Paula Deen Tour of Savannah, GA

   We spent the afternoon in Savannah.  We decided to take a tour trolley with the Paula Deen theme.  For those of you not in the know she is a famous cook that is on TV and is noted for using tons of butter in her cooking.  The tour was 3 hours winding up at her Lady and Sons restaurant.  We had fried chicken, ribs, meat loaf, black-eyed peas, sweet potatoes, greens, macs and cheese,  and much more.  I must say it was the best I have had in a very long time.  

One of the most famous "gingerbread" houses in Savannah.  Gingerbread because of all the extra decorations on the outside of the house. This is really a beautiful city.  They have managed to keep so many of the old homes in beautiful condition.  I mean street after street of homes. 

This is just one of the boulevards in town.  There are so many live oaks around.

 

This is a home that was on the Extreme Make Over show done in 2010, I think.  Paula Deen helped in the kitchen area.

This is Paula's first home in Savannah.  She was working at the hospital, eating sack lunches.  Her co-workers thought they looked really good, so she decided to sell them.  Long story short she started selling them to co-workers and then to the business district in town and the rest is history.

There are about 12 of these little houses in Savannah.  This one is 500 sq ft.  It recently sold for $320.000. 

City Hall

Cotton Exchange.  There was one other in the world in London.

Rog eating in Lady and Sons restaurant, Paula Deen and her sons own it.

Rog and I are standing in the shade in front of the restaurant. 

It took 3 blog posts to get all that needed to be said so keep on reading.

Painted Bunting

 

He is so pretty.  I could not get these pics to load so you just may a new blog. 

Next Stop, Skidaway Island State Park, GA

 

 

 This is a Brown Thrasher.  It was flying around at our last stop.  In the sun he has this beautiful reddish color.  It is very striking flying from shade to sunlight flashing that beautiful reddish brown cape of feathers. 

 This is my herb garden.  It is really looking great.  Not to long ago I thought I was going to have to head back to the garden shop and purchase some new plants, but water and sunlight did the trick again.  I use the herbs so much as we travel.  We were at Sam's today and they had patio tomatoes that looks so good.  They were small, compact, and loaded with little green tomatoes.  I did not pick one up, but I may go back.

 Not too many pics.  We arrived at Skidaway Island State Park around 1 ish.  It is a beautiful place and so very reasonably priced.  We get water and electric, 50 amps.  This is very important for bigger rigs with two air-conditioner in the south in the summer.  The heat is not that bad, but the air conditioners takes the humidity out of the air and now it is pleasant again.  There is no sewer, but many comfort stations as they say here, restrooms with showers and laundry.  I might add that the washer and drier rates are very good too, $1.25/$1.25. 

We have been looking up things to do here and there are so many options for us.  We may have to come back.  We have plans to take a tour of Savannah and Paula Deen's new restaurant tomorrow night, dinner is included (ymmmm).  We are also looking into kayaking Moon River.  We can all hear the song playing in our heads now, can't we?  We also have a Groupon for a Bar-B-Q place close by.  We have a National Mt. and a popular island in GA.  I think she said it has the only beach in GA, have to check that out.  There are many other places to go and things to do that the state park printed out and gave to us.  I am also very excited to see a very beautiful bird that lives in the park.   Stay tuned for pics to come.    Anyway we will be very busy here.

Road Trip Stormy all Day

Well today was a down day.  It was stormy all day.  Some big down pours, but mostly little rains.  These tropical storms go on and on for days.  They figure so far our area has had 7 inches of rain and it does not look like it is going to let up soon.  We have discovered a leak in the bedroom.  It is where the washer-dryer is located.  We thought we had a real problem, and we still may, because we were also doing laundry and we did not know if it was the washer-dryer or a leak in the motor home itself.  Well we have decided after scientific analyzes that it is a leak in the motor home because we have the leak after we were done with the laundry and after each big down pour.  hummmmmmmmm.   So next stop and no rain, Rog will get out there and caulk the vent and hopefully that will fix it.  If not .... well another blog I guess. 

 Got a phone call from Tom.  I love hearing from my kids and grand kids.  He got to Fairbanks, Alaska save and sound.  With fight and lay overs he was traveling 17 hours.  He is in Japan as a liaison between the United States Air Force and the Japanese Defense Force.  They are in Fairbanks  doing "war games".  Now I am sure that is not the military name for all this, but it is what it is.  Today he has put in 20 years in the United States Air Force!  Congratulations Son!!! and thank you.

Got the computer up and running to do another guitar lesson.  Man this hurts.  I've got to get those little pads built up on my finger tips.  I think I can get this if I can get through the pain.  I am not sure why I want to learn, but maybe one day I will need it when I am sitting with my hat on a street corner somewhere.  LOL  They say it keeps the brain cells well oiled and working.  

A month or so back we (I) got a Kindle Firer, Rog took over the E-Reader.  I really like it.  I may have blogged about it before, but it is worth repeating.  I have read 14 books so far.  We get our books from the Denver Public Library on Laura's account, any library anywhere would work.  With us traveling all you need is Internet and you can check out a book.  We check them out for 2 weeks and when the 2 weeks is up the book disappears off the reader.  You can go back in and check it out again if you wish.  I can also play Angry Bird, very important and dumb I might add.  Words with friends, well right now friend (well daughter) and that is great fun.  I got Rog interested in playing it to and he is enjoying it.  I also play Draw It with Laura.  That is great fun too.  We can play these on the smart phone too.  I am sure I can do so much more with the Kindle, but right now I am very content with reading and playing my games

Well tomorrow we are on the road again.  We are heading a grueling 109 miles up the coast of Ga. to a state park near Savannah.  we have been told it is a beautiful old city.  We are going to get on a tour bus and learn all we can then pick out areas we want to take a closer look and go there.  We find this works out really great.  We also have at least one National Monument or Park to see and stamp my book.  So Road Trip tomorrow.

Tropical Strom Beryl Stormy all day

Well we made it through our first Tropical Storm.   Most of the Tropical Storm/ almost Hurricane happened during the night.  We were rocking pretty good, but the direction of the winds was good to us most of the time.  The rain would come down in buckets.  I have been in storms and this is something else.  We are now in a Tropical Depression.  This means less mph constant winds, but high winds when the "storm bands" come through.  We are also in  on again off again tornado watches with this depression. 

Notice in the pics the rain coming down and on this one how it is blowing off the rig. The still pics are of a rig two doors down.  It does not even come close to showing you how much rain falls in a very short period of time and the winds with it.  You miss the noise of the rain falling and the motion of the water coming down.


We have had between 5 - 10 inches of rain here.  The soil is such here and in Florida that it is absorbed very quickly.  The only standing water here is on the road.  I must stay that this rain is really needed in the Okefenokee Swamp, because it is so dry the gators panting.  lol 

It is now 7:00 p.m. and you can see one of the storm bands off in the distance.  It is really blacker than the pic.  This tropical storm came on shore dumping rain and producing winds  60 - 75 mph (hurricanes start at 75) and then hit land lessened somewhat and becomes a tropical depression.  This means you get these gigantic rain storms, some with lightening and threat of tornadoes, as it breaks up.  The weather peeps have a real hard time keeping up with the bands.  Then the storm is pushed back at you because of a low pressure or high pressure and you get it all over again.  Days of this from one little, well maybe not so little storm.  This is why it is so wet and humid in this area.  It's wet!!!!

A Day at Home High 89 Lo 71 Berly is now a full Tropical Storm

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to the troops and their families.  
YOU ARE THE GREATEST!!!

Today we decided to stay home because the tropical storm BERLY  is coming and the news has been breaking in on the TV shows let us know how serious this storm could be since early this morning.  We thought people around here would be serious about this, but not so much.  They are out and about having fun on this Memorial Day Weekend.   It has been a nice morning sunny and bright.  Around 11:00 am the wind was blowing just a little.  Around 12:00 we had some good down pours, but they did not last long.  It is now 6:00 and it is over cast and windy, but not that bad.  I was thinking this was almost over, but they do not think so.  In fact they have up-graded this storm from a sub-tropical storm, not too bad some rain 2 3 inches some wind 65 mph.  Now we are a true tropical storm, which means more rain some places +10 inches and winds 75mph.  This is going to be fun.  Hold on and lets go.  It is now 7:30 and they have upgrade the storm again.  We are told that this storm is increasing in strength and is so very close to being a Cat. 1 hurricane.  they are talking about closing the taller bridges.  We were on one that is closed yesterday. 


Since I had to stay home decided to just ramble about stuff.  The first is about Tom, or as they call him in the Air Force and at his home Mitch.  Tom is stationed in Japan and is going to be TDYing (military term lol) in Alaska for a couple of weeks.  He Face booked that he was leaving Japan May 27th at 4:50 p.m. and arriving in Fairbanks, Alaska May 27th and 4:30 p.m.  That is some flying!!  (LOL) No, there is a big time change from there to there. He will be in the air over 20 hours.    

My next rambling is about Laura.  I posted about her  5K run yesterday.  This is quite the deal for her.  She is not one to be out running or walking just to do that.  She will take a walk and look at stuff, but not to walk.  A friend at work talked her into running this 5K.  Well, Laura did not just wake up yesterday and go run, no she has been slowly training .  She took some good advice and worked slowly to her goal.  She mentioned to me that she never thought she would ever be able to run 1 minute let alone run for 45 minute straight.  

You should be so proud of yourself and what you have done. 
We are!!  

   The pic above is a page from our National Park Passport Book.  As we go from state to state we have things we want to do.  One of those things is go to our national parks.  At each park they have stamps with info about the park and the date.  We also have some stamps of  lighthouses.  They also have a book of just lighthouse stamps if you want to do that too.

Other things we try and do in every state is kayak, go to the capitals, and geo cache.  Also as we travel around there is a lot of down time in the rv  in route to place to place.  While Rog drives I knit wheel chair blankets and I give them to nursing homes in each state.  Give me something to knit and a small gift to brighten someone day.  My folks traveled the country too, so I give the blankets in memory of them.

This is a special day for Rog because it is suppose to be bad weather out and we are not leaving the tv, and it is also Memorial Day and auto racing is on.  He announced this morning that there is going to be 1,100 miles of racing with Indy and NASCAR.  yippy 

Laura called this morning to make an announcement about the step-kitty, that is what I call her cat Neo.  Well, awhile back she ordered a set-up that trains the cats to use the toilet as a kitty box.  Well it came and she set-up it up and started time table of training.  They say it will take 2 to 6 weeks to train.  She called this afternoon and said both cats are using the new box and this is just days after the set up.  After all steps are completed the cats will be using the toilet as their kitty box, and all you do it flush.  This will eliminate a lot of money and work.  

Last rambling.  I purchased a guitar awhile back.  Well I have had one for years, but it is so big I can hardly hold it, but it is so pretty.  So I got another cheap one and hung it on the wall.   Today I had to stay home and decided dishes or guitar and guitar won.  I purchased a DVD called appropriately Guitar For Dummies.  Well it is quite good.  Now all I need is to toughen up my finger tips.  I heard somewhere that doing dishes was not good for that, I wonder if Rog will understand???    

Fort Caroline, Jacksonville, FL High 90 Low70 nice now, BUT

We are on our way back into Florida to see the National Monument Ft. Carolina.  Fort Carolina was built in the sixteenth century.  This is the very beginnings of the settling of the new world.  We had to cross the St. James River.  This bridge was really beautiful.

This is a shelter the Timucuan Indians built for the chief to sit in to watch the building of the fort and surrounding buildings. 

These are oyster shells that our found at all Indian ruins along the coast.  They would have mountains of these.  We saw them on the river when we went swimming with the manatees a while back.  The settlers and Indians would use the shell to make Tappy, a mixture of sand crushed shells and water to make building materials.

The French were the first to settle here.  They measured a piece of land in  the shape of a triangle.  Then they processed to build it, using wood.  We learned from the other Forts that Florida does not have rock, only the coquina in the reefs. 

This is Rog at the entrance of the Fort.  Notice the hedge on the land side and the wood on the River side. I hope this is not how the fort was really made.  If so I can understand how the Spanish were able to over take them. 

The moat, I sure hope this is not to scale.  I think I could even jump this even with gators.

This engraving provide clues of the size, shape and location, but nothing definitive has ever been found to tell the full story of the Fort.

Ribault is the first Frenchman to land here  in the new world to claim land for the French.  The Spanish had been coming for a while and France thought they should be here too. 

This is what they think the marker looked like that he placed to mark the land for France.

This is the St. James River.  The fort was built at the mouth of this river because they knew it would be very important to them.  It is a big one.  You see here the devices they use to load box cars and truck trailers onto tankers.  These loading stations are all up and down the river,

Here you see a tanker on a small section of the river.  We also saw cruise ships too. 



We decided to go to the Fort today because we are going to experience something that Rog and I have never experienced before and that is a Tropical Storm.  It even has a name: Beryl.  The weather people are all excited.  They say it is a weak one, but.
 The way it is approaching we will be getting the biggest part of the storm in our area.  The storm  is suppose to be here Sunday night and Monday morning.  Rain, 3 inches and wind 45 mph.  We will report back and let you know how things went.  We are planning on staying close to home Sunday tucking things in.

Laura's 5K race the end

; 
OK computers are wonderful, BUT they can drive you crazy!  The 1st pic is last and the last pic is first so you are going to have to adjust , sorry

This is the end of the race and all the color!!

Story with next pic.

 

Laura's 5K run Beginning

Laura ran her first  5K race today.  What follows are her words of why and what happened.  Rog and I tried downloading pics from an email and had some problems and words, good news we are still speaking to each other.  The before pic is here and the after pic is in the next section.  GREAT JOB KID!!!! 




The Color Run has been called the happiest 5k on earth. My friend challenged me to run, not walk a 5k  .We picked the Color Run, little did I know that we would be running with 20,000 people. This 5k has a dress code; you must wear a white shirt. I decided to wear all white.  Each kilometer has a color connected with it, as you pass powdered color is thrown at you. At the finish line is a stage and music is blasting, every 15 minutes the crowd throws colored powder in the air. By the end of the 5k you are techno colored. I finished in under 45 min and had the time of my life.

Cumberland Island, Ga.

This is a cute fiddler crab walking on the walk at the entrance to the Cumberland Island National Park Building.  Here we boarded a boat (see below).   I really do try and load these pics in order then I load them and they change themselves around. 

This is Rog walking down on one of the roads to the Dungeness Ruins.  It is so beautiful here.  The island is 9,800 acres. 

This is the entrance to the Dungeness Estates.

This is the site of two magnificent estates, separated in time by 100 years, yet sharing the same name and foundation. The first estate was a four story built in 1783.  Then in 1880 Thomas Carnegie, younger brother of Andrew built this little place.  They eventually owned 90% of the island.  They renovated this estate and built four additional mansions for her children.  In the 1920's saw the end of an age and the decline in the use of the island and in 1957 Dungeness burnt down.

This estate had many out buildings and servant quarters.  There was a rec hall with swimming pool, dance floor, gym, etc.

Also on the island is a large herd of "wild" horses with little ones.  No one rides or feeds them, but they are use to people being around them so they just eat and don't even look up at you as you pass.  They are not fenced in are anything. 

This is our boat, oops ferry.  It took 45 minutes to get to the island.

Birds everywhere and the singing was wonderful.

We saw dolphins and rays.  The rays are mating now and I guess they "fly" out of the water and plop down and make a loud noise.  I guess this is part of mating thing because it happens at this time every year.  I was not quick enough to get a pic, but it was very interesting to see.

This is a lovely couple on board,.  I still can't get use to the RED hair.  Two hair cuts and it will be gone.