Fall color tour

I feel like I should apologize for not letting everyone know that we did take our annual July/August up and around the beautiful state of Michigan.  Things got rather hectic when we arrived back home and then after so many weeks it was just not gonna happen.  But now autumn has arrived and we’re out hunting for fall color and falls with water!  H rolled his final decision dice and Pennsylvania won!

Getting out of Toledo on a Sunday morning was easy since all the road construction was halted for their day of rest!  Rt 20 took us to Norwalk Ohio and then on to the interstate, past Akron and Youngstown.  Picturesque northwestern Pennsylvania with her small quaint towns, vibrantly colored hills and sprawling farms kept us Oohing and Ahhing at every turn.   All that rural-ness meant no gas stations and the next decent sized town was 20 some miles away when H chose to take a 10-mile side trip to visit the Kinzua Sky Walk at the SE edge of the Allegheny National Forest

The engineering masterpiece – the Kinzua Viaduct once soared 301 feet high and 2,053 feet across was once the highest and longest railroad bridge in the world.  This bridge had spanned the gorge for over a century but was partially destroyed by a tornado in 2003.  Eleven of the 20 support towers were ripped, twisted and thrown to the valley floor along with all the lush green trees that lined the valley.  The Kinzua Sky Walk was built on the remaining 6 original steel towers and was opened to the public in September of 2011.  Out at the end of the reinvented pedestrian overlook is a glass floor, which shows dizzying views of the valley below. The walk out to that section of thick glass was dizzying enough for me so I did NOT venture to step on to it!  I stood near it to take a quick picture and then grabbed hold of the sturdy railing that surrounded the entire walkway!  Two other – closer to land - overlooks offered even more amazing views of the walkway and the opposite hillside still strewn with the collapsed rusty supports.  In another year the visitor center will be completed and open and filled with more history and amazing facts about the bridge and sky walk.

On to Smethport for gas and breakfast - with just a pint or two of gas yet in the tank!   Once all of our “tanks” were full we drove thru the “Mansion” district and tried to imagine living in one during their heyday.   The road beckoned and we pushed on to the Tioga-Hammond Lakes Area and the Ives Run Campground that nestled in the valleys by the two end to end reservoirs.  What a gorgeous campsite we were issued!  We sat high on a knoll that overlooked the sloping hills, the dark peaceful water below and the tall earthen dams that were built on the opposite side.  Once settled we explored by foot the sprawling campground with all of its spacious green sites, ample boat docks and launches. We even drove the “two track” path that led up thru the glowing golden trees.

Day three arrived with dark clouds, rain and wind but who cared – we were off to explore the neighboring state of New York via the nearest town of Corning and then to revisit Watkins Glen!  By the time we arrived at WG the sun was out and the hillsides were again looking like overstuffed richly colored velvet quilts!
As we approached the long, dark, narrow, damp, deep crack in the mountain that is known by the name of Watkins Glen Gorge, memories of our biking days rushed back to us.  Along with other visitors, we wound our way up along the wet walkways that hung to the sides of the crevice, past ribbons of water and crashing waterfalls.  From near the top, the widening edges of erosion from all the centuries of water that had rushed past showed how the water had washed away the sides of that once solid rock. Amazing and awesome!

The village of Watkins Glen sits at the very southern tip of Seneca Lake.  The 30-mile long, 3-mile wide lake is next to the longest lake in the collection of lakes in NY referred to as the Finger Lakes.  The WG harbor is home to a vast amount of pleasure boats – both sail and motor!  We found the public pier and the tour boat – the Strollar IV that was built in 1934, just backing out of port!  At the end of the pier was the schooner True Love!   Out past the pier were the growing dark ominous clouds of the next storm so we climbed back in the truck and headed south. We headed south 5 miles to the small town of Montour Falls to see if the She-que-ga Falls had changed much over the years.   Nope – it was still right there at the edge of the “historic” downtown, prominently displayed at the back of the little park just like she had been all those years ago when the motorcycle was our main vacation vehicle.  We laughed because the very first time we tried to find it, we had ridden ALL around the town and could not see it!   We must have driven right by it but never looked at the back of the park!  We finally drove Main Street TOWARDS the mountain – and low and behold – there it was! 

Today we revisit the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania and the quaint town of Wellsboro, which still lights up her nights with gas lamps!

South Central Indiana Part 1

 Michiganders are Wolverines and Ohio folk are Buckeyes.  We ALL know what a buckeye is and what a wolverine looks like but what about a Hoosier?   In 1833 it was said that Indiana folks would answer a knock at their cabin with “Who’s Yere?”.  Someone else said there was a contractor named Hoosier and his laborers were referred to as Hoosier’s men.  Then there is the rumor that the pugnacious habits of some early settlers who were enthusiastic fighters would gouge, scratch and bite off noses and ears.  It was so common an occurrence that a settler coming into a tavern the morning after a fight might touch it with the toe of his boot and ask “Whose ear?”  Whatever its origin, the nickname “Hoosier” has had a lasting appeal for Indiana folks!  For more than 100 years it has continued to mean friendliness, neighborliness, an idyllic contentment with the Indiana landscape and life.  We were going there to go find out!

 

Brown Co. State Park

Sunday, June 14 we set our course for south central Indiana and the Brown County State Park, with a brief stop on the way for ice cream at the historic old canal town of Metamora.  Brown County as a whole is almost as magnificent as the Smoky Mountains of Appalachia with her hills, valleys, ridges and gorges, babbling brooks and waterfalls, deer, turkey and even fox that peek out at dawn and dusk!  The park is Indiana’s largest state park at 15,000 acres of dense forest, winding roads, 500 campsites and the Abe Martin Lodge.

Nashville, In.

Nashville, In.

 While based at the park we returned to walk the quaint streets of Nashville and saunter in and out of all the eclectic shops!  Out exploring the backroads down off of St Rt 446, we stumbled upon the Hoosier National Forest campground at the Hardin Ridge Recreation Area and drove thru with the approval of the folks at the gatehouse.  We picked out our 1^st choice for a campsite and said we would return the next morning!  Instead of returning to the state park on the highway that we now knew – we dared venture off the well-paved and well-marked road to trek down a “shortcut” to enter the state park from the other side.  Sometimes the “road” was just a bit wider than a 2-track path.  Sometimes it went east, sometimes north, several times west and even curved a lot to the south!  It seemed like the mileage, via the GPS, kept growing instead of decreasing!  But we finally made it back to the park and we each released a big sigh.

South Central Indiana Part 2

Monroe Reservoir

Tuesday morning we moved over to Hardin Ridge and H deftly backed it into our selected site.  Harding Ridge is built high on a RIDGE and every campground loop winds along one of her thin knarly fingers.  Each site is filled in to allow some semblance of being level!  The tent sites are leveled just down and off a parking pad. Each has a view of the forest and gorge just below it.  Many marinas and campgrounds, including Hardin Ridge, cling to the edge of Indiana’s largest lake – Monroe Reservoir, which, like Cumberland Lake in Tennessee, is formed by damming up a river and letting the accruing water fill in the valleys - forming nooks and crannies for fish and birds and boaters to hide.  We did manage to locate the dam after a few attempts of meandering around and around and up and down the narrow forest roads, thru small agricultural areas with their flooded fields (thanks to all the rain the area was enduring).

Wednesday we headed further south, thru Bedford and located the French Lick Resort in West Baden Springs.  The West Baden Springs Hotel was built in 1855 but burned down in just 2 hours in 1901.  A year later it was rebuilt with a 200 foot diameter central atrium encircled with 4 floors of opulent rooms and suites, some having balconies that overlook all the splendor.  Down the road was the almost as opulent French Lick Resort, built in 1845 with a front porch second only to the porch on The Grand Hotel on Mackinaw Island!  Each of these magnificent resorts has had a troubled past but are now owned by the same company and share the same name, a connecting trolley line.

Bloomington is west of Nashville and is the home of the bustling Indiana University.  NW of there is the Cataract Falls State Park.  Straddling the swollen Cataract River is also the 1938 restored red covered bridge.  The only thing that kept the angry rushing waters within its boundaries was the large sandstone boulders and slabs.   On our way back to Bloomington we used the state park pass we had purchased earlier to now enter and explore the McCormick Creek State Park – also with a VERY raging water fall that had, over the ages, dug it’s way down thru the rocks to form a deep gorge.   The stately old lodge with tall white pillars provided a tasty buffet in their dark wood paneled dining hall.  We were seated out on a long narrow enclosed porch with very large windows from end to end.  Each over sized window had a bird feeder hanging in the middle of it and the selection of flitting, brightly colored finches, woodpeckers and cardinals kept us entertained while we enjoyed our delicious meal!

Tropical Storm “Bill” had roared thru the campground all night Friday and Sunday looked like more of the same was on the way so we chose to pack up and head back north, towards home.  First, we needed to make one more stop at the Monroe Dam.   We had been wondering how much water it would take to affect the amount of water that was being released.  The picture here is one that we took earlier in the week.  By Saturday afternoon, the water level had risen to the darkened line that is half way up the stone

embankment.  The tile was half way to the top with gushing brown water and the retaining wall at the bottom of it was no where to be seen.

 An overnight stay in Grand Lake St Mary’s State Park in St Mary’s, Ohio proved to be just as soggy.  If the fields in southern Indiana were bad – western Ohio was even worse.  Several small RV communities that sit on the edge of the Maumee River had been evacuated.  Their tiny “homes on wheels” had been moved to higher ground just in time!

Maybe we should let the earth dry out for about month and then return to wandering the back roads once more.  In the meantime – I’ll go weed the garden!

Salt and Shark Free

Lake Michigan beach

The garden is rototilled and the peas have already sprouted!  Our enclosed front porch looks more like a greenhouse with all the tomato seedlings and the Red Wartything Pumpkins that are now starting to vine!   In the gardens that surround the house and dot the side yard, tulips, hyacinths and daffodils are blooming in all their beautiful colors. The Spicebush has perfumed the entire yard with its soft yellow fragrant blossoms. The Gnomes are back in their places in the “Village” under the tall Blue Spruce behind our home!

It’s been a full month since we’ve returned from Florida and H is restless!  It’s time to get on the road again!   This trip will do double duty, as the “tan train” will be dropped off in Goshen Indiana at the factory for all the repairs to be covered under its warranty.

Holland Michigan in May means Tulip Time Festival!  This delightful town

dresses in authentic Dutch costumes and is decorated with masses of bright colors each spring when the tulips bloom!  The boulevards and parks are ablaze with reds, yellows, pinks, oranges and purples!  From Sunday to Saturday there are parades, displays, gardens and shows each day!  And it ALWAYS rains sometime during the week – usually during a parade!  This year was no exception. 

During our stay, we visited Grand Haven, the picturesque town to the north where the dancing fountains entertain tourists each night during the summer.

To the south we found the Felt Mansion in Saugatuck.  The Chicago businessman, Dorr Felt invented the comptometer - the first machine to do complex calculations.  In 1919 he bought 750 acres and then built the home for his wife Agnes.  Since their deaths, the home and gardens have been occupied by a Catholic school and even a Police Training Center.  It has now been restored to its original splendor and is open for tours.  

The Felt Mansion

In Holland we strolled the grounds of Centennial Park that was temporarily taken over by a hundred white canopies of crafters selling their varied art items.  After the tents were finally gone, all the tulips were clearly visible once again.  We stopped at the “Window on the River” Park that we found on our way to Windmill Island - the 1700’s De Swan Windmill from the Netherlands.   Like the commercial tulip farms north of town, this park was row upon row of numbered and named tulips, all blooming in their vibrant glorious colors.

In Holland we parked in the Holland State Park, right on the river that leads to “Big Red” the Holland light house that sits on the end of a lengthy pier which juts out into the wide blue expanse of Lake Michigan.  The camp hosts were neat folks who also spend their winters in Florida near Lake Okeechobee! Go figure!  It would be fun to meet up with them again!

When we packed up and moved farther south, our destination was the Warren Dunes State Park, just south of picturesque St Joseph.  St Joe is a sweet little town nestled on top of the cliff overlooking the lake. Down on the shoreline we visited the piers and parks and up on the top of the hill we strolled thru the quaint old stores that lined the one-way streets.

 While each of these great state parks is listed as being right on Lake Michigan, they are each separated from the lake by mammoth mountains called Sand “Dunes”!  There was no way these two old folks were even going to think about climbing any of them!!   On our first day, the weather was wet and cool.  The vast ocean of crystal blue water called Lake Michigan was shrouded in a dense fog sent over the lake from Chicago and Wisconsin!  The next day tho, the weather had cleared and the lake was once again spectacular!   Florida beaches are beautiful but there is just something about the pure majesty of the Lake Michigan shoreline and beaches!! 

Our stay in Warren Dunes was made brighter by meeting 2 really cool couples from the Seattle Washington area!   David & Julieanne, Dennis and Cheryl were on their way to Nova Scotia - on their first ever-camping trip!  WOW!  What fun and what memories – both for them and for us!   H had invited them over for coffee/tea and we passed on some travel tips and places they “must see” on their way!

But our short fast trip was going to end in Goshen where H spoke with the techs at the RV Repair facility for Forest River Trailers and we unhooked and left our “tan train” behind.   We added one more stop to our trip home when H found a restored old factory complex in Goshen that has been restored to a trendy shopping center called “The Old Bag Factory”.  Our lunch was enjoyed in the Trolley Station!    We finished up our journey by heading east thru the always pretty Amish Country in NE Indiana and then home again to Michigan.

Now it’s back to work – the lawn needs mowing and the chickweed is growing!  The tomatoes and pumpkins had better get moved to the garden!

Heading Home

Our Winter Journey for 2014-2015 is now complete.  We left in the cold chill of December and have returned in the cold chill of  . . ..   March?!

When we left Florida, the trees were all leafed out in their beautiful spring greens and the flowering bushes were in high gear – when we arrived in our corner of Ohio and Michigan, the spattering of snow was trying to make things look drearier than they already were!   The world was dull – no leaves, no wildflowers dotting the roadsides and NO colors other than GRAY.  No more shorts and sandals it was now long pants and winter coats.  OH NO!

Knowing we had reached the end of the road on Santa Rosa Island in the western corner of Florida, we had no choice but to head north thru Pensacola and follow the trail to Montgomery Alabama for our first night on our long road home.  H had found the Gunter Hill Campground, which is a US Army Corps of Engineers project, located on a wide section of the Alabama River.  Further upstream the river had been dammed up which formed the wide areas of lakes and the nooks and coves when the river fills in the valleys around the higher jagged hills.   The campground was covered in brown and tans – no longer the tiny live oak leaves but the way bigger oaks and maples like you would find in the north.  The 2 camping loops faced each other across one long narrow notch of brown water.  At the end of the other, newer loop was a wooden Overlook Deck that gave a good view of the waterway that stretched out before it.

Gunter Hill campground

Up early and on the road, with the sun shining brightly, we approached Birmingham.   Between the growing volume of massive semi trucks zooming by us and the condition of the roadbed getting worse and worse, we still managed to enjoy the neat looking skyline as we cautiously worked our way thru the town.  The middle lane was bad – and the outside lane was horrid!  But we made it and H’s white knuckles slowly started to turn pink once more. 

Birmingham, Al

Henry Horton St Pk Tenn.

Then came Tennessee.  I 65 was still a bad road with uneven asphalt patches, cracks and traffic but also came the Henry Horton State Park, just south of Nashville and between Lewisburg and Chapel Hill.   Set in the rolling hills of Middle Tennessee, the 1140-acre park is located on the former estate of Henry H Horton, 36^th governor of Tennessee and sits on the banks of the historic Duck River.  The park has golf, an inn, hiking trails, a pool and  - - - a trap and skeet range!  Too bad it was closed.   The campground itself is going thru a renovation period.  The wiggly winding road is blacktopped but still narrow.  The parking pads are also blacktopped and long enough but in those hills – NOT anywhere near level!  While the immediate 3 feet next to the parking pad had been filled in and supported – the area around each site is definitely on a down hill run!   At the bottom of the hill behind our site was a very old, very rickety barn that housed 2 very sad looking horses. This picturesque old structure was surrounded by a moat of muck left behind from all the winter snow and sleet that the region had endured in the last several months.   While the main color in the park was still brown – tiny shoots of Trilliums were struggling to push thru the rocks, soggy leaves and dirt. 

Henry Horton St Pk Tenn.

 

On thru Nashville – more construction, more lane changes and MORE semi traffic!   The skyline was impressive also but there was way too much else going on to snap a picture!  Then came Kentucky – and more of the same!  Hopefully, Indiana would be an improvement – not so!   We bounced and jounced along till we could not take the battering the truck and trailer were taking and we left I 65 way south of Indianapolis.

 

What a relief to calm down and enjoy the rural countryside that we were traveling thru as we still headed north and east.  Indiana State Parks are open and ready for spring campers.  Hardy Lake State Recreation Area is Indiana’s smallest state operated reservoir but it has the state’s largest state owned dam.  The campground has 149 blacktopped parking pads, winterized facilities and several hiking trails.  To stretch our legs, we carefully traversed the very damp trail that led down to the waters edge and the steep boat ramp that entered it.   As we carefully made our way down the steep wet embankment to the floating dock, there was a truck pulling a boat up the same ramp.  The boat was spewing water from the two round holes in the stern.  On our way back up the now very wet ramp, H engaged the 2 men in a conversation about their dilemma.  One stream of water was the empting of the live well.  And the other - - - YEP!  – They had forgotten to put in the drain plug!  Laughingly, they admitted they realized their problem only after they were leaving the launching cove! 

Staying on two lane roads till we reached Ohio’s newly finished 4 lane I 24 we enjoyed the smooth roads and slower pace of travel.   As we approached I 475/23 the sky turned gray again and dusted the world with fine soft blowing snow.   Yeah, Welcome Home.   It is still winter in Michigan!

Gulf Shores National Seashore

Gulf Shores National Seashore is the 2 protective barrier islands that protect the eastern edge of Mississippi and the western panhandle of Florida.     It was foggy as we left Topsail Hill and slowly crawled thru the growing throng of cars starting to fill the streets in Destin and groups of teens already heading to the beach.  In Navarre we turned south and drove out onto Santa Rosa Island and Navarre Beach.  Between the small beach towns were the open areas of foggy white dunes and struggling clumps of sea oats.  Wind blown sand edged out onto the roadway as we entered the vast emptiness of the National Seashore.  Six miles inside the boundary sign we finally reached the campground check-in building.   Once settled, H lost no time in wanting to get out and explore – after all – we’ve never been here before!   With the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the Pensacola Bay on the other, this long narrow band of sand at the end of the island encompasses the restored Fort Pickens and its adjoining buildings and (of course!) fishing pier.  Fort Pickens was built between 1829 and 1834 and used until 1947. Interesting facts about the fort include: it took over 21.5 million bricks and was built by slave labor brought in from New Orleans.  Union soldiers manned Fort Pickens and the Confederate soldiers held Pensacola on the mainland during the Civil War.  In 1884, Geronimo was held prisoner there.  The one corner of the fort was destroyed when a fire began in the warehouse area reached a black powder magazine that contained 8,000 lbs of powder. The explosion showered debris 1.5 miles away! 

 

From the fishing pier you could easily see the opposing shoreline and see the large gray hulk that was some kind of Naval vessel, and to the left a tall black stack that could be a lighthouse.  In that dark shoreline silhouette we knew there was the Naval base, the National Naval Aviation Museum, another fort and the town of Pensacola!  According to H’s GPS, the Naval Air Museum was 1.9 miles from the campground.  By road it was 25 miles!  On the way, we passed thru “historic” downtown Pensacola and paused in the waterfront park to wonder at the large red ocean vessel that was tied securely to the dock.  It was the Boa Deep C – an ocean construction ship registered to Norway!

 Four of the famous Navy Blue Angel jets still hang high in one huge glassed in atrium in the museum and the collection of over 150 airplanes and exhibits still shine and look new. A whole new Hangar of planes has been added since we visited last!  We were extended an invitation to experience being on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier - complete with the wind, the smell of jet full and the roar of  helicopters and jets landing and screeching to a halt with the aid of one small hook and one REALLY big rubber band!  All from the comfort of a theater seat!  

 

Near the Museum we found the 1859 Pensacola Lighthouse with its tall black stack atop the white base and the well-preserved keeper’s house nestled by its side. After touring the vast collection of airplanes in the Naval Museum we were both too pooped to even think of climbing up in that lighthouse!  

Just a short way down the road was the next on our list of places to explore. The 2^nd of the 4 forts in the area – Fort Barrancas, was built between 1839 and 1844.     From this fort you could the white sand that outlined the edges of the tip of Santa Rosa, the dark bulk of Fort Pickens, the white houses that are home to the out buildings and museum and the trees that sheltered the cozy loop of campers in the campground-behind the ever present, protecting dune!

Since we’ve literally come to the end of the road – the realization that we have no choice but to head north towards home has set in.  Across the wide spance of the 2 bridges to the mainland, we maneuvered thru Pensacola to Ft Rt 29 and then Rt 31.  From then on it was Interstate 65 in the northbound lane.

Florida Panhandle

Apalachicola

I feel like we’re going backwards!  And I keep saying: “ the last time we were here” or “See Previous Florida Blog”! We’ve come down thru Alabama to the panhandle before and worked our way around and then over to Ocala.  We’re doing it all in reverse – Chiefland and the “springs” state parks and now up and around the “big bend”, thru the deep woods that feels just like Michigan.  Past the signs for Wakulla Springs State Park where we met Dick and Sharon the year we went to Texas!  Past the road to Tallahassee where we toured the capitol building!   We even stopped in Apalachicola to stretch our legs and revisit the quaint 1880 shops, fishing docks and parks. 

Cape St. Joseph State Park

 And now Mexico Beach!  This small beachfront town has added a few more tall 2 and 3-story, pastel houses that stand at attention on their stilted supports behind the dunes that line the white sandy beaches.  There are a few more shops and seafood eateries and there were more folks on the beach by the fishing pier that still stretches out into the blue green gulf.  Rustic Sands RV Resort looked a little different – there were no cute inflatable Santa Claus in a bathtub or his sleigh and reindeer or any other Christmas decorations this time!  Remember - We were here on our way down in December before.   On our day out exploring we wandered back along Fl Rt 98 and then out onto Cape San Blas to the St Joseph Peninsula State Park.  It was a long thin strip of land with a quiet cove and small harbor with a boat launch and small store.  Across the bay you could see the mainland and Mexico Beach.  I “earned” my state park patch when we walked the beaches, and explored the back roads of the park but the campground roads were way to small to navigate comfortably if we had been pulling a trailer, so we won’t return.

It’s Spring Break in Florida.  Finding a campsite anywhere along ANY coast in this state is now hard to come by.  We were hoping for either St Andrews State Park at Panama Beach or Henderson State Park near Destin but both gorgeous parks were full.  Topsail Hill Preserve used to be a RV Resort but the state took it over several years ago and H got us 2 nights at the last moment!  Just what we needed – 2 nights!  Well groomed, yet woodsy, each campsite had full hookups plus cable, a white globe yard light, cement pad and a patio. The main park areas included several small fishing lakes, a swimming pool, Camp store, gazebo with wifi and Azaleas!   A half-mile winding, narrow blacktop roadway led to the dunes that always border the beautiful Gulf.  Only bikes or those who chose to walk or the campground shuttle were allowed on this road.    The first time we ventured down this way, it kept getting colder and colder and foggier and foggier, the closer we got to the dunes.  Sea fog had rolled in!  It gave an eerie white glare to the entire sandy scene – or was it really snow?  Later that day the sun had burned thru it and the sky was now a bright deep blue reflecting off of the pale blue green sparkling water.  The last remnants of any fog were just a puff in the distance.  The gentle waves and rippled sandy bottom made a dancing kaleidoscope on the water.   Splashing thru some deeper areas we reached a shallow ledge and played like small children on holiday instead of two old retirees with bad backs and bad knees!

Destin was 12 miles to the west.  8 years ago this was a small seaside town with a quaint little harbor area that had the neatest lighted boat parades at Christmastime!  They still have the parades, however the harbor has turned into an entire

Destin Fl.

shopping mall - complete with entertainment, a light house, bars and restaurants.  There are now 2 tall towers for zip lining from one end to the other and lights are strung everywhere.  The boat docks are still gaily lit and the condos across the waterway shine in the setting sun.  And then there’s the traffic!

We’ve only got 2 more days on this gorgeous “Emerald Coast” before we must head north.  We are going to go to the very end of the road before we must go tho!  It is a long way from Topsail to Ft Pickens campground in the National Seashore at the end of Santa Rosa Island.  It might take all morning to get there!