First Christmas on the Road

We left Alabama on December 14, 2019 and headed to Florida, our winter destination for our first year in the RV. For the holidays, we decided to stay near my Aunt and Uncle who live in Inverness. It is nice to have family to visit for the holidays since we are far from home. We selected a campground closer to the coast in Homosassa, FL so we could be near the springs for easy manatee viewing when we weren’t visiting family. Since it was over a 6 hour drive from Gulf Shores to Homosassa, we decided to stay a few nights in Tallahassee to break up the trip. We have discovered that we do not like driving more than 3-4 hours at a time on travel days so this was a perfect distance for us.

Since Tallahassee is the state capital, we had the opportunity to see another capital building. We spent most of our time around the campground but went into the area around the capital building twice. There was a bit of construction near the capital so it wasn’t as scenic as it could be but the historic area a few blocks away was worth walking through. With threats of tornado’s and severe storms on our last day there, we brought in the slides on the RV and went downtown. We lunched at a hotel (felt safer in the large solid building) then we shopped at Bass Pro while the heavy rains hit.

Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial near the Capital building.

The Tallahassee RV Park was within the city limits so space was limited but it was so well cared for and the staff was wonderful. You could tell that they took pride in their work and the campground was kept in pristine condition. Even though it was one of those campgrounds near an interstate where most people just pulled in for the night, we met some full timers that we plan to stay in contact with. They were very nice people and shared good information on areas and campgrounds to visit. We also enjoyed a few dinners out at a farm to table restaurant near the campground. All in all, Tallahassee was a great place to stop for a few days.

From there, we headed to Homosassa and got settled in for the holidays. I finally put up a few Christmas decorations in the RV and it started to feel like the holidays. Although it felt weird to be away from family this time of year and miss the family celebrations. Luckily we have some family not too far away and a few came for a visit during our first week here. My cousin Janet and her husband Lou joined us Friday and we enjoyed time at the campground especially steaks and entertainment at the tiki bar and grill. Tim’s sister Sue and her husband Greg joined us the very next day and we had a wonderful visit that included a stop at the Homosassa Wildlife State Park and a dinner of steamed shrimp at The Freezer in Homosassa. The shrimp was delicious and the beer refreshing. What a nice way to spend an afternoon. The evening ended back at the campground with more entertainment at the Tiki bar and a highly competitive Wii bowling game in the RV.

Nature’s Resort is a fairly large campground located on the Hall’s River that had quite a few amenities, including a marina with a tiki bar and grill on site. Being on the water, there were many RV sites on the river, creek and canal that ran through the campground. This made for a very scenic campground which I highly enjoyed walking around. For the first week it wasn’t too crowded and was very peaceful. The week between Christmas and New Year’s brought in many more people and it did get a little too crowded and noisy for us.

The entire area was quite scenic with many parks, quaint towns, and natural springs which attracts the manatees. We spent a little time at the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park that was just down the road from the campground. It was a very enjoyable park to visit, especially seeing the manatees and other wildlife they have rescued. After our first visit, we decided to purchase the annual state park pass so we went back for additional visits and also visited Weeki Wachi with that pass. I am sure we will continue to visit state parks in the next 3 months and realize value from that investment.

The oldest Hippo in the U.S.A. Three days younger than Tim

There were many of these guys in the park, luckily they are safely behind fencing.

The fish bowl and under water viewing at the springs was really cool. I didn’t get a great shot of the manatees but we saw quite a few in the river near the fish bowl.

Of the many bird species in the park, the flamingo’s were my favorite.

In between touring around the area, we visited my Aunt and Uncle and spent Christmas day with them as well as Janet and Lou. Unfortunately, my Aunt fell after we left the restaurant and broke her hip. The rest of Christmas was spent in the Emergency room, and the rest of the week spent with many trips visiting her at the hospital. She had a hip replacement the day after Christmas and is on the road to recovery. It was good that we were in the area and Janet had recently moved nearby so we can help them out through this time. On New Year’s Day, we moved to our winter location in Zephryhills. We are just a little over an hour away from my Aunt so I am still able to visit and help as they need it. We will be here for 3 months so look forward to upcoming posts for more about this area.

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