We Have Left Florida & Are Heading West to Colorado

(Fortsyth, Georgia) 87 degrees, hot and hazy

We left Florida a few days ago and are on our way to our workamping job in Colorado at KOA Cripple Creek.  We are excited about this opportunity but will really miss Florida.  We have had such a wonderful time and Key West was certainly the highlight  Here are a few  pictures of some of the popular sites. 

Camping at the Navy base was perfect.  It is located so close to Key West and one day we enjoyed watching a parachute drop right outside our rig.



Our cute neighbor

Bahia Honda State Park

When Debbie was here we also took a day trip to Bahia Honda State Park. It is about an hour from Key West and the beaches were spectacular.  There is a campground  that is very popular with sites right on the water.  Reservations go very quickly 11 months in advance! You can rent kayaks or go snorkeling by boat out to a reef.  The 8:30 snorkel trip is free.

Here is a video of our last sunset in Key West. We also got to watch a Navy helicopter participate in an exercise.  He was dropping divers into the water and then pulling them back up.  Very cool!

As you can imagine, we were very reluctant to leave, but our workamping job starts May 15th and  it was time to go.  We decided to take our time and average about 4 hours a day on the road.  KOA provided us with five free stay certificates.  This is a nice perk with KOA when you are traveling between jobs. 

Our first stop with the Miami Everglades Campground.  It is a very pretty campground and the facility was well maintained and spotless.  Rate was $41/night (Good Sam's rate) It is nice to see grass again.  There were lots of workampers and they were very friendly and welcoming. 

Miami Everglades Campsite

Our welcoming gator



The  next night we stayed at the KOA in Daytona Beacb.  It is a nice campground in a good location.  Sites are rather close together with very little shade except for the tent sites.  The rates are about $45 per night.  Expect to pay around $100 a night during race time.  It has a nice pool and camp store. 

KOA Daytona Beach

Office, pook, and camp store

We stopped here to see our Eustis NOMADS friends Fran and Randy  It was so good to see them.  They will soon be leaving for Africa for a mission trip and bird safari. Fran is making 350 bead bracelets to give to the village where they will be working.  She is amazing!

Example of the bracelet Fran is making as a gifl

We went out to dinner at Boondocks (great restaurant, see Daytona previous post) and afterwards took us to their beautiful condominium.  They have a spectacular view of the intracoastal water way and area.  On Sunday we went to church with them and saw a lovely Palm Sunday program.  It was a great visit and we are planning to get together in White Sands New Mexico this fall.  An Alaska adventure might be in our future too. 

Randy and Fran

We have a long journey ahead of us.  It seemed like a good idea to have some maintenance  done on our diesel engine.   In Ocala we had an appointment to have the hydraulic oil changed and some service on the A/C.  They have a nice campground for their customers with 50 amp service and water.  In the morning they quickly checked us in and had us back on the road by 1 pm.  The service was top notch and we were very impressed. 

Cummins Ocala Florida

Cummins complimentary campground

We are now in Georgia and were invited to stay with  our blogging friends Al and Karen (Florida-Georgia, Camping, Kayaking, and Exploring).  We saw them earlier this year at Lazy Days and have followed their blog for a long time.  They have a lovely home for sale in Cairo Georgia that is under contract right now.  Hopefully it will close soon.  They plan to full time and are so excited.  They are so busy right now selling most of their belongings and deciding what to store.  We sure remember what that was like and tried to let them know their efforts will  all be worth it soon. 

They graciously found a little time to see us and invited us to stay for the night.  There home is in the country and is a lovely, peaceful oasis.  Jimmy had a great time running all around checking out everything. 

Our "campsite"

View from their porch

They took us to Thomasville, a lovely and very popular city.  They told us their our many plantations in this area and at one time was the vacation home for the Vanderbelts and other wealthy people before Florida became so popular. 

For breakfast today Karen suggested that I try a grits cup for breakfast.  That was a yummy combination of grits, bacon, cheese and eggs.  I liked it.  Afterwards,we went to a pretty park that was in full bloom.  The rose festival is this weekend.  I found it so amazing to see all the roses in bloom in April.  

 

We then went to see a huge live oak tree that is over 330 years old.  It was a sight to behold and is well loved and cared for by this town.  It was impossible to take a good photograph of it.  It was huge!

Al and Karen

We wish them all the best and hope to see them on the road soon.  Thank you for the warm hospitality. 

We are slowly making our way towards Colorado.  Check back to see more of our travels.  Thanks for stopping by today.