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Florida

Season 5 Begins!

By Time2Geaux Unplugged

We left our home base of Baton Rouge, LA after a nice long stop. We had to do some maintenance on the camper, and had plenty of other projects to do, as well as spend time with our family that is still in the area. We rolled out of Baton Rouge on a Saturday heading east to Florida.

We have spent the first four seasons of our RV adventure heading west. Since we were raised in Louisiana, all of our family vacations were always to Florida or the eastern side of the country, never west. Sure, we had been to Houston but Texas is so big, and we never ventured any farther west without flying. In our first four seasons, we have gone west covering 38 states including the heartland and three Canadian Provinces.

Pensacola

On our first day we made it as far as Mobile, and without any real agenda or time restraints. We stopped for our first night in Spanish Fort, boondocking at the Bass Pro. After patronizing our host, we moved on to Pensacola. We spent about a week in the area, making some new friends at the Elks where we stayed. We had both been to Pensacola many times but this time was different. Since we are looking for property where we can spend part of the year, Pensacola was a surprise. We like the old city vibes. If you want the touristy beach scene it is a quick drive to Pensacola Beach. If North Carolina comes up dry as place to spend part of the year, then this could be a real possibility.

Our fur baby had her first birthday while in Pensacola and we took her out to eat! We ordered her an appetizer portion of flounder which she loved! Tell me she doesn’t have a great life with two retirees at your beck and call! She is a bit spoiled, to say the least, but Baisie is a special pup.

We then made a side trip to Cedar Key, it was a bit cold this time of year but loved the town and all it had to offer.

Pelican taking off at Cedar Key fishing warf

Springs of Central Florida

After a quick stop in Tallahassee, we headed south to Central Florida which is famous for crystal clear springs. Before Disney came to Florida, it was Silver Springs that was Florida’s top tourist attraction. I have some fond childhood memories of visiting the springs. It was the highlight of our vacations, swimming and boating in water so clear that you could see forever!

We were lucky to visit during manatee season. This is when the manatees come in from the Gulf of Mexico, seeking warmer water that the springs provide in the winter. The springs are a chilling 72F year round, but during winter the gulf water temps drop, and the manatees seek refuge.

We camped at a county park, Hart Springs which was upriver from Manatee Springs where I remember camping at as a kid. We saw less than a dozen manatees in the spring and river that flows into the Suwannee River. I got in the water to take some photos of a manatee. I was hoping JoAnn would join me but after one check on the water temperature, she wasn’t interested.

Baisie running through the woods at Manatee Springs State Park

Crystal River

We were lucky to have our inflatable kayak with us and drove over to Crystal River which is the most populated manatee refuge. We were joined by some RV friends who also have an inflatable kayak for our adventure. We put in with Baisie on the bow as our manatee spotter. We put in at Hunter Springs park and kayaked over to Three Sisters Springs where most of the manatees could be found this day. We saw more than a dozen and had a great day on the water.

Silver Springs

We finished up our visit to the spring region with a visit to Silver Springs and the famous glass bottom boats. I remember riding in those boats as a kid and wanted to share that experience. This spring was once owned by a movie studio and lots of underwater scenes were filmed here including ‘Creature of the Black Lagoon’ and James Bond’s ‘Moonracker’! The start of Florida’s golden age of roadside attractions was post WW1 when tourist in their Model T’s took to the Orange Blossom Trail from the north. The sunset on these attractions when the focus changing after Disney came to Orlando. Most of these attractions are closed, some with natural features like Silver Springs was taken over by the state and made into parks.

St Petersburg & The Dali

One of the items on our list was to see The Dali museum and what an eye-opening experience. We not only saw the amazing work from an eccentric artist but also got a new understanding of the world events that surrealism grew out of. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

For more on Surrealism see the article I published on Medium.

Sunken Gardens

While in St Pete we also had a little extra time to visit Sunken Gardens which are over 100 year old garden and was the work of an individual family, and is now open to the public.

Fort Myers

We moved down the coast towards Fort Myers where we meet up with some old friends whom we meet when we sold our first camper. We spent the day with them, starting at the De Soto National Memorial where the explorers came ashore and then the Ford / Edison Winter estates where the masters worked in the winter months. We visited the homes and laboratory where Edison worked finding a rubber substitute.

We finished up the day at the beach looking for shells. The beaches around Ft Myers are world-famous for shelling. We found some shells, one nice one still had an owner so we returned him to the sea. Baisie had a big day playing and filled the truck with sand on the ride home.

St Augustine

Sometimes when you don’t plan life, things just fall in place that would have been hard to plan for. Case in point, we were on our way to St Augustine when our daughter called wondering where we were. She was flying to Orlando for a business meeting in St Augustine! She didn’t have much time but we did get a chance to meet her for coffee.

When it comes to history St Augustine is hard to beat. It is the oldest continuously occupied European city in the United States. Fifty years before Jamestown to give you a reference. It was settled in 1565 and home to the Fountain of Youth. The city was of strategic value to Spain to protect her treasure fleets heading home through the Florida Straits. It has quite an old city charm and we could have spent a month here. Also the day we were leaving, they had a huge Farmers Market which we took the time to visit. Founds lots of great produce, and listened to the local music.

Coffee Break with Chelsea in St. Augustine

Closing

Accommodations were as hard as we expected. We knew we were in Florida in the middle of the ‘snow bird’ season. This is when all the retirees from up north head to the warmer climate to avoid the hard winter. We had been living with this for the last three seasons but since we have a large enough solar install that we can camp off-grid and we never worried about a place to park. In Florida, there are very limited public lands that allow overnight dry camping.

Elk’s was a lifesaver! We joined the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks after we started our RV life. A lot of the lodges have some RV hookups for traveling Elks members, most on a first-come / first-serve basis with most limiting stays to 14 days. Lodges also have activities that traveling Elks are welcome to join. One had a Tiki Bar on Sunday afternoon that was a lot of fun.

We will be sure that our next trip to Florida is outside of Summer vacation and the Snow Bird season! We still need to pull the camper to the Keys!

As we leave Florida, heading north we are looking forward to our Eastern Seaboard adventure. The next stop is Savanna Georgia, then into the Carolinas. We plan to start looking for property in North Carolina because on paper it seems to fit what we are looking for. She’s a beach girl and I’m a mountain boy.