Journey to Santee, S.C. ~ Part Three Lake City Florida to Savannah, Georgia

Monday, May 26

We left Lake City under cloudy skies; 70 degrees with 100% humidity. Ugh.

talk about thick air!!

We're heading to Savannah, Georgia where we'll be staying at  Red Gate RV Park for two nights.

Prior to becoming a RV Resort, Red Gate Farms was home to the oldest jersey cattle dairy farm in the state of Georgia.

The park has a nice pool and walking trail. It also offers horseback riding. The RV sites are located in a circle on the outside perimeter of a green field...

across the way

a nice pond for fishing

Tuesday, May 26

A beautiful day today. We decided to view the Savannah River. We crossed the river into South Carolina (off of US-17)...

a very cool bridge

Savannah River

then we turned around and crossed back into Georgia. We decided to take a little driving tour of Savannah. All pictures were taken from the window of our truck...

southern live oaks line both sides of the street

an old cemetery. we will be back to explore later.

love the ivy

interesting building

cool house

We are planning on coming back to Savannah for a long weekend sometime during the summer. There's much to explore here!!

Later in the afternoon, we took advantage of the nice walking trail...

enjoying the trail 

the pond is beautiful

love the southern live oaks

Coop's having a blast

spanish moss is beautiful on the trees

the moss is very cool

peaceful

We've enjoyed our stay here at Red Gate. We're leaving in the morning and are looking forward to arriving in Santee tomorrow.

It's been an interesting and thankfully, uneventful trip, from Ingram to here. Our hearts go out to all of those who are affected by the flooding in Texas. The RV park we stayed at in Houston, Houston Leisure, has flooded.

Til next time,

Ron, Dawn & Cooper

Journey to Santee, S.C. ~ Part Two Livingston, Louisiana to Lake City, Florida ~ Across Florida's Panhandle

Thursday, May 21

We left Livingston early this morning under hazy skies.Warm (80) and humid (76% humidity) at 8:00 this morning. We're continuing east to Florida, more specifically, Holt. Holt is about 30 miles east of Pensacola.

Passing through Mobile, Alabama we crossed the Grand Bay which leads to the Gulf of Mexico...

approaching Grand Bay...

notice the battleship?

Grand Bay in all it's beauty

We're staying at Eagle's Landing in Holt, where the sound of trains lulled us to sleep.  We both just love the sounds of trains!

There is a lack of shade at all of the sites. However, a nice stand of trees surrounds the park on three sides.

pretty

sun flower in the garden in May

This is a nice park. All sites are pull-thrus and are long. We would definitely stay here again.

Friday, May 22

We awoke to sunny skies, lower temps and low humidity. We enjoyed a great day sitting outside and reading our books and meeting new people.  We are now over half-way to our destination of Santee, South Carolina.  We will arrive there on Wednesday.  But for now, we are enjoying our wonderful weather.  We will continue our journey tomorrow.

enjoying our great weather

Saturday May 23

Happy Birthday Bryan!  We awoke to beautiful, sunny skies. Low humidity. It's a great day to travel. We'll continue east today to Lake City, Florida. As we've been traveling east, we've noticed how much earlier the sun rises and sets as compared to Ingram, Texas. Today, we'll cross over into the eastern time zone.

While in Lake City, we're staying at Oaks 'n Pines RV Park. So named because, you guessed it, of all the Southern Live Oaks and pine trees surrounding the park.

more pine trees than oaks

oak tree

We will be staying here two nights as well. We've been taking our time heading to Santee. Our spot won't be available to us until Wednesday, May 27. We didn't have enough time to explore either Biloxi or St. Augustine; nor did we have enough time to explore more of New Orleans. We'll visit those cities on our way west in the autumn. In the meantime, we're enjoying the small cities we've been traveling to.



Sunday, May 24

We awoke to another warm and sunny day.  What to do, what to do??? We decided to head Ocean Pond Park and hang out there for a bit.

it's a nice park. we walked around for awhile; Coop had a blast sniffing new
scents

southern live oak. the spanish moss that is hanging down is actually a
flowering plant. it particularly likes to hang on the southern live oaks

the tree has given up the ghost, the spanish moss lives on. the spanish moss
in neither spanish nor a moss; rather it is known as an air plant

From the park, just down the road, is the site of the only battle of the Civil War that was fought in Florida...The Battle of Olustee.

not much of a visitors center nor interpretive center. we did watch a 20
minute movie and learned a few things

This was an important battle. By this point in the Civil War, the Confederate States are relying heavily on Florida's farmers to furnish beef, pork, beans, potatoes and salt to sustain its military forces.  The Union's attempts to restore Florida to the Union and cut off these vital supplies, failed here on the afternoon of February 20, 1864 at the Battle of Olustee.

the grounds are small with one monument

some referred to the battle as the Battle of Ocean Pond rather than the

Battle of Olustee

monument to the confederate solders. notice the Confederate Flag?

close-up of the Confederate Flag. not a word was mentioned regarding
the Union soldiers who fought and died in this battle.

band that is ingrained into the base of the monument honoring all
confederates who units which took part in the battle.

We had an enjoyable day here in Lake City. We're heading out in the morning.

Til next time,

Dawn, Ron & Cooper

Journey to Santee, South Carolina. Part One ~ Ingram, Texas to Livingston, Louisiana

Monday, May 18

We left Johnson Creek RV this morning under cloudy skies.  It was already nearing 80 degrees with humidity of 70% at 8:00 am.  You could cut the air with a knife.  We had hoped to leave yesterday, however we would have been driving into storms.  We decided to stay put.  We're headed east to Santee, South Carolina.  Santee is located 60 miles northwest of Charleston.

Today, however, we are heading to Highlands, just east of Houston, where we will spend the night.
Once we were east of San Antonio, we began to notice the flooding.  This area has had a lot of rain. Flash flood watches are still in effect; more rain is to come.   I wish I would have been able to get some pictures.

We stayed at

entrance into park. guard shack on right (closed)

office

the boys

nice pool

Houston Leisure is a nice park. Great for a one or two night stay.  With all the rain, we're grateful for concrete pads!  Late this afternoon the sun came out and the temperature and humidity continued to rise. Temps rose to mid-80's with humidity above 70%.

We're heading out early tomorrow morning.


Tuesday, May 19

We left Houston Leisure RV under cloudy skies. It's warm again, the air is heavy.  We're heading to Lakeside RV Park in Livingston, Louisiana.  We sure have a lot of "Livingstons" in our life...our address is in Livingston, Texas; our hometown is located in Livingston County, Michigan and we are spending a couple nights here in Livingston (located in Livingston Parish) Louisiana!  Sensing a theme here...

I love Louisiana. We saw our first submerged rice field today. Unfortunately I, couldn't get a picture of it.

I love looking at the swamps and the bayous...

Henderson Swamp. view from I-10

another view. Henderson Swamp is famous for their crawdad
festivals

Soon we were approaching Baton Rouge and the Mississippi River...

love this bridge

Mighty Mississippi

Finally the clouds began to break-up

we're heading towards Hammond. we'll catch NOLA when we
 head west in the fall

wonder where this road goes??

By the time we arrived at our destination, Lakeside RV Park, 

the sun was brightly shining and it was HOT!

This is a beautiful park, very well-maintained. There is a small lake located in the center of the park, with sites backing up to it all along the shore...

we opted to back-in across from the lake. more room for Coop in the back,
as well as a nice fire pit

beautiful, isn't it? one of the many flowers here in the
park

Wednesday, May 20

Just when we thought we were going to dry out, another quick storm came through. The ground is just saturated with water. The temps cooled off, but the humidity just keeps a'risin'!

We decided to spend part of our day in Ponchatula which is a few miles east of where we're staying in Livingston. Ponchatula's name comes from the Choctaw which means flowing hair; arrived at by the Indians as a way of expressing the beauty of the location, with much moss hanging from the trees.

moss hanging from the trees...

 Ponchatula was settled as a logging town in 1820. At the turn of the century Ponchatula changed its main export from lumber to commercial farming. Nearly every family farmed some, most notably strawberries. Today, Ponchatula is known as the Strawberry Capital of the World. The Strawberry Festival is the second largest festival in the State, second only to Mardi Gras. During the Civil War
Ponchatula was pillaged by the Union forces in 1863. After a light skirmish, Confederate Troops withdrew and the Sixth Michigan occupied the town.

We spent our day walking around town. It's a very pretty town, with lots of flowers...

I've never seen flowers such as these this early in the
spring

and very cool directional signs...

We stopped for lunch at Paul's Cafe.  It was packed with locals...

notice the cross?

The residence of the town pet, Hardsides is just across the street from Paul's Cafe...

Hardsides. since the alligator is a common animal found
 in Louisiana waters, the town of Ponchatula decided to
adopt Hardsides.

Next stop was the Country Market, which is housed in the former train depot. The historic train depot was originally built in 1854. It was rebuilt after being burned in the Civil War.

The present depot was erected in 1894 and remodeled in the 1920's. It became the Ponchatula Country Market on July 5, 1973. The townspeople restored the old abandoned building to a place where local artists and craftsmen would be able to exhibit and sell their work.

interesting building with a lot of different crafts.

didn't realize the building was so long...

After a brief afternoon shower, late afternoon and early evening were just beautiful. Still humid, but nice enough to take a long walk.

the lake was so beautiful this evening

We've enjoyed our stay here in Livingston; we would definitely stay at this park again.  We're heading out in the morning.

Til next time,

Dawn, Ron & Cooper the traveling RV dog