Those sunsets, though

After enjoying the sun-soaked beauty of the Florida Keys and still feeling the pull of mountains, I thought that I’d had my fill of beaches and oceans for a while, but we took a coastal route through the Florida Panhandle to avoid the high speeds and traffic of Interstate 10 and planned to camp near

A New Direction

With the Florida Keys behind us, there was nowhere to go but north. Maybe we would go all the way to the terminus of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia? Or should we begin heading west as soon as possible? We tossed these possibilities around and in the mean-time booked a campsite at Torry Island Campground,

In which I befriend a manatee and watch a chicken cross the road in a crosswalk

Mangrove trees, turquoise-blue water, frigate birds flying overhead – they would be the backdrop as we rang in 2020, and we saw them all when we stopped in to visit the visitors’ center at Biscayne National Park. The grounds of the visitors’ center were beautiful, with shaded patios, picnic tables with ocean views, and a

Boating with gators and walking in the treetops at Myakka River State Park, Florida

Of all of the things I expected to see in Florida, cow country wasn’t one of them. But after we left Highlands Hammock State Park and passed by miles and miles of citrus groves, we were greeted by a landscape of flat grassy fields accented with trees and grazed by cows (each accompanied by its

Christmas in the campground: Highlands Hammock State Park, FL

This year, Santa arrived in the form of an armadillo.  But let’s back up.  On Christmas Eve, we set out from Lake Louisa State Park in Florida to Highlands Hammock State Park, where we had made a camping reservation the previous week for the Christmas holiday. We didn’t have any expectations for this park and

Welcome to the Sunshine State

Our general plan for this trip was to slowly meander south to the Florida Keys, avoiding highways and stopping for points of interest all along the way, and then to head west and visit Big Bend National Park in Texas before finishing out the winter in New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California. The meandering and