We are camped half way between Mobile and Pensacola in Robertsdale, AL. Both towns are about 30 miles away. It is refreshing to be on dry ground. The 330 miles from Beaumont to Biloxi are all swamp --- Mississippi Delta. Here, we are in gently rolling, pine covered hills.
It's odd how times have changed. Nowadays, Seattle can't find the money to fill potholes. Decades ago, in the middle of no where, there was funding to build 150 miles of four lane Interstate highway on pilings driven into the swamp. Can you possibly imagine the cost of a four lane, 150 mile bridge? How many potholes could you fill?
This is Mobile, AL. Mobile has some absolutely beautiful neighborhoods with gorgeous older homes. Most seem to be occupied and in good repair. We were completely blown away by the Mobile library. It was very nicely done --- good layout, quality materials and workmanship, attractive and organized. It has lot's of reading nooks and computers discretely tucked in to multiple locations through out the library. This is what The City of Seattle should have done instead of Experience Music Project II.
Wow! If the rest of Florida is like this, I can see why everybody moved here. My guess is that we'll spend a few more days.............
This is the most bicycle friendly and pedestrian friendly town we have seen so far. Good kayak spots as well.
The weather is cooperating..
Gulf Islands National Seashore. The road is "closed" due to construction. However, the bike path is open if one wants to walk around the gate.
We walked around the gate and had ten miles of shoreline to ourselves. Enjoy the pics.
This is the first time we've wet the boats in saltwater...
In addition to Bike day and Kayak day, we also had shooting day, radio day, and tourist/sight-seeing day. Pensacola is alright with us.
We are in the Sunshine State, and, although we don't have a lot of pictures to show for it, we did a quick tour of the Emerald Coast: Fort Walton Beach, Destin, Watercolor, and Panama City Beach.
Watercolor is a cute, beach front, "planned community" where a small "starter" condo will set you back about half a mil. I think I may have upset the plan when I made a wrong turn and, judging from the funny looks, became one of the first full sized RV's to cruise the main drag.
The beaches on the Emerald Coast are simply amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Crystal clear water and blazing white sand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tallahassee, FL. Old State Capitol. View from the top of the new State Capitol.
From Panama City, we turned north and visited Tallahassee, the state capitol. From there, we headed east to Jacksonville.
The Jacksonville air temp is 84 and the humidity is about ninety. We are thinking it's time to head north before it gets TOO hot. I called Seattle today on business. I got a report that it snowed 7" yesterday and was about 35 degrees --- cold enough for the snow to stick overnight. I guess warmer is better, but I would much prefer to split the difference...
We actually found cool weather at the beach. Today's field trip took us to Fernandina Beach and American Beach. The temp must have been 15-20 degrees cooler than 10 miles inland where we are camped. A foggy cool marine layer hugged the coastline. Garbed in summer wear, we turned into goose bumps.
The "sand" at American Beach consisted entirely of broken sea shells.
There is nothing like getting really sweaty to make ordinary mugginess seem dry. I cracked a sweat. The 22 miles this morning was our longest ride in about 4 years. If we can keep this up, we just might get in shape.
The Jacksonville-Baldwin trail is a real delight. It's a level ,12 foot wide, asphalt rail trail that passes through scenic, shaded woodlands, rolling farm fields, and natural wetlands. The entire trail spans 14.5 miles one way. We enjoyed it so much, we hope to ride it again and possibly cover the whole length.
Yes. I'm still shooting --- but not as much as I would like. If you think Katrina was hard on houses, she was worse on gun ranges. The majority of gun ranges from Beaumont to Mobile are simply gone. Blown away. Wiped off the face of the planet. This isn't the wide open west either. If you go out to shoot here, it's going to be in somebody's back lot. However, yesterday, I shot a IDPA classification course at the local gun club.
The IDPA requires its members to classify each year. Speed and accuracy are converted to a time "score", and, like golf, lower is better. I've been shooting just over two years. With the revolver, I am making steady progress. My classification times have been 241, 195, and 175. I started shooting the semi-auto in September 08 classifying classified twice at 193 and 182. I'm thrilled with the steady progress. But, it's really tough to do without much practice.
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Kayaking is really pretty simple. 1) Show up. 2) Put the kayak in the water. Tada! We showed up this morning at the Castaway Island Preserve boat launch. We went to put the kayaks in and ... No water. The tide was out and the canoe trail was a mud flat. If we elected to stick around for 4 hours, we could have floated our boats.
Instead, Plan B: Hit the beach!!!
Growing up in southern California, I've been on a few piers. Belmont Shore, Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, and San Clemente come to mind. It's a lot like kayaking . Show up. Walk on the pier. Not so on the Atlantic. Today is the second time I have ever encountered TOLL PIERS. That's right. It's a buck a head to stroll on the Jacksonville Beach pier.
The first time we saw a toll pier was a month ago in Corpus Christi, Texas. I seem to recall that they wanted $3 a piece in Corpus Christi. Please help me out here guys. Is this a east coast/west coast thing, or, is this a sign of the times? Are the piers of my youth closed off to public access unless one pays an admission? If you know, please drop me a line. I would like to know. Really.
It's been almost a week now and we are almost acclimated to Daylight Savings Time Jet Lag. The whole country sprung ahead last Sunday. Deb and I sprung ahead an additional hour last Wednesday. Our ill timed move from Panama City to Tallahassee, less than 100 miles east, was far enough to bump us into the Eastern time zone. Two hours in three days... culture shock!!
************************************************Jacksonville, continued*************************************************
What a difference a day makes! In this case, an air temperature decrease of almost twenty degrees and a water depth increase of about 4 feet. This is the same boat launch as yesterday. You can see in this cell phone shot that I made clever use of pocket lint to create a soft focus, romantic lighting effect......
************************************************Jacksonville, continued*************************************************
Jacksonville has been one pleasant surprise after another. Look at the River walk --- absolutely pristine! Jacksonville joins the list, with Fredericksburg and Baton Rouge, of unplanned pleasant surprises.
Wow!! What's not to like? Downtown Savannah is absolutely gorgeous! The country's largest historic district is built in squares, each square surrounding parks and gardens. The streets have a distinctly European feel --- very bike and pedestrian friendly. Sunday mornings, the churches and streets are packed. Downtown businesses are alive and well. Mom and Pop businesses as well as Subway, Starbucks and other chains are occupying historic building storefronts.
I was stunned the first time I saw Savannah. It was my understanding that Sherman marched from Vicksburg to here burning and razing everything in sight. Turns out this is true. Except, he took one look at Savannah, and, decided to spare it. Excellent choice!
We camped at Skidaway Island State Park, one of the nicest parks we have ever stayed at. The camp spaces are huge and far apart. Pretty, and private. Most parks advertize hiking and biking trails. This park actually has them. One day we hiked the trails. Another, we rode the bikes. There are two beautiful kayak launches within 2 miles of the park entrance. Quite frankly, we are too exhausted to even think about launching the yaks.
Yesterday, we took a day trip to Tybee Island with a pit stop at Fort Pulasky. The road to Tybee is lined with newer McMansion developments --- The Issaquah Plateau of Savannah. Tybee's beach area looks like Southern Cal. This is the "off" season. It is still pretty empty. However, one can tell from the facilities that summertime is standing room only.
Tybee has a FREE pier. (My friend Jon gave me an updated report on California piers. The piers are still free. However, parking is twenty bucks). Tybee pier parking set us back two dollars. A bargain, I guess.
Fort Pulasky was started after the war of 1812 as part of a line of forts protecting the eastern seaboard. It was completed about 1860, just in time for the Confederate army to occupy it. The occupation didn't last long. Here, Union forces tested new cannons with rifled barrels. The cannons blew the SE corner to bits.
And here's few last minute shots of the park we stayed at........
Charleston is absolutely beautiful. Deb and I liked Charleston a lot more than Savannah. The historic downtown is ringed with public waterfront parks. If we had two or three million bucks laying around to buy the old timey mansion of our dreams, Charleston would be it.
Charleston seemed busier and cleaner than it's Georgian neighbor, possibly due to the lack of Spanish moss. If you take a good look at the Savannah pictures above, you can see the Spanish moss hanging from most of the trees. The visual effect is that of being in a swamp. Charleston lacks Spanish moss in the trees. Consequentially, it lacks fallen debris piles as well.. We saw moss in the outlying areas, but none in Charleston proper. Odd. It was humid enough for moss.
Have you ever notice how much public land, National Forests, Wilderness areas, or wildlife management areas consist of leftover land that nobody wanted to use for a farm, housing development, or shopping center. Two afternoons, we went for a hikes in the local wilderness management areas (swamps). We concluded that we generally prefer mountain hikes....
We left the coast and cut back inland toward Atlanta with a stay over in Columbia. Columbia has one of the country's top rated zoos. Of course, my critter collector and I had to go.
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We had a nice chat with Ara at an Espresso shop in Ingram, Texas. He's interesting guy who is touring the country in a motorcycle with his dog Spirit. So far, they have been on the road for about 2 years.
Ara has a first rate web site: The Oasis of My Soul. Check it out. His photos are very professional. Two thumbs up.
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