Johns Trippin'

  When there is an accident on the single road leading off the mainland to the Florida Keys

Our plan for Florida is to run roughly down the western coast and then back up the eastern coast. Our first stop was at Hillsborough River State Park. It's not strictly on the coast, but it's close. The Hillsborough River, which borders the park and from which the park takes its name, runs past Tampa into the Tampa Bay. It was a fairly sprawling park, and much of it was unusable. It had an enormous pool, but it was closed on account of COVID-19. Of course. I guess this is the one place in Florida that acknowledges we're in a global pandemic. Fortunately, the usable part included a few miles of hiking trails. We took full advantage. There was a nice riverside hike on which we saw multiple alligators, a few large birds, and one very small snake that we only spotted because there was another hiker staring intently at it. We were curious what he had found! Unfortunately, the internet situation was poor at the park. As with Florence Marina, I had to commute for work. I spent one...

You know that sound you sometimes get after a nice rain? It's the sound of drops of water softly falling from the trees. It's soothing. Have you ever heard that sound when it hasn't rained for days? If you ever do, it might be caterpillar poop. Turns out we aligned our stay at Hillsborough State Park perfectly with millions of hairy little friends . Fortunately they are harmless and mind their own business. But yes, it does in fact rain poop from the trees!

At Florence Marina State Park we went to Providence Canyons State Park. I collected 6 rocks and I got a thorn stuck in my shoe. It made a hole. Then we went back home (RV) and made some new friends named Bryce and Sydney. We had a lot of fun. We saw 7 alligators and 11 turtles. We did some bike rides. I got some candy at a store and we went to do mini golf. We rented the ball and club.

Julie and I are both blessed with wonderful families. I can't stress that enough. We truly are. We've spent the past two weeks visiting various members of both of them. That explains the lack of updates. Special thanks to Julie's sister for letting us park the RV at her house and providing me a desk for the week! We hit the road yesterday in what I consider to be the official start of our full-time RV lifestyle. Even though the house sold a little more than two weeks ago, the reality is that we haven't been living out of the RV while also doing school and work. That starts today. And evidenced by the fact that I commuted 40 minutes this morning to the nearest big town to our campsite so I could work, it is off to a rocky start. Regardless, here we go...

You know how some dogs love walking so much that they basically drag you around? Yeah... not so much with Fiji. Have I mentioned that she's 17 and was supposed to die before we started this trip but didn't hold up her end of the bargain?

I had the whole family list some things that they were thankful for at this site... When I was researching on what to get when starting out in an RV, all the videos I saw said to get an outdoor rug.  There are many good reasons to get one, the two biggest being able to help dirt stay outside and it gives an additional room outside that is great for kids and road-schooling.  It was on my list of things to get and it was always pushed aside for one reason or another.  We had no outdoor rug until we got to Don Carter State Park and met our nice neighbor Carly. She came over and asked if we had an outdoor rug. Hers was too big and she wanted to get a smaller one.  She gave us her brand new double-sided outdoor rug, but I know Who really gave it to us! Thank you Lord!  To the one Who knew exactly what I wanted and when!  Wow!  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the Heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting sha...

Poinsett State Park was the first place we stopped. I got out and compared the size, easily noticing a difference. Ours was definitely the biggest one on the lot. We set up, which includes putting the stabilizers down, putting the slides out, and hooking up the hose to their water. At Poinsett there was a big field, some trails, nice bathrooms, and neighbor kids. It was late when we got there so we hurriedly went to bed. In the morning Asher and I rode our bikes down to the office to see if there was any firewood to buy. We searched and searched but didn't find anything, but we did find that they had a lake and a playground but no firewood. We rode back and told the news. Then I went outside to collect firewood. I had only gotten a little when some man who looked like a ranger came riding down the road. I went up to him and asked, "Sir, do you know of any place you can buy firewood?" He replied, "Yeah, do you know where the office is?" I said, "Yeah." ...

Earlier today, sometime around 3:30 or so, Caleb, Jordan, mom, and I got our bikes. We split up, Caleb and Jordan biked down the road while mom and I went the other way. We rode down a path to trail sign #23 and turned left down whippoorwill (yellow trail). We rode until #25 and turned left on scout (orange trail). The trails were really nice and flat. And with trees on either side it was shaded so it was cooler. On scout we rode until we got to palmetto. When we got there we turned left and rode to the end to get to the lake. When we got to the lake we met Caleb and Jordan, who had taken the road. We played around for awhile but we came back around 4:30 because when dad tried to lock the RV door, the key got stuck in the lock and he had to call a locksmith who ended up just pulling the key out with a pliers. We headed out again but without Caleb and Jordan. Then we had to go back again to pay the locksmith. Mom and I set out again and this time we weren't called back. So this time...