A Month Meandering Around Florida in the Van

With Y-Not hauled out in Jacksonville for routine maintenance items (bottom paint, thru-hulls, anodes, etc) – we loaded up Blooper for some van adventures.

We had anticipated that we’d only need to fill in a couple of weeks, but Lamb’s has been backed up and didn’t inspect our thru-hulls immediately. It was determined that a slow leak we had reported combined with the age, that new ones were recommended.  Which had to be ordered in.

As a result, Y-Not was out of the water for nearly a month.

But no complaints here, we made the best of it!

Here’s the overnight stops we made on our adventure (trying out Google MyMaps) – we frequently circled back to Jacksonville to check in on Y-Not:

We visited a bunch of new-to-us locations – which is the fun of it!

Special announcement: We’ll be going LIVE on YouTube later this evening at 8pm Eastern (Monday, May 29) to also share this recap, take questions and generally hang out.

State Parks & Forests

We absolutely love the Florida State Park system, so we were excited to check out some we hadn’t been to before. And we even added in a state forest campground!

Cary Campground

Our first stop was at Cary Campground – in a state forest less than an hour west of Jacksonville.

There are only 6 sites and each is GINORMOUS – with acres of open space around them. Water, electric, concrete pad, individual trash cans at each site, benches built around the campfire. Totally immaculate.
Amazing network of trails to explore on foot or bike and lots of wildlife. And fabulous rocking fast cell signal. And just $22.50/night plus taxes & fees. Amazing.

We loved it here and feel so blessed there were a couple open nights that meshed with our schedule.

Fort Clinch State Park

We were finally able to snag a night at Fort Clinch State Park in Fernandina Beach, FL. Our first visit – definitely not our last!

Such an amazing park with an entry road that meanders through a lush forest hammock lined with an amazing mountain bike trail.

There are two campgrounds – beachside (where we ended up) with easy access to a hard packed beach great for waking & running. Next time however we will try for the riverside campground which has amazing shaded and private feeling sites.

We toured the fort on our way out and had a blast following tunnels to stunning views.

Anastasia State Park

We were thrilled to snag a site at Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine twice during this trip – a long time favorite.

Not only are the sites lusciously gorgeous – you are right on the beach, and there is so much to explore right around the park. Funky restaurants, historic downtown, lighthouse and even an amphitheater next door with concerts many nights and a Saturday morning farmer’s market.

Our first stay was for 2-nights, and it’s never enough. Especially when Starlink drops a huge change on our team at the Mobile Internet Resource Center to cover that took most of our time there. So we snagged a second stay for 3-nights to soak in more of the area – and my mom even drove up for the day to explore with us.

Mike Goess Gold Head Branch

A new to us state park. Mike Roess Gold Head Branch near Keystone Heights a bit south of Jax. One of the oldest in the Florida park system.

The sites are large but don’t offer much privacy or separation. And not too terribly much to do.

We took a hike to the ‘ravine’ which was lovely. And Kiki loved exploring. We check another Florida State Park off our list. One day we will get to them all.

Nudist RV Parks

On last summer’s van trip, we started checking out Nudist Resorts with RV Parking, and found that we really enjoy them. Florida has many such parks, so we decided to continue our exploration. We ended up visiting four of them this trip.

If you’re an RVer like us who views no clothes as just another outfit, a new BOF of the Escapees RV Club / Xscapers has formed called NudeScapers. Great community for sharing tips and locations, they even have an interactive map on their website showing clothing optional and naturist campgrounds with RV parking options.

Hidden River Resort

Just less than an hour to the west of Jax across the Georgia borderline is Hidden River Resort – a beautiful location along the St. Mary’s River. They have 88 acres, most of it amazing hiking trails. A basic pool and hot tub, and nicely spaced full hook-up RV spots.

Very basic, and very chill.

We went for their annual ‘Nudie Blues’ weekend – which in its heyday attracted hundreds. This time, there were barely more participants than band members – but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

A great getaway, and it had been too long since we’ve been out in the buff!

Sunny Sands Nudist Resort

Next Up is Sunny Sands Nudist Resort RV Campground & Community in Pierson, FL. And it was – amazing!

We arrived just after most their snowbirds flocked north – so pretty much had the RV area to ourselves.

The grounds are incredible – great 24/7 heated pool and hot tub. Nice bar & restaurant. Clubhouse with gym and laundry. Great walking trail too.

When we found out that the resort day fees are included with the RV site price, we splurged on a lake front site for $49/night (they have sites as low as $34). Minus our AARN membership discount. We are so used to paying site + day fees at these places that can easily totally $80-200 per night.

All of the local residents we met were so kind and welcoming too.

This spot is just about an hour north of Sanford – so we will definitely be back in the future when we need to get our nude on.

Cypress Cove Nudist Resort

Next up was Cypress Cove Nudist Resort in Kissimmee – one we have heard consistent great things about.

Despite our less than stellar crammed in RV spot – we absolutely loved this location. Two awesome pools and hot tubs, poolside restaurant and bar, hair salon, massage and a clothing boutique (yes, nudists wear clothes).

We also absolutely loved their huge private lake with paddle boards, boats and kayaks. A sunrise naked paddle was magical.

At just $55/night for a site inclusive of day fees – we may have found our favorite yet.

Lake Como Family Nudist Resort

What attracted us to Lake Como Family Nudist Resort is their amazing network of trails for hiking – and that they were. We really enjoyed them, and got in lots of hiking, biking and running.

Facility and size wise, we’d place this somewhere between Sunny Sands and Cypress Cove. This one is run as a co-op, so very community centric.

Everyone was friendly enough, but we had a pretty frustrating arrival. We were placed in the overflow lot, outside the gate – which felt a bit disconnected.

At least we were able to request a lovely corner shady spot off on our own after being given a site number that didn’t exist.

But at $96/night for a water/electric site with no picnic table or close by dump station – we were not as called to this location.

Other Stops

We integrated in a variety of types of stops – driveway surfing with friends and a Harvest Hosts location. And upon hearing that there would be a delay for parts with Y-Not, we accepted an invite to crash the Frontier Peplink Partner Summit over in Tampa, which opened up even more adventures.

Blu By U Blueberry Farm

Blueberries! They are pretty much a food group for us – so we were thrilled to find Blu By U Blueberry Farm outside Jacksonville, and it is blueberry season in Florida! They are part of the Harvest Hosts network.

We picked 2 lbs of amazing berries – we had no clue how many varieties there are.

And we got invited into the petting zoo to feed the adorable animals.

Lovely and peaceful overnight stay on one of our circles around the Jax vicinity to check in on Y-Not.

Hotel Parking Lot

With Y-Not’s projects delayed, we accepted a last minute invite to crash the Frontier / Peplink Partner Summit in Tampa with our friends at Mobilemusthave.com.

Peplink routers have become a popular mobile internet option with our audience of RVers and cruisers, so we track them closely as part of our day job. Our first work related conference in years.

While the summit was focused on distributors (and we are more in a journalist role with Peplink at Mobile Internet Resource Center) – it was awesome to meet up in person with so many we interact with regularly.

And having catered meals, open bars and a yacht party was super fun!

And of course time with our dear friend and colleague Erik is always a blessing. We are are super proud of MMH for winning ‘Partner of the Year’!

We stayed in the van in the parking lot. And it coincided with some very hot days, meaning we needed to run the AC pretty much 24/7 to keep Kiki comfy while we were attending sessions. We love that our Winnebago Travato GL can run the AC off the Volta lithium batteries for about 6-8 hrs at a time, and then can recharge off the engine alternator.

Driveway Surfing with Friends

Heading over to the Tampa area opened up the opportunity to reconnect with dear friends who happened to have driveway space for us – some even pre-dating our nomadic life together.

Ben & Karen are former full time nomads who have settled down for other adventures in the Tampa area. It was such a good visit driveway surfing with them and their amazing vintage bus conversion which inspired our own Zephyr.

Long time readers will recognize Ben as the first working on the road nomad we met back in 2008. We’ve had many adventures together over the years with him & Karen in over 12 states. But it took nearly two years into our respective RV journeys for either of us to meet others like us.

If it wasn’t for meeting him, we might not have been inspired to help launch Xscapers and RVillage to help make it easier for others.

Back to Y-Not

And that wraps up nearly a month roaming around Florida in the van while we awaited Y-Not to be splashed again. We made it up as we went, and we loved getting out exploring without much of an agenda.

It was definitely an abundant packed month, and we absolutely love the flexibility the van gives us when we need to attend to boat projects of this caliber.

We were very happy when we got the word Y-Not was ready last week and we could move back aboard. We’ve been in nesting mode and enjoying Jacksonville.

Not all of our project list is done yet – but the rest can be done with the boat in the water (with air conditioning!).

So we’re currently in the yard side of Lamb’s, but able to be mostly aboard. We do have the van in the parking lot where we can escape to when more chaotic projects are ongoing.

Hopefully in the week ahead we’ll have an idea of what the time line is. We’re hoping to sneak out for some cruising in the area while we wait out timing for parts & labor availability before we head back to Sanford.