On February 13, 2020, we left Miami Beach after a good breakfast with Ira and Deb at The Front Porch Cafe and returned to Davie-Ft Lauderdale KOA where we spent another day to relax, do laundry, and swim. One of the food options we have at most campgrounds is pizza delivery – right to Sylvie. We took advantage of that. On February 14 Doug noticed a water leak under one of the seats, which turned out to be coming from the “city water” system. That system is a hose connection from the campground system into Sylvie, buffered by pressure regulators and filters. The regulators may not have been enough to control the water pressure, plus it was very hot. There is an alternative water system, simply a tank, so we converted to that.

On February 15, 2020, we drove Route 75 across Florida – the famous Alligator Alley – through Big Cypress National Preserve. We had an appointment for Sylvie at North Trail RV Center in Fort Meyers to go over the water system. They were great, taking us on the Saturday of a holiday weekend, but they couldn’t solve the problem. In spite of their tightening the valves and adding a third regulator, we still seem to have a leak. Sylvie is like a house – continuous issues!

We spent the next three nights at Bonita Lake RV Park, a 55 and older park. There is a large population of residents who live there year after year. One woman has been organizing the very popular shuffleboard tournaments for twenty years; the women’s doubles were held while we were there. The demand for long-term space is very high and we did see a lot of construction of sites. Luckily, most parks reserve some spaces for transients like us. One advantage is there is great take-out within walking distance – Doug found a great Chinese dinner for us!

The town of Bonita Springs is very nice – we visited a local attraction filled with Everglades wildlife – if you don’t like snakes, be warned, there are a couple of photos in this post!

But do keep reading – there are some nice pix later.

After a nice day at Pahokee on Doug’s birthday (February 10) we headed south on February 11, 2020, back through the sugar cane fields, to the Davie-Fort Lauderdale KOA.

On February 12 it was 79 degrees in the morning when we headed down Route A1A through Miami Beach to South Beach to meet our friends Ira and Deb. We had a fun day, starting with a double-decker bus tour of Miami Beach and Miami.

Some scenes from our bus tour:

One of our favorite stops in Miami was Little Havana.

They promised chocolate cigars, but we could not find any!

We toured Miami Harbor by boat – it was billed as a famous peoples’ homes tours, but it seemed as if most of the places were formerly owned by someone famous. Humph.

Miami is a major container port.

On February 9, 2020, we left Marathon early and drove through Homestead, Florida and north on Route 997 through fields of all sorts of crops – sugar cane and corn, and nursery with acres and acres and rows and rows of palm trees, palmettos, and other tropical plants. There is also an extensive irrigation system and large pump stations on the canals. We suppose that Lake Okeechobee supplies the water for irrigation and also to the cities on the east coast of Florida.

How much fun is it to say that word – O-KEE-CHO-BEE!

The City of Pahokee owns a campground and marina that is located between the huge levee that helps control Lake Okeechobee and the lake itself.

The marina has a swimming pool and large dock system where some good size boats are moored, apparently for the winter.

On February 5, we left Flamingo, Florida and headed down the Keys. We learned the hard way that it is high season in Florida and campgrounds are fully booked. We decided to celebrate Doug’s birthday and Valentine’s Day and booked several nights at a resort on Marathon Key. We finally went swimming (in a pool), and watched the sunset.

Isla Bella Beach Resort

February 6 was warm, sunny, and windy. We lounged around the pool in the morning. In the afternoon we bicycled about 6 miles round trip to the sandal store so that Doug could get some flip-flops – his first pair ever!

We had dinner at the Beach Bar watching the sunset – it was still very windy!

We spent another day at the resort – it was rainy and cold. We went out to dinner at Florida Keys Steak and Lobster House. On February 8 we got up early to avoid the traffic and headed down to Key West.

We drove down a long road off of Route 1 and found a nice refuge on Sugarloaf Key to stop and have our Kuban lunch. We had a nice visit with a couple from Reading, Massachusetts who were riding bikes.

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We had another learning experience on our return from Key West. We thought we had reservations at an RV park on Marathon Key. However, our van is not a “registered” RV in the State of Florida, because we do not set up our septic pump-out to be continuous. So we ended up at the Marriott Courtyard. Now we know to check for the rules when we make reservations.

On Monday, February 3, 2020, we drove to the town of Flamingo at the south end of the Florida peninsula. The campground at Flamingo in Everglades National Park (“EVER”) has sites that are nicely spread apart, therefore private. It was as rustic a place as we had been, with no light pollution. No hot water for the showers, but hey, we are camping. There are numerous pairs of osprey nesting throughout EVER. The first pair is right in the tenting portion of the campground.

It was so hot that we used the windshield reflective shields for the first time. We spent the next day hiking around the national park. The park had been hit by a hurricane several years before and the headquarters are closed; apparently there is no funding to replace the buildings at this time.

There are both alligators and crocodiles at EVER, the only area in the world where the two related species cohabitate. The people in the canoe above were told to back off!

On our third day at EVER we took the Backwater Boat Tour up the canal to Coot Lake. We saw numerous crocodiles, birds, air plants, and mahogany trees.

Next we will head into the Florida Keys.

On January 30 and 31, 2020, the weather finally started feeling warmer! We spent two nights at Joy RV Park in Cocoa, Florida, and did some beach walking at Cocoa Beach. We drove through Patrick Air Force Base and then up South Tropical Drive at the south end of Merritt Island – lots of big houses to ogle at. Sylvie was washed and Doug vacuumed her out at Tropical Car Wash. And another first – we had to add DEF – it’s a Diesel engine additive.

On February 1, we continued south along the coast, first through Vero Beach, which we think is a very attractive town. It seemed to have more neighborhoods and nice medium-sized homes. The Florida state parks advertise their beauty, and we agree – they are well kept. The campgrounds tended to be full, unfortunately, so we were not able to stay. We day-visited a number of them and they are consistently very nice.

On February 1st and 2nd we stayed at the West Jupiter RV Resort. We had arranged to spend Super Bowl Sunday with our friends Joan and Bruce in Tequesta, and they entertained us in fine style! First, we had lunch on the waterfront at the Jupiter Pointe Club & Marina where they store their boat.

Then we went out in the boat for a great tour on Jupiter Sound and the intracoastal waterway to see the homes and businesses of the rich and famous.

The inlet from the Atlantic Ocean to Jupiter Sound is narrow and the current runs hard. We walked along where the palms made interesting shadows.

We watched several boats navigate the rough channel – some more safely than others.

Many of our photography subjects are cautiously cooperative.

Some actually pose very patiently. This pelican was standing guard at the entrance to the marina.

Some not so much.

Handsome devil, gets away with it! Maybe he was just thinking about the upcoming Super Bowl contest! Bruce and Joan served some of their signature dishes, including pulled pork – it was a very fun evening!

We saw a lot of controlled burns going on throughout Florida. The water everywhere is very high, so it must be a good time to do it. In this case the forest ranger lead us through the heavy smoke with all the lights blazing on her truck. We were a bit surprised that they were burning on such a windy day.

From St Augustine we drove south through Anastasia Island on Route A1A down the coast. It was very windy, from the northeast, so the surf was high. It was cold!

At Daytona Beach Shores we crossed back to the mainland and followed Route 1 south into Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. It is a lovely area – there is a walkway through the groves of palms and palmettos at the ranger station.

Part of the Merritt Island NWR is a seven mile wildlife drive with lots to see – a fun drive that we recommend.

From St Simon’s Island we headed south to another saint – St Augustine, and Compass RV Resort. The next morning, January 29, we decided to walk around the town rather than take the trolley – it is a compact downtown. Our first stop was Castillo de San Marcos, which was built in 1672 by the Spanish, then traded to the British in 1763 in exchange for La Habana, Cuba. The Peace of Paris agreement returned Florida to Spain in 1783. Finally, in 1821, Spain ceded Florida to the USA.

St Augustine is also home to the Lightner Museum that is housed in the former Flagler Hotel. Henry Flagler built the railroad to the Florida Keys and installed several big hotels along the way for the tourist business. The St Augustine hotel was built around the largest indoor swimming pool in the world in the 1880’s. The railroad reached Key West in 1912, but was destroyed later by a hurricane.

The museum hosts a huge eclectic collection of art and Treasures of the Gilded Era. There is glassware, a mummy, a stuffed lion, lots of giant furniture created for grand homes, a shrunken head, and Native American Indian memorabilia. Very entertaining.

After our visit to the Jacksonville Zoo on January 25, 2020, we drove north to St Simon’s Island in Georgia to spend a fun weekend with our friends Mason and Carol Pratt. Mason and Judy are former partners at the Portland-based law firm of Pierce Atwood. More to the point, however, Mason and Doug are long-time golf partners! Happily for Carol and Judy, they are both great cooks, and made a wonderful dinner at home our first night. Then we stayed up late for all of us, talking and catching up.

One of the fascinating parts of our visit was the overturned cargo ship in St Simon Island Sound. When we first approached Doug pointed out the ship in the channel. Brunswick, Georgia is a port in which thousands of autos are delivered – you can see them lined up. However, the shape of the ship did not look healthy and we figured out that it was a ship that was deliberately grounded back in September. The ship listed and the pilot wisely grounded it deliberately to avoid completely blocking the ship channel. It’s quite a story; if you look up the South Korean ship Golden Ray you can learn more about it.

On Sunday Mason and Doug headed out early for a round (or two?) of golf. Later we went to dinner at Nazzaro’s, a fine Italian restaurant.

On Monday, we drove Carol and Mason around Jekyll Island in Sylvie, so they had the camper van experience, at least a bit. They survived! Doug and Mason played another round of golf, then cooked a great dinner.

As of January 25, 2020, we had driven Sylvie more than 5,000 miles on this trip, and 6,600 miles overall! Not bad for about 5 months into this adventure!

Onward to the east we cruised on January 23, from Panama City Beach, Florida, through an area hit hard by hurricane Michael (Category 4) in October 2018. There were many trees down and damaged buildings still in sight. We drove out to St. George Island State Park on the offshore island of the same name with beautiful, windy beaches.

Our next stop in Panacea, Florida, was friendly, if a bit sketchy. However, dinner at the nearby Seineyard Rock Landing, where they served local mullet, oysters, scallops, shrimp, and grouper, all very fresh and quite delicious. Also, we were back in the eastern time zone.

As we continued east and away from the coast, we observed that Florida highways and roads are RV- friendly. They are wide, straight, and have good visibility. Another business sign we saw in Live Oak, Florida: Sleeves Out Tattoos. We arrived in a nice park north of Jacksonville called Flamingo Lake RV Park. After a walk around the lake in the park we watched some of the trial on TV.

From the Flamingo Lake RV Park on January 25, we visited the Jacksonville Zoo and Garden located on the Trout River. This facility houses creatures that are not able to survive in the wild. The mix of animals are grouped by region of origin – Africa, Asia, South America, etc. The garden and zoo are integrated, which spreads out the animal exhibits and allows the park to accommodate a large number of visitors and children. Here are a few of the residents we saw.