Signs We're in the South

There are always little signs that let you know when you've arrived in the South:

• more Country Music stations on the radio
• Confederate Flags flown proudly
• Azaleas, Dogwoods, and Magnolias
• "y'all"
• Piggly Wiggly
• Menus offer:  fried pork chops, fried steak, fried shrimp, fried okra,...you see where I'm going...

We were joking how we have to drive north to reach the South.

Finding Great Runs

Sometimes the hardest thing about traveling in the RV is keeping up with any type of a fitness routine.  You don't know an area, you don't know if a running route would be safe or even pleasant, you don't know mile markers to know how far you are running, and so forth.  Let alone not having a routine schedule that makes it easy to get into a habit of running on these days, bike on this day, swim on that day, etc.  So we have just been tickled to death in having a couple of great runs on this trip so far.

First - in Titusville, FL:  We thought running over a causeway bridge would be nice scenery.  Our first choice was nixed when we realized it would drop us off in a "badging area" of Kennedy Space Center.  Our second choice led us to a wonderful dirt trail through Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Post-run bonus?  A gorgeous sunset standing on a swing bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway.

Second - Brunswick, GA:  The easy choice was to go to Blythe Island Regional Park.  But the wooded, dirt trails were unexpectedly peaceful and perfect - even on a cold day - the bitter winds were blocked by the trees.

Like Andy's cold-weather running outfit?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post-run bonus?  Wild white bunnies, another gorgeous sunset over water and watching the Coast Guard launch from the marina where we parked.

Third - St George, SC:  Andy found a dirt road near the campground that allowed him to get a good five-mile run in.

During-run bonus?  Andy didn't get attacked by vultures on his run - that dirt road was nicknamed "Buzzard Alley".

Most recently - Columbia, SC:  The Three Rivers Greenway is a paved trail following the Congaree River.  With it's undulating hills and weaving path it was a treat to run.

During-run bonus?  The sweet smells of spring in bloom.  Wow!

Brunswick, GA - Fort and Lighthouse

During our short stay here we decided on a quick diversion to Fort Frederica National Monument.  It was about 20 miles away on St Simons Island.  We didn't get to experience too much of this area, but the drive was pretty. 

Fort Frederica was built in the late 1730's along with the town of Frederica where 800 residents called home.  Apparently not everyone could adapt to the challenges of living in this Georgia marsh land (imagine the heat and the bugs), so they "quitted and ran away".  I would recommend watching the interesting 25-minute movie in the Visitor Center before wandering out through the streets and alleys of the 'town'.  There aren't many foundation remains left, but they were able to find enough remnants from the past to determine who lived where.  There are plenty of plaques to read to explain what knowledge the archeologists obtained during their digs.  Large oak trees dripping with Spanish Moss dotted the grounds and huge old pecan trees lined Broad Street.

From the Fort we drove to the southern tip of St Simons Island to see the lighthouse.  The lighthouse was plain white with black markings on the three windows and the top.  I know they all need to look different, but I was still expecting something more regarding a pattern.  We didn't take the tour to the top, but just walked around the grounds before heading back home.

The town had lots of shops and appeared on the touristy side.  It would have been nice to spend a little more time exploring the town and the other attractions in this area.  Another time.

Driving to Brunswick

Andy did not want to drive over the Dames Point Bridge today.  But there aren't too many choices when driving through Jacksonville.  The Dames Point Bridge is a stunning suspension bridge, but it's height and it's low guard rails can make it a little nerve racking on a good day.

 

Today the road was slick and the winds were gusting...and the bridge was under construction.  And, NOAA's Weather Band had warnings for small craft and high profile vehicles (that's us!).  So, when we realized that we were just minutes behind this accident, it made us even more uncomfortable.   (We're not sure what happened here, but we're assuming a wind gust might've pushed this truck towing a boat into the construction barrier.  The boat was off the trailer and on top of the concrete barrier, and the truck is obviously facing the wrong way.)

Our plan was to just drive 100 miles today because the winds were only expected to get worse.  We normally don't choose to drive on days like this, but wanted to make some distance.  Planning on spending two nights in Brunswick.

Okefenokee Swamp

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! It might sound weird, but we had a very nice time in the swamp for the holiday. Sure, we missed the zaniness of being with Andy’s brother, Joe, and family. But the swamp was peaceful and very beautiful. And we still had a full Thanksgiving Day feast…turkey (couldn’t find any Tofurkey), stuffing, mashies, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, and peas. Yum!

We spent 3 nights here, giving us two full days to kayak. This is the first time our kayaks have gotten wet since leaving the southeast. Believe me, we had many heated discussions about whether to bring them on this trip or not. We used them a lot at the start of the trip, but then we should’ve thrown them in storage somewhere before heading west where there’s either no water or white water.

There are several kayaking trails in Okefenokee. Some would require overnight camping permits to use. We kayaked for eight miles on both Thursday and Friday, taking slightly different routes on the day-use blueways. The first day we paddled east on Billy’s Lake and north in a channel to Minnie’s Lake Shelter before turning around. That day we saw 30 different alligators, not including any duplicates when we doubled back to home. There was a decent west wind blowing in our face on the way home that also caused a little chop. We had to hug the shady, southern shore to keep out of the brunt of it so we know we missed a lot of gator-sightings since they were basking on the sunny side of the lake. Although there are several “lakes” in the Okefenokee, they are actually more like rivers. This is wider than your normal swamp channels. The next day we paddled the full length of Billy’s Lake, first going west and up a dead-end channel, then south a little into the Florida Sill. We had to turn around at an alligator sunning on a rock in the middle of the Sill, which is about as wide as your kayak paddle. There was no room to pass. Then we went east to Billy’s Island and hiked a trail around the historic lumber mill. On this trip we counted 77 alligators on our way out and in any section that we paddled through a second time we kept a separate count, for an additional 59. That was impressive. We kept a separate count since we couldn’t tell one gator apart from another…well, outside of ‘small’, ‘medium’, and ‘humongous’. We saw them basking in complete stillness, swimming within 10 feet of us, submerging without a ripple, and even lumbering down the bank only to slink back into the water. I think they’re amazing creatures. They’re beautiful in their own way with those perpetual smiles. Later I read that generally it is just the 8 foot, plus-sized gators that would attack humans. But it is rare for that to happen or for them to bite more than once.

Oh, bad news. My digital camera broke at the start of the second day of paddling, so I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have otherwise. And I had to resort to my back-up film camera for the rest of the trip so it’ll be a little while before I get them developed and posted. At first I thought it was just my memory card gone bad, but I bought a new one and am still having the same problem.

Tampa to Chattanooga

First stop after Tampa was Silver Springs State Park. This pretty park is just on the western edge of Ocala National Forest. Silver River runs along the park to the world's largest artesian spring - "Silver Springs Nature's Theme Park". Our plan was to kayak the 2 1/2 miles to the spring from the park. We planned ahead by ordering kayak wheels since there was a 0.6 mile hike to the river and kayak launch. Now, we'd considered buying these wheels for awhile, but always talked ourselves out of it because most are so overly-priced (i.e. $50-99/each). But because we knew about this hike to the launch (feels much longer when carrying 2 58lb-kayaks, plus gear) and we found Key West Paddlesports on E-Bay selling wheels for $39/each plus s/h we changed our minds. We had bought them and had them shipped to Tampa so we'd have them for Silver Springs. Unfortunately we had technical difficulties. First, we had two defective wheel caps - so the bolts would unscrew and the wheels would fly off. This we learned within feet of our campsite. Resolution: we put both good caps on my kayak, and Andy drove his kayak to the trailhead. From there he dragged the kayak over the pine-needle and sand-covered path to the launch. Second, we wanted to avoid gluing the scupper posts on so we could disassemble the wheels and put them inside the 'yaks during the paddle. This didn't work (guessing we're on the heavy side for these wheels, recommended 60lb limit), so we rigged it to keep the posts from popping straight up and into the woods by applying pressure with the straps. Finally, about 2 hours after starting out, we finally made it to the launch. The Silver River is gorgeous. No houses, few boats during the week, just "old Florida". After touring the museum at the park, I could now begin to visualize the whooly mammoths, tigers, and super sharks that used to live in this area. Wouldn't that be neat to find a shark's tooth as big as your hand? Upon reaching Silver Springs I was a little disappointed in "Nature's Theme Park" - loud music blaring, corny little fairground rides, about 20 or so glass-bottom boats zooming about with guides on loudspeakers. What I did enjoy was the rookeries in the area with baby birds poking their heads out, the crystal clear waters allowing you to see allligator gar fish and many others, the glacier-blue water at the springheads themselves. The water is in the low 70's so it was refreshing to splash on us or hang our feet over as we paddled in the 90 degree air temp. After returning to the dock and hiking back, we continued to have problems with the scupper posts popping out of our new wheels, so we gave up and dragged both kayaks back. Guess we'll have to glue them in afterall.


The next morning at Silver Springs SP is when our plans changed. We were on a nice, wooded, scenic hike when the horseflies started attacking. And, it was another scorcher. Andy ran most of the way back to the RV, so when I caught up we had both individually decided it was time to get the heck out of Florida. Sorry Jim and Chris, we'll have to catch up on the tail-end of our trip! These parks in Northern Florida along I-75 are too pretty to not enjoy hiking, etc. We had several others on our list, but couldn't imagine going and not taking full advantage of them. So we packed up the RV and headed north. I know! Crazy for us...an impulsive, lunch-time departure.

We made it to Reed Bingham State Park in Adel, GA by 3:00. Another pretty park with huge campsites. Live oaks with their outreaching arms dripping with spanish moss.

We toured around the park on our bikes to check out the hiking trails for tommorrow. More horseflies and mosquitos, not a good sign. In the morning we put the kayaks into the lake and paddled towards the Little River hoping the horseflies won't follow us on the water. The Little River appeared to have overflowed it's banks. It was muddy-brown and seemed to have swallowed up the forest for water was seen everywhere. There was no longer a 'river bank'. The current was visible and quite strong making for a great work-out going up-river. On one 's' curve, the floodwaters took the short-cut through the trees, bisected the river, and flowed back into the forest. It took us a minute to even determine where the river itself was since the current ran perpendicular to it. We paddled up as far as our arms could take us, spun around, and drifted home. The setting was more prehistoric than old Florida with cypress trees, moss, elephant ears, and a variety of trees crowding the waterway. Another great paddle.

We're glad we've had the opportunity to use our kayaks so much so far. We had really debated about whether we should bring them or not since we know we won't use them much out West or up North.

Again, we decided on a lunch-time departure since we can't take advantage of the hiking trails. If it's not obvious yet, we hate horseflies and mosquitos! We made it to High Falls State Park in High Falls, GA by 4pm. That night we just walked some of the trails overlooking the two falls and watched the sun start to set.

The next morning we woke up to temperatures in the 60's. Aaahh, just what we've been looking for. Drank our coffee outside for the first time since we left Ft Lauderdale. Drove over to Indian Springs State Park to check it out. The Park has the spring enclosed with a pipe coming out of it. We saw several people filling up water jugs from the spring, eventhough signs said it was not potable. We asked a ranger later about it and he explained that some people still believed in the healing powers of the mineral-laden waters. But when he told me the water comes from the Chattahootchee River (think Atlanta to the north), filters through the rocks to pick up the minerals, I kept thinking to myself "how much of the pollutants get filtered out?" They test it for pollutants once a year. They try to discourage people from drinking it. I should've asked for specifics on the test results, silly me. Times are not the same from when the Indians used this spring for healing. After touring around Indian Springs SP, we went looking for more hiking trails. There was a non-profit, privately-owned nature center around the corner called Dauset Trails. Wow, what a facility. 1200 acres. Started up in 1977 by two guys - Daugherty and Settle. Part nature center with a wildlife rehabilitation center and farm animal center, part gardens and picnic area,

they also offer a campground and a chapel, and the rest of the land are trails - separate areas for hiking, horse-back riding, or mtn biking (about 20 miles, offering 3 levels). Decided we'd come back with our bike clothes and go for a ride. We attempted the intermediate trails, about 11.5 miles intertwined within a forest with two streams running through and a couple of high-grass fields to pedal through as well. What an excellent find! Beautiful scenery in the forest of oaks, sweetgum, pines, and other deciduous trees; nothing too life threatening even though the streams were in gullies there were wide bridges to criss-cross back and forth; long down-hills were teeth-chattering/head-bobbing free-for-alls; and the signage and maps provided were clear and easy to follow (but still easy to get lost considering the multitude of trails). Check it out when you're near Macon, GA.

Left Georgia this morning trying to schedule our trip around Atlanta's rush-hour, although it always appears it's rush-hour there with it's 4-8 lanes of traffic. We don't miss living here one bit. We arrived in Chattanooga, TN and decided to stay in a private campground so we could check emails, make phone calls, do wash, etc etc etc. We've been here before, years ago, but there are some other touristy stuff we would like to do over the next couple of days.