You Know You're Getting Older When......

 ....You help your kid celebrate their......

40th Birthday!!!

 

 It was a fun evening! And LOTS of good food!

And she still can't believe Cary was able to keep it a secret for....6+ weeks!!! Great job, Cary!!

 

And Happy Birthday,Munchkin!!

Love You, Dad 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 MERRY CHRISTMAS

🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄

 

I HOPE THIS FINDS EVERYONE IN GOOD HEALTH, IN THE MIDDLE OF FAMILY, AND ENJOYING THE SEASON!!

I'LL BE BACK ON THE ROAD IN 4 WEEKS...SO STAY TUNED FOR SOME REALLY BACKROAD  TRAVELS THIS 2022 SEASON OF "TRAVELS WITH FROG".

 BE SAFE

TRAVEL EASY

&

GO TO THE WOODS!!

FROG & ABBIE

🐸      🐶 

 

 

 

 

A trip 30 years in the making!!

Almost 2,000 miles for one picture!

I can now say...Been There...Done That....

Probably NOT going back!!  LOL!! 

 

 

Welcome to Sunny Florida!

 

 

 

Well....

Welcome to Florida (anyway!)

 

 

I spent the first full night in Lake City, FL, next to Lowe's. And woke up to heavy fog and overcast skies! Sunny my foot!!  LOL!

 But it was a nice, overcast, relatively cool day with a breeze!

 

 

 

 

After doing a bit of running around in Lake City...there's always errands to get done. My new flashlight - the third one - had died, so shipped it back to Amazon. Then stumbled across an Aldi, so picked up a couple of things that I needed. Dropped in at Discount Tires, right down the street from Aldi, and had Lily's tire pressures checked.

Noticed in the atlas "Rose Creek Lookout Tower". Sounded like something to take a look at. And it was something to look at...and that was about it!  LOL! 

That was it! All fenced in and...that was it! But I did meet the gentleman that lives next to it and found out part of the story. It got fenced in during the past year or so, due to the fact that people (I use the term loosely) we going up the tower, doing drugs, etc on the site. There was also a lot of things disappearing from the folks living nearby. And apparently there was a guy living up in the old tower, in the top, and stealing from the houses around there. Sad!

Then sat for a while looking at my Florida Atlas...seeing what was around between Lake City and my stop tomorrow night. I'm only 30+ miles from there from Lake City. And I noticed O'Leon State Park. So decided it was time for a side trip! And it was really a nice State Park!

 

 

Drove down few "county" roads? Well, they weren't paved...but I'm in Florida! It was like driving on the beach...all sand! The Spanish Moss in the trees is just sooo cool looking! And the "mini-palms"...whatever they are called....are just beautiful!

Found the Park, and was quite pleasantly surprised with it! Very clean. The folks at the entrance were chipper and smiling and helpful! I saw NO trash on the road into the Park. It was great!

The history of the area is quite interesting. This next picture explains it better than I ever could!

The history of places is just amazing. You would be hard pressed to think up some of the "happenings" that come from life!.

The Park was bought and cleaned up and restored to basically be a tribute to the "boys" of the CCC that built it. That is the purpose of the statue!

 

  The original watch tower building is now the museum. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They also were able to keep the original dining hall, the open air meeting area/pavilion...and they also have several parts of the original grist mill that helped to build up the original town that was there. At one time the population of the town was about 600. 

The museum is actually quite informative and laid out very well! I spent quite a bit of time inside reading, looking and learning! It is amazing what the CCC did over the years that it existed!

 

 

 In the museum they also had a slice of a cypress tree that had been felled, with the following question.....

 

 And this was the slice of the tree!

See all the little white dots? Well....they also had a "timeline" posted above it to give you an idea of just how long that tree had been in the forest! I hope you can read the pictures coming up................(if you click the pic it should come up to view larger)

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

The river that runs thru the park is quite pretty! They have a nice swimming area set up, and folks canoe & kayak the river. There's is a launch area and they also rent canoes from what I could tell.

 

 

 

 

 

The last thing that was really cool about the park is the suspension bridge built by the CCC Boys! They really did an excellent job on it! Still swinging after close to a century! What was really funny was Abbie trying to walk across it with me! Of course it would start bouncing, and she did not know what to do! For the first time since she has been with me....she actually walked behind me!  LOL!

 

 

That about catches me up! We're settled in at the Rest Area for the night. About to take Abbie out for the last time tonight. Maybe watch a DVD...or not! And be prepared for a full day tomorrow!

Be sure to keep checking back and seeing what comes along next! Will be in Key Largo in 2 days, then hopefully spend 2-3 days around Key West before heading back up to Alabama for Xmas!

 C'ya out here....soon I hope!

Frog   &   Abbie

🐸            🐶

This Is Natural???

On the road! Headed for Key West. Just almost South of Atlanta, taking a break....letting my "psyche" calm down!

It's Sunday afternoon & I'm so out of practice driving in this "mess"! It's crazy!

And this is slow compared with an hour ago. After a few conversations with folks, how can we as a society think that this way of "living" is natural?!?! I don't see a thing natural in this!

Stopped at favorite laundromat this morning so I'd have clean clothes for this run!

Anyway....🤠🙃😎....had a good stay in Bama. Lily is in good shape now. She just keeps getting better each week! And I keep jettisoning stuff that I've learned I don't need in here! LOL!

Just wanted to start this run off with a note that I'm on the road again for a few weeks so keep checking in on me & checking my Instagram posts also!

44 miles to Rest Area that will be my stop tonight!  

C'ya!

Frog & Abbie

🐸.      🐕

Lily - History & Tour Pt 1

Hi folks! I've been slacking on getting posts up on this blog! Sorry. I just finished up my latest video. Wanted to get it up here for all to see!

I hope you enjoy it and it gets you interested in getting out and seeing the things around you!!

Belated HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

It was Trunk or Treat at the kids church last night. 3 hours of traffic! And they had close it down at 7pm....and had to turn away cars! Good Grief!!

Anyway, thought I'd share a couple of pics of their setup for it! They did a good job!

The chickens were a huge hit!

 Hope everyone had a great night!

Travels with Frog, Chapter 3

 Hi Folks, Still in West Virginia...on Cheat Mountain, in the Monongahela Nat'l Forest. This is Chapter 3 of my Travels with Frog "series".  

Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for taking a break and looking at this beautiful country with me!

If you like what you see and hear consider becoming a supporter of The Trucking Frog by clicking the Patreon link an the left of this page and join us in our travels!

Have a great week/month/year!!

And as I always say....

Be Safe....

Travel Easy....

And.....

GO TO THE WOODS!!

C'ya!!

Frog    &  Abbie

🐸         🐶

Still in West Virginia!

 A quick update...and still in West Virginia!!  Love this country, especially the mountains, which is where I've basically been for the past 4 weeks. 

Currently in Elkins, WV doing laundry, "monthly restock" and taking care of a few errands! All it takes is for me to be in "the city" for over 36 hours and I really, once again, appreciate the mountains and the woods!! There is really just no peace in the cities! I don't care how quiet it gets at night...it is still noisy compared with the woods and mountains!

Had a great site on the Stonecoal Dispersed camp area. All sites had tables and most had a view of the Cheat River with easy access. Was a very pleasant stay!

Next moved up on top of Cheat Mountain, a very pretty area with great views of the surrounding mountains and valleys.

The views were just picture perfect...and the clouds were something else. I shot way too many cloud pics!!  LOL! There were a couple of days of rain, and the winds, at times, reminded me of the winds in New Mexico during windy season!

  I really enjoyed the stay on the top of the ridge and really enjoyed the weather! Especially the COOL temps!!

As I head back up to the mountains later today, I'll be headed towards a spot my friend Keith took me to...which I have named "The Panorama Site"!!!  It basically has a view that is way over 200 degrees across, with NO trees to hamper the valley views! And in about a week the colors, which are just now really coming out, will be close to their peak and I hope to get some awesome fall color shots from there!

 

Another thing seems to be in abundant supply are the bees and butterflies! They are just all around every day!  Not withstanding the fact that the goldenrod is BLOOMING all around the area. And I mean BLOOMING!!  But it has made for the chance to catch some good shots of the butterflies!

And then of course there are all the flowers that do all the hard work of attracting the butterflies!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hard to get a really focused shot when the wind keeps blowing at 15+mph!

So thanks for checking in with The Frog! Be sure to check back...more pics and videos are on the way, to include a tour of Lily!

C'ya out here!!

Frog & Abbie

🐸      🐶