February 2008 Journal

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February 22 ^nd 2008

Surprise, we’re in the Florida Keys!!! Spent a few more days in Orlando (I’ll tell you about them in a bit) then once again checked out the weather. It’s still cold and rainy in the west so we made the move to come down here for some fun in the sun!

We arrived here today. This afternoon it was 93 degrees and sunny. Gorgeous day! I hear there was a huge snow storm back in New Jersey. Hopefully we can send you guys some sunshine (or at least some pictures of sunshine).

I’ve never been to the Keys. It’s a series of small islands, or sometimes sandbars, connected by bridges. There’s only one main highway to get here. It’s about 110 miles long and is called the overseas highway. Most of the islands are very narrow with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Florida Bay (Gulf of Mexico) on the other.  The drive here was really scenic with beautiful turquoise water on both sides of the road, quaint island towns and cute shops.

We settled into our campsite in about 10 minutes and immediately set out to explore the area. Our campground is on a 72 acre island. We came over a seven mile bridge to get here. There’s an old closed roadway/bridge that runs right next to the seven mile bridge. It’s open to pedestrians only and many people use it for fishing and/or just to take a stroll.

The first thing we did is walk under the bridge and out to the tidal flats on the other side of our island which is called “Sunshine Key” by the way. The tide was low and we saw so many critters and cool things. There were blue claw crabs crawling all over (we might have to go back tomorrow with a bucket and collect some dinner), small fish, hermit crabs, sea slugs and other weird looking unidentified undersea creatures, lots of soft coral, sponges and seaweed. I will post some pictures for you to see. There were quite a few birds like Pelicans, Gulls, Cormorants, Snowy Egrets, Sandhill Cranes, Sandpipers and more.

After the walk around the tide pools we went up on the bridge to see what the fisherman were catching. From the bridge you could look down into crystal clear water and see tons of fish, some really big ones and some tropical ones with lots of colors and some skipping across the water. We saw some stingrays (one big one with a four foot wingspan) plus some huge sea turtles, I’m not sure what kind they were, but their shells were about three feet in diameter with heads the size as a mans head. We saw three turtles and they kept coming up to the surface for air. It was so clear you could see them moving around underwater.

We watched one fisherman pull up a gorgeous fish, gray and turquoise with a slanted head and eyes high up and forward, I don’t know what kind it was. He had a huge pelican sitting next to him just waiting to steal his bait. Pelicans are very large when you get close to them. They’re about as large as a man’s torso!

 A few minutes later another guy hooked onto something really large. It turned out to be a nurse shark about four feet long! I was so surprised to see it on the hook. He couldn’t pull it up onto the bridge so Dan suggested he walk it to the end of the bridge to get it off the hook. We all walked down to the end and there was a man with a kayak right where the shark was pulled up. Boy was he surprised to see a shark when I asked him to “please help us take a fish off the hook for us”. He was great and seemed to really know what he was doing and got the shark off the hook pretty quickly.

We spent a little while at the pool after our “wildlife walk” then headed back to the bridge again for Dan to do some fishing. He didn’t catch anything but it was cool to be able to watch the fish picking at the bait underwater. We had a seagull flying very close trying to steal Dan’s bait. The birds are very bold around here! We also saw a gorgeous sunset while out on the bridge, the weather cooled down and it was really pleasant. Tonight we settled in with a nice healthy home cooked dinner (first we’ve made in a while), showers and some TV and computer time. We taped Survivor and Lost yesterday and have yet to watch them. Can’t wait to see what happened!

And now back to Orlando:
As far as the rest of our week in Orlando is concerned, it goes like this! We risked a rainy day last Monday and went to Epcot. The weather mostly held out for us. There were a few showers while we were inside but it didn’t bother us at all. The best rides were called “Soarin”, where you feel like you are on a hang glider soaring over the earth, “Test Track” where you test drive cars on a fast track and “Mission Space”, where you are in a simulated shuttle lift off. They were all good. We didn’t do too many more things there as we were pretty “parked out” by the fourth day at Disney. The other cool thing we did there was try out Skegways. They have two wheels and a handlebar and you stand on them and ride them. They are beginning to be used a lot by police and security guards. Dan ended up going to Fort Wilderness on Thursday morning and did an off road tour on a Skegway. He loved it!

We spent Tuesday relaxing most of the day then we went to my Aunt Fran and Uncle Ted’s house for dinner. We had a great time and unfortunately were so busy chatting that we did not take any pictures. My cousins Dotty and Rod were there and it was good seeing them too. We’ll see them again in Arizona when ever we get there. We had a lovely evening. Aunt Fran made huge steaks and crab cakes for dinner. It was so yummy!

Wednesday was spent at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. It was pretty quiet in the park and we really had a nice time. We saw Fear Factor Live, went through a very funny Horror Make Up show, and saw many other attractions such as Jaws, Twister, Disaster, Shreck and many more. Islands of Adventure was my favorite part of the whole week. We didn’t spend tons of time there as it was late in the day and we were tired but we did get to see the Spiderman Attraction which was great plus I went on some outrageous roller coasters. One named “The Incredible Hulk” and two others called “The Dueling Dragons”. The Hulk shoots you out of a tunnel and you go from 0 to 40 mph in 2 seconds flat. It’s 150 feet high and goes 67 mph with seven inversions. A crazy ride and so much fun!!! The Dueling Dragons are the worlds first inverted, dueling roller coasters. They are essentially two separate roller coasters that intertwine together. They are really fast (55mph) with lots of twists, turns and loops and there are three times when you come within 18 inches of the other coaster. I went on both dragons and they were even better than the Hulk!

On Thursday after Dan’s Skegway tour we took off and headed for the Florida Keys. It was about an eight hour drive so we broke it up over two days. We met Dan’s Aunt Felice and her boyfriend Stanley (again forgot to take pictures) and they took us out to dinner. We were a little rushed and could only have a quick visit with them as we still had an hour to drive to get to our campsite which was outside of Miami. As it was, we pulled in at almost 10:30pm. Hopefully we weren’t too noisy setting up and didn’t disturb people too much.

So now you already know we’re here in the Keys and we will let you know what new adventures we have in a few days. We miss everyone at home and hope the bad weather didn’t mess things up for you all back in Jersey. We’re also sorry to have missed some friends spread through Florida. The schedule gets crazy sometimes and it’s hard to fit everything we want into it.

February 18 ^th 2008

Our trip to Georgia was wonderful! North of Atlanta we were able to visit with Dan’s cousins Seth and Denise and their precious new baby girl Jolie Rae. South of Atlanta we visited with my cousins Melanie and Robert and their two boys Anthony and Nicholas plus Melanie’s dad Charles. They have a gorgeous house out in the country.

We didn’t spend too much time in Georgia but did get to fit in one day of hiking. We drove up to the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail (north of Atlanta) and took a hike and had a picnic. We also had the honor of spreading some of our friend Mark Sullivan’s ashes on the summit. It was a gorgeous day and you could see for miles. It was so nice to be in the mountains again even if it was only for one day!

As we were leaving Atlanta, presumably to head west, we took a peak at the weather and saw that we would be in for wet weather if we headed that direction and here’s where the beauty of traveling in an RV with no schedule comes in handy! We quickly changed plans and decided to head east instead and go to Florida for a few days until the weather clears west of us.

 So here we are in Florida for the past four days playing at Disney World! We’ve spent the last three days at the park. Day one was spent at The Magic kingdom and it was a total zoo! (The one thing we neglected to do when we made a quick change of plans was to see that we would be in the park during Presidents Day weekend. I guess sometimes you do need to look at a calendar and know the date, it’s all we can do to keep up with the day of the week)! We spent the whole day at the park from 9am until 9pm. We did get to go on all the rides we wanted and even went on Space Mountain twice but there was a lot of time spent on line waiting for rides. Luckily they have Fast Pass tickets for the larger attractions where you can get a ticket to sneak back in later in the day and pretty much go right in without waiting. It’s a great idea but you can only get one Fast pass at a time. It did help us out though!

Day two was spent at MGM Studios. It wasn’t as busy as the Magic Kingdom and we finished the park before dinner time. We saw a great extreme stunt show with cars, motorcycles and jet skis plus the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. The rest of the days events were mostly 3-D shows and movies. Dan’s not much for crazy rides so we missed the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. I should have gone by myself but hated to wait in the long lines alone.

We spent today at Animal Kingdom and it was my favorite place so far, probably due to their attraction/ride called Expedition Everest. Since I regretted missing the Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror at MGM Studios yesterday, I decided I just had to check this one out today and I was glad I did! It’s a high speed roller coaster through a huge mountain, at times it even goes backwards in the dark. It was totally crazy and so much fun! I went on it twice!

Animal Kingdom is kind of part zoo/part amusement park. There are 3-D shows, a safari bus tour through an African savanna with roaming wild animals, musical performances and rides. Another fun ride we went on today was The Kali River Rapids. It’s a white water raft trip on huge circular rafts that spin. We got drenched from head to toe and it took hours to dry off. Dan’s shorts were still wet when we came home tonight! Luckily it was a warm day!

Tomorrow’s weather is looking like it could be a bit rainy so we haven’t decided what to do yet. We still have one more pass to visit Epcot and would also like to go see Universal and Sea world before we leave. I got in touch with my Aunt Fran and Uncle Ted who live here in Orlando and we will be seeing them on Tuesday for dinner. As an added bonus my cousins Dotty and Rod are visiting them and we will also get to see them too! It’s gonna be a busy week!

February 10 ^th 2008

We made it to Myrtle Beach and spent a few days camped at Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet (near Myrtle Beach). It was so nice to finally be parked somewhere for a few days straight. The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm, and the campground was peaceful and quiet. It was a great place to unwind after the busy holiday season.

Linda and Bob (Dan’s mom and step father) live in town along with their dog Sam, so we got to spend a few days just hanging out with them. One day we had a nice long walk on the beach with Sam. It’s so nice to see how much joy dogs get when they can run free. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Linda and Bob and even though our visit was short we had a nice time with them. They left town on Sunday to go to Florida for the Superbowl. (Oh, and by the way, YEAH GIANTS!!!)

We had a little visitor in our coach while parked at Huntington Beach State Park. We left the door open to the coach for a few minutes and a squirrel decided to come in and visit. We had been feeding him peanuts out the front door previously but he decided to get bold and come right on in! He came all the way into the kitchen for peanuts and it was fun feeding him until he peed on our throw rug and we decided that was enough. He was a bold little guy and climbed up our screen door to get a better look inside. He was really cute and very fun to play with although I am sure we weren’t supposed to encourage him. By the end of our stay we had three little squirrels begging for food. They would literally sit up on their haunches and chatter and beg like a dog. It was very entertaining!

The beach was so pretty and clean. Not a spec of trash anywhere. There were lots of shells and colorful coral that had been washed ashore. We took quite a few long walks. On Sunday, we walked to the causeway and out on the boardwalks into the salt marshes. There were tons of shore birds and lots of oyster beds. They have lots of alligators but it was still a bit too chilly for them to come out.

Another thing I must tell you about is the giant stuffed shark we saw on the way to Myrtle Beach. We stopped late Thursday night at South of the Border, South Carolina and stayed at the campsite there. (Diane, sorry we didn’t stop and detour your way but we were really rushing to see Dan’s mom as she was leaving town on Sunday morning). We just barely got parked in time to see the first episode of “Lost”. On Friday morning we decided to get a little exercise and walk down the street to the diner and get an authentic Mexican breakfast. As it turned out, there was no authentic Mexican breakfast to be had, nothing but a rinky dink diner with basic diner food on melamine plates. It started raining while we were in the diner so we had to run back to our coach in a downpour. We stopped by a beach shop on the way and in the back of the store was a magnificent stuffed shark. I thought it was fake until I read the sign that said it was caught off the coast of Barbados in 1995. It is 27 feet long and HUGE!!! I was totally amazed by this thing and couldn’t stop thinking about it for days! I had no idea they got THAT BIG!

On Monday we packed up and moved to Flatrock, North Carolina to see my parents. We had a busy time while in town helping my parents around the house. They had a lot of things that needed to be put in order and we got everything on their list finished. Mom and I got to spend a little time shopping and out to lunch. We also played some Dominoes and Yaghtzee. Yesterday was our last day here and we relaxed and took a scenic drive. Before we left mom and I did a little more shopping while Dan and my dad went out to the putting green to putt a few balls. It’s been a while since dad’s been on the golf course and I think he enjoyed getting out and getting some fresh air and most specially getting the golf clubs back in his hands. He’s still got the knack and managed to sink a put from about 35 feet away. He’s really accurate!

We had a nice drive and ended up in the town of Brevard for dinner. It felt so nice to be in the mountains and woods again. On the way home we stopped by a place called “Pretty Place”. It’s a small outdoor chapel on the grounds of a summer camp. It’s basically just a roof and wooden pews but the setting is amazing. It sits on the edge of a mountain and looks out over the mountains and valley below. I had never been there on a clear day and we could literally see for miles. They still use the chapel, it’s a frequent site for weddings and I couldn’t think of a better place for a wedding (at least if it’s a nice day).

This morning we are moving out and headed to see some family north of Atlanta Georgia. We have plans to see Dan’s Cousin Seth, his wife Denise, and their new baby, Jolie Rae. We’re really excited, it’s been quite a few years since we’ve seen them and now we get to see not only them, but their new bundle of joy too! We may spend a few days hiking around in the mountains north of Atlanta (where the Appalachian Trail starts) before heading south. We have family just south of Atlanta that we want to visit too. We’ll give them a call in a day or so and try to work that out. For now, I have to close and pack up our home. We leave in a half an hour. The journey continues!

February 1^st 2008

‘Finally!!! Big Bus and Us are on the road!!! Yipee!!! We left on Monday morning and headed to Atlantic City NJ where we met Dan’s dad and spent the night at the Hilton. It was a good start to the next leg of our travels. While Dan and Shelly gambled, I took a nice walk on the boardwalk (the weather was beautiful) and went to the spa for a massage and some down time. We ended the night with a great dinner and some gaming!

On Tuesday we headed south and crossed on the Cape May Ferry. It was fun putting the coach on the ferry. We stayed inside the coach during the 80 minute crossing and watched a movie while we had lunch. The coach was rocking back and forth with the waves. It was a weird feeling rocking so much in the coach. After the ferry crossing we drove to Assateague Island, Maryland. We stayed at an awesome camp site right next to the beach. It was so serene being so close to the ocean. There were lots of wild ponies on the island and we spent some time driving and hiking around checking them out. They were so cute and even a little bigger than the Grayson Highlands ponies in Virginia.

We headed south on Wednesday, crossing the Chesepeake Bay Bridge and Tunnels. It’s a 25 mile long series of long bridges and two tunnels. We spent Wednesday night at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore in the town of Rodanthe. It’s about 25 miles south on the chain of islands known as “The Outer Banks” in North Carolina. It’s a series of barrier islands that run for over 50 miles with long bridges and ferries connecting them. The islands are very narrow and in some places they are less than a quarter mile wide. I don’t think the widest part is more than a few miles across. We stayed in a barren campground which looked like a big parking lot. The good thing is that it had full hookups and we were able to do some laundry before we get to Myrtle Beach. That’s where we are heading now, Myrtle Beach. We should be there tomorrow and will spend the weekend with Dan’s Mom. We’re going to try to park the coach at Huntington Beach State Park and probably won’t have any hookups while there so we need to get all laundry and other stuff done now. After Myrtle Beach we will make our way to my parent’s house in Flatrock, North Carolina before heading west.

Well, that’s the full update for now. Sorry it’s been such a long time since we updated the journal. We had a busy Christmas trying to see everyone before heading out again. We know there are still a lot of people back home we didn’t get to see but we did our best to see as many as possible. There just wasn’t enough time. We’ll keep the journal updated regularly from now on. Thanks for all the nice e-mails and well wishes!

Past Journals

July 2011

June 2011

September 2010

May 2008

April 2008

March 2008

February 2008

December 2007

November 2007

October 2007

September 2007

August 2007

July 2007