January in Stuart Florida

 

Phipps Campground is under the red arrow

January 2026 in Stuart Florida

Over the years Millie and I have spent a lot of time in Florida. We used to spend three months each winter in the sunshine state. I wouldn’t go so far as to say we’ve seen it all, but we’ve seen enough that we don’t act like tourists. We spent most of the month hear going to Planet Fitness or exploring for thrift stores. Some of the Thrift stores we went to in West Palm Beach were huge. Neither one of us bought much during our thrifting, it’s just fun looking for that big bargain. It happens sometimes, I once bought a brand new, still in the box, RV cover for our Travel Trailer for $20. It would cost $300 at any RV dealer.

Planet Fitness is the same wherever you go, they are clean and mostly patronized by the same mix of people. There are never more than a few teens, and they are always there with a parent. The kid is usually out of shape, and the parent is hovering to make sure he/she is doing something other than looking at their phone. There is a big mix of ages of men and women who are genuinely trying to stay healthy. A subgroup of this mix is shapely young ladies who wear skintight pants. And I mean up the butt crack tight; I sometimes wonder what would happen if the thread gave out and all that rear end came flying out, an innocent passerby could get injured! lol  There are usually a few muscle heads and gym rats at the gym, the former lift weights and admire themselves in the mirror and the gym rats are there to socialize. Lastly are the seniors who are just trying to live as long as they can.

Never stand behind a woman who wears spandex pants! lol

We only ate out a few times and that was to Cracker Barrel, take outs where McDonalds or Publix subs. We mostly shopped at Walmart for groceries and ate our meals at home. There is a Mexican restaurant in the same shopping center as the gym and we kept saying we should try it, but one never feels like eating a high calory meal after working so hard in the gym to lose a few calories. On a non-gym day, we happened to be passing by and decided to give it a try. It was a little early when we got there and almost empty, which is usually not a good sign. Soon the lunch crowd started filing in and the dining area was soon filled with conversation, in both English and Spanish. We enjoyed our lunch at Rancho Chico and wished we had started coming earlier in our stay here in Stuart.

Lunch at Rancho Chico

We watched a DVD movie almost every night, all of them $1 thrift store purchases, some were entertaining, some were box office flops. We’ve been known to start a movie, and in the first few minutes decide we didn’t want to watch it. All DVDs would find their way back to the thrift stores as donations.

We did drive to Okeechobee one Saturday to a Bluegrass festival. Unfortunately, it was concurrent with a blast of Arctic air. It was under a large, roofed rodeo arena but the sides were open, and the cold wind blew thru at a steady 10-15 mph. It was cold and we only had light jackets. Even the performers substituted warm clothes in place of costumes. Have you ever seen Rhonda Vincent perform in blue jeans? We did. 

Rhonda Vincent and the Rage

After the show we went downtown to Lightsey’s Seafood Restaurant and while there we saw Rhonda Vincent’s motorhome pull in behind the restaurant. Two of the band members came in to pick up a takeout order as we were leaving and we got to greet them and tell them how much we enjoyed the show.

On a pleasant and sunny day, we walked the river walk path/pier along the Stuart harbor. This was one of the few times we walked any distance outside, warm sunny days were few and far between this year.

Towards the end of our stay here in Stuart, we decided to treat The Silver Bullet to a car wash, we found an original mid-century drive through car wash, The kind where you get out of your car, the attendants prep the bug splats and dirty wheels before loading it on the conveyor. You can watch thru the windows that run along the tunnel and see your vehicle get scrubbed by all the rotating bristles. This was all very state of the art back in the 60’s and 70’s. At the exit end more attendants give your vehicle a thorough whipping down, clean your glass, shine your tires and even give the inside a quick going over. All this retro service was impressive, but the service that totally amazed us was the spray on wax. The truck shined like a new one, the brilliant shine lasted for quite a while before slowly losing its luster after a couple weeks. If we had a car wash like this at home, I would be a regular customer.

A retro carwash

As I have mentioned earlier it has been an unseasonably cold winter here in Florida, at the end of the month the water spigots started freezing at night. I started covering the one that our RV was connected to at night. Every evening I walked our trash to the dumpster; it was always cool enough for a sweat shirt or jacket. It was not very often I came back to the RV and said it was a perfect night for a walk around the park. We have been running the electric heat in the RV most nights. Looking on the bright side, they've had snow at home in Myrtle Beach, at least we're not there!