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Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) #201778 03/25/11 12:01 PM
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We left Feb 16th and got back March 13th, and I have just about gotten things in order so that I could report. Looking at my photos, I am not really impressed with their beauty or artistic merit - many people here seem to do better than I can do. My pictures are mostly just a record of the trip.

Since I have a lot of photos and the trip was over a long period, it will take me many more than one post to detail it all. Feel free to ask questions in the middle, but please don't give up on me before I finish. I'm going to repeat a bit at the start that I already posted because I want the whole trip in one post.

Weds morning February 16th, we did the morning chores and unplugged the modem, and TVs and turned off the water and left about 9. We were using our new GPS, and I had programmed the Asseteague Lighthouse and the Hampton Inn into it already.



We got to the Virginia boarder about 2 and we got maps (Virginia, Chincoteaque, National Seashore, etc). We arrived on Chincoteaque (which the GPS pronounced Chincoty or something like that) at 1424, and I decided to check out the southern visitor's center first. And it was indeed closed. We took a couple photos of the lighthouse from there.



We looked at the beach, but I was saving my energy for the walk to the lighthouse and didn't go out on it. Didn't see any ponies. We also took some photos of the birds in the wildlife refuge. There were supposed to be snow geese, and there were white birds but they were too far away for me to see whether they were geese or swans. And some of the pictures of the birds have the lighthouse in the background.





We got to the lighthouse trail and did walk to it although it took just about every energy unit I had. The trail was mostly crushed stone - Bob said it looked new.





This was taken from as far as I got - Bob is walking around the lighthouse.





On the way back toward the hotel we passed the museum (closed) and the McDonalds where we could see the lighthouse, but I thought we would come back for that later.

When we got to the hotel (we are staying at the Hampton Inn) I downloaded the photos we took (Bob took 11, I took 80) but I kept having to go into the bathroom to meditate. Next time I go I'm taking the phone book in there to read. Bob wasn't enthusiastic about the free supper offered by the Hampton Inn which was soup, chips, cold cut sandwiches and drinks. But I didn't think I could get that far from the bathroom, so in the end that was what we did.

Last edited by grandmaR; 03/26/11 01:33 AM.
Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201779 03/25/11 12:20 PM
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Thanks to a tip someone here gave me, I knew that I could see the lighthouse from the McDonald's parking lot. So after breakfast we went over there.



Next morning from the McDonald's parking lot



I didn't quite understand the directions to see Cape Charles. I thought we could see it from shore someplace. I put the lat/lon in the GPS and it took us into the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge and to a boat ramp and then the GPS said "start off road navigation".

So I went to the Wildlife headquarters building and he said that the only place to see it from land was coming NORTH on the bridge tunnel. Of course we would be going south.

I did the best I could taking pictures between traffic coming the other direction through the back driver's side window while Bob drove and this was the result







Coming out of the Thimble Shoals tunnel (the second tunnel), Bob asked me if I wanted to eat lunch at the restaurant on Sea Gull Island. I thought we might be able to see Thimble Shoals light, but the restaurant is on the other side. We ate by the window and we both had clam chowder (the traditional kind and not the Core Sound kind) and a BBQ sandwich. We watched some
of those Navy vehicles that are powered by a big fan in the back zipping around - I saw a man try to take a photo of them with his lens cap on. It didn't work



Then we drove by the house that we lived in from 1961 to 1964.

Ever since I heard about "Little Washington" (which is the way North Carolinians refer to Washington North Carolina), I've wanted to see it. I got close this time, but saw very little

I wanted to take the historic walking tour of Washington NC, but we were going to get there too late to get a map of the tour.

I called to see where it was and we were going to try it, but we didn't see where we were to turn to get to the town so we ended up going across a series of bridges which were not on the GPS and the GPS had gone silent.



I have no idea where we were.



Last edited by grandmaR; 03/26/11 01:37 AM.
Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201780 03/25/11 12:44 PM
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February 18th (Friday) we continued down to Summerville SC where we visited with our son and grandchildren. Sunday the 20th, we drove on down to St. Mary's Georgia. We saw a President's Day parade



and visited the Submarine Museum. Bob is of the opinion that it needs a good organizing - it appears to be a collection of collections. It was fun though.



In the second from the top row, the plaque on the left with a yellow and grey center is one that we have at home becaue Bob served on that boat.

Monday we took the NPS boat over to Cumberland Island. The Cumberland Island light is actually on Little Cumberland and you can't get to it from Cumberland. So we didn't see that.

I have been trying to go to Cumberland Island for some time. There is an anchorage off the Sea Camp Dock and you can dingy ashore. But we've never had enough time to do that. And the last time we came up the ICW, we stopped at St. Mary's and I wanted to get the ferry over, but they were full. So this time I made the reservation in October asked for a beach wheelchair. looked like a regular wheelchair but with tires like those monster trucks. It was hard to get into as it was tall and tippy. Several people had to hold it so I could get in. I think they had the tires reversed.



Tuesday Feb 22 continued south. We stopped in Titusville and went over to the marina and then had lunch at Steve's Diner. We stopped for the night in Ft. Pierce and visited Harbortown Marina there for dinner.

Wednesday our daughter was going to be off work, so we drove on down to Miami to her house and watched our granddaughter at soccer practice and our grandson umpiring a 9-10 age baseball game.

Thursday we drove to Key West and spent Friday and Saturday there. I took my sister and BIL to the sunset celebration at Mallory Square. I took this photo from there - I can't figure out what lighthouse it could be. It was almost directly in the path of the setting sun as seen from Mallory Square.



I also took them to Hemingway House which I haven't been to in a long time. Hemingway used to complain that the lighthouse keeper could see into his bedroom.



In this picture the lighthouse is behind the palm



This is from the balcony



Sunday we drove back to Miami to see our granddaughter's soccer game. We stayed until our daughter had to go back to work on Wednesday March 2nd when we left early for the Florida west coast.

We first visited Corkscrew Swamp. I found photos taken in the 60s that show that we all went in and did the boardwalk. And I could even show Bob that he was also there - he didn't remember it. We did the whole 2+ mile boardwalk - me in a wheelchair with Bob pushing.

After we left Corkscrew Swamp, we headed for Koreshan State Park in Estero. I remembered this as the place where the FLAT earth people were (the Koreshans).

But I remembered wrong. I thought I saw a presentation where they thought that the sky was like the inside of an orange. But what they really thought was that people lived on the INSIDE of a round ball (a HOLLOW earth society - a concave surface rather than a convex surface) and the sun and moon, and planets shown through holes in a rotating sphere more inside the ball kind of like they do the heavens and stars in a planetarium today.

They 'proved' this to their satisfaction by going out on the beach in Ft. Myers and measuring off a length along the beach and showing that the land was concave. (A straight line extended at right angles from a perpendicular post will meet the surface of the earth at a distance proportionate to the height of the perpendicular).



March 3rd, we started the real lighthousing up the Gulf coast of Florida.



Last edited by grandmaR; 03/26/11 01:40 AM.
Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201782 03/25/11 01:10 PM
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March 3
Last night, the computer room at the Hampton Inn where there was a printer was in use, so the girls at the desk printed out the whole web page of the lighthouses on the west coast of Florida for me - it was about 11 pages.

After breakfast we decided to go to Sanibel Island and look at that lighthouse. In 1967, we drove up from Key West to the 'mainland' of Florida. We visited Lion Country Safari in Palm Beach County, Sebring, Edison's house at Fort Myers, and Corkscrew Swamp. We also went to Sanibel Island.



This was the only picture I took at Sanibel Island at that time. I remember staying in a motel and looking for shells on the beach. I don't think we saw the lighthouse.

The bridge over was a toll bridge, but they did take cash (unlike the Florida Turnpike which we got onto by accident and then had no way to pay the toll).

The lighthouse was in a park where there was a $2.00/hour parking fee.



Bob waited in the car and I walked down to the lighthouse.
It was quite windy and they were doing kite boarding on the beach and I took some photos of that



I walked up to the first informational board and then walked through the underbrush to see if I could get a better angle but it wasn't that terrific.



I think I got some good photos ..



..including some with birds flying around the top of the lighthouse.



I took photos of the lighthouse from the bridge on the way back because that was the side of the bridge toward the lighthouse.





Last edited by grandmaR; 03/27/11 03:29 PM.
Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201783 03/25/11 01:18 PM
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Additional photos of Sanibel







It was at this point that I was wondering whether I needed to deviate to the Rest Rooms.










Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201785 03/25/11 01:43 PM
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The first lighthouses on the list that I thought we could see were around the Tampa/St Pete harbor. Since we had already seen Boca Grande on a previous trip









Including the Rear Range Light



.. and since some of the lighthouses that I originally thought I might be able to see were on islands which (based on the Cape Charles experience) might really be out of camera range, and since we also had time constraints - we had only 2 days to get all the way up the Florida coast, I decided to go up the east side and try to see the lighthouse/ranges of Port Manatee.



I could see this on the map, but some of what I read made me think we would have trouble getting in to the port. And we did. We got to the port and I went in to where all the truck drivers were waiting and they asked me if I had some kind of Federal Permit that allowed me to go onto the port, and of course I did not. The man I was talking to took pity on me and showed me the map which had them on it and gave me the 2011 Official Directory.



This was actually really interesting - I didn't realize that the closest location to ship stuff to the Panama Canal was this port.


Last edited by grandmaR; 03/25/11 01:52 PM.
Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201789 03/25/11 01:50 PM
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The booklet had photos which had the two towers pictured





We were able to see them from the road although not the range side of them of course, and I took some pictures from the car although we had to keep moving as there was traffic.



Port Manatee Inbound Range Rear



What I thought was strange was that they have tours of the port - "bring your camera".



The next ones on the list were the Big Bend ranges on the docks of the Mosaic Company. Bob didn't think we could find them, but we saw the Mosaic Company sign



and went in and took pictures of those



Big Bend East Range Rear


Last edited by grandmaR; 03/25/11 01:57 PM.
Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201790 03/25/11 02:06 PM
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Both the front and rear with the range marker from the back



After we had lunch at Hardees, we skipped up to Crawfordsville in Wakulla County which is south of Tallahassee. We stopped for the night at the Best Western that you told us about. We got there about dusk. We had dinner at Hamaknockers Bar-B-Q. This was a small place with red and white checked oil cloth table cloths and a deer head on the wall. A teen age boy took our order and I think the cook was another teen. Bob had ribs and I had a bbq sandwich and sides. It was cheap.

(pause in posting for lunch)


Last edited by grandmaR; 03/26/11 01:45 AM.
Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201793 03/25/11 06:46 PM
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Thank you for the great and informative pictures (again) and for the 'armchair lighthouse tour' that Gary and I cannot take yet for real. We love 'traveling' with you, and feel almost as if we were there too! groupwave

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Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201795 03/26/11 01:15 AM
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March 4, 2011
We had a nice (free) breakfast at the hotel with waffles, toast, sweet rolls and bagels, cereal, fruit and various beverages.

Then we set off for Saint Mark's Lighthouse which was in the Saint Marks National Wildlife Refuge



This was the entrance gate when we were leaving - it wasn't all the way open. It was unmanned.



The GPS ran out of road but the car still had road so we drove all the way down to the end. We could see the lighthouse at the end of the road.




There were fires burning in the brush near the road - you can sort of see the smoke in this photo.



We were supposed to pay for a permit, but there was no one to ask if our Golden Age Passport would exempt us from paying the fee so we just assumed that it would. Bob parked and I got out. First I climbed up on a platform that was next to the lighthouse.



To give a view out over the marsh







Then I came down and walked around the base of the lighthouse










Last edited by grandmaR; 03/26/11 01:46 AM.
Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201796 03/26/11 01:22 AM
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I have seen photos of the lighthouse reflected in the water and I tried very hard to find that place to photograph it from, without any luck.



I did get some photos.











This was the other side of the parking lot with a Warning - Alligators sign



I couldn't walk far enough to get on the other side of this body of water.

Next was Crooked River


Last edited by grandmaR; 03/26/11 01:23 AM.
Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201797 03/26/11 01:29 AM
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Which we found fairly easily.

















Then we searched out Cape Saint George.

(to be continued tomorrow)

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Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201804 03/26/11 12:44 PM
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A very different prospective of lighthouses than I was able to visit last year, Grandma.
To get the reflection photo at St Marks, you have to walk behind the base of the lighttower and down the path?? Could have been high tide and no path. It looks like you were close on the beach. It was about 75 feet in off the beach through the grass, bushes, etc, I'm sure there are snakes and gators. When we climbed the tower, the CG made us wait until they checked for rattlers on the stairs.

Last edited by rscroope; 03/26/11 12:45 PM.

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Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201819 03/26/11 06:37 PM
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No I went around behind the lighthouse and down the path, but there was no water when I went. I went down the path, and out onto the beach as well. This one was from the beach



This was the trail to the beach



This one was from the trail beside the marsh



Maybe I did not go far enough, but I did not see any water there or any way to get around behind the marsh, so maybe they were having a drought. This was at the beginning of March

Last edited by grandmaR; 03/26/11 06:41 PM.
Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201822 03/26/11 07:25 PM
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Then we searched out Cape Saint George.





Lighthouse through the windshield



We parked



and walked up to the lighthouse










Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201823 03/26/11 07:31 PM
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We didn't pay to climb,




Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201824 03/26/11 07:39 PM
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but we did go to the visitor's center.





This was a leaning lighthouse



which eventually toppled



and people have rebuilt it (much like they have done with Blackistone Lighthouse on St. Clements Island).



We got a list of places to eat from the lighthouse visitor's center (I photographed it rather than taking a copy of the list) and drove out to the Blue Parrot which was recommended as being on the water



The men's room sign said Parrots and the ladies room sign said Parakeets.

Bob got a half pound of peel and eat shrimp for $8.99,



and I had Seafood Gumbo $4.99 and Bread Pudding $4.99.





Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201825 03/26/11 07:46 PM
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Next we headed for Cape San Blas







We didn't go in the gift shop here.













Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201826 03/26/11 07:56 PM
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We went the wrong way after that and had to retrace our steps.



The St. Joseph Point (Beacon Hill) Range Rear (1)



was a little difficult to photograph because it was a private home with no trespassing signs.







Last on the list was St. Joseph Bay (Beacon Hill) Range Rear (2)






Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201827 03/26/11 08:01 PM
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Front of the range?



We had already seen Pensacola





on a previous visit





So we didn't stop but just went on to Mobile

Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201829 03/26/11 11:19 PM
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We got to Mobile and there was a HUGE traffic back-up going into the city from the west on I-10. Then we ran into a similar back-up on the our side of the road west of Mobile going OUT of the city. Took us half an hour to go about 5 miles. Found the motel about dusk

I think part of the problem was Mardi Gras - there were big celebrations and parade in town. I had to take a smoking room as nothing else was available. I tried several hotels before I found even that.



There were people all over the lobby of the hotel playing games.

We left for dinner and found Dick Russell's BBQ.



It was definitely a local establishment. I had a BBQ chicken sandwich without the bread and had a biscuit instead. Bob had the sandwich with the bun and fries. He thought I had wanted fries too, so he shared his. He had an apple pie a la mode for dessert and I had a peach cobbler.



It was delicious.

Then we got totally lost and couldn't find our way back to the hotel. This was because we had wandered around in the dark going through parking lots trying to find a Mexican place that we saw the sign from the hotel but never could get to and finally using access roads along what I think was a previous I-20 exit. It was quite dark and a little rainy. I had left the GPS in the motel so we couldn't use that. But eventually we saw something we recognized and got back there.

March 5th - I gave Bob his birthday present from me this morning and teased him about being three quarters of a century old.

I don't know if it is because I put on my nightgown in the dark a couple of days ago and in the morning found it was inside out and backwards, but the weather today has been terrible.


Originally I had thought I would look at the lighthouses around Lake Ponchetrain. But given that it is the weekend before Mardi Gras, I didn't want to go near New Orleans and the two I thought I would see were on the south side of the lake. I decided just to go see the lighthouse on the Tchefuncte River Lighthouse which could be seen from the end of Main Street in Madisonville.

We headed out. It was raining off and on. We got to Main Street about 11:30,



but about a mile and a half from our objective, the road was completely covered with water - to the depth of about 8 inches judging by the fact that we could see the yellow lines through the water. But Bob refused to go any farther.

We turned back and decided to go to the museum that we saw just before we were stopped by the high water.





This proved a very interesting museum



(interactive river pilot area)





Display of some of the furniture and personal items from the Tchefunete Light Station.

Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201831 03/26/11 11:50 PM
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This was an Evinrude motor similar to one that we have.




Among other things they had little dioramas showing all the Louisiana lighthouses.


Sabine Bank

I was taking pictures and saw an empty cubicle which said "No Photographs Please". I didn't understand why they didn't want pictures of that, but I didn't want a photo of it and so I didn't take one. Then when I got around to the other side



I saw another sign and realized that they meant no photos of any of the dioramas. But it was too late - I had already done it. There was no sign on this one though




I thought maybe I could get Bob a T-shirt as there were shirts on sale, but they were sweatshirts and were children's sizes mostly.



We left the museum





and headed out



This was the last lighthouse on my list to see and the last one of the trip.

We started north on I-55 in torrents of rain which the windshield wipers could hardly keep up with and we had to watch carefully for cars ahead that didn't have their lights on as they were practically invisible from behind. The road was very rough as there were nasty joints between each section of concrete. We have been listening to whatever the local NPR station is on the radio, and the NWS kept coming up with tornado warnings. I could see from the map that the warnings were for the southern counties and we were in one of them.

The weather guy on the radio kept saying that a tornado had been spotted but I couldn't find the town he was talking about on the map. It turns out that I was spelling it wrong in my head. The name sounded like Rain, but was spelled Rayne.

The radio guy said that if we "spotted a white funnel cloud" ... and just then there was a loud clap of thunder and lightening, but there was too much rain to spot anything at that moment. And he would continue that we should get to a place of safety and listed that under a sturdy workbench would be good and that if we were in a mobile home, we should get out and go to a safer place. Then he would say that if we were in a car we should get out and go lie in a ditch. I was looking at the rain and trying to imagine myself getting out and lying down in a ditch when it was raining so hard that I couldn't SEE a ditch and if I did find one and lay down in it, I'd need a snorkel to breath, and the snorkel was in a bag in the trunk.

Eventually I decided to turn off I-55 and head across to Monroe Louisiana. The US highways proved to be much smoother, and they were practically devoid of traffic.

We stayed in Monroe that night. Some time after we got there, there was some violent pounding on the door. I thought it might be kids who had the wrong room, so Bob looked through the peep hole and then opened the door and asked them what they wanted. They apparently had the wrong room. I asked him if it was children and he said no, that it was two adult black females. When he was telling our daughter about it later, he said they were "working girls".

March 6th we got to Frisco where our daughter and grandchildren live, and we stayed there until the 10th. We saw a scrimmage baseball game and a track meet our grandson Justin was in (it was VERY cold), and on Tuesday we had pancakes at the church with Justin doing some of the cooking. I mostly uploaded photos and Bob fixed their dishwasher and also some electrical problems.

We left March 10th I was still having trouble getting the GPS to talk to me. I do not know what the secret code is. Sometimes it talks and sometimes it does not.

We spent the night of March 10th in Forrestville AK and tried to visit the little museum there but they apparently closed it early. This was behind the museum



March 12 - We got to Nashville about 1:30 and promptly ran into a horrible traffic jam. I told Bob to go ahead and get off, but people would not let him into their lanes. As bad as D.C. It was so bad that we did not attempt to do the city trolley tour.

March 12 - I decided that even if I didn't get to do a city tour, I wanted to see the Parthenon and the Capitol so I put their locations in the GPS and it guided us to them. (or at least it did the mapping - it was silent most of the time). I also wanted to go to the Hermitage which was on the way home, so we drove out there. We got a wheelchair for me. We saw the movie and went through the museum and then we went out into the gardens. They had said we would have no trouble, but they lied - gravel paths do not make easy wheelchair pushing.



This is where Andrew and Rachel are buried.

We saw the cemetery and then we got to the building itself. They had two little ramps marked left and right - the man said that one side of the step was lower than the other. No photos were allowed inside. They asked if I could walk up the stairs and I said I could if I absolutely had to so they said I could look at photos of the upstairs. I said could I take pictures of them, and the man looked taken aback - don't think anyone ever asked him that before. Finally he said no but that they would sell me a book with them in it.

We toured the downstairs and then I looked at the photos. There was also an interesting letter in there from Jackson's son or nephew trying to explain why the house burned in 1834.

We stayed in Abington VA that night

March 13 - the internet would not work for me in the morning. Also I found an ant on my pill box. It bit me. There was no cranberry juice on the buffet. I used the hotel computer but it was slow. The rest stops on I-81 have all been bulldozed - cost cutting measures by the VA governor.

We got home about 1630, and Bob turned the water on. He also found two starlings had gotten into the house and crapped all over everything.

Initially I could not get the computer to log on to the internet, but after I turned if off and waited a bit, it started to behave better.

THE END

Last edited by grandmaR; 03/27/11 12:01 AM.
Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201836 03/27/11 02:58 PM
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Great story and pictures Rosalie! I especially liked the pictures of Sanibel...some day I will get there. Interesting about the marsh behind St. Marks being dry.


Laura
Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201840 03/27/11 05:16 PM
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 572
docsweetie Offline
Super Wacko
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Posts: 572
Oh my goodness, what a wonderful tour guide you are, Rosalie. You do such a great job with detail and information that would not normally be known. Your pictures are always great. We all treasure your trips and the fact that we benefit from your travels. Kudos and thank you, thank you!!!

Carol


docsweetie
From Grandkids: Aka Grandma Lighthouse
Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201841 03/27/11 06:28 PM
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Posts: 6,801
rscroope Offline
Saint
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What a great trip rosalie, thanks for sharing.


LONG ISLAND BOB
Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201851 03/27/11 10:21 PM
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Posts: 701
grandmaR Offline OP
Super Wacko
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Glad everyone enjoyed it

Re: Trip Report - Maryland to Key West to Texas (3500 miles) [Re: grandmaR] #201978 04/01/11 11:59 AM
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 7,152
Lighthouse Loon Offline
Super Wacko
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Loved it, Rosalie! Thanks for posting them with a great narrative.


Stan M
New Jersey Lighthouse Lovers
------------------------------------
Harry Wishlist: Tinicum Rear Range, Miah Maull Shoal, Finns Point, Bergen Point, Cross Ledge, Old Ambrose Lightstation, Romer Shoal, Barnegat Lightship, Liberty Lightship.

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