Outlining the Edges of Florida, or what we're up to next!

We're re-branding the blog from Middle States to Edges of Florida!  

I've wanted to drive down the Atlantic coast of Florida via the A1A, from the top near Georgia, all the way to the bottom in Key West.  And then come back up the Gulf coast side from the Everglades to the Alabama state line.

But after taking our Middle States trip, that's too ambitious for us for a single trip.  So instead of 46 days, we're tapering back to less than a month.

In order to keep the essence of the Edges of Florida, we're making some allowances.  For starters, we drove along the A1A from the most northern part in Nassau county on and around Amelia Island.  And we've been on A1A along the coast in St. Augustine and down around Flagler Beach.  We have taken several cruises from Port Canaveral so we've been on the A1A in the Cocoa Beach area.  So rather than starting from the north, we're going to start from the middle.

We also learned on our Middle States trip that we like to be in the same sleeping place for a few days at a time rather than packing up every day.  And for the things we want to see and do along the coastal edges, this will work out.

We're starting our trip from Walt Disney World.  You see, we are Disney Vacation Club members, so we'll head there for our starting line.  We made a reservation at the Old Key West resort which seems fitting for the theme of our trip!  

From Orlando, we're headed to Vero Beach.  There's a Disney Vacation Club resort there, too.  We've only stayed there once and that was about 15 years ago for New Years.  This time we're planning to stay for three nights and use the resort as our hub to explore the area.  There are multiple Florida State Parks nearby that we'd like to see.  And there are also several gardens that are part of the American Horticulture Society's Reciprocal Garden Network.  We bought our membership in March 2024 so it would be valid through the end of March 2025 so we could use it for our Edges of Florida trip.

From Vero Beach, we're headed to Fort Lauderdale where we'll have time to sightsee for a day before boarding the Grandeur of the Seas for a 9-night Southern Caribbean cruise.  As I mentioned before, we've often sailed from Port Canaveral, but since we were planning to drive down to Key West, we looked to see if there were any cruise itineraries that left from Fort Lauderdale or Miami that we might want to do - as long as we were going to be down there anyway!  The cruise has four new-to-us ports, so we're looking forward to that as well.

After the cruise, we're headed to the Keys for several days.  We want to go to the Dry Tortugas National Park while we're there.  I've only been to Key West once and that was on our first cruise in 2005.  DH had been another time for work, but that was about 35 years ago.  We want to visit several of the state parks up and down the Keys as well as some of the touristy things in Key West.

From the Keys, we plan to go through Everglades National Park on the way to southwest Florida.  We'll spend a few days in the Fort Myers area so we can check out Sanibel Island and the Edison-Ford Winter Estates.  We'll spend another day or two a little further north as my friend in North Port has told us how much she loves Stump Pass Beach State Park.  The photos she has shared are absolutely beautiful, so we'd like to go see it!

One thing I've wanted to do for many years is take an airboat ride.  When I was researching them initially, I saw that they are offered at Myakka River State Park.  So we thought we could do that while working our way further north.  But alas, while looking for the information to share in this post, I found an article from 2018 where the airboats have been replaced by pontoon boats.  So I guess we'll scratch that and just enjoy doing something else on our way towards Tarpon Springs.

We're ending our Edges of Florida tour in Tarpon Springs because everywhere north of there is easy enough for a day-trip or overnight get-away.  And while we won't be tracing the edges of the panhandle of Florida on this trip, we are thinking about planning another trip that would finish the job.  I'd like to go to Bellingrath Gardens near Mobile, so we might as well make an adventure out of the trip over!

Writing our blog for the Middle States trip was useful for our planning, so I expect it will be the same for this one.  This morning I re-shopped the hotels we have reserved and shaved $75 off the costs due to lower rates being available.  So thank you, past self, for that travel planning recommendation! 

We hope you'll follow along and offer any suggestions for places to see and things to do along our route.  You all were so helpful to us with our Middle States trip!

~ Cindy D.

Dear Reader Wrap Up

Dear Readers,

I want to thank you for joining us these last 13 months since I started this blog as a place to document and share our ambitious trip to see the middle part of the United States.  This trip was two years in the making, and your input, suggestions, and advice proved, as usual, to be invaluable.  

And during the 46 days we were traveling, we thought of you often!  Some of the activities and destinations made it onto our itinerary because you told us about them.  We had appropriate outerwear because you told us that while it's 90 degrees in Florida in May, it can still be cold in the northern part of the country.  We used money-saving apps and took routes based on your recommendations.  And we had offline maps on our phones for those times we were in places where cell service was spotty because you warned us where they were!

Some of you we met along the way - because we stayed in your town, or attended church services with you, or struck up a conversation at a tourist attraction. 

By way of recap and general observations:

While we stayed on our "schedule" for most of the trip, there were times we made adjustments on the fly - because we saw something interesting we wanted to check out, or because weather was going to impact us.  I like to have things planned but leave room to be spontaneous.  We had a good balance of both.   

We set a budget before we left for accommodations, gas, food, attractions/tickets, supplies, and other (like souvenirs).  We came in an average of $42.15/day under budget!  Our accommodations were about $4.50/day over what we had budgeted for, but we had over-budgeted for gasoline - we only spent 55% of what we'd budgeted.  And we only spent 61% of our food budget, mostly because we had free breakfast at most of the hotels we stayed at and we prepared meals ourselves at the places we stayed at like Air BnBs.

We had good fortune in that each of our Air BnBs and the condo in Gatlinburg were all great.  Most of the hotels were good, too, although we had a couple that if we'd been staying more than one night, we would have moved.  I wrote reviews of each place we stayed so future travel planners can have our experiences to use in making their decisions about where to stay.

We had a few meals that stood out.  Our favorite Mexican restaurant was in Marceline, Missouri.  Our favorite Italian was in Springfield, Illinois.  Gary's favorite "comfort food" was in Rochester, Minnesota.  My easiest gluten-free meal was in Omaha, Nebraska.

I'm not a hiker or even really outdoorsy, but I enjoyed each of the state and national parks we walked at.  I'm not a stair-climber, either, but it was pretty cool to climb two lighthouses.

I do love flowers, so it was nice to visit several gardens.  My favorite was Olbrich Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin, but I was most excited to find a lone Indian Blanket flower at Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma.  And my first tulip across the street from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, Minnesota.  Speaking of tulips, I was thrilled that we hadn't missed their season when we were at Mackinac Island in Michigan.

I was most surprised by how much DH loved the Sleeping Bear National Dunes.  This was a place we wouldn't have gone to if it weren't for some of you, dear readers!  After we got home, we saw that Samantha Brown has just recently filmed there - I cannot imagine how excited DH would have been if we had been there on the same day that she was!  (He's a big fan - well, we both are!)

We saw so many beautiful places, but the one that I was most fascinated by was the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  It is definitely worth taking the scenic boat ride to get up close look at them.  

So now that we're home and I've blogged and shared photos of the trip, are we glad we did it?  What would we do differently?

Yes - we're glad we did it!  DH was ready to come home just after we crossed into Michigan about 19 days in.  But we had enough things in the days after that that held his interest, so I only had a brief thought of ending the trip early.  (That's why I didn't make non-refundable reservations!)  I loved the adventure of it all, and believe it or not, I made sure to "stay present" each day while we were out and about.  I did my blog post writing and smash-book page creating in the evenings at the hotel, but when we were in the car, if I wasn't driving, I was navigating, looking at the scenery, and just enjoying conversation with DH.  It was nice to know that after 34 years together we still have things to talk about and learn about each other!

What we'll do differently for future trips is not plan one as long as 46 days!  And we'll try to have less one-night stops.  We had a good system for getting things in and out of the car (thank you, Tetris!) so after a few days we had our routine and self-assigned tasks to get things re-packed and ready for the day.  We think 3-4 weeks on the road would be about right for us.  Unless we have a cruise in the middle of it, then we could stretch out the time away.

So, dear reader, this wraps up our Middle States adventure - I hope you'll share the link to anyone you might know who is planning to go any of the places we made it to.

And I hope you'll check back here from time to time - we've got the bones of our next big trip laid out - the lower Edges of Florida in 2025.  

All the best to you.

~ Cindy D.

 

Tallulah Gorge State Park

My brother told me when we were headed to his house outside Atlanta, we had to stop at Tallulah Gorge State Park.  It's about halfway between Gatlinburg and where we were going, so it was right on the way and we had plenty of time since we'd had an early start from Gatlinburg.

Tallulah Gorge State Park has a lot of activities you can do, but for us, the walk to see a few waterfalls was plenty!  You can hike, climb, and go to the bottom of the gorge.  There's a suspension bridge, too.

Or you can just enjoy the views from up top!  Here are a couple of the pictures and a video.

The view from up top.

They let the water out at the dam periodically.

The Visitor Center has exhibits about the Tallulah Falls area and how it developed, both the town and economy and the natural resources.  There's a good film, too, which we would recommend watching before going out to look at the falls.  (We watched it afterwards.)

If you're traveling that way, it's worth a stop.  Admission is $5 for parking.  It's near several popular north Georgia places like Ellijay, Jasper, Blairsville, Helen, and Dahlonega.

 ~ Cindy D.  

Great Smoky Mountains National Park and a bonus state!

We started our Middle States trip at Hot Springs National Park and ended it at Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  I always wondered why they called it the Smoky Mountains.

I wasn't sure how much we'd get to see at GSMNP as mostly what I wanted to do in eastern Tennessee was to see Gatlinburg, go to Dollywood, and enjoy time with the sibling-in-laws.  But I did want to see a little bit of GSMNP and get a stamp in my National Parks passport!  

I wasn't sure how or when we would get to the national park based on the other things we wanted to do.  It gets a bit complicated, too, since they've imposed the parking pass that's required if you stop any place for more than 15 minutes, and there is limited parking at the Sugarlands Visitor Center and other sites within the national park.  I had pretty much resigned myself to looking at it from afar and having to plan another trip where our focus was going through the National Park.

But as it turned out, I didn't have to do that!  A few days before we were headed over, we were staying with DH's sister and brother-in-law, and our brother-in-law asked me which way we were going to Gatlinburg - staying on the interstate and dropping down, or getting off early and going through Townsend.  I hadn't even considered an optional route, and what was so great about it is that it took us through part of the GSMNP.  What I didn't realize was that it was also the way to Cade's Cove - so we missed getting to go see that.  That was okay, though, because we were driving through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park!  And since we were going to be going right by the Sugarlands Visitor Center, I could get my passport stamped and not have to make a separate trip back.

The drive through was beautiful.  You can see the Smoky Mountains before you enter the park.  We stopped at a corner where there were a couple of stores and some outdoor port-a-lets before heading on.  We weren't sure how long it would take to get to the Sugarlands Visitor Center and had been warned that we might lose GPS signal.  We also didn't know if there would be anywhere to stop for a restroom!

We stopped at one parking area for 14 minutes to stretch our legs and take some pictures by the river.  It was overcast and humid so the pictures came out a bit muted.  But it was still beautiful.

The drive through the park has several pull-outs where you can stop or pull over so others can pass you.  We pulled over several times to get some pictures, but mostly so the people that wanted to go above the speed limit could go on through and not rush us.  The drive reminded us of the Tunnel of Trees we went through in Michigan earlier in the trip.

We stopped at the Sugarlands Visitor Center as there were a few parking spaces open  It was super busy, so we just got a few postcards and skedaddled.  I kept saying to myself, "you knew it would be busy, you knew it would be busy!"  For so much of our trip, we didn't have crowds of people, so it was a good reminder of how the next few days would be.

I did get my National Parks passport stamped.

One afternoon at the condo, my brother-in-law asked me which way we were going to leave to head down to Georgia.  So we were looking at the map and it was only then that I realized Gatlinburg sits on the top edge of part of North Carolina.  What?!  Sure enough, driving through GSMNP, you go through North Carolina down to Georgia.  So if you're counting with us, instead of visiting 17 states on our trip, we got to pick up a bonus #18 when we left through North Carolina.

We stopped at a few places on the day we left and got some nice pictures.  What was also great about it is that the temperature dropped 20 degrees from when we left Gatlinburg to the top of the mountains!  At one point the car thermometer showed 49 degrees.  In June!!  It reminded us of driving on the Talimena Scenic Drive in southeastern Oklahoma.

When we got to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center just north of Cherokee, N.C., we stopped for a break.  And there were hardly any people there, so we were able to actually look around at the exhibits and shop at the gift shop.

And there was a Smoky Mountain chicken.  It was a nice end to our time at this national park.

~ Cindy D.

 

Dollywood!

When we were planning our trip, I didn't realize that Dollywood was so close to Gatlinburg, but once I made that geographic connection, I knew we had a day at Dollywood in our future!  And that day was Wednesday, June 5, 2024!

Dollywood opens at 10 AM, so we left from our mountain condo in time to arrive at the parking lot just at 10:00.  We parked and were on the tram within five minutes.  It's been a minute since we've been to a theme park other than Walt Disney World, so I was curious about how the logistics would work, and once again, it was a day I had done no planning for.  The only thing I knew we had to do was get some Cinnamon Bread because everyone we had talked to about going to Dollywood had said we had to get the Cinnamon Bread.

Coming into the parking lot at 10:02 AM

We parked in C for Cotton Candy.

The trams were queued up and ready to take guests to the park entrance.

Our condo uses Xplorie to allow guests to get some free tickets to local attractions, so one of our tickets was for Dollywood.  We had also bought the other ticket before going, so we didn't have to go through the ticket line, just go right to the turnstiles to have our QR codes scanned for entry.  We picked up a couple of maps and headed in.

The annual Flower and Food Festival was in its final days, so I was happy to be there while it was still going on.  My favorite festival at Epcot is the Flower and Garden Festival which I haven't been to in a few years, so I was excited to see the special exhibits and displays at Dollywood.  I was not disappointed!  

Here are some of the pictures from the Flower and Food Festival.

Dollywood had just opened the new Dolly Parton Experience section the week before which required guests to have a timed entrance to the area, but by the time we went, that wasn't in effect.  The Dolly Parton Experience was just to the right after we entered the main entrance, so we went to check it out.  

This experience has several attractions.  The first one we did was the Songteller.  This is a museum-like experience with artifacts and exhibits documenting Dolly's career from a young child through today.  It reminded me of how the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum was in Owensboro.  The attraction is at your own pace, so while we didn't hurry through, we'd been to enough museums on our trip to know we could snap pictures and look at them in more detail on the computer.  One of my favorite things was seeing pictures with the people she has collaborated with over the years.

This is the number of books ticker for Dolly's Imagination Library.

Another attraction is Behind the Seams which is dedicated to Dolly's signature look and its evolution over the years.  This was DH's favorite thing we saw at Dollywood.  There is a book about this that we had recently checked out from the local library.  

    

 

There is a train that only runs a few times a day, so we headed towards the part of the park where it boards.  There was about 30 minutes before boarding would begin, so we went into the Imagination Playhouse where a performance of The Little Engine that Could was about to start.  (It was also air conditioned!)  This was one of our boys' favorite books as children, and DH's brother had given a copy of it to our older son when he was a wee boy.  Here are some pictures of the walk around this part of the park as well as the Imagination Playhouse.

The train is a coal-fired engine with several passenger cars that makes a five-mile loop around the park.  it's a good way to see what's where, especially when you haven't studied ahead!  

While on the train ride, I saw one rollercoaster I thought I'd like to try, so we walked to the back of the park where it is only to find it had been shut down for a while (likely due to storms in the distance).  We noticed that other rides were also shut down, and had I thought to check the app, I would have known before we walked all the way there.  But that's okay because we looked at everything we wanted to see on the way there and we also found where we wanted to have lunch.  

We had lunch at Miss Lillian's Mill House where we both got the pulled pork loaded spud.  Then after lunch we went to the Grist Mill to get the famous Cinnamon Bread.  And let me tell you - as someone who has celiac disease, this was not a pleasant task - it smelled so mouthwateringly delicious, it was torturous to have to carry it around!  But DH and the sibling-in-laws were very happy I made the sacrifice!

Here are a few other pictures from around Dollywood.

The Chapel

We didn't do any of the rides, but look at the entrance for this one!

#flowersatDollywoodmakemehappy

This reminded us of Umbrella Street in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, where we had been on a cruise just a week before leaving on our Middle States trip.

Same idea but with streamers.  It did make for a little shade.

The last attraction we did was the only music show we watched - Heidi Parton's Kin and Friends.  Heidi is Dolly's niece, so we wanted to see her show.  It was a nice way to end our day at Dollywood.

We had a good time at Dollywood and I would go back another time - but not in June when it's so hot and humid!  And I would do some pre-planning to see what other shows and rides I might want to do. DH is over roller-coasters ever since he and our younger son rode all the roller-coasters at Hershey Park.  Well, DH didn't make #10 because when he got off #9, well, let's just say I've never seen anyone that shade of green before!

Have you been to Dollywood?  Did you get the Cinnamon Bread?

~ Cindy D.