Our Camping Travels

First posted April 1, 2010
Last update Jun 12, 2010

Our Camping Travels

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2010

April 2010

View entire year's route	417K
View year's Camps	78K
View this month's route	59K

Thursday, April 1

Perry KOA Perry, FL

$35.10 per night

We decided to stay another day and Tom did laundry and Frank spent a good part of the day answering backed up e-mails. We also went back to Goodman's. They were extremely busy and Tom didn't get his fried green tomatoes appetizer he had ordered. It is hard to find restaurants that sell fried green tomatoes. And making them at home is a messy experience, with grease spattering everywhere.

Friday, April 2

Sunset Isle RV Park Cedar Key, FL

$34.88 per night

Frank got a dose of artificial color from the restaurant last night and got no sleep. We moved on anyway. Several days ago we had called a brand new campground near here and they were expecting to be open by April 1. Calling back again today we found they will not open for at least another week. This is one of only 2 campgrounds within 50 miles. Pleasant people but the campground is small and the sites rather randomly laid out wherever they will fit.

Saturday, April 3
This morning when Frank turned on his computer his Microsoft Outlook email data file was gone and his recent backup was corrupted. He lost everything in his in box, but at least long term stored items were able to be retrieved from a previous backup of about 2 months ago. This afternoon we drove down to Cedar Key Museum State Park. They have a small historical museum and the restored home of Saint Clair Whitman, a resident of Ceder Key who donated his collection of artifacts and shells to the city before he died in 1959. Interesting place for those interested in local history. Some of the exhibits talked about Eberhard Faber who made a fortune in this area harvesting ceder to make the famous pencils. P

Sunday, April 4

Crystal Isles RV Resort Crystal River, FL

$42.00 per night

Today we moved further south on Florida's western coast. We are in a very nice, but crowded campground on a small lake. The trip from last night's site to here was only 61 miles. We both spend the day on computers and will eat dinner tonight in the trailer. Tom is making BBQ chicken for Frank and a steak for himself. Plus a baked potato, BBQ beans and maybe a salad. Frank spent a good part of the afternoon updating website coding so Google Earth place marks work better with updated campground images.

Monday, April 5
Today we went to a pharmacy in search of witch hazel to treat Frank's "no seem'um bites" an insect similar, but smaller to a gnat. Then we washed the truck and went in search of Home Depot which we did not find. We shopped at a very good grocery called Sweetbay, similar to Giant Foods. For dinner we had roast turkey, creamed corn, rolls, and ice cream.

Tuesday, April 6
Today we found the Home Depot. We also visited an archaeologist state park which dates their primitive Indians back to about 200 BC. Burial mounds are here. We are sure glad Columbus discovered the New World, even though the Indians were here thousands of years earlier. They seem to have found it too! Frank worked on the computer and Tom did laundry. Dinner tonight will be tilapia for Frank and shrimp for Tom, plus rolls, and sweet potatoes. Ice cream optional. Tomorrow we move on to St Petersburg and a visit with Frank's sister Sallie.

Wednesday, April 7

St. Petersburg KOA St. Petersburg, FL

$72.58 per night

A large campground and so far the most expensive we have stayed at. We arrived in the afternoon and got set up. After lunch we decided to reposition the trailer to make it a bit more level. Then Frank's sister Sallie came over for a visit on her bicycle. The campground is right on a major bicycle trail that traverses the region. In the evening we all went to dinner at The Pub Waterfront Restaurant Food was decent but we had to wait for over an hour to get a table. We ended up getting home at 10:00 pm. Also Frank got another dose of artificial coloring, probably from the chicken tenders appetizer. That's the 3rd within a week. He has not been sleeping well.

Thursday, April 8
Frank went to work with his sister Sallie to see what she does during her daily non-routine. What she had planned got changed. She works for an audio visual company that supplies equipment to hotels for meetings. In the evening Sallie, Frank and Tom went to Cody's Roadhouse, neat place to eat, food was great but their website is tacky. (in Frank's opinion)

Friday, April 9
This morning we met up with Sallie and took a tour of the Dali museum in St. Petersburg, you know, the limp watch guy. We had a great tour guide who gave us an impressive inside look at how Dali created his paintings. Despite the strange imagery of much of his work we got a good understanding of the artist's brilliant works. With just a quick glance one misses the subtleties of much of the work. We were amazed at the way Dali was able to create large scale imagery by layering small images of things which blended to form totally different images when viewed from a distance. Art and mathematics taken to a level few other artists have attained. If you have the opportunity to visit, make sure you stay for one of the frequent tours rather than just walking through on your own. In the evening we had dinner at the Gators, a sports bar and restaurant. Food was fair and unlike the previous night we didn't have to wait long.

Saturday, April 10
Today we spent a lot of time on computers and tried to get Frank's medicines. His insurance is being a real problem, because his cardiologist increased his meds, but did not give him a new prescription. Duh, so he runs out of meds faster. He finally gave up and bought the meds outright. We went to Frank's sister Sallie's for dinner. Steaks, chicken, salads, corn on the cobb, and ice cream.

Sunday, April 11
This morning Tom did four loads of wash while Frank worked on the computer. After lunch, a friend of Sallie's and Ray's came over from visiting his family in Miami. He is Carlos from Las Vegas. We first met Carlos about 8 years ago...a very pleasant, nice gentleman. Carlos was born in Havana, Cuba....and hates Castro!!! We went to dinner at a place we previously liked, and it turned out badly for some. At least Frank had no artificial coloring problems. He again has roasted chicken which was ok this time but a bit dry!

Monday, April 12

Upriver Campground North Ft. Myers, FL

$34.20 per night

We drove south 118 miles to Ft Myers, FL. Nice campground with concrete pads and well manicured grass. We are again on the move. Tomorrow we hope to be deeply into the Everglades on an Indian reservation for two nights, and then on to Ft Lauderdale and the rodeo this coming weekend.

Tuesday, April 13

Big Cypress RV Resort Big Cypress Indian Reservation, FL

$30.00 per night

Nice campground. Widely spaced sites, some with concrete pads. We are miles from the nearest town and right in the middle of the northern Everglades. A few traveling photos from today.

Wednesday, April 14
Today we visited the AH-TAH-THI-KI Museum here on the Indian reservation. Very nice facility who work in affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution. We got a personal tour by one of the museum staff. Then started out on a 1.4 mile boardwalk hammoc tour but came across a trail closed sign shortly after begining so turned back.

Thursday, April 15

North Coast RV Park and Marina Fort Lauderdale, FL

$80.00 per night

We arrived in Ft Lauderdale and are at a very expensive campground, but very pretty. Extremely well kept and neat. We spoke to the owners and they said we were their last campers for the season, before they shut down. We went to Tropical Acres for dinner and like the place a lot. Tom once had what he described as the best hash browns in the world here. Four years later they are still good, but not quite the same. The old adage applies..."One can never go home". Our site is under the landing path for Ft Lauderdale International airport and the planes can be noisy.

Friday, April 16
Today Frank went to a rodeo school and spend most of the day. Tom went shopping. Later in the evening Frank's sister, Sallie, came over from Tampa to attend the rodeo. Sallie is in a motel about a mile away. Again we returned to Tropical Acres and had a nice meal and a nice time.

Saturday, April 17
Today was the first day of the rodeo and Sallie joined us. It is nice to meet old friends on the rodeo circuit. Frank again took hundreds of photos which will go up on his web site. Sallie seemed to enjoy herself. We went out to dinner, but had a slight wait because it was Saturday night and the restaurants were crowed.

Sunday, April 18
Today was the second day of the rodeo. We are very fortunate to have the rodeo arena under a very large pravillion, because both last night and today it rained torrentially. Sallie stayed with us until about 1:30 PM at which time she started the 267 mile trek back to the Tampa area where she lives. After the rodeo we returned to the trailer to rest and had a dinner of sandwiches. Rodeo Gallery

Monday, April 19

PSL RV Park Port St. Lucie, FL

$31.05 per night

Today we headed north and are camped at a nice campground in Port St Lucie. We saw a Valvoline sign on the way into town, so we dropped the trailer off at the campground and went back to Valvoline to have the oil and transmission fluids changed. Expensive, but both needed to be changed. We had BBQ for dinner.

Tuesday, April 20

Great Outdoors RV and Nature Resort Titusville, FL

$44.40 per night

Today we continued north and are near Cape Kennedy Space Center. Strangely when we left the campground of last evening we both noticed our remotes to the truck did not work. We theorized the problem was a massive radio tower behind us, and yep, that was the problem. Once away from the tower the remotes worked again. We are now camped in a campground we stayed in twenty years ago. It is all paved and massive. Thousands of homes and sites, a church, a restaurant, a golf course and a bar. Our new problem is it appears that the motor to the trailer's rear stableizer jacks is burnt out, so we will have to get a new motor once we get back to Oklahoma City.

Wednesday, April 21
This is such a nice spot we decided to spend another day. Frank found out the images from his first Digital SLR camera, Kodak DSC-315, actually had shooting data (EXIF) in the original TIFF images. So he spent the day importing data into the JPG versions so we now have exact dates and times that most of the photos were shot. The original conversion from TIFF to JPG did not have any of that information, so we were having to guess by the dates the files were created which was usually several months after the actual shoot. Later in the day we decided to extend to a 3rd day partly because if we stay 2 nights the 3rd night was free. Tom worked on finances.

Thursday, April 22
Frank updated older website rodeo galleries using the newly found data so now the earliest galleries have the correct dates and times on the images. We had been having trouble with our trailer's XM radio not working well. The signal would fade in and out. Frank pulled out a different antenna and stuck it to the outside of the trailer and the problem went away. These satellite radio antennas have amplifiers in the and the old one seems to be bad. We will install the new antenna permanently tomorrow afternoon.

Friday, April 23

KOA St. Augustine Beach, FL

$62.32 per night

We finally got hold of our friends Ellie and Curt who are serving as campground host's at a Corps of Engineers campground in South Carolina. We are now heading in that direction to spend a few days visiting. Frank changed out the XM radio antenna, did some rewiring and cleaning of the printer areas.

Tomorrow he will try to finish the project which involves removing the server to gain access to wiring. We took the rain cap off the kitchen fan and did a thorough cleaning. Lots of grease which was a mess. The lid had been sticking and hopefully this will solve the problem. We went to dinner at a very nice restaurant called the Raintree

, however the little town was having a carnival just across the street and traffic was terrible. We were very lucky to find a parking space within a block of the restaurant.

Saturday, April 24

Blythe Island Regional Park Brunswick, GA

$30.00 per night

Great county park campground. We staid here 20 years ago and thought so then too. Full hookups, 50 amp service, cable TV and the fastest high speed Internet we have seen since we left home. Frank spent some time finishing up the computer wiring project. Looks and works much better now.

Sunday, April 25
We had expected to move on today, but waking up and checking the weather showed expected strong thunderstorms and heavy rain along our route so we stayed here another day.

Monday, April 26

Parkwood RV Park Statesboro, GA

$26.10 per night

Much nicer campground than we expected. Clean, neat and good high speed Internet. We passed through the town of Claxton Georgia, the place the Fruit Cakes come from, which reminded Frank of the stage play/movie Charlie's Aunt W, from Brazil, where the nuts come from, you know, as nutty as a fruit cake. The weather was hot and humid most of the day, but along about 6 pm as the front came through, the air cooled and the humidity dropped. It should be very pleasant for the next day or two.

Tuesday, April 27

Modoc, Corps of Engeneers Modoc, SC

$11.00 per night

Frank is having major allergy issues. We are on a beautiful lake with fantastic views. The wind is very brisk but the breeze is great. We met up with our old friends Curt and Ellie. They are acting as campground hosts here for the season. We showed them our trailer and we talked for about an hour. Later we went to see their motor home, then we drove to nearby Evans, GA for dinner at a German restaurant. There was some scattered showers and while we were waiting for our meal we saw the most beautiful rainbow.

Wednesday, April 28
We found out today that the heavy winds of last evening actually moved our trailer off of its pads and a distance of about one foot. We went with our friends to the J. Strom Thurmond Visitor's Center and Dam. A beautiful sight. The dam was built across the Savannah River in an effort to stop seasonal flooding. It did that and produces a massive amount of electricity in the process. Later in the day we went to Edgefield, South Carolina the home of Senator Thurmond and also the home city of 11 South Carolina Governors. It is a very small town and amazing that they had that much political clout. For dinner we went to nice steak house nearby. Nearby here in rural South Carolina is twenty miles away. We also picked up the mail today. Later in the evening, Frank set up his tripod and took wonderful night photos of the campground and area.

Thursday, April 29

Modoc, Corps of Engineers Modoc, SC

$11.00 per night

We had only signed up for two nights at this Corps of Engineer's Campground. And there were reservations for our previous site, so we had to move the trailer to another site about 1000 feet away. But since there is no sewer on the camp sites we would have had to move the trailer anyway to dump water. Today we moved the trailer and then did small projects. Tonight we again went to a different steak house nearby.

Friday, April 30

Cherokee Campground Sautee Nacoochee, GA

$25.30 per night

Last night we gave Curt one of the spare notebook computers we had in the trailer. He was very happy. This morning Frank went up to the office and spent about an hour teaching Curt how to use it. We said good by to Curt and Ellie and began our trek for today. A bit long at 150 miles and all on back roads. We are now in the lower southern section of the Smoky Mountains. Very petty scenery and a nice campground back it the woods.

2010

Highlighted days indicate new campground location