So, we are officially snowbirds! Well the youngest ones anyway. We can see why people flock here in the winter months. The weather is mostly sunny (it is the sunshine state after all) with temperatures in the mid to high 70s (around 25’c), and there’s lots to see and do. We have already spent five weeks here and haven’t even scratched the surface. Florida is huge! When comparing land mass, you can fit Switzerland, The Netherland’s, Luxembourg and Belgium into Florida and still have room for more. Water is everywhere. In fact, 20 percent of its land area is made up of it. With a coastline of 8,400 miles (13,500 km), there is a beach for everyone. It seems like every man and his dog owns a boat and carries a fishing rod, including Richie (well minus the boat and dog of course)!
You may ask what we have been up to. Well, talking of boats, we ended up turning up late to our eagerly awaited reunion and 40th birthday celebration of Richie’s sister and her family. A man literally lost his boat in the middle of the road, right in front of us. We were stuck. Richie started using his recovery gear for the second time this trip, but the police soon intervened, organising a tow truck and controlling the Jenson Beach Boulevard chaos. Since we’re known for always being late, our family from Switzerland were not suprised with our delay though, but were quite impressed with the excuse we gave them this time! Ha ha! It was wonderful to see family again and an honour to celebrate this important day right here in Florida.
The next day and after a beautiful walk along the Atlantic ocean, we went our separate ways. Nicole, Stefan, Lenny and Marlon went off to meet Mickey in Orlando and we also went to meet a Michi in Tomoka State Park north of Daytona Beach. That is Michi, Daniela and their daughter Robyn, our new Swiss friends who we had met, back in November in Louisiana. Their overlanding trip in the US came to an end but we were glad to see them one more time before they shipped their vehicle back to Switzerland. We grilled some beautiful steaks, sat around the campfire and shared travel stories until midnight.
Now back to Mickey Mouse, we didn’t leave him out of course. We met up with the family once again, this time at Disney Springs, a fun outdoor shopping and entertainment complex, south of Orlando. The kids were full of excitement and people were in the Christmas spirit. Perfect preparation for our Christmas plans. Nicole and Stefan kindly invited us to join them in their airbnb in Cape Coral. We spent a week in their rental home with a lot of space and furniture for Zoe to crawl around and climb over, a pool and a speed boat, and of course a big, huge grill. A welcome break for us overlanders. The airbnb was fantastic, providing even a stash of Christmas decorations to help us celebrate in style. Being with fellow Swissies, we did this on the evening of the 24th December, with the children jumping out of the pool to the surprise of ‘Christkind’, oh and for dinner, we each had a T-Bone steak….yum!
The following week, we followed our family to Indian Rocks Beach, near St Petersburg. They had rented another airbnb, directly on the beach and had reserved a room for us too. Wow! We saw the New Year in on our sunset balcony, and enjoyed watching the dolphins swim by. Many strolls along the white sands was had and sandcastles were made. Thank you so much Nägeli’s for spoiling us. It was very hard to say goodbye to you at Tampa airport on 4th January, but we look forward to sharing another adventure with you soon.
Even though we enjoyed the luxury of being under a large roof, with all the amenities you can think of, we have to admit that we did miss Silverskin. It was good to be back on the road. We headed north, ran a few errands, including a first hair cut for Zoe, and met our second Boondockers Welcome hosts in Inverness. We signed up to Boondockers Welcome (BW) a while ago upon recommendation from fellow travellers, and after our first great experience with Sue and John in Grand Island, we thought it would be cool to meet more locals and do it again. We parked our rig at Rune and Caroline’s house for two nights and once again were humbled by the generosity of total strangers (who we can now call friends).
Upon leaving Inverness, we drove up the coast to Crystal River. We were on the hunt for Manatees. And boy were we in luck. The previous few nights had gotten cooler, and the gentle giants of the sea were seeking warm waters. Three Sisters Springs seemed to be just the place and we got to see the spectacle. There were so many we couldn’t count them. The water was crystal clear and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Beautiful!
But what about alligators? Of course we did the obligatory airboat tour and saw many alligators, turtles and exotic birds, and to top it off, we got to hug a six year old alligator, no kidding!
Our next guest will arrive in Miami later this month and in the meantime we will explore the Panhandle and do some more fishing.
See You later Alligator!
Thanks for reading, ‘we’ll meat you around the world!’
