Seven Months on the Road

Well, here we are at our 7 month point… Well, seven months and add a few weeks.  It has been a while since we have posted an update and for that we apologize.  Things have been incredibly busy for both of us here in Southern Florida.

Normally a grassy field, with all the rain it is now a good size lake.

 

Let’s start with the weather.  Most of the time it has been absolutely gorgeous!  Days in the mid to low 80’s and nights in the upper 60’s.  Unfortunately, we have also had some incredibly rough storms move across.  It is the ‘dry’ season, but we have had far more rain than usual.  In fact, flooding and standing water have become a major issue.  Since arriving, we have had three Tornado warnings in about a week and experienced some truly horrendous thunderstorms, albeit short lived ones.  Our first warning happened just before bedtime.

‘Riding the Storm Out’ – who gets the lyrical reference?

Our phones and other devices all started ringing with warnings for us.  It had been pouring already, but we packed up the dogs and drove the short distance to the RV park clubhouse.  It is hurricane rated and we joined dozens of fellow RV’rs for an hour as we waited for the storm to pass.  Fortunately, none of the storms caused severe damage to any of our neighbors, although one did have awning damage.

 

All in all, it is hard to complain about the weather when the majority of our days have been warm and mild.  Even after most storms, the days clear up.

You can see our awning tie downs in the photo above right.

 

We have been trying to provide something informative, that we learned, in our monthly updates and this entry will be no exception.  When we arrived, we decided we had gone long enough without using our awning.  It seemed we could never have it out without winds kicking up and threatening to tear it off.  We saw a number of neighbors using tie downs for their awnings, so after some research, we decided we would purchase a set.  We found some the strap on to the ends of our awning roller then clip to screw in stakes that go in the ground.  These are similar to dog tie out stakes.  We had our awning out during the first big storm and it did great.  That said, we don’t recommend keeping the awnings out in windy situations, but these are good security for those surprise storms.

Loved this night shot of the moon through light clouds.  A full moon on Christmas night.   

 

As with the rest of our journey, we really aren’t inside the RV much during the days.  Sherry is at school, getting up at 5:30 each morning (and cursing just a bit).  She does love the work and her new school.  We are leaning more and more to making this a long term stop.

Sadly, with the storms, work, and being sick, we have had little opportunity to really explore.  We have been to the coastal islands, Lover’s Key and others.  Many places we want to revisit when time allows and crowds have lessoned.  Crowds… Well, we knew we would be in the heart of snowbird country and it shows.  This past weekend we headed to the beach only to find the parking was non-existent and the crowd on the roads would have given a New York traffic jam a run for its money.  🙂

Manatee Park is just a short drive from where we are staying and a gorgeous and free place to see.  After paying a small fee for parking, we wandered the grounds, watched the Manatees in the river and canal as well as all the other wildlife.  Sherry caught a bird eating a lizard (yuck, but cool).  However, her focus was off and the shot was too blurry to show.  Before leaving, we did witness a truly cool site.  The Tampa Zoo was releasing a Manatee back to the wild.  So many of these gentle animals are injured by fishing line, boats and other things that there is a constant need for rescue and rehab.  The day we visited the park, we got to see the end product of that work.  Along with a crowd of fellow visitors, we applauded as the workers returned a Manatee to the river.  Very cool sight.  As we drove off, we decided to look into volunteer opportunities to help preserve this beautiful, but fragile, part of our country.

Manatee Park, Fort Myers, FL

Manatee Park, Fort Myers, FL

Manatee Park, Fort Myers, FL

Thank you to all our readers and followers for sticking with us.  We have several posts and photos to update as well as a number of videos still to post.  Now that we are settling into a routine we will be getting back to a regular schedule.

PS – Just a shot from our Thanksgiving with Sean’s daughter and son-in-law.  Nope, we didn’t coordinate our color scheme.  🙂