Before our 1pm checkout today we planned to meet Sean and Kristy down at a neat little planned community called Alys Beach. We drove through it on our way in and found the place fascinating. It is a planned community like Seaside except all of the structures were designed and built by the same company. It is dubbed by the planners as ‘Luxury Beach Living from the perspective of New Urbanism’.
This morning we are taking things slow. We spent a lot of time lounging around the Mish before the girls and Luka decided to meander around the campground and park looking for creatures. The rumor has it that there are bald eagles living somewhere in the park. As I stayed back at the campsite, Marlene and the kids went out on a little adventure.
Last night when we arrived at the Cracker Barrel, we were hesitant about parking for the night. After all, we had just been kicked out of a Wal-Mart that we felt was safe and accommodating when we arrived. There were no dedicated RV parking spaces like they usually do and there were also no other RVs here. We circled for a couple of times before deciding to settle into a corner of the lot.
Our short 2-night stay at Saint Joseph Peninsula came and gone way faster than we had hoped. This is definitely a spot I can see myself spending at least a week at next time we are in the area. With still a handful of places to see in the panhandle before crossing over into Alabama, we headed back towards the mainland and kept on moving westward.
Saint Joseph Peninsula State Park is at the end of the peninsula right across the bay from the town of Port St Joe. We thought hard about whether or not we wanted to come here as we did not know what kind of phone reception and internet we might have here. We took a chance and it paid off handsomely.
Last night was the coldest night we have had in a long time. It is definitely not shorts and t-shirt weather around here anymore as it dipped into the 30s for the first time for us since the Carolinas back in October. Hopefully this is just a cold spell that will pass as we intend on keeping our summer clothes around for as long as we can.
We packed up and got ready to head out this morning after a couple of great days at Sunset Isles RV Park. The weather this morning has turned a bit and we are looking at gusty winds and drizzly skies. I’d say that it is cold but I am sure it will be met by sneers and jeers from our friends in sub zero temperatures in the north.
When we got here yesterday, we got our spot for just one night with the second night as an option and I think we are going to exercise that. Tomorrow, some Canadians are coming to stay for awhile. The rates are setup here that monthly stays are highly encouraged. We are paying $38 a night including taxes and Good Sam discount but the monthly rate is a mere $500.
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.
Our week at Fort De Soto is up today but we have no intentions of leaving just yet. The nice thing about staying at a state or county park is that your day entrance fee is usually included and you don’t have to leave until the day use area closes.
Finally we have completed all of our obligations here in St Petersburg. We have had a lot of activities in the last few days since we got here. It started with our TV debut on WFLA, then our sailing day on the water with Kyle and finally yesterday, we drove up to Weeki Wachee for the big girl’s 6th birthday. We are here for one more night tonight and things are starting to slow down.
One of the main reasons why we met up again with Kyle here in St. Petersburg has to do with what we are doing today. A few months ago, I found out that Kyle had taken sailing lessons at Charleston, South Carolina. Well before I was into Airstreaming, I was an avid sailor and had owned a handful of sailboats in my past. After chatting about boats for awhile, Kyle and I decided that since we are both spending our winters in Florida, we should get together and do a day charter.
