Fort Wilderness January 17 thru 27th

  We went to Disney World to celebrate Joyce's birthday. Neither of us had ever been to the area.  We stayed at Disney's Fort Wilderness campground.  They gave us a great site.  We were only a short distance from the boats that would take you to Magic Kingdom or the bus stops to the other locations.  The light show at the Magic Kingdom at night was spectacular.  There was a lot of walking and sore feet after the first day.  I came down with the flu Saturday evening.  We went to Epcot on Monday but I still wasn't doing very well.  Joyce ended up getting it from me so we both have been coughing and hacking. Though we extended our camp stay 2 extra days when I came down with the flu, unfortunately the campground was full so we'll have to go back to use our last 2 days of tickets later (hopefully when we feel better!)

The blue dot at the top left was our campsite

Our boat that took us over to the Magic Kingdom.

Our hosts at the Magic Kingdom.

We had a wonderful spot to watch the Main Street Parade.
Can't imagine doing the whole parade on stilts.

Alice in Wonderland wishing Joyce a happy birthday.
They had given Joyce a "Birthday Button" and almost ALL staff who passed her wished her a "happy birthday Joyce".

The costumes used in the parade dancers were so inventive!

Amazing how much work goes into the floats and those representing the various characters.

Show off kid with his hands in the air while I had a death grip on the bar.

The nighttime light show on castle plus the fireworks was gorgeous.

After our 12 hour day the boat dropped us back on dock and we stayed at beach to watch the lake light show.
It was 2 boats pulling about 8 barges from resort to resort around the lake.
The characters had movement with accompanying music.
Our resort time was 9:45 each night, we could hear the music even at our camp site.

The campground laundry was charge/debit card only.
Joyce watched the washer and dryers from her phone.

It was a windy & cool day at Epcot. 

 We were surrounded by wild animals all of the time at the campground.  The first were the squirrels that would eat out of your hands then there was a young jake turkey that showed up.  The next day he brought a second turkey with him.  The neighbor lady said there was a group of 5 tom turkeys that circle the area.  Sure enough they showed up and as you can see they are very use to people.  All the years of hunting turkeys carrying a bow or shotgun and all I needed was sunflower seeds.  Joyce  & I probably took 500 pictures of squirrels and turkeys.

The decorations around the campsites are unbelievable.  The people decorate year round with lights and figures. We saw everything from golf carts, bicycles to segways being rode thru the campground. They drove the horse drawn carriages thru our loop in the campground. The best part was the continuous puppy parade.  Everyone had to take their dogs for a walk or ride.  There were short ones, fat ones, long ones and skinny ones.  The best part was we'd just go out and pet them and didn't have to clean up after them.

This cart belonged to some people from Blue Springs, MO

We made some new friends.  We met Bryan and Hope from Maine.  Bryan is a lobster fisherman.  It is very interesting to talk to people from different parts of the country & the things you learn.  We look forward to traveling to Maine one of these days and stopping by to visit with them. Patty from Iowa was in the 5th wheel across from us. Her little fuzz-ball dog was a cutie.

We have moved to Homossasa, Florida.  The manatee live in the waters in the area.  We are looking forward to having an encounter with some.

Panama City Beach RV Resort

A great way to end the day... on the beach!

Time seems to slip away.  We are still adjusting to full-timing.  It is a lot different than going camping to the lake for the weekend.  We are slowly learning about making reservations ahead and having a plan.  The state and federal parks fill up quickly and are reserved way out in advance. Friday & Saturday nights are the most difficult to find in the parks. We believe it's due to the local residents booking them, as you can easily find spots Sunday thru Thursday. The last park, St. Andrews, the site was reserved for the weekend so we had to move.  The same site may be available again starting on Sunday through Thursday.  You have to reserve the state sites through ReserveAmerica.  You can see & book out a year on the site.  When we moved we searched all Florida state parks and the only thing available were "Walk-ins".  These are where you show up in person and get a spot.  You can see available sites online but you could drive 5 miles to it and someone could beat you to it.  Not a good deal.  We also found out since it was a 3 day holiday weekend it was that much tougher. We'd begun to believe we'd be staying in the Walmart parking lot! After a lot of looking, we moved from our spot in St. Andrews to less than 1 mile, right at the edge of the State Park.  It is an independent called "Panama City Beach RV Resort".  It is a gated resort with brick pavers for the roadway.  Quite a step up from in the sand to concrete.  It feels like the Beverly Hillbillies moving to town.

We have met our neighbors beside us and another couple from our resort while on the beach.  It was easy to meet the neighbors on the beach.  They have a Golden-Doodle name "Lilly".  She had a feather barrette on her ear and a small purse attached to her collar.  When she looks at you with her eyes you feel like she could talk to you. We've talked about having a dog but after seeing all the work they are we've decided it's easier to just pet someone else's and let them worry & clean up after them. We sent pictures to Debbie E. and she agreed Lilly could be Bo's new girlfriend.

Randy also found on his Facebook "RV 5th Wheels" that someone had posted they were at same park we're in. So he tracked them down by photo of their RV and went visiting. The two couples are from Georgia and it was fun comparing notes on campgrounds to camp chairs.

The beach is just across the road from the resort so we just walk to it.  The sands are so beautiful white and soft. It almost feels like baking soda under your feet. The weather has warmed back into the 70s. Once the sun went down it would quickly cool out on the beach.

This last Sunday we went to Panama City Beach First Baptist. We really enjoyed the pastor's sermon. Their church looks to be even larger than First Baptist Raytown.

We had a lot of great food while here in Panama City Beach. Of course our food budget has taken a hit with all the restaurants we had to try. One of our favorites was Andy's Flour Power Cafe-Bakery. We ate breakfast there twice, as during first visit Joyce saw the BLT sandwich and had to go back and try it. When we went back the owner came by and suggested to try it with the avocado on it. Joyce agreed it was delicious! We found Triple J after church and waitress said we had to come back and have their prime rib. We did and it was one of the best we've had. Plus she'd given us a 20% off coupon, so it was a great deal! We enjoy trying the local restaurants rather than the chains you can find everywhere.

Randy & Lilly 

Panama City Beach RV Resort

The Skillet at Andy's

BLT with avocado on their own baked rye bread.

Prime rib at Triple J

Toes in the sand...can't get any better for January.

We saw this boat bouncing down the shore line & Joyce thought this would be fun...
you got to fish PLUS a thrill ride sitting up in the crow nest!

St. Andrews State Park

We stayed in St. Andrews State Park from January 6th thru the 13th. We have really enjoyed the State Park for all the wildlife. We often saw up to 20 deer a day as we drove thru the park. One small fawn that still had spots, just kept munching next to the road as Joyce talked to it. 

Joyce always had a hard time of the early wake-up all 36 years of working at Bendix/Allied-Signal/Honeywell. Now that she doesn't have to arise so early, she is usually awake by 6am. The tides soon fascinated her as she'd see the low tide in early mornings. The photo of sailboat below shows the tide at the lowest we saw it the week we were at St. Andrews. Joyce now has the website saved for low/high tide times.

Although state parks are cheaper than the independent rv parks, the main disadvantage is most do not have sewer connections at each camp site. They do have "dump stations" that are free for use, but you have to drive the rv up to it. Randy had talked with a full-timer at Pella Iowa last year and found he'd used a waste tote. So Randy bought a tank & though it's a thankless job it's easier than raising jacks, putting in slides etc. every 3 or 4 days. He doesn't gripe about the job as the beauty of camping in the parks make up for it.

Early morning view out of the RV, the water looked as smooth as glass.

Kingfisher

Great Egret

Low tide left the beached sailboat completely out of the water.

Randy was amazed at the barnacles completely covering the sailboat's keel.

We attended service at St. Andrew Baptist Church on January 8th. 

One evening we went out to Gator Lake & watched the Snowy Egrets start to roost.

Luckily it was catch & release so Randy couldn't bring it back to the RV.   :)

Black Scoter

The Farmer's Market at St. Andrews was pretty thin due to the chilly weather.
Joyce felt so sorry for one ill-dressed vendor that she took her Hot Hands paks.

Randy wanted this pic for Matt & Len, as it looked like the boat they fished in while at St. Kitts.

We were amazed at all the different style boats in the marinas.

We had the beach pretty much to ourselves on windy chilly days.

Florida's State bird- Mockingbird

Blue Heron

Small fawn by the road

Randy says "it's a sh**** job but someone has to do it"

Sunset across the marsh area.

MOVING TO THE COAST

We moved further east to St. Andrew State Park at Panama City Beach, FL.  It sets between the Gulf of Mexico and a bay coming off the Gulf.

On our way down from Defuniak we went through an area called: Nokuse Plantation.  It is a 53,000 acre private nature preserve located in Walton County in northwest Florida.  It is the largest private conservation project east of the Mississippi River.

Our campsite backs right up to the Bay.  Upon arrival at our site we had a greeter waiting for us on our post.  Due to the trees & narrow roadway it was tight getting backed into the site. It was worth all the trouble... what a view!

  Did I mention we were close to water.  Joyce's favorite saying if we're at the ocean "These toes are going in". There were several sail boats moored out in bay. One had broken loose and was grounded near us.

After getting set up we decided to check out the park.  I had mentioned on the way down, that since in Florida we hadn't seen any deer.  We got no more than 100 feet from the trailer and there was a deer.  Then they came out of everywhere.  We saw them in the sand dunes, along the roadway and in the parking lots.

  We went to the pier that stretches out into the gulf.  The temperature was around 60 degrees.  No one was on the beach.  The park gates close at sunset, so for campers you get a pass-code to come in & out after dark. You could look back towards Panama City Beach and see nothing but condos.  When you looked the opposite direction along the beach there was nothing but white sands and water.

  We have a hard time finding places in the state parks along the Gulf to stay. They are booked up on the weekends because all the locals reserve out the sites for up to a year in advance leaving only a few days during the week available.

  It's hard to believe but our camp site is only 13 feet above sea level.  Tonight we have had thunderstorms, gale warnings and a possibility of water spouts.  Know that's something you don't have in Missouri.