Blue Springs State Park Fl

Blue Springs.

We all head off reasonably early again heading towards Kissimmee via the town of Deland which surprisingly has quite a nice old fashioned town centre. We get to the state park entry fee $6/ car on the out skirts of town.

The spring makes its self into a tributary of the near by river but has the unusual effect of being very clear and at 72'F about 22'c a few hundred metres down stream there is a temperature barrier between the waters and the water changes very quickly to a cold black coffee colour.

The area is often a refuge for the Manatee but it is a bit early in the year.

The clear area of water offers swimming and snorkeling and a lazy river experience if you walk up stream for about 10 mins.  There a plenty of fish and the water was warm enough for me to snorkel so it wasn't as cold as every body was making out.

After we take a short stroll down stream to the main river junction and don't sit around too long because of the mosquitoes. On our return walk we spot two gators which were only a couple of hundred metres away from where we were swimming.

Kennedy Space Centre

Kennedy Space Centre

A not so early start as we have an appointment at 10 am for a back crack and then a 1 1/2hr drive south via the Home Depot  Hardware for a back support. Then we finally arrive at the space centre.

Luckily it appears not to be too busy.

The set up has change over the last thirty odd years there are a few cafe and other exhibits but the bulk of the 50's and 60's rockets remain.

The bus tour out around the various launch pads was disappointing as I am sure previously we got a view inside the main assembly building. However the main stop was for the Saturn V rocket exhibition. Thirty something years ago this was out side with the other rockets.

This is now impressively exhibited inside after a re enactment of an Apollo mission launch.

We start to get a bit pressed for time and we head back to the main area at which point it is chucking it down.

The coach driver recommend we see the Atlantis exhibition rather than the I Max movies.

The Atlantis exhibit is contained in its own building again with an impressive reveal after a short build up with the history of it's inception almost at the end of the Apollo program.

There are plenty of interactive stuff for the kids to play with including an escape chute and a simulation of a shuttle take off.

Daytona Florida

Daytona Uummh

Well we thought Daytona was going to be like the Gold Coast in Qld Australia and we were wrong the Gold Coast is far nicer.

The beach is good and you can drive your car on the beach when the tide is right, the surf isn't quite up to surfing but the water is warm and a bit murkey.

Sadly we have spent a bit of time going to and from a chiropractor on a daily basis for mum.

We have an OK "resort" right on the beach which was its only redeeming feature but the kids didn't mind and the pool was good.

We had a couple of rainy days which restricted us a bit.

We found out the further south along the beach you go the better it gets.

One morning when the weather was good we headed down to Ponce Inlet to view the light house the second tallest in America.

Again a cheaper entry fee for a well kept and maintained light house which still operates along with the various museum like keepers house.

There were some great views from the top.

Okefenokee Swamp

The Okefenokee Swamp

We set off early heading south to Daytona via the swamp and a run in with the local

 Rosco P Coltrain 

who was trying to give me me a ticket for 77 in a 55 I discussed it with him although he claimed I was arguing with him any way he let me off cause I was on a foreign licence and wouldn't have to pay the citation.

Just for the record I was on my cruise control set at 55.

We had our Subway lunch purchased before we arrived a then set off on our 1 1/2 hrs boat trip out into the swamp.

The route follows a straight stretch of canal and a divergence at the end off into a giant lilly pond at the end then return via the same route not very inspiring but great reflections in the dark tannic water. Not much in the way of wildlife as it was hot out but we saw a few different birds including a large Barn Owl and 1 small foot long garter snake.

Savannah

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA

We have planned ahead today to enjoy a full day  in downtown Savannah. We take a free shuttle bus from our suite to the Hyatt on the river front and head first to a bank to change some cash and get ripped off by the exchange rate mark up then to a pharmacy for some thing to dry my cold up. Sadly I cant by anything with PE as I do not have a US drivers licence a passport or other photo id is no good so all I end up with is some hay fever allergy pills which prove useless. I could have bought a bottle of 1000 pain killers to ease the pain which I didn't have.

Any way digressing now.

Savannah is a picturesque city with neatly laid out streets and plenty of shady parks adorned with spanish moss.

We head first to Chippewa square to where the famous scene from Forrest Gump was filmed where he sits on the park bench and speaks about life is a box of chocolates.

I know that  the original bench was only a prop and is in some museum somewhere but the bench would not have been in the park but on the footpath just out side. They should reinstate the bench.

All the original park benches face into the park and you cannot re create the shot.

The day is getting hotter and sweatier and we head to Forsyth Park for the kids to have a play.

The park is a bit disappointing as two thirds is open field and we were expecting more fountains and formal gardens we have a milk shake and the boys get lost by not paying attention.

We head back into the centre of town via a cemetery and then to the train museum. This proved to be disappointing as most of the exhibits needed major restoration.

 The kids almost went to hell in hand cart.

We headed to the river front for refreshment only to find mostly over priced ice creams and seafood restaurants etc etc and most disappointing.

Earlier than anticipated we head back to the motel.

We end up heading for the outskirts for some improved dinner choices.

Savannah and Tybee Island

Savannah and Tybee Island.

We leave Macon pretty early as we have a 2 1/2hr drive to Savannah which goes well and we drive right thru the centre of Savannah to the Old Fort Jackson which is on the Savannah River just of the main road to Tybee Island.

The proved to be great for the kids as there were some hands on stuff for new recruits to the confederate army. The entry fee was only $28 for all of us and were there for at least 2 hrs.

The recruits had to learn how to load a musket and load a canon.

Then off to Tybee Island which turns out to be a nice little town mostly older style condos with a great beach. Is's been a while since swimming in the Atlantic but the water is surprisingly warm ii's a shame we are only here for 2 hrs.

Macon Ga

Atlanta to Macon

Another early start and plenty of breakfast of the usual.

We are heading to Macon partly to break up the trip to Savannah but to see the main attraction which is the Airforce Museum located in the neighbouring town of Warner Robins.

 But first we have a brief visit to the Indian mounds very close to the centre of Macon which gives us a toilet stop and a short walk and another short walk as look around downtown for somewhere for lunch which surprisingly is also a little hard to find something suitable.

The drive to the Air Force Museum is a bit longer than expected but we get there and the cloud has all gone the temperature has risen and along with it the humidity.

The museum is free and has way more there than we expected.  There are 3 hangers made into very good displays and many aircraft outside we probably spent about 3 hrs there.

Included in their exhibits are an SR71 Blackbird, U2 Spyplane and a B1B bomber.

We then went of in search of our  motel (Super 8 Macon West) which quite good as it had been refurbished  recently via The local Dairy Queen.

Day 4 Atlanta

Stone Mountain 

Another reasonably early start for the included breakfast to stock up on carbs for the day.

The morning is again foggy and we have to drive right across town to stone mountain which is a large round dome of grey granite part covered in trees.

As we enter the car park we see the mountain loom out of the fog.

Stone mountain or at  least the carvings were conceived about 90 yrs ago but after various ideas and bankruptcies it was only completed about 40 yrs ago. The first attempt was completely removed.

The largest low relief sculpture in the world, the Confederate Memorial Carving depicts three Confederate leaders of the Civil War, President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and 

Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. The entire carved surface measures three acres, about the size of three football fields. The carving of the three men towers 400 feet above the ground, measures 90 by 190 feet, and is recessed 42 feet into the mountain. The deepest point of the carving is at Lee’s elbow, which is 12 feet to the mountain’s surface.

Apparently they are about 30 feet taller than those on Mt Rushmoor.

There are number of  amusments around the base which we bought day tickets for.

The first that we visited was the museum which was pretty good and you can see the boys with a life size reproduction of a section of one of the horses bridles.

We then had about 20 minutes in the great barn which is a kids playground with foam balls and various compressed air contraptions and cannons.

After a quick snack and a photo of a squirrel which was first for the kids.

Then onto the what I think was called Sky High which was a series of climbing walkways that get harder the higher you go. The top is at least 10 metres up.

There was also a poor quality 4D movie experience and many of the shops and food outlets were closed

After our supermarket picnic lunch we heard for a round of crazy golf and then for the 5 mile train ride which navigates around the base of stone mountain.

Very easy to fall asleep on this one.

Then our final ride is in the cable car which goes to the summit where there isn't much to see today. 

We decided to walk down as we could see heaps of people huffing and puffing their way up.

The walk down takes about 30 minutes and then it is time to head off. We decided to head for a German pub which was just back in the town of Stone Mountain which had a reasonable write up in trip advisor so expected it to be busy but it wasn't and the food was ok but nothing really special.