I am now sitting in a McDonald's somewhere in Tennessee on a rainy day. Often internet access is quite a challenge but McDonald's allows it for free. So here I sit in my 1st McD's in 30 years reminiscing about our 6 months in Florida.
Although I have been to Florida several times, my impression of the state has always been the same: A hot, flat state with Disney World at its center; which is surrounded by a massive damp, muddy swamp full of alligators and spiders and snakes (Oh My!); which was then surrounded by beautiful beaches. Frankly, a lot of this is true, but if you spend time traveling wherever your whim takes you, there is great beauty and interesting locations. The state has hundreds of beautiful fresh water springs pumping millions of gallons of water into rivers and streams. There are millions of acres of stately live oak trees draped in spanish moss providing a beautiful respite from the sun and heat. And there are still unique places such as St. Augustine, Key West and Cedar Key which allows you to escape the sprawling strip malls which all look the same.
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| Airstream graveyard, RT 4, Tampa. |
One of our favorite adventures was returning to Blue Springs State Park where we viewed hundreds of Manatees earlier in the year. This time the manatees migrated back to the ocean and we were free to swim in the spring and float down the crystal-clear river. Although the manatees had departed, the river was full of fish with some of the Gar as long as 6'. I had my snorkel & mask and was able to observe hundreds of friendly fish swimming side-by-side with us.
We had several special events during our last month in Florida. First, Marie and Tom were able to visit us for the first 2 nights of their vacation. We got down to Cocoa Beach for a great day of swimming and spent some time in the tiki bars in Port Canaveral. Port Canaveral is the home of the Disney Cruise Line and also is a large port-of-call for several other cruise lines. So the local tiki bars were lively and full of excellent music.
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Nancy & Marie at Grills Tiki Bar in Port Canaveral.
A school of dolphins gave us a visit in the area directly behind Nancy & Marie. |
We also were able to visit Todd and Mary on their vacation for a few nights. We enjoyed sitting in the pouring rain in a hot tub and bobbing in the big surf on the ocean at their beachfront resort. We had a blast.
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Todd & me at Palm Beach Shores.
The waves that day were a lot higher than shown in this photo. |
Also, we visited Connecticut for 7 nights. What a whirlwind! It seemed that every minute was full of activities. We were able to spend a lot of time at Bryce's new apartment so we spent one full day fixing up her new place. The good news of our visit was that we spent a lot of time with our family, including my 91 year old mother! The bad news was that we had no time to visit friends. Next time we we make it a longer visit.
The big news for us was that we purchased an RV lot at The Great Outdoors (TGO) in Titusville and we were able to spend a month on our new lot. Titusville is very close to Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Disney. It is a very active resort with tons of activities and friendly people. Right now RV lots are selling for 50% of their 2006 value, so they are a steal. TGO caters to guests of a much older age, so it does not have an immediate attraction for us. However, after a few years on the road, TGO will be an ideal location to reside.
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Our lot at TGO.
There is a pond in our back yard.
While we were in Titusville we witnessed the launch of the Falcon 9 Rocket! |
Finally, we spent a week in Tampa to attend the NCAA Women's Basketball Final 4. Although the actual games were on Sunday and Tuesday, the Final 4 activities started on Friday night. We attended everything to get the full Final 4 experience and had a blast at the games. Since we were "nobody special" our tickets were in the "nosebleed" section of a 20,000 capacity forum. However, our section was allowed to move to floor-side seats for the National Championship game. What a treat. Of course, UCONN won so we stayed late watching all the post-game events and award presentations. This was a special event for us as I don't think we have missed watching a televised UCONN game since they were first televised in a Final Four game around 1993.
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| The award of the National Championship trophy. |
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| More celebration! |
We finally left Florida and are now heading to Colorado and the Southwest for the summer-Can't wait!
ENJOY!
Below is the map of our Florida travels for 2015. The challenge is to see if you can follow the spaghetti:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zLQQ1JSxt_JA.kPd-RkPl4eE4&usp=sharing
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