Rockland, Massachusetts
We also went to the Minute Man National Historic Park.
Minute Man National Historical Park commemorates the opening battle in the American Revolutionary War. It also includes the Wayside, home in turn to three noted American authors. The National Historical Park is under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service and protects 970 acres (392.5 ha) in and around the Massachusetts towns of Lexington, Lincoln, and Concord.
We have some dear friends in New Hampshire and we left Dothan headed there on July 10th. It was a 3 day trip. Two overnights at rest areas and one overnight at a Cracker Barrel in Frackville, Pennsylvania (a treat). Also, we thought the roads in Pennsylvania and Connecticut would be the end of our RV! We were afraid our first trip would be the last, but it wasn’t!!! Jeff did a fantastic job driving. Jeff’s sister, Jackie, rode with us to Atlanta and we dropped her off with her daughter and grand daughter.
Here’s the GRAND TOUR of our Entegra Anthem. We love this RV! It has a dishwasher, washer/dryer, aqua hot (continuous hot water), full-size refrigerator and lots of storage in what we call “the basement”. That’s Jeff’s space. It also has water filters below for a water faucet by the sink. It’s 43 feet! We knew that it would have to be big if we planned on living in it full-time.
We have discussed this lifestyle since 2018 when we workamped in Colorado for four months. We met so many wonderful full-timers and part-timers and absolutely cannot wait to get back to Ouray, CO next year (in the summer of course). We fell in love with the mountain lifestyle they live. The weather was perfect there all summer long and we could be outside most every day (unless it was raining…now there was some torrential rain at times). While we were there, we wondered how in the world people could possibly live in an RV and not have a traditional sticks and bricks home. We left Colorado and went to Key West after several months, and then moved to Naples in mid 2019. We kept thinking about RVing and wondering what it would be like to RV. We wondered if we should keep the house and RV or go full-time. We kept discussing at what point we wouldn’t be able to physically RV anymore and whether we would like to RV now or later. Finally, I told Jeff…if we are going to do this, let’s do it. Let’s sell the house and move into an RV. We loved Naples, there’s no denying that. It might have been a little too far away from family at this point in our lives and if we lived in an RV, we could be “home” in North Florida for several months during the year to see our family and friends there. Jeff is still working and so we just have to be close to a base for him to fly out of. We are so excited this is our home and we will enjoy it, each other and our great country!
We sold our home in Naples in June 2020 and became full time RVers. We headed to Dothan, AL to be near family for some time before leaving for our first trip to New Hampshire We had a great visit with family and friends while we were there! We also left some great friends in Naples that we will see again.
Jeff and I took off for the weekend and traveled to Portland, Maine and up the coast to Bar Harbor, Maine.
We stopped along the coast at Rockland, Maine at a little restaurant called Claws. It was on the coast and we had such a nice view!
Here’s some pictures from Bar Harbor, Maine which was one of our favorite places. We visited Acadia National Park while we were there.
Our last full day in the Keys was spent in Key West. A wonderful, busy, warm day spend with Brad and Courtney. We enjoyed our day and took the Old Town Trolley Tour and learned a lot about the city also. If you see the picture of the boat and jet ski, that’s the Navy taking care of business protecting us. I’ve never seen a man in full camouflage on a jet ski, so that was a first. There were fly overs because there was an aircraft carrier about 10 miles off of the coast of Key West practicing their carrier landings. So that was very interesting.
Today on the way home we stopped in Orlando to have lunch with Tyler. It was so great seeing him and hearing all about his week and the rest of his semester.
Jeff and I are so blessed to have been able to spend this vacation together and look forward to the next one.
Brad and Jeff went fishing this morning and we all went on the glass bottom boat ride this afternoon. Great experience and I’m so tired I’m only gonna post pics. I’ll elaborate later…maybe! 
Here are more pics from the day!
The day started out with a school bus ride to the gigantic nautical flea market in Islamorada! Over 350 vendors and loads of sun and fun for all. We left there and had lunch at an authentic Cuban restaurant called the Sunrise Cafe. Delicious as always! We then went kayaking at John Pennekamp Coral Reed State Park. Highlight of the day was the manatee we became friends with! So unreal kayaking along with it. Great experience!
We have visited all but one of the Florida State Parks in the Keys during our visit, and the one we didn’t visit was blocked off. Today we visited the Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park. This land was inhabited in the mid-1800’s by the Russell family and they lived on the land until they sold it to the FL East Coast Railway in 1908 for $852.80. Formed of Key Largo limestone (fossilized coral), when the land was sold to the FL East Coast Railroad it was used to build Henry Flagler’s Overseas Railroad in the early 1900’s. The RR was completed in 1912 and after it was completed, the quarry was used until the 1960s to produce exquisite pieces of decorative stone called key stone. Keystone is a decorative building stone and can be seen on several buildings throughout the US, including the St. Louis Post Office. There are 1.5 miles of self-guided trails through a tropical hardwood hammock. There are 40 species of trees and plants native to the Florida Keys including Florida thatch palm, white ironwood and the gumbo limbo was everywhere.
**Key points to remember. Make sure to watch out for spiders. We had the pleasure of seeing two horned spiders. One of which was right upon us before we saw it. Lizards are everywhere. Be aware! Also, even though we were in a spider and lizard infested State Park we still managed to enjoy ourselves!! It’s what you make of it!
Jeeping & Rving 