How Many People Can You Fit In A Winnebago?

The answer is six. Well, more can 'fit' but six can sleep, lol. We took a quick one-nighter trip over to Fort De Soto to hook up with Dave's brother Rob and his family who were on their summer vacation.

Here we all are (back row, then front row, left to right): Matthew, Rob, Dave, Michael, Shari and Misi

We were fortunate that we got a great site at the last minute. Site number 170, on the water.

We hung out by the water and did a bit of fishing...and relaxing. We tried to catch a small crab....and came close, but he wouldn't cooperate.

We headed over to the beaches with Dave, myself, Rob and Shari on bikes and the boys running. It was fun, but SO hot. We stopped at a couple of the piers and went to the Fort, but headed back before we made it to the farthest beach because it was just too hot on the bikes/running.

You can read a bit of history about the Fort De Soto cannons by clicking here.

We arrived back at our campsite and Shari and I fixed dinner. It may be a small kitchen, but it has everything we need! It was a beautiful evening with a great breeze so we dined outside. After a yummy chicken dinner we made a fire and Michael and Matthew told stories while we made smores....they were fantastic! Michael and Matthew are the masters of roasting marshmallows exactly how you want them...thanks boys!!

What better way to cap off a great day than to cozy up together inside with a fun game? Dave and I introduced Rob, Shari and the boys to Stop Thief, one of our favorite board games.

Here is Winnie 'before' sleep mode then 'in' sleep mode:

We got up the next morning and ate some breakfast....I obviously am not an experienced camper! I walked away from my breakfast for a minute and a bird made off with part of it, lol!! Dave and I had to work, so we powered up the computers and turned on our phones while Rob, Shari, Michael and Matthew headed out to the beach for a swim. We hooked up with them at lunch to say our farewells and let them continue on with their journey.

We love making memories with family and friends! Here are a few more photos:

Ok, Dave has really itchy feet to head out of state. He wants to replace the beaches with some mountains. The question is, do we head to Georgia and North Carolina now or wait a bit so we can see the leaves change? Hmmm...what a quandary! Well, I'll take this type of 'dilemma' any day! We thank God often for the opportunity to do this type of traveling now.

Until next time ~

Blessings,
Misi & Dave

North Beach Camp Resort, Saint Augustine, FL

Well, this is our fourth ‘mini’ trip in Winnie and we are definitely hooked! The thing I hear Dave say most often is that he loves me (he is a most wonderful husband!), next to that it is, ‘ok, so when are we taking our next trip?’ He is so excited about this new adventure, well, we both are, but I think now that he has finished his Master’s degree, he’s looking forward to this fun chapter in our lives.

We left mid-day on Friday after both of us had worked for a while. Dave’s boss was cool with him taking an ‘extended’ lunch to make the drive to St. Augustine, as he knew Dave would make up the time.

Here’s a photo of the office where you check in and here is the beach across the street. (FYI-you can click on photos to enlarge them)

What I love about this place is the old school, laid back vibe. When we checked in, our reservation was on paper, not a computer! You don’t see that much anymore. This place definitely has a family feel.

After work, we rode our bikes to the beach (just 2 min. from our site) and enjoyed walking on the nearly empty shoreline. There was one other couple and we both took turns taking a photo for each other.

We rode our bikes through all the different loops and realized what a great place this is. Most of the sites are very private with an abundance of trees and palmetto scrub. We noticed that there are a couple loops where it appears people live there maybe even full time. There were RVs that had patios built on and one had a really awesome thatched roof with bamboo fencing around it. There were also some really cute mobile homes too. Our lot was number 57 and we loved it.

We rode to the back of the camp resort which ends at the Intracoastal, and there is a fantastic water front restaurant called Aunt Kate's. We had a yummy dinner there, and a side note if you ever go, the portions are huge so think about splitting an entrée.

Ok, I had a weak moment at the grocery store before our trip and I bought some Nestle Toll House break and bake cookies, but, silly me, forgot to bring a cookie sheet. We’ve used the microwave and stove top before but never the oven. I really wanted to try out the oven (ok, I really wanted the cookies). We learned some lessons we want to pass along:

1.) You cannot use wax paper in an oven without a cookie sheet…it starts to smoke.

2.) You cannot fix break and bake cookies in the microwave, they burn and smoke at 1 minute.

3.) You cannot fix them in the frying pan (that one was Dave’s idea). They just become a gooey mess.

Don’t judge me..I REALLY wanted some chocolate chip cookies! Oh, how I wish now I’d taken photos. It was actually quite hilarious once the burnt cookie smell vacated our RV. And don’t worry, we have a fire extinguisher in case we ever need it. Sadly, we had no cookies last night. I ate a Werther’s candy, but it wasn’t the same (sigh).

We are sitting outside this morning sipping coffee and enjoying how cool and breezy it is. We haven’t hooked up a tow package yet to be able to bring the car, but we have the bikes and might ride to downtown St. Augustine later. It’s about 5 miles away.

Well, we indeed rode the bikes to downtown St. Augustine (and back) and we have the jelly legs to prove it! It really wasn’t that bad…a little far and the bridge is a bit tiring just before you reach the top, but nice that the absence of our car didn’t stop us from getting around. The weather was fantastic in spite of possible rain in the forecast. Warm, but a great breeze. We parked the bikes and took one of those guided trolley tours since we’d never done it. It was fun! You can check out their site here. We biked and walked throughout the town after the trolley tour and although there were tons of choices, we ended up at Columbia Restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner. If you’ve ever eaten there, then you may feel like we do….almost impossible to not stop if you’re even slightly hungry. It has quickly become one of my favorite restaurants! You MUST try the 1905 Salad sometime…promise me you will!

We got a souvenir St. Augustine pin for our RV hat. What is an RV hat you might ask?! Here is our RV hat!

Dave and I joked that if we ever got an RV, he’d need a hat like a trucker! One of those foam trucker caps. So, when we got Winnie, I found a store online called Lids and was able to get this hat and get it customized! We keep it in the RV and use it to put souvenir pins on! Too funny!

We had a quiet night with a game of Stop Thief (we love our vintage board games!), some House Hunters International (I told Dave it’s ok if he watches it because he’s married, lol!) and some reading.

Sunday morning we went to church via the internet! If you haven’t checked it out yet, check out Family Bible Church’s live streaming Sunday service by clicking here.

We packed up and headed home taking the scenic route down A1A. Dave is a really great driver, even on those narrow roads! We love coming home but Dave has already asked me when we can leave on our next trip! Hint, next time won’t be near a beach. ;o)

Here are some more photos of our trip:

If you are longing to be at the beach or hear the sound of ocean waves, click play below and enjoy!!

Fort De Soto Park

Bit of a hectic departure, but hey, no real complaints here, after all,  we're on the road again. We MUST play this song every time we head out!
After working most of the day, we hit the road and Dave drove while I worked online from my passenger seat. Gotta love technology, especially gotomypc.com.

We first went to downtown St. Pete to Tropicana Field to watch a Tampa Bay Rays game. They have great parking for RVs so we got there a bit early, finished up work, then went in and ate at Everglades BBQ Smokehouse which has huge windows overlooking the field and you can eat while the teams are warming up. The food was great! Dave had smoked chicken breast and I got their salad bar which is really good and also has Brunswick stew. The stew was SO fantastic!

The game was great. We won…5-0. 4 of our runs were homers! Go Rays!

We had already told the people at the Fort De Soto Campground we’d be arriving late, so we just used a gate code and rolled into the park. Thank goodness for the back-up camera for many reasons, but that night, so I could stand at the back of our site and direct Dave in (it was so dark out!). The camera has volume too so I was able to tell him to cut it to the right a little, don’t hit the palm tree and stuff like that.

When we woke up we were greeted with a beautiful water view out our back bedroom window. Our site # was 205, Lot’s of privacy, great water views and beautiful trees!

Our View From Our Camp Site

The park is first rate with their camp sites, bathrooms (which we now have our water and sewer lines hooked up, yay!), cute little store with everything you could need and biking distance to the best beaches around!

In fact, we did ride our bikes to the beach and took a long walk. The beach was beautiful.

I saw a family in front of us scouring the shoreline for shells and such, and my first thought was, ‘Man, they are being so thorough, I won’t be able to find anything!’ And mind you, up until this point, I’ve always wanted to, but never in my life found a whole sand dollar on the beach. God quickly spoke to me saying, ‘Don’t think like that, keep looking’. I turned ever so slightly and was rewarded with a beautiful little sand dollar. I was so excited, yes, to find it, but really, because He reminded me that even with my simple, little desires, I can trust Him! And you know what?! I found two more lovely sand dollars on that walk. God also reminded me that He is a God of abundance…always blessing us with more than we ask for! Isn’t God awesome?! I encourage you to reflect on the wonderful things big and small God has done for you!

We got back to our camp site just in time to enjoy the beautiful sunset over the water.

It was a wonderful trip. We hated to leave, but we will definitely come back soon!

Until next time...Blessings, Misi and Dave