We have just completed the Southeast portion of our tour. It was really fun and we saw a lot of good people. Our family and friends made it so much more enjoyable and easy on us. Thanks everybody!
Here is a picture of the route that we ended up taking, click to enlarge.
Joy on Gulf Islands National Seashore:
Note: for those who haven’t noticed, all of the pictures on the blog can be clicked to see a full size version.
The next morning we took our time getting out of the Super 8 and made sure to partake in our free breakfast. Hoggle seemed to be in pretty good shape all things considered, so after we left Super 8 we began meandering our way toward Pensacola.
We made a stop at the Gulf Islands National Seashore, just east of the Pensacola beaches. These were the nicest beaches, at least in terms of aesthetics, that we had seen on our trip in Florida. Nearly undisturbed white sand beaches and dunes, turquoise clear water, etc… The sun was nearly blinding off of the while sand. No facilities though (e.g., shower, bathroom). Cape San Blas was nearly equally as pretty and had great facilities, was not crowded at all AND was dog friendly, so their beaches still probably win out in our book overall. (Thanks for that recommendation Glenn!) Turns out beaches in FL are mostly dog unfriendly, with very few allowing dogs at all – even on leashes. Some disallow dogs even being on the boardwalks, even at the State Parks. It was a pity that we weren’t able to spend a bit more time at the Cape San Blas beaches, since, wouldn’t you know, that is where Hoggle got sick.
Anywho…after spending some time at the beaches, we then navigated our way to the Naval Air Museum on Pensacola’s Naval Air Station. It was about 3:30 by the time we got there so Jay went in and looked at a few planes and got the tail end of a guided tour before it was closing time. Em was famished, and had seen the museum before, so she stayed back with Hoggle and ate a sandwich.
We then took off from the base to find a place to camp. We thought about camping on a nearby island’s beach access parking lot, but figured we would be harassed by the Po-Po, so we decided to head back inland to try out sleeping in a Wal-mart parking lot. It was a success! No one bothered us and there were plenty of other vandwellers and RVers abound. It was funny, they all sort of clumped together in the parking lot, but none interacted with each other from what we could tell. And we woke up to the sound of…not cars, not people, BUT birds! So many seagulls all around us in the parking lot that it sounded like a jungle out there. There are a lot worse things to wake up to in the morning though.
Since we didn’t get much time at the museum the day before, we headed back over to get a more full tour. This time we put Hoggle in his stroller with a baby blanket on top to see if we could sneak him in with us (a trick we piloted while shopping at the wal-mart). He behaved the entire time and no one ever even looked twice at the stroller. That will definitely come in handy!
We highly recommend the museum – it’s free to get in and they have some incredible planes and plane engines from all eras of the navy. 
Being a mechanical engineer, Jay found the cutaways of the piston and jet engines particularly fascinating, and took time to explain to Em how the turbojets compress air, ignite it, and provide propulsion. We both took part in pretending to be pilots in the jet cockpits that children typically occupy. Jay was really into pretending to be a pilot. Em teased him at first, but then she got pretty into it when she got in one of the cockpits too. Em simulated a disaster in an ejection seat in the picture above. We think it’s probably fairly accurate. Unfortunately we could not figure out how to attach the seatbelts correctly, so she probably wouldn’t have made it. Hoggle just sat in his stroller quiet as a mouse, probably enjoying the air conditioned environment and relaxation.
After the museum we went to Fort Barrancas, which is across the street from the museum. It’s another in the series of coastal forts we’ve seen. Though this one may have been the coolest to tour. You can walk all around and in the fort, which overlooks the inlet to the strategic Pensacola Bay. The fort has been under French, Spanish, and American control over the centuries. This fort featured both mortars AND cannons.
After the fort we left Florida and headed into Alabama. The state line, on the beach, is at a place deemed Flora-Bama. On the particular day we happened through there was an evidently very famous festival going on called the Interstate Mullet Toss Festival where they toss dead Mullets (a fish) from a circle on the ‘Bama side across the state line to the Flor’a side. The best of the best mullet tossers win a prize of some type. The actual mullet tossing wasn’t to begin until the next day (we were told by the friendly parking attendant who took the picture to the left) but people come from all around the country for it and to get wasted all weekend. I guess there is something wrong with us because it didn’t sound worth sticking around to see people throw dead fish around on the beach. We kept on trucking out of all the traffic and drunk people.
We wanted to take the ferry across Mobile Bay and stop at this place called Dauphin Island, but unfortunately they were having mechanical difficulties and the ferry was closed. Boo! So instead we had to take the long way north and around the bay, through the town of Mobile. We didn’t stop. But we did pass a restaurant famous for throwing its rolls at you. We didn’t stop there either as we prefer our rolls served on a plate. So the only thing we actually did do in Alabama is stop at the state sign to take a picture and eat lunch in a Publix parking lot. We’re pretty much okay with that. Moving on…
After a couple of hours or so driving across Alabama we got to Mississippi, a state consistently ranked as the worst in the nation based on various different metrics – health, education, etc. Tennessee wasn’t far behind though (#48). The fact that Mississippi still has the confederate flag adorned on their state flag may have something to do with it, or just a coincidence. It’s probably about time for them to do something about that.
So we didn’t stop in Mississippi either except at the welcome center where we were greeted by a security guard who fussed at us for walking Hoggle around not on the designated grass area (we were just walking up to take the above photo). There was very strange brown water in the toilets at the Mississippi Welcome Center. Welcome to Mississippi, were the tap water is brown and stains the toilets! (Click to enlarge the picture).Not sure what that is about, or if that is only a feature of the welcome center and not the rest of the state. But we decided to skip filling up our water bottles while in MMississippi.
EDIT – THIS JUST IN: We have been notified by one of our blog followers that there are some nice places to visit, live, and/or go to college in the northern parts of Mississippi, AND that the water is indeed not brown in the rest of the state. Perhaps this was just a feature of that particular welcome center as an attempt to keep people from Alabama out of their state. One place Jay would have liked to visit in Mississippi, if it had not been so far off our path, was the Natchez Trace.
So we kept on keeping on and arrived in Louisiana when we crossed the Pearl River on US Hwy 90 a couple hours later. That’s how to go sightseeing in three states in one day! You just don’t look at anything.
Driving across the Pearl River bridge was the first of many rusting steel bridges we’ve seen, and probably will see in Louisiana. They may look a little worse for wear, but we’re confident they’ll hold Joy up, even with full water tanks. But we had near empty water tanks after brown water Mississippi so we were definitely ok.
We stopped and ate dinner at Fort Pike State Historic Site, another old fort along the gulf. This one was closed, except for the parking lot, we think because of Hurricane Katrina damage. It was a pretty site on the bayou none-the-less.
We met a nice fellow there, dressed in sandals, overalls (with no shirt), long hair, long beard, and a straw hat in an old white dodge van with an old golden lab and a Coors beer. His name was Michael James and his band, My Graveyard Jaw, was about ready to go on tour out west with a stop in Fort Collins. That city was how we got the conversation up and rolling. Michael James has a fondness for playing many instruments at the same time and jumping in swimming holes with his dog. He gave us a CD of his band’s music, but we haven’t been able to listen to it yet because we don’t actually have a CD player of any kind with us.
We hung-out there for a bit longer and took some showers, using up the rest of our hot water. We were nervous about camping there though because it had a fence where we could get fenced in, and it kind of seemed like a place that people may patrol, so we headed out for the Walmart instead, which was closer to New Orleans anyway. Walmart camping night number two. Feeling very classy. Having the 24 hr store for all our needs and a restroom to boot is actually kind of luxurious in our situation. But Jay isn’t as big of a fan of the Walmart camping as Em because the asphalt of the parking lot makes it even warmer than other places in Louisiana, and he gets hot more easily, esp. at night.
UP NEXT: New Orleans — the urine and vomit soaked party city that oozes with historic charm, boiled crawfish eating lessons, visiting an old college friend in Baton Rouge, and much much more. Bet you can hardly wait!!!
We awoke around 7am to the sound of the sheriff’s department knocking on the window. Apparently the first staff member who had arrived at the vet that morning wasn’t informed of us staying over the night and called the police on the creepy white van in the parking lot. They knocked and identified themselves, and from our bed we sleepily yelled that we “have permission” as we tried to put on some clothes to go out to talk to them. Once we explained the situation and they verified it with someone who knew, we were promptly relieved from suspicion. Then they started commenting on our van and complimented Em’s magnetic mosquito nets on the front windows, haha.
Since we were up, we went ahead and went back into the vet to pay a visit to Hoggle. He was looking somewhat better. He was more energetic and didn’t look so thin having put on some water weight. We took him for a short walk outside where he took a big long pee and then rushed back into the vet. His pain meds clearly ran out (the IV was turned off) because he started shivering and acting upset again within a few minutes. He seemed happy to be back at the vet. Maybe that will be a positive vet association for him!
Did we mention…it was Jay’s birthday today! Started it off on the right foot with waking up to the police at the door. We decided to salvage it the best we could so while Hoggle was finishing up his IV fluids in the morning and early afternoon, we headed over to St Andrews State Park, just east of Panama City Beach. The park is a nice break from the overly developed Panama City Beach area. The park features white sandy beaches, clear water, and a nice marsh. We took a walk in the surf down the beach, holding hands. When the beach ended we hopped over to Alligator Lake. While on the short walk we saw something a little rare.
Jay stopped along the trail and stared out into the marsh. He saw a little shake across the way and he first thought “a beaver slapping it’s tail, how unique.” But then Em came down to the water’s edge and we both looked at it and saw it was a fish out of water that must be stuck on a log. 
But that is pretty peculiar considering every fish out of whatever we’ve ever seen flops around and with seeming divine intervention ALWAYS finds the water.
But then we saw the scales on his tail. The fish was in an alligator’s mouth. The polarizing sunglasses we had hid the reflections off the gator’s scales so we didn’t see the gator at first, it looked like a log. When we took our glasses off the gator was plain as day.
The gator, as we later found out from the volunteer at the trailhead, was letting the fish die before he does what he wants to with it. And what he wants to do is probably cut it into bite-size portions and swallow them head first so the little fishy fins don’t barb into his throat on the way down. We watched the fish die in the gators mouth until he started chomping on it. We could hear the bones break. Finally the gator did what he wanted to it, turned around, and slipped into the water with the broken bloody fish in its mouth. That’s something we’ll probably never see again.
After the gator sighting we headed back down the beach and we took a swim. The water was pretty chilly., but not too bad. After a few minutes we got out, but Jay took some time to feel what it’s like to be washed up on the shore by lying on his back and letting the waves push him up onto the shoreline. He wanted to be like Tom Hanks in Castaway. Turns out it’s pretty painful, he has a nice scratch on his back from the shells in the surf. He was grinning ear to ear though about it though
We ate some lunch and then went back to pick up our pup. He was looking even better now. Not 100%, but maybe like 70% better at least. We decided to let Hoggle rest and booked a cheap hotel in Panama City. The Super 8 offers all the comfort of a cheap hotel, for a not cheap enough price – especially when you factor in the pet fee. Hoggle passed out immediately on a pillow on the bed, and slept for 12 hrs straight without stirring (other than us rousing him for two potty breaks). He didn’t even beg for food when we were eating – you know he had to be tired!
For Jay’s birthday dinner, he requested that we not spend any money going out to eat, so instead he purchased a frozen chimicanga to hear up in the hotel microwave for dinner (he was actually excited about this since we don’t have a microwave in the van) and Em had deli tomato soup. It went down well with some three layer dip, American Pickers on the TV, and a couple of fingers of Glenfiddich scotch for Jay. And for dessert, a half-melted pint of Blue Bell ice cream. Delicious!
I’m staring at the brown, drab, commercial tile of a Burger Kind bathroom, in the poor western side of Panama City. I’m exhausted; I haven’t slept all night. I’m thinking, “if I had a bathroom, would I make it like this one – brown tile with a floor drain. Do the staff just hose the whole thing down at the end of the day? Must not because it’s filthy; I don’t even want the soles of my shoes to touch the floor.” I must be delirious; my mind is wandering. The sheets in the laundromat down the street must have the dog vomit washed out of them by now. I should get out of here.
-Jay
You see our dog broke down last night. Or rather, he got sick since he’s wholly unlike Joy, the van, who being a machine, can break down. We were all set to go to sleep at our covert vandwelling location in Cape San Blas, FL . We went to extra pains to find an out of the way spot, and to quietly close the van doors when we were settling in for the night so as not to disturb anyone in the neighborhood. Everything was going smoothly and according to plan until around 12:30am or so when Hoggle jumped awake and started acting fussy. We gave him some water, took him outside to potty, then tried some food…everything we could think of that he might need. Nothing was calming him down. Until suddenly he started violently heaving up everything we had just given him – all over the van floor.
Now we knew what was wrong. Hoping that was it and that he had gotten it out of his system we tried to lay back down. No such luck. He kept wandering around the bed, shivering and fussing. Em took him outside again and this time he took a big ole diarrhea next to the neighbors trashcans. At that point when he started running at both ends, we knew we were going to be in for a long night.
The next several hours involved constantly taking Hoggle outside anytime he appeared uncomfortable to try to avoid another huge van vomit, or worse yet, van diarrhea. So much for stealth! Instead we were in and out all night, leaving a trail of vomit and diarrhea for everyone to enjoy in the morning when they woke up to get their paper and/or trashcans.
About midway through the night, Hoggle got another one off on us in the van. Fortunately it was mostly water this time, but unfortunately it also got on our bed too. And then we ran out of paper towels. Fortunately Jay is like Macgiver and had the ingenious idea to use sand to absorb the gooey vomit like kitty litter. It worked pretty well, except then we had half of the beach in the van, and our only broom was buried away in the bottom of one of the storage bins rendered inaccessible when the bed is out. What a nasty mess!!
At this point is was already about 5:30 in the morning, so we decided screw it, let’s just go on and get the hell out of here, drive back to civilization, buy some paper towels and find a laundromat (and possibly a vet if he didn’t get better), and leave all this puke and shit behind. In an hour or so we were in Panama City. We found the laundromat at the corner of 4th and Hwy 98. Signs inside said no cursing, among various other rules intended the keep the place civil, in an otherwise uncivil looking neighborhood. We got there before it opened and just sat in the parking lot napping in the van until it did.
After Em ut the vomit sheets with the rest of our dirty clothes in the machine we drove to the aforementioned Burger King. Jay opted to have some yogurt and granola we had in the van instead of a greasy Burger King egg and cheese croissanwich that Em was craving after being up all night. They were 2 for $3 so she went ahead and went for two of them. Can’t beat that deal! Though like all of Em’s food, Jay ended up eating some of it. He says – it just tastes better when it’s yours!
Fortunately, Hoggle seemed to be feeling a little better at this point. He hadn’t puked in a couple hours, and was holding down small sips of water, so we decided to drive to Panama City Beach. On the way into town we started remarking to one another that it looks horribly similar to PIgeon Forge, TN; a cluster of t-shirt shops, dinner shows, mini-golfing, upside down mansions, go carts, and other tourist traps I imagine have other franchises on the banks of the river Styx in Hell. And then on the artificial horizon composed of fast food rooftops and mega-hotels emerged a Ripley’s Believe it Or Not. nearly identical to the one in Pigeon Forge. It was at this moment we both looked at it each other, and down at Hoggle, said “fuck this,” and decided to take the next road north out of that hole and head West to find a more quiet location.
Laguna beach, about twenty minutes away, is where we landed. The white sand beach was littered with small homes instead of condos and has the same turquoise-clear water. Em decided to take a nap while Jay somehow had enough energy to go for a swim in the ocean. Hoggle seemed to be doing even better still at this point, and we started thinking we were in the clear.
But then he suddenly threw up all the water that he had been keeping down…in the van…again. Jay cleaned it up with white beach sand again, even though we had paper towels. He decided that was his chosen method. Em was not all too pleased about the sand method, but Jay had jumped to it before she could get to the paper towels. It worked in a pinch, but also got sand into every nook and cranny in the van.
So that was fun.
We took a look at Hoggle and he looked awful. He seemed depressed, was shivering, and felt like he had lost two pounds or more from vomiting and dehydration. Since he couldn’t even keep small sips of water down, we decided it was time to seek out a vet. Fortunately Em was able to get hold of one back in Panama City Beach that was willing to fit us in within 30 minutes. We turned around and headed on back.
On the way we were wracking our brains to try to figure out what on earth he could have gotten into. He was with us 24/7, but maybe he snatched something up on the beach when we weren’t looking? Or could it have been that tuna water Em let him lap up off the gravel parking lot after she drained the can of tuna? We couldn’t figure it out.
We got to the vet and she seemed somewhat perplexed about his problems too. Hoggle doesn’t get stomach issues normally. We had never seen him like this. Normally he’s like a goat. One time he got into the trash and ate half a loaf of bread that had gone completely green with mold…no problem, just fine.
So the vet decided it would make sense to run a blood panel just to check for a few potential things it could be. And thank goodness she did because she found something…the poor little guy was having a case of acute pancreatitis! Evidently it can be very sudden, they don’t really know what causes it, but the pancreas freaks out and gets really inflamed and can’t really digest anything (hence the vomiting) and is very painful (hence the depression and shivering).
She told us that he really should be kept overnight on IV fluids and pain medicine. So we gave him over the the docs for the night and they give him some IV electrolytes and other medications. Jay was so sleepy at the vet’s office he actually fell asleep with his head on the exam table (see below right). Fortunately Em’s nap at the beach helped her out so she took over so Jay could go lay down outside.
<—Hoggle feeling miserable and laying under the bench in the vet office. He just stayed there on the floor shivering…normally he is up wandering around and sniffing the whole time.
After a sorrowful goodbye with Hoggle, we made camp in the vet parking lot. We explained our situation to them and they were kind enough to give us permission to sleep there in the van. We felt badly for Hoggle being all alone in the vet office, but succumbed quickly to exhaustion and passed out.
After our time in Apalachicola we headed south along the coast, following US98 to St George’s Island state park. The park, at the end of the barrier island features mainly an almost white sand beach and large sand dunes instead of vacation rentals.
We pulled in to the campground and had a short look around. Jay went for an evening walk on the beach and saw some wildlife: shore birds, dolphins, and pelicans. It had been days with overcast skies and that continued this day.
The next morning we ran into a retired couple from Savannah peering into a tree at our campsite. They were bird watchers checking out a rare migrating bird while it hopped around eating. They said this time of year all the birds have just landed on the island after flying across the Gulf of Mexico from the Yucatan peninsula. And there were birds everywhere: brown, blue, and yellow.
Later in the day we took a shade-less walk down a “trail” toward the end of the island only to find out that it’s just a dirt road blocked off to all those except the lucky few who get a permit. It wasn’t too hot, but it was really sunny. Hoggle needed lots of breaks. When we got back we hung out on the beach where Jay took a swim in the chilly Gulf water. There was only another little kid who was as brave as him as to get in.
Once we got tired of that island we headed toward Cape San Blas, across the Apalachicola River from St George’s Island. We went through the town of Apalachicola and stopped to see if raw oysters were in season. And they were, year round, the visitor center lady told us. We found a place on the river which had a nice deck so Hoggle could come along. We got a half dozen “moscow-style” raw oysters, and proceeded to eat something neither of us had ever had before! The waitresses even wanted to watch us eat them when they heard they were our first. I think they were hoping we’d freak out or something. Neither of us freaked – they were pretty good. Jay was braver though and ate the massive ones. They were a little too much oyster in the mouth at one time for Em. We both liked them well enough, but probably weren’t something we’d be excited to go order again. The “conch cakes” were yummier.
The town of Apalachicola was very quaint in parts, but a little run down in others. In fact, a lot of the little towns on this part of the coast are a little run down or derelict. Kind of like the tourists have forgotten it – hence why it is called “The Forgotten Coast.” I guess the tourists have flocked elsewhere. Despite that feel, Apalachicola still seems like it has a good bit to offer. The drive down the forgotten coast was really pretty.
We arrived at Cape San Blas in the late afternoon with enough time to take a stroll along the dog-friendly beach. Hoggle enjoyed it as long as he was kept a fair distance from the water. It would scare him anytime a wave came in and touched his paws. But he did find some interest in the dead fish heads that populate the surf.
After the beach walk, Em took our first official outdoor van shower! We put up the curtain at one of the public beach access parking lots and she enjoyed the 107 degF or so shower. With the weather nice and not cold, the shower was very pleasant. Here she is drying off with some nice palm trees as a back drop.
The sunset was beautiful that evening. The sky was so clear we could watch the last spec of the sphere disappear below the horizon.
This night was also our first night for stealth camping. We set up the bed and did all our cooking and major arranging at the beach access parking and then drove down the road well after dusk to find a spot. We pulled off into a side residential street and found a pull-off spot on the side of the road across from an empty vacation house that provided perfect parking for vandwellers such as ourselves. We took care to keep quiet and block all the windows and felt pretty confident we wouldn’t be bothered. And we weren’t. …
That is until our dog broke down……………stay tuned!
Special Thanks: Our friends over at Wicked Glitch helped us out with some blog editing. Go check out their blog to read Ted’s great reviews of beer and other things!
GUESS WHAT EVERYBODY?! We finally took the time to figure out how to insert videos into our blog. It isn’t something we can do a ton because it uses a lot of our available internet bandwidth, but when we are at a free wifi spot we can use theirs to get it done. So…get ready for a wild ride of pics AND vids included on this exciting post about the Leon Sinks hike in the Apalachicola National Forest!
Leon Sinks is just south of Tallahassee, FL in the Apalachicola National Forest. We rolled up at around 10am on a cloudy, cool, late April day and took the easy 3 or so mile loop trail that meanders around a lattice of old logging roads to a dozen or so sink holes (or sinks.)
The sink holes are formed when limestone below the surface is dissolved until the land above gives way. 
Dry sinks are not full of water – except when there is a lot of rain. Wet sinks are full of the water from Florida’s aquifer. The difference geologically between the two is that wet sinks are deep enough to reach the aquifer.
The Leon Sinks area features a few of each. The highlight of the wet sinks had to be hammock sink, which its crystal clear water and nice boardwalk.
This sink is connected through an underwater cave system with Wakulla Springs, about 10 miles away – which we visited yesterday.
The area also features a number of groves of Magnolia trees. We’ve only seen these in parks and in cities and never in the wild. There were some really big and pretty specimens here.
Near the end of the loop trail you end up at a creek that ends in a sink hole. The debris that floats to the top swirls around like a toilet bowl as the creek empties into the sink and flows underground for about 30 feet to emerge just on the other side of the trail. It’s truly unique and something we’d never seen before. Jay called it the “junk drain.”
At the end of the main loop you can go on the swamp trail, which was over run with water from the recent rains. Instead we went straight back to the trailhead, which traverses over a boardwalk through a swamp called Center Swamp. The water had so much tannin in it (like the stuff that makes black tea dark) it looked nearly onyx black at the surface. It’s a little hard to tell in the photo because of the reflection of the trees, but it was super cool looking.
Finally, at the end of the loop you reach Gopher sink where Jay decided to take a little dip. The Gopher Sink has underwater caves and the whole area used to be underneath the ocean.
All in all Leon sinks is well worth the $3 admission fee. Good hike. Four thumbs up between the two of us. Check it out if you are in the area.
We went back to Tampa to stay with Farrah a couple more nights after our stay in Bradenton. The weather was really rainy, so we had some time to catch up on The Walking Dead. Good season! We also went to a bar and ate dinner with Farrah and her Uncle Lee. As usual in Tampa everyone was looking really spiffy, even just going to a local brewery. Image seems pretty important here, as Farrah has attested too. We are pretty casual folks and after this final night out we decided officially that we don’t fit in here in Tampa very well. It’s a pretty city though, particularly the bay/downtown area. If we were to live in FL I think we’d have to take up some water sports. Canoeing, paddle boarding, kite surfing…
In the morning we got all packed up, said goodbye to Farrah, and hit the road up toward Apalachicola National Forest (near Tallahassee). The drive between Perry and Newport, FL was particularly cool. It’s logged, but it’s also swampy and desolate. Here is a picture of a creek in the area that Jay waded into. The under sole of the creek beneath it’s brown, tea-like slow moving water was squishy and pleasantly comfortable beneath his feet.
The turn out of Perry also marked the first time we are heading West, in the best way we can define it – highway directions. It’s a trip along the gulf and out to the west coast from here!
On the way to our final destination – Leon Sinks State Geological Area, we stopped at Wakulla Springs State Park. This natural spring, of which Florida has numerous, flows thousands of gallons per hour out of the ground and eventually into the ocean. They’ve set up a swimming area in which Jay took part in. It was overcast and somewhat chilly, but the water was pretty warm, and the current noticeable. The rains for the last few days certainly increased the flow. Some people said they saw manatees, but we didn’t see any.
When we arrived at Leon Sinks State Natural Area we realized that there was no camping there, and the park attendant wouldn’t bend the rules and allow us to park the van overnight in the parking lot. So we drove a few miles down the road to Apalachicola State Forrest and found us a nice dirt road – well sand road – since we’re in Florida. Here is where we spent our first night in finally sleeping in the van.
Em re-organized the interior for a couple hours and got everything into its semi-final place while Jay cooked up some canned soup and leftover lasagna for dinner.
Overall, it was a very peaceful night, all quiet except for the peaceful throng of frogs to keep us company. We all slept well, and we let Hoggle snuggle with us all night. A good start to vandwelling.
Em’s Aunt Jan and her husband Glenn invited us to stay at their new house in Bradenton, FL. This is a picture of their backyard, it’s on the Bradenton river. Jan landscaped the whole thing – it’s really beautiful.
In the evening we went to Bradenton Beach for dinner and got a seat right on the beach as the sun was setting.
The next day we took a trip out to Fort Desoto, across the sunshine skyway bridge across Tampa Bay. We went on the dog friendly beach they had there, so Hoggle was allowed to come along (the rest of the beaches in this area don’t allow pups). In typical Hoggle fashion he has no interest in the water. The only thing Hoggle will do in water is swim frantically out of the water.
Fort Desoto was another coastal fort in a long series we’ll probably see on our trip around the gulf. They had some big canons.
EDIT – THIS JUST IN: Jay corrected my statement above and said that technically, the fort had big mortars, not canons, and that it would sound ignorant if I said canons. So for those of you who give a shit, the fort had mortars…not canons. And for those of you, like me, who have no clue about the difference between mortars and canons – mortars evidently lob things up in the air to hit an indirect target, while canons fire directly at a target. Good to know. Very good to know. Thank you Jay for keeping us all on target (har har, get it, on target??)
<– Em standing next to a MORTAR. Signed, Jay.
As of now we have gone the furthest East (Charleston, SC: 32°45’26.1″N 79°51’26.5″W) and South (Bradenton, FL: 27°28’12.5″N 82°42’02.6″W) that we plan to travel during this trip. We will be heading (at a leisurely pace) to the west coast from here!
We said goodbye to Grandma Becky and hit the road. But not before Hoggle got a chance to sit with her. Even as a cat person her whole life, Grandma could not resist Hoggle’s charm. We were happy she liked him.
We drove to Tampa the morning of the April 13th. It was kind of a hot drive. Jay likes to forgo air conditioning in order to save on gas. Em likes some A/C. Hoggle prefers A/C too (see photo for evidence) – so that’s two against one. Em offered the compromise of driving slower on the highway to compensate, which she feels was very fair. But Jay is still pissy about it. Em found that driving 10 under the speed limit is kind of relaxing. Because there is no real probability of passing anyone at that speed, you just sit there in the slow lane, letting all the crazies going the speed limit fly on past.
We arrived in the afternoon and spent a little time at Al Lopez park before meeting Farrah, Em’s childhood friend, at her condo. She then was gracious enough to take us to a comedy show at the Improv Comedy Club in the Ybor City district of Tampa. It was called the “Down and Dirty” show for adults only, and it was appropriately named.
Today featured a daring adventure today: canoeing on the Hillsborough River at John B Sargent Memorial Wilderness Park. We rented a canoe from a great outfit called Canoe Escape. If you’re ever in Tampa go rent canoes from them and canoe this river! Jay took the back, Farrah the front, and Em chilled in the middle drinking bud light limes and challenging kayakers to races.
We were only out for an hour and a half but we probably saw twenty alligators. They were sunning on logs, on rocks, swimming in the river next to us, all over the place. It was awesome. There were also numerous bird life like blue herons.
After canoeing we went to downtown Tampa and had dinner on the bay. Hoggle mostly behaved himself in the dog friendly city of Tampa. Farrah told us that Tampa is ranked as the most vain city in the country. And we could kinda tell. Everyone was dressed really nice. And if you are exercising you have to look good and look good doing it. We would not fit in in a place like this. Farrah says people were giving us dirty looks for wearing canoeing clothes.
We walked along the Bayshore Boulevard after dinner. We walked through a defense industry convention on the way there. There were a lot of corporate stooges talking their stooge talk there. It sadly reminded Jay of his past days, and probably some future ones, where he was on engineering business like this. Though this particular convention was quite the boondoggle it seemed.
We are finding out that our energy level is pretty low. We are getting enough sleep, but being on the road at different places every other night is taking its toll on our old-foggy bodies. It might be even taking a toll on Hoggle too.
We spent all of today lounging around. Except we made a nice egg breakfast. Em and Farrah did laundry though and Jay shaved his hair. We brought along our clippers so we can cut his hair for free.
For dinner Farrah ran and picked up some Colombian hot dogs. They consist of a hot dog, bacon, shredded chicken, melted cheese, crushed up potato chips, and pineapple sauce. Jay liked his alright, but they did not agree with Em’s stomach at all. She was sick for the next few hours. 😦 It curtailed our plans to drive to Bradenton to stay with Em’s Aunt Jan that night. Farrah felt really awful for “poisoning” Em with what, in retrospect, she deemed as being “probably the dirtiest food that Tampa has to offer.” Hahaha.
On a bright note though, Farrah, who has always had horrible pet allergies has been tolerating Hoggle’s presence really well due to her allergy shots and steroids!! We are super excited for her that the medicines are working and that our visit isn’t putting her into the hospital with an asthma attack (this has actually happened before when Em and Farrah were kids). She even got to cuddle with him some.
Grandma Becky makes a mean breakfast. She had the bacon cooking before we were even up. After filling up on that, eggs, fruit, and her homemade strawberry and guava jelly (she’s very crafty), we headed out to a day full of activities she planned for us.
The first was Devil’s Millhopper Sinkhole. Florida is filled with sinkholes. Sometimes they swallow up houses. But this one has been around for quite a while. It’s deep, hundreds of feet. This time of year it is full of this cool blue water. The water comes from runoff and eventually seeps into Florida’s aquifer. There is a stairway all the way down. I don’t think you can swim in this one, but we’ve heard of others where divers go to the bottom of these things.
This was the first time we had a chance to really try out Hoggle’s backpack. It worked really well. He didn’t fuss at all for the 30 minute or so trip up and down the sinkhole.
Grandma Becky stayed at the top this time, understandably not wanting to tackle all the stairs. She told us as kids she would take cardboard and slide down the hole to the bottom. But now it’s roped off and there are threatening signs to not go off-path.
Paynes Prairie was once a lake until a sinkhole opened up and drained the whole thing. Now it’s a big prairie and swamp.
On the north side of the prairie is the La Chua trail. It’s a half mile paved/boardwalk trail to a sink, and then a grass walkway out into the prairie. The trail is known for its gators, which we saw a few. There are a lot of birds, something called a pig frog (which fooled us into thinking we were hearing the wild boar that roam there), and some wild horses, even a couple of pretty newborn babies. The biggest gator we had ever seen out in the wild was just laying on the side of the trail. It’s almost as if the gators are tame.
We also used Hoggle’s pack on this trail too in order to sneak him in as dogs were not allowed. Even the gators were fooled by our Hoggle subterfuge backpack. Good thing too, as I’m sure Hoggle would’ve make a tasty snack. The backpack hid him pretty well, which is good to know. And we devised an intricate system of standing in strategic positions to hide him from the numerous trail guide volunteers out that day.
Wiiiillllllllllddddddddd horses couldn’t drag me aaaawaaaayy! … I will ride them, someday.
After some lunch Grandma Becky took us over to the butterfly rainforest on the University of Florida’s campus. Here is where Hoggle’s luck with his backpack ran out. They wanted us to check (store) the large external frame backpack before they let us into the forest (not realizing that there was a wiener stowaway tucked inside). So Jay made an excuse for needing to get some things out of the pack first and gracefully ducked outside. Grandma graciously volunteered to look after Hoggle for us on a bench outside while we looked at the Butterflies.
There were a ton of really cool butterflies. Jay got some good pictures of some of them. They must have liked Em a lot because a few of them landed on her. We’ve heard that this means she is pure of heart and spirit… Jay must not be because the only one that landed on him was on his old muddy boot.
After all that touring we went back home and Grandma still had the energy to quickly whip up a lasagna dinner to feed us and Em’s aunt, uncle, and cousins.
Jay has found himself to also be a traveling computer technician. He’s set-up/fixed/optimized his mom’s, Em’s parents, and Grandma Becky’s computers. It’s the least we can do when people are being such wonderful hosts to us!
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