Thanksgiving Stop in Spring Hill, Florida & Vacation Preps

Our timing of returning to Florida was of course, the holidays.

The past two winter seasons we spent out west away from our family, always a tough call in this nomadic lifestyle.

While we love Florida and love being near family, we also love being out in the wonderful desert southwest in the winter. And it’s a mighty big country in-between to cross back and forth to attempt to cram both into one season.

At least, for these slow-pokes.

This post covers November 22-29.

Barrington Hills RV “Resort” – Hudson, FL

We departed Cedar Key, after a way too quick stop, to make the final miles south to Spring Hill – where Chris’ parents winter. They would be hosting Thanksgiving this year with my mom coming over to join us.

There really are no ideal RV parking options nearby so we’ve settled on Barrington Hills RV Resort being our default location.

The rates are not too bad and it’s only about a 20 minute drive.

The park isn’t much to look at, but that’s ok – we don’t tend to spend much time there as we’re always over at their place.

We opted to just get a weekly rate this pass through, as their Passport America rates aren’t valid in the winter months any longer.

We’d use the spot to both spend the holiday weekend with family and prepare the bus for storage during our upcoming vacation.

More Info: Preparing an RV for Storage

Family Time

Since it would just be the five of us this year, we keep the holidays pretty low key. A traditional roasted turkey with all the fixings served Florida-style on the lanai.

We enjoyed sunsets on the nearby beach and on the back porch. We played card games. We caught up and shared our latest boat hunting crushes. It was also Chris’ birthday, so we celebrated that too.

And we of course did tech support for the parents, getting all of their computers and mobile devices updated.

Mostly, it was all about quality time with loved ones. We are so very blessed that our parents get along so well, and have formed their own friendship – frequently spending time together even when we’re not around.

Cruise Preps

And then it was time to get ready for VACATION – a Panama Canal cruise to celebrate my mom’s 70th birthday!

This time we wouldn’t be working much at all, as we usually do when we travel in ways other by RV.

So we had a lot of work to get done in advance so we could take the time off.

There was of course also packing to be done for an 11-day cruise, and getting the bus ready for storage by doing a thorough tank flushing and cleaning out perishables.

 

We got Kiki situated over at grandmeow’s where she would be helping out with their lizard problem  and then we drove the bus across the state to where we’d be leaving the bus behind.

On the way, we were able to make a lunch stop to meet up with our RVing friends Forrest & Mary, who we likely won’t see again for a while as they head westward and we stick east.

Boat Shopping then Boat Boarding

We took off from Melbourne to Ft. Lauderdale to catch our cruise with my mom, and were able to meet up with our boat broker on the way to tour a Bayliner 4788 – our boat crush of the past few weeks.

While Bayliner doesn’t have a stellar reputation for their smaller crafts, this particular 47′ model seems to be fairly well regarded as an exception to the rule.

It’s the first non aft cabin model that has intrigued us with a great pilothouse layout and panoramic salon. With some relatively easy modifications to the arch, the bridge clearance can be brought down to under 13′ – more than suitable for all routes along the Great Loop.

The layout and living spaces really impressed us – living up to the countless hours of video tours we’ve been diving into online. So we’ll be keeping this model on the top of our list.

What’s Up Next?

We just returned from our cruise, and will get a recap of that up soon (including some fun time lapse video going through the Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal and a report on international internet access options!).

We’ll be heads down the next few days dealing with a backlog of content to get done for RVMobileInternet (when you’re self employed, that means the work is just waiting for you upon return).

And then of course there’s more holidays with family – this time my mom hosting in Melbourne, with Chris’ parents joining us here.

And we’ll be making a sharp shift from being in boat research mode to active boat shopping now that we have some top contender models on our list. We’ve been snagging up campground reservations around Florida for the coming months to get us easily accessible until we find our vessel. The goal is still moving aboard by spring time.

All plans from here on out will revolve around the boat hunt and how things fall out.