Living Our Dream

A New Chapter

Wauchula, FL

In the first few years of our 12 years of full-timing, we covered 15 to 20,000 miles a year in the RV. By our fourth or fifth year we had slowed down to less than 10,000 miles a year. We were already spending a little longer in Florida each winter by the time our granddaughter was born in 2014, and that year we also started spending more time in Amish Country in Berlin, Ohio, in the summer. Back then, we made stops for several days to one or two weeks in places like New Orleans, Lower Alabama, Knoxville, and Nashville on our way up north and back down south again. For the last two years, we eliminated those additional stops and pretty much went straight from Florida to Ohio and back again only stopping for one or two nights at a time along the way.

With our travels having slowed so much, we have decided begin a new chapter in our lives and "hang up the keys." Except for several visits a year to Pittsburgh and maybe a couple of other "vacations," we'll be staying in Florida year 'round. We love the co-op and the area where it is located so it feels like home to us. Not only that, but living there is very economical.

Twelve years ago, Paul was willing to give up his workshop, his garden, and the stability of living in a sticks-and-bricks house for the adventure of traveling. Margery gave up her well-equipped kitchen, her quilting hobby, and the friendships she had built with other women at our church. We have traveled almost 95,000 miles with our two RVs (much more than that when you add in day trips and other sightseeing treks in our car and truck) and we have visited 46 of the contiguous 48 states. We have seen natural wonders and historic places, we have met terrific people, we have learned lots of new things, and we have had many wonderful experiences. However, the days of driving the RV and all the setting up and packing up have become more work than adventure. Paul especially, is now ready to get back to a steadier lifestyle and to his hobbies, albeit on somewhat of a smaller scale than when we had our sticks-and-bricks house.

Not only have we decided to stay in Florida, but we have also decided to trade in the 5th wheel for a park model. When we bought the 5th wheel three years ago, we did so because we think 5th wheels are more residential than a motor home and are better suited to staying in one place for longer periods. We planned to just park the 5th wheel and continue living in it when the time came to stop traveling, and we also thought that time would be a few years farther away than it actually turned out. Once we made the decision to hang up the keys, however, Paul realized there will come a day when he is no longer able to climb up on the roof to inspect and re-caulk the seams several times a year and to do some of the other maintenance chores an RV requires. Therefore, we figured if we will eventually give up the 5th wheel for a house or a park model, we might as well do it now before the 5th wheel depreciates any further.

We looked at several makes and floorplans of park models at several dealerships and ended up ordering a Chariot Eagle with a front kitchen from Winter Haven RV in Lake Wales. We went with a front kitchen because the kitchen is larger than those in other floorplans. A large kitchen with plenty of storage and counter space is important to Margery, who likes to cook. 

Display model with a front kitchen floorplan similar to what we ordered

We wanted to get our order on the books to lock in the price, but we asked to have the delivery (which would have normally been in February) delayed until April after the co-op activities slow down. Not only will we be pretty busy until then; but we'll need an empty site close to ours on which to park our 5th wheel while they set up the new park model, and there probably won't be many vacancies at the co-op through most of March.

So what does all this mean for our blog? Because the hosting fee for the blog is paid up through August, 2018, the posts on our past travels will remain online at least until then. Updates will also continue until August, but will be rather infrequent. We plan to document the arrival of the park model in April, and Paul will be building some of the furniture for the park model so we'll tell you about some of those projects. We'll also let you know if we do any sightseeing or if we try any new restaurants so stay tuned.

11th Anniversary

Berlin, OH - July 10, 2017

July 10, 2017, is our eleventh anniversary of full-timing. Like last year, we are spending the summer in Berlin, Ohio. There are two reasons we picked this area. First, it is only a two-hour drive from where Lora, J. Michael, and Lydia live in Pittsburgh so we can visit fairly often. Second, we enjoy the picturesque Amish farms, the quiet atmosphere, and all the good food in the Berlin area.

When we left Berlin last fall, we were planning to head straight to Florida. However, because Hurricane Matthew was predicted to be heading up the East Coast right about the time we would be passing through on our way south, we detoured to Lower Alabama instead. Fortunately, the hurricane ended up passing by farther out to sea than originally thought so it didn't do any significant damage. After staying in Alabama for 10 days, we continued on to Florida.

We spent last winter in Florida as we have done in the past, but this year it was at a different RV park. Last fall, we said good-bye to Blueberry Hill RV Resort in Bushnell, Florida, and moved two hours farther south to the SKP Florida Resort in Wauchula.

Our new site at the SKP Florida Resort

Late in the fall of 2008 when we were traveling around Florida on our way to Blueberry Hill, we stopped at the SKP Florida Resort for a few days. The SKP Florida Resort is a member-owned co-op that has a relationship with the Escapees RV Club. We liked the resort so much we put our name on the waiting list for a site, even though they told us the wait would be 8 to 10 years. We had no idea what we would be doing that far in the future, but it didn't cost much to get on the waiting list so we decided to give ourselves the option of getting a site there.

Last spring just before we left Florida, we were notified our names were at the top of the list and they had a site for us. The timing was perfect since our travels were slowing anyway. Not only is the co-op a nice RV park, but once we bought into the co-op at what we consider a very reasonable price, all we have to pay is the annual maintenance fee. The annual maintenance fee at the co-op is less than half of what we were paying for the season at Blueberry Hill, and it won't cost any more should we ever decide we want to stay in Florida year 'round. The best part is we get almost all our original buy-in fee back plus the cost of any improvements we make to the site when we leave the co-op. It was a no-brainer.

We never got very involved in social activities at Blueberry Hill, but we jumped right in at the co-op. The co-op is much smaller (127 sites as opposed to about 400 at Blueberry Hill), so it was easier to get to know people and not feel overwhelmed. By the end of the season, Paul was a member of the Building and Maintenance Committee and Co-Chair of the Landscape Committee, and Margery was editor of the monthly newsletter and Co-Chair of the Public Relations Committee. We were attending meetings of not only our own committees, but also of many other committees so we would be informed about co-op business. We also attended social events like the breakfast every Monday morning at the clubhouse, several dinners, an auction, and the annual yard sale just to name a few.

In addition to committee activities and social events, we also kept ourselves busy by making a number of improvements to our site including adding some landscaping and replacing the shed that was originally on the site with a new, larger one. Paul also added shelving and vinyl flooring to the shed.

With all the co-op involvement and site improvements, we still found time to explore our new area and do some sightseeing. Bradenton is only an hour away and Sarasota is only about an hour and a half. We even made the two-hour trip a to sightsee in Vero Beach on the east coast of Florida. We also found a couple of new restaurants in the area around Wauchula to add to our favorites list.

We stayed in Florida a little longer than we usually do this past spring, mostly because we (especially Paul) just didn't want to leave. Because of that, we skipped our usual stop in Lower Alabama and headed straight to Ohio. During our stay in Ohio so far this year we have been mostly just chilling out in between making day trips to Pittsburgh.

Highlights of Year 11

In Year 11, we traveled a little shorter distance than we did the previous two years - just under 2,600 miles as opposed to around 3,000. We made 13 stops, which was one less than the previous two years.

Year 11 travels

While we continue to travel and sightsee less, we still want to be mobile so we can escape the cold and snow in winter and be close to Lora, J. Michael, and Lydia in the summer. We're looking forward to another year of slow-paced travel.

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Letting Go

Wauchula, FL - Events of Wednesday, November 30 to Thursday, December 8, 2016

When we found out our name was at the top of the list for a site at the SKP Florida Resort in Wauchula, we had already committed to our site at Blueberry Hill for another year. Even though that meant we would be paying for two sites, the annual cost of the site in Wauchula is very reasonable so it wasn't much of a strain on our budget. We knew once we gave up our site at Blueberry Hill we would never be able to get the same site with the custom paving and landscaping back again once they gave it to someone else, so keeping the site at Blueberry Hill seemed like a good idea in case the co-op didn't work out for some reason.

By the time we had been at the co-op for about two weeks, however, we realized we love our new site, we love the co-op itself, and we love the surrounding area. The people at the co-op are great, too. Therefore, we started thinking maybe it wasn't such a good idea to spend the extra money to keep our site at Blueberry Hill if we didn't have to.

Margery made a call to the manager at Blueberry, and he said giving up our site mid-year would be no problem since they had a rather long waiting list. Therefore, we headed to Bushnell on November 30th (we were paid up through then) to turn in our shed and mailbox keys and to load up the truck with everything we had left in the shed there and cart it down to Wauchula.

Getting everything into the truck was a challenge because in addition to a good many boxes and containers, we had two bicycles and a 4' workbench to load. It took about an hour of loading and re-arranging, but we got everything in the truck so we could make it in one trip.

We said good bye to some of our friends at Blueberry while we were packing the truck and also when we were on our way out of the park. Blueberry Hill is a really nice RV park, and there are some really nice people there; but we're sure we're also going to be happy at the SKP co-op in Wauchula.

On the way back to Wauchula we had to pass right by the Ellenton exit where Anna Maria Oyster Bar is located, so we stopped for lupper. We both had fried clam strips for $9. Margery had slaw and onion straws ($1 extra) for her sides, and Paul had slaw and red potatoes.

Paul digging into his clam strips

We haven't been to Anna Maria's for some time because we discovered Dan's Clam Stand in Crystal River that was much closer to Blueberry Hill. However, Anna Maria's is closer to Wauchula so we'll be going there more often. The good news is the clam strips at Anna Maria's are even better than we remembered and are as good as the ones at Dan's.

Back at the co-op, we started unloading the truck. Not only is the shed on our new site small, but it has deep shelves running down both sides. The shelves make it nice to stack boxes and containers, but they take away floor space we need for the lawn mover, the bicycles and the work bench. It's more crowded in there than we thought it was going to be.

Since the shed is so small and since it's also pretty old with signs of a few minor water leaks, we started researching new sheds a while back. A few days after we got back from Blueberry and saw how cramped the shed really was, we went out and placed an order for a new shed. We're not sure exactly when it will be in, but it will probably be early January.

One of the things that keeps cost at the co-op so low is almost everything is done by volunteers. When we had only been at the co-op for a couple of days, we happened to meet Ed, who is the head of the Buildings and Improvement Committee. When Ed found out Paul was an experienced do-it-yourselfer, he invited Paul to a committee meeting. Ever since, Paul has been working with a team of co-op members one or two mornings a week whose current project is repairing some water leaks at the back of the clubhouse. Over the last couple of weeks, the guys removed some of the siding so they could replace rotted framing and wet insulation. After all the leaks are repaired, the next project will be to replace dry wall and paneling inside.

Work on the clubhouse to repair water leaks

Another thing that has been keeping us busy is going to breakfast at the clubhouse every Monday morning. Volunteers prepare things like eggs, sausage, pancakes, grits, and sausage gravy and biscuits. Prices are very reasonable ($2 for two eggs and a sausage patty, for example) and the food is good. It also gives us a chance to meet people and chat while waiting in line for our food and while eating. After breakfast every week there are 10 minutes or so of announcements of events for the upcoming week, so it's also a good way to keep up with the latest news.

Last Thursday, we drove to Bushnell for Margery to get a haircut. She really, really likes her hairdresser there and wants to go back at least every other haircut while we're in Florida for the winter. Her appointment was in the afternoon so we stopped at Pancho's Villa for lupper on the way back to the co-op. Margery had a ground beef chimichanga and Paul had a chicken chimichanga. As always, they were delish as were the corn chips and salsa.

Paul with his chimichanga at Pancho's Villa

From Pancho's we headed back to the co-op for an evening of TV. We'll have another update soon so stay tuned.

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10th Anniversary

Berlin, OH - July 10, 2016

July 10th marks our 10th anniversary of full-timing. Ten years ago today, we closed on the sale of our house in the morning, went to lunch with our daughter, Lora, and then hit the road.

Over the last 10 years, we have traveled over 75,000 miles in two different RVs and have visited 46 states. Most of that travel was in the first 7 or 8 years. After that time, we started to slow down considerably.

Almost two years ago, our granddaughter, Lydia, came along and that changed everything. We made the decision to be part of her life and try to spend most of the summer fairly close by. Because our travel had already started to slow on its own even before Lydia arrived, we were already considering switching from a motor home to a 5th wheel. Lydia's arrival cemented our decision to switch because, while the motor home was well suited to our travel style in our early years of full-timing when we moved from place to place frequently, we felt a 5th wheel was more residential and was better for sitting still for longer periods.

After investigating many different 5th wheel makes and models, we ended up ordering a Tradition by DRV Mobile Suites late in the fall of 2014. We picked up the new 5th wheel in January, 2015, so we have had it for about a year and a half now. We have been very happy with our decision to switch.

Our travels for the last two years have been quite leisurely. We spent the winter in Florida like we always have, and we spent all of last summer and we plan to spend all of this summer in Berlin, Ohio, which is only about two hours from where Lora, J. Michael and Lydia live in Pittsburgh. That gives us the opportunity to visit Lydia often.

When we left Ohio last fall, we headed south to Lower Alabama with only a few overnight stops and a 5-night stay in Knoxville, Tennessee, along the way. After staying in Lower Alabama for a month, we headed to our snowbird roost at Blueberry Hill RV Resort in Bushnell, Florida. Then after 5 months in Florida, we headed back to Ohio this past April with a short stop in Lower Alabama, a few overnight stops, and a weekend sightseeing stop in South Carolina. Since we are mostly staying in places where we have stayed many times before, we are doing less sightseeing. We spend much of our time relaxing, eating at our favorite restaurants and trying a few new ones.

Highlights of year 10

Speaking of eating, year 10 brought a new hobby. While we were in Ohio last summer, we bought a smoker. It's a small one that we are able to carry with us. We use the smoker just about every week to 10 days smoking one of our many favorites or trying new recipes. Our favorites include turkey breast (delicious cold on sandwiches), meatloaf (also delicious on sandwiches), shrimp, mac and cheese, and pork shoulder.

Some of the delicious food we have prepared in our new smoker

Something else new for us last year was changing our domicile from South Dakota to Florida. Being South Dakota residents worked well for us for us for 9 years. However, our drivers licenses were up for renewal this year, and with our more relaxed travel style, we weren't very excited about driving all the way to South Dakota to renew our licenses. Not only that, but we spend a lot of time in Florida and feel very much at home there, so we decided to make the switch.

In year 10 we traveled almost the same distance we did in year 9 - about 3,000 miles. We made 14 stops, which was identical to the year before.

Travel route for year 10

While we are traveling and sightseeing less, we still like being mobile so we can be close to Lydia in the summer and so we can be where it is warm in the winter. We're looking forward to another year of slow-paced travel.

Green Cove Springs, FL

Bushnell, FL - Events of Wednesday, March 16, 2016

When we switched our residency from South Dakota to Florida, one reason we decided to use St. Brendan's Isle (SBI) as our mail forwarding service is their address is recognized by Florida as a legal street address for driver's licenses and vehicle registrations. St. Brendan's Isle is located in Green Cove Springs, so Green Cove Springs is now our new "hometown."

We were able to get our driver's licenses and to register our vehicles at the county tax office in Bushnell, but it somehow didn't feel right leaving Florida a few weeks from now without ever having been in our new hometown. Therefore, we decided to take a drive to Green Cove Springs last Wednesday. Green Cove Springs is located a little over two hours from Bushnell on the banks of the St. Johns River about 15 or 20 miles south of Jacksonville.

We headed first to SBI's mail handling facility. Not only did we want to see the facility in person; but we had just gotten an email notifying us that we had received mail at our new address, and we wanted to pick it up. The mail facility is in a small industrial park north of town.

St. Brendan's Isle mail facility

Inside, there are rows and rows of mail slots. When mail arrives, it is sorted and the envelopes are scanned if the customer has chosen that option. Our mail bin, which is obviously one of the most recent ones, is off to the right of the photo below and way in the back.

Inside SBI mail facility

One of the pieces of mail we got contained confirmations of our Declaration of Domicile forms from the Clerk of Court. Since those confirmations are needed to register to vote and since we now had them, we headed downtown to do that next.

Paul filling out his voter registration form

After we registered to vote, we drove around the downtown area a bit to reconnoiter. Much of the new development in Green Cove Springs is north of town, but the downtown is an eclectic mix of old and new. The classic, small-town movie theater in the next photo is one of the old buildings that remain.

Old movie theater converted to offices

SBI was originally located downtown, but they outgrew the building years ago and moved to their present location north of town. In order to avoid all their customers being inconvenienced by having to change their address, SBI made arrangements with the Green Cove Springs Post Office so customers could continue using their old downtown address and to have all the mail automatically redirected to the new facility. Gotta love small towns. The old building is now occupied by a naval architecture/yacht design firm, but the SBI name and address are on the window in small letters in the upper left corner.

Original SBI location in downtown Green Cove Springs

Before we headed to Green Cove Springs, Margery did some research into places to eat. The town has most of the usual fast food restaurants north of town, but the place that sounded good to us was Farmers in the Deli located downtown.

Farmers in the Deli

Farmers in the Deli has a wide range of sandwiches, wraps and salads for $4.49 to $7.49. As far as we can tell, most of the sandwiches and wraps include one side. Their Reubens ($7.49) get rave reviews, so that's what we both had. We both had vinegar-dressed cole slaw for our side.

The deli has limited seating, so while we were driving around downtown, we made sure we found Spring Park that we had read about. Although the deli wasn't that crowded, the park was very nice so we ordered our Reubens to go and headed to the park to eat them.

Spring Park

Margery with her Reuben sandwich

Ruben sandwich and vinegar-dressed cole slaw

The Reubens were great. The deli roasts most of their own meats, and the corned beef was delicious. However, it is pulled instead of being sliced making it a little difficult to eat because big chunks of meat sometimes get pulled out of the sandwich when you take a bite. The cole slaw was unusual in that in addition to both red and green cabbage, it also contained kale, radishes and cucumber.

There were historical markers in the park, so we were able to learn a little bit about the history of Green Cove Springs while we were there. Green Cove Springs was first inhabited around 7,000 years ago by Native Americans who were attracted by a mineral spring. That spring is located in the park, and it feeds a public swimming pool before flowing down the hillside into the St. John's River.

As we crossed a bridge over the spring run, there were a couple of people on the bridge who called our attention to a snake in the water below that they said was a water moccasin. We don't know a lot about snakes; but Paul was a bit skeptical because, although there was a warning sign about snakes in the run, he thought it would have been much more emphatic if those snakes were deadly water moccasins. Not only that, but Paul was pretty sure water moccasins have fatter bodies and flat, triangular heads. Later research showed the snake to be a non-venomous water snake, not a water moccasin.

Water snake in the spring run

Continuing on with the history of Green Cove Springs, Spain still was in control of Florida when George Clark received a land grant 1816 and built a sawmill in the area. Spain ceded Florida to the United States in 1821. The first settlement was established in 1854 and was called White Sulfur Springs. The town was renamed Green Cove Springs in 1866, and it became the county seat in 1871.

Following the Civil War, steamers brought tourists to the area, and tourism began to surpass lumber and citrus in economic importance. Visitors were drawn by the supposed healing properties of the spring. Arrival of Henry Flagler's railroad in the late 1800s brought even more tourists.

The age of the automobile and the advent of a state highway system brought yet more tourists and new residents in the 1920s, but the Great Depression halted that growth. Prior to the involvement of the United States in WWII, the U.S. Navy built an air field in Green Cove Springs spurring the economy of the area again.

After WWII, the Navy built a number of piers adjacent to the air field where around 600 ships were mothballed. In 1961, the government decommissioned the base and transferred the ships elsewhere. Green Cove Springs annexed the decommissioned base in 1984. The old piers were refurbished and became the Green Cove Springs Marina, which is home port to many yachts. SBI originally started its mail forwarding business to serve yacht owners who cruised extensively and/or lived full time aboard their yachts. By the way, St. Brendan's Isle was a mythical island named after St. Brendan, who is the patron saint of sailors.

In addition to picnic pavilions and the swimming pool, the park has a gazebo, a playground for kids and a municipal pier. The next photo is a view of the spring run with the playground off in the distance.

Spring run lined with cypress knees

Before we left the park, we headed to the pier.

Municipal pier

Beautiful homes line the banks of the St. John's River in the area of the park.

Riverfront home

Another riverfront home as viewed from the pier

After we strolled out onto the pier, we walked to the truck and headed back to Blueberry Hill. We had a nice visit to our new hometown.