Heading Home

Our last 2 days on the road were spent driving east – from Texas to Louisianna to Mississippi on 3/6 (Thurs.) with a stop at the Mississippi Welcome Center in Vicksburg to view the mighty Mississippi. We spent the night at Walmart in Meridian, MS, and drove the remainder of the trip on Friday. It was amazing how green everything suddenly was when we crossed the state line from Texas to Louisiana – grass and trees – and “spring things” blooming – daffodils, irises, and redbud trees. It was beautiful and felt good to these home-grown southerners. As we head to Rome, we’ve been reflecting on our trip – our winter exodus for 2008. – and it’s been a good trip. We enjoyed the Blue Grass Festival at Jekyll Island (in spite of the cold weather), our stay at Lazy Days Rally Park in Tampa with meals at the Crown Club and our meeting of another Country Coach couple who are full-timers, and of course, Key West with good seafood and bicycling. Then we headed up the Nature Coast to Crystal River/Old Town and enjoyed Florida’s biking trails there, one to the coast and one on an old railroad bridge across the Suwannee River. From there we went to Santa Rosa Beach’s Topsail Hill State Preserve Park, an excellent park and beautiful area of sand dunes and pristine beach. Then we headed to Bayou Country around LaFayette, LA, where we met up with Jan and George from Birmingham who would be our very enjoyable traveling companions for 18 days. We enjoyed Cajun cuisine and music at PreJeans and Mulates, and then headed to San Antonio where we enjoyed Mexican food and music as well as the River Walk, Alamo, and other areas including the German settlement of Gruene, TX. Then we began our last leg of the trip to Tucson, AZ, to the Country Coach Winter Rally with an overnight stop at Las Cruces, NM, where we ate Mexican food at La Posta Restaurant in the old settlement of Mesilla. The rally was highlighted by seeing old and new friends, a day trip to San Zavier Mission, Tubec artists community, and Nogales, Mexico, visiting Sabino Canyon with its amazing assortment of cactus, and complimentary service on our motorhome from Country Coach. Then it was east to Silver City, NM, where we toured the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument and hiked the beautiful Catwalk of Whitewater Canyon. From here Jan and George headed to New Orleans and home to Birmingham, and we headed to Midland, TX, to tour the Petroleum Museum and George W. Bush’s Childhood home – as well as enjoy Texas beef brisket BBQ. Then we began our “LBJ tour” visiting the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park including the LBJ ranch, cemetery, and childhood home, and also the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum in Austin, TX – an interesting and impressive array of history of that era, much of which we remember. We were impressed with the amount of legislation Johnson was able to pass including consumer and environmental legislation and public TV. Austin was also where we attended a Hillary Clinton rally and saw Chelsea who accompanied her mother. Hillary was warmly received by the large crowd, and we felt a sense of history at the prospect of a woman president. This was the second of our “political events” of the trip, having seen Bill Clinton at a rally for Hillary in LaFayette, LA, where George shook hands and spoke with him. At Austin we discovered we had an engine oil leak so detoured north to Dallas to a Cummins service facility for repairs. Since we were in Dallas, we visited the downtown area, the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealy Plaza recounting the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and ate a steak lunch before again heading east toward Rome. After 67 days, we’re approaching Rome – having had a great trip and glad to be coming home!

Dallas, TX

We awoke to sunshine and warmer weather but dsicovered that the motorhome had an engine oil leak. George called Cummins and learned that Dallas was the closest Cummins service facility so we drove there, arriving in late afternoon. We spent the evening in the service bay getting repairs done: A hole in dipstick tube was repaired, oil pan gaskets were replaced, and a turbo oil line that was chafing was rerouted. Finally, at 12:15 a.m. the job was finished and we were parked for the night at Cummins with 50 amp electrical service. Since we were in Dallas, we decided on Wednesday to visit the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza located in a warehouse known in 1963 as the Texas School Book Depository. “John F. Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation” is the permanent historical exhibition that examines the life, death, and legacy of the 35th president of the U.S. The exhibit features documentary films, historic footage, hundreds of photographs, and artifacts. It is both informative and very moving. We both recalled where we were on the day Kennedy was shot and the strange events that followed. After leaving the mueum, we walked around the area and ate lunch downtown. We walked to the convention center to see the longhorn cattle and cowboys on horseback presented in bronze sculpture - a look at the origins of Dallas. The clock was ticking and we wanted to leave before rush hour began, and since our coach was still parked at Cummins on the west side of town, we headed back to Cummins, hooked up our tow vehicle, and headed east. Our motorhome was repaired and we’d taken a glimpse at Dallas.

LBJ’s Texas

From Midland we drove the back roads of Texas to Stonewall where we visited the Lyndon B. Johnson State and National Historical Park which includes the LBJ ranch, replica of the home where he was born, family cemetery where LBJ is buried, Junction School which he attended at age 4, and the visitors center. Johnson’s mother was one of the few college educated women in the area and she impressed on him the importance of education and a compassion for human needs, and from his father he learned about politics in the tradition of agrarian liberalism. At the Johnson City District of the park, we visited Johnson’s childhood home where the family moved when he was five after a flood destroyed the cotton crop, resulting in loss of the farm. The visitor’s center had an excellent display of events of Johnson’s life, especially his political life, along with a world timeline. There were also exhibits about Lady Bird Johnson and films about their lives. From here we drove to Austin where we stayed at McKinney Falls State Park and checked out the kite festival in Zilker Park on Sunday afternoon. Monday was cold, rainy, and very windy, but it was a full and interesting day. We began with a visit to the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum where we spent far longer than we had expected. It was a very well presented, varied exhibit depicting LBJ’s life and presidency and included exhibits of gifts given to the U.S. during his presidency, a replica of his Oval Office, and a First Lady exhibit about Lady Bird Johnson. We were awed by the sheer volume of legislation he got passed through his skills of persuasion. We were not aware of the consumer protection legislation and environmental legislation that he passed. We enjoyed his humor presented thru exhibits, an actor representing him as Senator, and a Disney-esque lifesized figure of LBJ telling spinning Texas tales. After visiting the LBJ Libray, we took a brief tour of the Texas Capitol which is an outstanding example of a mid-19th century Renaissance Revival building made of Texas red granite. Of note in this year when a woman is running for U.S. President is the fact that a Texas woman served as governor in the 1930’s. And speaking of a woman running for President, we attended a rally for Hillary Clinton held at the Burger Center in Austin. We learned of the rally from a Clinton volunteer at Zilker Park on Sunday afternoon and later that evening heard about it on TV news. Having attempted to attend her rally in San Antonio a few weeks earlier, we decided to try again. The cold winds may have kept some people away, thus shortening the line, and so the arena didn’t fill up before we got in. Standing in line we met 2 young men who are active Democrats who are enthusiastic Hillary supporters. Irene was impressed by a family of 6 women from grandmother to granddaughters attending the rally together, proud to be supporting a woman for president. A number of local politicians spoke first and finally Hillary, along with Chelsea, took the stage. She spoke to a very enthusiastic audience with lots of cheering. We felt we were living a significant part of history whether Hillary Clinton receives the nomination or not. To see more pictures of the Hillary rally click on http://picasaweb.google.com/gharpercomcast/HillaryRally

Midland TX

Today (2/28) was a travel day. We stopped at a rest area at Las Cruces where a huge roadrunner metal scupture overlooked the highway. We had seen this sculpture on a previous trip but didn’t remember where it was located. Later in the day we saw a real roadrunner while we were stopped for lunch. We crossed back into the Central time zone and spent the night at an RV park in Pecos, TX, that had the narrowest sites we’ve ever seen. With our slide rooms out, we were uncomfortably close to the adjacent RV. On Friday we drove to Midland, TX, and toured the Petroleum Museum which gave an excellent history of the petroleum industry of west Texas and its technology. Outside on the grounds were 2 working oil wells, modern drilling rig, old equipment and vehicles, and a variety of pumps. Also at the museum were marvelous paintings depicting scenes of the oil industry. In the same building was a gallery of Tom Lovell oil paintings showing life in west Texas. In an adjacent gallery were huge photographs showing the Rio Grande from its birth in NM and scenes along the way, ending in Mexico. We enjoyed seeing photos of the Big Bend area which we visited on a previous trip. We also visited the George W. Bush Childhood Home in Midland. Our tour was led by a mature, impeccably groomed staunch Republican lady originally from Kansas. She expressed the town’s pride in the Bush family and showing their home where 2 governors, 2 presidents, and a First Lady had lived for 4 years in the early 1950’s. It was a modest home with 3 bedrooms and one bathroom and had been furnished as much as possible as it was when the Bushes lived there though there was little that was original. The guide told us that it cost $1000 a roll to get the 1950’s wallpaper recreated.. Some of the rooms were not furnished but had exhibits and photographs in them. For dinner we got take-out beef brisket BBQ from K D’s BBQ, recommended by our tour guide. The dinner came with sliced raw onions and dill pickles, red and green sweet peppers, pinto beans, cole slaw, and sliced white bread. The tomato-based BBQ sauce was very sweet but had a strong flavor of black pepper – quite different from Georgia BBQ. We parked overnight at Wal-Mart where we shopped for supplies. To see more pictures click HERE: http://picasaweb.google.com/gharpercomcast/BushChildhoodHome

Silver City - The Catwalk

Wednesday morning we said goodby to our traveling companions, Jan and George, who headed to New Orleans to visit friends and then back home to Birmingham. We drove northwest to the Catwalk of Whitewater Canyon which is the site of an 1880’s mining area. At that time, large pipes took water back to the mining operation. In the 1930’s the CCC built wooden platforms on the pipeline for recreational use. The present metal grid catwalk, hanging off the side of the canyon, was build by the US Forest Service in 1961 with a one-third mile accessible trail at the beginning constructed in the 1990’s. This was an awesome hike of about 2.4 miles through a multi-colored canyon with beautiful rose/lavender/purple stone accented by green lichen (I think it was lichen). There were also sections of volcanic rock. A segment of the canyon was narrow with rocks curving over the stream and reminded us of the Narrows in Zion National Park. To see more pictures go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/gharpercomcast/TheCatwalk

Silver City - Cliff Dwellings

Leaving Tucson Monday morning, we headed to Silver City, NM, along with Jan and George. We arrived around noon and explored the downtown area in the afternoon and went to Pinos Altos where we had dinner at Buckhorn Saloon, former bordello, and drove around the area to see historic buildings. On Tuesday we explored the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument north of Silver City after driving 42 miles of very curving, hilly, narrow forest service roads. We took the docent led tour of the 7 natural cavities on the face of the cliff where the Mogollon Indians had built 42 rooms. The docent, a philosophy major and former teacher in Indian schools, had many theories of his own about the Mogollon culture and history. The tour included a one mile loop trail which had great views of the cliff dwellings and adjacent cliffs. We were fortunate to have a pleasant sunny day for our visit; snow remained alongside the road from a 3 inch snowfall the previous week. To see more pictures click HERE: http://picasaweb.google.com/gharpercomcast/SilverCityCliffDwellings

Country Coach Winter Rally, Tucson, AZ

We enjoyed the Country Coach rally held at Beaudry RV Park in Tucson, a nice park with lemon and orange trees and marvelous views of the mountains. The entertainment at the rally was varied – a mariachi band, Broadway tunes, and a country music band. We attended some seminars, checked out the vendors (fewer than at the Oregon rally last summer), and appreciated complimentary service on the coach from Country Coach. George attended the CC Yahoo Forum meeting and met some of the members that he had met online in the past few months. We took a day tour to Mission San Xavier del Bac in Tucson, Tubec (an artist’s community), and to Nogales, Mexico, where we had lunch and walked around the shopping area with Jan and George. Another day we went to Sabino Canyon with Glenn and Janet whom we had met on the Copper Canyon trip in 2004 and had seen at the Oregon rally last summer. Sabino Canyon was an amazing array of cactus, but the area was greener than expected because of the river flowing thru it. We took the tram as far as it could go because of damage from extreme flooding a few years ago, and then we walked back to the visitor’s center. On Sunday Jan and Irene visited a couple of the barrios in Tucson where we enjoyed seeing the brightly colored homes and businesses.

En Route to Tucson

We left San Antonio in fog and rain but finally crossed the front and had clear weather but very strong winds. We spent the night in Ft. Stockton, TX, where the wind continued to blow throughout the night. It was calmer the following day when we drove to Las Cruces where we parked overnight at Wal-Mart and ate dinner at La Posta in La Mesilla, a historical Spanish villiage, after walking around the town square and looking at shops. The following day we drove to Tucson, stopping en route at a railroad ghost town which was closed but we could see the old settlement thru the wire fence. We arrived at Baudry RV Rally Park in Tucson in the afternoon and got settled in and explored the park and rally facilties on our bicyles – much faster than walking. It was really warm when we arrived. Having awakened in Las Cruces to a chilly high 30’s temperature, we quickly changed into cooler clothes. When the sun sets, the temperature drops condsideratbly here and it is cool in the morning, but a light jacket is adequate.

San Antonio, TX

We drove to Houston the first day, stopping overnight at a Wal-Mart on the west side of Houston. The weather was stormy w/ rain, wind, and thunderstorms. Jan and George invited us to dinner in their coach, and we celebrated George S.’s birthday which was the following day (2/12), the day we arrived in San Antonio. While in San Antonio we enjoyed the food and sights, visiting the Alamo, River Walk, La Villeta (earliest settlement) , and other places. We took the narrated boat tour around the River Walk on our anniverary, Valentine’s Day, and at the outdoor “auditorium” along the way happened upon the annual wedding ceremony performed by a judge in both English and Spanish. Numerous couple of all ages accompanied by family groups repeated their vows. The area was decorated with yellow roses. Each lady on the boat tour was also given a yellow rose that day. We also visited Gruene, TX, settled by Germans in the mid 1840s near San Antonio. This charming town is home to Gruene Hall, a dance hall and saloon, Gruene Mercantile, now a well stocked antique store. We ate lunch at a delightful restaurant overlooking the Guadalupe River.

Louisiana

Heading west on I-10 we reached Louisiana and drove through Baton Rouge, shortly after reaching the 10 mile Basin Bridge which crosses bayous, rivers, and lakes – a very different view. We overnighted at the Slidell Wal-Mart and then continued to LaFayette, our base for exploring the Cajun country. Having heard on the news that former President Bill Clinton would speak at Country Cuisine Restaurant in LaFayette at 2:00 p.m. on his cross-Louisiana campaign for Hillary, we went there immediately after parking the coach. We arrived to find a crowd outside the small restaurant as well as a fire truck and police cars with an ambulance arriving shortly. (Both the fire truck and ambulance were unrelated to Clinton’s visit and soon left). Crowds continued to gather and the sun beat down as the minutes ticked by past 2:00. The secret service said 25 minutes more; after that interval passed, they said 10 minutes. That too passed and eventually, unannounced, the motorcade of Louisiana State Troopers and 2 bullet proof tan Chevy Suburbans pulled into the circular driveway in front of the restaurant. Clinton was quickly escorted inside the restaurant by the secret service, much to the disappointment of the crowd outside. His short 3 point speech, audible outdoors, made the case for why Louisianans should vote for Hillary. Then Clinton came outside, spoke with the media, and circled the perimeter of the crowd shaking hands much to the delight of the people. For quite a while, we could see only Clinton’s white hair over the throngs of people, but finally George was able to speak to him and shake his hand. George made a complimentary comment to him about his presidency. Cameras were flashing and sunglass-clad secret service agents flanked Clinton as he moved through the crowds. As soon as they could get a photo, the elated individuals pulled back reducing the crush of people. George moved to the other side of the circle to get better shots so again saw the president who spotted George and told him, “Thank you for what you said.” Having completed the circuit, Clinton and his entourage reentered the Suburbans and sped off with sirens blazing. He had come to LaFayette and he was gone. When we returned to the RV park, we met up with George and Jan from Birmingham whom George met on the Country Coach Yahoo Forum. Friday night we ate at Prejeans enjoying both Cajun food and music. Sat. we explored the surrounding area and in New Iberia toured Shadows-on-The-Teche, the 1834 home of a sugar plantation owner and his family for four generations. The gardens with their old (200 and 400 years) oaks were quite a sight. On Sunday we drove southwest and saw shrimp boats and crawfish farms and crossed the Intercoastal Waterway. We enjoyed dinner at Mulate’s, recommended by another CC Yahoo Forum member, and again enjoyed both food and music. This well-known restaurant with posts made of cypress trees from the bayou has been patronized over the years by numerous celebrities whose names are listed in the entrance. See more pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/gharpercomcast/BillClinton

Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, Santa Rosa Beach

Topsail Hill is the crème de la crème of state parks! It was formerly a commercial park and was acquired by the state along with contiguous fresh water lakes, woods, dunes, and beachfront. The sites are paved w/ concrete patios and picnic tables and full hookups (50 amps). The sites are pleasantly landscaped and offer some privacy. There’s a paved tram road to the boardwalk to the beach. We bicycled through the park and then to the boardwalk and walked down to the beach. It’s a beautiful natural beach with sizable dunes. Later in the day we returned near sunset to take photographs. Although it was quite warm during the day (low 70’s), the temp dropped quickly near sunset. We washed the coach Tues. and then went to Destin to explore the area. We spent a little time at Destin Commons, a nice outdoor shopping mall. While we were in Destin, the fog began rolling in mid-afternoon. By the time we reached the beach, the fog was quite thick – but not so thick we couldn’t see the huge condominiums and homes that have been built since we were last in the area quite a few years ago. We enjoyed dinner from a local seafood bar near the state park. George ordered fried oysters and Irene enjoyed fried shrimp, but the slaw and hushpuppies were “too funky” in George’s words. The fog was so dense that we got take out since it appeared visibility would only worsen later. Laundry and housecleaning took park of our last day here and then we headed to Sandestin Resort which we explored on our bicycles. It’s quite a large resort and we took the bike paths through many neighborhoods and also went to Bayside Wharf, an area of shops and restaurants.

Carabelle

Today’s destination, Carrabelle, is a nostalgic one as this is the town where we came early in our marriage to catch the ferry to Dog Island and later to launch our sailboats. “What a difference a day makes” barely suggests what a difference 25 years makes – this place has really changed. We explored Carrabelle on our bicycles, and much building has taken place since we were here, but the building boom has hit a bust. Many unfinished buildings and numerous For Sale signs are all over town. There are quite a few large condominiums including one beyond the previous site of the Dog Island ferry, two new marinas, and boat docks all along the river. This is no longer the sleepy fishing village it once was. But also gone was Julia Mae’s, our favorite seafood restaurant in Carrabelle. We tried Carole’s instead, but to coin a phrase, Carole is no Julia Mae!

Florida West Coast

We had a short drive to Naples and arrived at Wal-Mart mid-morning and shopped for supplies. After lunch we went to 2 bicycle shops looking for accessories and found a fresh orange juice shop thanks to info from a lady at the last bike shop. We spent the night at Cracker Barrell on Collier Blvd.(just off I-75) amid graceful oak trees. The next 2 days we were at Crystal River Landings RV Community, a nice condo park quite close to the Withlacoochee Bay Trail which runs along the Florida Barge Canal. We bicycled this trail from US 19 to the gulf. We also did laundry and George replaced a sheared bolt in the main slide room which broke as we put out the slides on arrival at the park. On Sat. we went to Chiefland and bicycled the Nature Coast State Trail from US 19 to Old Town over an old RR bridge across the Suwannee River. We drove to Manatee Springs State Park where we enjoyed walking along the spring run trail, watching a Great Egret fish for his dinner, and seeing snorklers marvel over the beauty of the springs. We bicycled through the sandy campground and felt relief that we were staying at the local Wal-Mart.

Shark Valley - Everglades NP

Having bicycled the 15 mile loop trail here on last year’s trip, we returned to take the tram tour this year to learn more about the park and see the amazing bird population as well as alligators. We saw blue herons, white ibis, great egrets, snowy egrets, great white herons, wood storks, anhingas, turkey buzzards, black buzzards – you get the idea! Jose’, our narrator, told about the founding of the park, the ecosystem, the origin of the names Shark Valley and Everglades, info about alligators, and was a good story teller. Our RV park (about 15 miles west of Shark Valley) is Midway Campground run by the park service. It’s quite nice w/ paved sites and patios and 50 amp service with fresh water and dump available at the entrance. It is mid-way between Miami and Naples on the Tamiami Trail.

Key West and Marathon

Lots of sunshine, sampling Key West’s restaurants, bicycling, returning to favorite places from previous trips – all of these filled our 2 weeks in Key West. While most of the nation experienced unusually cold weather, most of our days ranged from low’s in mid to upper 60’s and highs in the 70’s, generally breezy but some days winds gusting 25 to 35 miles an hour. On a negative note, George’s bicycle disappeared overnight shortly after arriving in Key West, but he was able to find a new bike which he liked so we continued bicycling. George especially enjoyed riding in Key West including Old Town. We also rode sections of the Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail on 5 old Flagler railroad bridges linking the Saddlebunch Keys. These were the bridges that existed in the Keys when we first came here in the summer of 1979, all of which have now been replaced for highway use. We went to 2 events at Boyd’s RV Park where we stayed – a pot luck dinner and a cookout at the pool with a band. We enjoyed visiting with a couple who live full time in their RV at the pot luck dinner, and at the cookout we sat with the widow and sister of Boyd, the RV park’s founder, who are from Saskatoon, Saskatuan . George was relieved that the park allowed us to wash the coach since it had road spray from showers en route to Key West. And George does love a clean coach! We celebrated George’s birthday at 915, a restaurant where we’d previously eaten w/ our friends Jim and Hope. It’s still good! In addition to seeing the sunset at Mallory Square, we viewed the sunset from the roof of La Concha, a recently renovated Crown Plaza that was previously Holiday Inn. It’s on Duvall and gives a great view of the town as well as sunsets. We also went to the annual seafood festival where George ate lobster and Irene ordered steamed shrimp – messy but so-o-o good! We decided to linger in the Keys a few more days so stayed 3 days in Marathon after leaving Key West. Here we bicyled at Grassy Key in Curry Hammock State Park and also to Pigeon Key on the Old 7 Mile Bridge. When the new bridge was built, a section of the old bridge was maintained by the state since it was the only way to reach Pigeon Key. Now it’s a one-way gated bridge to the key and a favorite biking and walking route as well as a section for fishing. George also took some great photos of pelicans and the sunset from the seawall at our RV park.

Tampa/Key West

We left Jekyll Island Sunday morning which was pleasant and sunny – finally! We stopped at Flying J to buy fuel for the coach and truck and empty the holding tanks. It was very busy and we were there almost an hour. En route to Tampa we stopped to buy fresh squeezed orange juice at the Orange Shop in Citra, FL – really good! We checked into LazyDays Rally Park Sun. afternoon and were pleased with our site – good view, close to exit to Crown Club, and the WiFi works. We enjoyed the Crown Club benefits – breakfast, lunch, and happy hour daily. Crown Club membership for two years came with the purchase of our coach and is renewable only by purchasing another qualifying motorhome. Our membership expires June 2008 so we decided to enjoy its benefits for a few days en route to Key West. We enjoyed meeting other members and dining with them and also had the pleasure of meeting fellow Country Coach owners and full timers Don and Janet who stopped to visit and and went to happy hour with us at the Crown Club one afternoon. They had contacted us after reading our article in the Country Coach magazine. We also attended several seminars: refrigeration, Cummins engines, Internet 101, Country Coach info, and Fantasy Baja tour. George did all this despite getting sicker and finally ending up with a sinus infection, but he was recovering by the time we left LazyDays Friday morning after one last great omelet at the Crown Club. We drove to Florida City where we overnighted at Wal-Mart and bought a few supplies and groceries. We had a pleasant but slow drive down the Keys and arrived at Boyd’s RV Park around lunch time. We got settled in and took the truck to the car wash since we had considerable road spray from a couple of showers en route. Then we went to Mallory Square to see the Sunset Festival performers and, of course, the sunset which was fabulous. A Carnival cruise ship was departing as we arrived, and we saw a beautiful sailing yatch from George Town, the largest sailing yatch we’ve ever seen – and such marvelous varnished teak. After sunset, we went to our old favorite, the Half Shell Raw Bar, for dinner of yellowfin tuna for George and broiled shrimp for Irene – a great ending for our first day in Key West.

Jekyll Bluegrass

Jan. 1, 2008 We started the year off by leaving on an RV trip on New Year’s Day, spending the first night in Fayetteville visiting our friends Jim and Hope Tarpley who moved to GA from NC last summer. Their son and daughter-in-law Jamie and Michelle kindly allowed us to park overnight in their driveway, and we enjoyed seeing them and their children Alex (5) and Taylor (2) also. Jim has been emailing us photos of their home which is under construction, and we toured it and visited other locations they had considered. We enjoyed dinner at an excellent Chinese restaurant ending an enjoyable – but too brief – visit with them. Jan. 2, 2008 Today we drove to Jekyll Island, stopping at a country crossroads store where we ate lunch in our coach. A rest area where we stopped had an RV dump so we emptied our grey tank in order to have full capacity for our 4 nights at Jekyll. We topped off the fresh water tank at a truck stop on I-95 at the Jekyll exit and soon after leaving there had a great view of the Sidney Lanier Bridge with the sun shining on the suspension cables. We parked near the Jekyll Island Convention Center in a parking area adjacent to a bathhouse facing the Atlantic with sea oats waving in the gusty wind – the same place we parked last year. Though not usually allowed, overnight parking is permitted at the convention center for the Bluegrass Festival. This year marks the 32nd year for the Jekyll festival. Jan 3, 2008 Having sat much of the day on Wed., we went to Brunswick and walked in the mall Thursday morning since it was cold and windy – not pleasant for walking at the beach – and ate lunch at a locally owned seafoof restaurant that we have enjoyed in the past. We returned via the Sidney Lanier Bridge in time for the first day of the Jekyll Island Bluegrass Festival which began at 12:00 noon. There were six bands performing back to back until 4:30 when the supper break was scheduled. Afterwards, the same six performed a second show ending around 10:00 p.m. We saw all of the performers once but not both shows since noon until 10:00 p.m. is a long time to sit! The cold weather that arrived in Rome with the new year has reached Jekyll too, so it’s too cold to bicyle on the great trails at Jekyll this year – at least so far. Jan. 4 – 5, 2008 The bluegrass festival continued with the same format as Thursday, and we’ve enjoyed hearing quite a variety of bluegrass performers. George especially enjoyed the banjo pickers. Irene visited the Christmas shop and some other stores on the island. We learned about the Initiave to Protect Jekyll Island (http://www.savejekyllisland.org/) and a petition one can sign to preserve access to the main public beach (http://www.jeffchapman.us/). There is much concern that developers will turn the state park for the people of Georgia into an upscale resort too expensive for many Georgians to enjoy. One can also visit http://www.rediscoverjekyll.com/ to give your opinion about the proposal directly to the developer, Linger Longer Communities. We are spending our last night at Jekyll and have enjoyed being here except that George has been sick with a cold and sore throat. Hopefully the sunny weather in Tampa will be therapeutic and he will soon feel better.