ROBBINS EXPO

LONG BAYOU | ST. PETERSBURG, FL

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During this adventure we parked our home on the Long Bayou in St. Pete! The bayou is loaded with mullet. These silly fish like to find a current that will help them pick up speed and launch themselves straight out of the water. It’s so fun to watch! We did a little fishing but didn’t catch anything. We just took in the views! We sat outside on our patio a good bit and took the kids to the pool! I wanted to rent a kayak so bad but we kept missing the time frames. Hopefully I can get on the water soon!

The Lord has taken such good care of us along our journey. We’ve had a few things stop working on our camper - THANKFULLY the A/C is still pumping just fine or we would die! lol The first thing to go out was our hitch jack. This is the part that is attached to the front of the camper and moves the camper up and down. It allows you to put the hitch on and off and allows you to level out the camper from front to back once you get to your site and you’re ready to set up for the night. We have had to hand crank that thing in the Florida heat - death! It’s death!!!! Also, we have LED lights under our camper that have gone out too. Once we got back from doing laundry one day, we noticed water pouring out of the side of our fresh water tank that we have never used. It seems as though one thing after another is breaking on our house on wheels.

One evening we were driving to our camper and saw a truck that said RV Repair on the back. We stopped and rolled down our windows and asked the guy if he had time to check things out for us - we needed to get this camper back up and running for the remainder of our journey!! Thankfully Neil drove over to help us out and started repairing all the things! He got our lights under the camper working, the front jack working too and then started on the water pump! He needed to order the parts for our water pump and said he would meet us at our next camp site to finish up the repairs. Thank you Lord for sending us Neil and blessing him with alllll the camper knowledge!!!

God is so good! He continually puts all the people in our lives and we are so thankful for His continual provision!

Can’t wait for the next adventure!

 
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PARADISE | THE FLORIDA KEYS

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We made it to the Keys!! What a magical place!! Our first evening in the Keys we walked down to the water - the crystal clear, turquoise water and the palm trees right on the sand. Just stunning!! We stayed at a place called The Jolly Roger in Marathon, Fl. This island is located right in the middle of the Keys. For dinner we headed over to Sparky’s Landing. This place and most all of the restraints we ate at in the Keys were suggestions that Trey’s cousin Christina gave us. Her and her family come to the Keys quite often. And, you guessed it, Sharky’s was right on the water!! There was also live music from an incredible, nostalgic cover band (played all the songs my kids no nothing about - the good stuff!!), fabulous drinks and sea food for days! We started with the crab and artichoke dip - delish!! The kids and I got their brick oven pizza for our entrees and it was all so very good! 

The next morning, bright and early we headed to Key West for a snorkeling and dolphin tour. Captain Stevie and first mate Colby at Fury Water Adventures took really good care of us on the water! They took us about seven miles off the coast of Key West into the gulf and we snorkeled over protected coral reef. I tried so hard to get some video with my cell phone that had a waterproof case over it and it just didn’t work. Unfortunately, the case had too much air in it and once I got under water the bubble of air was right over my camera. But, I will never forget all those beautiful tropical fish and the colorful coral reef!

While on Key West we had to try out another one of Christina’s recommendations, Sloppy Joe’s! Again, there was more amazing live music and delicious food! We also came across a fabulous art gallery, Ocean Blue Galleries. There we fell in love with an original Anna Sweet resin design named “Miami” that now hangs on the wall of our camper!

The rest of our days we spent snorkeling at our RV park, finding delicious food, and exploring the other islands! An interesting thing about the Florida Keys, is there are hardly any beaches. Most of the edges of island are covered in rocks, sea walls or mangrove trees. We did find one beach that we really enjoyed, Sombrero Beach. 🏝 There are not any waves and no tides coming and going. You can wade in the water all day long without getting tossed by waves. So fabulous!

One of our favorite places we went to was Robbie’s in Islamorada. There we ate breakfast under a palm tree right on the beach! The kids played in the water while we waited for our food and I had one of the best mocha lattes of my life at a cute coffee shop that was out of a camper, Charli’s!! Kinda reminded me of my fave coffee shop back home - Coffee Camper Co. in downtown Monroe!! Also, the craziest thing that happens at Robbie’s . . .You can feed the tarpon!! You can buy buckets of fish and hang out on the dock. These fish are HUGE and they eat right out of your hand. Well, they jump straight out of the water and about take your hand off while you dangle dead fish over them. So creepy and cool too!!!

The Turtle Hospital tour was another incredible place we visited! Many of the turtles were covered in tumors or barnacles. The workers at the hospital will remove them and do their best to get these turtles back into their home. Some of those sweet babies will spend the rest of their life at the hospital or go off to aquariums. We learned that 1 in 600 babies that hatch will survive! This is because they are so tiny and have many predators. Also, a female turtles lays approximately 100 eggs about three times in their mating season. Warmer temperature nest will produce Females and cooler temperature nests will produce males. The temperature climate change is producing almost all females. This is effecting how much mating goes on because there aren’t enough males and this is causing the population to go down. We learned so many interesting facts about sea turtles!

However, the most AH-MAZING encounter with Key wildlife I had was when I was snorkeling and a nurse shark swam right under my body!!!!! I had just gotten some video of the shark with my phone while it was hanging out under a tire and was heading back to the seawall ladder to get out. I was parallel over the top of the water and there it was swimming along with me!!! I was amazed and scared out of my mind!! At that time I didn’t know it was a nurse shark - which are harmless unless you irritate them. Holy moly!!! The most incredible and terrifying experience EVAH!!!! Check out that video!!

Our last dinner on the island was at Mrs. Mac’s Kitchen in Key Largo. There I had the special which was super fun!! It was a yellow snapper stuff with a greek salad! It was SOOOO good and so fun eating out of that yummy fried fish!

We ate SO much good sea food and spent tons of time in the Florida Keys Sun! What a trip this was!!!

Can’t wait for our next adventure!

 
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Ormond Beach, FL. | CORAL SANDS INN

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What a fabulous place to park our camper for a few days!! Right on the beach!! We had an incredible time at Ormond Beach, Florida at the Coral Sands Inn RV Park. We ate some incredible seafood (and sushi too), played on the beach for HOURS and made some fabulous memories. 

Some of our FAVE places were Crabby Joe’s Deck and Grill. This restaurant is located on the pier over top of the ocean. While we were sitting down eating our dinner, fisherman were walking straight through and past us to get to the other end of the pier. It was a super cool experience for us and the kids too. A few nights later we ate at High Tides at Snack Jack Surfside Eats and Drinks. It was right on the beach! When we travel to the beach, we seek out restaurants that are on the water. We want to see the ocean as much as possible while we are there! Another place we loved was Sally’s Ice Cream on Flagler Beach! The line was all the way into the parking lot and we were their last customers for the night! We made it there just in time before they closed.

I’ve been trying to do videos too! I’m no videographer but I’m doing my best to document our trip in all the ways!

Can’t wait for our next adventure!!!

 
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GENERAL COFFEE STATE PARK | DOUGLAS, GA.

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Greetings from General Coffee State Park!! We had a wonderful time during our stay here. We fished for hours, laughed a lot, listened to our kids complain about walking to go fishing a lot (haha!), ate delish campfire food and relaxed the hammock as much as possible! On Memorial Day, I packed sparklers and glow sticks for the kids to play with. They had a blast with them. I freaked out! I hate fireworks that I have to put a flame to! I like the kind of fireworks that I show up to and they are far away from me!

We also got to see a gopher tortoise!!! Two of them! One of them was in it’s bunker and the other was walking around our campground. Trey saw it as we were pulling out of the camp. So cool!

Can’t wait for our next expedition!