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Where are Paul and Donna

Where are Paul and Donna

traveled in 25 countries Read more🇺🇸East Windsor
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    • USA National Parks East Tour

      Day 24: Great Smoky Mountains & MiniGolf

      January 13 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 43 °F

      After finishing our ride through the Tail of the Dragon, we headed directly to The Great Smoky Mountains. Honestly, this was our least favorite experience at a National Park. We have never had to pay for parking before, and we never had to pay for a Junior Ranger Badge booklet ($4.50 each). Also, the Jr. Ranger booklet, is horribly designed. We completed all we could, and did get sworn in as Junior Ranger’s for the Great Smoky Mountains and got our badges. We felt a bit cheap - “like we bought our badges” we didn’t learn near as much as we have going through other Junior Ranger badge booklets at other parks.

      We drove through the park - some amazing views - and then headed on our way. Shortly after leaving the park we came unto The Toy Box Mini-golf. This is the most expensive mini-golf park we played our whole trip. It is themed very nicely with Toy Story themed holes. The golf play was good. Paul was completely off his game; Donna crushed Paul 38 to 49 strokes.      Read more

    • USA National Parks East Tour

      Day 24: Tail of the Dragon, NC & TN

      January 13 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 37 °F

      My father-in-law use to talk about the Tail of the Dragon a bunch. This is where I first learned about the tail. Since it was an easy thing to do to add to our itinerary, we took the 2025 Mazda CX-70 on the Tail of the Dragon. As of now, we are claiming our CX-70 is the first CX-70 to do the Tail of the Dragon. Mazda just came out with this model, so until someone can prove otherwise - we are holding on to the title! This is the first Mazda CX-70 to do the Tail.

      It was the first time Donna and I had done the tail as well.

      We stayed at an airBNB treehouse, the night before in NC - got up early - gas up the car - and drove the trail. It was a fun drive, do it slow and careful you’ll be fine. 30 MPH speed limit. We switched drivers about halfway.

      #tailofthedragon #mazda #mazdacx70      Read more

    • USA National Parks East Tour
      Welcome to Frankies!
      Donna ready to tee off.Paul is all lined upAnother fun mini-golf adventure

      Day 23: Mini-golf at Frankie’s SC

      January 12 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 46 °F

      Continuing our mission to mini-golf in every state; we found Frankie’s in Columbia, SC as we were traveling to our next park. I am not sure who won this round - need to find the score card.

      #minigolf #frankies      Read more

    • USA National Parks East Tour

      Day 23: Congaree National Park SC

      January 12 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 39 °F

      This National Park really surprised us. As we were driving towards the park, we were thinking this is just woods - no big deal. Congaree does an excellent job with a lovely easy to walk boardwalk, with markers to read along the away about each of the ecosystems you will pass through. The video in the visitor center is very well done. We had a lovely day. We saw the tallest tree in the park.

      While the Redwoods in California are amazing (we hope to visit there someday) the east coast has its own amazing forests. We so glad Congaree is a part of the park system. Over 200 species or birds and 800 species of plants.

      Of course, we earned our Congaree National Park Junior Ranger badge, see the photo of the swearing in ceremony.

      This is a lovely, often overlooked national park you will want to visit.

      #congaree. #nationalparks      Read more

    • USA National Parks East Tour

      Day 22: Mini Golf Brunswick, GA

      January 11 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 36 °F

      We left Key West, Florida early in the morning. Got MacDonald’s for breakfast and headed north. It was about 600 miles to Brunswick, GA where we found an indoor Black Light Mini Golf place and Donna won in a close game 44 to 45 strokes. The course was fun and challenging. It was a pleasant surprise to find a place indoors and fun like this.

      Then another 100+ miles and couple of hours to land at a Day’s Inn in Hardeeville, SC. This was a very decent hotel for a one night stop.

      What all this driving did was get us out of Florida, got Mini Golf in Georgia, and land in South Carolina so we could hit Congaree National Park the next morning. It was along day of driving but work out for our schedule. By this time we are entering into our fourth week of traveling, and have four more National Parks to visit, and we could start to see our Northstar home to East Windsor, Connecticut.      Read more

    • USA National Parks East Tour

      Day 21: Dinner “Bobahus” Big Coppitt Key

      January 10 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 72 °F

      Wanting to NOT l with parking and traffic in Key West proper, we opted to take the highway out of Key West in search of a place to eat. We found this nice little place with just the right character for the trip.

      Music outside was loud - we stayed inside - The food took a while to get served - But, it was well worth the wait. Service was excellent. We did enjoy the Key Lime pie for desert. Would highly recommend this restaurant as a fun place, with lots of character, and excellent food.      Read more

    • USA National Parks East Tour

      Day 21: Fort Jefferson Dry Tortugas 1:2

      January 10 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 72 °F

      There are three ways to get to Dry Tortugas - Boat/Ferry (can’t be a private boat), Sea Plane (can’t be private plane), or swim (just to far). We opted for the plane ride. The ferry is much cheaper (need to get ferry tickets weeks in advance) but the plane ride in the second half of the day was perfect. When the plane arrived at about 3:00 pm the last group of ferry people were leaving. Two planes, about 24 people, we had the island to ourselves. Except for a small group of tent campers already on the island. Well worth the extra money.

      The pilot did and excellent job pointing out ship wrecks, sharks, turtles, and dolphins along the route, as well as, telling us history and antidotes along the way.

      This is one of the least visited National Parks - You must visit it. Donna and I got our Jr. Ranger booklets and went to work and was able to get sworn in as Junior Rangers for Dry Tortugas National Park.

      This park is very remote and not kept up as nicely as other parks. The visitor center needs a major upgrade. I wish they would add more funding to this park. If I was to be a park ranger I would love being at this remote park, the solitude and knowing I could do things to help this park be even nicer.

      The history is interesting - the goal of this park was to protect the Mississippi River from foreign intruders. By the time the park was built - war technology had changed so much that the walls would have easily been destroyed. Three of President Lincoln assassination conspirators; Dr. Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Edman Spangler were imprisoned at Dry Tortugas for a life sentence of hard labor.

      However, in general the intent of the government project for building Fort Jefferson Dry Tortugas was pretty much a failed project.

      If you love camping and solitude this would be a place to spend some time. Like all of the parks we have visited I wish we could have spent more time here.

      #drytortugas #nationalparks      Read more

    • USA National Parks East Tour

      Day 20: Ernest Hemingway’s Home Key West

      January 9 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F

      Truly Ernest Hemingway was a renaissance man.

      Our tour guide did an amazing job telling us about his homes, wives, cats, and life. The house is wonderful. These are the most photographed cats in the world. If you are a photographer, artist, or just want a place to absorb creative energy this is a must visit stop. I would love to have his office.Read more

    • USA National Parks East Tour

      Day 20: Key West, Florida

      January 9 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 59 °F

      Today’s goal was to get to Key West Florida. It was about a three hour drive, 130 miles from Florida City to Key West. It’s a pretty drive for a while then got boring. We checked into our hotel about 1:00 pm and then went out to explore Key West. We took the hotel shuttle into town.

      We had fish & chips at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, with margaritas, of course! We visited Ernest Hemingway’s home (See separate post) Then we walked Duval Street to the Southern most point of the United States, to get pictures of everyone in line - getting ready to get the mandatory selfie at the southern most point marker.

      We then went to the very start of US Route 1, mile marker 0 … I am sure many of us have Route 1 memories some where along the route from Florida to Fort Kent Maine. (my mom try is driving Route 1 from Foxboro, Mass into Boston, Mass - and the Norwood Speedway on Route 1.

      Now, I have added to the bucket list needing to visit Fort Kent Maine, to get the selfie at the other end of Route 1.

      After a bit more walking to the hotel shuttle pick up point, only to learn we missed the shuttle and had an hour wait for the next one - We called an Uber back to the hotel.

      The weather in Key West is great. It is the ultimate tourist beach town. We are happy we were not there at peak season - it would be a zoo. Overall, our this whole trip was off-peak and the timings for visiting the places we visited was perfect. Weather has been on our side. No major crowds or long lines.      Read more

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