West Coast of Florida . . .

A quick drive up the West Coast . . .
While driving up the West Coast we stopped at three different campgrounds. The first was in North Naples at Lake San Marino RV Resort. This was a Passport America campground that was mainly a mobile home park for Winter residents. Inexpensive with PA, San Marino is a good place to stop over for the night.  It would make a great location to stay for a month.

Heading on up the road, with the intention of doing some parasailing off of Fort Myer's beaches, there were virtually no places to park an RV there. It's a beautiful and quaint looking little town, but the street is very narrow and parking is in short supply.  We decided to drive further up the road toward Sarasota where we wanted to stop at the Ringling Museum, a place we had visited previously and thoroughly enjoyed.

Horseshoe Cove Carefree RV Resort was our camping spot for our Ringling visit this time.  I could have stayed here indefinitely. A Passport America campground also, it was a great spot to winter over and that may be an option we take up some day. They have a little park like setting on an island with nature trails and I did see a large alligator swimming in the water, so I'm not quite sure I want to have Sweet Pea that close, or myself for that matter.

Ringling Museum . . .
Ringling Museum is a special place with large statues (one of David) and paintings you would die to have in your home to gaze upon daily.  The Rubens particularly are the ones that I can stand in front of for hours.

Statue of David

Rubens

I love the Rose Garden at Ringling. The roses were in bloom and some of them had such sweet scents. And the massive Mangrove was a delight to see.

Large Mangrove

David Austin Rose "Heritage"

Guy is always enamored with the circus displays and he can spend quiet some time looking at those. A must-be-seen-to-be-believed 44,000-piece Howard Bros. Circus Model and the Greatest Show on Earth Mural celebrates the entertainment that has delighted packed houses in towns across America. Howard Tibbals is the genius behind these carvings.

Under the Big Top Carvings

Circus costumes

Howard C. Tibbals

Cedar Key . . .
Our last stop in Florida was at Cedar Key RV Resort in Cedar Key. Again, this is a Passport America Campground and one of the nicest. It is a relatively new campground with very roomy sites. Cedar Key itself is a lovely picturesque fishing village. I had visited here previously years ago when my parents lived down here and it has not changed much over the years.

I was kind of anxious to get back home. The weather for our stay has not been ideal and even tho NC is cooler, it was getting close to Christmas and spending Christmas at home in front of our fireplace just seemed like a good idea. After all we had a couple of good weeks in the Keys and that was the whole intent of our trip South.