Well I caught the train to Orleans France from Paris. It took a bit of research , but I found that the train departs out of Paris from the Gare d Austerlitz station. I was learning a few words of French every few hours. These would come in handy in Orleans. The train took me through the lovely French country side, and it and took 1-2 hours to arrive in Orleans with the few little stops it made. I hoped off in Orleans and I knew immediately that I was in the right place. As , sure enough, even the train station and the mall had “de Arc” in their names.

From Orleans France

Yes, Joan of Arc, The Maid of Orleans.

Orleans takes lovely Joan of Arc to heart. Orleans is a beautiful and ancient city in the Loire Valley. And it was my Love of the great stories and Legends associated with the Maid of Orleans that brought me to this town in France. I wandered down the street and was immediately greeted by the Maid.

There she was mounted on her war horse in her armor. A nice bronze statue of her stood in the square. The statue featured relief carvings that illustrated the life of the Maiden. I viewed them all, and they even included the faerie tree of Domremy. Orleans was touristy enough to be welcoming , yet , it was nothing like the tourist trodden streets of Paris.

This place had another kind of beauty all together. I went scouting for a cheap place to stay and found the Orleans tourist office. There they suggested the Charles Sangler Inn after I told em my sad budget. I found it, It had rooms and the proprietor did not speak any English. Yet, he was extremely kind, welcoming and understanding. I used my 37 word French vocabulary I had picked up from my dictionary and some practice in Paris to secure my room. I bought a cheap but nice nights stay in the affordable inn. The room had a shower, a WC, and even a TV. I felt up town with that after hostels. I stashed my bags and went running amuck in Orleans. I wandered straight to the lovely Cathedral of Saint Croix.

From Orleans France

And the lovely and magical place is holy indeed for a lover of Joan of Arc. The cathedral features stained glass windows that tell the life story of the Maid of Orleans. Also I saw the maid and a little shrine featuring Saint Joan of Arc with a caring tribute to the fighters of World War Two. I wandered some more outside and saw that military vehicles had parked around the maid in the square. Yes, I thought, soldiers are still flocking to the Maiden. Apparently a ranking official was having some sort of celebration in Orleans that evening.

I jumped on the little train cart that was the local tourist ride.

It was affordable, and it took me around showing me the ancient taverns and medieval homes, the parts and places of old and even older. Places where the maiden prayed and worshiped. I felt real silly in the little train. It was sort of like a kiddy ride at a park. Locals would smile and say. Bon Voyage.

From Orleans Franc

I of course giggled. The little train ride had given me the necessary barrings I needed to do a more in depth walking tour. I now knew where to go and some things to go check out. I had scheduled only a day here and one nights stay in Orleans. A choice I regretted as I dearly loved the little town. Yet, my round trip return ticket left out of Paris soon. Orleans had some really nifty sounding day trips out of her as well.

Orleans had a real fancy street car for getting around. Cute stores and tons of Joan of Arc history.

I recommend the lovely town, to anyone who loves the Joan of Arc stories as I do.

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Been geocaching today. Its fun. I have a new Garmin Etrex legend handheld GPS unit. I’ve been treasure hunting around Osprey Florida at a State Park. I’ll post more later.

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Wowie Zowie and super granulated coolness. I really enjoyed my stay at this beautiful state park just outside of Sebring Florida.

I pulled the Oyster Can of Adventure into the park and stayed for 3 days. I had a site with water and electric with a dump station to use on the way out. Now Highlands Hammock is one of the oldest parks on Florida, and has a museum to honor the CC camp boys who built most of it. But the part I loved was the wonderful woods and bike trails around the place.

Earth Day, I biked around the huge bike trails and explored all day then I went to the Music in the Park Earth Day event.
A band called Groovus was playing. It was Jazz and classic rock flavors, and they were a decent group. They had two awesome Sax players, and the other members were right on as well. I had fun. Music under the stars, relaxing in the park after a day of adventure, it was sweet. Oh and speaking of sweet there was this adorable cute little girl playing bounce-bounce- dance to the music, you could tell she was a born performer, I hope someone is springing for her ballet lessons, though I am sure they are. The Dragon Flies seem to hover above the visitors in a sort of air ballet, but hey a little blink, a wish , some of the innocent energy that was going around, and one was sure that those Dragon Flies were really just Faeries joining in the fun and play. Their ballet was of course just a competition for attention with the little girl performer and actress to be. As the sunset with the cool music , the accompaniment was joined by a full moon. it all was a very cool thing.

I came back to the campsite to the Oyster Can of Adventure after a day of bike adventures and music to grill up some BBQ. Apart from the typical lonliness that tends to surface sometimes when I, a single guy, am surrounded by families (which I am use to), it was an awesome day.

Now Highlands Hammock State Park has a very special feature, that is these really beautiful and old woods. Huge oaks and palms and all kinds of plant and animal life are a feature of the park. I felt like I was in Lothlorien out of a Tolkien story, wonderful faerie trees were abundant, a hello-how-are-ya visit from a huge eagle, and various wildlife that seemed to say look at me, look at me.

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My family and I went into the Kennedy Space Center at Floridas Space Coast. We removed all our little pocket knives and other goodies before we went in.
Now Kennedy Space Center has a fair security system.
You will empty all of your pockets into a little plastic tray, hand it to the security person, and then walk through the metal detector, then they hand you the plastic tray and you go take it to another security person where they make you turn on all of your gadgets to make sure they are not dummy ones.

After that rigamaroe you are done. And its time to play at the NASA Kennedy Space Center.
We went straight for the tour busses, which take you around through the large campus and show you all the cool goodies.
You go past the huge building where they put together the ships (this building is way bigger that it looks),

and onto an observation platform where you can see the various launch sites and launch towers. Then you hop another bus and head over to the cool Apollo Exhibits, we had some pizza there, and checked out the huge rockets, after that just catch a buss back to the main visitor center complex.

Now one thing to just NOT miss at The Kennedy Space Center is the rather cool IMAX films , especially dont miss the one on the International Space Station.
I saw the one on the Space Station and another called Magnificent Desolation or something like that. That later one was about the Apollo program and the moon visits, and it was very cool to see as well.

….

I milled around the Space Center and saw wonderful exhibits, very cool and inspiring things, a nice tribute to the fallen-astronauts called the Space Mirror. And I saw one exhibit that had to be one of the most useless ones I have ever seen. It was called The Robot Scouts. Now this was a wee little hallway that you walked though and some crappy mechanical robot puppet would appear on some TV and would talk about the robot explorers.
Now I think that subject could have been done quite wonderfully, but whoever put that one together needs to go back to the drawing board.
It lost me totally when I came to a section they called “the think tank” only to find a school desk with an early 1980ies calculator at it. I couldnt help to make Doctor Who style Dalek impersonations as we traversed through the hallway. It was that big of a joke. I dont even think modern kids would like it. The only redeeming quality that show had was Nadine a cute spokes person on the tellie. But alas there was so many cool things to see for a lover of science and space exploration that more than made up for the silly robot show. Miss that one, and use your time to see other shows.

Oh and another thing, Your ticket is good for 7 days after you use it so you can go back and see more space fun. You can also turn it into an annual pass for 12ish bucks.
I went back the following day before I went on down to the Treasure Coast, that is when I saw the IMAX on the Apollo mission. I had my Travel Trailer with me, so there is plenty of RV parking.
If I wanted to stick around the space coast I might spring for the annual one, but alas I found no Jennie on the beach like Major Nelson so I am off to other lands.

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I heart Saint Augustine.

I love this town (Saint Augustine that is).. I am not really sure as to why I like it so much, so I tend to keep coming back. So as I write this maybe It will help me work it out as to why I love Saint Augustine. Now in spite of its loveliness, it is awful touristy, but I grew up in a tourist town so that is not a major problem for me.

This place keeps drawing me in. and every time I bike or moped the lovely back streets, peeking in gallery windows to steal a view of objects I could never afford or sneak down to my favorite pub for a sandwich. Its another here I am again trolling the Streets of Saint Augustine.

I took the Wind Up Toy of Adventure over to the Lighthouse
The Saint Augustine Lighthouse will give you a good view of the city the bay and all kinds of things. It is a tall bugger and worth it if you have the bucks to blow on the tour. Be in shape or use it to get in shape. I didn’t climb her this last trip, I wanted to save dough as I transition into my mobile lifestyle.. mehhh, now as I write this I wish I had just sprang for the fee and climbed her again (maybe next time). As I’m sure this town will find me haunting her again. Maybe that Dale guy, who comes here lots should be on the Ghost tour as a feature. The Tourist Ghost.ooohhhhhhooooooo, rattles cameras…

Saint Augustine Florida lighthouse pier
Instead of clambering up the light house this time, I mopeded around and hung out at the Lighthouse pier and watched some boats while I was over there. and then went mopeding around town for a bit.

The Rendezvous Restaurant

Ummmm Beer!!!

Speaking of Saint Augustine haunts, there are light houses (ooohhhhoooo), then there are ale houses (yeeeehawwwww) So lets stop in at the Rendezvous Restaurant for some of that good old rising of the wrist. As this ale house has some of the best brew selections around. This time I picked a time honored favorite a brew called Hacker Pschor (I likely spelled that wrong, anyway the octoberfest one) as it brought back memories of really fun times with a dangerous blond. and I washed it down with a good Ruben sandwich. and had a nice German brew for desert. The place isn’t easy to find in spite of the fact that it is right in the center of all the tourist stuff.You have to look on the map (which you can scrounge all over) for this mall thing called Saint George’s Row, you will walk by some of the cutest little faerie figurines I’ve ever seen (I always have to stop and wish), you will pass a magic shop and some other cool things to find the ale house. The brew selection is huge.

Now Saint Augustine, as the oldest town in the States has plenty of history to fascinate the history buff and tons of cute wee shops for those into that sort of thing. Parking is a hassle sometimes if you are in a car and not the wind up toy of adventure scooter/moped like me.

Arrrgggg! Me Mateys!!!

This latest trip was all about rv travels, so I stayed at a nearby RV park called Indian Forest Campground and just rode the moped /scooter thing into town as I had the camper. Before I have stayed at the quite fun hostel called The Pirate Haus Inn.

Shiver Me Tenders!!! arrrrrgghhh
I went for a private room when I stayed there last as I have loved hostels and all the folks that I meet at them for ages, but these days sometimes, as a 40 something, I think I am getting a bit old for the common room (I’ll likely get over that). But the place is great and it is right in town, so you can have all the fun you want, and have a handy place to crash, and even get Blueberry pancakes in the morning.

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The Saint Johns is a river running north through central Florida.

As I begin my full time RVing experience in the Oyster Can of Adventure this place is to be an important factor.

Yep, My mail forwarding service is located in Green Cove Springs with the nice folks over at Saint Brendans Isle.

I took a pic of a sign in Spring park that has a bit more history on green Cove Springs, click the thumb to read it.

Now it is obvious that the town of Green Cove Springs is tied with a heavy-duty sailor knot to the Mariner culture of the Saint Johns River.

The Port there is huge. You can see all sorts of marine services, and huge marinas just out of town and mongo river boats , barges and more docked at the Green Cove Springs Port.

I fancied a number of of nice large sail boats in a marine storage yard near the port. As well as watching the river boats, the floating casinos and such that were docked at the port.

Now Green Cove Springs is the far most point these large ships or the sailing vessels can go when traveling South up river, as the Shands bridge that crosses the Saint Johns just has a 45ft clearance.

The mineral springs flow into the town pool and continue into the Saint Johns down a spring run.
Spring Park in down-town Green Cove Springs has a handy fishing peir so you can toss your line in the Saint Johns waters.
The Green Cove Springs Town Dock also features boat slips where you can tie up and check out town. You can dock here 48 hours for a small fee.

Clay County Theatre
This old Vintage Movie theatre reminded me of one in my home town. It is a working movie theatre. Now, If it only had a theatre company to take it over now and then, I’d felt right at home.

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RVing at Wright Lake was Ribbiting Performance (ribbit ribbit!!)

The curtain rises on Wright Lake with a soothing intro, that of lots of frogs singing their songs. Its a lovely little lake in the Apalachicola wilderness.
The 26 foot Oyster Can of Adventure fit just fine into one of the very shaded spaces near the lake, and 8 bucks bought a site with water only, and a nearby bath house. So the Oyster can went into Inverter and fans mode with lp gas running the fridge.
But be warned , If you come out to these boonies you just might croak, just to fit in with the neighbors that is.. After the Sun takes its bow, with a stylish exit, and the moon caresses the waters, this lake comes alive with the singing of the night. Frogs sing the lead and katydids are on percussion. The rest of natures night instruments chime in regularly to add to the night time wonderment.

For a lover of nature, this is a great campsite, in some ways for what the camp site did not have.

There was no motor-coach of mongo hugeness 2 inches from my door so huge that there is a convention center in one of the slide outs
there was not 1000 screaming preteen-vermin swarming though my campsite.

The only real annoyance was the yellow files or horse flies but Deep Woods Off bug repellent helped with that problem. I had the place almost to myself as there was only the very friendly camp host, the camp doggies, and a tenter. Yep, that was it.
I have here a pic of me trying to “out tacky” the birds and flora while I enjoyed rambling around on the bicycle of adventure and walking, invading random trails.
The lake was a bit shallow due to the Florida drought, but it was at least there and was a decent lake still, and it was wet, so I even went for a dip/wade in the lake swimming area. and didn’t get eaten by anything (though these cute little minnows were looking at me funny).
There is a 4 mile + trail for the very adventurous, but I just did the short one that goes around the lake and went on a few random bike jaunts.

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Once in the park it was still a nice little ride on to the light house on the bay.

I meandered around the lovely lighthouse peeking in windows looking for ghosts, then kicked back by the bay a bit and took in the beauty spot that is the Appalachicola bay.

Now there is nothing like the site of the Appalachicola bay that will help one develop a hunger for Oysters. Yep, It was time to hop on the Wind up Toy of Adventure and head to the very Oyster Bar that the Mule broke down in front of. As it was now open for business.
oysters from Appalachicola bay
I wandered into the Oyster Bar ordered up a cold one and had a couple of dozen Oysters.

It was sort of a biker bar feel with lots of country. Classic Dukes of Hazard was on the tellie complete with memories of how hot I thought the real Daisy was back in the day (none of that Jessica Simpson rubbish). Now being a North Georgia Mountain man I felt right at home and I find myself developing more and more of a biker persona every day. Likely thanks to the Wind Up Toy adventures. I think that I need to upgrade the wee scooter to a cooler and faster scooter complete with babe.

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Miles of lovely beaches, great skin diving, wonderful nature trails, great camping for RVs or tents. Have I mentioned that Saint Joseph Peninsula State Park at Cape San Blas is my kind of park? It is a park teaming with wild-life and Natures beauty.

These Deer were playing Peekaboo with me on one of the nature trails.

Take a Wade

I really enjoyed wading in the Bay. There is lots of life to check out in the clear and living waters. Wear some water shoes or something as there are some Sea Urchins and stuff, take a mask and snorkel.

Take A Walk

I took this pic on the bay nature trail as the SunSet.
This nature trail was just behind the picnic area at the end of the park. It was a spiriling path through the grasses and marsh land and went for awhile by the bay.

I love Cape San Blas and I hope to get back soon.

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