By the time we reached Central Florida we have been 'On the Road' since early June with our longest stop in one place being less than 10 days. The
Lakeland area seems like an ideal place to settle in for 2 or 3 weeks over the Holiday Season.
Lakeland is about equal distance between Tampa on the Gulf of Mexico and Orlando/Disney World to the East. The city of
Lakeland supports a citrus growing area and various high tech industries.
There is a large selection of RV Parks in the area most of them catering to the number of 'Snow Birds' that migrate south each year to escape the winter. We are lucky to get into this RV Park, with about 280 sites surrounding a small lake with a 'No Swimming' and '
Beware of Alligator' signs. Most of the many RV Parks in the area will have no vacancies from the beginning of January till the end of March.
Florida is a very interesting area to spend some time during the winter months, lots of facilities and many attractions to keep 'idle' minds busy. No where in Florida is more than 100
kms from the ocean and the many excellent beaches. The summer would be a totally different story with sweltering heat and very high humidity. Anyone that leaves their trailer or motor home here during the summer leaves the
air conditioning set at 28 degrees and kitty litter in containers to absorb the moisture.
We stopped at Rustic Sands Camp Ground at Mexico Beach, still in Florida for New Years Eve. We walked the soft white sandy beach looking for sand dollars but found only pelicans sleeping on the pilings.
On the move again after over three weeks on one place, we traveled north on Hwy 98 up into the pan handle of Florida, through Dade City, Brooksville, Crystal River, Chiefland and Oldtown. It was a lovely sunny day until we drove under the cold front moving south, with light misty rain, temp dropped from 23c to 7c that evening. We stopped for the night at a very rustic RV Camp ground called Suwanne River Hideaway at Oldtown. 
Lakeland Carefree RV Resort. Were we have just spent three and a half weeks, the longest we have stopped anywhere on this safari around North America.
26th December, Boxing Day and Kath's 60th Birthday.
Christmas morning we slept in and had a late champagne brunch of waffles, eggs and bacon. We opened our presents then took a drive around the lakes. The evening was taken up with libations and a wonderful turkey dinner. As we were still recovering from Yvonne's delayed and re-routed arrival in the early a.m. we cut Christmas evening short and retired early.
In the afternoon of Christmas Day we took Yvonne for a drive around one of the many lakes in downtown Lakeland. These are just some of the birds we came across. The first is a White Heron, the second is a Stork, Third is a variety of the lake's inhabitants, including Swan, duck, geese, crane and stork. The forth photo is of Sandhill Cranes on the road just outside Lakeland RV Park.
An eye to eye look with a stork.
By the time we reached Central Florida we have been 'On the Road' since early June with our longest stop in one place being less than 10 days. The Lakeland area seems like an ideal place to settle in for 2 or 3 weeks over the Holiday Season. Lakeland is about equal distance between Tampa on the Gulf of Mexico and Orlando/Disney World to the East. The city of Lakeland supports a citrus growing area and various high tech industries.
