Jan. 19^th – Monday  MLK day
Depart for our journey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (NOT!)

When we went to pick up the RV to take it home and do the final loading, an electrical fire occurred in the battery compartment and we lost 3-4 hours of prep time. We had so many last minute things to finish that this knocked our departure date off until the following day.

Jan. 20^th – Tuesday
We finally hit the road! Bill has spent the last few weeks often encountering frustrating obstacles to getting his projects done like Alex ripping a huge hole in a porch screen after he had finished fixing all of them. It seemed ironically fitting that Becca wound up moving a crucial clip that goes to the car tow dolly as we were trying to depart.

We did a lap around our cul de sac and headed out. We had good weather and an easy drive up to Flagler Beach . We had a great campsite right on the ocean at Gamble Rogers State Recreation Area .

Jan. 21^st – Wednesday
We began our morning with a walk on the beach. We feel like we have the beach to ourselves. Bike took Alex on a 10-12 mile bike ride. That afternoon we went over to the Bulow Plantation ruins. The girls learned some history of the area and how the plantation was burned down during the second Seminole war in 1836. That evening we enjoyed a campfire.

Jan 22^nd – Thurs.
The girls took a walk on the beach after lunch and found a beautiful purple starfish. We spent the afternoon in St. Augustine doing several walking tours of St. George Street , Flager College, and the Castillo San Marco. The ranger at this old, historic fort, gave each of the kids junior ranger pins. We stayed until it was dark to enjoy the nights of lights decorations where they decorate most of downtown and the Bridge of Lions in white lights.

Jan 23^rd – Friday
We left Flagler Beach to travel inland. We stopped at Ravine Gardens State Park and road our bikes around the ravine. We stopped at a playground in the park and spotted both an . American Lady and Wood Satyr butterflies. We arrived at Paynes Prairie State Park outside of Gainesville . We had a campfire. The weather was quite chilly but the heaters in the RV work great!

Jan 24^th – Saturday
We went to the Payne’s Prairie visitor center to learn more about this unique habitat. Traveling through the park we saw a deer and a wild turkey. Laura enjoyed spotting the cardinal that lived near our campsite.

We went to the Gainesville Public Library that afternoon. Bill accessed our email and the girls enjoyed the time reading while Sandra read many, many books to Alex.

We did a classic campfire dinner of hot dogs cooked on stick with s’mores for dessert. We’ve been reading the Horse and His Boy by CS Lewis in the evenings.

Jan 25^th – Sunday
Laura really wanted to see some Manatees after reading about Manatee Spring State Park in our guide book. We decided to head over to the west coast of Florida . Our rig was took big to stay at the state park but the ranger recommended a county park located at Hart Springs that had full hook ups and had just recently opened. We arrived and found ourselves the only RV (except for the campground hosts). We picked a spot right in the middle of the park. It’s nice to have full 50 amp hookup and a sewer connection (fellow RVs can appreciate how nice that is – it means we can do small loads of laundry in our washer/dryer combo unit and not worry about running both the microwave and coffee maker at the same time). After we set up, we biked down to the springs through a trail in the woods. Bill and Alex were in the lead and saw a wild sow with her piglets beside the trail. The springs feed into the Suwannee river and there is a nice boardwalk that takes you along the springs to the river and through a cypress swamp. The campground hosts are very friendly and helpful and we have free firewood for a lovely campfire. They also lend us some movies to enjoy. They also give us lots of good information about the area.  

Jan. 26^th – Monday
We drove to Manatee Springs in the afternoon. Our first trip down the boardwalk along the spring to the Suwannee failed to yield any manatees but our second trip down produced some. They were in the middle of water a therefore a little hard to see except when they briefly surfaced for air. In addition, we saw several different types of fish and Becca spotted a brown water snake (non venomous) curled up near the spring. We dipped our toes in spring which is 72 degrees. After returning, we swung by Hart springs on the off chance there may be some manatees there also (they only come there when it is very chilly) and then Bill and Becca walked from Hart springs to campground and saw wild pigs again.

January 27^th – Tuesday
We continue our general routine of conducting the basic math, spelling, and writing lessons in the morning and then take our time breaking camp before we head on up to White Springs. Our drive to the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park only takes a couple of hours. It is a gorgeous park – lots of live oak draped with Spanish moss and beautiful buildings. We have a nice pull through site but it is too cold to enjoy a campfire. We do see a gray fox later that evening when driving through the park and read about him in our mammal field guide (and learn that this is the only canine that can actually climb trees!).

January 28^th – Wednesday
We go to the onsite Stephen Foster museum. He was America ’s first professional composer. We learn more about him and the songs he wrote which include – Old Folks at Home (aka Suwannee River ), Oh Susanna, Camptown races, etc… The museum houses artifacts such as the desk he wrote Suwannee River on (after finding an appropriate name of a two syllable southern river in an atlas) and detailed dioramas depicting 10 of his songs. We then went over to the carillon tower which houses 97 bells that play some of Foster’s tunes during the day. After that, we  went to the girls’ favorite place of all, the gift shop, while Bill took Alex his favorite place, the playground.

January 29^th – Thursday through February 3 - Tuesday
We get an early start on the road since we have a fairly long drive up to North Georgia and don’t want to get stuck in any commuter traffic around Atlanta . We are staying with our dear friends, Kathy and Karen Brannon, and their mom, Jessie Smith for a couple of days. This gives us a chance to update the website! After this we plan to head down to the Florida Panhandle. We went to the Etowah Indian mounds. The museum was closed but we walked the mounds despite the chill. We also spent a couple days just relaxing, eating way too much tasty southern home cooking, and took a picnic lunch at the top of beautiful Carter’s Dam.