Every Day is a Gift!
When we are wandering in our RV, home is wherever the fifth wheel is parked. Our real home in coastal Georgia is surrounded by salt marsh, creeks, rivers, palm trees, palmettos, and Spanish Moss draped live oak trees. It’s where I’ve lived for over half my life and where we raised our children.
This month I will be participating in the WordPress Photography 101 course. I hope to post a picture a day as part of this course.
This is my post for today’s assignment: Home.
Our favorite places to camp are the campgrounds with a view. There’s nothing like waking up with a view outside the RV or sitting outside in the evening enjoying the scenery around us. We’ve enjoyed campgrounds with views of spectacular mountains, glaciers, forests, and all kinds of water.
For us, the best camping is beside a river, mountain stream, lake, or any body of water for that matter.
We enjoy watching the different water craft go by.
Sometimes we see wildlife.
Blondie loves it when she gets a chance to go swimming.
We love watching the sun rise and set over the water.
We love camping in state parks. Most state parks we have found have big sites, beautiful surroundings, and wildlife.
We didn’t discover state park camping until the only place we could find to stay in Arkansas on our way home on our first RV trip was Lake Dardanelle State Park in Russellville, Arkansas. Our site was big, we weren’t lined up like sardines next to our neighbors, and we had a nice lake near our site. From that night on, we have looked for state parks whenever we travel.
Here are just a few state parks we love.
Custer State Park, Custer, South Dakota – the Black Hills, scenic drives and wildlife.
Cape Disappointment State Park, Ilwaco, Washington – 2 lighthouses, a path to the beach behind our full hook up campsite, a dog friendly beach on the Pacific Ocean, and a Lewis and Clark museum. What’s not to love?
St. Joseph Peninsula, Port St. Joe, Florida in Florida’s Forgotten Coast – beautiful uncrowded white sandy beaches, nature trails, and sunsets.
Stephen C. Foster State Park, Fargo, Georgia – Huge sites in the middle of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
Other state parks that stand out are Itasca State Park in Minnesota, Claytor Lake State Park in Virginia, Beverly Beach and Humbug Mountain State Parks in Oregon, Kentucky Horse Park in Kentucky, and Cattail Cove State Park in Arizona. We’ve also camped in many Florida and Georgia state parks and love them all.
If you are an RV’er or tent camper and never stayed in a state park, give one a try on your next trip. And if you don’t camp, many state parks have cabins for rent and a few even have lodges.
Coastal Georgia is home to many wetlands birds. Herons, Egrets, Wood Storks and Ibis are regularly seen in and around the salt marsh, creeks and rivers here.
One July afternoon this summer I was surprised to see a large pink bird flying over the marsh. It was too far away and flew by too fast for me to to tell for sure but I thought it must be a Roseate Spoonbill. Spoonbills nest along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana and in south Florida but they are considered uncommon this far north.
A neighbor confirmed that yes, I did see a Spoonbill. In fact, she saw a pair feeding in the creek at low tide. I continued to see the brilliant pink of the pair as they flew by our house almost every afternoon for about 3 weeks. One day I finally saw where one landed so I grabbed my camera and ran out to capture a few pictures.
Other Roseate Spoonbills have been spotted in other coastal Georgia locations in recent years. I know from now on I will always be on the lookout for pink birds among the flocks of Herons and Egrets I see in the salt marsh.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of staycation is “a vacation spent at home or nearby.”
There are so many fun things to see and do near where we live that we decided to stay home this summer instead of wandering in the RV. Here are just a few things we’ve enjoyed so far this summer.
Wandering Dawgs 