So, it has been a while. And a good bit has happened. There was camping from April 2012 – February of 2013, but in March of 2013, we sold the motorhome and decided to have some different vacations. More on our first adventure without the motorhome in a future post, but first, lets see if we can catch up for a year and a half worth of stuff.
March 2012 | |
In March following our ski trip, we took the RV to Alafia River State Park located south of Plant City, Florida. Alafia is built around old mining pits, and has a number of mountain biking trails requiring various levels of skill. We tried some of the easier trails with no problem and lazed around the campsite quite a bit. It is a relaxing and quiet park to visit. In addition, we made a visit to the Bunker Hill Winery located in Duette, Florida. This is a small winery run by a lovely couple that is really into winemaking and sustain ability. The Flickr sets of pictures from the park are here and the winery here | |
April 2012 | |
April rolled around and its birthday time in the CurbCrusher household for Little Curb Crusher. Since our new gifts are experiences, we headed out to Fort Wilderess in the motorhome. Not a lot new to say about Ft. Wilderness since the last time visited, but this time we did do something different. We went on the Wild Africa Trek tour in Animal Kingdom. This is basically a hike through some of the area that surrounds the Killamanjaro Safari ride, giving you an up close view of the animals from a different angle. You also get a ride in across parts of the savannah in an open truck, and a lunch at the pavillion that is in the middle of the savannah. On Saturday we wondered over to Celebration for the Great American Pie Festival, which is a fantastic all the pie you can eat event. All in all a great trip. Needless to say, we visited the Magic Kingdom, ate at the Earl of Sandwich and other stuff on this trip also. Clink on the link for pictures from the Wild Africa Trek, the Pie Festival and the rest of the trip. | |
May 2012 | |
Well, now its May, and guess what? Birthday time again, this time for Lady CurbCrusher and its back to Fort Wilderness. This time we visited Blizard Beach Waterpark, and too the EPCOT Behind the Seeds tour. In addition, we wandered around the parks and went to Tea at the Grand Floridian. Pictures here and here | |
2nd Trip May 2012 | |
Still May, but we headed back to Hillsboro River State Park. We’ve been here a number of times, and went back with the Florida Pop-up Camper group for a Memorial Day celebration. During this trip we visited the metropolis of Plant City, visiting the Keel and Curley Winery, the Parkesdale Strawberry stand, and dining at the excellent Fred’s Southern Kitchen. Photos from around Plant City are here and those from the state park. | |
June 2012 | |
It’s June, and hot in Florida, so a trip to some springs is in order. We took the motorhome and headed to O’Leno State Park. Which doesn’t have any springs. But…., Ichetucknee State Park, which has springs and a river that flows from them, is located very close by. So we took Saturday and tubed the Ichetucknee from the headsprings down to the last pull out area in the state park. Photos of the tubing trip and those from the O’Leno. | |
July 2012 | |
Well, July is anniversary time, so we sent Little CurbCrusher off on a church youth trip, and the adult CurbCrushers headed out on a four day Bahamas Cruise on Royal Carribean. It was a nice break, and pretty much to a place we’d been before. We took ourselves on a walking tour of Nasau, but mostly relaxed and wondered how Little CurbCrusher would react when she found out we had taken a cruise without her. Photos from the cruise are here. |
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RV Trip July 2012 | |
July is also 4-H Marine Science Camp month. For the second year in a row, Little CurbCrusher attended the camp in Niceville, Florida. So we took advantage of that trip to spend a week on the beach in the RV at Grayton Beach State Park in the Florida Panhandle. During this week we visited a number of other state parks in the area, driving as far as St. George Island, stopping in Apalachicola and Port St. Joe to see the John Gorrie Museum and the State Constitution Museum. It was on this trip that we decided that we were going to start working on selling the RV. So the final day we cleaned it up real good, and then took the pictures that we used when advertising it for sale. Follow the links for photos from Grayton Beach, St. George Island, Apalachicola, and Port St. Joe. |
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August 2012 | |
August, and once again (really look back over the past two or three Augusts in the archives) we’re headed to Rock Springs county park for the springs. We enjoyed the weekend, a bit of tubing, a bit of hiking and generally being lazy. Follow the links for photos from Rock Springs. |
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September 2012 | |
Look back through the archives and guess. Salt Springs. Located in the Ocala National Forest, this is a great little spring and campground. We were there for the second straight Labor Day, and made our regular visit to Sparky’s in Astor for the cheeseburger. Follow the links for photos from Salt Springs. |
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October 2012 | |
We now enter the doldrums, not a lot of pictures and few trips. We headed back to Highlands Hammock State Park near Seabring in October. We re-visited the Henscratch Farms winery on this trip, and stopped in two new places on the way there and back. On the way to Highlands Hammock, we stopped at the Florida Natural Grove House Visitors Center in Lake Wales. This is the visitors center for the Tropicana juice processing plant that sits on US 27. And on the way back, we stopped at Webbs Candies in Haines City. Webbs used to have a number of billboards on US 27 that said “Goat Milk Fudge.” Before they cleaned up 27, approaching the goat milk fudge place was like approaching South of The Border on I-95, you knew you were getting there. | |
November 2012 | |
November and Thanksgiving brought a return trip to James Island County Park in Charleston, SC. Once again we ran the Charleston Turkey Trot and had a great time. | |
December 2012 | |
We made a non-RV trip to Pensacola to celebrate CurbCrusher’s paternal grandmothers 100th birthday. This was follwed by a New Years RV trip to Lake Griffin State Park near Leesburg. This is only about an hour from CurbCrusher headquarters, and during the trip Little CurbCrusher got ill, so we ended up cutting it short. | |
January 2013 | |
January brought a new year, and an RV that was listed on RV trader. Early in the month, we headed out to Fort Wilderness again with Little CurbCrusher’s grandparents. This year, CurbCrusher and his 70 year old father ran the Disney Marathon together. It was a nice camping trip, and a great run. It would turn out to be our next to last camping trip, and everyone had a great time. Photos from can be found here. |
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February 2013 | |
Our last camping trip was to Reed Bingham State Park in Georgia. This was a nice relaxing camping trip, as there was not a lot to do at Reed Bingham. Right after we got back from trip, we ending up selling the motorhome to a nice family from North Carolina. |
So, on March 1st of 2013, we said good-bye to our Itasca Sunova 35J. We owned and used it for for almost five years (we picked it up April 15th, 2007). During that time we traveled a total of 32,526 miles using 4,893 gallons of gas and spending 288 nights in the motorhome, traveling through 23 of the 48 contigious states. All in all a great experience. If we were going to be able to make some more long trips like our 2010 trek through the west, we’d probably have kept the motorhome. But Little CurbCrusher is getting bigger and busier and Mr. CurbCrusher is getting busier. It was getting harder and harder to schedule long trips. We were wore out going to the parks that were withing a 3 – 4 hour drive of CurbCrusher HQ, so we figured it was time re-allocate our recreation dollars and change the way we do vacations. Look here soon for our first great post-RV trip report to be posted soon.