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!

Flagler Beach

Love those boardwalk so much we walked it back and forth twice, passing busy and fragrant restaurants and folks sunbathing even on a rather cool day. We were well wrapped up and stopped for a shadow photo in one of the gazebos.

Home made salsa....

Love spending half an hour chopping a bunch of fresh veggies and trying out variations. White onions and shallots, pickled jalapeño slices and green chili's, lime and lemon juice, spring onions, and tomatoes. All pretty healthy stuff!

Apalachicola!

Try saying that quickly! Apala-chi-cola... while on St George Island which is on the southern tip of the Florida panhandle we heard about a farmers market and parade so we dashed over the two 5 mile long bridges to check it out. We picked up a bunch of seafood, oysters, shrimp, smoked tuna fish dip and grouper for a couple of feasts in our camp site. Like many other fishing ports they claim to be the oyster capital of the world but I had to make do with some excellent Texas oysters since there were none of the locals available!

Another stunning state park

Gamble Rogers SP located between Ormond Beach and Flagler Beach has an Oceanside camp ground with power and water but no sewer. It's not a problem! We are ten paces from the beach and the sand is quite coarse and fairly sloped which makes for tough power walks- so we amble along and enjoy the ocean breeze!

Future aspirations

Quick Whole Foods pit stop in Tallahassee FL we found 6 contiguous parking spaces to park truck and Airstream. Just on the other side of the pavement were multiple Tesla charging stations! Wondered how long in the future that we will benefit from this technology? Rainy day adds to the reflection!

Sand sculpting

High winds across the St George's beach left some interesting miniature sandscapes as each shell obstructed the wind flow and created a beautiful tail.

Apalachicola!

Try saying that quickly! Apala-chi-cola... while on St George Island which is on the southern tip of the Florida panhandle we heard about a farmers market and parade so we dashed over the two 5 mile long bridges to check it out. We picked up a bunch of seafood, oysters, shrimp, smoked tuna fish dip and grouper for a couple of feasts in our camp site. Like many other fishing ports they claim to be the oyster capital of the world but I had to make do with some excellent Texas oysters since there were none of the locals available!

St George’s Island

A flurry of attractive and colorful developer houses built on the seashore at St George Island. Someone did the math and figured a couple dozen very narrow houses would turn a better profit!

St George Island State Park

One of the outstanding state parks and campgrounds we have ever been to! Twenty miles of uninhabited soft white sand beach, a grove of palms and pines with camp sites well separated and in pristine conditions! You have to admire Florida's department of parks and the excellent quality experience they provide for the public.

Cedar Key

Low Key Hideaway looks great on the web and it still looks good if the camera is pointed in the right direction at the right time. The campground of only ten sites is squeezed between the main highway into Cedar Key and one of the lagoons!

Black Spire Outpost

Creatures for sale at the rebel Black Spire Outpost at Galaxy's Edge....

Chewbacca checking us out!

Rise of the Resistance

Got to Galaxy's Edge around 7 am for a 8 am park opening and the ability to join a virtual group for this activity. As the doors opened we were assigned group 101 which is high up but not impossible! More likely to happen late afternoon or early evening and we would have forsaken our dining res at Citricos! However fate conspired against us and mechanical breakdowns and safety halts ruined the day with only some 30 groups going through! A lot of time, energy and money all pretty much wasted! The failures on this activity are very significant both in Florida and California Disney parks...

Indiana Jones

Checked out the Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark action adventure. Saw this some 30 years ago and they still do it the same way!

Galaxy’s Edge

Storm troopers patrolling the streets around the outpost. It's a mixed bag as the Star Wars story line and reality of a theme park mix of characters come together. Chewbacca and Darth Vader, droids and a mix of unusual characters abound!

Millennium Falcon

Arrived at WDW Galaxy's Edge and joined a long line for a short ride on the Millennium Falcon! Quite exciting! The rebel outpost is a masterful creation and the rough looking location plays right into the role!

Cypress Creek Preserve

A huge area of wilderness east of Tampa is set aside by SW Florida Water Management for flood protection and as a water source. Only six free camping sites are offered and we were the only ones here today! The two mile trail into the site guarantees you total silence and a combination lock provides very limited access....

Lovers Key

Which hike to choose in this coastal state park? We'd chosen one that promised manatees and eagles, but first we checked out the beach. It was too perfect: mid-tide, nearly deserted, light wind off the land, 65 degrees. Our discoveries on our 4mile walk: a jolly sandman and a driftwood tree decorated with shells. Another hike another time!

Koreshan State Park

Beautiful setting in a palm tree grove with lots of space between sites.... Formerly a turn of the century (that's the 1900 turn!) utopian religious sect community that built a village here on the Estero River. We enjoyed two nights here and have put it on our 2021 schedule for a longer stay while in the Naples area. Low cost and so much nicer than the KOA!

Boca Raton visit

Our little bit of fun with our annual catching up with Lindy in Boca Raton Florida.... and taking a photo that replicates our meeting in Madrid Spain some 52 years ago when we were all 21 year old and no idea where life would take us! Margaret and Melinda on their way back from Lisbon Portugal were returning to their university at Aix-en-Provence and I convinced them to hang out in Madrid for a few days and such is the turning point in our lives.....