FL – Oct 2024

Oh Florida how I’ve missed you – hurricanes not withstanding. I’ve missed the great weather, the camaraderie of the community, and of course the Publix BoGo’s.  As I made my way back to the home base, I traveled through the panhandle of Florida, stopping to see friends along the way.  It was mostly a mad dash to get back home, all the while keeping a close eye on the weather to make sure I was not driving into the hurricane, or driving into its aftermath.  Overall, it was an uneventful drive home.  Details of this final 2024 travel leg follows.

Pensacola, FL

My first landing back in the home state was in Pensacola.  I’ve been here several times in the past, but this time tried out a new campground – Pensacola RV Park.  It turned out to be a very good choice.  My site was nice and large, without the feeling of being on top of one another.  A truly nice stay!

I would spend a total of 4 days here – with plans to connect with some friends along the way.  My former foster daughter Carrie lives just about an hour west – back in Mississippi.  It’s been a couple of years since I’d last seen her, so it was nice catching up.  I picked her up mid morning and we drove into Biloxi for some lunch and to catch a few Roadside America attractions.  On the Gulf Park campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in Long Beach, we saw a giant southern oak tree reported to be over 500 years old.  We also visited  Jimmy Buffett Bridge – a sort of nondescript roadway over a canal in Pascagoula celebrating the birthplace of this musical legend.  Next, we visited what was once the largest rocking chair in the world.  At 35 feet tall, it was the biggest in 1995 when it was built but has since been surpassed in size by two other chairs – the now 2nd tallest in Missouri and the tallest one in Illinois.  But as you can see from the picture with Carrie standing next to it, it was quite massive!  Last we visited a bronze statue dedicated to Fred Haise – one of the Apollo 13 astronauts who happens to hail from Biloxi.  It was great seeing and catching up with you Carrie.  Thanks for spending the day with me.

The following day I met up with a former workmate Carl, his wife Melinda, and granddaughter Cheyenne.  We had a great dinner at McGuire’s Irish Pub – a place known for its $1 bills taped and stapled all over its ceiling and walls, and reportedly totaling over $2M worth.  Wow!  It was great seeing and catching up with Carl and his family once again.  Thanks for dinner buddy – next time it’s on me!  Then later, a few days after I had returned to my home base in Lake Wales, my brother Don came by and picked me up so that I could go back to his house to pick up my car, which had quietly spent the summer in the safety of his garage.  He was just returning to Florida himself following his summer adventure up in New England.  On the way to his place, we made a pit stop at Archie’s to grab a nice lunch.  Thanks Don for coming to get me, and for once again letting me use your garage to store my car for the summer.

Tallahassee and Ocala, FL

My next couple of stops would take me to Tallahassee and Ocala Florida.  I spent the weekend in Tallahassee, and Mon and Tue in Ocala – returning to the home base on Wed.  While I was in Tallahassee, I didn’t do much other than hit the local Publix grocery store.  Geez, was I a happy camper to do that!  I surely did miss my Publix grocery shopping – in particular enjoying their Buy-One-Get-One (BoGo) weekly offers.  Besides, after having spent the past five months on the road, shopping in mostly rural convenience stores along the way, it was thrilling to once again do my grocery shopping in a full scale quality store.  My other activity over the weekend was to keep a close eye on Hurricane Milton as it made landfall near Siesta Key then travelled across central Florida wreaking havoc along the way.  As the weekend came to a close, and the hurricane made its way through the state, I called the Ocala campground to verify they were not impacted by the storm, and that my site was still ready and available for me.  It in fact was just fine, so I made my way there, spent a couple of quiet nights, then pulled out for my final leg back to the home base.

Hurricane Milton

So this hurricane had grown to a Cat 5 storm while still in the gulf, but fortunately was weakened to a Cat 3 via sheer winds before making landfall.  It was, non the less, a significant and scary storm.  My community in Saddlebag was in complete hurricane preparedness mode – all properties secured, and a shelter setup in the clubhouse for our full time residents who opted to stay.  Fortunately, the damage in the community was not too significant.  A few roofs had some damage, and some pieces of siding and skirting were blown loose.  Other than that, it was mostly a cleanup effort to gather the busted tree limbs and palm frowns that had blown free in the heavy winds.  The community made up of management and staff, along with resident volunteers, made quick business of getting the place back up to ship shape in no time.

Around town in Lake Wales, there too was various levels of damage – but nothing too extreme.  Some downed trees, and a missing roof panel were the most common remnants of the storm.  A local restaurant just down the street from me called Norby’s (at right, lower left) seems to have gotten the worse of it.  They lost a large section of their roof and suffered other wind blown damage.  To be honest, while the food there was good, the place was sort of a thrown together structure of seemingly random pieces of wood, and was sort of a Frankenstein building.  Assuming they have insurance, to me it won’t be the end of the world if this old shack is torn down and rebuilt like new.  I guess time will tell on what becomes of this great steak house, but almost for sure it won’t be open anytime soon.  But I sure do hope they find the necessary resources to rebuild and get the place back up in operation.

Lake Wales, FL

Well, back at the home base, it was arrival setup and cleanup for me over the next couple of weeks.  There were small tree branches and live oak moss strewed all over my yard (at left, top left and bottom right).  I also arrived home to a small lake and no running water coming out of my spigot at the pedestal.  Turns out, my water main had broken somewhere underground, flooding the area, and causing the heavy concrete and steal pedestal to lean sideways.  We got the water shut off to my site, and thankfully a plumber was to be onsite the following day on another job, and said he would get mine taken care of too.  And that he did!  The following day, they dug down deep to find and fix the broken pipe, and also to work the pedestal back up to its upright position.  They had me back in business by mid afternoon.  It was handy however that my RV site is directly next to the bathhouse.  So, I was able to shower and do my business there while waiting to get my water fixed up.

In other local news, much of the orange groves along the main road leading into my community are being taken up.  When I first drove in upon my return, I saw row after row of uprooted orange trees (at right, bottom right and center).  My first reaction was “holy crap – that was one hell of a hurricane”!  And if it was so powerful to uproot all these trees, the modular homes and roof over RVs in the community must be a disaster.  But as I drove into and through the resort, I didn’t see any evidence of destruction – certainly not the to level of what I had seen in the orange groves.  I later learned that these trees were uprooted by machine, and they were piling them together and burning them to clear the field.  Over the course of the next several days, the piles were built and burned, and the land was quickly cleared.  Apparently, there is a 97 single-family home housing development being built on this land.  Oh well, the seclusion was great while it lasted!

Final Thoughts

Well, sort of a quick and dirty blog just to wrap up this year’s travel season, and to let you all know what things are like here at the homestead.  As depicted here, I’ll be spending the next several weeks cleaning up the place.  I’ll also be getting all my stuff out of the shed and back out in the yard, working on replacing all the network and security camera gear that got fried in two separate lightning strikes over the summer, and otherwise getting settled for a nice peaceful and cozy winter season here at the home base.  It’s great to be back home!  I have already gotten back into my Tech Committee role working the sound and video system for various events, and will soon be back to working on Phase II of the new community website.  In the next blog, I’ll provide a summary of this years travels, update the animated travel video, and begin the process of planning out next years adventure.  Till then, be well and safe travels!

I only show a sampling of my adventure pictures here in the blog, and do so mostly in collage format for brevity and ease of reading. If you want to view an album containing individual full fidelity and hi-res images of all my travel pictures related to this specific blog, click the image below. Enjoy!