Florida Springs

Remember when Wally Byam led a caravan of Airstreams from Texas to Nicaragua in 1951? No, I wasn't trying to make a comparison about who is more hardcore, although the cell signal is a bit weak here. #airstream #pairstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #florida #manateespringsstatepark #welcometothejungle

It's unclear which was more prohibitive to swimming at Manatee Springs, the cold water or the 5 or 6 big snakes lounging in bushes along the edges. Although there are both harmless brown watersnakes and similar looking venomous cottonmouth water moccasins in the area, even after a bit of research online, I'm not sure I'm gonna trust Google images with this one. We'll take to the water in a canoe tomorrow! #childhoodunplugged #childhooduneatenbysnakes #whydidithavetobesnakes #gethesemotherfuckingsnakesoutofmymotherfuckingsprings

Paddle faster, I hear banjo... Fun on the river with the LITA family! @h_livingistheadventure @livingistheadventure #manateespringsstatepark #suwanneeriver #airstreamfriends

Our magnet collection seems to be growing. We started with two pieces of 1" StrongTie strapping mounted to the cabinet over the lounge but that only had enough room for our Southwest and first PNW/Banff trips and for the first half of last year. Newer magnets have since tiled the stove vent, but now we're out of room there now, so I added three more 12" strips by the solar and inverter control panels and offloaded Vancouver to Alaska to Banff last summer. In the new home base house, I envision a wall sized map laminated to thin galvanized sheet metal dotted with all these mementos. #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #magnets #magnetcollection

Nap time did not go well today. At almost 21 months, her brain is always firing. No longer can she be distracted by a bouncing stuffed kitty as Mom sneaks out the door; She knows when she's missing out on something. Ever since daylight savings time (and the cross into the Eastern Time Zone a couple days later didn't help), as soon as she senses the bedtime routine, she perks up and wants to play for a couple hours. Today's early nap was an attempt to fix that problem. Oh well, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. #airstreamwithkids #travelwithkids #familytravel #parentingontheroad #napcancelled

Another one from our canoe adventure on the Suwannee the other day. #manateespringsstatepark #suwanneeriver #childhoodunplugged #sisterhoodofthetravelingparents

These trees are made up of at least 4 organisms: the tree, vines, moss and "air plant-like" bromeliads that fall to the ground when the wind picks up. We may or may not have made a little wire basket for one of these and hung it from the top of a vista window. #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #manateespringsstatepark

You may remember last summer we decided that @advodna_ann would hitch and tow the trailer on the first day of every month, just to keep her skills fresh. Today, we took it a step farther. From now on, on even numbered months, the kids will do the hitch up. We feel it is important for them to be involved in what moves this family, both literally and figuratively, and this morning, after a short lecture and oral examination on weight distribution, load balancing and torque, they flawlessly coupled the trailer and truck. Our section on black tank evacuation begins tomorrow. #roadschool #airstreamwithkids #rvwithkids

Just a short tow (yes, @advodna_ann did actually pull the trailer today - and hitch- since it was the first of the month) over to Rainbow Springs. We didn't actually realize that the campground is on the other side of the river and 10 minutes from the headwaters of the spring, but we swam at the campground river access in the morning and then went over to the headspring in the afternoon. While the headspring (above) was beautiful, it's too deep to wade, tough with two kids in floaties, and we'll likely just do the shorter walk to the river from the campground next time. We stopped for dinner outside on the river at Swampy's which scored squarely within its 3 1/2 star Yelp rating. Tomorrow, we hope to rent another canoe and explore more of the stunning Rainbow River. #flstateparks #floridastateparks #rainbowspringsstatepark #rainbowsprings #therealflorida

Realized today that we're the farthest southeast we'll be on this loop. It would have taken us 3 days, 7 hours and 57 minutes to drive 4,876 miles along this blue route directly from our farthest northeast point of Homer, Alaska. Instead, we took about 5 months on a 12,324 mile route across to MA and down to TX, a period that included our heaviest driving months of the year. While 2015 totalled out at about 15,000 miles, we should come in under 10,000 for 2016 including Nova Scotia at the end of the summer. #gotstats #gotstates #roadtrip #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #fulltimetravel #fulltimefamilies

Can you tell it's rainy in northern FL today? May as well get some admin done. Booked a few campsites for the next weeks, ordered a new WeBoost 4G-M booster to pick up at the Best Buy in Gainsville on our way north, scheduled a truck service appointment for Savannah and put a couple loads of laundry in (with my assistant), mostly 'cause it's the only time our towels are ever dry in this humidity. #laundryday #lifeontheroad #fulltimefamilies #fulltimetravel #rainboots

The water of the spring-fed Rainbow River is crystal clear. In a rented a canoe on a perfect afternoon, gliding upstream over a mix of sand and aquatic plants toward the headsprings, it felt like we could have been paddling in an aquarium complete with a variety of fish, turtles, diving birds and, yep, even an alligator. Oh, and a buncha other yahoos in pontoon boats and tubes, but it was absolutely beautiful. Another great day - sadly our last for about a month! - with the LITA family. @h_livingistheadventure @livingistheadventure #familytravel #travelwithkids #canoewithkids #paddlewithkids #burdontpaddleyourkids #rainbowsprings #rainbowriver #rainbowspringsstatepark #floridastateparks #therealflorida

"I wish we could hook our trailers together." Such a cute note from the littlest LITA (@livingistheadventure/@h_livingistheadventure). The girls have had a blast having a playmate on the road and couldn't have gotten along better. And while they played (or slept), we had a great time getting to know and love Kurt and Heather.

We'd initially thought it was quite a coincidence that the girls were born two weeks apart, that is, until we realized that Heather and Ann's birthdays and Kurt and my birthdays are also less than two weeks apart (different years). The weirdest part? We all got married on the same day in October 2010! So bizarre to think about everything that's happened since that day that led us to nights sitting at a picnic table beside our two silver houses watching fireflies, chasing armadillos in the bushes and trying to determine the gender of Floridian bald eagles.

We'll miss these guys (but only for a month since we've planned their May out for them and emailed detailed itineraries). #littleairstreamfriends #airstreamfriends #silvercommunity #nomadicparents #sisterhoodofthetravelingparents #parentingontheroad #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #balledeagle

One more and then this love fest is officially DONE! At least for a few weeks... 😜 #littleairstreamfriends #airstreamfriends #nomadicparents #sisterhoodofthetravelingparents #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife