April 15, 2012-Statesboro, Georgia

We arrived in Statesboro on Friday afternoon. Yesterday we did our usual breakfast for Saturday. We went to the downtown area and found a neat cafe on the main drag and it was located about a half block from the Farmers Market. The breakfast was very good with tan table cloths and very nice staff. We could eat our meal and look through the big glass windows onto the sidewalk and watch everyone walk to the Farmers Market. After breakfast we did the market--it was small due to the early time of year-but did find a few things. The romaine lettuce, mustard greens and vidalia onions were numerous. They also had homemade cheese and baked goods. There was a country couple singing local music.

After the market we drove to Georgia Southern University for the Art Festival. This was held on a plot of land with large oak trees and grass lawn. They had all sorts of things for children to do in the art field such as dying tee shirts, painting paper mache animals, etc. They even had a display of some art students with the eagle display, hoping to place them in selected town across the nation.

Oh, we did visit a winery out in the country---Walt enjoyed the tasting room and bought some wine.

Today we did Mass and are spending a quiet afternoon because tomorrow we drive to Charlotte for a few weeks.

Eagles at show

new version of the bean bag game

child painting animal

The Good Lord willing we will be in Charlotte by tomorrow evening. Till then-----

April 12, 2012--Pebble Hill Plantation

Today was a busy day. We started out with a early start to drive to Pebble Hill Plantation for a tour. The plantation was bought by Melville Hanna of Cleveland, Ohio. He was a wealthy coal mine owner and bought the property so he could spend time bird hunting. In 1901 his daughter inherited the property after Mels death. She was the mistress of the home from 1901 to 1936. In 1935 part of the house burnt and was rebuilt to its old grandeur in 18 months. Kate died soon after completing the rebuilding of the house. Her daughter Pansy became the mistress of the home until her death in the 1970's.

Kate and Pansy were the perfect hostesses to many friends and notable artist, actors and political figures. Kate was known for her prized Jersey cows and the cheeses they made from the milk. Pansy was known for her prized horses and hunting dogs.

Here are a few pictures--I took 100 pictures and have a few (haha) for your viewing pleasure.

Cattle and Horse barns under the live oak trees

Horses in barn next to barns

Mossed covered trees on plantation

Front side of home--tour was given for 1 hour -- very beautiful home on the inside.

Back door to the house

School house for families children and visiting children

Side door entrance for family and visitors-they never used the front door

Milking parlor for Kate's Jersey cows

View of the barns

We left the plantation after a walking tour and a visit to the art museum on the second floor of the house. We left the area at about 1:30 and went to Thomasville for lunch. We ate at the Jonah's Fish and Grits Restaurant. It was an amazing lunch which was very inexpensive for the quality of the food. Much, much cheaper than Florida prices.

We stopped  at home to give Bart a walk and then started a drive to the northeast area of our park. We did not find the small town we aimed for but did find all kinds of farming. Pecon groves, vineards and a lot of cultivated fields. After stopping at Belks for some Kcups for Walts coffeemaker we pointed our truck to the RV park.

Long day but very enjoyable.

April 11, 2012--Thomasville, Florida

We arrived at a campground in the country. We had to wait 45 minutes for the office to open and then were given a site (take which ever one you would like). We pulled into a site on the grass which was very nice because we did not have to put down any leveling blocks. The ground was so hard we could not believe we could just park.
When we were set up we took a ride to scoop out the town of Thomasville. Our first part of time we thought it looked like a poor Georgia town. When we got to the downtown they had some very nice shops and eateries. Walt asked which direction we should go to see agriculture. The person said, "You mean like farms?" He thought for a time and then said we should go onto Metcalf Rd. Well, we found the town of Medcalf and it was a blink in the road and we saw only trees on the way except for some cows and calves in 2 fields. This is true southern Georgia.
A few pictures of Thomasville sites---

Dirt road to Medford--dirt road better than some paved roads

One of the historic homes now an office

Home trimmed with gingerbread trim

One of the old oak trees in town.

Oldest oak tree-see specs. below

See you tomorrow,,,,,,,

April 12, 2012--Thomasville, Georgia

Summary of last 10 day.
Walt stopped his work at the church about 10 days ago so we could do some of the things on our "Bucket List" before we left Florida.
April 2, 2012--Navarre's Zoo--It is a great little zoo with exhibits so you could feed some of the animals. The llama's, the camels and the giraffes were the favorite animals for feeding.
Some pictures:

One of the many roosters walking proudly all over the zoo.

The first exhibit as we entered the zoo was the monkeys

Happy Face

The giraffe with the long tongue

The open range exhibit which held some of the very large animals

April 6, 2012

Walt did a walk on the longest fishing pier on the Gulf.

View from pier to beach

Fisherman on pier--I believe they are selling boat loads of poles at Walmart



View from end of pier

During the week we spent time doing shopping and eating with friends.

April 8, 2012--Beach overlooking the gulf

Kids on beach--the surf had worked at the beach so there was a 3 ft. drop from the sand to the lower level.

April 8, 2012--Sunset at Navarre Beach Campground

Next blog is about Thomasville, Georgia (hope the internet keeps on task)

March 22, 2011-Navarre, FL>

We got home from the Keys on Saturday evening. When we left the motel on Saturday morning we drove through The Villages and were amazed how the area has grown in the last few years. The shopping in the area is number one with every store you can think of and a large area devoted to medical needs of the area seniors. There are doctor offices for every ailment and a large hospital.
After leaving we went to Ocala and I was able to visit a quilt shop. Walt did a few of the stores in the general walking vicinity.
After leaving Ocala we drove northwest and reached Haines City. We then found route 33 and drove out into the country.. We saw a lot of horse farms between Ocala and Haines City. Suddenly out in the country we came upon an antique shop. We saw a lot of cars so we stopped in for a visit. Well, it turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. They had fantastic antique furniture which I have never seen. They were very well cleaned and restored. They also had a furniture accessory shop, and knick knack shop , a garden shop and a lovely dining area. We ate our lunch under some trees next to a pond. It was very nice and Walt was one of only a few men. It seems it was very popular with  women. One lady summed up the shops "I could buy everything in the stores for my home, it is so good".
When we reached Perry we decided to continue back to Navarre rather than have another night in a motel. So we continued to Navarre and got home at about 7:45 pm. Then came the time to bring everything into the house and unpack. We both decided that it is much easier to have our RV with us because we then do not have to sleep in a different bed each night and we have everything in our house available to us. I then would not have to remember were I have put everything. HA HA.

Driving under Oak trees with low hanging moss

A quilt hanging in the quilt shop

Serene farmland in northwestern Florida

March 16, 2012-The Villages, FL.

We left Okeechobee, FL. this morning after a nice breakfast at a local restaurant. We found a road north out of town that would go through some country and small towns. When we were trying to not travel on divided highways we found it could be hard in this area.
As we were traveling Walt was in "seventh heaven" because we passed numerous dairy farms. They were large dairies and had a large number of calves and heifers pasturing in the fields. The cattle were gathered under palm trees to chew their cuds. The palms limited the amount of shade by their small size of canopy.
We did notice that the barns had water flushing to control the manure. On the side roads you would see ten to twelve small cement homes in a row for the workers.
Then for a few miles we saw real trees in a wetter area. It was nice to see trees were are accustomed
to having in our area. We also met a few semi trucks hauling hay. This is the dry season in this area of Florida so they must supplement the dairy cows with hay which was bought somewhere else.
When we got on 441 we started to see orange groves, farmers baling hay and lots of steers in the fields. We also saw flood irrigation, bales in plastic tubes and lemon groves.
When we reaches Lake Wales we passed an orange processing plant--the town even smelled like oranges.
Oh, I forgot to tell you that this noon we passed an Antique Mall out in the country, so we decided to stop for a stretch. Well, we left at 2:30--long lunch!!!! It was definitely an area for women. They had a very unique antique store. They had things I would have used in a home if I had room for furniture. The items were very priced so that the amateur could by something without feeling like you were paying to much. Then they had a shop with accessaries for your home and then another shop for "nick nacks". They even had an area with all kinds of garden supplies. It can be summarized by a statement I heard a lady say, "This is so great -- I could put all of this in my home."  A lot of people were really trying to buy out the stores. They also had a very nice lunch area were you could sit indoors or outside under the trees next to a pond. Great Stop!!!
Here are a few pics===

Walt found himself a spot to rest while I shopped.

See you soon.

March 15, 2012-Okeechobee, FL

We drove all day from Marathon to Okeechobee. Walt wanted to see some farm land and we certainly did after we left the Ft. Lauderdale area on 27. We saw lots of Sugar Cane be harvested and younger fields of sugar cane. The trucks we got close to had sugar cane or sweet corn on them. After we got to our hotel in Okeechobee we took a drive south east of Okeechobee and saw some huge dairies. One dairy had 8 barns. We got back to our room and Walt is busy watching CSI on TV.

Tomorrow will be another day of driving:
Here is a picture of the place we had dinner last evening in Marathon. It was an outdoor dining area at a marina. The food was great but the wind was blowing to make it a bit chilly.

Hope to be back with you soon.