Hanging Out In Florida

Friday, December 5, 2014

Our trip to St. Brendan's Isle mail forwarding service was successful. It was a straightforward process to set up our mailbox, and the staff was great at explaining the process and making it easy. We left with our own legal residential address, which was rather amusing considering it is an industrial strip mall, and we are one of 6,000 other residents of that address! We could see the rows and rows of mailbox bins behind the counter.


Our next stop was the Clay County courthouse where we paid $15 each and filed our domicile papers declaring that as of November 24, 2014 we considered Florida our residence. We went out for celebratory beer and BBQ at a Green Cove Springs restaurant. Then we drove to the nearest state park, Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park. Now the waiting began in earnest. Before we can register our RV and get driver's licenses we need to provide proof that we now reside at our new address. So we have to wait for unforwarded mail to show up at our mailbox from banks and other institutions. Greg misplaced his social security card decades ago, so we need to wait for a new copy to arrive as well.


Our plan was to stay a night or two at the state park, and then travel to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park for a long visit while we waited for the appropriate mail to arrive in our box. Then we'd travel back to Green Cove Springs to visit the DMV. A quick on-line look at the reservation system showed us that the state parks were jammed for the Thanksgiving weekend, and the only campsite in the whole state that could take us through the weekend, was literally the campsite right next to the walk-in campsite we were already in!


We booked the site and moved over. Then we spent the next few rainy days working on address changes. So far, so good. We made reservations for Kissimmee Prairie starting the Sunday night after Thanksgiving. We snagged the best site in the campground for five nights, and then since it was reserved after that, we'd move over to another site for three nights. Sunday morning we left Gold Head Branch and made the long drive south to Kissimmee Prairie, with stops along the way to resupply. The park is totally isolated, north of Lake Okeechobee, so we needed to have plenty of food on board.

Gold Head Branch campsite

One of many ponds in the park

Water level seemed low in most of the ponds

Sunset through the Long Leaf Pines of the old turpentine plantation at Gold Head Branch

 Since arriving Sunday afternoon at Kissimmee Prairie we have been watching the weather roll in from the ocean in the east. Lots of rain showers followed by wind and sun. Yesterday morning we were up early to see the rocket launch from Cape Canaveral. It was scrubbed, but took off this morning instead. Unfortunately, the rain and clouds rolled in overnight and we didn't see anything.

The road into Kissimmee Prairie Preserve

Juvenile Ibis coming in to scold us with grumpy croaks

Kissimmee Prairie campsite

Great views across the prairie

Wild turkeys visited every day that noisy children were not here

Fierce wildlife

There are birds around, but the gators have been hiding at Gator Corner. Too much cool wind for them. Greg took a bike ride and had an encounter with a very large water moccasin in his path. Otherwise, he has been working on acquiring us new RV and health insurance. Part of the incentive to move to Florida was the hope for better prices for both of these. With a very slow internet signal here in the “wilderness”, it has taken Greg days to complete the task. We cut our RV insurance in half, but we are just sick at the cost of health insurance. We are caught in that high-priced “No-man's land” between being young and qualifying for Medicare. Even though we are both healthy and opting for a very high deductible, we are being thrown in with the rest of our generation that are hitting their “unhealthy” years. And, suburban Maryland is actually cheaper than Clay County, Florida. Too many elderly people here?

Grumpy Water Moccasin did not want to share ANY of the road!

Gators are waiting for warmer weather

This crow liked to imitate other birds - owls, chickens, even whining like a puppy

Saw palmettos under the Sabal Palms and Live Oaks

The Hammock Trail

Giant spiders that catch wild pigs

Lichen on tree trunk

Sunrise while waiting for the rocket launch

 Well, our options for residence are limited. Texas is the only other state we could use, and I expect there would be little difference for us. We are just too old, but not old enough. Too healthy, and not ill enough to need the medical care we are required to insure for. A Catch- 22 that has nothing to do with Obamacare. So, we swallowed and hit the accept button on the computer. We will now be paying monthly for health insurance what will get us a whole year's worth of RV insurance. It doesn't change our plans to keep fulltiming, but it does require us to develop a new strategy for conserving our funds.


So, now that we have acquired our insurance, we are waiting for confirmation from St. Brendan's Isle that we have the proper documentation to drive back to Clay County, (just outside of Jacksonville), and finish at the DMV. Then we will truly be Florida residents. After that we will be ready for some more Florida wilderness and travel to the Everglades. The 23^rd we head back to Naples for a few days of Christmas with Greg's Dad.


So, life has presented us with a few speed-bumps, but, we love this nomadic lifestyle too much to roll over and give up. There are a lot of options out there for working and volunteering on the road, so we will begin investigating and see what good options turn up!

December 11- A quick update- Without decent internet at Kissimmee this post had to wait until today to post. I have more photos and text to go up about Kissimmee Prairie, plus links to posts from previous visits I will try to get up before we go to the Everglades where we will have no data connection. Today is devoted to going to DMV and completing our duties there, then groceries and laundry!

Reboot!!!

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Today we are sitting in an “Old Florida” RV park south of Jacksonville along the St. John's River. Tomorrow we will visit the offices of St. Brendan's Isle, a mail forwarding service, and set into motion the changes we are planning for our lives. When we made the decision in the Spring of 2012 to take a two year sabbatical, Why We Ran Away From Home and How We Did It! , we sold the house, shed most of our possessions, and left on November 12, 2012. Our mission was to see as much of North America as we could within a two year framework. We decided to let life take care of itself and figure out what came next when we got to that point.

We stayed at Lynch's Landing campground on the St. Johns River

For two years we were ruled by spontaneity. By November 12, 2014, we hatched a new plan. We are not ready to give up this nomadic life! After looking over the finances we know that if we slow down and cut back on our expenses, we can live cheaper than if we move back to Maryland. Moving back would require working to afford an apartment. Back to the grind we left. Having escaped a high cost of living area, we are not anxious to tie ourselves down again.


The past two years our daughter and son-in-law graciously let us store the last of our belongings in their home, and took in our mail, as well as giving us an address. If we were going to make this arrangement permanent, we needed to make some changes. So, for the first two weeks of November we journeyed back to Maryland and put our plans into motion. First step was to move our odds and ends to a storage unit. Then we had good visits with family and friends, before leaving for Florida ahead of the Arctic Vortex.

Even a full day in the I-95 car wash did not remove the baked-on Arizona grasshoppers from our grill.

Sunshine on the Georgia Coast

Our plan is to acquire Florida residency. Florida, Texas, and South Dakota are RV friendly and have mail forwarding services that can give us a street address. Then we will be able to register the RV and get driver's licenses. There are no state income taxes in Florida, and our RV insurance and health insurance should be cheaper than Maryland. Registration can be renewed on-line, and the driver's license is good for eight years before being renewed once on-line. There is no emissions testing for us (diesel engine), so once we do this, we are free to travel the country!


We will be spending more time in the East due to changes in our family, so we'll also be acquiring a very small car to tow. Slowing down and spending more time in each place will mean that a car will make it easier to explore, and resupply. It will also allow us to store the rig and zip back to Maryland for visits. So here we sit today, ready to reboot our lives. Tomorrow we start a new chapter. We have been rearranging and sorting out our belongings in the rig to make it more livable since we will now truly call it home. I have plans to do a makeover, (stay tuned, I've already created a man-cave for Greg!) and we are starting to view it less as strictly a travel vehicle, and more as part of the “small house” movement.

Restringing a broken Day-Night Shade at Crooked River State Park in Georgia

A large pine cone from this Long Leaf Pine hit our roof at 4:22 AM. It was deafening!

Palmettos! We are in the South!

We are excited to keep journeying. Life's too short and unpredictable to defer our dreams. Living loosely in the moment creates time to follow the impulses that lead us down unknown roads into unseen adventures!

Looking at Lynch's Landing from the campground pier.

The St. John's River

From the 90's to the 30's- Degrees That Is! Arkansas to Maryland

Friday, October 31, 2014

Tonight we are camped at Fort Frederick State Park near Hancock, Maryland, just off of I-70. We escaped in time to miss the big snow as we traveled east back to Maryland. A week ago found us camping at Dead Indian Lake in Oklahoma. It was in the 90's and dry. We spent the next night at Kaw Lake in Oklahoma, warm again, and traveled across Oklahoma into Arkansas. I wasn't sad to finally be done with northern Oklahoma. Hot, dry, not very interesting terrain, and dying towns.


We entered Arkansas near Bentonville, headquarters of WalMart, at rush hour. Kind of a bit of culture shock. We had a good night's sleep at the Army Corps of Engineers campground at Kaw Lake, close to the suburbs. The next morning we decided to explore the Ozarks and drove southeast a short distance to the Buffalo National River, one of the few undammed rivers in the U.S. It is popular for canoeing trips. We approached it on the west end, had a short drive near it, and then had to head back cross country to find another river crossing. We wound our way along the ridges and down into the river valley several times.

Driving under a limestone ledge near the Missouri, Oklahoma border

Buffalo River

It was a beautiful, scenic area, and we passed through many small isolated towns. Finally we reached the Tyler Bend area near the river. It contains the visitor center and a nice campground. We pulled in for the evening to a non- hook-up campsite, with enough time to walk to the visitor center and down to the river. The river had a nice limestone cliff, and some Fall colors, but nothing spectacular. I think the appeal of the Buffalo River is an easy float through the unpopulated areas.

Buffalo National River

Buffalo River near our camp

Fierce wildlife broke into the RV

The next day we got a good taste of the Ozarks as we wound our way through them to finish crossing northern Arkansas. By evening we had reached the “Bootheel” of Missouri and crossed into the northwest corner of Tennessee. We found the Blue Basin of Reelfoot Lake and a very nice state park campground and set up in the rain along the shores of the cypress stump bordered lake. The weather caught up with us, and as we checked the extended forecast we discovered that we were being chased by a front that was predicted to dump snow on the parts of Kentucky and West Virginia we were headed for.

The Mighty Mississippi from I-165

Reelfoot Lake

Time to speed up our travels and get ahead of it. Working our way across the southern part of Kentucky we made Mammoth Cave National Park by dark. A half priced national park campground suited us for the night. No hook-ups, but lots of empty sites in the hardwood trees. We had to chase the deer out of our site. It was a cold night, especially after the high temperatures a few days before!

Very quiet campground at Mammoth Caves

Thursday found us back on the interstate and eating up the miles driving east. Frankly, we hate the interstate, but if driving the interstate meant staying out of snow, so be it. After a day of “Zombie Driving” through the rest of Kentucky and half of West Virginia, we found a small Army Corps campground near Sutton on I-79. We paid our $4 for a non-hook-up site and had a quiet night in the campground in the woods, all to ourselves.


This morning we woke to fog and damp and set off down the road to Maryland. More “Zombie Driving” brought us across the border accompanied by overcast skies, but no rain or snow. By the time we reached Hancock, we were far enough east and south to escape the coming weather. Only rain is forecast here for tonight and tomorrow. We decided to eat a late lunch at the Park and Dine restaurant where we began our travels with breakfast last Spring, six months and one week ago. It was Greg's favorite stop for breakfast for many years, before bike rides on the C&O Canal.


Nearby is Fort Frederick State Park with a nice 30 site campground along the Potomac River. Only a few RV's here, so it is very quiet, except for the trains running across the river. We took a walk around the area and up to the fort and had a nice conversation with two young interpreters just closing up. Got a quick history lesson and a tour of the barracks. The fort was built to defend the frontier during the French and Indian War and played a role in the Revolutionary War. It has been nicely restored. Today it seems strange to think that this area was once the frontier after spending six months out west on the frontier. But, going back far enough in the history of our country, this area was raging wilderness. I had ancestors that settled not too far from here in the early 1700's.

Fall Colors

The campground is located between the CSX line on the north and Norfolk Southern on the West Virginia side of the Potomac.

The barracks inside Fort Frederick

Fort Frederick gate

The CCC Museum outside the walls

One of the C&O Canal locks

The C&O Towpath

What is inside an Osage Orange?

No one volunteered to taste it.

The Big Pool of Big Pool, Maryland

Tonight we are settled on the shores of the “Patowmak” and hope for a peaceful, if cold night's sleep. Tomorrow we head for civilization for some reunions with family and some TCB. The blog should be back up in two weeks or so as we head south again!