Our Road Trips: November 2016

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

11/15/2016 11/9-14/2016

We went to bed on Nov 8 not knowing the results from the National, State & Local Elections and slept well. We woke on Wednesday to a mixed bag of happy & not so happy results. We have a new President & a new Commissioner at home. We also have some people re-elected who should not have and some other issues, but we are going to wait and see how it plays out before we get overly concerned. Needless to say, the next 2 years are going to be interesting and will require vigilance.

We got packed up and made the drive to St Joseph Peninsula, about 2 hours south through the Florida Panhandle. The Panhandle is an interesting place, agriculture, military, little towns & lots of places to go fishing. We had never been to St Joseph Peninsula State Park, it is always full, so we made sure to reserve a place early. Upon arrival, we are told the power was off in the whole park but were told it would be on by 6, a couple hours away. So we parked and fired off the generator...still warm in Florida. We started our process of getting ready to be home, and then went down to the beach to watch the sunset. We are on a little spit of sand that juts out into the Gulf of Mexico, very vulnerable to storms, but very beautiful spot. It is a very cool spot as one of our last stops of our summer. The electricity came back on about 630 and our grumpy neighbor told us when to turn off the generator.

The next morning, we went driving, checked out the campground, decided we would come back next trip, got Barb's State Park book stamped and went into St Joseph to visit the other State Park in town, a museum covering the very first Florida Constitution Convention in 1838-39. It is an interesting stop and covers why it was here & what happened to St Joseph afterwards. We drove through St Joseph again and then drove the 16 miles or so west to Apalachicola for lunch, overlooking the Apalachicola River...steamed oysters from the home of the largest oyster production area in the US. We headed back at 530 and watched the sun sink into the Gulf as we drove. What a cool corner of the state. We went back to the camper and spent the evening enjoying the beauty of the area.

The next morning was moving day, and that included a drive east on US 98 which follows the Gulf for a 100 miles or so and then takes you south along with US 19. We went through several small towns again along with a couple of touristy areas, before heading south. We arrived at Chiefland, an agriculture center about 120 miles north of Tampa. We checked into Manatee Springs State Park west of town and on the Suwanee River, got our camper hooked up and went on a ride to check it all out. When we went to the spring, we learn there is a pontoon ride available so we spent the next 1.5 hours on a guided boat ride, just us and the kid driving the boat...very pretty and interesting ride. Then when we got back, our fee for the boat ride included a BBQ dinner, so we sat next to the spring eating BBQ...how cool. We drove into town to make some phone calls (no cell service in the park) and bought some light bulbs I noticed had burned out on the back of the motor home.

The next morning, we took a drive to Fanning Springs State Park. There is not a lot there except a spring and a place manatees will congregate this winter, as the water will be warmer there than the Suwanee River. From there we drove south and west to Cedar Key, another new spot for us. The State Park & Museum was fun to see, a lot of history about how Cedar Key became a popular spot and the manufacture of lots of pencils, sponge and of course seafood and how the town got destroyed by a hurricane in 1896 and never really recovered. Today, it is mostly a tourist area for fishing, relaxing & watching the sun sets. It is a quaint little town on the Gulf of Mexico. We spent a couple of hours there and then drove back to the camper. The drive through an unspoiled Florida is a nice drive between there & Chiefland. We enjoyed the stop...like going back in time.

Friday, we drove the 120 miles to Hillsborough River State Park, the 11th State Park we had visited in a week. We set up camp and checked out the park. It is only about 14 miles from the amphitheater we visit a lot near the Florida State Fairgrounds, so we will probably utilize it more often. Then we drove to the town of Lutz and met Karen & Bill Harvey for dinner...very nice seeing them. Then it was back to the camper to get some sleep, big day ahead. Sat was a drive to St Petersburg and a day of music with Whiskey Myers, Blackberry Smoke, The Fabulous Thunderbirds & The Doobie Brothers, and a couple more. We met frynds Karen & Jerry Koncar & Dana Peck and her friend and spent the afternoon & evening rocking. It was a great time and a perfect way to end our summer. We drove back to the camper about 1 am and got some sleep. It was much needed.

Sunday morning, it was time for the final leg of our trip, 118 miles home. Everything went fine. It was fun to get home. We spent the next few hours getting the TV activated, turning on the internet, fixing a broken well and emptying all of our stuff out of the camper and getting it stuffed back into the garage. It has been an amazing time. I hope y'all enjoyed reading about our adventures and following along on our journey. We are going to take a couple of months and do some stuff around the house and continue our enjoyment of the music scene close to home. We probably won't do too much until after New Years and then we will start getting ready for our next trip, which will begin with 2 weeks at Flagler Beach and include a trip to Minnesota & back. Until then, I likely won't write too much unless it is warranted. Thank you for reading this blog, I enjoy writing it.

Steve & Barb Larson

Some of the wildlife on the Suwanee

Pelicans waiting on lunch

The view from our table at Cedar Key

Jerry & Karen hanging out with Barb

Whiskey Myers

Blackberry Smoke

Fire & Ice

The moon over Tampa Bay

The Fabulous Thunderbirds

Just having fun

The Moon at home Sunday night

Our Camping spot at Hillsborough River SP

Our own wildlife...flock of turkeys

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

11/8/2016 10/30-11/8/2016

We spent 3 nights in Nashville. The first night was a Saturday so we arranged for a shuttle to take us downtown...$10/per person round trip seems way more than fair...no worries about parking or driving at night after a few hours of visiting the Honky Tonks, and there are plenty of those. It was Saturday night and people were celebrating Halloween, so the place was full of people, about 1/2 of them in costumes, so it was a fun night. We headed back about midnight, not as young as we were a few years ago, but we still had a fun night. Nashville is a fun town.

We spent Sunday at the camper, relaxing and watching football and the NASCAR race on TV. It is fun to watch people come & go at a busy campground and it being a weekend, there was a lot of that. Mon was Halloween and some of the campers even decorated for that, amazing how people bring that stuff with them. We took the shuttle at 430 back downtown. It was deserted compared to Sat night. So we went to a few places, most of which were all but empty. But the music is everywhere in the Broadway area. We even got one band to play a Christmas tune to get us in the mood, being Halloween was over at midnight...yes, they thought it as funny as we did. We went home with a group in town with tickets to the Country Music Assoc Awards show on Wed night...sounded like they were pretty excited about that. We got home about midnight again, time to move on.

Moving day, this time we will get all the way to West Pointe, GA, a small town in southern Georgia kept alive by a Kia & a Hyundai plant on the edge of town. Downtown looked pretty bleak and it is actually tied to a small town in Alabama called Lanette with only a sign or two letting you know you are in a different state. The park we are in is on West Pointe Lake, a huge reservoir behind West Pointe Dam on the Chattahoochee River. We went downtown, looking for groceries & dinner and both were pretty slim. The BBQ we ended up eating for dinner was nothing special, but it was mostly full when we arrived and all but empty when we left. But the lake is very pretty in front of our spot, so we will enjoy that for a few days and move on.

On Wed morning, our friend Patti, who lives 45 mins north of where we are, came for a couple of days. We also saw her in San Diego in early August for 5 days. It is fun having her visit, been our friend a long time. We chatted a bit and then went for a ride to the visitor's center for West Pointe Lake & Dam, rode across the dam, stopped a couple of places along the west side of the lake and then arrived in Lagrange, GA. We found a Publix, nice to go shopping at a familiar grocery store after all the unfamiliar ones we have visited all summer. Barb looked very happy on her way out. We drove through downtown Lagrange and stopped by the famous Hills & Dales mansion, a gorgeous estate on 38 acres. We spent an hour poking around and watching a movie (they never have popcorn). Then we dropped off the groceries at the camper and then drove to Pine Mountain, Ga for a seafood dinner. We got back in time to watch Game 7 of the World Series. The rain delay ended it for all of us, wait for the results in the morning. We spent the next morning enjoying our pretty surroundings and the company. Congrats to the Cubs for ending their 108 years of trying to win a World Series & to the Indians for putting up a very valiant fight, it was one of the best WS we have witnessed. Then, it was winery hunting with 2 stops and then back to the camper for my almost world famous grilled ribs for dinner. What a fun day that ended with Thursday Night Football and a glass of wine.

The next morning Patti left after breakfast and we packed up the camper and headed south, Marianna, Fl our destination. We stopped in Eufaula, Alabama on our way south which is on a beautiful lake behind a ACE dam on the Chattahoochee River that forms the Georgia/Alabama state line. Florida Caverns State Park will be our home for 2 nights. We have no internet or TV, so we went driving, checked out the Visitor's Center, watched 3 movies (still no popcorn) and walked through the museum. We went back to the camper & watched a couple of movies on DVD. The next morning, Barb made us a big breakfast and we were off to visit the State Parks in the area. So, for the rest of the day we visited Falling Waters, Torreya, & 3 Rivers State Parks & Woodruff Dam with the associated Lake Seminole (which is actually mostly in Georgia) and formed by the Chattahoochee, Spring & Apalachicola Rivers and where the Apalachicola flows south to the Gulf of Mexico. We drove through the town of Two Egg & stopped in Marianna on our way back, used the internet & got a few groceries, dropped them back at the camper and went & had some dinner. It has been a very interesting day. It is interesting to see so many cool spots in our state we have never seen before.

The next morning, we drove up to go on a tour of the Caverns at Florida Caverns SP. We got there just in time to catch a tour that was leaving and spent the next hour on a guided tour of the only cavern in Florida. It is a beautiful walk, recommend it to anyone. Then we went back and packed up the camper and moved to our next spot, St Joseph Peninsula State Park, which is straight down US 71 from Marianna and right on the Gulf of Mexico. It is a pretty easy trip, but on arrival we learn there is no electric in the park. So we parked and run our generator for several hours waiting for power. It came back about 45 mins after the sun set...the sunset was beautiful too. Yesterday, we went for a drive, checking out this State Park and then the State Park in St Joseph, Constitution Convention Museum SP, where the first Florida Constitution was drafted in 1838. Then we drove to Apalachicola and sat at our favorite Oyster Bar on the Apalachicola River and ate oysters...nice relaxing time.

Today, we are relaxing and getting things re-activated for our arrival at home in a few days. It is amazing how stupid people have become in the 5 months we have been traveling...poor Barb was so disgusted when she got off the phone with Directv, they are brain dead. Now, she is trying to re-activate our internet at home...incredible. We are stopping at Manatee Springs and Hillsborough River State Parks on the way home and will attend a music festival on Saturday and see some of out frynds and hear some our favorite music from Blackberry Smoke & the Doobie Bros. Stay tuned.

Steve & Barb Larson