Trip #2 of Kosher RVing

This is going to be a shorter trip than the last, just 3 ½ weeks.  Between welcoming our new grandson and wanting to be home for Purim, this was the amount of time we had, and we decided to use it to explore Florida.

The flight to Atlanta, where the RV is stored, was 24 hours, 5 hours of which were in the Paris airport.  It could have been worse; those nice Parisians have designated areas in the terminals for couches where you can lie down.  We napped a bit and it was much more comfortable than the hard plastic chairs you find in some airports.  After a night in a hotel, we picked up our RV, bought supplies at Walmart, hit an outlet mall for the fun of it, unpacked, and settled in for our first winter camping experience.  That night it was -3 degrees C in Atlanta.  I am glad to say our Winnebago Travato was nice and cozy; the furnace worked very well, and we had a good night’s sleep before traveling into Florida the next morning.

As an aside: We have been talking about a name for our camper and it has come down to two:  Gulliver (after the famous fictional traveler) and Binyamin of Tudela (after the famous, real, 12^th century Jewish traveler).  To be decided.

Following a full day’s drive we found our first scheduled campground, the Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park, west of St. Augustine, Florida.  Unlike our last trip, where we traveled and stopped where we wanted to on a whim, for this excursion we have almost all of our stops planned and reserved.  This is the busy season in Florida and snowbirds (including the many people who have RVs) move from the north in the summer to the south in winter, and campsites in the popular areas, and as one goes further south, are hard to get.

There are so many cities, historical sites, and places of interest in Florida that one could spend months and never visit them all, but that is not the main purpose of our travels.  We like nature and peace and quiet.  The Mike Roess State Park has beautiful lakes, forested areas, marshes, and hiking trails.  Just taking a stroll in the morning with my cup of coffee gave me a sense of peace.

A bit later in the morning, we took a 3 ½ hour hike, partly along the Florida Trail, 5.44 miles of which are in the state park.  (The Florida Trail, one of eleven national scenic trails in the U.S., currently runs 1,000 miles, with another 300 miles planned, from the Big Cypress National Preserve near the Everglades to Fort Pickens at Pensacola Beach.)  We walked from lakeshore to pine forest, up and through a ravine, and observed the sandhills which are home to animals such as gophers, tortoises, turkeys, and others.

And of course, we took photos.  Sima and the kids gave me a new camera for my birthday and I am having the time of my life playing with it – who needs video games and TV when you can be out in the middle of nature taking pictures.

We will be spending Shabbat with friends and the Chabad of Delray Beach.

Shabbat Shalom

Bill and Sima