Summer vacations from Sarasota when your SRQ vacation/test home becomes your primary home and your Northern home sells.. (Englewood: appointed, 2014)

[WantPalmerRanch]

Folks, we have some good and bad news...

As many of you know, we bought a vacation
home in Palmer Ranch several years ago and
love it dearly although we never stayed for
summers.

Summers were spent up North in our old
home while visiting family. We had decided
to sell our NJ money pit (taxes) and perhaps
buy rental homes in SRQ for income.

We sold the home and got a pretty penny for
it.

Our problem is this: We have been going to
our NJ home for summers (June, July and
1/2 of August). Now that the home is sold we
have no place to go to for the summer.

We were thinking of taking lengthy 2-month
vacations in other countries (family of 4, 2
kids). Some places we though would be cool
are Sydney, Australia and Copenhagen since
we love biking the Legacy trail, in Palmer
Ranch, and biking in general.

Anyone have any other great vacation ideas?

BBC - Travel - Cycling sees massive growth in Sydney : Biking, Sydney

BBC News - Copenhagen's piles of bicycles

[Cuzzant]

Remember that June, July and August will be winter in Australia, and the temps in Sydney average between 45 and 65 during that time frame. Also, Australia is an expensive place to travel (especially Sydney). We traveled through eastern Oz for 4 weeks in 2013, and found most items as expensive as Hawaii. For example, a case of Coca-Cola was $18 (AUD) on sale!

Still, Australia is a great place to visit.

[WantPalmerRanch]

Thanks for the heads-up. We totally forgot about the opposite seasons. Would the later part of the summer or earlier part of summer be warmer in Sydney? Also are roads pretty much as depicted in these two videos. Would it be safe biking on these kind of roads i.e. Are there really any motorcycle gangs (Toecutter type people) or crazy fast drivers?


Mad Max Kills the Toe Cutter - YouTube

Mad Max chase - YouTube

Is there a car shop in or around the SRQ area that does custom work like in the below video? With this home sale
we've always dreamed of creating an Interceptor. How fast could we go on Rt. 75 without actually being pulled over
for speeding?


Mad Max - Last V8 - Just Damned Cool! - YouTube

[Cuzzant]

Originally Posted by WantPalmerRanch

Thanks for the heads-up. We totally forgot about the opposite seasons. Would the later part of the summer or earlier part of summer be warmer in Sydney? Also are roads pretty much as depicted in these two videos. Would it be safe biking on these kind of roads i.e. Are there really any motorcycle gangs (Toecutter type people) or crazy fast

Is there a car shop in or around the SRQ area that does custom work like in the below video? With this home sale
we've always dreamed of creating an Interceptor. How fast could we go on Rt. 75 without actually being pulled over
for speeding?

Sydney temp averages (low/high):
May 53/67
June 49/63
July 46/62
Aug 49/64
Sept 52/68

All roads we drove on were comparable to the States. The videos look like what you might find if traveling through central Australia, which is basically barren.

I can't comment on the biker issue. There were MCs on the roads, but again nothing much different than here. As to bicycling, check out Sydney's website on bicycling.

Good luck on the Interceptor dream, but I can be of no help there.

[WantPalmerRanch]

OK thanks. Looking forward to that trip then.
That Sydney biking link is good too! Thanks

[imagardener]

I think more Floridians visit Alaska in the summer than from any other state. Could be very educational for your children.
We did that one summer, flew to Vancouver, cruise to Seward, AK then train to Anchorage and rented an RV and went to Denali National Park.

Other summers we do long road trips to national parks: Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, the Four Corners area, Albuquerque, Sedona, Santa Fe. You might want to fly out and rent an RV because it takes days to get out there. Other road trips were to Maine, Campobello Island, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island. Wonderful summer weather.

Funny story, as we pulled into our campsite in a remote Cape Breton National Park (our van has FL tags) the people next to us said hi, they were from Northport. Haha. They had just gotten back from Newfoundland (loooong ferry trip we didn't make) and the people next to them there were from Englewood. So that's where people go in the summer, everywhere.

[WantPalmerRanch]

Originally Posted by imagardener

I think more Floridians visit Alaska in the summer than from any other state. Could be very educational for your children.
We did that one summer, flew to Vancouver, cruise to Seward, AK then train to Anchorage and rented an RV and went to Denali National Park.

Other summers we do long road trips to national parks: Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, the Four Corners area, Albuquerque, Sedona, Santa Fe. You might want to fly out and rent an RV because it takes days to get out there. Other road trips were to Maine, Campobello Island, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island. Wonderful summer weather.

Funny story, as we pulled into our campsite in a remote Cape Breton National Park (our van has FL tags) the people next to us said hi, they were from Northport. Haha. They had just gotten back from Newfoundland (loooong ferry trip we didn't make) and the people next to them there were from Englewood. So that's where people go in the summer, everywhere.

Wow!! I mean just Wow!! We couldn't ask for a better answer. We are pretty clueless when it comes to great vacation ideas. But your post to us really gives new meaning to the word "adventure".

So many, many great ideas on where to go... Our son is really fascinated by rocks, stones and crystals (the variety of them). I'm guessing Sedona, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone's (geysers) will impress him over the flat life of Sarasota

So maybe we'll start with vacations that are closer and leave the furthest for last. As we become more seasoned vacationers we will travel farther.

We are thinking of buying a used Sprinter Camper Van something like this:
Sportsmobile Custom Camper Vans - Sprinter RB-150S with Penthouse Top

Have you used KOA campgrounds? What are some good or bad experiences with them (if you have used them)?

Camping, Campsites and Campgrounds | KOA Campgrounds

[macrodome2]

If your son likes rocks, stones and crystals there are also a number of places to prospect for gems. Google "prospect for gems" you'll find an entry for 7 places to prospect that include diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires. I would paste the link, but it may be a competing site and my post would be deleted.

[WantPalmerRanch]

Originally Posted by macrodome2

If your son likes rocks, stones and crystals there are also a number of places to prospect for gems. Google "prospect for gems" you'll find an entry for 7 places to prospect that include diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires. I would paste the link, but it may be a competing site and my post would be deleted.

Cool! We'll look into that. He once bought a crystal growing kit from the dollar store. Every morning as the crystal grew he yelled, "Come check out the crystal!!".

He loves Science/Inventions. We once took him to GWiZ in Sarasota but it was closed. He was really, really disappointed.

[imagardener]

WantPalmer

How did you know we have a Sprinter? :-)
Ours is a Roadtrek so I don't know anything about Sportsmobile brand but 4 people in a van that size on a long trip? Nooooo. Great to use as a day vehicle but not to live in with 4. 2 is max in my opinion and those 2 better be very compatible.

KOA campgrounds are fine because they have to toe the line with cleanliness, etc but they are not always near where we stop for the night.

If you visit western US national parks you will be outnumbered by foreigners. Monument Valley, Yellowstone, etc were filled with Europeans and Japanese because there is nothing like the US West anywhere in the world. See the USA before flying to other countries. It is FANTASTIC!

If you rent an RV make sure it has air conditioning in the back too, not just up front. We met people in Grand Teton with a rental Sprinter that had solar power for cooktop and hot water but no AC. That's fine when it's cool but it can get hot in desert areas. I will never go to Mesa AZ again even with air-conditioning. People A/C their garages because their cars would burst into flames due to scalding heat every-single-freaking-day.

US travel can give your kids a great education if you read up in advance about the area. Internet is fine but having real books to refer to cannot be beat because internet is not always available in backcountry and mountain areas.

Our top 3 faves are Yellowstone (need a week there), Bryce Canyon UT and Antelope Canyon AZ near Lake Powell (take the slot canyon tour of Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons, get in line early AM.
There is a great map available from AAA called "Four Corners". We mounted it on a big piece of cardboard and drew a route of places we wanted to see.