Simnett Travels

Monday, February 28th – Inverness to Weeki Wachee State Park to Blue Springs State Park, Florida – Day 21 After staying at the Holder Mine State Forest in Inverness we headed 45 minutes away to Weeki Wachee State Park. This place was recommended by a family we met at a park in Mississippi.  Entrance to the park for the whole family was only about $50 and was well worth it. There, we watched an impressive underwater performance of The Little Mermaid where the stage was a huge acquarium.  Actors performed in mermaid costumes using periodic breathing apparatuses.  The kids also met a mermaid and attended a reptile presentation where we learned about the local wildlife and conservation efforts. Dale and John managed to get on a river cruise that everyone else missed as we were in the show that ran late.  It was still a great day, in all.

Sunday, February 27th – Gainesville to Holder Mine Campground, Inverness, Florida – Day 20  The morning featured a tour from Natalie showed us around her beautiful flower garden. There were snapdragons, azalea, eucalyptus, echinacea, a peach tree, roses, scented germaniums and many more plants I’d never heard of. Natalie introduced Charlotte and John to Oggie the Doggie and they spent the next hour walking him around the property. Natalie’s grandchildren had made a secret path through the bush so the kids explored that as well. Natalie was unbelievably nice and generous with her time. We stood around the chatted for a few hours. The scenery was great, the coffee was good and the company was better.  We are heading to Holder Mine campground. Another national forest about an hour away. I had booked the site and there was a small amount of debate whether it was out of the way and a waste of gas and time. Paradise is not alwa...

Saturday, February 26th – Tate’s Hell to Outside of Gainesville, Florida – Day 19  The middle of the night featured a truck of people who came to the river area in our campsite, started a fire and it sounded like they were having a very good time. In the middle of the night they took off with only a minor disturbance to our sleep.  Our morning was fairly relaxed. It was a travel day so oatmeal and coffee, get the trailer ready to be packed up. But, Gen and I had a chance to sit by the river on a beautiful sunny day and drink our coffee. It was very pleasant. Mary and Charlotte went to get a shower at the neighbouring campsite. Once finished, we packed up the trailer and off we went.  We drove along the coast as much as possible admiring real estate as we went. A lot of the new builds are all on stilts to protect against flooding. Pine trees dominated the drive on both sides of the road. Before we were forced to leave the coastal drive, we found a little park in parts unkn...

Friday, February 25th – Tate’s Hell, Florida – Day 18    We woke up and the weather was kind of crappy. Overcast but a reasonable temperature. It had rained a lot of the night before which wet the laundry I had hung the night before after not wanting to wait for a dryer. Mary took these back to the other campsite to dry and had to explain why we were using their machines. I bought tickets to Kennedy Space Centre for the March 1st rocket launch. At $60 for adults and $50 for children, they were expensive but I don’t care, I’m going to see a rocket launch (hopefully, I don’t want to jinx myself). When she got back, we decided to go for a hike and a beach day.  The hike was the High Bluffs Coastal Hiking Trail. It was a good trail. Sandy with some interesting plants – a green mossy substance that was growing everywhere. We were suppose to go along a few interior lakes but they weren’t to be seen. It was hot by this time so by the time we got back everyone had a sweat on. T...

Thursday, February 24th – Leaving Panama City to Tate’s Hell, Florida – Day 17   Another advantage of staying on a Lavender farm is the farm fresh eggs that they put out for their guests in the morning. After eggs and oatmeal, Gen and Mary went back to the store and I started closing up the trailer. Unfortunately, a kid had a bit of an accident in the night so there was a bit more of a process to the clean up. Eventually we were packed up and ready to go.   We drove the coast for most of the way to Tate’s Hell. It’s getting tougher and tougher to find campsites. We are checking national and state parks quite a bit. The requirement is a washroom. We have a portable toilet but a fully functional washroom is preferable. Hot showers are a secondary quasi requirement. Tate’s hell has a vaulted washroom. I didn’t know what a vaulted washroom was but it is your typical outhouse with a nice toilet over a hole in the ground. At Tate’s it happened to be a very nice outhouse wi...

Wednesday, February 23rd – Leaving Grayton Beach to Panama City, Florida – Day 16   Packed up the trailer and got on the road. We were told that the highway 30A was beautiful so we started driving along. Before we went far, we went through towns called Seashore and Watercolour. These must have been planned and built as a group. The houses were painted in water colours, two storey beautiful little vacation rental buildings with narrow winding streets that fed the main strip. Everyone was riding bikes or golf carts around, sitting on patios have food. It looked like a beautiful place to have a summer home or retire to. We walked down the main strip for a little bit before we got back in the car. Further on 30A we went through palm tree lined avenue where it looked like the real wealth accumulated. No stops now but it was pretty pleasant to drive through.   As we drove down the coast, we entered Panama City and stopped to go to the beach for lunch and a swim. The kids g...

Tuesday, February 22nd – Grayton Beach, Florida – Day 15   We signed the girls up for online schooling and today was the first day. They were on their laptops at the crack of 9am EST (8am CST which is where we were). We have decided to have them attend class for an hour a day from 9-10am and see how it goes. It provides a bit of structure and we were tired of not yelling at them to stare at a screen. Kidding. I don’t know how it’ll work out. If it doesn’t, we will pull them from school and they will be officially home schooled.   Mary decided she was left out when she lost the opportunity to see the Goodwill so Gen and her went off to the store while I took the kids to the beach. We had a pretty good time. I’m not the biggest of beach fans but I have to get use to it because we are in Florida and everywhere is beach. We kicked around the soccer ball, hit around the baseball, the kids collected shells and played in a tidal pool near the beach. The surf was up so the k...

Monday, February 21st – Destin, Florida Spent the morning updating the blog. Officially up to date. I’m writing about now, now which is the first time that has happened.   Aisling had a nice conversation with her Uncle Darren, Auntie Rachel and cousins. It was really nice to see my beautiful little one year old niece Izzy! Can’t wait to get back in the summer and spend some time with them. Maybe we can bring the trailer over and set it up on our way back. We also had a nice little conversation with Mary Catherine. The kids are always so excited to talk to her. We keep meaning to do video chats with more people but the time always seems to pass.   We have just had a lazy day around the campsite. The weather is nice enough to sit outside and relax. Some laundry got done. Gen organized a few areas of the trailer. It was a really nice relaxing day after moving so often. The girls set-up their tent because they wanted to sleep outside but as the day passed by and it got ...

Sunday, February 20th, 2022 – Pensacola to Destin, Florida  Wake up and pack up. Need to get Junior Ranger badges.   Our first stop was the Discovery Centre. Aisling had complete 5 of 7 activities, Charlotte 3 of 5 and John at 2 of 3. The kids learned about the warning flags posted on beaches and what they meant, about rip tides, how long it takes garbage to decompose and the effect of garbage on sea life. After a bit of work the kids completed all tasks and were officially sworn in as Junior Rangers. They received their first of what I hope is many badges. We already have our eye on our next step which is the badge from the Everglades National Park. The oath of office entailed swearing “As junior ranger I promise I will explore the wonders of the national park and the nature and history all around me. I will learn the importance of living things and I will teach others what I have learned.”   This particular national park was...

Saturday, February 19th, 2022 – Pensacola, Florida  We woke up in Big Lagoon State Park and started to pack up right away. We closed up the trailer and left the site to pick up the trailer later.  We found out that there was a Mardi Gras flotilla that day. We arrived at the pier and made the big mistake to set-up on the beach. It was breezy and cold which was pretty much par for the course so far. The flotilla turned out to be a Mardi Gras parade on water, people in boats decorated as pirate ships and Mardi Gras floats cruised by the piers blasting a wide variety of music. The unfortunate part of the day was that the wind was blowing from shore to sea so the beads, inflatable swords, treats, inflatable who-know-whats and more would be tossed from the boats and land short of the beach and pier. I pulled my pants up and tried to wade into the water to grab as many as possible. The kids went to the pier to have easier access. After the flotilla you could ...