A Personal Note

 

Preface: My main motivation for starting this blog was to keep my mother and step-father up to date on where we were at and let them in on all places and things we are seeing.  My step-father has become a fairly good user of the computer and the internet (although it is dial-up!) and they both enjoy the pictures.  Along the way I have picked up many additional followers and the blog has become a useful vehicle to keep our family and friends up to date on what we are doing.  For this posting, as my parents are avid readers, I am making a personal post directly to my mother as her birthday is next week.  For the rest of you, you are welcome to read this post as well.

Mom,

Today Fran and I did some sightseeing in St. Augustine, Florida.  This city is the oldest city in the U.S., as it was settled by the Spanish back in 1565.  The Spanish sailed here from Spain and landed on the shores of North America at what is now called St. Augustine and set up a city.  Where they landed they held a mass as a Catholic priest was on the voyage.  After they settled and formed the city a chapel was built on the site and a version of that chapel still stands.  We visited the landing site and chapel today and we purchased a St. Anthony votive candle and lit it in your name at the chapel.  It will burn for six days.  A card from us regarding this candle will be arriving shortly.

Here are the pictures

This is the spot where the Spanish landed.  As a monument they have erected a 280 foot cross.

The current chapel on the site.

Inside of the chapel.

Your candle.'

Happy Birthday Mom!

St. Augustine, Florida

We are now in St. Augustine, the oldest city in America.  Before I go into our activities here let me give you the back story.  I had been working on various routes to loop us through the south so we end up in Nashville the beginning of November where we are visiting with some friends.  My plan was to take us to the gulf coast but hurricane Isaac made us change those plans and go further east into Savannah.  We had already decided to not go deep into Florida on this trip but rather do that another time, most likely then end of next year.  So, looking at the map I figured we would go to Jacksonville and then go west to Tallahassee and then up into Alabama then to Tennessee.   I did my usual research of parks in the Jacksonville area (Trailer Life directory and RV Park Reviews) and decided on a park called Pecan Place RV Park.  It was a few miles outside Jacksonville, got favorable reviews and was fairly new.  Meanwhile I had contacted a former co-worker of mine who lives in Jacksonville and is retired to see if we could meet up.  I told him where we were staying and he said that it was out by the airport.  I was not aware of this so I went to Google maps satellite view and expanded the aerial map of the park and sure enough, there is the Jacksonville airport 1 mile away.  The RV park is on a direct line with the main runway, so you are either going to get noise from planes landing or taking off.  Based on the map, too close.  My friend recommended going to St. Augustine as it was fairly close.  I had thought it was farther but actually the St. Augustine RV park is only 38 miles from Jacksonville.  So here we are in St. Augustine.  It is a nice RV park amongst the trees and only 6 miles from the historic district.

First outing was a visit to the World Golf Hall of Fame.  Fran was not interested so I did this one on my own.  They have built a beautiful village where the Hall of Fame is located but sadly it appears the economy has affected the project.  Many buildings for offices and/or stores are empty and planned developments have not been built.  The Hall of Fame was informative and enjoyable.  As part of your admission they give you a chance to hit a ball onto an island green 135 yards away.  I had the distance but was a little left, so in the water it went!

Here are some pictures from the Hall of Fame

  Hall of Fame building

The wall of members

I thought this was cool, the Masters Trophy

This is my fourth hall of fame, baseball, football, hockey and now golf.  So far the best is the baseball hall of fame.

On Sunday we took a drive into the historic district.  As it was Fran’s birthday we had reservations for lunch and went early to walk around the shops and sights in the old city.

Neat old streets with lots of bars, restaurants and shops.

The oaks with Spanish moss are just beautiful.

We had lunch at the Columbia Restaurant, Spanish tapas.

It was hot and somewhat humid so after lunch we headed back to the air conditioned comfort of our RV.  We most likely will do another outing or two into the district before we leave.

Today I was able to meet up with my former co-worker and we had a great lunch and had time to catch up.  It had be 6 years since we last saw each other.  Time flies when you are retired!

From Sea to Shining Sea

On Tuesday we left Stone Mountain, Georgia and drove to Savannah, Georgia and will be here for a week or so.  With this drive it marks a milestone for us in that we have driven cross country within one year.  You may remember that in January of this year we camped on the Pacific ocean in Ventura, California.  Here is a picture from that trip.

Ventura, California

Now being in Savannah we are at the Atlantic ocean.  While we are not camping on the beach we are just a few miles down the road.  Today we went exploring nearby Tybee Island, so here is a picture of the Atlantic ocean to complete our cross country trek.

Atlantic ocean as seen from the top of the Tybee Lighthouse.

On Tybee Island we went to an interesting restaurant for lunch, The Crab Shack.  It was mentioned in our Road Food book as being somewhat unusual and it is.  It is built as a shack with most of the tables outside on decks.  Each table has its own garbage can under the table with hole in the top of the table so you can put your shells, beer bottles, etc.  They have an alligator pond out front where you can feed the gators.  Here are some pictures of the place.

Gators!!

Following lunch we toured the Tybee Lighthouse and Museum.  We climbed the 174 steps to the top of the lighthouse!

To finish this post off here is an updated map of our journey to date.

Exploring Atlanta

We are finishing up our stay in the Atlanta area so I thought I would get you caught up with our activities here.  First let me start with the park where we are staying.  In the last post I mentioned we are staying at Stone Mountain Park and there was an arts and crafts festival here for the weekend, the Yellow Daisy Festival.  From what I read it is supposed to be the third largest arts and craft festival held in the US and has over 400 vendors.  It started on Thursday and ended on Sunday.  We went to it on Thursday and was surprised to see a large turnout for a weekday afternoon.  It is a very large festival but nice to walk around as the booths are in the woods.  Thank goodness we went to the festival on Thursday as on Friday, Saturday and Sunday the crowds were enormous!!! On both Friday and Sunday we left the park in the morning and the traffic coming into the park was backed up for miles.  Fortunately on Friday we came back in the evening so there was no traffic getting back in, but on Sunday we tried to get back in the park around 1:30pm and the traffic was still backed up for miles at the main entrance.  I remembered there was a back entrance and went to that gate and fortunately we were able to sneak into the line quickly, but the main road for that gate was also backed up for miles.  Not sure where they parked everyone. 

Friday we took a trip into downtown Atlanta via the Marta system.  We visited the Atlanta Aquarium, World of Coke and walked through Olympic Centennial Park.  Let get my complaining out first.  Both the aquarium and World of Coke were overpriced.  The aquarium is close to $40 per person and Coke is $16.  We had only wanted to do these two but if you plan on doing at least three attractions (CNN Tour and a couple of museums) there is a city pass that is only $69 per person for 5 attractions.  Now that would be worth it, but not what we wanted to do.

The aquarium is really nice.  It has the best presentation I have ever seen for this type of venue.  It had a great dolphin show and the their ocean section was outstanding.

Outside view of the aquarium

Great display of jellyfish!

From the aquarium we went next door to the Word of Coke.  I was not happy with the cost but as we did the experience I began to wonder why we paid at all, this all a big promotion for their company, one of the largest corporations in the world and we paid $16 to be told that!  Nice, but not worth the entrance fee.  Their was a section that was a big lead up to showing you the vault where the secret formula for coke is kept. It took about 15 minutes of hype before the big reveal and then you are let out.  Great for the kids, not so much for the adults.  I will save you $16, here is a picture of the vault.

As Coke is bottled by local bottling operations you only get to see a sample line which is bottling an 8 ounce bottle of Coke that you get at the end of the tour.  Probably the best part of the tour was at the end they have a room where you can sample all of Coke’s products from all over the world.  There must have been close to a couple hundred soft drinks.  The best is the new Coke fountain dispenser that is computerized.  You pick what type of Coke you want then another menu comes up and you get to pick different flavors and types.  It gives you something like 110 choices of Coke products.  Some fast food chains and mini-marts are starting to put these machines in.  I tried Diet Coke with orange and vanilla, OUTSTANDING!

We left Coke and walked back to the Marta station via Olympic Centennial Park.  This was the park built for the Olympics and where the bombing occurred.  What a very beautiful park.

On Saturday we went to see the laser show the park puts on at the carving on the mountain.  What a great evening.  You bring your chair or blanket and sit out on a lawn in front of the mountain and watch a 45 minute laser show that uses the mountain and carving as its screen.  There are even some fireworks as part of the show. 

On the lawn in front of the mountain.

Lastly, today we climbed to the top of the mountain.  It is about a mile hike up, not too bad until the end where it gets fairly steep.  The reward is a 360 degree view of the Atlanta area as this is the highest point in the Atlanta metro area.

Atlanta in the distance as seen from the top of Stone Mountain

WE DID IT!!!!

Stone Mountain, Georgia

On Tuesday we moved from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Stone Mountain, Georgia (just outside Atlanta).  We are actually staying in the RV park located in Stone Mountain Park.  I had been to Atlanta on numerous business trips but never had the chance to get out to Stone Mountain to take a look at the carving in the mountain, so it was on my list of places to see.  Fran had worked her before we were married and had the chance to see it.  Before I get to the sightseeing and pictures, let me tell you about our arrival and set up.

I had made the reservation for the park via their website and what it does is give you a list of spaces to choose from that meet the criteria you have input (dates, rig size, connections).  The premium sites are fairly expensive ($57 a night with no weekly rate) and none were available for our stay.  I chose one of the standard full hook-up sites.  I had about 5 to choose from.  I then took a look at the park using the satellite feature in Google Maps and it showed that all the spaces, except for the premium spaces, were amongst the trees.  This most likely meant we would not be able to use our satellite dish.  When we arrived I inquired about a satellite friendly space and was told that some of the premium spaces would work but none were available because of a big arts and crafts festival this weekend.  So, it was onto the space I had picked.  The section where our assigned space was is on the lake and winds through the trees.  However it became quite obvious that they do not spend as much time and money in this section of the park, but rather are focusing their attention on the premium spaces.  We find our space and discover it is next to the bath house and has a raised manhole cover (4 feet off the ground) as part of the site.  I begin to back the trailer in and see that it is going to be difficult to get the trailer level as the site is very rocky and uneven.  As we were surveying the site a campground maintenance worker comes up to me and asks if I actually picked this site as generally they only put smaller rigs in the site.  He recommended we go back up front and see what else is available.  The office gave us 4 other choices, all near our original space.  We settled on one and backed the trailer in.  Fortunately this site was fairly level from side to side as we only had to put one set of blocks under the tires on one side.  The issue was to level it from front to back.  It did not appear the site sloped down that much but as I was lowering the front and watching the level it became evident the front of the trailer might hit the ground.  It got to within 4 inches, but it is level!

I tried our automatic satellite but the trees were too thick for its use, so I pulled out my portable dish to see if I could find the satellite.  I found an opening in the trees that faced southwest and played around with and finally was able to get the satellite up and running.  I am amazed I was able to get it working as the trees are tall and thick here.

On Tuesday evening we took a drive over to the mountain so we could see the carving.  It is pretty cool but I was expecting something bigger (don’t know why). 

On Saturday they put on a light show in the evening which we are planning on attending.

On Wednesday we decided to see the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum and the Martin Luther King Center and Museum.  Both are close to each other and about 20 miles from our park.  First up was the Jimmy Carter Library.  This will be the 7th Presidential library for me, 6th for Fran (there are 13).

The entrance to the museum

Replica of the oval office during his presidency

Nobel Peace Prize won by President Carter

Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter by President Clinton

This is one of the nicer presidential libraries and the museum was very informative and well laid out.

From there we went to the Martin Luther King Center which is about 2 miles away.  This is actually a group of buildings in a block area near downtown Atlanta.  It includes a museum, the Ebeneezer Baptist Church (original and new one), the King Center and his boyhood home.  Personally I was disappointed with the museum.  It was small, not laid out well and had so many TV’s going showing clips that it was difficult to listen to the one you wanted.  They did have the caisson on display that carried his body during the funeral march.

Across the street from the museum is the original Ebeneezer Baptist Church.  This is where King and his father were pastor’s and where King’s funeral was held.  The park service has a done a fantastic job of restoring and maintaining this church.

Up the block is the house where he was born.

And lastly, nearby is the King Center.  This is where he and his wife Coretta are entombed.

Chattanooga Sightseeing

 

As mentioned in my last post we moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee for a week.  Before I get into our sightseeing activities let me give you some information on our park.  We are staying at the Best Holiday Trav-L-Park just outside the city limits of Chattanooga.  I believe we are actually in Georgia.  I have seen these Trav-L-Parks in other cities we have traveled or passed through but never stopped at one. Now that we have we got a little history lesson.  These Trav-L-Parks were started in the early 1970’s by Holiday Inn and were called Holiday Inn Trav-L-Parks.  Towards the end of the 70’s Holiday Inn decided they did not want to be in the RV park business so many of the owner’s of the parks formed their own association called Best Holiday Trav-L-Park.  The owner of the park we are in is the original owner from the Holiday Inn days.

On to sightseeing.  On Wednesday we had a full day.  It started with a ride on the incline railway.  This is a mile long incline rail that takes you to the top of Lookout Mountain.  You can drive up the mountain, and we did, but riding the rail was fun.  At the top the incline is over 70 degrees, so it is the steepest incline railway.

Looking down the track

At the top looking down

At the top we took a short walk to Point Park.  This is a national park on the top of lookout mountain that played prominently in the Civil War.  Nice little park with spectacular vistas.

View from the point

  Cannon placements

After Point Park we went to Rock City.  We have always seen signs for this attraction and wondered what it was and were very impressed.  It is on Lookout Mountain and is a winding path through boulders, rocks and caves.  Along the way it has a waterfall, panoramic views, and some strange displays involving gnomes.

Walking between the rocks.  This is actually one of the wider paths.  At points you have to squeeze through.

Here is a tight spot.

You get a view of seven states.

beautiful waterfall. 

After Rock City we went to Ruby Falls.  This is an underground waterfall.  You travel down 260 feet from the cave entrance in an elevator and then walk a quarter mile through the cave to reach the waterfall.  At the waterfall you are 1120 feet underground (as measured from the top of Lookout Mountain).  We have been through a few caves and caverns over the years but this is the first with an indoor waterfall and it was spectacular.

That was our activities for Wednesday.

On Thursday we drove to downtown Chattanooga where we went to the Hunter Museum of American Art, had lunch in the Bluff View Art District and finished the day with a Duck Boat tour of the city and river.

The art museum is on a bluff overlooking the river and is made up of an old mansion surrounded by a new contemporary building.

The mansion

The new portion of the museum

View of the museum from the river (taken on the Duck boat).

The Chattanooga Aquarium as seen from the river.  This attraction, built in the 90’s, revitalized the city and now there is a vibrant downtown with restaurants, attractions, hotels and condos.  A very nice downtown area.

Learned Something New

 

We have moved on to Chattanooga, Tennessee today.  I will report more on that in a later post.  For this post I wanted to give you some RV information, which I just learned, after having RV’s for 20 years. 

Since we have had the fifth wheel, we began to notice some very tiny flies appearing in the rig from time to time.  Not at all RV parks, just some.  At times we had these flies in our house and attributed it to fruit flies or drain flies.  In the RV they are a little annoying, but never in very large numbers.  Fran did some research online and found a trick of putting out some apple cider vinegar as a trap and this worked well.  At our last park in Pikeville, Tennessee their numbers were much greater, the most we had ever seen and primarily concentrated in the bathroom.  We laid our trap in the kitchen and the bathroom and were catching dozens of them.  I did some research in a couple of RV forums that I like to read and found out what may be the problem and a solution.

First you need a little a more information on they way we operate our RV waste system, based on experience and information from other RV’ers.  RV’s have two holding tanks, one for black water (toilet) and one for gray water (sink and shower).  These tanks then empty into one pipe that you then connect a hose to, which then connects to the park sewer system.  While at an RV park we were always told to leave the black tank closed and let it fill up  then you drain it.  This allows the solids to break down (sorry for being gross).  As for the gray water tanks we have always left them open to drain to the park.  With this method no gray water stays in your tanks.  Ok, with that information, here is what learned.

With the gray tanks open the flies are sewer flies and are coming from the parks sewer system, up through the hose and into the gray tank.  Now in our previous RV’s they had no where to go as all the drains had a curved drain pipe so that water blocked the pipe and nothing could enter.  Well in the fifth wheel we have a shower and it does not have a curved drain pipe.  It has a straight drain pipe right into its own holding tank.  Here is where the flies were coming in and why we had not seen this problem in other RV’s we have owned.

The solution is to keep the gray holding tanks closed until they need to be drained, then drain them and close them back up. 

Probably more than you all wanted to know, but it is Life on the
Road!