Travels with Fred

20 November 2024

Stephen and Jimmie were up early and after a quick breakfast, were out the door headed home by around 7:30. Me, it takes a little longer. I think I finally had the Jeep loaded by around 9:30 am and bid Smithgall Woods State Park a fond farewell until next time.

From there, it was a little over an hour’s drive to Chip and Dorothy’s in Sugar Hill. When I went to type his address into my GPS, it didn’t recognize the address. I had to revert to my iPhone’s GPS to get the correct street address. Just to show you how out of date my GPS in the Jeep is, it had me get off I-85 and then get back on it. I did manage to get around Atlanta, just not as easy as Sherman going through it.

Chip and Dorothy met me outside of their really beautiful house on a cul de sac. Chip greeted me with a handshake and a hug and I met Dorothy for the first time. We sat in their living room and rehashed old times, caught up with each others’ lives, laughed, and bored Dorothy with old Coastie stories.

I would say Chip hadn’t aged a bit but that would be a lie. Of course, I look exactly the same as 53 years ago except no hair.

Chip was an excellent ET on board the Reliance. I only saw him stumped once and that was with our huge transmitter that still used tubes instead of transistors. When he couldn’t identify the problem he said it was time for “the old smoke test.” I asked what that was and he said we power the transmitter up to the max and see what burns out first. It worked.

Dorothy had fixed a really nice lunch of salami, pepperoni, cheese, crackers, and fresh fruit. Then she won my heart by providing donut holes. She also used the same drip method for coffee that I used this trip.

Stephen liked the coffee provided by the park and I like my Blue Bottle coffee from home using the drip method. He would offer me a cup of the park coffee and I would decline and then offer him a cup of Blue Bottle. Kudos to Dorothy for knowing drip method rocks!

Chip showed me his garden and I spied some tomato plants. He picked me some that were just turning and so I now will have some homegrowns when I get home. Thanks Chip! I’ll be back next summer for some more.

I really hated to leave but didn’t want to hit rush hour on my way to Macon. Alas, it didn’t matter. Most of the way to Macon was stop and go on the interstates. I managed to keep my cool when a transfer truck kept pushing me from behind and repaid the trucker who kept people from cutting in line at the beginning of my trip and moved over so the pushy didn’t have to change lanes.

I had dinner at the Outback Steakhouse (chicken tenders). I had a side Cesar salad that the lettuce was so wilted, I set it aside. I did like the baked sweet potato.

There’s something strange about Macon. The desk clerk at the hotel had zero personality and I had to ask for the complimentary water. Then the hostess at Outback was no where to be seen for about 3-4 minutes. At least my waitress was attentive.

Tomorrow is a 5 hour drive to Ocala – horse country! Stay tuned!

18 November 2024

The 3 bedroom cabin we are in is really nice. It’s called the Parkside cabin and is located just adjacent to the visitors center.

One of the wonderful features of the cabin when visiting during colder months is the fireplace.

After they delivered the kindling, I was able to make a fire, albeit with difficultly. There was a strong downdraft from the fireplace and when I tried to close the damper – nothing. Eventually, I got the kindling going and the wood burning but soon smoke began to fill the cabin and the smoke detector went off. This I wrote about yesterday. What I didn’t write about was the cause that came to me at 3 am. Somehow, we had cut the attic fan on which was drawing air from the chimney and up through the attic fan. I noticed it during my 3 am bathroom break. It would not matter whether the damper was closed or not because smoke was going to pulled into the cabin by the fan. If we do a fire tonight, we will make sure the attic fan is off!

We spent a lazy morning and ate breakfast in the cabin. Later, Jimmie, Stephen and I went to the visitors center and we toured their exhibits.

The Japanese maple made for a great background. Later, Jimmie and I walked around the visitors center loop trail. We clocked in 0.4 miles.

We decided to drive to Cleveland for lunch at our favorite place. The food is good and the prices are right. The place is called Clydes after the owner’s dog.

This is the third time we’ve eaten there. The park is equidistant between Helen and Cleveland and there are a lot less tourists with which to contend.

After dropping Jimmie and Stephen off, I headed to Dukes Creek Falls parking lot and walked the Dukes Creek trail down to the falls. It’s one mile to the falls – all downhill (with some steps) and then one mile back – all uphill. My Apple Watch clocked my hike at 2.5 miles which probably included some wandering down around the falls and when I had to go back and pick up my water bottle that had fallen out at the last part of the trail.

The falls are approximately 150 feet in height. Also coming down Dukes Creek are several cascades that are really nice.

I met a lot of people on their way up the trail and I would joke with them about the broken elevator or escalator for the falls.

As I was hiking back up, sweating and panting, I considered how nice it was to get back in the woods and on the trail. Several times when I paused to catch my breath, a gentle breeze wafted through the woods and cooled me off. Even the smell of the woods was intoxicating to me. I’m so pleased I managed to hike 2.5 miles today, down and back up a mountain. It gives me hope. Stephen commented on how I seemed to have a lot of energy today and maybe that’s due to getting back to something I love.

Even though it’s mid-November, there was still some color on the trees.

As I got back to the parking lot, I took one more look at Mt. Yonah. There’s a spectacular view from the parking lot.

Tomorrow, we plant to head to Sautee and our favorite general store and have lunch, buy taffy, and pretty much cool our jets. After all, it’s a vacation!

Stay tuned!

16 November 2024

I don’t know if it was the drive or the booze at dinner last night but I was exhausted and turned in at 8:30 am. That meant that I was awake at 4:30 am. In between time I had three vivid dreams. I blame the petit filet since I so seldom eat meat these days.

The first dream had me awaking at 4 am after hearing voices in the parking lot below. Realize, I’m on the tenth floor and hearing voices in the parking lot below is unlikely but not impossible. I spent one night on the 19th floor of a San Francisco hotel and heard every conversation from below because the buildings close by echoed the sound upwards.

That was not the case here. Anyway, I opened the curtain to take a look and saw about 50-60 people in folding chairs staring out farther into the parking lot. They were mostly wrapped in blankets so I assumed it was a little chilly. After listening a while, I finally managed to understand they were at a casting call for an audition to some tv or movie. Why 4 am, I have no idea, but hey, it’s my dream.

I eventually tried to take a photograph (for the blog, course) but couldn’t get rid of the glare from the window. I finally went back to bed. This was so vivid a dream that when I did wake at 1 am, I did a double take on the alarm clock.

The second dream was explaining to friends where I had eaten last night. Apparently we were in my grandmother’s home in Morton and I could not remember the name of the restaurant. I tried Googling it and could not find it using any search terms. I then had the bright idea of checking my blog. I didn’t mention the name in my blog. I never came up with the name. One reason may have been I was Googling “Sheraton” when I was staying at a Doubletree Hilton.

In between dreams, I realized it was Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. Note bene! I forgot the possessive on the name of the restaurant in yesterday’s blog – maybe that’s why I dreamed about it.

The last dream was a recurring one albeit always slightly different. I was working at Broward College and apparently, due to the way personnel had the records, I was retired with the exception of having to teach two classes. After those two classes, I was free to go home. There are several parking lots on South Campus and faculty have designated spaces on two of those. If you have late classes, you may not get a parking space because students and nature fill a void. If so, you may have to walk farther than you usually do to your office or class.

In any case, I was through with classes and needed to get to the Jeep to get home but I couldn’t remember where I parked – more and more common these days. On my key fob, I have a button to remotely start the Jeep which is proceeded by two honks of the horn and a flash of the lights. That’s how I find my vehicle when I can’t immediately locate it. The problem was I walked the campus and all the parking lots and the Jeep didn’t respond. On top of that, a storm was coming that predicted six inches of rain in one hour. Fortunately, after several travels around the campus, I waked and didn’t loose the Jeep. Hopefully the rain is not a premonition. I’ve already had two floods at the house.

I packed up everything and after a breakfast they charged me that was supposed to be free and for two valet parkings, I headed out on I-95 again until I got off on I-20. I was 7 minutes from my next hotel and 3.6 miles away when we came to a dead stop. There was a left lane closure ahead and like South Florida drivers, the left lane drivers all tried to get to the head of the line and then cut in. This was causing a significant backup in both lanes.

To the credit of a semi driver, he moved into the left lane and blocked anyone else from trying to cut in. I loved it. Kudos to the driver!

I checked into the hotel and they gave me room 238. I had reserved a room on the fourth floor to keep the elephant noises down but I didn’t want to make a stink. However, when I got to the second floor, there was no 238. The rooms stopped at 235. Back down I went.

After much discussion between two employees, they upgraded me to a king bed on the fourth floor. That made me happy.

Today’s drive was almost less than yesterday’s but with the traffic jam on I-20, it ended up being around 5 hours again. Tomorrow is supposed to be a 3 hour drive but never believe what the GPS says.

Stay tuned!

15 November 2024

I was out of bed by 6:30 this morning and after getting everything into the Jeep, I killed time until the traffic eased on I-95. I finally got underway (Coastie term) around 9:43 am and actually breezed through the area around Sunrise and Coconut Creek which is always backed up. Of course, by the time I approached Boca Raton, traffic was dead stopped. Only a few times later did the traffic get bad other than the crazy drivers on 95 thinking they were Mario Andretti.

I got to Jacksonville a little after 3, as predicted by my GPS, and after taking a wrong exit due to the lack of an update on the GPS, I finally saw the Doubletree Hilton. When I get to choose my room, I always choose the upper most floor because I don’t want to hear the elephants above me. I’m in room 1016. I have a beautiful view of nothing other than some passé buildings around the hotel.

Speaking of passé, Davis Brown informed me that my old friend Jack passed away last year. Jack was my French teacher at Ole Miss for my first two semesters. He was hell on wheels at the French Lab and told his classes if they missed two labs, they would drop a letter grade. I ended up with Legionaires Disease and in the infirmary for two weeks. He graciously allowed me to make up the labs. Later, he hired me to move some magazines of which he was the editor to another location and paid me generously. He became a life long friend. He retired from Ole Miss and owned a plant nursery in Oxford and when he came to South Florida to buy plants, he would always stay with me. I’ll miss him.

I decided to dine locally at the hotel. They have a Ruth Chris steak house here. I’ve done appetizers at the Ruth Chris in Fort Lauderdale and ate a steak at one in Hollywood years ago. This was a real treat, albeit an expensive one ($188).

I chose the petit filet (medium) with creamed spinach and potatoes au gratin. I tried their blackberry mojito (I think they were out of blackberries and substituted blueberries) and a pinot noir by the glass from Oregon. For desert I had coffee and crème brûlée. The steak was good, the potatoes excellent and the creme spinach just OK. I’ve had better crème brûlée.

For a very fancy restaurant, it was noisy with the wait staff gossiping with one another at the wait station to the point you could hear their conversations. I started to mention it to the manager but decided not to.

The restaurant had a riverside view of the St. Johns River. Jacksonville is noted for the military bases here. At one time, the U.S. sub fleet was in Key West. A local politician got Jacksonville as the home port. The subs have top travel a significant length of the St. Johns River in order to hit the Atlantic where they can deep dive off the continental shelf and hide. The Key West base was better because the continental shelf is closer in the Keys and it takes less time to get underway and hide. Such is politics.

Jacksonville, at one time, had the largest square mile area for any city in the U.S. I assume it is still the same. The city limits just sprawl. The only time I’ve spent any time here was at a Florida science convention. I made a professor very uncomfortable when he showed some slides of some significance and I asked the question how he didn’t know the stuff he was showing was artifacts in the production of the slides. In my defense, they looked like artifacts I had seen in slides before. His answer was “they just aren’t artifacts.

So far, the hotel is quiet but it’s not even 6 pm. It could get louder tonight. There is quite bit of traffic on a road nearby. The hotel could use a remake. The carpet is tired and so are the rooms. However, it was convenient and I get Hilton points – shades of Tom Green.

Tomorrow, I head to Augusta, Ga. I swear, when I was a kid putting together a puzzle of the states of the U.S., Augusta was listed at the capital of Georgia. My Georgia friends insist Atlanta has always been the capital of Georgia. I did a Wikipedia search an apparently that is not true.

Anyway, stay tuned for Augusta!

14 November 2024

Tomorrow begins my trip to Smithgall Woods State Park to meet up with Jimmie and Stephen. We’ve planned this trip ever since our first visit and we made reservations at the same cabin we had last time at least six months ago if not longer.

I’m not sure any of us are up to hiking. I have no stamina, Jimmie has hip problems and Stephen gets out of breath. Looks like we will have to enjoy temps in the 3o’s and 40’s at night with a fire crackling in the two fireplaces, doing some star gazing, and, of course, dining out in Helen. Hopefully the fall colors will still be around.

I managed to get most of the items on my “to do” list completed. It’s been a busy and exhausting day. I think I’m pretty much packed and I hope to get out of town around 10 am. It should be about a five hour drive to Jacksonville where I’ll spend one night.

The one problem I ran into is choice of clothes. There’s gonna be some cold days and nights and those clothes are bulky. I think it’ll all fit in my suitcase.

Stay tuned for the trip!