Travels along the Gulf Coast

Hello friends,

I've traveled over to the Gulf coast of Florida to hang out for a bit. 

I left Clermont on January 10th and headed over to Clearwater.

I took Route 60 / The Courtney Campbell Causeway to get over to Sand Key Park in Clearwater. Courtney Campbell Causeway is a bridge stretching across old Tampa Bay from Tampa's Rocky Point Island to eastern Clearwater. It's approximately 9.9 miles long with two elevated bridge spans to allow watercraft to pass through. Wow! It was really awesome to drive on that, with the water surrounding me on both sides for such a long time.

I spent the afternoon at Sand Key Park. Ninety-five acres are located on Sand Key, which is a barrier island between the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida mainland. Clearwater Pass, leading from the Gulf to the Intracoastal waterway, separates the park from the busy resort area of Clearwater Beach. It was perfect for me, with a big parking area, and just a walk through the mangroves to the white sandy beach.

A pirate ship off Sand Key

 I stayed at a Boondockers Welcome residence in Clearwater for a couple of days.

It was a nice place. The owner, Sherrie, had a cool fishpond inside her house. She had a nice pool area outside, but said the fish would get grabbed by birds if she had them outside. I found two great coffee shops while I was there. One in Clearwater was called Southie Coffee. https://southiecoffee.com/ I liked the music items throughout the place. The other one was The Haus Coffee Shop, in Largo. It's advertised as' a lofty cafe with a rustic-chic vibe serving espresso-based drinks, pastries & casual fare.'

 . Both had their own unique character.

The indoor fish pond at my first Boondockers Welcome place

Southies Coffee in Clearwater. Loved it! 

Another great cafe in Clearwater, FL

I mentioned Boondockers Welcome in my previous post. 

Its a program where home/land owners who want to open their property to RVers to stay overnight or longer, create a profile on the BW website, and then RVers can reserve for 1-5 nights, depending on the property owner's desire. Both parties set up their  profiles so they can connect. Its a great way to meet people and help each other out. Love it!

Next I traveled up the coast to stay at another Boondockers Welcome home in Hudson for four days.

Mikie Gallagher was the host at this one, and he was such a great guy. Hes a medically disabled veteran who opens his home up to travelers. It has become an important part of his life, and I I felt very welcome there. I had such fun with his two little dogs (Bostie and Delta). I even had dinner with Mikie and friends in the house the first two nights, and on the last night I went out to dinner with Mike and his brother Tom. I went in the pool one morning. We were all going to go to a nearby shooting range for practice, but the range was full during the time it would have worked for us. Darn. Oh well.
Good people. A great experience for me..

Many egrets were near and on Mikie's property

Today I hit the road traveling southeast from Hudson toward Wachula.

 I passed through a road called Bellamy Brothers Parkway. Kinda cool. Not the road, just the name.
I will be settling in at a place called Peace River Campground tomorrow, and  plan to be there for about ten days. My friend Cheryl from Vermont is coming to visit. We are working on a project together and I'm looking forward to spending time hanging out with her.

I have started publishing articles on a platform called Medium.

If you get a chance to read them and  hit the clap button, and follow me if you're interested, it would be super awesome. It will help create a small income for me as I'm traveling.
Here are the links to the articles:

https://medium.com/@scapizzi36/my-year-of-changing-it-all-49e4443f794b?source=friends_link&sk=be3a7354c74d882c04699ed36647a371

https://medium.com/@scapizzi36/my-awesome-life-without-alcohol-72c0da166d7e?source=friends_link&sk=42c6aeff487e2a87a74b1ceccc4caa81

Lots of love to my family and friends up north.

Stefani