Freezing down South

Create a free digital scrapbooking design

Texas Winter

Hello Friends....

Here we are into the month of February already and still not many photo's from us. We are in Texas at the same State Park we stayed in when we were in this part of the world 2 years ago. That is one of the main reason for no pictures, as we really haven't seen anything new are exciting to post yet. 

We are in the midst of a Texas Winter at present. The temperatures outside are quite cool for this part of the country and they remind me of when we go camping in the late Fall and early Spring in Alberta. Last night the mercury dropped to 28F which would be in the -5C range I think. We had to leave our water running all night at a slow drip so our pipes didn't freeze up. We never thought that we would be having this kind of weather here. Apparently we are in for more of the same tonight and tomorrow night with a chance of snow on Thursday. At least it will only be a few inches at best and will not need to be shoveled. I can't say that we are missing the snow too much and are very glad that we are not having to deal with what has been left on our front yard at home! Better to leave that to the younger members of the family!!

Last month got news from the home front that we are going to be grandparents again (#15 is on the way)! A very exciting bit of news for us and we are thrilled. The newest member of the Mearns clan is arriving compliments of Holt and Savanna, who are getting married in July. We are hoping that maybe this newest member might be a little boy for Poppa!! Time will tell.

Hope that you are all keeping warm and happy! Would love to hear from you via email any time!

The Travelling Mearns

Christmas with Friends

Create a scrapbooking design

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hello family and friends.....we hope that you have all had a great Christmas. 

I have been remiss at keeping the Blog up to date this year, as we have been travelling through familiar territory since the last Blog. When we left the Outer Banks, we headed to South Carolina and Mrytle Beach and Huntington Beach State Parks. There was not much beach time at either place as the weather turned cold and wet. We decided to head to Florida, hopefully to find some warmer weather. However, that did not happen as we ran into cold nights with frozen water hoses there too.

Our first stop along the way was St. George Island State Park, where we had visited on our last trip to the States. This wasn't any warmer and the beach was very rough. However, the good that came from the rough weather was some really good shelling. We were able to find several large conchs, along with some other very pretty shells. We were thrilled as we were not able to find any whole conchs the last time we were here. 

After a week it was time to move to Henderson Beach State Park in Destin and then on to Grayton Beach where we met up with our friends from Texas with whom we had plans to spend the Christmas Holidays with. 

We went to Savannah, GA and did a bit of looking around the area and also took the Paula Deen Tour there. This is very interesting and we got to eat lots of great food (mostly cooked in oil and butter). We had lunch at Bubba's Oyster House, he is Paula Deen's brother. It is here that I ate my first and last oyster.....not something I want to try again!! On Christmas Eve we had lunch at Lady and Sons Restaurant, which is owned by Paula Deen. I tell you, it was some of the best Southern Food I have ever eaten. Of course, everything tastes good when it is smothered in butter and sugar!!! While there we also were introduced to the Savannah Candy Shop.....an adventure in sugar......and some of the best candy I have ever tasted. We stayed at Fort MacAllister State Park there that is set out in a salt marsh. I have never seen so many raccoons in one place before. There were also a lot of deer there. We had a very nice Christmas.

After Christmas we packed up and headed to St. George Island for the rest of our time together. We have spent lots of time looking for a variety of shells and kept on the outlook for dolphins. However, the water is cold due to all the cold weather and we did not see any dolphins. 

Our friends are headed back to Texas tomorrow and we are going to stay on at St. George Island State Park until after the New Year. Then we will be starting to head towards Texas to spend some time and hopefully find some warmer weather. 

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I have not been taking many as most of the places we have visited have been recorded previously during our last trip to Florida.

We hope that you all have a great New Years and I will try to do better at keeping you up to date on our travels.

The Outer Banks, N. Carolina

We arrived at Waves, NC on Sunday (Nov. 21st) , anxious to spend some time on the beach, after several months of exploring the mountains of Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky.When we got our camp set up we decided to take a walk along the beach and see what was around. Of course, I didn't take my camera with me and we saw lots of dolphins, fishing and playing in the ocean close to shore. They were about 20 feet away from us and put on quite a show. There were at least 4 groups of them with 5 to 6 dolphins in each group. At one point they were so close that we could hear them clearing their spouts as they surfaced. It was quite an experience! We took a day trip along the island to the ferry at Cape Hatteras and stopped along the way to see the lighthouse, which is the tallest lighthouse along the coast. That was quite something to see. We found lots of shark egg cases along the beach, which belonged to either dog sharks or rock sharks. The beach had many people along the shore surf fishing, there were catching several different kinds of fish, but the ones we saw being brought in were dog sharks and one stingray. We had a great time here and would come back again. Our next stop will be Mrytle Beach, S. Carolina, where we are heading tomorrow. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Free digital scrapbooking design customized with Smilebox

North Carolina and Tennessee

We took a day trip and went into N. Carolina and travelled thru the Great Smokie Mountains. Unfortunately we missed most of the Fall colors, as there was quite a wind and snow storm that went thru the area before we were able to get there. It was still spectacular to see, none the less. We came across snow along the sides of the road as we got closer to the summit. We went up the mountain on the sunny side, then when we started our descent, the snow was still quite abundant and there was even snow on the road. Once on the other side of the mountains we were going to stop and check out Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville to take in some of the sights. However, most of the sights were right along the highway in the form of a multitude of touristy traps. Those were not appealing to us so we continued our trip back to Panther. We stopped for supper in a little tavern along the highway, to find out that it was one of the first places that Bonnie and Clyde shot up and robbed in their crime spree. That made for on interesting conversation with our waiter. It was a good day and we quite enjoyed ourselves.

Digital scrapbooking design customized with Smilebox

Panther Creek State Park, Tennessee

Another photo album by Smilebox