After ten days of rest and relaxation with Cam we hit the road again. This time we are travelling south from Durham with the plan to travel the east and west coasts of Florida (with stops along the way) and then head north via New Orleans, Memphis and Nashville with a short glimpse of the fall colours at the Smoky Mountains before heading back to Durham. We plan this trip to take 5-6 weeks. First overnight stop was Charleston in South Carolina. The suggestion is to put on your two set and pearls and enjoy the southern charm of Charleston but we gave that hint a miss! Instead we rode the tourist trolley and visited the recommended sites. After enjoying the beautiful days in Durham in temperatures in the mid 80's which allowed us to get out and about, Charleston was in the high 90's and very humid. During the middle of the day we kept to indoor activities as much as possible. The city market was great - fully air conditioned, indoors and an extremely interesting array of stalls and interestingly only a cafe and not numerous food stalls. There were a lot of African crafts on sale depicting the cultural history of the city. We were particularly keen to attend an African American gospel music concert and saw an advertisement for one but bad timing on our part - to be held in a few days time but after we had left Charleston. Will keep looking out for one. The historic mansions are the "must visit" in Charleston. As the majority of these are privately owned and lived in the trolley tours do not drive past so walking in the heat was necessary (14,000 plus Peter steps that day so even more for my shorter stride!). This gave us a great opportunity to see many of the historic churches and houses, and the historic battery park, but the heat soon got to us! The main area where the houses are situated are near the waterfront and one street is nicknamed "Rainbow Row" as many of the houses are painted in various colours. The main shopping area was a very long shopping street full of interesting shops and a real change from the usual shopping malls and complexes. We only had one day in this city but enjoyed the visit but gave a miss on the local delicacies on offer as they didn't appeal - she-crab soup, frog more stew (crabs, shrimp, oysters boiled in a pit with corn and potatoes), shrimp and grits (a staple similar to porridge but gritty and in this case eaten as a main course). We have tried the grits previously and decided that they are not to our liking. We finished the day watching a big group of local African American young people during their American footy practice. Our next planned stop was Savannah in Georgia so we decided to drive in the cool of the evening. It was only about three hours and this worked well for us. We stayed in a camp called RV Gardens - yes there were only RV's there, there were trees, it was small with only about twelve sites but interesting that the camp offered no facilities whatsoever including bathrooms. This is the second or third camping ground we have stayed like this. Certainly saves maintenance and complaints in reviews on the facilities on offer. Just as well our van has it's own shower and toilet and grey and black waste holding tanks. However, most sites are full hook up which means that power, water and a sewer outlet to hook into are provided. We have noticed the nightly rate to stay does not really reduce to reflect the lack of facilities. Savannah quickly became my favourite city we have visited on this trip. It has a population of around 150,000 and is easy to get around and very beautiful. The city was planned by an Englishman who designed a series of twenty two squares planted as parks with huge oak trees and the residential streets lead from each side of the square. Some of the squares are just one block apart so very easy to walk around and see the beautiful mansions and homes many of which are still lived in. The home of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of Girl Scouts (commonly called Girl Guides) was one of these homes which is open to the public for viewing. Down on the river front the original cotton warehouses and pubs have been given a gentle facelift and are a tourist attraction on their own. We were there mid week, the official summer has now ended and the crowds are much less. Parking was easy and some of the streets looked quite deserted - perhaps it had something to do with the Pirates House we saw! Again the shrimp and grits were on all the menus as the southern delicacy. The waving girl monument is also on the riverfront.The first African Church was high in our list of visits but unfortunately it wasn't open to the public. Missed the music again! When the rain started we paid a visit to the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist - it is a Roman Catholic Church with beautiful "French Gothic" architecture. The rest of our day was filled in with museum visits and historical movies and we even missed out going to the city market. As we travel south we are taking the I-95 highway which practically runs the full length of the East Coast. Although we would prefer the quiet coastal road this would take far more time than we have so we need to join the trucks, and other vehicles on the 3-4 lane in each direction highway. The speed limit is 70 miles per hour and most of the vehicles travel at that speed plus. We see at odd times the police or sheriff but they don't seem to spend much time checking for speed. There are rest areas every 50 odd miles with toilets and vending machines and these are used by the trucks as well as cars and RV's. No overnight camping is allowed in the rest areas. Our next planned stop was at Cape Canaveral - we had visited this area back in 1990 when we, along with Roanne and Cam (who were just 11 and 9 years old then), travelled overseas from NZ for a number of weeks. We stayed in a camping ground adjacent to the wharf where the cruise ships berth and there was a beautiful long beach. The first night the camp was only sparsely occupied but the second night it had certainly filled up as it was the beginning of Labour Day week-end. It was a lovely council owned camp and the beach and adjacent park made it a great family destination. However, we didn't choose it for the camping facilities, or the beach but because it was close to Kennedy Space Centre. This was on our "must do" list so Friday we were up early and on our way. The centre is vastly different now from our visit in 1990. Last time we caught a bus out to the space landing station and saw one of the shuttles and that was about all there was to see. Now there are so many exhibits, daily activities, the space shuttle "Atlantis" is on display, a shuttle launch simulator, I-Max theatre films, encounters with astronauts, the bus trip to the launch pads and landing stations, plus, plus, plus and of course e customary food and souvenir shops. In short we arrived soon after 10 am and left when the centre closed at 7 pm and we still didn't see everything. We highly recommend this Centre to anyone planning a visit to Florida. So now we are in Miami - we have been here previously so we don't plan on any tourist excursions. It is about relaxing, meeting up with my nephew and his son who live locally and enjoying some beach and pool time. We are staying in TY Park which is a huge city council owned recreational park which has a small RV park as well. It would have to be one of the best parks we have stayed in, and comes in the cheapest as well. The park has lots of recreational activities like the playground, lake for water sports, gazebos, numerous BBQ's and a large waterpark which has here separate pools, water slides etc. We are visiting in late summer and this is storm season which means it is very warm with high humidity and lots of sudden rain with thunder and lightning. We can cope with all that, but it was disappointing to find that on two of the three days we have been here the pools have had to be evacuated because of lightning safety issues, which is fine but disappointing that they don't re-open when the short lived storm has passed. However, we enjoyed a short swim yesterday and the water temperature was lovely. Today however the pools were closed before Paul and Roman arrived around 4 pm but we were able to catch up and have dinner together. We did have a swim in the sea at Bal Harbour but the day was so grey with the storm approaching there are no photos of Miami Beach looking beautiful! We are on the move again tomorrow - heading to Bahia Honda State Park from where we will visit Key West which is the southernmost point of continental USA.