2013 - Mar 29 Clarksville, TN to home

We left Clarksville, TN this morning at 9:15 and got home at 3:40PM. It was an uneventful 333 mile drive. When we started out, it was raining, but about 100 miles down the road, the sun came out and it was nice the rest of the way home.

When we got home, the temperature was 60 degrees and the neighbor kids were playing basketball in their T-shirts.

Today is Friday. It's hard to believe that it snowed 18.5 inches last Monday and all that is left is what's in the picture.

It's good to be home.

2013 - Mar 28 Headed for home from DeFuniak Springs, FL

We left the campground at DeFuniak Springs this morning at 8:10. It was a pretty uneventful 464 mile drive except that we hit Nashville at the wrong time. Almost had to camp for the night in the middle of I-65, but we finally got moving and ended up in the Clarksville RV Park in Clarksville, TN at about 4:30.

The campground doesn't have much character, but it does have free Wi-Fi, the restrooms & showers are super clean, and we're picking up the local TV stations. It'll do for an overnighter.

Should be only about 350 miles or so to home tomorrow, so we'll get there way before dark. Hope I don't have to fire up the snow blower to get the camper and car into the garage. If there's snow there, I'll post a picture. Otherwise, this will probably do it for this trip unless we stumble across something interesting.

2013 - Mar 27 Around DeFuniak Springs and Bill Saathoff's Cut Coins

We went into DeFuniak Springs and found Lake Defuniak in Chipley Park. It's one of only two known round spring-fed lakes in the world. An underground spring and a natural underground outlet makes the lake possible. The lake is one mile in circumference and sixty feet deep. Marsha and I walked around the lake. Ten we drove Circle Drive and discovered the Majestic Magnolia tree. I'd love to see it in bloom.

We ate lunch at Bogey's, then went back to camp where I struck up a conversation with fellow camper, Bill Saathoff from Gregory, SD. We met Bill and Marilyn the other night at the ice cream social. He suggested that when we go to Hill City next September, we eat at the Alpine Inn. Bill is an artisan who cuts coins as a hobby and manages to make a few bucks at it. There are a few samples of his work in the pictures below. Marsha bought a pair of Liberty dime earrings, an Illinois quarter and Denali National Park quarter. All of Bill's work is done by hand. No electricity involved.

Then we ended up visiting with Clark & Sally and Ron & Tammy from Ft. Walton, FL. They had a pot full of seafood gumbo and a big loaf of homemade bread. It was delicious. Hope we run into them again. Great fun!

We're heading north in the morning, so hard telling if/when I'll post again. It's been a great trip. Hope you enjoyed it!

2013 - Mar 26 Hangin' around. No pictures

I didn't take a single picture today. We got up, showered, at breakfast and headed for the local Walmart for a few supplies. We should be all set for the trip home. We'll leave here Thursday.

This afternoon, we walked down Paradise Island Drive from the park. Turns out this is a peninsula sticking out into the lake, so the road dead-ends about 3/4 mile past the park. Lots of houses on either side of the road, but nothing exciting. Looks like a pretty-much redneck neighborhood.

After walking around the park and having a beverage, we went to the ice cream social which started at 5:30. Met some people from South Dakota who clued us in on a good place to eat when we're in Hill City, SD in September.

After the ice cream, we came back to camp and grilled some chicken which Marsha added to a salad for supper. Dishes are done, so I think I'll have another beer.

Good night!

2013 - Mar 25 Travel to Defuniak Springs, FL

We got up at o'dark:30 and showered. We called the ranger station at 7:30 to see if there were any cancellations in the campground that would allow us to stay for a couple of extra days and wait out the snow up home. No such luck! The park was full with the next opening sometime in April.

We broke camp and checked for cancellations one more time on our way out. Still no luck, so we headed west. We stopped by Falling Waters State Park, but they were full. Then we called Florida Caverns State Park and they were full. We got the Good Sam's Trailer Life camping book out and found Sunset King Lake Resort in DeFuniak, FL. We called them and they had a vacancy, so here we are - booked in for three nights!

Hopefully, if we leave here on Thursday, the snow at home will be about gone by Friday evening when we get home. It only got up to 60 here today and tomorrow's high will only be in the 50s with tomorrow night's low getting down to the freezing zone. But it's still better than being home right now.

So, we'll be out exploring the area tomorrow. We'll let you know if we find anything interesting - or not!

2013 - Mar 24 Drove to Port St. Joe, then back to the campground

It stormed like hell overnight. Constant thunder and rain for a couple of hours in the wee hours of the morning. When we got up at 7:00, it was gloomy and cool. We went down to use the Wi-Fi to try to get the one site available at Sebastian Inlet State Park for February 24, 2014 for a week, but I missed it, so we reserved a week at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. It's in a remote area on the north shore of Lake Okeechobee, but other than that, we're wingin' it!

We came back to camp, showered and ate breakfast before driving to Port St. Joe, which is across the bay from our campground at St. Joseph Peninsula State Park. Look it up on a map and the pictures will make more sense.

After driving around town and looking around at a sporting goods store, we ate lunch at Peppers, a Mexican place that seemed to be the only non-chain restaurant open on this particular Sunday morning. Food was plentiful and good.

We drove back around the bay and out onto the peninsula where we stopped to take a couple of pictures on the other side of the stone seawall protecting the highway from the waters of the Gulf. Then it was back to the campground. and a walk on the beach.

We stopped by Charlie and Carol's to show them the pictures of our Mexico trip and they forced me to drink some Scotch and Marsha some wine. After that, we killed some time before walking across the boardwalk to the beach to watch the sunset. It wasn't great, but I got a couple of shots before the sun went behind the clouds.

It was another lazy day, but we didn't have any snow, unlike home. We're going to try to extend our stay here or find another place in the Panhandle to stay for a couple of days to give the snow up home a chance to melt.

We'll keep you posted.

 I couldn't resist posting that last one!