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
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| One of the many bands playing in Nashville |
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| The view from George Jones Place |
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| Prince made an appearance |
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| The view from our camper on West Pointe Lake |
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| West Pointe Dam |
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| Steve & Miss Patti |
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| At Hills & Dales |
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| Wildlife in West Pointe |
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| Sunset at West Pointe |
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| Where the water goes when the falls are active |
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| Part of the beauty at Falling Waters |
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| A house at Torreya State Park |
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| Overlooking the Apalachicola River at Torreya |
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| Woodruff Dam |
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| Woodruff Dam |
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| Woodruff Dam |
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| Florida Caverns |
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| We saw lots of cotton on the way south |
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| The road to St Joseph Peninsula |
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| From St Joseph Peninsula |
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| The view from our seats |
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| One huge oyster |
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| Sun setting before 6 pm |
Steve & Barb, Sorry to see that you did not visit Newfoundland during your trip to the Canadian Maritimes. Some things your have missed by not visiting our beautiful island; icebergs with a area bigger than the area of small towns (May & June); L'ance aux Meadows,the Viking settlement over a thousand years old; the town of Cupids, settled in 1610, the site of the birthplace of the first English speaking child born in North America; Gros Morne National Park, site of mountains older than the Rockies; Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America; the Dover Fault, where the continents split during the last great Continental shift; Cape Race, site of the first reception of the distress signal from the ill-fated Titanic; Water Street, the oldest continuously occupied street in North America; the St. John's Annual Regatta (first Wednesday in August), the oldest continuously run sporting event in North America; Signal Hill, site of the first trans-Atlantic wireless signal; Hearts Content, this town is the site of the landing of the first trans-Atlantic cable; and just for fun, George Street, more bars per square foot than any street in North America (including Bourbon Street). All this after a beautiful 6 hour or 14 hour (your choice) ferry ride across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Also for the info for our American friends, we also have at Stephenville, the only alternate North American landing strip for US spacecraft returning from outer space. I feel quite confident that experienced travelers such as yourselves would also find many other interesting things to see and do in our lovely and friendly province. This is just a small sample of "firsts" and "oldest" things to experience here. Please take the time to Google "Newfoundland and Labrador".
ReplyDeleteWe visited the Maritimes and were preparing to go to Newfoundland and my father-in-law took a turn for the worse, so we headed to Boston so we wouldn't be so far away from Minnesota. We were at Boston when he died and the scramble to get back to Minnesota was hectic enough without having to include a 14 hour ferry ride. Our decision proved to be spot on, we will see Newfoundland/Laborador on another trip.
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