A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 191 miles from Adel, Georgia to Pine Mountain, Georgia.
park
Travel from Adel to Pine Mountain, Georgia
We drove our coach 191 miles, about four hours of driving, from Adel, Georgia to Pine Mountain, Georgia.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading northwest:
An interactive map, with potential stops marked:
Departing the state park:
A stop to take out some garbage:
Bye lake:
Joining I-75 north:
A cute small fiver:
“Georgia for Peanuts”:
Separate minimum speed signs really confused our Mobile Eye warning device:
A large rest area:
Paladin sat on the dash during the rest stop, and stayed there until we got back on the freeway, then jumped down:
“Cotton” water tower:
A stop opportunity that we didn’t use, but would have worked for us; a business parking lot:
Waiting for a train:
An interesting building in Reynolds, Georgia:
Fun with zoom:
Entering FD Roosevelt State Park:
Uphill in the park:
The visitor center:
Road to the campground:
Lake:
Our site:
Reed Bingham State Park
We stayed at Reed Bingham State Park in Adel, Georgia. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A nice state park with a lake and dam.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-03-10
- Check out: 2024-03-17
- 7 nights
Weather:
- Mostly cloudy; one day with rain
- High temps ranging between 62-81°F, lows around 41-61°F
- Negligible wind, gusts to 19 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train noise
- A little neighbor noise (kids)
Site:
- #33, pull-through, gravel
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
- Mostly level; used hydraulic leveling
- Gravel driveway about 150 feet long by about 15 feet wide
- Leaf-covered ground between sites about 50 feet (front and back; nothing on side)
- Driver side to road about 25 feet
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- Lantern hook
- Mostly clean site
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, somewhat inconveniently located
- 50 PSI water, somewhat inconveniently located
- Good sewer connection, somewhat conveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 20 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 50 ms ping
- Verizon: 25 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
- AT&T: 30-80 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, 50-90 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters only in a central location
- Mini golf
Our review on Campground Reviews:
A nice state park with a lake and dam
Nice large sites, not all 50A or FHU, so plan accordingly. We were in site 33 in loop 2, which was a large pull-through site under the trees. A pleasant walk down to the lake and dam and several easy, short hikes in the park. We would definitely stay here again. We camped at Reed Bingham State Park in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Nice side view from our coach:
Utilities:
Our first visit to Georgia, so time to add its sticker to our coach (the older ones are so faded!):
Other sites:
Bathrooms:
Little lending library:
Mini golf:
Playground:
Nature path:
Bat box?
Kids fishing ponds:
No swimming, alligators present:
Stage:
Pond:
Boat ramp:
Lake:
Ducks:
Dam from bridge:
Flooded:
A GIF of the dam:
The water level after the dam was very high due to rain:
Later in the week, a lower level:
A nice state park. We’d be happy to stay here again.
Dry Tortugas National Park
We visited Dry Tortugas National Park, one of the most difficult national parks to get to, requiring a ferry, seaplane, or private boat to reach it.
An interactive map:
We opted for the seaplane, since it was much faster than the ferry, and we’d never been in one before. It was a great experience.
The seaplane is offered by Key West Seaplane Charters, flying out of Key West International Airport (a rather small airport).
An info sheet:
Our seaplane:
Jenn got to ride up front, since she said it was her birthday when they asked if anyone was celebrating (we did go on her birthday in February):
Just 10 passengers:
Flying fairly low over the keys:
Sunken ship:
Approaching Dry Tortugas:
A close pass by a nice catamaran when preparing to land; sailing here on your own boat would be amazing:
Our pilot, who flies in Alaska in summer, and the Keys in winter:
Landing on water:
Handing gear to shore:
Us in front of the plane:
The other seaplane and the fort:
Fort Jefferson, the largest brick structure in the Americas, started in 1846, but never finished:
Old dock and the beach where we left our stuff:
Moat:
Cannonball furnace, where they heated cannonballs to slice through wooden ships like butter, and set them on fire:
Mariners Beware! I was wearing a Seattle Mariners shirt, so found that sign amusing:
Birds; Dry Tortugas is an important habitat for some seabirds. the adjacent Bush Key was closed for nesting season:
Pelicans:
The ferry arriving. Another nice thing about the full-day seaplane option was that we got to enjoy exploring the island for a couple of hours before most people arrived; just the 20 people from the two seaplanes, and a few overnight campers:
Once the ferry arrived, we headed back to the beach where we had left our stuff:
A hermit crab:
Bricks on the beach:
We went for a swim. Here’s the fort from the water:
We brought our snorkel gear, but the water was too murky to see much at the time.
Another pelican watching us:
We went back into the fort to kill some time:
Then back to the seaplane for the return journey:
Departing Dry Tortugas:
A private island:
Key West and Fort Zachary Taylor:
The “Southernmost” Point:
Marina:
Disembarking our seaplane:
A fun bucket-list experience.
Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park
While checking out Key West, Florida, we also visited Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park.
I previously posted some pictures of the beach part of the park, but this post is about the historic fort.
A sign at the start of the path to the fort:
Cannon:
Blacksmith:
The fort:
The courtyard inside the fort had a bunch of tents from re-enactors:
Re-enactors with cannons:
An old sail ship, flying a pirate flag and firing cannons, and the re-enactors:
Another ship:
They were probably going to re-enact a sea battle, but we didn’t hang around for that.
A fun array of cannons:
Another fascinating historic fort.
Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center
In Key West we visited the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center, with fascinating information about the waters around the keys:
Key West, Florida
We did a quick visit to Key West, Florida.
Lots of golf carts on the roads:
And tour trams:
And bikes:
Also lots of free-range chickens (mostly roosters):
We visited the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center and Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, which will be featured in subsequent blog posts. But we also stopped by the beach in the state park for lunch, which I’ll include here.
This beach is one of the southernmost points in the continental US. Quite a nice and popular beach, too:
Direction sign on the beach:
We grabbed some lunch at the cafe on the beach:
Another rooster:
We had considered visiting the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum and other touristy places, but had enough of walking around, so drove by them instead.
Houses with nice Caribbean paint jobs:
The aforementioned Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum, with a bit of a line outside:
Why did the chickens cross the road? No, really, why?
The famous Southernmost point buoy, which as mentioned isn’t actually southernmost, but is a popular spot for selfies, with a long line of people waiting their turn:
Really not our kind of town; way too crowded.
Video: Homestead to Sugarloaf Key, Florida motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 122 miles from Everglades National Park in Homestead, Florida to Sugarloaf Key, Florida, including a picture-in-picture from the 360 camera on the truck being towed behind the coach.
Travel from Homestead to Sugarloaf Key, Florida
We drove our coach 122 miles, about 3 hours of driving, from Everglades National Park in Homestead, Florida to Sugarloaf Key, Florida.
This was a late change; we had planned to stay a couple of days more, but decided to leave early to avoid some bad weather.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading down the Overseas Highway in the Keys:
An interactive map:
Leaving our site:
We stopped at the dump station, which was rather popular at that time:
A bird in Everglades:
Leaving next to the entrance station:
Road works:
Entering route 1:
Our coach in traffic cams:
Overseas Highway, with an adjacent fishing bridge:
Fuel stop:
Paladin sat on the dash at the fuel stop, but jumped down once underway again:
Turtle hospital:
Passing Encore Sunshine Key, where we stayed a couple of days later:
Our destination:
Guided to our site (even though it was literally right around that corner):
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
We briefly visited John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo, Florida.
An interactive map:
Entrance:
Visitor center aquarium:
Gift store:
Cannon Beach:
Far Beach:
