We moved to Silver Palms RV Resort in Okeechobee a couple days before Christmas. We had our Christmas dinner of prime rib on Christmas Eve and then spent Christmas just watching movies. The RV resort was really nice, and they had 12 pickleball courts. We ended up being parked right next to the pickleball courts, although the truck would not fit on our site, so we had to park it at the office. We met some really great people on the pickleball courts and really enjoyed playing with all of them. We did meet some fellow Luxe owners one afternoon (Andy and Katie) and ended hanging out with them quite a bit for dinners, golf, and afternoon drinks. The RV Park also had a really nice pool with a poolside bar and live music most afternoons. The RV resort put on a lot of fun events for the campers. Most RV sites had very cool tiki huts, some with TVs! We attended the RV parks New Years Eve celebration and really enjoyed welcoming in 2025.

Then we celebrated our 5th anniversary by going out for the evening in Stuart. We went to three different restaurants (one for appetizers, one for dinner and one for dessert). This is how to do it when you won’t be back in that area any time soon. We did some experimenting with our Drinkmate that we got from Brianna and Hailey for Christmas. We made our own seltzers with some flavored vodka we purchased. Then David decided he needed to carbonate a bottle of red wine which turned out a little different to say the least. Then we headed to Riviera Beach to do some more exploring of the coast and some of the shops and restaurants in that area. Kim joined Tina for delicious ice cream at Milking R Dairy Farm. But all in all, there really isn’t that much to do in Okeechobee itself.

David’s mom flew in to visit us and get out of the cold in Idaho. We all went to breakfast at Nutmeg’s and then took her for her first airboat ride on Lake Okeechobee, where we saw lots of interesting birds and a few very large alligators. We then took her to West Palm Beach to explore some of the shops in that area and had a wonderful dinner at Avocado Grill. We really enjoyed our time with David’s mom and are thrilled that she came to visit us. After we dropped David’s mom off at the airport, we headed back up to The Villages to spend the weekend with Kim’s cousin Brenda and her husband Steve. We had a great time further exploring The Villages, listening to music, playing pickleball, seeing their new house, looking at new homes, and golfing. We also got together with Toni and TraciAnn again while we were there.

We also put new rubber mats on our steps to the RV. Andy and Katie gave us an extra set they had, and we liked them so much that we ordered another set from Luxe for the other steps. Thank You so much Andy and Katie! Then before we left Okeechobee, we went out for a steak dinner with a couple of the women we met from pickleball (Pam being one of them). They took us to OK Corral Gun Club where we enjoyed an amazing dinner.

Next, we were off to Upriver RV Park in North Fort Myers. It was a pretty nice park with pickleball courts and a great group of people at the courts. We met Cindy (Lady in Pink) and Bill on the pickleball court, and it turns out they are friends of Tony and TraciAnn. It is truly a small world. Once again, the site was not quite big enough for our truck to fit, so it ended up in the boat storage yard. Are you starting to see a trend here between pickleball and the truck not fitting? We search for parks that have pickleball on purpose and they just don’t make most sites big enough. This park also had a produce and meat vendor that showed up every Tuesday. They had a great selection of fresh produce, and the meat turned out to be awesome. It was so nice to just walk from the RV to go shopping.

Our big highlight while we were in North Fort Myers was taking a passenger ferry from Fort Myers to Key West. We caught the ferry at 7:30 in the morning and enjoyed breakfast and mimosas during our four-hour ride to Key West. We dropped our bags at the hotel and then headed out to explore Key West. We checked out a bunch of the shops and then had lunch on Sunset Pier while enjoying the live music. Then it was time to check into our hotel at Simonton Court where we found out they had upgraded us to a cottage. Wow! What a nice place! We had our own cottage and could walk right out the side doors to the semi-private pool area. Then David saw on Facebook that one of his old coworkers and friends was in Key West on a cruise ship. So, we met Aaron, his wife Renae and some of their friends at Hemingway Distillery for a couple of drinks. Always so neat when we run into people we know in random places. That evening we had a great dinner at One Duval which was right on the water and had amazing food. After dinner we headed back to our cottage and enjoyed an evening swim in the pool. We didn’t have to catch the ferry back until 5:00 pm, so we spent the day going to more shops, finding the Southernmost point, visiting the Hemingway house (lots of 6 toed cats there) and checking out the light house. We had a nice ride back on the ferry that evening. We had an absolute blast in Key West.

What else did we do while we were staying in North Fort Meyers? We got together with Kim’s friends, Tammy and her husband Steve. We had a great day at their house. They took us on a boat ride, spent hours talking about all the good times they had together when they were younger and then had some excellent salmon for dinner. We forgot to get a picture together again, but will hopefully see them again while we are in Arcadia. We also visited the Manatee Park, where we listened to a presentation all about Manatees and then looked all over for a Manatee, but could not find one. That night we went to dinner on the river in downtown Fort Myers and saw our first Manatee. We also visited a couple breweries in Fort Myers although to our surprise, one of them turned out to be a nonalcoholic place that just served plant-based drinks. When in Rome…the drinks were actually pretty good. We also visited the Elks in Cape Coral where some nice people shared their pizza with us. Thats about it for North Fort Myers. Sorry Upriver RV Park for driving on your grass but you really need to make your roads wider around the RV sites.

No unusual stuff for this blog, just really nice weather and lots of palm trees. And one final note… do NOT talk politics in the RV parks after drinking (especially when you are outnumbered), it isn’t pretty… Bad David!