View from my morning walk in Darien Waterfront Park on the Darien River in Darien, Georgia
Shared with John’s Cellpic Sunday
Every Day is a Gift
Cellpic Sunday – Early Morning on the Darien River
Category: Road Trip
Lens Artists Photo Challenge #320 – Looking Back
Sophia has challenged us to “Look back at things you love(d) in your life, things that have happened, places you visited that you’d like to experience again. Anything, really, as long as it’s part of your treasured memories.” I had fun going through boxes of old photos for this challenge. I found too many to include so I decided to focus on some “firsts” from my travels.
I inherited the travel bug from my father. He was a career U.S. Air Force officer whose job required moving quite often. Every summer we spent our summer vacations traveling to visit grandparents in two different states.
My first big trip that didn’t revolve around visiting grandparents was in the summer of 1959 when I was eight years old. As we traveled from the East Coast to California we passed through many different landscapes and explored several National Parks. Here I am with my Mom and my brothers at Yellowstone Lake.
My first big trip with my husband and children was when the kids were 13 and 9. We saw many fantastic places as we traveled to and from the south rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. A hike on the Bright Angel Trail was the highlight of our Grand Canyon adventure.
I was 16 years old the first time I flew in an airplane. We flew from New York to Rome on our way to My Dad’s next assignment at a small base near Brindisi, Italy. We traveled to many places around Europe during the two years Dad was stationed there. This image is of the Trevi Fountain in Rome.
Wandering Dawgs took our first RV trip in 2006 in our brand new fifth wheel. We found beauty every where we went as we traveled west to explore many of the western National Parks.
Our first trip to Alaska was by RV in 2013. We traveled from Georgia to Alaska and back, spending almost two months wandering in the Last Frontier.
Our first ocean cruise was in 2022 when we sailed to 9 different islands in the Caribbean. This image is of a beach in the U.S Virgin Islands.
Wandering Dawgs are not done wandering yet!
Many thanks to our host Sophia for the challenge Lens-Artists #320 – Looking Back
A Look Back at 2023
Our year was filled with some wandering, some quality time at home, and good times with family and friends.
January
A week long getaway to the Florida Gulf Coast was just what we needed to start the year. The week was filled with beautiful sunrises, bird watching, swimming with manatees, and a Mermaid show at Weeki Watchee Springs State Park.
February
February was a quiet month at home with porch sitting when the weather was nice, a trip to the Ships of the Sea Museum in Savannah with friends, attending the Livestrong program two days a week, and watching the camellias bloom.
March
We stayed home for the month. The azaleas were blooming and the days were filled with St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations with the Junkanoo band from the Bahamas.
April
We took a road trip to do some wandering in middle Georgia, enjoyed the spring flowers in our garden, and watched a few backyard birds.
May
We celebrated Henry’s birthday at a Savannah Bananas game and made a trip to Virginia to visit family.
June
We celebrated my birthday with a road trip to Orlando where we had a delicious birthday lunch at Sanaa at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge and spent a day at the Animal Kingdom theme park.
July
July brought a gorgeous full moon, a double rainbow and a trip to the Georgia mountains to celebrate our anniversary.
August
The weather was hot but the flowers in the garden were blooming at home. We made another trip to middle Georgia where we wandered around Butterflies and Blooms in the Briar Patch.
September
There were walks on the beach and gorgeous sunrises.
October
I made a trip to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Back at home we wandered around Ft. Pulaski National Monument one day.
November
We flew to Ft. Lauderdale to begin our long awaited Panama Canal and Central America Cruise. Watch for another post about this adventure coming soon.
December
We celebrated the holidays with friends and family at home. Some mornings I woke up to a brilliant orange sky at sunrise.
There were also many events with no photos to share. In March I completed a three month Livestrong program for cancer survivors at our local YMCA and I still continue to stay fit with water aerobics and other classes at the gym. We had some long delayed home home improvements taken care of. We cheered on our 13 year old granddaughter at a few middle school volleyball and basketball games. We were safe and dry in our home as we watched and heard the rain and wind from hurricane Idelia passed by in August.
Wandering Dawgs celebrated 10 years of blogging in March. I appreciate all of you who read and follow my posts. I’m looking forward to keep this up for a while.
Wishing you good health, happiness and much joy in 2024!
Shared with Terri’s Sunday Stills
Lens Artists Photo Challenge #260 – Overlooked
For this challenge our guest host Janet from This, That and the Other Thing.has asked us to “share photos of something you normally overlook or something you think other people would overlook.”
It’s not the Destination, It’s the Journey
Ralph Waldo Emerson
During all our years of wandering Henry and I have traveled the back roads to discover places that many travelers overlook. When planning a road trip we try to find interesting and fun things to do in between our major destinations. We’ve discovered delightful small towns and during our camping days went miles out of our way to camp in a campground with a beautiful view.
In 2009 we made an RV trip that took us through Iowa. There were two places on our Bucket List in Iowa that I’m sure many travelers overlook. Both of the destinations had movie themes.
The first was the Field of Dreams Movie Site near Dyersville, Iowa where the movie with the same name was filmed. It was magical being there standing in the cornfield, walking around the bases, and imagining Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other ball players coming out of the cornfield to play baseball. I posted more about our visit here.
We were traveling in our RV and couldn’t find an RV park close to Dyersville. I searched all around the area before I found a Corps of Engineers park on the Mississippi River in Petosi, Wisconsin across the river from Iowa. We love camping close to bodies of water so it was perfect for us. If we hadn’t wanted to see the Field of Dreams we would have never discovered the Good Old Potosi Brewery or the Grotto we passed as we drove from the campground to the Field of Dreams.
Our second Iowa destination was the town of Winterset. Not only is Winterset the setting for the movie “Bridges of Madison County” but it is also the birthplace of John Wayne.
We didn’t have as much trouble finding a place to stay there. We stayed in our first ever city campground and we loved it. We set up the camper, put our payment in an envelope, and dropped the envelope in a drop box. The park was nice and the location was perfect for exploring the covered bridges and John Wayne’s birthplace.
Flash forward to 2013 when we took our RV to Alaska from Georgia. We loved every place we went but our favorite place was Haines, a small waterfront town. The view from our campsite was spectacular, the people in Haines were friendly, the scenery and wildlife were amazing, and we loved the laid back atmosphere there. Where else can you visit the Hammer Museum and eat fresh Dungeness Crabs straight from the boat?
To reach Haines by road travelers drive south on the long, scenic Haines Highway from the Yukon Territory in Canada before entering Alaska. Most RV’ers we met had been to Skagway but overlooked Haines because of the driving distance between the two towns. We opted to take the one hour trip by Alaska Ferry from Skagway to Haines. I’ll be forever grateful to the guy from Anchorage who was camped next to us in Skagway and suggested we look into the Ferry. We were sad to leave Haines but enjoyed the beautiful scenery as we drove north on the Haines Highway to continue our Alaska adventure.
Sometimes in our travels we like to go for scenic drives and if we see a gravel road that looks interesting, we’ll drive on the road just to see where it goes. We stumbled upon this view of the Crazy Horse Monument when we took a turn on a gravel road in Custer State Park in South Dakota
We’ve discovered many more overlooked destinations in our travels. There are many great places along the way if you can just take the time to look around.
Many thanks to guest host Janet of This, That and The Other Thing for the challenge Lens-Artists Challenge #260 – Overlooked
June – At Home and another Road Trip
We started the month of June at home. The above image was taken one afternoon just before one of the frequent thunderstorms.
June 1 marked the beginning of my summer water aerobics classes at a pool near our house. It was nice getting into the routine of working out in the pool with friends. At home, the birds and other critters in our yard kept us entertained.
Father’s Day and Birthday Road Trip
Our recent trip to Florida started on Father’s Day weekend. We stayed off the Interstates and headed south on back roads of Georgia and Florida. On our way south we stopped in Folkston, Georgia to visit the Okefenokee National Wildlife before continuing to Florida the next day. The Swamp Island Drive and walk on the Chessar Island Boardwalk were a great way to start our trip.
A Week in Lake Buena Vista, Florida
The next day we drove on back roads to our destination in Lake Buena vista near Orlando and Disney World. The weather was typical June Florida weather – pleasant mornings, hot the rest of the day, and daily thunderstorms. Our condo with a screened in porch was a fun place to relax and do nothing. There were several pools and restaurants to enjoy at the resort. Most days we stayed around the resort and the farthest we drove was about 16 miles to one of our destinations.
I celebrated my birthday a few days early with lunch at the Sanaa restaurant at Kadani Village at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. The restaurant serves delicious food and overlooks a savanna with giraffes, zebras, impalas, wildebeest, East African Crowned Crane and other animals.
Our original plan for the week was to hang out at the resort, go out to eat a few times, and enjoy the pools. We’ve been to Disney World many times over the years but had never been to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. On the spur of the moment we decided to spend a day there.
The first thing we saw when we walked through the gates was the Tree of Life which features carvings of more than 300 animals.
We wandered around the park and went on two trails to view some of the animals. Gorillas, a Komodo Dragon, colorful birds, tigers (we saw them sleeping but I couldn’t get a picture), hippos, and water buffalo were a few of the animals we saw.
There wasn’t enough time to see everything but it was a fun day.
A Night on the St. John’s River
On our way home we spent a night next the the St. John’s River in Palatka. We enjoyed a great seafood lunch beside the river, walked along the river walk in front of our hotel, and I woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the river before we started north to our home in Georgia.
On our way home we stopped in Darien for some fresh Georgia seafood at Mud Cat Charlie’s at Two Way Fish camp on the Altamaha River.
Books
I loved “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingslayer. This Pulitzer Prize winning novel is a page turner that takes place in Appalachia in southwest Virginia. I also read two more of the Inspector Gamache books by Louise Penny.
Shared with Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share and What’s Been on your calendar?
Wandering Dawgs 