travel log

At the crack of dawn we headed in to Fort Meyers to find an Airstream dealer to fix our broken window.  Unfortunately the replacement had to come from Ohio which meant we had to stick around.  Lara found a great campground right on Fort Meyers Beach.

The Red Coconut RV Park turned out to be a great place to stay.  They had fast wifi and a beautiful beach right outside the door.  A lot of that beach made it’s way in to the Airstream which kept our little sweeper busy.

We spent the mornings running on the beach and paddle boarding with the dolphins.  The water was not as clear as the northern beaches but we still had a great time.

Luca and I took some great walks after work down to the boardwalk.  It was awesome to watch the sun go down.

The Airstream started to feel a little small for all of us.  During the day I was having to take my conference calls in the front seat of the truck.  Sitting in the hot sun for hours at a time was a pain and left me with a sore back.  The Airstream was also starting to have problems with the water system and other random things breaking.  We started to talk about trading it in for a bigger trailer that had a better setup for working.

The great thing about the Airstream is it’s ability to be parked anywhere.  When people see an Airstream outside of their house or on a street they have a different reaction over a standard trailer.  During a lot of our stops I was able to work in the Airstream while Lara and the kids explored.  Trading up to a bigger trailer would take a different travel style.

We took a quick trip up to Lazydays RV in Tampa to look at some different options.  Lazydays has a RV park attached to it with a pool and restaurant.  We had a great time riding our bikes around and checking out different motorhomes and trailers.

After looking around we settled on a fifth wheel style trailer with a middle bunk room.  This layout would give Luca his own room and Skye a loft bunk to play in.  I would be able to work up in the front bedroom with a door that closes and locks.

We settled on a Jayco North Point at Orlando RV which also happens to be an Airstream dealer.  They gladly took our slightly broken Airstream and set us up in the new fifth wheel.

While we waited for the new trailer to be inspected we moved over to Lake Whippoorwill near Orlando.  The KOA had beautiful lake views and great pool.  It was a nice couple of days!  The whole alligators in the lakes thing is kind of a bummer for paddling though.

The first time on the road with the fifth wheel was a little scary.  The angles to back it in to a parking spot were totally different than the Airstream.  It took us many tries to get in to our first spot that night.  The kids were so excited to setup the power and slide the four slide outs out.  It was totally a Jefferson’s moving on up moment.

Now that we had the new trailer it was time to head back south to Miami.  We had a few days to get settled before our Christmas trip to Montana.  The trailer would need to go in to storage and Ginger dropped off at camp before we headed out.

Time to test out the new rig in Miami traffic!

Next stop Montana

After being on the west cost of Florida for a couple of weeks we took a trip across to visit Cape Canaveral on the east coast.  We pulled in to the Kennedy Space Center on a rainy afternoon and parked the Airstream in the overpriced RV parking.  After paying the huge entrance fee we entered the vast complex and had lunch.

The cafeteria was awesome and had hydroponic salad greens growing all around the registers. The plants definitely brought the room to life.

The Kennedy Space Center was filled with some really cool stuff.  Our first stop was in a wing devoted to visiting Mars.  We had a great time learning about all of the new space tech that will help humans survive once we make it to mars.

It was fun to see the rovers that we have sent there including this one from The Martian.  Luca and Skye had a great time using the rover simulators.

The main attraction was definitely the shuttle program.  We all enjoyed the shuttle concept video and seeing all of the steps that it took to finally build the shuttle.  Once the second video finished the screen lifted up to reveal the actual shuttle hanging right in front of you.  It was awesome!

Luca and Skye must have gone down the slides over a hundred times.  They also loved the space station playground that hung high above the rest of the exhibits.  I left the space center feeling so inspired by what all of the engineers had achieved.

We pulled the Airstream in to Jetty Park which sits in the Cape Canaveral port.  The park has a great view of the launch pads and water recovery infrastructure that surrounds Nasa.  There was a SpaceX launch that we were hoping to see but was scrubbed due to technical difficulty.  Thankfully we made it back later in the trip to see the Falcon Heavy take off.

Jetty Park is owned by the port and has excellent services.  The wifi was fast, bathrooms were clean and everything was well looked after.  Definitely a great place to camp for a launch.

The town of Cape Canaveral is a lot like most of Florida with the typical strip mall layout.  We spent some time at the local Duncan Donuts and met some locals that were fun to talk to.  The same people were at the Duncan Donuts everyday and like all east coasters were happily chatting away with each other.  It’s the kind of place where if you say something someone else across the restaurant chime in to correct you.  I love that about the east coast.  It seems like us west coasters are just trying to avoid talking to each other which is lame.

Unfortunately the beach was windy and cold the whole time we were there.  We stayed bundled up and hid from the wind all week.

If you make it to Florida the Kennedy Space Center is a must see!

After a week in Fort Desoto Sate Park we packed up and headed south to the keys.  The route south took us through Sarasota, Fort Meyers and Naples before heading east across Alligator Alley in to Miami. We stopped in Siesta Key along the way to take a dip in the ocean.  What a beautiful beach!

In Alligator Alley we turned off and visited Big Cypress National Park for the afternoon.

Big Cypress National Park is one of the three national parks that surround the Miami area. We arrived in hottest part of the day and moved slowly around the visitor center.  The surrounding area had so many birds, turtles and fish.  We did not see any alligators but were content with some big mosquito bites.  After the kids picked up their badges we headed south to Key Largo.

The trip to Key Largo took us through Miami and then south to highway 1.  Traveling through big cities with a trailer is always a little nerve wracking.  Cars begin to travel faster and condense until it feels like you are driving 80 mph with a trailer with cars on all sides.  Thankfully our truck is fast, stable and can stop quickly.  The Airstream got new Goodyear Endurance tires which are rated up to 80 mph.  Having a blowout in a Airstream can rip up the interior wheel well and cause a lot of damage.

Our first campground in Key Largo had a lot of character to put it nicely.  The campground locals were all out and partying.  If cigar smoking women is your thing then definitely come on down.

Monday morning came and I headed out for a paddle around the bay.  It was so nice to be out in the blue water and warm sun.  Out in the bay several dolphins came by to say hi which put a big smile on my face.

Campgrounds in the Keys are all over $100 per night.  Crazy to pay that amount of money for a parking spot!  About half of all the campgrounds were closed because of the damage done by hurricane Irma.  As we traveled south to Key West we saw a tons of hurricane damage.  FEMA has a crew of bulldozers and semi trucks that are hauling loads out of the keys.  Crazy how much trash the hurricane generated.  We saw quite a few freshly bulldozed lots for sale.  A few locals told us that a lot of people are leaving the keys to start over after Irma.

One of the more affordable campgrounds in the keys is John Pennekamp State Park.  We pulled in early so I could work while Lara and kids took a boat trip out to the reef.  The reefs in the keys are all dying from pollution.  The kids learned a lot and vowed to help the reefs.

The campsites at John Pennekamp are surrounded by mangroves.  We setup camp and started to tackle some lessons with the kids.  After a couple of hours Luca’s legs were riddled with big puffy bites.  Skye had bites all over her arms that looked like large welts.  It turned out no see ums were walking right through our screens in to the Airstream.   Luca was miserable and while Lara was closing one of the front windows in the Airstream the glass shattered.  Let’s be honest here…  Airstream has not updated the archaic latches on the windows since the 1950’s.  The system uses two rod/lever thingies that prop the windows up.  By applying a little too much uneven pressure the window popped.

After a family meeting we decided to go north to fix our window and take a break from the no see ums.  The nearest Airstream dealer is 150 miles away in Fort Meyers. After duct taping a plastic bin lid to the window, we headed North out of no see um land.  We pulled off for the night in Alligator Alley’s rest stop.

The sunrise was beautiful that morning!

On the way out of the rest stop we noticed a couple of airboats pulling out in to the Everglades.  The boats were transports for crews spraying Deet in to the Everglades.

Sad to see the need for chemicals in such a beautiful place!

 

St. Petersburg, Florida is just west of the big city Tampa.  St. Pete has a long stretch of white sand beach on the west and lots of causeways and fingers of water to the east.  We ended up getting a waterfront site at Fort Desoto state park for the week.  Fort Desoto has a great dog beach where Ginger partied and met a lot of friends.  On the backside of our campsite was a little inlet with tons of fish.  We would constantly see fish jumping up in the air.

The nights around the campsite were super peaceful.  Luca had a great time hitting the tennis ball for Ginger.  They played until Luca was eaten alive around his ankles.  I had a couple of really nice sunset paddles after work.

St. Petersburg beach was a quick drive over the bridges.  It was surrounded by high end beach houses and had a strict no dog policy.  We spent a few mornings paddling and playing in the clear blue water before work.  It was heavenly!

Lara and I had a great time running and working out on the paths in Fort Desoto park.  We were able to put in a few miles each day with Ginger.  Running in the sun is the best.

After our week was up it was time to head south to Fort Meyers.

Luca and Skye were both so touched by the movie Dolphin Tale which takes place in Clearwater, Florida.  The movie is based on a true story of how a boy finds and saves a injured dolphin from one of Clearwater’s beaches.  After we watched the movie we went online and found out more about Winter and her story.

The Clearwater Aquarium was a fun stop for us.  It was surreal to see all the movie set and to meet the all of the animals.  Winter is getting pretty old but looked happy to just float in her tank and check out the people.

Skye and Luca loved learning about the stingrays in the petting tank.  Skye was scared but finally overcame the fear and touched one.  The Stingrays are so soft and silky to touch.

We watched Nick the dolphin earn his dinner in the big tank outside.  He would get so excited when he did a trick right that he would cackle and back flop.  He was rescued as a baby and cannot return to the wild.

After the aquarium we could not find anywhere close to stay.  We ended up staying at Cracker Barrel which  allows customers to stay overnight.  Unfortunately, the cracker barrel menu is about as far from vegan friendly as you can get.  We ended up having baked sweet potatoes and a mid-western style  garden salad which did the trick.

Next stop St. Petersburg.

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday camped out at Grayton Beach state park.  Grayton Beach state park is nowhere near as nice as Henderson beach.  What Grayton lacks in cleanliness it picks up in it’s closeness to the town of Seaside.  The marshes around Grayton lit up and were beautiful at sunset.

Seaside Florida is a cute little beach town.  I am sure it has been featured in every top ten beaches articles for years.  The town has tons of cute little beach houses that surround a town square that opens up to a perfect white sand beach.

The town square has a row of Airstream food trucks that were packed.  The kids were bummed to see that the donut trailer was all sold out.  Lara and I were looking forward to Juice n’glow which serves smoothies but it was also closed for the holiday.

We headed to the beach donut and smoothie less but had a great day.  It felt so nice to paddle on the flat gulf water.  Luca paddled too which was fun to see him get back in to.  It had been a while since he had been on a board.

There was a group of small manta rays that would buzz  the beach catching fish.  They were so much fun to watch glide through the water.  The mantas would line up side by side which looked like a way to fish as a team.  It’s cool to see nature adapt and work together.

We missed our normal traditions for Thanksgiving this year.  All in all though it was a nice day for the four of us.

Next stop, Clearwater, FL to see Winter from the movie Dolphin Tale.

The gulf coast has such amazing white sand beaches.  We moved a little east to Destin, Florida which has one of the best state parks.  Henderson Beach state park is an amazing spot to camp.  The sites are clean and spacious.  The beach is a quick bike ride or walk through the dunes away.  We spent a really nice week at the campground.

Luca and Skye came up with the idea to sell cookies to the other campers.  Each afternoon they road their bikes door to door meeting all of the snowbirds and selling a few cookies.  The cookie business was a great opportunity for the kids to learn about gross vs net profit.  Some of their inventory was lost (to cookie monsters) which really cut in to the net profits.

 

After our big road trip we had a ton of school work to catch up on.  The scanning of Skye’s work is such a huge time commitment.  Luca is able to churn through some of his lessons but still needs a lot of hands on help with social studies and English.

Destin, like most of Florida is just a bunch of condos and malls.  We found the Walmart, Whole Foods and Barnes and Noble.  The kids were so excited to settle in and read some new books.  During the days Skye found a new friends to play with.  Luca was feeling pretty lonely without any other boys around.  Thankfully we lucked out and had nice sunny weather!

After our week was done we headed east to highway 30A towards Seaside.

We set off east for Florida after visiting White Sands National Monument.  The drive to Pensacola is a big one at 1,244 miles.  We made stops in El Paso, San Antonio and Baton Rouge along the way. 

El Paso is on the border of Mexico and has many bridges in to the city of Juarez.  We made a stop at the Whole Foods for dinner and then stayed at the worst RV park so far.  Being so close to Juarez and the border a Walmart or rest stop just did not seem like a safe place to stay.   The morning air in El Paso smelled like burning garbage as we headed out to cross Texas.

El Paso to San Antonio is a long leg just over 550 miles.  Lara drove while I worked and took calls.  We pulled in to the Whole Foods which now conveniently has amazon lockers just before bed time. After picking up some food and our Amazon deliveries we headed east to a quiet Walmart just outside of town.  Quiet Walmart parking lots are a great place to crash for the night.

The trip from San Antonio to Baton Rouge is a 470 mile leg.  We stopped in Houston for ice cream and conference call before droving in to the night.  After Houston, interstate 10 hugs the coastline and offers a great tour of the petrochemical industry.  The scale of the oil industry on that coast is staggering.    We passed one town that was 3 exits of refineries that make chemicals for plastic production.  Goodyear tire is also along that route with a Ford plant nearby.  We stopped at the Louisiana welcome center for the night and parked next to a couple of other RVs.

Baton Rouge to Pensacola was another long day through the south on I-10.  Late in the afternoon we pulled through Mobile, AL at sunset.

By the time we reached the RV park in Pensacola it was late.  We had been on the road for four full days and the team was tired.  We spent a couple of days around the campground playing in the pool and spending time at the beach.  It felt so nice to be in the warm sunshine.

During December and January we will be heading down Florida’s east coast to the keys.

The drive across the California desert in to Arizona was beautiful.  It took a full day to make it across to Tucson where we camped for the night at Walmart.  We had a campground picked out but it turned out to be a clothing optional kind of place.  In the morning we headed out to Saguaro National Park.  It was fun to learn about the Saguaros and how old they are.  It takes them about 100 years to grow arms.

From Saguaro we headed east to White Sands National Monument near Las Cruces, New Mexico.   When you pull in to White Sands the road changes from pavement to sand which looks more like a winter wonderland than dunes.

 

We explored the dunes and then headed to the visitor center so the kids could get there junior ranger badges.  Outside of the visitor center we studied and then did a fun lunchtime workout.  Once the workbooks were done and the badges were earned we headed back to the dunes for some sledding.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bbc0QpEj-cs

The visitor center sells/rents sleds which are awesome.  The sand that has a high amount of gypsum in it which is great for sledding.  We had previously tried to sand board in Oregon with horrible luck.  Luca and Skye were so pumped and were out there for hours.  The next day Luca could hardly walk from all of the climbing.

Just before sunset we headed out of White Sands for El Paso.  Next stop Florida!

In Pahrump we were able to get a lot of loose ends tied up.  It’s funny how many little things pile up while we travel.  The biggest concern was getting the engine oil off of the Airstream.  The leaking Denali had coated it with oil which then mixed with road grit to form a dangerous scratchy grime.  We also needed groceries, propane, water, dog food and to get some homework done.  As 2pm came around we were all grumpy and felt lucky to escape.

The drive in to Death Valley is beautiful!  The valley opens up with long stretches of road that go on forever.  Verizon service shits off and it is just you and the vast expanse.  Luca was not impressed and voted Death Valley the lamest place in the world.  How come we couldn’t just go back to Vegas and have some fun?  Skye was in good spirits and headed in to earn a ranger badge.

We pulled out of Death Valley at sunset and had a beautiful drive in to the night.  The road towards Bishop had some serious peaks that we went over.  On one of the peaks I stopped and we all got out to wander under the stars.  It felt like we were on top of the world with a huge moon behind us and thick, dark hues all around us.  The road took us to the eastern base of the mountains where we stopped to sleep in a vacant parking lot for the night.  We had traveled a couple of hundred miles north which surprised us with temperatures in the 30s that night.

In the morning we turned south to make the trip down to Joshua Tree.  Along the way we stopped for lunch on a vacant runway with a huge solar farm next to it.  There is a ton of solar installations in the southwest.  Most of them are photovoltaic but this particular one was oil and steam.

I flew the drone next to it for some photos while the kids fed all of our veggies to a herd hungry goats.   It was fun to watch Ginger try and make friends with the goats.  In the end she just ended up running around in circles on the runway while they stared at her.  Reminded me of that house wolf meme.

Joshua Tree National Park sits on top of the mountain above the town of 29 Palms.  We searched the campgrounds for cell coverage and ended up at Indian Cove which is on the west side of the park.  The campground was surrounded by rocks and had great views of the valley below.  Lara and I had a great time mountain biking in the mornings before work.  The nights were so peaceful and quiet.

We left the campground and headed in to Palm Springs.  I had booked a flight to visit my co-workers in Seattle for a couple of days.  Lara and the kids stayed behind to enjoy the sun and hot springs.

After my return we visited with family and then headed out of town to camp for the night before heading east.

Next stop White Sands NP, New Mexico!