Gulf Coast (Florida to Texas)

We are now on the last leg of our first RV adventure, making our way back to Texas. We stayed in Ocala, FL starting Oct. 29 for 2 nights and on the 30th we went to Silver Springs State Park. It’s a natural spring with amazing crystal clear water. Silver Springs was once a top tourist attraction and setting for movies such as Rebel Without a Cause starring James Dean, the James Bond film Moonraker, Creature from the Black Lagoon and 6 Tarzan movies. Larger attractions like Disney World and the other Orlando parks led to a decline in attendance. In 2013 the state took control of the park and began restorations and preservation efforts. Attractions, such as glass bottom boats, kayaks, canoes and a cafe are still there run by contractors.
Next we went to Thonotosassa, a town that is about 59 minutes east of Palm Harbor. On Saturday, Nov. 1st we visited Bruce at his house. He is in the process of preparing his house for sale and then move to Gainesville. He has A LOT of stuff to get rid of! I brought back a treasured bone ivory rose that Dad gave to Mom when she graduated with her masters degree. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of us. The next day we met Guy and Marie in St. Petersburg for lunch. They just sold their sailboat and plan to buy a trawler to do the Great Lakes and part of the loop.
Monday, November 3rd we stayed at Resort at Canopy Oakes for the first annual Escapees/ Harvest Host rally. The resort was high end with eight pickleball courts, a tiki bar, heated pool, hot tub, small cafe and spacious sites. The rally was fun with seminars, social hours, and lots of prizes! We won $100 for being the second RV to sign up for the rally, $50 for Pepper’s costume in the pet parade, $200 for second place in Trivial Pursuit and $100 just for showing up to the pool party lol! All told we got $450 in visa gift cards! We met nice people and played pickleball twice. The first time we played with pickleball instructor so I got a lot of good pointers. The only downside was the food; frozen cafeteria stuff. While there Kevin installed a new water pump and when he removed the panel in front of the grey water tank discovered a huge gapping hole on the tank. Apparently it cracked and the weight of the water caused the tank to drop and create the hole. We figured we could continue to use the tank as long as we were hooked up directly to the sewer line and kept the line open. But Kevin thinks it’s also linking from the bottom as there was a lot of water under the tank after I took a shower. So it’s back to boat life with RV park showers, paying for laundry and bucket washing dishes. 😏 Per the RV diagrams the half bath sink drains to the black water tank so we can use that. It will take at least 4 weeks to get a new tank and then we’ll need to have it installed. We’re crossing our fingers it will be fixed before Christmas.
We left Lake Wales on Friday, November 7 and drove about 6.5 hours to Rocky’s Convenience Store and Campground for one night. The store is like a mini Buckee’s but with a small campground attached. The sites were long and very level. Our last night in Florida, Saturday Nov. 8, was spent with a Harvest Host winery, Chateau Le Coeur, in DeFuniak Springs. We did a wine tasting with 3 other RVers and had a pleasant evening. They owners, Gwen and John, are moving their winery from Oregon and currently serve and sell the wine produced in Oregon. They are in the process of building a tasting room (current one is in their temporary house), a wedding venue and of course planing the vineyards. They are working with a university professor to develop soil to plant the vines in. In addition to producing wine Gwen makes several lavender products and John is also a chocolatier. They were an interesting couple to talk to. I learned that dessert wine is meant to be drank with dessert - I thought dessert wine was the desert! They gave us a sample of one of their dessert wines with a spoon of hazelnut chocolate that John made, OMG it was wonderful together!
Next we spent 4 nights in Biloxi, Mississippi from Nov 9-13 at a nice RV resort that had very few other campers. The ones there were mostly Class A and C, which is unusual. The property is well kept and has a salt water pool that we did not use due to an artic front that came down while we were there. We went to a seafood restaurant and I ordered the fish special, and it was HUGE! We spent our last night on this leg of our adventure in Lafayette, LA, where we went to a Mexican restaurant that had cool decor with carved bench seats and chairs painted with images of dancing chicas.
On Friday, Nov. 14 we arrived in Texas and went straight to a Freightliner service center in north Houston to have them drain our fuel tank to get the bad diesel out and hopefully fix the turbo issue.もっと詳しく