car. After checking the car and finding all was in order, the young woman told us her colleague could drive us to the train station. What a wonderful surprise that was! So we were at our first Gare of the day an hour before the train took off to return us to Paris. This time our (very unnecessary) First Class ticket gave us a little cabin of 6 seats to ourselves for the first hour. Two women joined us in Rouen for the next hour of the trip. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Second Challenge: Getting from Gare St. Lazare to the EuroStar—While we waited for the train in Le Havre we found our Metro schedule and figured out how to get from Gare St. Lazare to Gare Du Nord to take the EuroStar bullet train through the Chunnel to London. When we arrived at St. Lazare Station we followed the signs to take RER E, the intercity commuter train, found a change booth, and then bought 2 tickets. That led us to what we thought was the right platform but we weren’t positive until we looked in a door and could see the route the train was taking. WHEW! We were correct. The next stop was Magenta, where we followed signs to Gare du Nord. Then we could follow signs to EuroStar. Not knowing what to expect on the train, we bought sandwiches and drinks for lunch before checking in for our train. After going through French and British Passport checks we waited only about 10 minutes and boarded the train. And everything had been accomplished without ever going outside! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!! On board the train and underway, they let us know they would be serving lunch in about half an hour! Oh well, live and learn! The GPS showed a top speed of 192mph! When we passed another bullet train going the other way the combined speed made it flash by in seconds. It was awesome. They served a light lunch of salmon pate and couscous with lemon mousse and choice of beer, wine or other beverage. The French countryside looked similar to Normandy but mostly a bit flatter. We passed quaint villages and lots of farm fields for an hour or so. We were in the Chunnel about 20 minutes and came out in England where the countryside looked very similar but everyone was driving on the wrong side! Before we knew it (a little over two hours, we think) we arrived at St. Pancras Station in London.
Third Challenge: Getting from St. Pancras Station to our hotel—We had pre-paid Oyster cards in our packet of materials which were good on buses and the underground in London. After we studied a map for a while we figured out how to take the blue Piccadilly line to Earl’s Court. Away we went, rolling our backpacks for this trip. A friendly “assistant” showed us how to scan our cards getting on and getting off each trip. We got off at Earl’s Court, went up the stairs and came out just around the block and about two blocks away from the hotel. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!! We got signed in and settled and decided to head right back out. We took the underground again and went down to the Westminster/Parliament area and did a Rick Steves Podcast walking tour called “Westminster Walk”. It started on Westminster Bridge, nearly under Big Ben, and then walked us by Westminster Abby and up Parliament Street and Whitehall to Trafalgar Square, pointing out #10 Downing Street and other famous spots along the way. What made this a bit different was that Marv had decided he didn’t need to carry the backpack for this short trip. But that meant he hadn’t brought a camera, which was very unlike him! He was quite unencumbered and could perhaps pay more attention to what we listened to and didn’t have to figure out how to line up his next shot. After wandering around the area at the square we walked around the theater district for a bit. It was all very busy on a Friday night with lots of traffic and noise. The London Marathon is this weekend (after being in Paris for their Marathon last weekend!) and things were being set up for that. After we had enough of being part of the “scene” we took the underground back to Earl’s Court and found a typical corner pub where we could enjoy—what else?—fish and chips with a pint!! It was around 10:00 here and it had been a long day, so, after removing the requisite duvet from the sheets and setting it aside (too hot! We have done this at nearly every hotel) we went to bed.

Normandy & D-Day

2011-04-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

Thu. Apr. 14: For this stay the breakfast buffet has been included so we started the day with the biggest breakfast we had had in two weeks. We were therefore well-fortified for our day exploring the many sites centered around the D-Day invasion 67 years ago on June 6. Marv knew a great deal about it already but I learned so much! Going from our Rick Steves book, the GPS, and some other maps we had, we drove through lovely countryside and through tiny villages that hugged the winding road for much of the day. Our first stop was at the “Disembarkment” Museum in Arronmanches. This tells the story of the remarkable artificial harbor, called Port Winston, which the Allied Forces built in just 2 weeks immediately after taking the beach heads on D-Day. The harbor allowed the Allies to get supplies to the troops on the ground quickly and safely. We were lucky enough to arrive just as an English speaking guide began a group tour so we could understand everything as we watched the movie, heard her explanation of the display cases, and watched the slide show. We took a bit longer there as Marv had left his jacket in the theater and had to wait for another showing to let out to get it. From there we drove to the American cemetery. This has a wonderful Visitors Center with a very moving film highlighting some individuals as well as the general sacrifice that resulted from the D-Day invasion. There are many displays as well which are all in English (and French) because it is administered by Americans so we spent a long time there. The exhibits funneled us into the cemetery with its rows and rows of perfectly aligned whiten crosses and Stars of David. It is sobering, inspiring and memorable. We learned that the cemetery was established in 1956, with soldiers’ remains brought from temporary graves all over the area. Families had the choice of having their loved ones buried there or returned home, which about 61% did. Throughout the day the light cloud cover was burning off so that it was mostly sunny but cool as we wandered and contemplated the ultimate sacrifice that each grave represented. Omaha Beach is nearby so we drove there next to walk the famous landing site known as Bloody Omaha for the great number of casualties incurred by the Americans. As opposed to the many reminders left in the water of Port Winston at Arromanches, little remains here but there are a few markers of rusting hulks that we could see in the water, and one we could walk to and examine because it was low tide. The beach was chosen partly for its width at low tide so we walked a ways after we had eaten our lunch of a baguette and some cheese and tuna. By then time was running short so we drove back towards Arromanches to be able to watch the 360° movie that had been recommended to us. However, on the way we managed to find the best preserved German Battery site, which retains some of the original guns. We made our way around there on the long circular path that stops at 4 concrete gun sites with their low rounded roof that, with the help of camouflage, would have concealed them very well from bombers. The path also shows some of the underground ammunition bunkers and one large, two leveled machine gun nest right next to the cliff down to the sea. We left there in time to see the last showing of the movie, which is very well done, combining movie footage from the time of the invasion with footage taken in the same areas in 1994 for the 50^th anniversary. Afterwards, Marv realized that the camera had been on the wrong setting for much of the day. We returned to the German Battery to get new pictures while there was still light and then followed the coastline to return to Caen before getting back on the freeway to go back to Honfleur. By the time we had returned and found out we still couldn’t use the Wi-Fi, it was after 10:00 and restaurants were closing. Knowing we still had to pack for an early departure and that we would have a full breakfast the next morning, we settled for sharing our last packet of tuna and some trail mix for dinner; it was quite a long cry from our lovely meal the night before!

Normandy & Mont St. Michel

2011-04-16T13:55:00.001-07:00

Wed. Apr. 13: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SALLIE!! Like the seasoned travelers we are now, we walked with our suitcases down to catch Bus #21 to Gare St. Lazare and boarded our train to Le Havre in Normandy. The gentle farm lands flowed past the windows and the slightly foggy landscapes had a distinctly Monet feel to them with budding trees, lilacs, and spring flowers lending color in every scene. Two hours later we arrived and, with the GPS to guide us, we walked 1.7 kilometers to pick up our rental car. We got on the road with Marv at the wheel and again followed GPS directions but we missed one exit which took us a ways down the road before we could retrace our steps. After checking in at Le Cheval Blanc Hotel in nearby Honfleur we immediately drove 2½ hours to Mont Saint Michel. We drove mostly on freeway with a bypass around Caen. The countryside was rolling and checkerboard-ed with bright yellow fields of what looked to be thigh high mustard in full bloom. It was thrilling to see Mont Saint Michel in the distance from about 20 kilometers away! There was some light rain as we approached the causeway and we kicked ourselves for not bringing our rain jackets from the hotel. But as we walked across the causeway after parking, the rain stopped and didn’t appear again until we drove away a few hours later! Once again we were grateful to take Rick Steves’ advice on how to avoid the crowds (which were not too bad since it was 4:00 by then) and get right to the Abbey. It seems to float impossibly high above the mudflats and it is hard to imagine one can really make it up there by foot. But pilgrims have been doing it for over a thousand years so we could, too! The one street village of 30 residents at the bottom of the hill is completely devoted to tourism and since we had already seen several very old villages with narrow streets we chose to go straight to climbing the ramparts and then the many, many stairs that seem endless up to the Abbey. Rick Steves described each part of the Abbey and it was very enjoyable to walk around and marvel at this engineering feat put up by the bishop of Avranches who heard the voice of Archangel Michael saying, “Build here and build high.” Today’s abbey is built on the remains of a Romanesque church, which stands on the remains of a Carolingian church. We were pretty exhausted by the climbing and walking, particularly because we hadn’t had anything but some cookies to eat since our yogurt and croissants at 7:30. But it was all worth it to have seen such a beautiful place. It began to rain again as we drove out of the area but by then it didn’t matter. At Caen we stopped at a McDonald’s for coffee and made it back to Honfleur and bought gas. After parking in the free lot several blocks away, we dropped things in our room and went to find some dinner on foot. Off the waterfront we came upon “les Fontaines” where a good-natured waitress spoke only French to us and insisted that Marv try to do the same. It was very jolly and our dinner of Normandy specialties like the local “cidre” to drink and the delicious cream and cidre sauce on our chicken made it one of the most enjoyable dinners of our time in France. It was quite reasonably priced, as well! We got back to the hotel about 10:30 and were disappointed to find that we couldn’t get on the internet for some reason that the man at the reception desk couldn’t figure out for us. But it is a charming hotel. The building was erected in the 1500s on the water front and it has always been a hotel. It was also a postal stop for the sailors to come to and pick-up their mail when they were in port. It has been beautifully decorated in period Normandy style and our room overlooks the small harbor from which Champlain left with an Honfleur crew to explore and settle Quebec, Canada. I sat at the desk in the window with lights shining on the water and the sound of infrequent cars rumbling over the old cobblestones to write this entry and we went to bed.

Our Last Day in Paris

2011-04-15T13:37:00.000-07:00

Tue. Apr. 12: How to make the most of our last day in Paris?!?! We still had much to do! Our arrondisement’s Farmers’ Market was set up just a block away so we went there and got bread, cheese, olives and oranges for lunch. We began by taking the Metro to Museé d’Orsay and assessing the crowd. As we had read, because the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays, the lines we long so we went on to the Museé de Rodin. There, our museum pass (SO glad Aram and Judy told us to get this!) got us right in with no wait. The museum is in the “hotel”(villa) that he rented at the end of his life for a Paris home. It has fabulous gardens with sculptures such as “The Thinker” and “The Gates of Hell” outside and drawings, paintings and sculptures such as “The Kiss” from throughout his life inside. One room is devoted to his protégé and mistress Camille Claudel. She was an artist in her own right who depicted Rodin’s struggle between his devotion to his long time companion, Rose, and herself in her works entitled “Maturity” here and in the Museé d’Orsay. (I was happy to find out the old man ultimately gave up the sweet young thing, Camille, to stay with the aged Rose. Sadly, Camille slipped into insanity and died in an asylum.) We learned that “The Thinker” was actually Dante overlooking his Gates of Hell in the Divine Comedy, a piece Rodin worked on for over 30 years and never really finished. We also found that he was friends with such other artists as Monet and Van Gogh. They used to trade pieces of their art so there are paintings and sculptures from them as pieces in Rodin’s museum. After seeing the museum and grounds we walked toward des Invalids and found a lovely park in which to ea our lunch. The day was partly sunny, but breezy and cool with temperatures in the fifties. We returned to the Orsay, where the lines were much more reasonable. In some ways we were disappointed by it though. For one thing they kept making announcements in many languages warning of the pickpockets working the crowd. Also they are working on the building, which is the old train station, and there were scaffolding, barriers, and banging noises that were distracting. One nice thing is that they had all the main Impressionist and Pointillist artists’ works lining two long hallways so it was very easy to walk up one side and down the other and see it all. But there were no benches or seats to allow one to linger and contemplate and we had seen so many masterpieces by then that we made short work of the place and got back on the Metro. Back at the Ile de Cité we bought VERY expensive coffees to drink at a street side table in the sun. We returned to Notre Dame for the fourth straight day, this time to take pictures of the Pieta and the three rose windows which we couldn’t get on our other visits. At the other end of the Place we finally found the Crypt Archeology Museum open. One of most vivid memories of my high school visit to Paris was of going down some narrow, steep stairs and bending down to get a glance at the oldest parts of Paris, ruins from the Romans’ time here. The area has now been developed into a museum, all underground, of the ancient main road that ran across the Ile and through the Left Bank, and foundations of the ramparts and homes that were here. They have extensive explanatory panels with English translations and we spent quite some time enthralled by antiquity. Back in the light of modern day Paris we had an expensive misunderstanding at shop, which resulted in, not a piece of apple cake (Gateau de Pomme) but potato cake (Gateau de Pomme de Terre), and not tap water but bottled water sans gas, but since it was the only problem we had we couldn’t complain and even the potato cake was delicious, just not sweet.

Loving it in Paris

2011-04-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

Mon. Apr. 11: Most of the museums in Paris are either closed Monday or Tuesday so we had to plan our stay accordingly. From our travels yesterday we had a better idea of what to expect with lines and so forth. So after yogurt and a croissant we went straight to Notre Dame to get in line to climb the 430 steps into the towers to look over the city of Paris. After about a ten minute wait we were in the third group to ascend after they opened for the day. It’s a pretty rugged climb but it’s broken up twice with flat places to stand and recover while peering over the edge and it was really thrilling to see nearly 360° from that height. It is also awesome to note how worn the spiraling stone steps have become after so many years of people going up to have a look around. Equally enthralling is to consider the effort it must have taken over two hundred years to build the cathedral with the day’s technologies, and much of it was done with volunteer labor from the people of old Paris. The detailing and sculpture included all to the Glory of God and without consideration that most of it wouldn’t be seen by the common people is breathtaking, right down to the carved “sleigh bells” surrounding the belfry holding the biggest bells and, of course, the iconic gargoyles and chimeras. After plenty of time to look around and take pictures we made our way back down the 430 steps of the south tower and considered what to do with the rest of the day. The Museé de Cluny was just up the street from our hotel so we went back to our neighborhood to visit this display of Medieval relics. The museum is housed in a “hotel” built long ago on top of the nearly 2000 year old baths built there by the Romans when the city was known as Luticia. They have many of the original stained glass windows from St. Chapelle, fantastic tapestries with a lady, a unicorn and a lion, original wooden choir seats from a cathedral, and the original Kings of Israel statues that were from the portico of Notre Dame. Revolutionists, thinking they were French kings, removed and decapitated them. Someone had the forethought to bury them in their yard where they lay forgotten until 1977 when they were discovered! From the Cluny we picked up giant gyros for lunch and then took our first bus to the Louvre to walk in the beautiful Tuillerie Gardens. It was a sunny day in the seventies and there were lots of people out strolling, playing and sailing a few boats in the concrete ponds. We rested in a couple of the green chairs that are everywhere and enjoyed the scene before going into L’orangarie. They have a modest but very nice collection of Impressionist Paintings there including 8 giant canvases of Water Lilies given to Paris by Monet after World War I. As we took pictures outside at the Place de la Concord the battery went dead on the camera. So we took the Metro back to the hotel to get another and rest a bit On the way we picked up a sandwich to take with a bottle of wine we purchased way back at the Bacchus Festival to have a picnic at the Eiffel Tower. Let me say a little bit about the hotel here. We have a very nice and impeccably clean but small room. The hotel is “green” and saves energy in many ways, the most interesting of which is that the hallways have motion detecting lighting so that each time the elevator doors open the hallway is dark until you step out, and the room electricity is turned on by inserting the door key into a holder next to the door every time you enter. They have you leave the key at the desk each time you leave thus insuring that the electricity is off whenever the room is not used. The buffet breakfast they offer is apparently local product and free trade but at 15€ a person per day we didn’t avail ourselves of it! Rested and re-energized (new battery) we took the Metro back to the Champ de Mars to have our picnic supper in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Around 6:30 we got in a short line for security and to buy tickets and then rode the elevator up the East Tower (leg) to the second platform (not the summit) of Eiffel’s engineering marvel. We had a marvelous view of all Paris at a level low enough for the landmarks to be recognizable. (That way we also didn’t have to wait in what we heard was a line over an hour long to get to the top.) From there we watched the sun set and the lights of Paris come on. It is a magical sight!! It was also fun to listen to all of the languages on this Tower of Babel! At 9:00 we enjoyed the five minute twinkling light display on the tower. Then we walked down to the first platform to look around some more before taking the elevator to the ground to have a different perspective of the 10:00 display. It was late when the Metro delivered us just down the block from our home away from home for the night.

Carpe Paris!

2011-04-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

Sun. Apr. 10: Yogurt and coffee in our room and a pastry from a patisserie along the way and we were ready to seize the day. We started once again at Notre Dame to do the last bit of our Historic Paris podcast. There was a Mass just beginning so we explored with a musical and Latin accompaniment. There was a long line to climb the towers when we left the church so we’ll try that tomorrow. There was a “Les Cars Rouges” bus sitting beside the Place so we began our hop on/hop off tour right then. It was sunny but a bit cool and breezy sitting on top as we went past Museé d’Orsay, Opéra, Champs Elysée-Etoile, Grand Palais and the Trocadéro before going to the Tour Eiffel. All along the way streets beside the river were closed off and full of the 40,000 people from all oer the world running the Paris Marathon, which starts and ends along the Champs Elysée and the Arc de Triumph. We got off at the Tower to see what we wanted to do about going up the tower. The lines were very long and, although that’s probably almost always true, we decided to follow Rick Steves’ advice to go up late in the afternoon and watch the lights of Paris come on as evening falls. We would leave that for Monday. After sitting in the grass for a while in the sunshine we set off to find the Museé du Quai Branly, a new (2006) museum of Indigenous People’s Art museum from cultures all over the world. It is very dramatically presented and lighted, which adds to the mysteriousness and power of the displays. One begins by climbing a long, wide, spiral ramp which has tumbling words projected like waterfalls down the sides and then onto the ramp like a river stream that you are walking upstream. It is very effective at moving the visitor away from the streets of Paris and into another world. The museum was a very unexpected pleasure! We hoped to find some food by then but had arrived at the dead time between lunch and dinner. We finally found a Creperie open where we shared a ham crepe and a tomato salad. Fortified for the rest of the afternoon, we decided to take on the Louvre. We were shocked to find it crowded but not to the point of having lines to wait in. We used another Rick Steves Podcast to make our way around. In about two hours we had seen the “Big Attractions” of the Denon wing and then ventured off on our own to see the Germanic, Holland, Flanders and Netherlands painters in the Richelieu wing. By then we were pretty much overcome with art and felt like we had absorbed about as much as we could for one afternoon. We ended up walking to the pedestrian only bridge to get pictures of the Pont Neuf and the point of the Ile de la Cité. Even though we were pretty exhausted by then, we strode on towards the hotel but stopped under the gargoyles of St. Germaine des Pres to have dinner at an outdoor table. I had the more expensive daily meal so I could have an appetizer of escargot in memory of my dad. He would have approved!! We were seated outdoors next to two other tables of Americans, including a couple who had come to Paris just to run in the Marathon! They were from Minnesota and the other couple was from Syracuse so we all traded snow and basketball stories. It was all very fun but we left first and made our way back to the hotel. After a short rest we took another evening stroll around the neighborhood before falling exhausted into bed.

April in Paris

2011-04-09T14:41:00.000-07:00

Sat. Apr. 9: We left Nice shrouded in haze and low clouds and brought the perfect weather we had all week in Nice to Paris! Bus #98 took us right to the Nice airport where we checked our bags, got our boarding passes and got online with free WiFi, the only annoying thing being we were there much earlier than necessary. Before we left home, Marv had downloaded about 8 Rick Steves walking tours and radio shows. While in flight we listened to one of two of his radio show podcasts about Paris. When we arrived at Orly we got our bags and called for our transport shuttle, which was waiting at the door with our name on a sign. He whisked us into the city to our hotel, La Jardin de Cluny, which is in the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank, about a two minute walk from Notre Dame. It is very nice and will be a terrific home base while we explore the city. We dropped our stuff in our room, walked to “Point Zero” in the square in front of Notre Dame, plugged in two sets of headphones, and began our Historic Paris walking tour. Steves suggests you take about 4 hours to do the tour and it took us at least that long, even though we skipped Notre Dame because it was so crowded and we can come back at a better time. His narration took us around the Ile de la Cité and the Left Bank including extended stops at Sainte-Chapel, where we bought our Museum Pass that will get us into many places over our time here, and the Conciergerie, where over 2000 prisoners, including Marie Antoinette, were held before going to the guillotine. We looked at both islands from many perspectives and hung our feet over the edge of the point of the Ile de la Cité near Pont Neuf. It means New Bridge but is actually the oldest bridge in town because it was built around 1600. The weather was absolutely perfect, with temperatures in the 70s and not a cloud in the deep blue sky. The tulips and flowering trees are in full bloom and add immensely to the beauty of every little plaza and park. They are having a bit of a heat wave for the next few days so we won’t see normal high 50s until our last day in Paris. So at the end of our tour we were happy to sit by a small playground in the shade of the flying buttresses and leering gargoyles of the by now closed Notre Dame. On our way back to the hotel we bought some provisions to make a supper in our room and relaxed for a while before going back out to explore our near neighborhood after dark. We are both already feeling confident about the streets around us and are ready to branch out further. It is so magical to just wander the streets of Paris after dark, still teaming with people who appear ready to make a late night of it! We however got back to the hotel to call Ken, as he had requested, finished the blog, and went to bed by midnight to get an early start tomorrow.

Our final day in Nice

2011-04-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

Fri. Apr. 8: Our last day in Nice was unplanned except for a few foods we all wanted to try before leaving. So we walked over to the Market at 10:00 and found Teresά’s stand, where she was warming and serving her socca, a crepe made of olive oil, flour, and ground chickpeas. It is served very hot and sprinkled with pepper and was the traditional breakfast for fisherman before they set off. It was delicious with a small cup of espresso. Next we wandered the streets a bit and found the Church of Réparate open so we looked around there for a while. More wandering and strolling and we came upon a patisserie where we each had a decadent pastry. On a whim, with plenty of time left to our day, we decided to ride the bus to Vance and St. Paul de Vance two of the so-called “perched villages” in the hills surrounding Nice. Coming around the curves as we approached them, it was immediately apparent why they are called “perched”. The ancient walled towns seem to hang from the hill side overlooking deep valleys. Most of the afternoon was spent in Vance, where they have a self-guided walking tour that takes the visitor to explanatory plaques which include an English translation. The villages with towering walls seem both self-sufficient and impenetrable and it is possible to imagine why they have lasted for 2000 years and linked with other equally ancient towns since the Romans set them up along their roads that stretched along the valuable coastline. What is harder to imagine is what life would be like in a town where the “roads” needed to be only wide enough for a hand pulled cart and sometimes went up and down the hills with steps. We had pizza for lunch on a quiet main square before leaving Vance for nearby St. Paul de Vance. St. Paul is much more tourist-y and was much busier so we made quick work of it. But we did enjoy the magnificent views from its ramparts and visiting the grave of Chagall. After walking about halfway around the walls of the city we cut back through the central plazas on the main road before getting back on the bus and returning to Nice. We used up wine and other food for a light dinner and began to pack up to leave Saturday morning. Heidi and Kris had an 8:30 plane to catch, which meant they were taking a cab at 5:30 to the airport. Marv and I could take the 98 bus to the airport to catch our plane to Paris at 11:30 to continue our adventure. Nice had been everything we could have hoped for and more!

Thursday in Nice

2011-04-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

Thu. Apr. 7: Today we all bought day passes for the buses/tram and spent the day exploring within the city again. We had breakfast across the street for the third day and then took the tram and a bus to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral. It was the first built outside of Russia to be consecrated as a cathedral and was built to serve the large population of Russian aristocrats that would winter in Nice at the end of the 1800s and early 1900s. It is quite lovely. There was a service going on (which runs for 2 hours!) and is supposed to be closed to tourists during the mass. But we didn’t realize it was happening until we were inside so we got to experience the ethereal worship with a choir singing in response to the priest. We stayed a while and left after donating to the offering for the poor. The same bus we had taken there took us to Las Planas where we took the tram back to Old Town. After having coffee and buying more bread and wine to go with yesterday’s leftover cheese, olives and sausage, we set off to climb Castle Hill and enjoyed our picnic once again with 240° panoramic views over the “Bay of Angels”. Kris and Heidi were as taken with the setting as we had been our first day. This time we went down the east (Port) side and then strolled back along the Promenade d’Anglais. Back in Old Town we went our separate ways to do a bit of shopping and agreed to meet back at the hotel to go out for dinner. After showering and resting a bit we took the tram north once again and got off at the Valrose Université stop and found Lou Pantail’s Restaurant and Pizzeria. Kris and Heidi had pizzas, Marv had slivered beef with artichokes and olives, and I had beef ravioli. I was happiest with my meal of the four of us. After dinner we walked a ways to see church of Saint Jeanne of Arc again, this time all lit up for the night. The tram took us back to Place Messena where we got off and walked to one of the Casinos on the waterfront. Kris changed a 5€ and we each tried the slot machines, with no luck. Then we strolled back up the Promenade where we saw the biggest waves of our time here. Back at Place Massena we found that someone had added some sort of sudsing agent to one of the fountains and it was billowing with white fluff which young adults were having fun with. Before heading back to our hotel we sat by the larger fountains to the west of the plaza and talked about what a nice day it had been.

Wednesday in Antibe & Biot.

2011-04-07T15:32:00.000-07:00

Wed. April 6: After yesterday’s trip east, nearly to Italy, today we headed west to Antibe, aka Juan de Pines. Despite not leaving until nearly 10:00 the 4€ train ticket assured that we would get there in time to enjoy a full day before we returned by bus. Once again we found our way to the Vielle Ville (Old Town) and we roughly followed a Rick Steves walking tour combined with one they suggested at the Tourist Information. On our way we passed along the “Billionaires Quai”, lined with many, many yachts from modest to outrageous. From the waterfront one can look east and see pretty much the whole coast line, with Nice and Monaco, the protective foot hills, which keeps the cold air away from the coastline, and the snow covered Alps beyond in the distance. It is a stunning view!!! We entered the Old Town through the ancient gate that was the only way to get within the fortified city walls from the Port for centuries. First stop was at the outstanding Marché Provençal (farmers’ market) where we bought cheese, olives, bread, marinated artichoke hearts, sausages and wine for our lunch. Winding our way through streets and passageways we found our way to the west embankments along the water. We found a park looking over the bay and shared our delicious lunch sitting on a park bench. A sailing club or school was putting in boats as we finished and they had 5 or 6 dozen boats on the water by the time we finished. Wandering back along the bay we arrived at the Garibaldi Chateau, which is now the Picasso Museum. Picasso worked in the chateau for a few years where, like many artists before and since, he was transfixed by the luminescent light on the Mediterranean. He was also struck by the antiquity of the setting, because the Chateau was built in the 1300s on top of the ancient Greek city of Antipolis which claimed the easily defended area 3000 years ago. The fort on the other side of the bay, which we had hoped to see, closed at 4:00 and so instead of touring it, we made our way down to a protected beach and rested in the warm sunlight while dipping our tootsies into the Mediterranean waters. Passing again through the Old Town, we walked up to Place General de Gaulle and found how and where we could catch a bus up to Biot, where artisans make ceramic and glass pieces, among other crafts. We had hoped to eat dinner there but the timing didn’t work out so we looked around the Old Town up on the hill for a bit before catching a late bus back to Nice. We had a nice dinner of the traditional Niçoisse beef stew at Lulu’s before returning to the hotel, not as exhausted as last night, but well satisfied with our travels.

Tuesday in Menton & Monaco.

2011-04-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

Tue. Apr. 5: This was our day to visit Monaco. On Steves’ recommendation we took the 1€ bus to its last stop at Menton. We were surprised to find that the entire two hour trip along the coast is densely developed and populated but we had lots of stunning vistas to enjoy. The turnaround is near a Farmer’s Market and a park which walked through and then we found the Tourist Information. Armed with a map we made our way to Old Menton to wander before getting coffee and sitting in a square. Back on our feet, we made our way through the Old Town market and then to the Promenade along the Sea. Nearing the end we stopped at the Mirabella to sit outdoors and have their daily special of “pintade avec artichaut” or Guinea hen with artichokes, which was delicious and came with chocolate mousse for dessert. We walked on to the extensive gardens of lemon and other citrus trees for which the area is famous. They had the biggest lemons we’d ever seen! Returning to the bus line we caught next bus to Monaco and got off to see the Casino. It is pretty spectacular with lovely gardens and fountains outside all surrounded with hip high tulips at the height of their blooms. I wanted to mail a postcard from Monaco to James Sims for his collection so Marv asked the GPS to find a post office. She took us 1 kilometer pretty much straight up the hill. Heidi and Kris encouraged us to go ahead without them because it was so steep and so tiring. We sloughed our way up to the Post Office only to find it was closed. ARGH!!!! So Marv told the GPS to take us to the Prince of Monaco palace. Monaco is built on such a hillside with roads at different levels that the GPS was having a terrible time telling us where we were and where we needed to go. But happily along the way we came across an open Post Office so I mailed the card. Although the GPS ended up going dead we found our way to the bottom of another l-o-n-g hill up that appeared to be the palace. Up we climbed again and we were there! It was 5:25 and they cut off tours at 5:30 but after all we had been through we felt we had to see the palace. We picked up our English speaking audio guide and followed the directions of the tour. About halfway through, we had a uniformed guard hanging around with us and closing off the areas as we finished. He was soon joined by a “suit” (administrator?) and then a second guard but they didn’t rush us or even speak to us. They just closed everything off as we moved along. At the end when we turned in our audio guides the three women who took them followed us out and went home. So we really closed that joint down!! We wandered through picturesque Old Town but it was also closing down so we headed back down the hill, where we found the very bus we needed to get back to Nice. All this time we had no idea where Kris and Heidi had ended up. Walking back to the hotel we stopped to pick up a baguette, some Camembert cheese and two apples which we enjoyed with a packet of tuna and some of our wine from the Sunday festival. As we ate on our “balcony” we saw Kris and Heidi returning from the bus. They had spent their time at the Princess of Monaco rose garden, opting not to do the climb up the hill to the palace. They hadn’t eaten so we went with them to l’Oval, a rugby (and other sports) bar where they had nice salads and we had dessert. Being pretty tired from all the uphill walking we had done Marv and I headed back to our room before they did and looked at choices for tomorrow and caught up the blog.

Monday-Nice museums.

2011-04-07T15:30:00.000-07:00

Mon. Apr. 4: Today was the day to visit Museums for us. Following Rick Steves’ directions we actually hiked uphill all the way to the Chagall Museum, which was a pretty amazing climb! But the museum is wonderful and highlights especially his “Song of Songs” series of paintings and his 17 Old Testament paintings. He was instrumental in setting up the museum and is fairly unique in having seen it completed while he was alive. Our admission included individual audio guides in English which were very helpful in our enjoyment and appreciation of what we were seeing. When we were finished we continued hiking uphill until we got to the site of an ancient Roman city called Cemenelum. In a large park atop a hill there is an archeological museum and a Matisse Museum, which is housed in a 16^th century villa. In the park there are the ruins of the Roman Arena for the city, a monastery, an orchard of olive trees, and a large green area. Groups of older people were playing bocce ball and we found it a delightful place to enjoy a small lunch from the vendor set up there. We went through the Matisse Museum, which wasn’t nearly as satisfying as the Chagall, partly because there was very little English interpretation to help us. We had a similar problem at the Archeological Museum; however we could wander the extensive ruins of the Roman baths and look at the many artifacts inside and gained some understanding of the ancient culture. After all our climbing and walking through museums we all welcomed the chance to take the bus back to the hotel. We had a recommendation of a restaurant to try down near the Market area but it was too crowded so we went to a nearby place where Marv and I shared a pizza and a Caprese salad, Heidi had lasagna and Kris had a pizza. Our feet were plenty tired as we trudged back and gratefully hit the sack that night.

Sunday in Toulon

2011-04-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

Sun. Apr. 3: This trip to Nice all began when Kris returned to a site he had bookmarked with Festivals held around the world and found that the Bacchus Wine Festival was being held Apr. 1-3 in Toulon, France. One thing led to another, and today was our day to make the Pilgrimage to Toulon. The e-tickets for the train that I had bought online before we left worked perfectly and the two hour trip got us to Toulon without a problem. But when we tried to get information on the festival, the woman at Tourist Information had no idea what we were talking about. Kris found the site again on his trusty IPod and the woman could direct us to the Place (plaza) in which it was being held. After a quick bathroom stop at McDonald’s (clean, free restrooms! Why haven’t we seen that travel tip in Rick Steves?) we continued walking and found the correct plaza and the long white tent of the Bacchus Wine and Food Festival, 2011. About a third of the tent was devoted to foods of Provence and the other two thirds had four rows of wine booths from all parts of France. We bought our tasting glasses for 4€ each and spent the rest of the day sipping and tasting to our hearts’ content. The Vintners and helpers were quite amazed to learn that we had come all the way from Michigan in America for the festival, and everyone was helpful and friendly. We had a delicious lunch at a food vendor set up outside next to the festival tent. It turned out that it was an Alsace dish of melted cheese mixed with thin mashed potatoes, about the consistency of cheese fondue, that on eats with a fork by twisting and scooping. Great fun and fantastic!! We returned to McDonald’s for the bathrooms and then went back to the festival for the last time to make our purchases. We were plenty tired as we rode the train back to Nice but quite satisfied with having completed our mission. Voyageur Nissart was close to the train station so we introduced Heidi and Kris to it. We found it much busier than our first night there but it was equally delicious and made a good ending to a great day.

Saturday in Nice

2011-04-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

Sat. Apr. 2: Happy Birthday, Mom!!! We were up bright and early on Saturday morning and turned on the computer so Kris could Skype us when they arrived. When we didn’t hear from them by 9:00 we walked our stuff over to the Hotel Helvetique where they told us that Kris and Heidi were in the breakfast room having a cup of coffee. They had only arrived 15 or 20 minutes earlier. The hotel locked up our bags and we set out together to find the famous Flower Market in Old Town. The flowers there are amazing and there is also a bustling Farmers’ Market of vegetables, fish, bread, honey, etc. We bought olives, bread, cheese, and wine to have later for lunch and wandered around Old Town before we took the Tram back to the hotel to check in. Unfortunately as soon as we got off of the Tram Heidi realized that her purse was open and her wallet was gone. The next hour or so was spent canceling their credit cards and regrouping. When we got together again they did well to throw off the problem and we walked down to the Place Massena fountains to eat our lunch. A little more walk took us to the Promenade for a stroll but Heidi and Kris soon headed back to the hotel to take a nap. Marv and I continued walking and even went down to the water’s edge to see how it felt. The rocks are really painful to walk on barefooted and we were amazed to watch young teenagers running across them and diving into the water! OUCH!!! I did manage to get my feet into the waves and think that the water wasn’t as cold as Lake Superior or even Lake Michigan for most of the summer. Back up on the Promenade we made our way to the Musée Massena, without really knowing what it was. After picking up our free ticket we went inside and found that it was Prince L’Eppling’s villa which has now become a sort of museum of Nice history. There are a few royal artifacts such as Josephine Bonaparte’s coronation gown and lots of photos and festival posters from the 1800s and 1900s. From there we wandered down rue de Massena back to Place Massena and the hotel. Kris and Heidi were ready to eat by then so we took Rick Steves’ advice again and went to “le 20 du Vin” for dinner but didn’t like it as much and found it to be pretty expensive. Since restaurants don’t open until 7:00 for dinner we find ourselves finishing late each night and just going to bed, which is what we did again this night.

And now to France

2011-04-03T14:41:00.001-07:00

Thu. Mar. 31-Fri. Apr. 1: Our adventure actually began on Thursday, as we left East Lansing at 8:30. For the first time we decided to take the Michigan Flyer bus to Detroit Metro so we didn’t have to pay to park for 2½ weeks. Carol Roush kindly agreed to take us to the bus, which got us there without a hitch. Other than realizing that the IPod was left at home (which Thelma & Kris remedied for us) the whole trip was routine and without a problem. A strong tail wind got us, via JFK in New York, to Nice, France Friday at 7:45am, half an hour earlier than planned. As per Rick Steve we took the #99 bus to the train station downtown and the GPS told us how to find l’hotel de Madrid, about a 3 block walk away. That was a nice one night’s stay before we joined Heidi & Kris on Saturday. We were surprised to be able to check in right then at the hotel, so we put most of our things in the room and headed out to explore Nice. Our bus ticket was good for buses and the tram the whole day and would prove to be really useful. It is so easy to just wander around the city and we quickly became oriented and comfortable. When we found ourselves beside the Tram line we decided to take it all the way to the end point, Pont Michele, paying attention to stops along the way. We got off at the end, but seeing not much to do there, took the Tram the other way back to Vielle Ville (Old Village) and strolled the narrow winding lanes, charmed with their quaintness and the feeling of having absolutely no agenda. When we noticed a small park up beside a steep street we climbed up to see it. Then we went through a lovely wrought iron and stone gateway and climbed some steps further up the side of the hill. At the top there were signs directing us up a walking trail towards a Cascade and an ancient chateau. The further we climbed the more we realized we were climbing Castle Hill, which we had read about in our Steve’s book. It was an easy climb the way we had done it and we stopped frequently for the great views. From the top one has panoramic outlooks in several directions. After sharing a mozzarella and tomato Panini from the stand at the top, we took pictures of the ruins of the 11^th century chapel and marveled at the remaining walls from the protective citadel that stood guard over Old Nice at its beginning. From one overlook we saw the Port to the east, with some huge yachts pulled up beside one of the docks. High above the Promenade d’Anglais, which runs for 4 miles along the shore, we were surprised to hear the gentle waves lapping up on the rocks. So we made our way down the many steps to the Promenade and did as the natives did and joined the many people walking along the Mediterranean Sea. It was a stunning day with sun in the brilliant blue sky and the temperature was around 70. We spent part of the time on the very rocky shore itself, but the rocks are pretty difficult to walk on so it wasn’t long until we returned to the wide, paved Promenade. About halfway down we headed back up rue Jean Mediçin to take the Tram to close to our hotel. A short nap seemed to be a good idea to help get us acclimated to time. Afterwards we took the Tram to its other end point and got off. Again, there wasn’t a lot to see but we had noticed a sweet park near a University stop so we took the Tram back to it, walked through it and went a few blocks further on foot past the modern looking and very white Church of Jean d’Arc. Back on the Tram we returned to our “neighborhood” and found the Rick Steves’ suggested Voyageur Nissart for traditional Niçoise food. Marv had vegetable soup, a white fish in butter sauce, polenta, and strawberry tart. I had tomato and mozzarella salad, beef ravioli, pumpkin and rice mix, and tiramisu. It was all so yummy and we went to bed full and exhausted from our first day in Nice.

Journey's End

2011-03-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

Mon. Mar. 14-Wed. Mar.16: Well, this was a strange end to our trip. After driving across three states from I75 to I24 to I65, we got to Bowling Green, where we thought we’d stay for the night. But it was only 2:30 and was drizzly and getting colder, so we decided to keep driving. On the internet Marv found an Indiana State Park near Louisville we thought we could reach by about 6:00 and headed for it in our fourth state of the day. When we got there a sign at the entrance said the Park was open. But when we drove in, it was eerily deserted. No one was camping, no one was at any of the registration booths, the bathrooms were locked and the water was turned off. We drove back out and drove to the park office, which was dark and said it was closed. As we sat and talked about what to do, an old park ranger pulled up and told us that we were welcome to stay but the water wasn’t being turned on until the next Friday. We just weren’t ready to stay with no water so instead we called Sarah and asked if we could just come there a bit earlier than expected. After having dinner at Mariann’s we got to the Penquites about 9:30, popped up the camper to get out the food from the fridge and our stuff to stay for two nights, and recovered from 12 hours on the road. Craig was at work until after midnight and left at his usual 6:30am, so we didn’t see him at all until the next afternoon. Tuesday we enjoyed playing with outdoor toys with the boys in the garage since it was drizzly and cold. In the late afternoon we all went to see Craig’s new workspace in the building CSO Architects is purchasing, did some birthday shopping with Jordan, and then went to Sahm’s for dinner. Wednesday after we got up with the boys and took them to Preschool, we got all our things packed up and ready to leave in the afternoon. There was time for lunch and some playing, and then we took off when they went down for naps. The final leg of our journey was a breeze, with clear skies and clear roads the whole way. The temperature dropped from 65° to low fifties as we neared home. The trip had taken 51 days, 5445.5 miles, and 333.9 gallons of gas as we traveled through eleven states. The least we paid for gas was $2.78 in Picayune, MS at the beginning of our travels. Although we saw gas for $3.79 in Atlanta, the most we paid was $3.45 in Dublin, GA. Luckily, we only had to buy a few gallons there and then we filled a few miles later for $3.36. After SUCH a rocky beginning, once Analyn was home and healthy and we had sun and mid-eighties in Florida, the rest of the journey was pretty much flawless. It was a great second Winter Adventure. Our next trip comes fast on its heels, when we go to Nice, France on Mar. 31 for two weeks in France followed by a few days in London. Come back then to follow The Savage Traveler!

Atlanta

2011-03-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

Sat. Mar. 12-Tue. Mar. 15: It was an uneventful but nearly all day drive from Savannah to Atlanta in mid-seventies sunshine. We found the RV Park at which we had a reservation for two nights. It’s good we had the reservation because they apparently did fill up. It’s certainly no great shakes but it will do. By the time we were set up it was time to watch the Spartans play PSU in the third game of the Big Ten Tournament. Sadly, we lost big time but what ya gonna do? Our plan was to be up bright and early to go to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Park but after I had taken an early shower in the morning we remembered that it was Daylight Savings Time and an hour later than we thought. Yogurt made a quick breakfast and we were still to the Park by 10:00. Even though we were one of only about a dozen cars in the lot and we could see very few people we found that the first guided tour of his birthplace home was at 12:30. That was a little bit later than we wanted so we settled for seeing the film, looking at the displays in the center, and walking up the block to see Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Historic Fire Station, and the house where he was born. After a stop at Zesto Drive-In (begun in 1949) for their famous Double Decker, the GPS took us right to Rachel and Michael’s house. We got “the tour” of their cute, cute house, chatted for a while sitting in the 75° sunshine on their back porch, and then Michael drove us all to Atlanta’s wonderful Aquarium where we saw all of their splendid displays—Arctic, Tropical, Amazon and Mississippi Rivers, the 6 million gallon ocean tank with 4 whale sharks, giant rays and numerous other fish. When we left at 5:00 we walked around the building and looked at the adjacent Centennial Park. Then Michael drove us to “Six Feet Under” for dinner. This Atlanta hot spot is across the street from the historic Oakland Cemetery, where generations of venerable Atlanta families are buried. After wandering around and looking at the amazing crypts, graves and statuary we had a fabulous dinner at the restaurant decorated with old beer ads, a huge collection of old beer cans and other eclectic items like an old balloon tire bicycle. It was great and the food was amazing. Marv had blackened catfish, I had bar-b-qued salmon, Michael had fried catfish, and Rachel had their specialty, shrimp and grits. During dinner we found out that MSU was a 10^th seed in the NCAA tournament, keeping Tom Izzo’s streak of NCAA appearances alive. We said our good-byes back at their house and Marv and I returned to the camper and watched most of “The Terminal” on TV before going to bed.

Savannah area

2011-03-13T19:49:00.000-07:00

Tue. Mar. 8-Fri. Mar. 10: Happy Birthday, Jordan!! Driving “down the Colonial Coast” involves driving northwest, then south, then southeast, so that we hadn’t traveled far as the crow flies but put on more miles than it would seem. Our first stop was at the town of Beaufort, the heart of Gullah Geechee Heritage. Like we had seen in South Carolina, at the end of the Civil War white people abandoned plantations and towns along the coast very quickly, leaving the area to freed black slaves. The isolation of this area made it possible for the slaves to preserve more of their African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other community in the U.S. Gullah is a blend of British, American and West African culture, food, religion and traditions. In nearby Penn Central, Penn School is one of the nation’s most historically significant African American educational and cultural institutions. Begun in 1862 as a school for freed slaves it continues its mission now as a local, national and international resource center. We were welcomed and hosted by a gentleman who was a student at the school until 1948, when he needed to go to work. It was another time we had an area virtually to ourselves and we immersed ourselves in the displays and history of which we knew so little. We hoped to have lunch nearby in a Gullah restaurant but couldn’t find a way to park the truck and camper so we regretfully drove on and ended up eating our picnic lunch in a parking lot. Continuing on we arrived just south of Savannah at Skidaway Island State Park where we could stay for four nights to take advantage of several sites in the area. We never left the park on Wednesday. In the morning we biked their 3.1 mile Big Ferry Trail loop which included alligator ponds, an observation tower from which we watched a nesting pair of osprey and two raccoons hunting in the salt marsh, an Archaic period shell midden, Confederate earthworks for defending the Skidaway Narrows, and one of the 31 moonshine stills left from the Prohibition era. It was a similar trail to the one in Lake Kissimmee, but not as sandy and not as long, so I enjoyed it much more. After lunch and an extended time on the internet at the park headquarters, as well as some time reading in the sunshine, we went to the Nature Interpretive Center to look at their displays and for a talk on the archeological history of the Island. Following the presentation we hiked on the 1 mile Sandpiper Trail loop and the 1 mile Avian Loop Trail through maritime forests and over salt flats and tidal creeks, where we saw the heaviest, most dense Spanish moss of the whole trip! As we neared the end of the trail, 4 deer sprang away in front of us. Back at the campsite we both took showers and then enjoyed spaghetti and meat sauce. On Thursday we drove to nearby Wormsloe state historic site. There a colonial avenue lined with spectacular live oaks leads to the tabby ruins of Wormsloe, the home of Noble Jones, who arrived in Georgia with James Oglethorpe and the first English colonists in 1733 to found a Utopian colony called Georgia. Despite the demise of the original Trust Company, Jones flourished and was one of the last survivors of the colony and ten generations of descendants succeeded him at Wormsloe, expanding and adapting the plantation over three centuries. It was cloudy, drizzly and 63° as we hiked into the tabby ruins of his original house, to his grave site and then into the Colonial Life area, but we had the place to ourselves other than some students from Emory University who were there doing volunteer clean-up work. Just as we left the area the rain really came down hard and the temperature dropped to 55°. We hoped to find someplace “local” to have lunch, but as we drove we didn’t come across anyplace that was open and looked interesting. By the time we arrived at Fort McAllister, the rain stopped for good, it was very windy and the temperature eventually worked itself back up to 61°. We bought a couple of bags of trail mix to tide us over and ate it while we explored the museum. Early in the Civil War, a battery that evolved into a massive earthwork was erected by the Confederate Army to protect Savannah, the Ogeechee River, a vital railroad bridge upstream, and rice and cotton plantations along the river. The stronghold withstood seven major naval attacks by Federal forces, including the largest guns used by the Union Navy, before falling at the end of General Sherman’s “March to the Sea”. During the late 1930s Henry Ford purchased the site and began extensive restoration. Then under the supervision of the Georgia Historical Commission, the earthworks and bombproofs were restored to their 1963-1864 appearance. It was eerie to wander the extensive grounds all by ourselves and Marv got some great pictures. When we had seen everything, a ranger suggested some places for lunch. We ended up enjoying authentic bar-b-que at the Smokin’ Pig. YUM! Since we ate about 3:30 we were satisfied with salads with turkey and cheese for dinner before we finally watched the Netflix movie, “Shadows in the Sun”, which we had brought with us. Friday dawned cool (46°) and perfectly clear for our day in Savannah. Directions from the campground took us directly to the Visitors Center, where they directed us to a booklet called “The Savannah Walking Tour & Guidebook”. The tours span Savannah’s rich history from the earliest days as a British Colony to the modern day setting of books and movies. It was the perfect resource for two people who are willing to walk. After seeing the James Edward Oglethorpe-narrated film about Savannah we felt ready to seize the day. First we took the .8 mile “The Booming Westside” tour, including the Farm Market area. We ended up near the Riverfront so we then walked the 1.2 mile “Along the Riverfront” tour. By then it was time to get in line for lunch at Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House, a Savannah tradition since 1943 that several people had recommended as worth the wait, and it was! We waited in line with a friendly woman native to Wisconsin who had lived in Savannah for 7 years. She assured us it was THE place to eat and that she brings all visitors there. She also told us that that morning they had been to the “Greening of Savannah” where the Irish dignitaries of the town add green dye to six of the most important fountains starting with the iconic Forsythe Park fountain to kick-off their HUGE St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. So we could look forward to seeing the green water the rest of the day. We weren’t seated with her at our table of 10 but with four other people at our end who were also very friendly. The family-style meal was on the table when we sat down. Their specialty is fried chicken but with it were jambalaya, pulled pork bar-b-que, and Brunswick stew plus about 14-15 Gullah/Soul/Southern side dishes. They keep bringing it until you’ve had enough and then you roll yourself on out to clear your own place (!) and pay at the door. We really needed to work some of that off so we finished the day with the 1.5 mile “Squares of Luxury” and 1.7 mile “The First Squares”, both highlighting the famous squares of Savannah which were plotted and planned by James Edward Oglethorpe himself. 22 of the original 24 squares have been restored and protected. Along the way we saw the birthplace of the American Girl Scouts, the many fountains (including most of the now green ones) and statues, an historic church on nearly every square, and homes and graves of generations of Savannahians. The temperature never got more than 60° but the sky was sparkling blue the whole time. We walked between 5½ and 6 miles and were incredibly exhausted but satisfied that we had seen as much as one could see in one day. Our time in Savannah was pretty rigorous. We biked over 8 miles, did miles of hiking at the park, walked several more miles on Thursday at the historical sites and then walked all over Savannah. It was a great way to end the southern part of our trip before we head home over the next few days.

Time in South Carolina

2011-03-09T10:15:00.001-08:00

Sat. Mar. 5-Mon. Mar. 7: Nearly the whole drive up I95 and along Hwy. 17 from St. Mary’s, GA to Edisto Beach, SC is designated as scenic, passing through pine hardwood forests and seemingly endless salt marshes. Spring was definitely springing and we could see blooming dogwood and red bud in the woods, and daffodils, camellias and azaleas in people’s yards. We thought we’d see a “local” place to eat lunch as we followed 17 but it passes outside of towns for the most part and we arrived at the State Park after 1:00 without having eaten. Janet Ronk had told us that the State Park had two parts--one on the beach and one nearby in the Live Oak forest. We stopped there first, assuming we would want to camp away from the beach and more sand gnats. But the woman at the registration seemed pleased that she had one more site available at the beach and assured us that the gnats (she called them no-see-’ems) were not too bad yet and that they would be no better in the forest than the beach. She encouraged us to look at both spots and come back and change if we preferred. The campground on the beach is very narrow and squeezed in between a low dune along the water’s edge and a wide salt marsh with flocks of egrets and ibises. We could hear the surf pounding from the campsite and had no bugs at all so we decided to stay. It was 3:00 by the time we were set up and settled and went to have “The Big Salad” at Whaley’s. We got back after grocery shopping and had a call from Janet Ronk, asking if we were in town and if we wanted to join them for beef stroganoff for dinner. Having eaten lunch so late we begged off from that but agreed to have them pick us up Sunday morning to go to church. Then we rode our bikes over to the day use headquarters to use the WiFi to Skype with Sarah and the boys and update the blog. Leftovers added to a can of soup with cheese and crackers were an adequate late supper. We walked over to the beach in the dark and found that it was high tide so the waves were undercutting the dune right at the edge of walk-through. It was wild and wonderful to see the white waves in the dark water with nothing but stars overhead. The two couples at the site next to us were noisy around their campfire long after we went to bed but earplugs helped drown out their noise but also the soothing sound of the surf. Ronks were picking us up at 9:30 on Sunday morning and we were getting the promised off-and-on rain showers. But we made our way to the front gate without getting too wet and Janet drove us to the Presbyterian Church of Edisto Island. As the service got underway there was a heavy downpour and thankfully that was the end of what had sounded like it would be all day rain! The church was established in 1685-1695 and two buildings had preceded the present building, which was built in 1830. Following the Civil War the whites abandoned the area and the church, and the freed blacks in the area took it over. But when the whites began to return in the 1880s they took back the building. Later a white woman built another church just down the road for the blacks to use for worship and it is still there, still a black church and called the Edisto Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterian Church of Edisto Island has an ancient cemetery beside and behind the church building full of the old island names, many of which still have family members attending the church. The building was completely renovated and restored in 2006 to how it looked when it was built, complete with the raised wooden pulpit with two spiraling staircases to reach it. The two pews at the front right side of the balcony are the only original pews and they were “slave pews” back in the day. The entire downstairs is made of boxed-in pews with little swinging doors and when they took the offering it was in old long handled cloth baskets the ushers held across the pews from the two aisles. It was Communion Sunday and they do it at four long, low, narrow, wooden tables with benches that seat 10 (also original, as far as one old timer could tell us) set up at the front. The ushers excused about half the congregation to go down and sit and everyone was served bread and wine personally by a deacon, leaving the tiny cup in a special glass dish in the center of the table. After one other seating, everyone had been served so there were about 80 plus the deacons that day. It was a pretty traditional service but it was also kind of stunning to have it in such an historic setting. During the service Marv felt his phone vibrating and when we left he had a message from LifeLine telling him that his mom was in the hospital. It took several phone calls to sort things out as we drove with the Ronks to have Brunch with some of their friends but he finally talked to his mom and his sister and found that it isn’t anything new, but continuing problems with her energy and not feeling well because of what has been diagnosed as congestive heart failure. They were going to do a few more tests and drain fluid from her lung that was causing her some pain, but she expected to be released Monday or Tuesday. We had a lovely Brunch of crème brulé French Toast (me) and a bacon and cheese “Pomelet” (Marv), which was a huge omelet wrapped in a huge pancake. OINK!! We shared liberally with each other and were stuffed afterwards. The Ronks took us back to the camper and stayed long enough for a “tour” before heading home to nap. We hiked the mile and a half up the beach, collecting shells for the grandsons including a nice sand dollar, till we reached the creek outlet into the Atlantic. Even at low tide it was clear we couldn’t cross the creek, so we hiked back to the campground, this time into the wind, which was harder. The Ronks had urged us to take the road to Botany Bay Plantation. In 1840 Mr. Townsend had combined land from the Bleak Hall and Sea Cloud plantations into his 4,687.5 acre Botany Bay Plantation. There remain a few ruins from both plantations but the area is now owned and maintained by the DNR. There is a driving tour through the area with a few historic stops along the way. It took us about an hour and then we drove to the Ronks’ place for a light supper of cheese, crackers, and sausage balls and a pleasant evening of conversation. We got to bed a little early so we could be up and on our way to spend Monday in Charleston. It took us a little over an hour to drive there on Hwy. 17 and find the Visitors Center where we bought tickets for a 1½ hour Gray Line historical tour in a minibus, followed by a tour of the restored 1803 Joseph Manigault mansion. This 6,000 sq. ft. townhouse was used only part time, when the family came from their rice plantation to Charleston for the social season. With a little better idea of the lay of the land we began wandering down King Street until we found “Boones”, a bar and grill that had half price burgers that day. It took a while but we had hearty hamburgers and sweet potato fries with a beer to fortify ourselves to spend the rest of the day wandering along the three hundred year old streets, finding as many of the historic houses as we could from a book borrowed from the Ronks that Marv’s parents had given them years ago. We walked so far and saw too many things to list. Suffice it to say we were blown away by the history preserved so beautifully and were left with impressions of pre-Revolutionary War homes, intricate wrought iron, “single houses”, fountains, stunning opulence, stirring courage, horse drawn carriages, blooming gardens and trees, cobblestone and brick streets, dolphins leaping in the harbor, far-off forts, and a soaring bridge. We were exhausted by the time we drove back to the campground for a light supper but felt we had seen as much as was possible in one day in Charleston.

Northeast Florida/Southeast Georgia

2011-03-05T14:53:00.001-08:00

Wed. Mar. 2—Fri. Mar. 4: Saint Augustine wasn’t on our original itinerary, but when I realized how close to it we would be driving, I suggested we should stop and look around. Even though we hadn’t researched it, it was very easy to follow signs to the Old Town. We stumbled on a lot to park the truck and camper that was free and walked to the nearby visitor center. There we bought a booklet with five walking tours of the town. We managed to do three of them. First we walked through St. George Street, reading about the reconstructed or rebuilt buildings. Coming out near the Plaza we looked at the area that had more of the structures showing the English influence of the 1800s. From there we crossed over Castillo Avenue to walk along the waterfront to see the fort, Castillo de San Marcos. It was built from local Coquina stone, just like Bok Tower was back in Lake Wales. Begun in 1672 (completed in 1695) it is the oldest masonry fort in North America. It encompasses 235 years of Spanish influence in Florida and flew 4 nations’ flags, including old and new Spain, Britain, and the United States. It reminded us a lot of the old fort in San Juan but smaller. When we left the area about 1:00 we felt like we had learned a great deal about the oldest city in North America (San Juan is older but Puerto Rico is considered part of the Caribbean, not North America). Lunch ended up being at McDonald’s where I finally heard from ORS that my check would go in Mar. 8 for unexplained reasons. I wrote back demanding an explanation but there wasn’t much more I could do from Florida. It was about an hour’s drive just across the border into Georgia where we got a site at Crooked River State Park. There were horrible, biting gnats that drove us to distraction and we considered moving sites. But they seemed to be everywhere so we stayed put and found that they were not bad when the sun wasn’t beating down on the site. And this is going to be a good spot to do the two visits we hope to make in southern Georgia. The weather forecasts suggested that Thursday would be the best to go to Cumberland Island National Seashore so, without really knowing what we were doing, we headed out with a packed lunch. I’ve been having trouble again with vertigo so I had a hard time getting started but felt there was no choice but to ignore it and carrying on regardless. Driving into old town St. Mary’s at 9:30 I noticed a sign that said the ferry runs at 9:00 and 11:45. We found the National Park Visitor Center and learned that we could buy tickets at 11:00. So after looking at the displays in the Center we just wandered along the St. Mary’s riverfront until we could buy the tickets. Then with a backpack with lunch and extra clothes, sunscreen and bug spray, we boarded the small ferry for the 45 minute ride down the St. Mary’s river to Cumberland Island. It was sunny, very windy and in the high 60s to near 70 degrees. Once there, a ranger gave the small group who got off at Dungeness landing (the ones who were camping got off at Seacrest landing) an hour or more walk-and-talk about the history of this part of the island. A grove of Maritime forest with Live Oaks is the site of two magnificent estates, separated by 100 years but sharing the same foundation and name Dungeness. The first was built by Nathaneal Greene and his heirs. The ruins which still stand are the remains of Thomas and Lucy Carnegie’s Dungeness, built in the mid 1880s. The younger brother of Andrew, he died in 1886 leaving his wife, Lucy, and nine children. She expanded the original acquisitions, eventually owning 90% of the island, and built four more mansions for her children. When Dungeness burned in 1959, it had not been occupied for many years. In 1971 the heirs donated Plum Orchard (one of the additional mansions built) as well as supporting funds, which helped win Congressional approval for Cumberland Island National Seashore. The National Park Service now owns 90% of the island. After her talk, as the group wandered the extensive grounds of the ruins, we were treated to the sight of several of the feral horses that have roamed the island for 400 years since the time of the Spaniards. Behind the cemetery we found a boardwalk that led along the edge of the saltwater marsh. The tide was out and ibises, egrets, and a great blue heron fished in the shallows while the mud was skittering with fiddler crabs. The boardwalk came out in sand dunes which led us to the Atlantic beach that stretches as far as the eye can see with absolutely no development. As always when I walk a beach I thought of Judy Kabodian. We walked virtually alone on the hard packed sand but noticed a truck and a large group of people gathered far down the beach. As we approached them, most of the group moved on but the truck and a few people remained. When we arrived we found that there was a small humpback whale that had washed up on the beach. The rangers were trying to get the skull free and deal with the carcass. It was sad but was a real privilege to see a whale in that wild setting. The trail headed back into the forest and came out at Seacrest landing, where there are rocking chairs on the porch of the ranger station that were SO welcome after what was a hike of between 4 and 5 miles. At 4:00 a ranger gave two PowerPoint presentations, one on armadillos and one on the feral horses of the island. The ferry ride back was uneventful. We mutually agreed to have dinner at the Riverside Café, where Marv had fish and chips and I had crab cakes on a Greek salad. Back at the campground we used the WiFi at the office, saw 4 deer cross the road in front of us, and then did laundry and watched some TV before hitting the sack. Rain started during the night but it quit by the time we got up and got going Friday morning. I was feeling better after trying Benadryl during the night. Highway 40 to the Okefenokee Parkway is a scenic drive and it was a pleasant route to the Swamp. It was cloudy with a bit of drizzle and it was 61° as we arrived. First stop was at the Visitors Center where they showed a 14 minute, award winning video about the Okefenokee Swamp to just the two of us. Then an automaton like the presidents at Disney World told us tales about the swamp and how it has been affected by humans over the years. The only way to get into the wilderness area is by boat and the outfitters take people in or one can rent a kayak or canoe and paddle a few miles down the canal to get to open water. We opted to take the boat but wanted to wait until the weather improved. In the meantime we drove the Swamp Island Loop Drive. We had to return to the Center to get the interpretive brochure telling what we were seeing. We stopped at the Chesser Island Homestead, which was first established in 1858. The present buildings were built in 1926 by a grandson of the original Chesser and he and his wife lived there until 1958—100 years in the same family. Now the buildings are kept up by USFWS and used for educational programs and festivals such as a Cane Syrup celebration. A volunteer told us tales of the family and the homestead. She also said we should hope to get Joey as our boat guide, since he was 7^th generation in the swamp and his wife is 8^th. From there we drove to the Boardwalk trail where we ate our picnic. The three quarter mile boardwalk took us to the 50 foot Owl’s Roost Tower. We saw two alligators along the trail, one with babies, and several large turtles in Seagrove Lake from the top of the tower. By the end of the drive the clouds were clearing and it was 71° and the boat ride was sounding more appealing. One boat was just leaving as we walked up and they said the next one was at 2:45. So we bought tickets for it and took the Cane Pole trail along the canal. There were three pileated woodpeckers near the trail that we watched and took pictures of for a while. The path led to the Minnet Prairie—in the swamp, large areas of open water, which sometimes dry up completely, are called prairies. We headed back to the boat dock and found at least 7 large alligators and one large turtle along the banks. We were happy to find that our boat guide was indeed Joey, who has lived his entire life as a swamp man as were his ancestors so we felt like the ride was quite authentic. It took a while to go down the canal but there were innumerable alligators to entertain us along with Joey’s laconic narration. He took us into the prairie and ran the boat up next to a large alligator that ignored us as we soaked up the sounds and sights. It was during our ride that I had one of my favorite, sort of iconic, conversations of our whole trip. Joey and I were discussing whether the woodpecker is pronounced pile-ated or pill-e-ated, agreeing we had both heard it both ways. He drawled in his DEEP Georgia woods accent, “Ah guess it’s one a them tah-may-ter/tah-mah-ter kind of thangs.” It was cooling off as we returned to the boat dock and left Okefenokee Swamp. On the way back to camp we stopped at a Framing and Gift Shop that sold ice cream and coffee which we enjoyed before we returned for couscous and leftover pork chops.

Ocala National Forest (Happy B'day, Ken!)

2011-03-05T14:49:00.000-08:00

Sun. Feb. 27—Tue. Mar. 1: The drive north to Ocala National Forest was a bit different than what we had seen thus far in Florida. Heading north on US27, a divided highway here, we passed through many cities with lots of retirement communities for a while. When we got near Clermont the countryside became much more rolling hills and there were fewer towns. The elevation rose to 160-180 feet and there was more scrub pine flat wood forest. We stopped to do email, blog update, and research the Ocala National Forest area. MSUFCU showed that my pension check hadn’t been deposited on Friday, as Marv’s had and mine has always been. That was a big concern but we couldn’t do anything about it on a Sunday. We decided to head for Juniper Springs campground, which has 60 sites with flush toilets and showers but no electrical hook-ups. We were pretty sure that this was the place we had come for showers back in 1973 when we were camping at Mill Pond with Dave and Karen Sullivan. Part of what we wanted to do while in Ocala Forest was revisit the areas in which we had vacationed nearly 40 years ago. We had a wonderful site (#38) with lots of vegetation between sites and no sites behind or across from us. The bathroom was right nearby and the only complaint is that generators can and do run between the hours of 6:00am and 10:00pm. Those are pretty liberal hours! After setting up we rode our bikes around the area and found that there are three camping loops, including one that is tents only. Bears are active in the area and we were warned to take care of trash in the bear-proof containers and keep food inside. Fern Hammock Springs can only be hiked into and aren’t open for swimming, so we didn’t do that while we had our bikes. But we headed over to Juniper Springs, where we parked the bikes and walked in to look around. The swimming area was originally put in by the CCC and there is a mill with a water wheel that is closed right now because it needs major overhauling. They had an original CCC-er who had helped build the mill and an expert from Vermont consult on what needs to be done and are awaiting funding to make the repairs. There were people swimming in the clear 72° water along with little minnows and some weedy areas amongst the cleared sand areas. There is a canoe livery where one can do the 7 mile, 4 hour long Juniper Creek run, which has alligators and snakes and a great wilderness area. We wondered if we could put in our kayak but looking at the creek at that point it seemed too shallow and too narrow. Back at camp we found we had a good enough phone connection to have conversations and send texts. After watching the sunset right from the back of our site we made dinner and read before bed. On Monday (Happy Birthday, Ken!!!) we drove north to Salt Spring to check out that area and get groceries. We both had a memory of stone or cement rectangular spring fed pools from our 1973 visit and we hoped to find them. We also needed the internet to check on my check. The small Visitors Center gave us some information and told us where we could sit at a picnic table nearby and use the internet. That worked in the morning when I found that the check still hadn’t gone in. I left a message on the ORS site. We made a short visit to Salt Spring, where they have put a 4 foot cement wall around a larger area than Juniper Springs. The spring was only added to the National forest lands in 1979 so we knew that wasn’t the spring we were seeking. There is full hook-up camping at the park but sites are lined up right next to each other and we’re happy we didn’t choose to go there for our camping. But the spring was very nice and we stayed quite a while, choosing to eat our picnic lunch there. A couple of people were swimming in the slightly saline springs that have large (12”-18”) mullets that skip across the water and leap clear out. While we ate, a cute little feral piglet came trotting down the cement sidewalk along the pool wall, then turned around and looked a bit panicked until finding its way out and into the scrub. It was very cute and not at all the threatening beast we expected from a feral pig. After lunch we drove to the Salt Spring Trail to hike its two mile loop into the wide Cyprus swamp and waterway that leads from the springs eventually to Lake George, the 2^nd largest lake in Florida. We looked for but didn’t see any of the alligators, osprey, or eagles we hoped to see. The temperatures in the mid-eighties continued and we were pretty warm from the hike. We then returned to Salt Spring to get our groceries and try the internet to see if the check had shown-up but this time we couldn’t get online. We went on to the nearby Springs and found that they have been left in their natural state and afford the largest swimming area of the three we have seen. We talked to a woman there and explained what we sought but she didn’t have any idea of where it would be. We were really hot when we got back to Juniper Springs so we put on our suits and enjoyed a refreshing swim. It was lovely! The sunset was once again enjoyed and then Marv built a fire with the great Live Oak wood we had bought at Lake Kissimmee and we cooked brauts and roasted marshmallows for S’mores and watched the stars in the clear sky. After seeing a really good falling star we spread out the fire and went to bed. The temperature only fell into the upper sixties and during the night the first rain that we’d had in 3 ½ weeks fell. We stayed snug and it was all over by morning when we were ready to get up. We took our coffee with us, thinking we would stroll over to see the Fern Hammock springs and ended up taking the entire nature trail that comes out at Juniper Springs. We saw a flock of turkeys, including a Tom who spread his tail and looked very important until he saw we were not intimidated. Fern & Juniper springs have many sandy “boils” without any of the deep rock fissures we had seen in the springs on Sunday. The nature trail is a boardwalk along Juniper Creek and we were just sorry we hadn’t bothered to bring a camera. We hoped to spend Tuesday at Mill Pond, which we knew was only Day Use now, and perhaps put the kayak into the pond to paddle around. First we went a few miles west to Forest Corners. We visited the Ranger Station there and talked to a woman around our age with some history in the area. She couldn’t think of a spot with the rectangular springs we remembered so that remains a mystery for us. But she told us that there was a new library just past the Winn-Dixie where we could use the internet. Once again we were concerned to see that the check still hasn’t shown up. I left another message on the ORS site and we did some other emails and some research to help us decide where we are going in the final two weeks of our trip. Then we bought a Subway foot long to enjoy at Mill Pond. But when we drove back there we found that the area was closed. We could drive into the boat launch area so we sat on the sand overlooking Mill Pond and ate our sandwich. Then we decided, since there was no one around, we’d walk into the Day Use area and look around. It looked pretty much as we remembered from so long ago and it was easy to imagine that the picnic area would have been the campground back then. We took some pictures of the swimming area, where we remembered seeing all the people leave the water at the same time and realized there was a large alligator swimming in the deep area. When we returned to the truck, Marv wanted to try to find a trail he read about the night before called the Lake Eaton Sinkhole. The map we bought on Monday had us take a sandy road that had been freshly grated and packed that day and we felt almost like we were “off roading it”. The half-mile hiking trail led us to the very impressive dry sinkhole. It is 462 feet in diameter and 122 feet deep. They have recently added (Stimulus money?) a wonderful boardwalk around the rim to keep people from furthering the erosion of the sides, and steps to a large viewing platform 80 feet down. Nothing said how long ago the area had sunk but the vegetation suggested it was long ago, possibly in prehistoric times. We didn’t see any other tracks and saw no one else until we were leaving and a man from Sweden came to do the trail. We followed a different route back to the highway to take a picture of the Mill Pond sign to email to Dave and came back to camp. While Marv took his camera down to get pictures of the Fern Spring and nature trail we had walked in the morning, I took a shower and washed my hair. We began picking up our campsite and Marv grilled pork chops while I cooked apples and made a salad to go with leftover potato salad for dinner. We finished the Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter cup ice cream pint begun earlier in the day and tried to get things ready for a quick exit early the next morning. It had been a really nice and somewhat nostalgic return to a favorite memory of our Youth.

Enjoying Lake Kissimmee State Park

2011-02-27T10:51:00.001-08:00

Thu. Feb. 24-Sun. Feb. 27: The reasons we decided to come to Lake Kissimmee were two. We had hoped to go to the Everglades on this trip but we found that there were no nearby State Parks at which we could camp and the one nearby KOA we found cost over $80 a night! We just couldn’t justify that. The other reason was that, through Facebook, we had heard from Jackie Himelright and Ed Smith that they were staying at a condo on the Atlantic just south of Cocoa Beach. They wondered if we wanted to come spend Thursday with them to watch the Space Shuttle Discovery blast-off for the last time. That sounded like a different and historic thing to do. We decided to leave the Everglades and perhaps the Keys to another year when we would make reservations months ahead of time, and find a State Park closer to Cocoa Beach. Lake Kissimmee seemed like a good choice, because it is about 55 miles west of Cocoa Beach as the crow flies. We soon figured out, however, that “you can’t get there from here” and would have to go north and then southeast or southeast and then north to get there. Either way it looked like at least a two hour drive. But we designated Thursday to do just that. We left about 9:30 and opted to go south first because it appeared to have few little towns to go through and it was a good choice. We had no delays and arrived at the condo just as Ed was walking in from getting some groceries. We made turkey sandwiches and caught up on what we all had been doing since East Lansing. They encouraged us to go for a walk on the beach while they returned to their nearby fresh fish market to get some grouper to go with the scallops (Marv is allergic to shell fish). We walked north for a while and then stopped to watch some surfers enjoying the waves. When we walked back we got out beach chairs and Ed and Jackie joined us on the sand. It had been mostly clear and all the media had been remarking on what perfect weather there would be for the launch. But half an hour before the 4:40 lift-off time, clouds began rolling in and the view north up the beach was looking foggier and foggier. Just minutes before the launch a man came out of the next door Taco City and said that the launch had been scrubbed because of a computer glitch. We were SO disappointed as we thought of all the driving and the change of plans we had done just to see the launch. As we were bemoaning our luck, the man got at phone call from someone telling him the launch was back on. We found out later that they came within seconds of canceling and then worked out the problem. We talked for a few more minutes and then, whoooooosh! In the distance, farther to the left than expected, we saw the flaming streak of Discovery taking off. We could see if for ten seconds or so before it disappeared into the clouds. We continued studying the sky and saw it again through a break in the clouds for a second or two and then it was gone. We could hear a rumble of noise from the space craft and after it disappeared we could hear the distant rumble of the take-off as we watched the plume of smoke grow and very slowly dissipate. The whole experience took only a few minutes but, after thinking we wouldn’t see anything at all, we all felt it was well worth the effort. Jackie made a delicious dinner of asparagus, sautéed squash, tomatoes, and spinach, and backed scallops and grouper, all with LOTS of onion and garlic. We finished with Key Lime Pie. It had been a really good day with old friends in a very different setting and we were well satisfied as we made the two hour trip back to Lake Kissimmee. The only glitch in the day was that Marv realized that at some point he had lost his gold chain with the precious gold cross Shari made for him for doing their Blessing Ceremony. Despite contacting both State Parks and searching the camper and the truck, it is apparently lost forever. Very sad… Friday we got up and had eggs for breakfast. In the days before I had seemed to be getting sicker and sicker again with a loose bronchial cough and runny eyes and nose. A park volunteer had mentioned that the Live Oak pollen is the worse this year that they had seen. So we bought a Claritan knock off and OTC cough medicine. I was thrilled that they seemed to make a big difference for me. We had to go 15 miles into town to have enough connection to use our phones and ended up at McDonald’s so we could use the internet to extend our mail hold and for Marv to call the last park about his necklace. By the time we got back we wanted to get a chance to use our kayak and this seemed like a good opportunity. We packed a lunch and drove over to the boat launch on the Zipprer Canal that connects Lake Kissimmee and Lake Rosalie. A person at the front gate had told us that, if they had treated the canal for vegetation, it would be possible to take the canal to Lake Rosalie and paddle around in it, where there are no motors allowed. Once we had our inflatable Sea Eagle ready to go and launched we headed that way only to find that, not only is the canal not treated, there is a dam down making it impossible to access! Instead we took the canal the other way out to Tiger Cove at the edge of Lake Kissimmee. The canal is a bit low so one can’t see much from it but it is a no wake zone and only about 10 yards across with no current, so it is easy to paddle. At Tiger Cove it opens up to a marshy area with a cleared channel that was all we could see but we know opens to the rest of the lake. The bay was teaming with water birds, particularly what we took to be the same Moorhens that we had seen in Louisiana marshes. We lodged ourselves in the weeds and enjoyed our picnic floating in the water surrounded by nature. Afterwards we paddled back to the launch because the stiff breeze we were fighting seemed like it was going to be a challenge. We deflated the kayak, returned to the campsite for it to dry and read for a while in the unseasonably hot sunshine. About 4:30 we decided to take one of the hiking/biking trails called the Buster Island loop. It would probably be designated a Beginner biking trail by Dennis and Ken because it has no hills, Moderate by Marv, and too Advanced for the sorry likes of me! There were too many roots, some loose sand through which we had to walk, and, at just over 8 miles, was about a mile or two longer than I would have preferred. But it’s also one of those trails that I was proud to have managed to finish without having to call in the Mounties to rescue me. It varied between Live Oak groves, pine flat wood hammock, and scrub prairies. We saw several armadillos and much evidence of feral pigs, such as large areas with deep rooting, what we took to be “pig pies”, and, at one point, a big ruckus in the scrub right next to the trail of something big scurrying away. With about a mile left in our journey and the sun beginning to set, we stopped to rest for a few minutes. As we caught our breath a small herd of cracker or scrub cattle trotted into the clearing about 30 yards away. There were 3 or 4 cows and 4 or 5 calves, which stopped and looked at us with curiosity. We took no time for photos or anything else as we left them to enjoy the grove alone! Just before the end of the trail two white tailed deer leaped across in front of us and we saw more armadillos. As we crossed the bridge over the canal back to the main road we stopped to watch a Great Blue Heron and four deer feeding in the twilight. Back at camp I was totally exhausted but Marv was still going strong. A deer wandered slowly through the campsite as twilight fell. We made a delicious chicken-grapes-cashews salad to have on lettuce and watched Oprah interview Diana Ross while we played dominoes. I was asleep as my head hit the pillow that night! Saturday the park was hosting a big Volunteer Recognition Bar-B-Q for several parks in the area. That meant there were a lot of people around to enjoy the park. We rode our bikes to the Cow Camp that is part of the State Park and where one is invited to step back in time to 1875. The “Cow Hunter” present had no knowledge of 20^th or 21^st century happenings; he was a Yankee hater living and working in 1875. He showed us around the camp and talked about what his life was like and how they wrangled the feral Cracker cattle left four hundred years earlier by the Spanish. It was a pretty convincing presentation. We went back and made a picnic and rode over with it to the picnic area to see if there would be music for the volunteers on the stage that had been set up, but that turned out not to be the case. So after we ate we went back to the canal bank to read and watch a pack of Cub Scouts learning how to fish. We thought we might bike the Gobbler Rise trail that takes off from the picnic area, but they had tall swamp buggies on giant tires giving the volunteers rides on the trail that had chewed up the sand to the point that it would have been too difficult to bike. So instead we came back to camp once again, having ridden 5 miles already that day. When it was about 4:00 we decided to hike the “blue blaze” connector trail from the campground to the Gobbler Rise trail. The trail runs out to and then along Lake Kissimmee so we had our best look at the lake from it. The “Rise” is about three feet and appears to be the old shoreline. We were surprised to see no development along the shore, partly, we suppose, because the entire shoreline is very marshy and bog-like. There were several fishing boats and some of them were the very noisy airboats, but for the most part it was very peaceful. We saw the ubiquitous armadillo and lots of birds, including what seemed to be an eagle soaring over and then diving down to the water. The whole hike we saw only three people who had come from the Youth Camping area. It was probably a three mile hike and I was happy I had remembered to take my sotol walking stick to help. In the distance we could see where a big wild fire was burning, and the smoke rising from it looked like a giant tornado which began to obscure the sun. Back at our campsite as we sat and rested a bit there was fine ash falling on everything. The rest of the evening we smelled smoke. This evening’s visitor was a browsing armadillo who paid us no attention whatsoever as she passed within 5 yards of us. Tonight we had ground beef stroganoff and did several meals’ dishes as we prepared to leave tomorrow.

Highland Hammock State Park

2011-02-27T10:37:00.000-08:00

Mon. Feb. 21-Wed. Feb. 23: The campground began to clear out as soon as people arose. The campground would change over through the day from being loaded with families and kids, to being almost entirely retired travelers like ourselves. Marv made scrambled eggs for us and then we took our bikes out for a ride. There is a 3.1 mile road called “Hammock Loop Trail” that circles through the developed part of the park and has 5 or 6 trails off from it. It’s paved and has hardly any grade to it and is very easy to peddle. We went to the far point of the loop to the Cyprus Swamp trail to take a ranger-led hike. Ranger Lewis explained that the boardwalk through the swamp was originally laid down by the CCC boys to haul out some of the Cyprus lumber. The land was bought by a woman in 1931 to preserve the Hammock, which is a hardwood forest surrounded by pines and/or swamps. The CCC had a camp there for 7 years during which they built what became the State Park in 1935. It is the first and oldest state park in Florida. We saw an ibis and heard other birds and saw a yellow rat snake, but no alligators. Some of the boardwalk is very narrow with just a low handrail on one side. After that walk we rode on around the circle and took the next hike on the Ancient Hammock trail by ourselves. We completed the loop drive on our bikes and went to visit the small CCC museum right off the drive, where we learned a little bit more of the history of the CCC in Florida. As we left the museum we came across a small crowd of people who turned out to be looking at a mama alligator with her 6 babies enjoying the 80 degree sunshine. After taking pictures we returned to our campsite to have a bite of lunch and then enjoy the sunshine ourselves. We read until about 2:00 then went in to nearby Sebring to get groceries and check email at a McDonald’s. We also made a three night reservation at Lake Kissimmee State Park for the end of the week. For dinner Marv grilled pork chops and I made a fruit salad and a vegetable salad with tomatoes, pepper and avocado. With pork and beans it made for a real feast! The fog was so heavy on Tuesday morning that it condensed on the Live Oak tree above the camper and dripped in loud plops onto the roof that woke us up. We had a leisurely morning as we waited for the fog to burn off, strolled the Allen Altiver trail adjacent to the campground with our coffee, and then left to bike again around 10:00. We took the Hammock Loop Drive again and stopped at nearly every trail available. The Live Oak trail, Hickory trail and Fern Garden trail lead into each other so that we could do all three while leaving the bikes in one spot. The Live Oak trail led to a 1000 year old oak that is 36 feet circumference at the bottom. It seemed to be barely alive but had several other plants growing out of its crown. The Hickory trail had several wild orange trees and we tried one of the larger oranges that had fallen from one. It was pretty sour but extremely juicy. From the wooden boardwalk along the Fern Garden trail we saw an alligator sunning itself beside the water. Back on the bikes, we rode on to the Young Hammock trail where it was easy to see how different the pine forest looked as it was being taken over by the hard wood hammock. We rode on around the loop and as we approached to about 100 yards from the spot where we had seen the mama alligator yesterday, we again saw babies (7 this time!) and then found the mama nearby. Two babies began swimming towards her and then she swam a little ways. Either she or the babies began grunting and then more of them swam towards her as one crawled up on her back for a ride. Marv again got some nice pictures. We had ridden about 4 miles again and had salads for lunch today. After resting for a while we rode 4 miles of their 8.1 mile bike trail that goes past the rustic campground and then through open pine areas. We made wraps for supper and took them to the campfire area where a Minnesotan man presented a two hour “concert” of songs with his guitar and harmonica. The most interesting thing of his very enjoyable presentation was his accompanying synthesizer harmony “machine” that apparently analyzed the guitar chords and then used his voice to make a harmony line. It was really nice when he did “Down to the River to Pray” and added 3 or 4 harmonies. About 60 people had gathered for the concert and a nice big campfire was kept going. It was a really pleasant evening. Check-out time on Wednesday wasn’t until 1:00 so we could have a leisurely morning. But Marv was up at 7:30 to hop on his bike and ride to the registration gate house to buy Tram tickets for 1:00. We had tried to take the tram on Tuesday but were told that all three rides were sold out for the day and that one needed to be there before 8:00 because they sell out immediately. Marv felt like he was going a bit too early until he pulled up and found a line of about 10 people waiting. Most were “Town Folk”, not campers. He came back with our tickets and we began packing up camp. Unfortunately, about 11:00 I had an “aura” that foretold an impending migraine headache. I took an Imitrex and a Tylenol with codeine and sat in the shade for about 15 minutes and was relieved when the aura subsided with no headache. We were a bit rushed at the end but managed to hitch up and drive over for the Tram right at 1:00. I was feeling the effects of the medication and feared I would throw-up at any minute, which was a shame because the Tram ride was really enjoyable. The affable ranger/guide/driver promised more than the hour long ride we were sold and came through with flying colors. Half the trip was on dirt roads that are closed to any other traffic. We saw lots of alligators, turtles, and interesting birds like ibises, hawks and herons. He entertained us as he taught us about the area and we stayed out for an hour and 35 minutes. I just wish I had felt better. It was time to leave on our return and we headed right back to the Lake Wales area to go to nearby Lake Kissimmee State Park. This is a newer park of 60 sites that is deep in orange orchard/cattle ranch country, where we had no phone service but several TV stations. Our reserved site had been double booked so they gave us a different one, on the outside of one of the two “wagon wheel” loops. Marv cranked the trailer around so that our door side opened into the site which has nothing behind it but trees, palms and scrub brush. We liked it so much that we immediately added a night so we could stay through Saturday night and not leave until Sunday.

Back together again and on to Highland Hammock

2011-02-27T10:31:00.000-08:00

Sat. Feb. 19—Sun. Feb. 20: As usual, Eli and Jordan were up by about 7:30, regardless of the fact that their alarm lights were set to be green at 8:30! They really have got to get some room darkening shades for those boys’ rooms if they want them to start sleeping in as spring and summer roll around! I told Craig to go back to bed and I got up with them, got Jordan dressed (Eli is totally independent in the morning), and fed them breakfast. They played while I did a major clean-up in the kitchen and we got out the Moon Dough to play with. Craig came down and played with us and drank coffee and, when it was almost time for me to go to the airport, Sarah came down. She decided that she and Analyn would come along for the ride and then they would all go to see Craig’s new office. They dropped me off and I breezed through and took my flight with absolutely no problems. Marv timed my pick-up perfectly and we were on our way back to Saddlebag Resort, about an hour and a half away. The trailer we had rented and Marv had stayed in was pretty spartan and had short twin beds on each side of an aisle. I’m just as glad we didn’t stay in it together for 6 nights! After dropping off to say hi to the elders we headed straight to the pool and hot tub for a bit before dinner. Marv’s mom took us all out to the Jay Dee’s Diner and then we returned to Aunt Donna and Uncle Max’s place to play Dominoes and then watch the Spartans eke out a basketball victory over Illinois. With the blessing of the elders we skipped church the next morning to pack up our things and spend a couple of hours in the sun at the pool. There is a good internet connection on the veranda there so I caught up on the blog and did some email. At noon we all went to a Chinese buffet for dinner. Aunt Donna and Uncle Max returned to the resort while Marv’s mom and the two of us went to nearby Bok Tower Gardens. It was developed by the editor of Ladies Home Journal to preserve and share the area near where he wintered in Florida. At 298 feet above sea level, Iron Mountain is the highest point in central Florida. There is where the 302 foot tower with carillon was placed. Extensive gardens surround the tower and hill. We happened to get there minutes before a guided walk began, wending through the gardens, and ending up at the tower just in time for a 3:00 concert. Thelma took the shuttle up and we met her there and then made our way back down on the main “road”. We returned to Saddlebag Resort, hitched up the trailer, and said our good-byes before driving about an hour to Highlands Hammock State Park, where we have a three night reservation. We were a bit disappointed to find the campground was made up of small, tightly packed campsites and it appeared to be a real madhouse. There were many groups that seemed to be camped together and had large amounts of people of all ages gathered around fires and picnic tables. We realized that we were there on Presidents’ Day weekend and that’s why the campground was so busy and so noisy. Luckily, it began to settle down as the sun set and by 11:00 all was quiet. The temperature dropped to about 60 and we got a very good night’s sleep.

Peggy's time in Indianapolis--no pictures at this time

2011-02-20T08:13:00.000-08:00

Tue, Feb. 15—Fri. Feb. 18: As is to be expected, there is some adjustment taking place, but having a new sister AND having that sister and mommy gone for 13 days is a lot to handle when you are only four and not quite three years old. But we were able to have a lot of fun while I was with my grandsons. Tuesday was in the mid-forties with hazy sunshine so we spent some time outside. We tried to clear the sidewalk but its 2 inch covering of ice from the big storm was proving immovable. The 5 inches or so of crusty snow/ice on the front yard was good for sledding and the slight incline is just perfect for preschoolers. The weather warmed all week so that Wednesday and Thursday were in the 60s with some sun, which helped us all immensely. We were able to take long bike rides around the neighborhood that became easier and easier as the sidewalks melted off the two inch covering of ice from the big storm. Blowing bubbles was also popular. I had my hair done on Thursday morning at the nearby Aveda Institute and Sarah had her first chance to see how things will go with three kids. Friday Eli went to school for lunch and Jordan and I had some quality time alone for yet another bike ride and Sesame Street watching. When Sarah and Analyn were up, the four of us made a trip to Babies-R-Us and then to Barnes and Noble bookstore as Sarah and I took turns sitting with Ana who dozed peacefully in the warm sunshine in the minivan. We picked up lunch at Wendy’s and had an in-van picnic at the church while waiting for Eli to come out. It was a lovely morning! Friday is pizza/movie night at the Penquites. They let me pick the movie and I wanted to see Toy Story 3. Eli is the Buzz Lightyear nut, but Jordan was the one who gave a delightful play-by-play commentary as each of the characters made his or her entrance. Both boys were transfixed throughout the movie, taking a bite of pizza as requested but without being aware of eating, I think. I cried at the touching ending (of course) and couldn’t have enjoyed the evening more. Ana is sleeping for longer periods of time and staying awake for longer periods, too. It was hard to believe that I was leaving Saturday, but I could do so with a full heart, confident that all will be well for the Penquite family.

Old Friends and Valentine's Day

2011-02-20T07:59:00.000-08:00

Sun. Feb. 13-Mon. Feb. 14: The frost was heavy in the shaded areas as we got on our way early Sunday morning. We did well to leave by about 8:15 because we figured we were about 3 hours from John and Brenda Sternberg’s “Beach House” at Redington Beach, north of St. Petersburg. Highway 98 was divided and there was little traffic so we made good time most of the way. As we got closer we got on a limited access toll way with toll booths surprisingly close together. It cost us about $10.00 in tolls to go about an hour but it was smooth sailing. Traffic and driving got more hectic the closer we got, but we found the house without trouble, arriving around 11:30. We chatted with John and Brenda until Ross and Pat arrived around 1:00. John grilled burgers and chicken and we had a nice lunch. Then the six of us walked on the Gulf beach, just three blocks away. After enjoying Brenda’s yummy strawberry/blueberry trifle the four visitors all left around 5:00. Our next state park, Little Manatee River, was only about 45 minutes away, to the east side of Tampa Bay. It’s another really nice park with water and electricity on our site. They’re in the country/farm land but close enough to town to have good TV and phone reception. After a small supper we watched some of the Grammy awards and went to bed. Monday morning (Valentine’s Day!) Marv drove me about 45 minutes away to the Tampa International Airport where I caught my 10:55 AirTran flight to Indianapolis. Diane and Chris drove me to the Penquites’ house, where Angie and Bill were still present and, best of all, Craig, Sarah and Analyn were home from the hospital! I would do my best to keep the boys occupied and help out Sarah while Marv picked up his mom on Tuesday to celebrate her 90^th birthday and take her to Saddlebag Resort in Lake Wales for her to stay with Uncle Max and Aunt Donna, and stay in a rental trailer himself until I return on Saturday. (From Marv) Feb. 14, Valentines Day: Well I spent Valentine’s Day morning sending my Valentine away for a week. Peggy left for Indianapolis this morning at 11:00. She arrived at Sarah and Craig’s and called me by 2:00. Analyn and Sarah are home, YEA, and Bill and Angie were leaving. I came back to the camper, tested out the new solar panel and took a bike ride around the park. Beautiful day and beautiful park; if Peggy were here we would probably have tried the kayak on the river. I did a couple of other little fixes on the bikes and camper and spent much of the afternoon reading in the warm sunny 74 degrees!

Meeting Manatees

2011-02-20T07:49:00.000-08:00

Fri. Feb. 11- Sat. Feb. 12: The sun was sparkling on the Gulf of Mexico as we left the campground around 10:00 with a clear blue sky and temperatures in the mid-forties. Continuing east on Hwy. 98 we found very little traffic and only a few small towns along the “Forgotten Coast”. We passed in and out of both state and national forests, sometimes hugging the water line, and were surprised to see several Bear Crossing warning signs! At Perry we found a small city park and sat on the bleachers of the baseball field (they were in the sun) to enjoy our picnic lunch with the temperature at 51° and more clouds than sun. At Perry the highway became divided and turned south. About an hour later we arrived at Manatee Springs State Park, where we had a two night reservation. The campground is heavily wooded and our site is right next to a bathroom which hardly shows because of the trees and groundcover. There are only two other sites on our sandy little turn-around. Four deer were grazing at the campsite and they ignored us and only slowly wandered off as we set-up the camper. We did a minimal set-up so we could hike to the spring while the sun was out and the temperature approached the high fifties. There is a path across from our campsite that actually opens right onto the parking for the picnic area at the spring, but, again, it was hidden by the undercover. Manatee Springs is an average high flow limestone sourced spring (50-150 million gallons/day) that has a large pond in which one can see the water bubbling up to the surface. Swimming is allowed in the pond which maintains a constant 72°, but with the heavy algae and visible tree trunks, as well as snake warning signs, it really doesn’t hold any appeal for us. There is a short, fast flowing stream that empties into the Suwannee River. The warm water joining the river attracts manatees, especially this time of year, when the ocean and river are colder. We followed a wooden deck along the spring run and out over the river and joined about 8 other people and one fisherman on the covered deck. Several of the people were from Michigan, including three people from Ludington/Scottsville area, one of whom said she knew Harold and Nancy Hansen and that Nancy is an ex-boyfriend’s sister!! We were happy to see two manatees that slowly came to within about 20 yards of the deck. We could just barely see their dark gray backs in the river water but they occasionally surfaced to breath, just sticking out their snouts before going back under. Even that much was pretty thrilling. It was cooling off so we returned to finish setting up the camper, enjoy the last bit of sun, and then make dinner while listening to NPR’s extensive coverage of the resignation of Egyptian President Mubarak. The evening brought more reading and two games of Cribbage, there being no phone service, no internet and limited TV access here. Saturday morning was sunny and 40° but we had again stayed cozy. We have an electric blanket on the bed and a new Vornado heater with a remote thermostat that does an amazing job of keeping the whole camper at a comfortable temperature without a lot of variation. As long as we have electricity we’re assured of staying cozy. We walked over to the river dock again and were rewarded with seeing two more manatees in about the same spot. The rest of the morning was spent in town getting in touch with people by phone and internet, and buying some groceries. Back in the campground we rode our bikes a short way to walk on the Sinkhole Trail, which passes several large and small sinkholes and has interpretive signs along the .6 mile path. For lunch we ate our first meal of the whole trip outside in the sun as the temperatures rose to the low sixties. We had talked about ways to take our inflatable kayak to the Suwannee River, but it was still cool and breezy enough we weren’t sure how it would go to paddle upriver and then float back down to the truck. Instead we rode our bikes 7 miles on the North Country Trail, all within the State Park lands. The hard packed sand two-track includes 2 miles of a self-guided Nature Trail that informed us of some of the flora and fauna of the area. We saw one large armadillo and otherwise saw signs of resident animals, including deer tracks, tunnels across the trail, and large areas of deep rooting that we assume must be from wild pigs. There also was a large live trap/pen set up near where the rooting was pretty invasive so we think they must be trying to remove the perpetrators. Returning to our campsite we left the bikes to walk over to the river one last time. We (and a small group of others) were thrilled when a manatee slowly made its way up to and then under the dock before turning into the warm water of the spring outlet. Marv got some great pictures of it, as well as a Wood Stork and a large turtle head that poked up as the turtle swam along in the same area that the manatees enjoy. It was cooling off fast as the sun went down. Marv grilled fresh tilapia and I made red beans and rice and a salad, so we enjoyed a really good dinner as we listened to Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion. Since we are leaving bright and early tomorrow to make it to Brenda and John Sternberg’s Beach House by 11:00 brunch we put away as much as we could and got to bed early.

St. George Island, Florida

2011-02-20T07:42:00.000-08:00

Wed. Feb. 9—Thu. Feb. 10: We took Hwy. 98 along the coast all the way to Apalachicola on Wednesday. It was more scenic and more direct than going up to I-10 but it probably didn’t save us any time. We drove right past Dick & Lynn Hensens’ winter home in Destin but they weren’t home when we called mid morning so, although we talked later in the day, we weren’t able to see them. About 3:00 at Apalachicola we took a bridge over the inter-coastal waterway and then a longer bridge over the bay to St. George Island. After passing by a few miles of mostly empty rentals on two levels of the beach, we continued east to St. George Island State Park. The campground is 4 miles beyond the gate house where one registers. There is just one small loop of about 50 campsites with a few empty sites but the ranger gave us one right next to the bathroom that turned out to be a Handicap site. After setting up, we chose to take a walk back out to the road and to the Gulf Beach. There was a car stopped on our way out and it turned out they were photographing a bald eagle that they told us comes to the pond next to the road at that time every day. We continued out to the beach and were once again all alone. It was in the low fifties, as it would be for the rest of our time on the island. As we left the area we ran into a woman with a walking stick who asked if we had been out to the end of the island yet. She had hoped to go out there but decided it was a little too late and her husband didn’t really know where she was. Back at the campground we made dinner and spent the evening reading and watching a Northern Exposure because there is no internet, virtually no TV and not even good radio reception out here. It’s nice to feel so remote. Sarah texted us that Analyn was doing better and they were returning to the regular pediatric ward to continue her recovery, which was a great relief to know. Thursday night it rained nearly all night but the morning was just cloudy and 47°. We spent a leisurely morning and then heard from Sarah that the doctor wanted Analyn on one antibiotic for 5 days total and the other for 7 days total, so they were probably going to stay in the hospital until Monday, at least. Marv and I drove back over the bridges to Apalachicola and found their library so I could book a flight to go to Indianapolis. I will fly out on Monday (Valentine’s Day) and return the following Saturday (that being $100 cheaper than returning on Friday). By the time all the arrangements were made and we returned to the island it was nearly 3:00. Harry A’s afforded us a good steak burger (Marv) and an alligator tail basket (Peggy) and good draft beers. It was after 4:00 when we got back to the campground, but not too late for us to take our bikes out to the east end of the island. There is a barrier gate that prohibits vehicles but allows pedestrians and bikes. The (old) GPS suggested it would be about 4 miles out. There was some pavement but mostly hard packed sand and fine gravel over a wire mesh. It made for pretty easy peddling through rolling dunes and beach oats except we were heading into a northeast wind that caused us both to put up our hoods under our helmets. About halfway out I saw a bald eagle gliding with the wind along the coast to our left. Around the 4 mile point on the GPS it mapped us as biking in the water! The road actually went about 4.6 miles before ending in a parking area right near the beach. One other man on his bike arrived there about the same time we did. From the end one can see the mainland and, off to the right, Dog Island, another barrier island. After walking the beach and picking up some shells we found the return trip, with the wind, a bit easier. As we got back to the campground the bald eagle was perched in its usual spot near the pond so we got a picture. The whole trip was nearly 10 miles and it was about dusk. I took a quick shower to wash my hair in the unheated shower house; a bit brisk but doable. We weren’t very hungry after our large lunch so we finished the hot dogs without bread or buns and had a salad. Ken kept us apprised of the Men’s and Women’s basketball games, both of whom beat Penn State, with Draymond Green picking up his first triple double, only the third Spartan to accomplish it (Magic Johnson and Bell were the others). The rest of the evening was pretty much a repeat of the day before.

Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, Alabama

2011-02-08T19:04:00.000-08:00

Mon. Feb. 7-Tue. Feb. 9: Monday we got up and took down the camper but left it at the site. We drove into nearby Mandeville for breakfast. We never managed to try “Louie and the Red Haired Lady” , which has been featured lately on the Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives” and was only about 2 miles from the park. And we knew it was closed on Mondays. But we had heard about and driven by another place called “Liz’s Where Y’At?” and they are open 7 days a week for breakfast and lunch so we went there. It’s an eclectic, “hippy” place painted in vibrant colors with the walls hung with hand painted plaques with funny sayings. Several walls have long essays written on them, including one that tells all about the owner, Liz. She came over and introduced herself and checked to be sure everything was okay with us. We had a great (and BIG) breakfast of Eggs Benedict with creamed spinach and artichoke hearts. It was yummy and we were stuffed when we returned to hitch up the camper and head east. We only drove about 3 hours Monday to get to Gulf State Park. It was 49° and cloudy when we left La. but rose to 60° and became mostly sunny by the time we arrived here. But it’s really windy and the camper is being noisily buffeted. In the morning it was close to freezing as a cold front had gone through. We have a nice site on the edge of “Middle Lake” just about a quarter mile from the Gulf shore. There is no one to our left or across from us on a pull-through site. The state park is more like a resort, with a pool (closed for the season), tennis courts, trails, a Nature Center, and an activity center with things happening throughout the day. It’s all wired for Wi-Fi but they are having trouble getting it across private property or something so it’s not active yet. But we can go to the Activity Center with our computer to update the blog and send emails. We enjoyed a nice sunset because of just a few clouds right at the horizon as it went down. Because it was so clear it got down to about 30° overnight but the wind finally died down. The next morning, no one seemed to be able to connect to the Network so we decided to find a McDonald’s in town when we went out. It was perfectly clear and although the temperature was only in the mid forties, it was warm enough out of the wind by the camper that we decided to sit and read for half an hour or so before leaving for the day. That was when I got a text from Sarah telling us that, unfortunately, Analyn was back in the PICU. She had labored breathing last night and got a bit of a fever so they wanted her where they can monitor her more closely and give her VapoTherm therapy better. Sarah didn’t want to talk but said she would have Craig call when he got back from the boys’ Parent/Teacher Conferences at school, so we headed into town. By the time we got there, Craig called and updated us. She was doing better than earlier in the day but they did think she had a secondary bacterial infection that she picked up there. They didn’t know if the infection was in her lungs (probably) without getting some fluid from the lungs and they can only do that if she is on a ventilator, which they don’t want to do. The doctor came and told them that they needed to give her antibiotics and they didn’t want anything in her stomach while she had the VapoTherm and the drip so she could no longer nurse. We left it at that about noon and went to find a McDonald’s. We wanted to get online to check email, send out an update to family, check our finance information, and start to explore finding a flight for me to return to Indianapolis to help in any way I could. Everything was okay with our finances and I found that I could fly out on Friday from either Orlando or Tampa. For the time being there was nothing else we could do so we drove west on Hwy. 182 to the end of the peninsula on which we are camping. It was 22 miles to Fort Morgan and a ferry that takes one across the mouth of Mobile Bay to Dauphin Island, which was the “capital” of the Louisiana Territory for a while and has another Civil War era fort, Fort Gaines. We had intended to take the ferry and perhaps take our bikes over with us to explore the island a bit. But when we got to the dock the ferry was leaving in about 10 minutes. It was very windy there and it felt really cold. So we decided to explore Fort Morgan first and consider taking a later ferry. We went to Fort Morgan and ate our picnic lunch sitting in the warm sun inside the truck before entering the Visitors Center and learning the history of the fort. Opened in 1831, it was instrumental during the Civil War in defending the strategic Mobile Bay by the Confederates after they peacefully took it over in 1861 from the Federal presence. It was reclaimed by the Union in 1864 after the Battle of Mobile Bay, during which Admiral David Farragut reportedly uttered the immortal words, “Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead!” We explored the star-shaped fort, which is being renovated but allows visitors to climb up the walls and ramparts and see where the massive guns were mounted, overlooking the bay and the Gulf. We drove to two large batteries as well but didn’t get out as they are mostly closed off. By the time we left the fort we decided we didn’t want to brave the cold ferry ride to see the other fort. We headed back to town and bought groceries and dropped off some recycling. Returning to the State Park we parked near the shore and took their boardwalk to the beach. It was cool but not unbearable and we enjoyed having the whole thing entirely to ourselves to walk and pick up shells for the boys. This area is a nesting spot for loggerhead sea turtles so they ask that people stay off the dunes and only walk along the shore, which we did, even though the nesting period is from May to October. After a bit we returned to the camper and made hot dogs for dinner and then went to the Activity Center, both to see if the internet was working and to see the evening’s entertainment. There wasn’t an interesting sunset this evening because there were no clouds. It was about 48° and very clear as we walked over to the center. About 50 people gathered to hear the program of about an hour and a half. They opened with a sing-along of REAL oldies, half of which I have never heard before. The main act was the Off the Wall gang, a group made up of one guitar and 13 mountain dulcimers. They all are staying at the park and learn and play together. It was interesting to hear so many dulcimers at one time. They were followed by three other “acts”, very homespun, and not unlike a park talent show. It was fun to take part with them. Happily the internet connection was restored and so we could catch up on email and posting this blog before we went to bed. We will be moving further east and camping in the Florida panhandle tomorrow morning.

Finally, a nice day!

2011-02-06T19:57:00.000-08:00

Sun. Feb. 6: This was a really nice day. It was clear overnight and got down to 30°. But we stayed cozy. It warmed up quickly and by the time we enjoyed scrambled eggs with sausage pieces we were ready to get the bikes out again and finally check out the Tammany Trace Bike Trail. It was voted the best Bike Trail in Louisiana and runs right through the State Park. We rode east into the wind which made the 54° feel a bit cooler. We thought we’d ride for about half an hour and then come back. Part way down, and still within the State Park, we crossed Camp Road 3 and decided to take it and explore a little bit off trail. It led to a really pretty retreat center on a bayou that looked like it would usually have ‘gators in it, but not on a day this cool. There was a group in the center so we didn’t look inside but we went out on the dock on the bayou and enjoyed the sunshine. Back on the trace, we continued our ride until it seemed time to turn around. It was easier returning with the wind to our backs and we were each down to just one shirt and plenty warm in the sunshine. We stopped in the Visitor Center to talk to Grayhawk Perkins again and see if he knew Matt Hubbard. He thinks he met him while working with Willie Nelson, just as we thought might be the case. I also remembered to ask him what makes the loud “clicking” we hear from the swamp when the temperature rises into the fifties. He told us it is the “Bronze Frog”. We ate a quick wrap sandwich back at the camper and then jumped in the truck to drive to Slidell, where they were holding the first Mardi Gras parade of the year. Since Mardi Gras is so late this year (March 8) we were really lucky that the Krewe of Claude was getting a jump on the season! Without really knowing how we would accomplish it, we managed to drive straight in to one of the main corners along the route, parked at a shopping center, and took our place along the curb in our chairs. An hour later, after sitting in the 60° sun enough to feel it on our cheeks, and watching the street party atmosphere all around, the parade reached us. After most of the Slidell police force in cars or on horse or motorcycle came every limousine service, public school, and cheerleading/dance team in town made an appearance. There was a royal court and many representatives from the local Classic Car Club. There were at least 6 floats throwing loads of necklaces, bags of peanuts, Frisbees, stuffed animals, and other trinkets. The majority of the participants were African-American but the Choctaw and Houma Native background of this area was readily apparent in both the faces and the costumes. I got so many necklaces that they were uncomfortably heavy around my neck. All in all, it was a very satisfactory and charmingly small-town parade! On our way back to the campsite we stopped for McDonald’s ice cream and then went to see the eagles’ nest at the State Park. Didn’t see any eagles, but that’s okay. We wanted to stop by and see Ray and Chip at their campsite before the Super Bowl so we ran over there quickly. The camper is the most luxurious one we’ve see, with three big pullouts which make a 10 or 12 foot living area with a large screen TV! It’s the Taj Mahal to our little Trail Manor, I guess. It was nice to meet Chip’s wife, Pat, and Ray’s wife, Leah. After chatting for a few minutes we returned and decided not to go into town to watch the Big Game, and just watched in the camper. It was fun to keep track of people’s comments on Facebook about the game and its commercials as we watched the Packers pull out their 31-25 victory over the Steelers. It was a really good game and it was nice not to care too much who won the game. The night finished with a new Glee, and a few chores to get ready to leave Louisiana tomorrow. The worst thing about today was talking to Sarah throughout the day and finding that Analyn just can't seem to wean from the oxygen that they are giving her and keep her blood levels above 90 on her own. She does alright while awake and nursing, but once she's asleep the levels go down to 88 or so. So although everything else looks pretty good, they remain at the hospital until that improves. Aunt Jen is now in Indianapolis to help out with the boys, thank goodness! When will this long nightmare end for them?

Finishing up with Habitat

2011-02-06T15:55:00.000-08:00

Wed. Feb. 3—Sat. Feb. 5: Marv ended up going back to the building site both Wed. and Thu. He enjoyed working with Ray and Chip, two men we met earlier in the week, and he ate lunch out with them both days. They continued to work mostly outdoors in intermittent showers and mid-thirties Thursday and steady mist-to-rain and 35° on Friday. Somehow everyone agreed that Friday felt much colder and more miserable. Each morning Marv dropped me at the Habitat Re-Store, where Peggy Roberts and Paul Chapman graciously found odd jobs for me to do. Gradually they trained me to answer the phone and use the paging system to get help with loading and unloading and so the second day went faster than the first. I hadn’t taken a lunch on Wednesday so I got by on a chocolate chip cookie and some crackers in the break room. I made sure I had a lunch the next day! Being indoors definitely helped the bronchitis and I seem to finally be on the mend. Good thing, since I finished the Augmenten prescription on Wednesday. The temperature for these three days was amazingly consistent, varying only between about 34° and 37°. There was a lot of freezing rain just to the north of us during this time so we were grateful for the moderating influence of the lake. Although we were tired and cold we went to the nearby movie theater so we could see “The King’s Speech” with Colin Firth, which was terrific! We grabbed a quick, late dinner at Wendy’s and called Sarah, only to find out that Analyn’s oxygen levels weren’t staying high enough for them to send her home. Sarah sounded discouraged but accepted that they didn’t want to take her home and then have to return to the hospital, but we were pretty depressed by the news. It didn’t rain all night. As we drove back to the building site for our last day, the skies began to clear and by noon it was completely sunny with no clouds. But it was still only 32° when we arrived. We worked together to put the last regular piece of siding up on one side of the house and then ran the channel along that side below the fascia so we could put the final run of siding that has to be cut to fit and crimped to snap into the channel. It was challenging and pretty cold (we were working “on the dark side of the moon” as another volunteer put it) but it felt good to get it accomplished. We finished right at lunchtime and went with Chip and Ray to the Abita Springs Café, where we were regaled by the owner on the subject of football and recruiting. We all had their big, yummy hamburger and then returned to the house. It is amazing how much warmer sun and 47° felt by then!! Marv and I put up a piece of plywood in a closet to wall off the furnace and then rehung all the lattice work that goes around the apron of the house. By then everyone was cleaning up the site and we left for the last time about 2:30. Back at the campground we signed up to stay here Sunday night so we can really enjoy tomorrow, when it is supposed to be sunny and low sixties. We relaxed a bit and walked around on some roads we hadn’t explored on our bikes. We warmed up some of the chicken from the other day and cooked a sweet potato and had a relaxing evening.

Groundhog's Day!

2011-02-02T17:39:00.000-08:00

Mon. Feb. 1 & Tue. Feb. 2: We were utterly dismayed to find out last night about 10:00 that Craig and Sarah had to take Analyn to the hospital yesterday in the middle of their ice storm (part of a giant winter storm affecting 1/3 of the nation) because she was having trouble breathing. She was admitted with a common respiratory virus called RSV and a touch of pneumonia. RSV isn't usually much worse than a bad cold and is easily shared by small children but it is more serious for infants, particularly if they are high risk to begin with, which luckily Analyn is not. But they gave her antibiotics and fluids through an IV and did breathing treatments through the night and into today. They usually have to put infants on a respirator but they wanted to hold off on that as long as possible. They had brought her in very early and they were reassured that she was in better shape than they often see. She had a relatively good night and by today they no longer were talking about the respirator. In fact, they stopped the breathing treatments and all agreed that she was doing better than expected. Sarah just let us know that they are going to give her a feeding tube so they can put Sarah's milk right into her belly; she is still too congested to nurse but it's better for her than what she was getting through the IV. Craig and Sarah are both staying there with her as his mom, Connie, is at the house taking care of the boys. I think she had planned on leaving tomorrow, but even without this, I'm not sure she could get back to Columbus because of the storm. We have helped with the Habitat build in West St. Tammany Parish for the last two days. We worked yesterday in off-and-on drizzle but 70 degree temps, putting up siding until about 2:00, when the cold front went through with a vengeance. We were concerned about the camper and working under a drip edge with no gutter so the water was coming down on our heads and running down our sleeves and necks. So we left then and learned that they all gave up about 3:00, when it really poured. Last night it got down to 30 degrees and we have unhooked our waterline because it is supposed to be colder tonight. It never got over 36 degrees today and was very cold and blustery. We had a hard time staying warm enough as we finished the siding left undone yesterday on one side of the house. We took a couple of breaks to walk up and down the road to get hands and feet warmed past being numb! We went out for lunch at the Abita Brewhouse with two other workers we have met here and none of us had beer--just coffee or tea! When we got back to the worksite Marv and I worked on putting up soffit trim on the other side of the house and found that it was a little warmer there. Nonetheless we knocked off about 3:00 rather than staying until 4:00 as a handful of others did. With Marv recovering from a bad cold and me on my second antibiotic for bronchitis we have decided it doesn't make sense for us to work outside tomorrow in the predicted sleet and mid-30s temperatures. We'll hope they have something we can do for the next two days inside their Re-store shop and then return to the house on Saturday when it is supposed to be sunny and in the forties. As Marv said, "It doesn't seem right that I had to come to Louisiana to find out how frustrating it is to work with vinyl siding in frigid temps." Turns out the siding cracks and breaks very easily when we try to cut it to fit. Still we have gotten a lot done on the house in the last couple of days and met some very nice people both local and from NC and WI. By the way, Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow, which means Spring is right around the corner. Yeah, right!!

Settling in at Fontainebleau State Park

2011-01-31T19:55:00.000-08:00

Sun. Jan. 30-Mon. Jan. 31: Here at campsite #22 there is a nearly constant sound of loud “clicking” from the swamp. I haven’t managed to find out if it is insects or frogs or something else, but I sure hope to learn before the week is out! It’s a bit disconcerting because it sounds very much like the click of raindrops on the aluminum roof of the camper. We have spent these two days getting acclimated, learning our way around the campground, and trying to recover from bronchitis and ear infections (Peggy) and a very bad cold (Marv). We agreed that we mostly needed to take it easy so that we have enough energy to be helpful when we show up at Habitat! So yesterday we went shopping for groceries and then took a rest. We walked around the campground a bit and then took a rest. We went to the Visitors Center to see their demonstration of old fashioned wood working and their exhibition of the history of the park and then took a rest. You get the idea. It rained off and on nearly all day and the temperature was right around 60. It rained hard after sunset and the chili I made tasted very good. The night wasn’t too cold and we woke to fog but temps in the 50s. Although Monday was cloudy much of the time we did have times with hazy sunshine. Many of our fellow campers left yesterday or today and so we have very few neighbors. The campground is quiet and we have seen deer in neighboring campsites. Most of the buildings and structures in the park were wiped out by Hurricane Katrina so what is here is new and very nice. We rode our bikes a lot today—about 8 miles, all in the campground. We started out by going to the registration gate to get quarters for the laundry only to find out we were too late; they had been sent out already with the weekend proceeds. So we rode down to the lakefront and walked on the Alligator Boardwalk. I can’t decide if I’m disappointed or relieved that we didn’t see any alligators. We did see lots of water fowl and no other people. We came back, ate lunch and rested. After sitting in the sun and reading for a while, we rode over to the group campground area and to see the cabins that are available to rent. There are twelve of them, all up in the air, and right over the water. They have a table and chairs, rocking chairs, and fans on their front porch overlooking the lake. Each has a dish for TV and internet access. We don’t know how much they cost to rent, but they look very, very nice! As we ride the camp roads we see very few vehicles but many, many white tail (and possibly another, smaller type) deer and armadillos. We also saw the back end of a wild pig as it scurried into the brush away from us. Marv greased the truck and the camper and we waited to take one more bike ride, back down to the lakeshore to watch the sunset. But by the time he came in, we realized the sun was setting. So instead we hopped in the truck and drove down in time to catch just the edge of the sun as it slipped beyond the horizon. But there was lots of color so it was very nice. We drove from there into Mandeville to get some local cuisine for dinner—bar-b-que beef po’ boys and fried dill pickles at Bears Grill washed down with Abita beer, which is made about 5 miles away. Yummy but we were stuffed!!! We came back to the campsite with a supply of quarters and did two loads of laundry, watched a little TV and got to bed early so we’ll be ready for our first day with Habitat for Humanity.

Happy Birthday, Hank!!

2011-01-29T19:28:00.000-08:00

Sat. Jan. 29: Our drive today was sunny and mid-70s the whole way! Gorgeous!! I was surprised at how little "civilization" we saw most of the way. Once we got away from the obvious large cities, it was rolling countryside with lots of piney woods. Very pleasant and little traffic most of the time. We continued on I-65 south to Birmingham, AL, where we headed southeast on I-20/I-59. I-59 headed more southward just west of Meridian, MS. We followed it all the way down to Slidell, Louisiana to take I-12 west to the park. We are settled in at Fontainebleau State Park on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. We're on the outside of a camping loop overlooking the swamp, which is noisy with critters calling as the sun goes down. We have electricity, water, and internet access at our site, all for $9.00 a night (half price because we're volunteering this week with Habitat). We are in the “new” campground and we wonder if it was put in following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. It has a nice, new bathhouse with showers. And there is apparently a laundry here at the campground, possible on the other end of the bathhouse. This is certain to be the best, cheapest camping we'll have the whole time we're gone. It will be a great start for the camping portion of our time.