It's C C C C o o o o l l l d d

Most of you probably woke up this morning to hear the news about this cold weather covering the country. Yes, even here in the south! ITS FLORIDA! Its not supposed to get below 40 but last night it dropped down to 23. You turn on the TV and that is all you hear and see. They came by the campground yesterday and laid blankets down on all the plants and bushes that they have newly planted. By the way, we drove about 2 hours south yesterday. We left St. Augustine and are in a city called Mims, which is right next to Cape Canaveral. When you have a 40' rig it makes your campground selection a little harder sometimes. We are happy to leave the last campground we were in. Loved St. Augustine but the campground was, up to this point, the worst. Not the type of place you wanted to walk around and so far out there that we were disconnected from everyone and everything. The people at the local Starbucks are probably happy that we left because we would spend hours in there just to use the Wi-Fi.
The weather should start to warm up after today but it is cold and windy today. We are going to look for indoor activities today.
Hey, stay warm out there today!

HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR

Another year has passed and some celebrated the New Year with loved ones, others celebrated among a crowd of strangers making as much noise as possible and yet others chose to celebrate curled up on a couch and snuggling up with a special person watching the ball drop on TV. We chose the latter. Honestly we were worried about driving into the city, drinking and taking the chance of getting caught.
It was fun to watch the "locals" celebrate New Years. They were shooting off fireworks and probably shooting weapons into the air also. It sure sounded like it anyways.

We would like to wish everyone a terrific New Year and that this year your dreams will come true. Be it a new job, a new house, finally putting a ring on or, like most of us, losing a few inches from around the waistband.
This will be an exciting year for us and thank you for taking a few minutes out to accompany us on our trip by reading these letters thrown across your screen.
Happy New Year and all the best!
Reta & Elton

Explore St Augustine

What a great day to explore this old city. It seems that every old city we've been to must claim to be the oldest of something. Well, St Augustine claims to be the oldest city in the USA. It is a great place to walk around. A lot of great bars and restaurants on every corner with great views and not to mention a great place to people watch. Now, that brings me to another interesting observation that I made yesterday. Of course when I told Reta all she could do was shake her head at me. What's new, right?

This place has tourist from all over the planet and to listen to everyone speak in their own tongue twisted fashion is interesting in itself but why is it that there is always an English word thrown in? They could be going a mile a minute "Blah blah blah blah blah, bench." or Blah, blah blah blah bridge." It cracks me up! Do they not have bridges or benches in these countries and they don't have a word for it?

We also hit the beach when it was about 80 the other day. They must have heard we were coming because they even had a group of dancers there to perform for us.

Try not to look at my white hair on my chest. Don't worry, I'm going to get it waxed so that it will be nice and smooth. NOT. I watched "40 Year Old Virgin" and I am not going to wax my hair.

We had a great time exploring the old fort in the downtown area. Thanks Rico, we didn't have to pay the $8 to get in. National park pass! ! ! With that savings we went and had a nice cold beverage after our tour and watched the REDSKINS WIN!

I didn't miss running the banner out before the games until my good friend Amir sent me this picture from his phone yesterday.

I swear, when I was at the games I never saw two girls making out at the bar. GO SKINS!

Enjoy the pictures we took at St Augustine Beach and of the city.

St Augustine, FL

We made it to Florida. We arrived Friday afternoon under a bright sunny Florida sky. It was close to 80 that day. What a welcome. Our campground is about 20 minutes from downtown St. Augustine. I think it is Red Neck/Retired Community Central. We are by far the youngest people on this campground. Even the dogs walk around with a limp because they must be old also. Our next door neighbor is 81 years old and loves to come over and see what I am doing around the RV. I made the mistake of opening the hood on the Pick Up (a.k.a. the "Mulch Truck") to check on something and right away he was right there. I need to put a box of Tic Tacs in his pocket so I know when he is coming. The other thing is this place doesn't have Wi-Fi or Cable. My backup Modem Card is out of reach for the cell signal also. I know what some of you are thinking, T-Mobile. I know...

You know the saying "Analog mind in a Digital world", well that's this place. I'm excited to show these old timers the latest technology in Road Hazard, 6 Cassette Tape Changer. I'm sure that will get them excited. They might have to hold onto their dentures because they'll be talking so fast with excitement.

OK, so let me post some pictures that we took while we were in Savannah, GA.



Reta and I did our own walking tour of the Historic District. Did you know that Forest Gump was filmed there? We walked in the same Park where Tom Hanks sat on the bench and uttered that famous line that we all have tried to imitate - "Life is like a box of Chocolates..."
















They also filmed "In the Garden of Good and Evil" in this house.














Did I ever mention that we are in the south and you should come to expect that good Southern Hospitality. Well, after our walking tour, the city felt we shouldn't leave without a souvenir so they were kind enough to leave this on my car for me.

Did I mention that we are sitting in Starbucks Coffee sipping on some Mocha's and writing this blog? We are also waiting for the sun to burn off some of the morning fog so that we can hit the beach. I'm not sure when we will make it back to upload our next blog so please be patient.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! ! ! ! !

Merry Christmas to everyone and we hope that this day will be a special day and one filled with joy, peace and happiness.

Reta and I have been asking ourselves how this Christmas was going to be different. Well, we are both so excited to be living our dream of traveling that it seems everyday is Christmas for us. We are also pleased with the decision to buy Road Hazard (thanks Deb for the inspiration and counseling) because we have somewhere to call home. We have made this box on six wheels, HOME. It has been an adventure already in this short time period that we have been on the road. We have talked to many new people and listened to their stories. It's amazing to see how some people decorate their rigs for Christmas. It almost seems like there is no room left inside to walk around.

Georgia, Georgia, I got Georgia on my mind. Sing it Willie. (I'm going to buy a Willie Nelson CD because it seems everywhere we go one of his songs has become our theme song.)

We drove around Savannah on arrival to Georgia yesterday. It looks just like a Charleston from a distance. Even the bridge to come into the city looks just like Charleston. We set up camp at our first State Park Campground. This place is beautiful. Out here with hardly anyone around us. Deep in the Savannah woods with Spanish Moss hanging from trees, big oak trees that tower overhead and wildlife running around.

It's hard to believe that we are 15 minutes from downtown Savannah. We set up camp and met a few neighbors. One called himself the "Self Appointed Camp Host". Marvin was very proud of that fact. So when I introduced myself to him I also gave myself a title. "Elton - Chief Wildlife Specialist". Self appointed of course. I figure with all my history with animals and my documented caring techniques it would be appropriate, don't you think?

We got on our bikes to explore some of the trails they have in this park and it turned out to be an 8 mile ride. We are right on the Intracoastal Waterway that connects New York to Florida.

Later, Reta got us a roaring fire going last night, with the help of a starter log, and we settled in to sit around the campfire, drinking our Margarita's and singing Christmas carols. OK, maybe not singing but definitely drinking Margarita's. Two pitchers. When, all of a sudden we see this dark shadow moving among the trees. It's hard to see because this whole time our eyes have been looking into the fire so we are blinded looking into the deep, dark, Savannah forest. What could it be? Our minds start racing with stories of the Savannah Big Foot we've seen on TV. Then, out from behind this oak tree with its limbs reaching out to the clear Georgia night sky, we hear this sound, meoooow. Hey, my title was appropriate. We have managed to tame this wild animal and have it sit around the fire with us. We named it "Skidaway" after the state park we are in.

We awoke this Christmas morning to 50 degree weather and while sitting and having breakfast, planned out our day.

Our friends and family are in our thoughts on this day and wish that soon we will be together to exchange stories and catch up on all the happenings. In the mean time enjoy your day and raise your glass of whatever it is you are drinking now and drink to a Wonderful and Merry Christmas To All.

Hilton Head Island, SC

I know that I haven't posted anything since our arrival in Hilton Head, SC. The truth is we have been really kicking back and just relaxing. Our campsite is fantastic. When we arrived at the campground they gave us a golf cart to ride around and pick out a site. The only thing that made us nervous is that all the sites are Back In and the roads are very tight. We found a great site and with Reta helping out we backed into the site on our first try. We made it look easy. We are right on the water again with beautiful views of the harbor. After setting up some chairs outside to enjoy the nice day we discovered that the tree we were sitting under is a Pecan Tree.

We couldn't help but pick up these nuts. It was pretty cool because birds get up in the tree and bite the cluster of nuts off the tree limb to collect later but we were there instead getting fresh nuts. Its fun to hear the nuts come crashing down on the RV behind us. I'm sure they are pissed off that they are parked under that tree. It makes a very loud noise when it hits the roof of their RV.

I even woke up yesterday morning and made fresh pancakes for breakfast. It actually turned out pretty good!

We made it over to the beach and found that the sand is rock hard. We were riding our bikes on the beach up close to the water. The beaches are very wide and at this time of year there is no one on them.

Now, our thoughts of Hilton Head. If you like to play golf and have a place in one of the resorts this is the place for you but if not than it really isn't a great place. To start with it is very difficult to get to the beach because everywhere you go it is a gated resort or community. So you need a pass or pay to get in. The other thing we didn't like is that the restaurants are all in strip malls. If you want to sit and see the water you need to be in a resort. Everyone we asked said that the good bars and restaurants are in strip malls. So last night we did our own bar crawl in a strip mall. Not too fun.

We are looking forward to leaving tomorrow and getting to Savannah, GA. Many people who live full time on this island say that they like Charleston and Savannah better than Hilton Head for entertainment. Go figure. At least it is warmer here.

Good Bye Chaleston - Hello Hilton Head

We awoke this morning to the sound of rain hitting the roof of Road Hazard. Hard rain. It's very relaxing to be laying in bed and just listening to the sound of rain. Then it hit me...I hope it stops raining because we are leaving this morning for Hilton Head. I don't mind driving in the rain but I have to put everything away and don't really feel like getting drenched. Hey, why should I care. It's not like I have to be somewhere at a certain time. I've been through a lot worse.

Yesterday we had another great day in and around Charleston. We took our bikes and rode to the top of the bridge that crosses over Cooper River and connects Mt. Pleasant to Charleston. You could see Charleston and the two forts that sit at the mouth of the river, Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter. After the bridge we rode our bikes over to Patriot Point to see the big aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown. Pretty impressive to see something that big and imagine having planes land on it. Enough of all that, I'm hungry after all that pedaling. Went to this Sports Bar that was close to where we parked and while we were there we struck up a conversation with the bartender. Imagine that. When we were leaving a guy came up and said that he heard we were headed to Jolly Beach and we could follow him. That, my friends is called Southern Hospitality! I'm glad we did because it would have been tricky to follow the map. A lot of turns and there are many one way streets in downtown Charleston. Ask Reta, she will tell you. I turned down one street, going the wrong way, when we were driving around the first day. My response, "Yeah, I see it!". There were no cars coming so it was OK.
Jolly Beach was the same as Isle of Palms that we had seen a couple days before. Big houses right on the water and very little business's. It did have a light house. Morris Light House. During low tide you can walk out to this lighthouse that sits about 1/4 mile off shore. We rode our bikes up the beach and it was just the two of us. No one around, you know what I mean? No, for pictures.
We ended our day by going to see The Oldest Living Organism on the East Coast. So they claim. It is an Oak Tree. Angle Oak is its name. The base of this tree is 11 feet across. What a site. This tree was incredible to see, touch and walk around. They claim that it is 1,400 years old. How do they know that?
It was a great ending for our stay in Charleston. Lets pack up and move it out.
By the way, it hasn't stopped raining and the wind has picked up. While I was writing this blog I watched my neighbors awning get blown off. Pretty cool if it doesn't happen to you.