LONG BAYOU | ST. PETERSBURG, FL

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!

Chokoloskee Island | Everglades, Florida

The Everglades!!

I can’t even handle how beautiful these sights were!! I really wish I could have gotten better photographs of it all but, we had our camper attached to us and couldn’t just pull over, as it’s a single lane road with no hazard lane. Ugh, I was so upset but - memories!! I got those and a few videos. We did pull off at a rest stop and saw over 40 alligators! And they weren’t little ones!

We stayed on Chokoloskee Island in the Everglades. Our campsite was the nicest we have stayed at! We had our own fishing dock. And, we fished for over 12 hours!!! It was so much fun! Trey and I both really love fishing. When we first got married, we would go fishing all the time. It was cheap and fun for just the two of us! Once we had our babies and life got too busy, it was one of those things that just fell by the way side. So, thankful Trey and I were able to do this!!

The very first bite I got, vibrated my line! It snapped the bait right off my line and took off with it! The pull of it was intense and then SNAP!!! My line popped so fast! Oh man, I was so bummed. I didn’t care if I pulled that thing off shore, I just wish I could have seen it! It had to have been huge! We were guessing it may have been a snook. We could see them across from our dock feeding. Shew-weee! Such a fun experience!

We had a few more bites and snapped off lines before we finally pulled in our first fish. Trey caught a sea catfish. They are so gorgeous!! Their fins are incredible and they really look like they could take off and fly!

Next up was . . .drumroll please. . .a barracuda!!!! Whoa! As Trey was reeling in his line, it snapped his bait and then popped his line with his razor sharp teeth. Our shoulders sank as that fish disappeared into the water under our dock. Oh, we were so bummed!! And, then, we heard it behind us flailing around with his lure still in its mouth. I ran to the camper and grabbed the kids tiny nets. I was able to get down to the water and wedge the barracuda in both of the nets and pull it to the shore. My goodness! We almost lost him!

After dinner, right before the sun dipped down, Trey and the kids and I went back out for some more! I was able to snag a good sized catfish!

This is one of my fave locations! I really loved that we were right on the water. Waking up at 6:00am I would have my quiet time, coffee and then head out to fish and spend time with Trey before the kids got up and watch the dolphins - This was the best!!!

Can’t wait until the next adventure!