Time to finish our long summer journey (from 2022) and make it home to Florida!
Our travels in Mississippi were fun, seeing family.
Eating good food, like Theresa's veggie stew.
And homemade Cheddar Biscuits.
Our drive is taking us through Alabama.
And into the upper part of Florida. Totally missed getting a picture of the Florida Welcome Sign. We're traveling down this dirt road to a farm to spend the night.
This Harvest Host family has a wide open field, along with electric and water hookups.
Super nice too!
We spent the evening under their beautiful lights in the cool night air, while the kids enjoyed the buttered popcorn they offered.
Before we left, the kids wanted to give them a quartz crystal that we pulled out of the earth in Arkansas for their rock garden.
Our next stop is the 3 Flags Campground, just about an hour from our Orlando campground.
Since Thousand Trails Orlando starts their check-ins at noon, and we had a long drive, Theresa decided to stop short.
Yes Alli, I can make you a smoothie. Quite the temperature difference from when we were freezing together on the couch a few days ago!
Since it was close to Halloween, the kids wanted to make decorations so we could win the contest.
"What contest?" I asked.
The decorating contest.
I don't think there is a decorating contest for that kids.
But they still wanted to draw mummies, ghosts, and other decorations to put on the RV.
Nice witch Ian. Alli is working hard to color it all in.
Celebrating being back in Florida, Theresa and I wanted a tasty steak dinner, including homemade buttermilk biscuits.
And since we're back, we can pick up our bicycling! We've been slacking off during the summer, so it's time to pick up and reach our 600 mile goal for the year!
We've wanted to do the Withlacoochee State Trail for a while now, and since we're further north, it's closer!
Love these old rail trails. Super flat.
Back to seeing the Florida wildlife.
And tortoises.
Theresa always has plenty of snacks for the kids to enjoy. An entire gallon bag filled with veggies and fruits.
And lucky for them, a shop with frozen slushies! Right by the trail! We don't get these along the Van Fleet trail in Orlando.
It was a warm ride, but a good one. The kids played at the playground for a while at the end of the trail before calling it quits.
Great riding!
Once we got back to the RV, Ian spotted this monster grasshopper!
It's huge!
Its belly.
What do you think Alli?
Holding it is no big deal.
Even letting it crawl on her.
Mmm, one other thing I've missed. Boiled peanuts.
The kids thought they were just okay, but I love them!
Time to pack up and head to Orlando. After clear skies the whole time, we got rained on as we were packing up to leave.
But we made it to Thousand Trails Orlando RV with perfect timing, just a couple minutes after check-in is allowed. We got an awesome spot near the front in the new section with an easy back-in.
Happy to be home!
The kids have their own celebratory dinner. Cheese fondue!
At night, we took a walk while enjoying the beautiful Florida sunsets.
What a season of travel! From April 11th to October 27th! From one coast to the other. We've made a whole lot of good memories on the road!
Seeing the mapped route from April to October is amazing...captures all the different stops and reference points for different memories along the way. Welcome home to Florida!...has been quite a spring & summer 2022 road trip. Pretty colored night lights at that Harvest Home stopover, and the parking couldn't have been any easier, too (yay!). Having a celebration dinner is a great way to welcome yourselves home :-) (homemade buttermilk biscuits...yum, yum) Change of pace with the Withlacoochee Trail...but still scenic and filled with wildlife (and a bonus slushie stand for all those biking miles). That was a huge grasshopper...can't say I'd react the same way as Ian & Alli :-) EOM
ReplyDeleteIncredible Journey that stems across 20 plus years, thanks for sharing this model to the world.
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