Making the Rounds and Crashing

We left our AirBnb so early in the morning that much of Madrid had not gone to sleep yet.  It was dark out and the night clubs were winding down. Over 24 hours of travel and we were back in New York.

What a great experience this trip has been.  We saw so much, had plenty of time to leave the tourist mode and get into everyday life.  I know we each took different things away from this experience, but I think at the end we were all happy to get back to our "norm" in the U.S.

Since leaving Madrid we have been in NJ getting our camper and storage stuff organized,

The girls are back together :)

We're in the South, Ya'll

There was an imaginary line from St. Louis to Nashville where the accent kicked in.  We drove through some back roads and a few hours later emerged to "Go gechu un".  It felt warm and fuzzy.....We're close to home :)

Centennial Park

Holy Toot!

The wildfires of Washington meant we had to make a last minute change in our route and skip the Winthrop stop.  It was a bummer, but with only one road open in that direction we were nervous that we might get stuck up there, not to mention the air quality was not good.

We rerouted to the Leavenworth area and stayed at Wenatchee County Park.  The air was okay the first day, but then, depending on which way the wind was blowing, was not great.  The campground was okay.  Next to a busy highway, but quite a few trees and was well maintained.

We started our week out with our first day back to a little book work for the school year.  We were testing our some of our new material and seeing how we liked it.  The afternoon of our first day we went to Cashmere, WA.  The town is very small and has a candy factory that has been around for generations, called Aplets and Cotlets.  We took a tour and picked out a couple of boxes to take home.

Heading behind the scene for our tour.

Back Home

We made it back to Pensacola!

We spent 3 1/2 weeks in Gulf Breeze and Pensacola and just left a couple of days ago.  A lot happened over those days, so I'm gonna do my best to remember.

St. George Island State Park

St. George Island State Park is in the Panhandle of Florida and after a longer than expected drive, we made it.  The park was on the far eastern side of the island and pretty far removed from the community.

Fort Wilderness Disney

We met a family back in Savannah, GA that assured us that the Disney Fort Wilderness was worth the stop so we decided to make a reservation for a few days.

Lake Louisa and the Magic Kingdom

We planned our time at this particular state park because our good friends the LaPointes were going to be in Orlando.  We met them for their last day at the Magic Kingdom and it was so great to see them!

Highlands Hammock State Park

I have some catching up to do.  I haven't written on here in a few weeks and there have been a few relocations since then.  Last time I wrote we had just the south part of Florida and it seemed like there was an imaginary line that we crossed over around Lake Okeechobee that went from warm weather to less warm weather.  It was still warm, but not shorts and tees anymore.

Glade Evers

Alligators and Anhingas filled our days last week.  We spent a couple of days in the Everglades National Park.  We decided to enter one day at the north entrance (Shark Valley) and a different day we hit the southern entrance (Ernest Coe) and made the hour long drive through the Glades to the southernmost visitors center (Flamingo).

We saw tons of gators, took tours, spent over an hour with one ranger learning about all the different types of birds and how to more easily identify them.  While on one of the tours, we had to walk around a huge gator that was sunbathing on the sidewalk.  My heart was racing as I passed with my little appetizers.

Yes and No

It seems we are moving fast these days.  It has been tough to find places to stay in Florida this time of year, so we've just been taking the spots we can get.  We are working on our boondocking skills, but not quite there.

We spent the last 5 days or so at Jonathan Dickinson State Park.  It was just north of West Palm Beach in a great spot along the coast.  It was very windy out there, but the breeze was welcomed most days because the temps were pretty warm.  It's great that we were able to get a spot there because it was so close to my brother and sister in laws place and we were able to visit with them everyday of our visit.

Wild Horse

We spent the last 5 or so days in Payne's Prairie Preserve State Park, Florida.