Wheel of Fortune

Yesterday was a busy day for both of us. Chris went to have her hair done in the morning and also picked up a few groceries on the way back to the Orlando preserve. I kept myself busy by organizing things for our trip down I-4 to Lazydays in Tampa. I checked with the rangers before leaving and to let them know we would be out of the preserve for a day or too getting some work done on our motorhome. They told me our site would be fine and to just leave our card on the electrical post. We also left our bikes, water hoses, and ground sheets there so that our site will look occupied.


The drive to Tampa was uneventful. Lots of traffic as we got closer to the city. Lazydays is at exit 10 of I-4, just before the I-75 junction. As you can imagine, this is always a busy intersection. We passed an electronic traffic advisory sign as we got close to exit 10 advising of a vehicle fire on I-75 north and to expect delays. Thankfully, this event did not affect our trip at all. We pulled into the Flying J, also at exit 10, and fuelled up the motorhome with diesel and propane. Dropped just over $200 on diesel and almost $20 on propane but we didn't think that was too bad because that is the last money we will have to spend on either before heading home on May 1st.


There is a Camping World right next to Lazydays so we had to check that out as well. Saw a few items we will have to go back for before we leave. CW and Lazydays share a huge parking lot that was filled to bursting with almost every type of RV you could imagine. We had no problem finding a level RV parking space for our overnight stay in the parking lot. Satellite worked fine and Lazydays has wifi everywhere so we were all set.


This "Wheel of Fortune" RV and trailer were in the lot last night. Didn't see Pat or Vanna around anywhere though!


There is a Cracker Barrel restaurant right next to Lazydays as well. We had a great supper there last night and both shared a strawberry shortcake for dessert. Strawberry Festival should be just about over.


Today, we checked in our motorhome at 8 am and left for St Pete's around 10:30 am. Our Bounder was in the shop for today for sure and perhaps part of Friday as well, depending on how well the work goes. We took Hwy 275 over to Treasure Island which is at the very south end of the Sunshine Coast. It was a gray day so not very nice for pictures. We were hoping to be able to get Buddy out on the beach somewhere along the way but we just didn't see anywhere that pets were allowed on the beach. We toured this area last year in our SUV and also on our tandem bicycle. There is still lots of construction all the way up to Clearwater.


We stopped in at Sand Keys Park to let Buddy out for a stretch. As we turned off into the park, we saw a sign with an RCMP crest on it, pointing into the park. We walked around with Buddy and came upon one of the open air pavilions as we returned to the parking lot. It was crowded with RCMP veterans who are wintering in this area. I figured they would all be long retired vets from Ottawa and elsewhere but never thought I would actually know any of them. Well much to our surprise, as we walked past the pavilion, I saw Phil Campbell and Al Wellwood. Both are now retired but no longer living in Ottawa. We all served in Ottawa at the same time and all of us have been retired for about 2 years now. You just never know who you will see in Florida in the winter time!!


Tonight we get to spend in our motorhome in a service bay at Lazydays. The work was supposed to be all done but it was too late to leave tonight so we get to spend another night here. This is no big deal really. After Chris prepared a nice supper, I decided to check on some of the work done. It seems the front air conditioner is still not working nor has a new power leveller controller board been installed as we expected. Definitely something to look into before we leave tomorrow morning. Perhaps we won't be out of here as early as we thought after all!