Day 166: Meeting friends in Cedar Key.

We are once again in road mode. That means we don’t have plans to stay anywhere longer than a couple of days with boondocking nights in between during transit days. We really haven’t been in this mode for a few months and it is kind of exciting to get back into it.

We woke up in the parking lot of the Walmart in Chiefland, FL to find that our Airstream neighbor had already left. It is no surprise with our late starts but we managed to find another Airstream parked in a few rows down. There must be some kind of an Airstream rally near as it is unusual for us to see that many of them driving around.

For the last couple of months since we booked reservations at Fort Wilderness, we have had to stick to a fairly structured schedule as we traveled through some of the busiest parts of the country during this time of year. Reservations had to be found and made which prevented us from being spontaneous with our travels.

Our original plan was to head over to Manatee Springs State Park for a couple of nights. We have fond memories of the campground and it was also the first playground that Mila got to go down a slide at around 6-months old. But since Manatee Springs is notorious for having poor phone reception, we decided to make a last minute change and made a left turn down towards a little jewel of the gulf coast called Cedar Key.

We have been corresponding with a semi-retired couple from California who started full timing in their motor coach nearly a year ago. Clarke and Elaine blog about their adventures in their Newell motor coach at whatsnewell.blogspot.com. We have been friends on facebook and Clarke has been reading our blog for awhile with us returning the favor at theirs since they left for the road.

Clarke had wanted to meet up as we made our way north and we originally had plans to have lunch in Chiefland before we made our way to Manatee Springs. They had been staying at a unique little spot in Cedar Key called Sunset Isle RV Park and Motel so we decided to come down for a visit.

We had not originally intended on staying but the spot right next to them was open for a couple of nights so we decided to pop in for a night. We had not met in person before but they had stayed at Rincon Parkway while we were still in Ventura as we were getting ready to sell our house and hit the road. We didn’t get to meet then but now we are both on the opposite side of the continent, we will finally have a chance. Once they return from their outing, that is.

As with many private RV parks, the sites here are pretty packed together. A handful of them have private docks and all of the people who are staying here are very friendly. In fact, this is probably the friendliest RV park we have ever been to. There is a unique feeling of tribal affiliation people here seem to have with each other that we have never felt at another campground. It permeates through the air and makes you want to stay here awhile.

We met a couple from Pennsylvania who were doing some bird watching at on their dock. They are traveling in a 16 ft Airstream Quiksilver Bambi. The Quiksilver is the predecessor of our Ocean Breeze that share many of the same interior components. We have not seen one before and neither have they seen one like ours. It was cool to give each other tours of our trailers.

The girls quickly made a friend who was traveling with her grand parents Class-C RV from New York. They are renting it to see if this is a lifestyle they might be interested in and I think being at Cedar Key is a good start.

Clarke had been posting amazing daily sunset photos from here and we are finally here to see one ourselves.

Sunset Isles RV Park is definitely living up to its namesake.

The colors of the sky turned from yellow, to blue and eventually to a bright orange even a half hour after the sun has set over the horizon.

Finally Clarke and Elaine returned from a trip into town. They had to take their tow behind vehicle into Chiefland for service. We actually passed them as we were driving in earlier today.

We met up at a great restaurant called the Big Deck Raw Bar by the water in Cedar Key. This is the Black and Blue Cheese Burger Clarke has been luring me with on facebook as he knows how big of a sucker I am for a good burger.

Even though we didn’t get to make our way back to Manatee Springs, I think ultimately this was a better choice for our stay around this part of Florida. We got to meet some new friends and explore a cool new spot that we would have never gone out of our way to see. We might just have to stay another night 🙂

over and out,
dan