Florida 2013

We had a late start heading to Florida this year.  After several brief snowstorms in Maryland,  we finally got on the road on Friday,  Feb 16.    The plan was to split the trip into 4 driving days to end up at KARS Park on Merritt Island, FL  on Monday (President's Day).    We had overnight stops at  Roanoke Rapids, NC, Florence, SC , and, Townsend, GA.    Started to get the feeling that the Gods were against us making this trip:  Day 2 we had rain /snow mix north of Fayetteville and snow through Lumberton in NC;  woke up Day 3 in Florence SC with 1.5" snow.   What a drag it was to have to shovel off the slides and sweep the roof of the RV (didn't even have the right equipment for the job).  Thought we were safe when we reached Townsend GA but a cold snap surprised us with a frozen water hose.  We were happy to reach Florida!


Our rush to get here was so we could attend the Florida HitchHikers of America International  (HHAI) Luncheon in Plant City, FL.     We were glad we could go as we enjoy meeting fellow HH owners.  The group was half the size of last years group, but for us it was an opportunity to  talk more at length with several folks.   We even met fellow Marylanders  Tom and Glee McMahon,  from Davidsonville, MD,  only about 10 miles away from us back home!

Back at KARS Park for the second year, we have a  water view site at the northern end of the park.  We were anxious to see our Florida friends,  the Manatees at the marina and the Alligators along the entrance road.  This is such a relaxing place.  We have been taking several walks a day and I have finally assembled the bikes so we can take longer excursions in the area.

We are finally getting more familiar with the area.   Last week we went across the bridge to Cocoa Beach  to  go to the Pier.   It was a beautiful day and  the beach-goers were out sunning themselves with a few brave ones and kids swimming (water temp hi 60's?).  of course the surfers were there, but not much surf  action  so I'm not sure what the attraction was.  But the pier had quite a few fishermen and they attracted the Brown Pelicans.    It was fun to see them, ever observant,  checking for throw-aways from the fish cleaning station or trying to steal bait from the fishermen's buckets!  Several decades ago the brown pelicans were endangered from pesticides, now they are plentiful.   We even have one visiting the marina at KARS Park.    

One of the main outdoors attractions in the area is the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.  We  drove over there on Sunday and checked out the visitor's center.  Our main interest was to drive through the wildlife loop, which is a self-guided tour of the marshes and wetlands on the refuge.  We saw lots of birds, but did not see the Bald Eagles nesting as we had last year.  We did, however, see a humungous alligator sunning itself!

We were talking with one of the guards at the gate and mentioned how we liked the golf course community located next to KARS Park.   He mentioned several other communities on Merritt Island that he thought  had similar houses  that we should look at.  He also mentioned a bike trail in a neighborhood park area that is close by.   We realized we were driving by the entrance to the trail without even knowing it was there.   So yesterday we brought our bikes  and  rode on the trail to the main entrance of Kings Park.  Along the way we saw several alligators in the ponds adjacent to the trail.   It was a short ride back to the truck so we loaded up and then drove to several developments to check out the houses.   We really like the style of the houses and the ones along the water were especially nice!

We are now on the downhill side of our 3 weeks at KARS Park so we are planning ahead.   Its like a puzzle to plot out our stops on our journey.  We wanted to stop at the Stephen Foster Folk Cultural Center in White Springs FL on our way back north, but there was no sites available for the week after we leave here.   We were able to reserve a site at Huntington Beach State Park in SC  for the 17-22 March.

We thought we would try for a  a couple nights at a military FamCamp in Kings
Bay, GA