Long Key State Park Florida

Sunday March 7, 2010

Today was the warmest day yet. The morning was spent in drinking coffee, checking email on i-phone and surfing the web a little. I cleaned up camp and checked what we might need if we go to Marathon later today. There is a tiny grocery on Long Key but not much there and very expensive. The wind has calmed down and the temperature is in the 70’s and it is actually warm. I settled into to a really tough morning of reading and gazing out at the calm ocean.

We drove into Marathon and had lunch at the Island Seafood Company. Ben remembered being there before and once we got inside I did too. I had a great grouper sandwich and Ben had something called Seafood Boats – potato skins with shrimp, crab, conch, cheese, red pepper, and bacon with a fantastic lemon, dill sauce. I tasted just enough to think I could try to make them – they were great. We then found the Publix grocery for the few things we needed. Note to myself for next time – the Publix is much nicer grocery than the Winn-Dixie where we went on the first trip. They had a great bakery and deli and much better selection of items in all sections of store.

On the way back to Long Key, we stopped at Curry Hammock State Park to check out their campground. It was newer than Long Key but the campsites were not on the beach as at Long Key. Being able to sit at your site and look out over the water is definitely a plus for Long Key. They did have a children’s play area, a very nice beach and boxes selling Miami and Key West papers. We have not seen a paper since we left home and haven’t really heard much news. I checked Fox News a couple times on the web and did not see much of interest.

Back at camp Ben took a nap and I built a sandcastle and searched for some small shells to string. The water was somewhat warmer today and everyone who has a boat near our campsite took it out. Several have small motor boats, and there is a canoe, and sailboat moored near us.

For supper we had steamed shrimp and some salads bought at the deli in Marathon. It was a non-cooking day. I will write the blog, work some in Photoshop and read tonight. It is VERY dark when the sun goes down and the stars are bright and the sky clear. Tonight is the first night I could be out after dark without my fleece jacket. I was comfortable walking outside with only a long sleeve shirt….maybe the cold snap is over!!!

Long Key State Park Florida

Saturday March 6, 2010

We have an alarm clock. I had Long Key on my Outlook calendar at 8:00 each day of our trip and this transferred to my I phone as an 8:00 appointment so at 7:45 it pings. Sometimes when you do something; you get more than you planned for!

Today I decided to cook breakfast, so we had biscuits and gravy. Well they were canned biscuits and canned gravy but for camping at the beach with a kitchen consisting of a refrigerator, microwave, coffee pot and electric skillet – what more can you want!! We had company for breakfast a flock of semi-palmeated plover and another flock of semi- palmeated sandpipers. I only know this because Ben found them in his new Peterson’s Bird Book. He is amazed that some of the birds have changed names since he moved from his 40-50 year old Peterson’s to the one he bought last year.

As the tide goes out the shore birds flock along the tide line searching for something to eat. The sun is bright today and from about 10 AM until noon I enjoyed sitting in the sun (with sun screen on of course) and watched the birds, read my book, and watched Ben try to fish. The consensus of all the fishermen here is that the water is too cold for the fish. No one is catching anything, not even the guys going out in their boats. There is a reef several miles off the shore and some of the guys with boats go out towards the reef to fish. Last year this same time the temperatures were 15 degrees warmer and the water was warm enough that Ben was snorkeling nearly every day. Not this year!

After lunch we drove back north to Islamorada to the Keys Art Show. It was really quite good. Most of the crafts were paintings, metal work, and jewelry. We really enjoyed the jewelry and got some great ideas for both my beading and Ben’s silver work. We got some ideas for what to do with some of the shells that may turn out nicely. I also looked around in a couple of shops at some very nice toys and clothing.

We drove back past camp and parked under the tree at Edgewater Lodge for me to upload several days worth of blog entries and take care of my crops and animals in Farmville. It is a silly game on FaceBook but it is fun and keeps me on my toes not to let my crops rot in the field. I only got one photo up for each of the days so I will have to go back by myself another day and finish the uploading.

Back at camp I fixed dinner. After dinner I had great success with my panorama photograph of the sunset. The sky was a very pale pink and because the light was not so bright as during the daytime I was able to get a very good match on the panorama settings.

Calls home today were encouraging as my mother is indeed feeling much better. She still has some cough but was able to talk to me on the phone. Blog finished – time for a cup of tea and some reading.

Long Key State Park Florida

Friday March 5, 2010

The day started with another pleasant slow morning - coffee, cereal and juice and checking email looking out over the incoming tide and clear blue skies. The water is lapping about 10 feet from my chair and while the wind is cooling it down this morning from the 72 showing on the thermometer; the tent provides a wind break and I am most comfortable. Yesterday I did get about 45 minutes of sun – hope to do that again today. I have finished 2 books and have begun a spy thriller by former defense secretary William Cohen. So far it is good – Dragon Fire. I also enjoyed True Blue by David Balacchi.(I never can spell his name)

I spent about an hour learning to take timed photos and panorama photos. Since I wanted the ocean and the light was wrong they did not turn out well but I learned what to do and not do and will take some better ones in the afternoon. After lunch we took off to find the internet so I could send a couple messages I had written for a committee I work on for the United Way.

We first headed south and at the very end of Long Key is the Edgewater Lodge…if anyone watches America’s Most Wanted .. it is where the guy who shot and killed several family members during their Thanksgiving meal somewhere in Florida was caught. He escaped from the crime scene and there was a manhunt for several weeks throughout the southeast. The crime was featured on America’s Most Wanted and the people who ran the Edgewater Resort recognized him, called in and the law came to get him with the AMW camera’s rolling. We had noticed it in the national news because it was on Long Key and watched AMW to see the capture. We drove into the parking lot and tried the internet connection and although it said secure I was able to log right in….took care of my messages and even harvested my crops in “Farmville”. We will go back again and I can try to upload some of the blog.

Then we headed north to Islamorada exploring and in search of fish to cook for dinner and some gas for the Sprinter. The gas we found easily but the fish took some searching. We finally bought some snapper at the Islamorada Fish Company. There is an arts festival tomorrow so we plan to go back and investigate some of the shops along the way. Islamorada seems to be more interesting than Marathon although Marathon must be larger as it has 2 major groceries and Islamorada does not have any.

We returned to camp and Jane cooked dinner. The weather is warmer but we decided to eat inside again and will be using the heater again. The outside temperature is 55 and with the heater is 70 inside the Sprinter. Ben got to give his sales pitch on Sprinter Vans to some guy this evening. He was camping in a tent and traveling with a van and thought ours looked unusual and wanted to know about it. Most vans do not allow you to stand up in them but of course ours does. Ben always enjoys giving his sales pitch…would be nice if he got a commission if anyone bought one.

I have finished the blog, gotten the photos all downloaded and edited. I deleted quite a few but did learn a lot today that will help me in taking future panorama and timed photos….off to read more of my current story of international intrigue.

Long Key State Park Florida

Thursday March 4, 2010

The temperature was in the 60’s when we got up but 11:00 it was 67 but very comfortable for a short sleeve shirt. The sun is warm but Ben says the water is cold. He was wading out into the deeper water to throw his fishing line. Not for me and he says no skin diving with his new gear this year!!! He went diving last year, discovered his old gear was not in very good shape so bought all new gear on sale as we left the keys!

Great French toast for breakfast – sunshine, calm ocean barely lapping the shore, and good cup of coffee – what more could you want in the dead of winter!!
The day was totally uneventful. We read books; Ben fished (without even a bite for about 3 hours) and I looked for sea shells along the shore. There is interesting ball shaped coral that has possibilities for something so I am collecting near perfect ones and several other shells that may be useful for jewelry or crafts. Interesting that there is very little of the coral I collected last year.

Late in the afternoon we thought about buying fish for dinner or going out to eat. We decided to eat at the only restaurant on Long Key – Little Italy. I was not able to find much out about it other than they had seafood and Italian dishes. I did find a great free app for my i-phone that finds and gives recommendations for restaurants near your location. It is from trip-advisior which I sometimes post to when traveling. The restaurant looked small from outside but it was larger than it looked. We had an excellent dinner. Ben had Seafood Italiano - shrimp, scallops and mushrooms in a light Italian sauce and I had Snapper Lorenzo – snapper with a crab stuffing and a lemon/sherry sauce. It was absolutely delicious. We could have shared either dish and had a full meal – but we forced ourselves to eat the excellent food. I left behind enough broccoli for both of us for the next night!

Coming back into camp was difficult since you must work a combination lock that is hard to see in the daytime – we had to get a flashlight to read the numbers in the dark! The rest of the evening was spent reading and playing computer games. We again had to turn on the heater but keeping it on low kept the temperature very comfortable. The wind is what really cools it down.

Long Key State Park Florida

Wednesday March 3, 2010

We woke up with sun streaming in the back windows of the Sprinter. It is cool but a long sleeve shirt is all we need. Drinking coffee looking out on the peaceful ocean is definitely a pleasure. There is a stiff breeze but the tent over the table provides a pretty good break. We rode bikes and read this morning – can’t say we did anything else. I fell off my bike and skinned my knee and must have bumped my side on the handle bar as there is a sore spot…nothing serious. There are some interesting shells – different from last year so I am thinking about what I can do with some of them. A good 30 minute bike ride takes you to the end of the campground and back the other way to the park entrance. Good exercise. Tomorrow maybe I will try riding down the other way in the park to where a nature trail is through a mangrove swamp.

After lunch we drove 12 miles south to Marathon for some groceries and bait for Ben’s fishing tomorrow. I bought shrimp and will make spinach shrimp enchiladas for dinner tonight. Tomorrow will be fish night – either Ben catches some or we will go out and buy some. Marathon has a library somewhere that in another day or two I will try to find if I can’t find internet access on Long Key.

The spinach shrimp enchiladas were great if I do say so myself. The wind was quite strong and the temperature in the high 50’s so we cooked and ate inside which is a challenge with 26 inches of counter space! However it is workable and I do not have to do it very often. When you are flexible you can do about anything with a good electric skillet!

We read, played games on the computer and I worked on a project for the United Way. Now I really have to find internet to post this and send off my work. We set the heater on low for the night and it came on off and on during the night.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park to Long Key

Tuesday March 2, 2010

We woke up at 7:00 after sleeping for 9 hours. Hopefully we will catch up from last week! The main north-south train route goes through this park and numerous trains were heard during the evening and night – well the early part – and again this morning. When this blogger goes to sleep it takes something pretty loud to wake me so I have no idea if they continued all night!

We packed things back up much better and were on our way by 8:30. When we get to Long Key the Sprinter deserves a good cleaning inside. We drove through several parts of the park before leaving. It will be nice to explore on our return visit and we will have most of the afternoon unless we visit Palm Beach as I have on my mind. The drive to Long Key took only 4 ½ hours so we will definitely have some time to waste along the way. The highest point in south Florida is in this state park – Hobe Mountain – 86 feet high!! There is an observation tower so you can see both Hobe Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. We were directed by Garmin (our GPS Lady) to head south and before we knew it – maybe 3 miles we were in Jupiter. We came to the lighthouse we visited last winter and turned west back over to I 95.

The urban sprawl continues all the way south for the remainder of our trip. We were soon directed to the Florida Turnpike as I 95 goes right into Miami – we turned to the west and began paying tolls – a total of $8.50 but I am sure saved a great deal of time and aggravation that we would have encountered on I 95. The scenery consisted of palm trees, occasional fields of crops, shopping centers, apartments and condos, land-fills with thousands of gulls circling and finally we came to the end of the Florida Turnpike and were dumped into Homestead. We continued on through Key Largo, Islamorada, and finally made it to Long Key a little after 1:00. Total mileage for our trip from Kingsport to Long Key was 993.

Our campsite is # 19, and as with all the campsites here is directly on the ocean. When the tide is in the water is about 10 feet from our campsite. The temperature was 77 degrees and partly sunny. The ranger told us it was going to rain in the afternoon and a cold front pass through. We ate lunch quickly and set up the tent over the picnic table so we could have it up if it rained for an extended period.
The tent went up much easier than last year when we nearly took off with it in a gust of wind….but we barely had it up when the rain drops started. It may have rained lightly for a total of 10 minutes and then the sun and blue skies slowly blew in from the west and the rain was gone. It has remained partly cloudy for the afternoon and there is a breeze. At 5:20 as I write this the temperature has gone down to 72 degrees and I put back on a long sleeve shirt. When I look at Kingsport with 37 (snow) and Durham with 36 (icy rain) I feel very fortunate.

The afternoon activities were cleaning out the Sprinter, putting away things, riding the bikes, and playing with our new i-phones. We have internet on i-phone but not the computer. We will have to search out an internet hot spot for posting the blog tomorrow as well as hunt a grocery in Marathon (12 miles south). For tonight we will just eat what we have and see how the TV works. Jane went to the library on Saturday, has a whole tote of books and plans to read a LOT.

The tide has gone out and the water is 150 feet from our campsite. There are many shore birds in the tidal waters and several of the people camped here have small boats moored in the shallow water.

There is a full moon so Jane had hoped to get some good photos but the cloud cover kept that from happening. We can get 3 TV stations here but all are in Spanish so we will probably not watch much. No watching NCIS tonight!!! The water is lapping at the shore just about 10 feet from the back of the Sprinter.

Savannah to Jonathan Dickinson State Park

Monday March 1, 2010

Woke up at 7:30 feeling much more human than last night! We were on our way south by 8:30. This was a marginal La Quinta – if we had been paying for it I think I would have complained. It was clean and quiet and the internet and TV worked…that is about all I can say about it. The breakfast was very poor. I got the last bagel for Ben and had a boiled egg and raisin bran myself. The lady maintaining the food area brought out some frozen bread for people to make toast with after I got the last bagel!

We stopped at a truck wash in Brunswick to get two months of East TN grime and salt off the Sprinter. What had been a gray very dirty van became a shiny white vehicle after a good scrubbing and coat of wax. After another cup of coffee we headed on south down 95 and stopped at the FL Welcome Center for our complimentary cup of juice. There were 4 Border Patrol vehicles stationed at the border and various locations around the Welcome Center. It was a beehive of activity with a crowd of people coming and going.

Further down the road near St. Augustine we stopped at a Flying J Truck Stop for gas and I made lunch. The Sprinter got really good gas mileage yesterday and today – 24.8 MPG – very good considering part of this was going over Sam’s Gap! I think the Sprinter wanted to be where it was warm as much as we did!!! Fixing lunch I discovered my first mistake of the trip – and hopefully the last. When I turned on the refrigerator yesterday morning and put in the food – I did not notice it was turned up to highest setting – so everything is frozen! I guess the good side is we could buy seafood and get it home frozen – but the bad side was a few of the items had to be thrown away – the milk, cottage cheese, and a couple other things.

The scenery along I 95 is not really very interesting but the Red Maple trees were beautiful among the green pine trees. Most joyful was seeing the clear bright blue skies – it seems we have had drab gray more than blue at home these past couple months. Often there were white trails from airplanes crisscrossing the sky. From Jacksonville south we had 3G coverage on our phones all the time which was a surprise.

As we exited I 95 at Hobe Sound for our campground about 4:30 the temperature was nearly 70 and the sun very warm. We stopped at a Publix Market for a few items we needed and headed the 5 miles south to Jonathan Dickinson State Park. We were surprised to find our reservation was for a lovely site in a brand new campground. Wide paved level sites with tables. We were near the bathroom that was state of the art! We have power, electricity, are getting 22 HD TV stations with Ben’s homemade antenna. (of course half of them are in Spanish!!)



Our major activity was to unload all the stuff we had thrown in the van in the 30 degree temperature and organize and store everything suitably….it really did not take as long as we had expected. We have brought our bikes with us for this trip so it did take a little shifting around of things. I fixed dinner and we settled in for a couple hours of TV, photo editing, reading, and writing this blog. Maybe I will even will try to PhotoShop a couple photos. Sleep will again come easily! Today and yesterday were both approximately 400 mile days – about the top we like to drive in a day. Tomorrow is much less – about 250 miles to Long Key.

Kingsport to Savannah GA

Sunday February 28, 2010

We drove away from home with the temperature a cold blustery 31 degrees at 8:45 AM. This was probably the poorest job of planning Jane has done on a trip for years…we had made our reservations over 9 months ago as that is the ONLY way to get reservations at Long Key State Park in the Florida Keys. About 6 weeks ago we canceled the other reservations we had made for a week-long trip down and a week-long return trip. We reserved one night out coming and going at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Stuart FL and then got “free for points” reservations at a La Quinta in Savannah for the other nights of the trip down and back.

We were also going to make a stop in Durham on the trip down to visit the Harris’- deliver a bike, some Dr. Enuf and enjoy visiting Jeff, Robin and grandson Dan. Well this past week we deleted the stop in Durham due to Jane’s mother being in the hospital most of the week. We got her settled at her assisted living on Friday and although still recovering from bronchitis we left today so as not to lose our reservations for the week in the keys. Many thanks will go to all the great staff at Wellington and brother Jim for watching over things for the next few days.

We basically stuffed everything in the Sprinter as it was too cold to pack much…we will sort it all out tomorrow evening when we camp in Stuart. Little research was done on anything other than making the reservations – but off we went very anxious to get out of the cold weather. Our winter in TN has been unusually cold and snowy this year to say the least and we are hoping when we return in 13 days it will be SPRING !!!

There was no snow in Kingsport but as we reached Erwin and began the climb to Sam’s Gap there was hoarfrost on the trees – as we drove on there were huge icicles on the cuts in the mountains. There was light snow on the road near Sam's Gap and down the NC side of the mountain. Very gray and looked like it could snow at any minute. All along the highway were broken trees from all the heavy snow over the past 3 months. We were through Asheville in short order and stopped near Hendersonville for some more coffee. It was not until we started down Saluda mountain that the sun began to peak through the clouds.

The drive was uneventful as we continued on I 26 through Spartanburg and on to Columbia – we stopped for a quick hamburger somewhere along the way. The sun is warm through the windshield but it is still cool outside. When we turned south on I 95 it began to warm a little more.



The traffic south on I 95 was heavy but not so much going north - can't say I would want to go north either! When we arrived in Savannah it was in the mid 40’s and the wind had stopped blowing. The sunshine did make a difference in ATTITUDE. We are listening to a book-on-CD that we are both sure we have heard before but neither of us can remember much about it… not sure what that says about the book or about us! Jane was also interested in seeing how the phone service with new i-phone and ATT would be – we were never without phone service and internet was probably available half the time.



The GPS easily found our La Quinta – we arrived about 4:30. Jane began researching all the recommendations for seafood restaurants from her FaceBook friends. We found we were quite a distance (about 10 miles) from downtown Savannah and since we were both exhausted – Jane from being up so many nights this past week at the hospital and Ben from driving all day – that we just settled for a close-by seafood restaurant. We will drive into Savannah when we return in a little over a week. I read the recommendations for the Shell House which was less than a mile from us – some great comments and a few bad ones…but we went anyway and it was very good. The hush puppies were maybe the best ever and the oysters and catfish very good. It was nothing fancy but good seafood, excellent quick service, and it suited us tonight. Crab legs must have been a house special as I could not believe how many were being eaten – one lady at a table near us ate 2 buckets by herself!

Time for this blog entry, reading a little and a good nights sleep are going to help this blogger for sure! To illustrate how tired I am – I am not going out to the Sprinter to get my camera doc for downloading photos…that is just going to have to wait until tomorrow!

Tuscaloosa AL to Kingsport TN

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

We left Tuscaloosa at 8:15 anxious to have this last day of travel behind us. We are listening to a new book and it should last all the way home. The sun is shining and it is 38 degrees – cooler than we are used to but not what we had anticipated. The weather report in Kingsport today was freezing fog – that did not sound too good!

The drive was long – we stopped once for gas and once for a picnic lunch just north of Chattanooga. The rest stop was brand new with the travel pamphlet displays just being set up today. The signage was not even finished with Men and Women signs taped on the walls.

When we got in the Sprinter this morning – Garmin told us we would be home at 2:30 – we made it and found most everything in good shape. We have a couple rather sickly looking plants that badly needed water. We unloaded the refrigerator and brought in a couple loads of things we might need tonight but will leave most of the time consuming work for tomorrow. Ben has to do an inspection on Thursday and Jane has commitments for Friday but for tomorrow – no one will even know we are back! Tomorrow we will get the mail and deal with it; do the laundry; and unpack and clean the Sprinter. Then Thursday we will re-enter our lives…

In retrospect this was a really good trip – a good blend of urban and remote locations to visit. We knew the state of Texas was big and this trip proved it. Our total mileage for the month was 5,828. The only days we drove over 300 miles were those traveling to and from Texas. Most days the driving was between 50 and 150 miles. The state is quite varied in cultures, terrain, and in the types of agriculture, resources, and businesses. We saw some homes that were of lower income families but nowhere did we see overwhelming poverty. Granted we did not see every part of the large cities but we did see many neighborhoods that were far from wealthy. All people we met seemed very proud of their state.

We learned a lot of Texas history, we learned about Tex-Mex, Texas BBQ, and Cajun cusines. Jane was able to cook a wider variety of foods in the Sprinter than on previous trips. The weather was great. We had rain two or three days but the only day it rained all day was one of our travel days home. There were several nights we could have been cold without our heater. There were only 3 nights we did not have electricity and while a couple of them were cool, our sleeping bags did their job. There was nothing we would do differently.

In a couple days I will upload the missing photos and an overview of the trip.

New Iberia LA to Tuscaloosa AL

Monday , November 30, 2009

Rain woke us up. Looking outside it was gray and wet with no sign of any break in the weather. Looking online at the weather it looked like that might be our lot for the entire day…oh well we have had very little rain and all we plan for today is one tour and driving, driving, driving…

We headed out a side road to Avery Island and the Tabasco Factory. We got there at 10 till 9:00 and had to wait at the toll gate to the island until 9:00 to enter! Along this small road we drove past fields of rice and sugar cane – both irrigated from small canals.

The story of Avery Island and Tabasco was interesting.


The island was created when a salt dome pushed up from the water. There is oil under the salt dome. The salt mine here is one of the oldest in the country and was carefully guarded during the civil war and finally captured and occupied by the north. The family was here before the civil war and returned to their land after the civil war. They mined the salt first and then began raising the peppers when a friend gave them some seeds from Mexico. The peppers are still grown here but additionally in Central and South America because they have a longer growing season. The peppers are all picked by hand and only when their color matches a red stick the family has provided for each worker. The peppers are prepared the same day they are picked – by washing and then grinding and mixing with a small amount of salt. The “mash” is then packed in oak barrels that they purchase from Jack Daniel. The lids with one small hole are put on the barrels and sealed with a salt paste from their own salt mines and the barrels of pepper mash ferment and sit in storage for 3 years.The barrels from the other locations are shipped here for storage and further preparation.


Barrel of Tabasco Mash sealed with Salt
Only after the 3 years of aging is the sauce made from mixing the mash with vinegar and any other seasoning ingredients. We were familiar with the red Tabasco and green Tabasco but not the wide variety of products they made. We watched the bottling of both red and green sauce today. We also tasted two types of flavored ice cream – jalapeno (Ben’s favorite) and sweet and spicy (Jane’s favorite); Tabasco cola, several sauces, jellies, and candies. You could easily spend $100 without trying. We bought a few things and headed back outside. They had a restaurant bar and we purchased Crawdad Etouffee and Boudin that we planned to eat for lunch. They also had Red Beans and Rice and Crawfish Corn Maque Choux. We wanted all 4 but really did not need that much lunch!

Crawfish Etouffee and Boudin

It was still raining as we left Avery Island. The family still lives on the island and manages the Tabasco Factory which sells Tabasco in over 160 countries! They have a bird sanctuary and tropical garden on the island that is supposed to be very nice but it was 10:20 and we felt we needed to be on our way home.

The rain continued up 90 to I-10 to Baton Rouge where we took I-12 instead of I-10 to New Orleans.

Bayou along I 12 - probably 30 miles of this on an elevated interstate.

Near the Mississippi line we picked up I-59 and began driving north east. Our last gas stop in Louisiana was interesting. It was part liquor store, part fast food, drive through Margaritas, and normal gas station stuff – it was indeed interesting. It seems strange to me to be selling liquor and gas in the same location – particularly the mixed drinks!

Still raining we continued to the Mississippi Welcome Center where we heated our lunch in the microwave --- it was really good. The Crawfish Etouffee was outstanding and the Boudin very interesting. It is a sausage casing filled with rice seasoned with pork and various Cajun spices. We shared both and it was more than enough lunch. We may not have spent much time in southern Louisiana but we certainly sampled their foods!

We continued across Mississippi and into Alabama where we made the decision to drive until 6 or 6:30 and stay in a Comfort Inn. It finally stopped raining about 3 PM. We made one stop at a Cracker Barrel in Meridian Mississippi for a book on tape. Since most Comfort Inns have a microwave can eat some of our leftover food which was our plan for tonight. We stopped in Tuscaloosa and will be on our way to Kingsport tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will be no rain. It is cold for us here – in 40’s and we expect it to be in the 30’s at home….back to reality.. Photos will be added when I have time