Wifi at last pictures-

Aligator - Everglades

Aligator swimming across river in front of our canoe

Fire in campground- Little Manatee River State Park

Kitching Creek- Jupiter Florida

Bette Midler Look alike St. Augustine FL

Dog chasing squirel - collier Seminole State Park Naples FL

Red Shoulder Hawlk Collier Seminole State Park

Ponce De Leon life size at  4 feet 9 inches tall St. Augustine Fl

Shark valley- Florida Everglades





Castillo San Marcos St. Augustine FL.

Jupiter Florida

I still don't know what's happening to my blogs. I have been using an IPad app that allowed me to post pictures but for some reason the app isn't working properly. If we make it some where that has public wifi I will post some photos. We have lots of alligator pics.

After our two week stay at Collier Seminole state park we ventured off to Jupiter Florida. Jupiter Florida is located on the Atlantic Ocean about 90 miles north of Miami. It's basically a high end community filled with snow birds. The area is home to Tiger Woods and his 65 million dollar new home. Hasn't any told him that there is a real estate bust in Florida? I must say that the area is beautiful filled with lots of waterways to park a boat behind your house. The weather has been great except for one day that we experience a storm that had very high winds attached to it. Jack and I were out riding the bike when we were caught in the storm. The winds were so strong that we were pushed out of he bike lane and into the traffic lane. Lucky for us we were only a block from his sisters house, so we rode there and waited for the storm to pass. When we got back to the campground our shade tent had blown down, the BBQ had blown off the table, the out door carpet was blown 30 feet from the RV, tents through out the campground were blown away, one camper's tent was blow about 200 yards away from the site landing in a tree.

We are staying at johnathan Dickenson state park. The sites are great, gravel long enough to park at 45 footer and two autos, fire pits, and bbqs. Bath roans are new the only problem with the campground is all the trees were lost in a hurricane so there is no shade. Some day when the newly plated trees are large it will be a really nice park.

One morning rented canoes right here at the campground and pebbled down the Locahotchee river. The Locahotchee river runs through the camp ground and is one of Floridas wild and senic rivers. We had a great time seeming alligators swimming in the river, ospreys in their nests feeding their young, and lots of fish jumping out of river.

Beach, bike, paddle and good food that's Jupiter. We have had some good meals, one lunch at the Mantee island Grill in Port Salarno, a short ride north of the campground where JAck and I split a wonderful portabello sandwich that was made with artichokes, olives and feta cheese. Yummy. Tonight it's off to a place called Leftovers for an oyster salad that Jack has had when he's been down here visiting his sister. He says that it's the best meal that he's ever had. We will see......

For the last couple of days we have been just enjoying the beautiful Florida weather. Yesterday we rode the bike around Jupiter Island looking for Tigers house. Of course we didnt find it. Apparently you can't see thhe house from the street, on the other hand Jupiter Island is just beautiful full on huge houses all with lush tropical landscaping ocean views or Hobe sound views, or perhaps a golf course view. Great biking very little traffic and what traffic there is is moving slow. After riding we went back to the beach on Jupiter Island to fish. Well we didn't catch any fish but we did see lots of sharks jumping out of the water. It was quite a sight.

One day we went to a St. Louis Cardinal, Florida Marlins spring trainig game. The Cardinals play in Jupiter at a new stadium complex that has new housing, restaurants, golf course and even a Scripps research center. This will be our second spring training game having gone to a Red Sox, Braves game in Fort Myers. The game was fun. The Marlins and Cardinals share a nice complex.

Tomorrow it's good bye to Jupiter and hello to St. Augustine.

Aligaitors Everywhere part two

Shoot, somehow I lost an entire post regarding our stay at Little Manatee River State Park. To make things short the camp ground was nice but we left a day earlier than planned due to a forest fire. The fire burned between the campground and the ranger station. We departed Little Manatee in the middle of the night arriving at Collier Seminole State Park. Collier Seminole is located 15 miles south of Naples Florida just at the start of the Everglades.

The park is nice, very tropical in feel. The area is in a royal palm hammock, hammock being an Indian word for forest. The park, reminds us of being in Hawaii; Hawaii without a beach, instead we have alligators and bugs. Sites are small, parking the RV in dirt/ grass under oak trees and palms. Lots of shade which is great since temperatures are running about 80 degrees. The main activity here is canoeing the Black river. The river winds through the largest mangrove forest in North America. The park rents canoes or kyacks for $5.00 an hour or you can take a guided tour for $25.00. We were lucky and made friends with one of the camp hosts who lent us his tandem kyack. We had a great time paddling down the river. Lots of birds, we didn't see any gators. They are everywhere down here. Twice we rode our. Ike from the campground to Everglades City seeing more than 30 alligators in a canal that runs along the highway. After awhile alligator spotting became sort of boring.

Besides riding the bike, and canoeing, we also visited the Shark Valley part of the Everglades National Park. There at the Shark Valley we took the tram ride which follows a 15 mile trail through this section of the Everglades. Very interesting, beside seeing more alligators of various sizes, from babies to 15 footer, we spotted many varieties of birds including great blue herons, egrets, tricolor herons, wood storks, red shoulder hawks, osprey, and a turtle or two. The naturalist also explained the landscape, the various hammocks, alligator holes, sawgrass prairies and also the various animals other than alligator that live in the Everglades.

The Naples area is famous for their beaches, so we also spent parts of a couple of days at the beach and exploring Old Naples. The beach around the Naples pier is very nice with good public access points, nice sand and beautiful blue water. This time of the year the water temp is about 70 very nice. We also went to Marco Island's South Beach and Tiger Tail beach both nice beaches but public access points are few and far between. Florida likes to line their beaches with Condos that close off public access to the beach.

Other high points we had a very nice dinner at a German Resturant named Mozarts on Marco Island, we had drinks at Stans in Goodland which is a dive of a place and on Sundays Stan and his band plays music outside. Several hound red people of various ages from 21 to 80 hang out drink, dance and pretend in the case of the old people that they are young again. Stan's was very interesting.

Alligator everywhere, part one.

Shoot, I don't know whatsnhappening with any of my. Logs. I've written two logs since Orlando and neithermb blog seems to have been posted . Here I'm trying again. After Orlando we traveled to Little Manatee River State park which
is located 35 miles from Sarasota Florida. The campground here is small o ly 39 campsites, the park lies along the banks of the Little Manatee River. The main activity is canoeing the river. The plan was to spend three nights here but we shortened the stay to two nights due to a forest fire that went through the campground. Because it's been three weeks since wemstayed there I won't write much more on our stay. I'm posing this right now so I can see if it Posts.

At Last Disney World

We have finally made it to Disney World, and have survived 8 days at the Worlds Happiest Place.
Amanda, Todd, and Alec joined us at DW, staying with us in the motor home.
Alec with his popcorn hat on


We camped at Fort Wilderness a Disney Resort. Great campground. What else would you expect from Disney? Our site was surrounded by lush vegetation and backed up to a canal. The landscaping was perfectly manicured to look wild yet it was watered by a drip irrigation system. All the sites have power, water, sewer, and are paved. The campground is located on the same lake as the Magic Kingdom, there is a boat that runs from the campground to the Park. This makes it very easy to travel from one to the other. Besides all the Disney Parks to go to the campground also has pools, beach, boat, bike, canoes rentals, horseback and pony rides, wagon rides, campfire sing alongs, movies, Restaurants and a bar.
We went to all four parks, The Magic Kingdom, Disney Hollywood Studios, The Wild Kingdom, and Epcot. Alec was a wee bit young to enjoy it all but had fun with the Disney caracturors, such as Buzz Lightyear, McQueen , and Nemo. We all had a good time and thought the Wild Kingdom was the best Park. All in all Disney World it's self is an amazing place.
Alec at the Wild Kingdom









The Big Boys with Pocahontas.





Alec with McQueen



We took two days off from playing at the Parks, one day we drove to Jupiter to spend some time with Jack's sister, her husband, and Mom. Jack, Todd and Uncle Ed went fishing catching enough fish to have for dinner. As you can see it was a perfect Florida kind of day, sunny and about 72 degrees. The other day that we took off from the Parks, Jack and I watched Alec while Amanda and Todd went shopping at the outlet Mall. We all had a nice and easy day. Alec even went swimming at the pool, and went digging in the sand at the beach.

After Disney we are off for a few days at Little Manatee River State Park which is just east of St. Petersburg from there were off to Collier Seminole State Park which is just south of Naples. The weather is warming up so we should have some nice beach weather ahead.


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Destination Destin Florida

We packed up the RV and headed east toward Florida. The Gps lead us across the Mississippi River, a toll bridge ($2.00 for both the RV and car) across the Mississippi River. As we leave New Orleans the view from the free way shows large tracks of land free of structures and littered with debris. I assume due to Katrina. There are ads along the road and on the TV for companies to lift your house for free or to remove debris from your lot for free, al paired for if you have federal flood insurance. Interesting to me that people want a small Federal Government, and yet these same people don't equate the help they get after Natural disaster is from the same government.

As we travel through Louisiana into Mississippi the landscape changes nearly instantaneously from bayous filled with cypress trees to a landscape of pine forests lining the freeway. Then on to Alabama where the the landscape again changes to oak trees and wide open fields, then into Florida and the oak trees into pines trees again. We turn off the freeway toward Gulf Shores Florida. This route takes across a toll bridge, $11.00 it costs for the RV and jeep to cross this bridge. Welcome to Florida, a lot like California, in the cost of things. Texas was the cheapest, cheap groceries, close to 30% less than California, cheap gas, ferry rides, cheap camping. Here in Florida gas prices went from $2.99 in Alabama to $3.15 in Florida just crossing the bleared. Food is more expensive here in Destin then in Texas but still less than in California.

Destin, is on a barrier island about 50 miles east of Pensecola. We are staying at Henderson Beach State Park. Great campground, huge private campsites, and I mean huge campsites, great and I mean great bathrooms, heated air conditioned, large tile showers and everything spotlessly clean. The campground is located in the sand dunes, a short walk from the beach. Now the beach goes on for miles, made of this soft fine grain white sand that doesn't cling to your feet. It's just lovely.



One empty campsite at Henderson Beach



Our campsite at Henderson state beach



The beach Destin Florida



-More of beautiful beach in Destin

Our first day in Destin the weather was great we strolled around town, walked along the beach, drove to the National Seashore looking for a dog beach - no luck with the dog beach, just enjoying the sunny weather. Had a $2.00 beer at the harbor at a dog friendly bar.




We just had a nice easy day.

Over night another cold blustery storm blew in. We woke up to another cloudy and chilly day. We decided to drive to the National Naval Museum in
Pensacola.

Great airplane, Naval history museum. Lots of historical planes, exhibits from WW1 through Afghanistan, space travel, and air planes up the wazoo. It's really an interesting place where you could spend two days exploring.


Blue Angels F18 hornets.




Jack in the cockpit of an F 18.

We had a great time at the museum. Be sure if you ever find yourself in Pensacola go to the National Navel Museum, supported by donations and not the government.



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Noshing in New Orleans

Campsite at Bayou Segnette State Park, Westwego, LA
Westwego is just across the Mississippi River from New Orleans.




















Nicolas Cage's tomb in the St. Louis cemetery in New Orleans.

Finally the weather has cleared up and sort of warmed up here in New Orleans. It's great to get out and see the city. The state park that were staying at is a 6 mile drive to the Algiers Point ferry that takes you for free to the French Quarter. What more can you ask for, free ride, and free all day parking. So, we took the ferry and spent the day walking around the French Quarter. What a crazy place. The first thing that we did upon landing in the French Quarter was to have coffee and beignets at the Cafe du Monde. On trick that I read about on the Internet is don't wait in line (the line is out the door) at the Cafe du Monde, just walk right in and scout out a table. It took us maybe a minute to get a table. The coffee and beignets were both tasty with enough calories to power us for the rest of the day. It was about 40 degrees out with a good wind making it chilly to walk around.
We toured around the French Quarter, taking in St. Louis cemetery, St Louis cathedral, Bourbon St, etc. It is nuts how at 11 am people are walking down Bourbon St drinks in hand going from bar to bar. We we looking for some jazz music but did not find any. What's up with that? New Orleans the center of the jazz world and on place had a jazz band playing. We hiked around town, stopped for oysters at Le Bayou Restaurant on Bourbon St. Walked in and out of the fancy Jewelry stores on Royal street then had an ok dinner at some restaurant not the best of food. But not bad. Jack had a chicken dish covered in a creole sauce, I had crab cakes just ok. But we need to get back to the dog so the meal had to do. That evening at the State park we enjoyed the howling of a pack of coyotes. Not what I expected from a park so close to a big city.




Saint Louis cathedral



Interior of St Louis cathedral .
Second day in New Orleans we took the ferry into town. It was actually a nice day sunny and 60 degrees. It nice to be warm.
The decided to take the St. Charles St trolly to the Garden district to tour the beautiful homes.



Waiting for the trolly- not my bottle, Jack thought that it was funny. Also bad hair day...time to get a hair cut.




Bourbon St



Historic St. Charles Ave Trolly




Archie Mannings house



Ann rice's house



We walked around the garden district, if you have a walking tour map you can walk pass houses belonging to Ann Rice, Archie Manning, Nick Cage, Sandra Bulock, and the house that Jefferson Davis died in. We didn't pick up a map-I would suggest stopping at the tourist info desk located at the start of the Garden District to get a map, even if you don't pick up a map, the houses are beautiful and walking through district is fun. We decided to have a late lunch, or an early dinner, we couldn't get into the Jazz brunch at the Commander's Palace Restaurant in the Garden District but instead found a local Restaurant that was fabulous . Actually, my IPad app found the Restaurant it was great. Glad that I brought my iPad. If ever in New Orleans have a meal at Coquette, for $25.00 per person we had a three course meal. Jack had roasted oysters, pork belly wraps, and beignets for desert. The beignets came with mocha pot du cream and a caramel sauce tomdip them in. God, the beignets were sooooooo good. Better than the beignets at cafe du Monde.

I had Bibb lettuce salad with fried pig ear, gulf shrimp with grits and fennel, for desert blood orange panna cotta. Everything was to die for. The best meal we have had in months.
After such a huge meal, we were done for and headed home to watch the Super Bowl. Great day, great meal, what else can you ask for?



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