Catching Up On TRAVEL! (Florida Winter Pt. 1)

8 months ago
Tara

If you have been watching us for a while, you know It’s been a bit since we’ve shared any real travel videos. There is a good reason for this! With all of the new stuff going on in our lives (new cabin, helping design a new floorplan, the Grand Design National Owners Rally, and the Hershey RV show), we have fallen even further behind with our travel/location videos.

That said, we will go back in time to early this year, 2022, to share some of our time bouncing between two awesome Moochdocking locations with our friends.

Balloon Fiesta 2021 and Elkhart

But first, what the heck has happened since our last posted travel video where we were in Angel Fire, NM? Actually, quite a bit! We went to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta and had an amazing time! We even rode in a balloon, and our pilot did a splash-n-dash into the Rio Grand River! Then, we headed from NM to Elkhart, IN (took a few days to get there) to do preliminary work with Grand Design on our new floorplan. At this point, it was becoming very real, and we were all getting excited!

We then headed to Ohio after our time in Elkhart to spend Thanksgiving with Tara’s family. Since Tara’s brother has sold his house, we don’t have any parks that are close to family, so we split up our time. The 1st two weeks we spent at Tomorrow Stars Campground in Springfield, OH. A couple of days before Thanksgiving, we moved to our second location, which was Camp Cedar Resort at Kings Island. This park was disappointing to us, but it looks like a great summer stop with your family (lots of amenities we couldn’t enjoy because of the winter season). We had a very nice Thanksgiving and decided to check out Winter Fest at Kings Island with our family. It was a great experience until Tara fell and got a concussion. Since she was laid up for a few weeks, no more filming occurred.

Christmas Nixed by Covid!

We finally returned to North Carolina to spend the Christmas holiday with Chad’s daughters and parents. Unfortunately, some family members got Covid, so Christmas was essentially canceled. ☹️ Next on the list…Chad had hernia surgery! So once again, no filming occurred. After a couple of weeks of recovery time, we drove down to Florida to warm up!

Back to Florida!

We took two days to get to our first destination, and our overnight stop was at I-75 RV park, which is our usual go-to stop when we head to FL. Our first stop was with our friends Norm and Heather in Dade City (outside of Tampa). We were moochdocking here for the 2nd time, and we are so thankful for this awesome spot! They have water and electric hookups but no sewer. So midway through, we have to hook up and drive to the nearest truck stop to dump. We usually take advantage of the Blue Beacon Truck Wash while we are there.
Side note – We always monitor our utilities and pay for what we use. Plus, we like to do nice things for our friends while we are there (take them to dinner, buy them gifts, etc.). Never be an actual “mooch”! 😊
Tara was still feeling off from the TBI and was struggling with work and doing much of anything, but we did make it to the FL RV Supershow.

Also on the itinerary was the Dade City Kumquat Festival, which was a first for us. It was one of the few really chilly winter days in Florida, so we bundled up and headed to the festival that is held on the streets in downtown Dade City. This is an annual free event with over 300 vendors (craft, farmers market, food, beverage) There were so many vendors and lots of Kumquat products, including the Famous Kumquat Pie. The 2023 event will be held on Jan 28th.

We didn’t do much for those couple of weeks with our friends. Luckily, we knew we would be coming back because we were waiting on our F450 and were going to have to stay in the Tampa area until it arrived.

The Florida Keys!

Our next stop was the Florida Keys!! One of our favorites! Although we could probably make this trip in a day, we like to split it up into two days to make the drive easier. We had an overnight at a Harvest Host in Homestead called Accursio Farms. (Please note that this Host location is no longer listed in Harvest Host’s directory) Then, we made it to our second moochdocking location with our friends, Cathy and Sean, in Big Pine Key! We are so lucky to have friends who allow us to stay with them! And, it's FULL hookups! 😀

When we head to the Keys, we have our favorite place we like to go and visit, but we really enjoy checking out new places as well! One place that we have never been to in all of our years of going to Key West was Truman’s Little White House. We decided to make a day of it and headed into town. We often park in the lot next to Mallory Square since parking can be tricky with a big dually. We ate at Maison de Pepe in Mallory Square, which was another first for us. Lunch was a fun experience, and we were joined by the colorful (and often noisy) Key West roosters.

The Truman White House was more interesting than we expected, and it is now on our list of recommended places to see in the Keys. When we take you all along to the same places multiple times (we go to the Keys every year), we like to try new things. Our tour guide made the experience great, and touring the old grounds was pretty cool!
We ended that day with a yummy steak and scallops dinner prepared by Chef Chad on the Blackstone!

Coming up in our adventures, we go fishing and check out several other sites we’ve never seen before in the keys.
We even go on a ghost hunt!! 👻

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