One of the best investments we’ve made since we decided to live in an RV and travel the country was joining the Escapees RV Club. We’ve done several activities with the club and have met many new friends through those activities. When we heard that the Escapees were going to hold special, COVID influenced, events this winter to provide a safe place for full time RVers to settle for the cold months, we were intrigued. Once we learned that our good friends, Rob and Laura, were going to be the hosts at the Florida Winter Home Base, we were sold.
We arrived at Strawberry Fields for RVers (site for the Florida Winter Home Base) on December 18th and stayed through the end of February. We did take an eight day leave to visit the Everglades at the end of January, but other than that, Chiefland, FL was our home for more than two months. Chiefland is a small town about two hours north of Tampa and the same distance west of Jacksonville. At first glance, there isn’t much to do in the town or its surrounding area but as we spent more time there, we learned that there was a lot of things to do within a one hour drive of Chiefland.
With 25+ other rigs in attendance, we quickly developed a sense of neighborhood. Every morning at 9:00 AM was group coffee hour. We all gathered at the hosts’ campsite with proper social distancing and learned what activities were scheduled for the next few days. Each morning session was ended with a set of clean, mostly wholesome, jokes told by Rob with occasional help (he needed it) from others. Even though the jokes were less than stellar, everyone looked forward to them and had fun groaning as each punchline was uttered. Among the other regularly scheduled events were movie nights and campfires. Yoga was taught by the tripping Yogi (our new friend TJ Julo) every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and pickle ball was played every Tuesday and Thursday. Each week contained a hike or a bike ride or both. Needless to say, we were seldom without something to do.
Some of the special events included visits to the Swamp Head Brewery in Gainesville, trips to the nearby Manatee Springs State Park and a trip to Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park. The wildlife at Paynes Prairie Preserve rivaled what we saw in the Everglades and may have surpassed it. We witnessed birds catching and eating fish and Amy witnessed an alligator catch and devour a fish. Speaking of alligators, the ones at Paynes Prairie Preserve seemed to be much bigger than the ones we saw in the Everglades.
Other fun activities included a couple wine tasting events, a beer tasting event and a bourbon tasting event. We even had a couple that was really into making their own mead so they conducted a combination class and tasting event to show us all how to make mead. There were some crafting events and Amy really enjoyed the tie-dying ones. These activities turned out to be quite popular and were enjoyed by all who attended.
On our last full weekend, we participated in a sunset/moonrise boat ride out into the gulf of Mexico. The evening kicked off with an early dinner at The Monkey Bar, where our tour boats picked us up. The weather turned out to be perfect and it was pretty cool to look in one direction to see the sun disappearing into the water and turning around to look in the opposite direction to see the full moon coming up.
It was sad to see home base officially come to an end but it was great to have met so many new friends that we can look forward to seeing again someday down the road. With RVers, it’s never “good bye” but always “until we meet again”.
We did prolong our time with others by spending the first 4 days after leaving Chiefland with Rob and Laura along with Mike and Terri near Port St. Joe in the panhandle. We had a glorious time helping the hosts of the home base unwind and decompress after a busy two months. We ate well, played games and had a glorious time before finally all heading our separate ways until we meet again down the road.
Excellent way to spend the winter months….so happy for both of you! Sigh of relief that as you leave all of those alligators behind you still have all your digits ;>). Boy, you really were able to capture some great pictures, as usual!