Traveling from close to the Canadian border to the Florida Keys is not for the faint of heart.... three, 12 hour days on the road. Definitely not for those who don't care to drive but for us, driving is part of the entire adventure. There are so many interesting sights along the road, from the beautiful Vermont scenery along Rt. 22A to the ancient stone walls along the New York State Throughway.
You might not think that New Jersey contains anything worth looking at but if you look closely you will see the fabric of all of us; working class neighborhoods, malls, mothers pushing strollers, kids walking home from school.
Crossing the Delaware Memorial Bridge is breathtaking. Certainly it is industrial and most likely a super fund site but I always like to imagine what it must have looked like two to three hundred years ago. Imagine the sailing ships and small fishing boats. The river itself is huge and beautiful....what an incredible sight for early European explorers.
We crossed the Mason Dixon Line and there was a noticible shift..... We started to feel like "northerners".....just a bit.
All the way down from Vermont to Georgia, I was struck by the number of abandoned farms and overgrown agricultural land. This rich land of ours with such potential to supply us with delicious and healthy food is not being used for this purpose. This morning, I was listening to a commentary on VPR concerning this issue...we are now importing 30% of our food from overseas.
OK....some of you might be shocked by where we stayed that first night. ....we did stop to eat dinner and then drove a few more hours to the North Carolina Welcome Center, that's right, luxurious accomodations at a rest stop. Actually this is fairly common for people traveling with an RV. Yep, we just pulled up right next to another camper! Rest stops are usually safe and well lit with bathrooms which are oh so important when traveling. We slept comfortably in our little Casita and enjoyed our own fresh coffee in the morning. Day 2 was a long one as well. We were trying to make it to the northern part of Florida. We needed a hot shower and a decent dinner...preferably seafood. Around 4:30 we arrived at Little Talbot State Park. Little Talbot is at the mouth of the St.John's River near Jacksonville. It is a lovely place to camp, surrounded by salt water marshes and situated right on the ocean.
The ranger told us about a great seafood restaurant across the harbor. We just had to take a short ferry ride across and walk out of the parking lot. Singletons Seafood Shack looks like a hole in the wall but the seafood was fresh and delicious. Friday/ day3, we left Little Talbot at 8 and headed south to the Keys. It was a long but fairly easy drive. It is lovely to see the progression of green coming south. We saw our first green grass around Albany,N.Y. Our first green leaved trees in North Carolina. Our first flowers in Georgia and our first tropical looking trees in mid Florida. Toward the end of the day, our GPS took us off the highway and tangled us up in Miami. Luckily we got back to the highway and found Rt. 1, "the Overseas Highway". Here we are in Marathon..mid way down the Keys..we are staying at Curry Hammock State Park for the next 10 days.....the park is lovely and our sight looks right at the ocean. Just as we were getting set up, a beautiful rainbow appeared off the beach. 
Last night we listened to the waves and a steady wind from the northeast. We woke up to a clear day and enjoyed our coffee outside....aaahhh, heaven. Today we set up to stay here for 8 days. We put a tarp up to create some shade over our picnic table. We always check out the camping rigs and home locations of other campers. There is a huge Phaeton next to us....not sure if humans or aliens occupy it since they never seem to leave their RV. This campground is fairly new....extrordinarily clean and well managed. We are two steps away from the beach and the bathroom/showers are a very quick walk. We think it's a perfect site. Today I have spotted several anoles and even a 2 ft. Iguana strolling across the path. Fresh fish for dinner tonight!
P.S. John says we have traveled 1827 miles from North Hero to Marathon, Florida. Yikes!
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