{"id":2237,"date":"2016-04-27T01:28:19","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T01:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/northernloon.net\/travelogue\/?p=2237"},"modified":"2025-04-21T17:41:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T17:41:54","slug":"ft-desoto-2016-athens-asheville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northernloon.net\/travelogue\/?p=2237","title":{"rendered":"Ft. DeSoto 2016, Athens, Asheville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ft. Desoto 2016, our 4th time down. \u00a0Routine drive down, had to crash in two separate Walmarts (Paducah and Tallahassee) getting there. \u00a0Given our vast experience with Fort DeSoto, it took us about an hour to settle in. We were so close to the Camp Store that we could pull in wifi right at our campsite.<\/p>\n

Not too many pics of this scene. \u00a0I’ve taken them all before. \u00a0We ate really well – mostly cooking in the camper. \u00a0Salads every night, a lot of grilling. When we ate out, it was fish most of the time. \u00a0Grouper!<\/p>\n

(Click pictures to see photo galleries.)<\/p>\n

\"desoto-003\"<\/a>It took us a while, but we finally discovered the St. Petersburg Tennis Center. Sixteen beautifully maintained clay courts. \u00a0A very reasonable fee of $10\/player, good for the entire day. \u00a0Friendly staff. \u00a0Once they got to know us they filled us in on the local talent. \u00a0Eileen will have lots of hitting partners next time down there.<\/p>\n

If it’s maintained well, clay is a sweet surface, and even more so for anyone suffering from bad knees. \u00a0I could run for several hours with little pain. The ball slows down, the points are long. \u00a0It’s very tiring, but not damaging.<\/p>\n

\"tennis-001\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our riding routes expanded. \u00a0From Tierra Verde, there is now a complete bike path along Pinellas Byway going East. It connects to a connector route heading north to the main Pinellas Bike Trail. \u00a0We also found two other alternate routes through town, on roads with bike lanes, that could get us downtown.<\/p>\n

Another new route was the Sun Coast Trail, an “out and back”. \u00a0It parallels I-275 as it goes south towards the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. \u00a0This trail doesn’t get all the way to the main bridge, it ends at a park, way out there in the bay. \u00a0Kiteboarding is hugely popular these days. \u00a0We passed a beach where a bunch of this was going on. Kitboarders cluster around a beach with good conditions like a tribe of Fishheads. \u00a0It’s a lifestyle.<\/p>\n

\"Point<\/a>
Point Pinellas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We went over to Pass A Grill twice for really good fish. It’d be fun to pedal over there, and there’s a good bike path across the big bridge heading that way, but at the entrance to Pass A Grill the road was all torn up, horrible bike access to get into this area. \u00a0We ate at Sea Critters once, really good spot. \u00a0That evening was very cool, and the wind was just howling. \u00a0We strolled to the beach after dinner. \u00a0It was Wedding Central. \u00a0Four or five different wedding were in progress on the beach. \u00a0Everyone looked miserable, battered, cold, \u00a030-35 mph winds. The wind chill took things down to about 45 degrees. \u00a0Bad luck for those folks.<\/p>\n

Another dinner out on Pass A Grille was at Paradise Grill, right on the beach. \u00a0We watched some very competitive bean bag tossing. \u00a0I think it was a league.<\/p>\n

\"passa-002\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gulf Port – an appealing smaller town due north from Tierra Verde, across the Boca Ciega Bay. \u00a0Cute small downtown, appealing neighborhoods with smaller homes, looked like Old Florida. \u00a0Interesting location, mid way between the Gulf Shore and downtown St. Petes, and also very close to the Pinellas Bike Trail. We met our friend Anna there for some casual dining.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1162\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After two weeks, we got the heave from Ft. DeSoto. We could come back, but the rule is you have to take 16 days off. \u00a0So we hooked up and drove to Athens, GA, a rest stop on the way to Asheville. \u00a0Stayed a day, walked the campus of UGA. \u00a0It’s a very large school, large, spread out campus. They love their football, and their Bulldog! \u00a0Athens has a smaller downtown than we would have expected, the usual college town. We did take a few hours to tour the State Botannical Gardens of Georgia, located just out of town. \u00a0Apologies for all these Botannical pics. \u00a0Near the end we came across 2 gals who’d smuggled in their 8 week old puppy. \u00a0Eileen had to pick it up (but he wanted down). \u00a0Check it out.<\/p>\n

\"Athens-016\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Asheville was half a day’s drive from Athens. \u00a0We camped at Mama Gerties, in Swannanoa, 15 miles east of Asheville. Interesting campground, carved into a steep valley. \u00a0(Everything around Asheville is steep). \u00a0Gerties is without a doubt the cleanest, most put together campground we’ve ever seen. \u00a0The grounds were meticulously maintained. \u00a0The showers, the bathrooms, the laundry room, all spotless. The roads in here were very steep, and each camp site was a graded, flat gravel pad. The also had cabins and some tent sites.<\/p>\n

Asheville is surround by mountains, and “altitude”. \u00a0The springtime development of trees is very dependent on that altitude. \u00a0Down in town, most things were fully leafed out, but you’ll see from pictures that much of the higher vegetations was still far from that.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The view improves up here. Still a lot of trees not starting to leaf out yet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

West Asheville is a funky, hippie commercial district, separate from downtown. We had a fabulous meal there at a local icon, The Admiral. Nearby is an artists row called River Arts. \u00a0I surrepticiously snapped pics in my favorite gallery.<\/p>\n

\"b<\/a><\/p>\n

We drove 25 miles south down the Blue Ridge Parkway. \u00a0Stopped in at the main visitor’s center. \u00a0Our destination was a hike near Mt. Pisgah. \u00a0We got a good look at the road conditions on the parkway. \u00a0There’s a lot of talk out there for the Blue Ridge Parkway being a bicycle destination, but we disagree. \u00a0The road is relentlessly narrow.\u00a0There is nothing that coud be construed as a bicycle shoulder.\u00a0It’s also a lot steeper than what I’d read. \u00a0Long, very steep grades where you’d be climbing at 6mph, with cars passing you relentlessly. \u00a0Downhills would be “interesting”. \u00a0It’s not for us. \u00a0 It is, however, a perfect place for motorcycles.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A guy from France, now living in Asheville.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

It’s a requirement to tour the Biltmore Estate. \u00a0A spectacular example of excess. The tour was interesting, we rented little phones that gave us an overview of each room we passed through. \u00a0The stories and statistics of this place would take weeks to digest, I can’t begin to cover it here. There had previously been a ban on indoor photography, lifted a few weeks earlier. I was able to shoot indoors. \u00a0It’s a very dim place. \u00a0The lightbulbs (very modern at the time) are equivalent to 15w, and that’s how the place was illuminated. Excellent verisimilitude. Outside pictures first.<\/p>\n

\"Bilt-Out-010\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Indoor Pictures. \u00a0Various large production movies have been filmed in part at the Biltmore. \u00a0The Biltmore owns a great many wedding dresses of renown, all on display in the various room, with references to the movies in which they appeared.<\/p>\n

\"Custom<\/a>
Custom 1 ton billards and pool tables<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We enjoyed a final cocktail at the massive Grove Park Inn, which featured a stunning view over Asheville. \u00a0And that was all she wrote. \u00a0We drove the 923 miles home the next day in one pull, punctuated by a disturbing number of fuel stops.<\/p>\n

\"Grove-007\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ft. Desoto 2016, our 4th time down. \u00a0Routine drive down, had to crash in two separate Walmarts (Paducah and Tallahassee) getting there. \u00a0Given our vast experience with Fort DeSoto, it took us about an hour to settle in. We were so close to the Camp Store that we could pull in wifi right at our … Continue reading “Ft. DeSoto 2016, Athens, Asheville”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/northernloon.net\/travelogue\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/northernloon.net\/travelogue\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/northernloon.net\/travelogue\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northernloon.net\/travelogue\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northernloon.net\/travelogue\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2237"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/northernloon.net\/travelogue\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2270,"href":"https:\/\/northernloon.net\/travelogue\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237\/revisions\/2270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/northernloon.net\/travelogue\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northernloon.net\/travelogue\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northernloon.net\/travelogue\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}