Coconut Grove - Feb. 21 - 23

This was a great time start to finish! We were able to park the van down at Dinner Key Marina where True South was birthed. We hung around the marina, caught up with laundry and I stumbled on shrimp boats that attracted different herons along with egrets and ibis. Very cool!

We had a wonderful time with Dan and Marcia, their friend Charles and Peter and Diane. Lobster dinner, cruise to a key with snorkeling and bbq, symphony (Cleveland Orchestra performing Tchaikovsky’s Fifth), brunch with friends of D & M, another spectacular dinner finished by the final episode of Downton Abbey. Wow! The Everglades will pale! Monday we are headed out. Tuesday the Mahoney’s plan to cruise across to the Bahamas in True South.

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Longwood to Miami, FL - Feb. 19 - 20

Sometimes events happen like hearing about the loss of a friend from years past or passing through a neighborhood where someone once lived that trigger memories. All these things got Harry and I reminiscing about John, a friend from long ago that we had lost touch with. With a little help from the Internet, we realized last year we had traveled close to where John lived and near to where we would be on this trip so we reached out, connected and had a wonderful time meeting John’s wife Daintry and kids, Trent, Slade and Apollo.

Moving further south the next day, we settled at South Bay Campground on the southern end of Lake Okeechobee. This campground has access to the levy with very good sites and facilities. I dragged Nina out at sunrise to the top of the levy with my scope and spotted my first Limpkin for the season. Rumor had it Peter and Diane were headed to Miami with a cooler full of lobsters so off we went that morning.

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We are out of here - Feb. 15 - Feb. 18

Today really is March 12^th, a beautiful sunny day as we pull into Myakka River State Park. It is 50 degrees in Hull with yet another storm bringing a drop in temperature of 26+ degrees. Myakka is one of my favorite FL State Parks and it would be so wonderful to hop on a bike and go explore all there is to see but several of my friends back home have commented about seeing photos but no stories so it is time to catch up!

This first part of the trip “leaving Dodge” was all about getting out before the next storm crippled us. A 7 a.m. departure got us to NJ before getting into a little bit of snow but not enough to stop a 505 mile run to the Cracker Barrel in Waldorf, MD. Another 568 miles brought us to Savannah, GA for the second “cold” night with a 26 degree morning. Day 3 we finally felt as though we had arrived when we pulled into Huguenot Memorial City Park in Jacksonville, FL. Warm, sunny, beautiful beaches, dolphins, fishing and skimmers skimming. Although I don't understand why, we were definitely off season for this park as there were only 6 of us in a campground with 60+ sites. The first day was bliss. The second equally so except that there was quite a bit of helicopter activity coming from Mayport Naval Station across the St. John River.  Googling revealed a nationwide security exercise, Solid Curtain/Citadel Shield that was to last 10 days. For the remaining 24 hours, we felt very safe!

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