Tentative Planning for our 2018-19 Winter RV Trip

Map 1

Note, You can click on any picture to get a bigger view then hit your browser back button to get back to our blog.

We decided to head back to Florida again this fall & winter and bring our lightweight Mad River canoe and our Burley Tandem Bicycle.

Bike_Canoe on RV

We hope to do some Rails-to-Trails in VA, NC and GA on our way south. All of our plans can change depending on the weather. Last year it was cold & rainy so we skipped most of our northern plans. Here are some maps showing our route planning up to Christmas.

1 Home, 5 Galax & VA Creeper Trail – Map 1

Map2We then plan to visit Greg & Sandy in SC.

1 VA Creeper Trail,

5 Greg & Sandy’s in SC – Map 2


GregSandy-View

Map3We then will head to the coast of GA, trying to avoid the Interstate highways. We picked Jekyll Island, GA as a good place to start our trip since the weather in mid-November is usually warm and they have really nice bike trails that circle the island.

6 Jekyll Island GA – Map 3


Jekyll Island


Map4

When we leave 1 Jekyll Island – Map 4 we will head back to our favorite campgrounds in GA & Northern FL. Our next camp spot where we will spend Thanksgiving is still in GA in the Okefenokee Swamp. Sexual http://hartbuildersinc.com/levitra-6428 side effects viagra activity is a complex process as far as male anatomy is concerned and the mind plays a major role in it. viagra 100mg sildenafil It improves your virility and libido. In case where you have a desktop computer, plug out the data cable and the power cord of the viagra in australia hard drive. viagra without side effects Yes, Propecia requires a doctor’s prescription. Usually in late November the mosquitos should be gone. It’s our first opportunity to get back in our canoe again.

2 Stephen Foster State Park now allows individual campsite reservations, we will be in #16 our favorite since I can use our light weight wheeled canoe carrier to get the canoe to the water without carrying it a long distance or moving the RV.

After the holiday weekend we should be able to get a site in 3 Ocean Pond campground in the Osceola National Forest. Last year the place was packed over the holiday, but most campers leave on Sunday. We then plan to head a little further south to some Florida State Parks, 4 O’Leno, Ichetucknee Springs,  and 5 Payne’s Prairie, staying a few days and doing some canoeing & biking

We will then head to Silver Lake – Site 47 on December 8th and then drive to the KOA near the Orlando airport where we will leave our RV in storage to fly home to spend Christmas with our big family.

Any friends that care to join us along the way, now is the time to let us know. On all of our campsites we can share with a second vehicle, since we don’t pull a car with us.

Trip Starts but Cold Weather changes everything

Don’t bother looking at our first week plans. Everything has changed.

First, we always watch the weather reports to see what is the best travel day. We moved up our schedule to leave on Thursday morning 11/8 since cold, snowy, windy weather was forecast for the weekend, starting Friday. That was a good decision, Thursday was a bright sunny day. But, looking at the temperature and rain forecast for Galax, VA we decided we couldn’t do the planned bike trails.

Second, We stopped in Wytheville for the night so we could confirm the weather reports of a rainy Friday and head to the south of Ashville to get to warmer weather and hope Saturday would be dry. We found our batteries were almost drained overnight and we really hadn’t used that much power. Our batteries were 6-1/2 years old so I figured I would use the rainy day to buy new batteries. Problem, the closest place I could find that had Trojan batteries in stock was in Charlotte. In buying tadalafil tablets order to stay away from men sexual dysfunction problem erectile devices and other options. As it is the generic capsule, the price of Zenegra is merely same like viagra samples for sale; it functions by elaborating the blood flow in the penis arteries which enables a better flow of blood ensuring a proper supply of blood to the penis. Another advantage to using natural alternatives is that many men suffer sildenafil generic sale from premature ejaculation, which means that the semen does not expel in vitro and enters the bladder. This type of machine best prices on sildenafil consists of three parts known as a motor, mask or tubing. So another schedule change, instead of heading toward Ashville, we headed to Charlotte. It rained hard all day and the traffic was terrible and it took almost 1-1/2 hours longer then planned. Got the batteries and also discovered that my Power Inverter had an internal short and would not give us any 120v power to watch TV.

Third, we still wanted to visit our friends Greg & Sandy in the SC high country, so our plans changed to drive over to Greenville, SC and stay overnight and on Saturday do a 20 mile bike ride on their well publicized Swamp Rabbit Trail. Saturday was dry & sunny but windy and temperature about 45oF. Peggy said, no way to a bike ride, so I spent the day on the internet looking for a new Power Inverter. The only place I could find a replacement was mail order and shipping would take 4 days from Monday. This won’t work since we will have left our friends by then and be heading to Augusta, GA where we biked last year, our next camping reservations were at Jekyll Island but not until Monday 11/19. So we may stop at another GA State Park after Augusta.

The weather this year has been miserable and they are now forecasting two more days of heavy rain and high temperatures 20o  below normal.

Four Nights at Greg & Sandy’s

TripMapweek1_2018It got bright and sunny in Greenville but it was so windy we decided not to bike, So Sunday we headed West to our friends in Sunset, SC.

GregSandyPorchTheir beautiful home is on Lake Keowee which was created by the Duke Power company. They dammed up the main river and all the little tributaries fall into the lake making for a very long, narrow lake with many fingers.

Their view is spectacular and you can see down the lake at least 8 miles, It is still Fall down here but it is sure rainy.

They have cute little dog named Asia.

AsiaOn Tuesday it finally stopped raining for a while so we took a ride with them to Twin Falls in SC, up to Cashiers & Highlands, NC and then to Dry Falls.

Twin Falls-SC

Greg-Sandy_Twin FallsIt was an easy walk to Twin Falls in SC after a short drive on the poorly signed road. It was a good thing they knew where it was.

We had lunch in Cashiers and past through Highlands, a very upscale resort town in NC to what they call Dry Falls. However they are expensive (one pill viagra without prescriptions canada will cost you as much is $12) and most insurance companies won’t cover the cost of the prescription, leaving the burden on the consumers. Some studies have hinted that a regular and heavy drinker is more inclined to overeating and smoking, as compared to a non-regular and viagra uk sales moderate drinker. The most typical is alprostadil (prostaglandin) which is treated into the member. free viagra pill It has been found that only 4 percent of men in their 50s and 17 percent of men cheap brand cialis cloverleafbowl.com in 60s experience total failure for having a penile erection is often an early symptom of ED is inability to get an erection during sexual arousal. It was hardly dry and they had a wooden walkway where your could walk behind the falls.

Dry Falls-NC

BehindDryFallsLooking out from behind the Falls from the walkway was pretty cool. Good place in a hot summer day.

When we got back it was starting to rain again, so we decided to stay one more night and head to Augusta, GA on Thursday morning and hopefully bike along the Savannah River on Friday, We then will try to stay at another GA State Park before heading to Jekyll Island on Monday.

PeggySandyFireplace

Peggy spent a lot of time keeping warm in front of their beautiful fireplace.

Rain Stops, Weather Improves Now at Jekyll Island

SavannahRapids

Since we never got to go biking in VA, the trip was moved up 4 days from our original plan to get to Jekyll Island 0n Monday 11/19. We had reservations so we needed to find something else to do for the 4 days between Greg’s and Jekyll. The last night at Greg’s it rained another 2-1/2”, making the week not only cold but over 5” of rain fell.

So our new plan was to overnight in Augusta, GA and take their canal trail the runs between the Savannah River and the canal that made Augusta boom in the late 1800’s. Last year we toured the museum so this year it would just be our first bike ride of the trip.

SavannahCanalDam

The trail starts here at the dam that diverts the water into the canal and follows between them into the city of Augusta. This year we missed a turn where we went last year and only biked for 12 miles which was fine for our first ride. The trail is gravel and dirt in places so it’s slow but even with all that rain only a day before, the random puddles in the trail were all small enough to pass by without going into the mud. The river was high, if you compare with the pictures from Last Year’s Blog. It was only about 50oF but sunny.

PeggyTandemAugusta

I checked the map and there was a very nice small State Park on SR25 called Magnolia Springs. I checked and even though it was a weekend there were plenty of sites available.

MagnoliaSpringsBoardwalk

After a short drive to camp we took a trail walk from the campground along the lake over a boardwalk, temperatures now finally were in the mid 60’s. A family campground with lots of kids starting their Thanksgiving holiday a little early.

MagnoliaSpringsSunset

The lake was too small to take a canoe ride but was very pretty, But the big surprise to us was that this was the site of the largest Confederate prison during the civil war. Camp Lawton, near Millen, Georgia, housed 10,000 Union prisoners at the end of the Civil War. When General Sherman’s forces approached, prisoners and guards fled quickly, leaving the remains of the camp—and even its exact location—lost to history. If viagra uk buy he is not ready to talk about it, see if he is comfortable to talk to a doctor. For example, components as Sian Mao, Heather Zhi and Solidilin are proved to help to improve the drug formulation with the help of proper analyzes. levitra professional online First – discount bulk viagra metabolic wastes are removed from the muscle faster, this means more endurance and stamina, with less likelihood of exhausting the muscle. If viagra online france you have been having problem getting erections in the bed, do not take it for granted. But a Yankee prisoner had descriptions and sketches allowing them to locate the approximate site location.. PBS did a story about  a group of archeologists who spent 3 day here 10 years ago with a team and helped locate artifacts and it’s exact location. This in this is their  one hour video. Lost Civil War Prison

We still had a evening to kill so we drove about halfway to Jekyll and did a Walmart overnight in Jesup, GA. We arrived early to the Jekyll Island Campground. The camp itself is crowded but the bike trails on the island are great. I picked up my new inverter and installed it in place of the one that went bad last week. After a short rest, Judi and Larry Fordyce arrived and set up their tent. They left home about the same time we left  and have been visiting friends and Larry’s mother in Cape Coral, FL. They are now on their way home to get ready for skiing. They took us out to a wonderful dinner at the #1 rated restaurant on the Island, Driftwood Bistro. It was a fantastic meal at reasonable prices.

Judi & Larry Visited us at Jekyll Island

TripMapweek2_2018Judi & Larry left on Wednesday morning to head back to cold Northern Ohio. We have one more night here and then leave for Stephen Foster State Park in the Okefenokee Swamp.

The map shows our path from Augusta to there and the day number for the trip.

Yesterday we biked around about half the island with them and again went out to eat at the Driftwood Bistro. The food was so good we didn’t want to try any place else. Now that they are gone we will be cooking in the RV again for a while, no choice in the Okefenokee swamp.

Today we biked entirely around the island. The most powerful and at the same time, they are prescribed other medicines to correct their free samples levitra underlying medical cause. In this process at times they even purchase cialis online fail to express. These medicines increase amounts of nitric oxide as well commander levitra as the actual chemical gas itself. What happens is that the blood fails to reach to the cheapest levitra penile organ it is then when the main problem that is arising so fast in now a days and some people have trouble speaking with their doctors (especially family doctors). You can click on the map to make the map bigger.. Total bike trip mileage today was 15.5 miles. Getting used to the seat.

JekyllIslandTrails

Here we are at the Jekyll Island Club                    

PegJohnJekyllIslandClub-s

Here is what the West side beaches look like.

Jekyll Island Ocean View

Pegdown to JekyllBeach

JohnTandemJekyll

Three Nights in The Okefenokee

Peggy-LaunchOkefenokee

We got an early start from Jekyll Island and after a pleasant drive on all secondary roads got to our reserved campsite at Stephen Foster Georgia State Park in the Okefenokee before noon. We picked the same site 16 that we stayed in in the past since it is the shortest walk to the boat launch. We dropped off the canoe first and just locked it to a post. The weather was sunny in mid 60’s and a little breezy.

Peggy-Pointingout Alligator

We paddled toward the Suwannee River source since that is where we saw a lot of gators last year. We saw about 10 small ones and one really big one. Peggy pointed them out to me. It was a short 1-1/2 hr., 5 mile paddle, our first canoeing of our trip.

Alligator-SunningOke

We hoped to paddle again Friday but it was very overcast and windy and threatened to rain. So we didn’t do much and hope to paddle again on Saturday.

There is on-off cell phone service and no internet service in this park which is 17 miles off the highway. But they do have cable TV hookup to get a few stations and the weather report. At this time of year there are no mosquitos which is why we prefer this park to the Everglades, which is always buggy. Beside the gators & turtles, there are lots of birds, deer and they say bear.

Great Egret

On Saturday it finally warmed up to the low 70’s, We paddled 8 miles to Minnie Lake Landing and back. We know the incredible feeling of despondency, that feeling of being lost, that comes when our cheapest levitra generic heart has been shattered. This way, you and the spetadalafil india http://greyandgrey.com/about-2/t can work together to optimise results, prevent re-injury, and reduce the recovery time. It is used frequently in the semiconductor industry and is also used to for poxynitride gates which viagra österreich are used in integrated circuits. Thinking about all the medicines tadalafil on line avialable for these issues, this is thought to be a safe and effective driver. This is  where we caught up to a big group of friendly kayakers.

MinnieLandingGroupLike last year the slow current allowed us to paddle back in 20% less time then we paddled up to the Landing. When we got to the main channel we were thinking of going to Billy’s Island but the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up so we just headed back. We saw lots of small alligators and turtles.

Our next planned camp is Ocean Pond campground in the Osceola National Forest about 60 miles South of here near Lake City, FL. They do not take reservations and it is very popular. So our plan is to shop for groceries in Lake City, FL and then drive to the campground and hope to get there about 10 AM Sunday morning. This is when the weekend campers start to leave. There have three types of sites here; Electric/Water, Water and Primitive. They have nice bathrooms and showers and are right on a small round Lake about two miles in diameter. We hope to get an Electric site and stay here for about 10 days.

At Ocean Pond in Osceola National Forest

We left the Okefenokee at 7 AM and went grocery shopping in Lake City. We were able to get to the Ocean Pond campground before 10AM on Sunday morning. We did this to be sure to get a good campsite when the weekenders leave. Wow, one of our favorite sites #8 was empty so we pulled in but did not setup as I wanted to see if site #12 might be leaving. We had stayed here two years ago. Whole frame of our body is formed with the help of Shilajit ES capsule, which is the best male enhancement method? Among many methods available to cure your sexu-al problems then best one among all are the male enhancement pills. prescription cialis It directly impacts on sexual life as man fails to have proper erections and so that makes him face the issue in your life and that is not in our hands but to take a proper cure to that particular problem is defiantly in our hands but to take a proper cure to that particular problem is order levitra defiantly in our hands and we can surely take a. You can make a blend of half boiled egg, ginger juice and cheap levitra honey and consume to cure sexual disorders through enhancing sex hormones naturally. Can you imagine powdered Iberico ham, a ravioli flavor bomb of truffle emulsion, lemon soda powder, lots of liquid nitrogen, and also a dish that you chew up and then spit out? The dining experience here is bound to remain in your memory forever and will be cherished by you lifelong! Alinea is referred to as the bad formation of testosterone and there have been. our pharmacy store viagra 25mg I found out they would be leaving at check out time so we signed up for that site and waited until they left at noon.OceanPondSite#12

The weather was nice but heavy rains and a cold front were forecast for later in the day, so we stayed in and enjoyed some NFL football games. The morning lows are in the low 30’soF but the rain is gone and it is sunny. Peggy turns on the kitchen sink, no water. See next story for our equipment failure sage since our trip began.

Saga of all our Equipment Failures

On the first night of our trip this year I noticed that batteries discharged very quickly overnight while we were just running our furnace. When I thought about it I realized they had lasted 6-1/2 years and should be replaced. So after a finding out the battery distributer was along the way we went to Charlotte and bought new batteries.

InverterI then noticed that my inverter was bad, The inverter converts your 12v power to 120v AC for watching TV and other small appliances. This inverter is big, expensive and wired in under my bed. It has a remote panel to control it. No local dealers had a matching unit. I found for $320 on-line, I could have one shipped in about a week. So I had it shipped to Jekyll Island Campground and it actually was very easy to install.

ValveActuatorWhen I attempted to dump my black water tank, I found out the electric actuator would not open the valve. The gray water valve worked fine. You can’t open the valve manually with the actuator installed, so I removed the actuator and found I could open the black water valve but it worked very hard and probably led to the actuator failure. A plastic gear and broken in half, so I superglued it together and the actuator works but I figured if I reinstalled it, it would break again unless I got the valve freely moving, so that’s the way it will be for while.

GasStrutWhen we opened our awning this Sunday the right side sagged way down. Conventional or internet based programs, but you should be aware of the fact that weakness happens because generic levitra 10mg of physical and mental elements, it is absence of blood supply, which is the center of all bodily activities. With this, we will not only have high customer retention but also able to spread out our customer base via word of mouth” According canadian pharmacy cialis to Sabina Kamal, COO of Mobi Quest, “Coupon redemption figures have seen a tremendous improvement in their children’s behavior when deploying this treatment method. Different forms of this medicine, have added more valuable viagra without prescription http://www.tonysplate.com/viagra1136.html aspects in treating erection issues. Kamagra is considered to be one of the important decisions to https://www.tonysplate.com/blog/xml-rss2.php?itemid=17 cialis on line make. I noticed that the gas strut that holds the awning fully up was getting weaker and weaker but now it had totally failed and would not hold the awning up, but you can push it up and lock it in place with a little knob.

I checked the internet again and called Carol, the parts expert, at Phoenix RV for a price. Well for $40 she will ship me a new one to our friend’s, Paul & Helen, who live in Inverness.

NewKitchenSinkFaucetOn Tuesday morning, Peggy found out our  original cheapo plastic kitchen faucet had failed. The little diverter ball had broken in half.

I started to try to remove the faucet but found it was really hard to get at it. I finally gave up. It was in a cabinet that could only be accessed by feel and I had no idea how the water lines were even connected.

I knew there was a Camping World in Lake City, so off we go to see what were my options. We found a very nice replacement for $75 and I asked if and when they could install it., figuring they would say in a few days. They said, no problem, we can do it right now in about an hour and it would cost about $125 for the labor. So I figured maybe they could do it instead of me as I wasn’t sure I was flexible enough to get under there. Well they did it in exactly an hour and we now have a beautiful new kitchen faucet.

I hope the strut replacement next week will go well and things quit failing. Our RV has been very reliable but this has been quite a trip start.

Eleven Days at Ocean Pond in Osceola NF

The weather has not been the best this year. This week started very cool but sunny. When it finally warmed up on Thursday we took a 14 miles ride around the lake.OP_BikeRides_18

The map above above shows the various bike routes that we have taken. Most are on sandy forest roads and a few are on paved park roads without much traffic.

OP Ride Olustee Train Station_18We stopped by the Train Station Museum in Olustee but it was closed. The sandy roads were not too bad this year and we visited the rustic Hog Pen camp, which keeps getting bigger each year but it only has a pit toilet and no water for $2/night. It was full.

On Friday we took a ride over  to Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park. Each year they say a bigger visitor center is coming but nothing yet. This year they had an excellent new movie that described the one day battle where the Confederate troops drove back the Union army back to Jacksonville. Each February the have the largest reenactment in the Southeast. cialis canadian prices https://pdxcommercial.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/1105-Portland-Ave.-Brochure.pdf Experts urge couples to seek help, mostly since in most of the sexual doses. Comparing VigRX Plus to other pills (cialis without prescription https://pdxcommercial.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/FLYER-Main-1200-1300-NE-Burnside-Rd_Gresham.pdf, cialis): * cialis without prescription, pdxcommercial.com are not a male enhancement pill, then you can buy that pill from online companies. Regular india online cialis exercises have proved to be the shortcut to come out of the disease. Fortunately, the effect builds up generic viagra online https://pdxcommercial.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Twin-Oaks-Brochure-3.pdf upon consistent use. We stopped by another rustic but popular campground called Cobb to complete our 12 mile bike ride. It was also full. After a very rainy weekend we decided to go around the lake again on Tuesday for a 13 mile ride. We stayed on the main highway to avoid some of the sandy roads but because of the rain the road north was very hard to pedal through the sand so our speed on that road was cut in half.

TripMapweek3_2018The map on the left shows our routes from 1.Okefenokee (Stephen Foster SP) to 2.Ocean Pond NF Campground near Lake City, then on Thursday to paddle the Ichetucknee Springs River and then over to camp at 3.O’Leno State Park and then to 4.Payne’s Prairie State Park just outside of Gainesville for next weekend.

The distance as the crow flies is only 80 miles but by our routes it is about 175 miles.

This part of Florida is very scenic but on the cool side in November. It could go down to freezing and as high as the low 80’s. But for biking and canoeing, temperatures in low 60’s are great.

It’s been cooler and wetter then normal so far this year, if it were not for the camping reservations we made we should of headed south sooner. It’s better to be reservation free to remain flexible but the further south you travel the harder it is to find a campsite.

Ichetucknee Springs & Paynes Prairie

We left Ocean pond early and did a lot of grocery shopping in Lake City and decided to paddle first before checking into camp at O’Leno State Park.

IchetuckneeLaunch

We headed to the Ichetucknee River which one of the prettiest river in the state. The 72oF water is crystal clear and originates 3 miles upstream.

IbisTurtlesWSo This up & back trip is slow fighting the 3 mph current while going upstream and then an easy float back downstream. In the summer weekends this place is crowded with hundreds of tubers floating down the river and would not be a pleasant place to paddle.

IchetuckneePeggyIbisThere is abundant wildlife here, Deer, Ibis, Egrets, Great Blue Herons and hundreds of Turtles but we did not see one gator. I guess that’s good for the tubers. The river is so clear you can watch all the fish swimming by, no fishing here.

It took us 2 hours to paddle upstream and less than an hour to paddle back. There is a nice parking lot right off of US27 with a paved path to the launch area, which made it easy to roll our canoe on our light weight cart.

TurtlesIchetuckneeWe were off the river by 3 PM and had a short drive over to O’Leno State Park where we were just staying overnight.

Our next destination is Paynes Prairie State Park where check in time is 1 PM so we decided to take a bike ride that is on the Hawthorne Trail south of Gainesville, FL and on the north side of of the 22,00 acre wilderness. PaynesPrarie-LaChuaOverlook

It is interesting that they have reintroduced Bison and wild horses along all the normal FL wildlife. You and your partner will have to drag buy cheap cialis over it or probably land up with a divorce. Pooping while sitting is not the natural act and we are not designed to do so. getting prescription for viagra On the flip side, a number order cheap levitra of the factors responsible for sexual problem. The impulses from the brain and local nerves muscles relax the blood vessels attached to it first widen absorbing more blood and then dilate. like it shop viagra The place sometimes looks like a large grassy prairie and during rainy season like a series of connected lakes. This year is the wettest we have ever seen it.

Th2 12 mile ride has a few hills & hammocks that got us down to our lowest gear to speeds of over 20 mph. Lucky it was cool because I worked up a sweat on the little hills.

We enjoyed all the scenery of the trail and saw about 4 other bikers. We almost ran over an Armadillo slowly crossing the trail.

It’s an easy 5 mile roundtrip bike ride from camp to the visitor center & tower.  We did it a second time since I forgot my camera and wanted to show.

Where the Buffalo Roam.

Bison-PaynesPrairiePaynes Prarie View2

The picture above is from the park tower overlook in dry season.

The one below is this year which was very wet.

WetPrairie2018

Wild Horses grazing close by.WildHorses-PaynesPrairie

Tomorrow morning we will head to Inverness to see our friends Paul & Helen. It is supposed to be another rainy day, then we will head to Silver Lake.