March 26, 2022 – April 17, 2022
Well we had every intention of blogging every couple of weeks, but time sure does get away from us. It’s been a busy few weeks, with some fun activities and some not so great weather for van living!
After we got back from New York City we made our way to Florida. Our first couple of nights we stayed at a Boondocker’s Welcome host who had a large lot with two rv sites with full hookups in Bell, FL. Our host was a nice older retired gentleman and who was flying his Trump 2024 flag. We’ve seen more of those in Florida than anywhere else so far, hence Florida is not a place on our list of potential places to live. He did give us 3 grapefruit off of his trees that were very delicious so I overlooked the flag.
We met our neighbors who were kayaking the next day on the Santa Fe river, so we did a little perusing and thought we would enjoy it as well. So the next morning we arranged to be dropped off up river and took a nice leisurely paddle down the river. We did stop at a side tributary that led to a beautiful fresh water spring (Gilchrist Blue Springs). The water was so incredibly clear and the color was beautiful. We saw turtles, fish and a snake swimming around (which I was not thrilled about). After our stop there we continued down the river. It was a beautiful day and a great start to our Florida adventure.
After we got the boards packed up we headed over to Manatee Spring State Park, another fresh water spring, in hopes of seeing some manatees. When we got there we asked the gate attendant if they had seen any lately and he said we were a little past season so we did not have our hopes up. However, as soon as we got to the spring there were 3 just off shore. I was thrilled we got to see them. We didn’t get to swim in the spring however since an alligator had decided to hang out on shore and they had cleared out all swimmers.
We then made our way to St Petersburg where Lee had arranged some kite boarding lessons for us. We stayed at a great county campground right on the water (Fort De Soto). It was a large site with lots of trees, really clean and we really enjoyed our stay there. While we were in St Petersburg we did some paddling and biking right off of our campsite, and we took a couple of kite boarding lessons. The place where we took the lessons was very shallow (waist high) and was a great place to learn. The first day we had great conditions and learned about setting up our kite, the different safety systems and then actually got some flying and body dragging in. Our second lesson was cut short, it started with almost no wind and then got to be too strong for us to safely continue our lesson, but we got enough of a taste of it that we knew we wanted to take some additional lessons.
After St Petersburg we spent a quick night outside of Fort Myers, FL. We stayed at a nice campsite on a river and thought maybe we would paddle the next day until our neighbor pointed out the large alligator sitting on a homes dock across the way and another one swimming in the river. We did however find some fun bike trails close by for riding the next day. The weather was starting to get a little on the warm side but nothing close to what was in store for us.
After biking, we started making our way towards Everglades NP. We stayed one night in a crowded campsite, the temperatures were getting very warm and we then experienced the lovely noseeum bugs. Ugh!! We couldn’t sit outside because we were getting eaten up, but inside the heat was stifling. We don’t have air conditioning since we planned on lots of boon docking but we were wishing we had air conditioning that night.
We made our way to the Everglades and stayed at a really nice campsite in the park for a couple of nights. We didn’t do too much in the Everglades but it was nice to drive around the park.
After the Everglades we made our way to the Florida Keys. We were able to grab some canceled spots in a couple of state parks. The first state park we stayed at was Bahia Honda, when we got there we immediately went to the beach to get in the water and cooled down since the heat had intensified. It was interesting because the water is super shallow for a few hundred feet off shore. There is lots of sea grass so we were hoping for some good snorkeling but that was a bust, as there was almost no fish to see. We went to Key West one day, and we were glad we didn’t stay there as it was a crowded tourist trap. We parked and biked over to the southern most point of the continental US and throughout the city in the heat, made it back to the van got in the water to cool down and headed back to camp for another very warm night.
Next on our agenda was John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo. We paddle a few times there in the mangroves which were really cool. The water is really clear and you paddle in channels lined with the mangrove trees. The first day out we saw a saw a small shark, lots of pencil fish and lots of upside down jelly fish. The next day when we paddled we went into the neighborhoods that lined the water. That was interesting to see. We were still dealing with the heat and the bugs but we made the best of it. We had some good seafood while we down there as well.
After dealing with the heat and bugs we decided to take a break from the van and rented a condo in Cocoa Beach for a week. We had found a good place to take more kite boarding lessons in the town. The condo overlooked some of the launch pads at Cape Canaveral so we were hoping to see a rocket launch. Unfortunately the one that was scheduled kept getting pushed back so that never happened while we were there. It was also on a nice beach and made for some good running in the evening and we could watch the cruise ships go in and out of the port.
While we were there Adam came out to see us. The day after we got there we all took kite boarding lessons. Adam of course got up on his board during his first lesson while Lee and I were still in the body dragging stage. However the next day at our lesson, Lee got up on the board and I actually rode the board a good distance and had enough kite control to stop where I wanted. Lee said our instructor was a little nervous I wouldn’t stop!
While we were at Cocoa Beach we also did a day at the Cape Canaveral Space Center. It was amazing to see the rockets and some of the space vehicles used in our space program. We could also see the SpaceX rocket that was supposed to have launched that week on the launch pad. It was crazy busy with lots of kids but still fun.
It was a great week in Cocoa Beach kite boarding and enjoying the beach and being out of the van for a little while!
