Savannah Heaven

What a day! Today we woke up in a Savannah, Georgia K-Mart parking lot. The night before it had dropped into the lower 30's, so we have officially gone through 4 seasons of weather in a week. (Those of you lovely people that helped me wish for less sun can feel free to stop now, apparently we were too successful.)

We began our day by driving to the Skidaway State Park outside the city to look for Painted Buntings. We did not see any of the actual birds, but we did buy a stuffed bunting to add to my collection of mobile birds (along with three others... this might become a problem...). The first pictures are all from the hike we took around the park... it was beautiful.

We then toured the museum where we got to pet a baby alligator and look at more of the local birds.

After the park, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and wandered around the city. Savannah is amazing. All of the streets are lined with Live Oaks covered in Spanish moss. The streets are covered in cobblestone and the buildings look like they date back to the revolutionary war (and many do). 

We finished our day by going to Tybee Island, where Casey touched the Atlantic Ocean for the first time ever. Now we are tucking ourselves into our Walmart parking lot to watch a movie and freeze our butts off for the second day in a row.

Hope you all are well.

Oh, and don't think that we haven't noticed the serious lack of comments on the last few posts. Morgan is the only person who has remained faithful. What about the rest of you? Have you just stopped loving us???

Consider this a warning.

We will check in from South Carolina manana.

Peace, love and VW's.

Happy 7th Month!

Hi from Georgia!

We are just over the Georgia-Florida border in a little town called St. Mary's. To celebrate baby's 7th month of growth, we decided to splurge and get a campground last night. We found a really lovely state park and checked in. In the registration office they were selling Audubon stuffed birds that play their own song. I had seen some of the birds earlier on the trip and decided that eventually I would get 5 and make a mobile for the baby.  They had such a great collection in the office that I couldn't resist. I ended up bringing 6 birds to the counter and the ranger decided that he wanted to donate another bird for the baby, so we ended up getting 7 birds. I am pretty excited about the mobile. Casey is going to help build the frame for it.

After putting the birds in the baby-stuff storage closet, we chose a great spot and settled in.

Less than 10 minutes later, we were hit by a huge thunderstorm, so we played cards for a while and waited for the rain to subside. The next day the weather was much more cooperative. We went on a walk with the dogs and took super-long hot showers. Now we are on our way to Savannah, Georgia to look for painted buntings (the ranger told us where we might find them).  

We'll check in again from there.

Love, hugs and kisses.

World Golf Village

This blog is dedicated to Chris Bostwick.

Chris, we love you.

Today, we toured the World Golf Village. We wandered around the grounds  and played 18 holes of putt-golf (real greens with a tee box and a flagged hole). It was so much fun, made better by the fact that I got a hole in one on the 8th and beat Casey by one stroke (it was really more than one stroke, but he cheated). 

It was a wonderful day in the sun. Now we are off to the rest area.

Hope you are all enjoying life where you are.

See you in Georgia.

A NASA Flunk Means Manatee Success

First of all, you should know that Walmart has finally failed us. Apparently, you can't camp at any Walmart near the Florida coast, so we have had to be more creative about our accommodations (although the first two nights we camped anyway in protest). 

However, once we rounded the bottom of Florida and got on 95N (which will take us all the way to NY), we entered Rest Area Territory. So instead of camping in Walmart parking lots, we now camp in rest area parking lots. The only downfall is not being able to get yogurt and milk in the morning for breakfast. But the rest areas actually end up being less noisy, so it all balances out in the end.

Our first night at the rest area was particularly  interesting because we shared our camping area with two armadillos. Casey chased them around for a while and tried to get a picture, but they are quite quick and none of the shots came out.

Anyway, the next day we got up bright and early to go to the Kennedy space center. On the way, we stopped to see the first US manned rocket.  It was amazingly small... maybe 4 feet in diameter. 

When we got to the center, we learned that they wanted 38 dollars per person to go in, so we bailed.

Casey was really upset, having talked about going to the NASA center the whole trip (he actually got a little grumpy.... "40 F@%&ing dollars!!!").  So, we decided to head toward the coast to see if we could find a different activity. On our way we got pulled over by the local police for....

you are not gong to believe this, but just look at the picture....

SPEEDING.

Yes, apparently we can speed in the van.

But, being quick and resourceful, I launched up to show off my belly and started babbling about how we were heading to Massachusetts to have a baby.

The cop couldn't help himself, we only got a warning (for 15 over!)

After our narrow escape from the law, we found a nice oceanside wildlife refuge to relax in for a while. We got to see a nest full of bald eagles and a lot more alligators. We then went to the Manatee Watch sight, where I was convinced that we did not have a prayer of seeing a wild Manatee, but just look at these pictures!!! 

Can you believe it? Endangered wild manatees.... We saw two!

So, it was quite a day. We had  to retreat early to our friendly rest area to get some sleep.

Bye for now.

Casey: The Alligator Hunter

Casey and I had one of our most exciting adventures yet: We went alligator hunting in Big Cypress National Park and the Florida Everglades. The following pictures are not for the faint of heart. 

But for the rest of you, here is a recap of the day:

Upon entering alligator territory, we hired two spotters to help us find our prey. The spotters are pictured below and may appear to look a little like our dogs, but rest assured, they are not... these are trained, professional, large- alligator spotters (working for food).

The day was hotter than East Bejesus (for those of you that don't know that expression, because I think only my sister and I use it, that means it was really, really hot). There was absolutely no wind, no clouds, and the sun moved strategically all day in order to shine directly on me (and baby).  This made us (I speak freely for him at this point) less cheery than usual, but still ready for some serious gator action.

We had been driving along the road for approximately 30 seconds when we saw our first wild alligator. After that we saw about 3,458 of them in the next two hours. But what we were looking for were some really BIG gators that we (as in Casey) could take a really impressive-looking picture next to. We ended up finding the perfect gator on the grass beside a rest area. (We were forced to stop at rest areas quite regularly to reload the water supplies for our trusty spotters, who apparently dehydrate very quickly) Casey leaped out of the van, yelled "criiiikee", and posed next to the alligator (which is actually even bigger than he looks). We then tackled the gator (no pictures possible) and cut off his foot. The foot is currently on the way to Portland to the residence of one of you lucky readers. It should be there in 3-5 business days. The blood will have probably dried up by then. 

So, all in all the gator-hunting expedition was a giant success. Much more so than the day after, which pretty much involved nothing but driving partway down the Florida Keys, scorching in the sun (again, it moved to be closest to me all the time), only to find out that there is no beach access unless you own a 2 million dollar condo. So we left.

Now we are on the way to the NASA museum in northern Florida. We will check in again from there.

We love you all. Please pray for some rain for us (Lindsay and baby) or for the sun to get over its fixation.