Blog

Hello again! Our camper has been at the same place for over two weeks, so I haven’t posted. So, here’s the update. (It’s a big one!)

From the Okefenokee Swamp, we drove up to Camp McCall in Sunset, SC. The camp is run by friends from Summit Adventure (where Libby guided backpacking trips in CA), Ginger and Spinner. They had invited us to come stay, so we took them up on it! It’s a beautiful spot in an arm of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

We arrived on Saturday and Matt flew out to Kansas for work on Sunday. He was gone for 10 days for work.

While he was gone, the kids and I enjoyed a slower week at Camp McCall. We had a couple play dates with the neighbor boys (camp staff sons), survived 24 degree overnight temps (and didn’t freeze), explored the camp, and visited the nearby Hagood’s Grist Mill and Petroglyph site.

Last Saturday the kids and I headed down to Atlanta to see my cousin, Michelle, and her family. We enjoyed a visit to the Botanical Gardens, good meals, and time at Candler Park.

After that we headed up to Amicalola Falls, just north of Atlanta. We hiked a couple/few miles on the Appalachian Trail Approach (technically the AT starts at Springer Mountain 8.5 miles in from Amicalola Falls). It was a beautiful area and peaceful day hiking. Then we discovered that Reece has a cider company in Ellijay, GA!

Then we returned to Atlanta to visit other cousins, Allison and Meredith. (This is the second time we’ve been able to met up with Meredith on this adventure!) We enjoyed the Georgia Aquarium, helped with some packing/moving, and got a lot of laundry done at Allison’s apartment. A very enjoyable and productive visit!

Then we returned to Camp McCall for a couple nights. We picked up Matt from the airport and left the next day for another visiting tour.

This time we drove to Aiken, SC to visit old friends/neighbors from Colorado Springs – the Swifts. We had been there 6 years ago, so it was good to see them again. They have an amazing and energetic community of neighbors/kids and we got to join in. They made us amazing dinner and breakfast and we got to go feed horses at an equine rescue facility. It was a whirlwind, but so fun. Eric and Maria had done the travel/RV life for almost a year before they moved to Colorado Springs, so it was fun to compare stories and get some good recommendations!

From Aiken, we drove up to Raleigh, NC to visit my cousin, Kara. She has lived in Raleigh since college, so I was excited to see her, and her spot in the world. After a couple of strikeouts (one restaurant had a pipe break and didn’t have running water when we showed up), we finally found a place to enjoy dinner. The next morning we went and saw the troll installation at Dix Park – 5 trolls total and they have hammocks! We have a few trolls in CO, so we’re excited to go check out our trolls when we get home. We finished our visit with a quick stop at the NC State Farmers Market. What a cool place!

Then we drove to Greensboro,NC where we had a short, but lovely visit with Kate (Davelaar) Guthrie – a college housemate and friend. She and her son, Abe (who is 5 days younger than Reece), hung out with us and showed us their house renovations. Thankful for old friends who welcome random visitors. Loving these connection points along the way!

From Greensboro we drove up to Pilot Mountain State Park to camp for the night. We enjoyed a rare campfire and all slept pretty well. The next morning we went up to the Pilot Mountain summit, hiked around it, and then climbed! We really only had time for one good climb (“Pole Dancing”), but it was a lovely day and fun to get out climbing!

That night we returned to Camp McCall. The plan was to leave the following day, but because of weather here, and weather where we were headed, we decided to delay a day.

This morning we said our goodbyes to Ginger and Spinner and their dog, Reggie (and their cats – Elvis and Zola). We will miss this beautiful place and such wonderful neighbors!

We packed up and hit the road again from the Clearwater area and headed to Silver Springs State Park in Ocala, FL. We hiked the through the park, peered into the clear river water from the spring, and saw an alligator. We unfortunately did not get to see monkeys though… This is where many of the Tarzan movies were filmed and some of the Rhesus monkeys escaped (were released?) from the film crew and have taken up residence in that area!

Then we headed to our Harvest Host location at a drive-in movie theater! It turned out that the movies weren’t a hit for most of our family (I watched the romantic flick), so Matt put a movie on in the camper for the rest of them to enjoy!

The next morning we left for the Okefenokee Swamp! We had read a book last year that was set in the Okefenokee Swamp, and we said we were going to visit it. And we did!

It’s one of the largest freshwater swamps in the world. And is a completely different landscape than we see on the regular.

We did a scenic drive through the swamp that took us to the Chesser Island Homestead. It was built in the mid-1800s and people lived there until the mid-1900s. After walking through a bit of the swamp (on a boardwalk), it was impressive that anyone lived out there.

Then we drove to a hike on a boardwalk with an overlook.

We saw a family (a mom and 4 babies) of raccoons foraging through the swamp and several bright green anoles. The overlook tower had tons of spiders and mud daubers flying around on it. And we found out the nubs of tree roots all over the swamp were cypress knees.

It’s interesting hiking in unfamiliar landscapes – we get uneasy about potentially coming across alligators and other animals – just like others get uneasy about coming across bears and mountain lions in Colorado. And even though it’s a real concern to be aware of, we know that we rarely see those animals in Colorado. Just like they’re probably not often seen by hikers in other places. Well alligators, we did see alligators, but they were pretty docile (not hungry?) when we saw them. Or not alive.

Saturday morning we packed up slowly and headed out to see the Comiskey family just east of Orlando. Jon had responded to our post last year and invited us to come by, so we did! Let that be a lesson to you all, that if you invite us, we will come! 🙂

It was wonderful to see him and meet his family. Jon was about 5 or 6 when I started at the Dale House, and now he’s got a wife and two kids. And their house is a revolving door of friends, family, and random visitors from Colorado! It was super kind of them to have chili waiting for lunch and to sit down and chat for a while. What a great crew!

From there we stopped at a Best Buy to deal with an issue with Claire’s computer, stopped by a Walmart for some supplies, and then parked at a Cracker Barrel for the evening. Their apple streusel pie is quite tasty for anyone wondering!

The next morning we headed to Weeki Wachee Springs State Park. We weren’t quite sure what to expect, but it was a hoot! Read more about it here, but it was like you were transported back to the 60s. We watched live mermaid shows in an underground theater built at the mouth of a super deep freshwater spring. They’ve explored down 400 feet and still haven’t found the bottom of the spring.

There were peacocks wandering, Christmas decorations going up, a ranger show to watch with live, local animals, and a boat ride down the river to see wildlife. Even with all that, one of Claire’s and my biggest highlight was swimming next to a manatee! It was in the swim area. We didn’t bother it, but we were able to get pretty close. A very cool experience. But no good pictures, sorry!

From there we went down to the KOA campground we had booked for several days. It was super nice! Pool, leisure sports (cornhole, putting green, tetherball, ping pong), gorgeous landscaping, and even complimentary continental breakfast!

On Monday we did school, went on a plant walk with a campground staff around the campground (Reece climbed up and picked a papaya), and went swimming. Overall a relaxing and productive day.

Matt decided to use some of his rental car points and rent a Tesla for our couple days here. So Tuesday morning we picked up the car, did some school in the morning, and then met my Uncle Al and Aunt Judi at their condo. After Matt eagerly troubleshot a heating issue they were having, we went to the beach for lunch/snacks. It was a lovely visit.

We stopped by the nearby Seabird Sanctuary Center on the way home and saw a myriad of birds close up. It was very educational and fun!

The next day we did more school and then headed down to Fort DeSoto Park. We enjoyed some beach/swimming time and found a lot of live sand dollars out off the shore a bit. We were excited because we had seen dead sand dollars at the Bay of Fundy, but when we had looked it up, we had also seen pictures of live ones. And now we got to see them alive!

From Fort DeSoto we drove to my cousin, Nate, and his wife, Kandis’s house in Largo. We met Uncle Al and Aunt Judi there too and had a lovely evening making pizzas in their pizza oven, catching up, and playing table shuffleboard.

We got an updated picture of the birthday twins – Reece and Nate before we left. (The last one was a little old.)

We’re really enjoying seeing friends and family. Heading to see more friends and family over the next few weeks too! Reach out if you’re in the South and want visitors from Colorado! (You may already be on our list!)

We spent last week at Manatee Hammock Campground in Titusville. It’s on what’s known as the ‘Space Coast’ since it’s right across the water from Merritt Island/Cape Canaveral. Matt had work here for a few days. We booked the campground a few nights and then ended up staying longer since plans kept changing.

We did school most of the day Monday and discovered a rec center at the campground that had puzzles sitting out, so we did a lot of puzzling this week. Claire and Reece are both getting pretty good – Grandma McKinley would be proud!

On Tuesday, the kids and I went out to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (the visitor center and the beach were closed), but we went to Haulover Canal (built to haul large space parts/equipment over to the Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral) and saw manatees swimming in the canal. We also saw some dolphins go by. And Reece spotted an alligator in the ditch!

Then we went for a short hike at Scrub Ridge Trail. We started on the short hike, but soon encountered some water-logged areas. We went through them carefully and didn’t get too wet until the third or fourth area. We kept thinking about turning back, but figured we’d have to get back through those areas, so we might as well continue on. Well, we made it to the halfway point and started back only to find that the ENTIRE trail was about 3-4 inches of standing water for the great majority of the walk back (it was clear, but brownish and not pleasant). Luckily we didn’t see any snakes or alligators and rinsed off when we got back to the car. The hike has now gone down as the worst hike – worse than the Sleeping Bear Point hike where we got pounded by blowing sand the entire time.

The next day we got to see a rocket launch! – from the fishing pier at our campground! It was a really neat experience. There was even a guy there watching it with us who does work on the landing pads. So cool.

That evening we carved pumpkins and our friends in Colorado Springs, Tim and Mel, joined up via video! It’s an annual tradition that we were able to keep up via technology.

On Thursday we all spent the day at Kennedy Space Center. So impressive and informative! Also, the progression of space travel was neat to see – from the Saturn rocket (with the Apollo program) to the shuttles that built the International Space Station (shuttle Atlantis is displayed at the space center). And now to Project Artemis which is going to build a space station to orbit/be on the moon.

The following day was Halloween and we did school in the morning. Swam in the pool for PE in the afternoon and then went trick-or-treating at night.

From Roanoke Island we stopped at our first Harvest Host overnight. It was a brewery in Williamston, NC. It was quite the place. Friendly people, sodas for the kids, lots of great artwork, Halloween costumes for sale on the cheap (Reece got some accessories and Matt got a costume), and our favorite – $5 gifts. Like a whole pile of wrapped gifts (Christmas wrapping). You could buy one for $5, but you have no clue what is inside. And we hear it’s very mixed bag. We bought one as a host(ess) gift to give out to an upcoming stay. 🙂 There was an article written online if you want to read more about Hook Hand Brewery.

The next morning we got tasty, greasy breakfast sandwiches at a local place and hit the road for a long day of driving. We saw cotton fields for the first time. It’s almost harvest time here, so we also saw big bales (like round hay bales) of cotton.

We made it to Brunswick, GA that night and stayed at a Walmart parking lot. The next morning we went to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island, GA. (Thanks, Kristin, for the recommendation!) Then we travelled around the island to check out Driftwood Beach and saw an alligator! So cool!

After Jekyll Island (a long used vacation spot – read history here), we finished our drive to Titusville, FL. That afternoon/evening/overnight Titusville received 11-14 inches of rain (depending on your exact location) in about 12 hours or less. (For perspective, the ANNUAL rainfall in Colorado Springs is 16.5 inches on average!) We were there for most of the rain. It was CRAZY! We kept hoping it would stop, but it just poured for hours straight. Grateful for super sandy FL soil and flat lands that don’t create rushing rivers, but there was plenty of flooding – Matt’s work was blocked by massive puddles, so the owner came and picked him up in a big truck.

Our camper fared fine as far as we can tell (Great job Richard!). Here’s a picture of our set-up. There was a lull in the rain after we had been there for a bit that allowed us to set-up. The yellow blocks at the stairs were stepping stones over the massive puddle we were parked in. At one point in the evening those washed away under the van, but we retrieved them and set them on higher ground.