Our Road Trips

6/12/2015

April is my favorite month in Florida...it hasn't gotten real hot yet, the snowbirds are gone so we can actually get into campgrounds & restaurants, and the southerly breezes blow day & night. We love the Florida Keys for all those reasons, plus it is a great place to see stuff and just relax...being on 'Keys Time' is way more than a myth, it is a way of life in South Florida.

We started the month off in Jacksonville attending a movie shooting at the Historic Florida Theater and 2 consecutive nights of Lynyrd Skynyrd performing the 2 first albums released back in the 70s, before the plane crash that wiped out a good portion of the band and caused the band to go into hiatus for 10 years. The place was packed both nights and everyone had a great time listening to music released 40 years ago. During the day between performances, Barb and I sat on Jacksonville Beach and watched the world go by...nice way to spend an April day. After the 2nd show, it was back home and get ready for the Keys drive.

April 4th we drove to Long Key State Park and settled in on Site 30 for 2 weeks. We had this reservation since May 4, 2014, made at 5 in the morning in Billings Montana...early bird gets the best sites. 11 months is a long time to wait for a camp site, but you have to do that to get a site in the State Parks in the Keys...they stay full. We are less than 15 feet from the water at high tide and the park is a very nice park, so it is understandable. We spent the next 2 weeks visiting every State Park in the Keys (7) and also taking a ferry to Ft Jefferson at The Dry Tortugas National Park, 70 miles west of Key West. We really enjoyed getting to visit places we had never been...beautiful spots. While in Key West for the Dry Tortugas trip, we spent a night in a hotel in Key West and did some of the things Key West has to offer, including a 'Taste of Key West' event on the Truman Annex, lots of tents set up to get a sample of local fair. It was a fun 3 hours. Then we met some friends at Capt. Tony's for a few of what Key West is most famous for...It was a very enjoyable 2 weeks of partying, being a tourist and relaxing. I never went fishing once, but we ate fish about 6 times...fresh fish. I celebrated my birthday too...fun two weeks. Last year, we spent these days in the middle of Iowa, quite a difference! But Iowa was part of a much bigger picture, so it was OK.

After 2 weeks in the Keys, we drove west across the Everglades to the Ft Myers area and 5 nights at an Army Corps campground on the Caloosahatchee River...beautiful spot. It was our first try at this site and it did not disappoint. We spent a day visiting Muscle Car City, a museum in an old Wal-mart in Punta Gorda full of 1960s era muscle cars...what a great use of a Wal-mart. We also visited several of the State Parks in the area and spent the better part of a day touring the Henry Ford/Thomas Edison winter estates in Ft Myers. We had never really spent too much time in Ft Myers, so it was some fun days. We even drove out to Captiva Island and watched the craziness of too many people trying to squeeze into a restaurant called the Mucky Duck. We drove back to the mainland and had a nice leisurely dinner on Ft Myers Beach...much more sane. We also celebrated our 46th Anniversary while there too. We had a great 5 days in a sort of 'new' part of Florida. It is a very pretty area.

Then we drove home doing our 'avoid Interstates' tour...an hour longer but way prettier and less stressful...this retired life is agreeing with us both. We dropped off the motor home after emptying it and doing some laundry and drove our car to Sandy Shoes, a cool little hotel on the ocean in Melbourne Beach, where we spent the next 3 nights unwinding, with our friends, The Harrells.

Then it was back home. We took the MH to a Cummins dealer to get our overheating issue from Utah & Colorado figured out, along with some preventive maintenance.. We have to be ready for the summer trip...lots coming up. Then it was more Dr & Dentist visits...part of life, we reckon. May is next, time to get ready for the summer trip...stand by, lots more to come.

Steve & Barbara Larson