Fifth Wheel – Page 2 – Wandering Dawgs

Wandering Around America One State at a Time – Pennsylvania

July 10, 2017July 13, 2017Posted in Historic Sites, Pennsylvania, RVing, Wandering around AmericaTagged America the Beautiful, Ferryboat Campsites, Fifth Wheel, Millersburg Ferry, Susquehanna River16 Comments

State 35:

Welcome to the next post in my series highlighting states we have visited throughout the years. I hope you will enjoy coming along for the ride!

I will be featuring the states alphabetically. The next state in my series is

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania became the 2nd state on December 12, 1787. The capital is Harrisburg.

When I was a teenager, my family made a trip to Philadelphia to see the historic sites. All I remember is seeing the Liberty Bell (it was more years ago than I want to admit and I was a teenager after all). About 40 years ago my husband and I took our kids tent camping to Pennsylvania and toured the Hershey factory and the Gettysburg National Military Park. We made some wonderful memories with our children who were two and six at the time. Unfortunately I don’t have photos from those trips.

Just a few years ago Henry and I traveled through Pennsylvania on an RV trip with our fifth wheel. Always looking for a waterfront campsite, we found a great one at Ferryboat Campsites in Liverpool, right on the banks of the Susquehanna River.

20080617Ferryboat-Campsites-(4) — View of the Susquehanna River from the campground

20080617Ferryboat-Campsites-(5) — View of the Susquehanna River from the campground

The Millersburg Ferry is the last operating ferry on the Susquehanna River. The ferry landing is located in the campground so of course we took a ride across the river.

Millersburg Ferry in Liverpool, Pennsylvania

20080618Millersburg-Ferry-(1) — Millersburg Ferry on the Susquehanna River

Millersburg Ferry is the last operating ferry on the Susquehanna River

20080618Millersburg-Ferry-(25) — Millersburg Ferry

20080618Millersburg-Ferry-(24) — Each mark on the building represents the year and the height of a flood

To read previous posts about the states featured in this series just click on the state name: Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon

Best Campgrounds of the year – 2016

December 19, 2016June 25, 2017Posted in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Parks, RVing, State ParksTagged Favorite Campgrounds, Fifth Wheel, Fort Pickens Campground, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Oak Mountain State Park, Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Stephen C. Foster State Park11 Comments

Welcome to our third annual “Wandering Dawgs best campgrounds of the year” list.

Our 2016 wandering took us on a short trips to Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi.

We prefer staying in state and federal parks and this year our top three all fall into one of those categories.

Number 3: Oak Mountain State Park, Pelham, Alabama

Early Morning at Tranquility Lake — Tranquility Lake was just a short walk from our campsite

We stopped at Oak Mountain on our way to Mississippi and enjoyed it so much we returned to the same site (A28) on our way back home to Georgia.

Our site was spacious with full hook ups and nothing but woods behind us. This large state park has a golf course, archery range, equestrian camping and horse stables, nature and hiking trails, lake front beach, mountain bike trails, and scenic drives. The road through the park is a popular place for bicyclists. Nearby Pelham and Birmingham have restaurants and shopping.

Read more about our stay at First Stop on our Fall Football Road Trip .

Number 2: Stephen C. Foster State Park in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Fargo, Georgia

Do you see the alligator behind the Cypress tree?

We love this place so much we have camped here numerous times in past 10 years. Our most recent trip was in March, 2016.

Just getting to the campground is an adventure. After turning off the highway, seventeen miles of driving through pine forests and palmettos takes you into the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. It is remote, quiet, and wild.

We camp in one of the large premium pull through sites. It is a short walk or bike ride from the campground to the marina where you can go on a guided tour of the Okefenokee Swamp, rent a boat or canoe, launch your own boat, or take a walk on the nature trail through the swamp. Alligators are often seen around the marina but we’ve never seen one in the campground.

You can read more about our stay at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

Number 1: Fort Pickens Campground, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Florida

Ready for Beach Chair Sitting on the Gulf of Mexico

Miles of white sugar sand beach in Gulf Islands National Seashore within walking distance from our campsite, an historic fort to explore, a nice campsite, nature trails, beautiful sunsets, fresh seafood, fishing pier, museums and a lighthouse nearby – what’s not to love?

Read more about our stay at Gulf Islands National Seashore .

Honorable Mention:

We returned to Mississippi River State Park in Marianna, Arkansas, our “Best Campground of the Year – 2014“. I left it out of the top three to make room for three new campgrounds
Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center, White Springs, Florida
Eastbank Corps of Engineers Campground, Bainbridge, Georgia

Where do you think we will wander next year? Stay tuned…

Celebrating Ten Years of Wandering

July 15, 2016Posted in Lighthouse, Road Trip, RVing, Sunset, WildlifeTagged black bear, Enchanted Rock, Fifth Wheel, Split Rock Lighthouse, Yosemite Valley33 Comments

What an amazing ten years! Each marker on this map represents a place where we camped in our RV.

Ten years ago, on July 1, 2006, we spent our first night in an RV park in Tampa, Florida. Two weeks later we left Georgia with no reservations anywhere and a bucket list of what we wanted to see. You can see highlights of that trip at Looking Back on our First RV Trip. Last year I posted a few of our most memorable experiences from our first nine years at Celebrating Nine Years of RVing.

Many of our trips revolved around either visiting family or attending a special event such as a wedding or Titanium Rally. Sometimes we traveled just for the fun of seeing new places. No matter where we were going, we always took the long way around to get there.

We discovered beauty in every state and province we visited. Sometimes the everyday things were the best.

I love watching the changing landscape and seeing the many farms and ranches.

I love seeing the farms as we drive along

We always enjoy seeing lighthouses.

Split Rock Lighthouse on Minnesota's North Shore — Split Rock Lighthouse on Minnesota’s North Shore

Seeing wildlife is always a treat.

Black Bear beside the road in British Columbia

And of course we loved visiting many of our National Parks.

Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View Overlook

Sometimes we enjoyed watching the sunset from our campsite.

Mount Redoubt sunset in Ninilchik, Alaska

We did a few amazing hikes.

At the Summit of Enchanted Rock in Texas

Chilling by a camp fire is always fun.

Now that we have ten years of RV’ing under our belt, our priorities have changed. Of course, we are ten years older and it is more difficult to make long trips. When we started our wandering, we only had two grandchildren. Now we have four and we want to spend as much time with them as we can. Going on long trips takes us away from them for too long.

Our wandering days are not over. There are still many places we haven’t seen in and near our home state of Georgia so from now on we will travel a little closer to home.

Snowbird Season

February 23, 2016February 25, 2016Posted in Birds, Florida, Photography, RVing, WildlifeTagged Fifth Wheel, Nature, nature photography, Seasons, snowbird, snowbirding, Weekly Photo Challenge33 Comments

Snowbird – one who travels to warm climes for the winter (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

No, we’re not snowbirding this year – yet. Doctor’s appointments and household chores caused us to get a late start this year. Instead of hitting Florida during the peak snowbird season we will be arriving in Florida in early March just before spring break.

While we have been home, I’ve been thinking about all the places in Florida we have enjoyed. Here are just a few highlights from our snowbirding adventures from past years.

We had white sandy beaches almost completely to ourselves at St. Joseph Peninsula State Park.

The beach at sunset at St. Joseph Peninsula State Park

Watching the sunset was a perfect way to end the day at Cedar Key.

20090217Cedar Key (118) — Cedar Key Sunset

We loved Everglades National Park and camped at the Flamingo Campground twice.

Pa-Hay-Otee Overlook in Everglades National Park

There was a lot of bird watching in Cedar Key.

White Pelicans and Cormorants at Cedar Key

And lots of alligators in Everglades National Park.

Alligators along the Anhinga Trial, Everglades National Park 2012

It was fun seeing manatees at Homossassa Springs Wildlife State Park.

This Gopher Tortoise walked across our campsite at Silver River State Park (now Silver Springs State Park).

Gopher Tortoise at our campsite Silver River State Park

We rode the Fort Gate Ferry across the St. John’s River near Salt Springs Recreation Area.

Waiting to cross the St. John's River on the Fort Gates Ferry — Waiting to cross the St. John’s River on the Fort Gates Ferry

And of course we went for boat rides.

Went for a boat ride in the Salt Springs Run

We ate our fill of stone crab claws and other fresh seafood.

Delicious Stone Crab Claws in Everglades City, Florida

Soon we will be hitching up the fifth wheel to do a little late snowbirding this year. We are going to a few new places and returning to a couple of favorites. Stay tuned to see where we wander next!

This is my contribution to the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge. For more Seasons photography go to WordPress Photo Challenge: Seasons