Since New Year’s Eve 2020 was our last happy and healthy memory with Papa Florence, we were determined to make big plans for the 2021 new year to avoid sulking in sadness. So…. road trip to Florida!

We packed up our camper and left Wisconsin the day after Christmas and cruised all the way to Kentucky to find a Jellystone campground to sleep at. Then, we woke up and toured Mammoth Cave National Park before driving through the Great Smoky Mountains until we reached our final destination: Ocean Grove RV Resort in St. Augustine, Florida.

Once we arrived at the resort, we met up with Colin’s family and Cha Cha & Ernest…. the perfect combination for a party! We ate, swam, biked, ate some more, toured the oldest masonry fort in the continental U.S., watched movies, walked along the ocean, and toasted with mimosas to celebrate our super duper fun getaway vacation!

Before making the trip back to winter, we visited Chelsee & Ernest’s lovely home in Gainesville. As we neared the eve of the new year, nothing made us feel closer to Papa than being reunited with his golf cart and puppy dogs! Cha Cha & E even took us to a holiday light show and one of the featured songs was Hallelujah!! It was a special sign from Papa that he is still with us, and a cue for me to start ugly sobbing.

We loved every minute of watching the bat release, enjoying a Satchel’s pizza dinner, touring the boardwalk for alligators, fishing for bass, biking through the trails of the Sunshine State, and ringing in 2021 with great hopes for a better year ahead!

Thanks for the hospitality and reprieve from our winter doldrums, Cha Cha, Ernest and Florida. Maybe we should make this a tradition?!