(1) Central Florida, 2007 Preparing For Travel

West Central Florida

Feb 2007

Preparing for Summer Travels

Many people who have become full-time campers, usually winter in one place. Mexico, AZ, Texas and Florida being a favorite destination. I’ve been nesting here in Florida.
It’s always nice to meet up with my buddies who have been traveling during the summer or working, and getting the time to catch up on their lives and adventures. Spending time around campfires, BBQ’s, or playing domino’s. A fun game for campers. Mexican Train or Chicken are favorites.

The areas that attract many campers are the interior areas of Florida. Places that most tourists never see. We’re talking about secondary routes like hwy’s 27, 98, 19, and 301. Running north south through Florida. These are more rural areas and you can still see some of the fun old sites built when car travel was an adventure and not a torture getting to work. Like the dinosaur car repair shop, or another dinosaur just sitting along the side of the road in Spring Hills. Zephyrhills has a Mc Donald’s that looks like one of the original double arch designs. When you go inside, it’s an awesome design with dark leather club chairs and retro look everywhere. And the inevitable push of “progress”. Seeing the bulldozers lined up in a row, waiting to make one more pasture or forest into a subdivision. Oh, and Dade City, just down the street has a kumquat festival this time of year. There little bitty orange type fruit.

Old Florida Attractions are still around like Weeki Wachee Springs home of the mermaids, Homosassa Springs and Silver Springs where many of the Tarzan movies were filmed.
Roving Reports (3rd Year) Begins NOW.

But wait, I was going to talk about getting ready for the summer camping season. I’ll be traveling out of Florida after I get some solar panels installed. More about that when I have it done. Then I’ll take you along on my journey out west again, where we’re going to explore Texas, AZ and all the states along the way until we reach Wyoming.

Planning is fairly loose with me. I like to have a basic plan of where I’m going with a few key places to visit and then discovering unexpected places as I find them along the way. Having good paper maps along with campground books are essential, but I find some online resources are becoming more helpful every day. I use Microsoft’s Streets and Maps for mapping out my routes. A really great tool.

Before heading out this spring I’ll be traveling around Florida to visit with family and friends one more time before heading out of state. I’ll be heading to the Keys on March 2nd and will stay about a week. Then for all my friends in Orlando, I’ll be heading your way around the 10 of March and will stay in the area for about two weeks. So e-mail me if you’d like to get together. I’ll probably have a cook out at Moss Park when I arrive. I’ll be spending some time with my Sister and Brother-in-Law and their kin as well.

Here’s to dreaming about new adventures and travels. But don’t just dream, get out those plans and start working on your next adventure.

Fun Camping Tip. A good friend of mine, David L., often flies to a destination with a small tent as a part of his baggage, sleeping bag and other basics. Then he rents a car and camps out for a week or so before going back to work. A cheap way to vacation and see the world. He’s able to get cheap tickets by using a major airline credit card for all purchases throughout the year and builds flying miles with every purchase. Of course he’s very disciplined in paying the bill each month.

Camping World (Near Tampa) for solar panels March 1st
Marathon Fla March 2nd - 10
Orlando area (Moss Park) March 12 - 25
Cedar Key/Chiefland area March 26-28
Panhandle of Fla March 29