2025 July 11 to August 10: the Moose
We started our 2025 Summer travel season in our brand new, just named RV: Josephine. After our trial trip to Peace River on the Harris Chain of Lakes, our first trip this Summer was to one of our favorite places, the Winter Haven Moose Lodge.
The Moose is a fraternal organization established to raise funds for the care of children and older Moose members. The lodge in Winter Haven has lots of social activity, a truly excellent waterfront, and new this year a non-smoking area in the campground.
The Moose lodge also has a number of sincerely good people that help each other, dine, dance, and drink together and have established a multi-generational environment.
And, they have fine fish dinners on Friday nights. Stu says he hates to think he came here just for the food, but . . .
The view from near our campsite at the Moose is lovely, relaxing, quiet, and full of visiting birds. The Canal connects our lake, Idlewood, to several other lakes and several nice places to eat.
Camping trips are, for Stu, a quiet time of reflection. For the first few days, he works through his accumulated list of “someday” and “must do” projects, usually aimed at repairing or improving Josephine, our new motorhome.
After spending 2 weeks at the Moose, Stu drove home for a doctor’s appointment, and to pick up Joan (who was recovering from knee injections) and drove her back to the Moose with him.
Our trip included many trips (about every other day) to the “Rowdy” Gaines Olympic Pool. The very large pool is designed for competitive lap swimming and diving. Each day they open it to the public, that’s us, for general swimming. While there (for $2/day) we did the aerobics drill we learned at our Venetian Isles swim aerobics classes and worked to improve our strength and endurance.
Stu started going before Joan joined the trip and continued with both going as the trip progressed.
The pool is brimming with kids who all seem to see him as their Grandfather so then enjoy each other’s company. The best part is the large bird who built her nest on top of a light pole and is raising one or more chicks as we swim below. I don’t know the bird’s name yet – hoping someone will tell me so the story is complete.
Stu writes: Joan and I are members of Shalom Roamers, a loosely-organized group of mostly Jewish folks who own RVs of various sorts and meet up a few times a year for a week of camping and fellowship. One of the traditions of this group is to attend a local Friday night worship, usually Reform. I look forward to this fellowship as a time for reflecting on the importance of recognizing a greater power and quiet refection.
“I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching” by Ralph Waldo Emerson is chiseled in stone lintel entrance door at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia. I look forward to Friday nights, the silence before services, and the fellowship that follows.
This trip, Stu sought the nearby Temple Beth Shalom in Winter Haven. The member- led service, conducted by the Temple President, Uriah Rose, has the feeling of a spiritual experience rather than the performances I’ve experienced in larger multi-rabbi, multi-cantor congregations. Uriah was conveying his true feeling of service as he, and I, see it. The small congregation (with a part-time Rabbi) acted like family, greeting me as a welcome traveler during the hour-long Oneg that followed.
After Joan arrived at the Moose, we had the opportunity to attend another service at the Temple, a Saturday-m sporning service also member-led and as nice as the first one. The new part-time Rabbi will be starting next month. Members of the congregation invited us to join them for lunch at Olive Garden, and we were delighted to go along. Such wonderful people!
Taking Ellie to lunch
One of our favorite activities at the Moose was launching Ellie, Stu’s 16′ motor boat, and taking a beautiful ride on the Chain of Lakes, through the series of connecting canals, to one of the restaurants on the water.
A day at the Old Town in Kissimmee
We decided to spend one of our Moose days visiting Kissimmee’s celebrated Old Town. It did not disappoint us. We wandered around for hours, seeing the antique car display and parade, riding the beautiful ferris, deciding not to ride the roller coasters and other rides for those more daring than we were, and finally having a delicious meal at Shoney’s.
[more photos of Old Town to add]
[STILL AT ADD: SEAPLANES, LOCK, STU KAYAKING, HARBORSIDE, WAFFLE EGGS, CATTLE SCULPTURES]
And almost every day ended with a beautiful sunset on the Moose’s Idylwild Lake, just outside our RV site.
MOVE ALL THE REST OF THIS TO THE SHALOM ROAMERS PAGE PLEASE.
2025 September 1-18: Travel to Myrtle Beach
Our second trip of the Summer season was to a Shalom Roamers rally in Myrtle Beach. Our first stop was Melbourne, FL, where we met up with our long-time friends, Gary and Billie Jean Glenn. We joined them at Frigates, a lovely waterfront place with nice lunches and the very best Zeppoles (italian cheese doughnut). As usual, we were too engrossed in our conversation to take photos of our friends but we did get one of Stu enjoying his dessert.
The visit was wonderful, the Glenns are doing well and Billie Jean’s book about her favorite hummingbird, Little George is both doing well and making Billie Jean proud and happy.
9/1 Overnight at the Merritt Island Moose Lodge
Moose Lodges, a fraternal organization like the more famous Elks, often open their grounds to campers traveling through the area. We had a nice, quiet spot just off the road and relaxed with a salad before traveling further North.
9/2 – 9/4 Fort Clinch State Park
Fort Clinch, located on the northern tip of Amelia Island, is a truly lovely park with two campgrounds.
The Amelia River Campground, on the west side of the park, is a wooded group of campsites far well-spaced and almost private. It is located on a loop that touches the beach about 1/2 mile from the actual Fort Clinch.
Our first night at Amelia River Campground we went to Salt Life Food Shack in Fernandina Beach. The view at dinner was spectacular.
Joan had Wood Grilled Salmon and Stu had the Captain’s Seafood Dinner. Both were better than OK, but not really excellent.
We walked to the the beach and along the waterfront from the campground to the Fort. It was longer than we had expected, and we did not see an entrance to the fort, so we started walking around it clockwise and found the entrance 3/4 of the way around. We had obviously taken the long way. Once inside the fort, we relaxed in the Visitors’s Center and Museum, and then and walked all around the inside of the fort.
The troops stationed there over the years since the Civil War never fired a shot at the enemy, but they did the fort as a WW-I post to track and report enemy ships.
The Atlantic Beach Campground, the second campground at Fort Clinch, on the east side of the park, is an after-thought location, a circle of campsites, each touching the one next door with no trees, no barriers, nothing but sand and sun. A moderate walk to the beach is also in the sun. OK if your goal is to get sunburned and sandy, but worthless as a campsite otherwise.
We continued from Fort Clinch to Oak Plantation, about 8 miles from Charleston.
9/4 to 9/6 Charleston at Oak Plantation Campground
Oak Plantation is a “city” campground. Rows of side by side campsites, each of moderate size with enough space to set up comfortably. The campground was uncrowded so we were far from our neighbors and smoke-free. In season, the place would be uncomfortably crowded, but our visit with pull-through concrete sites was comfortable and easy to set up.
We set up camp, relaxed for 10 seconds, and went to the Angel Oak Restaurant for dinner. The dinner turned out to be so good we went back a second night.
Joan and I split a house salad – each portion was nearly enough for a meal. Stu ordered Hush Puppies and was surprised with a fresh, crisp, flavorful serving unlike any he experienced. The dish was served on crisp, sweet cole slaw.
If they had stopped then, the meal would have been perfect, but the surprise continued with Joan having a delicious Dill Salmon (“just as good as Stu’s but Joan prefers our pesto”), crispy candied brussel sprouts (first time Joan was ever seen to eat anything with the word candy in its title), and spinach that was not as tasty.
Stu had Shrimp and Grits with a side of Fried Green Tomatoes. The grits were flavorful, the fried green tomatoes were very hot and tasty, and the shrimp were exactly as Joan liked.
So we returned the next night for nearly the same dinner but Stu shared his ample shrimp with Joan and we skipped the salmon. And we ordered Beignets for dessert. Stu experienced a tasty sugar overload while Joan only tasted the dessert. Two excellent dinners.
9/6 A day in Charleston
Joan exceeded her usual superior planning by finding a dual excursion day in Charleston. In the morning we took a nice cruise around the harbor with a featured view of Ft. Sumter where the first shots of the “War Between the States” were fired.
The Carolina Belle is a harbor tour boat built for the tourist trade. The tour was well-narrated with us learning that Fort Sumter changed sides during the war as it was taken and retaken by the armies as they fought. We heard tales of the enslaved people as they were bought and sold at the largest slave trade city during this terrible time in our nation’s history.
[add better photo of Fort Sumter]
After the tour we had lunch and traveled on the Charleston free shuttle bus to the Visitor’s Center where we waited for our afternoon bus tour.
Our bus driver and narrator, was non-stop knowledgeable about Charleston. He described the buildings, how the town was shaped by fires, earthquake, and religious freedom. His description of enslavement and the struggle for equality was sensitive and to our limited knowledge historically accurate.
The high point for Stu was when we turned the Four Corners of Law:
- Federal Law: The United States Post Office and Federal Courthouse.
- State Law: The South Carolina Supreme Court, which now houses the Charleston County Courthouse.
- Municipal Law: City Hall.
- Ecclesiastical (Religious) Law: St. Michael’s Episcopal Church.
As we turned the corner, we saw an elderly woman selling tourist goods. During our last trip to Charleston in 2022, we stopped and spoke with the same woman about the historic event where Thurgood Marshall first argued Brown vs. Board of Education which the Supreme Court eventually ruled in 1953 that Separate but Equal was illegal segregation.
We also learned a very interesting architectural fact. The houses are built with the side porch facing the prevailing breeze to make the home more livable during the Summer. The side of the porch, facing the street, has a door, complete with a lock. The door looks exactly as a home entrance might except the wall is completely open around the corner. Opening the door indicates visitors are welcome, as the door provides no physical barrier or security.
“In Charleston, SC, a ‘hospitality door’ (or piazza door) is a term for a door on a historic home’s piazza (porch) that was historically used as a social cue, indicating the family was open to receiving visitors if the door was open, and preferred not to be disturbed if it was closed.”
Continue our adventures to Myrtle Beach and Shalom Roamers here