RVers like to say, “Home is where you park it,” but heading to Nebraska feels like coming home for us. We pulled out of St. Joseph, Missouri for the relatively short drive to Omaha. It was a quiet Wednesday morning, which was good as we blocked three lanes of traffic to get the trailer backed into Charlotte’s grandma’s driveway.
Mid-April was a bit sooner than we had initially planned on arriving, but with Charlotte’s arm still broken, we decided to skip some site seeing and spend some extra time in town.
Our RV’s first snow!
We ended up staying in town for seven weeks, which gave us time to see friends and family.
We had a few celebrations, including my dad’s birthday.
We hosted Mother’s Day.
And we threw Izzy an early birthday party since we would be back on the road on the actual date. She ended up having two parties in the same day! One in the morning with some of her friends and another one in the evening with family.
We rented a bounce house for the kids.The piñata was a hit. Izzy and her friends got very excited when encouraged to hit something with a bat.Izzy received some great birthday cards from her friends.She got the Nerf gun she really wanted.
We also got to see a couple of families we made friends with out on the road, when they were on their way through town. We even hosted a small birthday party for one of the dads.
Izzy was excited to show one of her friend the playground at Aksarben Village we used to walk over to.Snack breaks are important.
Izzy also got to spend quality time with her grandparents.
Catching rainbow trout with Grandpa and MorMor at Two Rivers State Park.Watching Grandpa clean the catch.Holding some earthworms found while gardening with Lolo and Lola.Bubble guns with MorMor.
Here’s some more stuff that happened too.
A treat from eCreamery for good behavior at the doctor’s office. I can’t remember why, but Charlotte is holding the cone (maybe to more efficiently direct the eating towards melty areas) and I got to told her hair so it wouldn’t fall into the ice cream.Playground at Standing Bear.Izzy learned how to use a cassette player. She also learned about CDs and records.Sitting in Grandpa’s convertible.Riding the chairlift at Grandma’s house.Izzy’s first Power Wheels ride.
In one of our bigger (in terms of both size and price) Costco impulse purchases, we snagged a display model inflatable canoe for a nice discount.
We got to learn how to deflate it in the parking lot.Out for it’s maiden voyage on Standing Bear lake.
Izzy and Charlotte also took a quick trip down to Kansas City with MorMor to get in some shopping at IKEA.
No IKEA visit is complete without some meatballs.Izzy really loves staying in hotels..
In addition to all this fun, Charlotte and I also tackled some RV projects. It’s quite a bit easier to work on things in the rig when you’re not also trying to live in it.
I installed this 200 watt solar panel, a Victron charge controller, a couple of circuit breakers, a cutoff switch, and a battery monitoring shunt and display. Later, I replaced the lead acid battery that came from the factory with a 100 amp hour lithium battery.
Thanks to Dan for bringing over a good ladder and helping me get the panel onto the roof and mounted.
I also upgraded quite a few components on the trailer suspension as we were slightly over the rated weight limit. I installed higher rated bearings, bigger leaf springs, a new equalizer with crossmember, and connected everything with new heavy duty shackles and wet bolts.
Thanks to Dave for loaning me these jackstands and a floor jack to go with them.Great grandpa’s old mechanic’s creeper really came in handy.
Charlotte lightened up the interior by painting almost all of the cabinets, and removed the drawers from the bunk room and replaced them with with a keyboard and mouse tray as well as a spot to park the desk chair. They new setup works really well and is probably a better than what we had in the house.
Thanks to Andy for help with the big board shown here.
All too soon, it was time to head out. While we would have liked to have stayed longer, getting to a wedding meant we had a firm deadline. We’ll cover that one next time. Until then, see you down the road.
Finally, a city with plenty of songs to choose from. I think the fact that you can easily rhyme the word “rock” has something to do with it. For some reason though, all of these songs about Little Rock are not terribly positive. Our man Hayes Carll here is singing about making his way down to Little Rock to see his baby, and he creepily implies that he’s not going to take no for an answer. Lee Ann Womack sings about escaping from someone as she drives her weird CGI Jeep out of Dallas and A Little Past Little Rock. Collin (née Bubba) Wray has a song about starting a new sober life in Little Rock selling VCRs at Walmart. Even Reba’s song titled Little Rock is sad even though it’s not actually about the city, but her wedding ring and loveless marriage. If all of these songs are to be believed, it seems Little Rock is not really a place you set out to visit, but rather a place you just end up at.
This is pretty much what happened to us. Little Rock wasn’t exactly on our list, but it was on our way as we continued to make it back to Omaha. We spent just two nights there, but managed to pack in plenty of adventure. Our initial plans were to just breeze through on a quick overnight stay, but at some point we realized the park we had booked was very unique, so we added a night so we could have a full day to explore.
We stayed at Downtown Riverside RV Park, which is located right on the Arkansas River. This was our first RV park inside a city and we were a little worried about navigating the surface streets with our rig. It wasn’t too bad though, and we made it to the park and backed our RV almost right up to the water.
That evening, we went for a sunset walk and checked out the nearby pedestrian bridge.
The next morning we set out on foot to explore Little Rock. We crossed the bridge and walked past the (closed for pandemic) Clinton Presidential Library.
Ol’ Slick Willy must own a ton of books to necessitate such a large building to keep them all.
Then, it was time for some fancy donuts and coffee.
We took them to the riverside park to enjoy.
On the way, we passed this Korean-style gate. The gate and garden behind it are dedicated to a Taekwondo grandmaster. Being a blackbelt herself, Charlotte had to stop and pose for a photo.Sadly, these weren’t great donuts. They were expensive, though!
Izzy didn’t even finish her donut. She was too distracted by the amazing playground we were sitting next to. It didn’t have any traditional equipment, but was a series of concrete tubes, tunnels, ladders, and large rocks built into the hillside right next to the river. Izzy loved it. It was easy for her to escape and hide from us in these small spaces we didn’t want to venture into, which just added to her enjoyment. She had an amazing time running and climbing around.
Before too long it was time for lunch. We had to promise Izzy we’d come back to the park in order to get her to leave. We walked several blocks to a German beer hall with a nice beer garden.
Wurst and spätzle for Charlotte.
After lunch, as promised we went back to the park. Once sufficiently worn down, we started the long walk back to the RV. On our way out we found a piece of the city’s namesake rock.
If this is just a section, the original rock must not have actually been very little.
The next morning it was time to hit the road again. We left Little Rock headed for Branson, Missouri. Rural Arkansas was pretty, but some of the people living out there are so openly racist they advertise it on their billboards. Luckily, we didn’t need to stop anywhere near there and arrived without incident at Treasure Lake RV Resort.
We had decided to get back to Omaha quickly, so once again we had just a two night stay. While Charlotte was working, Izzy and I went out to run some errands and do a bit of exploring. We found a dinosaur “museum”. It was basically just a small retail building that had been converted to display some life-sized and realistic looking plastic dinosaur statues under poor lighting (maybe why they looked realistic?). It wasn’t a long tour, but Izzy did enjoy seeing the dinosaurs. Sadly, we were staying kind of out of season for Branson, so Andy Williams and Yakov Smirnoff didn’t have any shows, but we did drive past Yakov’s theater.
This T-Rex was the star of the show.Izzy doing her best impression of the “overbite-a-saurus” hanging from the wall.
Leaving Branson, we resumed our drive north. A missed exit allowed us to take a nice tour of the west side of Kansas City before we stopped for the night in St. Joseph.
Horsies!
The next day we had a quick drive into Omaha and managed to back the rig into Charlotte’s grandma’s driveway.
Omaha Homaha.
We had made it! After nine months away, it was good to be back in Nebraska.
The Big Easy has been high on my list of things to see before they are destroyed by climate change (along with the glaciers at Glacier National Park, the Great Barrier Reef, northern California) You can certainly do a lot of walking once you get there, but I’m going to disagree with Mr. Domino (mind if I call you Fats?), and recommend you either fly down or do like we did and drive.
When last we left you, we were in Alabama, so to get to New Orleans we had to cross the state of Mississippi. We don’t have a hard goal of visiting all the states during our RV adventures but we are keeping track, so we stopped in the worst state in the union for a week to cross it off our list.
After an easy drive west on I-10, we arrived at TLC Wolf River Resort in Pass Christian, Mississippi. This was a pretty nice park and only $10 a night with our RPI membership.
Our site was right next to the playground.
There was also a little river in the park.
The park was close to the Gulf, so one afternoon we drove down to a nearby beach. It wasn’t nearly as nice as some of the Florida beaches we’ve been to, but Izzy still enjoyed it.
One day, the lizard that decided to live with us back in Destin, FL appeared on our hanging fruit basket. I managed to take the basket outside without startling him and now he’s a Mississippi resident, likely causing massive ecological havoc. Better than him continuing to live in our RV though.
Enjoy the magnolia state, little guy.
We got some pretty good rain while we were there, and the park flooded a bit. Izzy loved it because she got to wear her new to her rainboots (thanks Zach!).
We also got out our fishing rods, but only managed to get snagged.
Our time in Mississippi was pretty good. It probably wouldn’t come in last on a ranking of states to RV in, if we ever made one. We even found a surprisingly good Thai takeout restaurant not too far from the RV park.
Enjoying the Gulf water one last time.
After hitching up the rig, we headed out for another quick drive across I-10, this time to Robert, Louisiana and a Jellystone RV park.
I’m pretty sure Izzy had never seen or heard of Yogi Bear before coming here.
This was another nice RPI park. Izzy and I played some mini golf and took a paddle boat out onto the little lake.
Izzy was having a good time until……an angry goose thought we were too close to her nest and starting chasing us.
It rained here too, so there were more puddles to splash in.
Just outside the park, I saw a bit of Cajun innovation. How many times have you guys been driving in your car on a hot day, when you start getting thirsty and think to yourself, “I need a cool, refreshing beverage.” But not just any soft drink will do. You need something cold, something frozen, something sweet and fruity, but that will also take the edge off. A daiquiri! But who wants to pop into Applebee’s? Ain’t nobody got time for that! This is America. We demand convenience and absolutely minimal walking. Dear reader, let me tell you that our prayers have been answered. Behold! Also perfect for all those times you feel like your driving is a bit too good.
Photo taken around 1PM. Sadly, I never got the chance to try it out.
Of course, while in the area, we had to visit New Orleans. We made the drive to the city, and then down to the French Quarter. Now the Vieux Carré was built in the early 1700s, and unfortunately, the city designers didn’t have the foresight to anticipate the 2019 Ford F-350 Super Duty, crew cab, long bed pickup and its poor turning radius. So the streets were tight. But we managed to navigate our way to a parking lot right outside Jackson Square and find a spot.
Overlooking Jackson Square with St. Louis cathedral in the background.
Visiting New Orleans during the day with a 4-year-old isn’t going to be the most exciting visit, but you play the hand you’re dealt. Our first order of business was to get some beignets. Café Du Monde was our first choice, but lines were too long. We walked a short ways to the rival Café Beignet where we waited in a slightly shorter line and eventually got our beignets as well as some lunch.
The food was pretty good, and the beignets were fantastic. I don’t know why you can’t get these things at any restaurant with a fryer.
After lunch, we hit the streets and started walking. We saw a few street corner bands, some of them very good, but Izzy thought they were all too loud. We browsed through a quaint little art shop and offered to buy Izzy a print to hang in her room. She couldn’t settle on anything, so we left emptyhanded. Izzy then complained about her lack of art for the rest of our time in the city.
Charlotte and I were enjoying just wandering the streets, checking out the interesting shops and restaurants, live music, weird people, and old architecture, but that’s not Izzy’s idea of a good time. So we walked into a more residential area and found a neighborhood playground.
She had a good time running around, attempting to hang from the monkey bars, and even found some kids to play with.
Might want to unmute this one. Oh, and she was okay.
After recharging at the playground, we did some more wandering, eventually ending up back at Jackson Square, where Izzy insisted on running around some more.
We then picked up some pralines (overrated, especially compared to beignets) and headed out. This time we took the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway (because it’s free to drive in this direction), which claims to be the world’s longest bridge over a body of water. The world’s longest bridge is over four times longer, but apparently it goes over some dry land which we all know is pretty lame for a bridge. The drive was pretty odd. When the other side of the lake finally came into view we thought we had basically crossed the whole thing, but then had to keep driving for another 15 minutes before finally reaching the end.
Not much to see on The Causeway.
We then found a cool little restaurant that had a fenced in backyard with some toys and equipment for kids to play with. Izzy was able to run around and even found another girl about her age to play with.
The food and drinks were good, but they didn’t have chicken tenders on the menu for Izzy. They did have fried catfish strips though and we learned that Izzy would eat those if we still called it chicken.
With our time in southern Louisiana over, we said goodbye to the Gulf of Mexico and headed north. Our next stop was Poverty Point Reservoir State Park in northern Louisana.
We stopped at a rest area for lunch on the way and of course had to play chase.
We haven’t stayed at too many state parks. This was just number two for us, after Topsail in Florida. Many state parks were built back when RVs weren’t so big, or don’t have full hookups, so they don’t work well for us. But Poverty Point is pretty new and has a very nice modern RV section. Since we were there over Easter, we dyed some eggs and hid them (several times) for Izzy to find.
Charlotte made Izzy’s Easter basket out of craft foam and hot glue.
The park even had a splash pad. And although it was too early in the season to be open, temperatures were hot, and one of the employees was nice enough to turn it on so Izzy could play.
We also visited the nearby Poverty Point State Historic Site, which is a US National Monument and a UNSECO World Heritage Site. This site showcases large ancient earthworks built nearly 3000 years ago by indigenous people that we know very little about. There was a surprisingly large city of thousands of people who lived here and built the mounds. They had an extensive trade network as evidenced by artifacts discovered here with origins from all over North America.
We toured a small museum, and then walked through and climbed some of the mounds.
Climbing the largest mound.And heading back down.
Wrapping your mind around the significance of this ancient stone age site and giant earthwork, which was the largest earthwork in North America until the modern era, is difficult, even for an adult, but Izzy did a great job of staying engaged. And since this site is run by the National Park Service, they had a Junior Ranger program and she was able to earn a badge.
Taking the Junior Ranger oath.
That’ll do it for our adventure in Mississippi and Louisiana. See you down the road!
If you are friends with Charlotte on Facebook, you should know based on the title of the post and song exactly what this blog is going to be about. If not, keep reading to find out, but I will tell you it is not focused on Miller Lite, despite the imagery in the video.
This was a long enough drive that we decided to split it up over two days, so we stopped for a single night outside of Tallahassee. Generally, we don’t like to drive more than about four hours on a travel day. This keeps us from having to rush too much in the morning, or during the drive, and gives us plenty of time to park and get setup before it gets dark. It also means that we don’t have to stop and fuel up along the way, which can be a pain while towing the rig. With our 48-gallon fuel tank and getting somewhere around 10 miles per gallon of diesel, we can easily go at least 400 miles between fuel stops.
The first day’s drive to our overnight stop was uneventful. We kept the RV hitched up and were able to navigate a nearby truck stop in the morning to fill up on expensive diesel, mediocre coffee, and bad pastries. During the second day’s drive a closed bridge on the way to Destin sent us on a detour which delayed us by an hour or so. We usually have Google Maps open for navigating, but we don’t always trust the routes it gives us, especially when we get rerouted. Routes that are fine for cars can be questionable for 50+ feet of truck and trailer. So we stuck to the larger highways and made it eventually.
Topsail is a Florida state park that was once a private RV resort. As a result, it is much nicer and more geared towards RVs than any other state park we’ve stayed at. Sites are very nicely setup, with concrete parking pads and patios, but with plenty of greenery in between to provide some privacy. The whole park is right on the Gulf of Mexico, with a gorgeous white sand beach you can reach by a long walk, short bike ride, or a free tram ride. Only state park visitors have access so it doesn’t get too crowded.
Marshy forest around the RV campground.
We got parked, got setup, and then packed up to head to the beach. We were feeling good, so we weren’t even going to wait for the tram; Charlotte and I were going to walk while Izzy rode her bike. That’s when it happened. I was helping Izzy get her bike helmet on and she accidentally got pinched on the neck by the latch. She gave a loud cry, which got Charlotte’s attention. She was at the top of the stairs, headed into the RV to grab something, but then spun around to see what was going on. As she attempted to walk down the stairs, her foot caught and she fell down the four steps onto the concrete patio.
She knew right away it was pretty bad. We cancelled the trip to the beach and started looking up urgent care facilities so Charlotte could get an x-ray. We got pretty lucky that it was Saturday and not too late in the afternoon so there were a couple of places still open. We ended up at Emerald Coast Urgent Care, which was thankfully not busy.
Waiting in the waiting room. Big Blue Truck hanging out in the background.
They took Charlotte back for a consult and x-rays. At some point, they brought Izzy back there to show her what was going on. This was good because Izzy was being a bit of a pain. I think she was jealous of all the attention Charlotte was getting.
Unfortunately, the x-rays confirmed Charlotte’s fears. Her elbow was broken.
You need to be a certified bone-ologist to spot the break.
Since the break was basically in her elbow, the urgent care clinic wasn’t equipped to set it or cast it. They gave Charlotte a splint, a sling, a prescription for some pain medication, and a referral to an orthopedist. We picked up her meds, grabbed some Chick-fil-A for dinner, and headed back to the RV.
A Chick-fil-A milkshake will heal what ails ya.
Luckily we were in an area with several orthopedists to choose from, but the next day was Sunday so they were all closed. We spent the morning unsuccessfully trying to catch the lizard that had made its way into our RV.
I guess he’ll just live with us forever.
We decided that even with Charlotte’s bad arm, we might as well check out the beach. So we walked over and caught a ride on the tram.
Are there really bears in Florida?Sand dunes on the way to the beach.Catching a sunburn would just make things worse.She wasn’t dressed for the beach, but of course she fell down and got all sandy.
On the way back, the tram pulled over so we could see some wildlife.
A great horned owl in its nest.We didn’t actually see this in person, but our tram driver’s husband captured this great shot. Photo by Jay Ruckert Photography. Deer!
The next day, it was back to business. Charlotte logged into work and tried typing with one hand while I called around looking for an orthopedist with availability and reasonable fees. Somehow, we were able to get in that afternoon. Charlotte was able to see a physician’s assistant who was on the fence about whether or not surgery would be needed. Rather than making us come back to see someone else, he was able to text her x-ray over to the surgeon who recommended surgery in order to preserve range of motion. They had a spot available the next day, but we weren’t ready to move that fast.
We stopped by a local diner for an early dinner and to weigh our options. In the end, we decided to have the surgery done in Destin, but that we would need some help. We booked the surgery for Friday. Conveniently, Charlotte’s mom Linda is a semi-retired perioperative nurse and had volunteered to come down to help us out if we needed it, so we took her up on her offer. I spent the evening trying to figure out how to get her to Florida. Our stash of airline miles and hotel points came in handy and I was able to get flights, a hotel, and a rental car booked for minimal out of pocket costs.
Tuesday and Wednesday we tried to go back to normal. Charlotte put in hours at work, and Izzy and I went to the beach.
In the evening, we explored the park and ate some ice cream while we spotted turtles in the pond.
Pointing out the turtles. Also pictured: the pinching bike helmet that caused the broken arm.
We also made a trip to Walmart to pick up more medical supplies and some items for hosting an overnight guest.
Testing out the a new pillow before we leave the store.
On Thursday, we drove about an hour east from Topsail and picked up Linda at the Panama City airport. We got lunch right off the beach in Destin, and had to check out the sand after we finished eating.
Izzy’s kid’s meal was served on a frisbee.
After that we picked up the rental car (which turned out to be a truck) and checked into the hotel. Izzy was very excited to have her MorMor around and she also loves hotels, so she insisted on spending the night with Linda and Charlotte in Destin, while I headed back out of town to the RV.
The next morning I drove back to the hotel to pick up Izzy, so Linda could drive Charlotte to the surgical center.
Izzy was having a good time with MorMor when I came to get her.
The surgery went well and Charlotte got a fresh pair of screws expertly placed in her arm. I spoke with the surgeon and after he told me there were no problems, he humored my curiosity about the hardware he used. I learned that he pre-drilled a hole for the screws, which were Torx drive, and hand torqued them down. Charlotte then got to recover back at the hotel with Linda’s professional help, and without a kiddo demanding attention.
The next morning, I drove back into town to drop Izzy off at the hotel again. She, Charlotte, and Linda would spend one more night there to give Charlotte more time to recover.
Part of the recovery process involved visiting the beach again.
I then had work to do as our reservation at the park was up and could not be extended. I got to do my usual tasks of emptying tanks, cleaning the slides, unhooking all the hoses, and prepping the truck, plus all of the things Charlotte normally takes care of inside the RV. Washing, drying, and securing any dishes, storing anything normally hung on the wall, and so many other little things.
Then I got to hitch up all by myself. We have an Andersen Ultimate hitch, which is a tow ball raised up in the bed of the truck that goes into a socket bolted to the kingpin of the trailer. This setup means you need to carefully back up the truck to place the ball directly under the socket and then lower the RV onto it. Usually, Charlotte will back up the truck while I provide directions over our two-way radios and raise/lower the RV as needed. Being by myself I had to maneuver the truck until I thought I was close and then get out and look. It took a while, and a lot of getting in and out of the truck, but I got it done.
I was so proud of myself I took a selfie to send to Charlotte.
Then, it was time to hit the road on my first solo tow. Luckily, I had a fairly short drive, and for the first time in four months, I left the state of Florida.
World Games? Like Risk?
Unfortunately, I had to stop twice during the drive to attend to a storage door on the RV popping open. One of the doors for our propane tanks decided it didn’t like staying shut and wanted to experience freedom of flapping in the 65 mph wind. With no exits around I pulled over onto the shoulder on a straightaway to close it. Of course, it just popped itself back open not too much further down the road. This time I wasn’t too far from a rest area where I was able to pull in and try to figure out what was wrong. It turns out the latch was just loose and I was able to snug things up with a screwdriver. Then I hit the road again, making it to the RV park without further incident.
I got checked in and was very thankful to be assigned to a pull-thru site, rather than a back in since Charlotte wasn’t there to guide me. I managed to get parked and setup without trouble.
The next day, I got up early and made the nearly two-hour drive back to Destin where I helped Charlotte, Izzy, and Linda check out of the hotel. After that, we walked over to a restaurant near the beach to visit some previously unmet relatives on Linda’s side of the family.
The little family reunion went so well over lunch, we continued at a local park that was on the way for all of us. Izzy got to play on a playground, Charlotte got a bit of rest in the truck, and everyone else continued catching up. But before too long, we had to get going as we still had to drive to Alabama.
Then we drove to the RV park in Alabama, where Linda got to be our first overnight guest. We turned our dinette into a bed for her, which seemed to work well enough.
I was very confused finding this on the floor in the morning. It turns out Izzy had decided some of her hair needed a trim and didn’t want to bother anyone else about it.
The next day it was time to bring Linda to the airport so she could get home. Instead of going all the way back to Panama City, I had found her a flight out of Pensacola which was only about 45 minutes away. We said our goodbyes, did some grocery shopping, then headed back to the RV park.
With Charlotte recovering and in pain, and not much to do in the area, the rest of the week was pretty quiet. Izzy and I tried some fishing at the park, but struck out.
We did have some excitement one evening as severe thunderstorms rolled through the area with the potential for tornadoes. Of course, this isn’t great when you are living in a 12,000lb trailer. We decided to prepare as best we could by bringing in the slides and putting some water in our storage tank to weigh things down a bit more. We got plenty of rain, but luckily things didn’t get worse.
Our only trip outside of the RV park was to a newly opened location of our favorite beaver-themed, giant convenience store.
Buc-ee’s is expanding outside of Texas. They sell fuel of course, but also a ton of delicious food and snacks. We loaded up.
Even Buc-ee was masked up.The haul!
And that’s about it. Overall, not a very fun visit to a fantastic park, especially for Charlotte. But we got through it and managed to stick to our schedule. Plus, Linda got to come down and visit and we met some new relatives, so things certainly could have been worse. It doesn’t hurt to count your blessings even if things aren’t going your way.
Next time, we’ll continue our journey across the Gulf. See you down the road!
And just like that, Ray Charles becomes the first artist to notch a second embed at the top of a post here at Brewing Adventure. He’s truly the king of songs about specific locations in the South. This one, St. Pete Florida Blues, was recorded way back in 1950, in Miami, when Ray was just 20 years old and not yet famous. It’s not a bad track, but I understand why this isn’t the song that propelled him to the top. The nation just wasn’t ready for a blues song about Florida’s (at the time) fourth largest city.
Flashing forward to February 2021, the Brewers were ready for St. Petersburg, but first we had one last two week stint back in Orlando.
We rolled out of Miami, headed back to the Thousand Trails Orlando (TTO) RV park. It was a pretty easy drive, but longer than we prefer. We got passed on the shoulder a couple of few times while driving through a construction area, which is actually not bad according to our friends. Along the way, we spotted this road sign and hypothesized that every type of animal lives in Florida.
The bears must have been out to lunch because we didn’t see any.
About halfway there, we found a McDonald’s with a big empty parking lot next door so we didn’t have to pack a picnic lunch.
Izzy and I were excited about the greasy fast food, but Charlotte walked over to a nearby grocery store for something healthier and less meatful.
We actually changed our reservations to be in Orlando so we could allow Izzy a little more time with her friends. They enjoyed hanging out quite a bit.
It’s not a beach, but the sand around the RV sites is just as good to dig in.
We also got in a couple hikes at some nearby parks with our friends.
Izzy and I joined one of her friends and her dad at the Crayola Experience in Orlando. Luckily it was not busy and the girls had a great time making some art and interacting with the exhibits.
How big is the largest non-Crayola crayon?
We took a family trip back to Disney Springs.
This time we found the donut shop.Watching an Amphicar drive motor by.New Spiderman set from the Lego store.
Then, all too soon, it was time to say goodbye to our friends, this time knowing it would be quite a while before our paths cross again. We all went out for a farewell dinner.
Ford’s Garage was the venue, and we all drive Ford Super Dutys!
After wrapping things up in Orlando, we headed west for an easy drive to Terra Ceia RV Resort, which is on the south end of Tampa Bay, not too far south of Tampa, and just a giant bridge drive away from St. Petersburg. Terra Ceia is a much smaller RV park, with mostly annual or seasonal residents, not many short-term visitors like ourselves, and almost zero other kids. But everyone was very friendly, and the park had a great pool where Izzy took some big steps towards learning to swim.
After getting settled in, Izzy and I took advantage of the nearby shopping.
Izzy has a lot of favorite stores and Costco is one of them, because of the pizza.
Being so much closer to the coast, we thought trips to the beach would be easy, but we made a mistake. We took far too long to get ready and left for Siesta Key late in the morning. Despite it being Friday and not too far away, the nice weather had everyone headed to the water. The traffic was slow and the public parking was full. With our giant truck, we weren’t willing to circle around, so we headed out. We were on the coast, there had to be another beach nearby, right?
Driving around was actually pretty slow due to traffic, and needing to take a bridge to get off the island. We found a little public pull off near the water and backed the truck up to it so we could eat our picnic lunch on the tailgate.
Not exactly the beach, but we were able to eat lunch looking out at the water.
After lunch, we set out in search of a less crowded beach, and after too much driving, managed to find one. Coquina Beach is a great beach by all measures, but is a little disappointing compared to the amazing Siesta Key. They were dredging offshore and pumping the sand up onto a closed section of the beach, which didn’t have the greatest of smells. Still, it was a great day and we enjoyed the sun, sand and surf. Charlotte got pooped on by a seagull, though.
Searching for seashells.
Tampa was a short drive away, and they have an IKEA, so Charlotte insisted we visit.
IKEA number 7 for Charlotte and Izzy since we hit the road.Izzy used to have a rocking moose just like this.
We made a day of it, and found a cool playground nearby.
Then we went over to Cigar City brewing for an early dinner. Thanks to Andrew C for reminding me to check it out while we were in the area. The food and beer were excellent. More places should have fried plantains on the menu!
Charlotte and were able to enjoy some quiet dinner conversation!
One day while Charlotte was working, Izzy and I visited DeSoto National Memorial. We were hoping to earn another Junior Ranger badge for Izzy, but sadly the visitor center was closed. We still had a good time with a picnic lunch overlooking the bay as well as a short hike.
Okay, we’re finally going to get to our adventures in St. Petersburg. We got there after driving across the bay on the very cool Skyway Bridge.
We started out by visiting the new St. Pete Pier, which was very impressive. They have bars and restaurants, a marina, giant art installations, a sandy beach, a history museum, and a very nice playground.
Of course Izzy insisted we visit the playground.We spotted a manatee chilling off the pier.
After exploring the pier, we walked along the water down to the Salvador Dalí museum which is located in St. Pete because back in the 70s, a Dalí museum was going to be built somewhere and I guess they wanted it the most.
The exterior was pretty cool, as one might expect for an avant-garde art museum.
One of Izzy’s last rides in a stroller.
Izzy wasn’t super thrilled about the prospect of visiting an art museum. We challenged her to find some art pieces she liked, instead of whining. Our tactic worked pretty well. Her favorite paintings all featured food.
In the temporary exhibition area they were showing the very cool van Gogh “immersive experience.” In a series of darkened rooms, they projected high resolution copies of van Gogh paintings, which shifted and changed in time with music and narration. It was pretty cool, but Izzy thought it was too loud so we didn’t get to stay long.
The museum has a sculpture garden full of fun Dalí works.
The mustache was a pretty big theme throughout the museum.
Here’s the artist himself emerging from an egg for comparison.
We wrapped up our day by walking down to a divey bar on the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus to try the crunchy grouper sandwich.
That does it for our time in St. Pete, Tampa, and the surrounding area. We had a great time adventuring and would love to visit again. See you down the road.
After our laid back month in central Florida, it was time for some adventure, so we headed south to Will Smith’s fifth favorite city (according to his lyrics). We actually didn’t party, and the heat wasn’t exactly on, but we did have quite a few adventures. Charlotte took the week off of work, so we were basically on vacation. I realize our regular day-to-day is life already kind of vacation-like, but this was even more vacation-y.
We started the adventures on the drive down from Peace River RV park in Wauchula.
We found an old-school rest area on the side of a two-lane highway, where we stopped to eat lunch. It was just a clearing with some room to pull off the road, grass, picnic tables, and trash cans. Luckily, we had brought our bathroom with us.
Then, we stopped to explore the Swamp Visitor Center for Big Cypress National Preserve. They had a nice little boardwalk we explored. In the ranger station we got some great information about visiting Big Cypress as well as the two National Parks in the area. Izzy was able to pick up a Junior Ranger activity book which worked for all three parks.
This was our first time ever stopping at a place to do some exploring while towing the RV. We’re usually in a hurry and there’s not a place to park.
We then made it to Miami Everglades RV Resort, which has a Miami address, but is out in the weird agricultural suburbs. There are lots of small fields, some of them completely enclosed by netting growing mostly what looks like ornamental plants, along with some fruits and vegetables. Quite a difference from the big corn and bean fields in the middle of the country. The RV park first tried to put us in a site way too small for our rig. We didn’t even attempt to park in it. Luckily they weren’t too full and they quickly found us a better sized site.
The weather on our first full day in Miami didn’t look great for exploring outside, so we headed out to do some shopping. There was an IKEA about 30 minutes away, so of course we had to stop by.
Izzy’s Puppy, wearing his homemade collar and mask, visiting his brothers and sisters.Can’t visit IKEA without getting some meatballs.Izzy likes riding in the front of shopping carts now.Four wheel steering means you can drift the carts.
The next day, after a slow morning, we got out in the afternoon and made it to Everglades National Park. First we visited the Royal Palm Visitor Center and hiked the Anhinga Trail, where we saw all kinds of animals and got our first up close gator encounter.
This guy was almost resting on the hiking trail.A purple gallinule walking across lily pads, with its big ol’ feet.Headed back home with lunch?A bunch of anhingas hanging out in the trees behind us.
Anhingas are big birds that don’t seem to do much. They’re mostly known for spreading out their wings to dry out their feathers in the sun. But on our way back to the truck, we were lucky enough to see one in action. It dove underwater, caught some unlucky fish, then popped back up the the surface where it swallowed it whole.
The anhinga with its catch.Down the hatch.
After getting the fish down, it popped out of the water and up onto the railing by the trail to do the famous anhinga pose.
Just don’t block its sun.
Izzy saw and learned enough on the hike to complete several sections of her Junior Ranger activity book. On our way back out of the park, we stopped by the main visitor center where Izzy obtained her badge for the Everglades.
Quite a few alligators were just off the side of the road.We only saw a couple of them hanging out in the water.A proud mama gator, with her baby just to her right.Baby gator.
Izzy’s favorite part about the drive was that we were going so slowly that we allowed her to stick her head out the window to better spot animals.
After reaching the end of the loop road, we went to the Big Cypress Oasis Visitor Center. This was right on highway 41 which we had driven to get to Miami. It was a fairly unassuming building with a small pond or wetland between it and the highway, but there was quite a bit to see in that tiny amount of water.
The pond at Big Cypress Oasis visitor center with the highway in the background.Gators of course.
The water was very densely populated with fish of all kinds and sizes, and the water was clear enough to seem them easily. It was really odd to see in what I can only assume is a natural habitat.
Just some of the small fish.
There were also plenty of birds, including this one we caught flying overhead, which we assumed was a flamingo until we more closely examined the photo.
Of course, we also had to sit down to complete more pages in the activity book so Izzy could earn another Junior Ranger badge.
One of the park rangers put together a little scavenger hunt for Izzy. The ranger hid some toy animals among the trees and bushes for Izzy to find. They were all things that alligators like to eat. When Izzy found them she stuffed them into the mouth of a plush alligator.
The next day, we visited the third National Park in the area, Biscayne. This park’s territory is mostly out in the ocean, but they have a nice visitor center and a hiking trail along the shore.
A nice spot to complete the Junior Ranger activity book.
After completing all the requirements in her activity book, Izzy earned the Junior Ranger badge for Biscayne. She was also awarded a special patch for earning badges at all three area National Parks. As a reward for all her hard work on the badges, we bought her a Junior Ranger vest at the giftshop.
Showing off her new vest and badges.A week or so later, Izzy and her friend were able to meet up, wear their vests together, and show off their south Florida patches.
On the way back to the RV that evening, we stopped by famous south Florida fruitstand, Robert Is Here. This place sells a wide variety of fresh fruits, as well as fresh fruit smoothies. They also have some vintage tractors for kids to climb on, and animals on display.
On Friday, we ventured down just a little ways into the Florida Keys. Maybe next year we can get one of the coveted Thousand Trails reservations out in Key West. This time, we spent most of the day at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.
We went to Cannon Beach, and found a nice spot with some shade. The sand was certainly not as nice as Siesta Key, but Izzy still had a good time playing while Charlotte and I relaxed. After a while we had a picnic lunch.
Full picnic spread: blanket, table, cooler, and picnic chairs.Several of these ibises kept poking around, probably hoping we would drop some food.
After lunch Izzy and I decided to test our our new snorkeling gear. After getting her toes in the water, Izzy decided it was too cold and went back to playing in the sand. We had seen something coming up out of the water occasionally, and thought they must be dolphins, so I went out to investigate.
Izzy playing in the sand while I snorkel in the background.
I hadn’t been snorkeling in a long time, my swimming skills had deteriorated due to lack of practice, and the water was cold enough to make my body want to hyperventilate. The beach dropped off very sharply, with the light colored sand at the bottom giving way suddenly to darkness. All I could see were rays of light shining down at an angle through the cloudy water in front of me. Earlier, I overheard someone mention that it wasn’t dolphins but tarpon jumping out of the water, so now I was afraid a giant aggressive fish was going to jump out of the murk and into view just inches from my face. I kept at it though, convincing myself that snorkeling is a fun cool activity and I wouldn’t have another chance to do it again anytime soon. I never did find whatever was breaching the water, but I did spot the sunken cannons the beach is named after.
There’s an ice cream stand nearby but it was closed, so Izzy had to settle for an overpriced drumstick from the gift shop.
After getting cleaned up and changed, we headed into Key Largo to find a place with outdoor seating for dinner. We ended up at Skippers Dockside, which is a typical beach town bar and grill, with plenty of seafood options. They had a huge outdoor seating area overlooking a nice canal, the food was good, the beer was cold, and there was even some solid live music. We had a great meal, and even took home a slice of Key lime pie.
A lemon for my fish, but the lemon is wearing pantyhose?
For our last day in Miami, we decided not to battle any weekend crowds or rain and just took it easy, staying at the RV park. Izzy and I checked out the pool once it cleared up, and after I found a creative solution to a frustrating problem purchasing laundry cards, we got our clothes washed. Overall, it was a great park, and we’ll likely be back for some more adventures in the future.
Our neighbor at the RV park decided to park their truck right next to ours for some reason.
So that wraps up our week in Miami. Quite a few adventures for just a single week! Tune in next time as we head back to central Florida.
We’ll cover January 2021 in this post, and January is of course wintertime not summertime, at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere. But “Wintertime” isn’t a jazz standard, and we spent our January down in Florida where the weather was summery and the living was easy. We helped to make things easy for ourselves by doing what fulltime RVers call the “Florida shuffle,” moving back and forth between Thousand Trails RV parks for our free stays, now limited to two weeks at a time during high use season. So our expenses were low, the government kept giving us money, travel days were short, we had full hookups for our rig, we were familiar with the parks, we could receive packages, we knew where to do our grocery shopping, and best of all, our schedules overlapped with our friends pretty well. We decided not to worry too much about getting out and exploring, but rather to sit back and enjoy having friends not too far out our front door.
We started the month by heading back to Thousand Trails Orlando (TTO). As previously mentioned, TTO doesn’t have assigned sites, you get to pick from among the open spots when you arrive. This visit, we coordinated with the friends we made during the previous few weeks to all park near each other in the self-designated family area of the park. It was fantastic. We were able to park around a large open field that the kids had a great time running around in. Us parents were then able to setup a chair on the edge of the field and relax while the kids had fun. All the kids loved having someone to play with so close by, and parents loved not having to personally keep kids entertained all the time.
Our full setup, with tent, outdoor rug, table, and Blackstone griddle. Our friends/neighbors hosted movie and pizza night for the kiddos, outside, in January!Playing with some fake snow. Izzy on the left.
The living was so easy, Charlotte decided it would be a good time to start painting the interior of our rig. Luckily it was a nice day for Izzy and me to be kicked outside.
Primed, but not painted slide trim. She managed to prep, prime, paint, and cleanup the trim around two slides in a single day.
We did venture out of the park a couple of times with our friends, which was a lot of fun. First, we hit up World of Citrus, which is a “U-Pick” citrus orchard, but also has a lot other Florida tourist stuff.
Can you get more Florida than a gator holding a sack of oranges?No one is tall enough to ride the bus.
Later, we all agreed to go on a real Florida adventure: kayaking and snorkeling with manatees! We drove out to the town of Crystal River, on the Gulf coast. We donned wetsuits, and then stiffly walked a couple of blocks over to a park on the river with a kayak launch. It was pretty windy, so the water was a bit choppy. Izzy and Charlotte had a tough time, getting pushed around by the waves since they didn’t have enough weight in their kayak. Izzy then decided that she wasn’t up for kayaking in such rough waters, so she and Charlotte got out and walked, while the rest of us paddled a short distance upstream to a different park with a beach where manatees like to hang out. There, we met back up with Charlotte and Izzy, then put on our snorkel gear to check out the manatees!
Manatees at Hunter Springs in Crystal River, Florida
The water wasn’t very clear, so even though they are huge and slow moving, the manatees still managed to surprise us.
While in Orlando, you can’t help but see Disney all over the place. Izzy and I have never been to Disney World, so we thought about making the short drive over, but we decided not to do our first visit while pandemic restrictions are still in place. Still, we wanted to get a taste of that Disney magic so we decided to visit Disney Springs, which is a big outdoor shopping mall run by The Mouse. It was a very nice mall, but lacking in magic, I think due to pandemic restrictions.
Their Christmas tree was still up.Lego StoreLego dragon in the lake.Our first family in-restaurant dinner since the pandemic started, so we had to order dessert.
TTO isn’t actually in Orlando proper, but it isn’t exactly out in the wilderness either, so we were surprised to find quite a bit of “exotic” (to us Midwesterners) wildlife during this stay.
This frog somehow ended up inside our rig after our first night.A gopher tortoise. These guys had burrows all over the place.We never made it out to central Nebraska to see sandhill cranes in migration, but saw plenty of them at TTO.This better, more polite, frog never moved, but lived in the electric box our entire stay.
After two weeks at TTO, we headed back down to Peace River. This time the park was much busier, so we spent one night without sewer hookups before playing the park “lottery” to claim a full hookup site.
We had a good time just living easy, swimming at the pool, and doing activities with friends.
Tea party! (Not our rig. Same model, but different floorplan.)Some of our friends are very good at setting up age-appropriate science experiments and are nice enough to share!Outdoor dining on a lovely evening in January!Campfires and glowsticks, what a combo.
We ventured out to make another trip to Siesta Key beach, on what turned out to be a very foggy morning. We still had a good time with our friends, building a big sand castle and playing with new Christmas toys.
Surf Dude™ was fun to play with when Izzy wasn’t too scared to throw him into the waves.
All too soon, our stay at Peace River was up. We went out with our friends to a goodbye dinner at a well-named outdoor taco stand before parting ways.
January was a great month. Izzy had so much fun getting to play with friends almost every day (and Charlotte and I enjoyed the socializing as well). Alas, all good things must come to an end, especially since RV plans are not so easily changed at the last minute during the winter in Florida. Our plans took us down to the southern end of the state, which we’ll cover next time. See you down the road!
It was really challenging to find a decent song about the state of Florida. And that’s not for lack of trying on either my part or that of major recording artists. I slogged through less than stellar efforts by Eric Clapton, Modest Mouse, Less than Jake, and a handful of lesser known country and folk singers. Does Jimmy Buffet have a mediocre song about Florida? Reader, you know in your heart that there’s AT LEAST one. Luckily, Muddy Waters finally came through, singing the blues about “Goin’ down in Florida, where the sun shines damn near every day.”
Ol’ Muddy ain’t wrong about that sunshine. The Florida weather was great in December, especially compared to what we’re used to back in the middle of the country. We were able to spend plenty of time outdoors, staying in only due to rain, a couple of days that got too hot, or lack of motivation.
So just like Muddy, after our stay in Orlando we went deeper down in Florida, heading south and west to Peace River RV & Camping Resort, located between the towns of Wauchula and Zolfo Springs (those are real names!). Peace River is not as big as the park we left, but still has plenty of sites and amenities, and is part of the Thousand Trails network so our three-week stay was free with our membership. As it happens, our schedules lined up with that of our friends from North Carolina (and Orlando), and they moved down to Peace River the same day we did, so Izzy already had a friend to play with.
As the name implies, the park is bordered by the small, slow moving, very brown, Peace River, which is apparently full of fossils. One afternoon, we met up with our friends on the banks of the river, braving the mosquitoes and rumored resident alligator, to sift through some sand. I’m no fossil-ologist, but I did take Geology 100 (aka “Rocks for Jocks”) at the University of Nebraska, and I think some of the small oddly shaped items we found could have at one point been part of a shark’s mouth.
Trying my best not to fall into the Coke colored water. It didn’t smell great either.After a bath, Izzy shows off a likely fossilized shark tooth.
The park had some nice trails you could hike down by the river. It was nice and close to the park, but separated enough to feel like you were getting out into nature. We were told there was at least one alligator living in the area, but despite going out many different times, we never managed to spot it.
This sign was misleading!
Deep down in Florida is orange country. Citrus groves are everywhere, and trucks hauling oranges are common to see on the highway. They don’t cover or tarp their loads, so a big bump will send a few oranges up and out of the truck to bounce along the highway. We drove past some kind of citrus processing plant once and the orange smell was intense even with our windows rolled up and the AC on.
How do the oranges at the bottom not get squashed?Stopped for the OJ train.
I love a good orange and was excited to try out some fresh local citrus, so Izzy and I went out and visited an orange grove that had a big grove stand. They had some very fresh tasting citrus soft serve ice cream, but Izzy thought it was too tart. The fruits we bought there were really disappointing as well. Somehow, the best citrus we had while in Florida was a bag of Cuties we picked up at Target and I think those were grown in California. I dunno if Florida has a similar situation to Nebraska, where you can see field upon field of corn, but it’s not actually good to eat since it is all feed corn for cows. Maybe all those groves are for juicing oranges which are somehow not good to eat? Who is drinking all that orange juice? And whatever happened to those weird little frozen canisters of orange juice concentrate? They used to take a huge part of the freezer section at the grocery store. I mean they weren’t really that good, but that mixing those up was one of the first things I learned to do in the kitchen. The orange gloop would never want to come out of the canister so you would try to thaw the sides with the warmth from your hands, but it was too cold to hold for more than a second… What was I talking about?
She ate the sprinkles at least.
Izzy made some new friends while we were at Peace River, including this kitty that liked to wander our neighborhood. We bought some treats that Izzy enjoyed feeding her, but Izzy was very concerned that the cat might get inside.
Izzy made some human friends too!
Following a preschool program over at a friend’s RV.Swim time!
We even went on a little adventure with our friends to check out Siesta Key Beach, which claims to be the #1 beach in the US. It was a very nice beach, with amazing white “sugar” sand. It was too cool to go for a swim, but we all enjoyed the sun and sand.
Siesta Key Beach
Later, we met our friends at a different beach on Anna Maria island. It was very nice, but not quite up to Siesta Key’s #1 Beach in the US standards.
I think this was the first time I’ve ever had to wait for a drawbridge.
It’s kind of rare, but we occasionally do camping stuff, like having a campfire!
Izzy and I getting the fire ready before our friends come over.Izzy’s friend brought over 100 glowsticks!
Of course, it was December which means Christmas. We were sad that we wouldn’t be able to see our family and friends back in Nebraska in person, due to the pandemic, but we made the best of it on our own, and got in some family time via Zoom.
Izzy wrote a letter to Santa.Charlotte and Izzy made a cute gingerbread RV!Izzy enjoying the pizzelles Lola sent her. Most of them broke to pieces in the mail, but they still tasted good, and Izzy could just sit down with the entire bag instead of taking one at a time.Leaving out milk and cookies for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer.Christmas morning.Christmas day.Taking her new RC car out for a spin.
Phew! That about does it for this one. Tune in next time for our continued Florida adventures. See you down the road!
We pulled out of the RV park in Georgia on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, headed down to Florida, the state which would be our home for the next four months or so. Our first stop was for just a single night, near Flagler Beach on the Atlantic coast.
Being it was our first night in Florida as a family, we decided we needed to immediately find an alligator.
Stopped for a selfie during the alligator hunt.Success! The staff at the park told us this guy was named Ricky.
As easy as that was, we figured we’d be seeing these guys everywhere, but they actually proved to be fairly elusive.
The next day, we made the short drive to Clermont, which is just west of Orlando. We checked into the Orlando RV Resort, which is better known as Thousand Trails Orlando or just TTO. This is a massive park, with good sized, full hookup spots for over 1,000 RVs, and plenty of amenities. TTO’s size, great weather, and free stays for members, make it very attractive for fulltime RV families. As seen in this video, there’s actually a section of the park where families congregate and kids just run around and play all day. However, we decided we would park in the brand new section they had just opened the day before.
We found a great spot that backed up to a pond and got to work setting up.
Our view out the back window.
We were just about done when a guy came over and claimed that we had parked in his spot! He had a class C motorhome, and apparently had driven it out the park to go run some errands. He had left his power cable plugged in, which he thought should have tipped us off that the site was occupied. Now we’re new to RVing, but not brand new. We’ve seen sites before with no rig in them, but are still occupied. People usually leave a few things out. Power cords, water and sewer hoses, maybe a few camp chairs. Some parks even give you an “occupied” sign to make things crystal clear. I had assumed that the power cord was left by the park itself, perhaps from testing the new outlets. There was actually something hooked up to the water in the site as well, but it was a sprinkler from the park so they could water the new sod. Anyway, I still think this guy did a terrible job of marking his spot as occupied and only temporarily vacant, but I decided not to push back too hard. So, thanks to this guy’s poor planning, I had to undo all my setup work and then do it all over again.
Luckily, there were still plenty of spots available in the new section (although none backing up to the water), so we found a new site without any trouble. Given all the extra work and frustration, we didn’t feel like cooking dinner. Luckily for us, there was a food truck at the park!
One of Izzy’s favorite things about the brand new RV sites was the fresh asphalt. A lot of roads in RV parks aren’t paved, and ones that are tend to not be in good condition. Izzy loved the smooth pavement for riding her bikes.
Thursday was Thanksgiving. We were sad to not be able to spend the day with family, but we made the most of it by watching the National Dog Show on TV while preparing Thanksgiving dinner. When the food was ready, we ate it outside to enjoy the warm weather and sunshine. Can’t do that in Nebraska!
The following weekend, we made plans to head to the Atlantic coast for a day at the beach and to watch a SpaceX rocket launch! We got up early Saturday morning to find that the weather at Cape Canaveral was questionable, for both a rocket launch and a nice day at the beach. While we were trying to figure out if we should head out or not, they scrubbed the launch. We decided to make it a shopping day instead and went to visit (where else?), IKEA.
The launch was rescheduled for Sunday morning, and this time the weather held. We weren’t sure how many people would turn up, so we got there early to get a good spot to park both our truck and our beach blanket. It never did get too crowded though. While we waited for the launch, Izzy had a lot of fun playing in the sand and waves, and looking for shells.
When launch time time came around, we watched the countdown on YouTube until the rocket appeared in the sky to the north. I will admit, the visuals weren’t super impressive from our spot on Cocoa Beach, roughly 17 miles from the launchpad. You could see a bright light surrounded by some orange fire slowly propelling a small white stick across the sky, leaving a cloudy trail as it went. I had to listen hard to hear the roar of the engines over the sounds of the waves.
Still, I thought it was very cool, and was able to check off an item on my RV-ing bucket list. The rocket was a SpaceX Falcon, hauling a Dragon cargo capsule up to resupply the International Space Station. Thinking about all the effort and knowledge needed to launch a vehicle into outer space just bogles my mind, and makes me proud of the human race. Of course, Izzy isn’t so easily impressed and pretty quickly turned her attention back to digging in the sand.
After we convinced Izzy it was time to leave the beach, we went out to explore a little bit of the city of Cocoa Beach. First up was the Key Lime Pie Company, which had a live alligator hanging out in front of the store. The gator’s name was Sweetie, and we got to pet her! We then grabbed some treats and ate them at a table outside of Ron Jon’s surf shop.
Sweetie’s handler warned us to never pet an alligator that isn’t wearing a t-shirt.
After our snacks, we had to check out Ron Jon’s. Charlotte informed me that it was super cool to have a Ron Jon t-shirt when she was in elementary school, since it meant you had been on vacation to a nice beach somewhere. I don’t remember the same being true for me growing up in Fargo. I attended more of a Hard Rock Cafe school. Anyway, we had to buy Izzy a t-shirt.
Our stay at in Orlando was for three weeks, and our last week overlapped with friends we made back in North Carolina. They invited us to join them for a trip to Blue Springs State Park, north of Orlando. The park is centered on a freshwater spring. I’d say the water is actually more green than blue, but it is very clear, and comes out of the spring at 72° F. In the winter, manatees swim upriver so they can hang out in the warm waters of the spring. The day we visited, the park counted over 300 manatees!
The spring itself is down there somewhere.
In addition to manatees, we saw a lot of large fish in (and occasionally jumping out of) the water, turtles, and large birds. Izzy actually enjoyed seeing the manatees, but the playing on the playground with her friend was also a big highlight for her. Overall, it was a great visit, and seeing manatees checked off an item on Charlotte’s list!
Finally, on one of our last nights at TTO, we made our way to the Disney-developed town of Celebration, FL to see some Christmas lights. One street in particular puts on a very impressive display. There are tens of thousands of lights coordinated to music across several houses. There are also inflatables, colored spot lights, smoke machines, snow/foam machines, a 3D-mapped video projection, a live Santa, and even an energy drink company handing out samples. It was really cool. As far as I can tell, despite the town’s Disney connection, this is all put on by individuals. We were lucky to see it when we did because they decided to take it down after some neighbors started to complain about the crowds it was drawing.
Whew! We really crammed in the adventures during our first three weeks in the Sunshine State. Stay tuned for further adventures as we get more of a taste of the Floridaman life. See you down the road.
The song titles I tweaked into blog titles for this post and the last one are remarkably similar. I guess there are not many ways to express the idea that you are thinking about one (or maybe two) of the fifty states. Still, I think James Taylor should have tried a bit harder to write an original title. He penned Carolina In My Mind in 1968, while Georgia On My Mind dates all the way back to 1930. I’m not a huge fan of Taylor’s wording, either. I keep things “in mind”, and have things “on my mind” but I don’t use the phrase “in my mind”. Both are great songs though, even if they are a bit too similar in title and sentiment.
From James Taylor’s North Carolina, we resumed chasing the warm weather south to Ray Charles’, Georgia. (It occurs to me that both of these men have another thing in common, in having first names for last names.)
On the way, we had a quick overnight stay in St. George, South Carolina, where the check-in process consisted of finding our name on a packed taped to the office door and leaving a check in their mailbox. We would have avoided human interaction entirely, except for a pair of lonely, unsupervised kids, who were outside our truck asking Charlotte “Can your kid play?” as soon as we rolled to a stop. Izzy went off to the little playground under Charlotte’s supervision while I got everything setup. Maybe not surprisingly given the circumstances under which we met them, the brother and sister duo were a little odd, and had some interesting ideas about how the parent/child relationship should work. Charlotte didn’t really appreciate their attempt at undermining her authority and pretty quickly convinced everyone that it was getting dark and it was time for dinner.
The next day we had an easy drive down I-95 to Townsend, GA and McIntosh Lake RV Park. This was a cute and friendly little RV park, on the shore of a small lake.
It’s always nice to park by the water.Izzy loves fishing.
We only stayed at the park for 6 nights, but managed a few big adventures.
First up was a trip to Savannah, Georgia. We haven’t done much urban exploration during our RV travels, so walking through the streets of Savannah was a special treat. With it’s gorgeous old architecture and many squares, it felt like walking through a European city. Thanks to General Sherman for not razing it to the ground!
We started out downtown, where we grabbed some lunch and ate on a bench at a nearby square.
We figured we better get some biscuits while we’re in the South.
From there, we walked a few blocks and explored Colonial Park Cemetery which dates back to 1789, and to Izzy’s delight, has a playground at one end.
From there, we walked past The Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist and a few more squares.
Lafayette SquareCalhoun Square
Before long, we ended up at Forsyth Park. This huge, gorgeous park takes up twelve city blocks and has giant mossy trees, a large water fountain, a couple of playgrounds, a civil war memorial, sports courts, walking paths, and even a little snack shop.
We didn’t take a close look at this Civil War memorial, so I’m not sure which side it is memorializing.
After exploring the park, it was time to call it a day. On the way back to the truck we decided to make a quick stop for some coffee and pastries, you know, to get our energy levels back up.
Savannah Coffee Roasters – Great coffee and baked goods.
We didn’t hit up many specific sites in Savannah, but Charlotte and I really enjoyed just walking through the city, taking in the beautiful houses and mossy tree-lined streets on a sunny day. Izzy got to visit a few playgrounds and eat some treats, so she was pretty happy too.
Our second Georgian adventure was a trip down to Jekyll Island, which is a barrier island on the Atlantic coast. There seems to be a lot to do there, but much of it was shut down due to the pandemic, so we just enjoyed a relaxing day by the water.
First we went and explored Driftwood Beach.
Izzy loves the beach.No one knows why they call it Driftwood Beach.Izzy writing her name in the sand.
After that, we headed over to Great Dunes Park, where we had a picnic at the pavilion, then went to the sandy, driftwood-free beach. It was a little chilly and windy, but that just meant there weren’t many other people to share the beach with.
Consistent wind means we can fly the kite!
As we were leaving, I did my good deed for the day by saving an overturned horseshoe crab.
That’ll wrap it up for our week in the Peach State. See you down the road!
