Z is for Zee Best!

A long time ago we went to the island of St. Maarten and there was a walk-up restaurant that served breakfast. The guy who ran it was French, and when you walked by he'd yell, "We have ZEE BEST BREAKFAST here!"

So, in his honor, we gather for you a few of Zee Bests from our road travels so far:

Zee Best Clam Chowder: For a while the winner was Allison's in Kennebunkport, ME - and it sure is good! But it was ultimately beaten by - believe it or not - the restaurant inside the Casino in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada! Darn - we don't have a picture!!

Zee Best Beach: Fort Pickens in Gulf Breeze, Florida- no question about it.

Zee Best Campground:

Well, the best LOCATION of a campground was Fort Pickens State Park, Florida because of that incredible beach! But the best campground overall is a toss-up between Bayou Segnette just outsideof New Orleans, LA, and Dale Hollow Lake Resort in Tennessee.

Here is Bayou Segnette:

Flat roomy, well-grounded sites, a wooden deck with picnic table (!) lots of grass, trees, but not overhanging your site, not overcrowded. It was a short drive to a ferry that took you right to the French Quarter of the city - for free!

And here is Dale Hollow: Grassy sites, level, lots of space, beautiful lake.

Zee Best Historical Attraction: The Citadel in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Zee Best Museum: Civil Rights Museum, Memphis Tennessee - at the Lorraine Hotel, where Martin Luther King was killed. Very moving exhibit not just about King but about all the people who marched and crusaded - and died - for equality.

Zee Best City - it may not be fair to pick one because all cities are interesting in their way, but Quebec City, Canada is the city of our hearts:

Thanks for coming by everyone!

X is for Xyst

Okay, so X is one of the hardest words to do in the A to Z Challenge, especially if you are trying to stick with your theme! Our theme is things related to places we've visited in our RV, or other RV related stuff....

So we found the word Xyst, which  means: A covered garden walk or a walk lined with trees....

We stayed for a week in a campground near Charleston, South Carolina, and while we were there, we visited Magnolia Plantation where we saw this:

And this:

And this:

And then in San Antonio, TX, we went to the Japanese Tea Garden, where we saw this:

And this:

So I think we got this X thing covered, don't you???

W is for Wolf Park

One thing we discovered while living and traveling full-time in our RV was that there is almost always something interesting to check out, no matter where you stop. There were a few exceptions, like on that godforsaken stretch of I-40 in Texas where there are only two RV parks and they both seem like something out of the Twilight Zone....

Anyway, major destinations have plenty to see of course, but sometimes you are just stopping over on your way from one destination to another. So as you're going along and the day progresses, you start to look for a campground to stay at that night, and you haven't really scoped out whether there will be any sight seeing to do there - you're just looking for a place to stop.

That was our situation when we left Elkhart, Indiana after some RV repairs at Nexus and were heading south toward our  next major destination, Nashville, TN. We wanted to stay a couple of nights at Dale Hollow State Park in TN on the way there (see T is for Tennessee) because we had heard great things about it. But we needed a stopover between Elkhart and Dale Hollow, so we settled on Prophetstown State Park near Battle Ground, Indiana.  Here is a link to their website: LINK

Prophetstown State Park is a very nice state park. The spaces are well-groomed gravel, nice and flat,  good hook-ups. Here is a picture of our spot there - you can see the spot is spacious and really nicely situated with trees beside it for privacy:

We didn't expect there to be much of interest except for maybe Historic Prophetstown right there at the state park. But it turned out that there was a Wolf Park nearby, so we went to check it out.

Here is a link to the Wolf Park website: LINK

The wolf park is home to wounded wolves and a center for research and education to improve public understanding of wolves and their contribution to the environment. We took the tour there and it was well worth it.

Here are some photographs. It's sad to see wild animals in captivity, but these wolves can't be returned to the wild due to injury or frailty. The wolf park creates large spaces for them that allow them to roam and that mimic conditions in the wild as much as possible. There were also some bison at the park when we were there:

V is for Venice - Florida, that is

Venice, Florida is a nice little city on the gulf coast of southwest Florida. It's between Tampa and Fort Meyers. There's a fair amount of sprawl to the city, but the downtown is a really nice destination for shopping and dining. There's also a public beach down at the end of the main street.

Like its sister city, Naples, Venice has a LOT of Italian restaurants. It smells so good walking down the street of these towns! 

Main intersection

Making friends

Looking down the main drag

Dining al fresco

Yummy lunch

Melissa makes a friend too

Boutique

More Italian restaurants - sidewalk dining

U is for Umbrella

When we went to England and Wales in 2012, we expected to encounter rain. But we were fortunate - in the 14 days we were there, it only rained once!! And my friend who lives in Bath said that it had rained endlessly for weeks BEFORE we arrived and it rained endlessly for weeks AFTER we left.

Our first full day in London, we hopped on the Hop On Hop Off Bus and hopped on and off a lot! But the day it rained, we hopped on the Hop On Hop Off bus, and just never hopped off! Instead, we took a second tour of the city and just looked out the bus windows. We got to see a lot that way and got a better sense of where things than we did on the first go-round. It was warm and cozy on the bus (inside of course, not up on the roof deck) and it turned out to be a delightful afternoon.

So we carried our umbrellas all the way to England, but only used them once!

And we know you won't believe us, so here is the proof!


London and the sun is shining for our first ride on the Hop On Hop Off bus

The sun is still shining at the Tower of London

And now we're at Stonehenge - it's not bright sunshine, but it's not raining!

We're in Bath and YES, the sun is shining!

On to Liverpool... yup, more sunshine!

Last stop before our return to London - Beaumaris, Wales. Glorious sunshine over the Menai Strait.

T is for Tennessee

We stayed several nights at the Dale Hollow Lake State Park in Burkesville, TN. We were on our way from Indiana down to Nashville.

It's a great park with large, level spaces nicely separated and lots of grassy area. What's nice is that the sites are situated on cul de sacs that have only about 5 spaces each.

Here is a picture of our spot - in fact, it's this spot that we show on the cover of our book. This is RV life at its finest right here:

Dale Hollow has a huge lake and boating is big. At the marina, there were houseboats bigger than our RV! And there was also a nice lodge with a good restaurant. A terrific stop for just a layover or to spend a quiet week, and especially nice if you are into boating or fishing.

More pictures at this park:

Restaurant at the Lodge

View of the Lake

 Houseboat at the marina

Doesn't get much better than this for campsites.

S is for Shipshewana

Shipshewana is a town in Amish country not far from Elkhart, Indiana where we picked up our RV from Nexus. The town has charming shops and restaurants with good home cooking. Definitely a place to visit if you are passing through that area.

We thought we had more pictures of the town, but it seems we mostly have pictures of the food. Especially the pie. We definitely have pictures of the pie.

Gigantic lemon meringue pie:

Dick favors Cherry Pie

He can't believe he ate the whole thing....

That's Melissa slice of pie

Loaded up with goodies to go...

Melissa sitting in a hand made chair - the Amish make a lot of other stuff besides pie...