10/10/2014

We drove from Panama City to Ellaville, FL where the Suwannee River State Park is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suwannee_River_State_Park.  This is where the river made famous by Stephen Foster meets the northern Withlachooche River http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withlacoochee_River_(Suwannee_River) and they flow together to the Gulf of Mexico,  It is a beautiful spot and reflects what Florida looks like in the wild...before Disney messed up that beauty.  It is worth the visit.  We spent one night there and decided to head home a day early.  After a drive & a walk through the park, we headed south.

The drive home was filled with reminiscing about our amazing summer, and what an amazing time it has been!!  The total mileage was 14,057 with the motor home and an additional 13,712 miles with our little car.  That is 27,729 miles total...the planet earth is only 24,901 miles in circumference, so you get the idea...around the world + in 189 days. We took over 15,000 pictures, and about 10% of those have already been deleted for various reasons. But we still have a lot of sorting & deleting to do before we save all of it for posterity.  It is for reason of comparing, going to be something that will be very hard, if not impossible, to top...but it won't be for a lack of trying.  Barb wants me to print this blog for a book we can use for remembering the trip.  And there will be more memories.

But we made it home, cleaned out the motor home and put it away for the time being.  We then went to our daughter Lisa's house to surprise her for her birthday.  They seemed genuinely glad to see us :).

We are taking it slow today, and the pile of mail seems pretty small, good thing.  Lisa did a great job keeping us informed of anything important and not bothering us with the crap...good job, baby.  And our house was amazingly clean and the grass & driveway looked like we had never left...nice to have family like that nearby.  The whole gang pitched in and made our homecoming a real delight, thanks!

I will post anything exciting that happens here, so check in periodically.  And thanks for tagging along on our amazing time.  I have enjoyed keeping everyone up to speed as well as making a great manuscript for us to remember this summer by.  And thanks to all for making our trip so great.

Steve & Barb Larson

Suwannee River flowing through the State Park

Withlachoochee River flowing into the Suwannee

CSX Railroad crossing the Suwannee

I-295 crossing the St John's River in Jacksonville

Our little Post Office

One of our pet Gopher Turtles

Our house looks just like we left it

10/8/2014

We have been in Panama City, FL for the last 3 days...hanging out, enjoying the 'Real Florida' at one of the many State Parks, St Andrews.  It is a pretty place, sandwiched between the Gulf of Mexico and the Grand Lagoon, part of the St Andrew's Bay.  We spent almost 8 hours driving here from Hattiesburg, MS.  Most of that time was spent on US 98 between Pensacola & Panama City.  I had Barb keep track of how many stoplights there were in the last 100+ miles between the Florida line with Alabama and our camp site.  She counted 82 traffic lights and we got caught at 25 of them...no wonder it took so long.  But we weren't in any particular hurry, so it is not a big deal...just a part of our summer.  We got here late in the afternoon and got set up on our site...no TV reception but good signal with phones, so we have internet.  We did get some local TV, so Barb was able to see NCIS.

We are moving east in a few hours, going to stop in Live Oak for 2 nights to cut the drive home in half.  The summer has been a total blast, but it must come to an end soon, looks like Friday will be it.

We got up early this morning to see the Lunar Eclipse, fog rolled in and obliterated the view we had. But we have had a great time here, just hanging out, relaxing, and enjoying the Florida weather.  Last night we went to get some dinner and see the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico...beautiful.  Time to move on, and get our final days of camping in for a while...spend some time with the family.

Steve & Barb Larson

Mobile, AL skyline

Going under Mobile Bay

Hope the Governor sign gets changed soon

At the Welcome Center...Pensacola is home to the Blue Angles

Welcome home

First glimpse of the Gulf of mexico

Our sugar sand beaches

Last night at dinner

Beautiful sunset

Last night at the beach

The Blood Moon before the fog rolled in

10/3/2014

We spent the last 3 days traveling from Little Rock to just south of Memphis, TN (Coldwater, MS) and then from Coldwater to Hattiesburg, MS.  The drives were pretty straight forward, mostly interstates, and without incident.  While in Coldwater, we spent 2 nights at a ACE park called Hernando Point on Lake Arkabutla, a reservoir on the Coldwater River behind the Arkabutla Dam.  It was a beautiful spot on the water, quiet as it could be, because it was mostly empty.  And with our Senior Pass, it was only $9/night, hard to beat.  Last night, we experienced a pretty severe storm that came across the lake about 11 pm.  It shook the camper enough that it concerned us both.  We even got an alert from the National Weather Service on Barb's phone to take cover.  With nowhere to go and no way to see if anything was out there, we sat tight and waited for it to blow by.  It lasted about 40 mins, a little scary.  But all is well today, no damage, no one hurt.  We did see a lot of power company trucks heading north today, so somewhere, there are folks who didn't fare as well as we did.

Yesterday, we spent the day driving up to Memphis and making a visit to Graceland, home of Elvis Presley, the king of Rock.  We were at Tupelo, his birth place, last summer when we learned that Barb's mom had passed.  So now we have been to his birthplace, the place he lived, & died, and been on an Elvis cruise on Carnival, so we have Elvis pretty much covered.  I think we can move on to our next rock star...maybe travel to England and see where John Lennon was born, as we saw the place he was murdered last summer in New York City.  This could get expensive :).  But we both enjoyed our tour of Graceland and I suppose we are both glad we went...probably no reason to go back tho.

Tonight, we are in the Paul B Johnson State Park ( http://www.mdwfp.com/parks-destinations/ms-state-parks/paul-b-johnson.aspx) just south of Hattiesburg, MS.  We are going to stay here 2 nights and then move on to Panama City, where we have 4 nights reserved at a State Park on the beach ...enjoy the beach and being back in Florida.  It has been an amazing summer and tomorrow will mark 6 months on the road, so 4 nights on the beach will be a nice welcome back to Florida time.

Yesterday, my sister Ann passed along info that we have a famous Great Uncle who founded the U of Arkansas in Little Rock and has become a bit of a hero there.  We now have a reason to return, which will also probably require a return trip to the Bill Clinton Library...we both enjoyed that visit.  So, if you are ever in Little Rock, look up my Great Uncle John Larson, founder of UALR...there is even a bust of him somewhere on campus they placed last fall.  He was my Grandfather's oldest brother. And the ACE Park in Maumelle is a beautiful place to stay.  We highly recommend camping there. Staying at this place for $10/night is hard to beat.  It is worth the trip.

Steve & Barb Larson

Crossing the Mississippi River headed east

We used to count how many times you could spell Mississippi while crossing the bridges

Yep, we are back in the south-Kudzu everywhere

Our site at Hernando Point

The view out the door of our camper

Some of the birds on the reservoir

Gladys' Pink Caddie

Front of Graceland Mansion

Some of the 100's of awards

Sunset over Lake Arkabutla

9/30/2014

We spent the day touring Little Rock's 2 famous governmental facilities.  First up was the William J Clinton Museum & Library overlooking the Arkansas River.  We spent about 5 hours walking through all of the displays...lots to read.  We both enjoyed the trip down memory lane a lot...it all brought back a lot of memories, both good & bad.  His presidency was a very active time in this country, and aside from a few hiccups, was filled with a lot of good for all Americans.

We have been through 3 of these Libraries on this trip.  Herbert Hoover's place in Iowa taught me the most, simply because he was in office before my time and I had never really studied up on him. Dwight Eisenhower's contribution to our society was mostly done during WWII, as his displays indicated.  I was a little disappointed that more time & space wasn't dedicated to his 8 years in the White House...the vast majority of the place was about his time before he was our President.  But while there was lots of items about Bill Clinton's early years, including his 10 years as Arkansas' Governor, most of the displays were relating to his 8 years as our President and the years since, it reminded us how many things have been forgotten in the 16 years since he left office and how our lives change so quickly when there is a change in the White House & the Legislature...fun day.

We also took the free shuttle across the way to the Museum store, lots of Clinton memorabilia for sale.  There was a lot of stuff available if you were willing to pay the price.  My CC stayed in my wallet, thank you.  But all in all, we had a fun day walking the halls & viewing the memories that were there representing the first administration where the principle players were born after WWII.

From there, we drove the 10-12 blocks to where the Arkansas Capitol sits on a hill overlooking downtown Little Rock.  The place was virtually vacant except for a few guards (imagine how boring it must be guarding an empty building) and about 6-8 women we saw in various offices doing the vast amount of paperwork required to run a State government.  I will probably never understand why there is always a paper back-up for everything in this day of hard drives and multiple methods of electronic storage devices...guess it is good for the folks who build filing cabinets for a living.

A gal met us at the Visitor Services desk and said we were welcome to do a self tour of the building, as there wasn't any guided tours available, so we took our guide books and went exploring.  Nobody was there to get in our pictures except a couple of women on their way home for the day and in one instance, a woman getting her daily exercise by walking laps in the halls of the Senate offices on the 3rd floor.  We were locked out of the Senate & House chambers (probably for good reason), but otherwise most everything was open.  The building is in the final stages of a major re-freshening project and it looks great for 100+ years old.  Some doors need to be sanded down & refinished, but otherwise the building looks pretty nice.  The monitors are all flat panels & the building has been brought up to the 21st century.  I especially enjoyed reading about all the crap that went on during the construction 100+ years ago...imagined myself at all the ridiculous meetings back then...but I suppose they weren't like being stuck in Groundhog Day like I have been from time to time.  But it was interesting reading, plastered on the walls for everyone to ignore, at least by the majority of the folks who walk by the display on a daily basis.  That is why I enjoy these sort of displays so much.

After about an hour & a 1/2, we went to our car without speaking to one person other than the guard who searched our pockets and the lady who told us there was no guided tour...we had the place to ourselves and we enjoyed that just fine...I bet Bill Clinton never had it so good.

Steve & Barb Larson

Leaves starting to change

Art out front

Cabinet Room

The Bridge made for walking & biking

We had lunch on the Verandah

What a table setting looks like at a State Dinner

Replica of the Clinton Oval Office

Downtown Little Rock from the Clinton Library

Arkansas Capitol

Looking up into the dome

A very young Bill Clinton...Gov for 10 years

The Grand Room completely vacant