It’s Actually Acadia (Finally!)

This has been a long time coming, I almost feel guilty…almost.  I’m having so much fun that it’s hard to care that I’ve been letting things slide.  I’ll try to make up for it a little.

Acadia is beautiful beyond what words can convey.  It covers a lot of ground…and sea.  It is split into several sections.  I chose a campground between the main body of the park and Schoodic point for ease in seeing the park and its environs without having to move my RV.

Sailboat, near Schoodic

Tidal pool at Schoodic Point

Acadia is diverse.  I wandered through forests where the moss under the trees is so thick  it feels like there must be three or four inches of memory foam under your feet.  But you only sink in maybe half an inch.   The coastline is rugged and rocky with few sandy beaches.  The tidal rise and fall can exceed nine feet when the moon is full.  Rivers often flow both directions, depending on if the tide is coming in or going out.  They can have whitewater rapids that flow both directions, depending on the time of day.   The inlets and bays are all made for calendars and postcards; the views are spectacular.   Lakes and ponds abound and loons call from overhead as they fly past.

tidal pools

bay town

low tide river

Then there is the lobster.  Lobster, lobster everywhere, cooked every way you can imagine.  All exceedingly fresh, tasty and cheap (for lobster anyway.)   The first time someone suggested that I eat at a lobster pound I didn’t know what to say.  (Hmmmm, they have so many lobsters that they wander the streets and they have to pick up the strays?)   Actually, no, they’re just places that buy directly from the boats then hold the little dears in live tanks until you pick out your supper.  Then they boil them in sea water and serve them to you with butter.  Yum.  I also developed a severe weakness for lobster stew, which isn’t really a stew, as there are no veggies involved.  Just big chunks of lobster in a soup that is pure cholesterol and absolutely divine.

and bays

boats

I rode all over Acadia from Schoodic point to Mount Desert Island.   And plenty of the little towns that are strewn along the way.  I rode in a horse-drawn wagon on the carriage roads built by one of the early Rockefellers.  I saw the bridges he had built for his roads in the 1920’s, including one built of cobblestone by masons brought from Europe just to build the bridge.  These men were so concerned that they wouldn’t be able to find the right kind of stones in America, that they filled the ship they came over on with the stones they would use to build the bridge.

cobble bridge

inside cobblestone bridge

carriage

Mr. Rockefeller was a forward-thinking man when it came to his carriage roads and bridges.  There are “curb” stones on the road’s edges that go down into the ground several feet to keep carriages on the road.  The bridges were built with spouts to direct rainwater on to trees planted below the bridges.   No road has a grade steep enough to tax the horses drawing a carriage, or endanger the riders.  He also employed hundreds of people from the nearby town to build his roads and maintain the home and grounds.   Many worked for him most of their adult lives.

bridge spout

another bridge

bridge

While in Acadia, I had lunch at Jordan Pond restaurant.  It is known for its fresh popovers.  They were a delightful treat that I enjoyed with a bowl of lobster stew.  (I gained way too much weight in Maine….but it was worth it!)   I rode endless miles on my little motorcycle and loved them all.

bass harbor lighthouse, another view

bass harbor lighthouse

lighthouse

small town view

Along the way I saw spectacular sunsets, numerous lighthouses, and all manner of beautiful things.  I drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain and saw endless vistas of lakes and forests.  I saw bay after bay filled with lobster boats and buoys.   In short, too much to recall in one post.  So I will just put in a few pictures and hope to give a glimpse of some of the places that stole my heart in Acadia.

house on Frenchman’s Bay

Bubbles pond

beach

view from Cadillac Mt.

low tide sunset

view from my campsite

Sunset, Frenchman’s Bay

coastline

Back in the Harness Again

When I was in Florida last winter, I met someone who was semi-retired from building and maintaining horse racing tracks.   He was still working in the field as a consultant during the harness racing season in New York and New Jersey.   He told me that if I was ever in New Jersey to give him a call and he could set me up with a place for my RV while I was seeing the area.  So when I hit NJ, I called.

The end result of that call was my spending two weeks at the Meadowlands track in NJ and a week at the historic track in Goshen, NY.   During that time I managed to learn quite a bit about the sport of harness racing.   (I also spent three days exploring New York City, since Meadowlands is located just across the river from the city.  Just a short bus ride and there I was.)

and they’re off!

I had a wonderful time just watching and learning at each of the tracks.  I still don’t have any interest in following the sport or betting on the races, but I do love learning new things.  And all of what I learned was new to me!  Things like how the track is maintained before and during the races. Along with the various types of equipment used on the track and the horses, the difference between trotting and pacing (gaits used by the horses, differentiated by how the horse moves its legs.)   Along with what the various abbreviations on the racing form meant, etc.  It was a lot to take in but great fun in that I got to learn something that I had previously known absolutely nothing about.

heading for the finish line

feel that stretch?

pacer

trotter

Meadowlands racetrack is in East Rutherford, NJ next to the Metlife stadium and a couple of other entertainment venues.  The New Jersey state fair started its run at the fairgrounds while I was there, so I also got to take a stroll down memory lane–to all the Los Angeles county fairs I attended with my family as a child.   The bright lights, rides and impossible games brought back all the fun I had on those childhood midways.   A big plus for me was being able to indulge my love of riding Ferris wheels.  This fair had a couple of big ones that gave a great view of the surrounding area, including the New York City skyline, all lit up and shining in the night.

warming up

After I had been in NJ for a couple of weeks, my friend had to go up to Goshen, NY to work at the historic racetrack up there, over the 4th of July week.   I tagged along and he got me a spot to park my RV at that beautiful old track.   Harness racing has been taking place on this site since 1801, so there’s a “bit” of history to the place.   There’s also an excellent harness racing museum on the grounds and I spent a leisurely afternoon perusing all it had to offer.

after the race

Another finish in sight

Harness racing museum

museum sign

historic Goshen track

The town of Goshen, NY is small, sleepy and packed full of history, like the place where Noah Webster (the guy who compiled our first dictionary) taught school and a bunch of other stuff.  I met a lot of` people who raise, train and own the harness horses, along with those in some of the support industries.   With a big plus being that almost everyone I met were really nice people.

marker at the Goshen track

town hall

fountain in town

Hopefully, I’ll get around to the post about NYC soon, but I had to get this one up because it was just such a great experience learning about something that I had never been exposed to before.   With the plus of how graceful and beautiful these animals can be.  A big “thank you” goes out to all the people I met who shared their knowledge with me during this little part of my journey.

 

 

Ms Barbara Goes to Washington

I  went to Washington DC. Not for the first time, but for a longer visit. My first visit was just a “passing thru” type thing where I only had about 3 hours to see what I could. This time I spent three days exploring the city, which isn’t enough time to see much, actually. This visit was dedicated to taking my husband’s ashes to the Wall (Vietnam Memorial) and seeing as much of the Smithsonian museums as I could. I’ve been a member for years, I figured I would go visit the place my money’s been going all this time.

Jim and Jimmy together again

VN nurses memorial

I stayed at Duncan’s Family Campground, which is well outside the city, but which has a daily shuttle service to the metro station. It’s a nice enough campground, a little rustic, which I don’t mind at all. But the showers in the area I was in could have stood better cleaning. So I only used them once. (I stayed in a site with only water and electricity to save money.) Turns out that the guy who regularly cleans them was on his day off. I’m assuming that he does a better job than the back-up guy, who cleaned 8 showers in under 10 minutes. I don’t think that even qualifies as a lick-and-a-promise….

reflecting pool

Anyway, it was pretty and, for east coast prices, reasonable. The shuttle service was $8 per day with a very friendly driver who knew his stuff. I bought a metro card that could be reloaded with $$ as I used it. I should have been able to travel for half-price (offered to seniors and disabled), but it turned out that only seniors (over 65) could purchase that card at the main station. The disabled have to change trains, then walk two or three blocks to the main metro office and apply there. Then they wait for their card to be mailed. Oh goody. And only during certain hours and days. I paid full-fare as I didn’t have a day to waste jumping through hoops. Wonder how well this system works for those in wheelchairs? Or missing legs, or ??? OK, end of rant.

Smithsonian rose garden

young boy at Lincoln memorial

detail panel WW II memorial

Smithsonian castle from rear

The first day was dedicated to getting Jim’s ashes to the wall, and the panel with Jimmy Elder’s name on it. Jimmy was Jim’s best bud in ‘Nam. He died while Jim was in the hospital with his second case of malaria. And Jim never forgave himself for not being there for him. Now they’re together again. After the visit to the wall, I walked to the various memorials that surround the reflecting pool then had lunch from one of the many food trucks in the area. After that, it was off to the air and space museum.

the wall

he Air and Space Museum is one of many Smithsonian museums in DC (and elsewhere). It was crowded, noisy and fascinating. I ducked into one of the IMAX movies (there were several different ones to choose from) on the Hubble telescope. There was great footage of the repairs and updates to the telescope taken from the shuttle during the missions. Plus lots of background and images from the telescope itself. So ended day one.

Airline uniforms from the 1960’s

lunar lander

Air and Space museum

The second day was given over to art. The Sackler, Hirshhorn, Freer Gallery, etc. with a quick visit to the natural history museum and another IMAX movie, this one on Jerusalem. Which was really, really interesting. Another place I need to visit. The Freer Gallery had some really interesting ancient sculpture, including a life-size metal figure whose robe had all the detail to make it look like brocade fabric. Hundreds of years old. Just amazing. Plus there was a big display of Whistler’s art, particularly pieces from his Nocturne series.

Room

Sculpture detail

A Whistler nocturne

Then I took a day to let my feet and legs recover. It’s a lot of walking seeing all that stuff.

I went back on Sunday for a trip to the American history museum. Talk about a lot of stuff packed into one building! From the original Star Spangled Banner (which is kept in a very dimly lit room, no pictures allowed, even without flash), to the lunch counter from Woolworths made so famous during the civil rights movement to a pair of “ruby” slippers from the Wizard of Oz and Lincoln’s top hat. The place covers a lot of ground.

carved topaz crystal

pretty rocks

There was still so much to see, but I was just too tired to do it. Maybe I’ll catch some of it on my way back south this fall. Who knows?

big spider

lunch counter

robe detail, solid metal made to look like fabric

Last Train to Parksville (TN)….and Ohio

OK, I admit it, I’m lazy. I’m having entirely too much fun. Life on the road is sweet. There is so much beauty around every corner that I’m finding it hard to edit the photos and get these posts up. By the time a week passes I can easily have taken over 100 pictures and visited half a dozen places that took my breath away. So how do I possibly keep up? I’m starting to realize that it just isn’t possible. So, but for a few exceptions, I’m not even going to try. Posts like this one that hit the highlights of several places I’ve been are likely to become the norm.

Of course, I may change my mind about that tomorrow.

Meanwhile, here’s some of where I’ve been and what I’ve seen:
First stop–Parksville Lake campground, Tennessee. This one was the termination of a long, somewhat-white-knuckle drive to reach. The campground is near one end of a long, sinuous canyon. Unfortunately I started from the far end. So 40 or 50 miles of two-lane highway that snaked along a cliff-face on one side, gray rock wall soaring higher than I could see in many places. (Taking the time to look up could easily have resulted in a fatality, me or someone else…) The other side of the road, the on-coming lane side, there was a river. A beautiful, raucous, meandering, narrow, white-water river that widened into a series of lakes along the route. Until the canyon narrowed again and the river re-formed.

There were no passing lanes on the road, but not a lot of steep grade either. What there were were curves. Lots of curves, “S”, switchbacks, wicked bends that repeated many times per mile. Most were marked with a speed limit of 30 mph down to 15 mph. To add to the fun, semis also use this route. And they’re always in a hurry. If I kept my eyes on the road I could keep to a speed that wouldn’t tick off those drivers, but I want to actually SEE the country. And there was almost no place on the road with an area to pull over large enough for my RV. Which means I also didn’t get any pictures. I do plan to go back to the area again. It was too beautiful for so short a stay.

There were two campgrounds in the area I was headed for. The lower one is very small, probably less than 25 sites. The upper one is much larger, but I didn’t get that far. The small one is several miles closer to the road I had been on. And it was almost empty when I got there. The sites were flat. There was electricity and a nice restroom and shower house. The setting was fabulous, with a little stream off to one side and lots of spring flowers in bloom. Squaw root, wild geraniums, Jack-in-the-pulpit, Carolina Silver Bells, foam flower, dogwood, iris and many more that I don’t know the names of.

tiny flowers each less than 1/4 inch across

some kind of lily

Carolina silver bells

Jack-in-the-pulpit

foam flower

The second day there, I hiked up to Rainbow falls with the couple that were the camp hosts. Nice people. It had rained for a couple of days before I got there and stream below the falls was high. In two areas where you can usually cross on rocks it was easier just to wade. At least for me. Less chance of falling and dunking my camera. It was a week before my boots dried. (I forgot that there are two layers of insoles…)

Parksville campground

rainbow falls

squaw root

Anyway, another great place I have to go back to. From there it was on to Atlanta and Allatoona Lake. But that was another post.

From there I went thru KY to visit my ex- mother-in-law’s place. She died while I was in Florida, a couple of days after I had talked to her on the phone and promised to come see her in the spring when I went back north. I felt like I needed to honor the promise to go there.

From there, I spent a couple of weeks in St. Louis before going to the Escapees rally in Goshen, IN.

After I left the rally, I spent a few days at a place called Camp Timberlake in IN. I chose the place because it was closest to a small (very small) town called Roann that I passed through on my way up to Goshen. As I drove through the town the first time, I crossed a bridge that paralleled a broad spillway from a large mill-pond. The restored mill perched alongside. It was so “picture perfect” that I stopped in the middle of the bridge and took a quick picture. Then I promised myself I would come back and actually see the place.

clouds at camp Timberlake

Timberlake was a very nice, but rather expensive (at least as regards what I usually pay) campground. There’s a small lake full of fish, boats and canoes for rent, a new zip line with rope bridges and all kinds of goodies (I’ll pass, my balance isn’t what it used to be), full hook-ups, etc. The owners are really trying to make it something special. The older section of the campground has primitive sites and sites with just water and electric, plus some fulls.

Lake at Timberlake

Like many campgrounds, it’s peaceful during the week. Not so much on the weekend. I only got the spend the weekend because someone cancelled at the last minute and I had already let the office know that I wanted the first cancellation that came in. I had to move to a different site, but at least I had a site.

I drove back to Roann while I was there, like I had planned. It turned out to be even smaller than I had thought. I went to the covered bridge (1877) first. Cars still use this bridge. It spans the Eel River. Next to it is a quaint little cemetery. I like old graveyards. I like trying to find the oldest dates I can on the headstones. Reading the inscriptions. All that stuff. Peaceful. Also a great spot to take pictures of the bridge from.

spillway at mill

I talked to a couple of women who were out walking (residents of the town.) From them I learned about a diner in town where I got a great BLT and vanilla shake for a very reasonable price. Then I went next door to an antique store and found an inlaid wood serving tray that was the perfect size to become a cabinet door in the bedroom for only $16.00. (I removed the bedroom TV and turned its “hole” into storage) It’s a little rustic but with quite a bit of detail and the price was right. I strapped it to the back of the bike and went out to the old mill.

view of bridge from graveyard

Stockdale mill

It’s very picturesque. I wish I could have seen the inside of the place, but it turned out to only be open on Saturday. I was there on Friday. Oh well, the pictures of the outside are nice.

bridge inside, detail

inside bridge

Roann bridge

From Roann the next stop was Berlin Lake in Ohio. Another Corps of Engineers campground, older than most of the others I have stayed at, so more rustic and in need of TLC. But again, beautiful. Huge lake. Without a power boat of some kind I don’t know how you could see it all. I took my new kayak on her maiden voyage there. It’s the two piece unit I bought in St. Louis. Swedish design. Snaps together and is very sturdy. Has inflatable lumbar support in the seat back and foot controlled rudder. Very sweet. It was windy the day I took it out. Just a little pressure with the proper foot and I was always headed in the direction I wanted to go without having to paddle extra strokes to compensate for the off-course push of the wind.

blowing bubbles …

rhododendron

small part of the campground

sunset, part two

lake sunset

Home at Berlin Lake

I had a great visit there, then headed for PA, on my way to Washington DC.

Vero Beach Vicissitudes

I landed in Vero Beach in the afternoon and got a site at a private campground that I had stayed at the previous year. It isn’t cheap, but it isn’t as expensive as most campgrounds near the ocean in Florida during peak season. Besides, I like the place and most of the people seem really mellow.

Vero is a nice town. Upscale in some parts, middle class in others, quaint, quirky and pleasant. Plenty of shopping and dining and great weather. What’s not to like? (Well, other than a few too many people. I’m kind of burned out on cities.) The last time I was there I never got to the beach, this time I did. Soft white sand, puffy clouds, warm sun, warm water. In short, perfect.

---

Vero sits alongside the inland waterway that runs up the eastern coast of Florida, inside the barrier islands that do the same. There are a couple of nice bridges that arch over that strip of water and lead to the beaches on the ocean side of things. The first bridge north of the campground leads to Vero city park. From there it’s just a short walk across the boardwalk through the dunes to the beach–where I lingered for a few hours basking in the sun, reading and walking on the packed sand at the water’s edge.

---

The last time through Vero, I had stayed less than a week, so I didn’t get to know the place very well.  This time I lingered almost three weeks and got to know it much better.  It gave me a different perspective than the Vero Beach I met last time through.  I also got to know a few of the people who call this town and campground home each winter a little better.

Ibis by the pond

The place I was staying has several RV sites located in a grassy area in the rear of the park. These sites are for people who either winter here, are staying for a few days or a few weeks (if space is available) or who stay for the minimum five months that allows them to leave their RV’s stored there during the summer for a (comparative) pittance, in the same sites they will use when they return the following winter. Which is nice for them, but I like my scenery to change more often than that.

---

The people who own lots in this park/campground are, for the most part, permanent residents. Their lots are landscaped and most have swapped their RV’s for modular homes or trailers that haven’t had wheels in decades and now sit on some sort of foundation. The park also has a community room, laundry and swimming pool to round things out.

“uncle Murray”

One of my favorite things during this trip was a group of people who played country, gospel and bluegrass-style music every Friday night in the community room. Guitars, fiddles, mandolin, harmonicas and assorted percussion instruments accompanied the singer/musicians. Some were good, some were passable and others were excellent. Everyone performed with enthusiasm and a wonderful time was had by all. It made an excellent way to pass a Friday evening.

flower buds

water lilies

I also paid a visit to McKee Jungle Gardens, another place I had missed the last time through. The original garden opened in 1932 on 80 acres of land in Vero Beach. The garden was designed by an architect from the firm owned by Frederick Law Olmsted. The owners, Arthur G. McKee and Waldo E. Sexton assembled an extensive collection of water lilies and orchids to be showcased at their garden, along with many other plants and flowers.

“whisper” bench

The gardens were a hit. By the 1940’s more than 100,000 people were visiting the garden per year. Unfortunately, as times change, tastes change. That along with new attractions and the building of interstate 95 spelled the end of the garden’s heyday. Attendance fell off and the property was sold and zoned for development. Condos were built on all but 18 acres. But in 1994 money was raised to purchase and restore the remaining portion of the garden.

weird “fruit”

orchid

water lily

It is an absolutely beautiful place, serene and glorious. I’m sorry that more of it wasn’t available to be saved.
While I was there they were having a sculpture exhibition of the work of Seward Johnson. The pieces were all life-size figures doing everyday things like fishing, reading or just walking. Some were taken from scenes in impressionist paintings, some were modern figures. They were well-executed, with excellent detail, but that type of sculpture isn’t really my thing. So rather than stare at the statues, I stared at all the beautiful lily ponds, orchids and many, many other plants and flowers.

one of the sculptures

But even when I had tired of taking pictures, smelling flowers and wandering along the streams, I wasn’t ready to leave. It was while I was resting on a bench, just taking it all in that I found another way to enjoy the garden. I was just being still and letting the world go by, but three people happened by and thought I was one of the sculptures! When I turned my head, they all jumped and it was kind of fun. So I moved to a different spot and sat again. Got another couple while they were trying to find me in the map of the sculptures. It was too much fun to stop, so I kept it up until just before closing. A wonderful time was had by……me! (Oh yeah, those others left laughing, so it’s a good bet they had fun too….)

bright bloom

The weekend before I was scheduled to move on, Vero had its annual art fair. Of course I had to go. They are a lot more fun when you don’t have to work while you’re there. The work was lovely and good to excellent quality. I was seriously tempted by a pair of cloisonne earrings, but really couldn’t justify the expense. These days I forget to wear earrings most of the time. Seems silly to spend $350 for a pair of earrings I might only wear once a year. So I passed on those in the end. I did, however, order a lovely new blouse. Something I will wear often.

---

My time in Vero was coming to an end. Time to move on!

About Midway to Okeechobee

Now I’m in Mr. Peabody’s Way Back machine. Or so it seems. I’m so far behind in my posts that I need a kind of time machine in order to remember all the places I’ve been and what I’ve seen. That’s the problem with having so much fun, “work” is an after-thought that you only get to when there’s nothing else to do. And there’s always something else to do. But I will try to get my thoughts in a coherent form of some sort and get them on the page.

Biscayne

While I was still in the Homestead area I decided to visit Biscayne National Park. I really wish I had a kayak for that. I still haven’t been able to replace the one I sold before I bought my bigger RV. I finally found the one I want, but nobody has it in stock! The store that has it in their catalog doesn’t actually have it in stock yet, and they don’t seem to know when it will be available. Having something shipped to you when you have no permanent address can be a problem. Particularly when it is a big, heavy something.

Pretty fish for dinner

Meanwhile, I was in Biscayne and most of what there is to see there is either underwater or on one of the many little islands that dot the bay. I have snorkeling gear, but the reef action was farther away than I wanted to swim to, so I had to be satisfied with just walking around on the shore. It really is a beautiful place. I will be going back there after I get a new kayak, either next year or the year after, depending on where I decide to winter next year.

The bay is teeming with life. Colorful fish abound, birds everywhere, the ocean sparkling and bright. I want to go back! There is no camping there, aside from a couple of spots for park volunteers to put their RV’s. But there are a few spots for RV’s to park for the day, you just have to get there early if you want one. I met one guy who camps in store parking lots in town every night, then gets to the park as soon as it opens in the morning. He spends the whole day fishing, soaking up the sun and enjoying the beauty of the place until it closes for the night. He told me that he does that for a month or two every winter. Having a mobile house is nice for that kind of thing.

crab

hermit crab

 

 

 

 

I had planned to spend a second day at Biscayne but decided to go into Homestead instead and have a new radio/CD player and speakers installed in the RV. The old unit was too old to be able to “read” a lot of my mp3 format CD’s, thus I couldn’t listen to them while driving. And the speakers were so beat up that they were a joke. There are two speakers in the dash, installed flat on the surface, face up. They have had a lot of moisture roll into them over the years; condensation from the windshield, spilled drinks, whatever. The paper cones that were in common use when they were installed weren’t in very good shape anymore. They popped, crackled and made other unseemly noises, particularly if the volume was turned up much past the “marginally audible while driving” level. I felt that since I was replacing those two, I might as well have the two in the coach “living room” done at the same time.

_____
This, of course, added up to a bunch of money (the speakers alone were $100.00 each) and a whole lot more time than anticipated. The speakers in the coach were installed in such a way that it was obvious that Itaska didn’t want them to EVER come out again. But they were finally removed and the new ones installed. The new speakers do NOT have paper cores and if something gets spilled into one of them, it can be mopped out with a paper towel or vacuumed out with a wet/dry vac.  Sweet. The sound I’m getting now is even sweeter and no matter how high I turn up the volume, no distortion. Yes! You’re never too old to rock and roll.

___________
Since that shot the entire day, I ended up “camping” in the Home Depot parking lot for that night, then headed up to Midway Campground in Big Cypress National Refuge the next day. I really like Midway, but for some reason the park service powers-that-be decided that it should be by reservation only this year. And the reservations must be made at least 48 hours in advance of your arrival. Then they raised the cost of camping there (also the cost of all nearby campgrounds). There were no improvements to the campground itself. No reason to charge more that I could see. But it is what it is, and I wanted to stay there. Unfortunately I could only get five days in a row, then I would have had to go somewhere else for a day, after which I could have returned to Midway for another four days. Which is way too much trouble, so five days was it for me.

wood stork

butterfly

While I was there I did get to visit Sweetwater Strand again and also hike a couple of trails that I had missed on my last visit here. Since I was visiting slightly earlier in the year, things were a little different. The birds weren’t nesting yet, so there were fewer to watch and photograph. The air plants weren’t blooming yet either. But beautiful is beautiful even if it’s different from what you saw before. I also got a chance to make some new friends, but that happens at almost every campground. Most RV’ers are very friendly.

great blue heron

white heron

Once I left Midway, I headed north to Okeechobee, both the lake and the town. I had been told about a campground a little north of the town of Okeechobee, near a boat ramp, that was free and very peaceful. I wanted to check it out. On the way up, I drove along the east side of the lake. Not that you can actually see the lake that way. The lake is surrounded by big earthen dikes to prevent flooding, so no views of the water.

————————————————-
As I neared the town, there was campground after campground nestled along the road. Most were very small and basic, but they had character. I thought about stopping and finding out prices and availability (full hook-up sites are so nice), but there wasn’t much in the way of parking in most of them and the traffic moves pretty quickly in that section. I also knew that if I liked the place I just might decide to stay for a week or two and not meet up with my friends in the other camping area.

______
So I continued into the city of Okeechobee, then decided to spend the night in the local Home Depot parking lot. I was tired and it was getting late. I didn’t want to find myself trying to locate an unmarked campground after dark on roads I had never traveled before. It seemed prudent to wait for the morning light.

______
The night was ever so peaceful. I parked by the side of the store, near the back. Traffic noise barely reached me and scenery wasn’t bad either. There was a large pond behind the store and a lot of birds were taking advantage of the water for a meal and a night’s rest. If it hadn’t been for all the pavement, it would have seemed like I was out in the woods somewhere.

campground

Upon reaching the campground the next day I found that It was everything I expected and maybe a little more. I found a nice spot under the oaks and set up camp; putting out the slides, unrolling the awning, setting out my lounge chair and table, etc. Since I still don’t have my solar panels, being where the sun could hit my roof wasn’t necessary. Although it would have been warmer. Mornings in the inland areas in that part of the state were still pretty cool.

‘gator

It was a great place to camp. There were no hook-ups, not even a place to get water. The only “amenity” was a bunch of trash cans near the boat ramp. So at least you could dump your trash. All this meant that there weren’t that many people in the campground. Which is always nice. The other plus sides were; water all around for boating, kayaking, fishing, etc., birds of every description abounding, solitude and stars at night beyond count, a pleasant trail to walk down to the river, vibrant sunsets and peace beyond measure. Whew! If it hadn’t been for needing to get my generator serviced, my kayak replaced and a dozen errands to run, I might still be there.

 

sunset

sunset two

But all good things eventually come to an end (to be replaced by other good things, of course.) So I took my baby into town and found a place to get the generator serviced. By the time I finished that, plus picking up my mail and getting by errands run, it was already almost 5 PM and that’s no time to start a days drive to the next destination. So I went back to the campground for another night. While I was taking Topper on his last stroll of the evening he started growling at something off to one side of the trees. I shone the little flashlight I was carrying in that direction but didn’t have enough light to get any detail on what had his attention. Then what I had thought was a shadow in the tall grass moved. Judging from its size and the fluid grace of its movement, I may have seen a Florida panther passing through. It also caused me to purchase a better flashlight so that if it ever happens again I will know exactly what I’m looking at!

River near campground

I finally bid farewell to the peaceful place under the oaks and headed back toward the eastern coast, then north. Vero Beach as my destination. But that needs to be a different post. Too much to write about, too little time…

A Lock With No Key

By now I am several posts behind. I’m afraid that I’m enjoying myself a little too much! In the spirit of catching up a little, here’s where I was a month or so ago:

Ortona Lock and Dam campground is outside the little town of Labelle, FL. It’s a site built (and run) by the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps of Engineers maintains campgrounds all over the country, although they are less common in the western US. There are a lot (plethora, abundance, bunches, etc.) of canals in Florida. Most of these canals eventually reach the ocean. Thus, there are many boats traveling on these canals. Therefore lock systems are needed to assist the boats in getting around the dams on the canals, which is where the Corps of Engineers comes into the picture. They built the dam, they provide the way to get past the dam.

dam at Ortona

anhingas

canal

Every now and then the Corps puts a campground near one of the locks. Ortona is one of those places. (The state also has campgrounds near many of the boat launch sites on the canals, but they usually are pretty basic.) The Corps of Engineers campgrounds usually have electric hook-ups and a dump site and may also have water at each camp site. The state-run campgrounds might have a porta potty and some picnic tables and a trash can or five. They are also usually free, where the Corps campgrounds have a small fee (small if you have a national parks pass, anyway.)

I pulled into Ortona without a reservation and was lucky enough to get the last walk-up site available. While most sites can be reserved ahead of time, a small percentage of the sites are kept open for people who don’t want to plan that far ahead (like me!) Once you have a walk-up site you can stay for up to two weeks. So while there are walk-up sites available in theory, if everyone who has one wants to stay the full two weeks, they reality can be much different. But I got one, so life was good.

I site I got was on the canal side of the road, so the water was pretty much right outside my door. Sweet. There is also another water course that comes into the canal around the middle of the campground. There are a couple of families of river otters that live on that river. They were a delight to watch. I’m not sure who was more curious about whom. When the otters would see me walking Topper along the bank, they would rise up out of the water to watch, their sleek bodies moving to watch our progress. I wish I could have gotten a better picture of them. But it seemed like every time I saw them, the light was glinting off the water so brightly that it washed the details out. Oh well, at least I got to see them.

It was a lovely and peaceful place. Well maintained. And while I enjoy campgrounds like that, I also enjoy the more natural ones where you have to bring everything you need with you and the whole place isn’t covered with asphalt or concrete and manicured lawns and plantings.

green heron

I ended up spending five lovely days there before heading farther south. I spent most of my time wandering along the canal, watching boats going through the lock, looking for the otters and bird-watching. The last day I was there, I took my scooter for a spin through the countryside and wound up at a little Cuban barbecue place on some back road in the middle of pretty much nowhere. It smelled so good that I had to stop and have lunch. I was so glad that I did.

The food wasn’t fancy, but it sure was good. The ribs came in two styles American and Cuban. Neither had any kind of sauce on them. Instead they were rubbed with spices and slow-roasted. I found that I preferred the Cuban spice mixture to the “American” one. But it would have been nice to have a nice sweet/sticky/smokey sauce for the American style. Of course that would have made it hard to compare the spice mixtures. Whatever. It was a good meal and I didn’t need to cook dinner that night as I was still too full from lunch. I rode back out that winding little road and rolled back into camp one happy camper.

That evening turned quite cool, cold by Florida standards. While walking back to my site I found a little frog hunkered down on the gravel, too cold to move. He (she?) was a cute little thing, so I took its picture then carried it down to the canal. At that point the water was warmer than the air, so I set it in shallow water and left it to its own devices, allowing it to decide where it wanted to spend the night.

The next morning was clear and cool. Perfect for driving so off I went, heading for the Everglades.

Happy, Happy Homosassa

When I was in Florida last winter I drove past Homosassa Springs State Park. I didn’t stop at the time as it was already quite late in the afternoon and I wanted to find a place to spend the night. I found a spot about ten miles down the road, but the next morning I didn’t feel like back-tracking to the park. So I didn’t see what it had to offer.

When I saw the sign for the park on this trip I decided there was no time like the present. The day was windy and quite cool, thus there were very few people at the park. There was plenty of room in the lot, so I parked, grabbed my camera and went inside the building.

Once inside I found out that it you park where I was, you aren’t actually at the park yet. To reach it I had to take a one mile boat ride, which was actually fairly pleasant, if a little cold, on that day. Once I reached the actual park I paid my entrance fee, got a map and went inside.

the ride into the park

The park was once privately owned and contained a small zoo. When it was taken over by the state, the powers that be decided that only animals native to the state of Florida should reside there. (The animals are ones that have been injured and can no longer survive in the wild.) However, there was also a hippo in the park when the state took over. This hippo that was very, very popular with area school children and a lot of adults too. There was so great an outcry over the plan to move him to a zoo that he was allowed to stay and is now a park “mascot” of sorts.

bobcat

Florida panther

green heron

In addition to the hippo there were a lot of varieties of birds to see, plus river otters, a bobcat, a Florida panther, various reptiles and some manatees, etc. The watercourse that runs through the park is open, so that wild manatees can come and go as they please. There is an underwater viewing area where you can walk down a few stairs and watch them swim around in front of the windows. It seemed as though they liked watching us almost as much as we enjoyed them.

stilt

spoonbill

whooping crane

There are also at least three adult manatees that are permanent residents of the park. If you are in the right spot at the right time you can watch them being fed. While I was there, employees were tossing the contents of a large (about three by four feet) box of lettuce into the water. It was amazing to watch these huge creatures suck in a large head of romaine and make it disappear in only a minute or so. They are such gentle, peaceful creatures for something so large. It was painful for me to see the deep scars on their backs from boat props. But within the confines of they park they are safe, protected.

manatees from above

feeding time

manatees

I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering among the various enclosures, only leaving when it came almost time for the park to close. If you’re ever in the area, do yourself a favor and stop. It’s worth a visit.

Crossing From California To?

Just a few notes about my trip across the US, on my way to visit St. Louis, my sons and a few friends at Christmas. But first, one fun memory from California:

While I was visiting my sister Karen, we went for a horseback ride. We used to ride fairly often up in Griffith Park when we were kids. It had been decades since we had gone riding together. So this was an unexpected treat.

part of the ranch grounds

Not far from her house is a road that switchbacks up the side of a mountain. A road that is visible from the freeway. It was just a point of curiosity until we found that it was the road we needed to use to reach the stables. The ranch where the stables were located was a good distance up the mountain. There were also more than just a stable up there. There were several nice sculptures scattered about the grounds, along with accommodations for group gatherings and lots of interesting buildings and antiques, etc.

buggy ride anyone?

sculpture

It was a group trail ride (three others besides us) but it was a fun and scenic ride. The young lady that led the group was quite knowledgeable about the area and the ranch. She told us about a cave on the property and that at one point the property was occupied by a man who was hiding from police. He and his family lived there undetected for several years, while the ranch was being fought over by several heirs after the previous owner passed away. He even raised his kids up there! The view from the top was great and a wonderful time was had by all.

Karen (on right) and me

I finally left Southern California two days after Thanksgiving, planning to drive as far south as possible without adding too many miles to the journey, hopefully avoiding the worst of the winter weather. Hah!

Things started out fine. A little on the cool side, but nothing major. I chose interstate 40 to cross California into Arizona. On my second day of travel, I left the interstate in order to drive a section of route 66. It turned out to be rather slow going as parts of the route are poorly maintained and only driven by people like me who grew up knowing the county before there were many interstate highways.

The road was cracked, bumpy and really only barely there. A lot of the bridges appeared dicey at best and were not rated for a lot of weight. The posted limits indicated that I could cross safely, but the appearance of some of the bridges said otherwise. Still, no mishaps and all was well.

I took a short detour to visit the Amboy Crater. This is an ancient volcano that hasn’t been active in a really long time (about 10,000 years). But the signs of its past activity are all over the desert floor. Old lava flows are visible for miles and miles. The volcanic rock is more common than sand in this area. The crater itself isn’t hard to reach, just a walk across the desert floor on a semi-marked trail of about a mile and you’re there. At the base anyway. The climb to the top is a little more difficult. It’s very steep and the trail is littered with loose rock that rolls easily under your feet. Going up isn’t too bad, coming down (particularly with a dog that likes to pull at his leash) is somewhat more hazardous. I lost a little skin on the palm of one hand before deciding that the dog didn’t really need to be on a leash right then. At least not until I was off the steepest areas!

inside the crater

Amboy Crater

The easiest access to the top of the volcano is on the backside (as seen from the parking area.) An explosion created a breach on that side of the cone. So the 250 foot tall cone is reduced to a mere 80 foot climb–pretty much straight up. Once at the top, there are trails leading all around the edge, as well as one leading inside. The crater itself is 1500 feet across and consists of coaxially nestled cinder cones formed during four different periods of volcanic activity.

crater breach

Once inside the crater, the bottom is flat and a bunch of people have placed rocks spelling out their names or initials. So much for “leave no trace”, but at least they used natural materials, just rearranged the rocks that were already there. A sign in the parking area suggested that it would be wise to only try climbing up to the crater in the fall and winter. Summers being rather brutal in this area. So my visit was perfectly timed. Well, almost perfect. Spring, when the wildflowers are in bloom, would have been more beautiful, but I wasn’t planning to wait around until then.

desert floor, volcanic rock

desert plant

It was a lovely and peaceful hike and a very interesting site.

After I left Amboy, I continued on to Arizona and spent the night somewhere outside of Kingman. I had planned to finish crossing Arizona the next day, but I got side-tracked by a meteor crater somewhere east of Flagstaff. It was interesting, but kind of pricey for looking at a really big hole in the ground. This section of Arizona is at a pretty high elevation, so it was wickedly cold with a biting wind. Thus, even after spending the money, I didn’t feel like standing on the rim for very long.

meteor crater, light spot is mine shaft

The crater was formed about 50,000 years ago when an iron-nickel meteorite, estimated to be 150 feet across, slammed into the earth with an explosive force greater than 20 million tons of dynamite. It left a bowl-shaped cavity 700 feet deep and 4000 feet across. Put in relative terms, twenty football games could be played on its floor at the same time, while two million spectators watched from the sides of the bowl. If the Washington monument were placed on the crater’s current floor, the top would be at eye level. So, big and deep.

crater with person for scale

When the crater was first written about, it was assumed that it was of volcanic origin. Not until 1902, when a mining engineer named Daniel Barringer became interested in it, was the hole finally attributed to a meteor impact. Mr. Barringer was convinced that the meteorite was iron and that it was buried beneath the crater floor. He formed the Standard Iron Company and placed mining claims with the federal government. This gave him ownership of the crater. What he didn’t know was that the meteorite had disintegrated on impact. There was no large mass of iron to be recovered.

old mine shaft in bottom

So, after more than 26 years of digging, drilling and exploration, there was no money left for further exploration and very little iron had been recovered. He later leased the land to a cattle ranch that formed a separate corporation to utilize the site for tourism and scientific exploration. NASA has even used it to train astronauts, particularly those who would be collecting samples on the moon from similar craters there!

It was actually a rather interesting place with viewing platforms, a theater showing films related to the crater and educational areas, as well as the obligatory gift shop. If it hadn’t been so late and cold I might have spent a little longer looking at the exhibits. But I was hoping to drop to a lower elevation for the night and find somewhat warmer temperatures (yeah, right.) I did get as far as Winslow, Arizona where I looked for the “Standing on the Corner” statue (a tribute to an Eagles song that talks about doing just that), but didn’t find it. Of course, it was getting dark by then. The good news is that I found it the next morning before I left town. The bad news is that there was no place close by where I could park so that I could take a picture. Oh well, at least I saw it.

I continued east and the day became quite windy. Which frequently means a change in the weather. That afternoon I got a call from my sister who told me that there was a mean cold front heading my way that was forecast to go all the way south to Dallas. And that’s exactly what it did. And why there is an earlier post about being trapped in the ice in Texas.

Now it’s January, and I’m on the Alabama/Georgia border in a Corps of Engineers campground called Cotton Hill on the shore of a large lake that would be pretty if it weren’t so darn cold! It rained the first two days of my stay. The sun came out on the third day, but it barely got above 40 with an icy wind. Tomorrow is supposed to be better and Sunday is scheduled to be in the low 60’s. I was supposed to stay until Tuesday, but the forecast for Monday night is a low in the low teens. I’ll be leaving Monday morning is the hope of finding somewhere with warmer temperatures to spend the night…..

A Duel to the Death (Valley, That Is…)

I finally made it to Death Valley. I lived in California for over 30 years and never once set foot in Death Valley National Park. I was close many times. I visited all kinds of places around the park. But I was always in the area in summer. Death Valley in summer would not be my first choice, or my second for that matter. The closest I came was a brief visit to Death Valley Junction, many, many years ago. (A place, which, according to my Garmin GPS doesn’t actually exist. I’m dumping it in favor of a Magellan unit similar to the one I accidentally destroyed…but that’s another story.)

I headed into the park from the Junction, which, as luck would have it, turned out to be one of the few roads that was actually open. A while back there was a lot of rain in a place where there isn’t supposed to be much rain. The storm buried many of the roads in the park. So many of the roads in fact, that I’m going to have to make a second trip to the park at a later date. Most of the areas I wanted to explore were out of reach, as the roads to them were out of commission. I had no idea. If I had, I would have chosen a different place to visit this time around. But it is what it is (or was what it was, whatever.)

Death Valley is beautiful, in a bleak sort of way. There is very little vegetation. Any color there comes primarily from the rocks—when you happen to be in an area where they aren’t just brown and black. In the higher elevations there are some stunted tree-like things, but those are few and far between. Death Valley is a very apt name for the place.

hills, detail

Hills near the entrance

I met a few people there who are so in love with it that they come back every year to spend time in its starkness. I admit that it is peaceful and exudes a certain charm, but I am fond of green and growing things and there aren’t many of those things in Death Valley. I guess I’m not really the desert type.

Death Valley “moonscape”

My first stop (aside from a couple of photo ops) was at the visitors center at Furnace Creek. Which is where I found out that most of the roads were out of commission. I had originally planned to camp there, but the campgrounds were already getting crowded and I wanted a little peace and quiet. There is, apparently, a group called the 49ers who, I was told, were instrumental in getting Death Valley made a national park. They meet there at the same time every year. And it was almost time, many had already arrived. So I moved on to Stovepipe Wells. Didn’t see any wells, but I did find a campground that was 90 percent empty. Perfect.

another old car

vintage cars on D.V. trek

After settling in I took a little stroll, then relaxed until about a half hour before sunset. That’s when I headed out to the sand dunes that were a little over a mile back up the road. The light is most striking at sunrise and sunset, so I took advantage of that fact to take a few pictures. It would have been nice to hike out into the dunes, but I was still limping from my collision with the side of the RV in Ash Meadows, so I gave hiking a rest.

single dune

sunset shadows

I wasn’t at all disappointed with the scenery at the dunes. As the sun set the lighting became quite dramatic. It also disappeared quickly. Death Valley, being a valley, is ringed by high mountains. The sun sets behind them very quickly. And once it sets, particularly this late in the year, it gets very cool even quicker. So back to the RV for me.

distant dunes

distant “dune” people

mountains beyond dunes

The next day I hopped on my scooter hoping to ride up to Emigrant Canyon. No such luck. It was one of the many roads still closed. So I continued on to Panamint Springs. To reach the Springs from where I was camped you go from below sea level to almost 5000 feet, over a mountain pass then back down a couple thousand feet. Any misgivings I might have had about my new scooter were vanquished on this trip. It may be only 125cc’s, but it handled the climb like a mountain goat. The 9% grade on the other side was interesting….to say the least. I was a mite concerned about the trip back as it was much steeper than the side I had come up. But that would be a problem for later.

view from near pass

rest area before pass

As I got down into the valley where Panamint is located the first thing I found was that the road I had planned to use when leaving the park was also closed. No way out there. Then I saw a coyote standing by the side of the road watching me just like I was watching him. I figured that if he was going to pose, I might as well get a picture. Naturally, as soon as the camera came out he vanished into the scrub. Sigh.

There wasn’t much to see at Panamint Springs. A gas station (gas, $6.50 per gallon), convenience store (very little inside), restaurant and campground. I went a little way beyond Panamint to a road that claimed to go out to a waterfall (dry? Oasis?), but the road was so poor and hard on my little scooter that I gave up after less than a mile, had lunch and headed for home.

desert “flower”

I needn’t have worried about how my trusty steed would handle the steep grade on the way back. It had no trouble with it at all. Yamaha did a good job with this little beast. The biggest problem was how cold it was at the top. Since I hadn’t planned on driving over the pass, I hadn’t dressed for how cold it got up there. My entire face was numb long before reaching the top. I was really happy to get back to camp and into my nice warm RV.

That evening I talked to the campground host about my options for leaving the park the next day, since plan “A” was a wash. I had thought about leaving through Panamint Springs. The drive over the pass was a little hairy, but nothing I couldn’t handle. Then he told me what it was like not far past the road I had turned on the day before. Seems that the road on the other side is full of tight hairpin turns and rather narrow. Anything over 25 feet in length is a problem. Meaning that the delivery trucks that come over that road are often found taking their half out of the middle. And meeting one on a turn in a large RV can be more than interesting for both parties. He told me that a friend of his came in that way the year before and arrived white-knuckled and shaking. OK, new plan, go out the way I came in.

banded hills

Since I was backtracking, I stopped at a place on the way out that I had by-passed on the way in. It had once been a borax-refining operation. There are still parts of two adobe buildings standing, along with a portion of the refinery. The reason for doing the refining in the middle of Death Valley was a question of distance to the railway. The railroad was so far away that every pound needed to be worth the haul. Thus the borax was refined before the trip out of the valley, reducing its weight by more than half. Of course, refining could only be done during the cooler months. The summers being so hot that no one could survive being near the boilers long enough to do the job.

borax cars

sign

old boiler

After leaving there, I found myself outside the park and heading into the Junction in much less time than I had thought it would take. I stopped at the Amargossa hotel meaning to have lunch in the little diner there, but it was not to be. As soon as I got out of the RV I met another couple who had had the same idea, but for some reason the diner was closed for the day. Bummer. So much for supporting a small business. I ate a carton of yogurt instead.

After that it was back roads to Baker, CA. Beautiful back roads, and interesting driving. I saw a couple of places I wouldn’t have minded spending the night, like one area I saw with beautiful dunes, but I wanted to be at my sister’s in Corona, CA the next day and I was too far away to stop for the night. I continued on past the Antelope Valley area then started looking for a likely spot to spend the night, preferably not too close to the freeway.

I checked out a couple of off-ramps. The first road led nowhere. Just a few feet from the freeway it stopped in an area that was obviously used as an illegal dump. Not even sure why there was an off-ramp there. The second spot just didn’t feel right, so I got back on the freeway. The third time was the charm. The road led straight to an off-road vehicle area on BLM land where you can camp anywhere you want. I picked a spot about a mile away from the freeway, which might as well have been a hundred miles from anywhere. It was peaceful, perfectly vacant and so lacking in light pollution that it almost seemed impossible that I was so close to the L.A. sprawl. The stars there were almost as bright as they had been in Death Valley.

As an aside, that second place I had checked on, the one I rejected as “not feeling right”? I saw on the news a few nights later that the bodies of a family that had gone missing a few years before were unearthed there less than a week after I had been there. Creepy. And sad. I hope they find whoever did it, but at this late date I suppose that isn’t likely. Too bad. Whoever did it needs to be caught, but I’m really glad I chose to stop for the night elsewhere…