Tuesday, September 8 - With the kids back in school, it's time to hit the road for our winter travels. We will be departing our summer home here in Canton, Ohio, after Labor Day and heading toward Augusta. GA. Paul's brother lives there and we usually like to spend several days visiting on our way south.
Karen, John, Paul, Marsha
We will then head to Florida to do a circular tour of the state. This will be our first complete RV trip to Florida. We have only been to the Amelia Island. We'll start in St. Augustine and then head down the Atlantic Coast visiting Daytona, Palm Beaches, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and other places before ending up in the Keys.
We will then head back North along the Gulf Coast stopping in Fort Myers, Clearwater/St. Petersburg, Tampa, Sarasota, Tallahassee and Pensacola. We'll be stopping at hundreds of places Marsha has mapped out along the way. As of today, she has an eight…that is 8…page itinerary. Those are just a few of the places she has planned on visiting. Yes, Paul will be exhausted. If you have any “must-see” adventures, please let us know.
From Florida, we will travel along the Gulf to Texas. We want to be in Texas by November. We always plan on Thanksgiving dinner at our daughter Carrie's place. The RV will remain in the Houston area through the Christmas holiday. We will again fly back to Ohio to spend Christmas with Kelly and Dave, Marsha's dad and the rest of the family. Carrie flies in from Houston to spend the holiday too!
Our plans after the New Years are a little unsettled at this point. Our thinking is to spend January in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. We may head to Big Bend National Park in Southwest Texas in early February, weather permitting. We will then relax the remaining days of winter in the Houston area before returning North for the summer.
So, that's “The Plan” for this winter. Things could possibly change but at least that's our thinking at this point in time. Of course, we will surely cross paths with several RV friends along the way and renew old friendships. If it appears your path will mesh with ours, be sure to get in touch.
We had a new adventure just a few weeks back…a humming bird in our garage. It wouldn’t leave.
Marsha ran to the computer to figure out how to get it out of the garage. Many articles said that the birds can’t find their way out and sometimes die of exhaustion from flying around looking for an exit. We definitely didn’t want that to happen. We did try to put a feeder close to the garage door, but it wasn’t interested. So we tried the next most popular solution…
Yes….a rake. The articles showed how to hold a rank close to where the bird lands. It will then land on it, and we were then to walk it slowly to the opening.
It landed many times over the next hour and a half but didn’t remain long enough on the rank for either of us to get it to the opening.
Finally! Success! Marsha was able to slowly walk it to the door and away it went.
What an ordeal. But glad to report we have a happy ending to our story.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!
While in Borrego Springs last winter, we had a hummer fly into our motorhome. It could not find the open door so I gently caught it in my hand and released it back into the desert. It came right back to our feeders, but we kept the screen door closed.
ReplyDeleteLooks like another busy winter season planned. Hey Paul do you want to go back to work for a rest? LOL
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing you have a finished ceiling in the garage otherwise the outcome might not have been so good.
Looking forward to reading about your adventures.
Be Safe and Enjoy!
It's about time.
I'm exhausted and all I did was read your plan. You are going to be two tired people when you get to Texas. Sure hoping Florida has a cool down for your arrival:) Although the warmer season is nice because there aren't any crowds. So everything has its perks. Enjoy your visit to the state. I assume Tarpon Springs is on your list!? Great sponge boat tours and tons of Greek restaurants. Safe travels and we'll waiting for all your updates:)
ReplyDeleteCrazy little bird! Glad there was a happy ending:)
I'm sure counting on you guys visiting the RGV. A winter without the Weavers would be...well just another disappointment.
ReplyDeleteYour itinerary is way bigger than ours. However Big Bend is on ours too but probably in early December.
ReplyDeleteGood job saving the hummingbird. Now how about bears from our park.
Happy Trails! Sounds like a great way to spend your fall 'doing' Florida! Seems like 8 pages of itinerary might be a little ambitious for the time allotted, but with travel plans of most RVers, we know it's all set in jello anyway. haha
ReplyDeleteBet your arms were getting tired holding that rake up for 1 1/2 hours, but the reward was worth it to save that hummingbird. :-)
We did a month in Florida once and that was enough for us. We found quite a few nice places inland, but most areas on the coast were simply far too busy for our liking. Still, glad we did it but don't have any ambition to go back. Never made it to the Keys though. Maybe we'll fly to Miami some day and rent a car!
ReplyDeletewww.travelwithkevinandruth.com
Be sure to stay at Fort Pickens in the Gulf Islands National Seashore on Pensacola Beach. And don't miss the Naval Air Museum. But you probably already knew about it!
ReplyDeleteFunny story about the hummingbord. Would have never thought about using a rake. Nice that the story had a happy ending.
Sounds like an awesome winter, hope you plans work better than ours.
ReplyDeleteTravel safe and enjoy !
St. Augustine has a great Elks Lodge. Hope to hook up while you are in Fl.
ReplyDeleteOf all the places we saw in Florida, we liked St. Augustine the best by far. Allow enough time to really explore that area. Happy and safe travels.
ReplyDeleteSt. Augustine has a great Elks Lodge. Hope to hook up while you are in Fl.
ReplyDeleteWonderful that the internet helped you free the hummingbird. What did we do before that easy to research tool?
ReplyDeleteWhat patience to help that poor critter. Good job!
ReplyDeleteAfter 3 years spending part of the winter in the RGV, we head to AZ. It's fun to making those travel plans, right?
Yes!! I have a must-stop for you. It'll be in Pensacola the last half of October. You must come and see us.
ReplyDeleteIf we would have guessed we would have said at least 10 pages. Bet that the 8 pages were single spaced 10 font or smaller.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure when we will make the trek back to FL in our RV so I will live vicariously through your blog posts. Glad you were able to get that hummer out safely. I have never seen one fly into a garage.
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