There’s nothing like making your final leg of travel into a planned longer term stay.
As much as we love being on the move and exploring new places, we also love plopping down for a couple months somewhere awesome. And as the years on the road have expanded to nearly 8 now, we find we love integrating in more and more stays measured in months instead of days.
The Journey to Cedar Key
After an epic 5-day (and way too short) stop in Grayton Beach, we resisted temptation to stick around even longer and hit the road eastward.
We had some errands to run before arriving to Cedar Key (some holiday shopping, shipping and stocking up) and Panama City would be the last major city on our way.
We decided to try out St. Andrews State Park for the night as a last minute decision, and were given an awesome waterfront spot. We arrived right at sunset and our spot was ideal for pulling in forward to maximize the amazing views.
After getting plugged in, we were admiring the view when a pod of dolphins appeared. They gave us a full on dolphin show worthy welcome – with jumps and porpoising. They must work for the state park, because that prompted us to get online at Reserve America and book our site for the next night too.
Honestly, we had just clicked the ‘publish’ button our our top 12 campsites of 2013 post – and our spot at St. Andrews definitely should be on that list too. They have ample waterfront spots, and if we didn’t have a reservation awaiting us in Cedar Key, we would have been quite tempted to stick around even longer.
Extending our stays in both Grayton Beach and St. Andrews, means we had one overnight to make 305 miles before our reservation started. We set sites on a Walmart parking lot in Perry, FL to dry camp on the way inbound to knock out a lot of those miles.
We also made note that we seriously could spend several months park hopping around the Florida panhandle.
Cedar Key
We arrived to Sunset Isles RV Park just before lunchtime on Friday, slipped in our sweet waterfront spot and were greeted by neighbors from last year and several of our RVing friends we’ve met via the blog, NuRVers.com and various forums we participate in.
There’s something about Cedar Key that just feels like coming home, which is a rare feeling for us.
It’s quite the convergence that has come together here this winter, and we’re expecting about 15-20 fellow RVing households to pass through to join up.
And that’s just expecting. This park attracts so many awesome folks, that the serendipitous social life here will definitely be abundant.
Apparently, the park is at it’s fullest ever this winter and is very booked up come January and February – probably in some thanks to all the bloggers (ahem) who were here last winter and kept posting amazing photos and stories.
There’s some pressure from regulars & locals here that we not blog too much about just how our visit this year is, so that we all have a chance of getting a spot next year.
So instead of amazing sunset shots, stories of community, outings to the Tiki Bar, music jams and all night campfires – expect lots of stories about mosquitos, flea infestations, tight spots, murky water, intermittent internet, low-tide mud and high grocery prices instead.
If you want closer, I recommend Thonotosassa. Inbetween would be Valrico or Plant City. All have varying degrees of country.
Just left visiting Cedar Key last month again while my parents RVd at Low-Key. We feel the same way about it…one of the few places we return to every year. Got their book with all that beautiful photography for Christmas! Devora — Re: Ruskin…country area out past Tampa (where I live) & Brandon, headed toward Apollo Beach. A country area. Considered poorer, migrant. Known for their famous Ruskin tomatoes. If it’s the recording studio I’m thinking of (and I don’t know of another), then you would have about a 45 minute drive from there. Thirty if by interstate & good traffic, maybe. Hope that helps some. Oh…I laughed at the sulphur water comment. While I know we have some, can’t say I see it as common.
Enjoy your site Chris. I have been reading your post for quite some time now. Always a joy when catching up to the misadventures of you both. Cedar Key, not a lot there. My wife and I visited this past May, wasn’t taken by the place. Have you been to St. Augustine on the north eastern shore of FL. Now that is a place you would enjoy, then again maybe not. That whole Island Time thing may be more to your liking. Regardless, enjoy reading your blogs, keep up the great job of sharing with the rest of us.
We love island time – it meshes nicely with us. Cedar Key is one of our favorite spots in the country, and we love it there. Our third year returning.
Looks like you are off to another great start in Cedar Key! We pulled in to Williston Crossings RV Resort on Sunday, so we are just up the road from you. We plan to visit Cedar Key at least once while we are here (Jan – Mar). We would love to stop and say “hi.” I’ll e-mail you to try and coordinate. (PS – the water here appears to be fine, but I think it’s municipal.)
we spent our 30th annuversary at Low Key Hideaway….yhe tiki bar rocks! Going back in the RV for July 4 hear its a great time! If you are still in Florida we live up the road from The Bees campground the lights in Mt Dora are beautiful😉
Looks amazing! Regarding the crowded parks we have found the same issue in many places. We have been spoiled these last few years. Baby boomers are going to retire and they are going to travel. It sucks having to plan!
I’m thinking about moving to Ruskin, FLA because there’s a recording studio in Tampa I’d like to work with. I should move to Nashville, TN as a musician, but the cold bothers me more every year, so Florida seems like the logical choice. In your travels, have you been through Ruskin? Is there any part of Florida where the drinking water does not SMELL of sulphur????
We are not familiar with Ruskin – sorry.
No problem. If you ever go that way, remember me:)
I will only be there for a week in early March. Guess I will cancel with all the negative comments 🙂
With all those negatives you’ve just listed, now we’ll never visit Cedar Key (wink-wink). :cD
Oh good.. it’s working! 🙂
….unlurk….
Just to give yous and your readers a heads up… Millenicom has iPad mini retina deal back on for preorder…ipad airs too.
…lurk….
Yup.. we know. We posted about it last week 🙂
Really. I didn’t see that.
I read yer posts every day and musta missed that. I was kickin’ myself down the street for missing out on the original offer… this looks like a new thing. Have a blast in Cedar Key
We made the announcement on both our FB page and in our Internet for RVers group, as well as updated the original post which is getting bunches of traffic.
Cedar Key is indeed a special place–we spent the winter there two years ago and even considered buying a house and business!!
It’s the only place in our travels that we’ve even come close to considering going out looking at property to buy with bus parking.
Yesterday after leaving you, we drove around the town a little bit more to see the parts that we didn’t get around to last week when we were there. Went out to the cemetary, and was surprised that it was a lot bigger than we thought it would be. On our way back out of town we saw the Segway guy and his dogs that you had told us about. Nice picture of the boat and sunset!
Isn’t the cemetery beautiful? It’s directly across from our spot, so we can easily kayak to it – great walking. Thanks again for the visit yesterday, and the very touching gift!