Lisa & Bud Gould's Travel Blog

We hit the Jacksonville beaches today - Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Jacksonville Beach, and probably one or two others that have names I have missed. We got pretty close to St Augustine, but, since we spent a week there last year did not go back. Too cool for beach activities, but we did a little shopping for things we are running out of, and checked out some of the shops. A pretty relaxing day which we needed. We head home tomorrow morning and I think it is about 925 miles. We have planned a couple stops in GA and possible one in KY, so we should be home Sunday or Monday at the latest.

We stayed in Folkston GA last night and visited the east part of the swamp today. It was only a 15 mile drive to the refuge so we got there fairly early. After watching a film about the refuge, we visited the museum/store and then took a boat ride into the swamp. This ride was different from the west side since most of this tour was thru canals and boat trails, while the west side was a short canal trip to get to one of the larger lakes (although it looked like a river). We did not see as many alligators today, but, many more birds including close up to sandhill cranes and hurons and a lot of smaller birds. However both boat tours are worth taking as the sections of the refuge are very different. We drove along a 9 mile nature trail but did not see much wildlife. We were walking down a nature trail to visit an old swamp homestead and it started to rain. It had been a beautiful day in the mid 70s and sunny. We got to the homestead and on to the porch for about 15 minutes until the rain slowed to a sprinkle. The temperature dropped several degrees. We got back to the van and found a covered shelter in a picnic area and had a nice lunch. We left the refuge at about 2 PM and got to the Embassy Suites in Jacksonville FL a little after 3 PM. We checked in, unloaded, relaxed after a very good day, and are getting ready to go to the manager's reception at 5:30. Free booze for a couple hours, but, the snacks may be lacking. It looks like they have a nice steak house in the hotel so will won't starve. Later tonight we will plan our agenda for the next two days. We think we will start out for home sometime Friday and get there around Sunday or Monday.

We grabbed some coffee at the motel since they did not have any meat for breakfast, drove to McDonalds, dumped the motel coffee, and had fresh coffee and a McMuffin breakfast. Then found a Post Office so I could send my Expense Report to the home office. Then off to the "land of trembling earth" which was only about 40 miles or so away. It seems that most of the land surounding the swamp is slash pine tree farms. The only other vehicles we saw were either full or empty logging trucks. Dozens of them! Also saw one lost hound dog that might have been hunting in the swamp and got seperated from the resr of the pack. The only other wildlife we saw before we got to the swamp was a lot of turkey vultures eating roadkill. Our visit to the park was great! Lots of alligators and turtles still out and about as the swamp water is near 70 degrees. We walked a nature trail with a boardwalk for about 3/4 miles. There is a small but interesting museum with a lot of displays and interactive interpretive activities about life in the swamp. Then we took a boat tour with a park ranger/naturalist, and just us, that was very interesting and entertaining. A major part of the entire park was severly dammaged by a wildfire that started in late April and is still burning in areas of the park that are inaccessible for fighting the fire. Also the water level seems to be four or five feet lower than normal due to two years of drought. Later we had a late lunch at a very nice picnic area in the park. The weather has been great, high 60s in the early morning and mid 70s by noon, and no rain so far. Then we took a fairly short drive back down thru Florida and up to Folkston, GA, on the east side of the park. Tomorrow we will visit the rest of the swamp, then drive to Jacksonville, FL, and stay there and do touristy things for a couple days. This is probably not the best time to visit the park as far as wildlife viewing is concerned, but, we are having a good time. There are still a number of people that come to the swamp to canoe, fish, hike on the islands, and do primitive camping.

We had planned on staying near Jasper FL which is pretty close to the west entrance to Okefonkee Swamp. We did not like the looks of the only two motels there and the only place to eat. So we decided to drive a few miles up the road to the GA visitors center on I75. We found out that there were "several" motels at the next GA exit with several places to eat. We picked a Quality Inn that we had a discount coupon for. The room was OK, but, not much for breakfast since we were the only people there except for one old couple and a couple truck drivers. We did a little shoping for a few things we needed and I found a good used bookstore and bought three books. We went out for some southern soul food, and got a good nights rest.

We left Cajun country and drove to Biloxi, MS. Stopped to watch some sail surfers (folks that use a parachute like device to drag them along the water on a surfboard), and that sure looks like a lot of fun! We drove the beach road from the LA/MS line to Biloxi. They have done some major cleanup and rebuilding since we were here a couple years ago. It was pretty sad to all of the destruction from Kitrina. We stopped at the Boomtown Casino for a very nice buffet lunch. After lunch, Lisa hit the slots for an hour or so. Her total winnings were about $11.00, which is better than losing. I was out in the Odyssey in the parking lot trying to figure out where we would stop for the night and some details on what we would be doing the rest of the week. As Lisa came out into the parking lot, she spotted the van, then must have forgot where she was walking, tripped over a wheel stop and came within a couple inches of hitting her head on another wheel stop. I came to her rescue and picked her up, she seems to be OK with nothing seriously banged up. She might have some black and blue marks tomorrow morning but seems to be fine right now. So we got back on the road and decided to drive until it got dark and then stop for the night. So, we are about 300 miles from the Okefonkee Swamp where we hope to spend a couple days, then to Jacksonville for a couple days and the back home.