Our first day we made it down to Sebring in central Florida. We were trying to avoid Florida's toll roads because they jack up the price charging per axle. An RV pulling a car is 4 axles. Sebring is a smallish town that has several lakes and a lot of water front property. It is in the warmer during winter area of Florida. The beaches are over one hundred miles away.
Many people go there during the winter to "snowbird" in a lessor populated part of warmer southern Florida. We stayed at Sebring Gardens RV park run completely by a retired guy who did his best to keep the place cheap, clean, and friendly. We continued down the center of Florida past the rather large Lake Okeechobee where you can run your boat through a system of canals and locks across
Florida. Kate is on top of the dam.
The next destination was Homestead, Florida. We picked this area because it had great access to the upper keys and Miami. We got to explore Key Largo where Kate found a local bird recovery operation that rescued local birds and rehabilitated them. We also tried to make it Miami beach. We didn't make it. Too many spring breakers and traffic jams. There were daily stories about major arrests and violence on the news by the crazy spring breakers..
We did make it to Key Biscayne National Park. Nice beaches and light house. Florida tolls to get across the bridge without ability to pay. We bought a Sun Pass. This was the area where I was able to sail on a 45 foot catamaran getting the ASA certification a few years ago.
There is also a National Park just east of Homestead. You can rent canoes there to explore the mangroves on the Key Biscayne Bay. In and around the bay there are several wrecks of ships trying to cross the shallow waters and reefs that protect the bay. Below is the sea grass that had blown on shore at the boat launch. It is hard to tell but the grass was stacked up over one foot deep.
The latest hurricane sent in a storm surge of 17 feet. That is 5 feet taller than the RV. Florida is so flat. This did create a huge flooding problem for the area. Homestead Air Force Base was destroyed during this storm. Now it is a reserve base. You can still hear the sounds of freedom there.
At John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo they had dive boat, snorkeling tours, and glass bottomed boats as well as some nice beaches. Mr. Lobster was hanging out in their aquarium. If you go there to dive they require that you take their refresher course if you haven't dove in 2 years. Due to a rare storm it was too windy and too cold. Report was that the visibility was bad as well.
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