January 31

This is our last day at Upriver. We have enjoyed our time here in this beautiful resort. There is plenty to do, from pickleball to bocce ball to corn hole, to swimming in one of two pristine pools, to playing cards or bingo, to singing karaoke,  to food trucks and vegetable stands, to walking, hiking, bicycling, kayaking, or shopping. There are park model homes mixed with RVs of all types and sizes. 

We have stayed in the area before, at Koreshan State Park about 25 minutes south of here, but the sites there have become overgrown with vegetation, and there are few sites that handle a 38 ft RV well.  We have visited the Ford Estate and the Edison Laboratory several times over the years. We have visited all of the state parks in the area, including Lover's Key on the Gulf, but that is a hour away from here if the traffic is light, which is not often. This is a good place for us to stock up on items we have depleted (groceries) since Costco, Sam's Club, Aldi, and regular grocery stores are within an easy drive. Tonight we will go out for dinner, our first time doing that since we left Anderson's home at the beginning of the month. Tomorrow we pack up and head to Lake Manatee State Park in Bradenton, FL where we will no have sewer or 50 Amp (just 30 Amp & 20 amp) but it is another fun location. The weather is great today and is projected to be lovely the next week. We hope that continues.

January 30

We woke this morning to our coldest morning since leaving home I believe...33 degrees cold, at least cold for this region of the country. The skies are crystal clear...no clouds in sight, but it will be too cold for kayaking! Jim was an angel, getting up early to take Gus out. Gus cries when he needs to go out first thing in the morning. Today he cried much earlier than usual, just after 6 am.  Normally he waits until 7 or 7:30 to ask to go out. 

We had some success this morning, landing a site for next January at Myakka State Park in Sarasota. Now we have until the 13th to find our next place for January 2023. February is already fully reserved for Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores next year. There is a chance that we could land a site here at Upriver RV Resort for all of January, but we are low man on the Totem Pole, so we will not count on that. It is also twice the cost here to staying at the state parks, so there is that to consider. I have gotten to a point where I really want full hookups instead of just electric & water so we don't have to worry about levels in the tanks, especially the gray tank.

Church was 8:30 - 9:30 online with our church back home. It was a good sermon, and there was a beautiful solo by Paster Rich. I may have to go back and listen to that again! 

This will be a good day to take a "brisk" walk to get my steps in. I have been averaging 8000-10,000 steps each day, thanks to several walks with Gus. 

January 28

We enjoyed another warm day today and spent a good amount of time outdoors. We visited Manatee Park, just across the waterway from our resort. Thecpark is next to a power plant so the water is warmer, drawing a lot of manatees to the warm water this time of year. We had fun watching the manatees in the water and trying to count them...impossible! In just a small area there were more than 25, and moving further down the walkway of the park we saw more and more.  Kayakers were enjoying the site as much as everyone on the walkway. 

This afternoon we watched a large group participate in a corn hole tournament with 6 groups playing at the same time. There were more observers than participants...fun to watch!

The next two days the temperature will be much cooler, in the upper 50s to low 30s at night, but back home is much worse so we won't complain. Monday the temps will be back in the upper 60s to low 70s.

January 27

We are enjoying our time at Upriver RV Resort. There are plenty of places to walk Gus, especially since we are next door to a large Preserve with several trails and there is a path that leads from the RV park to the Preserve. Gus and I took one of those trail walks yesterday. 

The RV Resort has a lot going on every day. There are organized activities each day, pickleball, tennis, booze ball, horseshoes, and cornhole. There is a lovely swimming pool, but the temperature has not been warm enough for swimming. Yesterday a food truck (featuring crepes) was in the park for lunchtime, and the Tuesday a fruit and vegetable stand was here. We got cabbage, asparagus, cucumbers, a green pepper, and strawberries.  The weather is beautiful today, with one more day of warm before a cold front comes in for the weekend.

Upriver RV Resort

Today we were supposed to go to Lake Kissimmee for 8 days. We changed our mind when we read some very recent comments about the park. Those comments were about the place being overrun with raccoons and armadillos as well as portions of the park being inaccessible because of poor maintenance.  Instead, we found a park in North Fort Myers that had a site available so we jumped on it. This is the priciest place we have ever stayed but the facilities are quality and it is close to a lot of things. We are directly across the waterway from Manatee Park, where there are a lot of manatees this time of the year. We will check that out. Gus seems happy here because there is plenty of grass fror him to do his "business" and lots of smells. 

Parks around Lake Okeechobee

We visited 2 local parks on the waterfront of Kissimmee River and Lake Okeechobee while staying here. Both have boat ramps that seem to be busy even in colder weather. The larger park has a fishing peer, picnic areas and restrooms as well as access to the bike/hiking path on the Rim surrounding the lake. It was too windy and cold when we were there to use the paved path. When we visited the Republican Party was on site to register voters. They had quite a group there. 

January 23

Sandhill Cranes

January 22

Thursday we went kayaking again, exploring more inlets along the river. There are all kinds of birds, from Musgovy ducks to pelicans to herons to terns as well as some we have not identified. 

Yesterday we dealt with rain showers on and off, but managed to do a little grocery shopping with a quick stop at a vegetable stand included. The vegetables are reasonably priced, but the price of oranges and grapefruits is quite high this year.

Today we woke to drizzle rain that continued most of the day with falling temperatures ...down to the low 60s most of the day. That's a heat wave compared to the weather back in Midlothian.  It was a good day to do laundry. They have a laundry in the park, $1.75 per load for both washers and dryers. I used 2 of each for a total cost of $7 to get everything washed and dried. Doing it in the RV would have meant at least 5 loads, maybe more, so it was worth using their big machines. 

Other than that, we just hung out, taking Gus for several walks throughout the day as usual. 

Kayaking Taylor Creek

Today was a sunny, warm day, perfect for kayaking. The RV Park has a boat ramp making it easy to launch the kayaks. We wandered up stream through coves along housing developments and down toward the locks leading into Lake Okeechobee before heading back to our campground. We enjoyed conversations with folks along the way and saw lots of birds. We never saw any alligators or manatees although there are signs for both throughout the area. 

Lake Okeechobee

We arrived in Okeechobee, Florida yesterday. It took a while to settle in because they first gave us a 30 Amp site when our reservation was for a 50 Amp site. They finally relocated us to a 50 Amp site and we had lots of help with our move from folks staying here. Everyone is very friendly and helpful. We are at Zachary Taylor RV Resort. It has a covered swimming pool, a recreation building, a covered game building that houses ping pong and corn hole as well as shuffleboard. A lot of sites are on the water with individual boat docks. We are on an inside lot since we only have kayaks, but hope to get out with them over the next few days. Tomorrow and Thursday the forecast is calling for mid 70s and calm winds, perfect for kayaking. 

I haven't posted much lately because we are almost out of data and don't want to switch to unlimited data until Thursday when the new cycle begins. 

Above is a picture of the dog park with a place to wash the dog. 

Exploring Wekiwa Springs

The past 2 days we have been exploring this park. We had never been here before. The campsites are nicely spread out and shady (so no DISH TV). About half the sites are local Florideans, while the rest are from mostly northern states like Maine, Montana, Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York. We have seen one or two Canadians, but that's all. That may change when we move further south. Yesterday we checked out the actual springs, where swimming is allowed. The water temp is about 70-72 degrees, still too cold for me. The area around the Spring head is rather touristy, with lots of concrete, making it look more like a swimming pool.  

A short distance downstream is a kayak launch but we would have to haul our kayaks more than a quarter of a mile to get there over not so smooth terrain.  They rent kayaks for $35 per hour per person for a single and $40/hr for a tandem. 

There is a great place to launch kayaks downstream except that they charge $25 parking and $10 per kayak to launch. Ridiculous but that may be the weekend rate. We decided to pass on that. The other place to put in kayaks nearby closes at Noon and we arrived at 12:15 today, so we missed that opportunity. 

We visited Sand Lake, a small lake within the park and walked all the way around the lake, a distance of about a mile. 

Today we took a longer walk on one of the trails, to Prevott Lake and back, a distance of over 2 miles round trip. There are lots of trails through the park, up to about 14 miles for a few for those who want to do more extensive hiking. 

They do a lot of controlled burns in the park to help the wildlife, including the Scrub Jay, an endangered bird. We see a lot of charred trees and some very dead trees interspersed throughout the park. 

Tomorrow the forecast is for a good deal of rain, so we will hang out inside most of the time and read a good book or watch old movies on TV. Monday we travel to Lake Okeechobee and our next stop for a week.