I may never leave Florida

I might be singing a different tune once summer temperatures roll back around, but it sure is nice right now.  80 degrees, beaches everywhere. . . I could stay here for while.   Driving south, we passed through orange groves and sugar cane fields as far as we could see in either direction.  And speaking of oranges. . . .

I had to stop and get a bag fresh from the farmer.  So tasty.

And speaking of food, Mom & Dad sent us a great care package to Gloria's house.  Of all the goodies in the box, guess what Curtis broke into first. . . 

A big stick of pepperoni.  One of two in the box.

Anyway, back to Florida and Curtis's birthday!  I know I said I wanted to be on a beach in Florida for my birthday, but Curtis got my wish instead.  We spent the day yesterday in Miami Beach, lounging on the sand and swimming in the warm ocean water.  I will fully admit that I ran screaming from the ocean when I saw a jellyfish pass by within inches of my leg.  Really, I wasn't a chicken.  It was good sense!  Those things hurt and I didn't want to get peed on.

We finally peeled ourselves off the beach to go out to dinner.  We hit the town to find a restaurant with 30th birthday pizazz, meaty dishes for Curtis and something veggie for me to eat.  We strolled by El Rancho Grande and after a spontaneous recommendation from someone eating at the outside tables, we grabbed a table too.  We started out with these lovelies:

That's a passionfruit margarita on the right.  I can vouch for how good it was.

Guacamole made right in front of our eyes; it was the best I've ever tasted.

Meals were delicious too.  They even asked how much of a vegetarian I am and customized my dish since they cook most things with chicken broth.  And molten chocolate cake for dessert.

After dinner we walked back along the beach to our hotel enjoying the clear skies and almost full moon.  Please excuse the blurriness, it was a bit windy.

Our hotel overlooking the water

We took one last stroll along the beach this morning before forcing ourselves to drive away.  

After driving even further south all day, we're now in Key West, staying with Curtis's cousin Pam through the weekend.  We were greeted with care packages from Curtis's folks with both his birthday gifts and mine, complete with a tin full of delicious pumpkin cookies that we've already sampled.  More sun and sand on the agenda for the next few days, maybe a little snorkeling if the winds cooperate, and plenty more to see and do in the keys.  I'll keep you all posted on the happenings :)

P.S. (for Nick and others curious) mileage is at 5479.5 as of tonight

Florida!

We're feeling refreshed after spending the day on the beach at DeSoto Park south of Tampa yesterday and are finally ready to update the blog!

When we left North Carolina, we drove through Great Smoky Mountains National Park (more stamps for our passports!), climbing higher into the mountains until we saw ice flowing down the rock face and a tiny flurry of snow at the highest elevation.  Here's us parked at the high point of the Blue Ridge Parkway:

We drove all day and camped out with some geese at a random boat launch in some town in Tennessee on our way to Alabama.  I won't say it was our best camping experience yet, but it got us closer to our destination.  We spent a day climbing in Sand Rock, Alabama at the suggestion of a climber we met in North Carolina.  Lots of rock there and we spent most of the sunny day climbing and checking out the area.  I was more interested in the sun than the rock :)

Like I said, lots of rocks

Curtis pooped out after working on a climb

We drove that night to Steele, AL to Horse Pens 40, a privately owned climbing area well known for it's sandstone climbs.  We got in too late to climb, but took full advantage of the hot showers and fixed a nice meal.  It was finally warm enough to sit out and fix dinner without shivering!  We spent the next day climbing all day.  It's not a huge area, but there are boulders all around so we had to pick only a couple areas to work in for the day.  

Working on a V2 in the Ten Pins area

Curtis was overwhelmed with the possibilities. . . 

This was the rock we were waiting for

Action shot one millisecond before Curtis peeled off the rock

Climbing Millipede

Unfortunately it rained the next day and we didn't dare pull out the crashpad since it doubles as our mattress, and a soggy mattress is the last thing you need when you live out of the back of your truck. So we reluctantly moved on.  We had lucked out with some free Army Corps of Engineers campsites in TN, so we headed for more of their land near West Point Lake on the border of Alabama and Georgia.  We searched and searched, finding all campgrounds gated and locked for the season and all other picnic areas posted with no camping signs.  And a random pack of wild dogs running around the shoreline too that I just didn't want to camp near.  So we found the only campground still open on the lake, but when we got there no one was home.  We waited nearly an hour for him to get there so we could check in and then find our campsite.  It was nearly 9pm by then and our patience was running out, but we were too tired to care anymore and the guy was actually very nice, so we found our spot and went to scout out the area.  Let's just say the facilities were less than ideal.  Or we can just say it was officially the worst campground I have ever stayed at.  That might just cover it.  The shower house looked like a crime scene and smelled like a kennel--complete with dog shampoo in the stall so we both decided for health sake to skip showers at this campground.  At least we had a safe place to cook our meal and sleep for the night, but we definitely didn't hang around in the morning.  

Our next campsite more than made up for that one and it was actually free!  We stayed at Roods Creek Campground north of Walter F. George lake in Georgia and it was lovely.  We camped along the creek, surrounded by spanish moss dripping from the trees and sat in our chairs on the sandy shore soaking up the afternoon sun.  

Our next day was the longest drive yet.  We drove to Wesley Chapel, FL to see my Aunt Gloria and Uncle Leo (Grammie's sister and brother in law) and stayed there until this morning.  On Sunday, Gloria's brother Wayne and his wife Sally came over to visit in the afternoon and we munched on some tasty pumpkin pie that Gloria made.  Then Curtis and I took the mountain bikes out for a spin in Flatwoods park.  We got caught in a rainstorm, but in 80 degree weather we didn't mind the drizzle.  We biked through mud and and palms and streams before hosing ourselves and our bikes off in the parking lot.  

Muddy, rained on, and having fun

Not our usual biking terrain

Monday was our beach day.  We left early for DeSoto park and spent the morning reading on the beach and hunting for pretty shells.  We even had to move into the shade after lunch to spare our poor pale skins.  With some coaxing, I got Curtis to separate from his book and get on the bikes (He's now reading the book series that I've been sucked into).  We biked from the east beach up to the fort and strolled through what I have deemed the most boring fort that I've ever seen, then continued up the paved bike path to the north beach.  We liked that beach much better so we biked back to the truck and relocated for the afternoon.  The sands were silky and white and the weather was just right for lounging and reading.  Curtis did go in for a dip, but it wasn't quite sunny out by that point so I chickened out.

East beach

Don't let them fool you.  They swarmed when I brought out lunch

North beach

We left Wesley Chapel this morning, heading for Lake Okeechobee for the night and then we'll explore the east coast tomorrow while we wind down to the Keys. 

P.S. It's Curtis's 30th birthday tomorrow!  

Kentucky to North Carolina

I'm finally delivering the Mammoth Cave photos as promised.  We spent over 4 hours underground on the Grand Avenue tour, covering about 4 miles of tunnels and even stopping for lunch in the snowball room cafeteria about a mile in.  The caves are a very old, dried up river bed where you can see the changes in how the water flow shaped the channel: some were wide, room size caves and others were slot canyons that were very narrow and tall.  The very end of the tour brought us through a more damp area so stalactites grew from the ceiling in all sorts of shapes and sizes.  We even saw a few bats flitting around and lots of cave crickets too!  Our tour was pretty tame, but they did show us where some of the more advanced caving tours go, including one tiny little hole that you crawl through to get into another area.  I think I started to hyperventilate just looking at it; clearly that expedition is not for me.  Here are the pics:

First part of the tour

Snowball Room underground cafeteria

Stalactites

We emerged from underground to a beautiful, sunny Kentucky day and wound our way over to a free campsite (thanks Army Corps of Engineers!) right along a nice river.  Nevermind that we were on the backside of a HUGE dam with warning alarms posted throughout the campground.  Yikes!

Unfortunately we both woke up feeling a little groggy the next morning.  Headache and a sore throat for me.  I'm convinced it was the dank cave air--one more reason that I don't belong in caves.  We took our time heading out and drove south to Nashville for a drive-by tour of the Grand Old Opry and a picnic lunch nearby in a nice park.  I was not feeling well enough to deal with anything else so we kept moving back east to our campsite for the night at a free spot along a lake near Cookeville, TN.  Thunder and heavy rain moved in during the night and stuck around the whole next day while we drove all the way to Asheville, NC.  We've been in and around Asheville since then, camping in the Pisgah National Forest.  We checked out the downtown area on Friday in the cold rain and even stayed for dinner in town at a great little pub.  Thanks Memere for the Happy Meal!  

The rains blew out of town, but the winds stayed put Saturday so it was too cold for me to climb.  We scouted out the climbing area instead.  Such a cool rock!

It's still fall down here!

Looking Glass Rock Nose Area

This was our "Blaze Orange"

We also checked out Sliding Rock that people use as a water slide in summer.  Looks like fun, but way too cold now! 

Looking Glass Falls.  Would be a great shower in summer!

We were quite studious for the afternoon.  We found a library nearby where I got a couple job applications started and Curtis worked on his continuing education for his P.E.  There was a Halloween Fest going on in town with a costume parade and a bunch of other fun activities too.  That may be the only time I see someone dressed as Frankenstein's bride in a library.

We finally got to climb yesterday.  We waited for the afternoon sun to hit the rock and then climbed 4 pitches up to the top and rappelled down just as it was getting dark and chilly.  

Up the Nose

View from the top

Rappelling down

We just finished our laundry and are going to restock our pantry before taking a drive through the Smokies and then south to Alabama for more climbing (and hopefully warmer weather).  I'm counting down to Florida sun and beaches!

New and Red River Gorges

Hello!

We've been winding our way through southern West Virginia and Kentucky over the past week.  First we went to New River Gorge in Fayetteville, WV for some of the world's best climbing.  The routes were a little hard for me and combined with cool weather, we kept moving on.  But we did check out the overlook for the bridge.  It's the biggest arch bridge in the western hemisphere.  We had just missed the big local celebration (cleverly named Bridge Day) where they close down the bridge and parasailers jump off into the gorge.  That would have been neat to see.  

Instead, we checked out the local gear shop and I finally caved and bought myself a new pair of climbing shoes.  My big toe had busted through the old pair and it was becoming rather painful to keep climbing with them.  So here are the new little gems.  I think they might have been my early birthday present to myself.

We camped out at a pretty nice campground with a nice sink facilities and all the hot water I could want for my shower.  Except I had to keep hitting the button every 10 seconds.  You know those faucets where you push it down and you get a few seconds of water?  Just picture that every 10 seconds for a shower.  At least it was hot.

We left New River and headed west to Red River Gorge.  It definitely showed a whole different side of West Virginia that we didn't get to see from Seneca Rocks area.  Lots of coal.  (my only experience with coal has been on the little plastic trains that come out a Christmas time--they were loaded up just the same).  There was also a Dupont plant which gave light to why the area is called Chemical Valley.  Anyway, we stopped at this lovely waterfall on the way

We spent the whole weekend at Red River Gorge camping at Miguel's Pizza and campground.  It's definitely a hotspot for young climbers and it was packed.  And the pizza was pretty tasty too with toppings from Miguel's own garden.  We climbed all day Sunday and Monday at the Muir Valley area, generously kept open by a local couple.  I even got to lead a few climbs, getting harder with each one.

We were sad to leave yesterday afternoon, but the time had come.  We drove to Mammoth Cave last night and saw a random sighting of the Northern Lights on our way to our campsite.  A strange red glow in the sky.  Now we're waiting for our tour to begin at Mammoth Cave National Park where we'll be exploring underground caves for the next four hours!  I'll try to take some good photos!