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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Key West, FL

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Michigan Traveler

When we started our new life as full-timer RVers and we told people we were going to live in our fifth wheel trailer, many would ask, “What are you going to do in the winter?”  Bob’s standard response was, “February in Key West sounds real good to me.”  We spent not month in Key West, but a month and a half.  Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West operates RV parks on Sigsbee Island and Trumbo Annex in Key West for military personnel and retirees, and it is THE place to stay.  Most of the campgrounds and RV parks in the Keys are very expensive, but Sigsbee and Trumbo Annex are a part of the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) Program for the NAS Key West and priced for military personnel.  NAS Key West is spread out over Boca Chica and Key West.  The main housing area, the Navy Lodge, the Navy Exchange and Commissary are on Sigsbee Island.  Trumbo Annex has another RV park that is all dry camp, at the as well as more base housing.  The chapel, more housing and a beach are at Truman Annex, and the runways and command group are on Boca Chica.  Needless to say, we didn’t go anywhere without our military ID cards!

Sigsbee Island has about 90 full hookup sites and over 300 “overflow” sites  Initially we went into a “overflow dry camp” site.  One of our neighbors was an iguana!  When we arrived at Sigsbee, there were 305 total campsites, mostly dry camp.  The good thing was there were plenty of examples showing how to make your life easier with no hookups to water, electricity, or sewer.  Click on our Boondocking tab for some tips for dry camping.  At Sigsbee Island you rotate into one of the full hookup sites for two weeks and then rotate back out into dry camp.  This gives everyone a chance to enjoy the easy life of full hookups.  One of the daily activities was checking the lists to see how many days are left before you can rotate into a full hookup site.  A typical day started with a good workout in the morning, either running, walking, or biking.  There is also a small fitness center with weight machines and treadmills.  Key West is not big, (only two miles wide and four miles long) but packed with things to do and you can bicycle almost anywhere.  Both of us bicycled all the way around the island as one of our workout routines.  During the last two weeks we were there a weather front came through with winds from 10-18 mph.  It made the rides around the island rather challenging.

Our one and a half months in Key West was our longest stay in any one place yet, giving us time to take it easy and relax.  The length of the stay gave us an opportunity to meet other campers and share experiences and tips on camping.  Some of them are snowbirds who are in Key West for the winter, some just for a few weeks, and some full time RVer’s.

Of course Key West is all about the water, at least in Bob’s opinion, and we went kayaking and snorkeling right off the shore, about 100 yards from our trailer.  Early in our stay Bob did a SCUBA dive on the Vandenberg, an Air Force radar ship sunk as an artificial reef.  Pat came along and snorkeled on the surface while Bob was 100 feet below.  The Vandenberg was sunk in 2009 and is teeming with aquatic life with lots of coral growing on the hull, and fish, squid, octopus as well as other aquatic life making their home inside the Vandenberg.A favorite activity for anyone visiting Key West is watching the sunset at Mallory Square.  There are street performers, musicians, magic acts, and gymnastic acts as well as vendors to entertain you while waiting for the sunset.  Of course wandering Duval Street at night watching the crowd is a “must see” event.   Our first night at Mallory Square we were told about a great restaurant with music that wouldn’t ruin your hearing and we decided to check it out.  The “Smokin’ Tuna” was terrific!  Good food, nice music, and great service and all of it under the stars.  So if you like open air dining, check it out!

One of our favorite places for snorkeling is Truman Annex.  This is right next to Fort Zackary Taylor State Park, but it is part of NAS Key West.  There are some large rock piles near the shore in the state park beach that attract lots of fish.  We saw angelfish, barracuda, and yellow-tail jacks to name a few.  You can also snorkel right off the shore at Sigsbee Island where the favorite snorkeling sport was looking for spiny lobster.  There is always lots of boat traffic in the area so you have to make sure you have your “diver below” flag.

It was easy to meet other folks in the campground.  For one thing the guys were always checking out everyone else’s rig to see what they have done to make it better.  It was interesting to see how many rigs had solar panels to run their systems without having to use a generator.  At least two other families bought a Weber Q-100 gas grill after seeing ours in operation.  Of course it was always interesting to share stories of where we were from, places we had visited, and of course where you were on the rotation list.

One afternoon the MWR office put on a hot dog and hamburger potluck.  They provided the hot dogs and burgers and everyone brought a dish to pass.  With 300 or so families, you can imagine there was quite a crowd.  But, wouldn’t you know it, as we were standing in line we found out the couple next to us in line was from Grand Ledge, MI!

One Saturday morning we rode our bikes to Mallory Square and around town.  While some of the bars were already open, there wasn’t a lot of foot traffic before 10:00 am.  It was nice to be able to do that and not have a huge crowd on the streets.  We treated ourselves to breakfast at one of the local restaurants at the wharf.

During our last two weeks we moved onto a site with full hookups and it was nice to have electricity all the time and not have to haul water and waste every week.  Nicer yet was the view from our campsite, we could sit in our lawn chairs and look out into the Gulf of Mexico.  One of our daily activities was gathering with a bunch of our friends to watch the sunset just before dinner.

We drove up to Bahia Honda State Park for a snorkeling tour to the Looe Reef Marine Sanctuary, but when we arrived we were told that it had been cancelled due to high winds and rough sea conditions.  We made the best of it and kayaked and did a little snorkeling on the Atlantic side.  By the time we left it was obvious why they had cancelled the trip as the waves were pretty high.  While we were at the Bahia Honda marina a manatee swam in and took a drink from a fresh water faucet on the dock.

About a week later we had a break in the weather and Bob did two SCUBA dives while Pat snorkeled on Looe Reef with an outfit called Strike Zone Diving.  It was a great trip with abundant fish that were used to humans swimming among them.

Bob took some time to visit the “Little White House” which was Harry Truman’s favorite getaway location while he was President.  It’s a great place to visit to get a little insight into Harry Truman and discounted tickets are available through the ITT office at Sigsbee. 

He also toured the Coast Guard Cutter Ingham.  This cutter served in WWII (Europe and the Pacific), Korea and Vietnam and earned two Presidential Citations.  When it was decommissioned they knew it would be a museum ship so they left almost everything on board.  It gives you a unique look at shipboard life.

Towards the end of our stay it was pretty clear that the snowbirds were heading home, everyday there were fewer dry camp sites occupied.  The day before we left we were told that by the end of the month everyone left should be in full hook ups and no one in dry camp.  After a great visit, we headed up the Keys on March 18th for our next stop, Everglades National Park.

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Disney World and MacDill Air Force Base

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Michigan Traveler

The hit of our time in Florida was seeing our oldest son, Scott, who was home on leave from Afghanistan.  His family was staying at a relative’s vacation home in Orlando so he could enjoy his leave in a festive setting.  We stayed at Fort Wilderness at Disney World and spend time with Scott and his family touring the various parks of Disney World.  The icing on the cake was having our other children, Dave and Elisabeth, join us.  It was the first time in over a year we had all of our family together and Bob and Pat loved it!  We will spare you the details and let the pictures tell our story.  We all had a great time!

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From Orlando we moved to MacDill AFB near Tampa for the last few days.  Raccoon Creek Campground is the RV park run by the Morale,Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) Branch, and it was packed.  MacDill has approximately 340 sites with full hookups that you can stay on for up to 180 days.  However they have an almost unlimited number of “dry camp” sites which are essentially a piece of ground to camp on.  We went into “dry camp,” where you get electricity from your own portable generator, load up your fresh water tank and live off of that.  This was our first dry camping experience (sometimes called “boondocking”) and we learned a lot.

While at MacDill we invited our niece, Robin, and her kids to join us.  Pat’s sister, MaryLee, had flown down from Wisconsin to visit Robin, so we had quite a crowd.  We had everyone over to our campsite for dinner a couple of nights.   We all went to the beach at the RV park where we swam, paddled kayaks, made sand castles and buried kids in the sand.  It was a good time to spend with and talk with Scott, and a good time for him to decompress before he returned to Afghanistan.

However, as with all good things, it had to end.  We took Scott back to Orlando to catch his flight back to Afghanistan and took Dave and Elisabeth to the airport in Tampa to fly back to their respective homes.  Bob and Pat stayed on for a few more days to spend time with Robin, MaryLee and the kids, Destiny and Jeremiah.

Near MacDill is the Weedon Island State Wildlife Preserve with canoe/kayak trails that lead you through a series of islands and channels through mangrove trees.  Tampa Bay is off the Gulf of Mexico and is a tidal basin.  With the tides coming in and going out the water level is constantly changing and, as a result, the kayak trail can get pretty tight during low tide.  We teamed up with another MacDill camper and spent a morning paddling in the bay, it was great fun!

One of the best kept secrets in the Tampa Bay area is the Armed Forces Military Museum.  This is a small operation, but they have done it up right.  Bob said he had never seen such a well-maintained collection of military equipment, all displayed in a diorama form that brought the display to life.  It is well worth the admission fee, but military personnel and veterans can get in free with their military ID card.

Our stay in Disney World and MacDill AFB was a great opportunity to spend time with family. Oddly enough, this gathering would have been more difficult if we were still back in Michigan.  Our RV lifestyle is certainly giving opportunities for adventure in more ways than one.

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Homosassa Springs, FL

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Michigan Traveler

Isn’t it amazing that the farther south you travel the warmer the temperatures get?  We had planned this part of our journey for quite awhile.  Several years ago we had tent camped in the area in March and had gone snorkeling with the manatees in King’s Bay in Crystal River and thought it would be better in January.  Manatees are warm blooded mammals and migrate to the warm, spring-fed rivers on Florida’s west coast.  The last time we were here the manatees had largely headed back out into the Gulf of Mexico, this time they were abundant throughout the area.

While you can take manatee snorkeling tours, we knew enough that we just did our own thing.  We paddled from a shop called Crystal River Kayak along a canal to a place called Three Sisters Spring.  Only swimmers and paddlers can get back into the Three Sister and the water is as clear as tap water.  We paddled in our kayaks, then put on our snorkeling gear and went over the side to swim with the manatees.  Most of them were just resting on the bottom and bobbing up for air every 10 – 15 minutes, but some came right up to us so we could pet them.  Manatees are not small animals.  They can grow to 15 feet and weigh 2-3,000 pounds.  However they are not aggressive at all and are plant eaters.  Manatees are often injured by power boat propellers and reserves have been established in which you can’t boat or swim.We visited the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park and saw all kinds of animals.  This park does not import any animals but “rescues” animals that have been injured or abandoned.  For example they have two black bears that are native to the area, but were abandoned by the mother when they were cubs and would not have survived in the wild on their own.  In many areas of the park the animals are free and the people are in the cage.

The park borders on the Homosassa River and the next day we paddled up the river into the springs by the park and swam with the manatees in that area.  While we saw fewer manatees, there were far fewer people in the river, making it a much better experience.

Bob decided to upgrade his SCUBA diving skills and took an Advanced Open Water Diver course at a local dive shop, American Pro Diving Center.  He spent several nights studying the student workbook and did five SCUBA dives over two days, practicing skills in buoyancy control, underwater navigating, deep diving , night diving, and underwater photography.  His most exciting dive was at a site called the Blue Grotto.  This is a fresh water spring that had created a cavern and the roof had collapsed creating an access pond.  The water temperature is a constant 70-72 degrees and perfectly clear.  They had underwater lights to increase the visibility at the bottom, and a cable to follow as you swam behind the debris pile into the cavern.  There was a soft shelled turtle that was so used to divers that it would come right up to you and play with you.

Our niece Robin and her kids, Destiny and Jeremiah came up from the Tampa area to visit us and we took them kayaking to Three Sisters Springs.  Destiny and Pat paddled solo in our kayaks and Bob took Robin and Jeremiah in one we had rented.  It was Destiny’s first time kayaking, but it wasn’t long before she was paddling like she had been doing it for years.

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Back Home for Christmas and on to Alabama

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Michigan Traveler

We decided to fly home for Christmas rather than drive, a decision we may do differently in the future.  It was a bad Christmas for snow in Michigan, but we did get some snow the day after Christmas.  Regardless we had a great time seeing family and friends.Once we returned to Mississippi we had dinner with Sandra and the grandkids and headed for Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL.

Once we were back at Gulf State Park, we discovered that there was a “Polar Bear” swim the next afternoon on New Year’s Day.  Bob figured this was MUCH easier than doing one in Michigan (where they cut holes in the ice to do it) and decided to go for it.  The water was plenty cold, but you didn’t have to push the ice out of the way to be a Polar Bear in Alabama.

Gulf State Park is a great place to camp.  From November through March there is no limit on the number of days you can stay, so this is a favored place for snowbirds and full-timers.  The park is adjacent to a series of 11 miles of biking/running/walking trails established and maintained through a partnership between the City of Orange Beach and Gulf State Park.  There is kayaking and bird watching on Middle and Shelby Lakes.  And this is only in the campground area.  Gulf State Park maintains 3.5 miles of beach along the Gulf of Mexico with pavilions and piers.  For those for whom camping is not the priority there are also cabins and a golf course.

With our friends, Roger and Darcy, we visited the USS Alabama Memorial.  This is not only an educational experience, but an inspiring one.  You can tour the USS Alabama, a WW II battleship, go on board the USS Drum, a WW II fleet submarine, and see aircraft and military vehicles of all kinds, including a B-52 bomber.  One of the things that Bob found interesting is that they have set aside some of the rooms in the USS Alabama to recognize other warships that were not preserved, such as the cruiser, USS Mobile.Tuesday, 1/10/12, was not forecast to be a pleasant day so we decided to drive over to Pensacola to visit the National Naval Aviation Museum at the Naval Air Station and do grocery shopping at the commissary.

For anyone who is into aviation history, the museum is a “must do” event.  It chronicles aviation from pre-WWI to the present.  They have built a replica of a WWII carrier flight deck, have the actual seaplane that made the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, and flight simulators so you can “fly” a plane or helicopter.  The restoration work they have done on these aircraft is amazing.   For example they restored a Korean War Banshee that had been a playground attraction, filled with concrete, to an appearance that looked like it had just rolled off the assembly line!  The Navy’s Blue Angels are based at Pensacola and you can watch them practice their stunts from the museum.  While they were not practicing on this trip, we were able to watch them on a previous visit and it is a sight to see!

There is so much to see in the area.  Thursday Bob drove out to Fort Morgan on the entrance to Mobile Bay.  Fort Morgan was in operation from 1834 until 1946.  It was during the Civil War during the Battle of Mobile Bay while trying to get past the Confederate held Fort Morgan, that Federal Admiral David Farragut reportedly said, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”  Fort Morgan is not close to any built up area and there is plenty of wildlife in the facility.  Most people focus on the birds in the area, Bob spotted a pair of red fox while walking on the parapet of the fort.

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A Vagabond’s Thanksgiving and Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Michigan Traveler

Thanksgiving found us in southern Alabama.  Darcy Toth and her husband Roger spend the winter in Orange Beach, AL and invited us to join them for Thanksgiving.  We stayed at the Gulf State Park.  This is a great park with plenty of hiking and biking trails.  There was a small lake right across from our site that offered a nice place to go kayaking.  Bob considered doing some snorkeling, but the signs that warned campers not to feed the alligators made him think twice about that.

It was interesting to find so many “snowbirds” in one spot.  We met people from Michigan, other northern states and Canada, who spend the winter in this campground every year.  There are snowbird clubs that have formed in this area and have events together.

We kayaked, and biked most days.  While the nights were often cool, the days were warm and Bob was able to enjoy swimming in the waves of the Gulf of Mexico on the day after Thanksgiving.  He thought they were “almost” as good as the waves on Lake Michigan!

Before we headed back to Mississippi, the four of us took a trip to Mobile to visit the Bellingrath Gardens.  Many of the plants were past their best times, but the place was decorated with lights for Christmas, and it was fantastic!  We have never seen such a wonderful festival of lights.

Back in Mississippi, we started getting into the Christmas spirit by putting up our Christmas decorations.  When we left Michigan we packed decorations for the various holidays, but didn’t have a plan on what we would do with them.  We took some tent poles and fashioned them into a tripod and hung our outdoor lights on it to make an outdoor tree.  When Katrina, Clarissa and Sierra came out to the campsite, they helped us decorate the inside.  It was a lot of fun for all of us!

We had a great time with Sandra and the girls as they participated in Christmas celebrations.  Katrina and the twins were in the Christmas program at the Baptist Church where they are involved in the youth program.  Katrina was also in the program at the Methodist Church they attend and Sandra sang in the choir for their Christmas Cantata.

We had Sandra and the girls for a Christmas dinner at the trailer and exchanged gifts.  That night Bob, Pat, and Katrina posed as a Wise Man, Shepherd, and Angel in a living Nativity scene. The next day we went Christmas Caroling.  The caroling was fun, but Bob said it didn’t feel right singing carols without snow!

Of course, life intruded on Sunday morning when we found that we had lost electrical power in the trailer and were now working off the 12 volt battery system.  We called around and found a Cameo dealer in Hattiesburg, MS that could work on it that day, so we spent Monday hanging around Hattiesburg while they found what had shorted out and replaced the failed component.  Getting it fixed quickly was important as we had plans to fly back to Michigan to spend the Christmas holidays with our family and friends.  We were happy to get back and set up so we could make our flight to Michigan.

Click on any picture to see it in full size.

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