2017 Pacific Coast Trip - Gulf Coast

Photo link:
https://goo.gl/photos/8AY4wg8dYxy9YEpeA

Sunday, February 5^th – Wednesday, February 8^th

Davis Bayou Campground – Gulf Islands National Seashore, Mississippi

After an easy drive out of Florida and into Mississippi, we arrived at the Gulf Islands National Seashore and setup our RV at the Davis Bayou campground. We were fortunate to find out about this campground from a fellow RVer in Salt Springs. Since this is a Federal campground, we were able to use out Senior National Parks pass and get a 50% discount. The campground was very spacious with a nice shower house and friendly camp host. We rode our bikes around the park to discover the layout and trails. The next day we were prepared for the major storm that was forecast for that day. We hunkered down in the camper with the dogs and waited out the storm. For the second time on this trip, we were under tornado warnings for most of the storm front. This was the storm that produced tornados in east New Orleans. We were fortunate that it was not that bad as it rolled over us. After that, the weather cleared and cooled down. The next day we were able to ride our bikes around the area on a designated bike trail. It was nice for a good workout and getting outside. This park was a few miles east of Biloxi. One day we drove over to Biloxi and checked out the area. Davis Bayou is located in the town of Ocean Springs, MS. This was a very nice historic town, which had a beautiful beach along the bay shore. We spent some time there walking the dogs and enjoying the nice weather and sunset. After four days there, we were ready to head to the Big Easy.

Thursday February 9^th – Sunday, February 12th

Bayou Segnette State Park – New Orleans, Louisiana

For the next adventure we headed west to New Orleans, Louisiana. We decided to stay on the south west side of the city at a nice State Park, so we could easily get into the French Quarter and have some fun. Friday, the next day, we went into the city. There is a passenger ferry that leaves the south side and crosses the Mississippi River and lands right near the French Quarter. The ferry ride was easy and fun, a short walk to the French Quarter. We first went to lunch as we were both starving. Oceana was a typical NOLA restaurant with Cajun food and a lovely courtyard, which we enjoyed very much. We explored the Quarter, saw all the famous sites and visited a couple of bars. Since Mardi Gras was less than a week away, the Quarter was preparing for the big Carnival. Some of the early krewes were already practicing throwing beads from the balconies, so we caught some beads and didn’t even have to show any body parts! There were the typical street performers and musicians. Some were very talented in their specialties. It was a lot of fun seeing NOLA again, it had been since before Katrina that we had visited there together. Kurt decided to go back into the Quarter the next night, as the first parade was scheduled. I didn’t want to go, that stuff is too crazy for me. He had a good time, but was disappointed in the krewe, as they were not as good as he expected. Very crude and primitive floats and messages. However, he did enjoy the city for Mardi Gras.

On Sunday, we drove down to Houma to visit with Kurt’s extended family who all live there. His sister-in-law, Helen, had a get together at her home. All the family members were there, Kurt’s nieces and nephews and their families. It was a great time, good food (including raw oysters) and a nice time seeing them all again. We truly enjoyed our visit there, it’s too bad we don’t get to see them often enough. Maybe we could get some of them to move to Florida….

We continue our trek westward, on to Texas for some adventures there.

2017 Pacific Coast Trip – Leaving Florida, Heading West

The plan for this upcoming trip is to slowly work our way across the southern United States, ultimately heading to southern California and then north along the Pacific Coast. We plan to return across the northern states, then head south through some midwestern states. After that we will head south towards Florida. We are not sure how long this will take, but predict we’ll be back in south Florida around October.

Friday, December 30^th – Saturday, February 4^th  

Photo link:
https://goo.gl/photos/3dWbZkSZ847EZEPP7

After leaving Hobe Sound, the first stop in Florida was Fisheating Creek, our favorite campground to celebrate New Year’s Eve. The weather was good, but the creek water level was too low for any serious kayaking. We enjoyed four days there hiking, relaxing and celebrating the New Year. While Kurt was out looking for campfire wood, he found a discarded Christmas tree, which he brought back for a New Year’s Eve super-fire. When he lit that tree, it went up like a bomb. Wow, way more than we expected, but it was fun to watch. While we were packing up to leave, I accidently smashed my left hand middle finger in the truck door… OUCH. I know the finger above the knuckle was crushed and it was very painful. I just wrapped it up and went about my business. It will take weeks to heal and I will lose the fingernail eventually.

After FEC, we headed toward our favorite Florida mountain biking location, Alafia River S.P. As usual, the campground was great and we settled in. We spent four days there, but I was not able to ride the trails, due to my injured finger. While there, our friends the Lea family from Clearwater, came over to visit. Lindsay brought the kids over for the day, Walker (Dad) had to work. We made tacos for lunch and went on a hike. It’s always a great time to hang out with them, the kids are so much fun. On the last day there, I did get out on the trails to see if I could ride with my injured finger and was pleased to be able to. We would have loved to stay longer, but there was no more availability.

Next, we headed to Santos Campground, south of Ocala. Another great mountain biking experience and I was able to ride each day. We were there for 6 nights and enjoyed it as usual. Next we headed to Salt Springs in the Ocala National Forest for 12 nights. Our friends, the Leas, also camped there for the weekend. We had a lot of fun playing with the kids (Pickett, Makena, Brynnan and Tallulah) and catching up with Walker and Lindsay. 

Manatee Springs S.P. was our next destination. This park is near the Gulf Coast of Florida, where the Suwanee River dumps into the Gulf, near Cedar Key. We have camped there before and enjoyed our two night stop. Next we headed toward Apalachicola on the Gulf coast and stayed at Coastline RV Resort, a very nice RV resort. It was a new park on the bayfront. We normally don’t stay at RV resorts, but this one offered very good discounts and made it worth the price. This was one of the nicest, well designed RV resorts we have ever experienced. One day, we drove around the town of Apalachicola, and St. George Island. We stopped at a great seafood restaurant and had raw oysters and fish. Also, while there we went on a hike in Tate’s Hell State Forest. There was a marked “hiking” trail that we decided to take with the dogs. The hike started out very nice, a normal hiking trail through the forest, but then it quickly evolved into nothing but huge sandy, double-track trail right in the middle of hunting season. We were over halfway into the 6 mile hike and decided to continue forward. It was mildly frightening as we were not wearing bright orange clothing, as all the hunters were. We hiked as fast as possible to get out of there. What was so annoying was the trailhead advertised a hiking trail, but no indication that active hunting was in process. We were so happy when this was over, and later when Kurt spoke with a FWC officer he mentioned this lack of notice. The officer also indicated that it was heavily populated by black bears (again no notice at trailhead). Wow, I wonder how many tourists get into this situation!

Our last destination in Florida was Blackwater River S.P. north of Pensacola. One of our favorites due to the great paddling in the area. While there we paddled Juniper Creek (with the dogs) and Kurt paddled the Blackwater River. We were also very excited to find a new mountain biking trail system just a few miles north in the forest. It makes this campground even more inviting for future camping. While there, we drove down to Niceville (near Pensacola) to visit our friends, the Falzone family. We hadn’t seen them in a couple of years, so our visit was wonderful and it was great to see Lily and the kids, Abby and Craig.

As we left Florida, we were excited to move westward and visit some new places.

Summer 2016 - West Virginia, New River Gorge

Friday, September 30^th – Monday, October 3^rd

Photo link:

https://goo.gl/photos/oasSFNe42Vz2uWLF9

The drive from the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania, down through the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia was a new experience. These mountains seemed different as there were small, steep mountains surrounding deep valleys and gorges. Fortunately, most of the drive was on interstate, which we prefer not to take, but was our only option for hauling the travel trailer. It was a long, up and down, curving drive, with some very amazing mountain views. We finally arrived at the New River Campground, near Gauley Bridge, WV. This place was right on the riverfront where we could look out our back window at the river and the opposing rocky walls of the gorge. Just a mile upstream is the convergence of the Gauley River and the New River, which forms the Kanawha River. A few miles upstream on the Gauley River are white water rapids, ranging from Class V to Class II. There are many outfitters to shuttle kayakers on the river.

One of the main attractions for us was to visit the New River Gorge National River and the Gorge Bridge, which is run by the National Park Service. The New River Gorge Bridge is a steel arch bridge 3,030 feet long and 876 feet above the New River near Fayetteville, West Virginia. With an arch 1,700 feet long, the New River Gorge Bridge is now the third longest single span bridge in the world. This bridge is closed to vehicular traffic the third Saturday of every October for “Bridge Day”. This annual festival day allows BASE jumping, climbing and repelling. We missed Bridge Day by two weeks; it would have been a blast, but just didn’t work into our schedule. Also, we would have had to book a campsite months in advance. It was just wonderful to see the bridge, the gorge and the river. Beautiful country!

We also found a highly rated mountain bike trail system south of Fayetteville, Arrowhead Bike and Hike Trails, part of the New River Gorge National River region. We spent one day there riding the trails; not very technical, but very fun to ride. We wished we had another day to ride again, but it was not in our schedule. At this point we are slowly heading south to make it back to Florida by the end of October.

Summer 2016 - Pennsylvania, Raystown Lake

Friday, September 23^rd – Thursday, September 29^th

Photo link:

https://goo.gl/photos/Nskxo7rZU3hrEHu6A

After some great times in New York State, we headed to Pennsylvania. When we were in New Hampshire, we had met a gentleman at a mountain bike park that had Pennsylvania license tags. We asked him to recommend a great place in his state to visit. Knowing we were mountain bikers, he highly recommended Raystown Lake. This Army Corp Project is the largest lake in PA and near the town of Huntingdon. One of the best features of the lake is that there is no commercial or private development along the waterfront, so the whole lakeshore is left in the natural state; except the Army Corp campgrounds and marina. When we arrived at the Seven Points Campground on Friday, the campsites were first-come first-serve. We were not able to get a waterfront site that day, but on Sunday when most of the campers left, we moved to the best waterfront site in the campground. It was well worth the move. The campground was mostly empty by that point and we allowed the dogs to roam the campsite and waterfront. They really enjoyed some freedom from the leash.

The primary reason we wanted to stay here was because of the mountain bike trails. The Allegrippis Trails were built by the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA), along with the Army Corps, local conservation groups and volunteer laborers to create a multi-use trail system for mountain biking, hiking, running, snowshoeing and cross country skiing. These trails were some of the best engineered and maintained trails that we have ridden. We spent almost every day riding some of the various trails and truly enjoyed the experience. We would love to go back one day to camp and bike ride at this special place.

While camping there we also got our kayaks in the water and took the dogs for a paddle. The weather was wonderful up until the last two days. A storm with heavy rains and high winds whipped through the area and kept us hunkered down inside. Ugh, we really hate those days, but we used them to get some maintenance and cleaning issues taken care of.

Our time at Raystown allowed us to ride great trails and to also relax in such a beautiful lakeside environment. This Army Corp campground was one of the best we ever stayed in. Also, with our Federal Senior National Parks pass, we receive a 50% discount on the campsites, at $17 per night. There are some advantages of getting older!

Summer 2016 - New York, Ithaca & Niagara

Photo link:

https://goo.gl/photos/AfktAkCu5Beaxg6Z8

Monday, September 12^th – Sunday, September 18^th

Taughannock Falls State Park, Ithaca

The drive out of Adirondacks over to western New York was quite beautiful, traveling mostly back road highways.

We camped at Taughannock Falls State Park near Ithaca New York. Ithaca is on the south side of Cayuga Lake, one of the major Finger Lakes in the region. After setting up we decided to hike up along the Gorge Trail and have our first look at Taughannock Falls. We were in a state of shock when we got to the falls overlook and noticed that there was only a trickle of water coming over the falls. Wow! What a disappointment as this was the reason we specifically booked this campground due to the falls. There are also numerous falls around the Ithaca area, but they too were all in this situation due to months of serious drought in the area.

We took some scenic drives around the Cayuga Lake and the City of Ithaca, it was quite lovely. We were surprised at the great number of vineyards and wineries surrounding the lake. It was a great area for tourists to do the winery tours. There was also a lot of agricultural lands in the area.

One night we went to a free concert in downtown Ithaca at an area called Ithaca Commons. The downtown is very quaint with many historic buildings. The commons area is a former street that has been blocked off as a pedestrian mall. Also, Ithaca is home to Cornell University, a renowned university for math and science. There are several well-known scientists that graduated from Cornell, among them being Carl Sagan, one of our favorites. Kurt was so intrigued by the university that he drove into town one day with his bicycle and toured the whole campus. It was interesting to see the mix of historic and new high-tech buildings. It was quite obvious just driving around town that it was a University town due to all the young adults walking around with their backpacks or on their bicycles and the abundance of coffee shops.

We also found some great mountain biking trails about 15 miles out of town.  We drove out to Shindagin Hollow Forest on two days and enjoyed the rides. We were ready to head to Niagara Falls.

Monday, September 19^th – 22^nd

Niagara Falls

After Ithaca, we were excited to get over to the Niagara Falls. Neither of us had been there, so we were anxious to see what it was all about.

Niagara Falls is close to Buffalo New York, where Buffalo wings were originally created. So the first evening we drove down to Buffalo and found Anchor Bar, which is the home of the original buffalo chicken wings. We just had to go try them and they were good as expected; however we still feel that Brass Ring Pub in North Palm Beach is the best ever.

The next morning we headed to Niagara Falls. This beautiful State Park provides various viewing areas for the falls. The Niagara River actually splits before it goes over the falls, so one of the falls is on the Canadian side and the majority of the falls on the American side. The view from the Observation Tower was really amazing and allowed us a better view of the American Falls and some of Horseshoe Falls. We walked from the main visitor area on the bridges over the Niagara River to Goat Island, from there we were able to see the American Falls from the south side and then Horseshoe Falls (Canadian) from the north side of the river on Terrapin Point.

The next day we went back to Niagara Falls and boarded the "Maid of the Mist" tour boat.  This boat leaves from a dock on the north side of the American Falls, which it passes by and then down into the Horseshoe Falls. While in the Horseshoe Falls area the mist was so thick you could barely see parts of the waterfall. As part of the boat tour, they provided translucent blue rain ponchos which we were glad to have. The hardest part was keeping our camera dry while trying to take photos. Later that night we went back down to Niagara Falls to view the illumination of the falls and later the fireworks. These amazing light shows were compliments of the Canadians.

The next day at Niagara Falls was spent with our dogs hiking the Niagara Gorge Whirlpool Trail. This was a moderately difficult hike with many stairs to descend, then a lot of rock hopping along the riverside. Then, of course, we had to ascend the stairs returning to the trailhead. It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed the hike and seeing the river at the lower level.

Our last day at Niagara Falls was spent on a scenic drive heading north up along Lake Ontario. Neither of us had ever seen the lake so we wanted to check it out.  We also drove through Fort Niagara which was a historic military base during the Revolutionary War. From the Fort property we were able to see the inlet where the Niagara River flows out to Lake Ontario.

All in all, our time in the Niagara Falls area was well spent and we truly enjoyed it. Neither of us really knew what to expect, but it actually turned out to be much more beautiful and interesting than we had thought it would be. We had decided to stay an extra day so we could see everything.

Summer 2016 - New York, Adirondacks, Lake Clear

Monday, September 5^th – Sunday, September 11^th

Charlie’s Inn Junction & Campground, Lake Clear, New York

Photo link:

https://goo.gl/photos/arLiYRzZqH17nyS39

The weather was gorgeous and we had a beautiful drive out of Rutland Vermont over to the Adirondacks. Along the way we stopped in the lower Champlain Valley at an overlook, with a great view of the valley and mountains in the distance. Once we arrived in the Adirondacks region we passed through Lake Placid, the site of the 1980 Winter Olympics and then Saranac Lake, a beautiful little town bordering a few lakes. Driving along the roads in the Adirondacks we passed through many small villages surrounded by high peak mountains and hiking trailheads everywhere. We arrived at Charlie's Inn Junction & Campground to find very historic site, which is now privately owned. This was once a main railroad depot for the Central Line Railroad in New York. All of the original buildings are still on the property including the depot and the Inn, which is still operating as a lodge and great restaurant.

We quickly realized that our main activity here in the Adirondacks would be hiking. There are so many mountain peaks in the area and some amazing hiking trails. One of the hikes that we did was to climb to the top of Ampersand Mountain.  This hike was a challenging rocky ascent of 1775’ to the summit at 1942’. The dogs were with us and we were all enjoying the challenging steep hike. Within ½ mile of the peak, one of the descending hikers informed us that there was a large rock face about 6 to 8 feet high that needed to be climbed over to get to the peak. Once I heard this, Kody and I both decided to turn around and head back to the truck, since that was not our favorite thing to do and we were pretty exhausted at that point after already hiking almost 3 miles.  We waited at the truck for about another hour and a half before Kurt and Luca arrived. Kurt did get some beautiful pictures of the views from the summit. I really wish I could have made it and I was disappointed that I didn't have the courage to climb the rock face.

We decided one day to drive over to Lake Placid and to explore the areas and the sites from the 1980 Winter Olympics. We saw the site of the ski jumps, which are still intact and used in the winter. It’s so hard to imagine that people ski down from that high tower on ice. We also went to the arena which is also a Convention Center.  There were banners regarding the historic hockey game where the USA beat the Russians by one point and won the gold medal. Who can forget the “Miracle on Ice”? It was so hard to imagine that this small mountain town of Lake Placid would be flooded with hundreds of thousands of attendees and athletes for the Olympic Winter Games, it must have been truly packed.

Another day we did a great hike up St. Regis Mountain. The hike was 3.3 miles one way with an ascent of 1260’ to the summit of 1942’. This time all four of us made it up another steep, rocky hike and reached the summit. At the summit was an old fire tower, which Kurt climbed to the top. Again, the views from this rocky top mountain were amazing; the whole landscape dotted with mountains, the high peaks to the East and lakes all around.  Even though it was a challenging hike, I still enjoyed it and was very pleased I was able to make it to the summit.

Lake Clear is a lovely lake with crystal clear water and some sandy beaches. We found that just a short walk from our campground there was a beautiful beach that faced the west and was a perfect spot for sunset. A couple of nights we took the dogs to run and play on the beach. We sat there, had happy hour and watched the sunset, even though both times there were clouds on the horizon. It was still a lovely place to sit and relax and watch the sun go down.

One day Kurt kayaked and fished on the Saranac chain of Lakes. This is a very popular kayak and canoe area. The lakes are dotted with numerous islands that are set aside for primitive camping. Outfitters in the area will set up customers with boats and camping gear, to spend several nights on the lakes. Kurt just enjoyed a day paddle there. He also paddled on the Raquette River for a couple of miles. He enjoyed the lakes much more than the river.

One of the most unusual activities we've had on this whole trip is taking a ride on a bicycle rail car, called Rail Explorers. This was a fun activity that began in Saranac Lake and ended on Lake Clear, with specially built bicycle rail cars that you pedal yourself on the rails. We decided it was worth the price, since this was so unusual that we thought we may never get a chance to do something like this again. With a front and rear escort, each group of people had their own individual rail cars and  they evenly space out the cars about 300 feet so you could peddle the rail car at your own speed and enjoy the sights. Along the way we passed by bogs and a few lakes, including Lake Clear. As we passed through the Lake Clear area we were able to see our campground and the historic buildings. At the end of the 7 ½ mile ride they shuttled everyone back to the beginning in a comfortable bus. These are older rails, no longer used by trains and are slated to be pulled up and the whole course will be turned into a rail trail for multi-use. We really had fun on a beautiful day enjoying this very different activity.

On our last evening there we spent time at the lake to watch the sunset and let the dogs run free.

We really enjoyed the Adirondacks, a 6-million acre wilderness region. It was really different from many other places we have been. With the lakes, surrounded by mountains all around made this very special place.

Summer 2016 - Maine, Saco River & Vermont, Rutland

Friday, August 26th - Sunday, September 4^th

On The Saco River, Brownfield, Maine

Photo link:
https://goo.gl/photos/1iLK2gBA52idiZ78A

For our next stop, we headed toward southwest Maine in the Lakes Region. We found a beautiful RV park, On the Saco Family Campground. It was literally on the Saco River which we were looking forward to kayaking. We arrived there on Friday August 26th, setup camp and met our wonderful RV neighbors. Again we found several of RV neighbors there were actually from Maine not too far away, and were keeping their campers there on a seasonal basis. The owners of the campground were also river outfitters; they rented kayaks, canoes, tubes and offered shuttle service.

During our time there, I ran shuttle for Kurt and dropped him off on the river 5 miles upstream. He enjoyed his day of kayaking and caught a 5 pound black smallmouth bass, which he later fried up for dinner.  We also went kayaking another day with the dogs to paddle a 3-mile trip down the Saco River. It was a nice day and all 4 of us really enjoyed it.

We found a local hiking trail called Burnt Meadow Trail. It was supposedly a moderate hike but again we found it was more strenuous than advertised. The five-mile trail was actually quite beautiful up to the 1575' summit of the mountain. As we neared the top, I was faced with a six-foot-high rock face that I would need to climb up and over. By that point I was pretty exhausted and decided it was not a smart thing for me to take that risk. So Kody and I decided to head back down the trail and would wait for the other two at the truck. Kurt took some beautiful pictures at the summit of the surrounding views and eventually finished the five-mile loop. When he got back to the truck he even admitted that the trail was more strenuous than he had anticipated.

I had also found some highly rated mountain bike trails just across the state line in New Hampshire in the town of North Conway. We drove over there and rode several miles of the trails. They were fun trails, but not so easy to follow as they weren't well marked. However, we still enjoyed the ride and exercise.

We loved the Saco Campground so much that we extended our five days to seven to make it a full week. It was so well worth it, a wonderful campground with great people and great owners. We highly recommend this campground to anyone wanting to travel through that part of Maine.

Gifford Woods State Park, Rutland, Vermont

Our next stop on our way heading west was a return to our favorite place in Vermont, Rutland. We again camped at Gifford Woods State Park and even had the exact same camp site as we did in July. We really love the campground and the whole area around Rutland that we just had to go back one more time. One of my favorite things about Rutland was the wonderful mountain bike trails in the city park of Pine Hill. We rode there for two days and truly enjoyed these wonderfully engineered and maintained trails. During this visit, I was able to accomplish more due to the riding that we have been doing on our whole trip. Over the summer, my riding skills have improved greatly and I was also extremely happy to have accomplished getting to the very top of this mountain in Pine Hill Park. Of course, the ride down was even more fun. We both had two wonderful days there and someday we hope to go back again.

Our last day in the area we drove over to the Killington ski resort. During the summers they have downhill mountain biking on the ski slopes. This is an extreme mountain biking experience and you have to have the proper protective gear and even special mountain bikes to ride on the downhill slopes. The riders take their bikes up to the top of the mountain on the Gondola lift and then ride downhill.  I did drop off Kurt at the base of the gondolas, where he was able to ride some other slopes downhill that were not as extreme as the upper ski slopes. We met some really nice folks from Massachusetts that had been riding there for 3 days. They were well-equipped and explained to us all the hazards and safety gear required to ride there.

Again we truly enjoyed our three days in the Rutland area. There's just something about that part of Vermont that just feels like home to me. Hopefully someday we'll go back to that area and spend much more time. Our next adventure will be in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.