Now or Never!: RAIN, SNOW AND SAND!

We are well past 1000 miles into our winter trip. After several delays due to bad weather and a family emergency, we finally left home and headed south. It rained all the way to Florida! After arriving in Ft Pierce, we hardly saw 2 days in a row without rain for over 2 weeks. Then, we had to wait for a diver to clean the prop so we could move the boat the short distance to the boatyard.

Even with the rain and occasional cold snaps, we enjoyed our stay in Fort Pierce. After all, it wasn’t freezing and there wasn’t any snow. Truly each day was another lousy day in paradise. The numerous permanent residents of the RV park were friendly and made us feel right at home.

The occasional cold spell gave us the chance to test our super-duper flower pot heaters.

These things are amazing! Powered by a few tea light candles, they put out quite a bit of heat.

We finally got the prop cleaned and motored from Harbortown to Riverside to haul the boat out of the water. At last, Westward ho! We stopped in Palm Harbor, FL to visit Theresa, Kathleen’s sister. It seems that The Tampa area is an endless sea of suburbs and traffic is crazy enough without pulling a trailer. After several miles of strip malls, shopping centers and automobile dealers, we emerged from the urban sprawl into the swamps and bayous of rural Florida.

Our next stop was the Newport Campground near Crawfordville, FL. This is a county run park located on the St Mark’s river. There’s a lot to see in the area, state and county parks and national wildlife refuges.

This was a good thing since I had to leave Kathleen, Bruno and the camper to fly back to Kentucky to help Mom move into a nursing home. At any rate, right across the road from the campground is the St Mark’s area wildlife refuge. Several miles through the refuge and at the end of the road is the Gulf of Mexico and the St Mark’s light house.

When we visited, it was a dreary, misty day and the haze gave an unreal appearance to the landscape.

When I flew back to Kentucky, I arrived just in time for some of the coldest weather of the season and for snow! I helped with Mom’s transition to the nursing home and headed for Subtle to check on the house. It has almost become routine that when we are gone for an extended time we will find branches and trees across the driveway. This time was no exception. The tree was too big to move and I wasn’t interested in walking to the house in the dark and cold and in sandals. Since the tree was only 4 inches or so in diameter and there were no branches extending from it, I decided to treat it as a speed bump. I carefully drove over it. It’s a rental, right? When it was time to head to the airport, the snow was falling thick and fast. Within an hour, there was an inch on the ground and I was concerned that I might not be able to make it out the driveway. Indeed, there was a bit of tire spinning but I made it up the last hill and headed for the highway where there was only one set of tracks to guide me.

Kathleen didn’t escape the cold blast either. It got down into the 20s and she unhook the water hose from the camper to keep it from freezing. Fortunately for her, the weather warmed up nicely and she and Bruno were able to do a little touring.

We left Newport and followed the coastal highway to Grayton Beach State Park. It was a leisurely drive with occasional views of the Gulf and the inland waterways created by the barrier islands. Grayton Beach is amazing. The beach itself is just your run of the mill white sand beach. OK, maybe I’m a bit jaded. But when you’ve seen the beach on Highborne Cay or the beach at Harbour Island, it takes a lot impress me.

The dunes, however, are another story. White sand dunes, covered in patches with sparse vegetation pile up one on the other to create a fairyland. They present a truly unique landscape. The campsites at Grayton Beach are relatively close together but each is separated from the others by a band of foliage giving the feel of being alone in the jungle.