Hello friends and family! We were too busy relaxing last week to write anything but we are on the road again so we have some time to get caught up.

We enjoyed Flager Beach so much that we extended our stay. Our view from the front windshield was the ocean.  Although the park was pretty full, there were very few people on the beach and at night we had bonfires in the sand right in front of our RV. There were only two other groups having bonfires as far as the eye could see.

Our long lost friends, Susan and Mark, were kind enough to continue to be our tour guides and joined us at the end of our stay at Beverly Beach Resort (Flager).  They brought us to two amazing locations. The first location, Princess Place Preserve, is tucked away from the beaten path and is located on 1500 acres of breathtaking property.  You feel as if you stepped back in time.  There you can hike/walk on any of their well maintained trails. There are also equestrian and bike trails, canoeing/kayaking, fishing, and both equestrian and regular camping sites.  We had Uma off leash and we saw only four people on our trail all day.  We owned that trail!  Very secluded; a hidden gem.

For birders, there is a 40-year old bald eagle’s nest which contains one chick and two diligent parents. We didn’t see them but the chick is due to fly April 2016. The day was well spent walking, having a picnic lunch, and soaking in the beauty of the reserve.

On Friday, Susan and Mark brought Ken and I (and Uma, of course) to another hidden treasure, Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park, also located in Flager, which had been a plantation and mill. Susan and Mark took us on another trail there which was equally splendid to travel. The trunks of many of the trees were enormous! They must be hundreds of years old. When we had some rain, we “hid” under tree limbs to keep from getting too wet.   Later, we explored the ruins of the mill where there the history of the plantation was provided. We had to say our goodbyes to friends at the end of the day because we were heading out Melbourne.

In addition to the time with friends, we took long walks along the empty, pristine beachfront. (We have to get our FitBit steps in!)  Oh, and Kenny wants everyone to know that our RV had a Spa Day when a mobile unit washed and detailed it.  Although ours is an older model, it looks pretty snappy!

For our RVing friends, we recommend the park we stayed in, the Beverly Beach Resort in Flager.  Thanks to Brian and Lisa D. for their recommendation.  We suggest that you stay across A1A rather than on the beachfront.  Although the view had spectacular sunrises, the salt spray pelted our RV and, believe it or not, within that week, both of our bike chains became so rusty that we had to have the chains cleaned up at a bike shop!  Conveniently, across the street is a snack shack that served everything from stuffed cabbage and knockwurst to fried Brie salad.  One-man-show though so you can’t be in a hurry.  Great food with great prices.  We highly recommend that you try it.  The owner/chef/server is very friendly and the food is not your normal snack shack fare.

On Saturday, we headed to Melbourne to visit some family and reconnect with Cindy and Lenny B., our CT camping buddies.

We met up with my second cousin’s wife and one of her sons, his fiancé, and their beautiful 7-month old beauty queen.  Right before leaving Melbourne, we had dinner with our friends from CT, Cindy and Lenny B., who happened to be in the area the same time as we were.

After visiting family and friends, we left Melbourne on Wednesday, stayed in Ft. Lauderdale overnight on our way to the Keys.  While in Ft. Lauderdale, we saw Kenny’s cousin Sharon and her son Andrew as well as their happy dachshunds, Eva and Maggie.

For fellow RVers, take note.  I would not recommend staying at the Kozy Kampers RV park in Ft. Lauderdale.

Our current location at the Jolly Roger in Marathon is spectacular!  You can snorkel right here and everything is no more than 1.5 hours from this base.  There is a very large Bark Park, you can fish off the pier, good size pool, clean, friendly fellow campers.  We are overlooking the Gulf of Mexico.  If I walk ten steps, I can be in turquoise water.

We have reservations on the Tortugas National Park Ferry (our second National Park of our adventure) on Saturday.  However, if you have more pre-planning time than we have had, set up your reservations.  We were lucky that there was a cancellation.

Until next time, we raise our wine glasses and toast to you:

May you live as long as you want, may you never want as long as you live.

K, D, & U

 

 

 

 

 

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For those aware of our contest to name our blog, the winner is Lisa P., who has also helped us tremendously with the WordPress tool.  With her help, the blog is now up and running.  Sincere thanks to you!  There were many clever submittals but her submittal felt right for our trip.  She submitted the “wine”ding road” which we tweaked only slightly to R”wine”ding road.  For the purchase of the blog name, it had to be http://www.rwinedingroad.com.

Finally, after taking too many months to sell out home, completing the final upgrades on the RV and becoming official South Dakota full-time RVers, we left CT on 3/25/16 almost six months after our anticipated leave.

We have been delighted that Uma, our 9-year old Shepherd, is a great traveler!  She loves all of the new smells and isn’t a barker so can stay in the RV when the temperature is agreeable and we can’t take her with us.  We have been able to easily day-board her when needed and she even loves that.  What a huge relief for us that she is enjoying the ride.  However, she has taken over one of our couches as her own.  We are okay with that since the leather couch is easier to clean off the dog hair than our other couch which would be a magnet for dog hair.

Kenny’s upgrades (with help) have paid off.  The new floor is easy to clean (thanks Dan), the roof looks snappy and we won’t have to worry about any leaks anytime soon (thanks Bill, Brett, Kari, Jackie), new TV set-ups give the interior a definite upgrade and take up so little space (thanks Aaron, Nikki, Dan), and another thank you to Herbie and Patty for their overall support during all of our preparations for this trip.  The RV is running well and we will keep our fingers crossed that we won’t have any major issues moving forward.

Love, hugs, and kisses to our wonderful children and their spouse/significant others, our amazing grandchildren and strong support of our extended family and friends that made us feel that this trip is one we deserve even though we will all be separated for some time.  We think of everyone everyday and have our sappy, crying jags regularly missing all.  But we know now is the time to be selfish.  We both have our health and are happy for it.  Thanks to all for your support.

This initial blog will be wordy, but in going forward we hope to give you some insight to our trip but also provide you with information you’d like to know so please send us comments or questions you may have.

To date we have been traveling pretty much on a whim traveling down the East Coast visiting friends and family.  We are currently in FL where we will tentatively plan our year while we are here so stay tuned.

On our journey to FL, we stayed in Virginia Beach.  While there, we stayed in an amazing KOA campsite.  Of note, there are jets flying overhead all day with crazy maneuvers and the noise runs from 9 am until 9 – 10 pm.  Regardless, we loved it – so much fun to watch pilots having so much fun.

During this time we organized the RV more but did have some fun biking and hiking.  At Back Bay Wildlife Refuge, we took a boardwalk hike and the following day went biking with a picnic lunch on the beachfront in Virginia Beach.  Of the time in Virginia Beach, we enjoyed most our hike in First Landing State Park.  There were very few people around and with Spanish Moss draping gracefully from the trees we passed, it felt so magical and surreal.

Colonial Williamsburg was worth the trip.  A must if you can fit it into your vacation plans.  So much history, it was much like Sturbridge Village on steroids.  Check student vacations and stay away from summer, if possible.  It has become somewhat commercialized in the last five years, from what we understand.

 

We imagine that during the summer all areas we visited would be completely, crazy, overcrowded.  Regardless, we have now added Virginia Beach to our bucket list.  We’d love to stay on the beachfront with our entire family.  We’d provision for our time there just like a boat trip and never leave the property.  The beach is spectacular but traffic would be horrible during the best season!  Best to provision and stay put.

We just left  St. Augustine which was founded in 1565 and the history is so fascinating.  So much to see and do for any interest.  We suggest that you take the full trolley ride then determine what you wish to see. We took in the fort and the fountain of youth as well as some of the museums.  While visiting the Fountain of Youth, we drank water from the Fountain of Youth.  Alas, we still woke up with our wrinkles.

 

(Ken, Debbie, Susan and Mark drinking from the fountain)

Today, we moved to a beachfront RV park in Flager where, for the next seven days, we are perusing our RV travel magazines, sipping cool alcoholic drinks, watching FL sunsets, having glorious campfires and mapping our next stops on Rwinedingroad.

We don’t know yet how our blog will evolve but if you are a future full-time RVer or travelling cross county, or want to know prices of places we stay, or issues we’ve had to address or can offer your suggestions of places to see or things to do in any areas we are moving to, we’d love to hear from you.

We have a new contest for anyone interested.  MaryEllen M gave us a Travelocity gnome and he’s travelling with us.  You will see pictures of him as we travel along.  He’s like the gnome in the movie Amelie but smaller.  Desperately, he needs a name.  Any suggestions you provide will be considered.  There are no monetary awards for naming him, just bragging rights and our acknowledgment on this blog.  We look forward to hearing from you.   He wasn’t feeling  well on our trip to Williamsburg or St. Augustine but he’s now on the mend.

 

When we post where we are headed, we’d love your suggestions of places to visit, restaurants, hiking or biking trails, anything at all that you think we’d enjoy on our journey.

Until next time, we lift our wine glasses to you and make a toast.

May your best of today be your worst of tomorrow.

K, D & U