Boing...Boing...A Little Spring Hopping ....

After Disney, we took a little relaxation with a few days at Alexander Springs in the Ocala National Forest in central Florida.  Morey took the opportunity, since there were no RV hookups, to get out his solar panels and check out the photon action.  Nice sunny days, so lots of photons!

We did some biking, hiking, kayaking and checking out the scuba guys who were diving into the natural spring underground caverns.  Enough of this relaxation....

Walt Disney World.......

💓💓💓 Yes, Morey loves Disney.  So we invited our kids, Michael & Jess, and our grandkid, Jordan, to join us.  It's been at least 25 times at the Park, but one more only makes it better!  We kicked off our five days of camping at Fort Wilderness with Chip & Dale and a Marshmallow S'more cookout. 
And of course, Morey stepped on one, and was picking up rocks on his shoes for the next 3 days.




First full day, we boated over to the Magic Kingdom from the campground.  We discovered we had chosen a very busy time as it was Presidents Day weekend.  Fortunately our Fast Passes shortened many of our lines.  We got Michael back on Splash Mountain...
(almost got Jordan to join us) but  Jordan did get on many other rides including his favorite, the Magic Carpet.  So much fun!

Stayed for the evening fireworks and show.  A Wow!


We continued our Park hopping with a day at Animal Kingdom and a day at Hollywood Studios.  Morey loved getting back on the Alien Spin with the LGMs (Little Green Men).

Jordan trained to become a Jedi.  

Having walked over 25 miles during our visit, we were a little tired but very happy.  Great times to be together and share these fun experiences.

In addition to all of the Park hopping, we also went to Chef Mickey's for a fabulous brunch at the Contemporary Hotel.  We then planned to ride the monorail, but it was "paused", so we took a ride another day. 
This over 40 year old monorail is still a futuristic mode of transportation.


Disney continues to be a great place to enjoy!

The Beach Scene, Fort DeSoto county park

Pulled into our waterfront campsite as the sun was setting across the bay; wow what a great site!  Following our two less than wonderful nights at Lazydays, we woke up with the fresh sea air and the sun rising.  We love Fort DeSoto....  Everyday we biked the paved bike paths, and checked out the many beaches and picnic areas.  Ate lunches with the sea views and our feathered friends.

Does it get better than this?  Even perfect weather.

Being in the St. Petersburg area, we headed over to the Dali Museum where we enjoyed the docent and the many art pieces from a very prolific artist.  Ruthie even got to check out the "cloud" room.  Cool!




We also got to St. Pete Beach.  Had lunch with friends at Sea Critters Café, and our first Cuban sandwich of the trip.  Then over to the beach with the Don CeSar a mile north. (We remembered one of our HD managers meetings at this very pink hotel.)

Fixed............finally

As mentioned earlier, when we arrived back at the Tampa airport 3 weeks ago with our intent to pickup our motorhome at Lazydays, we discovered that this was not to happen.  At least not fully repaired.  BIW still needed to be painted and then adorned with the RV accent decals.  We drove it off of their lot, unfinished.

Sunday, we drove back into Lazydays collision shop area and spent the night (industrial camping).   The following morning, we were "promised" that the work would be completed in a few days, maybe...…Morey became assertive (a first?) and contacted the manager directly.

Action!  After two nights of industrial camping, we drove our fully repaired BIW off their lot and arrived at sunset at our next true campsite.  Repair took way too long, but the completed work looks great.  Back on the road.

Myakka SP......It's a Jungle Out There !

View out of our RV's back window

Just a 20 mile drive from Oscar Scherer put us into a jungle.  There are gators, and boars, and lots and lots of birds.  This time we camped at Big Flats Campground.  A little more rustic from where we last camped, but rustic is good and liked this campground better.  From Big Flats it's just a quick walk to the General Store, with all of its alligator souvenirs and ice cream.  Also right around the corner was the kayak/canoe rental shed and the swamp boat concessionaire.

Although we couldn't bike on many of the trails out into the back country (we brought our road bikes this year), we were able to bike the park's road to keep us limber.  Speaking of bikes, we ran into Gardner & Rachel from the Clinton NJ bike shop (again). 

Crazy to meet up with them way down here in the jungle.

The birds, the birds.  We actually were set up with our super zoom lens and took many walks to check out all of these feathered creatures.  Now if we knew what they are called....Fred, Erma, John?

A morning social at the log cabin built in the 30s by the CCC, netted us some new RV friends.  John & Benjie are from the far northern reaches of Vermont, fairly new to RVing. They were also glad to be out of the cold north with the Polar Vortex in action.  They kept us company on the Power Line trail out into the Jungle.