Relocation to Cocoa FL; JOY RV Park

On Monday, we moved about 17 miles from Jetty Park Campground located right at the beach to a location further inland and across to large rivers.

Our Monday morning commute.

While the drive was only about 30 minutes the chores of packing up and then setting back up again take about 3-4 hours out of the day.  Then we were off to Walmart to reprovision.

We are staying at the JOY RV Park on the very west end of Cocoa FL.  I’ll post some more about this park at a later date, but this mid-sized park of 75 sites is almost full.  Most of the camper appear to be here for the winter from somewhere up north.

It is a very friendly park that is run by a Christian non-profit group and all workers are volunteers.  They have a great club house, heated pool, and an activities director who has loaded the calendar.

The home for sale by owner ad on Zillow seems to have worked.  I had many calls and now have an accepted offer.  We just have to work through all the common snags such as buyer financing, home inspection, and any other number of “opportunities” that could arise.

The timing for Mom to move into an Independent Living Facility would be around mid-January if all goes well.  My brother Kevin has been touring places in Indy near his home and we also toured one down here in Viera FL.  Lots to do in this major change for her.

I have placed ads for the major pieces of furniture and the smaller things will go via garage sale this weekend or else we make a donation to the local SPCA group.

The cold weather that ripped across the country has also dropped the temps in this central part of Florida.  The lows have been in the 40’s while the highs are in 60’s and low 70’s.  Even though our RV is made for “four seasons” it just does not have the insulation as living in a house.  So, we have to use the propane furnace for just a bit in the mornings as the camper temps drop into the low 60’s overnight.

We are looking forward to seeing an upcoming rocket launch from Cape Canaveral.  It has been delayed a few times, but is now planned for this Friday.  This one will be a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft sitting on top of the massive Falcon 9 rocket.  Read more about it here.

This is the rocket that is able to return the used booster to safely land in the same spot as it took off.  How cool is that?  Technology has certainly advanced from the early days of the Space Coast.  We just watched the movie Hidden Figures about the early days and the Mercury program.  In those early days all of the complex programming was done by hand.  The orbit and reentry calculations.  Very interesting.

Here is an RV license plate at our campground.  I can identify with it!

Have a great day and God Bless.

Merritt Island FL Paradise

It is now Monday morning and this will be our last morning here at the Jetty Park campground located at Port Canaveral.  The home of the cruise ships and NASA.  Our focus on this segment of our travel was to get Mom ready for the next phase of her life, not for beach time or sightseeing adventures.

It has been sad at times to work toward moving her away from the retirement paradise home that my parents enjoyed for the last 25 years.  My Dad passed away almost two years ago and Mom feels that it is time to remove the responsibility of home ownership and the chores of daily meal prep.  Time for a new phase.

It has been a lot of work at this stage with much more to go, but so far we have addressed years of accumulation, placed the home on the market by owner, and have had much interest so far.  It will sell quickly. Continue reading “Merritt Island FL Paradise”

Jetty Park, Port Canaveral

We are located just a few feet from both the ocean/beach and the port canal with its heavy boat traffic.  What a cool destination for a week’s stay!  We have already seen a cruise ship leaving, several fishing boats and a couple of Navy ships on their way past our campground.

Our main reason for being in this area is to help Mom downsize her possessions, sell her home, and then help with the move and transition into a retirement community.  A huge job. Continue reading “Jetty Park, Port Canaveral”

Black Friday

Today is supposed to be one of the largest shopping days of the year.  To me a good reason to stay closer to home and avoid the massive crowds.  Anyway, we are not really in the accumulation phase anymore.  Been there and have done that.  It was a real feat to downsize enough to live in the RV plus some items in storage back home. Continue reading “Black Friday”

Indiana Part 2; Lafayette & Prophetstown State Park

We moved up the state of Indiana on Aug. 20th to one of the nicest state park RV campgrounds that I have ever seen.  Prophetstown State Park.  Also one of the newest in Indiana.  Plenty of green spaces, many trees between campsites, and wide open prairies.  And miles of hiking/biking trails.  We moved from Indy to near West Lafayette, only about 80 miles.  Nice! Continue reading “Indiana Part 2; Lafayette & Prophetstown State Park”

Back Home Again in Indiana!

We had a nice short 2.5 hour re-positioning from Ohio to the near south side of Indianapolis.  We like these uneventful travels with very few road changes.  Our campground here just served as a spot to plug in the camper and then to visit with some family.  The title of this post is the theme song of the state and is sung before the Indy 500 mile race.  Used to be sung by Jim Nabors.  Jim is still living and is best known for this song.  He may have also been on the Mayberry show. Continue reading “Back Home Again in Indiana!”

Happy Labor Day 2017!

One last post from Put-In-Bay Ohio to capture a few picture that did not make the first cut.  Today is a warm and breezy Labor Day as I get caught up on a few chores that were on my to do list and Trish is cooking up several freezer meals. Our current campground in Effingham, Illinois is Camp Lakewood right on the shore of Lake Pauline.  Mondays are a huge checking out day at campgrounds as the weekend warriors leave, so we have gone from 100% full this morning to about 20% full now.  Nice and quiet.  I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend and a pause to take a breath, relax, and focus on what really matters. Continue reading “Happy Labor Day 2017!”