Dlog: Central Florida (Again!)

Previously on "Max and Jesse Go Meandering," we cruised down the East Coast of Florida, lounged on the beach, replaced a leaky clutch slave cylinder, made new Vanagon friends, crossed the Everglades and replaced our Yeti cooler with a, *gasp*, refrigerator. 

On this episode of "Max and Jesse Go Family-Hopping," we visit Aunt Cheryl, Uncle Tony, Cousins Tristan and Caden in Cape Coral, revisit Aunt Cindy in St. Pete Beach, blow TWO sets of tires, visit Bill McKinley in Lakeland, Aunt Dory in Sumterville and Cindy again in Fanning Springs. 

Stay tuned, because in next week's episode of "Max and Jesse Go VanLife-ing," we venture into new friendships, visiting our friends Dani and Troy in DeLand, with special guests Jeff and Kirstyn in their custom school bus conversion.

Thursday, February 20th

Waking up in the Everglades was quite pleasant. 

Our Vanagon friend Ian let us know the cycling up in Bear Island was quite nice, so I'd planned a sight-seeing route. It was a great way to explore and I got to most of the main "4x4" designated roads around the campground. 

After the ride, we finished up breakfast and headed back down the 22mi washboard gravel road, which (Spoiler alert!) I'd wager made up about 95 of the last 100 straws that broke the camel's back on our old tires a few hundred miles later. 

To Everglade City we went and payed a visit to the Museum. 

I had been reading up on the history of the Everglades, so this was particularly interesting. What really struck me was the sheer destruction of the Everglades: We Europeans came over here and really just tore the place up. Over 1600mi of dikes and canals made way for an enormous agricultural abomination: planting sugarcane on some of the most rich and biologically active soil around, 9 feet deep, of which some say barely 3 feet still exists today. At one point, we were plowing down Old Growth Cypress Trees so fast they used the lumber to make caskets for fallen troops in WWII. What a tragedy of humanity...

Slightly saddened, we fixed a cold-cut lunch in the parking lot and wandered up the coast en route to Cheryl and Tony's.

Just a few hours later we arrived at Cheryl and Tony's, greeted by smiling faces and big hugs. It's good to see family again.

Our fridge and solar panel were waiting for us too. Things were looking up!

They took us to their favorite pizza spot in Downtown Cape Coral, Nice Guys. There were neon paintings on the walls, "Stinky Buns" sticky buns, beer, delicious pizza, and we took home a "Washington Carver" PB&J pizza. What else can I say...? Thanks Cheryl and Tony!!

The first night with friends and family is always a hoot. Everyone's excited to catch up on what's new, the extra beer sounds a little nicer and bedtimes are magically forgotten, sometimes for several days. Inevitably on the second or third night, someone suggests we just settle into the couch and watch a TV show, and a couple relieved "Yes" responses are released. It's a fun pattern.

Friday, February 21st

Jesse and I took the day to reset, do laundry and get showered. 

Generally we try to get Lola off-leash as much as possible. Around this neighborhood, though, there was one huge problem: rabbits. Everywhere. Any time she sensed she'd be going outside, she'd get all excited for rabbit hunting. Some day we'll be able to call her off them, but she's just too young and too excited. Sorry Lola, you're getting the leash treatment this weekend. But I got her out for a few runs and that helped her settle.

I gave the van a good scrub, with particular attention to the pop-top fiberglass as I'd be taping our flexible solar panel on it shortly. 

Saturday, February 22nd

We took the van with Cheryl and Tony down to the bustling local market where Jesse bought a knit outfit and we indulged in some tasty snacks like pickles, some loose leaf tea and I swear Jesse got brownies somewhere in there.

Later Cheryl and Tony took us for a driving tour of Cape Coral: past Tony's childhood neighborhood, through downtown, by the coast and to Pine Island where there was even more hurricane damage. 

Cousins Tristan and Caden came to hang out as well!

Later in the night we got out the ping-pong table, where we soon learned that Tristan's tennis experience meant we didn't stand much of a chance, and we settled a long-standing disagreement about whether Max or Jesse were the superior ping-pong player. I'll leave the result up to your imagination.

Sunday, February 23rd

By some miracle of chance, many family members were in town at the same time and we got out for a nice lunch. Always good to catch up and get some time together!

Monday, February 24th & Tuesday, February 25th

A lack of photos in my gallery for a stretch of days can mean a few things, but in this case it meant presence. Existing in the moment. I can't quite remember which days we did what, but we executed our usual routine activities with success: exercise the dog, exercise ourselves, center our minds, prepare our food, work out future logistics, clean our bodies, clean our spaces and get proper sleep. 

Cheryl and Tony keep quite a lovely home. The combination of Cheryl's turquoise and a hint of  Gramma Jeanne's style made for a familiar and pleasant ambiance. Both sunrise and sunset were indirect from the back lanai, but left you with a warming pink-orange glow. 

A morning cup of coffee on this lanai and you won't catch any complaints coming from my direction! :D

Thanks for having us Cheryl and Tony, see you in Old Forge!

Jesse and I rolled out mid-morning and headed North for St. Pete. One the way we stopped at For De Soto, got Lola to the dog beach and I went out for a run. 

We rolled into Jesse's Aunt Cindy's just after dark and it was like we never left. Wow, that was a long two weeks!

Wednesday, February 26th

Bike ride up St. Pete

Thursday, February 27th

We left St. Petersburg early because we had a very full schedule for the day. The plan was to return our cooler to REI (since we had just replaced it with a refrigerator), meet Tristan and Madison to visit the Strawberry festival that was happening in Plant City, FL and finally, we would drive to Lakeland to visit with Jesse's family friend Bill and his wife Sandra where we would stay for a few nights. All this planning went out the window when, about 3/4s of the way across the Tampa Bay Bridge, the van began wobbling. This wobble was a little subtle, for a moment, I even argued that it wasn't anything new. But Max insisted that it was abnormal and concerning. Nervously, we drove the rest of the way to REI and while I was returning the cooler, max discovered a giant bubble in one of our tires. 

This obviously warranted an immediate fix. We couldn't believe that it hadn't blown on us! After some google maps searching we found the nearest tire shop only a couple miles away and it just so happened to be named PAYLESS4TIRES. We thought it a thrifty choice. 

We drove as carefully as possible, avoiding the surprising number of cobble streets on the way to the shop. Upon arrival, the first thing I noticed was the chickens walking around the place. Perhaps choosing the shop with a number in place of a word in the name was a poor decision, but we thought we should see how it would play out, and we were desperate for a new tire. As Max talked with the technician and looked at used tires, I grabbed everything worth anything and shoved it into a backpack, grabbed Lola's leash and hopped out of the car. I settled onto a cut in half bench (wide enough for 1.5 people) with our things and watched as they started jacking up the van. We decided to replace all 4 tires since they had a set that fit all the specs needed for the van, which is lucky because these 40 year old specs are not easy to match.

As we sat there, the owner and technicians, while attempting inconspicuous glances inside the van, slowly starting asking more questions about our situation. It is always fun to see people slowly realize that we are living out of the van. Our story must've endeared us to them, since after that they seemed to relax and talk more openly with us. We were invited into their little cafe and we bought some sandwiches and drinks from them. 

Having had to delay meeting with Tristan and Madison several hours, we decided to meet at a cidery instead of the Strawberry festival. The drive there was exceptional smooth and we both couldn't believe how bad our old tires had been without us even noticing. We are now able to drive 60MPH + without huge discomfort, which was definitely not the case with the old tires. 

The cidery was beautiful and we had a wonderful time hanging out with Tristan and Madison. At Bill and Sandra's house we ate a charcuterie and salad dinner. It was peaceful, simple, and delicious; just what we needed after today's stress.

Friday, February 28th

Today, we visited Florida Southern University's campus which holds the largest number of Frank Lloyd Wright building in one place. We got a tour map from the visitor center and toured ourselves around the campus. It was absolutely beautiful!

We decided to use the tickets we had for Strawberry festival since we were unable to yesterday. It was basically a giant fairground and quite shift from the quiet peaceful observation of FLW's architecture to the flashing lights and loud music of the festival. We found our way to the livestock show, which was much calmer. We quite enjoyed watching the 4-H kids carrying around clipboards and inspecting the livestock with much solemnity. Jesse got a strawberry shortcake and we left.

On our way back from the festival, we started to feel a familiar wobble in the ride of the van. We stopped to investigate, but couldn't find anything on the tires. Maybe we were hallucinating. However, shortly after arriving back a Bill and Sandra's, Max found another bubble in one of our "new" tires.  We jacked up the van and took off the crippled tire. As we looked at it, we discovered that the tire was manufactured in 1996! 

Saturday, March 1st

Max spent all day researching what tires would work and trying to find a place that would be able to install them. Of course, it being a Saturday, we would not be able to schedule a tire appointment until the following Monday. 

Sunday, March 2nd

We visited the Lakeland Art Fair today using Bill and Sandras vehicle. There was a surprising number of high quality artist there and we bought these ceramic mugs from a local potter. They match the van perfectly!

Sandra made us another wonderful dinner of lamb chops and fattoush.

Monday, March 3rd

Not wanting to let our crippled van stop us from exploring the region, and thanks to Bill and Sandra's generous offer of their car again, we drove from Lakeland to the Bok Tower Gardens Park. This place is described as a "contemplative garden and bird sanctuary" and was established in the 1920s. There are beautiful walking trails, garden features, and this 205 ft tall tower with a carillon. It is all atop what we would consider a small knoll, but in Florida-terms may as well have been Mt. Everest. The view over the nearby orange groves and cow pasture reminded us that we hadn't been to a vista in several months. Although it was beautiful, we longed for real mountains. 

We picnicked in the fields around the tower and listened to the artist performance on the carillon, while we trained Lola on some new tricks. 

 

After Bok Tower, Jesse showed Max around Lake Whales, FL which is the home-place of the Hunt side of her family. We visited Lake Aurora on which sat the lake house Jesse's family visited annually during her childhood. It is a clear, sandy bottomed lake, which is a rare sighting now. Most lakes in central Florida have been overtaken with algae that feeds on fertilizer runoff. This algar attracts migratory birds, which in turn brings in the alligators. Altogether this creates an un-swimmable lake environment. Lake Aurora remains one of the few pristine lakes in the area. 

Tuesday, March 4th

Finally, we were able to schedule an appointment for the tires and get them installed! We drove all the way back into Tampa to return the 30 year old tires, which was the only way the owner of PAYLESS4TIRES would give us a full refund. Our next brief stop was at Jesse's aunt Dory's house for a few days.

Friday, March 7th

After a few quiet a restorative days at Aunt Dory's we are heading to Fanning Springs to meet with Jesse's Aunt Cindy and Tony. 

Saturday, March 8th

Even though it was a cloudy and drizzly morning, we took Cindy's boat out on the Suwannee River. In one of the springs we saw some Manatees, and exploring the river was fun, despite the chilly weather. However, right as we were taking the boat out of the water, the drizzles rapidly turned into a down pour with accompanying thunder and lightening strikes. We rode home soaked to the bone.

Once we had all recovered from the surprise thunderstorm ad eaten some leftover BBQ, we decided to participate in one of the great bush-league activities enjoyed in every rural part of the country I've ever visited: driving around. We packed the cooler full of Mc'Ultras and Buds and loaded into the truck to explore some dirt/sand roads around Fanning Spring. Lola played her role by keeping her head out the back window of the truck the whole time.

Our day full of backwoods delights ended with a bonfire, as it should.

Sunday, March 9th

The rain and clouds seemed to be staying up near fanning, so we took the boat out towards the Gulf launching it at Cedar Key. The warmer weather was a nice change. We stopped on a small Island to let Lola run around and collect some seashells. Lola is turning into quite the boat dog!

Max Fanning Springs Bike Ride

Monday, March 10th

Valve adjustment + seafoam

Tuesday, March 11th

Cindy and Tony left the house on Monday allowing us to stay as long as we needed. We did our laundry, cleaned up the van, and took our showers. Thanks for the awesome, fun-filled stay Tony and Cindy!

Now, we're headed to Deland, FL to meet with some nomadic friends!