Heading South - for the summer??
- kelligwiggins
- Oct 25, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 31, 2022
June 2021 After spending a week with our son Taylor in Davenport IA (don't forget Bogart & Gary/Sniper too!), we packed up the camper, pickup, and the Jetta (pulling the motorcycle), and headed south over Father's Day weekend. We made it to Port St. Lucie, FL, where we called the PSL Village RV Resort home for a couple of months. We enjoyed (loved!!) being about 15 minutes from the beach, and were able to spend time in Miami, Key West, Cocoa Beach, Fort Pierce, and Fort Lauderdale.
Unfortunately, we were not able to locate a used catamaran (that is, one that wasn't already under contract, or needed major work done), and decided to pursue ordering a new boat. Randy had been talking with the boat builder from Max Cruise Marine, and in August 2021, we took a giant leap of faith, and ordered a 44 ft. sailing catamaran to be built, sight-unseen, in Vietnam. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, we were not able to visit the factory to see any of their boats before we placed our order.
Over Labor Day weekend 2021, we migrated inland to a different RV park for 'snowbird' season - Camp Central North, located in Lake Wales FL, about 50 miles south of Orlando. We were welcomed like family, and quickly became involved in this wonderful community of people. Though we were both still working remotely, that didn't stop us from getting to know most of the residents and participate in many of the social activities (potlucks, holiday parties, and 🔥⚽ Fridays with Tammy😉, just for starters). We discovered that we enjoy bingo and jigsaw puzzles (who knew!). Randy, who likes to keep busy, was not only the 'Pool Boy' for a time, but also the 'Ice Man', and we spent almost every weekend on either the East or West coast, laying or walking on one beach or another.
We spent many evenings walking (don't forget those ankle weights!) and jogging on the paved trail around Lake Wales. We discovered several amazing trails in the state and local parks near Lake Wales - Lake Kissimmee, Tiger Creek Reserve, and Lake Wales Ridge State Forest are our favorites. It took me a while to get used to seeing Georgia pine trees, living right next to palmettos, next to palm trees, next to live oaks draped with Spanish moss, all in the same forest. It felt like we were on the set of Jurassic Park. I had never seen anything like it!
We encountered a wide variety of wildlife on our hikes - a face-to-face with a black Florida panther, gators, wild hogs (they're HUGE), deer, tortoises, turtles, snakes (coach whip and coral), Sherman Fox squirrels, and more armadillos than we could count. And the birds! Pelicans, sandhill cranes, storks, roseate spoonbills, egrets, ibis (Randy calls these Florida chickens), owls, eagles, hawks, herons, etc. etc.
We had a close encounter with a 6 ft. shark right off shore at Jensen beach - I could have reached out and touched it! We saw manatees off of the pier at Ft. Pierce, and blue Portuguese man-o-war jellyfish washed ashore on Vero Beach.
We rode the bike up to Daytona Beach to experience a day of Bike Week, and got to visit St. Augustine, Panama City Beach, and witness a midnight rocket launch from the beach just south of Cape Canaveral.
We were able to spend time with some familiar faces too. Kent and Sara Johnson from Ankeny invited us to their resort home in Estero, and we got an amazing 'low tide' tour of Sanibel Island. We visited with Ed and Jan Downs at their condo in Madeira Beach a couple of times, and they treated us to some of their favorite beach food. Then, I ran into a dear friend from high school in Sebring, just 40 minutes from Lake Wales. We hadn't seen each other in over 40 years - amazing!
We also met Randy's cousin Frank and his wife Amy for a fun evening at Disney Springs, and had a nice dinner (complete with cigars on the lanai) with Kent's brother Jay and his wife Sabrina at their lovely home in Davenport. We met our dear friends from way back in PA, Jerry and Melva, and their daughter and her family, in Orlando. We also got to meet and visit with one of my co-workers, Jacqueline, and her husband Abraham in Winter Haven.
Over the long 4th of July weekend 2022, we chartered a 42' catamaran (Thanks Captain Rick!) in Tampa Bay, and sailed with two of our children and their significant others around the Bay and Gulf of Mexico. We anchored overnight along the Manatee River, and stopped off for some shelling at Egmont Key. It was a great way to introduce them to sailing, and help them understand why we decided to sell everything and sail away!
On the second day, our daughter Rachael said 'Mom, I get it now. I understand why you guys are doing this.'
As you can see, Florida was very good to us, and we really enjoyed our time there. We saw many amazing sites, and met many amazing people.
Now its late August 2022, and the boat builder is telling us that our new catamaran should be ready for sea trials around mid-October. So working backward from there on our calendar, we realized that we had many things still to do before we were ready to fly halfway around the world and pick up the new boat. Suddenly things began speeding up!
And so we move on to the next leg of our journey - making final preparations, and the final farewell tour!
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