15Jan 2013 by Lboll

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, Okeechobee, FL

We just came out of a 10 day stay in no-where land. Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park is 40 miles from the nearest town and it truly sits in no-where land. This 54,000 acre preserve is very unique. Besides its vast size it is home to 12 birds that are classified as endangered such as the Grasshopper Sparrow but also so many other birds. It also is known for migrating butterflies and a premier location for stargazing. There are more than 100 miles of bicycling, hiking and horseback trails. But if you go out on a trail you have to be prepared for snakes, alligators and water that can be waist deep that covers the trail. Also during the winter months on weekends there is a ranger-led prairie buggy tour…

Corp of Engineer Park/People

Traveling

The difference between staying at a private resort and either a state park or if you are lucky enough to find a Corp of Engineer Park is the people. There are probably a lot of other differences that I could name like the sites are normally larger and spaced farther apart, they usually have fewer sites, and they don’t have all the amenities that snowbirds are looking for at the resorts but the one thing that always sticks out to us is the people. When you stay at a “snowbird” resort the people are in their clicks or groups that they have established over the years and they are there for at least the three winter months and are not very willing to welcome us transient RVers (people like us…

Christmas in Minnesota

Traveling

Brrrrrrr! Going from 80 degrees for weeks in Florida to the cold of Minnesota was a shock but we could easily put up with the cold weather being able to spend time with all of our kids and their spouses (they are our kids also) and of course little Cate. We left our 5th wheel and the truck at a RV resort in Fort Myers, Ivy, our dog, at a dog daycare in Naples and flew to Minneapolis a few days before Christmas. We rented a car which was a new experience for us. Of course the company we had rented from had the longest line at the airport so we had a long wait to get our car. We had requested a compact car and when we got to…