Enjoyed a tasty breakfast of scrambled eggs with salsa, and a cup of instant cappuccino that I had found to be quite good while traveling in a campervan in New Zealand. After cleaning up, Chris headed out with the fishing pole to try his luck in the Gulf waters, and I headed out for a run through the park and beach. We met back at the campsite, but unfortunately no fish were to be caught. I showered up and we packed up and got ready to contine making our way west. But not without stopping first at the dump station for the rpod’s first dump;) It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it! Then we were on our way. Since we didn’t catch any of our own fresh fish, we decided to search yelp for a seafood market nearby. We found one with good reviews in port st. Joe, but when we got there, the selection was quite limited. We found another one, called Buddy Gandy’s Seafood Market further down the road in Panama City which had more selection of fresh seafood. We picked up some triggerfish and shrimp which should make for some tasty meals later! Back on the road again. Our current destination is Houston, TX and we are hoping to make half of the 11 hour drive today. We’ll see how far we get!!

Said our goodbyes to Kendra, Dock, and Finnley and headed out of Gainesville Tuesday morning. We decided to drive the back roads and find a place to set up camp near Appalachicola, FL. Made a call to St. George Island state park, but was told that their campsite was full for the night. They referred us to St. Joe state park which was about a half hour further west. We were told that their remaining campsites are on a first come first serve basis, and fortunately when we arrived, they still had a campsite available for us. Taking the back roads is really an enjoyable way to travel- usually less traffic and more scenery/towns to see as you drive through. The drive along the panhandle coast of Florida is absolutely beautiful with gorgeous views of the Gulf of Mexico and its white sugar sand beaches. Arrived at St. Joe at about 3pm and set up camp. Really enjoying the travel trailer so far! After settling in, we took the bikes for a bike ride around the state park. Beautiful pristine beaches with big white sand dunes. Its nice to see beaches in their natural state without all of the condos and hotels lining the beach. We stopped and I took a dip in the gulf to cool off. After returning to our campsite, Chris began making dinner and I walked to the beach to watch the sunset. The clouds had started to come in, but the sun popped out just as the sun was setting. Enjoyed a tasty dinner of Mac and cheese doctored up with some sautéed fresh Florida onion from the Cape Coral farmer’s market and tuna, and hit the hay to get ready for a full day tomorrow!

Mountains of sugar white sand

Enjoyed a nice lunch with tony and rhonda in st pete before we departed north for gainesville.  Stopped along the way to stock up on supplies at walmart.

Wally world stock up

Jalapeno enjoys the road trips

Made it up to gainesville around 6pm to spend the night at kendra and dock’s.  Enjoyed a delicious drink with the family before heading over to dinner at the BlueGill.  Finley is entertaining as always and Cletus continues to be a bigger dog every time I see him.

2 years old going on 10

The Friendliest Beast

Slept pretty well in the rpod our first night. Weather stayed cool, so it wasn’t a problem without AC. Honda dealer at the air show was selling generators for a good price, so we picked up one. Will make it easier to charge our batteries, camp without electric hookups and allow us to run the AC. Packed up the trailer on Saturday morning and drove over to St Pete. Our friend’s annual crawfish boil started at 3pm.

Backed our trailer in their driveway and the party started shortly thereafter. A great time as always seeing college fraternity buddies and enjoying tasty critters.

Dinner is served!

Spent our first night in our travel trailer at the sun n fun airshow in Lakeland. We enjoyed a tasty dinner of grilled marinated shrimp, risotto, and veggies courtesy of the swains, then watched the night airshow and fireworks. The night airshows are really cool with the planes being all lit up. We got to see a glider do a routine this time which was really neat and so graceful. Slept ok in the trailer, we both woke up several times due to noise from the other campers, but our memory foam mattress was quite comfy. Jalapeño seems to enjoy the trailer, in fact she is still in bed! Planning to head to st. Pete later today for a crawfish boil with Tony and Rhonda!

Our travel cat really enjoys the new bed

Rise and Shine Balloon Launch

For those bass fisherman wanting to arrive on the lake via air travel

Finished packing our stuff this morning and left cape coral around 11am. Sad to say goodbye to my parents, but excited for the road trip! Trailer rode smoothly up to Lakeland, which was about a 3 hour drive. Checked in and found our friends who had already arrived. Pulled the trailer into the spot after a few tries, then started our first unpacking and setup. Didn’t get the steps all done in the right order, but a good learning experience.

Looking forward to a good airshow tonight at sun n’ fun!

Its been quite an eventful week for us.  Bought our Rpod TT (travel trailer) on Saturday, then picked up my dad from the airport.  Was great timing to have my parents down the week before we left.
Spent most of the week online shopping, local shopping and cleaning/maintenance of the Rpod.  Kept the UPS guy busy this week with daily shipments from Amazon.  Knocked out some other chores of fixing the fridge and starting the bathroom rehab with some demolition.
Still amazes me how much you can learn on the internet, between how-to videos and articles for just about anything.
We depart tomorrow and will spend the next week working our way north and west out of the state.

A sweet looking combo: Tacoma and R-pod

Stay tuned for much more blog activity as we explore the west over the next 6 weeks!

Started the day doing some maintenance and cleaning of the trailer.  No major issues found, so it looks like we found a good deal.

Around 4 we quit our chores to walk over to the tiki hut.  It’s a bar nearby which is legendary for interesting late night characters.  We had been talking about going since we got to cape coral, but never made it over.

Met up with some folks my parents knew from Chicago.  Enjoyed the sights and sounds of the 50s band over a few drinks.  Was quite a different type of crowd in the afternoon.

Tiki hut crew

If any readers are SNL fans, you should understand the title on this post.

I have been reading many John D. MacDonald books during our travels, specifically the Travis McGee series.  Never been much of a fiction reader, but definitely got hooked on these books and his writing style.  Cindy and her family have read them for many years, which got me interested.  Always notice some interesting quotes in each book, which I thought I’d start sharing on occasion.  The author had a real talent for connecting a fiction storyline with intellectual thoughts and commentary on society and the state of Florida.  While they were all written between the mid-60 and mid-80s, it has some amazing relevance even in this decade.

This one seems to have a real connection with our escapade and other people’s amazement about quitting work, traveling without a detailed plan and basically leaving it all.

From John D. MacDonald’s book titled “The Turquoise Lament”, the main character is thinking about life and death in the context of a gaming table:

“The house takes a cut of every wager.  So you can play a close tight game, work out little conservative systems, calculate the odds to several decimal places, and no matter what you do, sooner or later They will bust you, because the house busts everybody.  The house percentage does it, sooner or later.

Or, if you want, you can bet the long shots, go for the hunches.  You will give Them a chance to bust you sooner, but you will maybe live a little bigger and better while you still have a place at the table.  Only children of all ages think they will play forever.  The man who knows in advance that They are going to bust him should not start whining about it in advance.  They will bust you with Big C, or a truck driver on uppers, or pilot error, or an Irish bomb, or a coronary occlusion, or gas in the bilge.  Other creatures play on smaller tables, and they all get busted, from mayfly to possum to quick red fox.”

Hopefully my sister and brother-in-law, in Vegas currently, don’t take this too literally with a massive bet on a roulette table.. 🙂