In Georgia, and Safe

It was a wonderful summer in New England, with so many visits with friends and family, as planned. But now we are back in the south, our new home. We hurried back to Georgia in September with the promise that the closing on our home would be Oct. 1. Surprise! Or I guess I should say, no surprise, the builder revised the predicted completion date and the closing won't be until mid-November.  We have been hanging out at Coastal Georgia RV Resort, just 15 minutes from Jekyll Island, and 20 minutes from The Cottages at Jekyll Island where we hope to be living very soon. 

Right now however we are about 160 miles inland, in Ashburn Georgia, at Carroll's Sausage and Country Store (and Georgia Peanut RV park), sitting out Hurricane Matthew in safety.  There was a voluntary evacuation of Jekyll Island and the surrounding area, but we had already decided to leave for a few days just to be safe. (Living in an RV makes it incredibly easy to get out of the way of hurricanes, which is an argument for holding on to the RV after we move into our seaside sticks and bricks home.) The storm is expected to hit Jekyll today, with the worst winds and water levels being at high tide, around 1:30 pm. The predictions I just read are not too dire, with swells at around 15' max and winds at about 30 mph max.  It doesn't look like that will cause too much damage, but we are vigilantly keeping the best outcomes for everyone in our hearts and minds.

While we're sitting out the storm, I'm in my pajamas and in blogging mode, which never seems to happen anymore, so I'd better share a few photos of some of the high points of our summer.  Let me say though, that the greatest moments of our summer, with dear friends and family, will remain undocumented here. It is by no means a statement of their relative importance. 

MASSACHUSETTS

Our first stop was in Massachusetts where we stayed at the Country Aire Campground in Charlemont, near Shelburne Falls and the scenic Bridge of Flowers.

Bridge of Flowers, Shelburne Falls, MA

MAINE

Next we spent about a month in Maine. One of our first stops was on the coast, where our friend Mike showed us around the quaint historical town of Castine. We enjoyed a sailboat cruise around the islands off of Castine, where Rick was in his blue mood. 

Aboard the 56' vintage yacht Guildive, out of Castine, ME

Then we met our friends Steve & Wendy at Acadia National Park for a week of sightseeing, hiking and lobster.

Bass Harbor, ME

Bernard, ME

Northeast Harbor. ME

Bernard, ME

View from Park Loop Rd., Acadia NP, ME

While in Maine we also had lovely visits with the Foggs at Mousam Lake, and the Thomas's at Cold Stream Pond, and got rides on both of their pontoon boats! Lucky us. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE

We stopped briefly in New Hampshire, on the north side of the White Mountains, where Honey and I visited this beautiful mountain stream and swimming hole every day to beat the heat.

VERMONT

Now for a great find in Vermont!  While staying at the Moose River Campground in St. Johnsbury, VT, I discovered Dog Mountain, the quintessential dog-devoted experience created by artist Steve Huneck and his wife Gwen Huneck. 

Roadside sign marking Dog Mountain and Chapel

The Dog Chapel was built by Steve Huneck and is designed to give people and dogs a place to remember and honor dogs they have loved. The walls are covered with notes and photographs that people have left about their dogs.

Inside Dog Chapel

Dog Mountain is an immense piece of property with fields, ponds and woods, interlaced with walking (and running!) paths for people and happy dogs. Always open, always free, and always well cared for.

Honey at Dog Mountain

At the Steve Huneck Gallery (also dog friendly) you can purchase the artist's well known work. All proceeds go to the Friends of Dog Mountain Foundation and the upkeep of the property and chapel. Please visit their website.

Inside the Steve Huneck Gallery at Dog Mountain

 While in Vermont we continued our new found enjoyment of visiting state capitols. I believe this one at Montpelier is one of the smallest and is just as special as all the others we've visited. Each one is so unique, yet formed around the same functional government theme. Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys have a strong presence here.

VT state capitol at Montepelier, VT

While staying in Brattleboro VT we got to a few great contradances in Greenfield MA, and heard some new "high energy dance music with horns" from a band called Elixir.  It feels so good to see the contradance music and dance community that we love, vibrant with young dancers and musicians keeping the tradition alive and making it their own.

THE ROAD SOUTH

After a fast and furious (for us) two week drive back to Georgia through upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, here we are still waiting out the completion of our condo and waiting out the storm, watching the weather channel, me still in my pajamas.

I sure hope to create another post as we continue our transition from full-time RVing to life off the road, and I hope it doesn't take another hurricane to make me do it.

Southern Florida

So here's what we've been up to lately.  For January and February we were parked at The Great Outdoors in Titusville, FL.  We stayed there a few years ago and met our good friends Nick and Cindy. We returned to spend some time with Nick and Cindy again and to get some repairs and updates done on the RV. We also made some new friends, Phil and Barb, who we hope to see again later this summer in Ohio. We did end up getting new carpet, and we love it, but with the repairs - what's to love?

Anyway, the time at The Great Outdoors seemed to fly by and before we knew it we were on the road again on a mission to explore southern Florida before it got too hot. On our way south the hydraulic pump for our whole leveling and slide system pooped out. Turned out the bushings were shot. We had just pulled into a nice campground at Savannas Recreation Area, but we couldn't open our slides or drop our jacks. In our rig, when the slides are closed, we can't get to anything but the kitchen sink, the refrigerator and the control panel. So we were without a change of clothes, toiletries and or a place to sleep until we could get it fixed.  I won't bore you with all the details, but four costly days later we were back on the road on our way to the Flamingo Campground in Everglades National Park.

As we set up our campsite the mosquitos were so thick we had to dig out the unused bug shirts we've been carrying around for over five years. Thank goodness we had them and bug spray or we'd never have made it through that first day.  After that though a strong wind started to blow and kept the mosquitos away for the rest of our week in the southern Everglades. While there we took a boat ride and a great ranger guided paddle through the mangroves. We took a few nice hikes along the main road into the park, but though we saw the crocodiles and alligators that hang around the visitors' center at Flamingo, we were surprised at how little wildlife we saw of any kind. One great sighting was a pair of very vocal and active barred owls on the boardwalk Pa-hay-okee Trail.

Barred owl

Crocodile at Flamingo Marina

The next stop on our southern Florida tour was Chokoloskee, a teeny tiny island (built on an ancient Calusa Indian shell midden) on the west coast, south of all the development, where there is not much more than an RV park, a few blocks of homes, a Cuban restaurant and the historical Smallwood Store.

We stayed at Outdoor Resorts of Chokoloskee, a very unique RV park.  Most of the sites back up to the water and have a deck and a boat launch. Those that don't, have free access to a couple of boat launches on the property.  The park has three beautiful salt water pools and spas, tennis courts, activities and lots of lovely landscaping. It is an ownership park with smallish sites pretty tightly packed together. It does rent a limited number of sites for limited nights, and we got one of those for a week, at an uncomfortably steep price. (This season is turning out to be uncomfortably pricey all around, what with repairs and Florida's high campground prices. Oh well, it happens sometimes. This too shall pass.)

Onward to Arcadia, FL, where we stayed in a truly exemplary park called Riverside RV Resort, right on the Peace River, a favorite among paddlers. It has huge sites, several free boat launches, a wonderful dog park, pool, adult activities, and it's super friendly and clean. We'd highly recommend it. From there we visited Naples (spiffy), The Ford and Edison Winter Estates (interesting), Sanibel and Captiva Islands (too crowded) and Brohard Paw Park.

The. Best. Dog. Beach. (east of California.) 

Happy Honey at Brohard Beach

Next we moved South Bay RV Campground, a county park at the southern tip of Lake Okeechobee. We are so often surprised and pleased at the quality of county parks, and this is one of the best yet. It has nice clean, large sites in an attractive natural setting, at a reasonable cost finally!  We're just here for a couple of days before we go to Jonathan Dickson State Park on the east coast. We'll be in Florida for a few more weeks, then we'll start traveling gradually northward.

Update: We found another great off-leash dog beach in Jupiter, FL. This one is even bigger. It's at the corner of Ocean Blvd. (A1A) and Marcinski Rd. There's plenty of free parking and the beach is free too.

Stepping South One Week at a Time: Hot Springs, Arkansas

Since August we've been "dancing" diagonally across the country from Montana toward our destination this winter at The Great Outdoors in Florida.  We don't really have a repeating annual pattern other than generally north in the summer and south in the winter.  Sometimes we take the short slide straight north or south, and other times we take the long crossing from corner to opposite corner. As we most often try to, we're taking it slow, driving a couple of hours, often stopping for a week at a time at locations along the way. Some are simply the right distance from the last stop, and may not be particularly exciting, while others are "hot spots" like Hot Springs, Arkansas. 

This is our second visit to Hot Springs. The first was on our RV honeymoon in the tiny rented Cruise America in '09-'10. We stopped for one night on our midwinter rush to get to California. The weather was cold, wet and dreary and Hot Springs looked old, grey, funky and forlorn, but our friends Lynn and Glenn love it, so we thought we'd give it a second chance.

Well guess what, Hot Springs was cold, wet, dreary and still looked old, grey, funky and forlorn. (Sorry Hot Springs, I just had to say it.) 

On the first night I went to the Maxwell McBlade Theater of Magic. Don't know what got into me, but I just wanted a change of routine. Like Hot Springs, it was funny, funky and a little forlorn. An appropriate experience for Halloween. In fact, I'd say that second to New Orleans, Hot Springs might be the most perfect location to spend Halloween. It's historical and mysterious, with a lot of old and/or abandoned buildings perfect for haunting fantasies.  In fact my favorite thing about that evening was wandering Central Ave, getting a glass of wine and an ice cream cone (not together) and looking at all the Halloween decorations in the funky downtown store windows. Spooky fun. 

Why am I wandering the streets alone, you ask? Well, this is football season and Rick's Patriots are doing great, so he's really into it. Me, not so much. That leaves me with plenty of time to explore and adventure on my own.  In addition to the magic show, I also indulged at the Quapaw Baths and Spa on historical Bath House Row in Hot Springs National Park. My indulgence included a private 20 minute steamy aromatherapy bath and a 50 minute massage. (Both were lovely, but there was an awkward and poorly timed 40 minute wait between them, sitting in a bathrobe in a lounge/waiting area. No explanation given. If you go, check the timing of your services.) I also did a little personal and Christmas shopping in the chain stores just south of town. And got a haircut. That was kind of fun. 

In all fairness, I know some of our impressions were due to the rainy weather, and we did have a couple of sunny days that perked up our opinion of the place, just a bit.  The sunnier perspective may have also been because on those two days we didn't go downtown to the historic bath house district, but spent them outdoors in the beautiful natural areas that surround Hot Springs. (There, does that make up for dissing it earlier?)

On our first sunny day we went to the University of Arkansas' Garven Woodland Garden, a first class, scrupulously maintained and developed garden on the shores of Lake Hamilton.  

View of Lake Hamilton from Woodland Loop

The garden was created by Verna Cook Garven who almost single-handedly designed and implemented this gorgeous place and then donated it to the University upon her passing.  It's a shaded garden, so it's a cooling break from the humid Arkansas heat that surprised us after the chilly rain we'd been having.  Despite the deep shade, there are colorful plantings and great ideas for gardeners similarly sun challenged.

Seasonal mum planting

Fall annual plantings

The Gardens are preparing for their holiday light display, which looks like it will be glorious. It starts around Thanksgiving. Wish we were going to be here for that.

Blue lights running down the streams and waterfalls 

Koi pond with matching light sculpture

Fairy Garden

Miniature train display

There are themed sections of the Gardens, including a Japanese garden and a children's garden. We crossed a few architecturally stunning bridges as well.

Full Moon Bridge

Floating Cloud Bridge

Here's one Honey wouldn't cross. Just too wide a gap to jump.  Yes! They allow leashed dogs, for a $5.00 admission fee, which was the first we've encountered. We thought it was reasonable.  

We had a great lunch at the Chipmunk Cafe. This is not your typical attraction food concession. This was really good food. I'd absolutely recommend eating there when you visit, and I'm not just saying this to fill space. (Try the Grilled Chicken Raspberry Chipotle Sandwich. You will not be sorry.)

This guy kept us company during lunch. 

The grand finale of the visit was the Anthony Chapel, designed by Arkansas architect Maurice Jennings.  It is reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright's style, but we thought even better.  

It is beautifully integrated with it's wooded surroundings. 

Constructed completely of wood and glass above the stone foundation, not only does it let the light and views of the trees in, it reflects the images of the trees in the glass...

...and reflects the shapes of the trunks and branches in its structures.

We thought it was architectural perfection, down to the last detail.

The Chapel is part of a five building complex that is popular for weddings. We could certainly understand why.

The Anthony Family Trust Carillon

While here in Hot Springs we are parked at Catherine's Landing, one of the RVC Outdoor Destinations.  RVC is not an ownership park, it's just a corporate chain of RV parks that are very nice. They have a modern feel to all the facilities, rather than the more traditional rustic feel we encounter at so many RV parks. We got a nice long, level, concrete, full hook-up pull-through down by the river.

Site 84 at Catherine's Landing

What I'm calling the river is actually part of Lake Catherine, created by damming the Ouachita River. The park is nicely situated on the river, with a marina and boats for rent, and is surrounded by many many acres of woods and fields with a very long trail winding through them for comfortable hiking and dog walking close to home. They've got a beautiful saline pool and a nice fenced dog park. (Oh, there's a good dog park in Hot Springs as well, just a couple of miles up the road from here.)

Lake Catherine

There's lots of wildlife in the area, including many deer who frequent the dog park. Yes, inside the fenced dog park. They just jump in and out at their pleasure.

Some of the local wildlife

On our other nice day here we kayaked Lake Catherine in a leisurely manner up toward the dam and back. 

View of our rig from the river

More local wildlife along the river

We're wrapping up our stay here tomorrow and moving on to Little Rock. We'll be at the Downtown Riverside RV Park for our next week.  If you're there, let us know!

The Badlands of Montana and North Dakota

Teddy Roosevelt National Park, North Unit

Who knew there were badlands in Montana and North Dakota? Not us! We always thought THE Badlands were in South Dakota, at Badlands National Park. But now we know that badlands is a generic name for a kind of eroded landscape of soft soils and clays found all over the world.  Interestingly, their color and shape vary depending on their geological history, mineral composition and local climate over time. Thus, the badlands here in Montana and North Dakota are rounded, in shades of grey, beige and yellow (above) while those in South Dakota are more peaked, in pink, gold and brown.

We are in Medora, ND now, having passed through eastern Montana and stopped at Makoshika State Park on our way.  Makoshika is the largest state park in Montana, and based on our visit, one of the best kept secrets in that state.  We saw only a couple of cars during our visit. There is a scenic drive that must be about 6 miles long, but we stopped about half way for a picnic lunch and then headed on our way east.  There is no big rig day use parking at the park, so we left the truck and fifth wheel in a K-Mart in Glendive just off I-94. The park is about 5 minutes from there.

Map from the Makoshia State Park website.

It has been smoky in Montana for weeks from the many fires in the western states, so our photographs are hazy and muted and the skies are always white, but you can still see some variation in the colors of the hills. 

Our destination was Medora and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP). We are staying at the Red Trail Campground (which I wouldn't necessarily recommend) and we've been joined here by our good full-timing friends Lynn and Glenn.  The TRNP is another best kept secret, this time of North Dakota and the National Park system. 

Our adventures began with a journey to the North Unit of the park, about 1.5 hours north of Medora, but our first stop was the Visitor's Center at the Painted Canyon, just off I-94, where we were surprised by a herd of bison passing through the parking lot.  You don't get a photo of the national park sign like this very often.

Honey liked the bison too.

Did you ever notice how tiny a bison's feet are? Look at those delicate little hoofers!

After that excitement we passed through the southern edge of the North Dakota "oil patch" where there is evidence of the oil industry in pumps, rigs, temporary housing and commercial enterprises that serve the people here to work.

A very comprehensive truck stop in an otherwise remote landscape.

The smoke was pretty heavy, as you can see in the next photo from an overlook. 

A smoky overlook at the North Unit of TRNP

Closer photos fared better. These are the cannonball concretions that are found within the eroded hills in some areas. The top photo of this post was taken from this location as well.

Another smoky view. Despite how it may look, the landscape is large, colorful and impressive.

Later that day, Lynn and Glenn arrived and we invited them over for dinner. Then I roped them into a full moon hike in the park with a ranger. Being good sports and usually up for anything, they agreed. We got really lucky on our drive to the trailhead and spotted this badger (a first for all of us!) in a prairie dog town.  Although he was really entertaining, running between prairie dog holes and digging around, we had a hike to catch so we headed on.

Then we saw these wild horses and had to stop and watch them. The horses are one of the most frequently seen animals here. In fact there are people who know them all, have named them and can trace their lineage. There's a book published and sold locally that documents them all with photographs and biographical data. 

We passed several bison in groups and alone, but the most picturesque was this herd.

Our full moon hike was a couple of hours long and was off trail most of the way, through grasses, dirt and lots of buffalo and horse droppings. There was some scrambling involved that I might not have tried even in the daylight, but we all got through just fine by helping each other over the rough spots. There were only about 20 people and we used no artificial lights at any time. Although the moon was muted by the smoke, it still offered enough light.   

Next day we loaded up in Glenn and Lynn's truck and headed out for the South Unit Scenic Drive, a loop of about 30 miles. Our first stop was the Visitor's Center and Theodore Roosevelt's Maltese Cross Cabin out back. Teddy Roosevelt began coming to the area for hunting, but then retreated to his ranch to recover from the loss of his mother and wife. There are many stories about his time here. After his death the park was eventually created and named for him.

The park has two units, North and South, and both have scenic drives for easy access. There are many  trails, from easy to strenuous, criss-crossing the park.  There is no major elevation change in the park, so the hikes are not like in the Rockies or Sierras.

One of the most visually interesting short hikes is at Wind Canyon, in the South Unit (above and next three pictures)... 

Rick and Lynn on Wind Canyon Trial

...with gorgeous views of the Little Missouri River Valley.

These golden asters line all the roads.

Another rewarding and easy (though hot and without shade) hike is the Boicourt Trail.

Lynn, Glenn and Rick on the Boicourt Trail

Glenn, Lynn and Rick at the summit of the Boicourt Trail

View from the Boicourt Trail

The Boicourt Trail and Overlook both offer quintessential views of the badlands and rolling hills and valleys that are typical of TRNP.

After that hot hike we were ready to head home for an easy cook out and good night's sleep. Then, after a wicked overnight thunderstorm, we finally had blue skies again!!! It seems like ages since we've seen the sky and breathed clean air. What a relief. 

Of course we had to visit the cutesy Western town of Medora several times. The RV park is walking or easy biking distance from town. There are several restaurants, but we only tried the Badlands Pizza and Saloon, twice. We liked their pizza, especially when we asked them to cook it just a tad longer.  The whole town has a Disney feel to it, as much of it (including the Medora Campground, which I would recommend) is owned and operated by the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, committed to maintaining the town of Medora for happy visitors. Many employees and volunteers come from around the world to work here during the summers.

Scenes of Medora


In addition to pizza, we had a little good clean fun in Medora.

High-ho-Silver!

Rick & Glenn get serious

Lynn finds a new friend

No visit to Medora is complete without taking in an evening at the Medora Musical, a surprisingly high quality Disney-like musical review production in an impressive outdoor setting.  This year they celebrate their 50th anniversary! More good clean fun that leaves you feeling darn good about North Dakota and the USofA.

Lynn and Glenn left this morning but we will stay another couple of days and see what else there is to see here before heading south again. 

A final image from Medora