Death in the family

I've been at mom's in Waycross GA since Wednesday March 12. My 54 year old cousin, Norman Holland, who lives in Nashville, passed away on the 10th. Earlier on that same day, Norman's nephew, 41 yr old Wesley Holland, died in an unrelated incident in Samson Al. It was very fortunate that I was in Waycross, because I was able to attend Norman's service which was in Alabama. It was so special and I was so grateful to see aunts, uncles, and cousins I haven't seen in a while. My cousin who is Wesley's father and Norman's brother was there. I can't even imagine his pain and grief; to lose a son and a brother in the same day from different situations. My trip to Waycross left Greg in Phoenix with the RV. He decided to go to the Grand Canyon and do some hiking. On Thursday, with a 50 pound backpack, he hiked about 5 hours down the Hermit's Rest. He realized half-way down that perhaps he had taken on more than he should have. He turned around and hiked back up (10 hour hike!) He called me from a pay phone (because naturally there is no cell coverage in a national park) to let me know what was going on. He decided to hike again on Saturday with a lighter pack. He wound up going all the way down to the Colorado river, spent the night and hiked back out on Sunday. I spoke to him after he finished but didn't ask how long it took him, but he seemed fine. He was going to grill a steak and drink a bottle of wine to recover! Monday (the 17th) he'll have to drive to Phoenix to pick me up at the airport at 10pm. I'll find a place to park the RV for the night. I'm not sure where we're going after that. We plan to be back in Anchorage by the middle of May. We'll keep in touch when we have internet. Hope everyone is staying warm!

Long-Time-No-Post Update

I'm not sure where to begin...... Today is Friday March 7, 2014. We are in Anchorage AK (at home). We arrived back here on Monday Feb. 24. The things we have seen and done since my last post have been incredible, awesome, and too overwhelming to even explain! Our travels have taken us through Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The reason for no blogging in over a month is because most of the places we are camping are National Parks and State Parks. For some reason both the Wi-Fi and the cell phone know exactly the moment we cross into National park territory because they both start "searching" for signals. It is very disappointing! On-the-other-hand, once we get to a location that has Wi-Fi, I don't feel like sitting in front of the computer adding pictures and updating the blog (I'd rather be enjoying the outdoors!) ANYWAY..... We have visited with family in Arkansas (Greg's step-family)where it was cold, we visited with my aunt and uncle outside of Ft. Worth (where it was cold), we toured the Caverns of Sonora in Texas (NOT cold!), hiked a million-gazillion miles in Big Bend National Park in Texas (it was COLD), took an up close and personal tour of Carlsbad Caverns (it was cold outside but a pleasant 56 inside), hiked the tallest peak in Texas (Guadalupe Peak at 8749 feet and it was windy and cold), hiked and climbed around Huevo Tanks State Park outside of El Paso TX (it was very pleasant weather), got to hike and explore the Gila Cliff Dwellings area in New Mexico (cold at night but nice during the day), drove across the Continental Divide outside of Deming NM, camped, hiked and biked in the Coronado National Forest, hiked the magnificent rock formations at Chirachua (cheer-a-cow-ah) National Monument, and finally ended this portion of our trip in Green Valley AZ and spent a wonderful 2 nights at the best place ever to park your RV...Cynthia and Karl's house! I have added a slide show to the right side of the page which shows some of our hike in Chirachua National Monument and the slide show at the top of the page is of Big Bend National Park. I will try to figure out how to get more slide shows loaded. We are back on the road Tues. Mar. 11, where we'll hook up with the RV in Phoenix. From there it will be lots of stops as we make our way back to Anchorage for May flowers!

Polar Vortex is keeping us on our toes!

It's Super Bowl Sunday and Ground Hog Day (2/2/14). Once again we are hunkered down in the RV keeping warm from the blowing winds while snacking on smoked salmon and cheese and watching the game. We are in Del Rio Texas staying at the family campground at Laughlin Air Force Base. Del Rio is right on the Rio Grande River so Mexico is a spit away. Yesterday I was sitting out in 77 degree sunny weather. Today it's 47 with wind chill to low 40's.... Let me start with where I left off from the last post..... We left Homochitto National Forest and went to Junction City Arkansas were it was COLD (in the 30's on Sunday 1/19). We parked the RV at Greg's step-sister's (thank you Nan and Donny Cole). The next day we took Greg's step-mom (Jodie) to her lake house about an hour away. We parked the RV next to her place in the yard of her son's house (Barry Walton). We stayed there until Friday the 24th and stayed in doors almost the whole time! It was COLD the entire week. I got out one afternoon when the wind died down for a walk/run but that was the only time I really got outside. Greg ran outside once. He couldn't even get in the boat and go fishing because the wind was blowing so hard there were white caps on the lake. We had a really good visit with Jodie despite the weather. She is still recovering from surgery in October. She has come a long way but still has a way to go to get her strength back. Greg wanted to go to north Arkansas to visit cousin Harold and Joyce Sherman. The weather was going to be warmer on Saturday and Sunday (1/25 & 1/26) so we headed to Harrison AR (south of Branson MO) We found out that cousin Harold had to be put into a nursing home due to heath issues so we didn't get to visit with him. We spent Saturday night with Joyce. I went to church with her on Sunday (in the 60's but breezy) and Greg did a few repairs for her around the house. Greg kept checking the weather and decided we needed to start heading south because Harrison's low was dropping to 14 overnight. We hated leaving Joyce so soon. We really enjoyed being with her. Our plans are to hook up with Greg's sister in Austin for her birthday. On the way to Austin (Sun. 1/26), we stopped overnight in McAlester Oklahoma at the US Army Ammunitions Plant (Army Depot). RV camp on post called Murphy's Meadows. Lots of deer. Very quiet. No sleep though because the winds BLEW all night. We woke to 24 degrees. Temp at 33 when we pulled out at 10:30. Oklahoma has a lot of casinos and FYI...you can only order wine and domestic beer at restaurants on Sundays...we tried to get a margarita with dinner last night. I guess they hadn't heard of a wine or beer margarita. I didn't want to push the issue so I just ordered a wine. Monday the 27th we stopped at my uncle and aunt's (Bob and Carolyn Holland)in Weatherford TX. We stayed 2 nights with them. It was still cold and windy so we stayed indoors and had a great visit. We got to Austin on Wednesday the 29th. Parked at McKinney Falls State Park. Really nice campground on the south end of Austin really close to the airport and downtown. It was very wooded and had lots of hiking/biking trails. We rode our bikes for about 5 miles on Thursday. Greg went for a short run in the afternoon then we took Joanne (Greg's sister) for dinner. On Friday we went for a 5 mile run on different trails from yesterday. We had to ford a creek that flowed into a waterfall. It was pretty cool. Greg was the only one who didn't get their feet wet (guess who got wet?). This was a great weather day. 55 at 8am hitting the 70's by noon.....Lovin' IT! After our run on Friday then a nice shower, we headed west to the Caverns of Sonora. It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive in the blinding sun. The caverns have a small RV campground where we easily found a spot. Lots of peacocks running around. We had a very pleasant evening under the west Texas stars. On Saturday Feb. 1, we took the 1hr 45min tour of the caverns. It was truly incredible! There were too many formations to take pictures of. It was almost 2 miles of tunnels and caves with unusual and unique formations like "fish tails" and heliographs. There was a cave which was covered with formations on every square inch of the walls. I know our pictures don't do it justice. It was a great tour. There wasn't anything else to do here so we packed up and headed south to Del Rio. It was HOT all day and I wore shorts and tank top ALL DAY!!!! The reason we picked Del Rio is that we are heading to Big Bend National Park but we wanted to be somewhere where we could watch the "Game" on Sunday. Which brings me up to date....... Sitting at the FamCamp in Laughlin AFB, no showers, no laundry facilies, no wi-fi but YES....there is cable! (on the wi-fi issue, I am pirating off of an unsecured wi-fi.) We'll head for Big Bend tomorrow (2/3/14) Oh yeah, not that I care a lot, but did the ground hog see his shadow today? I didn't but I don't know what that means!

Clear Springs campground in Homochitto National Forest

Friday 1/17/14 arrived at Clear Springs Campground at 2pm.  It is located in Homochitto National Forest near Natchez MS (on the Mississippi river at the Louisiana border).  There are several trails for hiking and biking near the campground so after a quick lunch we hopped on the bikes and road about half a mile to the trail head.  It was an ominous sign when there is a "bike wash" station at the trail head.   It really should have dawned on us how bad the trails were if they purposely added a bike wash station.

     

A bike wash at the trail head?  What are we in far?

We started out on one of the shorter trails and I immediately knew I was not ready for this ride!  I had to get off the bike and walk up a huge hill.  Got back on and then had to get off again and walk down a huge hill.  There were so many ups and downs and tree roots and curves..... I was a broken ankle waiting to happen.  Both of us finally had to give up on the bikes and walk.  We did find a better section of trail to ride on so we hiked back to where we left our bikes and walked them to the better trail.  We rode for about 30 minutes then headed back to camp (after getting off bikes again and walking back with them).  We decided to hike the longer trail in the morning.

For dinner I made skillet lasagna and the camper next to us brought us over some home made gumbo.  It was sooo yummy.  We ate all the gumbo and saved the lasagna for another night.

On Saturday 1-18-14, the temperature was 26.....burrr.  The water hose connected to the outside of the camper froze so we didn't have water coming in.  Fortunately the holding tank had enough water to get us through cooking and cleaning up after breakfast.  We left for our hike at 9:45 (temp in the 30's).  The trail we were hiking is 10.5 miles.  It was a perfect day for hiking..... weather in the 50's, no bugs, nice breeze, sun beams shining thru the trees.  The trails was lots of hills, lots of roots covered with leaves (hidden just right to trip you up).  The scenery was nice but nothing spectacular.  We didn't see any wildlife except for a few birds.  It took us 4 hours and we didn't even do the entire trail. We took a cut-off at mile 7 and walked the last couple of miles down a paved road to the campsite.  Total fun meter:  9 miles; 4-1/2 hours; couple of blisters..... priceless!

Looking good at the start of the hike!

Just one of the many hills we took on!

OMG..... 4 hours later.... I'm wupped!

 After the hike, we had lunch, I had a nap then Greg
built a fire.  We sat by the fire until sun-set and it started getting cold.
We only could get 1 TV station so we watched National Public Broadcasting:  the news then the Lawrence Welk Show.  We had a blast reminiscing!

View from the campsite

campsite

The Rig camping

Enjoying a fire

                         

Lake Perry Mississippi

Thursday 1/16/14
After leaving Ft Picken's and Pensacola at 9am (temps this morning were 36 at 7:30 and 46 at 9am) we stopped at a Publix grocery store where I picked up all the gluten free stuff I could possibly want!  When we got back to the RV there was an obnoxious sound coming from the LP gas monitor...... we opened all the doors and tried to figure out what was leaking.  All the appliances were turned off.  After several minutes of scratching his head, Greg opened the back storage compartment and found that the small propane bottle attached to the portable grill had accidentally been turned back on when it was put in storage.  Whew!!!! That was an easy fix but it put us behind a few minutes.  We had planned to drive 5+ hours today to get the state line between Mississippi and Louisiana at Homochitto National Forest.  We stopped again outside of Mobile AL at a Walmart to get marine toliet paper and to eat lunch (in the RV) and that put us really behind schedule.  We started looking for somewhere to camp outside of Hattiesburg MS but the GPS couldn't locate anything inside the DeSoto National Forest.  We could see a campground on the map but couldn't see complete directions.  Even after looking it up on the internet we still couldn't get good directions.  We lucked out by passing another campground as we were looking for the way into the original one and it was PERFECT!!!   Lake Perry out of Beaumont MS, a small lake with about 20 RV spots and we were the only campers!  The forest ranger wasn't even there.  We set up camp overlooking the lake and walked over to the office to pay our fee when the ranger pulled up.  Joey (the ranger) showed us lots of trophy fish mounted in his office; showed us a map of the area and even a half-mile interpretive trail they had in the park with local trees labeled.  He even gave us a bag of ice!!!  What a great place.  We did the trail hike with the trees labeled then we had a relaxing evening enjoying home-made gluten free cornbread with jalapenos and cheese, rice with spinach and beans, and grilled salmon patties.  We took a stroll later in the full moon-light, had a really hot shower in the bath house, and slept like babies all night!  We even kept the shades open all night to have the moon light shining in on us.


Friday 1/17/14
Greg woke early and snapped a couple of great sunrise pictures with brillant red skies.  It was 46 degrees at 7:30, not too bad.  We both went for a 40 minute run.  I got back to camp and found a Mississippi State Trooper car parked next to us..... ut oh.... The trooper was out on the pier and it seemed to me he was waiting for us to get back to camp.  All sorts of crazy things were going thru my head like "Joey the ranger was not really a ranger, but a serial killer!!!!".  I walked out on the pier to greet him and he was FISHING!!!!  The only thing fishy going on was him.   His job is tough if he can spend mornings fishing!  Greg got back and joined us on the dock.  After chit-chatting with him a few minutes, we left to eat breakfast then packed up camp to head toward Natchez MS and the Homochitto National forest.

Lake Perry campsite

L

Back on the road again!

We've been away from Anchorage since January 5 (today is the 15th).  We hit Atlanta as a cold front came thru but luckily we were in south Georgia where it didn't get quite as cold (you can read the previous blog entry to get the details of that).  Now we are in Pensacola FL experiencing the same weather.  Today was 46 at 8am with blowing winds.  Overnight it will get into the 20's.  It is very disappointing to see all of this beautiful beach and not be able to lay in the sun!

Dona at Ft. Picken's on Pensacola Bay in cold weather gear 

Since it's been several days since I've posted, I'll start with our departure from Waycross on Thursday Jan. 9.  We left mom's at 9:45 am in 45 degree temps and raining.  First stop will be in Marianna FL to see the Florida Caverns.  This took us around 2 hours to get there just before the next scheduled guided tour was to begin.  The tour lasted 45 minutes and we got to see some different rock formations.  It's just pretty cool to see caverns like these in Florida where you expect to hit ocean after digging down a couple feet.  

 

These pictures are from the caverns

After touring the caverns and hiking a few trails, we jumped in the rig and headed toward Port St. Joe.  In the rain, we found their home on Cape San Blas which is about 10 miles out of Port St. Joe on a peninsula between St. Joseph's Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.  It is an absolutely beautiful place.  Their house backs to the bay with a boat dock.  They have public beach access to the Gulf just across the road.  It's very quiet and not a lot of traffic.  Their house is 6 1/2 miles on Cape San Blas and a couple of miles from the entrance to St. Joseph's State Park which runs another 7-8 miles to the end of the cape.  

The Weston's house

The front of the house

Bailey and Marley checking me out from the back porch

The boat dock in Bay

Back of the house looking from the Bay

Taking a birding excursion

Birds!!

Beautiful beaches at St. Joseph's State Park

more beaches

Hiking the dunes of the cape

Made it to the beach!

Buck in the park (we saw a doe earlier)

Yikes, we scared him!

No home is complete without a Tee-Pee.  This is
in Charlie and Betty Ray's yard.

Friday January 10, 2014
We woke to foggy weather.  So foggy, that we couldn't see the boat dock in the back of the house.  We toured the town of Apalachecola with Charlie and Betty Ray even though we couldn't see any of the Gulf of Mexico.  The town is beautiful with it's old houses and quaint downtown.

On Saturday we were woke early to the sounds of a thunder storm.  Big flashes of light and booms.  It took Greg and I a few sleepy minutes to figure out what was going on, then we fell back to sleep listening to the sounds of nature.  I managed to get in a 30 minute walk/run in between thunderstorms.  Greg ran yesterday so he used this morning to do some minor work on the RV.  We drove into Port St. Joe where Charlie was the city manager for several years.  It rained so hard and the wind was blowing so hard, I really thought we were in a hurricane.  Charlie gave a great tour.  We stopped at a Mexican restaurant for drinks and nachos then headed back to the Cape.  Once on the Cape we stopped to check out an eagle nest with young chicks.  We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, listening to the rain.  They have a screened porch that runs the length of the house.  This is the best room to relax in!!!

Finally on Sunday, we woke to beautiful sunny skies but the temps were in the 60's.  Greg and I went for a run (mine was only 35 minutes, Greg was gone for over 1 1/2 hours.  We spent the day touring the Cape, first hiking a trail to the bay where we saw white pelicans, cormorants, king fishers, ducks, grey heron.  We went to the end of the cape to St. Joseph's State Park where we walked on beautiful beaches, and hiked on sand dunes.  We saw a doe while we were driving thru the campground, then a buck as we were leaving the park.

We had a wonderful time with Charlie and Betty Ray.  If I was asked today where I wanted to live, this would be the place!!!!!

Monday January 13, 2014:  We left the Weston's and Cape San Blas at 11 am.  We had to make several stops (one at the Goodwill to get a toaster) then at a Bass Pro shop and an outlet mall (looking for the perfect pot and pan).  It started pouring down rain mid-afternoon and didn't let up.  Our plans were to go to the Naval Air Station and see if we could get a site at their RV park.  Had to look up the phone number on-line and by the time I could call them, the office had already closed.  It was getting dark and still raining really hard so we got a spot at an RV park at Navarre Beach.  Not a bad place, we had to get to it by a toll road but the toll was only 3.75.  It was 1/2 mile from the interstate so we heard traffic noise all night.

On Tuesday Jan. 14, 2014, we decided to head over to Ft. Picken's National Park located in the Gulf Islands National Seashore.  While on our way over (an hour from where we were) we could see the Navy's Blue Angel's flying around for a practice session.  Once we got over to Santa Rosa Island where Ft. Picken's is we could really see them!  It was a great performance even for practice runs.  We got to the campsite at 12:45, ate lunch, then I had to take a nap (til 2:45!!!!! I was soooo tired!).  After a nap, we went for a bike ride around the area.  We found some trails and rode around to the beach and to some of the old fort outcroppings.  The temp here at 4:30 was 59 degrees and it felt really nice.

We woke to temps at 46 on Wednesday with the day predicted to be windy and cold..... yes it was.... very windy and cold.  Tonight will get in the 20's.  I can't believe I left Alaska for this!!!  At least I'm at the beach.  We got to see the Blue Angel's practice again today.  We toured the old Fort Picken's and visited the museum even though the winds were howling and it was COLD!  This evening we walked across the street to the beach to see the full moon on the water.  We didn't stay long because the wind was howling and it was COLD!  (sorry to repeat myself....but I'm at the beach and it doesn't feel like it.)  Tomorrow we'll head to Mississippi.  Greg is looking at Homochitto National Forest outside of Natchez.  It's a 5 hour drive from here.  I'd like to spend the night somewhere in between Pensacola and Natchez but Greg's driving and he's ok with a 5 hour drive.

Dona in front of Fort Picken's

Armadillo

Dona with armadillo

Dona at the top of Ft. Picken's

RV camping site at Ft. Picken's

more RV site at Ft. Picken's

It's a New Year!

Monday January 6, 2014

We made it through the holidays in Alaska and are now back in Georgia.  Christmas was spent in Sterling AK at Greg's family homestead.  Lots of good food, big bon-fire, temps in the teens, and fantastic fire works show.  The water pump was broken so we didn't have any running water but we made do with water jugs and paper plates.  

Our family exchanged gifts on the 26th.  It was good to have all the boys there plus our new daughter-in-law Toni.

We spent four days before New Year's at a public use cabin on Nancy Lake north of Wasilla AK.  The weather was great.  Temperatures were in the teens and 20's and lots of snow for skiing and snow machining.  This year we had 8 people and 2 dogs in our cabin for New Year's eve.  A total of 23 people (and 4 dogs) met for dinner and fire works at another cabin.  Greg fixed his famous dutch oven Mexican lasagna and margaritas.

The weather in Anchorage was getting warm and nasty with sleet/rain instead of snow when we flew out on Sunday morning the 5th.  Our plan was to spend the night at my sister's (Beth) in Atlanta then drive 4 hours to mom's (in Waycross) on Monday.  The weather in Atlanta was predicted to be in the single digits over night on Sunday with some snow flurries.  We decided to go on down to Waycross Sunday night after landing in Atlanta at 4pm.  Beth picked us up at the airport, then drove us down.  We got to mom's around 9:30pm.

Monday 1/6/14.... If there was snow on the ground I'd think I was in Alaska....... the temperature in Waycross is not that cold but the wind goes right thru you!  It was in the 50's this morning with a little sunshine but with the wind chill it felt like 30.  Tonight is supposed to get in the teens (what????).  We have covered mom's outside plants and insulated her faucets.  Hopefully we will not freeze.   I made sure I brought lots of cold weather clothes with me on this trip.  I'm covered....bring it on!