Biking Hilton Head

Hilton Head has over 60 miles of biking trails.  You can get just about anywhere on the island by bike. Many of the trails are tree shaded and you can bike on the beach by the water because the sand is so hard packed by the tides.

Good lunch after a long day of biking

Hilton Head is a very pretty place to visit.  I wouldn't want to live there because during the peak summer months the population swells from 37,000 to 150,000.  I can't imagine what that's like because when we were there the weekend biking crowd make it difficult to get around in some areas.

While in Hilton Head we took a cruise over to Savannah, GA and then headed to our next destination in the Shenandoah Valley, VA.  Those posts are going to have to wait until next week when we get to Maryland where hopefully our next RV park will have more reliable Wi-Fi and cellular.

Oh My, Alligators!

The first place we went biking on Hilton Head Island was Jarvis Creek Park.  It is a small community park with a paved path around a lake with a fishing pier. The first thing we noticed were these signs:

Since we had seen these signs all over Florida and never saw an alligator, we thought it would be the same thing here.  But lo and behold! We saw FOUR alligators! Yikes!  The first one was sleeping on the banks covered in lake slime so it was a little hard to see him.  The 2nd alligator was sunning himself on the banks, and then we saw two more on the other side of the lake.  One was sleeping and the other was "yawning."

Slimy alligator

Nice day for sunbathing

I think he's waking up!

View of part of the lake

We stopped and talked to a man who was fishing from the banks (watch out for alligators!).  He said when he caught a fish the splashing would attract alligators from all over the lake trying to catch his fish.

Path through the park

This was a good first day of biking Hilton Head.  I was so happy I finally got to see alligators!

Happy 1 Year Fulltime RVing!

We set off from San Antonio on April 10, 2016 to begin our fulltime RV adventure not knowing what was to come but ready for anything.  After 1 year I can say we are truly enjoying our travels and do not regret our decision to sell our home and rid ourselves of most of our possessions and hit the road.  This is a wonderful way to see our great country and experience different cultures and local traditions.

We've learned a few things during the past year:

Learn where your rig's circuit breakers are located and how to reset them so that when something stops working, you can fix it quickly.  One time we were cooking waffles for our granddaughters and we opened the waffle iron expecting to have hot cooked waffles.  We were surprised to find gooey batter.  Tripped circuit breaker!

Don't drive more than 4 hours at a time--it makes one of us cranky to drive too long (guilty!) and besides, we have nothing but time so why not enjoy the drives?

If you're going to be away from your RV site overnight, remember to turn off the water.  We left for 4 days once and didn't think about turning off the water until we received a call from the park management telling us that water was dripping out one of the compartments.  Fortunately there was minimal damage which was easy to fix.

We don't enjoy the south in the summer! We had to unexpectedly spend some time in San Antonio last July when temperatures were close to 100 almost every day.  The ACs could not cool fast enough and our refrigerator was getting too warm.  John did some research and decided to install an exhaust fan in the compartment behind the refrigerator to help push the hot air out from behind the refrigerator.  When he went to install it, he found there were already FOUR fans installed but not hooked up.  Don't know why, but John hooked them up and it helped a lot!

Learn to use your outdoor grill (it helps keep the rig cool during warmer weather). Some of our favorite things to grill include pork chops, burgers, foil packet meals, and of course, steak.

On the subject of cooking--we can cook just about everything in our little kitchen that we used to cook in our house.  We have a stove, microwave, slow cooker, multi-cooker, and a toaster oven in the basement that we sometimes bring out.  It's just a matter of getting used to working in a smaller space. We've made everything from quiche to bread to roasted vegetables to intricate gourmet recipes.

I rediscovered the joy of biking!  Our biking excursions are now from 10-20 miles at a time.  A year ago I would have never imagined I would be biking so often and for such distances.  Everybody should go out and ride bikes, and ride through water puddles and laugh--you'll feel 10 years old again!

We make our RV feel like home.  I keep decorative knick knacks in a collapsible box that I unpack when we're going to stay put for at least 2 weeks.  We also have an electronic wireless picture frame so we can look at all of our favorite family photographs without having picture frames out everywhere.

Be sure to take along things you enjoy doing.  We travel with 1 or 2 colorful plants to make our sites feel more like home because we enjoyed the gardens we used to have.  I also travel with my sewing machine, cutting mat, and fabric for those times that I feel crafty!

You don't have to live in a beige, brown, and taupe RV.  I replaced all window treatments and the bedspread that came with the RV went for some color on the windows and a new duvet cover.  Reds, yellows, golds, oranges!

Keep a checklist!  We start packing up the day before we're scheduled to hit the road so in the morning we just have a few last minute things to do.  Then we check our checklist!  When we started out the list was only 1/2 a page long but now it fills the entire page.  It reminds us to do some things that you'd think would be unforgettable (like take the bedroom tv off the wall, raise the landing jacks, and close all interior doors) but it's easy to forget one of these things when you're anxious to get on your way.

Finally, I've learned that America is a beautiful country with wonderful things to see from cornfields in Iowa to the white sand in Orange Beach, Alabama to the palm trees of Florida, to the alligators on Hilton Head, South Carolina. We have found fellow RVers to be very friendly and helpful.  We are looking forward to our planned trips this year.  We'll be in the eastern US heading to Maryland, Pennsylvania, Niagara Falls, Montreal, Canada, Vermont, and Maine to name just a few stops.  Don't know what's in store for us but we're up for the adventure!

Working on the blog after a long day of biking

Hilton Head, South Carolina

We arrived in Hilton Head on April 5.  When we entered the city limits we were struck by how hidden all the stores and shopping centers are by trees.  That's very nice to look at but if you're an out-of-towner it makes it difficult to find what you're looking for.  It's even more difficult because there are no billboards or tall store signs.  It's a nice way to keep as much of the natural environment as possible.  Wish San Antonio would do the same thing!

Where are the stores?

On the few occasions you can clearly see the buildings they are all similar in appearance--similar brick, no tall signs.

Even the McDonald's doesn't look like a McDonald's!

We arrived at Hilton Head RV Resort & Marina and I have to say it is the prettiest RV park we've been to.  The sites are spacious with plenty of landscaping for privacy.  Most of the sites are privately owned and the owners leave behind their outdoor furniture and some have built-in fire pits and b-b-q grills.  When they are away the resort manages and rents out their sites.  And, more importantly, they have great Wi-Fi!

Some parks call themselves resorts when they're not but this one certainly lives up to the name.  They even have daily garbage pickup at your site!

Our site

Working on the blog outside

Some other sites

View of Skull Creek from the pool deck--this is a CREEK?

There's a little island in the marina

Gazebo at the end of a pier--windy!

Waterfront swimming pool

We will be here for 7 days and we're anxious to bike on some of Hilton Head's 60 miles of bike trails.  Rest tonight and explore tomorrow!

Other Sarasota Tidbits

An interesting place to visit in the Sarasota area is Myakka River State park.  It is one of Florida's largest and oldest state parks. There are hiking trails and a canopy walk with a 76 ft observation tower.

Palm trees on the way to suspension bridge

Short climb to the bridge

On the bridge

Looking down on the way up

Above the trees

Myakka River

On the hiking trail surrounded by palmettos

Sunshine made ball moss look purple

Another interesting thing about Sarasota was the large number of Amish and Mennonites.  Apparently many live in Sarasota and quite a large number visit from up north during the winter months.  We saw many riding bikes.  From our travels in Ohio we recognized Amish names on restaurants--Yoder and Troyer.  We stumbled upon Detweiller's Market, a wonderful farmers market where we bought delicious strawberries and peaches and several types of vegetables.

Beautiful AND delicious!

Sarasota was an interesting place to visit and spring training baseball was a lot of fun but the temperature is rising.  Time to start moving north!  Next stop--Hilton Head Island, South Carolina!

Biking Sarasota

When we weren't at a baseball game, we went biking.  All the major streets have bike lanes and many streets also have paved wide sidewalks that are used for biking and walking.

One place we went to was Nathan Benderson Park.  It is a 600-acre park circling an 400-acre lake. The paved loop around the park and lake is 3.5 miles long.  The lake offers schools and organizations a place to practice competitive rowing.  Later this year they are going to host the 2017 World Rowing Championships.  When we were there we saw some rowers on the water.

Sunset at Nathan Benderson Park

Rowers in training

We also biked around the RV park neighborhood for a few miles.

Rode on sidewalk not street bike lane

Paved  trail in a residential area

Love all the hanging moss

Another place we rode bikes was Rothenbach Park. We rode on the park's lovely, shaded paved trails (about 5 miles) then we rode for several more miles on  the paved trail that runs along the street.  We drove by lovely neighborhoods and one particularly pretty senior community with houses and condos and a golf and country club.

One other place we biked was the Sarasota Legacy Trail from Sarasota to Venice--20 miles round trip! The trail occupies the tracks that were laid to serve the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus winter quarters (1911) and the Payne Terminal on Sarasota Bay plus other businesses that came along.  We saw bikers, walkers, a rollerblader, and some really weird looking bikes that didn't look comfortable to ride. 

Original train track next to bike trail

Lots of people on a weekday--can't imagine the weekend crowd

Rode 20 miles & averaged 9 mph!

On the trail there are 2 bridges.  The smaller one crosses Dona Bay where you can stop at the viewing area and try to see the manatees.  We saw none.

Shorter bridge

Didn't see any manatees

The 2nd bridge crosses the highway.  It was about 30 ft  high and I didn't think I could ride my bike to the top because at this point we had already ridden 9 miles, but I did!.

Biking in Sarasota was a lot of fun