Navarre Beach, January – February After six years of full-time travel, we decided to experiment with a longer winter break. Northern Florida has its cold, windy days, but retreating to a warm, cozy condo beats scampering to find warm places to camp this time of year. For our break, we chose to return to a familiar condo in Navarre Beach, FL. Santa Rosa Island is a narrow 40-mile barrier island along Florida’s Panhandle. The south side of the island borders…
Canada geese have the right idea. Shorter days and dropping temperatures say the time’s right for snowbirds to head south. We packed our van and started south right after Thanksgiving. In Charlotte, NC, we enjoyed a good, albeit quick, visit with family. As a bonus, we were treated to the drive through holiday light show at the Charlotte Speedway. Blinking, racing lights coordinated with jazzy Christmas music. Almost psychedelic! A good kick-off for the holiday season. Thanks, Diane and Ric!…
A series of serendipities brought us to Camden, AL. We’d barely set up camp in the Fort Pickens campground, near Pensacola Beach, Florida, when the camp host advised us that the campground was to be evacuated the next morning. An advancing storm with high winds was threatening to flood the narrow barrier island’s only road. In the interest of safety, we’d all have to leave. A quick scramble to find an available campground for a few days led us to…
January has been a tricky travel month for us. The weather can be mild, like an early spring day, or it can turn on a dime, bringing van-shaking winds, flurries, and shivering temperatures. Like a Forest Gump box of chocolates. This year, we decided to hug the Gulf coast and work our way west into south Texas. Our last stop in Louisiana was Sam Houston Jones State Park, near Lake Charles. This park has seen a lot of renovation post-hurricanes….
Brrr. Time to head out from Pennsylvania in search of warmer climes. November ended with a super cold snap. For the very first time in our travels, we opted to spend our first night back on the road at a motel. Nineteen degrees can be risky territory for the van’s water lines. After a frigid, kind of nervous, night in the Virginia mountains, we continued into North Carolina. We stopped in Charlotte to spend a few days with John’s sister…
Mid-March through April 2023 “The Cove” in Dade City, Florida, is the name given to a street of ten homes being constucted by Habitat for Humanity. We signed on as Care-A-Vanners for a two-week build commitment in March. You never know exactly what you’ll be doing on one of these builds. It could be trim details, siding, painting, cleaning, yard work, or working your way through the task punchlist to ready these homes for their new owners. We’d worked on…
February into March 2023 Cancelling our February AIRbnb reservation left us with an open six-week stretch on our calendar. We had scheduled a Care-A-Vanner commitment in Florida for the last two weeks of March, but we needed a travel plan to bridge the time between then and now. We chose a route out to Rockport, Texas, and a return one that would bring us back to the New Orleans area for Mardi Gras on February 21st, and our Florida commitment…
FLORIDA to TEXAS Late December to early February Northerners imagine that Florida is always sunny and warm. In reality, Florida can have some damp, bone-chilling weather. We spent some very cold days before Christmas at Fort De Soto County Park and Hillsborough River State Park. Wind, rain, cold, and unheated shower houses – not a good combo. Woodsy campsites turn muddy, potholes appear in dirt roads, and hiking trails become a hop-scotch around puddles. All you can do is layer…
Late October into December 2022 We followed our routine of returning to the Philadelphia suburbs for about a month in the fall. This time off the road gives us an opportunity to reconnect with family and friends. No matter how carefully we plan, we always run out of time for visiting before we run out of folks we’d like to see. We feel lucky to still have so many wonderful friends from our life in Delaware County. On the more…
Early to Mid-February 2022 From Carrabelle, we went to Florida’s Panhandle, returning to Fort Pickens campground in the Gulf Islands National Seashore. We’ve stayed here before and it always feels like coming home. This time around, it was a bit chilly, with rain and wind that cut down on our beach walks and bike rides. But it’s still Fort Pickens, with its old timey feel, great sunsets, and lovely shore birds. This time, we were fortunate to meet up with…