Heading Home

Mon, Feb 23

We think it's about time to start heading North.

Unfortunately, we've checked the weather forecast back in NC and it looks terrible, or at least uncomfortably cool.  We've gotten use to wearing shorts and we don't want to have to go back to long pants, so we are procrastinating heading North.

We left the Pimentel's and headed East to the Atlantic Coast side of Florida, ending at Patrick AFB. We may or may not stay here for a while.  If we do head North, it will probably be a slow trip.

The ladies try for modesty on the statuette.

Tues, Feb 25

We enjoyed Patrick AFB and had planned on staying a couple of days, but this morning we decided that we'd head North on I-95.

We have been listening to another John Grisham novel, "The Appeal", during this trip.  It's another great book that is fun to listen to.  The story line is basically how a Mississippi Supreme Court Justice is elected.  If you ever have a chance to listen/read the book, I encourage it.  As I read it, Clara and I both commented that Grisham has described the most likely scenario of how our most recently elected President must have been "selected" and "forced" on the American public.  It really makes me sick, and I really believe Grisham has a tremendous insight into how many elections are "done".

While heading North this morning, we decided to stop at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Southern Georgia.  There's a nice RV park.  We immediately decided to stay 2 days and see what's here.

It really looks rather strange to see a submarine rising out of the earth.  This is at the entry gate to Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base.

We had an early supper at a local seafood restaurant and went down to the waterfront of St. Marys.  St. Marys is a relatively small waterfront community which is the Gateway for the Cumberland National Seashore.  We hope to go there tomorrow.

The waterfront is unusual.  There are very few commercial businesses and most of the waterfront is very nice parks.  After ice cream, we walked around for a while.  Then I spied a nice looking trawler on the docks.  I headed over to talk to the owners, Steve and Wendy Lancaster.  They had lived in Atlantic Beach several years ago and he is retired Army.  The boat is a 32' Nordic Tug and seems to be a great little boat.

They are taking the boat on the "Great Loop", which goes up the East Coast, through the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi, through the Gulf and back to Florida.

A very nice waterfront park in St Marys

We really are beginning to dread getting back to Beaufort where the forecast for the next week or so is for cold and rain.

Wednesday, Feb 26

We awoke this morning to the pitter-patter of rain on the roof.  After looking at the forecast, it looked like it is going to rain all day.

So, what the heck! We might as well face the music and head North.

Do we unplugged, got on I-95, and made a day of it.

We are now at Little Pee Dee, a South Carolina State Park.  Interestingly, this is the same park, same site and within two days of the same date we had stopped when we drove back from Florida 3 years ago just after we bought our motor home.  It's a gray, dreary day.  But I'm sure that in the summer, this is a wonderful place.

Settled in at Little Pee Dee State Park on the Pee Dee Reservoir as we start our acclimatization back to the land of "cold"

We still have about an 8 hour drive to get to Beaufort.  I don't know if we'll try to make that in one day.  We usually try not to drive over 4 hours a day.

Thurs, Feb 27

After getting up and having breakfast, I put "home" in the GPS and it showed only 5 hours.  So, we hitched up the dinghy and headed North for a rather pleasant drive back to Beaufort.  The temperatures were in the 30's Thursday night - reminding us that we don't like cold.

It's been a very nice trip.  A slow meandering drive to New Orleans, a cruise with old friends from the Air Force days, a harrowing departure from New Orleans, an interesting drive along the Gulf Coast constantly trying to find a way to get passed the bridges that are closed because of ice, a fun time learning and exploring the Everglades, an equally interesting and fun time staying in a RV resort, reconnecting with Tony and Jill for a few days, and a drive back to the land of "cold".

On this little adventure, we drove the motor home 3,358 miles and the Honda 1,345 miles.

Now we've got to clean up the motor home, put it back in storage, and get ready for the next adventure - The Virgin Islands.