Out of Our Rut Blog Welcome Page

Welcome to the Out of Our Rut blog landing page.

Who we are:

We are a couple of former engineers that lived and worked in the Rochester New York area for over 30 years. When we were laid off from two different companies, one day apart, we took that as a sign to change things up. We had built a beautiful home on 50 acres and loved the place, but with plenty of time on our hands, we began to travel more and realized that when we were on the road for weeks on end, we didn't really miss all the “stuff” we had back home. Plus the work involved with maintaining our home and property seemed to be the only reason we would head back home. That prompted us to get out of our rut and sell 95% of our possessions and our home and move into our 38 foot motorhome and travel the country full time starting in June of 2016.

Chris and Jack Hiking in Washington State

At Pullout Along Rugged Oregon Coast

Our mission:

To explore the country with a strong bias towards outdoor activities. Our passions are hiking and geocaching with some mountain biking on the side. I am an avid photographer. I guess working at Eastman Kodak for 32 years had an influence in that. And while we live in a motorhome and stay in many campgrounds, we really are not campers. We seldom have campfires and don't have a corn hole game. We rarely stay at a campground for its amenities. We pick a place that is near where we want to explore. We think of it more like our home happens to have wheels and can move around. Our desire in these travels is to slow the pace. We didn't want to see if we could get to all the National Parks as quickly as possible. We like to keep a travel day to less than 200 miles and if the place warrants, stay for a week or more.

At Geocaching Headquarters in Seattle for #10,000

The blog:

For friends and family (as well as us) to keep track of what we have been up to, we have created this blog. It chronicles where we've been and what we've done as we wander around the country. Each stop along the way will, at minimum, get mentioned in the blog. Some longer stops in areas we enjoyed may get multiple blog posts in order to give that stop it's due. Generally the blog has lots of photographs as I find it difficult to eliminate photos I like. The blog will talk about the campground to some extent, but it shouldn't be considered a campground review. We seldom seem to exhaust the things we want to explore before we exhaust ourselves and need to move on. That means we may completely skip some activities or places in an area that others may consider essential. We look at that as a reason to come back in the future.

Pretty Sunset in Quartzite Arizona

At the Window in Big Bend National Park

This landing page:

The problem with just about any blog is that fact it is chronological. This is fine since that is how the events occurred in real life. But since our blog is so much about a given location, it can be difficult for somebody to find a specific blog post for a given location. I even find it a challenge to remember when we happened to be at a given location if I wanted to look something up. For instance, if someone asked about Twin Falls Idaho. I know we stayed there but it might take me awhile to figure out that we were there in June of 2017 to get them to the right post. If I could only look at a map of all the places we have stayed and have an easy way to get to the relevant blog post.

Since I already use Google My Maps to keep track of our locations, I have created a special map that has all of our stops since going full time. None of the routes are included in the map since that just seems to clutter it up and don't really add value. By clicking the link below the map, an interactive map with all of our stops will open in another window. It is then possible to move around the map and zoom in an area of interest. Clicking on any pin on the map will pop up the name of the location along with a link to the blog post(s) associated with that stop. Since I am nearly always 2 to 4 weeks behind in the blog, some of the most recent map points may not have a link to a blog, but they will in time. The GREEN pins are locations that happen to include one of our annual or yearly reviews.

So if you want to see what we found to explore in a given area, this should provide a much easier way to find the blog post.

Click HERE to open interactive Google map

2024 Year End Review

As 2024 comes to a close, we get to celebrate being on the road as full timers for eight and a half years. We stuck to the eastern side of the country this year and in fact stayed within a couple hundred miles of the Atlantic Ocean the full year. I suppose the most significant aspect of this year’s travels was our decision to purchase an RV lot in Titusville Florida at The Great Outdoors (TGO). And to a large extent, this purchase was our reason for staying in the east instead of heading back out west. We started the year finishing up a monthlong stay at TGO having rented a different site trying to determine if we liked this place. We found a site we really liked that fit our needs and closed on the property in mid January while we were exploring other parts of Florida during the rest of the winter.

There were a few factors that told us we should have some sort of place we call home but instead of repeating the details of that thought process here, I will simply refer to the blog post from late December 2023 (Xmas at The Great Outdoors) which goes into the decision. One update to that blog post relates to the ongoing cost of ownership - HOA fees and property taxes. In that post, I had used historical data from the rental office regarding the possible income from renting out our site when we are not in Titusville. I had estimated that if we were here for the 6 months during the “high season” but had our lot in the rental pool the other 6 months, our site would cost us $23 per day. I don’t have what our income is yet from our lot being rented during the month of October before we came back. But based on the income for the first three quarters of the year, I suspect we will come in below my initial estimate. For the time being, the daily cost I have used in my spreadsheet for keeping track of camping expenses has been $25 per day so my stats I talk about later in this post should be fairly accurate or just a little high.

The first 3 months of the year found us bopping around Florida. It was a mixture of private campgrounds, state parks, Elks Lodges and a Habitat for Humanity build in Vero Beach. We had planned and booked all but two weeks well before we knew we were going to buy a site at TGO so we only came back to our site for those two weeks at the end of February. By early April, we had completed all our original plans so we could return to TGO for 3 weeks before starting our journey north to New England for the bulk of the summer and early fall.

The map below shows the route we traveled this past year. While there was some overlap on the route we took north in the spring and south in the fall, we tended not to duplicate the actual camping stops in order to allow us to see slightly different places. Just below the map is a link that will open the actual Google Map which permits you to zoom in and pan around to better see our stops. Each red pin represents a place we spent at least one night at and by clicking on a pin, a new window will pop up with the name of the place we stayed as well as the links to the blog posts associated with that particular stop.

Click HERE to open Google Map

We spent about 5 weeks working our way from Florida to Vermont and then had two different monthlong stops near the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. There were also a couple weeks spent in the Adirondacks and a few more weeks in Burlington and northern Vermont. We wrapped up our New England journey by spending nearly all of September exploring some of the interior of Maine. We wrapped up the journey with another 5 weeks to make it from Maine back to Titusville Florida.

It was definitely an action packed year. The hiking in the mountains of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine was outstanding and we even found some excellent bike trails along the way. We also fit in a couple of train rides and a few boat rides over the course of the year. We managed to stay at 19 different Elks Lodges during 2023 - the majority of them ones we had never visited before. And with these additions, we have now surpassed the one hundred mark of how many different lodges we have camped at in the last 8.5 years bring our total number of nights spent at lodges to 407!

I have a few different “heat maps” that show where we have camped. Each state we have stayed at is shaded in red. The darker the red, the more nights we stayed in that state. The first map is just for 2024. You can see that we stayed in 14 different states this year. Florida came in the top spot at 179 nights. Vermont was in second place with 79 nights. We managed to add one new state to the list - Rhode Island. The second map shows our stops for the full 8.5 years, now up to 45 states instead of 44 from last year. The only states not colored in are Alaska, Hawaii, Oklahoma, New Jersey and Delaware. Technically, we have camped in all of these states other than Hawaii but those camping trips occurred prior to going full time. I am also including a version of second heat map but this one is divided into the counties within each state to get a better view of where we stayed in the state.

Our 2024 Camping Map

Our 8.5 Year Camping Map

8.5 Years at County Level

Like in past reviews, I have a table showing some of the statistics for our full time lifestyle. It includes facts like how many stops we had as well as the number of miles driven in the motorhome and car and the costs associated with our travels. Since we have so many years under our belt at this point, I only show the numbers for the past 6 years. Previous year end reviews will have the data from earlier years.

Just the Stats for the Past 6 Years

There aren’t too many surprises in the table. We camped in a few more places this year compared to last year which brought our average number of nights per stop to under 12 versus over 15 last year. This one is simple to explain. In 2023, we stayed at a  campground in western New York for over 5 months. So even staying for a couple of monthlong stops in New England and a few stops a week or longer, we ended up moving around more often. Even so, it didn’t seem like we were moving at too fast of a pace. Our number of miles driven both in the motorhome and the Jeep were very similar to last years.

In terms of the types of places we have camped, I break it down into one of 4 categories - boondocking, state parks, private campgrounds and Elks Lodges. This year we stayed two thirds of the nights in private campgrounds similar to last year. But we did stay a few more nights at state parks versus Elks Lodges this past year. That is likely just a function of there being fewer Elks Lodges on the eastern side of the country and we spent a fair amount of time out west in 2023 where the lodges have more camping options. For the keen eye observer, the breakdown of style of camping shows 376 nights total versus the expected 366. This is simply to show that we did boondock 10 nights over the course of the year but those nights also happened to be at Elks Lodges. I only show it because we had a new solar and lithium battery system installed in early 2023 and I wanted to prove that we did use it - albeit sparingly. The net result over the course of the year for camping costs came in at just over $30 per night. This is pretty consistent with prior years.

As we sit on our lot at TGO in Titusville Florida this winter, we are finding that having a nice place to stay with a shed to store our bikes and other stuff out of the weather is quite nice. I can do some of the maintenance chores on the motorhome that are more difficult to do in a gravel lot in a state park. Since returning to TGO this November, I have washed and waxed the rig, replaced the return springs on our leveling jacks and even had one of our air conditioners replaced - although I hired that job out to people more skilled at that task. We also did start to get established with a doctor and dentist in the area. This was part of the reason for buying the RV lot - needing to have “shallow roots” so we can take care of ourselves as we get older.

Like we have done in previous year end reviews, we have looked over the 42 stops for the year and tried to identify several of our favorites. Even though I will provide the campground we stayed at in an area, do not look at this as a campground review. We seldom pick a campground based on its amenities. We are more looking for a great location and the campground tends to just be the place the motorhome gets parked for the duration of our visit. In fact, one of the top stops this year was the gravel lot on the side of an Elks Lodge with no RV services. Many campers may consider that too primitive, but we found a lot to do in the area and would love to go back for more in the future. For each of the stops, there is a short description of the stop, a link to the first blog post for that location which will provide more details about the stop, and a couple of my favorite pictures from the stop. In chronological order, here is the list for 2024:

• Indian River Habitat for Humanity ReStore Vero Beach Florida - This place isn’t your typical campground. In fact, if you find yourself in Vero Beach, you won’t be able to stay here unless you have signed up for one of the Habitat for Humanity RV Care-A-Vanner builds at this local affiliate well in advance. We were here for a 2 week assignment in early March. Vero Beach is a pretty area with lots of small towns along the coast to visit and quite a few wildlife areas to walk around or go for a bike ride. The Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge is the oldest NWR in the country and we drove around the Goodwin Waterfowl Management Area but should have visited with our bicycles. I’m sure we could have found plenty more to see and do in the area.

But the true reason this place made our list was being part of a large group of like minded RVers here to help lend a hand from building new homes, refurbishing existing homes or working in the ReStore. This was only the third one of these builds we have been part of, but this affiliate runs their program like a well oiled machine. They can accommodate just about any skill level so you don’t need to have been a general contractor to find a job at the build site. And while swinging a hammer and helping out a good cause is therapeutic in a way, it was the camaraderie of the eight couples that made this a winning stop for us.

Vero Beach Blog Post 

Our RV Care-a-Vanner Crew at Vero Beach

Wall Raising Ceremony

• Collier Seminole State Park Naples Florida - We spent 10 nights at this state park in the southwest corner of the state. There are both state and federal preserves in the area that were wonderful to explore. We spent two days on long bike rides at both Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park and Big Cypress National Preserve basically riding with alligators! There were also lots of less strenuous (or dangerous) things to see and do in the area. Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary has a 2 plus mile boardwalk though a very scenic area. And for an even more laid back day, Marco Island was a fun visit.

First Naples Blog Post

One of Dozens of Gators to Bike Past

Royal Terns on Marco Island

• Green Mountain Family Campground Middlebury Vermont - We spent the whole month of June at this place in the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont. The hiking was excellent but challenging at times. This stop gave us one of our favorite hikes from our eighth year review - Mount Abraham. But there was more to see and do in the area than just hike. We spent a day each at both Shelburne Museum and Shelburne Farms and really enjoyed them. We also learned all about the granite industry in this part of the state. I wrote 8 blog posts about our stay so it is tough to summarize another than to tell you to check out this part of Vermont.

First Green Mountains Post

Chris Enjoys View at Buck Mountain

At the Granite Quarry

• Moose River Campground St Johnsbury Vermont - While we technically were camping at this place in Vermont for the month of August, we were here because of its proximity to the White Mountains of New Hampshire just a a few miles away from camp. The hiking here was excellent as well although it seems like the White Mountains are a bit more popular with hikers so we ran into more crowds on the trails. The two places we went back to multiple times were Franconia Notch and Crawford Notch. I suspect we could move to this area and spend the rest of our lives hiking and never need to repeat a hike if we didn’t want to. We also found several excellent rail trails that we spent multiple days exploring 20 to 30 miles at a time by bicycle. Lamoille Valley Trail may have been our favorite but the Ammonoosuc River and the Presidential Range Trails were quite nice as well. And then there were the two train rides. One to the top of Mount Washington via the cog railway and the scenic train ride out of Conway New Hampshire.

First White Mountains Blog

Our Ride to the Top of Mount Washington

Covered Bridge Over Ammonoosuc River in Bath NH

• Katahdin Shadows Campground Medway Maine - We only managed to fit in a week here around the second week of September. The main draw for us to this out of the way spot in central Maine was Baxter State Park. It’s a pristine wilderness area that has very limited services to help keep it that way. There are excellent hiking opportunities and for the really hardcore hikers, this is the location where the Appalachian Trail starts/ends. But we found other things in the region including a lumbermen’s museum and possibly one of the nicest biking areas at the Penobscot River Trails. Had we known how much we were going to like this place, we likely would have tried to book a spot for a month or longer.

Medway Maine Blog

Mount Katahdin from Penobscot River Trails

Keep Maine Beautiful

• Wareham - New Bedford Elks Lodge Wareham Massachusetts - This lodge does not have any RV services like electric, water or dump station. But they do have a fairly large and level gravel lot next to the main paved parking lot and we had decent sun exposure for our solar system to help charge our batteries while boondocking here. This place is in southeastern Massachusetts and it worked out well for visiting Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod. It would also have worked to take in Nantucket had we only been able to stay another day or two, but now we know that staying just 4 nights wasn’t long enough. We spent a very long day taking the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard, walking 10 miles around the island and trying to fit in as many sites as we could manage in a single day and then returning to the mainland. We also got in a nearly 25 miles bike ride along the Shining Sea Bikeway. The drive onto Cape Cod was nice but there was to much to see along the drive that we weren’t able to get all the way to the tip of the cape.

First Wareham Blog

Ned's Point Lighthouse

Sunset on Ferry From Martha's Vineyard

Below is a map showing all 386 places we have camped in the past eight and a half years. For additional information on any of them, click on the link below the map which will open the actual Google Map I use. Pan and zoom on the map and by clicking on any pin, a window will pop up with the name of the location and a link to the blog post(s) for that place. Those interested in hiking, mountain biking, geocaching or nature photography, may find some of the posts useful if you plan to visit an area we have explored. Our blog posts are more about the interesting locations we discovered during our stops and less about campground reviews so don't expect to find much information about what campground is the best in a specific area.

Click HERE to open interactive Google map

So what does 2025 hold for us? Originally we had reserved some state park campgrounds down in the Florida Keys and the Everglades for most of January and the first half of February, but we are reassessing those plans as I try to get past a couple of health concerns our newfound doctor has identified. We figure it makes more sense to stay in the Titusville area to deal with tests and appointments until I get the all clear. We also haven’t put any thought into where we might spend the warmer months but will eventually figure it out.

Return to Titusville

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

Pulling back in to The Great Outdoors on November 1st felt good after a spending spring, summer and fall on a 4500 mile journey to the New England states. Best I can tell, the lot that we own was only rented out 22 of the 189 nights we were gone. It won’t generate a ton of rental income - less than $1100. It just goes to show than not many travelers pass through here in the summer months. But it is Florida which gets hot and humid, plus there was an active hurricane season this year that likely scared some folks away. The other factor was that the golf course at our resort has been undergoing a complete renovation so it was closed for all the time we were gone. Not being a golfer, I don’t understand the attraction to the game, but some visitors stop here and rent RV sites in order to get in a few rounds of golf. The course is scheduled to reopen in January so maybe next summer when we flee the heat, others will return to check out the new and improved course?

Our lot looked to be in good shape. The palm trees need to be trimmed, the garden beds weeded and the shed could use a good wash and a new deck, but we will be here long enough this year that we don’t need to try to tackle all the chores immediately. I like to call this “pacing myself” not procrastination! There are also a fair number of chores that the motorhome should have taken care of. It starts out by getting a good bath before we even pull out the slides.

Our plans are to be in Florida through late April. But actually we won’t be spending all that time here at TGO. At the beginning of 2024, Florida State Parks changed how they handle reservations. They used to have a rolling reservation window of 10 months for all campers but modified the policy to allow Florida residents a one month head start over the rest of the country. This advantage allowed us to book several state park campground sites along the east coast of Florida down into the Keys. We managed to string together a handful sites starting in early January thru mid February. More on this in upcoming blog posts.

Not all of our time was spent on chores on our site and rig. We fit in some free time to head over to one of our favorite local destinations - Orlando Wetlands Park. It’s only a 20 minute drive to this place. We have been here several times over this past winter and seem to always find lots to see. But this time we were able to take advantage of the shuttle service they offer on weekends. A volunteer takes groups of 8 to 10 people around the various paths of the park. There are a few of advantages of seeing the park this way. You get to see much of the park without needing to walk or bicycle. There are 10 pairs of eyes keeping a lookout for various birds and animals. The volunteers also know from earlier trips or other drivers what area has activity going on so we have a better chance of experiencing wildlife.

One early stop had possibly the neatest thing we have come across in a long time. An alligator was in a small pool of water just off the road. This is Florida so the alligator by itself isn’t all that interesting except for those visitors from out of state. This gator however was special because it had two of its babies resting on its back.

Two Baby Gators Resting on Mama's Back

Passion Butterfly

As we got driven around the wetlands, we would stop occasionally to check out other animal sightings. Our tour guide was quite knowledgeable about the ones commonly seen here. One stop was prompted by a man walking the trails staring intently into the grass just off the road. He has spotted some sort of snake. It was very difficult to see but I finally isolated its head for a picture.

Open Wide and Say Ahhh

Snake in the Grass?

Our Shuttle

A disadvantage of taking the shuttle is we don’t get a chance to get out and enjoy the boardwalk. But we will get back to it after the tour is over. We definitely enjoyed the shuttle ride and all the information provided by the guide that we wouldn’t get on our own.

The Boardwalk

Snowy Egrets in the Muck

Common Gallinule

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

We had brought along lunch, so we headed to one of the covered shelters to eat before exploring the boardwalk on our own. Even our lunch stop had wildlife. It wasn’t chipmunks begging for food like may have been expected but instead two pairs of sandhill cranes. They definitely were not concerned with our being there and in fact walked right thru the shelter as they continued on the way.

Sandhill Cranes Passing Through Picnic Shelter

We eventually made it over to the boardwalk and started the slow walk along it looking to see what we could find. The larger birds are easy to spot as they wade in the shallow water looking for food. The tougher animals to spot are the turtles and frogs that seem to blend into the surroundings quite well.

Spiny Softshell Turtle Blending In

Tricolored Heron

Anhinga

Frog

Turtle

While there were lots of birds, it did seem like the variety of species was down from our prior visits here. Likely because we are too early in the season for the full variety of birds. The good thing is this place is so close, we can come back frequently.

Another Tricolored Heron

Anhinga Drying Out

Great Blue Heron

Not all the birds here are strictly wetland birds. We did spot a smallish hawk perched on the top of a dead palm tree. I am also always fascinated by two very similar looking birds - anhinga and cormorant. I’m not good enough to distinguish them from a distance but there was one on the boardwalk railing that didn’t seem too concerned with us slowly walking by even though we were only a few feet from it. By the straight beak, I know this was an anhinga. With such a closeup view, I was able to check out its dangerous looking webbed feet.

Hawk Scans the Wetlands

Fearless Anhinga

Unexpected Webbed Feet Talons

As we worked our way from the boardwalk along the road on the northern edge of the wetlands, we realized there geocache hidden along a section of the Florida Trail just off the property. There is a bridge that gets us over the stream of water that comes out of the wetlands so it is easy to get to the nicely shaded trail. It’s been a long day here so we aren’t in the mood for a real hike, but it does look like a nice section of trail to check out.

Section of Florida Trail by Orlando Wetlands

I mentioned in an earlier post when we were first renting at TGO and considering purchasing a lot that there are numerous clubs and groups at the resort. I had gotten a tour of the woodworking group - the Sawdust Club - and it looked like my kind of place. This club is not free, but for the $70 per year membership fee, I would have access to a very complete woodworking shop as well as the loaner tools. There are a wide array of saws, pneumatic nailers, sanders and other standard “woodworking” tools. But they also have a wide assortment of other tools I used to have before we sold our home and parted with most of my possessions. They have small tool kits for plumbing work, electrical work and drywall tools. Plus there is a shed full of shovels, rakes, pruners and other yard maintenance tools. Now that we have a lot, there are some things that we need to take care of and being able to go to the Sawdust Club to borrow a shovel or pick axe when Chris wants to dig out some old shrubs and plant new ones sure beats going to the hardware store and buying tools I likely won’t need to use again for a few years.

Some of the Loaner Tools at Sawdust Club

Even More Options

Well Stocked Garden Shed

One project that needed to be taken care of on the motorhome was to replace the large springs on the hydraulic levelers. Being over a dozen years old the springs that retract the levelers have grown weak. I often would need to use a long pry bar to help them come all the way up before we could travel for the day. We had purchased replacement springs back in April 2023 when we passed through the Newmar parts center while having our solar system installed in northern Indiana. But I had not gotten around to replacing them yet. Based on my research, it looked like a job I could handle. In order to remove the old springs, I just needed to drive the jacks out enough to wedge a series of shims on each pair of springs on a jack. Then I could retract the jack using the help of a crow bar since the springs give no help with all the shims installed. Eventually I was able to unhook the old springs and get them out from underneath the rig.

My research had shown a few methods for removing the shims from the old springs and then installing them on the new springs. The most common approach is to grab the spring, bend it enough to release the pressure on a shim and pull it out. This would take some time and effort since each spring requires around 20 shims. Removing the shims from the old spring worked okay but when I attempted to bend the new springs I was not able to apply enough force to even get a few shims installed and it didn’t look like any amount of Wheaties or spinach was going to make me strong enough for the task.

Other people posted videos of using a vehicle with chains or straps with the spring between the car and a tree. The car was slowly driven to stretch the spring to remove the shims and install them on the new spring. While this looked plausible, it also looked to be a bit dangerous if something broke free during the process. I could only imagine what would happen to me or the car if that method failed. I had noticed that the Sawdust Club has a floor jack to borrow and after discussing using this to help stretch the springs with another member, I came up with a way to handle two springs at once using the floor jack and one inch bar stock. Since they come in pairs, this approach was ideal.

Old Rusty Leveler Springs

Stretching Out Old Springs to Remove Shims

It turned out that the biggest issue with tackling the job now was simply crawling underneath the rig to access the springs. The rear was particularly difficult. For those of you that do mechanical jobs in tight quarters, you know how having an additional joint in your forearm would come in handy.  With a few contortionist moves, and Chris’ help, the new springs are installed and now retract much more quickly.

Stretching New Springs to Install Shims

New Springs Installed on One Corner

Another day trip was north to the Dunlawton Sugar Mills Gardens just a little south of Daytona Beach. From the description, it looked like an interesting place. Unfortunately when we arrived, we found it was closed from hurricane damage earlier this season. We had planned a few other stops in this general area but the next one was to be lunch and we really needed to kill some time before we would be hungry.  Not far from the closed gardens is the town of Port Orange. There was an Adventure Lab that toured us around Riverwalk Park on the shore of the Halifax River. As we were finishing up the trip around the park, we noticed a woman that had seemed to be mimicking our moves. We made an educated guess and confirmed she was also geocaching. But even more unusual was that she too had planned to go to the Dunlawton Gardens, found it closed and picked this same park as her plan B!

View at Riverwalk Park

Our next stop was for lunch and while there are plenty of decent restaurants in this area, we were heading to something a bit more eclectic. We have seen several Buc-ee’s over our years of traveling but have never actually stopped at one. If you’re unfamiliar with these places, they are massive gas stations that are generally found in the south of the US. We have never stopped while traveling in the motorhome simply because the fuel pumps are not configured in a way that works well for a rig our size towing a car. The one in Daytona Beach has 104 pumps! All of the Buc-ee’s we have driven by are always jam packed with cars and people, and this one was no different. After filling up the car with gas, we find a parking spot and head in.

Welcome to Buc-ee's

The store here covers an amazing 50,000 square feet and it takes some time to wander through all the different departments. It was amazing how much Buc-ee’s branded stuff there is and believe it or not, visitors were selecting all sorts of things. We however didn’t find anything we absolutely needed - one advantage of living in a 400 square foot motorhome, we don’t have room for this type of stuff. We head over to the food area where there are a dozen employees preparing all sorts of options - none of it would be considered healthy but we make our choices. Surprisingly they don’t seem to have any tables and chairs to enjoy our food inside or out so we headed back to the car. The stream of people coming in and out is pretty continuous.

Food Options

Nice Old Coupe

Next we head over to Daytona Beach proper and park near the boardwalk area. It was a nice day but not too crowded to enjoy the walk along the beach. The sand was nice and firm and actually would have been ideal to have our bicycles to see more of the beach. Besides taking in the sights, we stopped for a creative geocache right outside of a restaurant. Fortunately with the minimal people around, we were able to find this well hidden caches.

A Fairly Quiet Daytona Beach

Joe's Crab Shack on Pier

Fish Mural

Osprey Flies By

Daytona Beach Bandshell

Clock Tower

Our next stop of the day in the area was to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. We’ve seen and visited a lot of lighthouses this year so adding another to the list seemed appropriate. I had not investigated this place before arriving and was really just expecting to see the lighthouse and possibly the light keeper’s house. But it turns out this place is much more than that. Your admission fee allows access to tower plus 8 other buildings on the immaculate grounds.

Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

Lighthouse Museum Grounds Map

Starting out in the entrance building which includes a large gift shop, we head out to explore what they have here. The old wood shed has been converted into a small theater with a 20 minute video about the history of the lighthouse. The first lighthouse was built here in 1835 but on the opposite side of the inlet. It was destroyed in a storm and replaced by this one in 1887.

Former Lighthouse Keeper's House

After getting the rundown on the lighthouse, we decide to tour the tower. Standing 175 feet tall. There are 213 steps up a spiral staircase with a couple of landings along the way.

Looking Up the Spiral Staircase

After the long climb, we make it to the top. The actual light and lens are in a locked room up a short final set of stairs but we can read about some of the facts about the light and look into the light room through a glass section.

Just Below Light

Good View of the Light

There is a walkway that wraps around the outside of the tower just below the light level. The old railing is there but they have also added extra safety railing to prevent people from taking a plunge.

Safety Railing on Outer Walkway

Looking Down on the Museum Grounds

The views from up here are spectacular in all directions. The beach is about a third of a mile to the east. It’s not close enough to see people walking but we could easily see the waves breaking on the beach. The inlet is where the Halifax River exits with the town of New Smyrna on the other side of it.

A Look at the Beach

Ponce Inlet

Breakwall at Inlet

There were several other people making their way up as we headed down. We were grateful for the landings since the stairs are a little narrow to pass others without one person being right at the edge of the railing looking a long way down.

Long Way Down

The various light keeper’s houses are still standing and some have been converted to exhibits while one still has the rooms configured as they might have been back when a family lived here.

Another Keeper's House

Lighthouse Display Area

Fresnel Lens

Parabolic Mirror

Residence Bedroom

There is a surprising amount of things to see and we spent a lot longer here than we originally expected. The last building we toured was the Lens Exhibit Building. This is a newer building (1995) built to house and display the vast collection of lenses the museum has collected over the years. It was really interesting to see the different style of lenses including two of the large first order Fresnel lenses that tower above us.

Old Equipment

Huge Fresnel Lens

Staring Into Fresnel Lens

Another 1st Order Lens

We originally had plans to head to one more nearby destination, but we had spent nearly 2 hours touring this great museum and it was nearly 5 o’clock and we still had a little over an hour long drive back to camp. The day didn’t go exactly as planned when we headed out early this morning, but it still turned into something special.

Later in November, we headed just down the road from TGO to where the Florida Trail comes through. We parked at the trailhead next to another fairly large campground and head north. We have a few geocaches to find along the way as we work our way up towards Orlando Wetlands. It was a nice walk in the woods but we struggled to find one of the hides about 2.5 miles into the walk, so we gave up and turned back before actually making it to the wetlands.

Fish Hawk Pond

Florida Trail Signage

Unusual Bridge

One other things we were taking care of when we arrived in November was to get in visits with a dentist and doctor. Part of the reason we had purchased the lot here in TGO was so that we could have an actual primary care doctor that we could visit and make sure we were doing okay. Our visit back in the summer of 2023 in western New York had shown that finding dentists on the road is feasible, but it is very difficult to handle general health issues on the road ad hoc. So we had investigated different options in the area and scheduled appointments over the summer for when we returned in November. That’s where I’ll pick up on the next blog post.

Gator Relaxing at Pond by Our Lot