The Palmer Express

Pulled into the KOA, Pine Island March 5th.  Back in sites are getting better, we’re getting pretty good at set up, as soon as we’re leveled I put a couple of beers in the freezer and by the time John gets everything outside hooked up and I get all the cabinets opened and straightened out the beer is ice cold and we can relax.  Pine Island, just north of Fort Myers, is the largest Island in Florida and has no beaches.  Great for kayaking, paddle boarding and fishing.  There are a whole bunch of palm tree nurseries here, must be the place grow them.  We are finding that the Gulf Coast is a lot more friendly than what the Atlantic coast was.  We would come back to this area for another visit

We arrived at Point of View RV Resort, Key Largo, February 24th.  We love the park but won’t be coming back as they are tearing it out and putting condos in.  The sunsets are remarkable, pretty sure we would have a hard time getting tired of watching them.  We met up with some friends and started our adventure to Key West together.  We stayed at The Orchid Key Inn right off of Duvall Street.  We rented a golf cart and toured Key West in style, the best way to see the town.  Expensive, fun, and interesting in a freak show kind of way, place to visit. Now that we have been there and done it we can mark it off our bucket list.

We finally have bikes to get around with, we went on our first poker run in Islamorada. It was a nice test run for the bike. The first 5 miles were a breeze with the wind at our backs. The 5 miles coming coming back into the wind were still a breeze with a little assist from the battery.

We visited John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and took the self guided kayak tour of the mangroves.  When we signed the wavers we had to agree to pay an extra $20 if they had to send someone out to look for us, that made us raise our eyebrow a little.  When our 1 hour tour turned into 2 hours we know why.

 

 

Arrived February 20th.  KOA, Davie site 42, decent sized back in space.  Down side was the tree, it was seeding and we had to wash off our slides before packing up. Not much to say, we didn’t care for the area, glad to move on.  Parking was a challenge, we ended up at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, and they had a tunnel under A1A to get to the beach.  Seaweed on the shores, smelly sand, and a pretty bad decline to the water.  We’re not sure what the big draw is for the area.  They have a nice boulevard to stroll along, lots of hotels and upscale shopping.  We headed south to Diana and Hollywood beach, easier to find parking but, seaweed, smell and decline still here, quiet area, not much for what we are looking for in a beach town. The town of Davie was nice but farther from the beach area. As you can tell from our lack of pictures we were not that into this area. We have already moved to Key Largo and have more pictures taken in that area then when we did in Ft. Lauderdale.

 

February 12 we pulled into Sunshine Holiday Daytona, stayed at site 6, this was supposed to be a pull thru site, maybe for a 20 foot rig, not for us, palm tree on one side, electric box on the other and cars parked all over behind us.  John backed into the space, I tried my hand at giving directions, John nailed it!  We toured the speedway, went to the dog track, test road Flaunt e-bikes in New Smyrna Beach, and checked out the flea market.  The preparation for speed week has been incredible to watch.  Open fields that looked like deserted band shells and bars are now all decked out with advertisement and camp sites.

Site 6, a lot of permanent residences in the campgrounds.

Under the stands at Daytona speedway.

Feb 5-12 we spent in St Augustine, a lot of history, one way and very narrow side streets.  Tons of shopping downtown along with many historic sights.  We found Butler Beach to hang out at, lots of beach, easy to find a spot.  John went for a dip in the Atlantic Ocean, I made it to my knees, it was a little cool.  We were able to drive the truck on the beach, on at Butler Beach and off at Crescent Beach.

 

Fort McAllister is just outside Savanna, GA. We stayed at the rv park one night and toured the fort before we left the next day. It was a Confederate fort that guarded the entrance to the river. It was interesting how they used mounds for protection of everything from the barracks to ammo storage.

Our second travel day we found Fort Mountain Ga, it was a 2,621 foot climb to get there.  Beautiful camp grounds, 17 acre lake on top of the mountain.  We plan to revisit when it’s warmer, lows were in the 30’s.