Daytona Beach & Vero Beach - Dec 2022

This 3 day adventure brought me to Daytona Beach to watch a cousin play in a college basketball tournament, followed by a stop by to visit my sister and brother-in-law in Vero Beach for a wonderful dinner and morning boat ride.

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Gulf Coast - December 2022

This adventure takes me in the direction of New Orleans, Louisiana. I plan to visit many interesting places and stay at several fun Harvest Host spots along the way during a loop around Lake Pontchartrain.

Day 1 : My first day is dedicated to getting me to the Panhandle of Florida, around nine hours of driving up the East Coast of Florida before hitting Interstate 10 west.

I arrive at my first Harvest Host location, Southern Grace Lavender Farm in Southport, Florida, around 4:30 in the Central time zone. I’m greeted by the owners of the property who direct me to my boondocking spot for the evening. I visit their little lavender shop, where they have many lavender based products like soaps and candles. The smell is a bit overwhelming with so much lavender in a little space. This Harvest Host location is the most accommodating Harvest Host that I’ve visited with full hook up sites available if needed, water, dumpster, etc. And the owners provide free fresh eggs in the morning from their chickens on the property. And how often do you get to see a pig give a dog a back massage?

Day 2 takes me further west to the very touristy spot of Panama City Beach, where I find a parking spot next to the beach and take a walk through the shops and restaurants.

And then I move into the unique little town of Seaside, known for being the primary filming location of The Truman Show movie. The little town reminds me so much of the movie, each home having its own white picket fence, carefully manicured yard, and will within the color scheme of the town. I took a photo of the home known as the Truman house from the movie.

Driving to my Harvest Host location for the night, I drive throught the Gulf Islands National Seashore on a chilly, windy night.

and I enjoy some great barbeque from Grover T’s BBQ where I stayed for the night in their quiet parking lot. Gotta love Harvest Hosts!

Day 3 brings me to Biloxi, Mississippi and Beauvoir, the Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library. This historic area took a severe hit from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but has been incredibly restored so that the public can enjoy this area.

Photo from 2005 after Hurrican Katrina and its 20 foot storm surge.

In the evening, I end up being parked directly in the path of an F1 tornado which came on shore in Biloxi and did some tree and sign damage in the area. Quite a tense few seconds as the two RVs parked next to me both sustained some damage. Here is a video I took just a few moments before the tornado passed through.

The next morning provides some beautiful scenes.

Day 4 : I make my way into Louisiana and enjoy a quick lunch at an awesome little small town diner, enjoying a shrimp Po-Boy.

I arrive at my next Harvest Host stop, John Schneider’s place (Bo, from Duke’s of Hazard), who owns around 50 acres on which he has created John Schneider Studios for the production of several independent films. I was fortunate enough to meet John as he was preparing DVD’s for mailing from his latest movie, To Die For.

Day 5 : I visit the Houmas House Plantation in Darrow, Louisiana. This is a historic home built in 1829 on the Mississippi River.

Day 6 : I arrive in the historic city of New Orleans and spend the day taking in the sights, sounds, and tastes.

After a week of new experiences, I spend two days heading back towards South Florida and put another adventure in the books!

Inverness, Florida - September 2022

This 4 day adventure took me through Sebring, including a visit to one of my favorite state parks, Highland Hammock, and ended at my first visit to Citrus County Speedway where I enjoyed some of the best short track racing I’ve experienced in the state of Florida. I enjoyed some great Harvest Host locations, and stayed at my first Boondockers Welcome spot. Here are some of the highlights of the trip.

On Thursday afternoon, I make a stop at Highland Hammock State Park for a bike ride and before I even get into the park several deer are hanging out on the side of the road.

And my bike ride was halted for a few minutes so I could spend some time with this beautiful deer that had little fear as I took some photos and video.

First Night’s Stay at a Harvest Host called Turn Two Brewery in Sebring. I started with a flight of four beers and ended up liking the chocolate stout the most, so added a couple of those to the end of the day. The food truck of the day was Chubby Wubbys Hot Dog Emporium, so I sampled ‘The Coney’, with chili, cheese, onions, heartburn, etc.

During my visit inside the brewery, I had a wonderful chat with a retired couple who lived in the nearby Tanglewood community. We talked RVs since they had previously lived in the RV capital of the world, Elkhart, Indiana, and I described the Harvest Host program to them. The gentleman had been a truck driver across our country so he had some fun stories to tell. I am enjoying meeting people like this who are willing to share some stories of their lives with me.

I depart the next morning with a final destination of another Harvest Host location, but make a couple of stops along the way. First, I go for a hike at the Crooked Lake Wildlife and Environmental Area in Fort Meade. I spotted a few young wild boar crossing my path during this hike, and captured this short video.

And then a short walk through Patterson Park, also in Fort Meade.

I then continue north for about an hour towards Plant City, where I spend the night at my second Harvest Host of the trip, Roos and Coos Farm. This is a wonderful little animal sanctuary for several animals, run by a mother/daughter team who are very dedicated to their little creatures.

To continue the adventure north, I head out the next morning after breakfast and make a stop in Dade City at the Pioneer Florida Museum & Village. I was surprised to discover that this museum had recently become a Harvest Host location, so I’ll likely be back to this location for a night’s stay in the future. For this trip I spent a couple of hours walking through the multiple buildings that hold some artifacts from the past that gave me a feel for how life was back in the 1800’s, including some Civil War artifacts.

I continue the final leg of my journey towards Inverness where I check in to my first Boondockers Welcome host location, and get settled in before departing for a night full of hometown racing at Citrus County Speedway, which had a night full of action from 6PM to 11PM.

Daytona Speedway - August 2022

Made a quick decision to grab some camping and race tickets to the Coke Zero 400 weekend in Daytona. This will be my first RV experience at a Nascar track.

My van is parked next to a fence where all the Nascar team haulers drive by to go through the tunnel to the infield. Very cool to see.

Saturday, August 27, 2022

The big race is supposed to happen tonite at 7PM, but the weather in Daytona isn’t going to let that happen. If there is a race today, it’s going to be late like last night’s race. But it’s experiences like this that remind me how wonderful it is to have my van. There were thousands of people that had driven here today to take in the race, spend the day at the midway, and enjoy their day. What can they do now?

I’m spending the day in the air conditioning, napping, cooking meals, working on the computer… I can wait as long as it takes. If they cancel until tomorrow, no problem, I’ll be here.

While the weather outside is horrible.

I just relax in the van, enjoying all the comforts of home!

Memorial Weekend - May 2022

With the RV still waiting for much needed repairs on the power steering (long story), I decided to take her out anyways for a few days over the long weekend. The stays included Cracker-docking, Harvest-hosting, and Free camping at Hickory Hammock Campground.