Goin Home

After 18 months and 47 states, we were thrilled to go back to Florida. First stop, a much needed trip to the beach, near Pensacola Florida.

The trip from New Orleans to Pensacola, was a longer one – four hours – but it felt longer as the boys didn’t really want to be cooped up. I think they’d gotten used to going out everyday in New Orleans.

When we stopped for lunch, we had about 90 minutes to go, when we discovered that the car was dead – again. We think that some of the cars interior features, like our heated seats, turn on during the drive, and drain the battery.

Luckily, Damon had everything we needed to charge up the battery. While we waited, we took the boys to a nearby park. This was exactly what they needed – a play to run and play. It alined perfectly with the battery charging time, too. By the time we got back, the car was ready to go.

Added bonus, the boys were calm for the rest of the trip. We also lucked out with the timing of our arrival – getting there just a few minutes before the park closed.

This state park is voted the best RV park in Florida and I can see why – full hook-ups, beautiful trees and a short walk to a gorgeous beach.

And, of course, when we went to disconnect the car, it was dead – again. I swear, this car is getting a full look over when we get to Orlando.

We woke up the next day to perfect, 70 degrees weather. Ah, Florida in winter. After a morning of shopping, where we scored some great finds at Goodwill, and getting groceries, we went back to the RV to grab our beach stuff.

This beach is the highlight of the RV park and we weren’t going to miss it. Unfortunately, little-dude fell asleep. We let him nap a bit, but soon decided to just carry him with us.

Mini-man got so excited when I came out in my swim suit, that he ran and got his swim float. He knew what was coming. After walking most of the 15 minute walk to the beach, mini-man got tired and hopped on the rolling backpack for a ride. But once we got to the beach, he hopped off and started heading to the sand.

And it was amazing – soft sand, warm water and no seaweed to be seen. There was even a small pond of ocean water, where the boys could splash about without going into the ocean. Little-dude continued to nap while mini-man and I dug in the sand. After a bit, I started walking in the pond and mini-man handed me his float – it was swimming time.

He lasted about a minute in the pond before heading right into the ocean. Luckily, it was high tide, so the depth was perfect and the waves were small. He spent an hour going in and out of the water.

During this time, little-dude woke up to discover the biggest sand box of his life. This was the first time in months he’d seen a beach and he loved it. He and Damon sat there building sand castles and throwing wet sand into the pond. It was a perfect combination of activities for the boys.

As the sunset, it started to get cold, so we started to get ready to leave. When we headed to the beach earlier, Damon wanted to travel light and didn’t see why I wanted to bring swim gear for the boys – ‘they won’t want to get into the water; it’s too cold’. Ha! I’m so glad I brought the swim gear as it gave us dry clothes to change them into.

Instead of walking back, we took the tram. It was very cold but worth it to not have to carry two cold and tired little boys all the way back to the RV.

I really love this place and plan to come back once were settled in Orlando.

Seeing that we had a six hour drive ahead of us, we tried to get an early start on the day. We managed to depart by 8:30a, and thought we make good time.

The first half was pretty smooth – made it about half way by 1p. However, the boys were in desperate need of lunch and playtime. Mini-man proved this at out lunch stop. To save time, we planned to just grab lunch and go. As soon as Damon left, mini-man grabbed me to follow. He let it be known that he wanted to eat inside. Fair enough, mini-man.

After lunch, we took a 15 minute drive to a local playground to let the boys spend some energy. While we were there, we discovered that a street we’d passed on our way to the playground bent our tow-hitch. While it looks bad, it wasn’t damaged and we were safe to continue our journey.

These stops all added up and delayed our stop into Orlando by a few hours. When we finally arrived, we’d spent 10 hours driving. Exhausted, we were glad to stop.