Back Home on Wheeler Road

Well, the four months of winter vacation has come to an end. We spent the weekend at the campground at Brighton Recreation Area and visited with the kids and grand kids. Everyone is well and life goes on here. Ben is involved with his travel baseball tournaments again and we took in a game on Saturday. The wind was blowing and we froze watching, but it was good to see the new level that the boys have achieved in their sport.
We saw Mike and Lisa and Natalie and Hannah and Dillon and Brendon as well as Laura, Sean, Nolan and Kara. Also Becky, Dave, Kate and Trevor. Jenny drove from Lansing to see us too. It was good seeing everyone and we look forward to a great summer here.
We drove north on Monday and got to Wheeler Road at three in the afternoon. We saw only two small patches of snow not yet melted and the temperature was in the high thirties! Quite a change from what we are used to but I'm confident warmer weather is on the way.
We had a great year so far and are looking forward to a new summer and visits from friends and family over the next eight months until we start traveling again.

Sand hill cranes at Brighton Rec

Onward toward home

We left David on Wednesday and drove north toward Roanoke Virginia. We stopped just east of the Appalachian mountains near Natural Bridge Virginia. We set up camp at a KOA camp near I-80 and from there took a ride over the mountain to Bedford to meet Howard and Joan Lambka who are Nancy's cousins. We drove to their house and had a nice visit with them. They gave us a tour of Bedfoed and we had a nice meal together. We really enjoyed seeing them after too many years have passed. We are looking forward to another visit when they come to Michigan in July.
Before we left the Johnson City area we took a ride to Jonesborough and did some exploring there with Sara and Elizabeth. A very nice colonial town and the oldest village in Tennessee.

Main street in Jonesborough.

The Chester Inn

An old cabin moved to Main Street from a mile away in the woods. Andrew Jackson lived here for a time.

Flowering dog wood on main street

The county building in Jonesborough

Driving west on I-64 through the Virginia and West Virginia mountains. This is a wonderful drive in the spring time. The redbuds and dogwoods scented the air the whole way through the mountains.

Camped in Tennessee

The rain came down for two days but it finally let up today. We have been visiting with David and Sara and yesterday Elizabeth flew in from Philly. Davids new place is quite interesting. He has a small farm with a barn and outbuildings and thirty chickens. I never realized he was such an aspiring  farmer. He is getting a big garden ready to go and has tomatoes, beans, lettuce and other plants started and lots of seeds to plant as well. He has room for two big gardens and eventually for a couple of farm animals to go with his chickens. It's going to be fun watching how this develops.
The area here quite mountainous with great vistas. We have been exploring and so far Jonesboro seems to be calling. It's the oldest town in Tennessee and has lots of shops and cafes to visit. The buildings are close to the narrow main street and incredibly colonial and scenic. Today we took a four mile hike to Laurel Falls and got a good workout.

David and Sara in front of their new home

Flowering dogwoods at one of the mountain lakes near Elizabethton

Hiking to Laurel Falls

Here are the falls. David and Elizabeth in the bottom right corner of the picture

David Crockett Birthplace State park

We've moved from Pensacola Beach twice now. The first night we were east of Huntsville Alabama at Guntersburg Lake S P and now we are at David Crocket in Tennessee.
Guntersburg Lake was a part of the Tennessee river and was a great campground with lots of water front sites and two boat launches, They were getting ready for a big bass tournament and there were dozens of boat trailers at the launches. Early morning we were woke by the fisherman zooming out into the lake on their bass boats.
Yesterday we moved northeast to Limestone Tennessee and are now about a half hour from David's new place. We are hunkered down by a rain storm but were anticipating it and got here with no problem and are hoping to stay dry until it quiets down.
There were two storm fronts in the past week that have spawned severe weather in the area. We always have to watch them this time of year.

Our last days at Fort Pickens we did some exploring at Perdido Key. Also the Pensacola Naval base which is home for the Blue Angels.

The Blue Angel Pelican

Pensacola Lighthouse

Camping at Guntersville Lake. The lodge on the hillside above the campground was part of the state park

A cabin at David Crockett birthplace state park.

Pensacola Beach, Fort Pickens National Park

We've been at Fort Pickens campground for the past week. The weather has finally been gorgeous, exactly what we like when camping. The beaches here are awesome white sand and the water is great. We've been getting lots of beach time and biking on the trails.
I haven't had any luck on the pompano while surf fishing. The only ones catching them have to walk out to the second sand bar about seventy yards out and cast to deeper water. For some reason the fish won't come any closer to shore.
The island is busier than we have seen it on past visits, probably we were earlier in the year the last two times we were here. With our senior discount and free admission to the park, this just might be a destination for us now that St Joseph Peninsula is no longer a camping option.

History of Hurricane Katrina at Biloxi. They had more wind damage her than at New Orleans

The Biloxi visitor center. We visited before we left Davis Bayou in Mississippi

BILOXI LIGHTHOUSE

More history from Biloxi's beach

Biloxi's main drag. Casino's and the Hard Rock Cafe!

We had lunch at the fillin Station in Biloxi. They are still repairing and restoring the city from Katrina.

Cooking crawfish

Just like New Orleans

Surf fishing at Fort Pickens. Pensicola Beach

Fishers on the pier

And more fishers in town

Flowers at our campsite.

Davis Bayou National Campground

We are near Biloxi, Mississippi at Davis Bayou. Part of the National Seashore here and near Dauphin Island. We took a ride to Dauphin Island yesterday and found it to be much like St George or St Joeseph rxcept no big public land except where the fort is on the eastern end.
We've had some wet weather again and finally today looks a bit dryer. The weather is much warmer now, bet we are starting to get bothered by no-seeums at the park.
This is a very nice park with biking and kayaking available as well as some interesting fishing opportunities. Only problem I don't have enough time here to buy a fishing license. We will keep this area in mind next time we are coming out west.

We took a ride from Village Creek to Big Thicket Reserve to see what they have there. Turns out to be land along the rivers that was set aside to preserve some of the native forest from being cut and exploited.

A yellow hooded warbler at Thicket NWF

Pitcher plant at the preserve. They catch flies to supplement their diet.!

Houses on stilts all along the shoreline on Dauphin Island.

This is the view through all the development. It would be nice if they could bury the cables!

The west end of Daphin Island. The east end is Fort Gaines.

The Bayou at Davis Bayou Campground.

Village Creek State Park

We ended our week at Inks Lake and yesterday we moved to the very southeast corner of Texas near Port Arthur to Silsby, Texas. The weather has shifted back to a cold snap and we are in the low forties at night and struggle into the high fifties during the day. At least we have the sunshine.
Saturday was another big tour of the Hill country and we started at Luckenbach, Texas. This place was a surprise to all of us. It consisted of an old post office/general store and had an old feed store turned into a food stand and dance hall and another building serving as a souvenir shop. They had a band playing country music and there were several hundred bikers and tourists enjoying the atmosphere and having a great time just being here. Apparently the town was purchased by a couple of guys back in the seventies and turned into a music and fair venue. It's free to come in and partake in the festivities and quite a hoot to people watch here. The town was made famous by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson in their hit song.
From there we stopped at a winery and did some high price wine tasting. They didn't grow their own grapes and didn't make their own wine, but they had the audacity to charge $21 per person for wine tasting! Nancy and I split a tasting and so did Bill and Cindy. If you liked the wine they were selling (of course it had their logo on the bottles), you could buy a bottle starting at about $45 and on up! We should have walked out when we saw the tasting price.
Next was WildSeed Farm, a huge flower and garden market where they had live plants, everything for the garden, live music and fields of flowers in bloom as far as the eye could see. The place was near Fredericksburg and famous in this area.
Our last stop was in Llano Texas. We stopped for an early dinner at Coopers Pit Barbeque for some ribs and brisket. This was one of the most popular places for original Texas BBQ in this area and we weren't disappointed. They had chicken, pork and beef ribs, beef brisket, sausage, steaks and prime rib on the grills and the food was excellent! Great way to top a nice afternoon. We all ate a big meal and took extra home with us.
Now we are at Village Creek, but have found that they had lots of damage here from Hurricane Harvey. Twelve feet of storm surge wiped out trails and everything near the creek here. We are confined to the campground so our exploring will be outside the park.

The old post office and general store. The music stage is behind this building

Hundreds of bikes were here on Saturday afternoon

License plates from all over the country.

Wildseed farm fields in bloom

The grilling room at Coopers

You ordered your meat by the pound, they dipped it in sauce if you wanted, then you went inside and got mac and cheese. coleslaw, potato salad, beans and chowed down.

If in Llano Texas don't miss it!

Bill and Cindy on the trails at Inks Lake

Gorgeous wildflowers everywhere.

And more

more, yet.

Hiking one of the loops.