October in the Rear View Mirror

I see that it’s been a while since I posted and, boy, do I have plenty of excuses.  I’ll let you fill in your favorite while I get to actually posting something.

So much happened in October.  We took a shakedown cruise of a total trip was 23 days and included long-enough-to-talk-about stops in Virginia (Natural Bridge), outside Atlanta, Pensacola, Orlando and Tallahassee.

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We took off on October 15th.  We got in reasonably early for the night in Natural Bridge, Virginia and were able to swing by the State Park for our first return visit in 30 years.  Although the Natural Bridge formation has not changed in that time (after all, it hasn’t changed much in a few hundred thousand years) there have been a lot of manmade improvements around it that now include a fee to visit the formation.  Luckily, none of the “improvements” extend to the immediate vicinity of the arch so it is still as spectacular as ever.  Further down the trail they have added a living history museum focused on the local Native Americans and an improved trail to the upstream falls.

Sunday, we boogied on down to the Allatoona Marine and Landing RV park which is a half-hour north of Atlanta and an easy drive to the Philips facility in Kennesaw, where I was working for the week.

The area has been struggling through an extended drought and the lake was at an all time low and it has been down long enough the weeds have taken over what was lake bottom and floating docks are sitting on the ground.  To add to the dystopian feel, it is past end of season so the park was showing the seasonal wear and was only about half full.  Even so, the park facilities were top notch and we enjoyed the stay in a pine forest with plenty of places for evening walks.

Following the week in Allatoona, we slipped down to Pensacola to spend a few days with my Mom.  We stayed in our favorite park, Five Flags, which continues to grow and every time we stay there, there are new and interesting additions.  At 92, Mom is still pretty sharp and we enjoyed our time with her.

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Monday we hopped back on the road and headed down to Orlando – and that is the next post.