Can you believe Christmas is coming up in just over a month? Where does the time go? One minute you’re toasting the New Year and singing Auld Lang Syne, a week or two later you’re watching fireworks on Independence Day, and the next thing you know, they’re ringing bells in front of WalMart and you’re listening to Christmas carols on the radio.

I want time to slow down! I’m getting older and starting to realize that someday I’ll probably have to grow up too, but I’m in no hurry to get there!

Even the individual days seem to fly by. Yesterday we met Walter Cannon, executive director of the Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF), and his lovely wife Amy for lunch at a nice little restaurant called Caffe Chocolat in Titusville. We had a nice lunch and chatted for a while, and before I knew it, three hours had passed!

We have known Walter for a long time, but it was nice to have the opportunity to just sit and visit away from all of the activity of an RV rally or show. We had never met Amy before, and she is a delightful woman whom Miss Terry really hit it off with.

Last year RVSEF tried to hold an RV education conference similar to the old Life on Wheels program, but downturns in the RV industry kept it from happening. I was sorry it was cancelled, because it is something that the RV world really needs. Long before we became instructors for Life on Wheels, Terry and I went there as students in our first year on the road, and it really helped us transition to the RV lifestyle.

Walter is a persistent guy, and he truly believes in the need for an educational program for RVers, so he regrouped and now plans to hold an RV Lifestyle, Education and Safety Conference in Bowling Green, Kentucky June 3-6, 2010. If you are a new or wannabe RVer, or even a seasoned road warrior, I really urge you to attend. It is a great investment in your RVing lifestyle.

When we left the restaurant, we drove a few miles west of town on State Route 50 to Christmas, Florida to check out Fort Christmas Historical Park, which includes a replica of a Seminole War fort and several old Cracker style houses.

Unfortunately, time had gotten away from us (do you see a common thread here?) and the buildings were already closed for the day. But we strolled around under the live oak trees, with their cloaks of Spanish moss draping their leaves, and just enjoyed the solitude. We hope to get back for a better look at the place while we’re in this area.

Among the things left to do on my bucket list is to see an alligator in the wild, and there are a lot of the critters here in Florida, so that shouldn’t be all that hard to accomplish. But in several trips through the Sunshine state, I have yet to see one.  

A park ranger at Fort Christmas suggested we stop at a boat launch about halfway between the park and The Great Outdoors, where we are staying. He said it was not uncommon to see ’gators in the water or sunning on the banks there. We stopped to check it out, but there was an airboat firing up, and several trailers for other boats, and not an alligator to be seen. Terry said with all the noise and activity there, any alligator who might have been around had moved to quieter territory. Hopefully I’ll get to see one before we leave the South this year.

Thought For The Day – There will never be a time when life is simple.

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All RVers love food, and one of the great things about the fulltime RV lifestyle is the opportunity to try the local fare at the restaurants wherever we are traveling. So I was surprised when a fulltiming couple I met a while back told me that they never eat anywhere except chain restaurants. “That way we always know what to expect,” they explained. “With those local joints, who knows what you’ll get?”

But isn’t that part of the fun? Sure, a Denny’s Grand Slam breakfast or a Burger King Whopper is going to taste the same whether you eat it in Seattle or Paducah, but that gets boring after a while.

We love finding the local places, where the food has real taste and where our meal is not pre-planned by a dietician in some laboratory, who declares that we’ll get so many ounces of potatoes, the steak will be cut in such and such way, and the ranch dressing comes on the side, not on top of your salad.

One of our favorite books is Road Food, by Michael and Jane Stern. This gem has taken us to some great dining establishments that we might never have found before. We also get a lot of tips on good places to eat from other RVers. Here are some of our favorite places to chow down:

The Brick Pit, Mobile, Alabama – Located in an old 1950s style ranch house, the ambience is nothing to get excited about, but they serve a barbecue that you’ll never forget.

Hog Wild, Cottonwood, Arizona – This is another barbecue place you’ll want to return to after your first visit. It’s the best barbecue restaurant we have found in over 10 years on the road! The portions are huge and everything on the menu is delicious.

Sausage Shop Meat Market, Tucson, Arizona – Tucked away in the corner of a small strip mall, it’s easy to miss the Sausage Shop, but once you find it, you’ll save it’s location in your GPS! They serve some of the best sandwiches you’ll find anywhere.

El Rancho Restaurant, Pinetop, Arizona – When I owned the weekly newspaper here, El Rancho was everyone’s favorite Mexican restaurant, and it still is. El Rancho serves huge portions, it’s all delicious, and the atmosphere is comfortable.

El Siboney Restaurant, Key West, Florida – This is one of those places the locals all know about, but most tourists never find. Their Cuban sandwiches are the best this side of Havana!

Keys Fisheries, Market, and Marina, Marathon, Florida – We loved the fresh seafood at this open air restaurant so much that we drove 50 miles from Key West not once, not twice, but three times in eight days! Their blackened grouper is the best I’ve ever tasted.

Lunkers, Edwardsburg, Michigan – Lunkers is a smaller version of Cabela’s or Bass Pro Shop, with just the one location, in Edwardsburg. Their restaurant serves up some delicious food, including a Cobb salad that is so big that Terry only orders it when she has somebody else to share it with. Besides steaks, burgers, and other food, you can also have such exotic foods as elk, ostrich, and bear meat.

Don’s Drive-In, Traverse City, Michigan – Don’s is a popular restaurant for the burger and fries crowd, and they are very tasty. But what makes this place special is their strawberry milkshakes. Thick and loaded with real fruit, they are almost a meal in themselves.

Golden Girls, Clinton, Tennessee – You can’t beat the broasted chicken at Golden Girls, and Terry loves their collard greens. Southern cooking at it’s best!

The Boiling Pot, Rockport, Texas – We always order the Cajun Combo, a delicious blend of blue crab, shrimp, boudin sausage, red potatoes and corn, all boiled together in Cajun seasonings. Then they cover your table with sheets of paper and pour it all out for you to pick through.

So there are my top ten favorite places to eat across the country. Tell me about some of yours. You can find some of our other favorite restaurants on our website. Check them out.

And while you’re at it, check out Bad Nick’s latest post Religion Or Terrorist Organization?

Thought For The Day – The more time you spend caring, the less time you have to hate.

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Yesterday our friends Tim and Ann Moran played tour guide, showing us around Merritt Island and Cocoa Beach, Florida. Usually when we are visiting a new area, Terry or I are driving, so it was a real treat to just sit back and watch the scenery and not have to worry about traffic.

We saw some beautiful homes along the Indian River that must easily cost a king’s ransom, and while they were certainly impressive, I didn’t see one that I’d trade our Winnebago motorhome for. I did see several whose garages probably had more square footage than our diesel pusher has.

We then drove through Port Canaveral, where two huge Carnival cruise ships were docked. Terry and I love traveling in our RV, but one of these days we would like to take a cruise, just for the experience. The old section of Cocoa Beach is much different from most of the glitzy tourist traps we’ve seen elsewhere in Florida. It reminded me of a time when people came to Florida to experience the ocean and palm trees, not giant mice and plastic attractions. 

 Longtime Gypsy Journal subscriber David Spain has invited us to stop and visit his Comfort Inn in Cocoa Beach several times, so since we were in town, we stopped to introduce ourselves and say hello. David is an RVer stuck in the working world, and said that he gets to live vicariously through our writing. It was nice to get to know him, and if we ever find ourselves in this part of Florida and in need of a place to stay away from our motorhome, it would be David’s hotel.

Tim retired from the Navy, and one benefit of his service that he and Ann enjoyed was staying at Fam Camps, which are RV parks on military bases nationwide. They drove us to Patrick Air Force Base, just south of Cocoa Beach, to show us the Fam Camp there, and we were impressed!

Located on the Banana River, the Fam Camp has 137 RV sites, many of which back up to the water’s edge, and a huge overflow area for dry camping. The Army was just as happy to see me go after one enlistment as I was to say goodbye, but many times I have wished I stayed in and made it a career. I told Miss Terry that after seeing the Patrick Fam Camp, I might just reenlist and do another sixteen years! She seemed to think that the Army probably wants me even less now than it did back in the day..

We saw several impressive Blackhawk helicopters parked on the flight apron at Patrick, and they sure are different from the old Huey’s I knew during my time in the Army. I’d love to fly in one of those babies!

Across from the main gate at Patrick is a beautiful beach that the locals call Surf Beach. Though it is on Air Force property, the beach is open to the public and we stopped to check it out.

There were quite a few surfers out in the water waiting to catch a wave, and I managed to get a couple of pictures of them in action. It looks like a lot of fun, but I know it’s not for me. I have enough trouble standing upright on solid ground!

Thought For The Day – Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid.

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Is there any greater treasure than the people you love in this life, and those who love you?

Yesterday Terry and I spent the day visiting with two very special people, who have helped enrich our lives in so many ways that I could not begin to count them all.

We met Tim and Ann Moran at our very first Escapees RV Club Escapade rally, in Lancaster, California in 2000, and there was an immediate bond that has stayed strong through all the years that followed. Maybe it was slogging through the mud to get to our motorhome, the four of us laughing and giggling like school kids as we slipped and slid across the muddy racetrack where the RVs were parked that let us know that we had met kindred souls.

In the years that followed, we all have had our ups and downs, and Tim and Ann have been there for us when we needed friends the most. During the darkest days of Terry’s battle with cancer, Tim was a strong shoulder I could lean on. In the hard times that followed as she recovered from her illness, and we recovered from the terrible financial hit it had given us, Tim and Ann were always there. At one point when we were not sure if we could carry on, they stepped forward and made it happen.

When we bought our MCI bus, Tim and Ann drove to Kingman, Arizona and spent two or three weeks helping us as we started the conversion project. We could not have done some of the big jobs early in the conversion, such as enclosing the sides and cutting in the new RV window openings, without Tim’s help.  

Tim has been facing some serious health issues that have caused them to make the decision to stop fulltiming and settle down close to his doctors. It had been way too long since we saw our friends, and visiting them was the reason we came to the Titusville area.

We spent the day together yesterday, enjoying a tour of their new home, and the opportunity to just be together.

Tim is a feisty retired Navy Chief Petty Officer with a positive attitude you just can’t help but admire. His illness has knocked him down several times, but like the stubborn little Irishman he is, he just gets back on his feet, shakes it off, and charges right back into the fight. I know he’s going to win this battle, because he’s just too damn stubborn to throw in the towel.

Tomorrow Tim and Ann are taking us on a tour of the local area, and we’re looking forward to spending more time with our friends, and learning more about Florida’s Space Coast.

While we were off visting, Bad Nick wrote a new Bad Nick Blog post titled Sometimes It’s Because You’re A Jerk.

Thought For The Day – You cannot plow a field by turning it over in your mind.

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We had a surprisingly quiet night at the Georgia State Welcome Center, and were on the road by 8:30 a.m., which is probably a new record for us, but we had a lot of miles to cover.

We had a little technical issue I wanted to have looked at, so I called the Camping World in Pooler, near Savannah, and the service manager said to come right in and they’d see what they could do. It was only nine miles to Camping World, so we were there in just a few minutes. I checked in and was told there was one rig ahead of us, and it would probably be about an hour before they could get us into the shop.

Since we didn’t have an appointment, I figured that was pretty good. But an hour later, they still had not pulled that motorhome into the service bay, so I asked again about the time frame. Then I was told it would be about 1 p.m. before they could get to us. We decided that we’d deal with it when we got to Florida.

We got back on the highway and had a quick trip south to the Florida state line, even though we drove through a 20 mile long construction zone north of Brunswick. Regular readers Lucille and Larry Tillotson had e-mailed to advise us to take the I-295 bypass around Jacksonville rather than stay on the more challenging I-95 through town, and we found it to be an excellent road.

We knew that the space shuttle Atlantis was supposed to be launched at 2:28 p.m., and I told Terry we might get lucky and see it. She got her Olympus digital camera out, just in case, and sure enough, right on schedule, we saw it streaking toward outer space.

We were going down the highway at 60 miles per hour, but Terry managed to get a couple of photos through the side window of our Winnebago before it sped out of sight, leaving a thick contrail in the blue sky.

Earlier Terry and I had been talking about the space program, and I questioned whether it was worth all the money we had poured into it. She pointed out that it has brought us all kinds of things we take for granted today, such as satellite TV programming and GPS systems. Okay, that’s a good deal I guess. We spend billions of dollars, and in return we get perpetual reruns of Roseanne and The Beverly Hillbillies, more home shopping channels than I will ever have time to skip with my remote control, and an electronic backseat driver nagging me to turn left.

We left the highway in Titusville and pulled into The Great Outdoors, one of the premier RV resorts in the country. When we said we were headed to Florida, our longtime friends Pete and Connie Bradish had generously invited us to be their guests for a few days, which we very much appreciate.

This place is really impressive. They have two swimming pools, hot tubs, an eighteen hole championship golf course, fitness center, stocked fishing lake, recreation hall, as well as an on-site post office, bank, hair salon, bank, and RV service facility.

There are hundreds of full hookup 50 amp RV sites, as well as RV ports, chalets, and upscale homes, some of which sell for over $600,000. Lots here rent for over $1,100 a month during peak season, and the resort’s newsletter listed RV lots for sale by private owners for as much as $115,000. That’s a bit out of our price range, but we sure are going to enjoy experiencing the lifestyle of the rich and famous for a while! I think I just heard Robin Leach talking about champagne wishes and caviar dreams.

Thought For The Day – The heart that loves is always young.

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