Month: February 2019
Fort De Soto Area Fun

Fort De Soto Area Fun

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Hey Guys!! Remember when I told you I’d gotten us into four Florida state parks? Well, one of them had to cancel on us do to storm damage…which messed up the timing for the next one…so, it looks like we’ll be missing out on two of the state parks I worked so hard to get us into. Total bummer. We’ll be missing out on a cave and a beach…but, whattaya gonna do? Being nomads has definitely helped teach us flexibility.

We stayed at the Fort De Soto County Park for two weeks…our limit when the park doesn’t offer full-hookups. We had a great pull-through spot that was so big we could have easily fit two RVs in it. You can see in the top picture Fort De Soto is out on a little Key. The only thing we didn’t like about this park was the fact that we had to go through two tolls to get back and forth between the park and the grocery store.

The weather was still on the cool side the entire two weeks we were in the Saint Petersburg/Fort De Soto area. We had one day where it was around 72° and the sun was shining so we headed to the beach for a play day. I’ll be honest, I thought it was still a little chilly and kept my sweatshirt on the whole time. Fort De Soto has seven miles of beaches. What’s interesting is that the sand at East Beach is sooo different from the sand at North Beach. North Beach has that powdery fine white sand while East Beach has a darker, more coarse sand. We walked around both beaches and decided North Beach was better for playing in the sand. The day we went was super windy! There were probably twenty or so guys there kite surfing. What a show!!

We found a few shells here…not many…and no big ones. In the top right picture, you can see that there’s a sand bar. It was too dang cold to wade out to the sandbar to gather the good shells. If I could have gotten out there without swimming, I would have…but the water would have been up to my neck…and it was cold. So…I missed it. I sat looking at it the entire time we were at the beach…thinking about toughing it out and going anyway, but I don’t handle cold very well. I think I’ll get to it next time. We’ve all decided that when we come back to Florida, we’ll for sure have to stay at Fort De Soto again.

We did some more wildlife watching! There were birds galore and we had raccoons visiting us daily. Two raccoons seemed to like this little cluster of vines above our home-on-wheels. We saw them up there chilling in the sun. The cats seemed particularly interested in the raccoons. They kept trying to rumble through the screen door…don’t let them fool you though. They’re both cowards.

Construction for the Fort De Soto Batteries and Military Post started in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. The Fort never saw any major battles and during WWII it was used for bombing practice by the pilot who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. It’s always interesting to walk around these old forts. We’ve learned so much about history by exploring these kinds of sites.

We’ve been talking about going to the Tampa RV Show for a long time, but we’ve never been in the area for it, so we were excited to get the chance to go while we were in the Saint Pete area! We’ve been to our fair share of RV shows…especially when we were looking for our home-on-wheels. Guys…this RV show is huge! Huge!! We got there right after opening, walked around all day, and left as they were closing up and we still didn’t see it all. We stood in line to look at a million dollar RV. It sure was pretty! But it’s still an RV. I can’t imagine paying a million dollars for an RV. Maybe that’s just me though.

We found some amazing foodies! The seafood in the area was super fresh and super tasty! Our favorite place to grab some seafood was Shells Seafood Restaurant. We found a great little burger place called Boulevard Burgers and an amazing pizza place that I’ll let Nicholas tell you about in the next post!

One morning we were walking along the beach looking for shells and we started talking to a local. We got a lot of great info about the area…but the best thing we learned about was Mazzaro’s Italian Market. Oh…My…Goodness!!! Guys! This place was awesome! It was like walking into some Italian grandmother’s home and having a meal. Or so I think it is…I’ve never actually been to an Italian grandmother’s house. If we lived near this market on a more regular basis, I would need to start working out every single day. We love to find out about spots locals know about!

Our two weeks in the Saint Pete area flew by. It was cool and windy with a few rainy days. It wasn’t what we’d planned. But, we loved it! All of it. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned as a nomad is to embrace the now. Love it for what it is.

See y’all down the road!

#hidingfromthecold
Sunsets And Shells

Sunsets And Shells

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Hey Guys! While I was planning our Florida loop to hide from the winter, I really thought we’d have nice warm days the whole time. Well, maybe not the entire time, but for 90% of it at least. But, no. This year, the weather has decided to throw in some storms and cooler (50s & 60s) temps and Guys…that is not beach weather!! Not for me anyway! So, we didn’t get to have a “beach day” where we stayed at the beach and played while we were in Estero or Sarasota.

Such a bummer.

We stayed at the Myakka River State Park for a week and loved it! This is another state park we will definitely be revisiting! And…this one has full-hookups available in one of the camping loops! If you go and need full-hookups you’ll want to reserve a spot in the Palmetto Ridge loop. This park is another difficult one to snag a spot in and I can totally see why now that we’ve spent time there. The whole area is really pretty and the park itself is really close to town so, there’s great cell signal. You can see our “yard” in the picture above. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but it’s a really generous space with some great shade trees.

Some of you might not know what I mean when I say “full-hookups”. This means that there is water, sewer, and electric available at each spot. We can make it two weeks without a sewer hookup before we really need to go find a dump station. In Koreshan State Park we only had water and electric hookups, so anytime we needed to wash up or take a shower or go use the privy…we had to use the park facilities. Which is ok when I can snag a spot that’s not too terribly far away, but sometimes that means walking a mile to get to the latrine…day or night. That can be quite a walk (no matter how close we are) in the middle of the night…you know what I mean?

We were able to walk around two beaches while we were in the Sarasota area…even though it was too cold to actually stay and play. And we totally hit the jack-pot with shell collecting! So. Many. Shells! We would go pretty early in the morning (well, early for us…so we’d be there by 8) to try and get the better shells. Walking along a beach is not a bad way to start out the day. I think if we had a home near a beach I would probably be there daily.

This is a small portion of the shells we found on one of the beaches. I did my homework and found a method to clean, brighten, and preserve the shells, so Nicholas and I worked on that pretty much every day we were there. I’m a little OCD when it comes to organization…so all of our shells are grouped together in bags from the beach we found them. Each bag is labeled with the name of the beach, the town the beach is in, and the date we went. So…when we were cleaning/brightening/preserving the shells, I had to keep each group separate so none of the shells mixed with shells from a different beach. I know, I know…I’m weird. It’s a thing. We just ignore it.

I actually found this little guy on one of my morning walks down by the river (I’ll show you pics of that later), but the resident was still very much alive, so I left it there. Did you know it’s against the law (in Florida) to collect live shells?

Myakka River State Park is one of Florida’s largest state parks and is known for it’s wildlife. It’s also one of the prettiest state parks we’ve seen. One of the big draws to this park is Florida’s only “Wild & Scenic River” that you can explore with canoes and kayaks or on a guided tour. Just be careful…gators are abundant here. Big gators. Big!

One of the hikes in the park is the Canopy Walkway. How cool does that sound? Canopy Walkway. I was expecting greatness! But, it wasn’t very big…and the view at the end was…ok. I’m not going to lie…it was kind of a letdown.

The wildlife in the park was definitely not a letdown. There was such a big variety of different birds and raccoons, hogs…

deer, gators, and squirrels… There was always something to watch. It’s really hard to see, but in the left pic are some deer and in the right pic you can see two gators being lazy on the shore. Every time we left our campsite, we saw wildlife of some kind!

One of our family goals for 2019 is to have more campfires. As a family who lives in an RV and is outdoors more than the average family…we rarely have a campfire. We really enjoy them. But it never seems to happen. So, for 2019 we are making an effort to spend more time under the stars with a cozy campfire and less time inside playing games.

We found two foodie spots. One was called Smacks Burgers and Shakes…you can see a burger in the pic above. They were really tasty burgers and Alex and I had to have a bit of a sweet treat after lunch and each tried some of their frozen custard. I didn’t get a photo of it…but it was so good! The other place we found is called Der Dutchman Sarasota and Guys…oh…my goodness! It was so good! I got zero pics of it…but if you’re in the area…just trust me and go. It’s a buffet and it’s all home cooking. Like the good kind of home cooking…not the kind where Aunt Lola brought a mystery casserole and everyone is afraid to try it. No, everything on the buffet was really good. Make sure you save room for dessert…and get the Dutch Surprise…you’ll thank me. I would have paid them for the recipe…I tried…more than once.

I usually end my posts with some pictures of pretties I’ve found in the area…but let’s talk about the best part of this park instead. The sunsets. Guys…look at these gorgeous sunsets!! I have soooo many amazing sunset pics from our one week staying in Myakka River State Park! In the bottom left pic above, if you look closely, you can see two gators. I think Florida might have been showing off just a bit. She did a great job of it.

See y’all down the road!

#hidingfromthecold
On The Move Again

On The Move Again

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Hey Guys!! After six weeks of staying in one place we were all ready to get moving again! I did some super long-term planning (which if you really know me isn’t that unusual) and snagged us a few hard to get spots at some of Florida’s beautiful State Parks!

One of the most stressful things about planning a stay in an area we’ve never been to is whether or not there is adequate cell signal. Not just because we want to stay connected with our phones and social media, but because we have to have it in order for Jerl to work. One of the reasons we don’t stay at more state parks is because they’re not usually close to town…so unless I know for sure there’s cell signal…it’s kind of a crap-shoot. And, since good cell signal is a requirement…I don’t usually take the chance. But, in Florida, we are super limited with where we can stay for a few different reasons. We’re not 55+, we have kids with us, we refuse to pay over $60 per night and…this is the biggest one…clothing is not optional for us. When I started planning for this leg of our Florida loop, I quickly realized that if I couldn’t get us into state parks…it wasn’t going to happen. For weeks I plotted and researched and planned for this tiny section of our Florida loop and man…did it payoff. I miraculously got us into not one, not two, but four state parks and two county parks! What, What?!?! Guys…that’s kind of amazing. Florida State Parks book eleven months in advance. Eleven!! And the morning a spot opens…it’s usually snatched up by 8AM Florida time that same morning. Which means you have to be on your game to even have a chance at getting a spot in your window. County Parks differ per county. Larry and Penny in Miami books long term stays from Jan to around Oct-Nov and then whatever is left they open up to short term visits. The trick with Larry and Penny is that you need to book for next year while you’re still at the park. Once you get your foot in the door, it’s easier to go back there. Fort De Soto County Park lets county residents book their stay nine months out and non-county visitors book six months out. I’m not gonna lie…this part of our Florida loop was super stressful to reserve. It was worse than when I planned our two months in Alaska. Which…is why it will be a few years before we have another Florida winter.

Our first move after Miami was to a cute little state park called Koreshan State Park in Estero, FL. It’s about thirty miles from the coast and is in a great part of town. The only downside to Koreshan State Park…no full-hookups. We loved it so much though, we’d totally go back.

Koreshan State Park maintains the Koreshan Unity Settlement which was one of many communal societies started around the turn of the century. There were several religious groups created at this time. Cyrus Teed, Koreshan Unity founder and messiah, intended the new community in Estero, FL to be the “New Jerusalem”. One of Teed’s beliefs was that the earth is hollow and that when we’re looking up to the sky, we’re actually looking toward the center of the earth. One of the requirements for joining the community was to give all of your possessions to the community. The community provided everything you needed.

The Koreshan’s were a communal society. That meant that all of the woman lived together, all of the men lived together, and all of the kids lived together. Families didn’t stay in the same house. It was Teed’s belief that the community should raise the children together. And the community was celibate. Which, isn’t great for growth. While some of the Koreshan beliefs were a little…hard to believe…they did have some good ideas about life. They believed in equality for men and women in a time when that was rare. Education was an important part of the community, girls and boys all went to school. This was also rare since most kids were working factory jobs starting at a young age. Teed believed that everyone should be prepared through education to lead a productive and useful life.

Eventually, as the members of the community grew older and passed away, the community dwindled. All of the children who’d been brought to the community with their families moved away as soon as they were old enough. Many of them married each other. In the end, there was a group of women who made a deal with the state of Florida. The state could have all of the land as long as the women could live out their lives there and the state had to keep the Koreshan Unity Community story alive. The last surviving member, Hedwig Michel, passed away in 1982. The state of Florida has taken care of the land and the buildings on it since then.

One of the coolest things about this state park is the bamboo forest. There are some great walking trails in the park and one leads you right through a bamboo forest. Nicholas (our Mr. Panda boy) thought this was really neat.

One of the things I love about Koreshan State Park is the Estero River that runs alongside it. I would walk down to it every morning before anyone else was up and about and watch the birds. I was hoping to see a manatee since we’d heard that they can be seen in the river…but, I never saw one.

What we did see a lot of…turtles! We saw these guys every single day we were there. They were kind of shy. As soon as they’d see us they would freeze and not move again until we started to walk away. Which, was great for taking pics!

We also found a few beaches to explore. We only had a week at Koreshan State Park so we didn’t get to very many beaches…but we sure enjoyed the ones we did get to visit. We had been looking forward to this Florida…the warm weather and beaches…

and the shell collecting. Guys…so…many…shells! The beaches here were like shell heaven! We loved collecting shells at the beaches!

Let’s talk foodies! We found a great little diner called Matt’s Red Hots. And yes, you’re looking at mac-n-cheese and onion rings on top of a hotdog. And yes…it was really good!!

There were a few pretties around…I thought I’d share this one with you. Check out the thorns on this plant! Those are some major thorns!!

We loved the Estero area! When we come back to Florida, we will definitely spend more time in this area!

See y’all down the road!

#hidingfromthecold
Hiding From The Cold

Hiding From The Cold

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Howdy!! It’s been a while since I last wrote a post. In fact, it’s been a few months. I took some time off from writing posts to be present in life. I feel like sometimes I get so caught up in trying to get a blog post written and out each week I forget to be in the moment…present in life. So, I worked ahead and was able to get posts scheduled from October 2018 to January 2019. Last week’s post was the last post I had pre-written so I could take a break.

SO! We’re back to the normal writing and posting schedule where I’m just a few weeks ahead! It’s been a few months…and we’ve done quite a bit! Let me get y’all caught up!

We left Colorado and spent some time in Missouri to visit family and friends. Then, we headed down to Texas to do some doctoring and visit with more friends. After Texas…we hightailed it down to Miami, FL where…we hid from the cold for six weeks.

We stayed at Larry and Penny Thompson Park the last time we were in the Miami area. It’s a great park with full hookups and is wonderful for getting some walking in. I can get right around two miles with one loop.

And…when I got tired of walking the loop in the park, I could venture out to this little pond just outside the campground boundary. The signs say watch for gators, but in the six weeks we were there…we never once saw a gator. Not. A single. Time.

Most of our six weeks we did regular life stuff. School, chores, work… Nothing exciting or remotely adventurous. I guess you could say we took a staycation. ;-p

We did eventually decide we should probably venture out and do something. We’d visited both National Parks in the area during our last stay in Miami, but we’d missed seeing the Nike Hercules Missile Base over at the Everglades National Park so we hit the Ranger Walk one Saturday. If you’re interested in seeing the Nike Missile Base here, you should know it’s only available through the Ranger Walk so make sure you check the times for that. We’ve been to other Nike Missile sites, but this was the first time where the missiles were kept in topside buildings instead of underground silos! This missile site was the last one to go dark in 1979 due to the Cuban Missile Crisis of the time.

We also made it to the Miami Zoo Lights during the Christmas season. We’d never been to the Miami Zoo…we wish we’d gone during the day instead of during the Zoo Lights. Don’t get me wrong…the lights were super cool! But, we only saw three animals. And, their habitats were lit with weird blue lighting. So, I guess we’ll have to hit that up the next time we’re back in Miami because the zoo itself looked like it would be a really neat zoo to visit!

One of the cooler things we did during our six weeks in Miami was to go to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and take a glass bottom boat ride! It was really neat to go check out some of the sea life hanging out by the coral reef! The whole tour was about two hours and there were a couple of very knowledgeable guides to tell us what we were looking at. They did a great job!

After the boat ride, we hung out at the state park long enough to check out the beaches and fight off the thousands of no-seeums that swarmed us. They were bad. We all went home with tons of little itchy bites! And yes…for those of you wondering…we did use spray. They might have thinned a bit after the spray, but they were still pretty darn thick.

John Pennekamp Coral Reef Sate Park is on Key Largo and…since we were so close…we decided to go hit up Robbie’s down in Islamorada for some lunch after the boat tour! Check out that shrimp quesadilla! It was huge! And it was loaded with shrimp. I wasn’t expecting to get that much shrimp in a quesadilla.

After we ate at Robbie’s we walked over to the docks right next to the restaurant where you can feed the ginormous tarpons!! Guys!! These fish were soooo big! We saw a few sharks lurking nearby too. And the pelicans were begging for food. Begging…stealing… The pelicans were kind of pushy about the food.

The last stop on our day trip to The Keys was to The Blond Giraffe Key Lime Pie Factory where you can get anything key lime flavored. We all got something then headed out to the chicken yard to eat. The chickens were awesome. They were so friendly they were willing to share your key lime treat…they might have been a little too friendly because they didn’t really care if you were done with your treat or not. Ha! I loved it! And yes, that is a frozen chocolate covered piece of key lime pie. Alex let me know that it was delicious!

We spotted tons of these huge iguanas. They would just kind of lumber around everywhere. The biggest ones we saw were all lounging around along the side of the big borrow pits along the sides of the roads. What’s a borrow pit? It’s where the state had to dig a big ditch in order to use that material to build up the road. All of the borrow pits we saw were filled with water…and quite a few had some gators that were keeping the iguanas company.

We made Christmas cookies over Christmas. It’s one of our traditions. The decorating gets more and more creative each year. We also ate ourselves silly on Cuban food and Mooyah burgers.

There were pretties everywhere, but these purple ones were my favorite.

We had a great six weeks being semi-normal and slowing down a little. It was such a switch from the fast paced moving we’d been doing all year. We learned we’d like to take it a little slower…we also learned that six weeks in one stop is way too long for us. We were all getting a little stir crazy by the end.

See y’all down the road!!

#hidingfromthecold