I’ve missed you!  It wasn’t my intention to be offline for a whole month, but we found that there was no wi-fi connection in almost all of the places we went. In case you don’t know where I’ve been, we drove from Austin, TX to Key West, FL and back!

It was a multi-purpose trip: a dream vacation to celebrate our semi-retirement. Our first long-distance “shake-down” cruise to see if the coach was up to snuff. And, more to the point, to see if we were up to snuff since we have been considering living full-time in our RV to travel for a year.

How would we do together for 30 days, going 3,000+ miles, in under 300 sq.ft. of living space? Would we have fun, or would claustrophobia set in, quickly followed by snarkiness ?  The jury is in – we did really well together!

I know I can speak for both of us when I say we didn’t feel claustrophobic. Since the weather was great for most of the trip, we spent the majority of our time outdoors. We stayed in some stunning RV parks, and some not so stunning ones.  We made the best of every  situation, let go of things needing to be a certain way… and things turned out even better than we’d planned!

For example, in Key Largo we didn’t go to  a restaurant we’d planned on, because a neighbor in the RV park told us another was even better. He was wrong… their service and their food were awful. But because of it’s location, on our way back to the RV park we found the absolutely best Key Lime Pie in Florida! Returning a week later, I met the owner and had a nice chat with her as I bought a whole pie to take up to Boca Raton with us! It’s called Blond Giraffe Key Lime Pie Factory. It’s in Tavernier, just south of Key Largo.

Another happy accident occurred when on the spur of the moment we decided to go to the Salvadore Dali museum in St. Petersburg. As it turns out, there was a Frida Kahlo exhibit that was in it’s final week, and I just had to go!

Re-entering the main hall, a docent told me to get in line quickly and we could experience a Virtual Reality Tour of a Dali painting. They only take a small group of people to do this a few times a day, so we hurried over to the door she’d pointed out, and in a few minutes we were lead to a private room. Huge goggles were placed on our heads, the process explained, and once started, we were INSIDE a Dali painting! I could move from place to place just by looking at small white dots, and I’d instantly be there, able to see 360 degrees in all directions. At one point, I watched as elephants on stilts approached, and I looked up at their bellies as they stepped above me, and walked on past! This was way better than the 60’s!

After the museum, we stopped to eat lunch at The Columbia in Ybor City, a historic neighborhood in Tampa founded in the 1880’s. It was a bustling cigar manufacturing city up until the depression of 1930. The Columbia is the oldest continuously operated restaurant in Florida, and with it’s Spanish architecture, debonair waiters, and delicious food, I can see why. As much as we liked the Rodeo Drive glitz of downtown St. Petersburg, we loved the vibe in Ybor City even more. After eating, we went for a walk to buy some good cigars, then headed back to Tampa.

To get caught up on everything I have to share, I invite you to visit: 1010ParkPlace.com  and under the Life tab look for my story: “Something’s Changed.”
I also posted “Just Us Chickens,” yesterday on my travel website, Damned Gypsy.  You’ll find that right here: wp.me/p4FfqG-x2

As always, I thank you for reading. I have lots more to share with you in the next few weeks. P.S. –  I love your questions and comments!

XO Donna