RV adventure travel

Been geocaching today. Its fun. I have a new Garmin Etrex legend handheld GPS unit. I’ve been treasure hunting around Osprey Florida at a State Park. I’ll post more later.

Sanibel Island really needs a pied piper to get rid of all the greed-ridden rats and huge infestation. Frankly I hated the place!
Now, Sanibel is an island just over a causeway out of Fort Myers Florida. My family had hyped this place, but I don’t really tend to like the same spots they do, but alas I went anyway. I not only didn’t like Sanibel, I fracking hated it!
Now you can pay 6 dollars to drive onto the island so you can pay to park every hour (I even saw the Sanibel cops giving a parking ticket to a wee Motor scooter, now there’s a vehicle that is so taxing on your parking resources, feh).
It was so infested with humans that you could have had a better beach and nature experience in a Japanese subway with an ocean poster on the wall. Oh and The greed-ridden owners of the island have instituted a 2-dollar an hour charge for all parking on the place. And let me tell ya, this place, well, she aint all that! I guess its popular to some because you can lay your beach blanket down within 2 and a half inches of some hob-snobby swine errr something, or just because it has been hyped too much. But this travel site isn’t anyone’s Chamber of Commerce.
Sanibel is not a place for an outdoorsman. It is a place for city folks to go and gawk at the sad and half-assed remains of what once was obviously a beautiful place in nature.
Frankly I’ve seen parks and islands, and beauty spots in Florida that make Sanibel Island look like a New Jersey slum after a sewage truck explosion. And those were either free or really really cheap by comparison.
I guess like some wise folks have said before. “If its popular, its wrong”. And that’s what Sanibel Island was to me, wrong. You could barely even get through the place. Lovers key, was a glory by comparison. Go there for your Ft. Myers beach action.
I even went through the National wildlife refuge there. Now as a rule, I love my national parks and forests, state parks, and state forests. They are some of my favorite places in the world. But alas this park was in the Sanibel tradition of greed greed greed. I paid 5 bucks (a high fee for entrance to a NWR) so I could drive through a torn up Mangrove swamp. Yep, that was it, that was their amazing park about 6 miles of Mangrove swamp. Nice, meh, but alas, not impressive wildlife wise, though you could at least pull over to the side and park and look (I’m amazed they didn’t try to charge me again for that, I’m sure its in the works.). Na, this park isn’t very nice either, Not when I’ve taken my bike through swamps like these for free and seen more wildlife and beauty than this place holds. Of course these places I like were not really “where the people tend go in multitudes”. I guess the numbers are good for the national parks system, so that’s a plus.
I saw “city folks” fascinated with this bird or that one, or by the fact that they saw a mullet, but guys, Florida has so much more beautiful things to offer! But forever more (unless of course women are involved), I will leave the façade remains of nature called Sanibel Island to the yupsters and hob-snobbies, and will not morn her at all when nature’s pied-piper called a huge hurricane thoroughly cleans her.

Lovers Key State Park in Florida

I cheated I went to Lovers Key without a lover but alas they let me in anyway. I wasn’t camping here (no campground), but I was just visiting for a day visit. I’m staying in a park not too far away in Estero Florida.

Now lovers key was named such because it was once only accessible by boat, and lovers would go their for the romantic setting (wink wink nudge nudge). Lovers Key State Park is between Fort Myers Florida and Naples and it has some beautiful beaches about 2 and a half miles of beach for fun fun splash splash, walking, bird gawking or whatever. It is a complex of 4 barrier islands, Lovers Key (the one with the beach) Inner key, Black Island, and Long Key. Bonita beach hotels were out to the south and Sanibel island could be seen way off to the north. They also had a little tram to take folks out to the beach. I just walked, but I guess the tram would be handy for folks who had either too much beach stuff or too much blubber to walk the very nice boardwalks to the beach. Oh and they had a little gift shop, I had a coke after a nice swim.

They also have bike rentals, and canoe rentals at the park. They have bike trails as well. Hey maybe you will even see a Pirate ghost or something as local legend has it that Black Augustus a pirate made his home here after running away from the man.

The osprey and lots of birds had their nests right next to the beach. The park had the area fenced off with a string and Bird nesting area sign so folks would not frighten away the birds from their homes. I watched the big Osprey with its nest in a tree feeding its babies., The chicks would go squawk-squawk-squawk-squeek-squeek-squawkitee-squawk… which is bird talk for feed me- feed me feed me, no me, feed me already-feed me.

The area between Sanibel Island and lovers key didn’t seem to have alot of waves, there were ordinary small power boats mucking about out there, not something you see much on open ocean. but apparently all the keys and Sanibel
area offer the area shelter preventing excessive wave pounding. I didn’t notice any large boats out there, so I’d be interested in checking the Nav charts to see how deep it is out there.

I pulled into Crystal Lake RV Park in Scottsmoor Florida, simply because it was in my half price club and hence cheaper than the others in the area. I needed to do some work anyway.
I will refer to it however as Camp Crystal Lake, like the classic camp in the Friday the 13th horror series.
Now Camp Crystal Lake is right off of I-95 just north of all of The Space Coast goodies.
It was 16 dollars plus tax when my Happy camper half price discount was applied. It was very nice for an interstate park, and it had a decent rate.

Now I find it ironic that Camp Crystal Lake is run by the Kruger family.
I guess Freddy Kruger took over when he sent Jason to the future and deeded it to some of his kin. Though they seemed nice ;).

Now unlike the classic Camp Crystal Lake the park was missing hot teen young gals taking their clothes off (bummer), but it did have monsters in the lake.
I called the Alligator Jason Jr.
He was about a 7ft long fella.
He was sunning across the lake a lot in the 2 days I was there.
I took off my shirt and shook my booty at him from across the lake but he didn’t come to hack me up.

The camp has a wee pool, and a nice full hookups setup, except for cable.
If you stay at Crystal Lake be sure to ask for one of the pull throughs next to the lake, I got one of these, and I felt sorry for the poor blokes with some of the back-ins as they were right next to the very noisy interstate.

The Krugers didn’t haunt my dreams, but they did sell me a light bulb for one of my interior rv lights.

Now there is not a lot to do at Crystal Lake, once you have shaken your boodie at Jason Jr. Its next to the interstate, so it might be a handy crash and drive spot for an eve, or as an affordable base to visit some of the space coast goodies. but hey Camp Crystal lake is right behind a Stuckeys, and it was handy for beerness, and I even bought a set of tiki salt shakers for the Oyster can of adventure.

It was Jetty Park, a popular campground in Cape Canaveral Florida that we stayed at for our attack on The Space Coast.
Now, The park was fine, my some of my family dragged their RVs down and joined me in this park for the 3 days we stated there.
I got a great spot next to the water. I could watch the cruise line departing as well as the sub base across the way and the random boats that went up and down the bay.
I had a self-contained lot, as that was all that was available since I made my reservations late, but it was a much cooler spot than the spaces with power.
Oh and Jetty Park helped me to find a porpoise in life, as the porpoises would play and run amok in the bay.
Now being self contained for 3 days is not really a big deal to the Oyster Can of Adventure as it has a nice self contained battery system and a large 800+ Watt inverter and several super efficient tiny inverters for running small things, and almost every thing except the compressor on the AC can be run on the 12 volt system. The fridge went into lp gas mode, and I carry about 30 gals of h20 in the holding tanks.

Adventures in Saint Augustine Florida.

I heart Saint Augustine.

I love this town (Saint Augustine that is).. I’m not really sure as to why I like it so much, so I tend to keep coming back. So as I write this maybe It will help me work it out as to why I love Saint Augustine. Now in spite of its loveliness, it is awful touristy, but I grew up in a tourist town so that is not a major problem for me.

This place keeps drawing me in. and every time I bike or moped the lovely back streets, peeking in gallery windows to steal a view of objects I could never afford or sneak down to my favorite pub for a sandwich. Its another here I am again trolling the Streets of Saint Augustine.

I took the Wind Up Toy of Adventure over to the Lighthouse
The Saint Augustine Lighthouse will give you a good view of the city the bay and all kinds of things. It is a tall bugger and worth it if you have the bucks to blow on the tour. Be in shape or use it to get in shape. I didn’t climb her this last trip, I wanted to save dough as I transition into my mobile lifestyle.. mehhh, now as I write this I wish I had just sprang for the fee and climbed her again (maybe next time). As I’m sure this town will find me haunting her again. Maybe that Dale guy, who comes here lots should be on the Ghost tour as a feature. The Tourist Ghost.ooohhhhhhooooooo, rattles cameras…

Saint Augustine Florida lighthouse pier
Instead of clambering up the light house this time, I mopeded around and hung out at the Lighthouse pier and watched some boats while I was over there. and then went mopeding around town for a bit.

The Rendezvous Restaurant

Ummmm Beer!!!

Speaking of Saint Augustine haunts, there are light houses (ooohhhhoooo), then there are ale houses (yeeeehawwwww) So lets stop in at the Rendezvous Restaurant for some of that good old rising of the wrist. As this ale house has some of the best brew selections around. This time I picked a time honored favorite a brew called Hacker Pschor (I likely spelled that wrong, anyway the octoberfest one) as it brought back memories of really fun times with a dangerous blond. and I washed it down with a good Ruben sandwich. and had a nice German brew for desert. The place isn’t easy to find in spite of the fact that it is right in the center of all the tourist stuff.You have to look on the map (which you can scrounge all over) for this mall thing called Saint George’s Row, you will walk by some of the cutest little faerie figurines I’ve ever seen (I always have to stop and wish), you will pass a magic shop and some other cool things to find the ale house. The brew selection is huge.

Now Saint Augustine, as the oldest town in the States has plenty of history to fascinate the history buff and tons of cute wee shops for those into that sort of thing. Parking is a hassle sometimes if you are in a car and not the wind up toy of adventure scooter/moped like me.

Arrrgggg! Me Mateys!!!

While this latest trip I stayed at a nearby RV park called Indian Forest Campground and just rode the moped /scooter thing into town as I had the camper. Before I have stayed at the quite fun hostel called The Pirate Haus Inn.

Shiver Me Tenders!!! arrrrrgghhh
I went for a private room when I stayed there last as I have loved hostels and all the folks that I meet at them for ages, but these days sometimes, as a 40 something, I think I am getting a bit old for the common room (I’ll likely get over that). But the place is great and it is right in town, so you can have all the fun you want, and have a handy place to crash, and even get Blueberry pancakes in the morning.