Jacksonville to Sebastian Inlet

Somebody is getting behind with the blog. We must be having a good time.

We spent 8 days in the Jacksonville area visiting with all the relatives. It was fun seeing all the new babies and catching up with everyone. Jane and Terry put up with us and we really appreciate all that they did for us. Thanks for all the wonderful meals and good wine.

After Jacksonville we headed south to Jetty Park at Port Canaveral (Cocoa Beach) where John and I met while attending Cocoa H S.

We had an opportunity to reconnect with old high school classmates on many an occasion. It made for a special visit. We dined with 20 former CHS classmates, my friend Sharon was here from Italy, and John visited with his friend Tom, who was here from China. It almost seemed like 1960 again.

One of our favorite campgrounds to stay in is Jetty Park. It is located right on the inlet to Port Canaveral and only a few steps from the beach. This is the best vantage spot to see launches from the Kennedy Space Center. Port Canaveral is one of the cruise ship terminals on the coast of Florida where the ships depart for the Caribbean. Our daily ritual was to go down to the inlet with our cocktails and wave to everyone as they departed for their cruise. We had almost as much fun as they did.

The most exciting thing, however, was to watch the comings and goings of the submarines. There is a submarine turning basin/dock right across the harbor inlet from our campground. Navy and Coast Guard boats escorted them out the inlet with machine guns posted. The security also patrolled the shore of the inlet and checked each of us out.

We learned that if you have a marine radio that it would broadcast the departure of the cruise ships and the submarines. So John added a new toy to his collection.

Our friends Debbie and Fred from back home in California joined us for watching and waving at the departure of the cruise ships. They were in the area for a family wedding. Of course we had to take them out for a fresh Florida shrimp dinner. We are enjoying cooking lots of fresh shrimp and fish.

Pris has really enjoyed watching all the wildlife right from our campground. There are lots of tropical birds, jumping dolphins and turtles. There are also many opportunities to view wildlife from pontoon boats, boardwalks, and air boat rides. The Canaveral National Seashore is also very close.

After spending a week at Jetty Park we headed south about 30 miles to Sebastian Inlet SP. It's known for its fishing and surfing. We were camped right on the Inlet and could sit in or outside the motor home and watch diving birds, dolphins and people catching fish right in front of us. They were catching lots of flounder while we were there.

We decided to bite the bullet and purchase a fishing license and buy fishing gear. We really haven't mastered the catching of fish yet, but we are hopeful.

We finally put together our kayaks and did some paddling around the mangrove swamps. It was very convenient to launch right from the campground. Our kayaks pack down into packages that fit into the back of the Fit and make for easy traveling.

I guess there has to be one drawback to paradise, and that is the very small biting gnats. When the wind blows, they are not a problem, otherwise they are not pleasant. Deet spray didn't even seem to help. Fortunately, we didn't have many days of these pesky insects.

From Gaffney, SC to Jacksonville, Fl

10-12-14 through 11-2-14

It’s been a while since we’ve posted. We’ve been pretty busy.

We left the coast of South Carolina and headed inland to Gaffney, SC to attend a two day class called Camp Freightliner. Our motorhome is built on a Freightliner chassis. We met some other motor homers from around the country attending this class who also learned about diesel engines, air brakes, tires, etc. John learned a lot and I even learned a thing or two.

After the class we headed back to the low country of SC. The low country consists of barrier islands and coastal areas with grassy salt marches between the beaches and the inland waterways and creeks. Typical of this area are the century old oak trees with Spanish moss hanging off of them. Palmetto trees are also very numerous here.

The beaches are beautiful with fine white sand and sea oats growing on the dunes. The sand dunes are protected and many areas have wooden walkways leading over the dunes to the beaches. The loggerhead turtles crawl out of the ocean and dig nests here to deposit their eggs. The nests are marked and  protected with fencing or tape around them. There are signs everywhere asking people who face the beach to keep their lights out when the eggs hatch, so that the hatchlings don’t become confused and go towards the lights rather than the ocean.

The tall sweet grass that fills the marshes is so plentiful that local people use it to make sweet grass baskets. Many local women have stands on the side of the road selling these intricate baskets.

It was time to leave SC and pass into Georgia. I must admit that the people of SC are very friendly.   John got tired of sitting outside our motor home in the campground and responding to everyone coming by and saying “hey”.  People were very helpful and interested how we came all the way from CA. One guy remarked, “why would you be here when you could be in CA.”

We moved on to a CG outside Savannah called Skidaway Island SP. It was just a short drive into Savannah, my all time favorite city. The town is located on the Savannah River and is small enough to walk around.  There are twenty-two town squares scattered around the historic part of town. These squares are a small city block on each side with large old historic southern homes. They were made famous in the movie Forrest Gump.

There are some really fine restaurants in Savannah. We had shrimp, fresh grouper and cheese grits. These were not your ordinary grits in that they had bacon, onion, parmesan cheese and yes grits.

We left Savannah and handed our motorhome over to an RV place to have some work done on it and we are enjoying staying with my sister and her husband in Jacksonville, Fl. It’s been fun catching up with all the family and meeting all the new babies.

It’s good to be in Gator country again.