Hipcamp to KOA

 

OK -- squinting into the sun, trying to get the camera right -- bad at selfies, but great at standing on a beach in January.   A little windy, not that warm, but still, for us, it is a beach in January.  This is Shell Point Beach on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Just a bunch of beach houses and boats around, but still a great place to visit.  

We camped at a Hipcamp spot -- these are places where local homeowners create a space for you to camp for a reasonable fee, and usually with very friendly folks.   At the Outside Inn (clever name, right?) the host, Will, was replanting 80 acres of misused land with longleaf pines,  and supporting his endeavor by running a sweet little campsite.   We'd go back anytime.

Can't go into a state -- we are now in Florida --  without a Volksmarch in its capital, so Baby Beluga targeted Tallahassee.    The walk map took us to its  working capitol building, an odd  modern place (use your imagination when you look at the picture)  that we couldn't go in and then into its 1892 (or so) predecessor -- now a museum that we could tour.   All OK and we checked that capitol off our list. 

 The rest of the walk took us through the Florida State Campus -- just drop dead gorgeous.  Closed for their winter break, but oh so pretty-- The trees, the Spanish moss, the quads, the stately old buildings.    A peaceful walk, all in all. 

    

Arguably the best part of Tallahassee for us old plant based eaters (I'm sure there's a lot of best parts) was a sweet little vegan restaurant that seemed to serve as a community center.  Lucky find for us.

Then a few days in a KOA in Perry, Florida.  KOA's are expensive, but sometimes worth it -- this one was.  It had an atmosphere of calm, but not boring -- good rest break, friendly folks, nice campsites, nice campers, lovely sunsets and a group campfire on New Year's Eve.  Very pleasant few days.  Bonus picture of Bill cooking!  We built a whole cabinet in Baby Beluga to house that blender, so want to show we do actually use it.  Occasionally...

And sometimes KOA's are even more expensive, but not worth it.  Proven by our next stop -- a KOA between Orlando and Kissimmee, Florida.  It had an atmosphere of sardine-like closeness to our neighbors,  being part of a giant strip mall (and it really was-- we had the Waffle House neon sign outside our site).  Look behind Bill to see the rows of really big campers -- Baby really is a baby in this environment.

 Its only advantage was its proximity to Disney World and all the trappings that go with that.   And Orlando had 5 volksmarches listed, of which we walked three.  

 First one:  Disney Springs. That's a shopping center.  Yep a shopping center big enough to host a 10K walk.    Bill's dragon seen here is remarkable because it is entirely constructed of Legos in the water.  Don't know what the green-legged dog, or perhaps a reindeer, is made of, but green legs?  

This is just a nostalgic picture for me.   My brother, as a kid, loved tinker-toys and built really complex things out of them with motors and rubber bands, and such.  His set was a different scale than this one.    The animated alligator was caught hanging outside of the Rain Forest Restaurant.  

     

 The second and third volksmarches were in a planned, and very Stepford-like, community called Celebration, Florida.   Designed by Disney, it is full of very big houses, a sweet downtown with restaurants  with crazy generous  (perhaps one would say greedy) portions.  These onion rings were really good..... and filling...

We walked along lakes, on boardwalks through reclaimed jungle. Beautiful Florida egrets and herons were everywhere. 

 

 We saw children on their way to the one elementary school in the main part of town, lots of parks, we spotted a  lady  sitting in her golf cart watching three young children on a playground.  Both walks took us past the same fancy golf course.   Christmas decorations were either still up or just on their way down, 

 and a sweet town center that encouraged walkers, sitters, and rockers:   

 

It was a really pretty place, but we eventually realized there would be no place for us even if we wanted to live there -- no single story living, no walking to a grocery store, and nothing the size of which would be comfortable for us (something less that thousands of square feet).  We concluded it was designed for a seemingly  specific population.   And we aren't part of it.  

We completed our time in Orlando-Kissimmee marveling at the acrobats and aerial performers at  Disney's Cirque de Soleil.     Just were just allowed one picture of a pillow-like creature that set applause cadence.  Totally fun.  He was part of the pre-show.  Once the main show began photographs were banned for the safety of the performers.   Been to other Cirque de Soleil shows that we loved and we loved this one and if we get another chance, we'll go to another!  Great entertainment troupe!   

Predictably the show had a Disney theme related to animation and its story-- called Dreamed to Life.  Awesome stuff.  

 

Nope -- we didn't go to any of the 'big' stuff -- Disney Worlds itself, Universal, Epcot.  It seemed quite expensive and not really our thing.   

So we left the mid-Florida traffic and all its bells and whistles behind and headed on to Dade City, Florida -- the site of a Care-A-Vanners Habitat for Humanity build that we'll be working on for the next couple of weeks.  

Retirement lesson learned -- Retirement is mundane and that's OK!

Voyaya