Our Last Night: A Recap in Raleigh

For our final night of our 2020 trip, we are staying in an “RV Resort” near Raleigh, NC just off of Interstate 95. The proximity to Richmond (where we need to drop off the RV) means we won’t have as much driving in the morning, and the full hookups will allow us to clean everything up and empty all our tanks easily. There’s really nothing to do here, it’s just a place for us to spend the night, so the girls caught up on more schoolwork and then we ate leftovers and watched The Witches on Netflix.

The preferred speed limit at RV campgrounds

Melina reading

Despite all of the insanity of this year (a world-wide pandemic, travel restrictions, a contentious election) and the past two weeks (a hurricane-turned-tropical storm), we have had a wonderful trip. We weren’t sure whether we would like traveling by RV, but in fact it suited us quite nicely! We all agreed that we would definitely do another RV trip in the future, and in fact Zach and I love the idea of a longer trip for the two of us sometime in the future in our retirement. With all this in mind, here are our takeaways on RV-ing in general and our notes for potential future trips:

• Zellie hates traveling in her crate. She pants constantly, and whines and scratches intermittently, occasionally letting out a few barks and yelps. However, on a few short trips at low speeds we let her out of the crate while driving, and she loved this set-up. She would sidle up next to Zach like a co-pilot in the cab, happy as can be. Ideally we’d love to have a solution where she is safely secured, but not in her crate. Maybe a doggie seatbelt? At night she did great sleeping on a mat on the floor without her crate. And she LOVED hanging out at the campsites and all the walks in new places.
• Diane’s motion sickness was almost non-existent in the RV! Having more room to move around a bit and to lie down was very helpful for her, and we only used dramamine once or twice early on. She did throw up once, but for two weeks and 35+ hours of driving that is a huge win!
• We assumed we would have cell service everywhere and that all campgrounds will have wifi. We were wrong. Next time we will download lots of books, maps, and travel guides before the trip in case we are in places with limited or no service. We also shouldn’t assume we can work or attend school on the road without checking first that we will have wifi.
• Things we wish we had packed: travel towels, quarters for laundry, boots for rain/mud, waterproof rain jackets (water resistant was not good enough!), and better first aid kit with more bandaids (my knees are all scraped up after falling off of my bike. I haven’t fallen off a bike since I was a kid and and did it twice in two days at the Disney resort!). Also a small grill and/or fire tools would have been very helpful. For traveling in a pandemic, we needed more masks. I lost a bunch of our really good ones at Hollywood Studios and we had to buy extras at Walmart. A box of disposables would have been great for the theme parks since they frequently got wet from rides and rain.
• Things we are glad we brought: electric griddle, back cushion for driving, oscillating fan for mosquitoes and drying shoes, hybrid bikes (my road bike was fine but not ideal on slippery and uneven ground), headlamps, metal plates and silverware (aside from the obvious environmental reasons, I have become too snobby to eat from plasticware for every meal for two weeks straight, so we bought mess kits and loved them).
• Sewer hookups at a campsite are worth their weight in gold not necessarily for the black water, but for the grey water. Since we were cooking and washing dishes for almost every meal and showering in the RV we filled up our greywater tank very quickly. I wish I had listed the hookups at each site on our itinerary for planning purposes.
• After our black water fiasco early in the trip, we learned to flush a little grey water first to make sure all the hoses are connected properly before flushing the black water.
• We needed a good place to put shoes in the RV. They crowded up the entrance and made it difficult to get in and out. Maybe a hanging shoe rack? Or a rain-proof one that sits outside the front door when parked at a campsite?
• We double-checked that our bikes were secured on the bike rack every time we drove, but we should have triple-checked. Diane’s bike somehow got dislodged and dragged by the RV for a bit near the end of the trip. Hopefully it can be fixed when we get home 😦
• Sometime in the future if Zach and I do this without the kids a small trailer would probably be perfect. It would be easier to drive and also would give us more flexibility to leave a campsite without messing with all the hookups.
• RV people loooooove Zach. Something about him just draws them in and begs them to tell him their life stories. Every single time we stopped for gas some guy would chat his ear off about RVs, travel, etc. At the campground here in Raleigh he has learned all about our neighbor’s plumbing business in New York and another camper’s method for slow-cooking meat with charcoal (the “snake method”).
• We thought a full-sized fridge was important in the RV but we never came close to filling it. Also, it was 1000% worth it to make a huge batch of salteñas and freeze them for this trip. They made great dinners and we never got sick of them.
• The 32 foot RV was the perfect size for our family plus Zellie. We could have gone a bit smaller or bigger, but wouldn’t stray too much in either direction for 4 people plus a dog.

In summary, we are hoping to be able to travel internationally again soon. However, if we are still living in a COVID-19 world for a while yet, another RV trip would be a great option!

Goodbye, Florida!

A Day in Savannah

We have two nights in Skidaway Island State Park, which is just 20 minutes outside of Savannah, Georgia. This is the first campground where we’ve stayed that is full, probably because the weather has finally turned around and it is a gorgeous weekend. Both night we enjoyed dinner around the campfire, roasting marshmallows, and gazing at the coals until Zach falls asleep and we all decide it is time to go to bed. Last night at the campfire Melina said, “this almost feels like camping!” I had to explain to her that staying in an RV is camping for most people. She is convinced that the camping we typically do is more “hard core” because it is in a tent…but honestly, with the posh site at Turtle Ridge these days I’m not sure anyone else would call it hard core!

Campfire shenanigans

Hobo packs in the fire

For our one full day here we unhooked the RV and drove it into downtown Savannah. After a sort of comedy of errors trying to find the RV spaces, we parked at the Visitor’s Center (closed due to COVID) and spent the day zig zagging from square to square throughout the historic district. What a gorgeous town! The historic district is so much larger than any city I’ve been in, and many parts reminded me so much of our beloved Boston. Only with spanish moss-covered oaks and double-decker porches, of course.

We took up the entire RV parking space…and then some.

The beautiful squares of Savannah

Our favorite house in Savannah

We stumbled on a farmer’s market in Forsyth Park and put together a picnic lunch that we ate later in one of the grassy squares. We especially loved the spiced persimmon butter, the pecan pralines, and the “sweet Georgia kisses,” tiny clementine-like fruits that were picked locally just yesterday. We couldn’t do much due to COVID, but walking and admiring the neighborhoods was really perfect. We did make a pit stop at Leopold’s for ice cream, and they even treated Zellie to her doggie ice cream. It was truly her best day ever.

Zellie enjoys her doggie ice cream

And then it was our turn!

At one point we happened across a surprise: the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile! We had to explain what it was to the girls (and sing the song, of course), and because they did not actually have hot dogs, Zellie couldn’t care less. But Zach was like a kid in a candy shop. Or, perhaps, a grown man in a weiner-shaped car?

The license plate on the Weinermobile: “OhIWish”

We got back to the campsite in the late afternoon and the girls caught up on schoolwork while Zach and I took a hike on a wetland trail in the park. It was especially nice since we had the trail mostly to ourselves…until a group of people came clomping through while talking loudly and playing music on their phone. There went my chances of seeing the clapper rail bird I was hoping to glimpse.

Catching up on schoolwork in Skidaway Island State Park

Tomorrow is the last full day of our trip. I think I’d be ready to go home if it weren’t for the fact that the rain has FINALLY let up, and we are now getting the gorgeous weather we haven’t seen since our first days in St. Augustine! I feel like I need another week just to dry out. But I guess we should get farther north before Tropical Storm Iota gets here…

Blue Springs State Park

She’s been wrecking havoc on our plans for a week now, but she finally caught up with us. Hurrican Eta turned into Tropical Storm Eta in the Caribbean, then turned again into Hurricane Eta in the Gulf before reverting back to Tropical Storm Eta and sweeping across Florida. She passed over us here in Blue Springs State Park and is now finally gone. Thankfully, we had driven far enough north and inland that we were safe from the high winds and storm surge, and our campsite is on high ground so there was no worry of flooding. All it was for us was rain. A LOT of rain.

We chose Blue Spring State Park for two reasons: first, it is perfectly situated between our last planned stop Sanibel Island (sob!) and our next stop near Savannah, Georgia. Since we re-tooled our itinerary and were actually coming from Orlando, that means we only had about an hour and a half of driving to get here, so we arrived nice and early. Second, the spring is a favorite spot for manatees to warm up during the colder winter months. Apparently in February the spring is so chock full of manatees that you could practically walk on their backs across the water. It is a bit early in the year, but even so we had high hopes of seeing manatees.

Because the forecast was rain, rain, and more rain for our second day, we decided to hike down to the spring as soon as we arrived in the hopes of seeing manatees before the storm arrived. No luck on the manatees, but we did have a wonderful time swimming in the gorgeous clear waters of the Blue Spring! We brought our snorkel gear and swam upstream to the “boil.” This is the site of the chasm-like spring that spews 100 million gallons of water every day into the nearby river. It was mesmerizing looking into this abyss. We saw many scuba divers and free divers coming and going from the area, but we were happy to just float at the surface and gaze into the depths. Then we let the current take us from the spring back downstream and we swam alongside large fish (scary-looking but harmless Florida spotted gar, slinky catfish, and the invasive sailfin suckermouth catfish and blue tilapia) and turtles (huge yellow bellied sliders). The water was colder than the air, but so clear and refreshing. And no gators here! The park rangers take care to watch for them and remove any that come into this area.

Swimming upstream to the boil

The abyss!

Yellow-bellied slider

Florida spotted gar

Unfortunately everyone we talked to said that the chances of seeing a manatee this early in the season were slim. They only come into the spring to warm up, and the water in the river just isn’t cold enough for them to do that yet. But we did hear of one injured manatee that was rehabilitated in this area and tagged with a buoy that occasionally makes an appearance. We were told to come back first thing in the morning to get a chance to see him.

We were back in the RV when the storms started and were safe and cozy as they continued all night and through breakfast. Our plans to head to the spring early to look for that elusive manatee had to be put on hold until around 10am when the rains let up a bit. The girls weren’t willing to risk getting soaked yet again so they stayed in the RV to read their books, but Zach and I took Zellie for a walk past the spring and to the river. A ranger came up to tell us that the rains were about to start up heavily again. “We know,” we told him, “but we were hoping to see a manatee!” He looked sympathetically at us and started to walk away when I saw something in the water. I asked him if that was possibly the buoy from the rehabilitated manatee and he answered yes! We watched the manatee swim lazily by and Zach grabbed a picture before it disappeared into the depths. Success!! Just then the rains started, and we ran back to the RV to avoid having to put our shoes in the dryer for the fifth time in three days.

Our first manatee!

After lunch the rain finally stopped and the girls joined us to go back down to the river. To our delight we saw more manatees! We walked alongside one (a different one, not tagged) down the length of the boardwalk, and then saw him join his friends farther towards the river. It was amazing! They are so giant and peaceful, bobbing up to the surface for a breath and swaying their paddle-like tail up and down as they roll through the water.

Our second manatee!

We really enjoyed our stay in Blue Springs Park. This turned out to be the perfect time to be here since we did see manatees but didn’t have to deal with the crowds of the winter season. The girls loved the wildlife and snorkeling, and also liked that we were able to escape the rainy day in the RV by reading, playing bananagrams and watching The Muppets. Zellie loved walking the paths and attempting to chase after deer, rabbits, and the resident vulture. This black vulture is nicknamed “broke wing” because he injured his wing a few years ago and has taken refuge at the park ever since. He seems happy enough eating food left by tourists and hopping up into trees to roost at night.

Adorable baby rat Zach came across in the park

More of those yellow-bellied sliders

“Broke wing”

Beautiful beetle

Bananagrams in the rain

The Muppets and leftover ice cream cake

Tomorrow we should see something that we haven’t seen in quite a while: the sun! We hope to get another swim in the spring before heading up north to Savannah.

Update: Zach got to swim with a manatee!! He was the only one up for a swim this morning (I was trying to keep a scrape on my knee from getting infected and the girls weren’t into the idea of a cold swim before 10am) and he was rewarded with an amazing experience!

Disney World: A Birthday Detour

(AKA, “Life is grand when this is your fallback plan”)

A lot of people plan surprise vacations, where all but one or two family members are in the dark about where they are going until the last possible minute. I have always told Zach that as much as I love traveling, I would never EVER want that. I love the months of planning, the building anticipation. I love learning about a place before I go there, researching every option to make sure we are maximizing our time while minimizing our spend. That said, when we decided that leaving Sanibel Island early was the safest and best option for us, we had to make some drastic last-minute changes to our itinerary. And that is how we ended up at Disney World.

When we told Melina on Sunday morning that the tropical storm was headed to Sanibel and we needed to leave early, she was devastated. I quickly assured her that we would find something else amazing to do for her birthday, and she jokingly asked, “like go to Disney World?” “Well,” I answered, “it’s a possibility…” that’s when both girls started squealing. Thankfully, Zach and I had already discussed it that morning and made the decision, but he still had to spend a few hours on the phone with a co-worker who dabbles in Disney travel bookings on the side to get the arrangements made. By that evening, we were pulling into the Fort Wilderness Campground RV Park at Disney World for a three night stay and tickets to two different parks.

We did some research before heading to Orlando to make sure we were comfortable with going to a theme park in the middle of a pandemic. And in fact, from the time we checked in at our campground we have been amazed at the precautions that are taken here. A mask is required any time you are outside of your RV (even when going out in the early morning to walk the dog) and at all times in the parks. The only exception is when you are actively eating, as long as you are stationary and physically distanced from others (so no eating or drinking while walking around the parks). Every person is screened for temperature and symptoms at the entrance. All the lines in the parks are marked every 6 feet so you are always distanced from others. Empty seats are left on rides to make sure that different parties have appropriate space between them. Hand sanitizer is everywhere. Stores and restaurants are strict on their max capacities and enforce distancing very carefully. All payment is no-contact. It really was pretty fantastic, and for those of us that don’t really like having any contact with strangers anyway (um, me) it was a GREAT improvement on the theme park experience!

The campground where we stayed is a sprawling Disney-fied version of a National Park campground that happens to be right across the lake from the Magic Kingdom. The other RV-ers here are serious about their Disney. I’m pretty sure they come here frequently, and apparently the thing to do is to decorate your camp site for the holidays beginning in early November. Melina is so offended by this. “What about Thanksgiving? Has everyone forgotten THANKSGIVING?”

Our neighbors at the Disney RV park

We spent Monday at the Magic Kingdom. We had heard it was much bigger than Disneyland (which we covered in a day a few years back) and figured that we could come back on the second day again if we needed more time. As it turns out, it was almost exactly the same as Disneyland. We still enjoyed our day (Diane most of all), but by the end of the day we had had our fill. We did enjoy some of the differences (the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was a hit, as were the old favorites like Splash Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Enchanted Tiki Room).

Waiting for the boat to the Magic Kingdom

Disney World is already all done up for the holidays!

The big wildcard was the weather. We were just out of reach of a tropical storm, after all! Every hour or so it poured rain on us, and we were soaked to the bone for the entire day. Our shoes sloshed as if we had fashioned footwear out of full water bottles. We didn’t let it stop us, though, and enjoyed the moments when we could blow through a line because everyone else had taken cover from the rain. Still, it was definitely an annoyance, especially since our masks would get soaked and then it felt like we couldn’t breathe from constantly waterboarding ourselves. We had to switch masks a few times. Thankfully, we needed to come back to the RV to walk Zellie in the middle of the day anyway, so we took the opportunity to change into dry clothes, clean and dry our masks, and run our shoes through the dryer. Just to go back to the park and get soaked all over again. Thankfully, Zach thought to bring the GoPro, so we still had pictures of the parks without destroying our camera.

The Swiss Family Robinson treehouse

Ice cream break at the Magic Kingdom (also serves as a mask break!)

Karen & Melina on the Barnstormer roller coaster

Cinderella’s castle holiday light show

Last night I spent hours back and forth to the laundry facility, trying to get everything washed and dried from the monsoons of the day. Strangely, I’d put our shoes in a dryer, set it for 60 minutes, and go back to the RV. When I came back in 45 minutes they dryer would be open, the shoes still soaked, and 50 minutes were still on the timer. This would keep happening until I was in the laundry room when someone was emptying the dryer below mine, and our shoes popped out of the dryer and flew into his back! Boy, was he surprised. That is when I finally realized that the shoes were “kicking” the dryer door open, stopping the cycle after only a few minutes. Ugh! After much trial and error I learned that it took a strip of duct tape to keep the door closed.

Today was the big day: Melina’s 12th birthday! After opening her presents, Zach made chocolate chip pancakes at her request, and we headed to her park of choice: Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The park in general was ok, but the standout was definitely Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. This is a whole section of the park that has been designed to look like a city straight out of a Star Wars movie. It was absolutely spectacular. Every detail was beyond perfect, and if it weren’t for the fact that the crowds were much denser here than in the rest of either park, we would have spent the whole day there. As it was, the girls were giddy over the Millennium Falcon ride, riding it twice. We also tried the blue milk, a fruity, slushy-like concoction that Zach and D liked but Melina and I thought was completely disgusting. Melina forced Zach and me to ride all the other roller coasters with her, but nothing compared to the Star Wars section of the park (in a similar way to how we felt Harry Potter overshadowed the rest of Universal Studios in California). The weather was also better, although there was one torrential downpour that soaked us to the bone yet again. At least now I know the trick to drying shoes in the laundromat…

Birthday presents!

This is 12: clothes, legos and books.

Chocolate chip and banana pancakes

Star wars!

The Millennium Falcon!

Disgusting blue milk

Ice cream break at Hollywood Studios

Chess on the Millennium Falcon!

Amazing details, even when waiting in line.

We ended our day with dinner at the Whispering Canyon restaurant in the nearby Wilderness Lodge. This restaurant specializes in “all-you-care-to-eat” skillets, so we came away completely stuffed. We barely had enough room left for the oreo ice cream cake that Melina had requested…but we managed.

Sanibel Island, Derailed

We had planned for four nights, but unfortunately we only had about 24 hours on Sanibel Island. Tropical Storm Eta has officially derailed our plans for shelling, biking, birdwatching, and a BBQ birthday party with old friends. We are worried about high water and high winds in an RV. Even if we are fine in the RV while parked, we will need to leave here on Wednesday and driving an RV in the wind is challenging and potentially dangerous. Also, as we found out upon arriving, our campsite doesn’t have wifi or cell phone service (!!!), which would leave us stuck in an RV in stormy weather for days with nothing to do. So it was a difficult decision, but we only stayed one night and are now on our way out of town. More on what we are doing instead later, but for now here’s what we did do in our short time on the Island.

We dropped Zellie off with a boarder in Ft Myers because the only RV park on Sanibel Island doesn’t allow dogs. Thankfully, the RV park is beautiful and well located, and there are bike paths winding all through the island that are separated from the road, so are super safe and scenic. The island itself is so wonderful! I pictured gated communities and gaudy mansions (barf) or even tacky beach strip malls, but instead it is quaint and lush, with adorable beach bungalows and cozy cafes everywhere you look. We decided to take advantage of the few hours without rain and rode our bikes to the lighthouse beach where the shelling was SPECTACULAR. Zach was in heaven. He was so occupied that he didn’t even take any pictures, so I took a turn on the lens.

The water was a deep and unsettling red color. We debated the cause: I thought maybe a boat had just dropped a load of fish chum into the water to attract sharks, but Melina was certain that it was a group of ladies that gathered here for a monthly swim (if you know what I mean). Either way, gross, and I really didn’t want the girls to go in above their ankles. However, keeping these girls out of the water at a beach is a task I was not willing to take on with the intensity required, so I caved and they splashed around a bit. Ewww (I made them shower afterwards). We found out later the red color is an algae bloom that can cause respiratory issues. Wonderful.

We finished our day with a seafood dinner at the Lazy Flamingo. It was a celebratory meal, since in a quick moment of cell service we got updated on the election results!! WOOHOO!! We had a fun and festive evening.

Steamer pot of clams and oysters

Despite the easing of my election anxiety, that night I could not sleep. I worried constantly about the tropical storm Eta and what would happen if it intensified to a hurricane and hit us dead on, or even stayed a tropical storm and we had to drive across the Sanibel bridge to the mainland in high winds (high winds and RVs do not mix well). Or, best case, what we would do if we were stuck on Sanibel island in an RV in the pouring rain with no wifi or cell signal for three days, one of which was Melina’s birthday. Zach and I talked it over during an early morning shelling trip to a nearby beach, and sadly decided to pack up and move on.

Other than shelling and beaching, another activity I had been looking forward to was biking and birdwatching in the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge. Since it was already raining and windy, we decided to drive the RV through the refuge instead. Unfortunately, that plan was a non-starter.

After one more quick trip to a shelling beach the weather was getting more and more ominious, so we hung out on the patio of an ice cream shop to use their wifi for almost three hours while the girls caught up on schoolwork and Zach and I planned out the changes in our itinerary.

Too cold for ice cream, but belgian waffles will do!

Then we picked up Zellie from the boarder and popped over to Ft Myers to see my college roommate Jen and her husband Noah in the church where she is now the minister. The church is huge and beautiful, and they are so so lucky to have her! Melina especially was enamored with Jen, and we were all sorry that we couldn’t stay longer.

But we had to get going as it was a three hour drive to our next destination…a place safe(r) from the hurricane…where Melina can have an amazing birthday…a place we NEVER intented to visit on this trip…[can you guess?]

I’ll leave you with some pictures of Jen and me doing what we do best.

Big Cypress and the Everglades: Gator Country

We arrived at our campground in Big Cypress National Preserve as the sun was setting, so we didn’t have time to explore before it was dark and the mosquitoes invaded. They were absolutely brutal, so we took refuge in the RV. We had a feast for dinner and then the girls watched a downloaded movie (there is no wifi or cell service here). We also chased the mosquitoes that snuck into the RV, smacking them against the walls and leaving tiny little blood spatters in their wake. Those nasty buggers, I hate them!

On the road again

Filling up the tank in an RV is painful!

A kettle of vultures over a landfill- there were thousands of them!

Our empty campsite in Big Cypress

Setting up for the night in Big Cypress

In the morning the mosquitoes outside had abated and we were able to fully appreciate our campsite. Again, it is a quiet one with a view of a beautiful pond that supposedly is a home for alligators. Totally gorgeous. Zach and I sat outside with our coffee watching a parade of birds: red bellied woodpeckers, pileated woodpeckers, herons, egrets, and even a banded kingfisher, along with others I can’t identify because my bird app needs wifi. Dang it.

Air plants

Enjoying our morning at the campground

Sign by the pond in front of our campsite. We kept Zellie (and the girls) away from this pond!

Crazy huge grasshopper

Breakfast time

Our plan for today was an ambitious one. We unhooked the RV and drove 20 minutes to the Oasis Visitors Center in the Everglades National Park and set the generator running to fuel the a/c so Zellie would stay cool. Then we hopped on our bikes and headed for the 15-mile Shark Valley loop! The valley feeds into the Shark River, where there are actually freshwater bull sharks, but none of those make it to the valley. However, we had high hopes of seeing alligators, along with lots of birds and other wildlife. Melina, however, was very VERY nervous about seeing gators. I assured her that if we were even lucky enough to see one, it would be from a safe distance. Zach told her he had something to show her, and took a big swiss army knife out of his pocket. “Do you see this?” he said, unfolding a large blade, “this is Stabby McStabberson. This is what I will use to stab any gators that get too close.” then he pulled out a large serrated blade. “And this is what I will use to cut their bones. And this corscrew is what I will use to gouge out their eyes. And then we will use this bottle opener to open up the drinks we will have in celebration of our victory over the alligator.”

Melina reluctantly steeled herself and we started on the pathway, a wide paved road that is used for a tram to drive tourists on the same route we were biking. The road has water on both sides- a canal on the right, and the flooded plains on the left. This is the tail end of the wet season, and with the number of big storms this year the water is apparently even higher than usual. We had gone maybe 100 feet when BAM- I had to stop quickly because a huge 10-foot alligator was parked right on the side of the road in front of us!

We stopped for a moment to look and I had to practically hold Diane back from getting closer, but Melina absolutely flipped out. We raced by on our bikes and then paused to gather ourselves. Poor Melina was nearly in hysterics. I had just calmed her when BAM! Another gator. It was like this for a while…we saw maybe 8 gators in the first 5 miles of our ride, all lounging lazily along the right side of the road just about eight feet away from our bike tires. It was cool, and also a little bit terrifying.

Biking by a gator

Thankfully the gators thinned out and Melina calmed down. On that first half of the loop, we saw so so many gorgeous water birds, many of the ones I’ve mentioned already (anhingas, great blue herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, ibis), but also little blue herons, cormorants, and even possibly a tricolored heron. Zach and D even saw a huge turtle swimming in the canal, and we got to see a cormorant spear a fish right in front of us. The biking was easy breezy since it was totally flat and the weather was cool and perfect. It was spectacular, and easily one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.

Great blue heron with fish

Red-shouldered hawk

After about 7 miles there was a huge puddle of water about an inch deep that we rode through for about 100 feet before we got to the observation tower. We were soaked, but we had been told this was the wettest part of the ride so we weren’t too worried. We enjoyed the tower and had it all to ourselves! Apparently traveling during a pandemic during the wet season has its benefits. We ate our picnic lunch and saw some snakes (maybe brown water snakes?), one on land and one swimming through the shallow water on the road. The girls got up close and personal with one of the enormous grasshoppers they have here. At one point a park ranger pointed out that a crow was getting into the saddlebag on Zach’s bike, and he warned us that they can open zippers and love to steal things. He said he watched once as a crow stole a man’s car keys and then flew away and dropped them far off into the prairie! Thankfully, we had Diane to scare them away.

Showing off our soggy butts after riding through the water in the road (that is the road, not a river!)

The Shark Valley observation tower in the Everglades

Alligator from the observatory tower. Melina was much happier with this view!

Melina resting after our picnic. That is only an inch of water on the road, not a gator-filled river!

As we started on the ride back, our spirits were high. Zach pointed out a heron and as I watched it take wing I vaguely heard Melina say something like, “Mom, look at the- oh don’t oh NO!!” I had rolled right over one of those huge grasshoppers. I think that was an omen. The second half of the loop was…challenging. We rode through inches of water (sometimes as much as 3 inches deep) and occasionally dodged little snakes in the water as we rode. At one point the sky opened and we were pelted with painful rain that felt like hailstones. Diane was in front of me and was crying because it was so painful, when she all of a sudden swerved, almost off the road on our left. I grabbed her and stopped her and helped her continue forward, but she was sobbing and practically screaming. I couldn’t understand what she was saying in the rain, but we got to the next dry spot and the rain stopped and she told me: there was an alligator on the road, in the water RIGHT NEXT TO US that she had swerved to avoid!! Zach and Melina had also seen it, but I was so focused on Diane that I had thankfully missed it. Poor Diane was a disaster after this, and we had to ride through about 4 miles more of water! It was pretty horrid. Finally, the road rose above the water level, but then the wind kicked in. The wind that must have helped to make the first half of our ride so easy was now blowing in our faces, fighting us for every mile. Zach and I still enjoyed the rest of the ride, but it was tough on the girls and they were so relieved to make it back to the RV where they could cuddle Zellie and eat halloween candy.

“Sure, what could go wrong?”

Less happy campers after biking through wind and water with gators and snakes.

Feeling good at mile 13!

Indulging in candy and a movie after our crazy day

Even with the close encounters and the challenging conditions, this was still an experience of a lifetime. All in, we saw probably between 10 and 15 gators (we lost count early on). We were never in real danger as the gators were completely uninterested in us and we never even saw one in motion. And, we’re fine. The girls now rank alligators as worse than the monkeys in Thailand, but hopefully we haven’t scarred them for life (again). Zach cooked us a steak dinner over charcoal with the sunset in the background, and the girls are happy again.

Now the next danger we have to worry about: Tropical Storm Eta. It is possible that it cuts our stay on Sanibel Island short as it is expected to reach southern Florida next week…on the day we plan to meet up with some old friends. A day that also happens to be Melina’s birthday. Ugh. We are working on contingency plans, but we are obviously not taking any chances and will head north early rather than risk a strong storm in an RV. Luckily, we have lots of options so Melina can still have an amazing day, but we are crossing our fingers that it changes course and we don’t have to worry about it at all.

Post script: I had nightmares about that gator in the water all night long. I didn’t even see it, but I have a feeling it will haunt me for years.

St. Augustine: the Good, the Great, and the Absolutely Disgusting

We are pleasantly surprised by our first KOA campground. It is so peaceful and quiet. We have barely heard anyone make a sound at all, and the only people we have come across have been so kind and polite. From our lakeside campsite we have seen so many cool water birds: herons, egrets, osprey, ibis, and of course the aforementioned anhingas. We love watching the mallards waddle determinedly to gobble up laurel oak acorns from our campsite (they are so cute, and we assume the diet of acorns also would make them absolutely delicious). Adorably tiny lizards are everywhere. We were even able to sit back and watch Melina and Diane take a paddle boat through the alligator- and snake- infested waters. Ahhh, peaceful bliss.

Osprey

Snowy Egret

White Ibis

We have taken Zellie on the 20 minute walk to the beach a few times, and boy does she love the beach! She bounded like a puppy and inhaled the wind, in Zach’s words, “like she is freebasing smells.” The nearby beach was also great for kite flying, and for getting some bonus time in the sand and waves. Diane still loves to kick, punch, and smack the water in the game she calls “ninja waves.”

Yesterday, my main focus was to try not to let the fact that it was election day make me too anxious (Zach and I voted weeks ago), and I’d say we were very successful. We biked a few miles to Anastasia State Park, where the wide beaches and the marshy inlet are covered in water birds. We saw more herons and egrets, but also wood storks. They sure are weird looking!

Wood Storks

Great Blue Heron

The dunes of Anastasia State Park beach

We had a picnic lunch on the beach and though the water was too rough for swimming, Diane played at the edge of the surf in the sand while Zach photographed sandpipers and plovers as they skittered along the sand. I checked out shells and dug for clams, and sat with Melina who munched on snacks and enjoyed the sun.

Sandpiper

Plover

Willet?

We also took a hike at the park, which was a very different type of woods than we are used to. We learned about laurel oaks and beauty berries and lots of different palm trees. But the only wildlife we saw were the tiny lizards that are everywhere around here. The walk was easy and shaded and beautiful, but for some reason Melina kept thinking we were lost, despite being on a very clearly marked trail. I don’t know why this has been bothering her lately- she thought the same thing on our Santee hike. It didn’t bother Diane at all, though. She delighted in pointing out edible plants and great materials for making a shelter. She may have actually been disappointed when we made it back to our bikes that we wouldn’t have to survive off of the land for a few days.

On our way out of the park I mentioned that I was sad we didn’t see a gopher tortoise, when only a few minutes later one appeared right by us! We watched him for a bit to make sure he didn’t venture onto the road, but eventually he scrambled back into the brush.

Gopher Tortoise

Today we biked a bit farther to the historic town of St Augustine. Melina started out the day cranky and annoyed about the ride. She said using the bike lane alongside traffic made her very nervous. Fortunately, by the time we got to the Bridge of Lions that took us over the causeway and into St Augustine, her mood took a 180. I don’t know if it was the views or the gorgeous weather or just the fresh air and exercise, but she was happy and pleasant for the rest of the day.

We walked around the old fort and took in the views. We even saw two small (1 ½ foot diameter) sea turtles swimming alongside the walls of the fort!

The girls adored the touristy St. George Street. Thankfully we were there early enough on a weekday morning that we could easily window shop while staying distanced. We admired the beautiful architecture of Flagler College before grabbing a delicious lunch on the patio at the Floridian.

Playing hooky

St Photios Shrine Greek Orthodox National Shrine

Flagler College

Passionfruit (!!!) lemonade

The last item of business in St Augustine was gourmet popsicles from The Hyppo. The depth and breadth of flavors was staggering. Diane opted for Blueberry Cinnamon while Melina chose Pumpkin Cheesecake. Neither was disappointed.

The only bad experience we had during our stay here had nothing to do with St Augustine or the KOA campground at all. It was…the black water. Uggghh. Dumping the “black water tank” from the RV (yes, it means what you think it means) has been something we’ve been dreading. But last night our grey water tank (the tank that holds water that drains from the sink and shower) filled up, and so we decided to use the sewer hookup at our campsite and dump our black water and flush the tube with our grey water, just as we’d been instructed to do. Unfortunately, at this point we realized that we had parked the RV about 2 feet short of where our sewer hose would reach. This meant we had to retract the slide, unhook the power, raise the jacks, move the RV, level the RV, re-hook the power, and expand the slide again, now just 2 feet from where we had started. Very time consuming and frustrating, but we did it. Then we hooked up the sewer hose exactly as we were shown on the video I took when James showed us what to do. We both crossed our fingers, and Zach pulled the black handle. We were horrified to see something wet spray out, so Zach quickly pushed the handle back in, but the damage was done. About two full cups of literal shit sat in a messy puddle under our RV. We were so completely floored and disgusted, I think we crouched there staring at it for a full minute before we could do anything at all.

As it turns out, a piece of the tube had jiggled loose and was out of place, leaving a gap in the hose. Neither James nor any of the 5+ youtube videos we watched on this subject mentioned this as a possibility. We managed to fix the part of the tube, finish the dump from both tanks, and spray the ground clean, but it was truly horrific. I’m pretty sure we are both scarred for life. Strangely enough, the ducks seemed even more excited about the acorns around that part of the campsite after this happened. Consequently, Zach and I are now somewhat less inclined to grill up an acorn-stuffed duck for dinner. 

We did get our appetite back to heat up some of the homemade salteñas we brought for the trip.

And of course, Zach’s well-deserved beer after the never-again-to-be-mentioned Black Water Incident. Thanks, Lisa!