Chateau Le Coeur

This place is a "winery". That building in the background is the winery building. I think it's a double wide trailer. The tasting room is their kitchen. Not particularly impressive but the wine was pretty good. We bought 2 bottles, had a Charcuterie board and several other items they had for sale. It has been a pretty expensive stop. This morning began with a slight detour through Jacksonville to pick up 2 kayak paddles I left at the house we rented in April for spring break. We met up with the owners wife at a Walmart parking lot. We now have two paddles that we don't need. Our stop tomorrow is somewhere in Louisiana. We are doing one night stands all the way to San Antonio.

Crooked River SP Ga

Today is day 1 of what is planned to be a 70 day trip. Of course, things can happen, bad things. I won't dwell on any negative possibilities. Our summer plans are these: A stop in San Antonio. A visit with my remaining Aggie Buds near Johnson City. North to Palo Duro. West on Interstate 40. Meet up with John and Jeanne Begnaud in Southern Utah for a 10 day visit to 3 national parks that they haven't seen. Drive back to Lake Powell for a 5 day houseboat trip with the mob. Head further West and attend "The Wizard of Oz" at the Sphere in las Vegas. Enter California and finish last years trip that was so rudely interrupted. That would be Sequoia and Kings Canyon. Head East and drive the Maverick into the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Really, we are. Of course there are many stops in between those milestones. What could possibly go wrong. I saw that Tortoise on a short ride I took after we got here. I think he hangs out in that hole. We are in Florida tomorrow.

Spring Break 2026

We rented a fantastic house on the St. Johns river a little West of Jacksonville Florida for this get together. Both sets of Grandkids shared the same days off for their Spring break. There was swimming in the pool, soaking in the hot tub, hunting for Easter Eggs, a trip into St. Augustine, kayaking and when the weather stopped cooperating a trip to a bowling alley. We all return home tomorrow. Seth has the longest drive, Jenny and I the shortest. These are some random pictures.

BTR 2026

That's the Beaufort Twilight Run. The boys ran the 5K and Sid ran 1 mile. I don't think the boys had too much fun but Sidney appeared to be smiling the entire time. As an added bonus we were able to celebrate Jamie's 44th birthday.

Fort Clinch day 3

 It was just another day in paradise. We had a couple of administrative tasks to perform today. Laundry and another trip into town to find a Publix. There are apparently some things at Publix that cannot be found at Walmart. Who knew? We visited the Fort and the visitors center. We threw some questions at a young man who was wearing a Union Army uniform. It was pretty cool. He was a walking encyclopedia about the Fort. Not surprisingly there was an afternoon hike to close the rings on Jenny's Apple Watch. Done! Tomorrow is our last night away from home. There is a monster storm headed this way and we are hoping, really hoping, to get home before it arrives.

Fort Clinch day 2

I didn't realize this when we booked this park but there are some really good bike trails here. It was challenging fun. We were getting pretty low on supplies so we drove into town, had lunch, and visited Walmart. We hiked to the fort and found a place to watch the sunset as our day concluded. The fort was built starting in 1847. When the Civil War started the Confederates took over the fort but were run off by the Union a few years later. We are here one more day.

Fort Clinch State Park

 We are still in Florida but not by much. The town near the park is Fernandina Beach. The campground has a lot of trees. There is a fort that we will probably walk through tomorrow. We have done quite a few forts. The picture is a portion of the road that brought us into the campground. We are here for 3 nights.