Jurassic Park site
Looking out our RV windows, all we can see is dense Florida jungle. Low palm trees, gigantic oaks, thick bushes – all crammed together on sandy soil. We are in beautiful Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park and Campground. The sites are trimmed just enough to fit an RV and you can barely see your neighbor through the bush. At any time, I expect to see raptors or something larger leering at me through the trees. So far, I’ve only seen a mosquito or two, but it feels like it should be buggy here. Doug’s walking carefully as he watches for snakes. There is some humidity here but that’s probably because we are so close to the beach. Yesterday we walked the half mile to the beach along the roads. A long boardwalk took us over the lush dunes that protect the beach. It really is pretty here and we just have to get used to this new landscaping. And this beach was almost empty, had gentle waves, and a wide flat sandy shore.
Our travels through Florida have been leisurely. We are not rushing north just yet. The warm weather, which is breaking all records and the low humidity is just too nice to drive away from.
Our last blog ended near Tampa. We took advantage of the proximity to that big city and spent a day strolling on the Tampa River Walk which took us along the Hillsborough River. We also spent a day on Honeymoon Beach before we left Wesley Chapel.
Tampa River Walk
Then we did something very different for us. We attended our first rally. We are members of the Family Motor Coach Association. Their rally was held at the Lakeland/Linder Airport. Over 700 rigs were in attendance with about 1400 RVers enjoying the activities. After months of living a bit isolated with only each other for company, we found ourselves among lots of friendly people who love the lifestyle we as much as we do.
I attended the “Ladies Lunch” – and yes, it was just women and it was exactly what I was expecting – a light lunch of salads and desserts, with decorated tables, endless doorprizes, and even the inevitable fashion show. But this fashion show was happily different. We were treated to fashions that were chosen by an amazing young entrepeneur, who as a Down Syndrome woman, displayed clothes that met the needs of other Down Syndrome women and, by the way, also were the perfect size and shape for most of us in attendance. The food was good, the company was interesting and Ashley’s designs were inspiring.
Doug chose not to attend the ROMEO Lunch, (Retired Old Men Eating Out), but we went to all the other large activities and many of the instructional seminars. At each of the events, we met other couples who shared their experiences and listened to our tales of full-timing. Sometimes we split up to cover multiple workshops. There was a lot to learn and we got a lot out of four days there.
Outdoor Oldies Concert
A highlight was the Saturday Box Lunch Outdoor Oldies Concert. At the Ice Cream Social on Sunday afternoon we met a nice couple who were thinking about full-timing. We invited them to our RV for our private Superbowl celebration. None of us wanted to go back to the huge hanger to see the game (hard chairs, small screens, noisy fans). We talked with them for hours and yet never got their full names. (But if you are reading this, we would love to hear from you!) In the generous manner of many RVers we have met, they “sold” us a great set of tire covers for a really low price.
A few of the rigs at the FMCA Rally
Our first rally was a success. We bought some supplies from the vendors and soon our big purchase will be delivered – a custom-made magnetic sun shield for our giant windshield. We know this will be invaluable since we obviously want to stay in the bright sunshine as much as we can.
After leaving the rally, we drove just a short distance to the Orlando RV Resort. This is a very large RV Park. Here we took advantage of our Thousand Trails membership which gives us 30 nights free as well as other deep discounts in member parks. This was our second Thousand Trails stay and our 13 nights there were absolutely free. This park had excellent laundry facilities, all kinds of activities and gatherings. We had a nice view of a peaceful meadow inhabited by an occasional cow and were visited by giant herons who woke us up in the mornings. All around the park were protected holes dug by native tortoises. Those big guys had the “run” of the park.
During our stay at the Orlanda RV Resort, I took a quick plane trip to Philadelphia to see my brother Dan. It was great to hang out with him while he recuperates. I was able to go with him to his PT and OT therapy and his wife Lisa and I slept over in the hospitality rooms in the rehab center. I got to see my other brother Steve and my nephew Nico, my nieces and nephew and Dan’s grandsons. Spending time with my son Jon, my daughters Becky and Paola and my adorable grandsons was just wonderful and by staying in the rehab facility I barely had to venture out into the frigid cold weather I had been dreading. It was a good family visit.
Before we left the Space Coast , we made an attempt to see the Spacex Shuttle launch. Unfortunately, the launch was scrubbed with just 13 seconds to go. It was still really cool to see how many people come out early in the morning to watch what is happening in our space program. The highways were lined with cars and folks set up hoping to see a launch. The launch did go up successfully the next morning, but we were on our way to our next destination so we couldn’t observe it. The day of the launch was a busy one for us. We spent some time on the beach resting and eating lunch and then we went to a Resistance Rally outside of the Melbourne Airport. We held up our signs along with about 900 other resisters for five hours in the hot sun – showing up to “resist and persist” in our opposition to the current administration.
Patriotic Protesters
After we recuperated from the Philadelphia trip and our Resistance Rally, we left Orlando and went back to the Stephen Foster Cultural Center and Campground. We had been there before Christmas and on this stay we saw the beginnings of spring with azaleas and wild flowers starting to bloom. We love this park and plan one more trip there before we leave Florida.
And that brings us to our current residence near Jacksonville (known as Jax to the locals) at the Kathryn Abbey Hanna primeval forest. Still loving Florida! We spent three days on the perfect beach that was just a half mile from our campsite. The walk to the beach through the jungle was a good way to get our exercise. This beach was busier than most of the beaches we’ve been on. Kite-flying, fishing, soccer, Frisbee, shell-finding, surfing, swimming, bicycle riding, picnicking, jogging – all were happening around us as we sat and read and enjoyed the sun and gentle ocean waves.
St. Augustine Beach
We couldn’t resist spending one day on one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world – St. Augustine Beach. St. Augustine is the oldest city in this country and beach access is easy. Lots of free parking with restrooms and boardwalks over the dunes to the pretty sandy shore. The weather was great – low humidity, cool ocean breeze and bright sun.
We know we are obsessed with beaches. It’s our hobby! And we’ve made it very easy to spend a day of relaxation without all the fuss of getting ready. After breakfast, I pack a picnic lunch – one clean up instead of cleaning up after two meals. The lunch goes into a small cloth bag with ice packs. We keep an insulated collapsible cooler in our car – so the small bag goes in there – ready for us to pull it out when we get to the beach. Our folding chairs are always in our car trunk and so are our beach towels. Sunblock, hat, reading materials are all ready to go. Neither of us does more than get our ankles wet so we don’t have all that wet, sandy stuff to clean up. We just brush off our feet and put everything away – ready for our next beach day.
But we are now turning westward – inland – and won’t see another beach for quite a while. We scheduled another two nights at one of our favorite places – Stephen Foster Cultural Center and Campground. The trees are pretty thick here and the Spanish Moss hangs low from all the oaks, but it just doesn’t feel as dense and steamy as the jungle we just left. And even though we were just here less than a week ago, we were surprised by the amount of azaleas that are now in bloom all over this park. We thought we would dry out our stuff here but we had a long downpour last night. So today we are hoping for lots of sunshine and time to get the laundry done. It is remarkable that this campground, which is very rustic, has nice restrooms with 2 washers and 2 dryers in each of these buildings. Best of all, the cost is $1.00 per washer load and $1.00 per dryer load. We are taking advantage of this low price to get all our laundry done. The last laundry we did cost us $3.00 for each machine. That was the most expensive. We are averaging about $2.00 each machine. We are just spending 2 nights here, then we leave Florida. We have spent 87 nights in this state in 18 separate stops. That is a record for us. We head to Georgia tomorrow – our 18th state.