Moon Crush

Moon Crush? What the hell is Moon Crush? According to their website: “Moon Crush” is a unique music vacation experience held at Miramar Beach, Florida, that combines live music with beach and resort activities. We attended the “Odies” which featured Old Dominion, Shaggy, Niko Moon, Brothers Osborne, Gavin Degraw, John Morgan, Russell Dickerson, and Kat Higgins over the four night event.

We decided to drive up and spend a night on the road. We stopped at a Harvest Host: Tallahassee Automotive Museum.

When we learned that it was one person’s collection we were blown away!

As you can see there were many other collectibles (guns, pianos, golf clubs, farm tractors, boat engines, etc.). They even had a huge Uncle Sam out front:

What a great Harvest Host and stop!

The following day we drove to the Destin RV Beach Resort which was close enough to the Moon Crush venue that we could ride our bikes!

Small resort, but it met our needs.

We rode over to check out the venue and to “explore” the set up and see our “cove”.

That night we had dinner at The Whale’s Tail Beach Bar and Grill. Afterwards, there was a bonfire on beach with a stage set up where we got a preview of the next few nights with John Morgan, Kat Higgins, and James Slater.

So cool!

Katrina and I got a great picture of their sign at night:

What made it really cool was the fact that it was mad of sand!

The actual event started the next day. We ran over to the local outlet mall and picked up some new clothes (yeah!). We rode our bikes over to the concert – what a great way to get to and fro! So easy with the bike rack right out front of the entrance!

The format for all three nights was two opening acts and then the headliner. First up was Niko Moon.

Wow! So much fun! Loved him!

Next up was Shaggy.

We weren’t that impressed with him. Probably the wrong venue for him.

The headliner for the evening was Old Dominion (OD, who hosted the entire event, appropriately named Odies):

They were fantastic! “I don’t want to be a one man band…..”

The following morning Katrina went to “Wake Up Loving You” Yoga on the Beach.

She said that there were about 50 people in attendance. We then headed over to the Cabana Club where there was a Swag Swap. Katrina made bracelets that she traded for other homemade items that other people brought.

A real good turnout! We grabbed a quick bite of Ahi Tuna there as well.

Back to biking over to the venue to see John Morgan.

We enjoyed him!

Next up was Gavin DeGraw.

He was really good – what a high range he has!

The headliner for the evening was Brothers Osborne.

Extremely good!

Then Old Dominion joined them on stage.

Even better! Great way to end the evening!

Since the RV Resort was so small, Katrina took Bear to play in the Gulf of America most mornings.

He always loves the water and the beach is so pretty!

We started off Saturday with a pickleball tournament (yes, I said we). There were 48 participants divided into two groups. Random selection of partners, if you win you move up a court and if you lose you move down. Either way, you needed to get play with another person that you hadn’t played with yet. Katrina and I started on court 1 and both of us never moved down past court 3. With the luck (or unluck) of the draw, Katrina did not end up in contention for the podium stand. I did! I ended up playing for third place, but we lost so no podium either for me!

Finally, me in a pickleball tournament final round in my first official tournament! All in all, it was a great experience and we got to meet a lot of people!

I found a nail in one of our truck tires and needed to run and get it fixed prior to that nights’ concerts. A little bit of a nuisance, but I had to get it fixed!

We biked over to the venue again.

First up for the evening was Kat Higgins.

She is a singer / songwriter who is really good!

Next up was Russell Dickerson.

What energy! So fun to watch. He even brought his son up on stage!

The headliner was Old Dominion again (hell, it’s their event so they can play twice).

Again, they were fantastic! Their drummer couldn’t play that night so “Teets” step in and did a great job! Everyone kept yelling “Teets”!

The event was very good! We are already looking to attend next year! Very well run, great singers, nice seating, and good food. I would highly recommend attending one of their events!

The following day we started our journey back home to Myakka. Our first stop was near The Villages where we wanted to see my sister Susan’s new place and check out the area. Susan moved down there last year! We stayed at a Harvest Host called Florida Green Rush, a goat farm with electrical, water and a sewerage dump. Parked on the grass and Bear enjoyed annoying the goats.

Susan’s house was spectacular! She had it decorated really nice as she was able to utilize furnishings that she had accumulated throughout her lifetime. Precious art from Africa and China and other collectibles! It seemed like a museum! We were so enthralled that we didn’t even take any pictures!

We went to dinner at the Chop House in Lake Sumter Landing. Wonderful meal! From there we walked over to the town square where there was a Blues Band playing. It was great sitting there and listening and to top it off they had a bar on the square – talk about convenient! Again, no pictures :(!

The next morning on our way back to the Myakka Motorcoach Resort we made a stop:

Guess where? Yep, Walt Disney World where Katrina had booked us a few nights at the Fort Wilderness Campground. After we got set up we headed to EPCOT (my favorite park) because Katrina had secured some Lightning Lane passes for us.

We rode some rides and ate some food from the International Food and Wine Festival that was going on. My favorite food was from the French Bakery and Gelato place in France.

It was so yummy!

We took some nighttime pictures of EPCOT as the transformation to Christmas decorations was well underway.

We decided to head back to the Busse Bus when we espied people eating and drinking on the second floor of the AT&T pavilion behind Spaceship Earth. We found the entry and we were able to get a seat at GEO 82.