We departed from A Stone’s Throw RV Park at 10:15AM EDT. We stopped for fuel at a TA Travel Center in Marianna, FL. We had tried to use our discount diesel card yesterday (which we hadn’t used since 2021) and the pump said our card was inactive. Beth worked with the provider via E-Mail this morning and got our card reactivated. We purchased $3.75 diesel fuel for $3.12/gallon (Yay!!!).
We pulled into Fort Pickens Campground within Gulf Islands National Seashore (West of Pensacola Beach, FL) at 2:30PM EDT (232 miles). Beth’s brother Dick had stopped here on one of his trips West and highly recommended it, so we thought we ought to check it out. I’d pay the entry fee just for the drive out to the campground. The best part is that now that I’m 62 years old, I was able to purchase the National Parks Lifetime Senior Pass. I’m set for life (at least 40 years).
Before setting up at the campground, we drove out to the Visitor Center and toured one of the batteries the Visitor Center is located in. We had a nice conversation with one of the volunteer guides who provided a lot of interesting information about the fort. Afterwards we went into the store and purchased a couple of trinkets (T-Shirt and Coaster).
We pulled into A Stone’s Throw RV Park (just East of Tallahassee) at 3:30PM EDT (285 miles). This is a convenient place to stop along I-10 (where US-19 intersects I-10). We’ve stopped here on two other occasions (2020 and 2021).
The entire front of the RV was covered in love bugs upon arrival so as soon as we got the RV setup we broke out our cordless pressure washer and some car washing soap and removed them all in the 95 degree heat. Hopefully we are done with them. We gathered most between Cocoa Beach and Gainesville.
Today we made our first big drive in our new RV. We left our house at 10:45AM EDT and arrived at Jetty Park Campground in Cape Canaveral, FL at 2:00PM EDT. We stopped for lunch at the Rest Area on I-4 and ate the remaining halves of our PJ’s Subs (an annual summer trip start tradition). On the way into Port Canaveral we stopped to pickup some steaks at Canaveral Meats and Deli. We will be hanging out at our friends, Todd & Melissa’s place, on Cocoa Beach for the annual Boat Races and plan to have steaks for one of our meals.
This is the second time we’ve stayed at this campground. The previous visit was in December of 2021. When we arrived they told us they had just lost power and that we could run our generator until power is restored (thank goodness because it was pretty warm).
Jetty Park Campground #209Jetty Park Campground #209Rowdy Race FansPink Boat FlippedTight RaceSuper Cats Along Beach
Today we checked into Fort Desoto County Park Campground in Pinellas County for three nights. We are in Site #174 which is the first site time we’ve stayed in the “No Pets” portion of the campground (Phoebe the cat is not a pet, she is family). The site is on one of the inner campground boat channels, so we are technically on the water. It’s very warm for April today, but there is a front passing through this evening which should give us very nice temperatures and low humidity for the remainder of our stay. We will be watching Florida vs Houston in the final game of March Madness this evening.
Ft Desoto – Site #174Ft Desoto – Site #174Ft Desoto – Site #174
On Tuesday we tried out Red, White and Booze in St Pete Beach (Passe a Grille) for lunch. It replaced the old Sea Critters next to The Wharf restaurant. The food was a little pricey, but very good. I had one of the best Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches ever. Beth’s Cuban was also very good with very good Cuban bread from Ybor City, but the meat was a bit smokier than she likes. We both loved the incredible fries which were shaped like onion peels. Overall, it was a great experience.
Red, White & Booze – Buffalo Chicken Sandwich
On Wednesday, Mom & Dad joined us for lunch at Billy’s Stone Crab. We all ordered grouper nuggets and were not disappointed. Afterwards, we sat outside the camper and watched some dolphins hunt for fish in the bay behind our campsite.
Lunch at Billy’s with Mom & DadHanging Out at the Campground
We checked in for our first camping trip in the new motorhome at Alafia River State Park on Thursday 3/13/2025.
Alafia River SP – Site #4Alafia River SP – Site #4Alafia River SP – Site #4Alafia River SP – Site #4Some Cow on the FireBeth & PhoebeThe Grandkids in the BunkBurger Night with Cam & SusanA Hike with GrandmaGrankids Relaxing with PhoebeChuckie Climbing the Mountain
Today we left Camp David RV Resort in Columbus, GA precisely at 9:30AM EDT. We stopped at Piggly Wiggly on the way out of town to pickup some more bottled water (our cats drink only the best). We took US-280 to GA-520 all the way to US-82 and followed US-82 to I-75 in Tifton, GA. All excellent divided highways (sometimes limited access).
We arrived at White Springs RV Park in White Springs, FL (5 miles North of I-10) just before 2PM EDT. This a very small campground with seven full hookup sites just about one mile East of I-75. The owner, Deb, gives you a huge smile when you hand her cash for your payment. The sites are very shady and it’s unlikely that we could access the Dish satellites unless we placed our antenna as far back in our site as possible. Fortunately, the campground has good WiFi that appears to be throttled right around 4 or 5 Mbps per connection. That was enough to allow us to stream the Rays game using the Bally app on our Roku. We are also picking up one station on our over-the-air antenna and fortunately it’s ABC which will allow us to watch tonight’s college football game (LSU @ USC). Each site has it’s own lined trash can and she provides a nice tray to run your sewer hose on down to the sewer connection. We will be thoroughly flushing our black tank in the morning and then heading home.
This just in, apparently we wasted our time stopping for water at Piggly Wiggly. One of our neighbors has Kroger delivering to their site.
We spent the Spring Break week camping at Alafia River State Park. We were in Site #4 which was roughly 130 yards from the restrooms. This was our first time in this site, but it is now our favorite. The lake is on the back side of the camper, but we can view it from under our awning due to the angle of the camper. On the first night we watched an Osprey catch a large fish in the lake and fly up into a tree along the shore and spend the rest of the evening feasting on it. We were able to easily receive Dish Satellites 61.5, 110, and 119 in the Hybrid configuration and get 142Mbps/16Mbps download/upload speeds with our AT&T hotspot.
Cat TimeMerc on WalkaboutAlafia River SP – Horses GrazingAlafia River SP – Site #4Alafia River SP – Site #4
Mom & Dad delivered their great grandchildren to the campground Wednesday afternoon and hung around for dinner and S’mores.
Evie the Radio DispatcherTater Tot TimeS’more Time
On Thursday I had an appointment to remove the stitches I received after attempting to repair our dishwasher, so we took the grandkids to town and they got to watch the doctor in action. The doctor placed them in charge of counting the removed stitches. That afternoon, Beth set her sites on training Evie to ride her bike without training wheels. Her project was a complete success. The grandkids also enjoyed playing with two different sets of neighbor kids throughout their stay.
On Friday Cam & Susan came over to see the grandkids and eat dinner with us. Cam even rode the electric scooter that Makenna donated to the family. As you will see in the video below, it eventually resulted in a race between Cam & the girls.
Lunch Under the CamperPlaying with the Neighbor KidsPadded up for Bike TrainingCam Popping a BubbleBurgers with Cam & Susan
We took the grandkids to Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee, FL (near West Palm Beach). It has an attached KOA Campground. Aaron dropped the grandkids off at 9:00AM EST. They helped us finish packing the camper and we managed to depart by 10:08AM EST. It was a four hour drive so Beth packed a picnic lunch so we could stop and let the kids stretch their legs. On the way over we took the route over the North side of Lake Okeechobee and down the East side on US-98 (SR-674 -> CR-39 -> SR-62 -> US-17 -> SR-66 -> US-98). We stopped for lunch at a Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) boat ramp and campsite along the Istokpoga Canal which was nearly half way to our campground. We had a nice lunch and the kids ran off to the boat ramp to look at the canal. After lunch, Beth broke out three old cell phones that she had loaded with games to keep the kids entertained. For the most part, we never heard from them again until we reached the campground. The drive along the East side of Lake Okeechobee on US-98 wasn’t the smoothest and had a lot of construction that brought the road down to one lane in several spots, so we decided that we would take a different route on the trip home.
The Checklist CheckerLunch at the Istokpoga Canal Boat Ramp And CampsiteThe Road Warriors
We arrived at the West Palm Beach / Lion Country Safari KOA at 2:30PM and set up camp. We arrived on fumes so once the truck was unhooked from the camper, Beth ran off to the local 7-Eleven for fuel. We didn’t want to risk running out of fuel in the middle of the safari the next day. The campground roads were paved, the sites are grass, but each site has a nice cement pad with picnic table and full hookups. The campground Wi-Fi was excellent, so we never fired up our AT&T hotspot nor our Dish satellite. We streamed what little television we watched (including Purdue’s victory over Minnesota Thursday night). We were able to hear the lions roar several times throughout the evening.
Lion Country Safari KOA – Site #82Lion Country Safari KOA – Site #82Grandma’s Kitchen Helpers
On Friday we entered Lion Country Safari when it opened at 9:30AM EST. We purchased discounted tickets from the campground at check-in and were told that it was best to arrive when the park opens to catch the animals when they are most active. It took us about 90 minutes to drive through the safari and we had good views of all of the animals. The driving tour ends in the parking lot of the amusement park portion of the facility, so we went in and fed the giraffes, visited the petting zoo, and road the several rides they had available. We ate a rather expensive lunch in the amusement park, but the kids ate like we’d starved them. It’s good they did because then we went home and changed into our swimming duds and took them to the attached water park where they burned a lot of energy. They enjoyed the zoo, but the really enjoyed the water park. Because it was a Friday, it wasn’t very crowded and they could try every slide they wanted to repetitively.
When we got back to the camper, a new family arrived across the street and it wasn’t long before they were playing with our kids. Their son was seven years old and spent the most time with our kids. Occasionally, his nine your old sister would join. His eleven year old sister was not interested, but both sisters were good at helping keep track of whole crew.
Lion Country Safari – LionsLion Country Safari – ZebrasLion Country Safari – RhinosLion Country Safari – RhinoLion Country Safari – GiraffeLion Country Safari – Feeding GiraffesLion Country Safari – Water ParkLion Country Safari – Water Park
On Saturday, we just hung out at the campground. After breakfast we took the kids up to the KOA heated pool for a couple of hours. They were still tired from their day at the amusement park and didn’t fight us at all when we left the pool and went back to the camper. They spent the afternoon riding their bikes and patiently waiting for the neighbor kids to return from a baseball tournament. While they were waiting the kids started challenging us to a game of Truth or Dare. I always take “Truth” to avoid leaving my chair, but they always take “Dare”, so Beth and I started sending them on little journeys around the campground to build up their navigation skills. They really enjoyed that. Eventually the neighbors returned and the kids played together until their family sat down to eat supper around 8:30PM EST. At that point we retired inside the camper for the evening.
Lion Country Safari KOAThe Kids Playing with New Friends
It rained all day Sunday, but Mother Nature was kind enough to provide us with a small break in the weather at the time we needed to leave. We packed everything we could the night before (including dumping our tanks) due to the forecast. We departed around 10:00AM EST. For the return, we followed US-98 along the South side of Lake Okeechobee to Belle Glade and then picked up US-27 and followed it North to SR-70. We stopped at the Walmart in Arcadia so that the kids could have a bathroom break and eat some lunch. The rain was coming down so hard we decided to fuel up so that we could park under the awning long enough to take the kids back to the camper bathroom while fueling. It’s a good thing we did. A gentleman pointed out to Beth that one of our bicycles was about to fall off the bike rack at the back of the camper. We managed to get it tied back down, but we got fairly wet. We all ate in the truck while we continued home. It only took a couple of hours with a shop vacuum to clean up after the kids. We dropped the kids off at their house on the way into town and arrived home at 1:52PM EST.
We spent the New Year’s Eve weekend camping at Alafia River State Park. We were in Site #1 which was barely 100 yards from the restrooms. Our friends Mick & Heidi camped there as well in Site #3 which was next to us.
Alafia River SP – Site #1Alafia River SP – Site #1Alafia River SP – Site #1
We were able to pickup all of the over the air channels on antenna and were achieving 171/25Mbps download/upload speeds on our AT&T MiFi which allowed us to stream our newly subscribed YouTubeTV, although we could have used our DISH satellite system from this site if we had needed to.
Mom & Dad brought the grandchildren over on Saturday (12/30/2023) and we took them home on Monday (1/1/2024). We made pudgy pies on Saturday and cooked Italian sausage on the grill Sunday along with some reheated pulled pork.
Beth, Dad, Mom, & PennyPerfect Pizza Pudgy PieFirst Encouter with an ArmadilloIce Cream & Christmas Cakes TimeChuckie & Evie Sleeping on the FloorPhoebe in Grooming Heaven
The kids tried their hardest to stay up until midnight to celebrate the New Year, but after all of their activities Chuckie didn’t last long. Evie came close but didn’t quite make it. Penny survived and enjoyed the celebration. She went to bed immediately afterward and I think she was sound asleep by 12:10AM.
ExhaustionEvie Trying to Stay Awake for New YearsHappy New Year!!!
This week we experienced our first summer camping trip in Florida. All I can say is that it was hot. Fortunately we camped at Rainbow Springs State Park where the water temperature is 72 degrees year round. We took the grandkids with us and had a great time. We know they had a great time because they were so exhausted each night that they fell asleep by 9PM and generally slept in until 9AM (Chuckie woke up a bit earlier each day, but we grabbed him and put him in bed with us before he could wake the girls).
We camped there with our good friends Mick & Heidi and their girls Haley & Lola. On the day after arrival we piled in our cars and headed up to the main portion of the State Park known as the headsprings. This is where all non-camping patrons end up. The water in the swimming area at the headsprings is 10′ – 18′ deep and the rangers highly recommended that we not take our young grandchildren there to swim unless they were good swimmers. Therefore, we just took the hike to the nearby waterfalls and then headed back to the campground where we could swim in the river which is only accessible by registered campers and is only about 3′ deep. The kids had a great time and the girls’ swimming skills improved dramatically. They were very comfortable with their dive masks and snorkels and saw lots of fish. Unfortunately, word of the many fish scared Chuckie and he was very resistant to getting in the water. When we could convince him, it was only if he was attached to one of us. Even with that restriction, he had a good time.
During the times that we were back at the campsite, the kids had a great time riding their bikes and scooters, hanging out with Mick & Heidi’s family, and playing with their dogs S’more & Zuli. The highlight of the trip was Mick taking Penny’s training wheels off of her bicycle and training her to ride her bike. We were all very proud of her.
HeadspringsSwimming at the RiverSnorkelingThe Kids with HeidiPenny on Two WheelsEvie
