Savannah, Georgia

Nov 5 - 12, 2012 Weather at beginning of the week was cool, low 60's and 39 at night; warmed up every day as the week went 78 and low of 55
From reading we know that the downtown historical Savannah is the same era as Charleston so it will be nice to explore.  This time we thought it would be fun to do a walking tour so we met "Savannah Dan" downtown at the Johnson Square by the Sundial....    What a personality this fellow is.

You can't miss him - he is 6'5" wears a Seersucker Suit with a bow tie and a stylish straw hat.    Well it was such a great way to spend two hours walking the historic squares district with him and a few others - he is a wealth of information on old Savannah and you are intrigued into his conversation while his stories make you want to know more! 

Owens Thomas House - National Historic Landmark

The city was laid out in the 1700's in squares parallel to the river.  Property along the river was for the working port area and today it has been turned into a touristy riverfront and down river there is still one of the largest working ports in the U.S. today.   Just a block away from the river the squares start and ingeniously there are 4 civic areas and then 4 residential areas; these kept multiplying as the city grew.  The troops would train in the 'green' squares and camp there and it also allowed for a buffer zone if fires sprang up in the city.  It kept growing till there were 24 squares and those are all public park areas today and have statues in honor of prominent Savannah heroes, or water fountains of beauty.  Truly a unique layout of the city which really beautifies it.

One thing we Northerner's find strange is the fact that Savannah and other old Southern cities developed over top of ancient cemeteries and thus there are stories of hauntings because of this.  There is an old Indian burial mound that was unearthed in one of the squares, which is bad mojo.....   and another city block that was a Jewish cemetery which is totally gone except for a single stone memorial!  Now you know those souls are restless......

St. John the Baptiste Cathedral

The city has many, many great restaurants and more than enough history to last you for days.   There have been many movies and books based in the city as well.   I have heard so much in the last few days of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" (book and movie)  that I can't wait to read it.

Praline + Bearclaw

As in every local there are certain specialties and Georgia and Savannah are know for their Pecan Pralines.   Along the streets you will see many candy stores which you cannot resist...  when you enter you get a sampling which leads you to the counter to get a box of goodies.  Gosh this was not suppose to be our lunch!!!  We had to stop taking bites and get ourselves into a restaurant.    

Big Daddy ?

Nov 5 -12, 2012

Is that you Big Daddy?

We moved down the coast into Georgia and are staying close to Savannah in the KOA Savannah South Campground.  The setting is nice with big trees and the moss hanging down, there is even a little lake here.  We took a look and found a long lost friend is here - "Big Daddy".    As we got closer to him he marched out of the water and demanded his crackers!!!  Billy thinks it is a younger cousin as he is not quite as big as our own Big Daddy back at the Cove; but definitely related since he had that bossy side of him.

View from the Bunkies -nice

Bourne Bus nestled under the trees

The Low Country & Charleston, South Carolina

Oct 29 - Nov 5, 2012  Sunny everyday high 60's to low 70's, cool at night about 40.

The road into our campground was a little unsettling.  There are some very low lying branches and the hanging spanish moss gives it a closer feeling to the motorhome as you ride underneath.  Apparently if coming thru after a rainstorm it can cause some trouble at about 12 to 12 1/2 feet.  It was ok but it did feel like we were just sneaking thru.  Oh joy we have to go out the same road when we leave on Monday!

We are staying on James Island at the County Campground, a peaceful setting within the city area with miles of paved bike/walking trails.   The park offers a shuttle to downtown and to the Folly Beach fishing Pier for a nominal fee.  Both are very handy if you don't want to bother with parking and driving in peak seasons or if you don't have a toad.
This Low Country area is water and sea grass marshes; with meandering rivers and one island beside the next island and bridges taking you from one piece of land to the next. 
We found the longest fishing pier on Folly Island which is taken care of by the village.  It's a big surfing area as well in the summer months.   They had the funniest street name for the one bordering the Atlantic - it was pretty breezy out there that day and cool too.

Charleston is steeped in history with century old plantations along the river banks.  Charles Town was a great port town and had the first shot of the American Civil War explode over its harbour.  The nice thing about the historic downtown area is a number of free trolleys run through the streets taking you to the different areas, Museum Mile, Antique District, City Market, The Battery, Rainbow row, Meeting and Broad Street Antebellum Homes.  A water taxi will take you to Fort Sumter and Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum.

We had recently watched an episode of HGTV showing a home on Broad Street  that was 200 years old and been refurbished into original design by a couple for over $5,000,000 (that was the renovation costs to date).  The property is prime and expensive and then it is old and needs continuous refurbishment.  The owner on the show explained that it was a nice project for his wife while he was working!!!   

Driving out along Ashley River are several plantations for visiting, some are still in original condition and some are restored. 

Down on Wadmalaw Island there is the only Tea Plantation in the US,  American Classic Tea - we learned how they cut the new shoots up to 7 times in a summer season and how they process it into 3 grades of tea - green, oolong and black.  Free sampling was nice, usually we do sampling that involves alcohol :)

One day after leaving the tea farm we headed out to Kiawah Island since we had read there were 7 championship style golf courses including the Ocean course where they held the 2012 PGA championship. 

When driving a mile or two in we were stopped at a gate to check if we were allowed onto the island community.... we suggested we would like to go in for some lunch which we could get a guest pass for however; not on a motorcycle.   We laughed and told the guard well that was ok, we had been thrown out of better places!  This gated community was the elite and selected by the size of your bank account.  Well we tried!

The Perfect Bus

We are in Charleston for the week and the weather is sunny and clear of the storm.  Cruising around the campground Billy found the perfect RV.  He said when he gets home he is going to see his bank manager for a loan so he can get one of these too!!  It's a beautiful Prevost with a matching trailer.  We have seen a few of these in the last year but this one was by far the nicest rig.  In the trailer they had a Rolls Royce....... well of course they did!

Evacuation at Cedar Point Campground

Oct 26  Grey but warm 74  Oct 27 Windy, showers 68
When we returned to our campsite the campground host was visiting every site informing all that as of tomorrow Oct 27 the campground was to be evacuated due to Hurricane Sandy.  She advised us not to stay on the coast either north or south of this area as it would have the same low lying issues for flooding and wind damage. 
Phew!!!!   That was a first for our camping experience.  Most campers were leaving today as well.   On our way out of town (which was not a panic and looked like just another day in these local peoples lives)  we saw about a dozen military vehicles and trailers coming in on highway 24.   We heard later that the National Guard were moving in to prepare for after the storm to assist in cleaning up.
Looking at the map we did not have too many options except to head back up to Smithfield, NC which would be out of the way of any potential weather disasters.  We knew the KOA was a good place to hunker down so back we went for the weekend.   We are in a safe place and watching the Weather Channel for continuous updates like most of everyone else on the East coast and our Canadian friends too.    Once it clears in the early part of next week we will head down to Myrtle Beach. 
Today was a good day for reading and baking and fixing little things in the motorhome.  And looking at our pics from the ride and updating the blog.  Had to add this one,,, so many of the pickups on the Outer Banks and Carolina Coast had all their fishing rods and coolers mounted on the front !!!  We found it quite comical.  Would it be a bit annoying trying to look at that while driving, ha ha.

Outer Banks, North Carolina

Oct 25 Sunny 80+   next day Oct 26 Grey and Foggy 70

Overnight Trip from Cedar Point to Outer Banks then back to the mainland and looped back from Washington.  452 miles, yikes!!! we did not realize it was that far.  I know we should have run the miles on mapquest.com to check.
We left at 8am to catch the 10am ferry at Cedar Island.  At first we thought we had lots of time but it was farther than we anticipated; however no worries we got there with 30 minutes to spare.   Good thing as it only holds 40 vehicles and it looked pretty full when we pulled up.   There were at least 8 motorcycles going too.  The crossing was 2 hours 25 minutes, only 24 miles.  We did not have to tie the bike down as it was smooth ferrying waters.

Billy checking our motorcycle

Once we landed on Ocracoke (pronounced Okra- coke) there is a very pretty little ocean side village but knowing we had only today to ride we did not stop to snoop around.  An interesting tidbit is that this is where Edward Teach - better known as Blackbeard the Pirate was killed.    This island is only 14 miles long and so away we went to the other end to catch the next ferry to Cape Hatteras and the Outer Banks.

 A couple of things we knew about this area were the famous black and white striped 208 foot brick lighthouse, which is the highest in the country and that just off these banks are the Graveyards of the Atlantic.  More than 1,000 ships have sank in these treacherous waters.  Amazingly they had to move the Lighthouse in 1999 from its original base as it was eroding into the ocean.  It was 4,830 tons to move, at $12 million dollars it only moved 2,900 feet and it took 22 days.  Wow! A modern engineering feat. 

Really the entire ride which is supposed to be scenic, was quite a disappointment for us.   You hardly ever see the Atlantic Ocean or the Pamlico Sound on the intercoastal side.  You travel for miles (about 60) through the Hatteras National Seashore only seeing sand dunes and sand dunes covered with vegetation.....  :( 

The Outer Banks are known for their unpainted stilt cottages tagged the Unpainted Aristocracy.  The property here must be worth a fortune. 
We continued on and crossed back to the mainland at Nags Head.  Kill Devil and Kitty Hawk are just ahead of the bridge crossing.   That is where the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane too.   But we ran out of time and had to keep heading around the loop, after a little bite to eat it was approaching 4 pm and we had another 100 miles to cover for a hotel room.    We found a good room in Washington, NC and in the morning headed back to our campground in Croatan National Forest.    It was quite a long ride and to be quite honest not one of our favorites for the views; however so much history is tied to this geographic location it nagged at us to visit.

Cedar Point - Croatan National Forest

Oct 24 & 25 Sunny 80 plus
We had an extremely hard time finding a mainland campground that we could use as a base to ride the Outer Banks, that suited what we were looking for.  After a few hours of searching the internet and scouring all our campground guides I remembered reading an article in Motorhome magazine about Beaufort, North Carolina and Beaufort, South Carolina.  Then it dawned on me that is very close to where we want to be so I found the magazine in our drawer ( yes I keep them in papercopy and we have them stashed in the motorhome - much to my husbands chagrin). 

Ah ha there is the article and they reference staying at the Croatan National Forest campground called Cedar Point.  I never think to look at State Parks and Army Corp Engineers and National Forests..... giving myself a kick.... I need to start looking at those.  You can reserve but we decided to pull in with a first come first serve hope to land a site as they keep 5 available.  The price is basically a donation to the forest of $17 a night and you leave it in an envelope box - which is on your honor - no one checks!  At this price it was perfect for us to leave on a ride overnight and stay at a hotel without incurring a lot of dollars.  There were 40 sites, all paved, all electric hookups and a few with water, no sewer.  We even got the only pull thru!!! 

Now our only concern is that Hurricane Sandy is on its way to the coast but it looks like we have a window of really nice sunny warm weather 3 days before it will hit,,,, which means we will leave and do our ride and be back to get the motorhome and be out of here before Sandy comes!

I40 East to Asheville, North Carolina and beyond

Oct 22 2012 Sunny 73 degrees

Tunnels through Smoky Mtn

 When you turn off at Knoxville to head east to the Carolina's the I40 is a good route; but just be prepared for a bit of downhill and winding interstate highway (about 20 miles) before you get into Asheville and again when you leave till Old Fort (16 miles).   The freeway runs right over the tail end of the Smoky Mountains and then drops again off the Pisgah National Forest.  A great stop in Asheville for camping is a suburb called Fletcher where the Rutledge Lake RV Park will give you a nice overnight or longer stay if you want to visit the area.

Rutledge Lake RV Park

We rode this area previously on the motorcycle and it is a very beautiful area to see.  A must visit is the Biltmore Estate and a ride along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  This time we are passing through - destination is the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

On our way leaving the park we spotted this old firetruck sitting at the yard next door!
The next overnight will be past Raleigh near Smithfield.  There is a great KOA with many, many pull thrus - very clean and convenient to grocery and supplies which we want to stock up on before reaching the coast.

Cumberland Falls, Kentucky

Oct 21/12  Sunny and warm 75

When you ride a motorcycle you are always checking for scenic drives and trails and roads that would be great on a bike.  Asking when you check-in at campgrounds and going through the brochures as well as the Harley dealerships is always a great source of information.  We also subscribe to Roadrunner Motorcycle Magazine and they do rides all across the country which they provide to you in tankmaps + digital GPS files.  One other favorite of our is www.motorcycleroads.com.  So at check-in the owner gave us a brochure of Kentucky Scenic Trails which we ended up doing a couple of the suggestions..... well worth it.

Cumberland Falls Trail, also known as "the dog" was our venture out today.  We took highway 90 west, then down 27 and jumped back on 478 east.  The brochure said to take 92 east but I found this hwy 478 on the internet on mapquest and it looking inviting.  Inviting means twisting, winding, swooping curves and up and down.  OH it was!!!
Cumberland Falls is known as the mini Niagara Falls of the south and has the only moonbow in North America.  A moonbow is a lunar rainbow.... so when it is a full moon and a clear night you will see a rainbow in the dark at the base of the falls.  Well we didn't stay till night especially with these curving backroads !   But we still saw a rainbow :)

Corbin, Kentucky Original Fast Food Restaurant KFC

Oct 20, 2012  Overcast and cool 59 was the high

Sanders Cafe

 The sun just could not break through today but we were die hards and put on all our black leathers to head out for a motorcycle ride.
This area is in the Daniel Boone National Forest. We picked up a Scenic Driving Trails brochure and took one of the small routes around Laurel River Lake.  Oh if that sun would have come out it would have been breath taking with the colours of the fall leaves; every shade of red and gold.  I did not take any pictures today cause I did not want to take off my nice warm gloves while we were riding. Sorry :(  Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and I will get them then.   One funny, cheesy thing we did was find the first fast food restaurant in America.  Colonel Harland Sanders and his Kentucky Fried Chicken started here in 1930.  He had a small gas pump, motel and restaurant on Hwy 25E.   When they came along and put in the Interstate 75 he decided not to let it deter him and he took his restaurants to the franchise level in  the 1950s.
When in Corbin you eat the chicken, so we got a couple of meals and sat down to the best KFC we have ever had...... it really was better than the chain stores at home.  There is some cool old memorabilia and rooms inside showing the Colonel's artifacts.

Rosey with her new friend

KFC

Kentucky Horse Park

Oct 18  Cooler about 63 and sunny - good day to take in the Kentucky Horse Park right next door to the campground.
Everyday there are shows to see and museums dedicated to horses and other live events.  This is definitely the place to come if you love horses.   Man O' War is buried here under his statue - he was such a big guy and there is a spot where you walk from post to post showing his gait length, something like 24 feet!!!  It's really his son War Admiral that had more accolades since he was a Triple Crown winner.

After we went over to see the International Horses show which is many of the different breeds of the world on display for you to watch and pet after.

Then inn the Big Barn,,,,, which yes of course is for the Budweiser Clydesdale's team you can get up close and personal to these beautiful giants.

Belgian

Many of the famous horses are brought here after their useful racing and stud life are over.   They are kept in a special barn for the "Champions" and are brought out for display.  They are certainly icons in their time.   Some of the stories of their lives are real "rags to riches" tales.  When we were at the track one of the fellows there told us about John Henry; he was purchased for $1100 and he went on to be the winning-est horse of over $6,500,000 dollars.   He has passed on but was kept in these stables for 22 years.

Funny Cide - first New York bred horse to win Kentucky Derby

Bluegrass Country Scenic Drive

Oct 17 Sunny and Warm about 73 Perfect Day for a Ride

 

Today we rode the bike on a  scenic tour through the surrounding countryside with magnificent horse ranches, it also had a stop at Keeneland Race Track where in April and October they have their Thoroughbred races.

As we followed the miles of fences through the countryside we realized that most of the barns that the horses live in are more ornate and stately than most of the houses back home.

Horse Barn

 
Well when you are putting a horse up that wins millions of dollars I guess they deserve a nice pad too!

Kentucky Horse Country

Oct 16, 17, 18  Lexington, Kentucky

We have heard so many good things about this RV park that we had to come and see for ourselves.  Kentucky Horse Park is a horse lovers dream.  The campground is a State Park and thus very reasonably priced.  Sites are a good size, all paved, all back-in.  Just enough room to swing our trailer sideways right in front of our motor home so we could let the door down to get the motorcycle out.
We would have booked in for the week but they are having a Halloween camping event this weekend and it is full to the brim.  In the States Halloween camping is a huge deal. 

Entrance to the Park

When you walk out the back of this park you can walk right into the Kentucky Horse Park complex.  Here you find the International Museum of the Horse, American Saddle bred Museum, Man O War Memorial, Hall of Champions and many polo fields, paddock barns, arenas and so forth.  Extremely well manicured. 

Dressage Arena

Starting the Cycle Again

Oct 15/ 2012 Windy, Windy, Windy Fall Day
Today the park we called our home base for the summer closed for the season.  Our time to leave felt right.  Just in the weeks past we attempted to see all the kids and the new grandchild and said quick goodbyes to family and friends till we fly back for Christmas.
Even though the Detroit Ambassador Bridge was a bad memory from our first trip away last year we decided with a year under our belt we would take it again.  Yes!  This time was much better, the lanes across the bridge were all open no jersey walls or cones to narrow us into threading the needle.
We also thought this year we are taking more groceries and alcohol.  When questioned by the customs officer we reported we had half a dozen bottles that were partial and about one case of beer - that was ok with him.   Vegetables and fruit?  We reported we had no seed type with us, just some lettuce and celery - that was ok with him too.  Meat?  Yes we had some lunchmeat and some frozen chicken - chicken is ok (but not beef, which we did not have).   He asked Billy to look in the trailer and then gave us back our passports and told us to have a good trip!!!!   Yeah, we were good to go and this time we will be able to have a beer when we stop.
There was a high wind advisory thru the night last night and it was still pretty gusty today however; we were only planning on going a couple of hours to Van Buren, Ohio.   The campground we hit last on the way home in the spring which is Pleasant View was a perfect stop to a short day.  It's quite a nice little spot and the best thing was that we were able to be reunited with our friends that we had many a Happy Hour in Aruba.   They just live a short drive away and came for a great visit - only thing missing was the ocean and the bunker bar :)   We had a great afternoon and night - Cheers to our friends the "Buckeyes".

View from our motorhome at Pleasant View

Liquor Bottle Huggers - crafty

When you are moving the last thing you want to hear is clinking in the cupboards.   Between the two of us we are forever asking each other "what is that noise?"  So one thing to improve this was a little project I finished recently for the Liquor Bottles.   I crocheted bottle huggers to fit exactly each one we have.  My husband thinks it is funny cause now we have to take these to the store with us when we need to replenish.  Silly it doesn't mean we can only buy ones the Huggers fit!!!!

Amaretto and Goldschlager

Bottle Huggers

Trip Summary East Coast of Canada

Miles on Coach 3,464  our girl is from the US so she does miles not kilometers.  Oh and the bike is from the US too.
Our longest day was 410 miles and our shortest was 82.
Miles on the Motorcycle touring  3,184 - almost as many as we did in the motor home.  Can you believe that? 
Weather was sensational - not too hot, and cool at night. Perfect for summer traveling and sleeping.  Only had 5 rain days mixed in the entire time.
Nights camping 44, had time left to go to Maine but decided we did not want to fuss with the border crossing and questions about our amount of liquor on board, vegetables, fruits and meat.  So that will have to be another trip.  (yeah)
No extra health insurance costs needed since we did not exceed our 60 day available coverage.   Just  need to be aware that OHIP means Ontario and if you leave make sure you have coverage.
Cost per night to camp $47.72, got a few free nights if we stayed 1 week in a spot.  On the ocean we paid as high as $74 a night + you had to pay another 50 cents to use their shower!!!  Billy was determined he was using all their amenities for that price and he came back and laughed about the shower.....
Diesel Fuel $1869 , price per gallon was .81 more than we paid through the winter in the U.S.   The cost per litre ranged from as low as 1.13 and as high as 1.31.  Definitely more in the East Coast than Ontario. 
We had a budget of $5000 and not including our groceries we hit $5272.  Maybe food was a bit more out there but we figure we buy food whether we are on the road or sitting in one spot so we don't add it into the mix.