Georgia & Florida - 2015

 

My first stop in GA was at Jekyll Island to attend the South East Lazy Daze Get together.  In addition to spending time with the Lazy Daze folks, I also biked and walked most days.

My favorite beach – Driftwood Beach

Other pictures from my rides and walks --

After Jekyll, I went to Fort Yargo State Park in Winder where I normally stay this time of year.  I also took my RV to the shop and found out I had a bigger problem than I had hoped.  I had planned on going to the Lazy Daze plant in California early next year to get my roof redone.  But after talking with the RV shop and several other people I decided to let the Apalachee RV shop reseal my roof seams.  Previously I have had a leak in the cab of the RV.  The carpet would be slightly damp.  Since the reseal I have not had the problem.  I hope that fixes the issue, but am concerned that it may have done more damage than wet carpet.  The shop did not find any.  They also fixed a problem with my black tank.

Since my original visit was supposed to be a day or 2 they needed more time to fix my issues and had to squeeze me in.  I ended up leaving my RV with them for 2 weeks and went down to Sanibel Island.  It ended up being rather hot (at least for me), with several of the days being in the mid-80’s and a “feels like” temp in the low 90’s.  I would walk and ride my bike in the morning and then sit in the shade or in the condo during the afternoon on these hot days.

Spoonbills-

Yellow Crowned Night Heron -

Night Heron eatting lunch -

Same heron swallowing crab -

One day while biking, I watched this Otter come out of the lake, go down the road and back into the lake.

After Sanibel, I went back and picked my RV up and headed to Dillard, GA for the holidays. 

I had been planning on going out west in 2016, but since I no longer needed to visit the Lazy Daze plant and I had waited to long to get reservations at some of the parks I wanted to stay out I changed my plans.  I decided to spend my winter in northern Florida and southern Alabama and georgia.  After that, I would head back up to Michigan and Wisconsin.  I am still working on those plans.  I hope to head west in 2017.

Maine to Georgia- 2015

Before I get to my post, just a quick note --  I knew this was coming, but didn't realized that as of Jan , 2016 Live Writer would not work with Blogspot.  (At least that's what I read on-line and appears to be the case when I tried to pubish my blog!).  So of course I wrote my catchup blog on LiveWriter and had to copy it to Blogger to post. So it will not look like I originally wrote it.   I will be on the lookout for a replacement ( I just saw that there is now an Open Live Writer that appears to be Live Writer but no longer associated with Microsoft) .  If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

 Back to my Travel blog---

I am always late with my blog, but not usually this far behind.  Since much of what I did on my drive from Maine to Georgia I have done before I am going to do a catchup blog (or 2) that will cover the middle of September to the end of the year.

After leaving Canada, I stopped back in Bar Harbor, ME to do a bit of hiking, biking and get my hair cut by the same person who cut it in May!

A shot from one of my favorite trails, Beech Cliff trail -


I spent more time in the Schoodic District this time -


I walked several miles along the loop road a couple of days.  Below is a shot from one of my rest stops during those walks.

After leaving Bar Harbor, I headed to Boothbay, ME.  I stayed at Shore Hills Campground, Sept 26 – 28 (nice private cmpgrnd).  While there I visited the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.  I would like to see this garden in the Spring.







 

In addition to flowers and plants, they had several trails.  On one of them you pass Fairy House Village where kids (or kids at heart!) can build homes for the fairies that live there.



From here, I headed back to Littleton, Mass to stay at the Boston Minuteman campground.  I had planned on biking the nearby bike trail but the weather did not cooperate.  I ended up walking one day for an hour or so.

Heading south, I stopped in Berwick, PA and stayed at Bodnarosa Motel and campground.  A very interesting place to stay as long as you don’t mind the neighboring business.



Yep, a nuclear power plant next door!
While there I biked on the D&L trail in Lehigh Gorge State Park.  I took the shuttle from Jim Thorpe to the northern point in White Haven and then biked the 26 miles back to Jim Thorpe.

Continuing my trip south, I stopped at Max Meadow, VA Oct 7 – 14.   While there I biked 2 trails.  The first was the popular Virginia Creeper trail (a rails to trails path).  This trail is 34 miles long, but most people (including me) take a shuttle to Whitetop station and ride downhill for 17 miles.  Out of 17 miles, the first 14 or so you barely need to pedal, just need good brakes.  The last 2 – 3 miles you do need to pedal as the trail becomes more flat.  I ended up biking a bit further and then back tracking to where my car was parked.


 



I also visited the New River Gorge State Park Trail.  I have done a spur trail of this a while back when I was staying in Galax, VA.  This time I took the trail from the Austinville trailhead, which was maybe a 10 –15 minute drive from my RV Park – Fort Chiswell RV Park (ok park, sites too close together, but I wasn’t there for the park!).  I ended up biking it 3 times and walking twice.


The scenery was great on all the above rides.  But my favorite was probably the last one, the New River Gorge State Park trail. I will probably return to this area just to ride the trail again.   While the scenery was great and the ride was fun, I enjoyed the VA creeper trail the least as I do like to feel like I am getting some exercise when I am riding my bike!  You don’t get much exercise on this trail except for using your hand brakes!! Also, while these trails are all dirt, the VA creeper trail was quite rough in some places (mostly roots) which made the fast downhill trip a bit scary in a few spots.

When I got back to Georgia, I went to Jekyll Island to go to the SouthEast Lazy Daze get together.  After that I had a few issues that caused me to change my December plans and my plans for 2016.  More on that on my next blog.