Our last stop before we arrived at this year's Winter destination was on the Alabama Gulf Coast. A familiar spot -- and yet different. We spent the 2004-05 Winter in this area. That time, we arrived on December 1, less than three months after Hurricane Ivan had devastated the region. The RV Park where we stayed then had not been much damaged but the surrounding area was still showing serious effects. The road along the beach was covered with sand (it didn't even open for traffic until a month or so after we arrived), many buildings and homes were in complete ruins, and there were seas of blue tarp roofs in evidence, where people were still living in homes with the roofs blown away. When we left in April '05, the area's recovery effort was still really just at an early stage.
These are two views from our site. We didn't see any alligators this time, so we didn't even have a chance to not aggravate them. The picture below is on the nearby Bon Secour River near Billy's, which is our favorite fisherman's market ever. Many varieties of local fresh fish and shrimp, caught daily, are available. We only had time to visit it once this time. I hope we'll find something as good in Florida. This time, we stayed at Gulf State Park, which was completely closed to the public when we were here before -- the whole camping area had been destroyed. It is rebuilt now and is a great RV spot. The state took advantage of rebuilding to modernize the facilities, so that there are full hookups and lots of space. This state park has most of the amenities of a private winter resort in addition to being close to the Gulf Beach. Some people we talked to said that they missed the trees that used to be here before they were blown down by Ivan, but since this was our first stay, we thought this park had everything.
We arrived at North Ft. Myers, Florida, where we plan to spend this winter, on December 1. This is on the Gulf of Mexico side of the State. We are staying at Upriver RV Resort on the Caloosahatchee River. It's about three miles upstream from downtown Ft. Myers. We really like our spot and, of course, will post more as we explore the area. So our 2008 road trip is over. It was true cross-country travel this time -- from Oregon in the Northwest to Florida in the Southeast. We had a great time and saw some interesting country. But it is good to be settled in one spot for a few months. We're going to enjoy it.
It was interesting to see how this area has recovered. Now, you can't tell that it was ever hit by a hurricane. We re-visited many of our favorite places and enjoyed the sunny weather before heading to our Winter destination.
Hi Krystal. I will go on to your blog to see where you guys are now. When you leave FL are you going all the way to the West Coast?
Sallie
Posted by: Sallie (FullTime-Life) | December 16, 2008 at 06:57 PM
What fun. We hope to make the same trip starting in a few months. For now, we are in FL fairly close to where you are.
Posted by: Krystal | December 15, 2008 at 07:34 PM