Travels Continue...

Our travels will continue, but this time without the Roadrunner.
First, a little catch up:  We got back to Virginia Beach two weeks ago.  The last two weeks have different to say the least.  Life continues to be good and we are sorting things out.  We have a very nice place to stay at Kelly and Jon's house.  They have a large extra bedroom/office that we are occupying.  It is about the same living space as the Roadrunner was with a full fireplace at one end and a desk, sofa and chair along with our bed.

They are working on life with a 2 and 4 year old and in the final days of getting another house renovated to sell.  In their spare time.  We've been looking for a place to live and have looked at about  50 places and actually gone through 4 or 5.  We are waiting for something that is fairly close and within our price range.

Obviously, after living in 300 sq ft or less for the last 10 years, we don't need a big place.  After about  10 days, we found something that will work and made an offer.  They countered, we re-countered, they re-countered the counter and for $192K, we have a place in Norfolk, VA.  Yikes! We signed the docs and everything is in motion.

We are 6.5 miles and 15 minutes away from Kelly and Jon and two adorable grandsons.  The house is in a pretty good neighborhood with a  large back yard and a nice sized garage.

Here's what it looks like on Zillow:

It needs a new kitchen, two new bathrooms, windows all around and a few other things.  And so begins our time in the Tidewater area.  Since we have 3+ weeks until closing, we decided we'd try something different and take a road trip to Arizona and back.

We're going to see family in TN TX, NM and AZ.  Here is our approximate travel route from Google Maps:

Along the way we are planning to see a few friends and hopefully check into Red Bay for old times sake.  This trip will give us a chance to see what it is like to travel like we used to and see if we can acclimate to that travel mode for a few months.  We'll see.  A couple of places we'd like to see are Canyon de Chelly National Monument (in the Four Corners area) and Antelope Canyon in Arizona.

It should be fun and lot of driving but we're looking forward to it.  

That's all for now on the Roadrunner Chronicles, thanks for joining us!

A Day in Yosemite

A few months ago my brother suggested we stay at The Lakes RV and Golf Resort as we made our way over to Arnold CA for a 4th of July reunion.  Turns out it was an excellent idea.  We wanted to see Yosemite National Park as well as Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

As you can see, it was about a two hour trip one-way from our campground.  But still very doable.  Turns out nephew Nate and his family were in the Lower Pines Campground for a week with friends.  They were staying at the Lower Pines Campground.  We wanted to see them early in the day before they got out and about on their hikes and such so we left our campground before 6 AM.

Like many other National Parks, we wanted to take a picture of the entrance sign.  Then it was quite a few miles down the road before the scenic views started.

El Capitan

One of the beautiful meadows along the way into Yosemite Valley.

Cathedral Rocks and Yosemite Falls

Thought this was pretty interesting.  A sign signalling the spot where John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt had a chat back in 1903.  You have to imagine that some of the trees are young ones and may have not been here back then.

It was a little crowded at some of the pull outs but not too crazy.  Most people were slowly making their way through the park and glad to let you pull in or out and were friendly folks.  I think some of the majesty and awe of these places makes everyone a bit more congenial and courteous. ?

More Beautiful Falls - this was very unusual at the beginning of summer to have such a strong flow off the mountain.  Usually it is drying up quite a bit by now.

Here's a group photo about noon at Nate and Angela's campground with daughter Aubry.  Son Jacob was off riding bikes with his buds in the campground. Angela's parents were there at a nearby Bed and Breakfast and stopped by.  Great timing!

We continued on our drive through Yosemite Valley and stopped for more pictures.

 Yosemite Falls

 Lots of pull outs and parking along the way to see the meadows and mountains in the background.

 Before we left, we made it over to the Visitor Center and checked it out.  It had an informative video -- this one was on bears.  In the 1930's they used to encourage bears to eat trash and humans food.  They stopped that in the 1940's and have seen a resurgence and healthy population of 'normal' bears as a result.  Now, folks keep their food at the campsites put away in the bear locker.

Even the exit out of the valley was full of wonderful scenery and the Merced River flowing.

There is no way a person could see Yosemite in a day.  It is definitely worth a longer stay at some point.  Lots of hiking and more beautiful scenery to be had.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Visit to Amelia Island

We are only about 20 miles from Amelia Island, so we thought we'd take the Mayport Ferry across the St. John River and see what we could see on a day trip.  We quickly added an hour to our drive when we found out the ferry is closed for repairs until further notice.

So we drove the long way around to I-295 and I-95 to take the exit for Amelia Island.  We stopped for coffee at Dunkin' Donuts and then drove around the Historic Section of town.  What a quaint place.  Reminded me of St. Simon's / Jekyll Island on a smaller scale.

There is a good sized waterfront, some shipping and lumber and lots of Victorian houses in the town.  And lots of stores that are thriving despite the old turn-of-the-century look.

We quickly found the Amelia Island History Museum.  It was excellent!

The history of Florida is convoluted to say the least, but I found this good synopsis online:

Originally home to the once-thriving Timuncuan Indians, around 2,500 B.C., it has also been 

Nearly 80% of Florida's Atlantic white shrimp is harvested in the surrounding waters, with 2 million pounds of shrimp delivered annually to the Fernandina docks.

the home of an English plantation, an international port, Civil War fort, turn-of-the-century playground for rich tourists, terminus of Florida's first cross-state railroad and world headquarters of the shrimping industry, which was first modernized here.
An aura of simple innocence belies what was once a hotbed of corruption, buccaneers and bootleggers. Named for the daughter of England's King George II, Amelia Island, was under the Spanish flag in 1807, when the Jefferson Embargo closed all U.S. ports to foreign shipping. The Spanish harbor of Fernandina became the nation's center for smuggling slaves, liquor and foreign luxury goods, as well as buried pirates treasures.
Amelia Island played another historic role during the Cuban War for Independence (1895-1989), when freedom fighter Jose Marti was overheard plotting his strategies in his island suite in the Florida House Inn (Florida's oldest surviving hotel). This led to the demise of the ill-fated revolution.


We were in Cedar Keys a few months ago, we learned that the first railroad across Florida into that city originated at Amelia Island.  One of the main crops shipped by rail from one coast to the other (and thereby avoiding the long and often dangerous ship route around South America) was lumber.

Two main industries were centered in this area of Florida:  lumber and shrimping.  Both continue today.

 We arrived just in time for the docent's tour of the museum.  After about 20 minutes in one room and getting up to the year 1565, we knew we were in trouble.  As the group moved to another area, we opted out and spent the rest of our time there  poring over displays.

 The museum was very well done and worth the $7 admission.  It had first quality and very informative displays.  The area was heavily involved with the slave trade from the late 1700's until well after the Civil War.

 After the arrival of the railroad in the 1850's and well into the 1880's, it also became favorite spot for the well-to-do Northerners and vacationers.  Large Victorian homes were built and some remain today in excellent condition which serve as Bed and Breakfast venues.

After our time at the museum we drove around the historic town which has a very large old town section with thriving shops and boutiques.  There are a lot of restaurants and the city wharf and park is close.  It is a place we could spend hours and hours.

We did a drive by of the local lumber yard and shipping company and watched some logging trucks empty their load.  Then we took a drive over to Fort Clinch State Park and checked out the two campgrounds.  Never know when we'd like to hang out there.  One campground was near the old fort which now serves as the Visitor Center.  The other campground was near the beach where there were less trees and an open area that looked like a better place for satellite TV.

We continued on our drive and went by the Amelia Island Plantation area that started development in the 1970's.  It has the large conference hotels and high end tourist accommodations.

It was a great day to see the area and find out more of the history of the region.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Happy New Year!

We are currently at Cedar Keys FL where the temperature is 75 degrees.

Greetings from Florida!  Hope you are warm and well wherever you are and that you have been enjoying the holidays.

We drove back from Virginia Beach to Fort Walton Beach where we had the Roadrunner parked.  The Honda got fixed and we picked it up on Monday.  We were very pleased with the fixes to the Honda the way Miracle Strip auto body shop handled everything.

They replace front and back bumper, hitch, front grill, and quarter panels.  And steam cleaned the engine as well as vacuuming and washing the car.  Nice touch.

USAA has been exceptional so we will follow up with all that and get that behind us.

Our trip to Fort Walton took two days.  The first day was a loooong day day Interstate 95.  After 11 hours we stopped in Brunswick GA.  Everyone we talked with were shaking their heads too -- it was a long day for everyone.  All those snowbirds are heading south!  (...that would be us!)

We are recuperating from some cold / crud stuff we picked up so we were glad have a day to relax and pack up before we headed east and south to our location in Cedar Keys.

We're at Angler's RV Campground which is an older park.  The price is right, we have plenty of space, the people are friendly and it is quiet.  A great place to spend a few days.  At $30/night it is reasonable and even more so with two nights at $16.50 with Passport America.

It was a lovely day when we arrived in the early afternoon and we drove the few miles into town to the pier and wandered around.

 Lots of fishing going on!

We also had dinner downtown at the Big Deck Bar and Grill and had some shrimp and grouper.  We are looking forward to our next few days here!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!