Overview of our first extended RV trip from Arizona to Florida (2013)

Before we get started on our adventures to the Northwest this year, I will give a summary of our first major trip in our RV.  We left Arizona mid-December, 2012 and returned in late January, 2013.

We headed to visit friends and relatives in Florida.  After a forced march across Texas (including 2 days of unexpected driving by Leslie because my back went out after the second day on the road), we made it to Disney World's Wilderness Park for a week's stay with family ( Leslie's son, and grandkids from Atlanta, and sister-in-law from Boston).
 Because I have not been known as a "people picture" taker, photographic duties at Disney were assigned to another member of the party.  Unfortunately we don't have those pictures handy, so I guess this part of the trip never happened.

After the family returned to Atlanta, we continued our journey to Tampa to visit with a friend from Atlanta.  During our stay at Lazydays campground in Tampa, we visited the Florida Botanical Gardens to satisfy Leslie's Master Gardener urges. It was an extensive and interesting garden run by the University of South Florida with many unidentifiable plants (at least to those of us coming from the desert).It also was adjacent to an area where historic buildings were preserved.

After Tampa we moved to the Titusville area of Florida's east coast.  We had a great visit with our colleagues from Atlanta, Al and Sandy, that live in the area.  We visited the Merritt Island National Wildlife Preserve that is near Cape Canaveral.  Al has taken so many guests to tour the wildlife preserve that he has the Alligators on speed dial.


We had a great time seeing the waterfowl and many gators sunning in the area.  On the way, we stopped at a favorite hangout of manatee (see left pic, click on pic to view larger).  We had no luck.  However, Leslie did spot an imaginary flipper or two.

We left Titusville on our way to the Keys.  We didn't want to go to our destination near Key West in one day so we searched for a stopover in Southern Florida.  Everything was  booked but we lucked out and found an Elks Club on Key Largo. This is a view from their private beach! The grassy field accommodated about 15 large rigs with water and electric hookups.  This certainly is a great stopover for anyone traveling to Key West. 

 We settled in at the Bluewater Key RV resort and felt dwarfed in our tiny 33 foot coach (compared to the majority of the residents).  We took a trip to Key West to take in the sights and search out the Blue Heaven restaurant.  It was a fabulous breakfast experience with outdoor seating, live music, and roaming chickens. The next stop after lots of people watching, old building looking, and bicycle dodging, was Jimmy Buffett's for the obligatory margarita in Margaritaville. One evening we took in the sights and the crazy activity on the southernmost point in the U.S.  Many sights are to be had: singers (maybe even some that have talent), sleepers, tarot card readers, cat tamers, brownie ladies on bicycles, beach bars, sailboats and the main attraction -- the SUNSET.  This fellow was of particular note.  He wasn't the best crooner with his banjo but he had the biggest crowd and tip jar.  This was mainly due to his partner who went around the crowd gathering dollar bills and placing them in the bucket.  Occasionally he would take a dollar, go toward the bucket and then turn around to take a second dollar before putting the bills into the bucket.

After time in the Keys, we moved North again to the Ft. Lauderdale area.  Leslie's old college roommate, Nancy, and her husband Verlin were visiting the area (coincidence?).  When Leslie and Nancy get together, the touring begins.  Can you say energizer bunny times two?  We did a tour of the   Butterfly Gardens (not to be missed), several OLD HOUSE tours, a boat tour of the mansions and yachts in the area,  a very claustrophobic fern garden, the beach and brewpub afternoon, and several dinners together.  This is only a partial list of the events of our 10 day stay.  So after that visit we were ready for the relaxing trip through Florida, across the South, and through Texas to get home!

Before we left Florida we stayed at one of our favorite parks on the whole trip.   Topsail Hills Preserve State Park near Destin was a wonderful stop.  Luckily it was so good that we didn't have any problem extending our stay for two days in order to miss the storms coming through the South.  While we were there our friends from Atlanta, Patty and Tony came down to visit.  Patty and Tony have extensive experience in the coastal waters in their boat.  Also, they knew the best seafood restaurants in the area (always on the top of MY list of things to do). We had a great time exploring the State Park property.  It includes many trails, two freshwater ponds, a long private beach, RV & tent camping, and cabins.  

From Topsail Hills we made our way home to Arizona.  We stopped at a Casino park in Mississippi, a  rural park with sounds of gunfire all night in Texas, and in Van Horn, Texas.  Van Horn is infamous among RVers for giving tickets out if you stop anywhere other than an RV Park.  We did stay at a park just because it was logistically convenient and because the SUPER BOWL was about to start.  We did visit an interesting spot: the El Capitan Hotel that was built in 1930 and has been restored to its original architecture.  It was built as one of 5 hotels in the southwest to attract tourism within 200 miles of El Paso, Texas.  More information can be found here .

Well, that's it for the summary of our first big trip.  In the summer of 2013 we traveled to Mesa Verde, and the Santa Fe area, but I'll leave that for a future summary post.  For now it is on to the Next Horizon.