[NOTE: I’ve blogged all these “how-to” posts before, but am gonna re-run them on occasion, since folks may have missed them, and many of them have been updated or expanded since they were first posted.] To stay in touch with the rest of the world while on the road, I depend on my little netbook … More Vanlife: Internet and Staying in Touch

Well, the weather here got a bit crappy–rainy and then cold–and all the stuff I want to see here in St Pete/Tampa is “outside” stuff. So I’m waiting till next week when it gets warm again. After that, I’ll be heading to Pensacola. I had planned on a week or so there, but alas the … More Planning Ahead …

Weedon Island Preserve is a 3100-acre county park located in St Petersburg, Florida. It is a wildlife refuge encompassing a series of islands in Tampa Bay, consisting mostly of mangrove swamp and slash pine/cabbage palmetto scrub. There are about five miles of walking trail and another four miles of kayak paths. A 45-foot Observation Tower … More Weedon Island Preserve

I met up today with my friend Mike for a day at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. Fishies, and more fishies. Also birdies.   🙂 Some photos. ​ The Aquarium ​Sunfish ​Roseate Spoonbill preens ​Red Drum ​Oystercatcher ​Yellow-Crowned Night Heron ​Butterfly Fish ​Ringed Lemur takes a snooze ​Slipper Lobster ​Trunkfish ​Lovely anemones ​Blue Crab ​Reef tank ​Burrowing … More Florida Aquarium

Sunken Gardens is one of the oldest tourist attractions in Florida, dating back almost 120 years. It began as a small lake, about 15 feet deep, that had been formed when rainwater collected in an old sinkhole that was about ten feet below sea level. In 1903, St Pete plumber George Turner bought the four-acre … More Sunken Gardens

Before I packed up my campervan and left for the road, I lived for almost 20 years in St Petersburg FL. It’s been five years now since I’ve been “home”. I’m only here for a week or so, just to visit some friends and stop in at a few places where I haven’t been for … More Greetings From St Pete

[NOTE: I’ve blogged all these “how-to” posts before, but am gonna re-run them on occasion, since folks may have missed them, and many of them have been updated or expanded since they were first posted.] Without a doubt, the most difficult task in all of vandwelling is keeping cool in areas where the weather is … More Vanlife: Insulation and Hot Weather

Deerfield Beach is a nice little town between Ft Lauderdale and Boca Raton. Even though I’ve been staying here for a few weeks now, I didn’t get to the nearby beach till today. Some photos from a walk along the Atlantic.   ​Along the beach ​On the fishing pier ​Lots of people out today ​Northern … More Deerfield Beach

This museum is organized as a reproduction of a Packard showroom from the 1920s. There are about 50 cars here, all of them Packards from … I think 1909 was the earliest … to the mid 1950s. They are the private collection of Arthur Stone, who ran a string of flower shops in Ft Lauderdale. Today the museum … More Packard Antique Auto Museum

I spent the day today hanging around the local mall to do some work in the Food Court. But when I went outside to have lunch, I was accompanied by a whole slew of invasive non-native species, all found within 100 yards of each other in the middle of town. It illustrates just how pervasive … More Some Invasives at the Mall