Thursday, March 14, 2019 - Moving; Sheriff Officer Visits our Site
We moved on from Meaher State Park this morning to Eastbank (COE) Campground just north of Chatahoochee, FL.
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| Entering Florida |
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| Many of the overpass support columns have these small Blue Angels models on them. The Blue Angels home base is Pensacola. |
Eastbank COE is in Georgia, just minutes from Chatahoochee, Florida. Somewhere north of Pensacola we noticed remnants of the damage caused by Hurricane Michael from last fall. Many, many trees were broke off at the same height for miles and miles (we guessed about 30-35), highway signs and other metal were twisted into piles along the highway, and many homes still had blue tarps on their roofs from the hurricane damage.
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| Trees broken off for miles and miles. |
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| We saw many piles of debris from signs along the roads. |
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| Many houses and buildings with blue tarps still awaiting repairs. |
When we reached the park, we were amazed at the damage to trees within the park itself, and were surprised how the park personnel had already done a so much in the cleanup of the park. It was in really good condition with all of the damage they had received. Fortunately the campsites were at a lower area, apparently saving it from the damage we saw in other areas. The trees in the actual camping area seemed to have little to no damage as compared to those at the top of the hill and in Chatahoochee. Unfortunately, I was so involved in helping Dean find where we needed to go I failed to take any pictures of the number of trees that were damaged on the upper part of the park.
Getting into this spot was a little interesting because of the angle and how the road dropped into the entrance to our site. Later, we noticed a gouge underneath the front part of the fifth wheel and we could tell by looking at the corner of the truck bed that is where the gouge came from. Fortunately, it is underneath so no rain can enter it, but we will need to do something to cover it.
Our site was right on the water's edge and again, we were fortunate to be backed up to a beautiful view of Lake Seminole. Alvin and Linda did not camp with us tonight as they traveled on further south in Florida near The Villages, and will stay somewhere half way between before arriving on Friday to spend a couple of days with some friends.
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| Our campsite. |
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| What a beautiful sunset this evening. |
Dean and I asked Cindy, Keith and Drena if they would like to go eat dinner. Cindy declined, but the rest of us headed into town. We found Northside Seafood. Dean had "more seafood" and the rest of us ordered burgers. The food was all good. I ordered baked beans with my cheeseburger and they were delicious!
After returning to the park, we all gathered outside on our site to visit and enjoy the view of the lake. We had been there awhile when we saw a Sheriff's car drive through the park. We waved at him as he passed by, and a short while later he came around again and pulled up to our site. Officer Cox stopped to visit with us and stayed for at least 30 minutes or longer. We sure enjoyed his visit.
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| Our final look at the sunset remains before heading inside for the night. |
Tomorrow Dean and I will leave the group for a couple of days to visit my step-brother before we meet back up with them on Sunday.
Friday, March 15, 2019 & Saturday, March 16, 2019 - Spring Hill, FL - Leaving our Escapee Friends; Happy Birthday Cindy & Visiting Mike
Dean and I were up early this morning as we are breaking off from the Escapees group for a couple of days to visit my step-brother Mike in Spring Hill, FL.
We left Eastbank COE Campground around 8:15am and arrived at Holiday Springs RV Resort in Spring Hill shortly before 2:45pm.
We quickly got set up and then left for Mike's. This is the first time we have visited his new home. It is really nice and I cannot believe I failed to take any pictures - of the home, or of him and I. We started talking and never shut up until we said goodbye on Friday and Saturday evenings, when we headed back to Bentley. I'm sure those of you that know me well are not surprised!
One of the first things we did after arriving at his house, was to call my sister Cindy so we could wish her Happy Birthday together - but she did not answer her home phone or cell phone. When I talked to her later, after we had left, she was disappointed she missed our phone calls.
Mike and I had quite a conversation about our first meeting when he was 12 and I was 13. When my parents divorced, my mother moved to Oswego, from Chetopa with me and my three sisters. We moved into a house on north Ohio Street. We had lived there for several weeks before I remember ever talking to the two boys (Mike and his brother Ronnie) who lived in the house north of us with their dad. We soon became good friends. Their mom lived in an apartment several blocks away. I don't remember how long, but after several weeks or so, Mike told us our dad was dating his mom. Wow! Eventually our parents married and we spent every other weekend with them until we were out of high school and married ourselves. Cindy, Mike and I have stayed really close over the years. Cindy is a year younger than Mike and I'm about 6 months older than he is, so we had a lot in common with school and friends.
That has now been many years ago now, and even though our dad and his mom later divorced, they remained friends and me and all of my sisters still loved his mom, Peggy and enjoyed visiting with her until she passed a little over 5 years ago. It's hard to believe so much time has flown by. Cindy and I have traveled to Florida to see Mike a couple of times and Dean and I have visited him at least four times over the years. We always enjoy our time there - me, the most - as we always do the "Remember When" memories which I find hilarious now, and the following story is why!
Many, many years ago when we were both teenagers and my "Blackledge" family of great-aunts and uncles would return home to my great-grandparents house for holidays, Mike would always talk about all of their "Remember When's" from their younger days. He thought that was kind of silly. However, during this trip, as well as a few times before, we seem to do alot of Remembering When's ourselves. We laughed at how we've become our parents/ grandparents. We've come full circle! Several years ago, my sister Cindy and I found this neat sign in a store at Grove, OK. As soon as it we saw it - we both thought "Mike"!! The sign said REMEMBER WHEN. We bought that and sent it to Mike for Christmas that year. He loved it, and has it proudly displayed in his home.
Our time was spent visiting, eating, visiting, laughing, etc. It was so good to see Mike. Even though we are step-sibling's he feels like a real brother to me and I'm thankful he's part of our lives. I'm extremely blessed to have had two wonderful step-parents who loved me and my sisters, and I'm thankful my parents never discouraged our relationships with either of them. We've had many wonderful times with our extended families on both sides.
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| Steve and my step-brother Mike |
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| Whooping Cranes - and Dean said they were not shy. It didn't bother them at all when he pulled up and got out. |
We said our goodbye's on Saturday evening about 8:30 and then Dean and I headed back to Bentley. I was in a bit of a melancholy mood once we left knowing it would be awhile before I would see Mike again.
Sunday, March 17, 2019 - Meeting back up with our Escapee Group
We left Spring Hill around 8:45am and began our approximate 5 hour drive to Waycross, GA. I realized shortly after we left that we would pass very near The Villages, which meant we might even cross paths with Alvin and Linda as we made our way north. Shortly before 10, I sent them a text message to see if they had left yet. They were just about ready to leave. We sent a few texts back and forth and realized they were only a few miles behind us. We both arrived at Laura S. Walker State Park within 15-20 minutes of each other. This is a beautiful park that is very well manicured. As with all of the previous parks, our group was parked near each other. Dean and I needed to go into town to get some groceries. We wanted to eat dinner somewhere as well since all we'd had since breakfast was a snack, and our cupboards and frig were pretty much bare. Drena and Keith said they would follow us to Captain Joe's Seafood, as they had already made their grocery run earlier.
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| Captain Joe's Seafood |
I ordered the beef tips and Dean ordered catfish with fried macaroni and cheese. We both thought our meals were quite good, although Dean was not real fond of the mac and cheese since it was fried. I tasted it and I had to agree with him. By itself it would have been pretty good, but being fried was just too much. They also had a salad bar that included two kinds of soup, along with a variety of salads, desserts and breads. The salad bar was very good. It's very difficult to pass up foods that are not on my diet but overall I think I did pretty good. I did get a small spoon full of banana pudding to taste and ate a couple of sweet potato chips, dusted with sugar. They were both very good.
We returned to the campground and after putting away our groceries, we joined the others outside at Alvin and Linda's site to enjoy visiting while around the fire pit.
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| I was trying to get us all in the picture - but I didn't quite make it. From left: Cindy, Linda, Dean, Keith, Alvin (mostly hidden) and Drena. |
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| Hmmm..... what is that bright light on, .......or is it in Keith? |
We soon called it a night. Tomorrow we all will move on to our last stop together.
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