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.

Ochlockonee day 3

Today we drove 20 miles to visit Bald Point State Park. It's sort of an unusual park because there isn't a headquarters building, an entrance station or any facilities at all. There are a few trail heads that require a few dollars to be inserted into an Iron Ranger. We paid our fee and did a loop hike through the woods. Those pics were taken looking out into The Gulf of America. The tide was out in that one picture. We actually couldn't see the water it had receded so far. A couple of hours later it had come back dramatically. That clam was just hanging out waiting for the water to return. We move tomorrow to a park on the Atlantic coast, still in Florida.

Ochlockonee day 2

We h

Had a little freeze last night. I subsequently had a pretty cold ride this morning.This park has white squirrels. In the parks squirrel population they are in the minority, however, they garner the most attention. The park is only 500 acres so with my ride and our afternoon hike we've pretty much seen it. We will probably venture outside the park tomorrow. There are a few things near here that might be of interest. We would like to paddle the river in the park but today was just too windy and cold. Tomorrow will probably be similar.

Ochlockonee River State Park

The drive here was unpleasant. A cold front was blowing through north Florida and we were driving through north Florida. An unfortunate coincidence. We have been here before. That's becoming pretty common. The thing is when we booked this park we didn't remember being here before. Could that be indicative of something? Surly not. Anyway, a hard freeze is predicted tonight. It's a very pretty park and a pleasant campground. We are here for 3 days. The only shopping within 20 miles is a Dollar Store. Hopefully, that means we won't be doing any shopping. 

Wekiva Springs RV resort

 Just a short synopsis of our 2 day visit with Mike and Linda. Linda kept us well fed. Cooking wise, Mike has some issues. All in all it was a great visit, good weather, good conversation and good bourbon. We bonded with Chief. He's a really cool dog and is proud to give his master something to carry. We head North tomorrow and will be in the Florida Panhandle.

Jonathan Dickinson last day

The weather crumped this morning so there wasn't a lot of excitement. I did have cereal for breakfast in case your interested. We did get out some this afternoon and we walked along the river. I took those pictures on that walk. The mangroves are an impenetrable mess. Tomorrow we visit with Jenny's cousin, Mike Everett and his wife Linda near Sorrento.They are spending the winter in Florida, escaping the weather in Ohio.

Jonathan Dickinson day 5

We spent part of today exploring 'The Blowing Rock Preserve' in Jupiter which is just a few miles from here. The Nature Conservancy acquired 75 acres back in the '60s with beach on one side and estuary on the other. The beach side protects a strip of exposed ancient coral rock. There are several places in the rock that during high tide and big surf shoot columns of water into the air. That's where the Blowing Rock name originated. Our shorts and T-shirts weather is about to come to an abrupt end. Lows are forecast to be in the 30s starting tomorrow night. I took that one odd picture of the bike trail I rode this morning. I was trying to show the artificial obstacles that are placed periodically along the trail to make it more interesting. The elevation in the park is around 35 feet so there is not a lot of naturally exciting terrain. Two more days here 

Jonathan Dickinson day 4

I guess something that I've never had to think about is that staying in the same place for so long things become redundant. I rode this morning and we hiked this afternoon. Tomorrow Jenny has something different we can do. Here are a couple of pics we took on our afternoon outing.

Jonathan Dickinson day 3

Today's weather was nice. It was actually a little too warm yesterday. We didn't fire up the Air conditioner but we thought about it. This park was built on land that was once an Army Post (Camp Murphy). That explains the size but it also explains why there are many narrow weathered paved roads. Jenny and I rode most of those old roads today. 14 Miles. After that we drove into the town of what we think is called Hobe Sound and attempted to invigorate their economy. There are many hiking trails here that we need to walk on and I have just scratched the surface of the biking trails. So many things to do and so little time. More tomorrow.

Jonathan Dickinson day 2

 I think I mentioned yesterday that this place is huge. This morning I rode to the mountain biking trailhead and that was a 4 mile ride. I did some of the trails and was completely lost in the first 10 minutes. After I returned from that adventure Jenny and I put the Origami kayak together and took it out on its maiden voyage. I'll include a couple of pics of the process. When we first got this "boat" it took me over an hour to fold it into a boat. The YouTube video of the process was extremely misleading. Jenny and I folded it a few times in the garage and got the time down to under 15 minutes. It performed pretty well on the water. We were out for 2 hours and saw a few gators. We were happy they seemed uninterested in us because the boat is pretty flimsy. More tomorrow.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park

 We are near Jupiter Florida on the Atlantic side  We discovered this place when we came down here to have the Maverick rigged for towing and the MP suspension beefed up. At the time, we drove around the campground, as we are prone to do, and decided that we liked it. We immediately went on the Florida State Park website and saw that there was only 1 site available for any length of time in January. Damn snowbirds. Anyway we booked the only site available for 6 days. For us that is a long stay. This place is huge. There are biking, hiking, and kayaking possibilities. I should also mention that drinking is a possibility......well a probability. Today was a long drive so I only took one pic during our bike ride to try to find a place to launch the yak. More tomorrow.

Rodman day 3

 Another day of biking and hiking. The trail that wanders through the park is The Florida National Scenic Trail. It starts down south near the swamp and ends up in the Panhandle someplace. It's 1500 miles long if you do all the side trails. Some parts of the trail are for hiking only. Some sections allow bikes and there is an occasional section that allows horses. I rode my bike on a hikers only section. I felt really bad about it. The section that I rode went over a dam. There was a Comorant convention going on below the dams outflow. We move further south tomorrow.

Rodman day 2

 It was 82° today for crying out loud. January 8th and shorts and T-shirts. This won't last but we'll take it while we can. I rode along the barge canal this morning. My ride ended at a Lock on the canal. I'm somewhat confused about the lock. I get that they built it thinking the canal would be finished but it wasn't so why not just keep it open all the time. Life is full of mysteries. Jenny and I did a walk after my ride so that she could close her Apple Watch rings. So I got a lot of exercise. We drove into Palatka for lunch and to find a liquor store. That bird is a Sandhill Crane. They are always paired up but I couldn't get the damn birds close enough together to get them both in a picture. They might have been having a spat and were keeping their space. That one weird picture is a panorama I took of the canal.We are here tomorrow.

Rodman Campground

 This place is near Palatka Florida. It is right in the middle of the Cross Florida Barge Canal right of way. If you're scratching your head about that don't be ashamed because there is no Cross Florida Barge Canal. It was a dream for centuries and construction started and stopped several times but alas it was a pipe dream. The state owns this very long chunk of land that is now reserved mostly for recreation. We had a long drive today so nothing of blogworthy significance occurred. We have been here once before but our recollection of the place is cloudy. We are here for 2 or 3 nights. The pic is our campsite.

Day 2 at Barnwell

 Not too much going on here. There are only 25 campsites and just 4 of them are occupied. We hiked literally, all of the trails, in the park. It was a little over 4 miles. After lunch we drove 10 miles to visit God's Acre Healing Spring. There were 4 of those paved areas with Artesian Spring water flowing out. There were 3 people there collecting the water in jugs. I took a sip and I think I was healed. We move further South tomorrow.

Barnwell State Park SC

 We left The KOA at something like 10:30. Our drive here was only 140 miles so an early departure was not required. This park is one of 16 built by the CCC in South Carolina during the great depression. It's only 300 or so acres so seeing the whole thing should be doable. I rode every trail in the park this afternoon. Jenny and I will do some hiking tomorrow.

Seth, Stella and Caroline's birthday celebration

 We have just begun our winter trip. We always seem to start with a drive north before heading south. We will be in Florida for a few weeks on this trip. Since the birthday cake had candles for 3 people it turned into an inferno. 

Christmas 2025

 I am way late posting this. Christmas was 10 days ago. We spent our time with Seth and Courtney. The celebration was very good. Jenny gave me a new bike and I gave Jenny a new origami folding kayak. It's called an ORU. Extremely weird. Google it if you're interested.