Tampa Bay was great and we had an awesome time. Here is what we did the last 6 weeks!

The Weikert Ranch!

We met Bob and Barbara at an RV park in Pigeon Forge TN in 2016. They parked their Newmar Essex right next to ours and we immediately became friends (their coach is awesome!). I got a lot of great tips from Bob which has helped us in this adventure.

They live in central Florida where Bob owns a Ford dealership and they have a huge ranch! We re-connected with them and had an amazing day! Bob was gracious enough to give us a tour of the ranch. They have cattle, turkeys and turtles (Patti loves turtles). Bob has a cool clay pigeon field with a machine that can be programmed to fire clay pigeons in different directions to practice their shooting skills, very cool! With their sons help, they are constantly working on the ranch to clear out trees for grazing fields that will help the cattle. Bob took us around the ranch in his 6 passenger ATV (very cool). We stopped near the cattle and he spread out a bag of pellet feed and immediately the cattle ran to the pellets (I was quite intimidated). It was awesome to see their bull push all of the other cows out of the way to get to the pellets (again, very intimidating)!

Bob and Barbara are great people and we had an awesome day with them!

Epcot

We couldn’t help it – we had to do Epcot one more time! We love just walking around and taking our time cruising around the world. I think our new favorite place to eat is Rose and Crown in England. It was a long day but we had a great time!

Myakka River State Park

Patti’s older sister Cheryl and husband David have a winter home in Arcadia FL They love going to Myakka and we joined them for a day. Had a great picnic lunch and walked around for a little bit. We found the stone monument for the park and also another Florida fan favorite – alligators!

Clearwater Beach – we will miss you!

So whenever we had days with nothing planned, we would go to Clearwater Beach! It wasn’t easy to get to with all of the traffic but we would make it a priority. Patti would find some awesome shells and I liked to just sit and soak in the sun! We will miss the beach and plan to be closer to beaches next year (Pensacola and Panama City). This last month the beach steadily became busier with all of the spring breakers. You could tell who just arrived due to their milky white skin or horribly red sunburn! We will miss Clearwater Beach!

High School Friends!

So Tom and Diane Weinkauf live in Florida. Tom went to Mishawaka High and was in Patti’s class. Melody Torrance Penish also went to Mishawaka High and in Patti’s class. Melody and Bill came to Florida for a visit with Tom and Diane so we had to get together! Note – Tom and Diane have a room that can be rented in Airbnb! We all got together and reminisced on high school, teachers, parents and other friends! It was a great evening!

Time to go!

So Florida was awesome! We spent almost six months in the state and saw every corner from Pensacola to Key West! The weather was great and we met some awesome people! Tori got to visit when she could and we got to see my brother Sloan and his amazing wife Jerrilynn (she has mad house painting skills). We also spent time with Patti’s sister Cheryl and her husband David.

This year we are heading West! I am super excited because we will visit:

• The Rocky Mountains
• Mount Rushmore
• Yellowstone
• The Grand Canyon
• White Sands New Mexico

All of the above is great motorcycle riding and I am really stoked!

You can review our 2018 itinerary at Our Itinerary

Keep following our posts as we head North and West!!!!