Our Final 2024 Destinations

9/7/2024 to 10/12/2024

The rest of the 2024 journey took us through Clinton, Indiana to Kentucky to Tennessee to Georgia.

We stopped briefly in Clinton, Indiana to visit the town Jeff’s great-grandfather Valentino Costa migrated to from Italy which is also the town his grandfather Chris Costa was born. It’s a quaint little town with great Italian restaurants. Every year this town holds an Italian Festival on Labor Day weekend. Yes, another item of interest missed because we missed it by just a few days. We’ll have to make an effort to come back to explore the town in its full festival glory. We’ve been told that the Little Italian House was the home where Jeff’s great-grandmother Katherine Ricauda once lived.

While staying in Kentucky just outside of Mammoth Cave, we did another cave tour.

We also went to the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green. In the lobby there were several Vets waiting to be delivered to their new owners. We watched in awe as one of the Vets was delivered to a man from Dallas. As he started the car, our heads snapped around to the sound of the thunderous engine. Jeff and I looked at each other and smiled. You see, on our way to Kentucky Jeff said he had been thinking that maybe we should sell the motorhome, buy a Corvett and finish our America travels. I told him he was crazy! I still thought it was a crazy idea until I heard that engine! Now I was all on board and ready to pull the trigger on that idea. We talked about it for a few days. With each conversation the realization settled in that yes, it is a crazy idea. It’s still nice to come up with crazy ideas and dreams.

Our next stop was Townsend, TN for the Brandon FL High School all alumni reunion. This gathering is for all classes and is held in Townsend because when it first started many lived in the area. We caught up with many friends and family. We ended up staying a few extra days because hurricane Helene was heading up. There must’ve been some divine intervention because the storm split like a horseshoe and went around us. We got a lot of rain, but we were safe.

The trip to from Tennessee to Mocksville, NC for window shades was challenging due to road damage and closures. But compared to the devastation the people from Tennessee and North Carolina were living with, we considered ourselves extremely lucky and were grateful that we were able to live out the storm unscathed.

After the quick overnight in Mocksville, we travelled to Tybee Island, GA. We love going to the Riverwalk in Savannah. On this visit we did the lunch cruise on the Georgia Queen paddleboat. It’s a pretty cool adventure, and the food was good!

Another item of interest we visited was Fort Pulaski National Monument. Long story short, this fort is where the U.S. Army compelled the Confederate garrison inside Fort Pulaski to surrender.

Our 5-night stay at Tybee Island turned into 9 nights due to hurricane Milton. We had to wait out the storm before returning home to Merritt Island, FL.