Life From The Front Tees

"And so this is Christmas" - John Lennon

It's Christmas Eve.  The tree is trimmed.  The gifts are wrapped.  I'm thrilled to have my beautiful daughter visiting St Petersburg for a while.  We decided to risk the two hour flight from Chicago.  But is that really riskier than her hanging with her college friends ?  We'll find out in a few days as we drove thru a Walgreen's this morning and self swabbed our nostrils.  Having done this several times now, I highly recommend the self swabbing versus having a nurse do it. 

My boy and his girlfriend will be down after Christmas.  The last thing to move to Florida is my old SUV which they're driving cross country for me.

It's been a while since I've posted.  I've been busy.  I spent my first five Florida weeks in a nice Largo RV park while I shopped and closed on a house. 

Closed on a Tuesday. Relocated my RV to my new driveway and slept there as my stuff from CA hadn't arrived yet. 

I woke up this morning with one last leg to complete The Great RV Move Adventure of 2020.  I had arrived last night in a downpour and the fact that I was in Florida hadn't really sunk in.   A few miles on the freeway fixed that.

It's the billboards..... loads of 'em

- Florida Welcome Center featuring a 14 Foot Alligator

- Florida Welcome Center featuring Baby Alligators

- The Big Daddy Don Garlits Drag Racing Museum

"Lord, I was born a ramblin' man" - The Allman Brothers

Downsizing from 3000+ square feet to a 27 foot RV you'd think I might be feeling cramped by now.  I'm not.  I'm quite comfortable and am in no rush to upsize.

The trip east has gone in phases...

Drove the beautiful and amazing Columbia Gorge.  Parked the RV and grabbed a rental car to explore the Highway to the Sun in Glacier National Park.  Entered the north entrance of Yellowstone and took the middle route visiting Mammoth Hot Springs, Geyser Valley, Yellowstone's Grand Canyon and cruising thru a herd of bison on my way east.  On the way east caught the headwaters of the Missouri River and Devils Tower. Plenty of pictures of all can be found on my Facebook feed.

The RV parks around Yellowstone were full so I randomly found a couple of cool boondocking spots on the way in and out.  'In" was a highway rest stop on the banks of the Yellowstone River.  "Out" was a secluded parking area in the middle of Shell Creek Canyon where I awoke to a truck departing after a ranger left a "don't do that' ticket on my windshield.

...or One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.

Buy an RV.  Head north and escape the heat before heading to Florida.  That was the plan.  Three days of 100°F+  Sacramento heat later.....

I'm a fan of Mike Rowe, the Dirty Jobs guy.  He's been preaching for years about the shortage of tradesmen in the US.  Well Mike's right.

I bought the RV.

Gave it a good test run driving it from Missouri to California coming back to gather some belongings.