Titusville

We were running out of things to do in South Florida so decided to head north for our last stop!  This was also a good plan because it knocked out 200 miles of the trip back, now I just have 800 miles to tackle tomorrow & Friday. 

Titusville is a nice little town, it is right by Cape Canaveral and has excellent views of The Kennedy Space Center and the Space Shuttle Launch pads.  Huge crowds would descend up on Titusville when NASA was launching the shuttle.  The town has suffered a huge hit with the end of the space shuttle program. 

There are other things to do in Titusville though and we saw all the sights!

We are staying at Manatee Hammock Campground, which I think is a county park.  It’s a nice campground with plenty of trees and big sites. It is right on the Indian River and you can walk out and see the launch pads (they are the tallest thing for at least 100 miles) and watch the dolphins play!

Canaveral National Seashore is right next to the space center and was our first stop for the day.  It was a dreary, rainy, chilly day so we mostly had the beach to ourselves! It looked a lot like Assateauge Island in Maryland. 

 

If it had been clear we would have had great views of the launch pad.  The park is so close that you used to have to go through strict security to get in and the park would close when there was going to be a launch. 

We didn’t spend long at the beach, the weather was really yucky.  

There’s also a Wildlife Refuge right next door with a wildlife viewing drive and a spot to go to see manatee.  We checked out the manatee viewing deck and didn’t see any so went to grab lunch (more on that in a bit) and then drove the 7 mile wildlife viewing loop.  

Most of the wildlife you can view are birds.  We saw plenty of different birds, including the Roseate Spoonbill – although we didn’t see them until the end.  The rainy, cool weather likely brought more birds out. 

One of the biggest draws for Titusville is Dixie Crossroads Restaurant.  My parents have come here several times and I certainly enjoyed eating there!  It’s a seafood restaurant and they have Rock Red Shrimp that are rare.  They will cook the shrimp however you want and they have yummy sides!  We ate dinner there last night and lunch today!  And, yes, I had steamed shrimp both times!  Highly recommend it if you are close!

The last attraction in the Greater Titusville Area was Harvey’s Citrus.  I wanted some grapefruits to take home and Harvey’s seemed the best place to go.  We had to drive to Rockledge which was about 30 miles down Rt 1, but I think it was worth it!  We sampled all the fruit we ended up buying and it was all super yummy!  Dad and I couldn’t decide which ones we wanted so we got 2 kinds of grapefruit, navel oranges, honey tangerines and some pecans. 

Tomorrow morning I will re-winterize the RV and start the drive back home.  It’s gonna snow at home tomorrow and then get very cold and windy.  I’m not looking forward to unloading the RV and all that stuff, but, it is January!