New Orleans and another year older.

24th Jan - Ocean Springs State Park, Mississippi ($16) -
We have left Florida and Alabama behind and now in our 3rd State. This area famous for its casinos but we did not venture, although was tempting. Refection on Florida, many highlights include Everglades, sunsets on the Keys, Key Lime Milkshakes, some really picturesque State Parks, the Panhandle Coast which had most fantastic beaches.
The negatives, some cold temps, nosee’ems (small flies that seemed to take a liking to Adele), public transport (lack of)
25th Jan - Riverboat RV Park - New Orleans, Louisiana ($27)
We drove early to New Orleans and found the RV park closest to town. A very dodgy area but caught the bus fine and the streetcar to the French Quarter. The city does seem desolate in some areas and can still see the damage caused by Katrina, there is a lot of poverty and the city does have that edgy feel. We both kept tapping our pockets to make sure we hadn’t been robbed! The famous Bourbon Street which is filled with bars and jazz clubs was tacky and was disappointed.
26th Jan - 27th Jan - Sam Houston Jones SP, ($16),  Lake Charles, LA
Another long driving day, hoped to make Texas but stopped at Camping World and bought some RV necessities. (Always something to buy to make life a little more comfortable). Drove through lots of swamp areas and a bridge over 30 miles with swamp either side. In this park Jan finally christened the fishing rod, did not catch anything  but a nice state park, with swamps.
28th Jan - to date - Mustang Island State Park ($20), Port Aransas, Corpus Christi, Texas
We drove 350 miles today and had to catch the ferry to Port Aransas. This place is full of snowbirds, not the feathery type, but the grey haired retirees from up North & Canada. Jan is another year older, celebrated on Saturday by a couple of nice bottles of wine. This did not help the 8 mile walk on the beach on Sunday with no water. The camp is right on the beach although the sand dunes are blocking the view of the sea. Another day here and then on Tuesday go to get the slide out fixed in Rockport before heading to Laredo, a Mexican border town.

Zooming through Florida.

18th Jan - Everglades RV park ($16), Cypress Tree after a long drive from the Keys we missed the Gator Park and had to stay in another part of the Everglades, a nice park around a lake which was full of alligators!! We decided to miss Miami, the RV parks were so far out of the city with no public transport that it all seemed so difficult. Besides we are feeling we have a good feel of what Florida is about and gives a good excuse to come back to Miami one day.
19th Jan - Lake Manatee State Park, Brendenden ($24) - have you ever wanted to cuddle an alligator? Well it has been one of my ambitions (see photo)! Another long drive on the West Coast through Naples, lots of money here...and then up to park 40 miles from Tampa, struggled to get in anywhere near Sarasota so had to miss it.
20th Jan - Codys Rv Park ($28), Weeki Wachee - We were going to stay in Tampa but then we drove through it and thought better of it. Rough!! Cody's is a trailer park but for its short comings has internet. Have already booked into Little Manatee River State Park, 150 miles up the West Coast of Florida. They are obsessed with manatees, many people even have statues of them outside holding their post box!
21st - 22nd Jan - Little Manatee River, Chief land ($22) - It is freezing, we were so cold that we had to make big camp fire and needed to try out our newly acquired table top gas barbeque anyway (worked like a bomb). We did manage to venture out on our bikes, although we had to put on gloves and jackets and cycled to Chiefland, 16 mile round trip. Its times like this we wish we were towing a car like most of the RV ers.
23rd Jan - St Andrews State Park, Panama City Beach ($31) - A long driving day as it is cold, again saying it’s the coldest Winter in Florida on record!  Have had our Spanish lessons on though so keeps us occupied and spotting good petrol prices becoming the obsession, best today $3.06 per gallon. Very pretty drive around the Florida Panhandle on the Gulf Coast. Must be a Summer destination as all holiday homes shut up or for sale. (Don’t believe the news if say otherwise, the States are in trouble!). Nice RV park, overlooking the bay and many bambi’s wandering around coming up to the van but we must press on to Meh-I-co.

Bye to the Keys.

18th Jan - We are packing up and leaving the Flroida Keys, just waiting for books to be delivered - RVing in Mexico - and then we are off. We have a treval buddie lined up for Mexico but he wants to leave on 26th Jan, with repairs to the slide out room required really do not think that is going to be possible. Its a shame because this guy looks big and intermidating. Anyway we are heading to a place West of Miami today, Gator Park and then we need to reassess the schedule and where we can get the slide out cylinder changed. This problem was probably caused by the RV siting in storage, they really do not like it. Met a nice couple from Ohio, they had a beautiful motor yacht which they live on but do have a house in Ohio and invited us to stay there in the Summer.

THE FLORIDA KEYS

4th Jan  Siesta Key ($57) - We arrived on the Keys and found an RV campground right on the water.
They do pack them in though on these private parks you not exactly secluded. The sunset was to die for (see picture).
5th - 7th Jan - Long Pine State Park ($43) - This campsite is right on the Atlantic Ocean protected by a reef so shallow, flat water. We went tandem kayaking and I have discovered I (Jan) am great at going in circles. Adele kept us on the straight and narrow.  Great views and lazy days right on the sea.
7th Jan - to date - Bahia Honda State Park ($43) - Lucky to get into this state park, it is always full. This has the Gulf of Mexico on one side and Atlantic on the other. Went on a 20 mike bike ride to No Name Key, that was a test with a headwind on the way back. I have discovered I have a phobia of bridges which isn’t good on the Keys. I am okay as long as I keep my head down and don’t look down at the water. Have a 7 day bus pass to Key West. Our first trip took in the main drag, Duval Street and the harbour area, great margaritas and 2 for 1 deals. So many bars and restaurants, great people watching etc and the bus crowd were interesting too. Some previous felons so was hard not to eavesdrop. Apart from the locals, the Keys are full of Americans on holiday fleeing the Winter in most the other states, not many other Nationalities around apart from Canadian. The Keys seem to be busy whereas some of the other places in Florida seem to be a bit rundown, closed shops, recession hit basically. The amount of Latinos here is astounding, did not think the US had such an immigrant problem. Spanish will be the most prominent language in US by 2035! We are trying to pick some up, dos cerveza wont get us to far in Mexico. Anyway we are off to Key West again and then off to a Seafood festival in one of the parks in Key West on Sat.

Everglades - Xmas and New Year 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! HOPE YOU HAVE A FANTASTIC 2011.

Our blog has been at a standstill as we have been in the middle of the Everglades National Park and was lucky to get mobile signal. So apologies if we have been crap at wishing all the best for Xmas and New Year.

23rd Dec - 27th Dec - Long Pine Key State Park - Everglades ($16/night, no hookups)

This was our first taste of camping without any campground hook ups, the campgrounds electricity and water feed. Although we did have a place to dump and take on fresh water. This is great practice for proper “boon docking” which means that you are completely self sufficient and have to be very careful of every drop of water you use and battery life on the RV. When the water has run out of the water tanks of full you have to move which when you are in a special place in the middle of nowhere would be a pain.
The campground was by a lake in the middle of pinelands and had a few nights of cooking outside on the pine cones and coal, they make tremendous firelighters. Our Xmas was warm and had drinks and music outside before tucking into out ham and sprouts.
Our first long bike trip in the Everglades of 12 miles ended in another puncture for Adele and had a trip with the sheriff back to camp. The bird watching is amazing and cannot fail to be interested in spotting all different types.

The cold weather returned and biting winds meant we did not venture too far in the last 2 days in this campground, the coldest ever recorded in December in Florida by the way. Global warming has just gone crazy this year.What a time to run out of LP gas, (no heating) and discover the meter level is not working…


Just while I am writing this I can see one of our fellow Rvers taking her cat out for some fresh air! The cat is eying  the turkey vultures which are abundant and vile, they attack the tyres on the RV and bikes. How bizarre taking the cat in the motor home!!

27th Dec - 2nd Jan - Flamingo State Park, Everglades ($16/night, no hookups)

A trip in to town to fill up on LP gas  to Florida City and more supplies then headed to Flamingo State Park deeper into the Everglades overlooking Florida Bay. Even more birds to spot and 15 mile bike ride which was taxing through mangrove forests and wetland prairie. The mozzies here are infamous, the US mozzie repellent companies test their products here. Luckily there are not too many this time of year, the ones that are living have still had a nice feat. Can we just say to anyone that wants to visit Everglades in Summer….don’t do it!!! you will be munched alive! Nice warm days again and on lots of cycling,  we did not take the camera and of course spotted American crocadiles (3 big ones), ospreys nesting, red shoulder hawks, kinfishers....the wildlife here is something special.

Looking forward to the Florida Keys next.