Florida

St. Augustine, FL

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St. Augustine bills itself as the oldest city in the United States.  When we stopped here we parked at the Stagecoach RV Park just off Interstate 95.

The territory we now know as Florida was first claimed for Spain by Ponce de Leon in 1513.  On September 8, 1565, St. Augustine was founded by Spanish admiral Pedro Menendez de Aviles.  In 1763, the Spanish gave up Florida to Great Britain following the Seven Years’ War, only to regain control in 1784.  In the years following the American revolution, it became increasingly difficult for the Spanish to control the Florida colony so in 1819 they relinquished it to the United States.

Bridge of Lions Continue reading →

Cocoa, FL (Space Coast)

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For our visit to Cocoa we parked at Sonrise Palms RV Park.  Cocoa is located in what is known as the Space Coast due to the nearby Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral.  Also, the “I Dream of Jeannie” TV show featured a fictional astronaut living in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

Kennedy Space Center

Our primary purpose for stopping here was to visit the Kennedy Space Center.  This makes a trifecta for us since we toured Space Center Houston in January 2014 and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL, in April this year.  Of course, Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral have perhaps the most history with respect to the US space program. Continue reading →

Hollywood, FL

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Hollywood is located on the Atlantic coast a little north of Miami.  We parked here at a Broward County park, Topeekeegee Yugnee (T.Y.) Park, it’s a native American term meaning “gathering place”.  It’s a very nice park with a large lake and a beautiful campground.  In fact, it is a much nicer RV park than many private campgrounds we have visited, very clean, large paved site pads with large concrete patios and everything well maintained.

Hollywood North Beach Park Continue reading →

Miami, FL

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For our stop in the Miami area we parked at the Larry & Penny Thompson Memorial Park & Campground.  This is a Miami-Dade County park that is located about 20 miles south of the city of Miami, actually closer to Homestead, FL.  This location put us in between two national parks:  Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park.

Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park is the first park area to be protected not for its scenic beauty but for its biological and ecological value.  As the largest tropical wilderness in the United States this area supports 350 species of birds, 300 species of fresh and saltwater fish, 40 species of mammals and 50 species of reptiles.  Although it is commonly thought of as a swamp, it is in fact the widest river in the world, however, it is shallow and slow moving, about 1/2 mile per day.  Early settlers considered this part of Florida to be useless land and over the years tried in many ways to “reclaim” it so it could be put to better use. Continue reading →