Historical hotel on Jekyll Island and information about the early millionaires who
lived on the island.

We are now in Georgia just above Jacksonville, Fl. Jacksonville is a nice town that is clean and prosperous. It is pretty with lots of water access to homes and good use of the river, intercoastal waterway and other water areas.

Our GA motorhome park is on "Old Still Road" and it looks like an area were there could be an old still. We are near a scenic drive on the coast from here to Savannah. We visited Jekyll
Island which was originally built up with "cottages" owned by the very rich around the early 1900s. There are still some of the buildings that are being used as art centers and libraries, etc. There are some fine old hotels and the whole place is historic and quite charming.

Now that we are out of Florida we have some random impressions that we will share!

1. It is very flat! The "Terrace Hill Apartments" are at an elevation of 12 feet!

2. Everything is very green. Lots of palm trees, pine trees, low green shrubs, etc. However, there has not been as many flowers as we thought we would see. We are told it is hard to maintain them in the hot summers so most homeowners don't bother. There is a dark pink azalea that is in bloom now and is quite spectacular.

3. There is a definite difference in "class" in the motorhome parks. The price of the park or the quality of the surrounding area is not necessarily a clue to the class of the park. We really can't tell ahead of time when we are making advance reservations. We stayed in about 7 Florida parks and saw quite a variation. The worst park had lots of aging ladies with various tatoos - not a good thing! However, people were friendly everywhere once we said hello to them, and we have been generally pleased with most parks.

4. There is a lot of housing and property for sale. Probably due to the hurricanes and the fact that many insurance companies are trying to leave the area. Should you want to move here, you could do so for very little!

5. Things in general are low priced here. Groceries, restaurants, clothes and things at Home Depot seem to all be less.

6. The mild weather we have had has been very enjoyable. Swimming, bike riding and visiting the beach is very nice. (Although we have been surprised at the lack of actual bike trails. The flat terraine does make biking easy in areas away from traffic!)

The rural GA areas have many abandoned houses and small buildings. There are abandoned factories and the surrounding towns are dying. (It appears that environmental concerns and wages have led many businesses to go elswhere.) The coastal areas that depend on tourists are in better shape.

The Daytona Beach area is like a lot of Florida - some really beautiful areas and some low areas. The intercoastal waterway is always interesting and with the Indian River and the Halifax River there is some awsome scenery, beautiful homes and miles of beaches. It is still very flat so you really can't see a great distance. We have seen countles birds and pelicans and a few alligators. Went on a history cruise of the New Smyrna Beach area and enjoyed the warm and beautiful day. We have been bike riding on the beach. It seems odd that the sun does not set over the Atlantic. The beaches don't seem to have as much stuff (kelp, shells, drift, etc.) as we are used to on the West Coast. The sand seems to be more of ground up shells and often has a pink tone.

We just missed "Biker Week" - thank goodness. It appears to be near the scale of biking in Sturgis, S.D. Obviously biking is very big here as there are many businesses with names like "Kick Start Cafe", "Biker Bar" and "Biker's Tatoo Works". We saw a sign for the "Hot Throttle Divas" motorcycle club - just 1 of many such groups. There is lots of black leather clothes and aging guys with gray ponytails.

Daytona International Speedway is gigantic and impressive! We have nothing of this scale on the West Coast - they hold nearly 200,000 people.

We are back in Florida after a month at home. It was a busy and fun time and special to spend so much time with the grandsons and new baby. We also managed to see some good friends and other family.

Kinsey Lee arrived on February 13 and weighed 8 lb, 10 oz. She has lots of dark hair and dark blue eyes. Carlee came through the C section well. Cody, Garrett and Parker are all excited to welcome a girl. I was at home with the boys helping Cody and Bob did lots of errands and runs to pre-school, etc. When Carlee and the baby came home, Bob moved to Jean and Marks where it was quieter at night and the food was better! The baby is quite good natured and managed to sleep 3-4 hour stretches right from the start. She is especially good at night going right back to sleep after the 3:00 am feeding. This allowed Carlee to get some sleep and recover quickly. She really recovered faster than she had from the 2 previous C section births. It's a busy household with the two little boys and Cody's unusual schedule which includes a second job. Cody took some time off for the birth and he is taking some more time off after I left. The Kirkland PD is quite family oriented and generous with the time off for a birth.

We rested for 2 days when we got back to Florida. I was quite tired and needed the relaxation time! It was good to get back to swimming and warm weather. We are in Daytona Beach and will be exploring here for a week!