I can’t believe we’ve been doing this crazy nomad life for four years. I thought it would be fun to look at the stats for our journey overall so far before getting into the nitty gritty of year number four.
This map shows where we’ve been so far. Each color is a different calendar year. Our journey so far in numbers: 51,808.85 miles, 49 US states, 4 Canadian Provinces, 1,460 days, 119 National Park Units, 137 Junior Ranger badges, and countless memories.
We spent most of our fourth year as nomads exploring the west coast and it did not disappoint! It took me three years to talk Jerl into going to California and I knew it would probably be years before I could get him back to California so I packed as much as I possibly could into our time there. It was one of the best states we’ve explored…but it was also really crowded and super expensive. I’m already trying to talk Jerl into going back for a shorter visit to some of our favorite places.
Oregon was on fire when we went through, but we managed to see some of its beauty. We only spent a few weeks in Oregon…I have tons of places on our to see list, so we’ll definitely be back in Oregon exploring!
Washington was gorgeous. It was also dealing with some wildfires so it was really smokey some days, but we saw enough to know we would totally spend an entire season up there. We’ve made plans to spend a couple of months in Washington in 2020 and we’re so excited to get back up to the PNW!
We spent so much time on the west coast that we had to rush through Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado. We didn’t get to see much of them, but we were able to see the State Capitols of each state and make plans to visit again. We’ll be back in Colorado and Utah this year (2019) and we’re super excited to get back and explore more! We’ve already made reservations for Idaho and Wyoming for 2020…yup…2020. I’m a bit of a planner.
We spent the winter hiding from the cold in Florida. Florida was mainly sand and shells and amazing sunsets. We mostly succeeded in avoiding winter weather, but we did hit some colder weather once we moved up into the Orlando area. We didn’t mind the cooler weather while we were at Disney and Universal. The cold weather thins the crowds a little bit…not much…but some…and if you’ve been to Disney or Universal, you’ll know any help with shorter lines is welcome!
In our fourth year as nomads, we made it to fourteen new-to-us National Park Units and we revisited three NPS Units! National Parks really are America’s best idea. We have plans to see around twenty new-to-us NPS Units for 2019 and we are sooo ready to get going! Our favorite NP from year four of our explorations is Sequoia National Park. Something about those tall trees spoke to us and for the first time since we went nomad, we were genuinely sad to leave an area.
We finished our fourth year as nomads back in our home state of Texas so our boys could go through driver’s ed. Our timing was just right to see some of the best bluebonnets we’ve ever seen so I took the opportunity to snag some pics with the boys. We’ve also been eating as much bbq as we can…I mean, we are in one of the best bbq areas in the country…it would be wrong to waste the opportunity to try as many different bbq joints as we can…right?
And that is our fourth year as nomads in a nut shell! Thanks for coming along on the ride!
Hey Guys! We made it back to Texas! The Texas border sign is always a welcome site. Especially when we’re coming from Louisiana…the roads in Louisiana are so rough!
Our first stop in Texas was the Houston area…our home base. We’re only in Texas once a year, so when we’re home…we like to stop at some of our favorite foodie spots. Torchy’s Tacos and Papas Burger are both favorites of ours!
We didn’t really do much. We took care of some doctoring, saw a movie, and I planned the next school year. The best thing about stopping in the Houston area is visiting with friends. But, Guys, can we talk about those theater seats?! They reclined! It was the most comfortable theater seating we’ve found so far!
We got to spend some time with several of our friends and we got to try out some new foodie spots! The best one we tried was Bernie’s Burger Bus. My bestie (waves to Andrea) clued us into this spot and man-oh-man…was it good! The two of us met there for lunch the last week we were in town and it was so good I took Jerl there a couple of days later. Ha! Great find Andrea!
Most of the time we were in Houston was spent working on projects, chores, and planning with some visiting squished in as often as possible so there’s not really much to tell y’all. I mean, we did stuff…but it was mainly just regular life stuff. I don’t like to post pics of other people on here…they didn’t sign up for it…so that makes it hard to post about all of the visiting we did. So…this post is on the short side.
The next four months will be slower for us. Two months in Texas followed by two months in Missouri. I’m not sure there will be post-worthy events every single week, but I’ll post as often as I can. I’m not one to post just to get a post up. I like a post to actually be entertaining.
Hey Guys! We spent a week in Louisiana…eating. I’m not even kidding. When I scheduled us to stop in Louisiana for an entire week it was purely to chow down on some Cajun food. We’re foodies…it’s part of the journey for us.
Lets start with the one thing we did that wasn’t food related. We took a field trip to LIGO in Livingston, LA. What the heck is LIGO? LIGO stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory. Man, that’s a mouth full! Try saying that five times real fast! ;-P So, what the heck do they do at LIGO? To put it in simple terms…they detect gravitational waves…with lasers. The facility works in conjunction with the facility in Hanford, WA to measure and detect gravitational waves. I’ll be honest…most of it was way over my head. We absolutely loved the hands on science exhibits!! Our little nomadic nerd hearts were in heaven!
We were lucky to even get into LIGO for a tour. They only do schools through the week and then they’re open the third Saturday of the month to the public. And, if we’d been a week later, we’d have been out of luck because they were all booked. It’s a great tour and an awesome field trip…if any of you are ever in Louisiana, it’s worth it to stick around the Livingston area so you can do a tour at LIGO.
Now to the foodies. I’m not going to break down every place we ate…but every single place we tried was amazing. Guys, that doesn’t happen often You know…you go try a place and it’s just meh and turn around and try a place right down the street and it’s ah-maze-ing. There are some states that we struggle just to find a decent burger and then there are states (like Louisiana) where we struggle not to eat out every single day because it’s all just so dang good!
One of our top picks for this visit is a place called Cate Street Seafood Station. We ate there twice…in a week. Cate Street has it all…seafood, boudin balls, pasta, po’boys, and sushi! All with a Cajun flare to it. And Guys…the desserts…I have three words for you… Fried. Bread. Pudding. It’s a good thing we don’t spend more time in Louisiana. I’d weigh two-hundred pounds easily.
Hey Guys! From Florida we made our way back to Texas. We could have just jumped our way back like we did to get to Florida. But, where’s the fun in that…and besides, that makes for a long three days of constant driving. So, we decided to take our time and do a couple of weekly stays on the way back to Texas.
Our first stop was in Alabama at some friend’s house. We spent the week mooch-docking in their yard so we could visit more. I’m not going to include any pics of them or their kids…I didn’t ask and not too many people are hip to having their pics up on the web.
Jerl was thrilled to have access to a smoker again. He spent the week smoking meat and giving our friend tips. We’ve missed having a smoker. The road up to Alaska chewed up the smoker we had and we haven’t found one that would work with our space requirements since then…so…no smoked meat.
Our friends knew we were into forts so they took us to Fort Morgan State Historic Site one afternoon. Fort Morgan’s military history starts with the War of 1812 and stretches all the way to World War II. That’s over 100 years of service during varying war campaigns.
The construction of Fort Morgan began in 1819 and took a total of fifteen years to complete. The total cost in 1834 was $1,026,777.41. The fort stayed active and manned until 1944 and then in 1947 the military deeded Fort Morgan to the state of Alabama where it became one of Alabama’s state parks.
We had such a good time exploring this fort with our friends! I think it was even better than most forts for the boys because they had Cam and Brie to explore with them.
We also made it to the 5Rivers Alabama Delta Resource Center where the Apalachee, Spanish, Mobile, Blakeley, and Tensaw rivers all flow into Mobile Bay. It was a really cool place! We did a short walk (it started raining on us) and spent time going through the learning center and the exhibit hall where we got to see some of Alabama’s native animals up close. If you’re ever in the Mobile area…you should stop and check it out!
We met our friends back in 2016 while we were exploring New York. We were staying in the same campground. Our kids and their kids hit it off quite well. We’ve kept in touch since then and any time we’re near Mobile, we spend time catching up. We’ve made some of the coolest friendships during our crazy nomadic adventures!
Thanks for putting up with us for an entire week L Family!! We loved visiting with y’all and meeting more of your family!
Hey Guys! After almost four months of hiding from winter in Florida, we’re down to our last two weeks in the Sunshine State. We spent two weeks in Jacksonville, FL. I’m not going to lie…we weren’t super impressed with the area we stayed in. The RV park had recently been purchased and was converting from a mobile home community to an RV park…so…it was kind of a dump. There were still mobile homes that looked like they should have been demolished twenty years ago, the roads around the park were filled with some of the biggest potholes we’ve seen, and the neighborhood was sketchy at best. But, we stayed anyway. We could tell the new owners were making strides to clean the park up and make it something less…scary. We saw them working hard every day we were there. And, we will probably give them another chance the next time we’re in the area.
We have quite a few adventures on our list for the Jacksonville area. We made it to several places, but couldn’t get to all of them.
Y’all know we love old Forts. We stopped by Fort Caroline National Memorial. Fort Caroline preserves the story of a sixteenth century French colonial settlement. The actual location of Fort Caroline has never been determined. The NPS has made a near full scale replica near the location they believe the original fort was. Honestly, there’s not much there. We did enjoy learning about the old French fort, but kind of expected more from a NPS unit.
Kingsley Plantation is part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Perserve. When Zephaniah Kingsley first settled on Fort George Island, the plantation was only accessible by boat. The once one-thousand acre plantation had a cash crop of Sea Island cotton. This NPS unit shares the story of Zephaniah Kingsley, his wife Anna, and their children. Anna was once a slave of his. She and Zephaniah ended up having three children together and in 1811 he freed Anna and their three children. They all moved to the Kingsley Plantation together and Anna managed not only that plantation but several others they owned in the area. When Anna was freed in 1811 she acquired more land and slaves.
Today at the Kingsley Plantation you can walk around the now sixty acre NPS unit and learn about the stories of the people who used to live and work at the plantation. There are several buildings still standing and you can explore most of them.
Our favorite Jacksonville adventure was Fort Clinch State Park. The very first fortifications to sit on this site were started in 1736 and like most forts of that time, there were several different stages of fortifications before the construction of Fort Clinch was started in 1847. At the start of the Civil War the fort was only about 2/3 complete and didn’t have a single canon mounted yet. There was minimal work on the fort during the Civil War so it still wasn’t finished by the end of the war. Because of this, in 1869 the fort was abandoned and left empty. The US Army maintained the fort until the Spanish-American War when Fort Clinch was used as not only barracks for the soldiers, but also as an ammunition depot as well. Less than a year later the hostilities were over and the fort was abandoned once again. By 1926 the location was no longer thought to be of strategic value and the US Army sold the fort and its land to private buyers. In 1935 Fort Clinch became one of Florida’s first State Parks. At this point the CCC stepped in and started renovations. CCC Company 1420 built the campground, roads, and museum as well as the restoration of the fort itself. We’re fans of the CCC. We’ve come across their work all across our country and the stories they tell are always some of the most fascinating. It’s amazing that the work they did back then is still being utilized even today. Personally, I think our country could benefit from another program like the CCC.
Guys, this fort was so awesome. There were sooo many tunnels, and buildings, and walkways to explore! We had the best time learning the story of Fort Clinch!
We found another beach…well, there were tons of beaches, but we were specifically looking for a shelling beach. I can’t remember the name of the beach we ended up at, but there were quite a few shells. We didn’t find a huge variety…we might have been there too late for that…but we found enough to fill up a big ziplock! We now have quite the collection of Florida shells. If I have time, I’ll put together a post on how we clean and preserve our shells.
I know this is going to come as a shock, but we found some foodies. Just a few. Ha! The best/worst one was Toby’s BBQ. It was the best because the food was stellar…it was the worst because it was literally right across the street from where we were staying. So…we ate there a few times. Oh! And Toby’s gives you a free dessert with every meal. I mean…it was free…we had to eat it, right?
Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park isn’t in Jacksonville…it’s in Tallahassee. We stopped for a visit while we were on the way to Alabama, but I thought I’d stick it in with this post. Guys, this place… So. Many. Pretties! And, the best part about this SP…there are pretties that bloom all year! This SP was once the winter home of Alfred Maclay and his wife who were, like us, hiding from the winter in Florida. The Maclay’s bought the property in 1923 and set out to create the beautiful gardens you can walk through today. The SP is used as a setting for weddings and events throughout the year, but the most popular season is around February/March when the camellias are in full bloom. In fact, the day we went, there were two weddings taking place later that day.
And that, Guys, is the end of our Florida winter! It’ll be two years before we head toward the east coast again. I’m not sure when we’ll winter in Florida again…it’s difficult to find places…but, really, it’s hard to find places that will take us in Arizona (which is another great place to hide from the cold) for the winter too…so, we’ll see!
Hey Guys!! We spent two weeks in the Orlando area but we didn’t really do much. We only went to two places…
Thanks to some friends of ours who are totally awesome for giving us tickets (waves at David, Sarah, and Virginia) we spent four days at Universal Studios…being wizards. Universal is one of our favorite amusement parks. Every time we walk into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter it’s like the first time all over again. Universal really does an amazing job of transporting you into the books/movies of the Harry Potter world. Universal has more 3D/4D rides than roller coasters and while that’s all good…we do really enjoy them…we’d like to see more actual coasters. This year one of the roller coasters was being redone into a new HP coaster experience. It’s supposed to open up sometime this summer…we will definitely have to go back for it. We did get to hit the new rides that were being built last time we were there…The Fast & Furious ride and the Jimmy Fallon ride…they were both…ok. I feel like they could have been so much better.
I’m not going to lie…I could totally be a regular at Universal. I could go weekly and never get tired of it.
Universal has some great foodies! Not only within the individual parks but also out on the City Walk. You can totally find anything you’re craving. You’ll pay amusement park prices…but hey…at least the food is good! We like to take picnic type foods for lunch and then splurge for dinners. It’s nice because it’s so easy to walk out to your car and have a meal then walk back in to the parks. If you have park hopper tickets, it only takes maybe 10 to 15 minutes to walk from park to park. We love how easy it is to get around the Universal campus.
We spent four straight days at Universal. I don’t know about you, but when we do the amusement park thing…We’re going to get in every second we can from the time we have there. We show up when the park opens and we leave when they kick us out. It’s like an all day marathon. At the end of our four days there…our feet were feeling the miles.
We took four days off…well…not really off. We spent those four days catching up on real life stuff. You know…work, school, chores, laundry. Our feet totally appreciated the time off.
The second week we headed to Disney World. This was our first visit to Disney. I got us tickets through some special Disney was running at that time. Four day park tickets for like $89 per day per person. The tickets were only only good for certain dates (which worked because that’s when we were in the area) and we could only use one ticket per park. No park hopping. No using two tickets for the same park. And that was perfect for us. We wanted to experience the four different parks.
We started with Hollywood Studios. This is the park the boys had been looking forward to the most because of the Star Wars stuff. Nicholas dressed as Darth Vader…Chewie was not amused. In fact, Chewie put Nicholas in the corner. It’s definitely a moment we will always remember! We met all of the characters we wanted to, rode the rides…and only had to stand in one long (90 min) line. The longest line was for Slinky Dog Dash. We stayed for the Disney Fantasmic show at the end of the evening and it was so good!
Here’s the thing about roller coasters…four of us love them. Nicholas…not so much. So, usually, one of us has to sit and wait with him and then we either swap or one of us misses out. Disney’s coasters are a bit tamer than what we’ve seen before. I actually talked Nicholas into riding Slinky Dog Dash and guess what Guys…he liked it! Every time we talked him into trying another ride he got more comfortable with riding. The Aerosmith ride is the only coaster he didn’t’ ride and it’s probably a good thing. It was mainly in the dark and it was fast with loops…he wouldn’t have liked it at all. The three of us that rode it loved it!
Disney day two was spent at The Magic Kingdom. This seems to be the biggest of the four parks and was definitely the most crowded. We had a great day of exploring all of the different magical lands and riding all of the rides. Our longest line was for The Seven Dwarves Mine coaster and it was less than an hour. Our favorite ride was probably the Seven Dwarves.
We don’t really care for the way you have to ride either the mono-rail or the ferry in order to get to Magic Kingdom. Plus, the parking is so far away you have to ride a tram just to get to the ticketing area where you catch a ride to the actual park. It would have taken two or more hours to go out to our car for lunch so we ended up eating all of our meals in the park…which can add up when you’re feeding five people and three of them are teenage boys who can totally put some food away.
We stayed for the light/fireworks show at the end of the evening. Wow…just wow! It was so worth staying for. We really enjoyed it! I wonder how much Disney spends on fireworks a day? The ocean of people trying to get to the mono-rail and ferry so they could grab a tram to get back to their cars was…well, we’ll never stay for the ending show again. We saw it once and that was enough.
Disney day three was Epcot. This is the park Jerl and I had been looking forward to…and yes…it was for the foodies. Ha! The Test Track Experience totally took us off guard. We went there first and Guys, we were there for two hours. Playing. You get to design and test your own cars. It’s so cool! We were going to ride it again but the day got away from us. We really enjoyed Epcot. We feel like a few of the rides could use some updating…but we thoroughly enjoyed exploring the different countries and sampling the foodies. The longest line for us at Epcot was maybe half an hour and that was for the Soarin’ ride. I have to say thanks to a friend (Mark) for letting us know how good this ride is! I’m not sure we would have ridden it if he hadn’t clued us in on it.
I found this cute little passport in one of the stores and even though it’s technically meant for kids…I had the best time collecting all of the stamps! So fun! And each one of the countries had their own special way to sign it. My favorite is Norway.
We stayed for the end of the night light show at Epcot, but after Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios…it was a little lack luster. Still very cool, but not huge like we’d come to expect after the two previous nights.
Epcot foodies did not disappoint. Between the five of us, I think we got something in almost every area. Some areas we visited more than once. We were disappointed in the Italy section. We’d been looking forward to grabbing a slice of pizza in Italy and there was no fast service pizza places. None. The only option for pizza was the sit down…take a long time place. And Guys, we didn’t want to take the time for that. We wanted quick and easy…grab and go. We basically ate the entire day. That was our plan…walk and eat. We didn’t even plan to go out to our car for lunch because we knew we were going to want to try everything.
Disney day four was Animal Kingdom. I had high hopes for this park since it was originally designed to be a zoo. We started in the Pandora section because I’d heard the rides there have super long lines throughout the day. We got there when the park opened (actually, we somehow got in before actual opening time) and went straight to the Pandora Flight of Passage ride and the line was already at a 120 min wait. This was the longest line we stood in the entire day. The ride was great! The other Pandora ride was not worth the 90 min line we stood in at all. But, now we know. Animal Kingdom felt the most crowded of all of the parks. Our favorite ride at Animal Kingdom was Expedition Everest. This was a great coaster that we somehow talked Nicholas into riding! I got worried when it went backwards in the dark…but he did great and…even wanted to ride it again. Which, surprised us all. We snagged him a Yeti shirt from the gift shop after the ride. We rode all of the rides we wanted to, saw the very few animals they have there (we felt like there should have been more animals for a park that was supposed to be a zoo), and left around five that evening. We didn’t wait to see the light show at the end of the evening. We were done. We were at the end of two very long weeks and we were just really over the crowds. Crowds aren’t our thing.
When we left Animal Kingdom we headed over to Disney Springs to do some shopping and grab dinner. We managed to get there before the evening rush. We strolled through a few shops found the souvenirs we wanted and we were done. Our feet were screaming at us and we were feeling a little under the weather. Somewhere at some point over the last two weeks we’d come into contact with some germs…imagine that…and four out of five of us had colds and some really hellacious allergies.
The next day Jerl and I ended up heading back to Disney Springs to exchange a shirt that didn’t fit quite the way we wanted. We snuck in a date night and ended our Disney World days with some Ghirardelli treats as we chatted about our first Disney experience as a family. I had been to Disneyland before and he had been to Disney World before, but we’d never been as a family.
We didn’t really end up with many souvenirs. Some pins and smashed coins…a post card and the passport…we each got a shirt. Compared to what we buy at Universal that’s not a whole lot. We kind of go crazy at Universal…I mean…Harry Potter. I did get rice crispy treats at three of the parks and then at Disney Springs. I some how missed getting one at Epcot. I guess I was too busy eating everything else in sight. ;-p
We’ve had some people asking us to compare Universal and Disney. It’s hard to do that. They’re such different parks. It really is like trying to compare apples and oranges. The rides, the foodies, the entire feel of the two different amusement park companies is different. They’re each shooting for a different demographic group. For us…we’ll choose Universal every time. Not just because of Harry Potter…we like that the two Universal parks are so easy to park hop between. We like that our car is so easily accessible. We love the rides at Universal. We’re not terribly into the whole princess thing. Disney is geared more for a younger group of kids. When we go to an amusement park, I want thrilling rides and good foodies.
And Guys, even if we had little kids who were totally into Disney, I wouldn’t take them to Disney until they were at least ten. By noon, I’d say 89% of parents we saw at Disney looked haggard and the kids looked totally miserable. We saw parents with printed out itinerary talking about their reservations and fast pass times while the kids were screaming to go on a specific ride right then. They were stressed and the kids totally felt it too. We didn’t do reservations. We didn’t have fast pass times. We just walked around and jumped in lines as we saw them. And guess what…we had a great time! We were able to ride every single ride we wanted to, see everything we wanted to see, and grab food when we passed something that looked good. My point? Don’t forget to have fun. And please, for the love of all that is good in this world…stop entertaining your kids with screens 24/7. Let them get bored and learn how to deal with it. We saw soooo many kids walking around Disney with screens of some kind in their faces with headphones on. Usually watching some Disney show…while they’re at Disney.
Overall, I’d call our two weeks of amusement parks a success! We learned that eight full days in two weeks of amusement parks is too much. We were worn out for a week. But man oh man…we sure had some fun and made some amazing memories!
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.
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.
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!
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.
