Snowbirds in Florida (11/1 – 11/28)

Florida

We arrived in Florida on November 1^st and looked forward to spending the entire month of November in the same state. Our first stop was in Wauchula at a Thousand Trails campground.  After being on the move like we had been, we took advantage of some downtime to take care of business and recharge.

Wauchula, FL

• 11/1 – 11/7
• 321 miles from Townsend, GA to Wachula, FL
• Peace River RV & Camping Resort
• Highlights:
  • Registration for the RV was due and an emissions test was required. When an emissions test is required when you are away from your home state, one option is to visit a local emissions testing facility and fill out appropriate out of state paperwork and then renew online. This is how we chose to handle it when our tow car was due during our stay in Washington State back in June. However, the state of Florida does not have emissions testing, so the other option is to have the local sheriff’s office inspect your RV and complete paperwork verifying your vehicle VIN number and location. We paid a minimal $5 fee and a deputy came to our campground within an hour. Paperwork was completed and mailed back to Arizona and within a week we were able to renew online. Easy peasy.
  • The other big task that Cathy was anxious to complete was setting up her follow up doctor appointments for when we return to Arizona. Her primary care doctor no longer takes her insurance so in order to have appointments covered by insurance, she had to choose a new primary care doctor, and get all new referrals for specialists. Some of her specialists were also not covered by insurance, so it took a lot of research and phone calls to get it all straightened out. The first few weeks back in Arizona will be busy with appointments.
  • It was great to be within driving distance to the beach again, so Jon took advantage of it for his beach workouts.

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Orlando, FL

• 11/7 – 11/28
• 74 miles from Wachula, FL to Orlando, FL
• Orlando RV Resort
• Highlights:
  • The weather was great! We finally got a break from the humidity and had comfortable temps. We took advantage with daily walks and/or bike rides around the huge campground, and a row boat tour around the lake. We particularly enjoyed the wildlife here with regular sightings of gators, cranes, and turtles.
  • We were about an hour from beautiful Cocoa Beach so we enjoyed a nice beach day after Jon’s workout.
  • One of the highlights of our time here was a trip to Cape Canaveral to watch a rocket launch from the Kennedy Space Center. What a cool experience!
  • We ventured into Downtown Disney to see the Christmas lights and get in the holiday spirit.

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After four weeks in central Florida, it was time to start trekking westward toward Arizona in time for the holidays. We have reservations in Arizona for 12/15, so we gave ourselves just about 2 ½ weeks to complete the 2,000+ mile journey.