Fort Clinch State Park on Amelia Island, Florida

We're back in the south....Florida.  The sun is shining and the temps are in the high 70s.  How nice after the rain and cold of Lake Superior.

Back at Fort Clinch - our 4th time?  We're camped only a short distance from the St. Mary's River, where we've enjoyed the sunset every evening as we've enjoyed the company of Nan & Dave.  We biked into Fernandina Beach for a walk through the quaint downtown and lunched on some great shrimp Po'Boys.


Another day we biked 36 miles on a round trip island ride which included a nice cycleway.  We stopped for lunch at American Beach, the only "black" beach in Florida before the mid 60s.  Then Ruthie remembered the Tomato stand and Morey remembered the Dairy Queen.  They were both still in business and so we stopped at both.

Today, we headed over to the pre-Civil War Fort Clinch.  This fort never played a part in any battles.  The closest activity was when the Union troops arrived in 1862 to discover that the local citizens and Confederates had abandoned the fort and town, and only a few of the dignitaries were on the last train out of town on the David Levy Yulee built railroad.  The fort returned to the Union flying their 36 star flag.

Jordan's 7th Birthday

We came to Aberdeen to celebrate Jordan's birthday, along with his parents, Michael & Jess.  Jordan is such a great kid!

While in town, we did some home projects including painting Jordan's bedroom from baby light blue, to big boy dark blue.

On Sunday, we stayed for his birthday party with many of his friends.
Decorating pumpkins, grilling hot dogs, and a really tasty cupcake birthday cake.

  

 

The Smoky Mountains

We're back in the Smokies!  A couple of years ago we spent most of our time at Cades Cove campground and then just one overnight at Elkmont campground.  We said we need to return to Elkmont, and we did...for 6 days.

Jumping on the reservations 6 months ahead of our planned trip, we secured the primo site right on the river.  What could be better than hearing the water cavorting around the rocks as we slept in BIW.  We even pulled into our site forward facing the rushing waters.
What a great campground even though it is rustic.  We even had a couple of roaring campfires to keep us warm in the evening.

We hiked three of our days.  As the week progressed the fall leaf colors continued to get better.

 

Our first day we hiked to Laurel Falls with all of the masses of tourists, but fortunately continued after the 1.3 trail to the falls, and we were almost alone.  Next we hiked right from Elkmont on the Little River Trail to Cucumber Gap Trail. We stopped at Daisy town, a former resort of cottages from the 1920s and 30s.

Then our RV friends, Gail & Dan, arrived and we headed over to the Alum Cave Trail.  Fall colors getting even better!  We were tempted to hike all the way to Mt LaConte, but decided a 6 mile hike with an elevation climb of 1,700 feet was enough for us.

 

Morey buries the Hatchet

We're heading south, and it's actually getting warmer...might even hit 65 tomorrow; and NO rain.
So we set up camp for one night at
Fort Boonsborough.  While we were taking the tour, Morey was asked to enter the hatchet throwing contest...………………
so he buried it...…..in the target!

It's also Halloween Craziness here at the campground.  And we don't have any orange lights nor any pumpkins, nor ghosts...………….hope no one knocks yelling Trick or Treat, because we don't have any candy either.

GO BLUE ! Michigan 38, Wisconsin 13

What a terrific day culminating with watching the Wolverines trounce the Badgers.

The day started at our "campsite" at the end of our friends, the Simon's driveway.  First a brunch with all of us Michigan fans and some of our Ann Arbor friends.  Then a little leaf raking to warm up our bodies in cool temperatures with a high of only 52 and a game time temperature dropping down in the low 40s.




Next off to Main Street and the Michigan campus to check out all of the Michigan paraphernalia and a walk across the Diag --  making sure NO ONE stepped on the "M".

We even stopped at the Michigan League where Morey & Ruthie's wedding occurred a mere 47 years ago.  (If it hadn't been for this, there would only have been us two at the game, not the 8 that attended.)

Next was some tailgating until 6:30pm when we could enter the Big House for the 7:30pm game start time.







WOW, the Michigan stadium was as we had left it a few years ago...…….TOTALLY AWESOME.  Our team took the field and we cheered and yelled our Wolverines to victory.  Even better was watching our kids and grandkids celebrating this awesome event.

And here's a little contest...………...played like "where's Waldo", but for this, 

WHERE'S MOREY & LOGAN? 

Back to the Lower Peninsula (of Michigan)

We re-crossed the Mackinac Bridge heading south with our date with destiny; the Michigan vs Wisconsin football game this coming Saturday at the Big House.  Our first night's stop was at Wilderness State Park, just west of the bridge.

Then on to Petoskey State Park for three more days.  We were last here when our daughter Becky got a bath in the motel's sink...so that makes our return about 40 years later.  This state park is right on Little Traverse Bay and there is a swimming beach.  Too late in the season for a dip?





We did check out the quaint town of Petoskey, shopping many of the "made in Michigan"  gift shops.

Our visit's highlight was a 24 mile bike ride on the Little Traverse Wheelway.  We were able to hop on the trail directly from our campground and bike along the bay.  A nice sunny day with all of the trees in their fall colors.  We did stop early into this bike ride at Kilwin's for a fabulous milk shake, and a caramel apple to go --  Our extra energy boost!



On our return bike trip to our RV, we passed a stand selling famous Traverse City, Michigan sweet cherries.  Darn it, we got here too late; about 4 months too late.

Here's Ruthie at our biking lunch stop

  

Picture Rocks National Lakeshore........

We've arrived on the other side of Lake Superior, the southern shore.  Wow, is this lake huge!  As our travel in the "north" country continues, the leaf colors keep getting better and better.

Good thing we arrived at Twelve Mile Campground on a Thursday, because as we soon discovered, this is the weekend to come visit this National Lakeshore for maximum fall color; beautiful colors. We camped at the site 16, a primo sight to watch and hear Lake Superior.

Rain does continue to be a constant here, but sunbreaks help with our northern lake camping experience.

We hiked the North Shore Trail to the Hurricane River along the lake shore, and up and over the ancient sand dunes which are now covered with birch, maple, and zillions of ferns.

Tahquamenon Falls

Back in Michigan, we headed to Tahquamenon Falls.  Last visited on our first RV trip in 2010, we hoped to avoid the rain that we so remember as we took a rowboat across the river to the lower falls, while holding an umbrella over us.  This trip we did have some sun and again, some glorious leaf colors.  But, we also had our share of rain, which seems to be a part of the upper peninsula of Michigan.




After hiking for 3 miles in the morning on an exploratory trail, we took an early afternoon shuttle to the upper falls.  Following our oohing and aahing of the water flowing over the rocks, we took the 4 mile hike along the Tahquamenon River back to the lower falls and our campground.

What a nice hike!  With all of our hiking for the day, we almost completed 10 miles for the day.  Maybe we're getting back into our hiking shape?