Roaming around Florida...

We would like to take this time to wish all our family, friends and followers a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.  It has been a fun year that has seen us travel the four corners of this great Country.  From California to Washington to Maine and where we will end out the year here in Florida.

Here we are at Downtown Disney, spending a day just wandering through all the shops with just about everything that Disney could think of selling and to our dismay most of it was made in China.  We did manage to get out of there with just lunch and a couple of small gifts for grandkids.

Another day we had the pleasure of viewing the Manatees in the river next to the power plant where the water temperature was about 85 degrees.  They sit on the bottom and walk around looking for food and then will rise, take a breath of air and go back down again.

The fish will follow them and keep them clean; fun to watch.

Looking down the river you can see lots of the Manatees.

Spent another day walking Siesta Beach on the Gulf that is self proclaimed the most beautiful beach in the world.

 The pure white sand is the remains of shells rather that ground up rock. Firm to walk on but stays cool under foot on a hot day.  Lots of people enjoying the day and also...

lots of birds watching the people watching the birds.  Had to say that.

On Wednesday evenings when in the area we meet up with friends at Old Town Kissimmee enjoying live music, old cars and street dancing.

We have spent a lot of time just relaxing but still get out and see some of the area.  This time it was Kennedy Space Center near Orlando on the Atlantic.

We took the bus tour around the base and got a good, outside look, at the assembly building where the space shuttle was assembled to move to it's launching pad.  This is the largest single story building in the world.

Got the chance to view the Apollo/Saturn V rocket-- 363' tall and weighs more than 7 Boeing's 747 Jumbo Jets at about 6.2 million pounds. 

We also got to take a ride that simulated the take-off of the Saturn V rocket.  What a ride!!!

A full size wall mural with spectacular lighting showing the Apollo/Saturn V on the launch pad.

Had the pleasure of meeting a couple from Washington State and have made plans to take our rubber boat with them about 13 miles up the Peace River later this week. (We'll drive up and paddle back.)  If you don't hear from us soon just assume the gaiters got us and send someone to retrieve CC.

To be continued...

Moving south to Florida

From Virginia, our last post, we continued to move south into North Carolina where we spent a few days and finally got our bicycles out for long past due ride.  This trail was another "rails to trails" and was about 17 miles long. (We didn't do all 17 miles--just 7.)  A very flat but beautiful ride thru the woods.

After the ride we spent a relaxing evening with Jackie's nephew Brad Cook and his fiance Melissa who prepared a delicious dinner.  We reciprocated and had them over to our humble home the next evening for dinner and very enjoyable evening.  (The bike trail goes less than a mile from their home.)

What better stop than the next state south of here into South Carolina.  We found a camp site on a very large lake just behind us.  Not many people around and several miles away from the freeway so quite pretty. 

The morning broke with a light fog over the lake just behind us, but that evening was another example of the changes that mother nature shares with us.

We only spent two nights here, but with sights like this it was hard to pack up and move again.

Last state before we made it to Florida was Georgia where we spent a few days seeing some of the sights, one being Fort Frederica National Monument.  Georgia's fate was decided in 1742 when Spanish and British forces clashed on St. Simons Island. Fort Frederica's troops defeated the Spanish, ensuring Georgia's future as a British colony. 

The remains here are mostly the refurbishd foundations,

If interested you can get more history of this National Monument.  Check it out  here.

This area of Georgia was full of live oaks with spanish moss drifting back and forth in the light breeze.

Not far from the National Monument was St. Simons Island Lighthouse sitting in the middle of town built in1872 and stands 104' tall. 

We made it up the 129-steps to get a picture of Jackie looking over the Atlantic Ocean

Well, we finally made it to Florida where we are greeted by a half dozen or so Sand Hill Cranes wandering around the park.  You could feed them out of your hand.

Check out the eye of this guy (gal?) watching to see what Dick was doing with the camera.

And finally this guy was sharing our site living in a hole he dug next to the sewer hookup.

We have our schedule all set until about the 3rd of March when we plan on heading back north and then west.  Remember, it's all subjet to change.  If interested in our schedule just click here. 

To be continued...

Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg Virginia

The plan was to tell and show you with our pictures where 104 men and boys landed at Jamestown Virginia May 13 1607 and set up the first settlement that was later to be part of the United States of America.  By 1609 there was close to 300 colonists in Jamestown.  Then the winter of 1609-1610 came and when it was over, only 60 survivors remained, most dieing from starvation.  The town was slow to grow on it's own until 1620 when 90 unmarried women arrived. 

The town finally started to grow and prosper once they found out what a wonderful cash crop there was in tobacco, sending it back to England for a very good profit.  The original settlement went into disrepair and finally found it's way back to nature.  Several people in the last century tried to locate the original site but all decided that the river had taken it all, until 1994 when there was one last try in trying to locate it.  A post hole was located and next to it was another and then another.  Continuing to follow the trail of post holes, the outer perimeter of the original Jamestown fort was located.  From there it was pretty easy to start excavation to locate all the treasurers that lay beneath the soil.

When Dick went to look over the pictures, to his dismay they were not there, lost to the delete key on the computer we think, so we won't be telling you about Jamestown in pictures, but will go to another period of history in our great Nation where we spent two days,

Colonial Williamsburg Virgina consists of over 300 acres of the town of Williamsburg that has either survived or been rebuilt to the late 18th century or at the time of the start of our desires to become an independent nation.  It was time to cut our ties with England and the war that lasted over 7 years came about because the men here drafted and signed a document called 'The Declaration of Independence'. 

The capitol building at the end of Duke of Gloucester Street has been rebuilt several times through the years.

From the web: 
The first colony to speak for American independence, Virginia spoke with the unanimous voices of the gentlemen who gathered May 15, 1776, in the tall brick building that dominated the east end of Williamsburg. From what had been England's original New World possession, Virginia instructed its delegation at Philadelphia's Continental Congress to move the question of freedom. Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence records the Continental Congress's answer.
The gentlemen at Williamsburg sat in the oldest representative assembly in what was now the world's newest nation. The legislature first met at Williamsburg on April 21, 1704, when the Capitol on Duke of Gloucester Street was still under construction. Literally and figuratively, however, its foundation dated to 1619, when the House of Burgesses first convened at Jamestown.

A little closer look

Walking the main street of Williamsburg one can see people in period dress who will reenact scenes from our history.

Shop keepers showing off their trades.  Weaver...

If you get tired of walking just hitch a ride on a carriage.

Here is a scene in front of the baker's building, depicting people of the time of the revolution talking about what was happening.  We loved the feeling of being right there!

Bassett Hall built around 1760 but displayed today as it was furnished by the John D Rockefeller Jr. family in the 1940's

Exterior view, looks pretty good for being built 250 years ago.

To be continued...

Connecticut and Pennsylvania

Off to CT to visit more friends in Milford; thanks Barb and Dave for your hospitality.  No RV parks in the area so we just parked in the local Walmart parking lot off in a corner for 3 days and spent some wonderful time with them.  One day they took us on a day trip to the campus of Yale University and while there we visited Beinecke Rare Book Library housed inside a building made of thin marble so the light actually penetrated it.  Inside was a glass encased room housing all the rare books.  Quite an interesting design.  The public is not allowed inside the glass but you can have the books brought out to you for research.  If you are interested in more details about this library go to
beinecke.library @yale.edu.

Outside Dick had to set the pose as "the thinker", really lame, but that's Dick.

Now this is a lot better with the two of us.

We had a long day touring Yale and stopping for pizza in town.  On another day they took us to Weir Farm National Historic Site.  Weir Farm National Historic Site was home to three generations of American artists. Julian Alden Weir, a leading figure in American art and the development of American Impressionism, acquired the farm in 1882. After Weir, the artistic legacy was continued by his daughter, painter Dorothy Weir Young and her husband, sculptor Mahonri Young, followed by New England painters Sperry and Doris Andrews. Today, the 60-acre farm, which includes the Weir House, Weir and Young Studios, barns, gardens, and Weir Pond, is one of the nation’s finest remaining landscapes of American art.

The house is currently being brought back to what it was when the Weirs lived there. 

Departed CT and off to PA where our first stop had to be Ephrata, PA.  Being we are from Ephrata, WA, we just had to see this town.  Quite a bit larger than our Ephrata.  We still wore our Ephrata Tigers tee shirts and people stopped us and informed us that Ephrata was not the Tigers.  Most were interested to hear that there is another Ephrata, even though we pronounce it differently.

Looking down through town.  A really pretty small town with very friendly folks.

Then it was off to visit the Hershey Chocolate Company.  We took a tour of a mockup factory and then the store with all the chocolate one could want.  But we were good -- we only bought postcards and one small candybar to share.

Looking down on just a small part of the store.

We also had to check out some of the covered bridges in the area.  Of course we did this in the jeep, not taking the Motorhome through.

And one last view of the fall colors.

To be continued...

Fall colors in Maine

Every place we have been in the last year or so we have been told that it's hotter than usual or wetter or drier than every year.  When we finally got to Maine to see the fall colors the message we received was that you should have been here last year to see the great foliage colors.

We did a lot of looking and here are a series of some of the pictures we got of the colors of New England, so just enjoy some of what we saw.

No color here, just the sun shining on the a small bay in Maine.

To be continued...