December 31, 2024
Wednesday Dec 18: we departed Myrtle Beach this morning and
drove about 300 miles to the Georgia/Florida border. It was a pleasant trip; we
drove mostly on highway 17 and alternate 17. We used I-95 very briefly to get
past Savannah Georgia.
Our overnight stop was at Country Oaks RV Park about a mile
from the Florida State line. This is our first time staying at this park and we
would use it again. All the transient sites are pull-thru’s with full hookups.
They are gravel and grass, shaded under old oak trees. A little noisy due to
the truck stop across the road, but not a deal killer. 3 bars of Verizon data,
2 bars on the Verizon hotspot, we streamed tv with no interruptions. Cost for
the night was $50. (campsite site 3)
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| Home to the Florida border |
Thursday Dec 19: We stayed on highway 17 until we got to
Jacksonville Florida where we got on I-295 to go around the city. On the south
side of Jacksonville we took Hwy 1 the rest of the way to our next destination
in Titusville.
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| Manatee Hammock County Park in Titusville Florida |
We stayed for 4 nights at Manatee Hammock, a Brevard county
park right on the water across from the Kennedy space center. On our arrival
day we went to Sam’s Club for pizza and ice cream, we didn’t shop in the
store. That night we watched a movie
called The English patient. It was ok, not really my cup of tea.
Friday Dec 20: Weather here has been cool and overcast, I
don’t know why we even stop here, the weather is always like this. We didn’t do
much, had to go to Lowes building supply, Aldi’s, and Walmart. After lunch
which we ate in the RV, we went uptown to two thrift stores where I got the
deal of the year.
I told Millie on the day we left that when we got home the
RV cover needed repair or replacement. This is a $300+/- expense that only
lasts for 4 or 5 years, the sun deteriorates the material and it just starts to
fall apart. I found a brand new cover, still in the box from Camper World. It
was priced at $29 and they were having a 50% off Christmas sale. Yes, I bought
the cover for less than $15.
Neither of us were hungry at dinner time so we just ate
soup. We’ve restarted watching the Australian series called A Place to call Home.
We bought the DVD’s for the complete four seasons and have watched it
sporadically during our travels. We plan on completing the series on this trip.
Saturday Dec 21: We started the day at Planet Fitness. We had
lunch at the RV (hot dogs) and then went to Two church thrift stores and Hobby
Lobby. The movie tonight was a DVD of the Mickey Gilley Show we saw in Branson
Missouri. It is probably our third time we’ve watched it over the years, and we
still enjoy it.
Sunday Dec 22: Planet Fitness again this morning, lunch at a
Mexican restaurant called El Leoncito. Then a driving tour of Cocoa Beach and
Merritt Island. We watched the movie Defiance starring Daniel Craig. Also
continued watching A Place to call Home, we watch one episode a day.
Monday Dec 23: In the wee hours of Monday morning, we were
woken by a rumbling noise that quickly grew in intensity. The RV started shaking
and things on shelves rattled. In an instant it went from night to day outside
and then almost as quickly it faded back to night and the rumbling settled. In
the morning, we learned it was a SpaceX Falcon rocket lifting off from the
space center. It carried 21 Starlink satellites into orbit. If we had known beforehand,
we would have set an alarm so we could have walked to the river and watched the
rocket lift off.
Later that morning we departed Titusville and drove cross
country to Sebring Florida. There is no direct road between these two cities,
so we took a zig-zag route on country roads. It wasn’t that far, and we were
there by 2pm. We are staying at Highlands Hammock State Park in site 113. $50 a
night for a water/electric site, state parks aren’t cheap anymore.
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| Highland Hammock State Park in Sebring Florida |
Tuesday Dec 24: We drove across town to find the location of
the 1st Baptist Church; we will return this evening for their
Christmas service. While we were out, we drove through a few residential
neighborhoods, just to see if they were as nice as presented on the ad’s
frequently sent to us. For lunch we went to a diner in Avon Park, which is just
north of Sebring. It was an excellent choice, we both had Chicken Cheese steaks
on hoagie rolls with a side of French fries.
Wednesday Dec 25: Pancake breakfast in the RV, Skyped with
RaeAnne and then just hung out in the campground the rest of the day. We
planned an Italian dinner; the Stouffer’s Baked Ziti was made with meat (beef)
but I ate it anyhow. My rational was it couldn’t be that much beef in there, it
was just meat sauce. That didn’t work out so well, I started itching shortly
after eating and knew the hives would not be far behind. I medicated myself and
stopped the reaction before it became painful, but it was a reinforcement that
my red meat allergy is for life.
We watched an episode of A Place to call Home and later in
the evening we watched a movie called The Gingerbread man.
Thursday Dec 26: Spent an hour at Planet Fitness gym this
morning. Later we went out to Ollie’s Discount store looking for a specific
style of earbud for Millie. She uses them at the gym on the treadmill and has
trouble with them falling out of her ears. No luck at Ollie’s so we went to
Walmart where we found the style she likes.
We went back to the Avon Park Diner for lunch.
Friday Dec 27: Since the start of this trip ten days ago
we’ve used up the 50gig of high speed internet access on our hotspot. We’ll
hotspot off my phone until we get to our next destination. When we get there I
will set up our Starlink system for internet access.
Today is also the day we leave Sebring and travel further
south to Easterlin County Park in Oakland Park near Fort Lauderdale. We
followed Hwy 27 for this section of our trip. We have an excellent site (site
B3) in this 47 acre wooded oasis. You would never know we are smack dab in the
middle of an urban environment. Campsites here have tropical growth greenery
between sites, that is something rare nowadays with most RV Parks packing sites
together.
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| Easterlin County Park near Fort Lauderdale Florida |
After setting up in the campground we went to Best Buy
Electronics in the local mall. There we were able to purchase an Amazon
Firestick needed for streaming video. The original firestick died a few days
ago.
Saturday Dec 28: Laundry day today, Millie washed and dried
all our clothes in the new laundry facility here at the campground. I did some
housecleaning and set up the Starlink internet system.
We went out in the afternoon to Aldi’s for a few food items
and planned on running the truck through a carwash, but the system was broken
when we got there. We drove by the Planet Fitness closest to our campground,
but we didn’t like the neighborhood and didn’t go in.
We watched the comedy movie called Here comes the Boom with
Kevin James.
Sunday Dec 29: We watched the live broadcast of this morning’s
service at Millie’s Myrtle Beach Church. Afterwards we went to a Mexican
restaurant for lunch. The food at La Bamba was just ok but could never compete
with our Myrtle Beach favorite Margarita’s. I’ve noticed that Mexican
restaurants are getting pricy, not the deal they used to be.
We passed a Planet Fitness in a nicer neighborhood and will
go tomorrow morning; The car wash was working and we got the truck clean.
We started watching a digital remake of the 1962 Classic
movie Lawrence of Arabia. We watched the first half and will finish it
tomorrow. I will reserve my comments until we see the ending.
Monday Dec 30: Started the day at the Planet Fitness we saw
yesterday. We were satisfied with this nice gym, it was clean and in a safe
neighborhood. It had an unusual layout taking up three floors in this downtown
office building, all others we have visited are on one level.
Back at the RV Millie cut my hair and then we had lunch of
leftover Mexican from La Bamba. We then went out thrifting. Not much success,
only bought three DVD’s. Maybe that is success, not buying much!
We watched the 2nd half of Lawrence of Arabia
tonight. We were a bit perplexed, over the years we always heard what an epic
picture it was. Technically, it was amazing how they created the film using the
hundreds of people, horses and camels in the big battles. As far as the story
goes, it confused us at times and had us wondering where the story was going.
As for the British Army officer who became Lawrence of Arabia, the film
portrayed him as a brilliant military leader who at times, actually most of the
time, appeared to be mentally unstable. To say he was a very complex character
is an understatement.
Tuesday Dec 31: Our last day in Easterlin County park. We
had two objectives today, both involve the nearby Gay community of Wilton Manor.
FYI, Wilton is an openly gay community set in the middle of this vast South
Florida metropolis.
Millie and I have been to many places where we were
racially, ethnically and even socially in the minority, but none of that
prepares you for Gay town. The good news is, while we may feel like aliens in
Roswell, they don’t seem to care that this old Heterosexual couple is in their town,
in fact they pretty much ignore us.
Our first stop was a thrift store appropriately named Out of
the Closet. I think I bought one DVD. A couple things made selecting difficult,
some of the movies were well out of my comfort zone, that’s about as nice as I
can say it. When I pulled one of them off the shelf, I got rid of it like it
was a hot potato and hoped no one saw me handling it. I’m sure any of the gay
men who might have been observing the act got a chuckle out of my antics. The 2nd
problem I had was half the shelves were so low I would have had to bend over to
see the DVDs, and there was no way I was going to do that!
Millie didn’t buy anything. She is primarily looking for
nearly new designer clothes and Out of the Closet is mostly men’s clothing.
Our 2nd stop in Wilton is one I recommend; we had
lunch at the Peter Pan Diner. The food, the portions, and the service is great.
Costs have risen with inflation but it is still a great place for lunch!
In the evening we watched another episode of A Place to call
Home and then a movie but for the life of me I don’t recall what it was. I
should make better notes. It may have been “Now you see me” a mediocre magician
farce, or a really bad Steven Segal martial arts flick (Into the Sun). I can’t go back and check, we’ve already
donated a whole bag of DVD’s to the Salvation Army store here in Florida City. Just
remembered another one, Saving Grace, a British comedy.
Fireworks were sparse throughout the evening on this the
last day of 2024 and at midnight there weren’t enough to wake us up. City life
is not very conducive to launching large fireworks.
