After a fun filled, busy time at Disney, it was time to slow the pace down again and we found just the place in the Emerald Coast!   We headed north from Orlando to the panhandle of Florida, with a nice drive up I-75.  Since it was over a 6 hour trip to our next destination, we decided to break it up with our first stop at a Boondockers Welcome location.  For those that do not know what that is, it is fellow RV'er's or travel enthusiasts, who share their property with those travelers passing through, usually for just a night or two.  It is all done online and you can see pictures of the location, learn about the hosts, what amenities they offer, any rules that must be followed (such as no generators or campfires) and read past reviews of others stays.  Well we found a gem in Casa Rodriguez in Live Oak.  It is off the beaten path on acreage outside of town and you park in their yard, close to the house and they offer 15 amp electric and the ability to take on water if needed.  Not all hosts offer this, so it is definitely a plus when they do.  Did I mention the stays are free and you pay a small annual program subscription, which is well worth it!  These locations are nationwide, even in other countries and we will certainly be seeking out Boondocker spots as we head out west.

​After setting up, we then headed in to Walmart to pick up a few supplies and have dinner.  I had found a BBQ place in the area on Yelp, Big Wood BBQ, and it did not disappoint!  You know it was a local favorite when they are busy on a Monday night in this small town.  People rave about their deep fried, smoked short ribs and we just had to try them.  They were delicious!  Very tender and moist.  Their other BBQ was delicious as well and the baked beans reminded me of the calico beans we always had at family get togethers...yumm!

In the morning, after a peaceful nights sleep, we bid farewell to our wonderful hosts and continued to head west on I-10 to our final destination of Topsail HIll Preserve State Park in Santa Rosa Beach.  As we got closer we started to see first hand the devastation Hurricane Michael left in October.  We were awestruck with the amount of damage this far inland and the many miles it stretched on I-10.  Again, pictures do not do it justice and it was surreal to see in person all the damage and just how long the clean up takes from a storm of this magnitude (155 mph top winds).

We stayed at Topsail State Park for 10 glorious days.  Topsail is a gem and unlike almost any other state park.  It was a private RV resort until the state purchased it in 1998.  There are 156 sites, most with FHU and the remaining handful are being improved as we speak.  They also have 22 tent sites and 32 cabins and bungalows for rent.  This is a very popular state park nestled on the  pristine shores of the beautiful Santa Rosa Beach.  This beach is beautiful!  There is a tram that takes campers and day use visitors down to the beach since it is a bit of a hike, but can be walked or biked as well.  There is also 5 rare coastal dune lakes and numerous hiking paths.  We enjoyed many walks on the beach and paths.  We even tried out electric bikes, which were great and we may look into them further this summer.

​We really enjoyed our time here and were excited to finally meet (sort of) some folks we follow on their blog.  You see I say sort of because 3 years ago when we were at the EAA in Oshkosh, WI...way before we left on our full time travels, Rick met a lady (Debbie Miller, of We Are The Millers + Rick) at the park and struck up a conversation on her RV, a Grand Design Momentum.  At the time we were really narrowing our RV search and were just about set on the Grand Design Solitude, so he wanted to see how she liked her G.D. unit.  Rick remembers that meeting well, however, Debbie must have several full time miles under her belt and was foggy on the meeting, so it was sort of funny when we told her that story when we finally met them at the park.  THey are volunteering as cabin support staff and are really enjoying it.  We had fun relaxing, eating and sharing travel stories. We also met several other volunteers while we were there.  A great crew and we hope to come back and volunteer there as well.

We enjoyed a good bit of time at the campground, visited Grayton Beach State Park, drove the 30A coast, went to Destin and took a Dolphin Sunset Cruise.  The cruise was starting out as a bust for seeing dolphins, but the sunset really made up for it because it was spectacular!  Finally, during the last 30 minutes of the cruise, someone spotted a dolphin out to the side of the boat.  From then on we saw several dolphins frolicking in the bay.  Even better, we used travel card points to purchase the cruise, so we didn't have to pay a penny!  I love it when things work out like that!

We also had some great food during our stay.  We went out for pizza and $1.40 beers with the Millers at the locals pizza joint, Fat Daddy's Pizza.  The pizza was delicious and the beers were just the right price!  We met another workamping couple there that the Millers volunteered with at Grayton Beach and learned of their trials and tribulations at another volunteer job they were at.  It's is those times that you are thankful your home has wheels to move on down the road.

We also had lunch one day, as we drove down 30A, at Cowgirls Kitchen in Rosemary Beach.  The food was delicious and it was Happy Hour all afternoon so some of the food and drink choices were $5 each.  Score!  We had some absolutely delicious street tacos and queso/chips.  Sitting outside enjoying the beautiful scenery in Rosemary Beach was a plus.  This community is so beautiful and looks to be quite pricey!! 

Our time at Topsail was quickly coming to a close and we had a couple to do's we needed to complete before we left.  One was defrosting the freezer.  If you remember back in Indiana we had tried a trick we saw on one of our Facebook groups to put thin plastic cutting boards lining the back wall to make defrosting easier.  See that post here.  Fast forward almost 3 months and we need to defrost the freezer.  Well I am here to tell you that it worked soo slick!  I emptied out all of food from the freezer, pulled the shelves forward and then slid the plastic sheets out with all of the built up ice on it.  As you can see below, there was just a bit of ice left on the upper right where the plastic sheet did not go up as high.  I think we had this done in less than 10 minutes!  That was a good bit of frost too!

The morning of our last day, Debbie and other volunteers invited us to a breakfast they were having.  What a great way to wrap up our time at this wonderful park!  Did I mention the folks there are awesome???  

We are now heading out on our sprint out west to Mesa, AZ where we start our next workamping gig on Feb 1.  We will make the 1,727 mile trip in 5 days since our reservation at the park starts on Monday, the 28th so we can get settled and ready to start our jobs.  These are going to be some looong days!  We have some planned stops along the way and then winging it for the last 2 nights.  Wish us luck!!!

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This was a much anticipated move from The Villages to Fort Wilderness campground at Walt Disney World.  Our boys were flying down from WI to join us for a fun filled time in Orlando.  A late Christmas present for everyone and hopefully hitting the parks in a bit of a lull, if Disney has a lull.  I will say it may have been a lull for American visitors, but overseas visitors were out in force!

​We left Recreation Plantation on Thursday, January 3rd for the hour and a half drive to Fort Wilderness.  The drive was relatively quiet until we pulled up to a stop light and had two ladies in a convertible pull up next to us waving and trying to get our attention.  My mind immediately went to thoughts of an issue with the RV.  However, they were excited to see us and said they saw our website on the back of the rig and wanted to say that they followed our travels and can't wait for more stories of our travels.  Huh, well it is a small world!  That was neat!

We arrived early afternoon at Fort Wilderness and immediately remembered the slick check in process.  We rented a travel trailer back in 2006 in Atlanta and pulled it to Ft Wilderness.  This time, I was much more prepared in that I found the Fort Fiends forum site and downloaded their app so that I could see pictures of all the sites, the lengths of each and how easy or difficult it was to back into.  I cannot recommend the app enough for anyone going to Disney in their RV.  I was armed with a list of sites that I considered the best for our length and privacy we wanted.  Magically enough, one of the sites I identified was ready and available for all 11 days we were there.  We were parked in the 1200 loop, which in my opinion, is a very good loop for larger rigs, wanting a bit of privacy.   We had booked a premium site, which is a paved full hook-up site with cable.  We were also within a quick walk to the comfort station that has wonderful bathrooms and great laundry facilities.  We quickly set up, had some lunch and took some down time to rest before we needed to go pick the boys up at the airport, just after midnight. 

Since we only have the big dually truck, we rented a car from the onsite Disney car rental site to pick the boys up at the airport and for the following day outside the park.  The boys had a late departure from Milwaukee but they made up time on their flight and landed a couple minutes ahead of time in Orlando, around 12:15 am.  It was soo great to see them again!  We made it back to the campground around 1am and everyone slept in the next morning.  Friday we took time to take the boys shopping and relax.  They were very happy to get their Zaxby's fix and just chill.  We also rented a golf cart from an off-site company, which was $20 cheaper a day than renting from Disney.  Golf carts really are the way to get around the campground if you don't have bikes because there is only parking for your vehicle at your site.  You could also take the bus through the campground, but those require you to wait a bit and there are three different routes so you may need to switch buses, depending on where you want to go.

Friday night I had reservations for us at the Hoop De Do Reveue at the campground.  At first the boys thought it sounded a bit corny but by showtime, they were singing along and having a good ol' time.  Dinner consisted of salads, breads, BBQ chicken, ribs and sides followed up by a yummy strawberry shortcake.  The show was very entertaining and they even got the audience involved throughout.

Saturday was another day outside the park.  We decided to book an airboat ride and I think it is fair to say everyone had a great time, even if we only saw a couple alligators.  Our captain made up for it by doing some fancy maneuvers,  which really made the boys smile.

Sunday was the guys day to really get their testosterone pumping.  So while I did laundry and relaxed at the pool, they spent the day at the Mecum Auto Auction.  They got their fill of everything from exotics to vintage vehicles and everything in between.

Monday thru Thursday were Disney Park days.  We started off Monday at Animal Kingdom.  This was probably our least favorite park and we hit the highlights, with Expedition Everest being the family favorite.  We were able to ride one of the rides in the new Avatar section but overall, we were underwhelmed with the new area.  We ended the day with dinner at The Rainforest Cafe and a soak in the hot tub back at the campground.

Tuesday was the Magic Kingdom.  Unlike the other parks where you take the buses from the campground, Magic Kingdom is a short boat ride from the campground marina.  Again another wonderful sunny, warm day at the parks!  One of our continued favorites is the Hall of Presidents presentation.  It is just amazing to watch the animatronics that goes into each president and the movements and mannerisms that match each president.  Space Mountain was a family favorite and so glad we had a Fast Pass for it.

Nicholas was wanting to relax in the hot tub after a long day of walking Tuesday so Rick, Brady and I took the bus down to Disney Springs for dinner at a Cuban restaurant.  One of Brady's missions on the trip was to expand his palate with food from different countries and Cuba did not disappoint.  We then walked around marveling at how much it has changed from when it was called Downtown Disney.  We were successful in finding the Lego store and the Lego Loch Ness Monster in the bay and had to commemorate it with a picture of Brady and Nessie.

Universal Studios was next up on our marathon of parks.  Wednesday was another beautiful, almost hot day.  With over 18,000 steps on Tuesday, I was a bit achy and my hip was pretty fiery.  I lasted until mid-afternoon when I had to throw in the towel and limp back to the campground while the guys finished out their bucket list of Tower of Terror and Rock n Roll Roller Coaster.  Unfortunately, because of my early departure, we had to cancel our Fantasia dinner and night show reservation, but by that time, everyone was ready for a break.  

Our final day in the parks was reserved for Epcot.  I think this was everyone's favorite.  We were able to check out all the different countries and foods.  We also enjoyed Soarin, Test Track and the Space flight to Mars, which seriously almost had me using the "courtesy bag".  It was quite the experience!!  Although we did not stay in any of the parks for the night fireworks shows, we were able to see the fireworks from Magic Kingdom from the campground.

The week with the boys went by too fast and Friday morning we took them to the airport to catch their early morning flight back to WI.  I think they had a great time and were happy to get away from the cold WI winter. We will see them next in July when we are back in WI.  We will close out the chapter with the boys with my favorite picture from our time with them and a picture from our 2012 Disney trip.  My how they've grown!!!

Rick and I spent the rest of the few days we had left at Disney relaxing.  One day at the pool and hot tub and another at the site.  We even took in the Chip and Dale Sing Along one evening.  Rick's favorite Disney characters are Chip and Dale and he was tickled to meet them!  

Our final day we took the campground boat over to the Contemporary resort and rode the tram around the properties and spent some time playing pool and having lunch at their marina area.  ​

Our final evening we went back down to Disney Springs and had a delicious dinner at Frontera Cocina.  Again, thank goodness for having reservations through the Disney app because on a Sunday night, it was crowded!  This is not your typical mexican restaurant and the menu options are a bit more creative from James Beard award winning chef Rick Bayless.  Rick had some really good enchiladas and I had the chicken flautas with garlicky red beans.  Coupled with some amazing margaritas, it was the perfect way to cap off our stay at Disney.

Now that our big Christmas Disney splurge is over, it is time to buckle down again on the spending.  We probably will not be back to Disney for quite some time, because even at off-season rates of $107 a night, it is still very pricey and our new lifestyle just cannot support that kind of spending.  Although, I will say, if we were to do it all over again, I would absolutely stay at Fort Wilderness rather than an outside park.  It is soo worth it when you figure in the transportation everywhere and not trying to have to maneuver the big truck around everywhere and pay the crazy $25 per park parking fee and fight with traffic.  Plus the extra Disney magic throughout your stay can't be beat!  :-)

​SHOP AMAZON HERE
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Well here we are, we finally made it to Florida and are officially Florida residents.  We have been preparing for this stop for awhile, making sure we have all of the paperwork in order to transfer the titles for the truck and RV.  This includes having the VIN's verified by a police officer since we won't be able to haul our big 42 ft'er over to the Green Cove Springs Tax Assessor's office for them to eyeball it themselves.  We tried to have Hall County Sheriff verify it while staying at Don Carter State Park in Gainesville, GA but the officer refused since it was for an out of state entity.  We tried again at Crooked River State Park in St. Mary's, GA and the sheriff there filled out the paperwork and made it official by calling the VIN's in to ensure they were not reported stolen.  Bonus, that was done!  Why not wait until we get to FL to have the sheriff there do it, you ask?  Well you see, me being the Type A planner, which I admit I need to relax on a bit, I had us arriving to our site in FL on Sunday, December 23 and our appt to do all of this, being the day after Christmas.  There was no window of opportunity to have it done then and I certainly did not want to press our luck on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.  We were also getting new drivers license and plates for the vehicles.  Alot to do and FL makes you make an appt for all of that.  Not sure how it was any different than walking in at that time because we had to wait 20 minutes, just like anyone else walking in. 
Again, being that planner, I had 4 seperate, paper clipped packets ready to go with everything requested, for each transaction we were needing.  I think the lady really appreciated that because it helped her to keep everything straight.  Well after an hour we were done with titles and plates for the vehicles and were on to our drivers license.  Wow, nice to see you can still review your picture and have a different one taken if you want.  I did not want to press my luck and took the first one, with windblown hair and all!  Wohoo pretty!!!  Then it was RIck's turn and everything was fine until it came time for the eye test.  You know, the little black box, read the 5th line and you pass.  Well,  not so easy for Rick with his no line trifocals.  He was contorting into all types of interesting positions to find the area of his glasses that were for far away and could read line 5.  After more than 5 minutes of trying and walking away and trying again, he thought he found the sweet spot.  Ok, now let's read line 5.  Huh, why do his letters not match mine and why is there a number???  I could tell by the ladies face he was not close.  Oh crap!  All that went through my mind is, hell I am going to have to drive from now on because they are not going to give him a driver's license because he can't pass the eye test!  How the hell am I gonna tow the RV that I have never even pulled around the block??  Well, she was VERY forgiving and let him try again, and again and even gave him hints.  He finally got all but one right, which was enough to pass.  Whew...that was a close one!!!  Looking back now, I am belly laughing, but at the time I was sweating it!  
So after almost 2 hours, we walked out with FL titles and drivers licenses in hand as well as plates for both vehicles.  I thought for sure something would have to be mailed to us, which leads me to being thankful for our mail service.  We declared residency in Green Cove Springs, Clay County, FL which is where our mail forwarding service, St. Brendan's Isle, is.  Clay County is considered a more rural county with cheaper insurance rates.  Another bonus for choosing St. Brendan's Isle is that they have really good information about declaring FL residency and welcome you to call and they will walk you through the process and help you streamline the process for your situation as much as possible.  They were so very helpful and I would recommend them to any other full-timer needing a mail service and FL address.  You actually get an official street address not a PO Box and the folks there are so helpful and friendly.

In planning our time in Green Cove Springs to establish residency, I needed to find a RV park close since I knew we would be making more than one trip there for mail, licenses, etc.  My search led me to Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park.  This would be our first FL state park and we were looking forward to it since our GA state parks were excellent stays.  Well, our luck was about to change.  This park was nice enough but the campground we were in was just not our thing.  It was mostly weekend warrior campers on extended stay for the holidays and the sites were open and nondescript, basically just parking in a sand lot with no vegetation really between sites.  I had picked a more open site at the entrance to a loop since I read reviews that the sites in the loops were hard to navigate with a big rig and there were low branches.  Upon arrival we were greeted by our neighbors on either side walking through our site and riding their bikes through it.  Ok, I can overlook that since no one was currently camped there, but when that continued even after we were there and even AFTER we asked them to kindly use the road to get back and forth to each others sites, I knew this was not going to be a good stay.  It was really unfortunate and sad because we were supposed to be there for two weeks through Christmas and New Years.  Not a good way to spend your holidays!  So not only was this going to be our first Christmas away from family and traditions, we were going to be somewhere we were not pleased with.  Well we made the best of it for Christmas but made plans to move after we had all of our business in Green Cove Springs completed.  While we were there we did take advantage of hiking on some of the trails which were nice.  We had a quiet Christmas and face timed with family, so at least there was that.

The nice thing about this lifestyle, if you don't like your neighbors or where you are, your house has wheels and you can move.  That is indeed what we did.  On Thursday, the 27th, we pulled up stakes and made our way south to Recreation Plantation, just outside The Villages.  We had stumbled upon this RV resort when we went to visit my aunt and uncle a couple weeks earlier.  This is an adult community with mostly permanent homes,  a transient camping type area and a brand new section that is being developed.  The sites are full hook-up, including cable tv and dedicated wifi at each site.  There are two clubhouses with other bathhouses throughout the park, warm, salt water pool and spa, and lots of activities.  The really unique thing they do, is for those who are first time visitors, you get your first night free.  So on top of a cheaper weekly rate, we got a night free.  Win, win!! Everyone was soo friendly and welcoming and we really enjoyed our time there.  This could be a location we come back to for a longer stay.

​While in the area we were able to spend time with my other aunt and uncle who have a home in The Villages.  It is really amazing to see how large and sprawling the area is.  There is every store you need and sometimes several of them. We definitely found some great food while we were there and did alot of walking to try to counteract all that goodness!

While in the area we visited another state park to really see if we just hit an off state park or if they were all the same.  We visited Lake Griffin State Park just south of us in Fruitland Park.  The campground was a bit better but still small for big rigs.  We did see a couple wedged in there but the sites were right on top of each other, with little vegitation.  We did enjoy a picnic lunch down on the canal and would have entertained the idea of putting our kayak in but the launch area was closed for renovations.  We did visit the prize of the park, which is a 400 old live oak tree.  It is the second oldest oak in FL, with the first being near Gainesville, FL.  Standing next to this tree was very humbling and the pictures can't really do it justice because the tree is soo big!

Ringing in the New Year at Recreation Plantation truly made up for our bad site at Christmas.  With all of the Christmas decorations packed away and the RV cleaned up, we are ready to head to Fort Wilderness at Disney for a wonderful time with our boys, who are flying in from Wisconsin.  More on that to come...

SHOP AMAZON HERE
Would you like to help support our blog and keep these updates coming?  It is easy to help, just do your Amazon shopping through the link above.  You still get all your Amazon Prime benefits and the prices are the same.  Since we are in the Amazon affiliate program,  any shopping you do through our link, provides a little kickback to us to support this blog.  
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I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!  Apologies since it has been a bit since our last update.  You see, in all honesty, I just wasn't feeling the urge to write another blog and I never want this to feel forced.  Maybe it was the holidays approaching and feeling sort of strange about not being with family and friends and all the activities we usually have around the holidays. Maybe it was the fact we hit that first park where we were let down and not feeling it was the right place for us or maybe it was that I just wanted to sit and do nothing...no planning anything, just sit and relax.  Or, maybe it was all of the above.  Anyhoo...with that behind us, let's get to the wonderful GA coast experience!

We left Gainesville on a very cold morning and headed south in search of warmer weather.  We were going to split up our drive to Savannah with an overnight half way at an alpaca farm which is part of the Harvest Hosts program that we joined.  You pay a small yearly membership fee and they have a national network of wineries, different farms, museums, etc. that welcome RV'ers to stay, usually just one night, on their property for free.  Usually the travelers reciprocate the favor by visiting their store and purchasing a bottle of wine or something.  Hey, we can do that!  We are all about some good fermented grapes!  Check out the link above if you are interested and you'll receive 10% off!
Well, we must have been in a hurry to find warmer weather because we decided to drive straight through to Savannah and called the park to come in a night early. We took mostly backroads there, deciding to bypass Atlanta all together and it turned out to be very nice ride.  It was a very picturesque drive, with little traffic and we got to see some of the cotton farms along the way.

We reached Skidaway Island State Park mid-afternoon with the sun out and temps about 25 degrees warmer than we left.  Still not balmy but we will take the 50's any day over freezing temps.  We stayed at Skidaway for a week and enjoyed our time there.  The park is on an island over a causeway, and the only other things on the island are a small Univ of GA marine school, a Publix and some other small businesses in a concentrated area.   The rest is gated communities of what I can only guess are some of the well to do of the Savannah area.  This made for a peaceful stay.  The park itself has nice spacious sites, not alot of underbrush for privacy but the space helps there.  The one thing we were really enamored with was the big, beautiful live oaks dripping spanish moss.  DId you know that spanish moss is part of the pineapple family and is an air plant???  There are some nice trails that take you through the unique vegetation and shoreline.  We kept looking for a gator but none were to be found.  Since the area is only about 40 feet above sea level,  everything is wet and you can only imagine the bugs and muggy air in the summer.  Well getting a good bit of rain does not help the situation and we had some of that one night.  Some of the sites and roads in the park got pretty swampy and took a bit to dry out. Temps stayed in the low 50's during the day.

Since we have been to Savannah before, we did not spend alot of time in the historic district.  We did take a trolley tour which allowed us to hear more about the history of Savannah as they drove through all of the squares, city market, historic houses and the river area.  We would have never been able to see all of that walking because the squares are really spread out, there is soo much to see and the roads really are not friendly to a big dually truck! It was also a cool day and the plastic window sides of the trolley were down, which was appreciated but also made it hard to take decent pictures.  That will explains some of the fuzzy pictures below, but they are too pretty not to share anyway.

We also visited Tybee Island and our first of many historic forts in the area, Fort Pulaski on a cold, windy day .  Since Fort Pulaski is a National Monument, we were able to use our America The Beautiful pass to get in free.  Now, if we could just remember to use that everywhere we go!

The next fort we visited was Fort McAllister, just south of Savannah.  This was an unusual fort as it was more of an earthen built fort than a traditional brick, above ground fort.  It was also the most active Confederate fort on the Georgia coast.  The self guided tour of the fort was very interesting and we saw some "wildlife" inside one of the rooms.  See if you can find the bats hanging in the Powder Magazine room picture.  We did not see these little guys just above our heads until we turned around.  Yikes! 

Finally we toured Wormsloe State Historic Site, which is a 1736 Colonial Estate.  Owner Noble Jones was one of the first 114 English colonists who came to Georgia with James Oglethorpe in 1733.  A couple years later he leased these 500 acres from the Isle of Hope trustees and began to develop Wormsloe estate.  He built a modest compound out of tabby, which is a mixture of lime, sand, oyster shells and water.  If you look closely throughout the coastal GA area, alot of things were built from this same mixture.  One of the most notable things that the site is known for is the beautiful live oak entrance and avenue to the house.  These trees were planted by a future owner, Wymberley Jones De Renne, in the early 1890's to commemorate the birth of his first son.  He then built the entrance arch to commemorate the coming of age of his son.

We couldn't leave Savannah happenings without talking about some of the great food we had there.  We found a gem in Rocky's NY Deli.  The sandwiches there were soo amazing, we stopped in twice.  Sorry no pictures though because we were so focused on eating them!  You'll have to take our word for it.  We also had lunch down on River Street at Huey's which is a Southern Cafe featuring New Orleans food with a nice view of the river. Finally we had some wonderful BBQ, not to mention award winning sauces at Wiley's Championship BBQ.  Wonderful food!  Almost forgot to take a picture because we were ready to devour it all!

Our week here went by too fast and we packed up to move further south on the coast to Crooked River State Park in St. Mary's, GA, right on the GA/FL border.  The weather continued to get a little better and there were days here we could actually go with short sleeves for most of the day.  We really liked this state park that was situated next to Kings Bay Naval Base, on the coast with views of the rivers and low land from our site.  The campground had just received some updates and the sites were well kept.  In talking to the volunteers, which there were 5 couples with another one coming in soon (WOW!!), they really took pride in their work.  We would consider being a camp host here too in the off season.  I think the summers would just be waaayyyy too hot and humid!  We had a newer bath house on our loop with a laundry room that had newer machines for 75 cents to wash and to dry!  I think I washed just about everything in the RV while we were here!  They also had a cute little Nature Center that was very active for the holiday season with activities that were well attended by the local residents as well as campground guests and they even had a baby alligator.  Check out our neighbors rig!  He put it all together himself and it caused quite a gapers block in front of the site.  We felt pretty secure with the base next door and were amused with their buried sub out front, but they really caught us off guard when they decided to detonate some old ammunition and shook the whole camper on a very windy day.  We thought for sure a tree came down on the camper!
One terrific thing about staying in GA State Parks is that they have a rewards program and you can earn free camping nights.  Since all three of the places we stayed in Georgia were state parks, we were able to rack up enough points to get 2 nights free at Crooked River State Park, which was the most expensive since we stayed in a full hook up site.  We got $84 credited back to us.  Bonus!!!

While in St. Mary's we also visited another fort at Fort Clinch State Park, this one just across the border on Florida's northernmost barrier island.  Fort Clinch served as a military post in the Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War II.  It was very interesting to see the history of the park and how it was used and updated for each war.  It was a beautiful bright blue sky, sunny day, but it was windy.  The warm sun made up for that though and we took a walk on the beach and discovered some cool shells and a bunch of jelly fish.

On one of my laundry days, RIck went into St. Mary's and took a tour of their sub museum.  Lots of sub models and some interesting history. 

One cooler day, we took a driving tour of Jekyll Island and ate at Tortuga Jacks on the water.  To be honest, we were underwhelmed with Jekyll Island and the food.  I think it would be better visited in the summer when the resorts are hopping, but then, that's not our thing, so we will just check the box that we came, we saw.

When we found out my Aunt and Uncle, who just bought a house in The Villages in FL, and extended family would be down at The Villages, we made a road trip down to see them for the day.  I made some Christmas cookies to share with the group and we had a great day catching up and playing hand and foot.

Again, we cannot leave the area without sharing one of or favorite local stops for delicious food.  We really make a conscious effort at each of our stops to live like the locals do and eat where they eat.  Well we really scored on this local joint that has a long history and some of the best food and friendliest staff around.  You really need to check it out Steffens if traveling down 95 into Florida.  Miss Helen's biscuits are handmade every day by the 80 some year young Miss Helen and the rest of the food is all made fresh daily.  We had the country fried steak and were in foodie heaven!!  

Whew!!!  That was a long one but now our GA trip is in the books.  Next on to the ups and downs of FL.  Thanks for following along and I will leave you with a couple pictures of our first Christmas in the RV.

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We left SC, and made the much anticipated trip to not only Georgia's newest state park, but also our old stomping grounds.  Don Carter State Park is located on the north side of Gainesville, GA, near the 1996 Olympic Rowing Venue on Lake Lanier.  Way back in 1998 we moved to the Gainesville area and lived there for 10 years.  Looking back at that move, we should have known we were already blessed with the adventurous spirit to travel to new areas.  You see, we left our home, families and jobs in WI to move to Gainesville, GA...with a 1 year old...with no jobs lined up and oh did I mention the apartment we were moving into was not finished being renovated?  Talk about a leap of faith!  Rick's employer was looking to expand their restaurant concept into the greater Atlanta area and we decided to move then and get acclimated to the area.  My mom had moved to the area a couple years prior, so we were not going there completely blind and thank goodness she was there because we ended up living with her until our apartment next door was ready.  

Now fast forward to 2018 and boy has the area changed!  It is unreal how it has all built up...and the TRAFFIC!  It took a bit to get our bearings because everything looked soo different and the traffic was a bit overwhelming.

We had a great time catching up with old friends and even meeting new ones!  Unfortunately, we were so engrossed in the moment, we forgot to take pictures!  I see a trend here!  Ughhh...  Sorry Kathryn, Freddie, Lindsay, Mark and Rachel!  We will try to get better about that.   

We also had a great time visiting some of our favorite areas and one thing I just love is the small town squares.  Most of the times, these squares were home to the town courthouse.  It is nice to see these squares preserved and decorated for the holidays.

We also visited Helen, GA, which is a quaint little German themed town in Northeast Georgia.  We always liked visiting when we lived in the area and it seems this is one of the areas that has not changed.  

We also visited one of our favorite waterfalls in NE GA, Anna Ruby Falls.  The falls are located in the Chattahoochee National Forest, just north of Helen, and you need to drive through Unicoi State Park to get to the national forest area.  That also means you pay for a state park admission and national park admission.  Good thing we had our state park pass from the park we were staying at BUT unfortunately we completely forgot to pull out our America the Beautiful pass to get into the national forest.  We ended up paying the $6 fee and it was worth it.  These falls are beautiful, as is the hike up to them, which takes you next to and over the river spilling from the falls.  The day we visited it was more of a raging river than a meandering one.  The hike up and down was a good workout, but there are benches along the way to stop and take in the sites and people of all ages can hike it.  We brought the boys here when they were little and we all really enjoyed it.

Don Clark State Park where we stayed is the newest of Georgia's state parks at 5 years young.  This was our first time in a state park here and we were pleasantly surprised how nice it was.  Beautiful buildings and landscaping, clean as a whistle and really nice sites with great amenities.  The paved sites are "semi" full hookups.  I say semi because they have 50 amp electric, water, cable and gray water "sewer" at the site.  We have never seen anything like this before.  The sewer was a small metal trash can with the bottom cut out, buried into the ground and filled 3/4 with charcoal to slowly let your gray tank seep into it.  It was really nice to have and we never had to dump tanks at the dump station during our 8 days here.  Many of the sites had views of Lake Lanier and we were lucky enough to score one of the pull thru sites that faced the lake.  The comfort stations have nice showers, restrooms and laundry rooms.  They also have really nice cottages on the lake for rent.  There were scenic hiking trails, a very nice beach area and lots of wildlife that walked around the park freely.  

Our time here flew by and we will definitely return and quite possibly volunteer as camphosts.  The weather was all over the place with a really rainy day, some nice days and then some cold days with some nights at freezing.  Our last night turned out to be the coldest at 28 degrees.  The next morning was going to be an early departure since we would have a long 5 hour drive ahead of us, so Rick packed up the water hose and put some water in the fresh tank.  Everything went well in the morning and we pulled up to the dump station around 9am.  This is when we discovered that the tank valve handle was frozen shut.  After a couple head scratching moments, Rick fired up the generator and plugged the hair dryer into the outside plug in the cargo bay.  After a couple minutes of warming, the handle came free.  Again, our generator saves the day.  I think it was worth its weight in gold and we are really glad we opted to get it, even though having a big Onan generator takes up some of our cargo weight.

​Up next...Savannah baby!  Stay tuned.... 

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