Train Trip 2013 - Jacksonville to Savannah and Charleston

I love cities with river trails/walkways, big old trees, and historical buildings. Savannah and Charleston have lots of all those things. And there is so much history!

We did a lot of walking in both cities, took a trolly tour in Savannah, and went to the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston. The aquarium was small but very good and the staff and volunteers were excellent! Andrew posted photos from the aquarium.

Lovely old homes in Savannah

New home of the Savannah animal hospital. Wow! 

Cotton Exchange building in Savannah

The Circular Church in Charleston

There's a beautiful "gateway walk" between several churches and graveyards in Charleston

Another amazing looking old church in Charleston

Lots of restoration/renovation projects require a very cool trash bin

The Amtrak stations in Jacksonville, Savannah and Charleston are nothing to write home about. All are on the outskirts of the city and are relatively new buildings. Again, not amongst America's great stations. There are talks in the works to relocate Amtrak back to the historic Jacksonville Union Station and incorporate a central transportation hub. Unfortunately the "vision" is estimated to cost $180 million with no funding sources in sight.

Savannah's original train station, built in 1902, was built in Spanish style and featured an octagonal rotunda measuring 80 feet in diameter. Sadly, it was demolished to make way for an interstate highway exchange.

Charleston Union Station was built in 1907 and featured "a beautiful double-towered edifice" but caught fire and burned down 40 years later in 1947. Unfortunately the new station is in a totally different location, miles away from the center of the city.

Train Trip 2013 - Lake City to Jacksonville

We left Lake City late in the afternoon after completing our kayak trip. An hour Greyhound bus ride took us to Jacksonville. We saw at least at least 6-8 correctional facilities along the way. Must have had a truck load sale on barbed wire because there was a lot of it!

A few months ago, while searching for what to do in cities along our potential route, Andrew found that the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) was having their annual conference in Jacksonville. As part of the program the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra would be doing a special show, playing to the viewing of 350 of NANPA member's best photos from the past year. We booked tickets for the symphony and reserved at the hotel right across the street from the theatre.

For the most part, it was a great show! The symphony did a fabulous job of pairing the music to the photos being shown. The conductor was very engaging and talked a bit about each of the musical pieces and what they represented before they were played. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have picked up on the cuckoo sound of the clarinet if he hadn't mentioned it!

I particularly enjoyed the photos of the birds and other animals. Amazing action shots and quite a bit of humour in some of the poses caught on camera! However, the projection of the photos definitely did not do them justice. I expect they had the biggest screen they could get to hang above the orchestra but it just didn't show the true quality that I know the photos would have had.

Orchestra area and screen at Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra

We also stopped in at the NANPA trade show one morning, saw lots of cameras, gadgets, gizmos and big-ass camera lenses. And adverts for guided photography trips to all corners of the earth! We also sat in on one of the seminars that was open to the public which was about restoring the wetlands area around San Francisco and one photographer's quest to document and promote the really great changes that are happening -- showing that nature can exist and flourish even in an urban environment with 9 million people in the surrounding area.

Jacksonville has miles and miles of riverside walkways along the St. Johns River which we really enjoyed. More concrete and far more traffic noise than Saskatoon's beautiful and more natural river parks but if you have to be in a big city it's a good place to be. During our walking river tour we stopped at the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens.  We aren't normally big fans of art museums but at the beginning of the 1900's a rich Jacksonville family bought property and built several family houses along the river. One of the Mrs. Cummer's was an avid gardener and active community member. As she got older she made arrangements that upon her death (at 86 years of age in 1973?) the gardens and some additional land would be given to the arts board to build a museum adjoining the gardens. I was impressed not only by the gardens but also by the excellent art based interactive area for kids and by the school programs we saw going on throughout.

This English Garden is 1/4 of the actual garden area (St. Johns River in the background). The Italian Garden takes up 1/4 and Mrs. Cummer left the 1/4 between them clear so her husband could have a putting green. That area was also used for social events. The remaining 1/4 of the garden is presently under restoration.

An oak tree in the garden which is estimated to be 150-175 years old and measures about 150 feet across.

The train bridge got lowered for a train as we went over the walkway.

For more photos of our Jacksonville and the Cummer Gardens, check out Andrew's blog post.

Next stop . . . Savannah, Georgia!

Train Trip 2013 - Kayaking the Suwannee River

Do we go? Do we stay? Do we go? Do we stay? Given that 5 1/2 inches of rain fell in 36 hours, it's no wonder we were humming and hawing.

The initial forecast for our 5-day kayak trip on the Suwannee River was for rain pretty much the whole time. We knew that at some point we were going to get wet; it was just a matter of when and how much.

But the first day was fabulous! A mix of sun and cloud, leisurely paddling on a winding river so calm it was difficult to tell where reality ended and reflection in the water began. Two alligators, two beavers, and so many turtles out sunning themselves on logs that we lost count and Andrew stopped taking pictures of every single one. The turtles must have a good life here as some of them were quite big!

Reality and Reflection

Big turtle enjoying the sunshine

The paparazzi

There were lots of birds too. Blue heron, hawks, black vultures, chickadees, and many others we couldn't identify. Even an owl greeted us at our first camp.

We stayed the night at Woods Ferry, one of several "river camps" along the Suwannee which have raised camping platforms with a roof and mesh screen around them to keep out the rain and bugs, and full washroom facilities including showers.

Dock at Woods Ferry River Camp

Typical river camp shelter

At about 7:30 that evening the rain started coming down in droves! It didn't let up all night and into the next morning. It eased off about noon and that was when the humming and hawing began. Especially since we didn't expect the next days to be much better. We checked the map and the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park advertised cabins. We managed to get cell coverage so gave them a call and confirmed they really did have cabins and availability. We hummed and hawed some more and during a short respite from the rain, got our gear packed up into the kayaks and were on our way.

Watching the rain pour down! Do we go or do we stay?

It rained lightly for about the first half hour. "This isn't so bad," we said to ourselves. Then . . . it REALLY came down! Monsoon type downpour, accompanied by lots of thunder and lightening. Yes, I did wonder about the wisdom of being out in a storm, on the water, with a long metal pole in my hands! Two and a half more hours of hard paddling later, it still hadn't let up but we were at the park and were just starting to get a bit chilled when we got into a cabin. There was a good heater and fans so we dried out much better than expected!

The river rising! The day before (at Suwannee Music Park) our kayaks were 3-4 feet from the water's edge.

At Holton Creek River Camp the water again came up dramatically over night and left a lot of debris in the water and a big tree log caught on the dock.

The rain finally stopped midway through the following morning and the next three days of paddling went without a hitch. We continued to see many birds and turtles; even six deer running along the riverbank.

The riverbank is a reasonable mix of public and private land. The houses mostly blend in fairly well with the surroundings and in summer the coverage of tree leaves would make many of them almost invisible from the river. Camping is permitted anywhere on the public lands; there are also some state parks in addition to the river camps.

Morning fog

 We started our trip at White Springs where the river is relatively narrow. We enjoyed this section the most. As you go further downstream, the river gets wider and the current increases as the Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers flow into the Suwannee. The addition of the heavy rain both in Florida and Georgia meant that the river got higher and faster as we went along. In fact, by the end of our trip the river was close to reaching flood levels, with the possibility of some of the river camps being closed.

We stayed the nights at Woods Ferry River Camp, Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, Holton Creek River Camp, and a random spot along the river. We could have stayed at Suwannee State Park but wanted to get a bit further as we were getting picked up at Dowling Park early on the final afternoon. Dowling Park also has a river camp where we were able to shower and get cleaned up before pick up.

Morning fog

We organized the trip through American Canoe Adventures based in White Springs. In addition to kayaks, they made the river camp bookings for us and provided all our transportation needs in & around Lake City.

We would highly recommend this trip! It's definitely a beginner's level outing -- perfect for a relaxing trip and easily organized. And you could keep going . . . there's about another 100 miles of the river but it continues to get wider, deeper and busier (i.e. motor boat traffic) the closer you get to the ocean. It's a great winter get-away-from-the-snow-and-cold-in-Saskatchewan trip!

Andrew on the Suwannee

Train Trip 2013 - New Orleans to Lake City

One of the many effects of Hurricane Katrina was some of the train tracks between New Orleans and Jacksonville being wiped out. Although freight traffic has been restored, Amtrak's passenger service has been "suspended" and, after eight years, there's still no return in sight. Reasons cited by people we spoke to revolved mostly around politics and money.

Therefore, we became Greyhound customers. Not wanting to overnight on the bus, we broke things up into shorter segments; first day to Fort Walton Beach and the second day to Lake City. We imagined getting great views of the ocean and countryside along the way, and leisurely walking along a sunny beach in Fort Walton.

Reality was much different. Rain, rain, more rain, and fog, fog, and more fog. Getting soaked through on a mad dash to get groceries for our upcoming kayak trip and sitting in soggy clothes though supper. Luckily there was a decent restaurant between the grocery store and hotel!

People on the bus made it an "interesting" experience. One that again reminds me of how darn lucky we are. The guy who hadn't bathed for days; the bus driver who pointed out that "if y'all know you're goin' ta be traveling with a bunch of other people on da bus, then y'all should take care of your personal hygiene. Cause if I git any complaints I'm gonna hafta ask y'all ta leave da bus."

Or the young woman who went on a "short trip" about a year ago and left her kid with its daddy and now its daddy won't give it back even though her judge said she should have custody and and the baby's daddy was lyin' so his judge didn't listen to her judge and now she can't see her kid and we listened to about two hours of this being repeated to various people she talked to on her cell phone and not once did I hear her refer to "the kid" or "my kid" or "it" by the child's first name.

Or the woman who arrived at the bus station just as we were about to pull out five minutes late and was absolutely frantic and almost hyperventilating that she HAD to get on this bus and please please please give her time to buy a ticket so she could get on the bus because if she didn't it would be absolutely positively the end of the world!

Or the two Greyhound employees who were outside the station but yelling at each other so loudly it was difficult to tell what they were arguing about.

On the other hand, in Fort Walton the Greyhound employee gave us a ride to the hotel in the pouring rain so we didn't have to wait for a taxi. Nice!

And likely due to riding the bus and carrying backpacks (or our incredibly young good looks) there was the sweet old man who asked if Andrew and I were on spring break! :-)

The next few days we'll be kayaking on the Suwannee River. The weather forecast isn't ideal so hopefully we don't have too much of a struggle staying dry!

Train Trip 2013 - Alpine to New Orleans

Very sad train station in Houston

We left Alpine in the evening and arrived in Houston just before noon. An ugly white non-descript building, Houston most definitely does not have one of America’s great stations! 

Surrounded by highway overpasses with skyscrapers in the distance, we didn’t hold out much hope for finding a nearby coffee shop during the short stop here. However, a newer looking building with a section of green roof and wind fans on top caught our attention. Upon closer inspection we learned it was the City of Houston’s Green Building Resource Center and inside was a small area of displays featuring green building and other green innovations. It was an interesting way to spend our 40 minutes. 

Houston's Green Building Resource Center

We arrived in New Orleans about 9 p.m. The next day we took the Charles Street Trolley and went to the Audubon Zoo. Rather than take the shuttle from Charles Street to the zoo we walked the mile + through Audubon Park which is one of the highlights that I remember from our trip here about 12 years ago. Trees, water, flowers, old southern homes lining one side . . . gorgeous!

I didn't take many photos at the zoo because I knew Andrew was getting some really good ones! 

The next day we went to the aquarium (more of Andrew's photos) in the morning. It was a warm but windy day and with threatening rains so we spent the afternoon at a couple short Imax films (The Last Reef and Hurricane on the Bayou) and Andrew went to the Insectarium while I went to the Southern Food and Beverage Museum.

The Museum mostly featured the history of food and beverage in Louisiana --  sno-cones, sugar cane/sugar factory, cajun influences and MRE's (meals-ready-to-eat) a la Hurricane Katrina -- but there was also some information from other southern states. Did you know that Alma, Arkansas, is the Spinach Capital of the World, hosts a yearly Spinach Festival and their town water tanks are painted to portray large cans of spinach with a picture of Popeye on them?

Oh, and have you ever wondered how to make moonshine? How to modify your vehicle so that the weight of the moonshine doesn't give you away? How best to keep yourself from getting robbed while transporting moonshine? Well then, this is the place for you!

Train Trip 2013 -- Tucson to Alpine

Built in the early 1900's, even some of the smaller train stations like Tucson and Alpine have an interesting history and look to them as they were built in Spanish Revival style.

We travelled between the two cities during the day and the desert terrain is certainly much different than  we're used to seeing. El Paso was probably the most noteworthy location as the tracks run right along the border with Mexico and there is a stark contrast between the slums of Juarez on one side of the chain-link fence with wire at the top and the city of El Paso on the other side. It's extreme to say the least.

Although we didn't get a chance to go inside the train station at El Paso, it's definitely another grand old place. As we approached, I thought it was a church due to the chapel-like tower on it.

In Alpine we stayed at the historic Holland Hotel. It was built in 1928, almost fell to the wrecking ball but was repurchased and renovated in the 1970's. They did a great job of it! I love the huge wood ceiling pillars, the comfy big antique chairs and chesterfields, the iron lighting fixtures, and the old historical photos on the wall showing life and ranching in years gone by.

Historical marker on the front of the hotel. 

Lobby of Holland Hotel 

Fireplace and large antique, comfy couches and chairs

The business center just off the lobby

Outdoor courtyard at Holland Hotel

Front entrance area and large lobby of Holland Hotel

After getting ourselves and our clothes cleaned up after our hike, (the hotel has a washer/dryer for guest use!) we had a nice meal in the hotel restaurant and spent a very enjoyable evening sitting in the lobby with a glass of wine and listening to Chris Jamison, a very talented singer and guitar player from Austin.

There are several art galleries and historic buildings in Alpine as well as the Museum of Big Bend. Unfortunately with this being a holiday Monday the museum and historic buildings were mostly closed.  but we did get to some nice galleries and spent quite a while browsing a good book store.

Train Trip 2013 -- Big Bend National Park

Following dry stream beds, scrambling over boulders and crawling under fallen logs, bush whacking, many encounters with pant ripping and skin snagging branches, a leg-impaling, blood-drawing thorny cactus, a deer, lots of birds, warm days and very cold nights. This pretty much sums up our first couple days at Big Bend National Park.

Andrew and I had gotten a back country permit to go cross country and camp where ever. Midway through the second day I wondered out loud why we couldn't walk on established trails and stay at one of the many established camp sites like most normal people would. After all, it was my new Patagonia pants that now had a rip in them and my leg that had blood running down it after being stabbed by a homicidal cactus -- I felt I was due a bit of whining. Andrew quipped that if I was looking for normal I'd hooked up with the wrong guy! How true!

Finding water in the desert.

Our "where ever" camp

Sunset from "where ever" camp

Although it was interesting terrain, it was a tough couple of days. Despite his comment above, Andrew was still struggling with a bad cold and cough. Our cross country trek took us from Panther Junction, over a couple high passes, to Chosis Basin.

We camped there for the night and then got another back country pass for one of the established sites about a 40 minute hike up Pinnacle Trail. From there we did day hikes. The South Rim trail, according to the guidebook, is the trail to do in Texas. Despite a somewhat overcast day, the views were incredible. Red rock, grassy and cactus-covered hills and, several miles away, the Rio Grande River with Mexico on the other side. As we sat and ate our lunch from one of the view points a yellow tailed hawk (we think) put on a great show as he glided back and forth on the wind currents.

 South Rim Trail 

From the South Rim Trail

A curious Mexican Jay landed right above me as we stopped for a break.

A shorter but also really nice hike was out to "the window". A downhill and gradual narrowing of a canyon leads to a opening about 10 feet across and a very long drop off. The rock on either side forms the sides of the window out to another amazing view in the distance.

The Window

Shadows at sunset

To get out to Big Bend we'd made arrangements with Tipsy Taxi to drive us out there. The owner, Shannon, was born and raised in the area so he was able to tell us a lot about what we were seeing and provide some history on the drive from Alpine. Not having a car is certainly an oddity as the staff at both Ranger Stations asked us at least two or three times where we'd parked our vehicle!