Space-A trip to USA, Spring 2017, Part 2

From Tallahassee we drove to Jacksonville Fl where we tent camped at the Pelican Roost RV Park on Mayport Naval Station. We found a nice tent site under the palm trees

 with a view over the St. John's river

and a short walk to the base private beach. 

We have camped here before and really like this campground. Mayport is situated at the tip end of the St. John's river where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. Sea ships passing by to start their journey over the ocean.

After a trip to the VA hospital, where Leroy had an appointment,  we spent the afternoon at Walter Jones Historical Park   in the Mandarin neighborhood in Jacksonville. Unfortunately the buildings were closed that day.

Walter Jones homestead. 

In the southern states you see many trees with spanish moss, draped over trees and swaying in the breeze. 

 To learn more about this plant click here.

On April 1, 1864  steamboat Maple Leaf  was sunk by a Confederate torpedo in the St. Johns River just off Mandarin Point.

Leroy taking a nap.

St. Joseph’s Mission Schoolhouse for African-American Children, built in 1898.

 

 And what did I find here? Another rock....

Leaving through the back gate of Mayport Naval Station, that road takes you to  the St. John's River Ferry and this ferry takes you to Ft. George Island.  

Here we visited Kingsley Plantation, which is located along the Fort George River on Fort George Island. It is the site of a former estate in Jacksonville, Florida, that was named for an early owner, Zephaniah Kingsley, who moved there in 1814 and spent 25 years there with his wife from Senegal. She was purchased by Kingsley as a slave. She later participated in plantation management, acquiring her own land and slaves when freed by Kingsley in 1811. 

Plantation house.

Ruins of slaves quarters

How they looked in earlier days

Sitting on the cedar  tree 

This peacock was wandering around

Love the spanish moss in the background and the bright color of the peacock

 Driving back to the main road on the scenic, narrow (and sometimes bumpy),  2 miles dirt road.

Next day back on the ferry

and drove to Big Talbot Island , a barrier island, to see the "Boneyard". From the parking area a short trail takes you there. Once you reach the beach, you realize how it got the name “Boneyard". Because of the ever changing tides and currents, erosion at this end of the island along with the salt, sand, and the sun have produced a  “bone yard” of sun and salt bleached trees that have been sanded smooth by the salt  

 We saw this on one of the trees

A quick stop at Huegenot Memorial Park where we saw this egret wading through the wetlands

  Back on the ferry we saw this sea ship passing by...

 ...from Amsterdam

 We stopped at Singleton's Seafood Shack for dinner, which is next to the ferry.

View from the deck at Singleton's. 

Our pelican friends just chillaxin

 Fisher boat comes in with seagulls and pelicans following

Every Saturday there is the Riverside Arts Market in downtown Jacksonville.. 

..under the Fuller Warren Bridge.

We then walked along the St. John's river to Jacksonville Landing, which is a festival market place but there were no activities going on that day.

We had lunch at Hooters, a place I would never go but since their terrace was facing the river we ended up here. 

Served by one of the Hooters girls. ;-)

Later we walked back to the Arts market which was closed in the meantime. The bridge is in the distance on the left.

The next day was Easter and when I woke up and got out of the tent, I noticed that the Easter bunny had left us these two Easter eggs on the picknick table. 

Took it easy that day and got everything ready for the drive back to SC. 

We ate at Singleton's Fish Shack again. 

 View from the deck. The ferry passing by.

This cardinal kept us company in the tent area.

 

Our last evening and we were so lucky to see dolphins. Too bad my pictures didn't came out good. They didn't want to pose for me...

 

Sunset over Mayport Naval Station

Our departing day. A week is too short. 

Saying goodbye to our sweet tent neighbors Lynn and Dave.

In Hartsville SC we stayed in an airbnb from Martha. She was also an excellent host and we loved staying with her too.

Cardinal at her bird feeder

Celebrating Earth Day at Kalmia Gardens which was a short walk from Martha's house.

Some fascinating critters where there to see.

Bearded dragon

 Skink

Promoting the Yoga and Healing Arts Festival , for October 22, 2017 in Hartsville.

The big event this day was the Duck Cup Race fundraiser. Duck numbers were for sale for $5 . 

 Ready to be dropped.

The drop

Racing down Black Creek

 The first three ducks were the winners

 

Then it was time to relax and listen to the music of Lucia and Levi Byrd.

Sculpture of leaves called "Southern Magnolia" by Larry Merriman.

It's a year's worth of leaves from a 50 foot tall Southern Magnolia tree. 

Our last Sunday in SC we had dinner at Hibachi Grill in Florence.

Grandma ready to go.

Brothers Levern and Leroy

Nephew Joven and Sil Estella

Sil Evelyn, cousin Marilyn and Estella

On the day we left Martha's airbnb, we bought 2 pieces of carrot cake she had baked at the restaurant she was working. We got two very big pieces. it was yummy.

There was a military charter flight leaving from BWI (Baltimore) to Ramstein Wednesday night with 153 seats available. We went for that one.The night before we took the train to Baltimore MD, Penn Station and arrived there the next morning at 9.30 am. From there we took the LightRail and arrived at the USO in the terminal later that morning where we found out that the plane had left early in the morning....... Yes...that is part of traveling Space-A.  Plan B comes in the picture now: Checked out the nearby military bases to see what planes were departing to Ramstein, Germany. McGuire AFB had one with seats available and also Andrews AFB, near Washington DC,  with 17 seats. We went for that one and had to take a shuttle-van to get there. There were three more people in the van to be dropped off in downtown Washington. With the traffic jam and a driver who just worked for this company one month and didn't know his way around too good, we got to the base 3 1/2 hours later!! The van was not allowed to come on base so we were dropped off at the gate, from where we had to walk about 3 miles to the terminal and it was almost 4 pm.....hot....and with two 50 lb suitcases trudging along....... Finally half the way an elderly man stopped and asked where we were heading  to....the terminal..."well throw your luggage in my car, I take you". How much we appreciated this!! And.....we were still in time for the roll call and .......got on. This time we flew on a

C 17 with only Red Cross equipment as cargo so lots of space for us.

Arrived in Ramstein safe and sound.

To be continued...

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Space A Trip to USA, Spring 2017, Part 1

It's that time again to leave home and try a military space-A trip again.

We drove to Ramstein on a cold Sunday morning in March. Checked into our hotel room in Landstuhl and checked the flights in the terminal. There is one flight to Dover DE but has only three seats. We decided not to go for this one but wait till the next day as there were three planes to Dover, Charleston and BWI (Baltimore). Hopefully we can get on the Charleston flight which is a 2 hour drive from the family. We got into a conversation with James Poe at the terminal. He is the owner of WABG Radio Station in Greenwood MS in the middle of cotton fields in the deep South . They play Mississippi Delta Blues, Classic Rock and more "Stuff". He interviewed us about our so different backgrounds while growing up.

Next day we got up at 5 am and drove to the terminal. The Charleston flight had now 0 seats firm. Well no luck on that one, then we try the Dover  one which had 73 seats. And yes, we made it on that flight. It was a C5 so we did have regular airplane seats above the cargo area. 38 hopped along. 

WWLP-22News

After a nine hours flight we arrived in Dover DE where we stayed in lodging for the night. Next day we drove to SC with a rental car. 

Since 2 years we don't stay with the family but in a nearby hotel in Hartsville. After we tried Airbnb last year we love this way of staying (besides tent camping) while traveling. 

We stayed a week in Sumter as the Airbnb's in Hartsville were occupied due to a conference. 

After a week it was time to hit the road. Our destination: Florida. 

5 nights airbnb in New Port Richey with Deborah.

Our morning view:

 Deborah recommended that we should go to Key Vista Nature Park, where she always walks her dog.  Not big but good for a walk on the few trails and boardwalk, see wildlife and a view over the Gulf of Mexico. It was here that I spotted this Bald Eagle.

In this park I learned about rock hunting. I found two painted rocks 

but left it there because I didn't know what to do with them, until I saw kids and grown-ups looking for rocks. I had to know more about this and asked a man with his two sons, who were also looking for rocks. 

 People paint rocks in bright colors or with short messages on them and hide them, preferably in plain sight, so that people find them. The person who finds the rock can take a photo of it or a selfie with the rock and post it to one of the Facebook pages which is written on the back of the rock. Then they can replace the rock with one they’ve painted or re-hide the rock they found. I thought that was fun. I found this rock at the "Little Library" at the entrance of the park.

 I'm positive the man we talked to had put it there for me because I had told him, that if I find a rock, I would hide it in The Netherlands.  He told me to check this place as many do hide rocks there, he said.......

Another park we visited was downtown New Port Richey, Simms Park, where we seen this beautiful

white Ibis wandering around.

And where I found more rocks:

New Port Richey has quite some murals. Just a few I liked:

Another day we visited Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park with the intention to hike the trails. This is a big wilderness area and as we started we didn't see signs but had to make choices in different directions. Where to go???

After a few minutes we stopped and returned to the car. We met a man and he told us to always bring your gps when hiking in this park as the trails are not marked well. There is a paved bike trail. We decided to do our hike there but no shade and lots of sunshine. We also returned from this hike. The visitor center was closed, couldn't ask information. A little disappointing.

But not all was disappointing. We saw this turtle wandering about and wild turkey's.

And........I found another rock..

Time for another area to explore. We drove to Tallahassee and stayed in Audrey's airbnb for 4 nights. Also here a wonderful stay with a super host.

Audrey and Abe

She knew we like the outdoors and told us a few places to see and hike.

First place we went to was Alfred B. Maclay Gardens. 

In 1923 Alfred B. and his wife purchased property in Tallahassee for their winter home.  Over the years they made this one of the most beautiful ornamental gardens in Florida.  After his death in 1953 his wife and children donated the gardens to the State of Florida.  

Their home.

View from the walled garden to the reflection pool and lake.

 Blooming season is from January 1-April 30 with the floral peak in mid-to-late March. It was late March but almost no flowers to see. We were told that the spring season had started early this year so the floral peak had already passed but we did see the Mountain Laurel bloom.

The park land surrounding the Gardens offers wooded trails for hiking. We did the Lake Overstreet trail. A loop of 3 miles around the lake. With “watch for alligators” signs, I was on my guard and walked pretty fast those three miles. 

This was such a serene place

 All by ourselves, haven't seen no other hikers.

Tree trunk with mushrooms.

The next trip on the list was Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park. It is one of the world’s largest and deepest freshwater spring and has an abundance of wildlife. We did the riverboat tour.

An Anhinga - also called a snake bird, for its habit of swimming with just its long head and neck sticking out of the water - is sunning himself 

We saw plenty of alligators, this was the biggest one .

An egret looking for food.

After the boat ride we did a short hike on one of the trails. 

One of the many sink holes in the park.  This is Barry Sink, to honor park staff member Barry Shepard who passed away in 2002.

Ever heard of Sopchoppy, Florida? I didn't but Audrey's partner Zack comes from this little town. It is famous of the annual Worm Gruntin' Festival. But what is worm gruntin'?  I didn't know either. It is vibrating the soil so it encourage the worms to the surface. A wooden stake, "stob", is driven into the ground and a "rooping iron" is used to rub the stob. Like this:

  click

 There was a kids competition which was fun to watch. 

 Somebody dropped the worm on his hand.The look on this kid's face.

My turn to try

A worm popping up out the ground.

 I got worms!!! 

Afterwards dinner at Tropical Trader Shrimp

 Where I found these three rocks.......

To be continued......

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