Vero Beach to Lake City, FL

We got up at 8 a.m. this morning and after having our morning coffee and breakfast, we got ready to leave Tanglewood Village. Mike was able to drive the motorhome out of our campsite without getting stuck in the soft sand at the edge of the road. We decided to wait and hitch up the car after we left the park. We would have had to drive back around through the campground in order to be able to pull out on US-1 with the car attached.

Oh yes - change of travel plans. We decided this morning to spend the night at Oaks 'N Pines RV Park at Lake City instead of stopping in Ocala tonight. We drove west on CR-606 (Oslo Road) to CR-619 (82nd Avenue) and then north to SR-60 and west to I-95 north. Once we were on I-95 after leaving Vero Beach we ran into swarms of love bugs.

We stopped about 11:45 for lunch at a rest area just north of Mims. While we were stopped for lunch, Mike cleaned the windshield on the motorhome. He also called Oaks 'N Pines RV Park to reserve a site for tonight. Normally I like to take photos when we're driving, but as you can see by the photo below - the view through the windshield wasn't very good.

From May 2011

At 2 p.m. we stopped at the Camping World at St. Augustine to get some black streak cleaner which Mike uses to clean the love bugs off of the RV. He had used the last of the cleaner we had when we stopped for lunch today.

We had planned on stopping at a Pilot station just 14 miles north of the Camping World to get gas in the RV. But when we got there we found out that there wasn't enough space at the pumps for us to pull in to get gas and then drive out. We did find a Kangaroo Express station on the west side of I-95 that we could get gas at. We got a little over 52 gallons and our bill came to $198.65 ($3.799 a gal).

At Jacksonville we took I-295 north to connect with I-10 west. I did get a photo of the St. John's River when we crossed over it at Jacksonville.

From May 2011

We arrived here at Oaks 'N Pines at 4:50; we drove 277 miles today. We are in site #49 (full hookups). We had just leveled the RV, when a Class C and a travel trailer pulled into 2 sites next to us. They were on their way to Vero Beach and couldn't get over the love bugs on the front of our motorhome. They even took photos of the love bugs on our RV. They just couldn't believe how many and weren't looking forward to driving through them.

From May 2011

After dinner and when the sun wasn't shining so much on the RV, Mike took a water hose and cleaner and washed off the front of it.

From May 2011

Lake Worth to Vero Beach, Tuesday, May 17

Last night we set our alarm clock for 6:45 so we could get an earlier than usual start today. The office at Tanglewood Village in Vero Beach is only open 9 a.m. to noon. So we left John Prince Park this morning at 8:45.

We drove north on I-95 and stopped at a rest area west of Palm City for a bathroom break and Mike did a walk around of the RV. We exited I-95 west of Ft. Pierce to SR-68 and then north on SR-713 to US-1 south of Vero Beach. We also drove through more swarms of love bugs, but they weren't as bad as our trip south to Lake Worth.

From Vero Beach, FL

We arrived here at Tanglewood Village at 11 a.m. Mike went into the office to register and pay for the 2 nights we will be here. We are staying here with our Escapees membership for $47.25. We're getting a 50% discount for the first night and a 15% discount for the second night. Mike came back with a map of the park that Susie in the office had marked with the available RV sites. We disconnected the car and drove around the park looking at the available sites and finally settled on site #9.

We went back to the RV and Mike followed me to our campsite. We are next to US-1 and there is a large concrete wall just across from our site. There was also a palmetto shrub on the patio side of our site. One of the workers was raking up the pine cones and needles on the site when we looked at it and said not to worry about the palmetto, since they were going to be taking it out.

Let's just say that we had a communication problem between Mike and I in backing into the site. Between the palmetto shrub and the fact that the solid ground covered by shell rock turned out to be sand covered by a thin layer of shell rock- we got STUCK!

From Vero Beach, FL

Mike tried "rocking" the RV back and forth, but the wheels kept sinking further.

From Vero Beach, FL

Mike called Winnebago roadside service and spoke with Diane and she said she would contact a towing company and that it might be about an hour before they came out. It was only a few minutes later when Diane called back to say that Charlie's Towing in Vero Beach would be out in about 30 minutes. The driver had to back the tow truck down the road so he could pull us out.

From Vero Beach, FL

From Vero Beach, FL

By 12:30 we were free from the loose sand and were ready to back into the site again. By backing up and pulling forward and repeating that a few times, Mike backed the RV into our site and we avoided the soft ground and were finally ready to set up camp and have lunch.

From Vero Beach, FL

Carol, a high school classmate of Mike's, is moving to Vero Beach and she flew into Orlando today. Christine, another high school classmate, drove over to Orlando from Vero Beach to pick up Carol and bring her back to Vero.

This evening we went to Christine's house for dinner. Christine's husband, Matt, prepared sandwiches that were huge and we just knew we couldn't eat all of one - but we did. It was terrific and so good! Matt said goodnight a little after we finished dinner, since he gets up early in the morning to go to work at JP Matty's restaurant in Sebastian.

We spent the rest of evening visiting with Christine and Carol and drinking wine.

From Vero Beach, FL

We talked about our days at Lake Worth High School and the friends we made there and what we had been doing since then - a lot of reminiscing and a LOT of wine! Mike & I finally left about midnight to come back to the RV. What a fun evening!

Saying Goodbye to Friends and Fletcher & Doug Visit

This morning after breakfast we walked down to Paul & DIane's campsite to say goodbye. We had a great time visiting with them and attending their & Mike's class reunion. We visited while Paul was preparing the RV for their departure. Paul wanted to take another look at our hookups at the RV, so we all walked back to our site. Mike took a photo of Paul & Diane before they headed back to their RV.

From John Prince Park & Lake Worth

There were storm clouds moving in and they hoped to hookup their truck to the RV before the rain hit.

This afternoon Fletcher & his friend, Doug, drove up from Fort Lauderdale. We went to lunch at Dave's Last Resort in downtown Lake Worth. We went in Doug's Jeep since the back of our car is full and we can only carry 2 people.

From John Prince Park & Lake Worth

After lunch we drove over to the east side of Lake Worth to look at the homes on S. Lakeside Drive and then we drove by our old house (& where Mike grew up) on 17th Avenue North, my parent's house (where I grew up) on N. F Street and then by Mike's grandparents' house on S. C Street.

Then we drove around the east side of Lake Osborne before returning to John Prince Park. We spent the rest of the day and evening sitting outside enjoying the cool breezes

From John Prince Park & Lake Worth

and watching Fletcher toss a tennis ball to Vala, his rat terrier, and she NEVER gets tired.

From John Prince Park & Lake Worth

It started raining and we hurried inside and made it just in time before the storm hit. We had heavy blowing rain and lots of wind. The people who were 2 sites over from us didn't get their awning taken down in time and a couple of them held onto the awning supports to keep it from being damaged by the wind. Once the storm had passed they were able to put the awning up.

When Fletcher & Doug were leaving we noticed the storm clouds east of us and saw the cloud-to-cloud lightning - no thunder, just a beautiful light show. We stood for a long time just watching the streaks of lightning. Fletcher & Doug took photos of the lightning with their iPhones and Doug e-mailed this one to us after they got home. It is kind of grainy, but it shows the lightning pretty well.

From John Prince Park & Lake Worth

1916 Palm Beach County Courthouse & Ragtops

This morning we drove up I-95 to West Palm Beach and exited at Okeechobee Road. It wasn't too long before we came upon City Place - a beautiful upscale shopping and dining development. We didn't have time to stop there today - we'll have to do that on another trip to the area.

From May 2011

We found a parking place across the street from the Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum which is housed in the 1916 Palm Beach County Courthouse.

From 1916 Palm Beach County Courthouse

Inside the museum, which is free, we were given a brief history of the restoration of the courthouse. The first exhibit we saw was called "Feather Wars: Surviving Fashion 1870-1920". This is a temporary exhibit that documents how a world-wide trend in women's hats caused near devastation of birds such as the Snowy Egret. Any one with a gun could hunt the birds for their plumage and the plumage of the Snowy Egret brought the same price-per-ounce as gold.

From 1916 Palm Beach County Courthouse

Our next stop was an exhibit about The People of Palm Beach County from the Pre-Columbian inhabitants, Seminole Indians, the early pioneers and to modern business and community leaders. Here we watched a 7 minute film narrated by George Hamilton about the people who helped make Palm Beach County what it is today.

We saw an exhibit about the Barefoot Mailmen. These men walked the 68 miles from West Palm Beach to Miami because there was no road and about 28 miles had to be taken by using several different boats. The Barefoot Mailmen walked that route from 1885 to 1892 when a rock road was built.

From 1916 Palm Beach County Courthouse

The next exhibit was about The Place which explored the environment and animals and the different communities that make up Palm Beach County.

After leaving the museum, we went across the street to the current Courthouse

From May 2011

and then one block over to the City Hall to do some genealogical research on Mike's family. By then we were starving and stopped at the Subway near the City Hall.

We made a brief stop at Woodlawn Cemetery to take photos of my family's gravestones and located one for the Neale family and took a photo of the gravestone.

Our next stop was at Ragtops on S. Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach. Ragtops is located in the old Twin City Chevrolet building where my father, brother and sister-in-law worked in the 1950's. We went into Ragtops and found out that they were preparing for a special dinner event and that a lot of the cars in the museum weren't on display. We were still able to look around at the cars they did have on display.

From Ragtops

Before heading back to the RV we drove south on Dixie Highway to Lake Worth. We drove by the houses that Mike & I grew up in and then we went downtown and stopped at the Lake Worth Post Office to take a photo of the mural in there.

From John Prince Park & Lake Worth

When we returned to John Prince Park, we stopped by to see Paul & Diane who came in today to attend the 50th class reunion. Then this evening after dinner Paul & Diane came over for a visit. There was a nice breeze coming across Lake Osborne and we sat outside and caught up on each other's lives.

Site #98, John Prince Memorial Park

Mike took a couple of photos this morning of our site here in John Prince Park.

From John Prince Park & Lake Worth

From John Prince Park & Lake Worth

This morning I went to the Publix on Lake Worth Road to get some groceries. Before leaving the park, I drove over to the laundromat to check it out. There are 8 washers and 8 dryers and the building is air conditioned and there were no "out of order" signs on any of the machines. The machines take "tokens" which can be bought at the campground office. For $5 you get a roll of tokens that is good for 2 loads of wash ($1.50 a load) and 2 dryer loads ($1.00 a load).

I stopped at the campground office on the way out to let them know that we were having mail sent here. They hold the mail at the office and it can be picked up after 2 p.m.

Tomorrow we are going sightseeing in West Palm Beach to see the 1916 Palm Beach County Courthouse Museum and visit Ragtops which is an antique auto museum.

Kissimmee to Lake Worth

We got up this morning at 7:00 - earlier than usual - and were ready to leave Mill Creek RV Park by 9:30. Mike said he would hook up the car while I went to say goodbye to Chris who manages the office at Mill Creek. We have always enjoyed our stays at Mill Creek and Chris and Gordon the manager have always been helpful.

Since we aren't traveling on the Florida Turnpike, we headed south on Michigan Avenue to US-192 and then east to Melbourne where we got on I-95 south.

Somewhere around Holopaw which is east of St. Cloud on US-192 we found a place to pull over, so Mike & I could switch places and I took over the driving. We had encountered some love bugs up to that point, but the farther east we went the love bugs got thicker and thicker.

The swarms of love bugs eventually were so thick it sounded like rain hitting the windshield. Once we got on I-95 the love bugs weren't as thick and Mike checked The Next Exit and there was a rest area just 12 miles away.

I pulled into the rest area which was near Palm Bay about 11:00. I COULD say there were a LOT of love bugs on the front of the RV, but I think a photo or two would say it better.

From May 2011

From May 2011

Mike got out his cleaning supplies and cleaned the windshield the best he could.

From May 2011

We decided to go ahead and fix a quick lunch while we were at the rest area. We were back on the road a little after 11:30. We stopped at a Flying J near Ft. Pierce to get gas in the RV ($3.839 a gal) and fill the propane tank ($2.99 a gal). At Lake Worth we exited I-95 at 6th Avenue South and went west to South Congress Avenue and south to the entrance of John Prince Memorial Park.

We arrived at John Prince at 2:15 and checked in. We are in site #98 which backs up to Lake Osborne. We have full hookups (50 amp) and the campground has free Wi-fi with a good signal.

Our son Fletcher drove up from Fort Lauderdale and got here about 4 p.m. and spent a few hours visiting with us. There was a good breeze blowing off of Lake Osborne and it was real pleasant sitting outside.

We didn't take any photos of our campsite today, we'll do that tomorrow.

Lake City to Kissimmee

Last night there were 8 other RVs parked in the same row we were in and appeared to be staying just 1 night like us. This morning when I walked Tinker a little after 8:00 one RV had already left.

After breakfast we prepared to leave to head down to Kissimmee. Mike had only connected the cable, electric and water hookups last night, so we didn't dump our tanks this morning. By the time we were ready to get on the road, there were only 2 other RVs left on our row.

We left Oaks 'N Pines at 9:45 and headed back west on I-10 to connect with I-75 south. Last year when we were here we drove south on US-441 and took US-90 through Lake City to I-75. We decided to drive the few extra miles by taking I-10 back over to I-75 and avoid the traffic lights and traffic in Lake City.

We stopped to get gas in the RV at a Pilot station at Wildwood and paid $3.859 a gallon. We had already decided to avoid taking the Florida Turnpike and the approximate $30 or so toll and took SR-44 east to US-27. After leaving the Pilot we found a Winn Dixie in a strip mall about 4 miles east of the Pilot on US-44 and stopped there to fix lunch at 12:45.

After lunch we continued east on US-44 to Leesburg.

From May 2011

At Leesburg we turned south onto US-27 which is a very nice four-lane highway.

From May 2011

When we reached Clermont we saw the Florida Citrus Tower

From May 2011

and a little later the entrance to Lake Louisa State Park.

From May 2011

We spent a week last June at the state park and visited the Citrus Tower.

We exited US-27 at US-192 and drove east to Kissimmee. We decided to try the Osceola Parkway instead of driving through Kissimme on US-192 to save time and to avoid all the traffice lights. We knew Osceola Parkway was a toll road, but since we were only going to be on it for about 3 miles how much can the toll be? We paid $5.25 for 4 axles - that's about $1.75 a mile - not sure it was worth it.

We turned off Osceola Parkway at Michigan Avenue and drove south to Mill Creek RV Resort and arrived here at 2:45 and checked in with Chris at the office. We are using a Passport America discount at Mill Creek RV Resort and we're paying $128.00 for 8 days. We are site #210 (our favorite), a back-in site, and we have full hookups (50 amp electric) and wifi.

This evening after we had finished setting up camp and taking a little break, we drove over to a Zaxby's for dinner where we both had their House salad. Afterwards we drove over to my brother's house for a visit for a couple of hours. It was good to see Cyril and Elaine and catch up on their news.

Mike and I then came back to the RV. We forgot to take photos of our campsite today here at Mill Creek and will have to get some tomorrow.

2011 Trip Started

We got up this morning at our usual 8 a.m. After having our morning coffee and breakfast, I started preparing the inside so we could leave this morning. Mike worked outside dumping the tanks, disconnecting the electric, water and sewer hookups and stowing some last minute items in the bays.

After saying goodbye to our friends, Glenda & W. T. and Jimmy, we left The Willows about 10:30.

We headed east on US-84 to the Ross Clark Circle and then south to the Flying J in Dothan. Since we want to weigh the RV on the truck scales at Flying J after filling the onboard propane tank, Mike drove the RV and I drove the Vue to Flying J.

When we got to Flying J we found out that they wouldn’t have anyone who could fill the propane tank until 2:30! Mike drove over to the truck scales and weighed the RV. After paying for weighing the RV, we hooked up the Vue and headed south on US-231.

We stopped at Wal-Mart Supercenter just south of Dothan for some last minute shopping. By then it was 11:30 and we decided to fix lunch and then do our shopping. Mike called Oaks ‘N Pines RV Campground in Lake City to make a reservation for tonight. We left Wal-Mart at 12:15 and headed south to I-10.

All the excitement of breaking camp and getting on the road is really exhausting for a puppy (Tinker is 4 years old, but still a “puppy”). Tinker managed to get in several naps today.

From May 2011

This motorcycle and trailer passed us on I-10.

From May 2011

We saw the motorcycle and trailer at one of our Rest Area stops and got a better photo.

From May 2011

From May 2011

We arrived at Oaks ‘N Pines RV Campground about 5:30. After checking in, we were escorted to our campsite. We are in site #48 and have full hookups including cable. Our discount through Passport America makes the camping fee $19.80 for the night.

From May 2011

There is free Wi-Fi here, but the signal is weak at our site so I’m using our Verizon broadband tonight.

Our trip from Dothan to the campground was 215 miles.

More Rain!

Well, no sightseeing again today! It has been raining since last night and most of today.

It occurred to us today that we hadn't taken any photos of our campsite since we got here, so Mike took some photos this afternoon after it had quit raining. The photos are NOT representative of what our campsite looked like our first few days here.

From Fort Myers

From Fort Myers

According to the local news we had almost 2" of rain yesterday and about 1½" today. The rain came so hard and fast, the ground couldn't absorb it fast enough. The ladies in the office said that the last time it was like this was in 2004 & 2005 when they had hurricanes come through the area.

Tinker has was NOT been very happy the last couple of days. The water is so deep, about 4"-5", and cold, Tinker doesn't like walking through it. So Mike has been carrying him from the RV up to the grass by the park office where the ground is higher and not under water.

From Fort Myers

 We are leaving Fort Myers on Wednesday, so tomorrow will be our only day to go to the Edison & Ford estates. So we will be trying to get all of our sightseeing done in one day.

Just so that today wasn't a total waste, I went to the laundromat here today and did get our clothes washed.

RV steps repaired & another trip to Camping World

This morning the guys from Blackfin Welding came to repair the crack in our RV steps. They removed the steps from the RV in order to repair the crack. They did a good job and it cost us $50.

This afternoon we drove back up to Camping World to buy new step covers and a sewer fitting. We got gas in the Vue at a Pilot station and paid $2.599 a gallon.

After leaving Camping World we drove over to the Tice area to try and find the area where Mike's grandparents lived in 1930. They lived in an area called Alabama Grove on Alabama Terrace. We found a brick and concrete marker for Alabama Grove, but we didn't find Alabama Terrace. According to the 1930 census they lived near New York Drive (which we found) in the Alabama Grove section.

From Fort Myers

We did see some nice houses in that area that dated back to the 1920's & 1930's.

From Fort Myers

Before going back to the RV, we drove through the historic downtown of Fort Myers. The streets in the historic are were paved with gray and red bricks. The street lights were reproductions of gas-lit street lights from the early 1900's.

From Fort Myers

Some of the buildings we saw dated back to the 1910's and were quite impressive.

From Fort Myers

One of the main roads that we have been traveling on has been McGregor Boulevard. It is a beautiful street that is line with very tall and stately royal palm trees. I took a photo of McGregor Blvd near the Thomas Edison & Henry Ford winter estates. It's been raining nearly every afternoon since we got here and hope to be able to tour the Edison & Ford estates tomorrow.

From Fort Myers

Laundry & shopping at Camping World

This morning I went over to the laundromat here in the campground. They have 10 washers ($1.00) and 12 dryers ($.50 for 30 minutes) and a couple of large tables for folding clothes. I was pleased to see that all the machines were working (I didn't need that many, thank goodness!) and the laundry room was clean.

This afternoon after lunch we drove the 18 miles up to Camping World of Fort Myers to do a little shopping. Afterwards we crossed I-75 to go to the Camping World RV Sales lot and looked at some of their RVs. We're not looking to get another one, but one day we will probably buy a house and only go RVing part time. If we do, then we may have a Class C motorhome to travel in and so we were looking at the Class C's at Camping World. We just wanted to look at them in order to get an idea what we would want to have in a Class C in case we ever "downsize".

We had a short rain storm this afternoon after we got back from Camping World and had a gorgeous sky at sunset. The photo doesn't really do it justice.

From Ft Myers

Sebring to Ft. Myers, FL

We had an early lunch and left Highlands Hammock State Park a little before noon after stopping at the dump station to dump our tanks and check out at the Ranger Station.

We went out the west entrance of Highlands Hammock and a good portion of the road was gravel and we crossed over a 1-lane bridge before connecting with S. Hammock Road.

From Highlands Hammock State Park

From Highlands Hammock State Park

We took S. Hammock Road south to SR-66 and then west back to Zolfo Springs where we took US-17 south. We stopped at a Shell station at Arcadia to get gas in the RV ($2.679 a gallon). We passed by the 1911 train depot in Arcadia on our way through town.

From Ft Myers

We continued south on US-17 to I-75 south (we crossed over the Caloosahatchee River)

From Ft Myers

to CR-876 (Daniels Parkway) and went south to CR-869 (Summerlin Rd) then north on SR-865 to Ft. Myers Beach RV Resort. Our trip was a total of 114 miles.

From Ft Myers

Ft. Myers RV Resort is an Encore park and we are staying here with our Coast to Coast membership. There is a $3 a day resort fee, so we paid $21 for the week that we will be here. After a quick check-in at the office, we disconnected the car and drove around the park to pick a site. We settled on site F-4 and returned to the office to let them know our choice.

F-4 is a pull-through site and we have full hook ups with 50 amp electric service. It is a grassy site and we have a concrete patio. We didn't take any photos of our campsite today, we'll have to do that tomorrow.

Because it is August the campground isn't even half occupied. I'm sure that isn't the case in the winter months.