Kit and Carol on the Road

Today was a "do nothing" day. I sat and read, and hiked in the public lands out back. Kit went off to do some backroad biking. Tomorrow we leave for St. Augustine. We are staying in a state park there. We see lots of state parks in our Florida future--if only we can figure out how to deal with the Reserve America system :( I'd say don't expect to hear a lot from us--but the mantra of our journey is "never make assumptions".

I started out the day looking for a fabric store in Lake City 10 miles away that turned out to be an empty building. (sigh) At least we found a nice wine store. The adventure today was to be bike riding in Stephen Foster State Park. Their brochure says “8 miles of bike/hike trails”. “Trails” in Florida are not what we think of as trails—how about calling them sandpits. I hit a stick in loose sand and my front fender bent like an accordion. We went to peek at the black sluggish Suwannee River and then got out of there. In case any of you are thinking about camping in its very fine campground (we were, but it was full)—be warned that there is a tall carillon that not only rings each quarter hour but plays 10 minutes of Stephen Foster tunes each hour. I suspect it gets old after awhile. Anyway, Florida was redeemed in my opinion by a brand new PAVED bike trail not too far away in Big Shoals. In the future I shall not make assumptions about “trails”.

PS: Did I mention we have free wireless internet yet again.

Sandhill crane in the Okefenokee. 

Big Gator in the middle of a swamp "meadow". Notice the cypress trees in the background are changing color. 

We have just arrived in Florida and it's not much different that Georgia. We have just learned from the tourist lit that there's the Mickey Florida, the south beaches, and Natural North Florida where we are. We've found a nice spot just to hang out and relax. There are acres of public land out the back of our RV park where I had a short walk and Kit's off on a long bike ride--hope he doesn't get swamped. We are not far from STephen Foster State Park. SF never visited Florida--he just put the river in his song so they claim him as a native son.

While other folks were watching the Macy’s parade on TV—we were cruising through the Okefenokee Swamp. It was a fine sunny day—the perfect time of year in the swamp. The cypress are turning colors and dropping needles, yet the sunflowers are still blooming, and the mosquitoes are gone. We cruised past gators and egret, blue heron, ibis, and even 3 sandhill crane. While other folks were sitting down to turkey with family and friends, we rocked on the porch of a “swamper” cabin, and ate turkey sandwiches in a shelter, before hiking the boardwalk to a swamp observation tower.
Came back to enjoy the last of this sunny day—and call family back home. Not a bad Thanksgiving Day.

I didn't mention that there are 60 trains a day through Folkston where we are. The last time we bought diesel it was $2.25.

The Jekyll Island Club--once a hunting lodge--now a hotel. 

Chilly 50's sort of day with COLD wind from the west. We bundled up well and set out on a bike ride. What a marvelous place for biking. The winds last night littered the trails with branches though. Today we got to see the historic center. Did I mention that the island was once a plantation and then sold to a group of millionaires for a hunting retreat. They built this huge clubhouse (now hotel) to stay in but later some built private cottages. We got to tour two of these cottages this afternoon on our trolley tour. Bet you didn't know that the first coast to coast telephone call originated on Jekyll Island. People keep telling us what a wonderful place this is and we'd love to stay longer but we are getting kicked out for Thanksgiving. There seem to be scores of people who have made Thanksgiving on Jekyll Island a tradition. We are not entirely sure where we'll be for Thanksgiving--near the Okefenokee Swamp I think.

One of the historic houses in Beaufort, SC 

Magnolia Gardens (near Charleston) 

Arla and I in a Gallery in Charleston--there are 11 Leo Osborne works in this photo. 

Last night it rained hard. We were worried the swamp would rise and we'd have alligators in the yard. Alas, it didn't happen. So we drove to Georgia-- down Interstate 95 past Savannah (no more cities for us) to this wonderful little island on the south Georgia Coast called Jekyll. The island is a state park but the campground is private. (There are also plenty of resorts and private homes but no chain stores or restaurants) The island is famous as the summering place of some of the nations rich and famous-- we haven't seen their summer "cottages" yet. This is a wonderful island for bicycling. There are bike trails all around the island. I had a ride this afternoon until the rain came and got me. The hardest part of being travelers is the dang holidays. This place is booked up for Thanksgiving--too bad.

Charleston Traffic (11-18)
Kit had wanted to go to Fort Sumpter and the Friday dress parade at the Citadel.—but he also did not want to drive again into Charleston. So instead we went to the Magnolia Plantation Gardens (not far from here) to walk and bike. The gardens date from the 17th Century and are the oldest natural tourist attraction in the USA. Baedeker’s1910 travel guide listed 3 US attractions: Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon, and Magnolia Gardens. There’s not much formal garden here—more like paths through swamp country enhanced with plantings and color. There’s a lot of Spanish moss (neither Spanish nor moss) on the live oak trees. (not oak) Anyway it was cold but we had a nice time—till 3pm when it was time to leave. You cannot believe the traffic even on back roads at 3 on Friday afternoon. We had to go pick up our TV (again) and get back to the Campground. It took us an hour and a half. Enough of cities!!
Our Charleston Campground was one of the best values of the trip—and on our way south we found diesel for $2.39.

Beaufort (11/20)
Weather is cloudy here in South Carolina but a lot warmer than 2 days ago. We spent the morning in Beaufort (this is Bewfert, SC not Bowfort, NC—same spelling, different pronunciations). Like Bowfort, Bewfert is on the water and has lots of historic homes. There is no nice visitor center in the downtown here so we wandered around until we met a friendly lady (at a shop) who gave us a map and pointed us in the direction of the historic homes. Mostly we walked around gawking at the amazing trees. You can’t begin to imagine the size of the branches that cross streets and yards—and all covered with Spanish moss. Not much is open on Sunday but I did find a book store where I spent more $$. We have certainly helped out the economy of South Carolina. It’s one of the friendliest states we’ve been in for sure. Our campground is in the woods on St Helena Island. Down the back road where we are, there are three Baptist churches in less than 2 miles—and all had full parking lots this morning. There is also Penn School—which was the first school established to teach former slaves in SC after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Churches in Charleston (11/17)
We had a pretty amazing day in Charleston today. Still, we need more time than we have to really see the city. After visiting the Visitor Center, I went looking for a quilting shop I thought was nearby. (as indeed it was). Not only got the fabric I wanted but some new fabric scissors which I didn’t know I needed. And the woman in the shop brought out all of her travel projects to show me. We planned to spend the day on a self guided walking tour but had to go to Walden Books to get the brochure. As it was we got through only a small part of the tour. First we sidetracked into the burial ground of the round stone Congregational church. Then we wandered into St Michael’s Episcopal to be met by a lay man in vestments who invited us to attend the noon time service (very short). We got to sit in the same pew as George Washington and Robert E. Lee. We were the only ones there so that was a pretty unique experience. We continued on, past streets of town houses and mansions. Stopped to tour a Federal Style House. Found some lunch and then tried to “rejoin” the tour route on the way back to the car. Decided to quickly duck into a French Huegonot church. A woman volunteer inside was asking all tourists where they were from. When we said Anacortes, she knew an artist from there—Leo Osborne. When she found out we knew Leo we were instantly all friends. She closed up the church to take us to a nearby art gallery full of Leo’s work. Then she took us in her car on a tour of the neighborhood and especially the houses of French Huegonots. She would have taken us to her home as well but I was anxious to return to the truck and get out of the city before 4. We had to pick up our TV before 5. (It’s still not working consistently). But we do have our truck registration and tabs so the trip can continue.

Route 17: Profane to Sublime (10/13)
Highway 17 is the 101 of the Carolinas—it follows the coast more or less. It’s not a freeway so it forges straight through any cities in its path. We followed 17 to South Carolina—past a huge marine base, past cotton fields and pine, through Wilmington. It was not a bad road to follow. Alas, to get to our current locale we had to pass through “The Strand”—aka Myrtle Beach, SC trying to be Las Vegas. Totally huge and ugly restaurants, amusement parks and the like made me want to hide my head in shame. But when we arrived at Huntington Beach State Park, my soul said “AAAH” and my mind said “And you thought the Outer Banks were a good place to stop.” This is the place we chose to take “a vacation from our vacation”! (thank you Rick Steves).

I tried to compare this SP with the wonderful parks on the Oregon Coast. For beach walking, it can’t be beat—no wind to speak of at this time of year, no rocks or driftwood, no headlands, and not much in the way of dunes to cross, AND wading in the water doesn’t make your feet numb-- not much in the way of waves either. The birds gliding over the waves are not gulls but pelicans, and the white birds on campground lawns are not gulls but ibis(es?). And Oregon beach marshes do not have alligators lying in the sun. I tried to compare this beach with the Sunshine Coast of Australia and though the weather is similar, the beach is again boring in comparison. Still, this is a good place to take some time off. (Kit went off to town and found a barber shop and oil changing place).

100th Day (10/15)
Today was the 100th day of our trip and we decided to celebrate by going out to dinner. Kit got a recommendation from the men at the barber shop and we had a wonderful seafood meal and watched the sunset over the salt marsh.

On to Charleston (10/16)
Drove Hwy 17 on down to Charleston. A no-stop trip. Strangest thing—people selling woven grass baskets along the sides (grass) of this fast 4 lane highway. We planned to go to an RV park in a county park on James Island but it was full up because of some Christmas light thing that’s already begun—so we came to Oak Plantation Campground just south of town.

TV is getting fixed (we hope)

Fish store in New Bern. 

All of the historic houses in Beaufort are white and most have the double porches. This one doesn't have the Bahamian roof. 

We seem to have lost small town America here on the coast. Beaufort is a really neat small town enveloped in Generica. New Bern is a small town in the middle of a megapolis. (We are staying at a KOA with free wireless near New Bern) Both of these towns have lots of historic houses and are fun places for walking. Today we found Oriental which has no downtown at all but lots of marinas--they say there's a sailboat for every three people--and houses on nice large lots. It proved to be a great place for bicycling. Found a deli with a sunny deck for lunch--and later for a glass of wine and live music. Kit wants to find a small town within walking distance from an RV park with a barber and a TV fixing place. I want a fabric shop and a bookstore. Wish us Good luck.

Our surprises? Yesterday in New Bern we found a bit of the real North Carolina in a fish shop where they had stacks of fish with heads on and fixed us up some fried fish (whiting) and hush puppies (round cornmeal things) for under $8. Today on our way to Oriental we ran smack into a parade--only a day later for Veteran's Day. We had to stop and watch and I got lots of candy. :)

Tomorrow we head to South Carolina and plan to stay in State Parks so may have some e-mail less days.

Just before we left we bought a new flat screen TV which we've started to use a lot now that it's dark at 5pm. But it's broken. (Great unhappiness) We think it's all the bouncing. It's still on warrantee but we're a long ways from Best Buy. Really need that weather news. At least we still have books and NPR.

Questions and Conversations:
Perhaps all you travelers know that talking with people is the best way to learn about a place. Especially at places like Plimoth and Jamestown and Williamsburg where there are no informational signs—you need to ask questions to learn. At the Wright Bro’s Historic Site I had a long talk with the Ranger about why Kitty Hawk and not Kill Devil Hills and got a history/ geography of Outer Banks communities. At the life saving station at Chicamacomigo I had a long talk with the historian about preservation of historic buildings and got to see into a house not yet open to the public. At the Hatteras Lighthouse we talked with the Ranger about the attitude that driving on beaches is a Right of all fishermen. (So they’ve needed the Guard to protect endangered turtles and plovers on “closed” beaches). I even learned a bit about fishing from a guy on the boardwalk. So Kirsten, I apologize for teasing you about all your conversation with waiters and museum guards.

Ferrying (11/9)
Getting off the Outer Banks involved a bit of driving and a lot of waiting and riding ferries. The 40 minute ferry between Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands is FREE. We aimed for the 10, just missed the 10:30 and caught the 11. Luckily we made the 1:00 to the mainland—for which we had reservations. This ferry cost us (with the trailer) $30: No extra for extra passengers. (With the new ferry rates it will cost almost this much to get to Guemes). It was a 2 ½ hour ocean cruise. The ferry was open so sitting in my comfortable trailer I had beautiful ocean views. Can you believe there were 2 other Washington couples on this boat? We are everywhere.

Beaufort (11/10)
We weren’t sure what we were doing today. I had read good things about Beaufort but we didn’t have a good impression driving through yesterday. Turns out it is a wonderful little town with nearly 100 historic houses—from mid 1700’s through 1800’s. Did I mention that we decided to visit the town despite some morning rain. Did the walking tour, had lunch (Kit had a soft crab sandwich—did you know you are supposed to eat the shell too?), and went on a tour of some of the historic houses that are part of a museum complex. We didn’t have time to see the maritime museum and also learned about lots of other things to see in this area. The usual problem with RVing is that our RV park is quite a long ways from town so a lot of driving is involved. The other problem is that Veteran’s Day Weekend is coming up and spots near the beach are hard to come by so we have to figure out where to go from here.

That's me up on the deck of the Susan Constant which brought the first settlers to Jamestown in 1607. 

Drum and Fife parade in Colonial Williamsburg. 

Tropical Fish in the National Aquarium at Baltimore. 

Diesel in Williamsburg was $2.59--the cheapest we've gotten since we left home. Here on the Outer Banks I saw diesel at $3.03. We were generally impressed with roads in Virginia. We have finally gotten off the interstates and onto back roads. Leaving our camp in Jamestown we took a FREE ferry across the river to Surry County--saved us tons of time. There were 3 security guards before we got on the ferry and one on the boat. Kit thinks Skagit County should get a grant from Homeland Security to pay for the 4th crewperson on the Guemes ferry. Saw lots of fields of cotton today.
And drove past the Dismal Swamp. We have come to the Outer Banks of North Carolina where we have FREE wireless and a spot practically on the water with an awesome sunset view. It's just a quarter mile across the park (Camp Hatteras) to the Atlantic Ocean and a wonderful walking beach. Tomorrow we'll avoid being tourists and enjoy sun and sea.

On the way here today we stopped at the Wright Brothers Historical Park. (Our National Park Pass has been working hard for us). Did you know that the first flight was NOT in Kitty Hawk but in Kill Devil Hills. Kitty Hawk got to be famous because that was where the telegram was sent from. The best thing was seeing the markers where the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th flights ended. #4 was a big stride.

Colonial Williamsburg (11/4)
Well, here we are in Virginia in 1774. The weather is divine. We spent the day wandering the streets of Williamsburg—for a price. Perhaps it was worth the cost just to hear Patrick Henry speak-- Or to tour the Raleigh tavern with our guides being a slave, the mistress of the house, a malcontent younger Randolph, and the bartender -- Or to sit as justices in a session of civil court…. A fine day was had by all.

Yorktown (11/5)
Today we learned that were it not for the French we would still be British subjects –and while Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown the war was not officially over for 2 more years. Williamsburg is in an attraction triangle times 2. At both Yorktown and Jamestown there are National Park sites (historic) and State sites that are re-creations. Makes it a bit confusing. We went to the NP battlefield site at Yorktown and into the town where we wandered Colonial streets (without the actors) and had lunch in a house built in the 17th century. Planned to do Jamestown this afternoon but had errands so are staying another day.

Jamestown (11/6)
We almost didn’t do the Jamestown Settlement, but glad we did. Also I am glad we did not go on Friday when they had about 3,000 school kids. This morning we had plenty of time to talk to all the interpreters—and the weather was perfect. The natives were aced out of their village by construction. There is lots of construction going on as prep for 2007—the 400th anniversary. Unlike Plimoth, the Jamestown’s “settlers” were not settlers but soldiers—not farmers but gentry intent on making a profit in the new world. In the afternoon, we went to the National Park site which is largely archaeology—the original settlement site. The island wasn’t really a good place for settlement—no water—but it’s now a nice place for a bike ride. 3 days of history is enough for now. We move on tomorrow—maybe we’ll find a modem hookup.

Da Capitol 

The leaves are Finally starting to turn here in Maryland--and it's getting harder and harder to log on. Here's the update.
Da Capitol, cont. (11/1)
Yesterday, after a “do nothing” morning we took the metro to town; bus, then subway… takes about an hour. Looked into visiting the Capitol. We could get a tour at 3:30 with 38 other people… or we could come back today and get a semi-private tour –guess which we chose. So yesterday afternoon was the National Gallery of Art instead.
Today we took the metro back to the city and headed to the National Air and Space Museum. We spent most of the day there and still did not begin to see everything. It is a totally awesome place with something for everyone. Kit spent a lot of time learning about engines and things which didn’t interest me at all. I think my favorite was the Wright Bros exhibit—and WWI. Did you know that if they built a memorial like the Vietnam Wall for WWI it would be 8 miles long? Most of the Smithsonian museums seem to have switched café/ cafeteria for the mall food court model. We ducked over to the Gallery of Art for lunch—where they still have an upscale cafeteria. We had to be at a House Office building at 3pm for our tour of the Capitol building. Note to travelers—if you check in at your Congressman’s office you can get a “private tour”. There were 6 in our tour –the intern who was supposed to take us was sick so we went with Melissa, a staff assistant. She tells us that virtually all of the Congressional staff is under 30—it’s a very demanding job. We got to meet Rick Larson who is our congressman. (For you Guemians—he said “of course you know Bob and Boots Anderson”) (If anyone in Springfield is reading—he has a friend who is a new Speech Therapist in Dist. 19)

Baltimore (11/2)
You cannot believe the hassles and misinformation involved in getting our “money cards” (aka debit cards) Joy! They arrived yesterday. So we can continue…
This morning I finally got my hair cut, (smile smile) and then we headed to Baltimore.
It’s less than an hour’s drive from here—not much more time than going into DC but big parking costs. We wanted to see the National Aquarium as these are the people who paid for some of Kirsten’s stay in Costa Rica. This is a totally awesome aquarium. There were crowds of kids but, unlike Plimoth, this is a perfect kid place and I loved watching them. Watching groups of 4 year olds trying to get through a revolving door was almost as fun as watching the fish. There was a section on Maryland but much of the exhibit is about coral reef and rainforest. Walking through their rain forest was like being in Costa Rica (we even saw a sloth!) We caught the end of the dolphin act and exited for a late lunch—at the Hard Rock Café. (We have never been in one before). We’ve had enough of big cities though. Tomorrow we head to Virginia and hopefully off of the interstates.