Palm City

First morning in Florida. We decided to save time by eating breakfast on the road. So we headed right out. First stop was at a Winn Dixie for some groceries; then we spotted a McDonald’s. There only seemed to be three people working, and breakfast took longer to be served than if we had made breakfast in the rig, eaten it, and cleaned up afterward. It was easily the worst record for service in any McDonald’s we have ever been in.

That finally done, we headed toward Amelia Island. In the process we got on the very beginning of A1A, the Florida beach road. We went out to the ocean for a view of our first Florida beach. It was cold and windy, not exactly beach weather, and there were only about two or three people there.

The wind was strong. It was white-knuckle driving past the open marshes and on the high bridges. Not what you imagine when you think about Florida. We followed A1A through Jacksonville and St. Augustine. It was busy in St. Augustine, since it goes right through the heart of the tourist area, but not bad withal. We did switch to 150 at one spot where A1A takes a ferry ($20 for RVs) but got back on it at the next opportunity.

We scored the last ocean-side RV site in Gamble-Rodgers State Recreation Area, south of Flagler Beach. We were right across from the walk to the beach, so next morning we went down to the beach. It was still cold and windy, and the only other people on the beach were a mother with two happy toddlers. Jean managed to find enough shells so that she could be picky. Brought back a good haul.

When we got to Titusville, we spotted a Welcome Center, so we stopped. One of the missions for this trip is to check out possible Florida towns to move to. The people at the Welcome Center were happy to point out the advantages of Titusville, and made it sound quite appealing.

We had planned on following A1A all the way to Palm City, but it became apparent that the road mostly goes through the high-rent residential areas, so we switched over to US-1 at Orange Beach. When we got to Melbourne, we started calling camp grounds. This being high season, we found that most of them were filled. We finally scored a site in Sebastian, well down the coast. By the time we got there they were closed, but they had left a map out for us. We could pick a spot and pay in the morning. It was a very large campground, with lots of permanent customers, including “park models” and singlewides. In fact, we found one of them near where we were listed on Zillow (a real estate web site). We eventually found an empty 30-amp site at the back and settled in right next to the jungle. Later in the evening, we found that we were only about ten feet from a busy train track. The jungle is very good at hiding things but not so good at muffling sound.

Next day, Thursday, we headed out looking for breakfast. We were pretty much out in the country, so we headed back to A1A to see if we might have more luck. We simply found ourselves driving between large gated communities. Back on the main road, we finally came to a big shopping center. We drove in, figuring there would be a restaurant someplace. What we found was a very popular Jewish delicatessen. The décor was old black-and-white photos of New York City. The sandwiches were about six inches thick. We ordered a plate of “loaded latkes” from the appetizer menu. We both ate our fill and there was still food left over.

At this point we were running ahead of schedule, and Jean still needed to pick up a couple of birthday presents. Consulting our smart phones, we found some shopping a way off the highway. So after a big detour, we parked at a Beal’s and Jean went shopping. She was successful, so we plunged into the rush hour traffic in Port St. Lucie. We arrived at her son’s house in Palm City about 6:00 o’clock.

The next day was Friday, so I called a mobile RV tech to repair the fan in the ceiling vent which hadn’t worked since Virginia. Getting repairs on the road can be difficult and expensive. It can also entail a lot of waiting. Since the weather had been fairly cold so far, we needed a heater more than a fan. But in southern Florida the problem was the other way around. I waited until we were going to be settled in one place for a while before I made a call. The service tech eventually arrived and, just as in the past with this unit, the fix was quick and easy. However, the service call was still pricey, but I knew that going in.

Next day, Anna took us to a botanical garden. Jean’s son, Sandy, is between jobs (he’s a freelance insurance adjuster) so he spends most of the time driving for Lyft and Uber. We don’t get to see him much this trip. We had perfect Florida weather for touring the botanical garden. They are getting ready to add something called “Faerie Forrest” which will involve scattering a number of these delicate sculptures around the garden.

 

We spent almost as much time looking at birds as we did plants and flowers. One of the first things we spotted was an osprey on a nest.

 

In addition to that (and another osprey nest), we saw this anhinga peering intently down into the pond.

And a little blue heron stalking along the side of the pond; we thought he was dangerously close to where the alligator lives.

We had, of course, seen Spanish moss all through the south, but here was a tree covered with it.

What is more characteristic of Florida is banyan. I was fascinated by this example.

Jean and Anna were much taken by the orchid garden.

Anna is very good with orchids, so Jean brought her one from Virginia that hadn’t bloomed in years. Perhaps it will thrive here. There were other flowers, of course. I think that this is some sort of bromeliad.

As we were resting before leaving, we were treated to a rainbow lizard.

The women had planned on spending the rest of the afternoon at the beach, but Sandy reported that the beach was mobbed (this being Saturday). So we relaxed in the house. Sunday the beach would be just as crowded, so Anna took us on a tour of nearby Hobe Sound. This is a small town just south of Palm City. It is a quiet place with little traffic (at least on Sunday). It also has a convenient beach — important for Jean. While at the beach we talked with a number of residents who were sitting around the pavilion with their dogs. Very friendly folks. Sandy and Anna pointed out that Hobe Sound is a small town near bigger cities with all the advantages of the cities but with less traffic. It looks like the best situation that we have seen so far.

At the beach I spotted something you don’t see much any more, a Plymouth Prowler.

You certainly see a wide range of vehicles in Florida. Just down the street from Sandy and Anna’s house is this example.

Monday, the women went to the beach while I stayed behind and worked on pictures. Later in the evening, Jean went to the salon where her granddaughter Hannah works, and had her hair done. We finished off the day with dinner at a good German restaurant, another plus for Hobe Sound in my estimation.

Tuesday was not one of the good days. First off, Hannah had to take one of her cats to the vet. He is a very sick boy. Then we got word from home that Max, the collie, was also very sick and had been taken to the vet. This is a dog that we had been keeping for someone for a couple of years. Some months back, their situation had changed and they gave him to us. He had been pretty much Chillie's dog, so now it was official. Now he was very sick. After worrying for the best part of a day, it was determined that he had cancer. After much agonized deliberation it was felt that the best thing for Max would be euthanasia, so at 6:00 o'clock it was done.

That was a very sad moment. On happier news, Hannah's cat underwent successful urinary tract surgery and is much better.

It’s getting to be time to move on. We haven’t decided whether to leave tomorrow or the next day. It’s been a fancy-free trip so far.

Heading South

     It seems like it’s been a long winter. We got back from our New England trip on November 13, and we weren’t able to get away again until March 11. We usually leave for Florida in mid-February, but doctor’s and dentist’s appointments, both in Virginia and Florida, pushed the date back too far for our taste. A March snowstorm looked like it would push things back even further, but things cleared off in time for us to leave as planned.

     The purpose of the trip was to visit Jean’s family in Florida, and also to look around at a possible place to move. Jean’s farm is up for sale, and we will be relocating. To date, we are thinking of either southeastern Virginia or Florida, so this was a preliminary scouting trip as well as running away from winter.

     We began by heading east instead of south. After a few hours, we arrived at the Watermen’s Museum in Yorktown. Besides being members, we are friends with the staff there and they let us park at the museum for free (complete with electricity). Our plan was to spend a couple of days visiting friends in Williamsburg and Mathews and looking around at Mathews and Deltaville. Our friends at the Museum convinced us to stay another night because there was going to be a folk-jam at the Museum. There was and it was rollicking good fun.

     Over two days we reconnected with some friends and got a sense of the situation on the Middle Peninsula of Virginia (mostly rural, lots of boating). We came away impressed with the possibilities.

There was one problem we had the night before we left. As we were settling down for the night, we smelled smoke. After looking all around, Jean noticed that the microwave was full of smoke. Opening it (carefully) we found a burning pot holder (we use the microwave mainly for storage). It appeared that in resetting the clock with insufficient light we had accidently turned it on. The burning pot holder got stamped out in the parking lot and the rest of the contents spent the night on the side of an outside sink. Lesson: always have good light when you set the microwave.

     But now it was time to move on. The plan was to follow Route 17 all the way to Florida, then de-winterize the rig and follow the coast to Palm City. Just as we were about to head out, the Yorktown bridge opened to let a Landing Dock Ship out that had been loading at the Naval Weapons Station.

      With that bit of excitement, we plunged south through the madness of Hampton Roads. We are basically not in tourist mode, just making time to the main destination of Florida. But we were not so much in a hurry that were willing to take the interstate. We avoid interstates as much as possible.

     Route 17 runs for a while alongside the Great Dismal Swamp Canal. This marks the east side of the Great Dismal Swamp, or what remains of it. It is thought that it was originally over a million acres in size, but some draining and much logging has reduced it considerably. Today it is a protected area of about 125,000 acres. We stopped at a car-and-boat rest area alongside the canal. (The canal is a part of the Intracoastal Waterway.)

     We were able to take a boardwalk through the swamp itself. From the road it looks like much of the tangled forest you can see all up and down the coast. But when you get into it, it is definitely a swamp. We didn’t spot any wildlife, but we did hear frogs at one spot.

     As we headed on south, we could watch Spring unrolling. In Virginia and North Carolina, we saw lots of daffodils. When we got into South Carolina we began seeing redbuds and wisteria blooming. Moving into Georgia we were wowed by huge banks of azaleas. Just before the South Carolina line, we detoured out to a beach. The first beach of the trip. Jean was ecstatic. It was cool, but not cold enough to keep the beach-goers away. We feel like we are getting somewhere.

     A portion of Route 17 in Georgia is the Sweetgrass Basket Makers Highway. African Americans living in the Mount Pleasant area have set up booths and sell sweetgrass baskets there for years. The craft goes all the way back to their African ancestors. There weren’t too many booths open at this time of year, but we stopped at one and Jean bought a small basket.

 

     As mentioned, we were just passing through and not stopping for areas of interest, but driving through rural Georgia, we spotted something we couldn’t resist.

We had to turn around and go look. This is next to a very large church, which is of no interest, of course.

     Route 17 just skims the edge of Savannah — the industrial edge at that. We were through very quickly. This area is low country Georgia. We passed by an old rice plantation that we had toured on a previous trip. We made it into Florida by 4:15 and stopped at the Welcome Center for new maps (we go through them pretty fast). We looked for an old campground that we had stayed at before, but it seemed to be lost to new development. We managed to score a site at a nearby campground, and had time to de-winterize (summerize?) the rig before dark. We are now at our destination and ready to explore. We are not due to visit Jean’s family for two weeks, so we are fancy-free. (We do have a problem with the ceiling vent we need to deal with, there’s always something.) For the next couple of weeks, it’s check out Florida. Can’t wait to get started.