December 31, 2009 by steve.

One last RV/Camping entry for 2009. The weekend before Christmas, we took the motor home to Lake Kissimmee State Park near Lake Wales, Florida. This was the next to last place we camped in the fifth-wheel back in December of 2006, and it is located in a fairly isolated part of Central Florida, so it is a pleasant place to wander to for the weekend.

The campground is a typical state park campground, lots of good sized sites, with most being fairly roomy so that you don’t have to get to know your neighbors too well. There is water and 30 amp service with dump station on site. The road in to and in the campground is paved, but the sites are dirt. One of the great things about this park is that there are a number of lovely old live oaks throughout the campground. You do not have to try hard to get a site with a great big old tree behind it. If you have kids the best thing about this is that it gives you a great natural play set located in your site.

This is a big park, it is over two miles from the front gate to the campground, and a bit further back to the day use area. The day use area has a boat ramp, and a couple of floating docks so that you can tie up your boats if you wish. The canal from the boat launch to the lake usually has a couple of good size gators hanging around, we only saw one on this trip, but on past trips to the park we’ve seen half a dozen big gators drop into the water when boats were coming back to the ramp. There is other wildlife that roams the park including deer and wild turkeys. As noted, this park is in the middle of nowhere, cell service is intermittent to non-existence. There is also an 1870s Cow Camp at this park. It is staffed with a re-enactor that plays the role of a Cracker Cow Boy and will talk to you about cows without ears, cattle drives and the “current” President “Useless S Grant” In the couple of trips that we’ve made here, I’ve only seen the volunteer break character once, for the most part they are pretty good about behaving like they are in the 1870s. Pictures of our trip are on flickr.

This wrapped up our trips for the year. We spent a total of 42 nights in the motor home this year, bringing us to a total of 117 nights in the RV since we acquired it in April of 2007. We’ll try and top that next year.

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November 24, 2009 by steve.

Well, I’m late in posting our last trip report, so I’ll start by just saying that we went to Fort Wilderness, the Disney campground for Halloween and had a great time. This is our third trip to Ft. Wilderness in the motor home, the others being in November of 2008, and September of 2007. The pictures of all the fun we had can be found in our flickr account here. But since I’m so tardy in posting, Lady CurbCrusher has written a review, that’s what follows:

We heard so much about the Fort at Halloween we decided to try it for ourselves this year.

I booked a Full Hook Up (FHU) site which should have put us in 1600-1900 loops but I faxed a request a week ahead and we did get into the 1300 loop again. Our site wasn’t too bad. We were right next to the comfort station and the first site on the right as you enter the loop. We had no neighbors beside us and only someone behind us on the 1200 loop. They were never there though.

We got there Thursday afternoon and waited forever in the check in lane again. I think this will be our normal routine of fixing lunch while we wait for Disney to figure out how to check people in faster. There was no FastPass lane for check in designated so I was glad that I didn’t do that, though I tried 9 times and each time it said I needed to be 18. We finally get our site and head to set up. Little CurbCrusher got out the decorations and started to “spookify” our site.

After we were finished, we (Little CurbCrusher and I)headed to the pool to check out the upgrades, while Mr. CurbCrusher had to go back to get our Disney cards since they didn’t give them to us at check in. The pool area has been remodeled since our last visit and the new water slide was nice as well as the hot tub. Little CurbCrusher played for a few minutes at the new splash pad, and then CurbCrusher got there to try the slide. We spent about an hour at the pool and then went to check out the store and a few of the loops by bike. Later we went back to our site for dinner and CurbCrusher went home to go to work on Friday. He would come back Friday after lunch. Little CurbCrusher didn’t want to go looping or to the movie or campfire so I went by myself. There were some amazingly decorated sites that really put ours to shame. I told Little CurbCrusher that we needed Grandpa to come and decorate our site next time with all the stuff he has for his haunted houses. It was really getting dark early since time change was only 2 days away so I was careful to stay on the sidewalks while riding around. Even so I nearly got hit from other bikers that didn’t have any reflectors or lights on while riding. I stopped by the campfire and roasted one marshmallow then left. It’s no fun without others there, after all it is a group activity. I went back to the RV and we watched a movie before going to bed.

Friday morning Little CurbCrusher and I looped after breakfast. We went and visited the Settlement store and toured all the loops looking at the decorations. Finally we ended up at the cabin pool which has stayed 6 ft deep but they have new lounge chairs and a hot tub now. After that we went to the Whispering Canyon (at the Wilderness Lodge) for lunch. They didn’t do much antics as we were there early. Just the hobby horse ride but my camera was jammed so I didn’t get a picture of it. Lunch cost $34 so we won’t be doing that again soon. We decided to go to the pool when we got back and just as we were leaving CurbCrusher pulled up so he came with us. The day was so hot, I think it was in the mid 90’s all weekend. Not what you want for October. We looped a little bit after the pool and got back in time to see the golf cart parade after we ate dinner. There were quite a few really cool carts. People are so creative. We decided we want to rent a cart next year so we can participate too. After that we went to Downtown Disney to trick or treat and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people there. CurbCrusher had to let us out so he could find a parking space. They had 23 stations set up and a few had already run out of candy. Later on we went to the beach to watch the fireworks and water parade, then we wandered over to site 114 to look at their decorations. As CurbCrusher was taking pictures with our new Canon, Little CurbCrusher and I and saw the headless horseman come from the woods and go into the enclosure behind the store. None of my pictures came out so good though.Then we came back and went to bed.

Saturday we had breakfast and walked the loops looking at the decorations. A lot of people had left on Friday and new ones had filled up the Fort. At 11 am we went to the dog park to watch the pet parade. I felt sorry for the pets as most of them didn’t like wearing a costume. They were all cute though. Afterward we left to go to Downtown Disney and eat at Earl of Sandwich and Ghiradelli for dessert and walk around the stores. It wasn’t as busy in the daytime but I bet Saturday night was just as crowded as Friday. We took it easy for the rest of the day reading, biking, and walking around. We had dinner and got ready to trick or treat as it started at 5 pm. There were a few early ones and CurbCrusher walked with Little CurbCrusher around our loop and I took her around the 1200 and 1100 loops. We came back and left the candy and all walked around the 1000, 900, 800, 700, 100, 200, and 400 where the DisBoarders were going to have a party later and then back to 600. By then we were pooped and decided not to go to the party. We handed out the rest of our candy and called it a night. The kids across were hiding in the bushed and scaring people when they came around the corner until they made a little girl cry and their parents made them stop. We watched another movie and then went to bed.We heard sirens and found out later that a golf cart had flipped over and had hurt a 4 year old girl. She was in ICU for a few days with head trauma.

Sunday we looped a few times after breakfast then came back to pack up and get ready to leave. There was so much to do that we didn’t do everything on the schedule. There was a mummy wrapping contest and games, pumpkin carving, and Bingo that we didn’t get to try. There’s always next year, since this was so much fun we think it will become an annual Halloween tradition.

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September 8, 2009 by steve.

Labor Day weekend, and we headed up Florida’s second oldest settlement, St. Augustine (for the oldest see here) and the Anastasia State Park that is located in the city. It had been two years since we had camped at Anastasia, so it was time to go back. This was also a Florida Pop-up Camper (FPUC) gathering, and it had been a few months since we’d camped with our FPUC friends. Combine all that with a holiday weekend and the beach, and you’ve got yourself a good time.

Camping - Anastasia has somewhere around 140 camp sites, of which about 20 are probably big enough to put a 35 foot rig into based on the information on Reserve America. We camped in site 123, which is the same site we had two years ago. The sites have water and electricity (30 Amp), and there is a 3 lane dump station at the campground exit. The roads are a bit tight, and there are some sites that are probably deep enough to park in, but if you have a towable you may find yourself doing a bit of maneuvering to get into the site. Most of the sites are very shady, and the vegetation around the sites serves as a good wind break, so you do not get the direct wind off the Atlantic like you do at campground that are right on the beach. The campground is about a quarter to a half mile from the beach. You can easily walk or ride a bike, or drive up and park with the day use folks to use the beach. There is a store/snack bar at the beach parking lot, Island Joe’s, that has wi-fi along with souvenirs and basic camp supplies.

Stuff To Do - At the park you can go to the beach, or hike the two trails that are on the park property. There is also a water sports concession that is on the lagoon where you can rent sailboats and kayaks to roam around the lagoon. In addition, on Saturday morning, there is a farmers market at the St. Augustine Amphitheater which is located adjacent to the park just south of the park entrance.

If you are willing to leave the park, there is the entire City of St. Augustine to visit. This includes the lighthouse , which is located just north of the park off A1A. You can climb the lighthouse (as we did) and tour the old keepers cottage.
There is also the Castillo de San Marcos, the Spanish Fort that was built to defend the city. If you time your visit right, you can see them fire the cannons in addition to touring the fort.
We did something new this trip and visited Fort Mose State Historical Site, which is just north the Castillo on US 1. Fort Mose is just a site, there is no fort left. This is the location of the first settlement of free Africans in the New World. The story of how the Spanish King offered freedom to any escaped slaves that converted to Catholicism is told in historical markers and a small interpretive center. You can walk out on a boardwalk and see the location where the fort was, but since it was primarily earthworks, there is nothing left.

We had a great weekend, and enjoyed visiting with our FPUC friends and hanging out on the beach and soaking up the great history in St. Augustine. Pictures of the park are here.

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August 12, 2009 by steve.

The second weekend in August and Florida is hot. Hot and humid. There is no better way to beat the Florida summer than a visit to one of the natural springs in Florida. So with that in mind, we headed up to Chiefland, Florida and Manatee Springs State Park. The park is located at the end of State Road 320 about six miles west of US 19/27/98 on the Suwannee River. With a constant water temperature of 72 degrees, its the perfect way to cool off from the summer heat.

The campground is organized into two main loops, along with two small fingers that stick up off one loop, and has 100 sites with water and electricity. A number of the sites are tent only, and another group are for smaller rigs. Details of the campground, along with links to pictures of the larger sites can be found here. The road through the Magnolia camping area is pretty tight, nothing that is not negotiable, but you will definitely be looking to make sure you’ve left enough room on both sides of the rig for trees. It would probable be a little more unnerving pulling a trailer or fifth-wheel, as you have to remember that the trailer can turn inside you. The sites are true to their sizing on map, and it was fairly easy to back the motorhome in and park.

It is just a short walk from the campground to the spring head where you can swim, or just sit in the cool water and enjoy the coolness. From the spring head there is a short run to the river, but you can not swim out into the river. There is a boardwalk that runs along the springs run, with a dock in the Suwannee from which you can fish at the end. The water is extremely clear in the spring and the run, making it possible to look all the way to the depth of springs, and see fish and turtles along the run. During the winter months there is no swimming, and the manatees make their way up the river and hang out in the springs. There is a good bit of scuba diving going on at the spring head, and at Catfish Hole.

Only scuba divers are allowed in Catfish Hole, and it servers as the access to a large underwater cave system. Catfish Hole is kind of cool as it is entirely covered (or at least was when we were there) by what appears to be a green slime. It is actually all the seeds and droppings from the trees that surround the sink, and they float on the top of the water. As divers breathe and exhale under the water (where you can’t see them), their bubbles rise and break the surface, and create little holes in the green covering of the water. Eventually, as the divers surface, the bubbles rise more quickly and open the water up where the divers then surface, looking like the creature from the “green” lagoon. A pull through site in the Hickory camping loop overlooks this sink, and we think that is the site we are going to try and get on the next trip.

In addition to hanging around Manatee Springs, we headed up the road a few miles to Fanning Springs State Park. In addition to trying to visit as many state parks as possible, we had heard that there was a dive platform at Fanning Springs so we wanted to try it out. Fanning Springs has some cabins, but no camping and is a fairly nice spring that is located very close to the Suwannee. Boaters pull up to the dock that surrounds the swimming area from the river and tie up and take a dip. The dive platform was OK, but no where near as high (or as much fun) as the one we found at Madison Blue Springs last summer when we camped at Suwannee River State Park.

Overall it was a great weekend, with cool water, in a great park. We’ve put Manatee Springs on our go back to list. We will probably try and make the next trip during the winter so that we can see the manatees. Pictures of our time at Manatee Springs State Park are here, and Fanning Springs pictures are here.

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July 29, 2009 by steve.

Well with one weekend left in July the CurbCrusher’s headed for beach. Not far from home, just a little bit north of Daytona Beach near Flagler Beach is the Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area. This is a beach park because that’s about all there is to the park. The campground is located on the East side of A1A and the check-in and administrative offices are located on the west side of A1A. So when you arrive, you turn west, go to the ranger station and check in. There is a small road that leads to a circle where you turn around and head back out of the park. When you reach A1A, you look both ways and hurry across the road to the campground area and small day use parking area. There is a locked gate that you then go through, and find yourself in a fairly simply laid out campground. There is one road down the middle, and sites located on either side of the road.

The campground has 34 campsites, one bath house and a dump station. About half the sites are on the beach side of the campground road, and the other half back up to A1A. There are dunes and vegetation between the sites and the beach, and a good bit of vegetation between sites and the road. Some of the dune side sites have a decent view, and there is enough room on the road and the sites to pull in forward in a motorhome so that you could fill the windshield with beach. One note of warning though, they are fairly strict about not showing any lights toward the ocean after dark because of the sea turtles. As far as amenities, it is fairly basic, there is electricity and water. Behind the bathhouse is a boardwalk over to the beach, and an outside shower to remove the salt and sand. Not a lot more to say about this park. If you like the beach, and your goal is to be on the beach, this is probably one of the best state parks where you can accomplish that. Pictures of Gamble Rogers are here.

We spent a good bit of time at the beach, but also went wandering around the area. A few miles north of Flagler Beach there is another state park, the Washington Oaks Gardens State Park. There is no camping at this park, but it has a very nice garden on the river that was established back when this is was a private residence, and a coquina rock beach on the Atlantic. While it was ok to do in the July heat, I have a feeling that the gardens would be a fantastic place to visit during the spring when it is cooler and things are blooming. Pictures of Washington Oaks are here.

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July 16, 2009 by steve.

As noted elsewhere in this blog, Lady CurbCrusher is a lighthouse fan and one of the only lighthouse in Florida that she has not seen is the Cape Canaveral Light. This primarily because the lighthouse is located on the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is closed to the public. Through some means, Lady CurbCrusher found that a free tour is offered the second Wednesday of each month (more here, then follow the tours link) that visits the Air Force Space and Missile Museum, and then stops as the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse.

The tour is three hours long (queue Gilligan theme here), and depending our your tour guide, might really feel like six or seven. The tour starts with everyone gathering at the gate to the Cape Canaveral Air Station by 0845. A bus will arrive from Patrick Air Force Base, and your two IDs will be checked and everyone gets on the bus. The tour will then meander around the Air Force Station, driving past a couple of launch complexes, and you will find yourself at the Museum.

The Museum consist of two buildings, the old blockhouse, and a facility next door, and a rocket garden that are all located on an old launch complex. Inside the blockhouse is a launch control room with computing equipment that is fresh from the 1950’s. One exhibit is labeled “Data Printer” and looks like an old Underwood Typewriter with a serial and power cable attached to it. Punched tape (not even magnetic tape) drives labeled as data collection and storage devices, and the analog clock faces that served as a countdown and mission clocks. Even if you’re not a rocket fan, the display of historical technology is pretty cool. The building next to the block house has various photos, and some references to the populations that lived in the area before the space race took over the Cape, and the rocket garden has a number of static displays.

The next stop was the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse. The lighthouse is located about a mile from the actual coast, moved to this spot in 1894 to keep the lighthouse save from beach erosion (which oddly enough has not happened). This lighthouse is made out of iron, so moving it was a matter of taking it apart, and then reassembling it in the new location. Unlike most lighthouse, this one was created with four lower floors for living space (which were never used for that purpose), and then the stairs continue on up the top of the lighthouse. If the Friends of the Lighthouse are present, then the bottom four floors will be open and you can wander through them, otherwise this just becomes a stop on the tour. We were lucky, since the lighthouse folks were there during our tour, so we were able to climb the four floors and talk to the volunteers about the lighthouse and its history.

After this, its back on the bus for some serious touring. A lot of Cape Canaveral is simply launch complexes, and apparently the Air Forces and NASA don’t seem too keen on re-using old launch complexes. So much of the this part of the tour is riding past a concrete pad, maybe a blockhouse structure, that is all overgrown with vegetation and the guide saying “This is launch complex X.” There are 40 something launch complexes and I think our guide wanted to make sure we saw everyone one of them. This is were having a good guide would have probably made a difference. If you had someone that had stories about the launch complexes, and was familiar with them, it could be interesting. We apparently drew the guy who could read the signs “Here is launch complex 23.”

The final stop is Hanger R. The Space and Missile Museum folks have a number of missiles and training artifacts that are stored in this hanger, and maybe more importantly there are facilities (after all the last ones you saw were at the Museum two hours earlier). You can walk around and touch the exhibits and take pictures to your hearts content.

Finally, three hours after it starts, the bus pulls back up in front of the gate to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and lets you off at your car.
Links to pictures of the Lighthouse and Space Museum.

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July 2, 2009 by steve.

Off in the RV again for a weekend. This time a short trip up the road from home for the CurbCrushers, to Kelly Park just north of Orlando in Apopka, Florida. Less than a year ago, in August of 2008, we took the short ride up to Kelly Park and had a great time, so we put it on our list for this summer.

Not a lot has changed, the springs are still there and pumping out water, and its a great way to spend a day. Take your tube to the head of the springs, and then just float your way down the run until you get to the end, repeat. There are about eight or nine lifeguards along the runs and the swimming area, so everyone should feel save. The park fills up fast with day visitors on the weekend, so it is great to be camping since you can avoid having to deal with parking and just get in the springs. Since this part of Florida (actually, I think most of Florida) features afternoon thundershowers, camping at the park means that when the life guards chase you out, you just head back to the RV for a nap. Then a couple of hours later you wander back over after the storms lifted. A large number of the day use folks flee the park when the storms come, so it is much less crowded in the afternoon.

The campsites are pleasant, there are 26 of them. All but about five or six have water and electricity. Access to water and electric can be just about anywhere on your campsite, so make sure you have an extension cord and hose with you. This last trip our water was on the passengers side toward the rear, and the electric right where you’d expect it at the rear on the right. The campground loop road and the campsites are packed dirt, but they seem to shed water fairly well in the rain, and each campsite has a concrete pad. The staff said they had cleared out the brush around the campsites since our last visit, and this may well be true, but I don’t think it changed the dimensions of the campsites, which is not a problem since most will accommodate at least a 35 - 40 foot rig. One thing that has changed is that you are no longer able to reserve a specific site. You make a reservation for a type of site (water and electric or water only) and a site will be assigned to you when you arrive. This wasn’t a problem as we fit easily in the site assigned.

Pictures of trip are here.

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June 19, 2009 by steve.

“…so we loaded up the RV and headed to James Island…..” OK, so I shouldn’t mess with the lyrics to the Ballad of Jed Clampet. But the CurbCrushers did load up the RV and head to Charleston, South Carolina the first weekend of June to spend a week. Lady CurbCrusher has been wanting to go to Charleston for a couple of years. Last year she started talking about a place to stay, the James Island County Park Campground and Cottages. This county park is located just across the river from Charleston on James Island, has full hook-up, a water park, dog park, bike trails, a dock and a rock climbing wall. I think I remembered everything.

Driving
Before you enjoy the park though you have to get there. It was about an eight hour drive north from Orlando and started as a nice overcast drive. Once we hit Jacksonville the thunderstorms started, and for the most of the trip up I-95 we drove in and out of storms and rain. Once we arrived in Charleston, we followed the GPS and found ourselves driving down a couple of narrow roads. You first turn off of US-17 onto Folly Road, which is a four lane road, but it feels extremely narrow. The telephone poles are right next to the road, creating the feeling that you are going to rip off your right side mirror if you stay in the right lane. Then you turn down Central Park Road, which has lots of tree. None are to low, but I sweated the entire mile or so we were on that road. We left by a different path, traveling on Riverland Drive to Maybank Highway to Main Road to get to US-17. While a bit further, it was a much less stressful drive.

This trip also marked the first trip where we averaged over 7 MPG for the whole trip. It was roughly three-fourths of a tank of gas each way, averaging 7.5 MPG on the way up and 7.05 on the return trip. The entire MPG experience with the motorhome is documented here.

The Park and Campground
Arrival and set up was easy enough. You drive into the park past the fee collection booth, and then drive to the campground where you actually check in. The check in process is typical and quick enough. The campground has over 120 sites, and is laid out with plenty of room to turn, and wide enough streets that you can maneuver while backing up. The campground roads are paved, and the campsites are a packed gravel/dirt. All but five of the sites are full hook-up, and fairly deep and wide, so it’s easy to get into and out. There are 30 and 50 amp plugs in the electrical box, and the water and sewer were located on the back drivers sides of the campsite, so there is no need for extension cords or extra hoses. I did notice that some trailers which have forward sewage ports did have to use some long sewer hoses.

This campground is full of families, so there are lots of kids around on their bikes, trikes and scooters during the day. Since there seem to be mostly families, it was very quiet at night, no parties or loud groups gathered. There is a lot of turnover in this campground, and it also seemed like there were a lot of people that moved from site to site each day. I think there was one motorhome we saw on four different sites over four days. I guess if you don’t book early enough, you have to move each day if you want to stay.

There is plenty to do in the park also. The park contains a dog park, a large section set aside for people to let their dogs off leash and run. I don’t think there was a time that we were driving in or out of the park that there weren’t people at the dog park. The dog park has lake frontage, which a number of people were fishing in at all hours of the day, and on Saturday there were folks racing remote controlled sailboats in the lake. The park rents kayaks and paddle boats, which wander the lake, and the small kayak slalom course that is on a canal area. There are a number of nice long bike paths, and the park rents bikes also. The playground is very new, and got the Little CurbCrusher Seal of Approval as a “Great Playground!” There is also a dock on the river, where you’ll find people crabbing and fishing.

Of course in the summertime you want to get wet, and there are a couple of options available to you at the park. There is a Splash Pad near the playground. The Splash Pad is an area with the rubber playground topping and water jets in the middle that shoot up like a fountain. A great place to go cool off. For $8.99 you can buy access to the Splash Zone, which is a water park that is inside the county park. The Splash Zone has two adult size water slides, a pool, a lazy river and a kids play area with another 3 or 4 kid’s size slides. The regular admission is $11.99 for non-county residents, but the campground store sells passes for campers for $8.99. We went on Tuesdays when you buy-one-get-one free, so all three of us went for about $21.00 (The buy-one-get-one doesn’t apply to the $8.99 price.)

If you prefer the beach, you can drive the fifteen minutes over to Folly Beach County Park. Admission is $7.00 per car load, but is waived if you are camping at the James Island County Park Campground. Just show your camping pass and they wave you in the gate.

The park is well known for being decorated at Christmas time, and there is evidence throughout the park of all the lighting that takes place. Since we enjoyed ourselves, and think the place is probably beautiful at Christmas, the CurbCrusher gang is tentatively planning on a return to the James Island County Park Campground just prior to Thanksgiving in 2010.

Pictures of the park are here.

Activities

There is a lot to do in Charleston. The CurbCrusher family alternated days at the park (where there was plenty to do) with trips to Charleston area attractions.

H. L. Hunley	The first submarine to successfully be used in combat. Used by the Confederates defending Charleston to sink one of the Union blockade ships, the Hunley was lost after the attack in 1864. In 1999 it was finally found and recovered. Since that time, it has been being restored and analyzed. You can take tours and see the actual vessel on Saturdays and Sundays. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed in the Hunley. The submarine is still in water, so you can only look down into the tank that it is kept in. Furthermore, their “museum” area and store are so intermingled, that I didn’t feel like there was as much history as there could have been.
Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site Pictures	The State of South Carolina has a historic site where settlers landed in 1670. There are cannon and musket demonstrations, a 1600’s replica ship and a museum (although I’m noticing that they’ve started calling these “interpretive centers” now). You walk through the park and can visit the small zoo area, and the archaeological dig. We brought our lunch, had a picnic and spent about three or four hours walking around.
Fort Sumter Pictures	I think most people will associate Charleston with Fort Sumter and the start of the War Between The States. Fort Sumter sits on an island in the middle of Charleston Harbor, and is a National Park (or Monument or some such designation that might not be a National Park, but it’s managed by the National Park Service, so there). At the foot of Calhoun Street in Charleston is a visitors center with an “interpretive center” (or museum) component. You can purchase tickets for a boat ride over to the fort and the boat departs from the dock behind the visitor center for a two and a half hour tour. It takes about 45 minutes to travel each way to the fort, and they give you an hour on the island. When you arrive at the Fort, a park ranger gives about a ten minute talk about the fort, its origins and history before, during and after the Civil War. You can listen to the ranger and then wander around the fort, or you can just start wandering. There is a another museum in the fort. Well worth the effort to make the trip.
Downtown Charleston Pictures	So what do you do after a cruise out to the Fort? Take a five mile hike through the streets of Charleston. We wanted to walk along battery street and admire the old houses, and Lady CurbCrusher wanted to see White Point Gardens. We also wanted to take the Gateway Walk (I could not find a functioning website with the map) that runs through a number of church yards and cemeteries. This would probably have been a great walk, but it was kind of ruined by the locked gates between the cemeteries and the poorly marked path through the cemeteries, which caused numerous detours. Finally, we hit Market Street and the Official Visitors Center before calling it a day.
Lighthouses Pictures	There are two lighthouses that are easy to see in Charleston, the Charleston Light on Sullivans Island and the Morris Island Light. the Charleston Light is about a mile from Fort Moultrie, and the Morris Island Light is just north of Folly Beach. You can drive right up the Charleston Light, but with Morris Island you drive to Folly Beach, make a left and drive ’till the road ends. Then you park and walk a quarter mile to see the lighthouse.
Fort Moultrie Pictures	Fort Sumter is not the only Fort in the Charleston Area. Fort Moultrie lies on the north side of Charleston Harbor and also took part in the Civil War. Some of the first shots at Fort Sumter were fired from Fort Moultrie. Fort Moultrie was first a fortification during the Revolutionary War, when it was built using palmetto logs. The Americans found out that the fibrous nature of palmetto logs absorbed cannon fire when they repelled a British attack on Charleston. Fort Moultrie is near the Charleston Lighthouse, and near the spot the Hunley launched from the night of its fateful mission.
Folly Beach Pictures	Well, we did spend one day lazing around the beach. We went to the Folly Beach County Park and played in the sand and surf. Not a lot to say about the beach. The entire CurbCrusher gang is made up of native Floridians, so we may be a bit biased, but we haven’t been to a non-Florida beach in the Continental US that is better than the worst beach we’ve been to in Florida. Not saying we didn’t have a good time, just that it’s not much to write about.
Charleston Tea Plantation Pictures	The only “tea garden” in America, or so the sign says. South of the campground down Maybank Road, lies the Charleston Tea plantation. We spent a couple of hours, and took the tour. While not really exciting, it was educational. For instance we did not know that tea comes from camellia plants, and it was interesting to see how they harvest and process the leaves in order to make tea.

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May 10, 2009 by steve.

On our way home from Gold Head Branch State Park, we stopped in Palatka at Ravine Gardens State Park. This is a park that began life as a city park, and then was turned over to the state when the city could not maintain it any more. While we drove the RV to the park as we headed home, I would suggest that you not do that. There is really no RV parking at the park, and you wind your way through a number of small city streets trying to get to the park, especially if you follow your GPS.
The park is a set of gardens that are situation around a ravine that has been cut by a stream that flows from a spring into the St. Johns River. There is a 1.8 mile road that winds through the park, or you can walk across and around on the various trails that work their way through the park, crossing two suspension bridges. Even though it was a very warm day (temperature in the upper 80s) when we were there, getting down on the floor of the raving and walking around was a cooling and pleasant experience. There is an Azalea Festival in March/April at this park, and I imagine that the place is absolutely gorgeous then.

All our pictures of Raving Gardens are here.

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March 9, 2009 by steve.

Well combine a business trip to Denver and a couple of free tickets on Southwest Airlines and what do you get, an impromptu CurbCrusher ski vacation. To end the month of February and start March, the CurbCrusher gang ditched the RV and hopped on a plane and then drove a bit and spent five days at the Keystone Ski Resort in Colorado.

Lodging –

We found a condo in the Buffalo Lodge located in the River Run area of Keystone through Summit Cove Properties on the web. The price was very reasonable, and the location was great. We were about a five minute walk from the Gondola so it was easy to head out skiing the morning, take a lunch break and head back out after lunch. At the end of the day, we took a short walk and were “home” for the evening. We had a one bedroom unit that had a king-size bed in the bedroom and a murphy bed in the great room area. There was plenty of room for all three of us. the kitchen was good sized and well equipped, so we were able to cook all our meals in the condo. The condo was on the fifth floor, so we had a decent view of the River Run Village and the side of the mountain.
Our only real complaint about the lodging was the key system they had in use. We were issued two different electronic keys, one for the room and another for the common areas (lobby, ski lockers, garage, hot tubs, etc). The common area keys were awful. The first keys issued got us into the garage and up to the room. When we returned after getting our skis later that day, the common area keys would not let us in the garage or the lobby. So we went back to the rental office and got new ones. The new ones would not let us in the garage, but one of them would let you in the lobby. So we called the rental office. A representative came out and gave us two new keys that worked, well sort-of. Over the next four days we found that sometimes they worked and sometimes they didn’t. It was lucky that we had two common area keys and patience , because sometimes after 10 or 15 tries with one key, the other one would work on the fifth try. It sort of became a joke as to whether we’d be able to get back in or not.

Activities – And of course by this we pretty much mean skiing. We spent most of our days skiing at Keystone, and with Little CurbCrusher we spent most of the first three days on the green slopes. Finally on the last day, Little CurbCrusher wanted to zip down the blues in front of us, making the old people work hard to catch up. Night skiing is available at Keystone, but it feels a big dangerous. It’s not because the runs aren’t lit, it has to do with the people zipping down the mountain that don’t seem to be paying much attention. The slow ski zones and caution seem to be discarded once the sun goes down, and with the slopes being a bit emptier, folks are more willing to take chances and you feel like you’re going to get run down in the dark. In our four days of skiing, the only time we saw the Ski Patrol hauling anyone off the mountain was Saturday night. The final day we spent about three hours skiing over at Arapahoe Basin, which is only about four or five miles from Keystone. A-basin was a great place to ski. Very wide runs and a lot of fun. The day we were there was fairly warm with the temperatures in the upper 40’s and lower 50’s, so it was very comfortable skiing. I think a couple of us even ended up with goggle face.

One evening we went Tubing at Keystone. A couple of years ago we’d been tubing at Steamboat, where the tubing was on a beginners ski slope, and that was pretty much what we’d expected here. No, Keystone’s tubing is more like a toboggan run. They’ve got tube runs that are iced down, and very steep. The ride probably last 20 - 40 seconds, but you are moving. Then you get to ride a “magic carpet” lift back to the top. We probably got about eight or nine runs in during our hour on the tubing hill. There are also a couple of lanes where you can go down up to five at a time. It was a blast whether you went down tied to someone else’s tube or by yourself.

Equipment Rental – Since part of the purpose of this blog is to tell our travel stories, I’ve included this and the next section on ground transportation, because both are important when you go to Colorado to ski. We rented our skis from Mountain View Sports in Keystone. There were a short drive from the condo, but located in the same shopping plaza as the lodging rental company, Summit Cove. Their prices were great, about 40% off what we had seen online at the other places located at Keystone, and free rental of a kids package when an Adult rental. My skis were ok, but looked like they had been repaired with a fiberglass repair kit in a couple of places. Lady CurbCrusher’s skis, when held together looked like they had spent a good amount of time riding a bull they were so bowed. I don’t know what fare the other rental places offer, but you seem to get what you pay for at Mountain View.

Ground Transportation — One of the choices we faced when making the trip was how to get from Denver International Airport (DIA) to Keystone. In the past we have always tried to avoid driving in winter conditions, assuming that it is best left to the folks that live there. However, this time our cheapness (or is it frugality, that sounds better) got the best of us. When pricing the shuttle van rides on the internet, the best we could do was about $150 per person round trip from DIA to Keystone. At worst a car was going to cost the same $450, plus give us the freedom to do some grocery shopping on our way up (a half-gallon of milk in the Keystone “grocery” store was $4.00, at the Super-Walmart in Denver on the way up a whole gallon was only $2.29). With a little bargain hunting and daily watching of the prices we were able to get an SUV class (it turned out to be a Suzuki XL-7) from Advantage Rent-a-Car for over $150 less than what the shuttle van would have cost. So we rented the car, stopped at the Super-Walmart that is about 10 miles from DIA (and thus saved a bunch more on groceries for the week) and then headed up to the mountains. The drive is mostly on I-70, followed by about 12 miles on US-6. There were snow showers and freezing temperatures on our way up, and it was sunny and warm on our way down. The Colorado Department of Transportation does a great job clearing the roads, so even though there was some limited visibility on the way up, the road was fairly clear and the drive was non-eventful. I wouldn’t want to drive the RV in those conditions, but it was not uncomfortable driving the car, it just required paying a lot more attention to what I was doing. The trip is about 80 - 90 miles and we completed drive in under two hours each time. Apparently there are times when the tunnels back up and road conditions can make it a three or four hour trip, but if you are a competent motorist, there’s not reason not to drive yourself.

All in all, the CurbCrushers had a fantastic, week. It was nice to get back to Florida and the warmer temperatures and even more importantly the humidity. We’ve discovered that were a family that likes our humid Florida air, and too much time in the dryness of the west sucks the moisture out of our bodies and leaves us feeling like sandpaper. All that’s left are our pictures of Keystone and Arapahoe (I think there are some videos in these picture sets too.)

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