Home again and thoughts on the trip.

Back home in CT........

Here's some thoughts on this journey.

I had dreams of dogs running free on beaches, warm days under palmettos and lazy lollygagging along in my vehicle finding new friends and beautiful spots to stay for a bit.  OK I guess dreams don't always come true apparently. 

     St. Augustine Beach

This trip was a tough one. I have taken four trips in two years and three of them were fantastic. This one was challenging. Those aren't bad odds.

I drove headlong into that big winter storm at the start of January. What was its name? Holed up in a Motel Six in North Carolina for three days waiting for the roads to clear.

Then on to Fernadina Beach and St. Augustine where it was freezing and I had to scrape ice off my car. 

So it started ominously. There were lovely moments and fun times. But overall, the lovely and fun didn't outweigh the rough stuff.

Here's what was great.

1. My dog. She's just amazingly adaptable and friendly to everyone.

2. Sleeping in my "Car-V" with panoramic windows that showcase the sky, moon and stars at night.

Full moon in Sarasota

3. Ancient live oaks with Spanish moss.

Crews Lake, Spring Hill

4. My hosts Mike, Jed, Dave, Pat, Gretchen, Joan and Aynne.

5. The emerald green springs...... and the manatees.

6. Warm days that made you put on your tee shirt.

7. Singing with Jed in his almost finished house.

8. Going to bed early and waking up before sunrise and practicing my guitar for two hours each morning.

9. The birds........so many and so many varieties. 

10. Eagles, otters, wild boars, hawks, parrots, alligators, turtles, pileated woodpeckers.

11. Surprises, when they happen, are magical.

12. My house batteries which sat in the front passenger seat well that were charged from my car battery when I drove. Powered my computers, phone, XM radio receiver and speaker for a good three or four days.

13. Doing some lecturing on my professional work.

14. The wetlands, which, hopefully are protected. I wish I had had a kayak.

15. Choochi's new pal Flynn.

16. Swimming with the manatees.

17. St. Augustine and Sarasota trails that appeared magically in the city and were wonderful oasises (oasi?)

Here's what sucked.

1. Florida is wrecked by corporate America, mall after mall, parking lot after parking lot. It got to be too much. Not everywhere, but enough everywhere. And it broke my heart to see so much of that happening around the places I do like a lot. And it's only getting worse.

2. It's very crowded, no room at state park camping even if you want it. It costs $50 to camp on the Keys at the state park.

3. The great stuff didn't balance the harder stuff. I'd say it was 35% great, 65% not so great (mainly too many people, too many cars, not enough natural beauty, too much cement). Out west there was incredible landscapes everywhere and so putting up with hardships of camping, driving and boondocking (bathrooms, showers, kitchen lack)  was really worth it, almost always because everywhere there was fantastic landscapes and nature.

Sedona

4. "Camping" in Florida now is MOSTLY comprised of older folks often with $100K plus RV's dragging a car and a golf cart. They're nice folks, but they aren't really "camping" if you know what I mean. Out west, there are a lot more of the boondocking type campers on BLM land who "get" what I'm doing and so there's a bit more camaraderie on that count. 

My neighbor's campsite.

My campsite. Can you find my car at the long, long, long,  LONG pull-in?

5. Getting hassled (and illegally searched) by cops at 2 am which was totally obnoxious.

6. My Boondockers Welcome network didn't respond affirmatively to my requests. This cut a huge part of what I was planning to do and how I was going to meet folks. Last year I met outstanding people using Boondockers Welcome and Couchsurfing. I got, frankly, a lot of cold shoulders from the Boondockers site. Which I think has to do with the fact I'm in a car. Which is a whole other topic.

7. Lot's of beaches (at least half of them I was near) have "no dogs allowed" at ALL and if they do, they give you the crappiest part of the beach.

 BOOOOO. 

St. Augustine and Fernandina were the two best but still I got busted for letting her off leash.

I don't know what happened to Hernando, but there's no beach in Hernando Beach.

It looks like there are a lot more great things than sucky things. The thing is that the sucky sucked up more energy than they should have. Figuring out where I was going all the time was draining in the concrete jungle. The great things were great, but the struggles outweighed the sweet.

Now, I didn't get further south on the east coast than Daytona, and on the west coast than Sarasota. I liked St. Pete, it seemed like it wasn't has much traffic as many other places and felt more relaxed.

So I certainly cannot claim that what I experienced is universal truth in Florida. But I didn't think this situation of cars, cement, restrictions and people would get BETTER the further south I headed so I turned around and headed home. 

This is not a place to boondock and have a spontaneous kind of experience, at least for my temperament. One of my hardcore boondocking Car-V living friends says he'll never go back to Florida so I guess I'm not alone in this experience.

So that's kind of the overall roundup. 

I had some really fun and great moments. I wouldn't do this again though in Florida. I would GO BACK to Florida, but would just stay in one or two places that I knew had what I was looking for. Florida is just too sewn up to be fun as a spontaneous outdoors travel destination.

Thanks for coming along with us! 

See you next time!

Love,
Laura and Choochi