This year we left again on Memorial Day. Jean had wanted to leave mid-June so we could
enjoy our pool and the off-season benefits of living in Venice once the
snow-birds have gone home, ie: slower paced, less traffic, and easier to go out
to movies and restaurants. To her
chagrin though, our timing to get out to Portland, Oregon to spend some time
with our son, Joe, and to then to get to Glacier National Park in time for the
Road to the Sun to be opened but before it started snowing there again nixed
her plans.
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| our campground sign |
Our first stop was at Rainbow Springs State Park in
Dunnellon, Florida. Now that Jerome
qualifies for the Senior Florida Resident rate, we have found the Florida State
Parks are quite reasonably priced and that we really enjoy them. We think Manatee Springs State Park is
prettier campground but this park has a larger springs for swimming and a
prettier river for kayaking and tubing.
On our last evening here, Jean’s sister, Barbara and her husband, Jon,
drove up from Tampa for a surprise visit.
It was a lot of fun to see them and share a “send-off” dinner.
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| the head springs and main swimming area |
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| one of the waterfalls in the park at the head springs |
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| a kayaker on the river |
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| Carly on the top level of the lanai that Jerome built for her |
We love the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) campgrounds and
try to stay in them as often as possible.
The majority of them are in really pretty places on or near lakes or
reservoirs. An added bonus is that they
honor the Senior Pass for National parks and forests, so it is half priced for
us. Luckily, the next four campgrounds
we stayed in were all ACE campgrounds.
The first one was East Bank on Lake Seminole just north of the
Florida-Georgia line by Chattahoochee. This
was a really pretty campground. The only
drawback here was that the Mayflies hatched and swarmed while we were
there. We learned that this happens once
or twice a year and only lasts for one to two weeks each time. They look kind of like miniature dragonflies
and don’t sting but they covered everything, including us, every time we went
outside the trailer! We had ordered a
Clam screened-in shelter before leaving on our trip and boy were we glad we had
it here.
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| that's us in the middle back there |
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| just a few of the Mayflies |
From East Bank, we traveled to Miller’s Ferry Campground
near Camden, Alabama. Our campsite here was just beautiful. It was on a riverbank tucked in among big
trees. Carly, our cat, loved it too. She had her first close-up encounter with armadillos
who didn’t seem to care that she was only a couple of feet away. There
was a lot of wildlife here and we enjoyed watching all the Canadian geese with
their young ones paddling down the river.
The locals told us that the Stokes
Gator, the largest gator on record in Alabama (15 feet long and 1011.5 pounds),
was caught here but we didn’t make it to the place where it was supposed to be
on display…. darn! If we’re ever back
this way, we will definitely make this place a destination campground.
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| Jean's easel and paints all set up with a beautiful view |
Our least favorite campground so far was North Graysport
Campground near Grenada Lake, just east of Grenada, Mississippi. Things just didn’t even start out well for us
there. As we were raising the top of
the camper we heard a horrifying crunch.
The fiberglass skin at the back side of the camper was bulging out and
torn away from the bottom edge. We
didn’t realize that a small framed picture had fallen between the sliding
mechanism and gotten wedged between the upper and lower walls. It’s amazing what damage a small mistake can
cause. Thank heavens that Jerome was
able to fix it. The day after we got
there the campground started filling up with “good-ole-boys”, Confederate flags
(even at the host’s campsite), boats, kids, and bikes. Jean got a bit panicky at first that we
didn’t “fit in” here with our cat and Jerome’s pony-tail. We didn’t realize that “Thunder on the
Water”, which is a big Crappie fishing tournament, was taking place that weekend
on the lake. A couple of the little
girls were mesmerized with Jean’s painting and asked to be able to paint too
and to have a “lesson.” An impromptu
painting session lead us to meet a couple of the mom’s. Jean got a bad case of chiggers here (thank
heavens for nail polish), otherwise we survived this campground unscathed and
won’t be returning here again!
We reached our first destination point of our trip when we
got to Toad Suck Ferry Park (yes, this is a for real place!), in Conway, Arkansas. When we got here, the host offered us a
change in campsite to a really pretty site on the water with a great view of
the nearby big bridge and locks. While
here we were able to spend time with Jean’s long-time friends, Shirley and her
husband Jerry. Shirley and Jean worked
together at an insurance agency in Tampa 44 years ago and they hadn’t seen each
other in 7 years. It was a wonderful
visit and it’s amazing how the years just melt away when good friends meet up
again.
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| really nice campground |
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| our view from our front door looking across at the big bridge and locks |
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| great visit with Shirley and Jerry |
We prefer to take the back roads and only travel on
interstates when absolutely necessary.
So far we have learned to plot out our routes carefully and not trust
our Garmin GPS to send us down the best roads.
Also, NOT to take the roads that
are grey on the maps! The next leg our
trip will take us across Kansas and Colorado as we head to the Tetons. ‘Until then, we hope you’re having a great
start to the summer… and for those of you in south Florida, we hope you aren’t still waterlogged!
