Bruce and Cindy's Travels

Bruce and Cindy's Travels
Follow us as we travel around the county in our 5th wheel

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

    February 9, 2016                                                                                                                               
    Kennedy Space Center
    One day was not enough! We walked the gantry to Apollo 11 and peered inside the capsule. We touched a moon rock! Rode in a Space Shuttle flight simulator that let us feel what take off was like. (We wanted to go again!). Looked out the window from the captain’s chair of a shuttle. We were able to get up close and personal with the Shuttle Atlantis, which flew 33 missions. Stood in front of the Apollo 13 capsule and remembered how our nation held its breath. We walked around the mirror wall that reflects the sky and stars, it carries all the names of the men and women who gave their lives for our space program. We would defiantly go again!







Monday, February 22, 2016

    February 5, 2016
    We are now camped at a county park in Titusville Fl, right across the water from Kennedy Space Center. We lucked out, there was a rocket lauch today!! It was an Atlas V rocket delivering a GPS satellite into orbit. Got up this morning and walked down to the fishing dock to watch and take pictures! It wasn't a huge rocket, 189 ft tall and at it's largest, 14ft diameter, but it was still pretty awesome to witness!!!



January 25, 2016
Our next stop on the way to the eastern side of Florida was Moss Park, a county park and campground little southeast of Orlando.  Beautiful campground with a lot of "wildlife"!





January 2016
Our next stop was an Army Corp of Engineers park, WP Franklin Campground, on the Caloosahatchee River east of Fort Myers.  Spent a couple of days just enjoying the scenery which included and eagle or two sitting in a tree just across the water from our camper!                                    


    January 2016
    Next stop Naples and THE EVERGLADES... We took a ride out to Lovers Key State Park and took a stroll along the beach looking for shells and coconuts.  Sunshine and low 60's but it got a little cold out there!  Next day, warmer weather so it was off to the Everglades National Park and a boat ride through the mangrove islands out to the gulf to see the dolphins.  Along the way we saw ospreys on their nests and white pelicans (they have a 9 ft wing span and stand over 4 ft tall). No trip to the Everglades would be complete without a 425 hp airboat ride through the grass lands, so the next day it was off to Corey Billies Airboat Rides where we did see alligators in the wild, finally!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                













January 2016
After several days in Crystal River, our next stop was Tampa Florida.  Unfortunately, the only place we were able to get into was Lazy Days RV.  Neat thing is, they give you free breakfast and lunch every day you camp there! The catch is, the cafe where breakfast and lunch are served is across the street from the campground at the RV dealership!  This is the location of the Travel Channel show Big Time RV. Sorry to say we spent a couple of days after lunch looking at new campers, but we really enjoy doing this!!  We also spent a day driving over to Saint Petersburg to Fort De Soto Park and then dinner out. It was an enjoyable day!
    Our next stop, Three Sisters Springs in Crystal River Florida. Looking for Manatees, we found them! The springs are about 72 degrees so when the water in the Gulf is not that warm, they flock to the springs. The day we were there, the count was about 50. Highest number recorded was over 1000 and that was earlier this month!                                                                                              





Saturday, February 20, 2016



Our next stop was Cedar Key Florida.  Our dinner here included a beautiful sunset!!


January 10, 2016
Next stop, Saint George Island State Park.  Beautiful park on a barrier island, unfortunately, not warm enough to do much more than go look at the beach...  Went out to dinner, shaved prime rib sandwich and red potato fries.. but the best part was every dog on the island just wanders thru, stops at your table looking for scraps, Max a yellow lab adopted us for the evening!

January 1, 2016
Time to hit the road again, on to Florida.  First stop Destin.  Spent several nights at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park.  Spent one day at Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park.  Turtles, penguins, otters and dolphins are a few of the animals we got to see.  We were also able to pet and feed a dolphin!!  We did that together so we weren't able to get a picture of that!


    Christmas dinner buffet this evening at the Beau, compliments of MyVegas!!! Each of us redeemed points from MyVegas game and got the $43 buffet for free!!! Buffet tonight included snow crab legs and a whole Maine lobster. Oh, and bananas foster for dessert!!! Life is good!!
    Christmas Eve dinner, King Crab buffet, at Golden Nugget Casino, Biloxi, MS
    For the first time ever, not home for Christmas. Bruce and I have been in Gulf Shores Al since Dec 1st.  We decided to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day in Biloxi at Beau Rivage Casino. Took advantage of free room offer and upgraded to a suite, it is Christmas after all!  Decided we were having so much fun we wanted to stay tomorrow night too. Went to front desk to see if we could get a room and for how much as free room offers are not good for Fridays and Saturdays. They gave us the same deal for Friday night, just the upgrade fee!! Merry Christmas to us!!
    View of pool and gulf from our room

The Blue Angels home base is in Pensacola, about a 30 min. drive from our camper. They train almost every day and fly so close to the camper it shakes! This pic was taken right outside our door!
The first few days it was all… oooh…ahhh…wow! Now it’s… If these glorious bastards wake me up from my nap one more time…. I’ve tried throwing sticks and stones at them but they just smile and wave at me ...

After a one night stop in Cave City Ky and another in Birmingham Al, we stopped, as usual, for a couple days at Magnolia Branch Wildlife Reserve.  Love the campground and casino!!  December 1, Gulf Shores!!  We are in Gulf Shores, Al for the next month then onto Florida in January...love it here! Fishing right out our back door and we can hear the ocean from less than a mile away. The sign behind our camper should have said "Do not pet them" ... for some reason they don't like that either...lol

November 27, 2015, time to head south.  Temps were in the 50's and raining, so although would have loved to spend more time with everybody, decided we had better hit the road before the weather changed on us.  Said our good-byes to Amanda, Elizabeth and Ed Thanksgiving night as they were staying at the cottage.  On our way to the interstate, to our surprise, on the side of the road, Amanda and Elizabeth were standing out in the rain, waving good-bye to send us on our way!!  (Ed was in the car cause Elizabeth's dog Gracie was too cold :)  Love those kids!  Only wish we could have gotten a pic, they however got a picture of us coming down the road.  Best send-off ever!!!
Winter 2015-2016
We decided to head south early this year, the day after Thanksgiving.  Our first stop was to my brother Rick's retirement home in Hillsdale to spend Thanksgiving with some of the family.  We got there day before Thanksgiving, spent the afternoon and evening with Rick, sis-in-law Linda, another brother Mark and my nieces, Amanda, Elizabeth and her husband Ed.  On Thanksgiving, after some food prep, we headed to my sis-in-laws family cottage on the lake not to far away,
where my nieces and nephew-in-law were preparing the rest of dinner.  Had a wonderful time!  My niece Amanda had brought the hot new game Pie Face and after a little persuasion and a few more drinks, we all sat down and played.  Can't remember the last time we had all laughed so much!!  It was really a fun couple of days!
Amanda (you made the blog!)
Bruce & Rick