Enjoying the Sebring Area

    We are having a wonderful time in the Sebring, Fl. area. We took a ride over to the Sebring race track to see if they had any track tours. The Audi team has rented the track for the remainder of the month so no track tours until some time in April. I got a few pictures of this year's pace car, a Jaguar, that was out front of the main office building. Right beside the office is the Skip Barber racing school, with about 20 cars, all Jaguars, race ready.

The race track is right beside the local airport. We had read somewhere that the airport has a restaurant so we took a ride out the back side of the track to have lunch at the airport and watch the planes come and go. As  I turn into the restaurant parking lot a P1 prototype race car goes flying by on the track, right beside Sharon's door. Well so much for lunch, I have to watch the cars go around the track for a while. There were Corvette's Audi's, Jaguar's, P1 & P2 class cars flying by.

We had a wonderful lunch at the airport, eventually. There were about 10 planes that landed and about 20 people came into the restaurant for lunch. They had flown in from all around the state for lunch. They were all talking flying.

Today we took a tour of the Highlands Hammock State Park. It is 3 miles down the road from the campground. It was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) after the Great Depression. They have an excellent guided tram tour that takes you out through the back country to see all kinds of wildlife and the different eco systems of central Florida. Of course there were gators all over the place, including one old grand daddy that was about 13 feet long. The park has 9 walking trail systems that take you out into the wilderness to see a Cyprus swamp, a 1000 year old oak tree, and other unique items of the south Florida flora and fauna. It was a beautiful 78 degree day with plenty of sunshine and just enough breeze to keep the bugs away.

Florida Finally !!!
  We had to get the motorhome serviced in Moultrie, Ga. on Monday, March 15. The axle seal that was leaking had to be ordered and overnight shipped to the repair shop. We were told the part should be there about noon on Tuesday and should take about 45 minutes to install. They usually take lunch from 12-1 so we figured it should be done about 2. We stayed at a local hotel for the night rather than sleep in the motorhome in their parking lot right off the highway.
     The southern way of life then kicked in. We got to the shop about 2 PM and the motorhome was still sitting in the same spot we left it Monday afternoon. I went into the service desk and asked what was going on. The seal arrived about 10 AM Tuesday morning and no one was working on it. We sat in the waiting room for about an hour before they finally took in to the shop. Two hours later the repair ws done and we were headed south about 5: 30 PM.
    We travelled about 1 hour south and we found a campground, Eagle's Roost, in Georgia about 5 miles from the Florida border.   Very nice place. On Wednesday morning we called the campground that we wanted to stay in Avon Park, Florida,but they had no sites available. We called Highland Wheel RV Park in Sebring, one town further south of Avon Park and they had several sites available. We arrived in Sebring, Florida on St.Patty's Day evening to 75 degrees and sunny weather. We were very impressed with the campground, very clean, units are well maintained and the people are extremely friendly. They have a heated pool, which is good because Mother Nature has not been helpful in heating the water lately.
   The car race, 12 hours of Sebring, ran here on Saturday, it started on Saturday morning at 10:30 AM and finished last night at 10:30 PM. I watched the end of the race on TV and then stepped outside and we could heare the fireworks.
   We went to a local winery/farm called Henscratch Farms on Saturday. A neat little farm that  makes their own wine, has fresh veggies to pick and chickens all over the place. Sharon picked Strawberries from these hydroponic grown plants. Easy picking, no bending or kneeling. we had fresh strawberry shortcake for desert Saturday night.

We then went south to a little town called Lake Placid, which is somewhat famous for it's murals on 33 different buildings around town. Each mural has hidden items you are supposed to find in the picture. Some of them actually have sound, like the cattle drive and the train.

 Saturday night at the campground was Karaoke night at the Rec hall. There were some real good entertainers and, of course, the occasional one who couldn't sing at all. One guy did a great Elvis. When he speaks he sounds just like him too. We had a French Canadian singing Irish and Italian songs. He did a good job, but it was just strange hearing it done with a French accent, just like sitting by Bob Moulin and Marc.

Georgia Veterans State Park

Our week at Georgia Veterans State Park was wonderful. Ron and Karen were great hosts and showed us the farmlands of Southwest Georgia. Peanut, Pecan and Cotton fields in every direction you look. On Wednesday we took a ride to the Workhorse service center in Moultrie, about 1 hour south of the campground, to talk to the people about repairing the oil leak on the rear axle that we have on the motorhome. The appointment was set up for next Monday. We took the scenic tour back toward town, passing thousands of acres of more fields.

Thursday and Friday Sharon and I traveled around the area by ourselves as Ron and Karen volunteer on the SAM (Savannah, Americus, Montgomery) Shortline Scenic Rail. Most of Southeast Georgia all looks alike. We did find a nice little BBQ place in Byron for lunch. Lunch was great. Thursday evening, Ron, Karen, their campground neighbors Pete and Terry, Sharon and I went to dinner in Yoder's Mennonite restaurant. It was a cafeteria style and we had all we could eat for about $10 each. Of course we all had to get a piece of pie. After dinner we all critiqued the meal and we came to the conclusion, everything was great, but way too big on the portions.
   On Saturday we were hosted on the Sam Shortline Scenic Rail by Ron and Karen.

The train leaves Cordele and heads west to the GA Vets State Park, where we got on. It continues west to Americus, GA, home of Habitat for Humanity and the Windsor Hotel.

The train then heads to Plains, Ga, home of our 39th President, Jimmy Carter. As we were wondering around, Pres. Carter came out and greeted the families of the Fort Benning soldiers who are currently deployed, who were also taking the train. He is just a regular guy in a small southern town, except there were about 5 Secret Service guys following him. He came and left by bicycle, he only lives about 1/4 mile down the road from the train station.

A trip to Plains wouldn't be complete without seeing Billy Carter's Gas Station and the home of Billy Beer.



We then continued out of Plains to Jimmy's boyhood home in Archery, about 3 miles west of Plains. His family sold the farm in the 60's and the government bought it back after he was elected President. When Jimmy was growing up, the town had 5 families, Jimmy's family was the only white family. His family also ran the only store in town, which was right beside their house.

            After Archery it was back to the campground for some dinner and some rest. It was a great train ride. Thanks Ron and Karen.

   We left Ga Vets State Park on Monday morning at  8 AM so we could get the motorhome to the repair center. The parts won't be in until Tuesday noon so we got a room in Moultrie at the Holiday Inn Express.  Boy will I be smart in the morning.

Our trip started later than expected when a “Wintercane” hit on Thursday night, February 25. We had winds of 75 mph and gusts over 90 mph. Most of the seacoast area had lost power, there were trees down everywhere on Friday morning. Sharon and I went to Harvey’s Bakery in Dover Friday morning for breakfast. We had four different roads closed when we tried to get to Dover. The usual 15 minute ride took us 40 minutes.  We finally got the power turned back on at home on Sunday, just before noon, about 60 hours without power. We were the lucky ones, several in town didn’t get their power back on until Monday evening.

Watching the long range weather forecast showed another storm coming up the Atlantic coast, with snow expected through Pennsylvania and New York, right where we need to travel through to go south. It looked like we would get out of Eliot until Thursday, March 4. Watching the local weather on Wednesday night it called for 35 mph winds on Thursday, another day to stay off the road. Finally Friday, March 5 came and we had a clear window of several nice days to travel south.

We left Friday morning about 7:30 AM and travelled all day. There was no snow on the ground through all of New England until we got to Nyack, New York. There was the new snow that came in on the last storm. We arrived at Western Village RV park in Carlisle, PA. about 5 PM.  A very nice campground with about 8 transient RV’s in for the night and about 25 seasonal’s enjoying the 25 degree over night temperatures. There were four RVers travelling together and we said Hi to them as we were on our evening walk around the campground to stretch our legs.

We left Saturday morning about 7:30 AM and travelled all day. There was snow on the ground until we were south of Washington, D.C.  As we were travelling down the highway, the 4 RVers that were at the last campground passed us. They had left the campground at 6 AM that morning, about 1 ½ hours before we left. We arrived at South of the Border in Dillon, SC about 5 PM.It was about 65 degrees outside.  We were sitting down to supper about 6 PM when the four campers pulled into South of the Border campground.  We spoke to them a little later when we were out for our evening walk. They were from Ontario, 2 were retired from Canadian Bell phone company. They spoke very little English (French was their native language) so our chat was short. They were headed to Cocoa Beach for 2 weeks. We called our friends Ron and Karen, who are hosting in Georgia Veterans State Park in Cordele, GA to let them know we would be there late Sunday afternoon.

We left Sunday morning about 7:30 AM and travelled all day. We stopped for lunch at the Georgia Welcome Center. Just as we were finishing, Ron called to say he had a special spot all picked out for us at the campground and was wondering what time we might get there. We made arrangements to give Ron and Karen a call when we checked in at the office. Ron met us at the campground gate and escorted us to a very nice site, right next to them in the campground. Looking out our front window, we can watch the sunrise over the lake. Looking out the door or the kitchen window, we get to watch the sunset over the lake. Not only did they get us a beautiful campsite, Karen and Ron cooked supper for us. We were treated like royalty. We decided to stay here at this beautiful State Park for a week, until Sunday, March 14. Then we will head for Florida.

Monday we took a ride with Ron and Karen to Andersonville Prison and  National Cemetary. It was a Civil War prison for Union soldiers. 12,900 Union soldiers died in this prison (of the 45,000 prisoners) in the 14 months that it operated in 1864 & 1865.  It was very moving experience watching the informational movies about the prison. The cemetary was beautiful. One of the best parts is the Maine monument for the fallen Maine soldiers. The soldier on the top of the monument faces North, with his back to the South.