We traveled back to Savannah, GA to visit with my cousin Harper and pick up mom. After leaving Savannah, we got back on the road and visited High Springs Campground in Fl. We actually stayed one night there on our way to Savannah. The campground was nice enough to let us change our dates and come back a week later.
We were working to get back on track to our original travel plans so we only had 2 days here. The big adventure was Ginnie Springs. It is a series of natural springs that our 72 degrees year round! Even with the cold weather Florida was having the water was still 72! We read this but didn’t really believe it so we rented kayaks instead of doing tubes. We kayaks up and down the river and explored these springs. The Springs were the clearest water I have ever seen. There are a series of caves here too that if you are SCUBA certified you can dive and explore. We could actually see the entrance to a cave from the surface of the water in our kayak was that 15 ft deep. We saw tons of turtles chilling on logs while we were paddling. After kayaking, we were all pretty wet so Eli and I went swimming anyways! The water really is 72 and with cold air it felt nice! Florida has a bunch of these natural springs that are all equally beautiful and are not the typical beaches you think about when you visit Florida. We all thought this was one of our coolest experiences so far on the trip because it was so unique!
That night we went into the town and got food at a pizza/ Philly cheesesteak place that was really good, I ate 5 slices! We walked around and found a cool ice cream shoppe that we went to and it was great 👍. My overall rating was a 8/10, pretty good ice cream.
Next stop harvest host boondocking at a car museum in Tallahassee!
On our way to the Tampa area, we made a quick 2 day stop at Peace River Campground in Arcadia, FL. It was a little campground and would be awesome in the summer if we had an ATV. It was pretty cold. Eli and I tried the pool but it wasn’t heated and it was freezing!!!!
We are at Mac Dill Air Force base for a 7 night stay. The big thing we were going to do here was the RV show in Tampa, Fl. We unfortunately had a family emergency with my cousin Harper, so my mom flew out to Savannah to be with Aunt Lauren.
When we were at the RV show we also saw over one-hundreds campers, but I’m listing some of our rare ones we saw.
One of our favorite campers was the trail manor that literally transformed! trailmanor.com. Another one of our favorite was the Mercedes camper-vans where they had many different vans that they modified and turned into fully-functional living spaces. They were a little tight on the inside but i thought they were awesome. Though the best one we saw there had to be the new horizons custom camper. It looked so good on the inside, it had three fold out porches, five slides and even a chandelier! We also saw some cool trucks that my dad really wanted to buy. They were modded semi truck fronts (is that what they’re called?) that were the most spacious ones I’ve ever been in.
They had over 40,000 people over the five days of the event. I had a burger at the show and it was good but not worth the price of $20. I’ll give it a 6/10.
One of the days we were at Tampa we went to visit our friends. They are also an Air Force family and were our neighbors when we lived in Ohio. Luca and I were very close when we were 3-4 years old but haven’t seen each other in many years. He had a really cool loft that was like the one were going to get when we move back to Pennsylvania. We played video games for most of the time mostly Madden and Minecraft. We also played football in the front yard. It was awesome to catch up with him.
Our original plan was to go to Gainesville, FL and then head to the Gulf coast but instead we are changing our plans to reroute back to Savannah, GA to visit with Harper and pick up mom.
Current leg: 96 miles to Arcadia, Fl and 93 to miles McDill AFB in Tampa, Fl.
We are staying at a KOA in Naples Florida for a 5 night stay.
Our favorite thing was the pool they had. It was heated and it felt like a hot tub! They also had a pond and we were going to go kayaking, but, we did not have the chance to do so. We also met friends that we played football with and it was so fun!
Back at the campground we saw a whole army of crabs, there were probably over 1000! We also looked for alligators but sadly found none. On the last day we decided to go to a Dairy Queen near by, and we all got blizzards that were delicious. My official rating was 10/10 it was perfect.
Our other destination to see while in this area of Florida is Big Cypress National Reserve. What’s cool is that if you visit and complete junior ranger books at biscayne, Everglades and big cypress and then we get a special patch to show we’ve been to all three along with the normal badges. Unfortunately they didn’t have any more patches so they are going to mail it to us.
We stayed at the Everglades for a two night stay, but we were boondocking. Boondocking is where you camp but do not have electricity or water, so we had to live off of our batteries. What’s cool about the place is that we are actually camping inside the national park. Our first night there, we walked to the amphitheater and got to hear a Park Ranger talk about the park. We talked about preserving the park as best as possible but also protecting it from the outside world and how that is a balancing act.
The next day we had a boat tour through the backcountry of the Florida bay. We saw so many different animals including one crocodile and lots of different birds. The coolest part was when we got back because there were about 20 manatees in the water at the marina in a sunny spot! We have been waiting for the entire trip to a manatee and finally saw one, actually many! We did some hikes as we drove through the park, each one had a different look to it.
Since we had some time left until dinner, we went to a gator farm where they had airboat tours, gators, and even capybara! Sadly we saw no capybara but we saw over one-hundred gators! We saw a show where the guide went into an enclosure with two big gators. He picked them up and held their jaws open with his chin! We learned at the national park visitors center that this show was how Native American tribes used to do this with alligators. Then we went on an airboat tour through the mangroves. We got wet while they were doing tricks and spins and it was so fun! 🤩
After the farm, we were going to go to the gator restaurant where they served gator meat but sadly they were closed for New Years. Luckily Roberts Fruit stand was open. We got papaya, ugly fruit, and the best mango any of us had ever tasted. My favorite was the ugly fruit because it tasted like a mix between lime, orange, and lemon it was so good 😊.
It feels like we have left the US driving down highway 1 to Key West, where we will stay for a month and celebrate Christmas. One of the first things we learned is that it technically was not part of the US for a brief period of time. It is still known as the Conch Republic. They declared war on the US by throwing a piece of stale Cuban bread at a naval officer🥖.All they wanted was a blockade at the beginning of the Florida keys to be removed so they didn’t feel like a separate country and it worked, they removed the blockage.
Our big bucket list item of this month here was visiting the Dry Tortugas National Park. You can only get there by a boat or a sea plane. We took the Yankee Freedom Ferry. It was a 2.5 hour boat ride that was a little rough on the way there. The boat ride was fun but words the end we all felt a little queezy but no one puked! We traveled over 140 miles on the boat! Most national parks have millions of visitors a year. Dry Tortugas has only 58,000. They served us lunch at the island which was Jersey Mikes subs. They were great after that long boat ride. After lunch, we got snorkel gear. It was my favorite part there. We snorkeled beside the seawalls of the fort and saw many different fish, but sadly our hunt for a sea turtle continues. The name “Dry Tortugas” dry came from there being no fresh water on the island, and tortugas, being the abundance of sea turtles in the water around the island. We spent the last of our time exploring the fort. It was huge with 3 levels and a moat (with water). We started the audio tour of the fort but did not have enough time to finish, and if you ask me, I did not want to be stranded on that island. My brother and I completed our Jr. Ranger books so we got a free ice cream sandwich on the way home!
My mom and I planned a day trip up to the middle keys from Key West for all of us to take. First stop was the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, FL. We went to one a few weeks ago in Jupiter, FL but we thought this one was even better. I got to see the doctors working on a turtle when we got there which was one of my favorite parts. We also got to feed turtles in the natural tide pool, they were the permanent residents (could not go back to the ocean). Next stop was the Keys Fishery. Our neighbors had told us about it at the campground so we had to check it out. The food there was great. The coolest part was that you could see so many animals in the water at the restaurant! We saw 2 sharks, a lot of tarpon, and even jellyfish! Last stop was the Blue Hole. The Blue Hole was once excavated and used as a limestone quarry. Today, it is part of the National Key Deer Refuge. They are known for their alligator sightings, as well as deer. And we were lucky enough to see 2 gators, a deer, and even a peacock!
One of the other cool things we got to experience while in Key West was collecting our own coconuts. We got to harvest our own coconuts from the tree limbs they cut down at the campground. We were going to make art with them, but we were wanting to harvest the juice and make pina coladas (mine was virgin don’t worry). We got the juice out by using my dad’s drill, and we found that the small green ones had the most juice. Also inside was a lot of the coconut meat we tried some plain and it was not great, but my dad loved it. We saved a couple extras to paint and make Christmas decorations with. My mom made a Christmas tree and the grinch, and my brother made Santa’s sleigh.
SNUBA! My mom and I went to snuba at the reef off Key West called Cottrell Key. SNUBA is like scuba diving but you don’t need to be certified. You have tanks on a raft filled with oxygen and you could dive down and look at the different animals. We had tubes connecting us to the tanks that were 20 feet long. We swam with dolphins! Our captain said that it was the biggest pod of dolphins he’d ever seen with divers. We also saw lion fish, crabs, a grouper, but sadly no turtles. Our Hunt continues. I think I’m going to get certified soon because this experience was awesome! My mom did say that not every scuba dive is swimming with a massive pod of dolphins 😂🐬!
Christmas in the Keys was really fun and different. Santa brought Eli and I each an electric scooter. We a on a trip to Pigeon Key on the 26th and got to test them out of the 2 mile bridge to that Key. They were awesome! Pigeon Key an island that was used to build to house people that were building a railroad down to Key West. Lots of the original buildings were still standing.
Our last adventure this month was a fun sandbar boat trip with Uncle Nate and Chrissy! They came to visit us for 2 days. We had a boat that took us to a sandbar about 9 miles from key west where we spend hours playing in the water and sand. It was an awesome way to end our time in the Keys.
Miami is massive! It was such a huge city. It reminded us of NYC but with much better weather. We were there for the week of Thanksgiving. We got to explore a lot of places and my favorite was absolutely my first NBA basketball game of the Miami Heat versus the Milwaukee Bucks.
With our museum membership we got to check out the Frost Science Museum. It was a pretty good one. It had lots of interactive exhibits. One i really liked was you have to build a hurricane barrier. Your choices were a combination of Mangroves, sea walls, and coral reefs. We knew from our kayaking trip that you needed a good combination of all three. Eli and I did pretty well with that exercise. The other awesome feature of the museum was a 4 story aquarium that you could see from all levels as you went through the museum. We got to see sharks, stingrays, sea turtles, and lots of fish! At the top level was a touch area where we could touch the stingrays. This top level also had an amazing view of the city!
We when to zoo Miami for the zoo lights, we did not get to see all of the animals but we got to see some cool Christmas lights. My favorite was this turtle riding a surfboard. The best animals were the otters, you got to go in a slide through the exhibit and the otters came up to you when you slide. You also got to go into a tunnel through a fish tank and got to see a bunch of different species of fish there was also an alligator laying on the tunnel! Farther into the museum there was an alligator exhibit where you walked over a rope bridge over top a full grown gator! There were also many species of birds that we got to see at the show they had parrots and a vulture!
I was waiting for this our entire stay at Miami, a basketball game! We saw the Miami Heat play the Milwaukee Bucks. It was cool watching the players i only knew from video games play in real time. We had pretty high seats, but we had the best view because we got to the plays develop. I also got a way overpriced burger which was good.
We explored Biscayne National Park. What is cool about this park is the 90% of it is underwater! We took a boat trip to learn about this park and got to explore the first Key in Florida called Boca Chico Key. It was cool to see all the yachts that come out here to spend the day! The water was beautiful. We saw tons of fish, a few sting rays and even a sea turtle poking his head above the water. At the visitors center, we did our junior ranger packet and got sworn in and received our badge. This park is unique because if we complete the junior ranger packets at Everglades and Big Cypress we will get a special patch representing all three.
We are at fort pierce KOA in Fort Pierce, Florida for a 6 day stay.
Our big excursion was to the LoggerHead Marine life Center where they rescue sea turtles. The center was one of my favorite places so far on the trip, it was well done, and we learned a lot. The most common injuries to sea turtles are boat strikes, shark attacks, swallowing micro-plastics, and virus called fibropapillomatos (FP) tumors. FP tumors has to be surgically removed. We met a turtle that was recovering from FP, and his name was Igor. We also met a turtle named Pyari. She lost a fin from a shark attack but she can still swim just fine, and once healthy enough will be able to return to the ocean! We also learned that the gender of the turtles in the nest is determined by the temperature of the nest. The warmer the nest the more females, and the colder the more males. There is concern that with global warming more and more females hatch in each nest every year. And sometimes its too hot for any of the to survive at all. That’s why we have take care of our planet. Things like picking up trash at the beach and reducing the use of single-use plastics will help these turtles. Whenever you leave a light on at the beach it confuses the baby turtles and they walk the wrong way, that’s why at the beaches and some city’s people are trying to put more warm orange lights rather than bright white ones. Another thing that can help is knocking down sandcastles and any other stuff you built at the beach, this way the babies don’t have to climb over Mount Everest just to get to the water. These are things I have never thought about before!
My dad and I went on a bike ride to the Fort Pierce Manatee center. Sadly we did not see any manatees. They had a lot of cool tanks of fish that lived in the water just outside the center, and my favorite was the seahorse. Did you know that seahorses don’t have stomachs so they eat a lot! And the excess food they don’t want, like boness and skin, gets shot out of their heads and back into the water, so they have to have another animal, like a lobster, to help clean up the tank. Mom and Eli took the day to go see the new Wicked Movie.
Saturday morning all year long they have a huge farmers market right on the water. We checked it out and got some amazing cider donuts. That is saying something because living in Vermont the last two years I feel like I know good apple cider anything! We also got smoothies at the market. Mine was berry blast and it was delicious! 9/10! The only reason its not a ten is because there were to many seeds. We also saw a cool 3-D printing stand, where, they had all sorts of good prints.
This campground had a nice big swimming pool that we swam in most days. There was also lots of lizards everywhere and not just the tiny ones but some bigger ones with cool colors. Next we are off to Miami for Thanksgiving.
This place had some of the best views so far on our trip. The campsites were right on the Banana river, and the sunsets were beautiful but I was personally a fan of the sunrises. We also had to see a rocket launch while we were at the space coast, and we saw two! One was a Starlink group 6-89 rocket to send up more satellites for their starlink, and it’s cool because we use starlink as our internet for this trip, and really, to publish this blog! We also saw the Via sat-3 F2 that was also carrying communications satellites!
One of our excursions, we went to the Orlando science center. It was the biggest museum I’ve ever been to and they have a lot of cool exhibits. My favorite was the space one. It had a simulation where you made a rocket and then piloted it up to space, that was the best part. There was also a stop-motion studio where you could make a short video/movie. I liked it so much a got the app on my iPad to do it more! ( it’s called stop motion studio!) . The science center was fun but then we were hungry so we got food at pig Floyd’s where i got a pulled-pork sandwich, it was the best pulled-pork I’ve ever had! 10/10!
Other highlights of this stop was a cool minigolf course and an ice cream shoppe called the Surfin Turtle. They had turtles to feed while you ate your ice cream. Also our neighbors were really nice and had two dogs. One was named Arly and she only had 3 legs. It didn’t slow her down at all. She loved to play catch with Eli and I.
Pelican Roost Campground at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, FL
New State unlocked! We were super excited about entering Florida where we will be staying for the next few months. It is especially nice when we compare it to the weather back in Pennsylvania and Vermont.
This campground is directly on an inlet to the Atlantic Ocean. We saw big boats come through everyday. We saw a cruise ships, Navy ships, and massive cargo ships! In the mornings, we saw multiple bottlenose dolphins from our camper. Some long-termers even said they have seen saw sharks! The campground is called Pelican Roost and I thought that name was accurate because we saw hundreds of pelicans over the course of the week. We even saw Ospreys, a type of raptor bird, having fish in their talons! Up the road less than a quarter of a mile is a beach that we can ride our bikes too. We met another family there and it was fun to play catch and go to the beach and climb on the jetty rocks together. It was super nice to have some friends while we were there cause there usually isn’t many kids we can hang out with.
One of our big excursions was checking out the city of St. Augustine. Its claim to fame is being supposedly the oldest city in America, but our guide for the kayak tour said it is actually the oldest continually occupied settlement in America, but not the oldest. We did a kayaking trip on the Matanzas river through the mangroves. We saw fish and oyster fields. We stopped at an island on the river. I even planted some new mangroves! Our guide told us that for every mangrove it cleans the air for four people! Our guide reminded me of my teacher back in Vermont, because he was very informative and knew a lot about the wildlife there!(Shoutout to Ryan!) If any of you readers are in the St. Augustine area, I highly recommend kayaking with Ben of geotrippin.com!
I think a week there went fast, the campground was awesome and having friends there made it a whole lot more fun! Next stop Manatee cove family campground at Patrick space force base!
We are at Red Gate Farms for a 4 day stay in Savannah, Georgia. At the RV park they have horses, donkeys, goats, and turtles. You can buy goat and turtle food at the store. My favorite part was feeding the turtles, when you chucked out food their heads popped up right next to the dock, we even had 13 at once in our view! Feeding the goat was also fun, I stuck out my hand flat, and then they suck it all up!
The most important reason we stopped in savannah was to see our cousin Harper, as well as Uncle Ryan and Aunt Lauren. Harper had just beat cancer before we got there 🥳🎉!!!we haven’t been able to see her so it was so nice to finally go trick or treating with her!
We took a day to go explore downtown Savannah, where we saw cargo ships and went to planet fun. Planet fun is a store in downtown Savanah where they have cool video game stuff like Mario and sonic. Uncle Ryan gave us each 30 dollars to spend.
I got a switch game and a comic book! We also took a walk on River Street where we walked right next to the water and they had many cool stores and splash pads to do (it was a little to cold to do the splash pads when we were there, but they’d be great in the summer)
Halloween was happening while we visited. We had decided since Moana is Harper’s favorite movie of all time, we would do a group costume with theme. I got to be Maui and Eli was the angry coconut known as a Kakamora. Harper was of course Moana.
The street that they live on was great for trick-or-treating we got a massive candy haul, especially with the trick or treating at Winding Waters the week before. We also watched the Steelers play in Ryan’s media room, he also has super fun video games that played a lot when i was there.
