Pictured Rocks – July 2012

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Michigan Traveler

In my opinion, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is only place in the state where you can experience true wilderness.  The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore between Munising and Grand Marais are a stunning example of nature’s beauty.  The cliffs along Lake Superior are viewed by thousands of visitors every year.  You can see the cliffs from tour boats, by kayak or canoe, or from hiking trails along the cliffs.  The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore includes acres of wilderness inland from the lakeshore and miles of hiking trails, including a segment of the North Country Scenic Trail.  Backcountry campgrounds are accessible by foot or boat.

We stayed at the Bay Furnace Natural Forest Campground, just west of Munising.  There were no hookups for electricity and water and we were in our dry camping mode.  The campground was quite nice, with lots of trees between sites.  Most of the sites were deep enough to handle a trailer of our size.  Some of the sites were right on the bay, with a clear view of the Lake Superior and Grand Island.  Munising was the site of many iron ore mines, and was the major industry in the area for years.  Along the lakeshore the companies had built huge furnaces to melt the iron ore for shipment and for local use in making tools and other implements.  One of these old furnaces has been partially restored and is in the Bay Furnace campground.  We would recommend this campground to anyone coming to the area.

Bob has backpacked in the Pictured Rocks three times (once with Pat as his hiking partner) and wanted to return to the area.  Surprisingly we spent more time on the water than we did  hiking.  We went to a rock formation in the Pictured Rocks called Miner’s Castle.  We launched our kayaks from nearby Miner’s Beach and paddled around Miner’s Castle and along other cliffs.  The trip was a bit challenging as we paddled in waves up to three feet high.  Lake Superior can be very unpredictable and strong winds and high seas can occur with little warning.  There are many places along the lakeshore where the sheer cliffs will not allow you to beach your kayak if you get into trouble.  You are strongly encouraged to paddle out in the lake with only the proper equipment.  Our kayaks were not made for this sort of environment, so we stayed close to the Miner’s Beach area.  We stopped for lunch on the beach and went swimming afterward.  The heat wave we had been experiencing made swimming in Lake Superior more pleasant than you would normally expect.

Bob had heard about how good the SCUBA diving was in the Alger Underwater Preserve and made arrangements to dive on two wrecks, the Steven M. Selvick and the Bermuda.  The water was clear but VERY cold.  It was 500 at sixty feet underwater on the Selvick and still cold at thirty feet down on the Bermuda.  The shallow dives allow you plenty of time to explore the wrecks, but the cold water didn’t encourage you to stay underwater too long.

While in Munising we drove over to Marquette to have dinner with one of Bob’s friends from the National Guard, Fred Stonehouse.  We had dinner at Vierlings, a refurbished “Sample House,” that had some of the best and freshest white fish we had ever eaten.  Fred is an author of several books about the Great Lakes and is a Marquette city councilman.  He and his wife, Lois, are certainly proud of Marquette and gave us a personal tour before we left.

There are several waterfalls in the area and a brochure available in the Interagency Visitors Center in Munising gives detailed directions to each one.  We explored several in the area and it was surprising how a small stream can create a significant waterfall.

Our last full day was spent kayaking on the Au Train River.  This is a very popular river and was pretty crowded at the bridge from which we launched, although the crowd cleared quickly and we had a very pleasant time on the river.  The Au Train River winds in an S-curve on its way to Lake Superior so it was easy to drop off Pat with the kayaks at the bridge, have Bob park the truck at Lake Superior, and ride his bike back to the launch point.

Munising and the Pictured Rocks were a great place to visit, and now we are on our way to the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.

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Tahquamenon Falls – July 2012

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Michigan Traveler

The Mackinac Bridge is one of the largest suspension bridges in the world and is the gateway to the Upper Peninsula.  Every Labor Day the northbound side of the bridge is closed to vehicle traffic for the Mackinac Bridge Walk, led by the Governor.  It was a pleasure to get to Tahquamenon Falls – for the beauty of the area and for relief for the high temperatures.  Lansing was reporting temperatures of 100 degrees, and we had temperatures in the 90’s while we were at the cottage and in Bad Axe.  What a relief to be in the high 70’s and 80’s!

We stayed at Tahquamenon Falls State Park in the Overlook Campground at the Lower Falls.  It’s a nice campground with good sized sites and quite a few pull-through sites.  There is a hiking trail that will take you directly to the Lower Falls.  However, if we were to camp here again, we would probably stay at the Riverbend Campground.  It also has large sites and pull-throughs, but is closer to the river and some of the sites are on a bluff overlooking the river.  As soon as we were set up we rode our bikes to the Lower Falls.  It was certainly easier going down to the falls than riding uphill back to the campsite!

The weather was great for our entire stay and we biked and hiked all over.  We hiked about five miles going halfway to the Upper Falls and back.  We rode our bikes to the Upper Falls for a Ranger-led tour.  There are observation decks right at the falls and in the gorge downstream that give you an up close view.  It was interesting to find out how much the Ford Motor Company did in the area in logging and iron ore mining.  Henry Ford and Thomas Edison would often camp in the area of the falls to relax and discuss their next great opportunity.  The largest use of the area was the logging of white pine, and the Tahquamenon River was the primary route to float the logs down to Lake Superior after the winter logging operation.  You could just imagine the log jams at the Upper Falls and the loggers climbing on them to break them apart so they could continue to Lake Superior. By the way, for any ice cream lovers, the Camp 33 concession at the Upper Falls has the best ice cream cones!

One day Bob drove to the Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point.  Whitefish Point is the site of several famous Lake Superior wrecks, including the Edmund Fitzgerald.  Bob considers this a “must see” stop in the Upper Peninsula.  They have done a great job in describing what life was like on the Great Lakes for the sailors on the ore carriers and the lighthouse keepers and lifesaving crews on the shore.  The lighthouse keepers’ residence and the lifesaving station have been completely restored, and interpretive guides do an excellent job of putting you into the history of the period with their stories and descriptions.

One of the reasons we wanted to visit Tahquamenon Falls was so Bob could “play in the falls.”  We remember at some time in the past the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) prohibited swimming in the Lower Falls, but people did it anyway.  They have obviously decided they couldn’t enforce this policy so now they just warn everyone of the hazards and let them swim.  The Lower Falls has several spots where you can get right under the falls, behind the flow of the river.  One nice thing about the heat wave this summer is that the river was pleasant to swim in and you weren’t freezing.

The day before we left, we biked to the Upper Falls and exercised by walking and running the Giant Pine Loop of 3.8 miles through the woods.  Between the running and walking and the 8 1/2 mile round trip  ride to the Upper Falls we got quite a workout!

Monday, July 23rd, we left for a short drive to our next stop – Munising and the Pictured Rocks.

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Back to Michigan, Part 2

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Michigan Traveler

It has been our tradition to spend the week of the Fourth of July at Pat’s brothers’ cottage.  The family turns the cottage into a campground with our fifth wheel trailer, Welton and Mary Lee’s fifth wheel, and a number of tents for other family.  It is a great week of socializing and relaxing.  This year was special because our son, Scott and his daughters flew up from Mississippi to join us.  Our daughter, Elisabeth drove up from North Carolina, and our other son, Dave, was able to get time off from work in Lansing to join us as well.  As spread out as the family is, it is a rare occasion when we can get that many of us in one place at the same time!

The weather was hot, but that made the water that much more comfortable. I won’t say it was bath water, but it was very close.  We all had a wonderful time, swimming,boating,  building sand castles, and playing games at the cottage.  We had a campfire most nights and, of course, that meant roasting  marshmallows for “S’mores.”  For the adults, food is often considered the highlight of the holiday.  We had more than enough to eat every night, and the guys tried to out-do each other on the charcoal grill!

Going out of the lake in Wayne’s pontoon boat was a hit.  We always had snacks and drinks on board.  We would stop in the middle of the lake and everyone, including Wayne’s labrador, Zeke, would go for a swim.  Scott’s twin 5-year old daughters took to the water like fish and had no problems with jumping into the water in the middle of the lake.  Geri’s boat was the favorite for tubing, even for the twins.

Welton and Mary Lee brought our niece, Destiny who was visiting from Florida, with them.  Wayne and Mo’s son, Brian and his girlfriend were up for a few days.  Everyone is welcome at the cottage!

We celebrated the Fourth of July by attending Rose City fireworks show.  Rose City may be a small town but it puts on a great fireworks display.  It’s one of the best shows we have ever seen, and having your family to share it with is the icing on the cake.

One of the special events was meeting the newest member of our extended family.  Our niece Tara and her husband Ben brought their newborn daughter, Adalyn, to the cottage for all of us to see.  She is a precious little girl and was passed around for all to hold.

From the cottage, Dave went back to Lansing and we moved to Geri’s (Pat’s brother) farm in Bad Axe.  Scott’s girls thought it was great.  They had a chance to ride in a farm combine, pick fresh produce from the garden, and feed Geri’s horse.  The weekend was filled with games, playing with the dogs, and water balloon battles.  Bob, Scott, Welton, and Ben did some target shooting in the wood lot behind the family farm.  Unfortunately all good things have to come to an end.  Elisabeth headed home to Raleigh on Sunday.  Bob had to leave on July 10th for Pittsburgh for two days and Pat took Scott and the girls to the airport on the 11th.

The rest of the time at Geri’s was a lot more relaxing but just as much fun.  Pat helped in the garden, visited friends.  Bob did some work on the trailer and made a mount for the flags as he has been wanting to do.  All in all we had a wonderful time with family and friends.  On July 18th we headed up north, next stop Tahquamenon Falls near Paradise, MI.

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Back to Michigan, Part 1

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Michigan Traveler

We arrived at Sleepy Hollow State Park in Laingsburg on May 31, 2012.  We had reserved a campsite for our stay, but when we tried to back the trailer into it we discovered that was not going to happen!  When we selected the site we thought it was good that there were no other campsites directly across the road, and we would enough room to maneuver the trailer.  Unfortunately the trees and brush came right up to the road and we just couldn’t make the turns to back the trailer into the site.  We abandoned our attempt and drove back to the camp office. The Ranger gave us a list of sites that were available, and we walked through the campground to pick one we could back in to.  The new site was perfect and we had no problems.  We plan to return to Sleepy Hollow when we come back to this part of Michigan again, so on the day before we left, we took a walk through the campground marking a map with sites that would be good for a rig our size.

The campsites at Sleepy Hollow are really nice in that there are plenty of trees and brush between most of the sites.  This gives you a lot of privacy, but still an opportunity to interact with other campers.

Our primary reason for staying in the Lansing, MI area was for appointments with our doctors and dentists, as well as visiting with family and friends.  We were able to spend time with our son, David, who still works and lives in Lansing, and have friends out to the trailer.

We invited Bob’s Uncle Norm and Aunt Joyce and Bob’s sister, Susan, and her husband, Gerry, for lunch.  Norm and Joyce knew we living in the trailer, but hadn’t had the chance to see it yet.  It was interesting to hear Susan and Gerry describe their recent trip to Europe, but fascinating to hear Uncle Norm talk about growing up with Bob’s father and their brother, Jack.  Of course after everyone had left, Bob said, “We never took a single picture!”

We thought we would spend a lot of time relaxing, but it was a rather busy couple of weeks.  All in all it was a great visit.  We took care of a lot of stuff, enjoyed seeing old friends, and had beautiful weather.

Next stop is Lake City to spend some time with our friends, Stan and Betsy.

When we started our new lifestyle as fulltime RVers, our first stop was the home of our friends, Stan & Betsy, in Lake City.  It’s probably appropriate that our next stop after a year on the road was Stan & Betsy’s place.  We arrived in Lake City on June 15th and were able to park our trailer next to Stan’s workshop.  He is so accommodating that he had installed an RV outlet on his 30 amp circuit for us to plug into.

Betsy invited our friends Roger and Darcy to join all of us on Saturday and we had a great time eating, spending time at the lake and just chatting with each other.  By the end of the day we had solved all of the world’s problems – if only everyone recognized our brilliance!

On Sunday, Bob took Stan’s nephew, BJ, out kayaking. Stan, Bob, and BJ went to a local trail for a trail run while Pat and Betsy relaxed by the lake.

We were on our own after the weekend and we spend a lot of time just relaxing.  We would exercise in the morning, and take it easy for the rest of the day.  Bob had been looking for a place that could make a sign in the shape of the State of Michigan with our names on it for the trailer. We took a drive over to Houghton Lake to see if there were any shops in that area that did this kind of work.  We didn’t have any luck there, but we had left our information at a shop in Lake City and the owner contacted us the next day and told us he could make our sign.  We picked it up on Thursday morning and it was just what we were looking for!  We hope that this will help us meet other RVers from Michigan in our travels.

On our last day we decided to drive to Traverse City.  We started the day by visiting wineries on the Mission Peninsula and spend the rest of the day shopping in downtown Traverse City.  The most unique stop was an insurance company.  Hagerty Insurance insures collector cars and classic boats.  Their office has a showroom with some of the cars on display and they support an antique car rally every year.

Friday, June 22nd, we were on our way to Canadian Lakes to visit Bob’s sister.

We stayed at the School Section Lake Veterans’ Park, one the Mecosta County parks.  This was a very nice campground with a pleasant beach.  Susan and Gerry and their daughter Kristin joined us for lunch on Saturday.  Later in the week the four of us drove us to Ludington where we wandered around the town and visited the graveyards where Bob’s ancestors are buried.  Bob’s Uncle Norm has been the historian in the family and has performed some obvious work to replace or preserve the old headstones.  Seeing the actual headstones and reviewing the genealogy made the history more personal.

Later in the week we went to Mt. Pleasant to visit the campus of Central Michigan University, do some shopping and run errands.  The city has certainly grown since we graduated from there in the early-70’s.

Wednesday we drove to the cottage on Rifle Lake to spend the Fourth of July with Pat’s family.

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Our First Anniversay

Posted on June 9, 2012 by Michigan Traveler

We started our full time RV journey on June 17th of last year and now we are back in Michigan until mid-July.  We tallied up our mileage and it had been a little over 10,000 miles since we started.  This will give you an idea where we have been.

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Back Home for Repairs and Checkups

Posted on June 3, 2012 by Michigan Traveler

From what I have discovered from visiting various RV forums is that most full-timers go back to their home town at least once a year to visit their doctors and other annual appointments as well as to visit friends and family.  We had made plans months ago to return to Michigan in June and July.  We made appointments with our doctors and financial advisor, and set up times to invite our friends to come out and visit us to see how we were doing after a year on the road.  It was also a good time for Bob to set up a get-together with his side of the family.

When we left Indiana we planned to make a short stop in the Grand Rapids area to have some work done on the trailer at TerryTown RV where we purchased it.  One of the slide outs appeared to be separating from the piston, and it was not something Bob felt he could fix on his own.  We were also due to have the trailer wheel bearings repacked.  We found an RV park, Woodchip Campgrounds, two miles from TerryTown RV.  We were pleasantly surprised with that such a nice  campground could exist in the middle of a residential area.  We will certainly keep it in mind when we need to use the services of TerryTown RV again.  We pulled in and rearranged the way the trailer was loaded to make the areas they may have to work on more accessible.  First thing in the morning we took the trailer into the dealer, went back to the campground to do laundry, did some shopping, met some friends for lunch and picked the trailer up at the end of the day.  Bob was pleased with the customer service at TerryTown as well as the quality of the work.  We checked back into Woodchip Campgrounds in time to fix dinner and were on our way to the Lansing area the following morning.

Life on the road isn’t that much different than when living in a typical house.  You still have to schedule maintenance and medical appointments into your schedule.  We just face a different challenge in the physical location for these appointments.

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Land Between the Lakes & St. Louis

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Michigan Traveler

Our next stop was the Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky and Tennessee.  Bob always thought it would be a neat place to visit.  It took us three days of traveling to get there.  Enroute we stayed at a small campground near Old Fort, TN.  We only stayed overnight, but it was right on a small river and was a great setting for camping.  The next night we were in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart, just east of Nashville, and that made for an easy last day.

Land Between the Lakes used to be the Land Between the Rivers as this is the area between the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.  The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was created in 1933 to provide navigation, reduce flooding in the area and create hydroelectric power for the local communities in the Tennessee Valley.  In order to accomplish this, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built huge dams on the northern end of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers creating Kentucky Lake (Tennessee River) and Lake Barkley (Cumberland River).  Most of the land between the two lakes was taken over by the U.S. Forest Service to create the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.  There are campgrounds, hiking and backpacking trails, boating, nature centers (including a prairie for elk and bison), and historical sites.

We arrived at the Piney Campground on Saturday, April 28th, and went kayaking in Kentucky Lake that afternoon.  There were several bays off the lake that we explored and saw countless turtles, both on shore and in the water.  I don’t think we have ever seen that many turtles in one place before!  The next day, we attended the church service in the campground and spent the rest of the day relaxing.

Most days we would run, walk, or bike in the morning, but the hills in the area made biking a bit of a challenge!  One day we drove up the Woodland Trace, a road that runs through the center of the area.  We visited the Golden Pond Visitor Center and Planetarium, then toured the Homeplace.  The Homeplace is a 19th Century working farm with interpreters in period clothing performing daily chores on the farm.  You get the impression that this area was mostly farmland and forests, but the Land Between the Lakes has a history of tin mines, ore furnaces and woodworking shops, as well as being a major area for shipping on the inland river system.

Some of the days were generally lazy days, spent enjoying the clear skies and doing some work around the campsite.  We took advantage of the trail system in the park and hiked about twelve miles near the campground.  One of the trails was the Artillery Trail, so named because it follows the route that General Grant took from his victory at Fort Henry to his positions opposing Fort Donelson.  The trails are nice and well marked and there are maps that show routes, intersections and distances very well.  It was a hot day and our legs were feeling the effects of the climbs that we had along the trail by the time we walked back into the campground.

We went back in history as we toured the battlefield of Fort Donelson.  This was the site of the first major Union victory in the Civil War and the battle that essentially launched General U.S. Grant’s career.  While the tactics were interesting, Bob found the leadership crisis that occurred among the Confederate commanders to be the most interesting aspect of the visit.  The senior commander was Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd.  Floyd was a wanted man in the North for alleged graft and secessionist activities when he was Secretary of War in the administration of President James Buchanan and was afraid of being captured.  Consequently he turned over his command to Brig. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow andescaped to Confederate lines under the cover of darkness.  Brig. Gen. Pillow said he would never surrender and so he turned over his command to Brig. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner before he escaped by boat.  Brig. Gen. Buckner choose to honor his responsibility to his soldiers and when it was painfully obvious there was no hope of victory over Grant’s Union force, he surrendered to his West Point classmate.

After taking three days to travel to the Land Between the Lakes, the 210 mile drive to Scott Air Force Base was leisurely.

Scott AFB was a great location as a base for Bob’s trips to Pittsburgh and the Chicago area to do training workshops, to relax, and to tour the St. Louis area.  The Base FAMCAMP was located on the edge of a grassy field near Scott Lake on the north end of the base.  At first we thought we would have to drive to the airport at Lambert Field, but quickly discovered that there was a Metrolink station right at the edge of the base, so Bob could take the train.  The Metrolink also made touring St. Louis very convenient.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon, May 6th and spent Sunday and Monday settling in, exploring the base facilities, and attended a health fair that included a personal health screening.  Bob flew to Pittsburgh for his Corps of Engineers project on Tuesday.  Pat took in the St. Louis Zoo and some other sights while Bob was gone.

The Outdoor Recreation Department at Scott AFB is one of the most active Outdoor Recreation Departments we have seen in our travels.  Saturday they hosted a bus tour of local wineries as a Mother’s Day getaway.  We traveled in two busses to the Augusta wine country and visited 6 wineries.  Of course we sampled wines at most of them and brought back several bottles to enjoy later.  It was a great way to see the area and make new friends.

The FAMCAMP was located near a fitness trail that went all the way around the runways and was convenient for a morning run or walk, and we took advantage of it most mornings.

Monday, we took our bikes on the Metrolink to Forest Park, the largest urban park in the United States.  We rode our bikes around the Forest Park area, and toured the Missouri History Museum.  Forest Park was the site of the 1904 World’s Fair, the first World’s Fair held in the United States.  The History Museum had a special exhibit about it that was quite interesting.  Our last stop of the day was the Fitz’s American Grill & Bottling Works which has some of the best Root Beer floats ever made!

The next day we took the Metrolink to downtown S. Louis and visited the Gateway Arch, took a short boat cruise, and visited the old Courthouse where the Dred Scott Trial was conducted.  We also saw Union Station and the Busch Brewery.  Bob was fascinated by Union Station and had to read every sign in the place.  The Brewery was a great tour to see the behind the scenes view of brewing beer.  Of course, the favorite stop on the tour was the free beer tasting at the end!

Bob was contacted by SkillPath Seminars to present a two-day workshop on Microsoft Project to a company in Itasca, IL, just west of O’Hare Airport and spent quite a bit of time this week preparing for that.  We took advantage of the base medical clinic to get some blood work and other tests done in preparation of our annual medical checkups that we plan to do while in the Lansing area in early June.

The Outdoor Recreation Department had an overnight backpacking trip scheduled for the upcoming weekend.  Bob had been looking for an opportunity like this and jumped at the chance. Twelve of us traveled to Bell Mountain, southwest of St. Louis.  This was to be a relatively short hike, only 12 miles; however, the first day was all up hill.  Over seven miles we climbed 1700 feet in elevation.  About two miles short of the summit we stopped at a stream to fill all of our water containers as there was no other place along the route to get water.  We got to the summit just before 5:00, so we had almost three hours to set up camp, make dinner and clean up before nightfall.  What a great view!  We could see for miles and miles.  It had been hot all day with temperatures approaching 90 degrees.  Fortunately we had a canopy of trees above us most of the day, giving us plenty of shade.  There was a nice breeze at the summit so everything could dry out.

The next morning was beautiful!  You could see the sun rising over the mountains in the distance.  After a leisurely breakfast we broke camp and made our descent.  It may have been all downhill, but that is often harder on the feet than climbing and the loose rock made for a careful descent.

Now we are on our way to Michigan!

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Raleigh, NC – April 2012

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Michigan Traveler

It’s always good to visit family and this leg of our travels took us to Raleigh, NC, to see our daughter.  We have actually seen more of Elisabeth than normal because she spent time with us while Scott was home on leave, and joined us in Myrtle Beach.  Rather than spending a lot of time sightseeing as we had done in the last several places, this was a time to relax.  We stayed at the Holly Point Campground in the Falls Lake State Recreation Area.  The campsites are nice with long driveways and plenty of trees around each site.  You certainly don’t feel like you are in your neighbor’s backyard!  Falls Lake is a Corps of Engineers reservoir and, as a result, has lots of small bays along the shoreline which makes for interesting kayaking.

When we first arrived we had an immediate challenge.  As we were packing the trailer into the site, a linkage in the truck’s transmission came apart and left us stranded across the road, blocking traffic and unable to shift into any gear.  Thankfully there was almost no one in that part of the part that afternoon.  We called GM and they sent a wrecker out to tow the truck into a local dealership.  The wrecker driver was able to connect the linkage enough so we could get the trailer where it had to go and towed the truck into the dealership.  Fortunately, the dealer was able to get it fixed the next day and the whole expense, including the towing, was covered by the warranty.

We spent some time at Elisabeth’s house installing ceiling fans and lights in her bedrooms.  Bob actually asks her if she has any projects he can work on when we visit.  We had a great time with Elisabeth, having her out to the campsite for kayaking and dinner, having dinner at her house, as well as shopping and going out to dinner.

We did a lot of relaxing and exercised most mornings.  Walking and running were preferred over bicycling as the area was VERY hilly.  We checked out the campsites so we would know which ones we would prefer when we come back again and checked out the possibility of volunteering in the park at some time in the future.

Bob took a side trip to Atlanta to do a training seminar and Pat and Elisabeth got some girl time together.  We met Elisabeth for lunch and got to see her office on our way to take Bob to the airport.  Bob got back Thursday night and Friday morning we were on our way to the Land Between the Lakes in western Kentucky.

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Savannah, Charleston and Myrtle Beach – March/April 2012

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Michigan Traveler

As we were mapping out where we wanted to go from Key West, and we talked about working our way up the east coast.  Pat had wanted to see Savannah because it’s said to be such a beautiful city.  Military RV parks are the most affordable places to stay, so we chose to stay at Hunter Army Airfield.  The RV park at Hunter is small, with only 16 full hookup sites, with no other facilities in the park, such as bathroom, showers or laundry and we never saw anyone from the MWR staff in the park.  The MWR office is several miles away but we didn’t find any of this to be a problem for the short time we were camped there.  We thought this might be a relaxing stay, although we ended up being very busy.

Saturday was the first full day in the Savannah area and the forecast included wind and rain so we decided to check out the Eight Air Force Museum.  The “Mighty Eighth” had been formed in Savannah before deploying to England in WW II and the museum gave you a real sense of what it was like for the aircrews that made the daylight bombing raids over the Third Reich.

Sunday, we attended church at the Wesley Monumental United Methodist Church.  It was a very traditional service, but we were impressed by the number of children that came up for the children’s worship.  I guess you don’t have to have a contemporary service to attract young families!  After church we took the rest of the day to see the Historical District.  We took a tour on the “Old Savannah Tours” trolley that allows you to get on and off as you wish.  At some point in the city’s history it looked like many of the old homes would be torn down and the land used for parking lots and commercial structures.  Eventually, between volunteer groups and the city, many of the old homes were protected and preserved.  All old buildings have a historic designation with a plaque that tells you when it was built and the name of the original owner.  Within the Historical District, new buildings have to follow the architectural pattern of the historical homes in the area.  In one neighborhood we saw a home that was built in 1985 that looked just like the homes from the 1800’s.

When Colonial Governor James Oglethorpe laid out the plans for Savannah, he planned for public squares throughout the city.  Bob thought this was an especially great idea.  These squares give the city a unique personality.  The commercial area along the river was originally used for the warehousing and shipping of cotton and had its own architectural uniqueness.  Savannah has buildings used by cotton merchants, pirates, slave owners, and even the birthplace of the Girl Scouts.  We had lunch at the Pirate’s House.  Robert Louis Stevenson spent several days as a guest at the Pirate’s House and it was part of his inspiration for his book, Treasure Island.  The Pirate’s House was the inn where Stevenson’s Captain Flint drank himself to death.  There is so much history in Savannah dating back to the colonial days, it is almost overwhelming!

One of the interesting stories came from the cemetery.  During the Civil War, Union soldiers camped in the cemetery and moved many of the headstones to make room for their tents.  When they were bored they often changed the engraved dates on the headstones, so it appears that some people died before they were born!  After the war the city tried to reposition the headstones, but were often unable to determine the proper location.  They placed the headstones against a wall in the cemetery so the families could find them, and possibly reposition them properly.

Monday, we visited Fort Pulaski and Tybee Island.  Fort Pulaski was designed by a team that included then Lieutenant Robert E. Lee prior to the Civil War and it was supposed to be impenetrable, but when the Union forces used new rifled cannon with exploding shells, the walls were quickly breached and the garrison surrendered. 

In contrast to downtown Charleston, Tybee Island is quite tourist-oriented.  We kayaked to Little Tybee Island, an uninhabited island about a quarter of a mile off Tybee Island.  We paddled up and down a few channels in the island, but had to make it a short trip due to the outgoing tide. 

Another site we visited was the Tybee Island Lighthouse, the tallest lighthouse in Georgia and the most complete historic lighthouse in the U.S.  Between the lighthouse and the shoreline was a Coast Artillery Battery which has been converted to a museum, a Lion’s Club, and even a private residence.

Tuesday, we continued our tour of the Historical District and that night celebrated Bob’s birthday with dinner at Kevin Barry’s Irish Pub. 

The second floor is a tribute to the military and because Hunter Army Airfield is the home to the First Ranger Battalion, tributes to the Rangers and other Special Operations Forces dominate the space. Bob felt right at home!Our next stop was Charleston, SC.  Charleston started out as merely a convenient distance to travel with no specific plans.  Of course, Bob thought we should visit Fort Sumter and the USS Yorktown.  We stayed at the RV park at Charleston Air Force Base.  They had only recently completed an expansion of the RV park and the sites were very nice.  Our camp hosts also had a Cameo trailer which made for an immediate connection and tours of each others’ trailers.

On Thursday we took the ferry to Fort Sumter to visit the place where the Civil War began.  It was a good example of the “best laid plans.”  The fort was designed to protect Charleston Harbor and its strongest side faced the narrow channel leading into Charleston Harbor. 

However, the Confederate forces, under the command of General Beauregard opened fire from the James Island side, which was the weakest.  The walls were soon reduced to rubble and the powder magazine surrounded by flames, forcing Captain Robert Anderson to surrender after only two days.  Today the fort barely resembles its original appearance due to damage caused by the initial attack, the attack when Union forces tried to retake the fort later in the war, and new construction.  After the Civil War, the walls were rebuilt to a third of their original height and for about 20 years the fort was not garrisoned, but operated as a light house station.  During the Spanish-American War a Coast Artillery Battery was constructed that replaced half of the original parade field.  It is still an impressive structure with an overwhelming historical significance.

After our tour of Fort Sumter, we wandered around the downtown area and the City Market.

Friday, we visited Patriot’s Point to tour the USS Yorktown.  The USS Yorktown (CV-10) was built to replace the original USS Yorktown (CV-5) which was sunk at the battle of Midway.  The Yorktown served through WW II (11 battle stars), Vietnam (5 battle stars), it assisted in the recovery of the Apollo 8 space capsule and was decommissioned in 1970.Saturday, we just hung out at the RV park.  Bob washed the trailer and the truck, although we got some rain late in the afternoon (of course, it always rains after you wash your vehicle, right?).  Sunday, we attended services at the base chapel and generally took it easy.  Monday we were on our way to Myrtle Beach.

Myrtle Beach, is a great place to enjoy the sun and the beach, however, the weather turned chilly for most of our stay.  Bob was scheduled to fly to Pittsburgh the day after we arrived but he was able to take some time to play in the surf our first afternoon.

Myrtle Beach was generally relax and enjoy yourself time, with no big sightseeing on the agenda.  Bob was back on Thursday evening and our daughter, Elisabeth, drove down from Raleigh, NC on Friday to join us for the weekend.  We had a special meal to celebrate her birthday on Friday and on Saturday did some shopping, sightseeing on the Boardwalk and out for dinner.  Pat loves Ferris wheels and we all enjoyed riding in the SkyWheel, the tallest Ferris wheel in the Eastern United States at 200 feet tall with a million LED lights.  It seemed like we could see forever from the top of it.

We had a most unusual experience in the campground.  When the tide came in, it flooded the part of the park that bordered the beach and they would have to use a backhoe to drain it back into the ocean!

Sunday, we attended an Easter Sunrise service on the beach at the campground.  What an inspirational place for a service!

After a workout on the beach (there is nothing like going for a run along the Atlantic Ocean!), we packed up and we on our way to Raleigh, NC.

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Everglades – Kennedy Space Center

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Michigan Traveler

We  spent a night at Everglades National Park on our way to Key West and decided that we should make it a longer stop as we headed back north.  We were so glad we did!

Everglades has two campgrounds.  Long Pine Key Campground is the closest to the entrance and has no hookups or showers.  Flamingo Campground is on the southern coast of the Everglades and has some sites with electric and water.

There are many Ranger-led activities throughout the park and we took advantage of as many as we could.  The day we arrived we went on what is the most unique tour in this park.  Everglades is a science and nature-oriented park as opposed to some others which are history-oriented.  However, Everglades National Park is the site of a Cold War Nike Missile site.  The battery that was located here was one of the sites established during the Cuban Missile Crisis and was one of the last sites to be closed down.  The National Park Service is still developing the site, but the tour gave you a unique look at this point in history.

That night we went on a Starlight Walk.  A volunteer led us on the Anhinga Trail by starlight! We saw night herons, fireflies, and  lots and lots of alligators.  We spotted alligators by using our flashlights to illuminate their eyes.  It was an entirely different experience!

The next morning we went on a bike hike through the pinelands.  We developed a brand new appreciation of the geology and hydrology of the Everglades.  The Everglades are essentially a 15-mile wide slow moving river that starts many miles upstream in Lake Okeechobee.  It was amazing how much difference a few inches of change in elevation can make in the land and vegetation.

Throughout the park we saw signs warning us about vultures.  Apparently there is a problem with the vultures in the everglades, they like the rubber gaskets on car windows!

That afternoon we went on a slough (pronounced “slew”) slog.  Guided by a Ranger, we waded through the river of grass into the shadows of a cypress dome.  There were supposed to be a dozen people on this hike, but everyone else canceled so we had our own personal guided tour!  There is so much to see in the Everglades, we saw alligators, ibis, egrets, vultures, and turtles; plants and animals we had only read about we were able to see for ourselves.

We had originally planned to leave the next morning, but we were enjoying ourselves so much we decided to stay over another day.  Tuesday morning we were up bright and early and headed to Flamingo to try to get on the Flamingo Morning Canoe Trip.  We had been told it was sold out but we thought we might be able to “walk on” if someone didn’t show up.  We didn’t get on the trip so we decided to kayak on our own.  We chose to go down the Hell’s Bay Canoe Trail.  It’s called Hell’s Bay because it is hell to get in and hell to get out.  The channel was really narrow.  There were some times when it was almost impossible to paddle with a double-bladed kayak paddle.  Canoes have a definite advantage here.  It was a good thing that the channel was marked with PVC poles because without them to guide us, we would probably still be paddling around trying to find our way out!

That night we packed up all non-essentials so we could get an early start to head to Patrick Air Force Base and the Kennedy Space Center.

We got to Patrick AFB and had just backed into our campsite when we discovered we had a flat tire.  We hadn’t noticed any problems earlier on the trip and couldn’t figure out what happened.  While Pat did some shopping at the commissary Bob changed the tire and called the manufacturer.  The bottom line was that the manufacturer had put some odd named tire on the trailer that apparently was not very good.  We called around and made arrangements to replace all of the tires with Goodyear tires on Friday on our way to Savannah, GA.

The next day went to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.  We had been to the space center on two other occasions and we weren’t sure that we would see anything new.  Boy, were we surprised!   Things like the Vehicle Assembly Building and the Rocket Garden were as they were in the past, but almost everything else was new to us.

We began with the Shuttle Launch Experience that takes you through a simulation of a shuttle launch, docking and re-entry.  Even for a couple of adults, it was pretty neat.  It was here that Bob decided maybe it was time for a career change! 🙂 

This was followed by the bus tour of the complex.  While traveling from one place to another there are videos played on the bus that highlight events from the history of the space center as well as descriptions of some of the complex’s facilities.  There are two stops on the tour.  One is an observation tower where you can see almost the entire launch complex, including the launch pads for the Space Shuttle and the Saturn V.  The other is the Apollo/Saturn V Center.  Here you can see exhibits about the space program from the first Mercury missions through the Apollo missions.

After visiting the Kennedy Space Center, we went to the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.  Here we toured a rare collection of astronaut artifacts and saw remarkable displays, exhibits and tributes dedicated to the heroes. From Wally Schirra’s Sigma 7 Mercury spacecraft to stunning glass etchings that line the Hall of Heroes, the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame celebrates the accomplishments of astronauts everywhere.  The Hall of Fame brought back memories of when we watched and listened to these events actually taking place.

The next morning we were up early; pulled the trailer to the tire dealer to change out our tires and we were on our way to Savannah, GA and the RV park at Hunter Army Airfield.

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