Family time

Sadly (or maybe I should say happily), the kids have jobs. The good news is they were able to get some personal time to come visit, that is except for Albert who, working in a retail environment, could not get any time off for the Christmas holiday. Nick and Val arrived just before Christmas, but Karen couldn’t make it until the day after. But we got to spend several blessed days together, playing a lot of Wizard (thank you Peans!), even having Berto join in by proxy.

Of course, the kids couldn’t be this close to Disney properties and not take advantage of that opportunity. Nick and Karen collaborated to get the arrangements made for us to spend a family day at Disney World. The way Disney has fully embraced Star Wars was impressive. An entire section of the park looks like a set for an actual Star Wars movie. The Cantina was there with all the alien characters. Storm troopers appeared frequently to reenact scenes with the likes of Kylo Ren and others.

While we got some rain while we were there, it didn’t dampen the fun, and the kids were ecstatic. We made sure to do some of the old favorites like the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and the Muppets 3D Movie. We also took on some of the newest experiences, like the brand spanking new roller coaster in Toyland. All in all, our day in the happiest place on earth was magical.

While it was way too short, we made the best of the family time together. We visited world famous Daytona, explored the Florida Atlantic coast, dining outdoors when the weather allowed, and playing lots of games. What a way to start 2020 – Happy New Year!

Talk to you soon.

Ooooooooooooooooops - one more post!

Since it is December, every place we go is heavily decorated. Many of the RV’s we see are decorated, some of them heavily. Many of the residences are decorated, even many of the condominium units’ balconies. Local municipalities have their decorations on the lampposts and in the parks. But I particularly liked the decorations put out by this pub.

The city of Flagler Beach seems to go all out, and I am sure the local pubs and restaurants take full advantage of it. On Saturday they had their Holiday Parade and the place was mobbed. I made a bad call trying to get through town just after the parade ended and was essentially stranded in a half block for about an hour before I just turned around and went back. Last Friday was the First Friday in December. The city park gets decked out, vendors and kiddie stuff galore, and local bands provide the music. It was fun!

We also managed to find the ruins of the Bulow Plantation. In 1821 Major Charles Wilhelm Bulow acquired nearly 5,000 acres on a tidal creek that was later named Bulow Creek. Milling sugar made the plantation a huge financial success. Sadly, in 1863 during the Second Seminole War, the plantation was burned to the ground. While only some crumbling foundations remain of the mansion and the slave quarters, we wandered through the ruins of the old sugar mill, and could actually get an idea of the milling process by the remains of the vats and boilers.

Talk again next February.

Talk to you soon. 

Settled in Flagler Beach

Well, we have settled in for a few months in Flagler Beach Florida. This may be the most glorious place we have ever parked, and we’re looking forward to being here to spend Christmas and the New Year. The kids are coming for Christmas and we can’t wait to get together with them. Since there won’t be much exploring going on for a few months, we’ll be signing off on the Blog for a while.

Before we completely settled down, we decided to head down to Daytona Beach and drive on the world’s most famous beach. We were here on this beach before, but it was decades ago. It was high tide when we ventured onto the beach, and in some of the narrower parts we actually had to drive through the waves as they crashed up close to the seawall. But we were able to get through the entire drivable stretch. It brought back great memories.

When we got off the beach, it turned out that we were only 15 miles from the Peter Wolf Toth Museum and Gallery in Edgewater Florida. We had only been able to drive by it the other day because there was nowhere that we could park Colectiva. So, we went back, and to our great surprise, Mr. Toth himself was trimming palm trees as we drove up. We chatted with him for maybe a half hour or so, reminiscing about having bumped into him in Cherokee NC.

Mr. Toth showed us around his gallery, which not only had a bunch of whispering giants, but a lot of other wood carvings as well. What a bonus! In Edgewater we stopped in at Dustin’s Barbeque to grab some lunch. We knew it had to be a good place to eat with great food – either that or they served donuts!

When we talk to you again in 2020, we won’t be living in Colectiva anymore. In an impulsive moment, we agreed to trade her in on a new motorhome. Merry Christmas – we’ll fill you in after the New Year!

Talk to you soon.

Another side trip

We ended up making another side trip on our way toward Flagler Beach. It was time for an oil change for Colectiva, so we found a Camping World near Cocoa Beach and headed there. We learned as we were killing service time that we were only a handful of miles from Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. While we both had visited as kids, we couldn’t help but at least visit.

As we were leaving Fort Pierce, we happened to drive by the Fort Pierce Marina. We found a number of huge sheet metal buildings that were used as sheltered boat storage. On all of our various travels we have seen a number of examples of people spending an awful lot of money just for a joke. But the one we spotted in Fort Pierce Marina was certainly one of the best.

When we bumped into Peter Wolf Toth in Cherokee NC, he told us that his permanent studio was in Edgewater FL. While it was a bit off the beaten path it wasn’t too far off. Sadly Mr. Toth must still be on the road repair some Whispering Giant somewhere, as he wasn’t on site at the Art Gallery and Museum. But it was fun to see what we have come to identify as his sculptures surrounding the grounds. Fun!

Talk to you soon.

Machu Picchu

So, of course the Woman’s favorite part of our visit to Peru was the Inca Trail. In the 1,300’s the advanced civilization of the Inca’s built over 25,000 miles of roads, far more than the Roman’s built. While the trails still can be found, and in many cases are still in use, many of the roads built by the Inca’s are far more strenuous than anything the Woman has encountered on the Appalachian Trail.

We were very fortunate to have two days at Machu Picchu. One of our days we met an entire day of rain. We learned that our Amazon guaranteed waterproof products were far from waterproof – maybe water resistant, but even that might be a push. I will say that my raincoat held up for about an hour, before the long-sleeved shirt I wore for warmth began to drip from being waterlogged. While it didn’t dampen our enthusiasm to check one off our bucket list, we did get a bit soggy.

We found it hard to imagine the scope of this city, especially since it was built in the early 1,400’s with no heavy equipment. They had no cranes. All stones utilized in the construction were moved by human power. The carving of the stones to fit together so precisely were apparently made using obsidian stones with sharp edges. The Inca used no mortar – they stacked stone on stone with such a precision fit that they have weathered the earthquake ridden area for over 600 years.

Exploring Machu Picchu, we saw how the Inca made sure that water was available. The evidence of managed water flow was clear – they diverted nearby water sources, routed them through their city, and made it easy for the residents to access fresh water. They knew that water was an absolute need, and set their cities adjacent to reliable water sources.

The other need for a city is food. The Inca built extensive networks of agricultural terraces where they grew the food needed to feed the estimated 1,000 people living here. They carved the hillside, carefully placed 4 layers starting with rock, then gravel, then sand and finally fertile soil. With the water sources they created and the created agricultural terraces, the Inca were able to grow the food necessary to make life possible.

We climbed to the sundial where the Inca monitored the growing season. There is reason to believe that the Inca clearly understood the solar year – they appeared to have built structures that could predict the summer and winter solstices – with the assumption that they used that information for their agricultural activities.

This was amazing. We walked through homes inhabited by Incas in the 1,400’s. We walked through the house that the Inca – the name given to the leader – which was obvious because it had water directly to it, and was the only house in the city that had a latrine – apparently the Inca had to figure out how to do their business.

We loved our visit. One of the two days we got sunshine and warm weather – it was glorious. Even though it was sunny, we saw rainbows across the valley from us. I hiked up the trail to Huayna Picchu, the peak that overlooks the city of Machu Picchu.  While I didn’t make it to the top, in part because the trail was one where you had to walk using your hands to grab the trail, I walked far enough to get a magnificent view of the city from above.

Talk to you soon.

Side trip

When in Dunedin we had been a 20-minute drive from where our good friends, Bill and Randy Horn winter. Sadly, they hadn’t arrived for the winter yet. Luckily, they arrived a few days before we left Fort Pierce, so we set out on the 3-hour (one way) drive to Venice Florida. With a population of a little over 20,000, and being on the Gulf Coast, the town has the amenities to make living there comfortable, but is small enough not to get completely overrun. The home is ideal – it has a pool and hot tub in the screened in courtyard – and perfectly situated. We walked to the quaint downtown for a great lunch, then to the beach, always under the cover of trees keeping the hot Florida sun at bay. Made us think a bit!

We got a chance for a bonus as well. It turns out that Florida is lucky enough to have two Whispering Giant sculptures. One is in Fort Lauderdale and is still on our list. The other, Calostimucu, is at the Chamber of Commerce building in Punta Gorda. While checking it out added about an hour to our trip, it turned out to be well worth it. We learned that Calostimucu is the only one that Peter Wolf Toth decided to carve a face on both sides of the statue.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. We are celebrating here in Fort Pierce on our last full day in town. Tomorrow we will be heading north to Flagler Beach where we will spend a couple of months. We sure hope there is a lot to do there!

Talk to you soon.

Fort Pierce Florida

We learned that Fort Pierce was where the UDT (underwater demolition team) were first trained. The UDT were initially trained to be the advance force to make holes Germans’ beach defenses to allow for the invasion of Normandy to be a success. The UDT continuously evolved and ultimately became the Navy SEALs. The National Navy SEAL museum is located in Fort Pierce on part of the former grounds of that training facility. We enjoyed the museum so much we spent over 4 hours there – long for us to be in a museum.

We headed to Lake Okeechobee to check out a battlefield from one of the largest battles of the Second Seminole Wars. We learned that in the early 1800’s the US government began actively pushing the Seminole out of Florida. These actions resulted in 3 wars with the nation, the first from 1816-1819, the second from 1835-1842, and the third from 1855-1858, By the end of the third, all the Seminole were forcibly relocated to reservations in the southwest, with the exception of small numbers that escaped into the everglades. We spotted this Ladderback Woodpecker at the battlefield.

We managed to find Lake Okeechobee, although that shouldn’t have been too hard. The lake is the largest freshwater lake in Florida, and is the 8^th largest in the world. Circling much of the lake is the Florida Trail, a National Scenic Trail, that runs the length of the state.

As we were making the Woman happy by hiking a few miles of the trail, we managed to see a number of birds that we really like. We spotted the typical Egrets, Ibis, Great Blue and Little Blue Herons and a number of Osprey. Our favorite part of the hike though was coming across a few Sandhill Cranes – bonus!

We will often mosey around in what appear to us to be really old cemeteries. The Riverside Cemetery in Fort Pierce seemed to fit the bill. In addition to a number of stones that predated the Civil War. But I found this one quite intriguing. Not only did Lacy J Harris seem to outlive her husband Joseph B Harris, but she’s still going strong at the ripe young age of 138!

Talk to you soon.