Goliad State Park, Texas

This morning as we departed Brazos Bend, we were stopped by a tree that had fallen across the road. It didn't leave enough room for Morty to get by although smaller trucks could make the squeeze. We were stranded until the calls could be put into the maintenance folks who soon arrived in legion with power saws and a front-end loader to make quick work of the clean-up. This is the only road into the park and the tree had to have fallen after these guys reported for work. No harm, no foul -- but we wonder what if we were just a little earlier and said tree had drawn a bead on our beloved Morty.

Morty selected Goliad, because of its perfect distance from Brazos Bend -- 174 miles, and the Galveston and Gulf coast parks in that range were still rebuilding from Hurricane Ike. The magic in using criteria like that is that you open yourself up to discoveries of perfect little gems that would so easily get missed. Goliad is the perfect example. This tiny little park on the San Antonio river has only 20 pull-thru sites plus a few cabins, tent sites, and 20 more electric-only sites across the highway. But the main attraction is the restored mission complex from the 1700's. These meager ruins were reconstructed by the CCC in the 1930's and stand today as a beautiful reminder of how this country first developed.



With the sky as clear as a bell, we re-evaluated the likelihood of spending more time in Texas and opted for the $60 annual pass. If the weather improvement was not enough, the decision was made even easier when the ranger pointed out that some other parks have higher per-day charges that would lower the break even point further than the $6 charges that we had encountered so far. After that we noticed that the weather in New Mexico was still rather wintery while Texas would probably be much warmer and clearer.

We continue to be very favorably impressed by the Texas Park Rangers and other park personnel. Boy, they couldn't be any friendlier or more helpful. Even though Lynne and I were the only visitors in sight, the ranger running the museum gave us all the spiel we wanted about the history and life style of the mission, and came and sought us out again when the local volunteers were putting on a spinning and weaving demonstration. You just could not ask for better ambassadors of your state -- Well done, Texas!

Since tomorrow is Friday, and experiencing the limited capacity of the parks of Texas so far. And with the recommendation of the ranger gals who checked us in, we phoned for reservations for the next couple of coastal parks we were interested in: Goose Island and Mustang Island. Goose was already full for Friday, and Mustang was down to its last two sites. So we booked Mustang Island for the next two nights to get through the week-end.

Sam Houston Jones State Park, Louisiana

We awoke to a little early morning fog at sunrise which yielded up some pretty fine photos – again with the Canon s90 at hand. They should be at the end of the Tickfaw album, just preceding this post.

Morty put another free day in the bank with one more consecutive driving day of 170 miles. We were just able to stay in Louisiana with its low prices at the westernmost state park known as Sam Houston Jones. This park is just North of Lake Charles. The prices here are the same as before, but we noticed a new schedule of transaction charges: $3 for walk-in; $5 for using the web site, and $9 for using ReserveAmerica. No wonder I’ve been leery of using the third party site. Can you imagine my reaction if I were charged an extra $9 for making my $8 site rental. Ouch!

Fortunately, reservations are hardly necessary, the park is only about 15% full tonight, though some late arrivals are inevitable. I am getting to like our noon arrivals more and more. The routine of driving for three hours before lunch is working well for us, because first, we can stop for a McDonalds breakfast, when we arrive, we have a larger selection of sites, then we have lunch in the park followed by bike-borne explorations. Then we are soon tired and ready for appetizers and dinner, an early bedding, and ready for an early start all over again -- maybe too Spartan for most, but a good routine for us. Mentioning McDonalds, we are obliged to report that some are doing away with the $0.50 senior coffee because of the expanded breakfast $1 value menu -- we win, we lose this time all in the same place.

As we drove, the skies clouded over, looking quite wintry by Ohio standards, but the temperatures climbed into the 70’s. Today’s wildlife list is fairly short: deer, ibis and duck. We are in Calcasieu Parish on the Calcasieu River, and again, most of the heat-loving critters are on sabbatical. A quartet of yearling deer came up to Morty just as were about to unpack the bikes. Lynne remarked that they looked very thin, so I spread out a little birdseed on the picnic bench, and one came over and licked most of it up. A second had less courage and could only manage a bite while the last two looked on in disgust -- quite a demonstration of peer pressure.

Tomorrow we enter Lone Star where the weather will dictate how far south our path takes us. Tonight I’m struggling with a marginal cell phone connection, so there’s no telling when we’ll get this post up.

Louisiana Rental

Tickfaw State Park in Louisiana is 174 miles down the road from Spanish Fort -- the perfect distance for Morty's new travel plan except for not camping in Mississippi even though we completely crossed over it [albeit the short way]. That's okay, Morty, we'll get back to do some Camping there before not too long.

Today, MLK's birthday celebration is just a little more joyous for us because we are also mindful of the Louisiana Purchase giving us this great land -- some government plans have proven wise and good. We however will just be renting a bit of the bayou for the day. Actually, Louisiana State Parks may be an RVer's Nirvana. Tickfaw is near perfection. Some highlights: paved sites, water and 50 amp power, free Wifi [not that I've gotten a good connection with it -- the cell phone tethering with Sprint is working fine], 50% senior discount with the National Parks Senior Pass card, plastic payments accepted, great boardwalks to the river and through the cypress forests, adequate and convenient trash collection, good bathouses, no weird regulations, and it is all available for $8 per night with a $3 transaction fee. Now that's some good campin'. Plus we have perfect weather: sky severe clear, temperatures in the mid 60s. We will probably want to angle in another stay in Louisiana tomorrow night regardless of the distance covered.



We drove for the morning, and set up camp just about noon. Lynne made some sandwiches and then we set out exploring on the bikes. We explored the roads of the park and hiked the boardwalks and stopped in the Nature Center. Lynne spotted our first armadillo, but then we saw a couple more, one meandering along the road foraging for food very nonchalantly. Must be a fairly common site in these parts. We were also impressed by the geckos and the cypress knees and trees. The park ranger told us we might see the turkey flock making its way back to the roosting area in the late afternoon, but no luck. We sat out on the recliners for our late afternoon sip of wine and watched the locals walking by in their winter wraps. We of course were in shorts, tees and sandals -- so glad to have left behind the snow and real cold. Skyward a flock of about 50 vultures circled lazily overhead drifting with the breeze slowly westward. Something we will be joining in tomorrow morning -- except for the lazily part.

Sweet Home Alabama Parks - Spanish Fort

Morty was determined to make camp in Alabama, even though we were crossing it the short way and very early in the day. So we looked up the Alabama State Parks site on the web and found Meaher State Park in Spanish Fort just East of Mobile. If you were relying on the 2009 AAA Southeastern Campbook, you would probably never pick this park because it is substantially upgraded and tripled in size from their listing. We have a paved pad, full hookups including 50 amp power, a strong cellphone signal from Sprint, a few TV channels over the air, a waterfront on Mobile Bay, automatic senior discount, and lots of wildlife with wetland boardwalks for $26 per night. Just no plastic payments, thank you.

So instead of a 99 mile leg, we only got about 50. Perhaps we should take an overview of what is required mileage-wise to make it to Yosemite on this trip. In round numbers we have 5,000 miles to go there and return home by mid-March. We'll also say that on average we drive every second day so that we can count on 30 driving days. That means that for this trip we need to up our driving chunks to 170 miles. [Also every time we miss that drive on the second day, the remaining chunks increase in size.] Pre -reitrement that would have been a very slow day. Now, it's very doable without getting crazy, it's something we will have to keep in mind when Morty starts whining about camping in every state possible.



Today is Sunday, and we have only a marginal TV signal, perhaps we will get to see some NFL playoff action. We hiked the park and found a couple of boardwalks that we had all to ourselves for wildlife spotting -- no gators but a couple of very photogenic birds. I took the Nikon D90 along with the 70-300  zoom lens and was glad to have the fast frame rate and quick focusing that this combo gives me. Despite the dreary day with only a few sunny rays peaking through, I got some interesting shots.

We're seeing more and more parks removing all convenient trash containers as a cost savings. This has the unintended consequence of having more trash tossed in inappropriate places where it will be very expensive to clean up. I hope our park managers are in line to get some of that free stimulus money and use it to return the trash containers.

Oak Grove Park

RV Genie Pays a Visit to Mortimer! Overnight the furnace repaired itself and was working fine to take the chill off for breakfast. We're glad it doesn't need immediate repairs, but wonder how strange it would be if our furnace had some aversion to the cold.

The Oak Grove Park campground we are in is different from all others we have experienced to date. It is restricted to the military and sponsored guests. It is small -- only 45 sites on a mile and a half of beachfront. The bathhouse is nicer than any we have ever experienced -- finished in ceramic tile and impervious plastic, heated and probably air conditioned, and clean -- twice a day clean; hospital clean! Although the camp is full, it is quieter than you could ever expect. The coin laundry room is locked -- you must sign out a key from the office. Another restriction we have never before seen: No metal detectors allowed. We are happy campers -- but quiet and unobrusive guests.

Crooked River State Park, GA

We are at the very southern tip of Georgia on the coast. My cheapo card reader gave up the ghost a couple of days ago and Walmart has none to sell. This has made it difficult to upload photos, and that has slowed down my postings.

We have been biking up two storms in this park and there is a lot to see: alligators, gopher turtles, wild boar, turkey vultures. You'll just have to wait to see what has been captured in silicon and what has escaped.

Environment ideal: sky severe clear, temps 80 to 58, neighbors quiet and distant. I've been having so much trouble with Florida's park reservation system, that we will probably end up staying here another day.




Lynne's update:
Jim is planning to press onward to Florida to see what their state parks are like.  South Carolina has a no alcohol policy.  Georgia has a no alcohol in public areas, which means you aren't breaking any laws if you have wine with your dinner in your RV or tent.  Ohio makes us have our Golden Buckeye card to get their senior discount;  in GA they take our word for it and the discount is available here on weekends, unlike Ohio while in SC you had to be an SC resident.

Almost everyone left the park today, I guess to go back to school and work.  I was on a trail by myself and saw an alligator in its mud hole.  Later, there were five black baby wild boars coming down the trail toward me.  I froze, standing in the middle of the trail and they kept coming, I guess until they smelled me, and then the lead two turned to run back the way they had come and ran into the ones coming behind them.

Georgia -- Land of Economic Enlightenment

With a forecast of clouds and cold, Morty wanted to take the opportunity to move further south. The first choice was Hunting Beach State Park only ten miles away as the little turtle swims, but a 90 mile trip on roads suited to Morty's massive paws. Probably not worth the effort in terms of degrees of warmth.

The second option was Skidaway Island State Park in Georgia -- about 130 miles. And, when we looked it up on the internets, there was no extra charge for making a reservation. And wonders of all wonders: the reservation could be made for today! Obviously the good folks that run the Department of Natural Resources here understand that online reservations are to be encouraged since they shift the workload from the paid staff to the paying customer -- a win-win for everybody. The customer wants the security of a reservation, just not at a price in excess his own labor and connectivity. When we arrived, our information was already in the system, we were issued our documents, and off we went to pick our site. Incredibly smooth and efficient. A lesson in Reb ingenuity and sound economics that might well instruct Michigan and the Carolinas.

The understanding of economics here also extends to the senior discount. Over 62? Okay, you get a discount. No residency requirement. No Golden Buckeye Card. Simple. It works and it drives business to Georgia that is passing up Ohio, Michigan and South Carolina -- to name a few states in our experience.

Put-in-Bay, OH

On Monday, Morty crawled the short distance to Catawba Island for the ferry to Put-in-Bay. I was last there in about 1948 at the age of 4 on a day-trip with my grandmother. Some vivid memories of that trip: an all-day affair from Cleveland and back again; time for just an elevator ride up the tower and walk back to the ship; she packed butterscotch brownies; I was asleep by the time we were back in port.



There are two competing ferries, a longer faster one which would have cost $120; and a shorter slower one which runs more frequently and costs $26 for 2 round trips. This is what competition is all about, I think.

This trip up the tower was our first opportunity to get the Senior Pass from the National Park Service for lifetime free admissions -- pretty good deal.

We had been seeing ads for the best lobster bisque in the state. So we went to the Boardwalk Cafe and tried it out. It was indeed wonderful -- must be the fresh local lobster right out of Lake Erie. We rented a golf cart for the day and covered just about the entire island. Stopped for a dish of Buckeye Delight icecream before the trip back.

When we returned to Morty, his map had one thing to say: the distance to the next campsite is not much different from the distance home. Also, staying in Ohio Parks was getting painful to be reminded that if we had our Golden Buckeye card, the daily fees would be cut 50% from Sundays to Thursday -- something to remember for the next go-list. So that was it for this trip. We are now home for a spell, trying to catch up with the backlog of mail etc.l

Van Riper State Park, MI UP

On Friday, September 11, 2009 Morty meandered from the South side to the North Side of the Upper Peninsula, about 115 miles. I had expected the roads in this very sparsely populated and remote area of the state with a pretty severe winter climate to be below par. But I am really surprised to report that they are indeed in prime condition – smooth ribbons of asphalt with no potholes or frost damage. In Ohio, even the interstates are not in as good condition. Morty just loves being able to cruise along at 60 MPH with no hassles at all, and he shows it by increasing his gas economy to 9.8 miles per gallon, a pace he has held since departing Cheboygan. I’m thinking he deserves a switch to synthetic oil to encourage this improving performance.



Getting into Van Riper campgrounds had a few difficulties. Seems that someone made a reservation for tomorrow instead of today. Fortunately they still had a couple of open spots when we arrived around 3PM. The ladies at the check-in were no better than I was at reading the tiny on-screen print of this notorious system, which continues to charge a 36 % premium for making a one-night reservation. The grumbling on this point continues.

This park is famous for being in Moose Country. This was the locale of an airlift of entire moose families from Ontario in 1985. They are thriving just a little northwest of the park. I set out on bike to spot some, but ran out of decent biking trail before the moose ran out of habitat.

The reason for the full park this weekend is the celebration of Halloween. Wait, you say, that holiday is still seven weeks off – but we fail to realize that in terms of parties, decorations and developing traditions, this is now our most important holiday of the year. Here at Van Riper, the celebration – including trick-or-treating -- runs for three solid week-ends at the end of September. That’s ideal then for everyone to pull up stakes and take the celebrations home for the month of October – what could be better?

Sunsets were again quite photogenic so several are in the picasa album for you. The lake here is Michigamme. If you, like I, thought that was a football game with the Buckeyes at the end of November, you now have a new piece of knowledge.

Indian Lake, MI

We are spending a day relaxng and enjoying the perfect weather, or doing laundry, depending on your point of view.

It's pretty interesting to see the stream of campers coming in to give this lady a big end of season boost -- all due to the construction in the state park across the lake.

We also enjoyed the Wi-Fi to get the old emails into the blog. Also turned out to be a fairly active day of trading stocks and options with just eight days to go until the expiration of the September contracts. Was glad to have the fast data connection for that, it would have made me crazy trying to do it all over the cell phone.

Tomorrow, we head for Van Riper state park, about 90 miles to the northwest. When I looked on-line, it said all but two sites were already reserved, so I paid the crummy reservation fee again, and repeated it for the next night at McClain on Lake Superior.

At least, we will be all fresh and clean now.

Interlochen State Park, MI

Leaving Orchard Beach, we wanted to stay in the Traverse City State Park, but it was booked solid for the holiday weekend. Instead we got a spot at Interlochen about 15 miles to the southwest. So Morty instigated a trip to Interlochen -- a very interesting park that adjoins the Arts Center. I suppose I’ve heard of this as the origin of some classical music festivals, but never paid it any more attention than that. Biking through the arts center is really an experience, especially when it is about ready to partially close for the season. The buildings must number in the hundreds, with large lake front amphitheaters, visual and theatrical arts centers and so much more. You can look it up yourself here: www.interlochen.org .

The drive up was an easy trip through gently rolling hills on country roads, with very little traffic for any day, much less a holiday weekend. Interlochen is between Duck Lake and Green Lake, along with a tiny town, and dense woods. The campgrounds were huge. The beach had signs warning that “swimmers itch” might be present, so one should towel off thoroughly! If that’s the remedy I say “no harm, no foul.” This campground even had a store, but when we walked through it just before its 9PM closing, things were pretty shabby. Our campsite was even a little larger than usual for the state parks of the land to the north.

Since we were staying two nights, we called some old friends from Ohio, and popped in for a visit after lunch. On the way we stopped at the Tuscan Bistro for a bite. I had the spaghetti fruiti di mare and Lynne had a flank steak panini. Both were outstanding. Our friends were in a Traverse City retirement apartment and making a great go of it. I guess we hadn’t realized that this new locale placed them right at the crossroads of their family’s comings and goings, and so they enjoy a constant stream of nieces, nephews, and grandkids.

On the way back to the campground, we stocked up at the local Meijer. One weird thing we’re noticing is that unlike Ohio, every item is price stickered. That must really do bad things to their operating costs in the age of the bar-code scanner. In Ohio, if the customer needs to check the price, he has to find a remote bar-code reader. These little items are non-existent here, as far as we can tell.

Still in the grips of the final summer holiday weekend for camping, we gritted our teeth and made another $8 on line reservation for the state park at Petosky for Sunday. Just as well, too, because there were only three spaces available.