On Island Time In

Florida

Tate’s Hell

We planned to stay in this Florida State Park but quickly realized it wasn’t going to work for us. We looked for our booked camping spot for over an hour. When they said, “primitive campsites” they meant it. The campsites we did find had zero cellphone reception. We decide to spend the evening checking out the picnic area and leave in the morning.

Homosassa

We stayed in our very first RV park in Homosassa. We had no plans to end up here, but we were in dire need of air conditioning due to the humidity. The best part was that the Homosassa River is the ONLY place in the United States where you can legally swim with manatees! We also just happened to end up in Homosassa during peak manatee season. The river stays 72 degrees year-round and the manatees swim up the river to avoid the cold ocean water. We also spent a lot of time riding our bikes and swimming in the pool.

Below is the resort we stayed at for a few weeks. They had a cute country store and a pond in the middle of the resort.

We spent a day renting a boat and going out to see the manatees. It was absolutely incredible! Peter almost got bit by a crab, found shells, and just went we thought we weren’t going to see the manatees while in the water they showed up! Manatees must swim up to you and we both underwater gasped when they swam right up to us.

We had amazing steak cut calamari, bacon-wrapped scallops, and oyster shooters at Kelly’s Half Shell Pub in Crystal River. This was some of the BEST seafood we found while in this area. Neither of us had ever had Steak Cut Calamari. The scallops were huge and the oyster shooters came in a variety of flavors.

The Resort we stayed out had a restaurant on the water. We spent a few nights listening to live music and playing the ring toss game. One night Elvis showed up and had Katelyn cracking up laughing.

Katelyn talked Peter into standing in the manatee cutout – it’s just for you guys!

Hudson

We stayed in Hudson with a new friend. It was beautiful here with multiple ponds to look at, a nice pool our host allowed us to use, and a couple of adorable dogs! We actually stayed here twice. Once when we headed down the panhandle and then again when we headed North out of Florida.

Peter rescued a soft shell turtle trying to get to our host’s pond that got stuck at the fence.

St. Petersburg

We drove down and spent a night in St. Pete. It was then we realized we were spending spring break in Florida. The crowd was extremely young and the bars were shoulder to shoulder. We walked the new pier and spent some time on the beach. It was beautiful and a fun adventure.

Katelyn tried a yummy woodchuck cider. we found a sundial clock on our way back to the car, and we saw a self-driving taxi. St. Petersburg was incredibly fun and full of surprises.

Fort Myers / Naples

We stayed in Fort Myers for a week. We got to hang out with Katelyn’s friend Grace who lives there. We also went to Naples and spent a day on the beach. Naples was our first really warm and beautiful Florida beach. We had lots of yummy food while in the Fort Myers area and enjoyed spending time with someone we knew after months of it just being us on the road.

The day we spent at the Naples beach included lots of sun, riding jet ski’s on the ocean, and snoballs. The BEST snowballs ever!

We ate so much barbeque in Florida.

Everywhere we went in Florida had barbeque and we loved it! We found a place called Hogbody’s which had over 20 different kinds of wings, and the best pulled-pork nachos. We went to a variety of other barbeque places and each one had a different flair but they were all delicious.

We have now said multiple times “Florida has the best BBQ!”

The Everglades

We drove through the Everglades to go to the Keys. You would have thought that with all of the traveling in the Southern part of the U.S. we would have seen an alligator by now but we hadn’t. We finally got to see a ton of alligators while in the Everglades.

Neither of us had ever seen Plecostomus’ in the wild. Apparently, alligators love to eat them. There were hundreds and hundreds along the banks in the Everglades.

Marathon Key

We spent a weekend in Marathon Key. We spent time at Sombrero Beach, Snorkeling, & hanging out by the pool. It was absolutely beautiful. We had amazing food all weekend long. Katelyn did not want to leave! We saw a string ray one morning right off the beach, and an iguana when walking back to our marina. The water was so blue and so warm.