WE ARE BACK ONLINE!

Hello family and friends!  We are finally back online.  We started the second leg of our journey heading north to Wyoming on June 10th.  We have had a great couple weeks with some mishaps and little to no service...no wifi for sure!  Julie's iPhone has been in and out but that is about it!

Let me first just give you all a quick recap....we spent 69 days on the road driving over 11000 miles around the east coast.  We visited family and friends, stayed in state parks, national parks, beaches, mountains, went caving, hiking, kayaking, biking, met some really cool people, discovered new places to return to and had to drive by others....we had a great time!  I know I got very far behind in the Blog.   Just to give you a feel for what we did here is an literary (* some of our favorites):

March 12  Des Moines, NM
March 13  Allen, Texas (stayed with Julie's cousin, Don Drury and family)
March 16 Johnson City, Texas (Pedernales Falls State Park)
March 17  Blanco, Texas (Blanco State Park)
March 18  South Padre Island, Texas (Isla Blanca RV Park)
March 19  Mustang Island, Texas (Mustang Island State Park)
March 22  near Winnie, Texas (Rest Area)
March 23 near Abbeville, Louisiana (Palmetto Island State Park) *
March 25 near St. Martinville, Lousiana (Lake Fausse Pointe State Park)
March 27 near New Orleans, Louisiana (Bayou Segnette State Park)
March 29 Ocean Springs, Mississippi (Gulf Islands National Seashore)
April 1  Gulf Shores, Alabama
April 2  Old Town, Florida
April 6  Homosassas, Florida
April 7  St Petersburg, Florida (Fort De Soto State Park) *
April 10  St. Augustine, Florida
April 12  Charleston, South Carolina
April 14  Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
April 17  Asheville, North Carolina (DuPont State Forest, Great Smoky Mountains National Park,   Chimney Rock State Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, Pisgah National Forest) *
April 22  Buena Vista, Virginia
April 23  New Market, Virginia (Endless Caverns / Luray / Shenandoah National Park)
April 26  Woodstock, New York (in the Catskill Mountains)
April 28  Wells, Maine
April 29  Bar Harbor, Maine (Acadia National Park) *
May 2  Littleton, New Hampshire (Fraconia Notch State Park) *
May 4  Gansevoort, New York (in the Adirondack Mountains)
May 5  Youngstown, New York (Niagra Falls)
May 7  Bay Village, OH (Patty's house, Rock n Roll Hall of Fame)
May 8  Marblehead, OH (East Harbor State Park)
May 10  Chesterton, Indiana (Indiana Dunes State Park, with Don's mother and brother Skylar)
May 12  Montello, Wisconsin  (stayed with Don's dad and stepmom; Devils Lake State Park, Wisconsin Dells)
May 15  Pipestone, Minnesota (Pipestone National Monument)
May 16  White River, South Dakota (Badlands National Park)
May 18  Lingle, Wyoming
May 19 HOME

Sorry for all the missed stories, highlight and lowlights....if I could go back and write about it all then I would,  but given we are currently in Montana it seems like it is all too late.  Someday we can share stories with you all!

Look for more updates on the West Coast soon!

On the home stretch...

So today we are heading home.  We are on I-25 south just out of Cheyenne.  It is so hard to believe that we have already made it all around the east coast and we will be sleeping at home tonight.  Many mixed emotions and if it weren't for the cruise and the immediate need to fix a few things and clean up the crap out of the van, I don't think we would be coming home at all.

We have crossed the border so we are back in colorful Colorado with over 11000 miles gone by.   Hope to see some of you before heading off out west.

I am really to go work on updating the blog before round 2 or else I will have to do something different.

Homosassas Springs and Crystal River

On Monday April 6th we finally left Old Town (Mayberry) and headed a short 100 miles south to Homosassas Springs.  On the way we stopped in at a dive shop to sign up and get details about our trip for the next day.  Then we went to the campsite (another RV park) where we quickly setup camp, had lunch and left to to Homosassas Springs Wildlife State Park, which someone had recommended to us.

Dogs were not allowed and we didn't want to leave Sheba in the car because it was warm.  Well, the park had free kennels we could leave her in.  Of course we had to ride the shuttle to the area for the kennel and then back to the park.  I am not sure who had a harder time with it....Don or Sheba.

The park turned out to really be more of zoo or wildlife sanitary, with an underwater observatory, than a regular state park.  We saw a bunch animals from manatee and alligators, to wolves, bear and bobcats, to flamingos and owls.

The underwater observatory

Even Don the manatee..

With better views of the all the animals....

Hmm....what was for breakfast?

After the park we went back to the RV park and went for a swim....believe it or not this was the first only open swimming pool of the east coast leg of our journey.  Not our favorite spot for camping, but  two big pluses....the pool and very close proximity to the bathroom.

Sheba snoozing under our neighbors trailer

We got up really early the next morning....I think it was 5:30, showered went back to the dive shop.  Our trip was a combo mantee snorkel and crystal springs cave dive.  Unfortunately it was a huge flop.     We boated around for quite awhile...trying to find the guaranteed manatee which was kind of a joke.  And when we did...the water was murky and the whole thing quite ridiculous....we were very thankful to have done the snorkeling with manatee a few days before.  The dive was better than the snorkeling but again....not all that.  Cold murky waters.  It was cool to be in the caves...but probably not worth hanging back here for a few days.  Don had really wanted to go diving in this area....well he did.  We left Sheba back at camp in the trailer so we rushed back, hooked up and hit the road.

Sorry these are all the shots we have from the excursion!

More time in Mayberry...

We stayed at Mayberry for a few more days, regretfully.  We look back now and we spent 5 days in that general part of florida, crystal river area of the gulf coast, and it was one of our least favorite spots and partially cost us time in the keys!  That said our next day, Friday April 4th was a good day! We spent the kayaking in and around Cedar Key!

Sheba...the driving dog....driving us over the ferry!

Our kayaking trip was fun....while no real alligator sighting, Don did have a good size one swim under his kayak.  We also had a large snake swim right buy us, saw lots of birds and fought some headwinds.  But we finally got a long ride in and around a bunch of islands.  We stopped to have lunch on a small island while kayaking...the island was very pristine and the beach was covered with shells.

Sheba got some digging time...

 After kayaking we drove for awhile around Cedar Key....which is most of the other photos for the day....stopped off at another spot on the water to give Sheba some play time.

Can miss a chance to share a favorite sign...

Sheba never whys away from some stick throwing time....
particularly if water is involved.

However, when we got back to our campground, we had new palm trees as some company came in planted trees all over the campground...adding some much needed Florida flavor.

The next day we had planned to go swimming in nearby Fanning Springs, but they were closed down and so we actually just called it a work day...we did some grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning of the trailer and van and called it a day.  We  probably would have hit the road but we planned to go 40 miles or so north to Homosassa Springs area to do some diving in Crystal River.

Our little shower mate for a few days....