Day 76 Continued – We finished up the last of re-packing all of our things into the Ohana for our trip down South. It was finally time for our big reset- where the plan was to get a few very important things done:
1) Some much needed in-depth maintenance done on The Ohana. During our non-stop traveling we definitely had done what we could do to make things continue working if not improve them. But honestly, we needed a base of operations to find the necessary things to be able to take a bit more time to make sure some larger things were addressed to take care of our girl the best we could.
2) This was the big change in the way we would make our trip from now on. We were going to take a bit of time to plan out the second half of our journey. We would utilize this down time to start deeply researching areas where we might be interested in living in. With the information we would compile, we would integrate it in with visiting family, friends, and some milestones we want to see as we plot out the second half of our intended journey. The big difference between the first half of our trip and this one would be a significant one; with the intention to slow our pace waaay down so we could saturate a little bit and explore the potential places we might want to spend our future in.
So with this intention in mind we headed off on our 2 day drive to Florida, where we intended to stay a few weeks with my good friend Tom Sims.
As we passed through Valdosta we decided to pull over and get gas before finding a place to land for the evening. At the gas station I received a call from Tom, who wanted to check in on our progress and see when we were going to arrive. I explained to him I was intending to find a rest stop for the night and where we were. He gave me a “no pressure” 😄 approach that we weren’t too far away, and we could make it down to his place if we really wanted to that night. Funny part is he didn’t understand that The Ohana has a different pace, and that generally adds a bit to overall travel time. Nonetheless though, I asked Laura what she thought- and we decided to go for it. It would add on another leg to our already long driving day, but the prospect of being able to land that night to begin prepping for the next part of journey was just too exciting to pass up!
So with that we pushed another 3’ish hours down to Belleview Florida. It didn’t take long for us to notice the change in fauna as we drew further south, and eventually we excitedly passed the Florida state line into the great sunshine state. As far as states go, we had just entered the furthest one away from where we had started!
That evening we arrived at Tom’s house- and were greeted with a very welcoming place to land to refresh.
So You Can Already Guess What We Did That Night; Jumped Straight In Of Course!
Days 77 Through 91- We prepped The Ohana’s space for a few weeks off, discovering invading insects were going to be a problem without the proper precautions- so we doused her parking area with the recommended bug killer.
Meanwhile we researched our target areas of interest to possibly live, with prospective states ranging from North Carolina down to Florida, hugging the Gulf Of Mexico all the way over to New Mexico. We naturally are beach bum babies, so we really are enticed by areas closer to the ocean. Strangely though- so many people along our way had stated positive things about New Mexico that we decided to add that to the list too.
Also we took some time to discover our local areas of Belleview & Ocala. It was feeling pretty nice to slow down for a few moments after months of the non-stop daily changes we had been happily experiencing.
Tom took us down to Ybor one night to experience the madness of the downtown strip. The variety of people and styles was really amazing.
While exploring Ybor we stumbled across an extremely trippy but crazily fun EDM show going on- so of course we had to go feel it out for a few minutes. We were in there for less than an hour, but the dancing and energy left us ready to get outside to cool down and think about heading home for the night.
After a little bit of play, life continued on as we soaked in the Florida sun and lived for a bit. We helped Tom restore (and update) an old jukebox for his dream juice bar he wanted to build in his living room.
He has the sweetest dog Sheila, which is always the household mascot that makes everyone smile and can’t help but pet her all of the time.
I have been subjecting Tom to all kinds of games since I am so excited to have the space to spread out games on a table to play some cards or roll some dice. Even though gaming is pretty new to him he is really good at it- which is a win in my book because I love converting people into board gamers! It’s such a healthy way to share time with people and use your brain for creatively problem solving all at once.
Check out the picture of the Banana Spider in the slide show below! They are huge! It has been an interesting experience adjusting to all of the things that grow in this area.
We also have been helping Tom build a pole barn for his business equipment and inventory so he can finally get some much needed organization in place at his home base. He pays us in delicious smoothies all of the time. 😄
We found a small leak by the center skylight in the Ohana, so I peeled things back, cleaned and dried them out, and re-sealed it all back up with Gaco. No problems from it since!
And last but not least for the slideshow below, Laura wanted to see baby alligators, so we made it happen; and she wanted me to share them with all of you!
One day Laura and I drove out to the neighboring town of Dunnellon to explore the local beauty of Rainbow Springs. It was an amazing day of swimming in the springs and walking the trails of Florida, and fun to experience the natural beauty of this area.
From falling in love with the local Cuban cuisine, to spending as much time as possible in the pool life was feeling pretty good. We even went down to Renniger’s Flea Market- which is an absolutely massive flea market. You never know what you’ll discover at these crazy places; but it’s usually pretty cool!
We made a point to drive down to Auburndale to spend the day with my Mom. She shared some really neat spots with us, re-creating my visit in November for Laura with some extra neat things as well.
She began by taking us to walk around the nearby Swan Lake. This beautiful spot is located right in the middle of a circling street, and is surrounded by tons of different kinds of birds. The birds we saw I will list in order as they appear for the first time in the slide show below. Beginning with Egrets, Wood Storks, Black Swans, Coscoroba Swans, Peking Ducks, Anhingas, Ugly Ducks, and Mallards.
After a nice lap around the lake we headed nearby to a local park which had a super pretty garden. We strolled through and goofed around in the playground a bit before heading on out to our next destination; Universal City Walk.
Lucky for us we arrived late enough in the day that the parking was free. Even though the city walk is just a lot of store fronts and restaurants we still enjoyed the free way to get a feel for what Universal Studios was all about- which presented the same professional display that we had know Disney World for. As we explored, the sky began to grow darker- which meant we needed to take off to get to the next part of our plans for the day.
We drove on over to Disney World and were able to watch the Disney Enchantment firework show. With the improvement in technology over the years, it seems like every time I watch this show it just gets more and more amazing. To explain, my Grandma used to live down in this area, and she would take us to see this when we visited when I was a kid. So I’ve gotten to have many memories of the way this firework show has changed over time.
Overall we had a wonderful day with my Mom! We wished her much Love and Many Thanks before heading back North to Ocala that night. The next day we had big plans too.
The next day we were hanging out with Tom and his girlfriend Jackie- and the plan was to head over to Daytona Beach. On the way there we drove through the Ocala Forest and stopped at Juniper Springs. Juniper Springs is known for a few things, but apart from it’s beauty it is known for its fish. The main pond area contains the same fish they use in pedicure salons that nibble dead skin off of the clients feet. So we took some time and let all these little fish nibble on our heels and toes! At first the sensation was strange but overall they were very gentle and it turned out to be a pleasant experience.
After our feet felt cleansed we wandered around the park a tiny bit before heading to Daytona Beach. I had seen some properties online that I wanted to look at for fun since we would be there. So once we arrived in Daytona we went and walked a few of these properties to get a feel for the area. It was definitely educational, and we were able to get really good feel for what areas we might want to invest in Daytona and which ones were probably best to avoid.
Once we were done with this “chore” 😄 we headed down to Daytona Beach itself. I couldn’t help myself and bough a couple of body boards so we could take turns trying to ride the incoming surf. We splashed and played in the waves for an hour or two before we decided to rinse the sand and salt off of us and head home.
As we lounged by and swam in Tom’s pool that night the gears in our head were definitely turning. Maybe we would seriously play around with the idea of investing in Daytona Beach? Overall we really dug the vibe there- but maybe that was just our Beach Bum Baby Souls pulling at our Heart-Strings? 🌊💞 It couldn’t hurt to investigate options further… 🤔
After all- That’s how dreams become reality- right? 😉
Geoff Murphy 10 / 23 / 2022
Great post