April 20-23, 2010

Nashville, TN

We got a little later start than we had planned to, but at least we missed the heavier traffic. We arrived with some daylight left and called to see if we could get into our campsite site a day early at the Seven Points Campground on Percy Priest Lake. We were in luck and had a beautiful site close to the lake with plenty of privacy. The dam, reservoir, lake, and 19,000 acres are all part of the US Army Corps of Engineers Project. It is by far one of the nicest campgrounds that we have stayed in. When we went out to our picnic table the next morning to cook breakfast, there was some wild turkeys and a female mallard duck on the grass. After breakfast, we strolled down to the lake and sat at the beach.

The campsites right on the water were beautiful and we made a mental note of the numbers in case we come back and want to reserve a spot. It is hard to believe that this gem is only 15 minutes from downtown Nashville. 

Music City was calling our name and there was a lot to see. We parked across from the famous Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Ole Opry and now a premier performance facility. We walked down to Broadway and immediately could hear the music pouring out of the bars.

We stopped at the Somment Center where the Visitor Center is located, along with the Bridgestone Arena, home of the Predators hockey team.

As soon as I saw that Bon Jovi was playing (Circle Tour), we headed to get tickets.

Fortunately, we had several hours to kill before the show. After walking around checking out the sites, we found a bar called Legends Corner, on the Honky Tonk Highway. Thanks Seth Thompson for the tip! The band was great and we loved the bar. The walls were decorated with album covers, many that we used to own.

From there, we moved on to a bar called Toosies to listen to more good music. Willie Nelson got his first songwriting job after singing here.

Before the concert, we went to Rippy’s Smokin’ Bar and Grill for some pulled pork and cold beer. We met a couple from Knoxville, TN, also waiting for the concert. The guy grew up not far from our hometown and immediately knew that we were from upstate NY. Apparently, we still have a bit of an accent. It was finally time for the Bob Jovi concert.

We had fantastic seats and what a show. After 27 years of performing, he and the band are as good as ever. Richie Sambora is still amazing on the guitar. This was definitely a highlight of our Nashville trip. Of course, we had to go back to Broadway and listen to some more local musicians before calling it a night. When we got back to the parking lot, the attendant talked our ear off. He married a woman from Wasilla and loves Alaska. He said that he kept a good eye on our truck.

On Thursday, we spent the day at the Lake. I walked and read, enjoying the peacefulness. Since we only had one day left, we had to make some choices. Our first stop was an obscure music store called Third Man Records to buy some White Stripes and Dead Weather t-shirts for our son, Eric. We decided to save the Grand Ole Opry for the next trip and go to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. It was three floors of country music’s roots, legendary instruments, original lyric sheets, memorabilia, and some amazing exhibits. The Hank Williams family, Brenda Lee, and Ernest Tubb exhibits were featured and did not disappoint.

As we were walking out, we stopped at the elegant Hall of Fame rotunda and saw all of the inductees since Country Music's early beginnings. From there, we walked to the famed Printer’s Alley but not too much was going on so we went to Robert’s Western World to have a bite to eat and listen to some traditional country music. The Don Kelly Band was playing when we got there and was fantastic, especially the guitarist, JD Simo. Wow, could he pick. There is no doubt that his young guy will be going places in the music world. We had a great evening and left shortly after listening to Brazilbilly featuring the owner of the bar. Even though we enjoyed their music, we had a full day and were ready to head for the 5th wheel. We had a long day ahead of us on our last leg of our adventure.
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Savannah, Georgia

April 17-19, 2010

We got off the ship at 9 AM and within an hour we had picked up our truck and were on our way north to Savannah, GA. We stopped in Jacksonville, FL at Sonny’s Barbeque. They had excellent ribs and our waitress kept us in stitches with her down-home friendliness and sense of humor.

We arrived at Skidaway Island State Park outside of Savannah over the intracoastal waterway. We had to stop as the drawbridge came up to let 2 sailboats pass through. The park was a first-come-first-served campground and we found a great campsite with plenty of privacy. We relaxed and then went for a hike on some of the trails in the Park.

The trails wind through live oaks with Spanish Moss hanging from them, marshes, cabbage-palmettos, pines, and Georgia's state flower, the Cherokee Rose.

I finally figured out where the saying, “Sleep tight; don’t let the bed bugs bite!” came from. The story is that that the moss was used to stuff mattresses. Apparently, red bugs, (or chiggers) reside in the plant. I am certain that the mattress company did not last long!

On the way back, we spotted a bird called an indigo bunting. It was a majestic blue and I could have spent an hour staring at it's beauty but he flew away.

As we sat outside at our site, a lady on a bike stopped by to ask us about Alaska. Janie and her husband Bob Murrell and friends Loren and Mary, all from Virginia, came back over after dinner. We showed them some pictures and answered all their questions. It was a fun evening and we have a feeling that we will see them all in Alaska one day.

The next day, we went into Savannah and took the Old Town Trolley Tour of “Georgia’s First City” and then walked the River Front and around several of the charming city squares.

James Oglethorpe with the help of the Yamacraw Indian Chief Tomochichi, established the colony of Georgia in 1733. He designed the squares with the homes on the north and south and the churches and public buildings on the east and west.

Savannah’s historic district offered extraordinary architecture and lovely restored homes and churches. One particularly famous house was the birthplace and childhood home of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts. I liked The Olde Pink House, now a restaurant. After walking several hours, we came upon Paula Deen’s restaurant, “the Lady and Sons” located in a charming brick building that used to be a hardware store.

Bob had the buffet of traditional southern dishes and it was superb and I had a delicious Cornucopia Salad. I could only eat half since Bob kept giving me bites of his. He even shared his to-die-for peach cobbler. Yum! We decided to walk back through the squares to the truck, working off some of the calories. Oh, but they were worth it. I was fascinated by the some of the old streets made from “tabby” a natural mixer from oyster shells, ash, sand, and water.

I would have loved to spend more time visiting some of the historic homes and art galleries, but we also wanted to go to Tybee Island. We settled on the Savannah History Museum located  in the old passenger terminal of the Central of Georgia Railway. It had many interesting historical exhibits and one that seemed a bit out of place-Forest Gump’s bench.

Apparently, people kept trying to steal it from the Chippewa Square. I am surprised that they did not have the feather that floated down from the nearby church.

From downtown Savannah, we drove along the Savannah River to Tybee Island. Our first stop was the Tybee Island Light Station one of the first public structures in Georgia, the original was completed in 1736. The present lighthouse is 154 feet tall, the lower 60 feet dates back to 1773 and the upper 94 feet from 1867.

 I walked up the 178 steps to a splendid view of island and the 5 miles of uninterrupted beach. The Light Station had all of its historic support buildings on the site.

We returned to Skidaway Island, built a fire and had a relaxing dinner. That is until a Chuck-will’s-widow bird started its continuous singing of its name. Bob realized that it was the same annoying and loud bird who woke him up the night before. He got his flashlight and found the tree, shining the light toward the bird. He flew away but was back by the time that we were in bed. I got the earplugs out and was out in 30 seconds flat! On Tuesday morning, we got an early start for Nashville, TN.
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Fort Lauderdale, Florida              

The Caribbean


April 10-17, 2010  


We were at Port Everglades and on the Star Princess ship by 1:30 pm. Since it is the sister ship of the Diamond Princess that we cruised down to Vancouver on in September, it was easy to navigate around.

Of course the first thing that you do after you find your cabin is to check out the buffet. We made a pact to eat fairly low carb, work out every day, and take the stairs for the entire trip.

Our first stop was in the Bahamas at a private island called Princess Cays. We took a tender to the island and headed to the beach.

Just sitting soaking up the sun and watching the turquoise Caribbean waters is mesmerizing.

After enjoying the lovely beach, we went snorkeling. It was not Hawaii or Belize in terms of the number of fish and beauty, but it was great to be in the water.

Our second port was St. Maarten.

We walked into St. Phillipsburg along the beach and along some of the side streets.

We found a relaxing little bar with ice cold beer and toasted as we enjoyed the music of the islands.

The third port was St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.

We took a small tour bus to Magens Beach.

We spent most of the afternoon swimming in the ocean to keep cool from the hot sun and reading under the shade trees.

We were supposed to go into Grand Turk on Thursday but there were high winds and the harbor was narrow with two corral reefs on each side. We were disappointed but knew that there would be plenty to do on the ship.

The entertainment on board was varied and better than most cruises. The band, Serious Sounds from Barbados were excellent. We listened to them and danced just about every night. The lead singer had a fantastic voice and the band played just about every music genre. The comedian, Tom Briscoe, from NYC was hysterical and there was a young man who juggled and did a comedy show that was talented and funny. The cruise staff was full of energy and kept things lively all week. One thing about going on a cruise is that everyone is having a good time and in a great mood.

The food was not as good as Carnival, but the service was excellent. We mostly ate seafood: scallops, prawns, lobster, and escargot. We did splurge at dinner sampling the scrumptious desserts, fortunately they were small. It still amazes us that 2 people could go for 7 days with food and lodging included to the Princess Cays, Bahamas, St. Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles, St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands and Grand Turk for $135 a day. It was a marvelous vacation from our road trip, but we were ready to head north to Savannah, GA.
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Florida

April 6-9, 2010

As we were leaving the Sanford Orlando Airport, we had company in the parking lot, an adult Sandhill Crane and a juvenile.

We drove the short distance to the Seasons in the Sun RV Park in Mims, FL, near Titusville. It was a smaller campground but had nice club house with a 2 pools and 2 hot tubs, several ponds and nature trails.

The first day we relaxed at the campground, walked on the trails, and swam in the pool. The live oaks throughout the park were lovely and gargantuous providing shade from the hot sun. No, we were not complaining!

 As we walked around the pond, I spotted an interesting sign that made us more alert as we continued our hike.

In the early evening, we drove to the Cocoa Beach Pier overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

We walked down to the end of the Pier, checking out the shops and restaurants. On our way out, we stopped to listen to some music and have a beer.

On Wednesday, we drove to Cape Canaveral to the Kennedy Space Center.

Unfortunately, we missed the launch on Monday. It is sad to think that it might be the last for awhile, as a result of planned cuts to the Program. It was an amazing tour of the facility, especially the Shuttle Launch Experience, a simulated vertical launch on NASA’s Space Shuttle.

 The Apollo/Saturn V Center featured a 363 foot moon rocket and the exhibit of the Hubbard Space Telescope showcased some fantastic images of deep space.

The top of the observation gantry at Launch Complex 39 offered a 360 degree view of the launch pads and the space shuttle operations.

Jim Lovell is scheduled to be here on Saturday to commemorate the Apollo 13 Mission. We heard his incredible stories at EAA Oshkosh Air Show a few years ago and wish that we could be here.

We spent the next day visiting the International Sand Sculpting Festival, followed by a relaxing afternoon at Cocoa Beach.

Our last day, we relaxed by the pool and walked. The owner let us store the 5th wheel there while we are on our cruise for only $25. It would have been $35 a day to park at the Port. The next morning we were on way south to Fort Lauderdale, excited about our cruise to the Caribbean.
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