Hello All! I know it’s been awhile, but I wanted to give you all the biggest update on our travels. I’m a bit behind since the stories I am going to tell you are all the way from September; but life has been so very busy and ever-changing that I am finally getting to start working on the blog again. The beginning of our story takes place during the week of Tom’s birthday. We awoke that day headed out to help Tom with a day of work so we could get out on the road as early as possible for a trip, and were greeted by the hues of a beautiful Florida morning.
Of course with our luck, work took a lot longer than planned, so we didn’t hit the road South until relatively late. Laura wanted me to share what the rest stops look like in Florida. (Impressive to say the least!) As the night grew darker the most notable view along the trip was the giant Hard Rock Hotel shaped like a massive guitar into the sky. Tom had planned a big trip to the Florida Keys with us, and that night we intended our ultimate destination to be Key West.
Well, that night we didn’t quite make it that far, as we reached our way into the southern keys we searched for a good spot to pull over and sleep a bit.
After a good power nap we drove a bit further and pulled over in hopes of finding a good place to hang a hammock and rest a bit longer. Unfortunately, the spot we chose was no bueno, so we enjoyed the sunrise that morning before continuing on down the road.
That morning we arrived in Key West, and smiled over the streets lined with colorful houseboats and palm trees. We swung into a local thrift store and then headed to the beach, where we swam and snorkeled around for a few hours.
I even busted out the Uke and strung some tunes to the island breeze before we decided to go check in to where we would be staying for the next four days.
We had decided to stay in a hostel called NYAH- and man were we surprised when we got there! This was much more than the hostels I was familiar with, usually a bit run down with dorm like rooms all over the place. This was a fenced in little paradise, with hotel amenities, three swimming pools, and a hot tub! Our room was in the very top of the tallest building there, about 3 stories up in the crows nest attic.
Once we unpacked into our room, it was time to go check out the downtown strip of Key West!
The next day we were headed a few islands North to explore the beaches of Bahia Honda. It was a gorgeous and perfect afternoon, with the island breeze cooling us down enough from the warming sun, and we spent hours wandering, splashing in the water, and snorkeling looking for interesting creatures under the surface.
That night we wandered the downtown strip again, in hopes of finding a nice beach to sit on and watch the waves under the moon. Along our way we headed into a store and came across the first photo below…
We were not sure if we were seeing things at first, but it took us a moment to realize that all the beverages on the glass were on an LED screen! Not sure if it was necessary, but it was something interesting we had never come across before. 😲
Unfortunately the down town area of Key West doesn’t really have any good beaches to hang out on, and everything we came across was littered and smelled horrible. After our wanderings we spent a good part of the evening swimming in the pools at the the hostel, then hanging out on our secret roof top deck staring up at the stars.
The next day we drove out a little further just so I could touch some beach sand. It wasn’t a great beach, but right next to it we found something interesting; it was an old fort that had been converted into a public garden. We wandered its calming and flourishing paths as we enjoyed the morning.
Afterwards we wandered back to the hostel and prepared ourselves for another journey into the adult playground of downtown Key West. With its many bars and gift shops, we ended the night feeling like we had fully explored what this area had to offer.
The next day though, Laura came up with an idea to enjoy our surrounding area in a different way. She had downloaded a scavenger hunt app, and with the crazy parking situation in the area we voted to rent bikes for the day so we could cruise around for the hunt. The scavenger hunt turned out to be pretty fun! It was based on historical sites around downtown key west, and (most) of the questions were pertinent to the locations we were visiting. For the ones that were a bit off or outdated I gave the app feedback and they were super responsive and appreciative to get to fix them.
Later that afternoon we biked back across Key West to catch the sunset. When we arrived at the open plaza by the shore there were street performers all the place. This guy was entertaining, but unfortunately in the end he ended up falling, which kind of ended the show. 😟🤕
After watching a few more street performers, the sunset was absolutely gorgeous as we watched the colors flood the horizon and slowly dim in vibrancy.
The next morning we were up early, and we were greeted with an absolutely pastel pink sky surrounding us from our secret rooftop deck.
Over the course of the Key West trip Laura and I had been asking ourselves a very big question; is this where we wanted to live? Not Key West, but in Florida? So far it had checked so many boxes of the things we love- but were we really ready to make that jump? If we wanted to pursue this, would we still do the second half of the country trip- or jump now?
We talked many times about it, feeling deep qualms about not taking the second half of the journey we had planned. But yet- a head start jump on making our new home a reality could be nice too. We decided to keep talking on it, but such a big decision did weigh heavily on us even despite all of the amazing adventures we were having.
For now a verdict could wait.
That day it was time to head home, we said goodbye to the NYAH and headed back North through the islands, soaking in the gorgeous views as we drove home all that day.
Well, the next day we had big plans lined up back to back. Before we could even wipe the fog of recovery from our eyes we were on to a new exciting adventure- Disney World! Laura’s high school friend Krissy worked as a bus driver in The Magic Kingdom. One of the perks of her job is she receives free park passes so many times a year- and on this particular occasion she so kindly invited us to partake in the magic. So, bright and early we arrived to meet her and her daughter Kandy. She had let us choose which park we wanted to explore for the day, and we had chosen Hollywood Studios.
Afterall, how could I pass up the opportunity to check out the new Star Wars World Galaxy’s Edge and revisit my favorite feature of this park- The Indiana Jones Show!
In Galaxy’s Edge- Disney’s attention to detail was shown everywhere- and we enjoyed two of the newer rides they had to offer. One went from scene to scene where we where on a shuttle, captured by the Empire, brought to their ship, and had to escape. In the second ride we worked with a crew of people and had to pilot the Millennium Falcon.
To top off our Star Wars experience, we headed over to my favorite ride from my child hood; Star Tours!
It was just as good as I remembered it too! And with that my inner child’s Star Wars itch was officially scratched. So we journeyed on…
We wandered on a bit, grabbed a little bit of sustenance, and went to tackle the next bucket list item- The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! This was hands down my favorite thing about Hollywood Studios when I was a kid. I was a huuuuge Indiana Jones fan, and to see it all in action is still a memory I cherish. The show is about half and hour to forty-five minutes of actors doing scenes from the first three movies, and doing all the stunts involved live.
When we had visited down here in 2012, with our daughters, I super wanted to share it with them. It was not meant to be though, for when we arrived at the show it was canceled due to stormy weather. So… I hadn’t seen this event since I was a kid.
The show was still epic! And even more surprisingly, they had not changed one bit of it since I was a kid! I mean, the actors were different people, but all the scenes and stunts were exactly as I remembered!
With this epic event concluded, my inner childhood memories could die happy! 😂😊
We spent the rest of the day wandering the park and hitting a few more rides, here are some highlights:
Jazzed on the power of our inner children, we were sad to go home 😥; but were so extremely grateful for the chance to have had this amazing experience.
Thank You So Much Krissy!
The next weekend we took another trip to Daytona Beach to scope out some properties as we continued to toy with the idea of staying in Florida.
Also we went and wandered the largest Flea Market in Florida at Mount Dora. Laura was grinning ear to ear when she picked up bags of fresh vegetables and fruit for less than $10!
If the last few weeks hadn’t been enough, Tom bought us tickets to the local Comic Con! We went and donated blood and then wandered around drinking in all the Con had to offer. We were really impressed by the detailed and interactive Star Wars displays they featured. As our inner nerds left satisfied, all these experiences really had us thinking it could be: “The Way”.
The next day we were headed to Dade City- where Tom had scheduled us for the Halloween Extravaganza known as Scream-A-Geddon.
So in case you didn’t know- Florida is big into Halloween. The major parks all host scary theme events for the month of October- and do many other companies all over the state.
At Scream-A-Geddon we spent the evening wandering multiple haunted houses, which were highly detailed, well done, and scary as well. There was ones done up like an old chruch, an asylum, a scary voodoo cabin in the woods, a prison, and even a 3D glasses glow in the dark one. There was also a bus tour where we got to fire paint ball guns out the windows at people armored up and dressed like zombies.
The following weekend we were cruising down to Fort Meyers. I had decided if we might stay I would start shopping vehicles, so we were headed down to check out a Toyota Tundra.
On the way we stopped at a gas station, and Tom impulsively purchased something called the one chip challenge. It is a single nine-dollar tortilla chip that comes in a coffin shaped box. When he showed it to me, I shrugged and agreed to this “little” challenge. 🌶️ When we opened the box and the small bag within we found a disgustingly dark purple chip, in which I snapped in half and we proceeded to chew down. It also tasted nasty, but that was just the beginning. I don’t think we even made it one minute before we were pawing through the vehicle for any liquid we could consume in an immediate fashion. I gulped down an ice coffee, but the overwhelming sensation of my mouth on painful fire would not stop. But it even got worse; as we panted, sweated, and desperately searched for some sort of relief- that is when our stomachs started to aggressively clench and then cramp. Tom resorted to trying to spit into the bushes. I decided attempting to throw up 🤮might be the safest approach to avoiding any further onslaught upon my body, but I could not. 🤢
Meanwhile, Laura had pulled out her camera and decided to photo this whole event. 🙄 Eventually we decided getting into a sitting position might be a better idea, since our stomachs were cramping so severely and standing was even hurting them. At this point my eyes had begun to involuntarily stream water. After chugging as much fluid as we could, and sitting to try and wait it out for awhile we decided pursuing food would be our best bet. Along the drive to said food our stomachs relaxed, and then would randomly lock solid again and go into extreme rampage. It wasn’t until after we had doused them with some other food that the need to double over finally wore away slightly. With this unexpected vacation to hell somewhat subsided, we decided to continue our way to Fort Meyers.
Almost there the seller messaged me and told me it had sold, even after we had made plans to meet up and he knew how far I was driving to get there. Super lame!!! We decided to make the best of it though, and voted to head to the beaches of Siesta Key.
We spent the next few hours along the warm and gorgeous sand, swimming in the ocean hunting for sand dollars. It took me awhile to figure out where to find them, but by the end of it I must have excavated 40 of them from the ocean! Don’t worry though- I didn’t have the heart to take them away from their home, so I returned them all back to the sea as I found them. 😉
The next day we found our icing on the cake though. For $15 dollars a piece Tom had found us tickets to a reggae show to a band I hadn’t heard of; Fayuca. The big kicker is they were also playing with the lead singer of Ballyhoo!; Howie Spangler!!! We drove less than an hour over to Gainesville, and enjoyed a perfect night of hanging out to good music. We both actually got to meet and chat with Howie himself; and yes we were totally geeking out the whole time! And as I remembered before; he was just as much of a legitimately awesome and nice guy! Also- we got to discover Fayuca- who was an amazing band as well! Howie even took a request and nailed an acoustic version of “Lost At Sea” for me! Sooo Coool!
So in our recent adventures we had:
1) Explored tropical beaches galore. 🏖️
2) Enjoyed local cultures of all kinds, from hobby enthusiasm, theme parks, & castaway playgrounds. 🎲 🎢 🍹
3) Had easy access to main airports, a variety of store options, and easy access to the rest of the country via road systems. 🛬 🛣️
4) Been surrounded by life galore; with so much flora and fauna it was mind blowing. 🌴🦎
5) Found towns and areas we really did love and could see us living in. 🌇
6) Access to more music shows and venues than one could ever ask for! 🎵
Meeting Howie has officially planted the seed- and that night we decided we were going to try and stay in Florida. We could always hit the road later and see more of the country, but we had officially figured out where we wanted to live! 🎉⛳
The next morning we were greeted right out our front door with a glorious and full double rainbow! It seemed that the world wanted to plant that seed of confirmation in our minds for sure!
So! That’s it! The part of us finding our new home in the blog is done for now- but we will continue working on and having adventures with Our Ohana for sure!
I’ll continue to update with what comes up as they happen on our future motorhome journeys! Thanks To All Of You That Have Been Following On This Journey With Us! Till Next Time- We Are Wishing All Of You The Most Amazing Lives Possible!
Geoff Murphy 1/1/2023