Oct 27, 2024 – A Bittersweet Ending to our 2024 Travels

Since 2018, crossing Florida’s state border line marks the beginning of the end of our travels for the year and reminds us we are coming home to Chokoloskee Island for the winter. This year following several months of traveling, we crossed the state line with our fifth wheel in tow for the last time.

Florida is a long state. Consequently, getting home requires a longitudinal route comprised of 600 miles, give or take. So, we take our time and for fun, we always stop at one of the state parks that can accommodate our 33-ft home. This time and barely over the state line, our choice was Florida Caverns State Park, recently renovated following Hurricane Michael’s destruction.

Opened to the public in 1942, Florida Caverns is one of many Florida state parks that gives access to the natural beauty of Florida’s karst landscape. And it is the only one that offers cave tours. The reprieve from the above-ground heat is enough reason to take the tour, but it was also a fun walk through narrow tunnels and large rooms full of fascinating limestone formations. The tour guide tells you interesting stories as you pass through the color-lit cave where you see evidence of the 1930s-era Civilian Conservation Corp that worked to enlarge cave passageways and wire it with electrical lighting.

As you stand above ground anywhere in Florida, you would not know that what lies beneath you is a swiss-cheese style limestone foundation succumbing to the dissolution effect of acidic rainwater -in short, the foundation is continually eroding away. Hence, Florida is well known for its sinkholes, caves and springs. You can see these karst features at several state parks including Devil’s Millhopper Geological (120-ft sinkhole), Wakulla Springs (one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world) and of course Florida Caverns.

After leaving Florida Caverns, we had one more night on the road before arriving home. Living on Chokoloskee Island has always been mine and Vivian’s dream and since 2018, has been our sweetest anticipation as we come to the end of our travels each year. It is true we often come back to a mess, the aftermath of a hurricane – Irma, Ian and Helene, Milton. These cause enough flooding to damage the power pedestal and shed contents, and a couple of times the shed itself. They also leave a muddy mess. But that’s it – an RV lot, not a house.

So, we are inconvenienced by a minor clean-up and some repairs, and often a delayed homecoming as storms form later than ever in the season. The fact that we live in an RV, something we thought long ago was a frivolous lifestyle has turned out to be the most economical one for us. Seven years later, to live in an RV fulltime remains the best decision we ever made.

We arrived home on October 27 and for the last time, Vivian backed the fifth wheel onto our lot after several thousand miles of travel. Her acquired skill continually amazes me as I watch her ease the 33-ft fifth wheel into place for the zillionth time. Don’t get me wrong, I play an important role as the backside navigator, always in communication with the driver as she rotates the wheels and eases into a tiny piece of real estate. We are a team. We both have learned so much from towing our home over 50,000 miles around the country. We’ve become comfortable with daily tasks, have demonstrated calm resilience when unexpected events came our way, and have mustered a focused resourcefulness when a problem needs a quick solution. Nothing is stopping us from continuing with this strategy of traveling – yet we have come to a crossroads.

There is so much more to experience on the road, so many places we have yet to see (Alaska for one!), so we are far from giving up this lifestyle. Yet, a change is coming. No longer will we pull a 33-ft fifth wheel across the country or to Alaska. With several winter months ahead, we have settled into our Chokoloskee Island life but with the excitement of anticipation all around us. Stay tuned because this ride is going to get much more interesting.

Final note – Vivian and I have come a long way since that first day we ventured out with the fifth wheel seven years ago. Boy did we make some doozy mistakes! You can read about that first experience on the road here, for a good laugh.