First Retirement Trip

We both retired on Friday, November 19, 2010 and headed out the next day on our first trip with our Lance truck camper, two cats, and Mazda 626 in tow. 

We spent 10 days in Austin, TX with Julie's parents and had an enjoyable Thanksgiving.



Then it was on to Biloxi, MS to visit old friends Paul and Darlene and get some bar-b-que at The Shed (a Food Channel Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives pick).

After two nights in Biloxi, we headed to Pensacola, FL with a stop at McGuires Irish Pub for lunch.

After we left Austin, we stayed overnight at a state park outside of Lake Charles. Only a few people were camped there, but we met a couple from Denver with a Lance truck camper who were headed home via Austin. They gave us a tip about a Florida state park about 10 miles East of Destin, FL on the white sand gulf beaches - the "mountains" of Florida. The pelicans and other native birds were fun to watch.

We left Topsail Hill State Preserve/Gregory Moore RV Resort on Tues, Dec 7th and drove to Titusville, FL where we spent three days/4 nights visiting Julie's sister Cindy and brother-in-law Terry. 

We saw a missile launched from Cape Canaveral on Dec 8th and spent two days visiting the Kennedy Space Center.

On Sat, Dec 11th we drove to the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. We stayed at an awesome county park at Ft. Desoto when we saw dolphins swimming in the lagoon behind our campsite and a variety of birds, including snowy egret and a bright red cardinal. 

We had a nice 3-day visit with Steve's sister Cathy, and nieces and nephews, departing on Tues, Dec 14th.

After we left the Tampa Bay area we headed for an overnight stay at Lazy Days RV dealership and campground in Seffner, FL on Dec 15th. It was the largest RV dealer we'd ever seen, with over 1000 motorhomes, 5th-wheels, and camping trailers in stock. At the campground, we felt like the little camper that could among all the big motorhomes.

We departed Lazy Days and headed for Spring Hill, FL for two nights to visit Bob & Marilyn, our friends from Germany who have also retired.

Bob owns a couple of horses, so we drove out to the stable on Thursday and Bob and Julie went for a ride.  Julie hadn't ridden in a long time, but it kind of all came back to her.  Still, she was pretty stiff and sore at the end of the day.

We left Spring Hill on Fri, Dec 17th and arrived in Jacksonville about 4 hours later.  On the way, we kept passing citrus stands and finally decided to stop at the next one if there was room to park.  The next stand was in Citra, right in an orange grove, with room to park so we picked up a 1/4 bushel of naval oranges and decided to share a small container of fresh squeezed orange juice.  After gulping the OJ down while on the road, we were sorry we didn't pick up more - it was the best OJ we've ever had.

We're camped at the Mayport Naval Station just outside of Jacksonville.  We snagged a primo site in the front row, right across the road from the water.  If you look it up on a map, you'll see we're at the mouth of the St. Johns River.  It was beautiful when we got here yesterday, so we immediately put our chairs out and spent the afternoon watching the ships pass by, the dolphins play in the water and the pelicans and seagulls dive for fish.  The road in front of our campsite ends at the beach just around the corner - I guess we're on a kind of peninsula - so the road is very untraveled and we were able to take a nice walk to the beach before I fixed dinner last night. 

We arrived in Winchester, Virginia on Tues, Dec 21st for Christmas with my sister Marcia and brother-in-law Mike and from Sacramento, my sister Janet and friend Nancy. We drove into Washinton on Thursday and all went on a tour of the White House. It was awesome with all the Christmas decorations.

The next day, Christmas Eve, we drove back to Washington to the Gaylord Resort at National Harbor to see a Chinese ice exhibit with a Dr. Seuss "How The Grinch Christmas" theme. The exhibit was unbelievable (and cold inside at 9-degrees, hence the parkas).

We enjoyed a nice Christmas Day with family. We headed home the day after Christmas, missing the major storm that hit the East coast. We got home on Wed, Dec 29th to a cold hose as we'd set the heat at 50 while we were gone. The first retirement trip went well, traveling over 5,000 miles over 40-days and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing family and friends. All our trip photos are posted here:

http://cid-2d8e2ee491959b9c.photos.live.com/albums.aspx

Our home e-mail address is: sandjcornelius@msn.com

Happy New Year!

Steve & Julie