Spring Hill Wrap-up

After Cedar Key, our next stop was to get some quality time in with Chris’ folks who winter just down the road in Spring Hill.

I know that once we get to Melbourne to be near my parents, that we’ll likely not have much time for getting a visit in with them before they return north in the spring – thus why we cut our Cedar Key visit short.

The campground we’ve enjoyed most in the past was unfortunately completely booked up, so we decided to give Holiday Springs RV Resort (link to our review on RVParking.com) a shot. The public facilities were very nice – including a fantastic nature trail with a lake to walk around and an awesome spring fed pool that we enjoyed on the one day it was warm enough.

However the RV pull thru spaces left a lot to be desired – and once we had a neighbor pull in, ours in particular was a bit too close for comfort especially with their slide that came well into our already tiny ‘yard’.

After a month of amazing views in Cedar Key, it was a harsh transition to have this as our daily view. This was particularly disappointing as the rates were ridiculously expensive at $405 for our 10-day stay. Ouch.

It seems everytime we visit Chris’ folks, there’s a tech project to handle. This time it was getting them both set up on new computers as his Mom’s Macbook had pretty much reached the end of its life. We decided the best course of action would be getting his Dad a Mac Mini (like I recently switched to) and move his Mom onto his older Macbook Pro. The transition seemed to go smoothly, and hopefully they’re both digitally happy for a while.

We enjoyed getting some extended time with his folks, including many shared meals, games and movie watching. And we also have been attending to a lot of work related stuff for our clients that has unexpectedly eaten up a lot of our time.

For our Valentine’s gift to his folks, we took them on a kayaking trip at nearby Weeki Wachee River, by Paddling Adventures. They were running a special of a tandem kayak for the price of a single.  It’s ironic that we decided to rent a kayak so soon after purchasing our own inflatable Sea Eagle (woah – just saw the 370 Pro Package is on sale for $289, we paid $349!!)  – but considering they charge a launch and pick-up fee, it just made more sense for the ease.

It was a very beautiful 5.5 mile paddle, much of the way with a gentle current flowing the right way. The water was so incredibly crystal clear, and we even came across a few manatees!

One even surfaced right off the bow of our kayak – which was an absolutely breathtaking experience!

Much to our surprise, our time in Spring Hill also included lots of social time.

Turns out new-to-the-road RVers Brenda & Karin of Breaking Up With Normal were also in the area visiting family. So we got to meet up with them a couple times. Hopefully that will be the first of many future meet-ups with them!

And one afternoon we got an e-mail that some blog followers, Phil & Kim, were passing through the area on a winter road trip and asked if they could stop by. We had an enjoyable impromptu evening with a couple beers hanging with them in the bus.  We love it when serendipity makes such rendezvouses possible.

The original plan had been my folks also coming over to Spring Hill for the weekend, and then the four of us heading up to Silver Springs for a little mini-vacation.

However my dad just wasn’t recovered enough from his last course of treatment. He’s also been busy getting entered into the care of hospice, a wonderful organization who’s goal is to help him live life to the absolute fullest.  While of course we were disappointed to not be able to see them this week, hopefully another week of rest will help him be up for trying again real soon… so we’ll remain ‘hovering’ around a bit more in the area to keep tempting him out for some adventuring.

Not wanting to stay another moment than needed with our less than stellar view in Spring Hill, I hopped on ReserveAmerica.com to find the closest state park with cellular connectivity and kayaking. It had been way too long since we stayed in our preferred type of campground, and Kiki was begging for some lizards to hunt.

Thankfully, I was able to snag the last spot large enough for the bus at Hillsborough River State Park, just 50 miles away.

We’re enjoying some much needed down time on our own after weeks of non-stop socializing, and catching up on some work with breaks for hikes and paddling.

Our tentative plan is to relocate up to Brooksville later this week to attend the Tin Can Tourist Winter Convention, which is a group of vintage trailer & motorcoach enthusiasts. We’ve heard great things about the community and it’s been on our list for a while to check out.

After that? We’ll play it by ear, but we have a general plan of getting to Melbourne by the end of the month.