On November 11th we left O’Leno State Park and moved to the southernmost point of our trip in Sebring, Florida. We typically don’t have any specific timeframes or destinations in mind when we choose our stops but our travels for the previous few months had all been with this destination in mind for my cousin’s wedding on November 20th. Coincidentally, John’s grandparents had also moved to the area a few years ago so we had plans to see them as well.
We found an available campsite in Sebring – just about an hour’s drive south of Winter Haven at Highland Hammock State Park. The park itself was very pretty and had some nice trails. Unfortunately, John was still having a hard time getting around due to his gout flareup so Harley and I had to do much of the exploring on our own. After one walk into the woods we came home and pulled 5 ticks out of Harley’s fur so we mostly stuck to walking the paved paths through the campground after that.
There were tons of deer, however, which resulted in a lot of barking on Harley’s behalf. We also got to see a few armadillos and Harley met her first tortoise. At first, she didn’t even notice it – even though it was pretty enormous. Then, when she did see it, she thought it was a rock. Then it moved for the first time.
Harley did not know what to think. She jumped back and kept looking between the tortoise and me as if to ask, “Did you see that shit, too?”. She really couldn’t figure out what was happening and, after much deliberation, decided that barking at it was the way to go. The tortoise did not care. At all. Eventually, Harley was just too bewildered to carry on and walked away.
It rained for much of our first week in town (and John still couldn’t walk) but we did get to meet John’s grandparents for lunch twice. One meal was at a small diner and the other was at the Jacaranda Hotel for their buffet lunch. The hotel was lovely and the food was pretty good – especially the desserts! The best part, however, was the company. It was great to visit with family. We had made plans to do a boat tour and see some alligators but the weather ended up ruining those plans. We also visited their house and made arrangements to meet for Thanksgiving Day lunch at a nearby restaurant the following week.
On the 19th, we drove to Cherry Pocket Steak N Seafood in Lake Wales for the rehearsal dinner for the wedding. My cousin Austin had lived in Florida for several years and, although we had met his fiancé on a few occasions before, we had never met any of his family as they live in Scotland. It was a little stressful meeting new people but they were all just so welcoming and lovely that we immediately relaxed. It was also wonderful to see some of my family from Ohio- my cousin Alex and his wife and daughters, my cousin Heather along with her daughters, and my aunt and uncle.
The wedding was held on Monday November 20th. We got all dressed up and enjoyed a wonderful evening watching as Austin and Stuart were married and their families came together to show so much love and support.
On Tuesday, we visited the newlywed’s at home where they hosted an open house for friends and family. Since so many people had come from other states and other countries, they wanted to be able to spend as much time as possible together. It was wonderful seeing their home and meeting many of their friends. We also got to spend some more time with my cousins and my aunt and uncle. They invited us to Thanksgiving Dinner as well – they were having a big dinner to introduce the Scottish family to a traditional American Holiday.
We were so excited – TWO THANKSGIVING DINNER INVITATIONS! For a couple of nomads traveling across the country, the idea of spending a holiday surrounded by family was really a great thing.
We also stopped at a gas station on the way to the open house to satisfy our curiosity about something. We had driven by this gas station several times during the week and had seen a table set up selling fruit drinks out of big Gatorade coolers. We finally decided to stop and see what it was about. Let me tell you – it was AMAZING. Like many of our adventures, it was super sketchy but delicious! We got some sort of creamy strawberry concoction and it was heavenly. We made all of our family try it at the open house. It was just so good.
Then disaster struck. I was feeling a little sick on Wednesday and then woke up Thanksgiving morning feeling like death. I did not feel up to functioning so I texted my cousin to let him know we would not be coming over. John was feeling fine and his grandparents still wanted to get together so he still met them and had a nice lunch at least. I napped on the couch watching movies and feasting on toast.
Over the next few days, the news came in – many of the wedding guests were sick (including the grooms) and we were pretty sure it was COVID. That was something we could have definitely done without. Suddenly, sharing that delicious fruiting drink with everyone seemed like it might have been a bad idea.
We also had to move that weekend and also faced a slight problem – we didn’t have a place to park the house on Saturday night. The park that we were leaving had a 14 day limit and we had reached it. They would not make an exception. The park that we were heading to did not have any openings until the next night. We had known about this in advance (for several months) but it had kind of slipped from our minds. Thankfully, John was able to secure us a one night stay at a Love’s Gas Station which had just opened up a few full-hookup camping sites at one of their nearby truck stop locations.
With a head full of snot, I drove the hour and a half to the gas station on Saturday where I walked directly in the house and collapsed onto the couch to try to recover the energy for the remaining 2 hour drive the next day. We left the house attached to the truck overnight so thankfully there was very little teardown or setup for the next day. I was starting to feel a bit better on Sunday but the drive was still exhausting. We didn’t have any major mishaps (thank goodness) and arrived at Holder Mine Campground in Inverness, Florida on Sunday afternoon where I was able to finish my recovery.
