We decided that Minnie was a little too big for just running around in Florida. Gas mileage dropped down to 9-10 mpg and maneuvering it in the streets, parks and traffic was a pain. Plus we didn’t really feel that we were camping. It was just too comfortable.

So we bought a used pop up that a friend of mine had for sale. It’s only 8 x 8 feet closed and 8×16 feet opened up. Queen bed on one end and a full on the other. No kitchen and only a portapotti. But it’s very easy to tow and swing around in traffic. People don’t seem to be so desperate to get ahead of you as with the big trailer. And we get the normal 17-18 mpg. Also gassing up is not a hassle as we don’t need a huge gas station to move around in. It pulls great, the truck doesn’t even know it’s there.

We decided we needed a real trip so we are taking it up to St George’s island, about 300 miles north of us. It’s an island off Appalatchacola FL with a huge beach and camping. We stopped at Paynes Prairie about half way, for the first night to break up the trip. Going there, traffic on 75 north from Tampa was horrendous with a two hour stretch of stop and go. The road is terrible, from Wesley Chapel to Brooksville lots of it has no pull off space at all due to construction, just two lanes with jersey barriers on one side and a hill or drop off on the other. If you just have a flat there is no where to go. Any accident or break down results in a major traffic jam. I didn’t notice it the last time but it’s noisy here, you can hear the highway all night long. Guess that’s what happens when you sleep in a tent on wheels.

March 30. Four hour drive over two lane roads from Paynes to St George’s, basically two hundred miles. Long, long bridge over the bay to get there. Reminded me a lot of the Keys highway. Beautiful island, very limited day parking so it doesn’t get over run with people. Nice campground very quiet, all you can hear at night is the ocean just a hundred yards or so away. You can buy ice or wood but there is no camp store. Barbecues are just a fire pit with a big grate on top so you need to bring your own or cook over wood. There is a boil water notice today as they they broke a water main a few days ago and they have to flush the lines. No drinking water but you can wash with it. Going out to Appalatchacola tomorrow.

March 31. Apalatchicola is a small town just across from St. George’s. It’s kind of quaint and funky, but it does appear to be gentrifying on Main Street. It’s really an old fishing village and parts of it are somewhat run down. Art wise there are a number of galleries, pricing ranged for normal to the ridiculous. Lots of old brick buildings. We had lunch on the roof of the Owl Cafe and roamed a bit, lots of closed up places. We went to the dollar store and bought necessaries, broom, dust pan, etc., gassed up, bought ice and went back to the island. We went for a walk on the beach, cooked chicken Parmesan in the electric fry pan, this might be an idea for a new book Camping Electrically!

April 1 fools day. Today we’re going to cook poached eggs in cups with English muffins. Again in the electric fry pan. We have a toaster for the muffins. We’ve used propane camp stoves before, but we thought the pan would be more controlable and smaller. If we can eliminate a couple of big fry pans and pots, we will. Space is a big deal in this Micro Minnie trailer, there isn’t very much. Most stuff has to go in the car and then there is the problem of finding things. Which bag is it in? And where is that bag? Can get really frustrating at times, particularly with two different people putting things away. We think we can solve this by putting everything into bins, we probably will have to mark them: breads, pans, drinks, towels, etc. but it might be better.

We took a hike out to Hadley Slough (bay) to see if the bay side would be good for shooting a sunset. The hike from the RV park is about two miles. It looks like it will be good for shooting, but we will drive there as it is just the next beach area down the road and just a short walk. Hiking back we did see a three foot rattlesnake sunning himself by the trail. The woods anywhere in the South is the home to the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake.

We cooked vegetarian spaghetti in the electric fry pan. Who knew you could cook spaghetti in a fry pan! Again it eliminates a pot! Cook the meat or other goodies first, in this case peppers, onions, mushrooms, zucchini. Remove  the goodies, then boil and cover the broken spaghetti in about a half inch of salted water until done. Drain the excess water, add the goodies and a sauce if you want it and hooray! You have a spaghetti dinner. See the recipe on my food blog http://www.BillsEntree.com