Alligators

Alligator stop is half way from the Keys to Naples so we always stop here to relax with lunch in the Airstream parked at the Big Cypress Oasis Visitor Center car park and then walk over to check out the alligators in the nearby canal. These are big big alligators!

Stone crab claws

These are jumbo size and very expensive and... delicious. Made up some mayo and mustard sauce and had a special dinner treat. After all that's what the Keys are famous for!

Kim & Kate

Just dropped in to say hi to Kim and Kate at Bahia Honda SP - the white truck and the Airstream to the left on the beach. The wind just turned NW and was coming straight at them for the rest of the day and night sending spray over their campsite. Great to catch up after our Cajun Caravan two years ago!

Florida Keys

Sunsets in the Keys are spectacular... so we hang on to some wonderful memories as we leave the Keys for 2021 and will return next January 2022....

Grilling at GKM

Ronnie and Joe brought over marinated steaks and I set up my Yakatori wood grill. Had a pair of splendid evenings in the knowledge that we had all four been self quarantined for several weeks! Ronnie and Joe live in Key Largo and drove their Interstate down for the weekend... they also have a house near Cannes in France and we caught up with them in Provence a couple of years ago...

Geiger Key Marina

A little wave of Covid does not dampen the desires for locals to drink and party at the GKM bar - being overly cautious we decided to order our fish and chips to go! 

Blue Laser

Got our Blue Laser Starfield projector set up and spread a pattern across the Airstream! Very effective! Some light points are static and one half is in motion which produces a stunning effect!

Paddle boarders

The area around our campsite is a pristine ecological preserve and a local tour company at the Marina rents out kayaks and paddle boards by the hour or day. Many eco- tourists float by our dock.

Geiger Key

January in Geiger Key! Sunrise with great white heron. Every day, new reflections.

Sitting on the dock of the bay!

Famous lyrics are appropriate as we reach our winter resting place! Geiger Key Marina us nestled amongst the mangroves and the Atlantic ocean is half a mile away via a marked channel. We have explored the narrow water guts in the mangrove by kayak on previous trips!

Getting sprayed

Looks like I'm getting the anti mosquito treatment. Wish they had the Covid equivalent! Not a mosquito was seen for the whole month in the Keys!

Pork Belly

Supermarkets in Florida carry a wide range of products not available in Virginia so I was tempted to prepare pork belly... 36 hours sous-vide followed by 6 hours of smoking! Delicious but quite a demanding prep!

Danger... falling coconuts

Our Airstream backs up to a well stocked coconut tree close to the edge of the dock. Every inch in the campsite counts so I'm taking a risk here but folks tell me healthy coconuts never drop!

OverSeas Highway

Always a thrill traveling down to Key West - here we are towing our Airstream on the Seven Mile Bridge across the turquoise waters....

Boca Raton Buddies!

Checking in and having lunch with Lindy and Steven - Margaret's college buddy from Aix en Provence University in 1968 France. We met in Madrid some 53 years ago! All aging gracefully!

Goodbye 2020

Used our Pull-Start-Fire kit to get this fire going and we went through three log bundles rapidly! Maximum BTU!

New Year

Prepping our New Year hors d'oeuvres... smoked salmon, sparkling rose wine and Glenfiddich 15...

Daytona Lights

With tickets purchased online we were marshaled into the Daytona International Speedway and proceeded at a leisurely 5 mph through the Christmas light circuit which was quite lengthy and varied. It was a fund raiser so we felt good about donating for a worthy cause and had a nice evening out experience !

Daytona Festival of Lights

Reserved tickets to the drive through light show at the Daytona International Speedway... a two mile circuit with seasonal themed light shows. The level of animation was pretty average and not quite as exciting as I had hoped! However it was splendid nil-covid risk entertainment driving the RAM through the Speedway complex through a million lights!

Christmas dinner

Improv on the grill and Airstream oven... Christmas evening treat... grilled lobster tails, white wine/white balsamic/chicken stock/shallot reduction sauce, mashed potatoes baked over prosciutto, asparagus and roasted cherry tomatoes... followed by individual creme patissiere tarte aux fruits...

Gamble Rogers

Moved up the coast a few miles from Christmas at Cape Canaveral to New Year at Flagler Beach. Love being close to the ocean and walking the long beaches with very few folks on them. Fine tuned out curbside pickup with Publix grocery stores after we turned up the wrong store location! So far successful in avoiding public spaces. Set up zoom calls to UK and to California for New Years Eve and lit a huge camp bonfire!

Celebrating Brexit!

The rainbow was appropriate symbol of regaining sovereignty and freedom from bureaucratic overkill...

KSC pad 39B

Lunch on Playalinda beach less than two miles from KSC Pad 39B where Shuttles and moon shot Saturns lifted off from. Slightly south is Pad 39A which is in constant use by Spacex but my visits to Canaveral so far have not coincided with any launches...

Canaveral Seashore

Lunch at the beach with David and Diana with Margaret and myself on opposite ends of the bench! Making our annual pilgrimage down the east coast and checking in with friends along the way... we all started off in sailboats many years ago and moved on to Airstreams. David and I are both avid bread bakers and grillers, photographers and love working with wood - where David excels is his exquisite bird carvings!

Savannah camping

Beautiful Spanish Moss hanging from the trees in Skidaway Island State Park and fortunately not in pollen season! Met up with Steve and Claudia who are wintering aboard their Nordhavn 47 at the Isle of Hope Marina about two miles away as the crow flies! Steve and Claudia have just bought an Airstream Interstate and expect delivery in the Spring. We wanted to give them a taste of real camping with a huge camp bonfire and fireside lunch!

Newly-weds!

Glamorous location to meet Harrison and Christine- the Charleston Target parking lot - because we know there is enough room to park our rig! Harrison has signed up for half a life in the Navy and has a several year long training program to work with nuclear reactors on aircraft carriers! They were married a couple of weeks ago in the Temple in Columbia SC. They are so happy it's wonderfully refreshing to see a young couple start out on life with do many dreams going in the right direction! We will be passing through Charleston regularly to check in on them!

New Airstream Table

Replaced our mottled green Formica dining table with a home built custom made maple, cherry and black walnut version that took weeks to build. Lots of quality control on the hardwood meant 50% was rejected, and agonizing about the irreversible gluing of the biscuits extended the project! Completed it looks great and it is an uplifting experience and great pleasure to have in our Airstream.

Brisket variations

One of my Covid stay at home projects has been learning to use Sous Vide techniques along with smoking and grilling. A 4 lb beef brisket was rubbed with Himalayan salt and coarse ground pepper, put in the SV for 36 hours at 155 F and then transferred to the smoker for 4 hours to develop a beautiful blackened crust. Plenty to take along on the road and enjoy!

RivaHaven sunrises

They are just spectacular at this time of the year. This is our bedroom window and this is the view we wake up to most mornings! By the time I've made my first cup of coffee the sunrise turns into a regular day and the magic has gone! It only 10 to 15 minutes!

Hatteras - part 2

Following our successful initial visit to Frisco we watched the weather and made a week long res and came equipped with beach tent and table. Lunch on the Surfline! Feels very Côte d'Azur at negligible cost and no crowd!

RivaHaven Yacht Club

Serious upgrade to facilities in the fall by adding a propane fire pit that made the evenings very enjoyable. Excellent venue to invite friends and sit on opposite side suitably distanced with a wall of flames between us and enjoy happy hour... or two!

Hatteras

Early fall made a couple of week long expeditions to the Hatteras National Seashore campground at Frisco. Selected a higher elevation site with great view of the Atlantic and secluded from all other campers. This is dry camping so solar energy, electrical and water conservation were top of our priorities. Purchased a off highway permit that allows 4WD beach driving for miles in both directions. Reestablished our love for the beach and simple ocean front living and grilling!

The beach awaits!

Lots of vehicles on the beach but well spaced out and mostly for determined and serious beach fishing....

Hoskins Creek and RYC

RivaHaven Yacht Club....

Assateague

Highlight of our summer Airstream adventures was the Assateague National Seashore with its wild ponies. Spaciously laid out camp site allowed us to leave the rig in our bare feet and walk over the dune to a vast flat white sand beach that stretched for miles and with very few visitors.

A crabby summer

Spent the entire summer harvesting crabs! Our four pots delivered large quantities of hard shell for steaming and grilling and we supplemented that with occasional soft shells from the local seafood store. Lots of crab cakes, crab salad, crab imperial, tempura crab, deep fried soft shells, grilled hard shell, crab spring rolls, plain crab with melted butter, in fact so much crab we are traveling with a couple of dozen frozen crab cakes for Christmas and well into the New Year!

Georgetown SC

Here we are messing about in Airstreams in Georgetown SC .... cute little town on the river that manages to dress itself pretty good including a reception by the mayor, closing off 3 major streets for us to park for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Restaurants, museums, theater, nice small businesses and shops.... Just shows what a small town can do when it sets its mind to....

Georgetown SC Rally

Joined up with South Carolina Coastal Airstream Club for a silver on the street weekend rally called "Streamin on the Harbor". Really well organized by Henry Knight we had 40+ rigs in the downtown area for two nights! Had a mayor's reception and recognition for all the folks who made this happen!

Atlantis

Terrific new exhibit at Kennedy Space Center featuring the Atlantis shuttle after some 33 missions. Obama neutered the NASA space program in 2010 and its only just getting back on its feet with the first US astronauts being launched from KSC this year!