The Palmer Express

Chesapeake Bay KOA, FHU, site 328, very nice campground. They have cabins, yurts, and travel trailers for rent, big pool and bar/grill right by the beach.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge, 23 miles long and it cost us $24.00 to cross it. We are 13′ 3″, hope we don’t hit a big bump!

Going across the Chesapeake bridge you have to go through two tunnels, each about one mile in length and depending on the tide it can range from 25 – 75 feet underwater.

Coming out of the tunnel, this bridge went on what seemed like forever.

Jackspot Beach, right by the campground. Certain area had a lot of ‘ick’ on the beach and on the waters edge.

Cape Charles Beach, we found a little bit of sea glass in this area.

Brrr, the water temp is in the 50’s! Lots of hermit crabs here.

Cape Charles at low tide, the ripples are really firm, not the greatest to walk barefoot on.

Back in angle parking, this is the first time we’ve seen this.

We stopped by Cape Charles Brewing Company for a snack and a little sampling. We didn’t rush back.

After a rainy day we were surprised by a beautiful sunset.

Fayetteville RV Resort FHU site 41. Former KOA, 2 pools, some long term, would stay again. Free waffles on weekend mornings.

We took the day to visit Fort Bragg, we didn’t realize this was a city within itself bowling alleys, batting cage, museums, paintball, botanical gardens, golf courses, hiking trails, restaurants and more. Amazing place.

JFK Memorial Chapel at Fort Bragg

82nd Airborne museum and memorials.

The museum had an indoor portion and this outdoor area with some planes, helicopters, and other items.

We even had an ice cream truck come thru the park one afternoon.

Camp Lake Jasper, FHU, site 89. Nice campground, would stay here again.

Port Royal SC, The Sands Beach, not much of a beach, 95% oyster shells.

The Sands Beachs’ boardwalk, there is a 3 story tower to climb and lookout.

Huge, hard packed, brown, sand beach and lighthouse on Hunting Island.

I’m still finding some undesirable roads for John to drive on.

Amelia Island, Fernandina Beach, huge beach area, brownish hard packed sand. There have a lot of small parking lots and you can drive/park on the beach, with a 4 wheel drive vehicle, soft and deep sand at the entrance.

View from Hammerhead Beach Bar, it has seen it’s better days but had a nice deck to sit and have a cool beverage on a beautiful day. It would be a good people watching spot in the busy season.

Cumberland Island National Seashore, you have to take a ferry if you want to go. Once there you can rent a bicycle or cart and go explore the almost 10,000 acre island of undeveloped beaches, marshes and watch the wild horses. The ferry has very limited times so plan your day accordingly.

Tara flew down to surprise me for my birthday, we had a great time hanging out. We’re loving our travels but we do miss our friends and families. It was great being able to see so many of them this winter.

Spending the day with Abbie & Tim, fun day at Lover’s Key. Abbie and I enjoyed the beach while John and Tim went kayaking through the estuary.

We picked these guys up on our way to Manasota Key where we found shark teeth and watched a beautiful sunset.

Here we were hiking around Collier-Seminole State Park. We discovered there was an easy access kayak launch.  They also offered a full moon kayak outing, something to look into for next time we’re in the area.

Hanging out at Naples beach. Carl’s a little sunburned so we put him in the shade.

We were happy that Ben and Gwen could visit us, we had so much fun with them.

Ice Cream at the Royal Scoop. Originally we were going to go after watching the sunset but it was so busy, cars were waiting just to get into their parking lot.

We took a day off from the beach to go to the Shell Factory.

Gwen got to try her hand at shuffleboard, bocce ball and tennis but her favorite was pickle ball.

Swimming at sunset, some of us were more excited about it than others.

We also got to spend time with Mary Jo, and Jake. It was great to hang out with them in Florida.

We stopped in at World Bakery and we found out it was much more than a bakery. They roasted a whole pig for the weekend lunch special, it was delicious. 

The last beach sunset in Florida, for this season anyway. It was a great winter!

The Florida Yule Log channel for Christmas. Digging the beach scene versus the fireplace backdrop in the Midwest.

One of the first sunsets at Fort Myers RV Resort. Not as pretty as at the beach but not bad for sitting next to our home.

We decided to add some bling to our house. We were always able to find our way home.

Lovers Key State Park, beautiful beach and great for finding sea shells.

One day, while I was playing Hand and Foot, John went for a bike ride and found one of the locals walking along the bike path.

Kathy, Dale, their daughter Kelli and son in law Richard, taking us to Ragged Ass Saloon, on Pine Island. Fun day.

Out for a chilly ride.

On our ride back Dale found some dolphins to chase.

The hurricane had dumped a lot of sand in the canal by the RV Resort and they are just now clearing it out. The dredger pumps the sand almost 2 miles back down the canal before they dump it on an empty lot to be spread around. The picture was taken at low tide.

 Cheers to a wonderful group.

Jim, Frank, and Dale cooking up some delicious walleye. Thanks for the going away party!

We met a lot of great people, lots of laughs and good times. Lonnie, Barb, Karen and John.

Pat, Lois, Rita, and Julie, euchre players that like our donations. Some nights we had eight tables of players.

We could put our kayaks in 10 mile canal right at the campground. We learned quickly to check the tide schedule before going.

We would paddle to the quarry and find lots of manatee’s to watch. Very relaxing and enjoyable days.

Can you see us back there? Not sure if we could find a tighter spot.

Our first sunset on Fort Myers Beach.

Caloosahatchee Regional Park. We  hiked here a couple times, beautiful by the river.

We went to Bonita Beach instead of shopping on Black Friday. We could get used to winter days like these.

Karen testing out our Christmas present to each other. A little windy that day but our kayaks worked nice except for the paddles that came with them were not the best. We ordered new paddles when we got back home.

John hanging out with yet another new friend.

We went to Manatee Park a few times, twice to kayak and once to walk around. There is a power plant that has a channel that goes from it to the Orange River. The water from the power plant is warm so as the temps cool off the manatees come here to hang out.

This is the channel to go from the kayak launch in Manatee Park to the Orange River. Nice leisurely place for kayaking.

Busy day for people watching the manatees. This is the area where the water from the power plant flows into the river so there are usually some manatees.

The Wheel Of Fortune mobile show was in Cape Coral so we went to check it out. Karen got her name drawn to be a contestant.

Eagles Roost, other than a flea market next door, not much to do in the area. We left a day early, watch out Florida here we come.

Campsite was a tight squeeze between the trees but plenty of room otherwise. A couple of neighbors were busy watching us back in, campground entertainment.

Hiked the Seminole Trail. Including our walk from the campsite to the trail and back it was 6.23 miles. The trail followed the river where we caught sight of this fellow.

This was a nice park with a big pool, cafe, playgrounds, and trails. They also had canoe and kayak rentals. It looked like it would be a fun river to kayak, minus the gator, but we did not have the time this trip.

Tallulah Gorge, two tightrope walkers have successfully made it across this gorge. You can get a permit to hike to the gorge floor, water was just released so a permit was unattainable.

They have this warning before you start your decent down to Hurricane Falls staircase and suspension bridge. You can cross the bridge and go up the stairs on the other side if you want to walk the loop trail.

Picture of the stairs. They did a good of breaking into shorter runs with platforms where you can stop to rest.

Currahee Trail, Band of Brothers 3 miles up, 3 miles down mountain. We took the short cut, one mile up with a 600 foot incline and one mile down with a 600 foot decline.

View from almost the top. Great spot to take a break, enjoy the view, and quiet. Very secluded so lots of graffiti on the rocks and towers.

Proof that we went the whole way. The last 50 feet had the best pathway.

View of the mountain from our campsite.

View of our campsite from the top of the mountain.Minnehaha Falls, one of the prettiest Falls we have seen. Narrow windy road to get there, better to drive from Lakemont. Once you park it is a short .25 mile hike to get to the Falls.

Lake Rabun, there are boathouses here that are bigger than our house.