Photo Update [Part One]

Back in October, having had comments from a number of you about access to photos attached to our blog, I found that a number of sites I've been employing over the years had made some changes that precluded viewing of our photos in a number of cases.  While I plan to correct all such instances, it takes a bit of time.  Up to this point, I've corrected the series of blogs that cover when our RV adventures began.  For those of you have joined our audience in more recent years, this all started when we delivered our daughter and son-in-law's Southwind from Houston to Anchorage (yup, thats Texas to Alaska) in May, 2007.  For anyone that is interested, you can review the journey by clicking on 2007 at right and expanding the May entries.

Dinner at The Gift Horse

On Thursday, December 8th, we enjoyed yet another meal at one of our favorite local establishments.  The Gift Horse is located in downtown Foley, AL, just a bit over a block away from the town's major intersection (AL 59 and US 98).  The building has quite a history which I intend to share with all of you at some later date (for example - the food is laid out on a table that once belonged to U.S. Grant).  This particular event was a bit bittersweet; nothing to do with the food, but we were bidding a temporary farewell to some friends who were about to move on to a location in Florida.  Click here for photos.

Gulf Shores Christmas Parade

The Gulf Shores Christmas Parade was held yesterday.  While relatively small (about 1/2 hour, start to finish), it was quite a bit larger than the last Christmas parade we attended during the first year of our RV adventures in Folkston, GA (about 2.5 minutes, beginning to end).  Deb, along with a number of others here at the park, participated by riding on a float built and operated by the Gulf Breeze RV Resort.  Everyone seemed to have a good time, mostly in throwing goodies to all the kids lined up along the parade route.  Click here for photos.

Visiting Gulf Shores, Alabama

We Are Here

We have been in Gulf Shores since the beginning of October and although we did spend a little time here in the Spring, we are still finding our way around the area and discovering all there is to see and do.  So far, among other things, we have attended "Thunder on the Gulf" (the Offshore Powerboat Association's World Championships) at Orange Beach and the 40th National Shrimp Festival on the beach at Gulf Shores.  AND we've discovered there MANY great places to eat.
Click here for the latest photos.

Oops

It has just come to my attention that there are many links to photos in our older blog entries that no longer work due to some changes at the site where our pictures are stored.  At this point, I'm not quite sure what I will have to do to correct this, but I will be checking into it and will keep you posted.  In the meantime, if you happen to be looking at one of our older blog entries and have an issue with photos (or can't find them), you can let me know by posting a return comment to this entry.

Fort Pickens - Third Time Around

We spent last week in the campground at Fort Pickens.  This being our third visit, obviously it is a place we enjoy.  Despite mostly perfect conditions, the place was nearly deserted (except on the weekends); an excellent place to escape.  There was one rainy day, but otherwise we visited the beach, either Gulf or Bay side, every day and the weather was absolutely perfect - warm, not hot, with a nice breeze and warm water, but just enough below bathtub temps to be refreshing.  Most times there were no more than 10 people on the beach as far as we could see in either direction and other times less.  For most of the time we spent on the bay side, we were alone - ok, there were hermit crabs, an occasional blue crab, some ants, a Blue Heron, jumping fish and ghost crabs scurrying all over the place.

A few weeks ago, the road to the campground was closed due to sand on the roadway, thanks to TS Lee.  If you don't remember some of our earlier blogs, the road from Pensacola Beach along this barrier island to our campsite is about 7.5 miles along the beach where, in places, the distance between the Gulf and the bay is less than a tenth of a mile.  The road floods frequently and there is a special phone number to use for checking on conditions before one rolls their rig toward the campground.  During the Lee event there were 60 folks stranded when the road became impassable more quickly than anticipated.  Everyone was fine; some just had their stay extended a bit (at no charge) until the road was cleared. Click here for photos.

Awesome!

You probably saw our recent posting about our visit to Knoebels and you probably get the idea that we are really impressed by the place and the folks that run it.  Well, yesterday we received a package and I felt compelled to share this story with you.  Deb lost her favorite hat (Air Force Falcons) that she's had for years.  It flew off her head while riding the Flume at the park.  She reported the loss to park personnel, but we really were not expecting a recovery.  We checked back the next day, but the hat had not been found; however, we were very suprised to see it arrive in the mail just a week later.  Our thanks to the folks at Knoebels for both another great visit and this amazing gesture.

Knoebels Rerun

We've visited Knoebels Amusement Resort in Elysburg, PA, a number of times and if you like amusement parks, but don't like crowds, this is where you should go.  As reported in a blog upon an earlier visit, it is like stepping back in time - before the time of Disneyland, etc.  For this trip, we were joined by Ben and Liz (with Mike and Jessica also tagging along for the first day) and traveling in their own new rig we had Bill and Mary on their shakedown cruise and that all seemed to go very well.  As to the kidz, they seemed to have a really great time.  They can now enjoy most of the rides, many even without an a adult riding along, and we all also had some very good food, offered at reasonable prices.  I've posted many photos of our visits in the past, so just a limited number to share with you this time - click here.

Leaving Maine

It is Monday and we are spending the night at the Boston Minuteman Campground in Littleton, MA.  The trip to Maine is over except for the drive from here to PA tomorrow.  As witnessed by so many of the photographs we shared with you over the course of this adventure, Maine has a vast array of sights to see and this was just one small portion of just the DownEast costal region.  Until about mid-afternoon today, we had nothing but exceptional weather for the entire trip, even the temperature was temperate most of the time, nothing like those of you in many of the lower states were suffering.  I was pleased to send a 'Thank You' note to our hosts at Sunset Point earlier this evening and as I told them, you can bet we will visit with them again on any future trip to the area.  Here is the site we would like to have next time:

Unfortunately, these folks have this site reserved every year (small wonder).  Our last evening in Maine ended with marshmallo roast (not sure if this shot was before or after the roast):

...and thus ends Gracy's Great Adventure - she's presently sleeping under the table.

Roque or Rogue? Perhaps Both

Lying just off the coast of a penninsula in the Jonesboro to Kannebec towns in Maine's DownEast is Roque Island or is it Rogue Island?  On most maps and the like it is Roque, but there are signs that spell it as Rogue; however, I think it may just be some locals having some fun with the tourists.  Anyway, we made our way to Roque State Park and were pleased to absorb more of the beauty of Maine's costal areas.  We found a beautiful beach with only a few visitors (considering the nice day and being a Saturday).  The shoreline is mostly a very coarse sand, but there are also areas of medium to large pebbles.  Both eerie and absorbing is the sound of the pebbles being rolled upon each other after the waves crash and the water begins to recede.  A sad thought - tomorrow will be our last full day in Maine for this trip.  Find photograps here.

A Day at the Camp Site

We spent most of the day today without going anywhere (oh yes, Linda and Mary had to make a quick trip to the store for some supplies).  Mostly, we took care of some chores like a bit of clean up, laundry and the like.  Also Deb did some baking which included a cake made with some fresh wild Maine blueberries that she picked right here at Sunset Point yesterday - YUM!  I found a nice location to escape the heat and do some reading for a bit.  Here's a photo of the view from that spot:



For dinner, in addition to the aformentioned dessert, we enjoyed some mac & cheese Deb made using the excellent cheese we found at the local market, baked beans and chicken fingers prepared at the table outside.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention what Bill was doing while all this was going on.  He was sleeping.  Ok, he did also supervise the preparation of the last of the clams that we could not manage to eat yesterday.  Bill supervising:

More of the Maine Coastline

The Coast of Maine embraces a seemingly endless variety of bays, inlets, coves, islands, peninsulas, rivers, small towns, villages and roads that wind forever through all of the above.  This days shorter circuit took us to Addison, South Addison, Indian River, West Jonesport, Beals Island, Jonesport, Rogue Bluffs, Jonesboro and Columbia Falls.  One of the objectives of the day was to locate a small island that I nearly purchased some 25 or so years ago.  Although the area has changed very little in all these years, there were more places that I did not rember than those that I did and we failed to locate the island, but had a nice drive and enjoyed some beautiful sights.  We also saw a large lobster boat being loaded on a trailer to be transported for repairs - a wide load indeed.  You can click here for some photographs.

Phinally Photos

Actually, there are no photographs to show of today's activity since our main objective was the maiden voyage of the raft we purchased last year and I was not about to take a camera out on the water.  After blowing up the raft and reading all appropriate instructions, we all trooped down for a launch from the floating dock here at Sunset Point.  Deb, Linda and I set out on the first trip and quickly discovered that a vessel without a keel is not the easiest thing to navigate in a wind.  Fortunately, the breeze was blowing toward the shore so at least this first attempt would not take us out to sea.  After a bit of trial and error, we finally became at least a little proficient in guiding the craft to where we wanted to go and we successfully circumnavigated the cove, touching shore at about five points along the way (just to prove we could).  We landed back at the dock, discharged Deb and took on Mary as a passenger for our second voyage.  This time, with Linda and myself being already a bit worn from the first trip, we simply crossed the cove and returned, but had one h*** of a time getting back to the dock as the wind kept trying to push us into the marsh.  Eventually, we returned with everyone safe and sound.
Now for all the photographs you missed last week.  You can select any of the following slide shows as your time permits:
Getting to Maine - 19 Photos
Bar Harbor - 38 Photos
Acadia National Park - 28 Photos
Western Bay and Blue Hill Bay - 30 Photos
Norumbega Mountain Hike - 26 Photos
Penobscot Area - 27 Photos
Shopping Bar Harbor - 7 Photos
Be sure to look for captions at the bottom of each photograph.

The Light at Quoddy Head

The primary objective of the day lies at the easternmost point of the U.S. - Quoddy Head, which is just a bit to the South and East of South Lubec, ME and just a short distance from the very edge of the Eastern Time Zone.  We traveled to our target location mostly along U.S. Highway 1 with just a couple short diversions along the way, primary of which is located in Machias, just about 25 miles from our current "home" site on Sunset Point.  Thanks to the suggestion by some bike riders we encountered along the shore trail at our campground, we decided to visit an establishment named "Helen's" - a place that appears to be very well known in the area for PIE.  True to what we heard, we enjoyed some of the most delightful desserts which Bill described as simply superb.  I will not be a bit surprised if we return to Helen's sometime over the next few days to try some other of the available varieties.  Along the way to Quoddy, we also enjoyed some more views of Coastal Maine and the beauty seems to be simply unending.  Thankfully, we now have sufficient internet service to be able to share these photos which we hope you will enjoy.  Yes, quite a few views of the light, but I couldn't resist.  Within the next day or two, I plan to upload all the photos from last week and I will advise when they are available.

On to a New Location

Today we made the LONG (close to 50 Miles!) and arduous (not really) journey to Sunset Point which is located on the upper reaches of Pleasant Bay, just a few miles to the South and East of Harrington, Maine.  Most of the trip was along scenic, costal US 1 which winds its way along most of the coastline.  We had selected this campground some time ago because of both size (small) and location (a bit more remote).  As much as we thought we'd like the place from what we had seen on the web, we are even more delighted with what we discovered in person.  I'll share some photos soon, I promise, but the campground and surroundings are absolutely picturesque.  The owners are very friendly and helpful and I've no doubt that this will be a target spot should we ever pass this way again.  We spent the afternoon exploring the grounds and the shore on beautifully established and maintained pathways, that include places to sit and enjoy the view along the way.  Bill and Deb tried their hand at fishing, but without even a bite; however, I am sure they will give it a try at a better time of the day (the tide makes a difference).  Speaking of the tide, the tidal difference here is something on the order of 10 to 12 feet, causing quite a change in the scenery as you'll see if you click here for some photos.  We enjoyed some fantastic lobster for dinner, purchased from and cooked by the campground owners (and delivered to our site, no less).  Quite a marvelous day!

Last Day in Mount Desert Island Area

The last day in this location found us doing a bit of shopping in the tourist area of Bar Harbor.  It was quite a warm day and we were thankful to be ducking in and out of some air conditioning as we explored some of the shops along the street.  Other than license plates with "BAA-HAA-BAA" on them and a few other such items, the shops contained mostly the standard fare and we made only a few purchases.  The rest of the day was spent in various preparations to make our move - a whole 40 some miles further DownEast where we will be in a campground that is located right by the water.  You'll hear more from us from there and hopefully the WiFi will be sufficient to finally start sharing some photos.

Between Penobscot Bay and Blue Hill Bay

Today we toured away from Acadia and Mount Desert Island; a coastal area more to the West.  We drove most of the coast on the East side of the penninsula through the towns of Surry, Blue Hill, Brooklin and Sedgwick, before heading out to Little Deer Isle, Deer Isle and the village of Stonington.  I'll save the descriptions of this tour for the captions under the photos which will eventually be heading your way.  After yesterday's hike, we were all happy to be mostly riding in the car today and Gracy was able to enjoy the trip as well.  While today took us far from most of the tourist population, we have yet to encounter a Moose!  We're hoping that next week's move to the DownEast region may provide us that opportunity as we explore the areas around Pleasant Bay, Chandler Bay, Englishman Bay, the Indian River, etc.

More of Mount Desert Island and Hiking Norumbega Mountain

Thursday:  Mount Desert Island is essentially circular and we spent this day driving to a number of points along the coastal areas of the Southern half of the island.  We traveled along Indian Point Road to such scenic locations as Indian Point, Pretty Marsh, Seal Cove, Goose Cove and Duck Cove before enjoying a delicious lunch in the Bernard area overlooking the harbor toward the town of Bass Harbor.  Since Gracy was with us on this trip, it was nice that Thurston's Lobster Found had a lower deck with a deck just outside of the eating area where Gracy was able to enjoy the salt air and some shade while we ate, while being attended by a couple of kids who were quite happy to give her some attention.  We then proceeded on through Bass Harbor and on to the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse (I encourage you to do a search if you're interested in the history).  We then explored a natural seawall at the end of the island before heading West for some stops at Sothwest Harbor and Hall Quarry for a view of Somes Sound.  Again, this would be a lot more interesting if I could share photos of the area with you, but alas, uploading pictures with the currently available WiFi would take longer than actually taking these day trips, but I am hoping for a better connection next week and will publish a list of photo collections at that time.
Friday:  We had all pretty much decided that we would dedicate one day to a hike.  Acadia National Park has hundreds of miles of trails, some of which include paths to the summits of Acadia's many mountains.  These trails are of varying degrees of difficulty and are ranked as very easy, easy, moderate and strenuous.  I had spent quite a bit of time here some many years ago and had hiked quite a number of these trails over a period of months, but this is all new for Bill, Mary, Linda and Deb.  Knowing we would probably not want to take TOO long a hike, but still wanted to see something at least a bit impressive, I elected the ascent trail at Norumbega Mountain as a good choice; not too long (6/10 of a mile), moderate difficulty, some impressive views and a moderate elevation (852 feet).  Well, the tour guide, yours truely, was not aware until writing this blog that memory from well over 20 years ago did not serve too well.  What I remembered as a moderate ascent is actually rated as one of the more difficult.  I'd have to say that it was quite an accomplishment for us to have taken this hike without really any major problems.  Early in the ascent with Deb on point, she did suffer a bit of a scape on her leg when scaling a boulder with some loose gravel on it, but she pressed on.  Over the course of the ascent (2 hours) we decided that it would probably not be in our best interest (safety wise) to descend the mountain on that same trail so we elected a longer alternative that followed along the ridge; less difficult, but considerably longer, turning our entire hike into a 5 hour venture.  This was, without a doubt, the toughest hiking in their lives for Deb, Linda and Mary, but everyone seemed to have a really good time of it.  We enjoyed the views, the laughs and teasing along the way, but we'll probably all be suffering a bit tomorrow.

First Day in Acadia National Park

Greetings from Schooner Head and other points of the loop around one part of Acadia National Park.  If you are not familiar with this location, Acadia encompasses the greater part of the landmass of Mount Desert Island which begins just a very short distance off the coast of this part of Maine.  The park also includes parts of other much smaller islands in the area as well as part of a penninsula that sits a bit to the North.  I would be very difficult for me to describe the beauty of the area without sharing some photos which are still being held hostage here in my computer.  Gracy, Linda, Bill, Deb and I ventured along the entire major loop road today, stopping to enjoy a variety of views along the way.  We also took a few short hikes, much to the delight of our four legged companion who seems to be having just a grand old time too.
This blog is limited in length just in order to get something posted and I will get into some greater detail as time and WiFi permit.

A Day on Mount Desert Island

Again, WiFi bandwidth limitation will keep me from sharing the day's photos, but we'll be sure to let you know when they are available.

Tuesday found us exploring about 1/2 of the costal area of Mount Desert Island, including Bar Harbor, Seal Harbor and Northeast Harbor.  We avoided most of the "tourist" shops and the like, but enjoyed quite a walk to Bar Island.  It is possible to walk to this island at Low Tide when a sandbar is exposed, but one must be careful to return to the main island when the tide begins to turn, since the area is under 12 to 20 feet of water at High Tide.

While we spent most of the day enjoying the beauty of the harbor areas, we did manage to sample some local fare, including lobster roll, blueberry pie and a blueberry scone, all from a shop in Bar Harbor where there were freshly made pies cooling on the window sill of the shop; providing a very inviting aroma.  For dinner, we stopped by Lunt's Lobster Pound on our way back to our RV.  Prices were great and the meal was excellent.

Gracy's Great Adventure

Many of you will remember a trip we took with Deb's sister Mary and our brother-in-law Bill two years ago when we visited the Badlands of South Dakota, Devil's Tower, etc.  This year we are joined by Deb's sister Linda and her recently rescued dog Gracy.  This is by far Gracy's longest journey and so far she seems to be enjoying it.

We are on our way to Acadia National Park and other parts of Mount Desert Island and the surrounding area.  On the first night of the trip, we stayed just a bit North of the MA border and were thrilled to enjoy a four hour performance by "Beatles for Sale" who do nothing but 'Fab Four' music.  We've heard other such groups here and there, but these guys really had it nailed compared with most and we all had a great evening.

Today we reached Timberland Acres RV Park, Trenton, ME, where we will be spending the next week as we begin our explorations and you can expect some blog entries on a pretty regular basis over the next two week.  I can't be too sure about photos at this point due to WiFi limitations, but time will tell.

More from Myrtle Beach

For those who may have been waiting, sorry for the delay in getting this entry off to you.  Our WiFi access has been very limited at best and we have now actually departed Myrtle Beach and are on our way back to PA.  Fortunately, the traffic situation while leaving the area was not quite as bad as the trip in, but we will think twice before visiting this spot again.  It was nice that the girls seemed to have a good time, particularly with the golfcart parades (say what?).  Ok just a bit more on that another day.  For now, we'll just share these photos.

Off to Myrtle Beach

Do NOT, under any circumstances, travel to Myrtle Beach on a Saturday in June.  The last 40 miles took well over two hours and this includes a hour to travel the last 1.3 miles.  That said, finally found ourselves in Pirate Land, a sprawling complex that is not exactly easily explored on foot when the temperature is 95+ degrees.

We find ourselves in this unlikely location as a vacation treat for granddaughter Jessica and a friend Brooke.  The first day of the trip, following many hours in DC and points South traffic, the girls were positively extatic about spending the night in a Walmart parking lot, since there was nothing else available within the range that we were willing to travel.  One attempted location was closed and the next was filled.

More about the experience to date will follow when we can get some better WiFi connection, but I cannot fail to mention that the biggest hit so far with the girls is a golfcart (go figure).
Click here for photos.

Detour

No doubt everyone has heard about all the devistation caused by all the tornados that ripped throug the South last week. On Tuesday (the first day of the outbreak) we were scheduled to leave the Magnolia Branch Wildlife Reserve which is located in Alabama, just a bit North of the Florida Panhandle, and start heading toward PA. Since we were aware of the weather forecast for the area, we decided it would probably not be in our best interest to start heading North. We decided to head South instead, putting a bit more distance between us and the projected path of the storms. We headed to a place we had visited previously in Foley, AL, which is just a bit North of Gulf Shores which lies on the Gulf of Mexico. As it turned out, we suffered no more than two days of high wind advisories and the wind did howl pretty constantly; however, we safely escaped the fury of the storms that rolled to the North of us. As we followed the track of the storms and heard about all the damage, we were so glad we had not headed North, especially since there were several instances of vehicles being blown off the road on the exact Interstates and areas we would have been traveling.
While resting here on our "detour" we have taken some time to explore parts of this area. Traveling to Gulf Shores and heading West until we could go no further, we wound up at the base of Mobile Bay where there is a ferry available to Dauphin Island. A few photos.

Magnolia Branch Wildlife Reserve

This last week in April we are staying at the Magnolia Branch Wildlife Reserve near Atmore, AL.  The reserve and campgrounds,etc. are owned and operated by the Poarch Creek Indians, a segment of the original Creek Nation which once covered most of Alabama and Georgia.  The reserve is huge with campsites ranging from primitive (nothing but a spot to put your tent) to full hookup (water, sewer, and 50 amp electrical service).  The sites are very large and are spread out through different areas of the reserve.  Our main objective in being here is to meet up with Tracy who is visiting the Air Force Base at Montgomery.  It has been a while since we last saw her and it is nice to have this time to visit.
Photos

Fort Pickens to Foley, AL

A Short Hike in the National Park:

For any of you who have only experienced crowded or dirty (or both) beach resort areas, you probably think that what we've been sharing with you from the Fort Pickens is not possible. It really is as beautiful and unpopulated as the photos indicate, even though this is in the height of the Spring Break period and the weather is nearly perfect.  On a hike of about two miles or so through some other areas of the National Park, I took one trail to nowhere (just suddenly ended in the marsh), another one to a nearby campground and a third to Pensacola Bay. I encountered no other humans after leaving the campground but was joined along my way only by birds and a few small lizzards.
Photos


Leaving Fort Pickens and on to Foley and Gulf Shores, AL:

At the end of our two week stay, there was one more opportunity for a short walk in another direction before we packed everything up and moved West into Alabama. We are presently located just a few miles North of Foley, AL, which is just a few miles North of Gulf Shores and the Gulf of Mexico. Jimmy Buffet has a sister who owns a very nice eating establishment in Gulf Shores where we enjoyed a great meal two days ago. We will be located here in Johnny's RV Park in Foley for just over a week before we move just about an hour and a half North where we plan to meet up with Tracy for a couple days.
Photos

A Return to Fort Pickens

Fort Pickens is the largest of four forts built to defend Pensacola Bay and the navy yard. Constructed over a 5 year period beginning in 1829, the fort was in use until 1947. The only real action the fort endured occurred during the Civil War when it was one of four seacoast forts in the South that remained in Union control. The fort was upgraded several times both with facilities and armaments and was last used as part of the U.S. homeland defense network during World War II.

 We spent several days here in May, 2010, primarily to spend some beach time with our one daughter and two of our grandkids. This year we're spening two weeks at the larger camping area which was just recently reopened after the completion of significant repairs due to hurricane damage. Much of this island is just a few feet above sea level and the road to Fort Pickens is frequently flooded during severe weather. Photos
 
We are very happy to be spending these two weeks in the Campground at Fort Pickens.  We've spent time with friends, walked and sunbathed on the beaches, explored the fort and enjoyed some great food.  On the way back from dinner one night, we decided we would make our reservations to spend two weeks here again in April, 2012.  Deb and I are convinced these are the nicest beaches we've ever visited and the campground is beautiful and well cared for. More Photos