Today is Thursday, May 1st. Time is going by fast, can't believe we have been on the road for 4 months. We are continuing our way to Jacksonville, Fl. Spent the night in a Love's truck stop near Ormond, Fl.
Friday, May 2nd, arrived in St. Augustine, Fl. set things up for the night and took off to town. St. Augustine is an old but beautiful city. We visited the Fountain of Youth, drank the water and I feel and look 20 years younger. They had a planetarium which showed how Ponce de Leon navigated by the stars to find land which he named La Florida. He claimed Florida for Spain in 1513. King Philip II of Spain sent Pedro Menendez to settle Florida and drive out French garrisons recently established there. In September 1565, Pedro Menendez with 700 soldiers and colonists, landed here and founded St. Augustine, making it the oldest continually occupied European settlement in North America.
Today is Sunday, May 4th. We are out of Florida and into Georgia, at an RV park which is really nice, a lot of trees. Driving on hwy 17 north is beautiful. Peaceful and big old trees. I will miss the trees when we get back to Las Vegas. So far Florida is my favorite state, I wouldn't mind living there. Getting everything replenished and on our way tomorrow to Savannah, Ga. Better give Cuddles her bath, she is panting, because it is a little hot today and hardly any breeze.
Today Saturday, May 10th. Have spent the last two days in Myrtle Beach, S. C. visiting my brother and his wife. They actually live in Pawleys Island about 30 miles from the park we stayed at in Myrtle Beach. This is Harley bikers week and let me tell you there are hundreds of bikers here. Myrtle beach has the longest pier along the eastern coast. The pier is 1,220 ft. Every Friday and Saturday they have entertainment on the pier. A different band each time. Today we were watching some fisherman on the pier. They take fishing seriously. The have 5 to 6 poles and they use everyone of them. Had a good visit with my brother and sister-in-law. There are pictures of them on the 2008 USA Tour page. Be sure to check them out. My niece and her two children were also at my brothers house. The last time I saw my niece she was 11 yrs old and now is 23. My family is all over the U.S. that this has been a great opportunity to get with them, even if it's only for a couple of days. Myrtle Beach is really neat, there are a lot of things to do or you can just do nothing and enjoy the area. Tomorrow is Mother's Day and all you mothers out there have a great day. Bill is taking me to breakfast and then we are on the road again.
May 14th, Wednesday, continuing on hwy 17 north to North Carolina were we plan to spend the night in Moorehead City, N.C. and staying at an RV Park called Waters Edge.
May 15th, Thurday, traveled on hwy 24 east which turned into 70 north to Cedar Island, N.C. spending the night at Driftwood Campground, right next to the ferry we will be taking in the morning to Ocracoke Island to continue our trip in the outer banks. The ferry is 2-1/4 hrs ride. We will continue on hwy 24 to Avon, N.C. to spend the night at Sands of Time Campground.
May 16th, Friday, After taking the ferry we drove 12 miles on hwy 12 to catch another ferry which is 40 mins. long to Hedders Island and from there 20 miles to Avon, N.C.
May 17th, Saturday, we spend 2 days in Shiloh, N.C. at an RV Park called North River Campground. It is back in the wood and the only thing you heard was the wildlife. It was beautiful, our RV faced the lake. It was so peaceful and I slept very well.
May 19th, Monday, we continued on to Chesapeake, Va. and spent the night at Northwest River Park, it is a state park and most of their campers are weekend local campers. We were the only ones in the park. Surrounded by tall trees and lots of squirrels running around, another good night sleep.
May 20th, Tuesday, woke up to rain. It was lightning and thunder and lots of showers. I do enjoy the rain. Made our way to Cheriton, Va. and camping at Cherrystone Family Campground. There are over 700 spaces to this park. The largest one I have seen. There are 2 swimming pools, arcade room, volleyball, pier for fishing and many other things to make your stay pleasant.
May 23rd Friday still working north on hwy 9, spent the night at Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes Delaware where you park on the roads and camp beside your vehicle. Being Friday it started filling up really fast for the holiday weekend. The next morning we drove about 1/2 mile to the ferry to go across from Lewes Delaware to Cape May, New Jersey. The ferry ride was 17 miles long and took about 80 minutes. This was a big ferry compared to the others we took. They have 3 different levels offering observation rooms, food, and even a bar. It holds 100 passenger cars.
May 24th, Saturday still making our way north on hwy 9, we are spending three nights in Absecon, New Jersey to get through the memorial holiday. Took a ride to Atlantic City, N.J. to check out the casinos and the boardwalk. There are 15 casinos along boardwalk. A lot of shops and you can walk out to the beach. It is expensive in the casinos if you wanted to do a buffet. We parked at the Showboat and wanted to do a buffet for breakfast. Well Showboat doesn't open until noon, we were there around 10 a.m. and didn't want to wait so walked the boardwalk to Resort Casino. The breakfast buffet was 17.00 a piece, which is expensive to us) but if you wait until 4pm in any the casinos the buffets run from 25.00 to 35.00. One thing that was good is the Caesar's is smoke free, and there were a lot of people there.
May 28th, Wednesday, we are in Freehold N.J. today. Spent last night at Cedar Creek Campground in Bayville, N.J. when I was checking in the girls in the office asked where we came from and I was telling them about our trip. About an hour later one of the girl's Diane came to our camp and was telling us that she use to work at the radio station across the street and she called over there to talk to the new commentator about us and he wanted to interview us. So we called and talked to Tom and he had our story on the air the next day. He was linking our website to the stations website in case anyone would like to follow us along. It will be interesting if we get more people signing the guest book. I was able to tape a part of it. I just can't say enough about God's beautiful country, it is spectacular. Each morning is a new experience. I would like to travel forever but there is that one thing, money.
May 29th, Thursday. Arrived into Jersey City, N.J. where we will be staying three nights at an RV Park called Liberty Harbor. We have an all day tour set up for tomorrow to tour New York City. The bus took us everywhere. We saw Rockefeller Square, ground zero, Music City Hall, walked in Central Park, St. Patrick Church, and saw a lot of old buildings. After the bus tour they took us to catch the ferry to Ellis Island and Liberty Island. Ellis Island is where the immigrants first step on land in America. There is a lot of history displayed in the museum there. Our growth as a nation has been achieved in large measure, through the genius and industry of immigrants of every race and from every quarter of the world. The story of their pursuit of happiness is the saga of America. Their brains and their brawn helped to settle our land, to advance our agriculture, to build our industries, to develop our commerce, to produce new inventions and in general, to make us the leading nation that we now are. From there we got on another ferry to take us to Liberty Island to see the statue up close. They do not let tourists go to the top of the statue anymore but you can go into the base to observe more history but you must make buy a ticket one week ahead. The tour company did not tell us this nor was it in any paperwork we had. We were disappointed of course but I did get pictures.