St. Augustine, FL

Now we've headed east and, after an over-night stay in Lake City, we arrived in St Augustine, FL on Saturday, 12/27, where we'll be staying for a few days. After getting the RV set up, we drove out to the World Golf Hall of Fame to see what the 'real' golfers have accomplished. This is quite an impressive place loaded with golf memorabilia dating from the founding of the game plus a wide variety of trophies and awards. A definite must-see for any golfer!

On Sunday, we started our tour of Historic Downtown St Augustine at the beautiful pedestrian mall with its collection of unique shops (we even found some chocolate gellato...yum!).
After lunch at Harry's, we toured the awesome Lightner Museum with its diverse collection of antique furniture, glass and other old stuff.


To end the day on a slightly different note, we stopped at the famous (infamous?) Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Museum where we saw some of the more unusual things to be seen plus a lot of...well...dumb stuff.




On Monday, we began the day with a climb up the nearby St Augustine Lighthouse (well, Susan wimped out and watched from the ground) and enjoyed a gorgeous view of the area from the top. After another delicious lunch at Harry's (we highly recommended it), we took a leisurely, scenic cruise of the harbor.

Fountain, FL

Today we moved on down to the Panhandle of Florida to spend some quiet time. After setting up our portable Christmas tree in the RV, we soon thought we'd moved into the Bermuda Triangle or something when we discovered that not only did our DirecTV not work, neither did our WiFi connection (e.g. no Internet) or our indoor-outdoor thermometer. As it turned out, the DirecTV receiver had just died (we had to drive to Panama City to buy a replacement which worked fine), the WiFi worked fine everywhere else (it must have been some setting on their server) and the thermometer fixed itself once we got home. On the bright side, the RV park was nice, the other campers were friendly, the weather was beautiful and the Christmas pot-luck dinner held by the RV park was delicious. We hope that your Christmas was as nice as ours was.

Macon, GA

We started our stay in Macon by taking yet another historic homes tour (am I seeing a trend developing here?) where we visited several nicely restored antebellum homes including the Sidney Lanier Cottage, the Cannonball House and the Hay House. Of course, all the homes were decorated for the Christmas holidays.

In the afternoon, we went into downtown Macon and visited the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. There we saw everything from vintage instruments, clothes and equipment once played and used by entertainers like Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Chet Atkins and many others from all type of music. Even old-time music was featured with tributes to folks like Gid Tanner and the Skillet-Lickers.

Milledgeville, GA

Yesterday, 12/18, was spent taking the historic walking tour of Milledgeville. We saw some neat places like the Old State Capital, the old Governor's House, St Stephen's Church and several old homes. We relaxed and enjoyed some lunch (and a good cold beer) at a local pub called The Brick. Yum! We finished off the day by touring the Lockerly Arboretum.

Today we drove the car North along highway 24 where our first stop was the quaint little Uncle Remus Museum in Eatonton where we were greeted by a statue of Brer Rabbit (you may recall that he was born and bred in the briarpatch). From there, we went up into Madison and explored some local shops and historic homes.

Harlem, GA

As we drove along US-20 just west of Augusta, we stopped in at the Laurel & Hardy Museum located in Harlem, GA (where Oliver Hardy was born) where we browsed through the wide selection of memorabilia on display there. Quite an interesting place to visit. From there, we headed on down to Milledgeville, GA where we plan to spend the next few days exploring.

Heading South

After a few months at home, we felt it was time to hit the road again so we're heading South for a few weeks. Don't know where we're going but that's ok. Today, we drove the RV to Lexington, SC where we'll spend the night. Tomorrow, we'll head on down to Georgia.

Mediterranean Cruise

So much for staying at home. We flew to Italy for a 10-day cruise with our son and his family. To see the details, check out our other blog at http://noordamcruise2008.blogspot.com.