Daytona, John F Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach

Driving through Daytona Beach

The route to John F Kennedy Space Center

Self explanatory ;)

Cape Canaveral. Never did get a glimpse of anything Space Launch-ish. Was further out on another island area, I think ;) Will have to look that up online!

Looking north towards Cocoa Beach (I think) We never quite knew where we were LOL

On our way South from St. Augustine

Driving towards Ormand Beach, just north of Daytona Beach

A beach where you can still drive and park on! Nice :)

Can`t swim in this section because of a shipwreck. The area was only about 20 feet either side of the sign! Info on the shipwreck http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_F._Cobb

Looking south down the beach at Ormond Beach

Cute little booth where you pay to drive onto the beach.

Some Random Pics from the past couple of days

Katie and Darren with us at lunch on Saturday, March 28

Katie`s friend Alex, who is also Darren`s friend now.

Our lunches....mmmmmm, great tacos, salads, etc!

Darren wanted us to go play Bacci Ball at the beach after lunch so we trekked down and tried setting up an umbrella for poor me, who was already sunburned a bit. The wind was very strong though so that didn`t work and I went home with Bub and umbrella, while they stayed and played. While there, a cold front came thru and they literally felt the temperature drop about 10 degrees F within a moment! Crazy!

March 31, 2008

A slight chance of thunderstorm forecasted for tonight around 8 pm, came a bit early (2pm to 3:30pm) and ended up being a downpour with major wind switching directions and sending hail as well!!! We have a flood outside our door that would require us to pull the motorhome forward in order to leave the without drowning. Oops, as I`m writing the rain is picking up again. There are no more menacing clouds in sight though so hopefully it will taper off. Disregard that, the thunder is sounding again. Yikes.....good thing we have no where to go ;) Yup, there`s more rain coming and the wind is picking up again. Of dear.....at least we are warm and dry :)

March 30, 2008

Beside Darren's house, there is a drainage creek. Pretty stinky and yucky for the most part but with the sun shining on it, it takes a good photo ;) Not sure if you can see them but there are a ton of little creatures swimming around in that "water". :)

March 29, 2009

Playing with my camera on Saturday at the beach. Still having a hard time getting my settings right in Manual (grrrrr) but I won't give up ;) This is the pier down the beach from where Darren lives. I love the texture and weathering of the pillars! They are encrusted with shells and barnicles on the bottoms.

March 28, 2009

Walking back from the beach, I took the long way back to Darren's and along the side of the road, there is stagnant water covered in green stuff ;) Some egrets were feeding as I approached and when I got just past one, it took off in flight and I captured it, although it is a bit fuzzy.

March 27, 2009

Darren and Jason viewing the surfing possibilities

Darren catches a wave and rides it to the end

Oops

Yesterday we went with Darren and his friend Jason to the North Beach where they went surfing. There was a cool breeze so we didn't stay too long watching them try to catch waves. I can't understand how they surf in that cold water with that cold wind but they do. Here are some pics I took while there.

March 26, 2009

The bridge towards Jacksonville on our way to St. Augustine

Bub and Pumpkin meet again

There's my sweet boy! And Katie workin' on the puter

March 25, 2009

John has done all the driving and I'm hoping all the driving for the trip ;)

March 24, 2009

Bub's favourite seat in the motorhome

Accident on Hwy 24 between Nashville and Chattanooga...line up of traffic. Turned out to be a minor accident as far as we could tell once we got up to it but sure stopped traffic! If we hadn't stopped for fuel and a shower, we'd have missed this backup! Oh well ;)

Beautiful lake at a Rest Area on Hwy 24

Nashville, Tennessee

March 23, 2009

Hardy Lake State Park near Austin, Indiana

We drove to Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky to tour the caves. John has always wanted to explore some caves in Kentucky (this stems back to the years he drove to Florida in the transport truck) so I found what I thought would be a good place to visit and Mammoth Cave was it. Turns out, it was a great choice as this is the longest cave system in the world. They had many options for cave tours so we picked the easiest since neither of us is in great physically fit condition and I will NOT go into small places too far underground. Next time I told John he can go tour wherever he wants and I'll wait in the motorhome ;)

Very interesting place with many stories of silly people doing silly things in dangerous places! As we walked to the entrance of the cave, the temperature dropped drastically! We went from t-shirts to coats and once in the cave, I wished I'd brought my winter lining for my jacket and my gloves!! Brrrr! We were down there about 1 hour and the depth was around 140 feet....not too bad. On our way out, the Ranger asked us to stop while he turned out all the lights so we could experience complete darkness. It was truly amazing! He told us that no matter how long we were in the is darkness, our eyes would never see more since there is no light at all and therefore nothing to adjust to. I thought of the blind and how this is what they experience their whole lives! It was a great experience that I won't probably ever venture into again but if I ever do, I hope I know how to take photos in dark places by then! Grrr, nothing worse than having a camera that will take great photos but not knowing how to use it!

Going down into the cave entrance

Inside the cave

March 22, 2009

Tired out already

Indiana

Our trip to Florida started out at 6:30 am....a little later than we thought but early enough!

We travelled as far as Austin, Indiana where we found on the map a little green symbol saying there was a State park with camping. It looked closest to the highway so we went looking for it. On our way to finding it, we decided we were getting ourselves into the middle of nowhere so thought we'd turn around. As we turned and stopped on a sideroad, a truck turned behind us and was about to carry on down the road when he stopped and backed up. I watch too many CSI type shows and of course my mind wandered to places it shouldn't! The man was very kind and told John where to go (no, not that "where to go") so we carried on down the road we turned on! That turned out to be a narrow paved road with many curves and hills! We were really starting to wonder if we should turn around and go back to the civilized highway LOL We decided once we got to the end of the roller coaster ride, we'd go down to the park and see how it was. We drove up to the office and a lady came to the window and said that she had been sleeping until we drove up (in a southern drawl....I didn't think we were that far south, but apparently we were) She asked if we were from out of state and we said yes....she said that will be $7.00 and the site would be $17.35. John thought she meant it would be $17.35 total until after he'd paid and she asked for the extra $7.00. It was quite interesting but we paid and continued on. The park looked very nice as we drove in and it was. We had a nice camp site and there were quite a few in the campground. Of course, I had quite a few random thoughts of Criminal Minds type scenarios that could play out in the Hillbilly type setting....kept me awake for part of the night LOL.....I think I need a break from these shows!

March 21, 2009

Decorating the Hall

The Party

The brother and some friends :)

The Surprise

Grandma and her girls (missing Jackie and Marina)

Brian's birthday was yesterday and he turned 50! Now we are the same age for 17 days :) Today, my sister-in-law June (Brian's wife) threw a surprise party at the Centralia Community Centre. Mom and I helped her out getting things ready and Lisa, Bre, Mom and I decorated the place in the afternoon. To our surprise, it was actually a surprise for Brian! There was a great turn out and good reminiscing of the "old" days!