Saying goodbye to Florida

As nice as our stay was this year here in Florida, we are looking forward to going home in a couple of days. That is not the drive, which is long and can be  tiresome, but hopefully no delays because of accidents or road construction.

Birdhouses mark the entrance to our RV Park

Since my last blog post not much has happened with us. We did though take a couple of drives to the Ft. Lauderdale area. One was a visit to the manufacturer of Kubota diesel generators. Our present boat does not have one and we would like to get one. The problem is space, so a small single cylinder 2800 rpm 3.5 KW might be the answer although the next size up, a twin cylinder 1800 rpm 4.2 KW would be much quieter when it runs but the dimensions might not work for the given space. For that reason we pestered the guys at the Phasor Generator Store with questions and taking measurements. Back home we will find out what type might fit.

This is the 3.5 KW generator

The enormous size of a flagship Boat Owners Warehouse store in West Palm Beach with their inventory just amazed us and so we had to have a look and browse through their store when we were in their vicinity. 

As the weather this month stayed rather warm or hot, we weren’t too enthusiastic for walking outings. Although I have the opportunity to read books back home, I rarely do as I feel guilty doing so because I could be doing something around the house or yard instead. This past month I went through several books and quite enjoyed letting my imagination follow the stories. 

Elsa waiting for a handout of a couple of peanuts

Reggy's pastime is snoozing in my bed :-)

Reggy and Elsa always kept me company in their dog shelter outside under the awning while I had my nose in a book. Benno preferred his Mini iPad in the air-conditioned trailer.  There are not too many bugs here, but Reggy is occasionally being bothered with a flea that makes him itch like crazy. His hair is very fine while Elsa has a thick coat and does not seem to be bothered, although I do comb both every day and mostly find and get rid of the little pest that keeps Reggy scratching.

Florida is so much more than beautiful beaches and lots of wildlife can be seen if you visit the National Forests. The area of the RV Park we are staying at has lots of cattle grazing along the highway. But also lots of fishing is going on here as I have mentioned before. In almost walking distance (for me) is the Fisheating Creek that I have mentioned before also. In addition to the fishing boats many people fish from the shore at the boat ramp and are quite successful doing so. Here are some photos we took on a windy day with a few spits from the sky. If you can spare the time (38 min), there is a wonderful YouTube movie covering this area as well. It will give you a better idea than me trying to describe it. Here is the link: Fisheating Creek 

There are signs of the creek from both sides of the bridge

View from the bridge

And a another view from the bridge

There is a park for cars and trailers at the boat ramp

This lady was not deterrent from fishing because of a bit of rain sprinkles

This was her catch so far

So Benno did his tire pressure check on the trailer and the removing and stowing of the hoses should be an easy job. If I see something interesting driving home I will take a photo, and the I-75 highway might have some good opportunities.

Benno uses a 120V tire inflator from Canadian Tire

Thanks for sticking with me and until next time.

Yesterday’s destination turned into a lovely journey

 Benno needed some specific Seastar oil for the steering system on our boat that is not readily available in all marine stores and especially up in Canada. However, the “Boat Owners Warehouse” marine retail store in Stuart, which is not too far away from us, carries it. That let us to another reason for an outing. 

When we took off, we let the GPS in our truck do the navigation while I just sat back to enjoy the ride. Now I knew we would pass by Indiantown on the way to Stuart. Our friend Richard from Ontario keeps his boat in the Indiantown Marina where we had seen him back in January when he was busy painting the hull of his sailboat. We thought we drop by on our way back from Stuart to say “Hello”.

Our GPS directed us onto County Road 714, which is also called the Martin Grade Scenic Highway, but I didn’t know that when we started out. 

As we rolled along I mentioned to Benno how nice the scenery looked. Soon I realized just how special this road was. The lush trees to both sides of the road formed a canopy with their overhanging branches over the road that went on for miles. It felt like driving through a tunnel. I was almost sad when we reached Palm City, an affluent area in Florida, and then onto the marine store in Stuart. I thought I should check the Internet if there was any info on the country road 714 we had just driven and I learned it is called “The Grade”. Take a moment to view this video.

After Benno got his oil and a little bit of store browsing at the Boat Owners Warehouse, we were on our way back home. At the Indiantown Marina we could not find our friend or his boat but saw his motorhome parked on the lot. The girls at the office said that he had launched his boat and was probably cruising the Bahamas right now. Nice!

Because of the disappointment of not seeing our friend, I treated us each to a Value McChicken Meal Deal from McD. It consisted of a chicken burger, French fries, 4 chicken nuggets with sauce and an iced coffee flavoured with French vanilla or caramel, all for $5/ea. What a deal.

The rest of the day found us relaxing by sticking our noses into our books and iPads. 

Lately I have noticed new blossoms on trees and shrubs here in the park that had been dormant during the winter. One of those trees in our park caught my attention as it is so very pretty and has a wonderful fragrance. The Internet told me it is a Bauhinia (Hong Kong orchid tree) in case you are interested. 

That is all for today. Thanks for dropping in.

Meeting up with fellow bloggers and an afternoon at the Griffin Scenic Tower

 When I started my current blog to capture photos and happenings in our travels I had no idea who would read them as I put them out into the world. Travelling to the same places others have gone before us, I occasionally made comments on their blogs. That let to reciprocal comments on my blog.  Over the years we have met several blogger friends, which is always fun. Last week we got to meet Barb and Jim from Jim and Barb's Adventures who have been RVing a lot longer than we have done.

They were parked at an RV Park in Crystal River, north west from us here in Florida for a month and we agreed to meet up at a German Beer Garden/Bakery in Yalaha that Benno and I had visited in 2023, you can read about it "here"

Barb and Jim

For all the folks that have been following Jim’s blog, let me tell you, those guys are just as nice, interesting and amusing as their blog posts reflect. Although we have RVing in common, our conversation at the table, complemented by “Warsteiner” beer, pretzels, bratwurst and such, revolved mostly about boating. The ambiance under the trees canopy in the outdoor beer garden added to this nice get-together.

Barb, Jim and Benno

Upon departing we all took home a pastry from the “Yalaha Bakery” delicious selection of German baked goods. The only downside that day was that our friends and mutual bloggers, Linda and Ed from We2Travellers living the life  were not able to join us four because of major severe rainstorms at their Florida home area near Jacksonville that morning.

The two desserts we took home from the bakery

Last Sunday was a warm, but very breezy and overcast day. We had nothing planned, but thought we should stretch our legs a bit. Just a few miles from here there is an observation tower overlooking some part of Lake Okeechobee, called:  Sam Griffin Scenic Tower and that is where we went. It being such a windy day we were surprised to see so many fishing boats at the park which is at the end of the Herbert Hoover Dike and it features numerous boating ramps with lots of space for truck and boat trailer parking. 

View from the foot bridge

The other side of the foot bridge

View from the 1st level up the ramp

View from the 2nd level of the tower

View from the top of the tower

The ramps going up/down are easy to walk

In the park surrounding the scenic tower

View over Lake Okeechobee

It looks very shallow in this area of the lake and you might get stuck with a boat

There were families without boats fishing from shore pulling up fish after just casting off their lines. I’m not sure all the fish went home with them though.

People out fishing from shore

This kid had just put in the rod and immediately got a fish

We had a great afternoon there and even our dogs loved the new scenery and smells.

Thanks for visiting again, I do appreciate all of you.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy valentine’s day to everyone. Love is the one and the only thing that can make the world into a better one.

I can’t believe we are halfway through February already and if this pace keeps up it’ll be spring time before I know it.  Although weather wise here in Florida it felt like summertime these past weeks. I am ready for a bit of a cooldown so we can enjoy the outdoors more and I don’t break out in a sweat when just sitting outside our travel trailer.

Yesterday we drove all the way down to Miami. The International Boat Show is on and runs until Sunday evening. We have been to this show over the years a number of times but not since 2013 I think. Lots has changed since then, but then what hasn’t. 

We were most interested in the vendors at the Marine Electronics Pavilion

So to start off, no longer are tickets for the boat show sold at the gate. You have to pay by credit card online and use that QR code digital Eventspass on your phone to enter. If you leave and reenter the show you have to show your phone with the Eventspass every time. That was new to us. Btw they were the most expensive tickets we’ve ever paid for entering a boat show and that even after using a coupon code.

The Miami International Boat Show is spread over 6 locations but you could take free shuttles from one to the other. Even water taxies were available, but for an extra charge. Miami is very congested, so parking can be a problem and with summer like temperatures you would not want to be too far parked from your destination. We were lucky to find parking at the Convention Center parking garage above the show halls, but they would not take cash, only a Creditcard to pay the $20 all day fee. While driving up to the parking roof, Benno said to me “Next time you drive!” as he let out a sigh of relief not having scratched up the truck after the umpteen tight turns going up and later down the parking house, which were going round and round and round. 

Ground floor to all the exhibit halls

We opted to only visit the halls of the Convention Center. Other locations like the Museum Park Marina you could view sailboats. Powerboats were at the Herald Plaza and Super yachts, where bording for a look around was by invitation only, were at the Yacht Haven Grande. You could test drive over 75 sea trial vessels at the Venetian Marina. There were seminars held and a VIP Lounge at theWindward Club etc. Enough to tire you out for sure.

No need to show you all the vendors but the booze stand ($9/shot) had no takers

I had the dogs with me and they behaved great. Benno and I split up but would meet up at certain vendors (we called each other) There were no other dogs that I could see. Lots of people stopped us to pet Reggy and Elsa or to tell me they had a dachshund at home. Later in the afternoon I took the dogs to the truck so they could rest, have a drink and a dog cookie and we had a snack too.

Major cities of the world were on display on the ceiling
"Brampton, 1,241 miles" is a small suburb of Toronto!
Was the installer from there??

The traffic out of Miami was more like a slow moving parking lot :-) We were in no hurry so it didn’t matter much to us, but we sure were glad when things got moving again and back at the RV Park we just wanted to rest up. The show was a good experience and we were glad we had gone to see it. Benno’s highlight was ordering a complete package of a smart “Simrad AP 44” autopilot unit, complete with Hydraulic Pump etc. for our Pocket Trawler. Now he can hardly wait to install it :-)

Next up: the Presidents Day on Monday (but I will hold on to my wallet) 

Finally, here are a couple of photos of our resident Sandhill Cranes. I believe it is a him and her and they keep striding around our grassy areas but loudly complain if you come too close.

Thanks for dropping in everyone.