Happy anew Year!

Jupiter, Florida….

Softshells

Christmas Eve dinner… tastes of the Chesapeake! Soft shell crabs and crab cakes from our pots!

Christmas Lights

We have three chains of red hot chili pepper lights that we hang whenever we are located at a site for awhile. In the center is the wood grill and a flash light that I use to cook at night! Safe to say we cook outside on average every other night since it keeps smells and sizzles out of the Airstream. Anyway good always tastes better when grilled outside! One thing I will miss is my recent acquisition wood pellet grill at home and the just completed brick grilling pit on our patio. Something to look forward to on our return to Virginia!

Jekyll Island Lights

Many trees in the historic district have been covered or wrapped in white Christmas lights to great effect. I want to go home and do this to our locust tree that overhangs the Drive!

Spanish Moss

A word of caution - don't camp under Spanish Moss in the spring when it pollenates! It's a beautiful and attractive canopy to woodland camping but it can be quite disruptive to your throat and lungs! Also beware of chiggers aka red bugs who live in the moss. Hard to believe that Spanish moss was used to stuff mattresses in the old days! Photo taken on a walk around the clubhouse on Jekyll Island - clubhouse was built in 1888 to accommodate America's wealthiest families including the Rockefellers, Morgans and Vanderbilts as a winter resort club on a private island.

Jekyll Island Driftwood Beach

Driftwood Beach on the north east end of Jekyll Island has an amazing collection of otherworldly dead sun-bleached trees, remains of a forest that was once above sea level… This part of the island has eroded away and redeposited the sand at the south end of the island.

Jekyll Island

Clear northerly air free of humidity makes for great photo opportunities! Catching the last rays of sunset looking across the East River and a local fishing boat….

Oyster time

Barrier Island oysters on the half shell for appetizer two successive evenings… just a beautiful taste of the ocean. Made a finely chopped shallot and white balsamic vinegar mignonette which we alternated with a squeeze of lemon! Degustation assisted by a dry Prosecco!

Charleston SC

Our first stop was visiting newly weds Harrison and Christine along with Aussie Doodle Ophelia and camping our Airstream on their front lawn! Harrison is on varying Navy watches as he trains to be nuclear power engineer on aircraft carriers.

Start a new trip!

Starting our next trek from home in Virginia and planning to be on the road for nearly six months…. our last meal at home is Wagyu beef over mesquite so we are starting the journey with very high culinary expectations!

Last day on the beach

We decided to head back to Virginia by the beginning of March since it was likely we were going not to be eligible for vaccination in Florida. The day before departure was a beautiful sunny day for February and we decided to take a long walk through the preserve and down onto the beach and along the beach, walking across the soft squeaky sand...

Owl take over!

This great horned owl has taken over possession of this bald eagle nest at Topsail Preserve SP and is being monitored by volunteer rangers who will give every person on the trail the full tale! Although half the size of the bald eagle, the great horned owls are very aggressive and are known as "the tigers of the air"....

Day at the Beach

Lots of long walks to the Beach at Topsail Preserve State Park in the Florida Panhandle. Mid 60's and a one mile hike to the boardwalk then half an hour up and down the hard sand left by the retreating tide....

Bison Burgers

One of the simplest and tastiest grilled dinners that we have in our Airstream freezer is lean ground bison. Mix up with chopped shallots and paprika, we make them large for burger or small for meat balls. Getting the Yakatori grill fired up with charcoal and a layer of mesquite needs planning ahead and a clear weather forecast.

Airstreams everywhere

Surrounded by Airstreams at Topsail. It's a very popular campground destination that hosts the annual CanOpener rally in early January. Lots of really well appointed sites with hookups and space between units.....

Australian Open

First big event in the tennis calendar- Australian Open from Melbourne. DishTV in the foreground found the satellite without any problem! Cell phone directional booster on a flagpole delivered AT&T broadband at over 100 Mbps which is a record!

The future beckons...

My order for my Spacex Starlink satellite access is in the queue. Thank you Elon Musk!!

Gourmet camper

David showing off his gourmet camping skills for our Valentine's Day dinner. Asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and grilled lobster with hollandaise sauce.... over a thin bed of roasted masked potatoes!

Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine's Day birthday to Margaret!

Birthday and Valentine!

Lucky Margaret gets to celebrate her birthday on Valentine's Day so extra bonus cards and well wishers from far and wide! Two orders of red roses from our curbside pickup at Publix we here combined in three water bottles and suitably draped for decorum.

Heron

Beautiful and very bold heron on the beach at Dr Julian Buce St George Island State Park - the heron stood watchfully ten feet from several fishermen and every time they reeled in their lines, the heron moved forward expectantly! Obviously well versed in the small fish throwaway by local fishermen. Saves a lot of effort flying up and down the beach looking for lunch in the surf!

Mini frogs

Our electrical outlet is the home for a dozen or more little frogs at St George Island State Park. Opening and closing the cover has to be done carefully in case one gets trapped by the hinges. This froglet is trying to switch on the 50 amp supply!

Small emergency!

Made a flying stop in Tallahassee to get Margaret's finger fixed after a nasty accident with the oven stainless cover nearly slicing off her ring finger. I did the best I could with our medical kit and unfortunately too much time had passed for stitches to be done. All fixed and no housework for a month!

Stephen Foster

A beautifully laid out state park in upper central Florida close to the junction of I-75 and I-10 makes for a convenient layover on the long trip from Naples to Destin. Stephen Foster wrote "Way down upon the Suwannee River... " and this park memorializes his musical heritage. Unfortunately all the buildings and events were closed due to Covid.... this is the carillon tower that plays Stephen Foster melodies!

Webcam view

Some days you can be very happy not to be at home but instead camping in the warmer Floridian sun! This is the view from our Tappahannock Virginia webcam pointing out to the deck and river.... brrrr!

Alligators

Alligator stop is half way from the Keys to Naples so we always stop here to relax with lunch in the Airstream parked at the Big Cypress Oasis Visitor Center car park and then walk over to check out the alligators in the nearby canal. These are big big alligators!

Stone crab claws

These are jumbo size and very expensive and... delicious. Made up some mayo and mustard sauce and had a special dinner treat. After all that's what the Keys are famous for!

Kim & Kate

Just dropped in to say hi to Kim and Kate at Bahia Honda SP - the white truck and the Airstream to the left on the beach. The wind just turned NW and was coming straight at them for the rest of the day and night sending spray over their campsite. Great to catch up after our Cajun Caravan two years ago!

Florida Keys

Sunsets in the Keys are spectacular... so we hang on to some wonderful memories as we leave the Keys for 2021 and will return next January 2022....

Grilling at GKM

Ronnie and Joe brought over marinated steaks and I set up my Yakatori wood grill. Had a pair of splendid evenings in the knowledge that we had all four been self quarantined for several weeks! Ronnie and Joe live in Key Largo and drove their Interstate down for the weekend... they also have a house near Cannes in France and we caught up with them in Provence a couple of years ago...

Geiger Key Marina

A little wave of Covid does not dampen the desires for locals to drink and party at the GKM bar - being overly cautious we decided to order our fish and chips to go! 

Blue Laser

Got our Blue Laser Starfield projector set up and spread a pattern across the Airstream! Very effective! Some light points are static and one half is in motion which produces a stunning effect!

Paddle boarders

The area around our campsite is a pristine ecological preserve and a local tour company at the Marina rents out kayaks and paddle boards by the hour or day. Many eco- tourists float by our dock.

Geiger Key

January in Geiger Key! Sunrise with great white heron. Every day, new reflections.

Sitting on the dock of the bay!

Famous lyrics are appropriate as we reach our winter resting place! Geiger Key Marina us nestled amongst the mangroves and the Atlantic ocean is half a mile away via a marked channel. We have explored the narrow water guts in the mangrove by kayak on previous trips!

Getting sprayed

Looks like I'm getting the anti mosquito treatment. Wish they had the Covid equivalent! Not a mosquito was seen for the whole month in the Keys!

Pork Belly

Supermarkets in Florida carry a wide range of products not available in Virginia so I was tempted to prepare pork belly... 36 hours sous-vide followed by 6 hours of smoking! Delicious but quite a demanding prep!

Danger... falling coconuts

Our Airstream backs up to a well stocked coconut tree close to the edge of the dock. Every inch in the campsite counts so I'm taking a risk here but folks tell me healthy coconuts never drop!

OverSeas Highway

Always a thrill traveling down to Key West - here we are towing our Airstream on the Seven Mile Bridge across the turquoise waters....

Boca Raton Buddies!

Checking in and having lunch with Lindy and Steven - Margaret's college buddy from Aix en Provence University in 1968 France. We met in Madrid some 53 years ago! All aging gracefully!