Well, I guess I haven’t gotten any better at doing blog posts.  I just really prefer to be outside doing things.  But I guess for your benefit I am huddled inside with Akela because it is 25 degrees(F) outside and a bit windy.  And really I do not mind the cold, right down to subzero temps, but I hate the wind.  Its one of the reasons I can’t imagine living near the ocean.  Anytime I have ever gone to the ocean, East, West, North, South, it has been windy.  And I mean at least a 10mph constant gale!  Not really bad if its 90 degree(F) out.  But at 60 degrees(F) or below it is just bone chilling!!  And it dries your eyes, messes with your hair, and overall, I just don’t see the sense in it.  Now I will say, being on top of a mountain getting a fantastic view of the countryside also usually comes with a bit of wind.  BUT!!!  I can usually walk back into the forest and be out of the wind.  My love is for forested mountains, like the Appalachians!  My home and birth place is the Northeast, and those beautiful mountains and forests are always calling to me!!

But, I also want to see the west, and the middle northern parts of the country.  I used to dream, as a young lad, of being a trapper up in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.  I’m not really driven to drive to Alaska like so many do.  I’d rather spend a few years exploring that land and civilizations up in northern Saskatchewan and Alberta.  Where the hand of man has not laid foot!  Ah, but the dreams of a young man are often the regrets of the old.  So I will continue my planning for 2023 knowing it will take me to at least some of my dreams and ambitions.  I’m still working on my plan to head from here up through Kentucky and Ohio, Indiana, into Michigan and then West to Wisconsin and Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana.  From there I am a bit conflicted if I should continue, or return for the winter and go back the next year.  And you may be saying, well that should only take you a month to go all those places, but I want to stay 4-7 days in each place and really enjoy it. So it will take me until Late September just to get that far if I leave in April.  But actually hangin out and exploring a place is the goal and reason for the trip.

Over the last 4 years I have shot from one place to another and done some decent videos to “wet your appetite” about cool places.  But with many of those places I have not had the time to really

enjoy and understand them as much as I would like.  Take my most recent video, The Stephen C Foster State Park,  we stopped there on the way back from visiting family in Florida and it was supposed to be just a quick “in and out overnight”.  But boy, did that blow me away with all the neat stuff they had and places to explore.  We have already made reservations to go back there. And the truth is that followup video may be 45 minutes after spending 4 days there. But I’ll be sure to make it worth it.  If I don’t get eaten by a gator of course.  I’m a little mixed on if the video would be appropriate if Akela gets eaten by a gator!? (This week Akela is being a brat.  Refusing to eat and trying to steal my food,  running way ahead on hikes and disappearing in the woods.  And he’s hard to see being  a mostly brown dog in a leafless forest! So I may kill him before he turns 4 in May.).  So the return to Stephen Foster will be Thanksgiving week 2022.  So if your out and about, feel free to make your reservations.   You won’t regret it. And I love to meet Viewers.

My Other 2 videos I did this month,  Laura Walker State Park in Georgia,  and  Lake Griffin State park in Florida  were absolutely just in and out parks as we traveled south to visit the family and my mommy. While Laura Walker was almost right on the opposite side of the Great Swamp, it was highly developed and on a separate lake with lots of boaters and fisherman.  It did have a nice golf course, but it was closed the day I went.  Not that I would have risked threatening my fellow campers by swinging at golf ball.  But I think it would be interesting to see if Akela could find the balls I typically hit way into the woods. Or how many times I hit him as he tries to catch the balls.  but Laura Walker was a nice park, with decent sites, just not much “Separation Vegetation” between the sites.   In contrast,  Lake Griffin was a very small state park.  I believe the ranger told me it was the smallest Florida state park.  But it had some interesting things there.  The hiking trail went through some interesting places and had that cool “Spiritual Circle” under the big old live oak in the forest.  And you could rent a canoe or kayak to paddle out the canal to the main lake.  Unfortunately the camping was really cramped, with small close campsites.  But the bathhouse was nice, with a super laundry mat. We enjoyed our time there, when not at the campsite. And really the closeness of other campers problem is mostly their untrained dogs barking and growling every time we were at our camper was a little disconcerting.  I’m lobbying for a rule that campers with dogs should be required to have a certificate that their dog isn’t noisy or aggressive.  And has some obedience training.

So Anyways,  the dirty dishes and the laundry is calling me (talk about the call of the wild).  So I will close this out here and tag the Hyperlinks and add some Photos.  My next trip is probably going to be Cloudland Canyon State Park in Upper Georgia near Chattanooga, TN.  We want to really explore this state park, but we also want to explore the area around it.  There are many attractions within an hours drive of this park.  So stay turned, there may be many videos coming out of this trip.  Its a fantastic area to visit.

Thanks for stopping by,

Rick & Akela