W.P. Franklin Locks and COE Campground

This year we planned ahead a little and made reservations at a few of the hard to get into Corps of Engineers parks and a Florida State Park thats also hard to get into. Our first stop was at the W.P.Franklin Corps of Engineer Locks on the Caloosahatchee River near Fort Myers. There are only 30 or sites as well as some docks for those traveling along the waterways, but all are situated right on the rivers edge as you can see our site below. Yes....that is the Goldbrick flag (new having been replaced after the fire) flying again.

The COE parks are really nice with all the amenities and well taken care of. They also accept the Golden Age Pass offered to anyone 62 or over that gives you a 50% discount on the camping fee. This particular park is really an island with a causeway out to the 30 sites. Paved roads, gravel campsite areas...better than most high scale Motorhome Resorts.

Below is the view from our campsite looking out at the pier with the locks beyond. The pier is used for fishing by a lot of people. The water on the Gulf side is brackash and has tidal fluctuations, while the upstream side is freshwater. Fishing is good with some catching large mullet with snook, jacks, tilapia and sand bream all available. The water activity with fish jumping or being chased by larger fish with egrets and eagles everywhere... this is truly a wonderfull and peacefull campground.

We have had wonderful weather with just one day with a short rain shower. Wed did have some fog that was really kind of erie but neat. Below was a picture I took that morning of the pier which usually has a few fishermen trying to catch a snook.

There are some of us however that have actually caught a snook! Problem was it was undersize. The DNR down here is trying to preserve the snook fishery by limiting the size of keepable fish to betwee 28" and 33" and also limiting the season. The fish below which was released was 24" long. It was the first I have ever caught and having been treated to some fresh snook last year, I am anxious to catch more.

Our campsite at night. The campground provides a protected table and sitting having a beer with the wind calming down at night is about as good as it gets.

 

We had Thanksgiving all by ourselves, although I did try to make reservations in Labelle at a nice resturant only to be told they were closed. The manager that answered the phone at that resturant however did invite us to her house for Thanksgiving when we said we were from out o town. We thanked her but choose to go buy a small chicken and we fixed it for our supper in the motorhome. Thats' Marge below about to enjoy the dinner

 

We did take the boat out and did some exploring and a little fishing. We did not see any fish or catch anything at all but did see lots of unusual sites including the Camel grazing at the river side. This guy had to be at least 8' tall and he was just plan big. Needless to say we were quite surprised to see him

 

This is a picture of our campsite up close. As you can see the view is spectacular.

 

As I mentioned earlier we tried to plan things for staying at some of the unique areas here in florida and we are moving today to another Corps of Engineer park up stream at another lock on this waterway called the Ortona South Campground and Locks. We stayed briefly here last year but plan to stay the next two weeks there.

St Augustine Florida

For years Marge and I have thought that we want to travel down the road looking at new and interesting things without driving 600 miles plus everyday. We have always had to be somewhere at a certain time and hurried to get there. This last year we have had more freedom to drive, in this case just 80- 100 miles down the road to see some of the sights and have the time to explore new things. The city of St Augustine was one of those new stops.

Below is a picture of the old city gates located just outside the fort at St Augustine. This was the entrance to the settlement with the fort sitting on the water protecting the surrounding area. We did not get a chance to visit the Ponce De Leon fountain of youth which was nearby but did wander the fort which is really well preserved for being some 400 years old. The other nice thing was that our "Golden Age Pass" got us in for free.

The corners on the fort had sentry towers that are typical of all the Spanish Forts of the day although it would seem limited as to their use. Inside not much room and beyond being a lookout not much to them at all

There was a moat below all the walls of the fort although it is not flooded now. As you can see ...there isn't much room in the sentry towers

The town outside the fort had limited fortifications that were essentially like stockades but limited as compared to the fort. The city was surrounded by this wall at the time.

Marge trying to find her way out of fort

This picture is of the old town shopping area which in now turist heaven. Note how narrow the streets are and although this is not really T-Shirt heaven there are crowds of people with a lot of shops to accomodate them.

This is Magnolia street just outside the Fountain of Youth and neat with the overhanging trees.

Ah! Finally....Brick! and Paving Brick to boot! Most of the back streets have to some degree real brick pavers and it was fun to see the different manufacturers now long gone.

Hopefully, this post will survive being uploaded and published. I still am having problems with blogger and particularly working with pictures. I have found some ways around and hopefully they will work

Picture Problems

We are in Sarasota for two days and I will try again with the pictures being posted. Not sure what the problem is but Blogger is having quite a problem with everyone from what I can tell.

Fort Federick.....Brunswick, Georgia

We have been sort of lollygagging down the East Coast seeing some things that I have seen before in my travels and finding new places to explore and share with Marge. One area is the Brunswick Georgia area with Jekyll and Sea Island. This beautiful coastal area with the wide open expanses of marsh and tidal flats is really something to see. Between the flats and on higher ground the huge Live Oak trees (some of which are hundreds of years old) it is the picture of the South.

One we stopped at on St Simons is Fort Federicka which was a community that was established in the early 1700's. The first picture below is of the grounds outside the fort with the probably 300 year old Oaks

The picture below is of the smallish fort itself looking out over the tidal flats and river.

Can you imagine a ship coming around the bend in the river in your sights?

And again the beautiful old Live Oak trees.

On to St Augustine to see the earliest settlement in the United States.

Huntington State Park, South Carolina

We left Florence, SC for Myrtle Beach ........Marge had never been in the area, but I had spent some time hunting in nearby Georgetown. I also had stopped a number of times on the way South when I was able to leave the cold climates of a Michigan January. I had always been intrigued with area and wanted to show her the beaches and especially a restaurant that makes the absolute best hush puppies. We found the restaurant ("Drunken Jacks" -Murrells Inlet, SC) and she agreed! We were told the secret was the honey butter they are served with.

We stayed at Huntington Beach State Park on the "Grand Strand" which offers a phenomenal beach to walk that goes for miles and is absolutely beautiful. The park is nice and has roomy sites some even with full hookups. The area is great for birdwatching and there is lots of other wildlife....we saw a mink running on one of the wooden boardwalks. Lots of people were fishing from shore but with the temperature being a little cool mostly walkers and "birders" were present.

I had posted some pictures to show the beach but between blogger and my somehow disposing of the originals they gone, except for those below.

The park itself is from the estates of Anna Hyatt and Archer Huntington, sculptors and philanthropists who left what was their winter home "Atalaya" and surrounding properties to the state for everyone to enjoy. The house is really unique and struck my interest right away as it is almost completely a brick structure.....all the floors and walls. Some of it had been whitewashed and there is a stucco like application to the exterior. Below are a series of pictures taken that I thought you might enjoy.

It is a truly a unique structure with its interior courtyards and interesting architecture ...worth seeing!!!

TAKING THE BACK ROAD

After leaving Lexington Kentucky, we decide to follow old highway 25E which we had taken 40 some years ago on our way south. The area in Tennessee particularly was beautiful as we remembered it with lots of hills and rocky faces along side the road. There were a few nice overlooks that we recalled as really something. The picture below is where on of those overlooks was taken of the coach. We are quite pleased with this new coach....it has lots of liveable space and is a pleasure to drive even when pulling the pickup behind.

This picture and the one below were taken at the overlook at a place called Bean Station where Daniel Boone followed Cherokee Indians trails to the Cumberland Gap. Davy Crockett also followed these same trails. Bean Station today is still a relatively unpopulated area but certainly has some beautiful vistas.

This picture made us think of the water shortages in Georgia. This reservoir was down what appeared to be almost 20 feet. We crossed the bridge seen above in the distance after traveling down the mountainside some 4 or 5 miles.

One obstacle we ran into on the back roads was a great deal of construction. We ran across one problem where a roller literally rolled down the hillside holding up traffic for about an hour while they moved it out of the way using backhoes and a payloader.

Exciting for the driver but we understood he jumped clear.

We are in Florence, South Carolina for two days to visit with friends and then we head down the East coast again on a back road....Highway 17 when possible with some stops in Charleston and Savannah.

Found a way to post pictures thats new to me and its taking some time to figure out. Below are a few of the pictures taken at Kentucky Horse Park that are the first for me posting with this system. Next post will try to be more organized.

Finally...On the road again!!!

We left today as the snow storms were predicted to arrive shortly!!!! We have really decided that being a snowbird is the life! We have always enjoyed the snow and even towed snowmobiles behind the motorhome for weekends away in the snow country, but sunshine is a wonderful thing ....it just makes you feel good and with reasonable warmth can't be beaten.



Tonight we are at Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington Kentucky. This is a beautiful place with the horses in wood fenced pastures and beautiful farms all around. This time of year they are preparing for the coming holidays with a light show with Christmas lights and figures everywhere. Unfortunately, it is not ready yet.. I tried to find pictures from a previous visit and I thought I had posted some on this blog, but apparently not. Maybe next time. Tried to post new pictures but the connection did not want to work for pictures for some reason. Will add them later.



Tomorrow we're off towards Columbia, South Carolina and hopefully a little warmer weather. Tonight is supposed to be in the low 30's or high 20's but we are warm and comfortable. Our "new" coach is really working out well.