More of Kissimmee Prairie Preserve

This is definitely a nice, quiet state park. There are twenty campsites in the regular campground and about that many in the equestrian campground. The park is 18 miles off  US 98 and the same distance off US441. If you make the trip, be sure to have all your supplies as Okeechobee is the nearest town with shopping. When we were driving from Highlands Hammock, we spotted several pull-offs for Hickory Hammock Reserve, South Florida Water Management District. We took a day to drive out and explore those areas and to find some geocaches. Two  of the parks have camping, but no hookups. We also saw the largest bat house we have ever seen!

We found the geocaches and then headed into Okeechobee to find a place to eat lunch. We chose Parrot Island Grill. It turned out to be an excellent choice. Bob and I both ordered fish and chips. Once we were finished, we realized we could have split an order. We each had six large grouper fingers--more than you usually get in an order of fish and chips!

After lunch we drove back to the park and rode our bicycles around the campground.

Our next day we stayed in the park and hiked another trail. There are many miles of trails in the campground, but there is no easy access to most of them. We hiked south from the campground to the edge of the park. There were many wildflowers and birds along the way. The pink wildflowers were in the drier areas of the prairie.....

 ...and the irises were in the swampy areas.

 This meadowlark kept landing on the trail in front of us. We finally got a good picture before it flew away the last time. We were both on the lookout for a grasshopper sparrow as they are endangered and Kissimmee Prairie is their primary habitat.

 On the nature trail to meet our main trail, we found an interesting oak tree with exposed roots.

Another afternoon we road bicycles to the intersection of Peavine Trail and Military Trail. We spotted  two alligators, a northern harrier

 and some sandhill cranes.

From a distance, we could see a large vehicle on the side of the trail. As we approached it, we found out it was a machine to clear trees. It pulls the trees up by their roots.

We spent one more day out of the park geocaching along US 441. Some of the geocaches were in spots that were too wet for us to claim them. In one field there was a family of sandhill cranes. The chicks were very young!

 There was a cache somewhere on this sign, but it eluded us.

 On our way back to the Solei, we finally spotted a photogenic crested cara cara. We saw one in this area each day, but it always flew away before we could get a picture. This one landed in the road and waited for us!

Of course, one afternoon I took pictures to complete the tour of our new coach. At the front, the passenger seat turns around. The right arm rest pulls up to make a table for my computer.

 Here is a view of the pantry and the refrigerator. Some people opt to get a washer/dryer in this closet, but we wanted the extra storage.

 These drawers are on the driver side bedroom slide. Yes, that is a large television in the bedroom.

 We chose the queen size bed to ensure we got larger night tables on the side. With the king size bed the night tables are not large enough to hold a bottle of water.

 The end of the coach is nothing but closets! We have so much storage we don't know what to do!

And that concludes the tour of the interior of our new coach. We are really enjoying all the space we have now that we didn't have in the Windsport.

After five days, it was time to say goodbye to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. Our next stop....Patrick AFB.

On Our Way to a New to Us Park

After leaving Highlands Hammock we drove a grueling 45 miles to our next stop---Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. Okay, the drive wasn't really grueling, in fact it was a nice smooth ride. Bob is really enjoying the drive!

 The park is located north of Lake Okeechobee in south central Florida.

 It is definitely away from 'civilization.' The entrance road is not paved, but is hard packed fine gravel. From the entrance to the campground is 4 miles.

 Bob parked Solei and immediately turned off the engine. I was outside and couldn't figure out what was wrong. I stay outside to watch to make sure the jacks all deploy. He looked to be reading a manual or something. I asked why he turned the engine off and he looked at me funny. I reminded him that the engine is supposed to be running when he puts the jacks down and the slides out! He laughed, he forgot the new set-up sequence!

 Once we got everything in place, it was time for a rest.

We spent the afternoon exploring the park near the campground. Yes, this is Florida, and yes, there are alligators.

Bob and I didn't see any gators on our first outing, but when we rode our bikes to get a geocache the next morning, Bob spotted this one sunning near a pond about 50 yards from the geocache. This is much smaller than the one on the news the same day that measured 14 1/2 feet long and over 800 pounds (it had been killing cattle on a local farm)!

 

I can say that we are definitely enjoying Solei! As with everything, there is a learning curve, but we are adapting well.

I've had requests for inside tour, so here goes. The front living area has a sofa on the left, a recliner with a side table, a large television over an electric fireplace.

 Next to the sofa is the bench dining area. The sofa and bench seat are on a slide.

 The kitchen back to the bedroom is also on a slide. I have more counter space in Solei than I did in our previous RV. Yes, that is a residential refrigerator at the edge of the picture. Surprisingly, it has much more room than I expected.

It is time for me to get moving--another hiking day---I'll continue the tour later!

First Trip in Our Solei

Technically, our first trip was home from St. Augustine where we purchased our Solei. This was taken right before we pulled out of the dealership parking lot.

Once we got her home, Bob installed 6 AGM type batteries in place of the 4 that she came with. Once we return from our first 'shakedown' trip, Bob will install five new solar panels on the roof. While she was in the RV garage, Ed and Elsie came for the tour. Ed couldn't resist trying out the driver's seat. Looking good, Ed!

 Once the batteries were installed, it was time to pack and get on the road. I was surprised at how much more storage we have in this coach. We actually hit the road with empty compartments inside and out!

Our first stop was Highlands Hammock State Park in Sebring, Florida. Bob and I enjoyed this park on our first visit when we had the old Pace Arrow, again when we had the Windsport and now we have enjoyed it in Sol.

For those of you who are not familiar with hammocks in Florida...no, they are not beds suspended between two trees....they are marshy swamps with broad leafed trees surrounded by areas of pine and scrub.

Once we set up camp, it was time to explore. We rode our bicycles around the hammock road the first afternoon. We also did some hiking and geocaching.

 We spent seven days in the park. We hiked most of the trails, even the bike and horse trails. One morning the sun was hitting the scrub just right and we could see many spider webs. Looking in the other direction, you couldn't see any.

 This was on the bicycle trail as we walked the edge of the hammock.

 The day we hiked the horse trail we kept seeing wild turkeys. This tom ran in front of us on the trail, leading us away from his harem.  On this trail we also saw two deer and a black snake.

 There were also some pretty wildflowers blooming along the bicycle trail.

Later in the day we hiked some of the trails off the hammock road.  This is the swamp in the hammock. That is not grass, it is duck week growing atop the water. The tree roots were gnarly and exposed. Cypress knees were also in abundance.

 This was the end of the boardwalk trail. We found a geocache not far from here. Also, three river otters surprised us as they swam under the boardwalk. Bob and I both thought alligator when we first heard the water moving.

 We enjoyed our stay at Highlands Hammock. When Bob made the reservations, we didn't consider that we would be leaving on Sunday--along with most of the other campers! We got up early enough to get packed and hit the dump station before most of the others were ready to go. As we pulled out, two other RVs lined up to use the 'facility.'

It sure is nice to be on the road again!

Okay, Time to Head Home...Ocober, 2015

Bob and I decided to head home from Siloam Springs. The distance didn't work well with our usual travel plans of 150-200 miles a day, then rest and explore for a few days, but we did our best. Our first stop was boondocking in the parking lot of Harlow's Casino on the Mississippi River just east of the Mississippi/Arkansas border. We spent one night then it was on to Demopolis, Alabama. Demopolis is a nice little town with quite a few antebellum mansions. Our stop in Demopolis was at the Army Corps of Engineer Campground nearest to town. We spent two nights. During the day we did some geocaching. From Demopolis, we traveled to Three Rivers State Park in north Florida. The campground is near Sneads. As the weekend was approaching, we could only stay one night...the campground was full for the weekend. So, on October 23, seven months after we started our Alaskan adventure, we arrived home.

Now, we have done a lot of traveling in the Windsport, putting 120,000 miles on the odometer. After this trip, we decided it was time to purchase a new motorhome. We had been looking for over a year. The criteria for the new motorhome were:
1. Not too long for our RV garage
2. Not too tall for our RV garage
3. Room for 6 batteries for solar power
4. Floor plan that met our needs
5. Diesel pusher

After making the decision to go ahead with plans for a new motorhome, we went to Camping World in St. Augustine to look at an Itasca/Winnegago Solei. No matter what else we looked at, we kept coming back to the Solei. At first we looked at the 34T, but we didn't like the couch/table set-up. Every 36 G we looked at had a king size bed, which we didn't want. Finally, we asked for a price on exactly what we wanted in the 36G Solei. The model number is deceiving as the coach is actually 37' 11' long. We were quoted a price that we couldn't turn down so we put in our order!

We also knew that we couldn't keep two motorhomes for any length of time so the Windsport went on the market immediately. Bob took it to our local RV dealer to have the brakes checked and the owner of the dealership expressed his interest in purchasing the unit! SOLD!!!!  We said goodbye to Windsport on January 4th, expecting our new coach to arrive by mid-February.  Well, long story short, we didn't take delivery of our new 36G Winnebago Solei until March 19! I can't believe we went four months without a motorhome! Now, I can say that it was worth the wait!

Heading Home---Maybe

Trains, trains, do you see any tracks? Do you hear any whistles? NO, NO, NO! Bob and I drove from Hannibal, Missouri to Lake of the Ozarks Recreation Area (LORA) run by Ft. Leonard Wood Army Post. I have to say it is off the beaten track and I was so glad there were no trains! It is a nice recreation area on Lake of the Ozarks near several sections of the Missouri State Park of the same name. We were able to get one of 6 available campsites as it was a three day weekend. The only site we fit in was on a slope, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the other 5 we had as choices. It seems that as we near the end of our trip we forget to take pictures of our campsites.

We  were able to find a trail in the state park that was promising. Honey Run Trail was only a few miles from the campground. We had the North Loop to ourselves except for one mountain biker.

The weather was perfect for a hike through the woods.

The leaves were even changing colors. The bike rider told us that until the rain two days before, the leaves had not started to change! Thank you, rain!

Most of the trail followed a ridge which, in a few sections, had views of Lake of the Ozarks. The sign at the trailhead said it would take over 3 hours to hike the north loop, but we finished in 2 hours and 30 minutes.

When we weren't hiking the trail, we were exploring the recreation area on foot. It covers quite an area which encompasses tent camping sites, full hook-up sites, partial hook-ups, cabins, day use area, a boat launch and marina.

Our stay at LORA lasted two nights, long enough to get sleep without listening to trains, all night long!  From LORA, it was time to visit family in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.

We stayed in Siloam Springs for a week visiting Bob's parents. It was a good visit, but the time has come to start the real trip home. Siloam Springs is about 1200 miles from our house so we still have a few nights left on the road.

Leaving Wisconsin

Bob and I enjoyed our visit o Wisconsin. We both agree that it is the cleanest, neatest state we visited this trip. Every yard was neat and tidy, no trash or old stuff laying around. It also gets the distinction of two trophies from us.....drumroll, please!  Both are roadkill trophies. Oklahoma has the trophy for "Most Skunks." Wisconsin gets the trophies for "Most Deer" and "Most Raccoon" dead on the roads. I don't think I have ever seen that many raccoon as road kill---opossums and armadillos, maybe, but not raccoon!

From Wisconsin we drove south into Iowa and then Illinois. We stopped for the night in Macomb, Illinois. There were no campgrounds in the area so we stopped at the local Wal-Mart. We were able to get a couple of geocaches near the Wal-Mart. Unfortunately, we did not notice that Wal-Mart was in close proximity to a train track. You guessed it....the trains went by all night long.

The next morning we headed to Hannibal, Missouri. We stopped at for gas at the Hannibal Wal-Mart. We unhooked the car in the parking lot and went in search of a Corps of Engineer Campground. The campgrounds in Hannibal had terrible reviews and we wanted to be out of town. We found John Hay Public Use Area across the Mississippi in East Hannibal, Illinois. There was one other camper parked there and it looked like a good spot for us.

From our site we could see the stern wheeler  Mark Twain docked at Hannibal.

After getting set up, we drove back to Hannibal to look around. We spotted our RV from the landing in Hannibal.

Once we got our bearings and saw what sights there were to choose from in Hannibal, we returned to the RV to plan our adventure for the following day. I was looking forward to a good night's sleep with no trains! Well, that wasn't to be. There was a train track that ran along the riverfront in Hannibal, across the river from us and the trains ran regularly all night long! Yikes!

The next morning, we drove back to Hannibal to tour the Mark Twain Museum. We started off by geocaching at the Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn Statue.

We crossed what used to be the on ramp to the original Mark Twain Memorial Bridge which was built in 1935. Now it is an overlook of the Mississippi River. When the bridge was first built, it had a recurring problem in the summer---mayflies were attracted to the lights. The mayflies would be 2 inches thick on the span creating hazardous driving conditions. A snowplow was used to clear the mayflies from the bridge. The original bridge was demolished in 2001. The new bridge spans the Mississippi River just a few hundred yards north of this site.

Then we climbed the stairs to the memorial lighthouse. The first lighthouse was dedicated in 1935, but it was destroyed by high winds in 1960. This is the new lighthouse. The steps you see are just a small portion of the 246 you have to climb to get to the lighthouse.

Here, Bob is on his way down another section of the steps.

From the lighthouse, we toured Mark Twain Museum. It included his boyhood home, complete with the fence Tom Sawyer had to whitewash in the book.

We also visited 'Huck Finn's' house and 'Becky Thatcher's' house. The characters were based on people Mark Twain grew up with in Hannibal. After a visit to the Mark Twain Museum, we decided to have lunch at the Mark Twain Brewery and Pub, of course!

We had a delicious lunch and specialty brews at the pub, then we headed out of town to take a look at Mark Twain Cave and Lover's Leap. The cave didn't appeal to us, so we didn't take the tour. We did go to Lover's Leap and find a geocache. The leap is fenced off so no one else can take a leap.

I took a panoramic photo of Hannibal from Lover's Leap. You might even be able to see our RV across the river.

As always when camped near a river, we like to watch river traffic.

Late in the afternoon, the riverboat Queen of the Mississippi departed from Hannibal heading south toward New Orleans.

 After dark, the lights of Hannibal cast a nice glow on the Mississippi.

Bob and I had a good time in Hannibal, but we were looking forward to finding a camp site AWAY from trains!