Winter Camping 2012 Feb 6-10

Winter Camping 2012  Feb 6-10

February 6 was get away day.  We motored down almost to Valdosta GA and spent the night at Reed Bingham SP.  We stayed at this SP a couple of years ago and found it to be good ground.  Our campsite was indeed level so we forwent the process of dismounting the Montana from the Ford.      RBSP is known for its large vulture population as well as for it very long board walk that works its way down to the Little River.  For a 2-mile trail it worked very well to keep up our daily exercises.

Wednesday morning we headed further south – our destination: Rainbow Springs SP, FL.   We were within one mile of the Florida State Line when I felt “something”.  I peered into the right mirror and to my dread; I saw pieces of “black stuff” flinging from the area of the rear tire.    We had a blowout on the starboard side!   I eased truck and trailer off to the shoulder and I reminded myself of the horror stories I had heard of travelers whose flat tire had destroyed the wheel well as well as the under carriage of their camper- I had to stop and stop now!

The tire was utterly destroyed.  It was one of the originals – one that I had planned to replace before our “out West” trip - later this summer.  (After 4 to 5 years old, trailer tires are not to be trusted, regardless of how good the tread may look.)  This tire was done for.  GEICO provided the emergency on-road service and within an hour we had the spare tire on the ground.  There was however another problem.  The spare tire was one that I had already changed out – and I felt it was equally unreliable.  We headed northward on I-75 and returned to Valdosta where we bought 3 new tires. 

Four hours after our initial shock, we were again southbound for Rainbow Springs SP.  Arriving at nearly 6pm, we found the park to be one of those neatly arranged; campsites easy to get into!  Jack & John White (and wives) met us and we had a lovely evening; eating a welcome dinner that Judy prepared.

The next morning we all rented canoes and paddled upstream on the river for which the SP is named.   Along the way the clear water and the abundant wildlife awed us.   My left shoulder (formerly dislocated) got the workout it needed.  All was good!

In the next leg of our trip we landed at Cedar Key RV resort.  This park was good for one thing; parking the rig and taking day-trips.  I don’t have much to say about Cedar Key; mostly because Cedar Key doesn’t have much to say itself (or offer).  This Key is trying to become an art community – and it may well do so one day.  The seafood at the Pickled Pelican was well worth the short trip in to town though.   

The next morning we decided to travel over to Manatee Springs SP.  It’s known for its wintertime visitors.   No - not the snowbirds - but the wintering Manatees.   We stayed a half-hour and watched about 10 of them as they lounged and basked just under the water’s surface.   Very nice, but there’s only so much you can watch a manatee do; so we next headed over to Homosassa Springs SP which also is known for it manatees and other wildlife varieties.  This was really a neat park – very different as far as state parks go; it was a zoo in its truest sense.  The short boat ride and then extensive boardwalks allowed for watching every winged animal common to FL.  It’s even home to a hippopotamus, which we watched from about four feet away.    Yes there were manatees here too, but the ones in there natural surroundings at Manatee Springs SP were actually more fun to watch. 

Well, we are about half way through this camping trip – so, I’ll wrap up this posting for now.  If we are lucky we won’t have any more surprises to talk about in the next post.  

Happy days down the road,

Pappy & Grammy aka Ah-pa & Gigi

Brenda and Manatee Friend

                                              Flamingos galore at Homosassa Springs

                                     Brenda makes a video of the shredded tire????

This month's camping excursion was at a little Georgia Power recreation park called Blanton Creek. It's located on a finger of Bartlett's Ferry on the Chattahoochee River in Fortson, GA. This campground is ok if you are a water-sport enthusiast and if you happen to have a boat or other floating device with you in camp. If not, then you probably wouldn't like this park so much.

However, the driving force behind us camping at Blanton Creek was not the beautiful lake. The location is very close to the Stowe's Fortson home and it was grandson, Braxton's 13th, and brother-in-law, Karl's 66th birthday! Thanks right, it was a birthday week celebration. Cookie-mama (sister) planned a full day of activities at Ft. Benning.... from simulated firearms at the shoot-house to eating lunch with our soldiers. We also visited the Nation Infantry Museum and made a pit stop at "Ranger Joes" military surplus store. Braxton and Brice went bonkers when the saw all of the "army stuff" at Ranger Joe. And yes they did talk Pappy into buying a cammo back pack for both of them. But all in all, it was a pretty cool day for all of us!

That evening all 24 of us gathered at Lain & Steve's for burgers, birthday cake and plenty of swimming for the kidos. Thanks so much to Steve and Lain for opening their home to us and topping off the day with "happy birthday" to the birthday boys.

This morning (Wed July 13th) we headed over to Pine Mountain for a ride through Wild Animal Safari. If you haven't tried this local attraction it's worth spending a morning for the variety of wild animals you'll see and (of course) feed. From zebras to kangaroos and giraffes - they pretty much had all you'd expect to see at one of these farms. Taking the 1-hour long zebra painted bus tour through the park was something the grandkidos won't soon forget. There's just something about a giraffe sticking it's head through your window and seeing that foot long tongue wrap around your food pellets .... you just can't ignore that kind of fun now can you!

I just don't know how we could top a week like this for the g-kids .... except maybe a trip to Disney World. Naw... don't think I'll ever do the Disney World thing again..... but, then you never know do you?

(Having issues with photo uploads - so if you want to see a full album of this trip go to my facebook pagehttp://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.228014617233075.66003.100000736148554)

Detour to Mississippi

Monday morning we received word that my Mississippi cousin, Ellen, passed away on Sunday. Grammy and I hurriedly picked up some clothes and broke camp, heading to Laurel, MS. We arrived in Laurel Monday evening and stayed at a little campground called Sleepy Hollow. It was perfect for us for a couple of days.

Ellen's funeral was Tuesday morning. We learned that she planned her own funeral which I thought was eloquent and spoke directly to her warmness and friendly nature. I'll always remember Ellen as we were kids playing in Grandma's backyard and eating water mellon.

Afterward, we spend the day with another cousin, Lucy and her husband Don. Wonderful visit with our Mississippi family.

We packed up and headed home Wednesday morning. About the time we drove through Talledaga AL it started to storm as hard as I've ever seen. The weather stayed with us all the way through Birmingham and beyond. By the time we finally arrived at the GA state line it was 3:30p and still raining. I imagined us arriving in Atlanta at 5pm with the storm that had been following us all day. No way!

We concluded that it was a better idea to spend the night and head out the next day. It was a good idea - we found a cozy little park in Tallapoosa GA called Big Oak RV park. Predictably, it continued to rain this morning when we finally headed home for sure.

Post Script: Any time that we run into a local drought, I believe it's an acceptable remedy to pack up the Montana and plan to go camping. When the camper is on the blacktop the rain is not far away! However, it's my policy to forget the weather and get out there and camp.

Happy trails and roadways ahead.

Pappy

Very cool evening last night at the Foley, AL Hot Air Balloon Festival. There were about 40 balloons that fired up and "glowed" for the crowd. A couple of them lifted off but they don't generally fly that late in the day.

Another interesting discovery at the event is that no one minds you wondering around through the maze of balloons. Which means you can get up close and personal with the equipment and crews that power up these giant colorful orbs. The pilots and crew were happy to talk to us and answer our questions.

This is one of those events that Grammy and I would definitely do again.

Our camping buddies, Butch and Bonnie Lenoir, told us about an early morning beach worship service that they learned about a couple of years ago. So, this morning we all headed over to the park's pavilion and found a rather impressive crowd of Christians gathering to worship our Lord. Foley First United Methodist Church has been meeting on this beach for the past 61 years to hold these special summer services. Most of the 150 worshipers this morning were members of the Foley church while 30 of us were visitors. Happy we attended!

Gulf Shores State Park- It's hot here too!

Grammy and Pappy cooling. Beach very hot - 94.... water pretty darn cold - 78. Kinda weird but refreshing.

Ah, to sleep late. The wonder of it. That is, I wonder how Grammy can sleep so late and why I'm always the first up and out. Here we are where it doesn't matter when we rise and I'm up at 5:30a.m. Grammy of course is nicely nested in the camper snoozing away. Oh well... good time to blog... right?

Nearly all of the 500 sites here at Gulf State Park have been filled. As my brother-in-law, Steve, would say: Unbelievable! There was even a traffic jam of 30 campers as they were trying to nudge their way through registration yesterday afternoon. Happily, we are in the very back of the park where it is quiet and traffic is at a minimum. Wonder how long it will stay that way??

Got pretty hot yesterday so Grammy and I made our way to the beautiful beaches of Gulf Shores! Surprisingly there were very few people on the beach - but that's ok, cause I usually draw a crowd when I stretch out and soak up some rays:)

The beach was pretty darn hot and the water was pretty darn cold which felt pretty darn good. Grammy wet her pretty little painted toes - which was enough for her and I headed in for a full dip - which was good enough for me to cool down for the rest of our beach lounging.

After the beach scene we packed up and headed over to Doc's, a local eatery, and had some lunch. Doc's Blue Plate Special is always good, cheap, and different every day. They advertise it by airplane on the beach, but when you get to the restaurant don't look for it on the menu. It's not there. If you don't know to ask for the Blue Plate Special, you'll order their "Lunch Special", which is double the Blue Plate price. Go figure.

It was a very nice, cool evening, last night. Just right for riding our bikes around the park to look at everyone else's rigs and how they set things up. Some were, as grandson Braxton would say, ginormous - and some were very tiny. But they all were here to have a good time. Today, I will ride back over to the most interesting site we found.... with a camera this time. I've just got to get a pic of the tent we saw. It had a regular size air conditioner duct taped into a hole in the side of the tent. This one you've just got to see to appreciate!

So, until next time with a few more pics....

Pappy

Gulf Shores State Park- Here we are!

Grammy doing what she likes most

while I'm working around the

camp site:)

Good morning to my Blooger peeps! Grammy and I had a delightful open road drive down here to the L.A.'s golden coast. Yesterday we had a rather uneventful haul down here - uneventful is good - I guess one could classify a torrent downpour around Opelika & Auburn included in the uneventful category. It's during those un-events when I have a tendency to go white-knuckle on the steering wheel and have to remind myself and Grammy that all is well...all is well....all is well.

(ah, if only a little bit more of that wet stuff could find it's way to dear Oconee).

When we stuck our body parts outside this morning at 6 a.m. we found it surprisingly warm (imagine that at the beach). Honestly, the mornings at home have been so cool, that I guess they would be equally appealing down here. Note to self: get used to it. It's the beach!

The breeze however is picking up now and with the shade from camper, it seems this my be a beautiful day. Oh, I'll try to do better about updating our ledger this time around - with WIFI in the campsites my task shall be less of a hassle. Later.

Pappy

Gulf Shores State Park- Here we come!

Well, we pull out tomorrow a.m. en route to Gulf Shores. It's been over a month now since we took the Montana out - went to Mississippi to visit my cousin Ellen. Ellen has been fighting a brain tumor for over a year now and it was wonderful to visit her along with our other Mississippi kin. Great trip.

Well, the visit part was really good but we experienced a nagging issue with the Montana's landing gear. After much consternation we were able to make it home ok, but the camper had to go to the shop.

Now, campers are much like boats in that they are very enjoyable while you're using them, but theres usually some mechanical issue just under the enjoyment scale that seems to be waiting to go wrong while your in midst of the fun. In the Mississippi trip it was the landing gear. On other trips it's been fuses, turing signal lamps, electrical harness, oh yes... and a low hanging roof line which jumped out and caught the side of the camper. It's always something isn't it.

If you'er going to run with the big dowgs up and down the highways and byways, you just can't be a goober, a wiener, or a winer. Things happen. Things go wrong. But we won't let that small stuff get our spirits down. The Montana now has shiny new landing legs and two new motors - willing and ripping to head down the road ..... so,

Like my old boss used to say.... "Don't sweat the small stuff. And remember... it's all small stuff"!

So, here we are ready to pull out. And.... it's raining. Yes, it's actually raining. I'm not kidding or complaining because we've only had 1/2 inch since our Miss trip.

Heck, if I knew all it took was to hook up to the Montana to get this rain.... I wouldn't have waited so long for another trip:)

Happy Trails and Roads Ahead,

Pappy