Some clips from three viewpoints at Three Sisters Springs in Florida, with hundreds of manatees gathered around the springs.
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Seeing hundreds of manatees at Three Sisters Springs in Florida
We visited Three Sisters Springs in Crystal River, Florida, to see manatees. These fascinating creatures spend the winter gathered around warm springs connected to the gulf, as the springs maintain a temperature of 72° F year-round.
Here’s a map of the springs:
A map on the wall of the visitor center:
350 manatees counted:
Entrance sign:
Manatee manners signs:
One of the springs:
Lots of manatees:
The nearby Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center:
Florida’s Forgotten Coast
While staying at Ho-Hum RV Park, we did a few drives along the Forgotten Coast, in the panhandle of Florida. Amongst other things, we saw all four of the lighthouses on the coast.
A pamphlet for the lighthouse driving tour, with information about each lighthouse:
The first drive was west of the RV park, with lunch at the Blue Parrot Ocean Front Cafe (they have a live cam you can view, too), then St George Island Lighthouse.
Here’s the route on an interactive map:
Bridge to St George Island:
Blue Parrot for lunch:
St George Island Lighthouse; unfortunately the museum was closed when we visited:
St George Island beach:
Further west, the Cape San Blas Lighthouse in Port St Joe:
The second drive was east of the RV park, to St Marks National Wildlife Refuge, St Mark’s Lighthouse, and Publix groceries on the way back.
Here’s the route on an interactive map:
St Marks National Wildlife Refuge:
The refuge visitor center, with info about the lighthouse too:
The wildlife refuge:
The third drive was to have lunch at The Fisherman’s Wife restaurant in Carrabelle, then visit the nearby Crooked River Lighthouse.
Here’s the route on an interactive map:
The Fisherman’s Wife; we wanted to eat here last year, but they were closed for the holidays. They were closed again most of the time we were at Ho-Hum this time too, but opened a few days before our departure:
Crooked River Lighthouse, the tallest of the four:
The old lighthouse keeper’s house, now a small free museum:
Fascinating stuff. We really enjoy this area of Florida; much more laid-back than the more touristy and populated parts.
Travel from Lena, Mississippi to Red Bay, Alabama
We drove our coach 184 miles, about three hours of driving, from Lena, Mississippi to Red Bay, Alabama.
Here’s a map showing our route (kinda), heading north:
That wasn’t actually our route, as we decided to take the Natchez Trace Parkway, which the RV routing didn’t like, but I examined closely and determined it’d be fine for us. Here’s an interactive map of the actual route:
A branch and lots of leaves by our truck:
A narrow road from the campground:
A sharp turn from the park road; not too hard for our coach:
Another Allegro Bus passing us:
A drizzly drive:
Entering Natchez Trace Parkway:
Lunch stop at the Jeff Busby area:
Loose dogs roaming around:
Leaving Natchez Trace Parkway for I-22 East:
MS-25:
Turned into MS-76 (a newer and much nicer highway):
Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama:
Arriving at our destination, Red Bay Acres:
Mostly empty RV park:
Oooh, a Zephyr (top of the line Tiffin motorhome):
Our site:
Video: a timelapse of a flooding RV site in Tickfaw State Park, Louisiana
A short timelapse of our RV site flooding; watch the right side to see the water creeping in, and see how much it rises overnight! We changed sites when it kept rising.
Galveston Island State Park beach
Other than the Moody Gardens Festival of Lights (which was posted out of sequence, on Christmas Day last year), and going to a H-E-B grocery store, we didn’t do much while staying at Galveston Island State Park, in part due to rainy weather. But we did enjoy several walks along the beach.
An info sign:
Empty beach, with regular garbage bins. The sand is quite nice, with very few shells:
Oil rig visible in the distance:
Jenn picking up garbage:
Houses beyond the end of the park at the south end:
Park boundary:
No motorized vehicles beyond this point; people can drive on the beach, but not in the park:
Boardwalk to a day use area:
Showers and changing rooms in the day use area:
Picnic shelters in the day use area:
Turtle sculpture:
A ranger patrolling on the beach:
Houses beyond the end of the park at the north end:
Park boundary:
Big empty beach:
Galveston Island State Park
We stayed at Galveston Island State Park in Galveston, Texas. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A nice waterfront state park. We had the best site, with nobody other than some tent sites between us and the gulf.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-12-01
- Check out: 2024-12-08
- 7 nights
Weather:
- Lots of wind, some rainy days, some partly cloudy
- High temps 62-72°F, lows 56-64°F
- Daily wind, gusts to 24 MPH
Noise:
- Little road noise
- No train horn noise
- Occasional helicopters going over
- Little neighbor noise
Site:
- #60, back-in, concrete
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
- Mostly level site; high in front; used hydraulic leveling
- Concrete driveway about 60 feet long by 12 feet wide
- 22 feet to neighbor on driver side, offset
- 80 feet to tent pad on passenger side
- Separation between sites: just grass, and a little slope on passenger side
- Picnic table on covered 16 by 16 feet concrete patio
- Fire pit
- No trees
- Mostly clean site
- Elevation 10 feet, front facing due East
- Beach view
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 60 PSI water, conveniently located
- No sewer connection
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 160 Mbps down, 30 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
- AT&T: 120-130 Mbps down, 24 Mbps up, 36 ms ping
- Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Beach
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Beautiful beachside camping
This is a beautiful state park campground with nice, large sites and easy access to the beach. The concrete pad was mostly level (just a bit high in the front). The covered patio area had plenty of room for tables and chairs, with hooks on the supports for hanging a hammock or windbreak. There are no sewer connections in the campground, but the dump station is very conveniently located on the way out of the park. We camped at Galveston Island State Park in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
View of the gulf out or side window:
Neighboring site:
Tent sites, mostly empty — unsurprisingly for winter — though the second one was occupied the whole time:
Bathrooms:
Noticeboard:
Surf conditions sign:
Path to the beach:
We’d be happy to stay here again.
2024 parks and museums
In the previous post I covered the National Parks we visited in 2024, but we also visited many National Monuments and other National Park Service units, plus state parks, museums, and such. So this post summarizes those.
Again, you can also see the attractions from 2023, from 2022, and from 2021. And you can see all of the attraction-related blog posts via the exploring category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top, or more specifically the park category (with earliest or latest posts at the top), and the museum category (with earliest or latest posts at the top).
Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida:
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Florida:
Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center in Florida:
Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park in Florida:
Island ‘Ting with Sebago Watersports in Florida:
Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach, Florida:
World of Coca‑Cola museum in Atlanta, Georgia:
Myrtle Beach State Park beach in South Carolina:
Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina:
Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina:
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site in North Carolina:
The Birthplace of Pepsi in New Bern, North Carolina:
Colonial National Historical Park: Yorktown in Virginia:
Colonial National Historical Park: Jamestown in Virginia:
Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia:
Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland and Virginia:
Blue Ridge Parkway north end in Virginia:
Manassas National Battlefield Park in Manassas, Virginia:
Gettysburg National Military Park: museum and visitor center in Pennsylvania:
Gettysburg National Military Park: memorials and cemetery in Pennsylvania:
DC monuments by night tour in Washington, DC:
Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, DC:
Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington, DC:
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia:
Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland:
Blue Ridge Parkway south end in North Carolina:
Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park in Kentucky:
Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Illinois:
Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village National Historic Landmark in Mitchell, South Dakota:
Legion Lake in Custer State Park, South Dakota:
Iron Mountain Road, Needles Highway, Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park, South Dakota:
Mount Coolidge, Wind Cave National Park, Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park, South Dakota:
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana:
Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park in Santa Clarita, California:
The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, California:
Museum of History in Granite in California:
Fort Davis National Historic Site in Texas:
Galveston Island State Park beach in Galveston, Texas (post coming in January; this link won’t work until then):
River Bottomland Hardwood Trail hike in Springfield, Louisiana (post coming in January; this link won’t work until then):
Some fascinating places.
2024 National Parks
One of the main reasons for traveling the United States in a motorhome is to explore the many wonders around the country. In previous years I had four posts of attractions visited in the year, but this year I’m going to split them by the kind of attraction, since that seems like it’ll be more useful for future reference.
This is a summary of the National Parks we visited in 2024. You can also see the attractions from 2023, from 2022, and from 2021.
As with the previous summaries, I’ll include a link to the corresponding blog post, and a sample picture. Click or tap the link or picture to see more.
You can see all of the attraction-related blog posts via the exploring category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top, or more specifically the national park category (with earliest or latest posts at the top).
We visited 12 new National Parks in 2024 (plus revisited several), for a total of 47 so far of the 63 total National Parks.
Everglades National Park in Florida:
Biscayne National Park in Florida:
Dry Tortugas National Park south of Florida:
Congaree National Park in South Carolina:
Shenandoah National Park in Virginia:
New River Gorge National Park: Grandview in West Virginia:
New River Gorge National Park: Sandstone Falls in West Virginia:
New River Gorge National Park: Canyon Rim and Bridge in West Virginia:
New River Gorge National Park: Thurmond and waterfalls in West Virginia:
Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina:
Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky:
Gateway Arch National Park in Missouri:
Yosemite National Park: Yosemite Valley in California:
Yosemite National Park: Hetch Hetchy in California:
Yosemite National Park: Wawona and Glacier Point in California:
Yosemite National Park: Tuolumne Meadows and Tenaya Lake in California:
Kings Canyon National Park in California:
Sequoia National Park: northern side in California:
Sequoia National Park: southern side in California:
Channel Islands National Park in California:
Joshua Tree National Park: Geology Tour Road in California:
Joshua Tree National Park: Hall of Horrors in California:
Joshua Tree National Park: Wonderland Ranch & Wall Street Mill in California:
Saguaro National Park in Arizona:
White Sands National Park, in New Mexico:
Big Bend National Park, in Texas:
Several nice parks.
Fort Davis National Historic Site
We visited Fort Davis National Historic Site in Texas. As the NPS site says, “It is one of the best surviving examples of an Indian Wars’ frontier military post in the Southwest.”
The NPS map; click or tap to see more on their site. The red-roofed buildings on this map are now ruins, often just foundations, but the others are mostly intact, with some furnished:
Entrance:
Gift store:
Museum exhibits:
Officers quarters:
Exhibits:
Commissary:
Officers quarters:
Hospital:
