2015 - TEXAS TO FLORIDA

FLORIDA - I

Preamble to the Florida sections that follow

The next seven weeks - and two sections in this photo-journal - are spent in the southern half of Florida.

There are a two main reasons for this:

• weather: one of the compelling reasons for being "down south" is to avoid winter weather, but even in Florida cold arctic air can drive down as far as Lake Okeechobee. So staying in the southern half of the state is about the only way to guarantee relatively warm weather

• work: in my semi-retirement, I'm still helping out at boat shows - Newport, RI, last September and Annapolis, MD, last October. And the Miami Boat Show, held in mid-February, is the third major show on the calendar for my old boat business

My commitment to helping out at boat shows has meant, however, that I have sometimes found it necessary to "tread water" to a degree - particularly in early February - and even double back on my tracks at times, as want to stay in the general vicinity to make sure I'll be in Miami at the required time for the boat show, including finding a place for the RV for that time period.

---

Thursday, January 8, 2015 - Titusville, FL, to Cocoa, FL

Up reasonably early to take advantage of Lowes WiFi to get a couple of e-mails sent before heading off to the Kennedy Space Center.

A very breezy morning, with the wind, rather unusually, honking out of the north and whipping up the water on the Indian River as I drove out to Cape Canaveral across the the long NASA causeway, the bridge on the causeway crossing over the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) - a bridge under which I have passed so many times when heading up or down the east coast on boats.

Paying for entry to the Space Center I received my first ever "senior discount" (for being over 55), a massive reduction in the entry fee from $50 to $46!

Due to the biting northerly wind I didn't spend too much time outside at the Kennedy Space Center other than a quick look around the Rocket Garden...

In fact, it was a pretty good day for looking at the many indoor exhibits, taking the bus tour out to the launch facilities and a couple of IMAX films.

All reasonably well done and quite informative, and amazing to see how much was achieved in the early days of space exploration with such modest computing power available and how basic so much of the equipment was. All glamorous at a distance but quite gritty when up close and personal.

Left the Space Center just after 5:00pm and drove 20 miles to a Camping World dealership on the outskirts of Cocoa, where I've been fortunate enough to not only get overnight parking but an electric hook-up into the bargain - so my various devices can all be charged up, and I can keep the RV warm through the night.

Friday, January 9, 2015 - Cocoa, FL, to Fort Pierce, FL

Bracing early run, deliciously long warm shower (no shortage of hot water, being on shore power) and then off to downtown Cocoa which I had visited when heading north in May 1999 on a sailboat after my winter in the Caribbean.

Not entirely able to locate the spot I had in my mind as the center of the historic downtown area of just a couple of streets, but an enjoyable walk around nonetheless as the day warms up, though the "trying too hard" nature of cutesy bohemian stores was a little much.

A short drive on down Route 1 before stopping for coffee, WiFi (an hour's keyboard time) and groceries.

Then further on down Route 1 and a parallel route further inland, passing a range of scenery from waterside homes, to golf course homesite developments, to horse ranches and orange groves, before stopping for lunch.

With the day slipping away somewhat, the gentle cruise down Route 1 was abandoned in favor of the efficiency of Interstate 95 to get to Fort Pierce before the afternoon wore on too far and confirm that we'll be able to stay overnight at the Walmart there. Then a short drive up the road from Walmart to find WiFi to finish a little work, including tracking down a spot at the Ocean Breeze RV Park for tomorrow night close to Stuart as there are no viable options for free parking near the town - something that will be a more frequent issue as I get further south.

Saturday, January 10, 2015 - Fort Pierce, FL, to Jensen Beach, FL

This sure seems to be a popular Walmart parking lot - 14 other RVs of all shapes and sizes around us by the morning.

Took a quick drive to downtown Fort Pierce to see if I could recognize anything from my last time ashore here when heading north in May 1999 after I had "cleared in" with US Customs and Immigration here after crossing over from the Bahamas - in those pre-9/11 days something I was able to do via a phone call.

The downtown waterfront park area was packed with people at a Saturday market, so rather hard for me to get my bearings or recognize anything much, and there's been considerable rebuilding after hurricane damage in 2004.

To try to assuage my guilt for so often patronizing Starbucks, I stopped to get a cappuccino at a local coffee shop only to be served an overly milky coffee, as so often happens. At least Starbucks is somewhat predictable...

The drive from Fort Pierce down Route 1 to Jensen Beach was slow and halting due to fairly heavy traffic and stop lights (mostly red) at an endless series of intersections, but I arrived at the offices of the Ocean Breeze RV park at 11:30am, greeted there by old boating friends Glenn and Pam, who are on their boat in Stuart getting some final work done before heading over to the Bahamas (where we met originally).

Checked in with the RV park and had $58 extracted from my wallet for the privilege of a single night tucked in among trailer homes and long-term resident RVs, not even with a water view.

Strolled the short distance to Jensen Beach, where another bustling Saturday street market had closed off the main street, for a quick bite of lunch at Mulligans.

Then drove to the marina in Stuart where Glenn and Pam's boat is out on a mooring and dinghied out for a tour of their very impressive 47' power catamaran, Cacique. Quite some vessel, with a lot of design input from Glenn during the semi-custom build.

After which it was time to walk to downtown Stuart via the boardwalk to camp out at Duffy's Sports Grill to watch the New England Patriots narrowly beat the Baltimore Ravens, eat junk food and drink beer.

Kindly driven "home" after the game and started watching the other NFL game on the TV in the RV but found I was a little too tired (from excessive eating and drinking!) so called it quits for the evening.

Sunday, January 11, 2015 - Jensen Beach, FL, to Okeechobee, FL

Hot, humid and a little hungover early this morning... not the best recipe for a morning run, as my rather slow times attested, though it was a very pleasant route on the road alongside the wide Indian River.

After struggling through, had a cooling shower and then took full advantage of the RV park facilities to empty the holding tanks and fill the water tank.

A brief grocery stop preceded my morning coffee (at relatively reliable Starbucks) and then I detoured via downtown Stuart to take a couple of photos of the main drag where we had walked and eaten last night. And decided to reward my running efforts with an ice-cream...

From Stuart, I headed west to Lake Okeechobee, the road paralleling the St Lucie Canal that connects the lake to the Indian River (the canal to the west of the lake connecting with the Gulf of Mexico allows a "short cut" for boats across Florida rather than having to go all the way around the Florida Keys).

Turned north once I reached Lake Okeechobee, and drove along the road that follows the lake, stopping for lunch at a turn-off and parking area by one of the sluice gates that manage the water levels in the lake.

And then on the short distance to the town of Okeechobee at the northernmost point of the lake.

Our Walmart car park here appears to be a popular location judging from the number of neighbors I have, some of whom are in pretty derelict vehicles.

Monday, January 12, 2015 - Okeechobee, FL, to Sebring, FL

Woke to attractive pre-dawn skies over the pond beside our Walmart parking lot, with the local birdlife making an early start to the day...

...though this may have been lost on the various "vagrants on wheels" who had collected in my corner of the parking lot, with little early sign of life from a couple of old vans, with even older drivers, that had shown up overnight.

Gradually people stirred themselves, however, and this offered some interesting insights into the way other people go about their RVing.

This fine fellow had his van so full that he slept across the front seats, but clearly curved around the things he had stored there as he had to unpack and rearrange storage on the passenger seat after getting up.

Not much more room on the dash behind the windshield, either...

The least attractive of the various sights was a hugely overweight guy in a Chrysler people carrier wearing a very tight white t-shirt, who mostly gave the impression that there was a beached white whale in the driver's seat.

With his seat fully reclined, all I could see yesterday evening was the large white t-shirted belly moving up and down as he breathed.

This morning, the large white belly was being used as a table from which something that looked like macaroni cheese was being fed into an invisible face (behind the door pillar and blacked out window behind).

So now I knew the beached whale at least had arms.

The belly table top worked so well that most of the time the tray of food sat by itself, with the non-feeding hand holding a book up to read - Tom Clancy as far as I can make out. Occasionally a bottle would also be lifted to the invisible lips.

Then I saw the head on top of the belly make an appearance as the guy sat up in order to a) take a corkscrew to a bottle of wine, placed in a familiar gesture into the center console cup holder and b) open another tray of macaroni cheese...! After which, in familiar reclined posture, the belly became a table once again, food being forked into the hidden mouth, an occasional swig being taken from the wine bottle, and the book being read.

I guess charitably I could conclude that the book was so gripping this guy couldn't put it down to even get out of the car, but the succession of food and drink being poured into him suggests he's got other priorities...

At some point, surely he's got to leave the car to shit out all that food, I thought... But not before I had to get on the road, so it will forever remain a mystery as to what exactly was in that seat.

The town of Okeechobee looked badly run down from what I saw heading out to Sebring, cheap fast food joints, budget accommodation and pawnshops most strongly in evidence. Not much activity here to help the local economy, I guess, with even moderately well off retirees choosing coastal locations, no tourist attractions and just a little farming activity from what I could see.

A typical large American town strung out along a busy highway but it did, however, offer a Starbucks for a late morning stop and, as torrential rain moved in early afternoon, a Dunkin Donuts for some WiFi and shelter.

With rain easing just after 4:00pm, I drove north a few miles towards Avon Park to a Walmart parking lot only to be told they no longer allowed RV overnight parking, so I retraced my steps to the Walmart in Sebring where I was told I could stay for just one night and where I got the RV tucked up before a second wave of torrential rain and thunderstorms came through just before 6:00pm.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015 - Sebring, FL, to Brandon, FL

Still slightly damp this morning after last evening's very heavy downpour, but humidity doesn't seem quite as bad.

Morning run, morning Starbucks (including a toasted egg/bacon/gouda cheese sandwich as reward for running), then on the road, through "historic downtown" Avon Park, which wasn't worth stopping for, and Bartow, which would have been worth stopping for had the traffic not been jammed up behind me, with no obvious spot to pull over, and an urge to get to our first Walmart option reasonably early to check if we had permission to park overnight, given how often this seems to have been denied recently.

Tempting as it was to consider a detour to the town of Frostproof, I pressed on.

Trivia item: prior to being named Frostproof in the late 1800s, the town was named Keystone City. The name change was, in part, a marketing ploy to convince potential landowners that the town had never had, and never would have, a frost that could destroy the large citrus-driven economy. However, only a couple of years after the name change a frost killed most of the citrus in Frostproof.

Made a quick grocery stop, had a late lunch, fueled up on the way into the Walmart parking lot and, with some relief, was happily given permission to park overnight.

So a relatively early end to the day - around 4:15pm - giving me time to get the RV nicely situated in a quiet part of the parking lot and catch up on a couple of e-mails thanks to the WiFi signal reaching me from the adjacent Home Depot store.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015 - Brandon, FL, to Seffner, FL

Off to the RV show at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, a fairly short 20 minute drive.

Entrance to the show already backed up on the highway when we arrived at 9:30am, and acres of parking already filled.

This is a very large show. Mostly outdoor - not surprising given the size of many of the RVs - but a few indoor exhibit areas also, mostly for vendors touting the usual trinkets and trash.

Actually, it's an outrageously large show. One time when maybe some of the questionably "disabled" people on their scooters could be excused, even the ones spilling out over the sides of the scooters.

To my, perhaps uneducated, eye most of the larger motorhomes (the classic 40' coach-type) look identical, as do the potential customers - old, often ancient, invariably badly dressed, usually overweight and clearly receding in mental maturity if this kind of presentation (of mainstream RV businesses ) is appealing.

I guess as this is Florida I should have expected some of the sideshow characters wandering around - Donald Duck, a man dressed as a bush, a one man band pulling his instrument cart.

One particular mobile and irritating musical distraction - a man singing, occasionally playing trombone, followed by a large limping lady pushing a mock riverboat housing speakers - seemed to be following me around the show.

To minimize my exposure to all these unsavoury sights and intrusions, I made directly for the couple of Winnebago display areas I was specifically interested in, and stopped to look at only two or three other product offerings in slightly smaller RVs than mine.

Not much new discovered, actually, which I guess reassures me that my general research before buying my RV was fairly thorough. And I saw nothing that would be a better RV for my needs than the one I have, though the very latest version has a slightly better sofa - I'll have to find out if a retrofit of this sofa in place of mine might be technically possible.

Out of the show by 2:00pm, drove to the first Walmart parking option - permission to park overnight not given - so called the second option to save a longish drive, which it did as permission also not given, but took a chance on a Cracker Barrel (my first) only 5 miles away and was readily granted permission to park in their designated RV parking spaces behind the store.

Thursday, January 15, 2015 - Seffner, FL, to Bradenton, FL

Joined during the evening by quite a number of other RVs, and found myself in an enclave of French Canadians, one of whom insisted on walking around, irritatingly loud and chatty, freely offering unsolicited advice to everyone else. His RV, a similar model to mine, was immediately beside me, and he would periodically run the genset just to add to the annoyance.

Oh well. As I learned when sailing, just because someone has an RV (or sailboat) similar to yours it doesn't necessarily make them wonderful people.

Treated myself to a little lay-in this morning, as I had decided to skip my regular run because it would rather back me up against a mid-morning meeting time I had scheduled at the Island Packet factory in Largo (builders of the two sailboats I owned and cruised, and with whom I had become friendly over the years). So headed out of the Cracker Barrel parking lot around 9:30am for a leisurely drive to Largo.

Rather a dreary day, with mist obscuring the higher buildings in downtown Tampa, intermittent drizzle, a rawness in the wind and eventually some light rain towards evening - rather typically British weather, actually.

Had an enjoyable hour or so at the Island Packet factory, walking round the plant, catching up on their news and chatting with the people I know there.

Contemplated stopping at the Dali museum in St Petersburg on my way south from Largo but didn't much care for the inevitable dense traffic and parking problems I would encounter downtown during the working week so instead headed out of town via Starbucks for refreshment, Publix for groceries and then the premium outlet mall at Ellenton for a few odd clothing items.

After which it was a short drive to the Cracker Barrel store in Bradenton, where we were made welcome and even directed to a parking lot across the street from the store, further away from the highway and right beside a pond. All very friendly.

Friday, January 16, 2015 - In and around Bradenton, FL

Despite the local weather forecast of 100% chance of rain, I had a perfectly dry early morning run and the cloudy start gave way to clear skies by midday.

Somewhat regretted the decision not to have detoured to the Dali museum yesterday, but still not really enthusiastic about mixing it with weekday downtown city traffic or going back over my tracks.

So instead found some WiFi and had a couple of sessions catching up on some e-mails and getting into the conversion of my daily notes and photos into what actually appears on these website pages - which requires drafting the narrative, copying it into my web authoring software, doing the required coding, selecting illustrative pictures, editing them, re-sizing them, and inserting them into the narrative.

Not, I realize, that anyone much is interested in the "behind-the-scenes" work required to end up with the presentation you are reading...

I also used the Internet access to check on the Dali museum which, it turns out, has a joint Dali/Picasso themed special presentation currently - so decided I really should go check it all out. However, it was getting a little late in the day to head there so that will be tomorrow morning's activity, with the benefit of a quiet downtown on a Saturday morning.

Having checked with another Cracker Barrel outlet a few miles west from our previous overnight parking that they would also be happy to accommodate us, drove on down to the Bradenton beach for a late afternoon stroll and to watch the sunset over the Gulf - the first ocean sunset of the year for me, I think.

Rather a stiff northerly wind on the shoreline (which isn't evident in this picture), and not much in the way of interesting cloud formations to complement the sunset, but it's always a little special when the sun dips below the distant horizon.

Drove back to the Cracker Barrel store and set up for a quiet evening.

Saturday, January 17, 2015 - Bradenton, FL, to St Petersburg and back to Bradenton, FL

So off we go to the Dali museum, a backtrack of nearly 30 miles but all highway so not really a big deal.

Apart from a waterfront Saturday market close to the museum, downtown St Petersburg was wonderfully quiet and after circling a couple of times I found some 2-hour on-street parking that did not have short metered bays, so tucked the RV in there and walked a few blocks to the architecturally dramatic Dali museum.

The downside of a Saturday, as opposed to weekday, of course, is that places like the Dali museum can be busier but as I was there shortly after opening it didn't seem too bad.

Paid my $24 entrance fee, collected my audio headset and off I went around the gallery - Dali section first and then the special Dali/Picasso presentation.

All very impressive and also quite enlightening, as I didn't have a complete appreciation of Dali's life, the influences on him and how his work had changed quite substantially at different periods, as his surrealism is the work for which he's most famous.

Unlike Cy Twombly (see earlier TX-FL section), Dali clearly is a magnificently skilled craftsman, able to express precisely what is in his vivid imagination.

He must also have had damned good eyesight and a very steady hand to have achieved some of the very fine detail that can be seen in his work.

Of the many pieces on display, probably his "Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire" was the most fascinating, not least due to the remarkable double-imagery (see Dali.com website commentary on this here).

Very glad I made the decision to double back to take this in.

Still, after an hour and a half, with the museum getting more crowded, and my mind and my back both asking for a break, I left the museum, moved the RV to another parking spot to extend my time in St Petersburg, tracked down a late morning coffee, then took the bike for a ride around the waterfront area, past the Saturday market, and round a few of the downtown streets.

With the day wearing on, I decided to head back out to Bradenton for the night (at the quiet Cracker Barrel store with the parking lot next to the pond), stopping at the river walk in downtown Bradenton for a stroll along the waterfront and an excessively large ice-cream.

Sunday, January 18, 2015 - Bradenton, FL, to Port Charlotte, FL

Although I had every intention of patronizing my Cracker Barrel host for the closest they could get to a "Full English" breakfast - as reward for my continuing devotion to morning runs - by the time I walked in at 9:30am (after my morning run and theoretically to let the breakfast rush clear) the place was heaving.

But having stirred the craving for a cooked breakfast, a bowl of cereal would not cut it so a bacon, egg and cheese muffin at the McDonalds 250 yards down the road did its best to satisfy my taste buds.

With the day warming nicely I decided to stop at Sarasota and had a pleasant stroll around the park and marina.

Weekends in Florida towns seem to invariably bring out street markets and in slightly posy and artsy Sarasota this meant a long stretch of stands featuring slightly better than average art of all kinds - with higher than average prices to match, many oil paintings being offered for multiple thousands of dollars.

No doubt a good deal of this art finds its way into the high-rise apartments full of retirees close by.

All very polite and civilized and actually quite interesting browsing, with some particularly good photography in the mix.

A lot of subject matter from Europe, including this nostalgic oil painting of Gold Hill in Shaftesbury (of Hovis commercial fame).

The first street back from the street market along the waterfront road also was lined with art galleries, as well as tasteful stores and restaurants spilling out onto the streets - almost European.

Driving on along the coast road through Siesta Key, it was back to the usual beachfront bars and businesses and in Venice we were fully back to stores hawking cheap beach tourist tat, though I did find a particularly good cappuccino and chocolate chip ice-cream there, however, so a worthwhile stop in that respect.

Finished up the day's driving by heading to the northern fringes of Port Charlotte, pulling over at another Cracker Barrel where I was kindly given permission to park for the night.

I then scouted out a couple of sports bars as potential NFL championship game viewing options for the evening as "my" New England Patriots were playing the Indianapolis Colts, only to discover that I had great reception of the game on the TV in the RV.

So a very comfortable viewing spot for the game (which the Patriots won convincingly) accompanied by the requisite beers and even a burger at half-time, sourced from the nearby Burger King. All just as it should be.

Monday, January 19, 2015 - Port Charlotte, FL, to Fort Myers, FL

A little deskwork to start the day, courtesy of Starbucks WiFi once again - despite genuine attempts to find a viable alternative.

Then a relatively short drive from Port Charlotte over to Punta Gorda where turning off the highway to the west leads to the residentially historic part of town, all rather neat, clean and tidy - almost artificially so in a typically "planned" USA style - with attractive older houses along the neat, clean and tidy palm tree lined streets.

Quite a selection of architectural styles, though all in amazingly good condition, and even a startlingly modern house among the older buildings.

The waterfront park area also very neat, with typical waterfront park features and many people out enjoying a warm sunny day as this is Martin Luther King Jr Day and therefore a holiday for many people in the US.

The residential area to the west of the main highway is exclusively residential, with all activities where filthy lucre might change hands banished to the other, eastern, side of the highway - though this seems much more real in many ways.

On down Interstate 75 mid-afternoon to check that I'll be able to stay overnight at another Cracker Barrel store south of Fort Myers.

This is also close to the fairly new town of Estero, which is where I'm headed this evening to have a couple of drinks at the rather pleasant gated community home of my former US accountant, who now sensibly spends most of his year down here away from the cold northeast US winters.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - In and around Fort Myers, FL

Figured that it was about time I supported Cracker Barrel as they have kindly provided free overnight parking on a number of occasions recently, and that I could reward my morning run with a cooked breakfast, so into my Cracker Barrel host store I went for a late breakfast.

Hard to find anything on the menu that really resembled a Full English, the closest thing including turkey bacon (not quite as tasty as the real thing), grits (still something of a gastronomic puzzle to me) and scrambled egg that came out flat much as in a typical fast food joint.

So for $10, I had a rather uninspiring plate of food and American coffee. Probably not going to do that again in a hurry, but at least now I know what Cracker Barrel considers to be southern-style home cooking.

The day rather cool and overcast, so I decided to put off my visit to Sanibel and Captiva until tomorrow and caught up with some admin, did a little shopping at an outlet mall and took a run to downtown Fort Myers.

Quite a contrast to the new, shiny, polished, slightly unreal, Disneyesque developments around Estero (which I assume was all swamp only 10 or 15 years ago) as the road into town was a string of run-down strip malls, payday loan stores, scruffy car-related outlets (such as the "10 Minit Oil Change"), budget inns and pawn shops.

It seems to me that by now Americans must have borrowed all the payday advances they can and pawned everything possible. So what next?

A rather tired marina downtown, with equally tired-looking boats, a surprising number with out-of-state hailports, Maine in particular.

And the rest of downtown an odd mix of eerily quiet streets, as if it were still MLK Day, vacant lots or parking garages, numerous attorney's offices and just two or three streets where a string of eateries, most with sidewalk tables, at least had a little business - but the level of activity all appeared to be "out of season" when in fact it's high season right now.

By contrast, the outlet mall in its new, pristine, manicured location out-of-town had been thronged.

If forced to choose between Disneyland or a ghetto, I guess Disneyland wins out.

Overnight in a Sam's Club parking lot, rather too close to the highway (though hopefully this will quiet down a little overnight) but convenient for scooting out to Sanibel first thing tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015 - Fort Myers, FL, to Naples, FL

On our way to Sanibel reasonably early, stopping at Publix on the way for a grocery top-up.

Bright, sunny and rapidly warming day as I head out of the built-up suburbs of Fort Myers and across the bridge and causeway to off-lying Sanibel Island, paying my $6 toll on the way.

A stop at the Visitors Center was not particularly illuminating - even though the sign outside did suggest someone around the place had a sense of humor.

And the map I came away with began to sow a few seeds of doubt in my mind as the island road plan and identified landmarks didn't look much like the place I thought I had remembered from my Lagoon powercat trip heading up the west coast of Florida in early 2005.

I decided to head to the southern tip of the island... to the lighthouse (recalling the Virginia Wolf novel with that title). Rather conveniently, the fairly small parking lot there had two longer parking spots designed and signed for medium-sized RVs so I decided I would leave the RV there - paying a parking fee for a two hour period - and unload the bike to explore the rest of the island.

Having taken the obligatory lighthouse photos, I rode back the way I had driven down and on into the center of the island, passing nothing I recognized from my previous trip here...

Stopped to take a photo of the rather attractive Herb Straus Theater building on my way to Sanibel Historical Village, which I hoped I would instantly recognize from a previous visit.

But my arrival at the "village" (a cluster of a dozen period buildings designed to recreate an island village, seven of which were moved there from other parts of the island) confirmed I was on the "wrong" island - at least in terms of matching my memory.

$10 to enter the Historical Village seemed a little steep, so I took a couple of photos from outside the "compound" and got back on the bike to continue my ride around the very convenient biking/jogging/walking paths that run alongside the island roads, stopping to pick up a coffee just before arriving back at the RV - thus only having to ride one-handed for a few hundred yards.

Back at the RV my first task was to track down my old narrative and photos from my powercat trip and confirm that I was indeed on the "wrong" island. The place I thought I would be visiting turns out to be Gasparilla, a small island to the north at the entrance to Charlotte Harbor - so I would have had to have worked all this out a couple of days ago to have made the detour to the "right" island.

Slightly miffed, and certainly disappointed (not Sanibel's fault, which is a reasonably neat place, fairly low-key, great beaches and lots of nature reserves) I drove back over the causeway and, ignoring the GPS directions to Interstate 75, I took Route 41 only to be confronted with a west coast version of my Route 1 drive heading towards Stuart 10 days ago - one long stretched out suburban area, a six-lane highway, traffic lights (on red) every half mile, endless malls, stores and businesses of every description, Publix grocery stores literally every 2 miles...

Nearing North Naples, car dealerships along the strip moved upmarket - Porsche, Maserati, Aston Martin, Bentley.... And I guess anywhere you see a Steinway piano gallery is going to be fairly upmarket.

Eventually getting into Naples, I decided to check out the overnight Walmart parking spot first before heading downtown - being told they couldn't give me permission to park, didn't mind if I did, RVs did so all the time, but it would be at my risk if the Sheriff showed up and moved me on.

With this less than uplifting news, I doubled back the couple of miles to downtown Naples or, more precisely, to 5th Avenue where I walked west towards the shoreline, ice-cream in hand.

The downtown section of Naples' 5th Avenue is a little reminiscent of Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale in some ways, with parking each side of the street, cars moving slowly along, restaurants spilling out on to the sidewalk, interspersed with upmarket stores...

...though here, as you walk west, the street becomes residential with large houses (mansions really) mostly in Italianate style and all very manicured.

And then, quite suddenly, at what simply appears to be the end of the road, a mere 10 steps through a group of trees pop you out onto the long sandy beach of the Gulf shoreline.

Leaving the late afternoon sun-bathers, I walked back up 5th Avenue but, as it was still fairly early, I decided to retrieve my laptop from the parked RV and sit in Starbucks for a while to catch up a little...

...by which time the evening had begun to draw in, with Naples' 5th Avenue nicely lit up for my walk back to the RV and my short drive on to my Walmart spot for the night.

Although there was another RV already in the Walmart parking lot, with no-one home as far as I could tell, spending the night somewhere where I don't have full and incontestable permission to park always leaves me wondering at the back of my mind what my story might be if the Sheriff shows up...

Thursday, January 22, 2015 - Naples, FL, to Collier-Seminole State Park (near Naples, FL)

Well, the Sheriff didn't show up overnight or if he did, he didn't bother me.

But I was up pretty early anyway and out for a run before sun-up while it was still relatively cool, though still humid enough to have me soaked through by the time I had finished. Found a delightful circuit very close by, running a few loops through a quiet and well manicured golfing community.

On the road for the relatively short drive east out of Naples to Marco Island around 9:30am, passing many golf courses, gated communities and developments.

The view crossing over the bridge from the mainland wasn't quite as attractive as Sanibel yesterday, with a string of high-rises in view running along the Gulf side of the island, not that I planned to head there...

Parked the RV in a Publix car park to unload the bike for an island tour - riding up to the north end and then down to the far south east end of the 5-mile long island.

Marco Island is essentially a maze of inlets and canals with houses built along them, very much like Fort Lauderdale.

Those I saw ranged from quite modest to fairly grand. All in all, a fairly "normal" island, really, not overly exclusive from what I could see and fairly quiet once off the main road. But the Gulf shoreline developments - which I didn't visit - could well be less attractive judging from the high rises and all the red dots on the map.

It was midday by the time I put the bike back on the rack on the RV and drank the couple of bottles of water I should have taken with me to counteract the mid 80s temperatures.

So it was a rather late coffee I had at a nearby Starbucks while checking on parking options for overnight tonight and for the next day or so.

Decided to see if we could get into Collier-Seminole State Park, just a few miles down the road once back on the mainland, and indeed we could. Apart from the other attractions of being in a state park overnight - particularly shorepower giving us air conditioning now rather than the heat previously sought - the RV was getting rather low on fresh water.

Parked up at our designated site, had a late lunch, managing to slice my finger while splitting a croissant to make a lunchtime sandwich - something I'm usually so consciously careful to avoid since exactly that action had resulted in me having to take my American ex-wife, Kit, to an emergency room for stitches.

After patching myself up (and eating the sandwich) I walked around to see the various sights in the park - among them an interesting dredging machine that had been instrumental in cutting a path through the swamp and building the Tampa to Miami road back in the 1920s.

Took a long walking trail through the tropical hardwood hammock in the park, which is apparently one of the few remaining in south Florida.

And my hour and a half of strolling around the park conveniently took me close to the magic 6 o'clock hour and a much needed beer back in the comfort of the air-conditioned RV...

Friday, January 23, 2015 - Collier-Seminole State Park to Fort Myers, FL

An ad on TV last night reminded me that there was an RV show running, this one smaller than the one I attended in Tampa but not too far away in Fort Myers.

With a few questions percolating in my mind since the RV show in Tampa, I thought this show might be worth a visit to see if I could get some answers. And it was not hugely out of the way in terms of the route I had been planning to cross over to the east coast of Florida again.

So this became the plan for the day, though with an unhurried start allowing me to get a couple of hours work done - mostly on this website but also some additions to the pro bono website I produced for the village hall "back home" in the UK: Docking Village Hall.

After brewing a late morning coffee, filling the fresh water tank and dumping the holding tanks on the way out of the park, a painless 50 miles run up Interstate 75 (adding a new roadside wildlife warning sign to my collection) got me to the RV show.

On the drive to the show, the RV speedometer clicked onto 10,000 miles (though not all are mine as there were 1,400 delivery miles on it - from the factory in Iowa to the dealership Rhode Island - when I picked it up).

Although smaller than the Tampa one, the Fort Myers RV show had all the models on display that I wanted to see so definitely worth the $8 entry fee.

By the time I was done at the show it was late afternoon and the most expedient overnight stop seemed to be a Cracker Barrel just 5 miles away and, conveniently, in the direction I will be heading tomorrow.

So that's where I am, enjoying the free and largely empty RV section of the Cracker Barrel parking lot in Fort Myers, with fairly continuous low-level noise from Interstate 75 in the background.

Saturday, January 24, 2015 - Fort Myers, FL, to Alva, FL

Intermittent rain from the early hours through to around 10:00am, when the wind started picking up from the northwest following passage of a cold front.

So I decided to stay put for a couple of hours - catching up with this narrative, among other things.

I then spent a tedious half hour driving round the suburbs of Fort Myers looking for a propane refill, finding several places closed on the weekend, finally filling up at a U-Haul close to the Sam's Club store where I spent the night a few days ago. At least I stumbled over a Starbucks during my explorations...

Research later in the day shows I could well have saved myself the trouble as a Camping World outlet near to my overnight stop seems to have propane according to their website. The benefits of hindsight...

With propane tank full and further stops for diesel and fresh grocery items, we're all good to go - so drove a whole 10 miles down the road eastwards to the Alva Country Diner for our overnight stop in their large, dusty parking lot.

I had tentatively planned to have both dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow in the diner, but checking inside to be sure they were happy for me to park overnight the food "aroma" did not exactly stimulate my appetite.

So I'll skip dinner and take my chances on breakfast tomorrow, which I have been warned will be jammed on a Sunday morning.

Sunday, January 25, 2015 - Alva, FL, to Clewiston, FL

Chilly morning after the passage of the cold front and clear skies overnight - 41 degrees as I stepped out for an early run along the quiet residential back roads near the diner.

Even before the diner opened at 7:00am, cars had pulled into the parking lot and people were milling around the door waiting for it to open. And by the time I headed over just before 9:00am the hostess was telling people there would be a 15 minute wait for a table.

Fortunately, there was room at the diner's counter for me to take a seat and order my western omelet, home fries and wheat toast.

All very acceptable, though not quite up to the standards of my "hometown" diner in Westbrook, CT....

Took a short spin around Alva - which didn't take long at all - then headed down Route 80 towards the east coast, passing literally thousands of acres of orange groves and sugar cane fields.

Pulled over before too long at La Belle as I spotted a Dunkin Donuts and needed a WiFi connection for e-mail and a couple of Skype phone calls back to the UK.

Then back on Route 80, the sun having warmed the day - and the road, sufficiently to create a heat haze that made the cars ahead appear to be driving into water.

My on-line overnight parking guide had warned that the Walmart in Clewiston would be unlikely to grant permission to park overnight - and indeed they couldn't, due to local anti-RV regulations, and while they agreed I could park at my own risk they warned if the sheriff came by I might well get ticketed.

Being an upstanding citizen and, more particularly, not wanting the anxiety of wondering all through the night if I was about to get a knock on the RV door, I decided to try a marina/RV park on the edge of town on the shores of Lake Okeechobee and managed to get a site there for the reasonable price of $35 for a full hook-up.

And the marina laundry, conveniently just a 50 yards from the RV, allowed me to get some laundry done - and, importantly, iron a few things as I was hooked up to shore power.

Monday, January 26, 2015 - Clewiston, FL, to West Palm Beach, FL

To get maximum value out of my stay in the RV park - actually not all that expensive at $38 - I decided to wash down the RV, which hasn't been washed in five weeks since I left Navasota, TX.

With showers due to arrive around 8:00am, I was out and washing by 7:00am, in time to admire the pre-sunrise skies that would soon turn gray, and was mostly done before the first line of showers arrived.

The rain cleared through quickly, followed by gradually brightening skies and building winds from the west. This meant the roads had dried out by the time I left the marina at 11:30am (with holding tanks emptied and water tank topped up) so my nice clean RV didn't have to deal with any road spray.

So all in all, quite a fortuitous outcome to have stayed in the marina/RV park rather than chancing the Walmart parking lot - I'm about as sorted as it's possible to be for the next spell on the road, with full propane and water, empty holding tanks, a clean RV and laundry done.

The drive from Clewiston to West Palm Beach took me around the southern end of Lake Okeechobee and the fuel mileage benefitted enormously from long open stretches of road and having brisk winds from the west blowing us along, getting close to 20mpg by the time we got into the heavier traffic on the east coast.

On the final stretch up I-95 towards a Walmart north of Palm Beach, I decided to check out a Cracker Barrel outlet on our route. And, as they very kindly gave me permission to stay, being here doesn't affect our short drive tomorrow, and the RV parking area behind the store is quiet, it seemed to make sense to stay.

The early finish to the day - around 4:00pm - also gave me the chance to get going on some work that has something of a deadline. All good, as they say.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015 - West Palm Beach, FL, to Hobe Sound and back

Very peaceful night behind the Cracker Barrel store, traffic noise from the I-95 overpass nearby very muted for some reason.

A slightly chilly and breezy start to the day - continued effects of the cold front - which I felt rather keenly during my run through a quiet residential area close by.

First order of business for the day was to get a draft of the Miami Boat Show Newsletter I had just finished up to Ted in Connecticut for his review, as it needs to be sent out to the Sound Yachting mailing list within a day or two.

The next priority was to confirm my overnight spot for the coming night. After being turned away at the second of two Walmart stores I saw an adjacent Sam's Club and decided, on the off-chance, to try there even though they were not mentioned in my online information source and - to my surprise and relief - the manager said staying overnight would be OK.

By this time, I had to head fairly promptly north up I-95 to Hobe Sound to meet an old sailboat business friend, Don (one of the few upstanding yacht brokers in Florida, and who had been immensely helpful to me over the years), for lunch at a well-regarded and slightly funky local eatery called Harry and the Natives.

Had a good lunch and, more importantly, a great catch-up chat with Don.

Heading back down towards my overnight spot in Palm Beach (which turns out to be only a short distance away from last night's Cracker Barrel location) I stopped briefly to scout out a state park near Hobe Sound as a possible future overnight location, had an afternoon coffee - and WiFi, of course - courtesy of Dunkin Donuts, then by late afternoon got settled into my overnight spot at Sam's Club.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015 - West Palm Beach, FL, to Deerfield Beach, FL

A little chilly yet again this morning, so made an early stop at a nearby Dunkin Donuts to sit in their window with both warming sun and warming coffee, and a little WiFi - quite a lot of laptop/Internet work on the schedule, which I will spread out through the day.

After my early spell in Dunkin Donuts, I drove the relatively short distance to downtown West Palm Beach and parked at the waterfront on Flagler Drive where I've been so often in the past at the West Palm Beach Boat Show, one of the nicer power boat shows, not least due to its location.

Fed a meter on the waterfront road of Flagler Drive where I could get the length of the RV pretty much into a single parking space and walked the few blocks to the attractive downtown area along Clematis Street.

The Starbucks store here was a regular and welcome refuge during boat shows, and another useful hour was spent there on their WiFi.

A memorable night was spent in the predecessor of the Pawnshop here on Clematis (lounge and night club, not a pawn shop) during the Palm Beach Boat Show of March 2004, when excessive amounts of Scotch whisky were imbibed during an extended pool session.

In fact, it was something of a miracle that I managed to get safely back on board my inventory Lagoon powercat anchored across from the show, but that's another story...

Today, eleven years on - remembering the hangover from 2004 - I took a more sober and pleasant stroll back to the RV via the Palm Beach waterfront, enjoying the warmth of the early afternoon.

Then it was on towards our overnight Cracker Barrel parking spot, stopping at a nearby Lowes to sit in their parking lot for an hour taking advantage of the typically strong Lowes WiFi signal. And, not for the first time, I decided on the hoof to reject Plan A and instead try a different overnight spot, this time in order to get me a little further south so that my main commitments tomorrow - getting a Sound Yachting Newsletter mailing out at a specific time, then getting to Coconut Grove by noon - would be less time-pressured.

Fortunately, having driven on down there somewhat speculatively, the Cracker Barrel store in Deerfield Beach was happy to have me park overnight. But with another couple of productive hours left in the day it was off to a nearby Dunkin Donuts first before returning to the Cracker Barrel for the night and even bravely heading in there for a predictably average, but acceptable, blackened catfish dinner.

Thursday, January 29, 2015 - Deerfield Beach, FL, to Florida City, FL

Slightly challenging run this morning with no quiet route available - so forced to dodge pedestrians on the sidewalk and traffic as I crossed highways.

Something of a schedule to be kept today, so on the road fairly promptly, making some progress south on I-95 before pulling over to find WiFi to send out the Miami Boat Show mailing for Sound Yachting. Then on to Coconut Grove to make a noon meeting with the uncle (Andy) of an old girl-friend who had kindly taken the initiative to contact him to see if I might be able to park the RV at his house for the duration of the Miami Boat Show.

So today's meeting at the house in Coconut Grove was a "dry fit" to ensure the RV could be maneuvered into the driveway and - after the extended figurative breath-holding on my part for the past few weeks since the idea was hatched - it was a relief to see that indeed I will be able to squeeze in.

Quite a big relief, really, as I didn't have a Plan B for Miami at this point...

(This is not the driveway where I'll be staying but a neighboring property, just to give a sense of what an attractive enclave this part of Coconut Grove is.)

A quick grocery shop before heading further south to Florida City, stopping initially at Lowes for an hour of WiFi access, then moving to a Cracker Barrel store where once again I was given permission to park overnight. Might have to reward this continued hospitality with a quick breakfast tomorrow morning.

Friday, January 30, 2015 - Florida City, FL, to Marathon, FL

In the end, I was running a little late for even a quick breakfast in Cracker Barrel as I needed to get going towards Marathon to make an 11:00am appointment there with a boat/RV installation company, Sea Air Land Technologies (SALT), that I used to use in my boating days.

There's a strange (and uplifting) feeling of entering a different world leaving the bustle of the Miami metropolis and the mainland and heading into the Florida Keys, driving over the causeway where the South Dixie Highway becomes the Overseas Highway (the roadside barriers painted sky blue).

Once at Key Largo, I stopped briefly for coffee and WiFi and then carried on down to Marathon. With the fairly leisurely pace - dictated by traffic and speed limits - and the partially downwind direction, fuel consumption for the 80-mile drive was an exceptionally high 20mpg.

The main reason for the visit to SALT was to see how practical, and expensive, it might be to increase the capacity of the house bank in the RV and also switch from my current wet-cell batteries to another type of battery - AGM.

The short version of the "consultation" with the technical guy at SALT is that a direct swap of my existing batteries for AGMs (like for like in terms of space) would actually reduce the capacity of the house bank and that modification of the battery housing (for which read hack-saw work) would likely be needed to accommodate larger AGM batteries, potentially with minimal capacity increase even after the modifications.

So that idea, which had been at the back of my mind from Day 1 ownership of the RV, is now kicked into touch. A solar panel installation on the roof might be a better investment at some point.

Drove on from SALT to a bar called Burdines, down on the water beside the channel leading into the large yacht anchorage in Marathon - where I first dropped anchor on my sailboat way back in December 1997.

The marina adjacent to Burdines, where I had stayed often on various boat trips through Marathon, is now derelict and the road bridge over the channel into the main Marathon anchorage has been taken out.

All rather unexpected changes... but although this is the first time I've been in Marathon in 10 years many things haven't changed at all - the pleasant open-air bar in Burdines being one.

After lunch I did a little work on this narrative, getting to the point where I can upload the chapter on my meanderings in Texas, though it's already a month since I left Texas.

I just can't seem to catch up with myself...!

Then round to the house of a friend, Steve Grasley, who I first met when he worked for SALT and who has designed and built, with the help of his wife, Jackie, a house on a canal on the bay side of Marathon close to the airport.

And it's no ordinary house, being entirely "off grid" with solar panels and water heating on the south-facing roof, rainwater capture system and sewage treatment. No city services of any kind and yet you would have no idea when in the house that this was the case as everything about the house, and all the appliances, are entirely normal.

Everything in the house was designed and built by Steve and Jackie, including all the off-grid systems. One hell of an undertaking but the end result is a really great looking house, with lots of neat detail.

Had a quick beer while having a tour of the house, then we were off to a great restaurant for dinner - one the locals would know about and not the tourists. Great food, great wine - maybe one glass too many - then back to Steve's place for continued chatting, helped along by some fine bourbon.

Certainly had no problem getting to sleep when I made it back to the RV parked outside the house at 12:30am!

Saturday, January 31, 2015 - Marathon, FL

Slightly throbbing head this morning, but fortunately all cleared up after breakfast out with Steve before we drove to the Marathon airport because...

...not only has Steve built his own house but he's built his own airplane.

Jackie bought Steve a light aircraft flight as a birthday present and that was it, Steve was hooked.

But not content with simply getting his private pilot's licence and maybe buying a plane, Steve bought and put together a kit plane - an RV7 - which is small but slippery and quick, and rated for aerobatics. And he's gone beyond regular flight instruction to become competent at aerobatics, too.

None of that today, fortunately, given the slightly frayed state both of us were in after last night's libations, but a really pleasant flight eastward up the Keys and back round to Marathon.

My previous light aircraft experiences had been in relatively old, slow and noisy planes but the RV7, plus Steve's Bose noise-cancelling headphones, was something of a revelation - smooth, comfortable, quiet, listening to music through the headphones, and with neat modern instrumentation. I can certainly see the attraction...

After the flight we were joined by Jackie, who had been spending the morning with a volunteer group clearing trash from the mangroves, and we headed off to Burdines for a rather tasty grilled fish sandwich.

The rest of the day something of an anti-climax after the flight. Mostly catching up with a little admin and computer work, and a quick run out to top up on groceries before a quiet evening in the RV and an early night...

Sunday, February 1, 2015 - Marathon, FL, to Key West to Marathon, FL

Up and out for a run around the perimeter of Marathon airport just before sunrise, while the day was at least still slightly cool.

Then off down to Key West leaving Marathon across the Seven Mile Bridge and passing through the many different, and familiar, Keys on the way.

A somewhat breezy morning, mainly a tailwind, and with relatively slow road speeds on Overseas Highway we got to Key West with another run at 20mpg.

Parked on the outskirts of town and unloaded the bike for the 3-mile ride to downtown Key West, leaving the bike locked up at the ocean end of Duval Street where I got morning coffee before starting a long stroll around town...

...starting with the marker indicating the southernmost point in the continental USA; then the marker showing the end of Route 1 (which runs all the way up the east coast to Boston); tourist "attractions" near Mallory Square (famous for its sunset-watching and street artists); and finally some of the famous drinking establishments in town.

There were two things I specifically wanted to do before leaving of Key West - first, find the restaurant near the waterfront at which I had dinner with my Father on Christmas Day 1997, after he had flown over to the US and joined me on board my sailboat in Fort Lauderdale and we sailed down via Miami to Key West.

After some fruitless searching, I concluded that the restaurant must have been demolished but then I found it - Pepe's Café, the signage outside claiming it to be "the eldest eating house in the Florida Keys"

And I even managed to get a shot of the small outdoor eating area where we sat.

It all sounds a touch sentimental, I will admit, but who knows if this might be the last time I see Key West, or at least the restaurant, and that particular Christmas dinner with my Father remains a very strong memory for me.

The second objective before leaving Key West was rather more easily achieved - conch fritters and a Kalik (Bahamian beer) at a bar on the waterfront.

Then a long walk back along Duval Street to hop on the bike for the 3-mile ride back to the RV - avoiding the busy main roads and instead weaving through some of the less touristy side streets, packed pretty tightly with characterful houses.

Back in Marathon, it was pretty soon time to head off to watch the Superbowl with some friends of Steve's on a 10' screen in a Tiki hut on the water's edge.

Plenty of good food, and beer, with "my team", the New England Patriots, managing to come from behind to take the game.

Another great Superbowl viewing location to add to my list.

A bourbon nightcap back at Steve's house, and a long day is done.

Go to top of page

Go to next chapter, Florida II

---