Our time is up for Florida

Tonight is our last scheduled 'reserved night' in Florida and I really don't want to leave.  It has been a good winter! 

A Florida Fish Camp

Florida is the most expensive of the three winter places for a snow bird (Arizona/Calif, the Texas Gulf Coast and Florida).  Spending the winter here with only three month's notice took some planning, luck, some Reserve America fees and cash for all the parks we stayed at.  Some free boondocking, but not much.  I'm not complaining, Florida state parks are great! Worth every penny, every phone call and every reservation fee we had to spend. If you can get your act together 11 months ahead, the state parks are nice. If you have the money for a commercial RV park, there are some outstanding ones. Florida in the winter is worth it.  It has truly been a winter of shorts & flip-flops! 

The beach at Sebastian Inlet 

Then the winter ends & it's time to leave.

We do have somewhere to be, near the Pacific ocean, in 101 days.   We do have a number of places marked to check out on the way to Washington state and the South East Vandweller Get-Together is happening next week.  We have not missed that GTG since 2016 and it's not that far out of our way, so we've decided to go. It's good to see friends there.

But I still don't want to leave Florida. I really can't remember the last time I was someplace I didn't want to leave.

Maybe we'll be back next year?

Florida

We spent this winter in Florida. 

Blue Spring

From up by Lake City, then down to Bushnell in a park for all of December.  A few weeks in the Tampa area, a few weeks on Key West.  Assorted week long stays in state parks near the east coast. 
Blue Spring by Orange City, Jonathan Dickinson by Jupiter, & Sebastian Inlet where the Spanish 1715 treasure fleet sunk in a hurricane.  We stayed at a couple of county parks, a county fish camp and out by Lake Okeechobee at a water management district camp.

Hibiscus flowers

We've seen turtles, raccoons, alligators, manatees and dolphins.  Horses, cattle & goats too ... don't want to forget the cattle & goats.... 
There is a LOT of cattle in Florida

An alligator

A dolphin

More birds than I can count, and chickens too!  

Fishing for lunch

Hanging out

Circling. waiting for lunch

Plus trees, trees all over the place.  Date palms, coconut palms and palms that I was not able to do more than tell they were palm trees.  Oaks with moss hanging from the branches, pine trees & evergreens I couldn't identify.  Papaya trees, Mango trees and Orange trees.

An Osprey

Palms on a beach

I've always known that I liked palm trees, something from my Hawaii days when I was a kid, but I never realized that I liked all kinds of tropical plants.  I get a kick out of driving down a road and seeing banana trees just growing in the ditch or in a stand across a field.  The flowers too, hibiscus all over the place and I'd swear I saw a Plumeria the other day.

Florida is a neat place, lots of tropical plants, flowers & warm water. 

Bananas by the roadside

I hadn't realized how much I like the tropical plants. I knew I liked the warm water and the sea shells but I didn't realize how much I enjoyed seeing the tropical plants.

Florida

It hasn't been just plants & animals I saw here in Florida this winter. I saw in-laws too!  Father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law and sister-in-law. All great people I'm pleased to say!

A good place to be in the winter

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I can't talk about Florida without mentioning Spanish treasure.

For 16 years everyday Mel Fisher went out treasure hunting and
everyday he said "Today's the day!".
On the 20th day of July in 1985 it was!
They found the Atocha,
40 tons of gold and silver and emeralds.
Somewhere around $450 millions dollars worth.