King George RV Resort

We got away from TTN Orlando a little later than we expected this morning. I suppose I should have packed up most of the outside stuff last night. That way, I could have squeezed in one last swim this morning before leaving. Turns out it took a couple of hours to get things all packed up this morning. Too late for a swim. Oh well......

We hit the road around 10:30 am heading north on Hwy 27 through Leesburg and Ocala, eventually linking up with US 301 and I-10 past Jacksonville. Traffic was terrible on Hwy 27 but picked up nicely after that. Wasn't long before we crossed into Georgia. Sure seemed strange leaving Florida after being here for 5 months. We thoroughly enjoyed our first winter as snowbirds.

Our drive to King George RV Resort took about 5 hours. It is located just inside the GA stateline just off I-95 at exit 6. It is an RPI Resort. We'll be staying here 3 nights before heading off to Carolina Landing in South Carolina. The park is quite small with probably only 50 sites in all. Most seem to be pull thru sites. We managed to get set up and then popped in to see the neighbours who had waved and said hello as we arrived. We had just sat down with them when a Discovery motorhome arrived. I glanced over and sure enough it was Bob and Laverne Krisby who we have seen lots off this past winter while playing pickleball in both Orlando and Peace River. Neither we nor they knew we were all coming to King George RV Resort. Small world!!!!

One small glitch on the way though. Seems the left brake light and turn signal on the Vue are not functioning when connected to the motorhome. Not sure what the problem is. Hope to get it looked at before we leave here on Monday.

There is a crawfish festival near here this weekend which we are all interested in attending. There is also a submarine museum at the King's Bay submarine base. That could be very interesting to see. Lastly, we hope to explore some of the white sand beaches on coastal islands close by. Should be fun.

Still at Bee's........ Until Tomorrow

We are still in the overflow site which is not really that bad and for only $8 a night, one really shouldn't complain. We have met two of our neighbours. Both are from Illinois and are also in overflow and paying over $20 a night! I think I would have some issues with that arrangement but that is their affair and not mine.

Yesterday, we took a run south to Kissimee to get haircuts. After all, we have to look presentable for the arrival of our guests on Monday. We went back to the same salon we tried before during our last stay in Orlando. We also stopped in at Thousand Trails to pick up some mail that was waiting for us. I finally got my new cell phone back from repair at HTC. It had quit working the day before we left Ottawa to head south. I think they just sent me a new phone. I also received a new remote sensor and circuit board for our Progressive Industries surge protector. Basically, the surge protector checks the quality of electricity drawn from the campground electrical post. If it is not satisfactory, the protector will not let the power through into our motorhome. The unit was over $500 but is good insurance against having all our electronics zapped by lightning or a bad post. So far we have encountered no bad posts in any of the campgrounds we have stayed. The remote sensor actually gives me a read out of how many amps, hertz, etc we are drawing at any one time. Certainly better than frying $8000 worth of electronics like I have heard happening on various RV wes sites.

We returned to Bee's yesterday afternoon in time for the all-you-can-eat fish fry dinner at the Honey Pot Restaurant. We dined with the Crawleys from California who were our neighbours in Peace River for two of our three weeks there. The Honey Pot is located right at Bee's RV Resort so we didn't have to drive anywhere. People come from all over to eat here as well.

This morning started with a nice walk with Buddy. Then we left his Highness in the motorhome while we went for a nice run on the natural trail running around the perimeter of Bee's. He seems to be settling in to life in the motorhome and is not barking as much as he used to when we started. I think he knows when the bark collar is on and just decides to keep quiet. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

We then headed over to The Groves at Winter Garden Village for a little shopping. We picked up a set of queen size sheets for the sofa bed as well as a few bits of linen and towels. Car wash on the way back to Clermont. Best car wash I have ever seen. It had about 20 angled parking stalls with free vacuuming stations. There was even a vacuum machine that cleaned your floor mats. Worked like a computer printer, only instead of paper being fed in one end and out the other end, you feed the floor mats in one at a time. Pretty slick!

Once we got to Bee's, we lazed around under our awning and watched the world go by. Chris kept busy practicing her newly learned hobby of making pine needle baskets. It is a native American art form she learned at Peace River. Nothing fancy yet, but she is getting quite good at it. I read some RV magazines until the skies opened up and we both moved back inside for the evening.

Tomorrow, we head for Thousand Trails in Orlando for 3 weeks. We hope to be on the road by 11:30 am after we fill up our propane tanks before leaving here. If all goes well, we'll be set up in lots of time and ready to play pickleball tomorrow evening.

Return to Bee's RV Resort, Clermont, FL

It seemed very strange to get up this morning and not play pickleball after breakfast. We were in Wauchula for 3 weeks and thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the TTN Peace River Preserve. All the people we met were fantastic, particularly the pickleball crowd. Our new friends were playing as we rolled by the courts on our way to the exit at around 10 am this morning. A wave and a honk of the horn and we were on our way north.

There was a huge accident on I-4 yesterday morning just west of Orlando with over 40 vehicles involved and three fatalities. The hwy was still closed this morning so we opted to go up a different way. We took Hwy 64 east from Zolfo Springs over to US 27 and then turned north on 27. The drive was a little slower than on an interstate but other than a few slow downs for construction we didn't have any problems. We both commented on how strange it felt to be moving in our home again after having been in one place for 3 weeks.

We pulled into Bee's around 1:30 pm and could tell coming in off the highway that it was a lot busier than when we were last here. I spoke with the manager at registration and he asked if I would mind terribly if he put us in the overflow area for our 3 day stay. Apparently, they were overbooked because of unforeseen medical problems experienced by some residents, which meant the residents had to stay longer than originally scheduled. The overflow sites have water and electric but no sewer. We had arrived with empty tanks, so there was no reason we couldn't stay in overflow. It is only 3 days and then we are off to Orlando again. Besides, we can always use the central dump station here as well if need be.

So we are set up in a nice spot with our awning angled in the proper direction to shield us from the hot daytime sun. No pickleball for 3 days but we hope to get in a bike ride along the West Orange Trail again while we are here.

More later

Peace River, Bee's, Orlando, Dade City

We have been here almost 3 weeks now and will leave for Bee's RV Resort in Clermont again on Thursday for 3 days before returning to Thousand Trails in Orlando for 3 weeks beginning Jan 13th. Peace River is quite full now and we are told this is quite common during January and February when many snowbirds are here. It is amazing just how many RVs come and go in here on a given day. One day last week, rangers had over 60 RVs scheduled to arrive. So far, we prefer this park over Orlando because it is much more laid back and in a rural setting. There are at least ten Canadian rigs here as well.

The park has had some issues with broken water pipes over the past few days. Some were broken by careless drivers not looking where they were going, while other pipes broke underground. The maintenance crew is very good at fixing things though and the water has not been shut off too often. We have learned to keep our on board tank filled just in case of such events in the future.

Yesterday, we were still looking for a place to stay for the week of Feb 3-10. Peace River had spots for a few days but not the entire week. While reading through the Thousand Trails, Trailblazer magazine, I came upon an ad for Carefree RV Resorts with a special $49/week offer for TT members. I checked out some of the locations in Florida and we eventually made a reservation at Grove Ridge Carefree RV Resort in Dade City. Dade City is pretty well straight west of Clermont and just north of Zephyrhills on US 98. The nice thing about RVing, is that everyone talks and there are also many websites doing campsite reviews as well, so it is very easy to check out a place before making a reservation. So far, we haven't been disappointed about any of our choices.

We are looking forward to the arrival of Chris's daughter and friend for nine days on Jan 14th. We'll have just enough time to get set up in Orlando the day before they arrive. We may even be able to squeeze in a game of pickleball that morning before heading for the airport to get them.

Stay safe everyone.

Clerbrook Golf and RV Resort

We took the short drive south on Hwy 27 to Lakeridge Winery. They had a wine tasting opening this afternoon. We tasted half a dozen different wines and then bought 4 bottles of assorted wines on the way out.

On the way back to Bee's we stopped in at Clerbrook Golf and RV Resort. I saw on the internet that this resort offers reduced weekly and monthly rates to Thousand Trail members, which we already are. We took a little tour through this 1200 RV site park. It is huge and has it's own 18 hole golf course with water on every hole. On our way around we saw an alligator sunning itself on the edge of the 13th fairway. A little further on we saw a group of sand cranes as well.





















Tonight is BBQ steak for supper and later we'll head over to the Beehive for Bee's ice cream social. These socials seem to be very common in RV parks and at different rallies as well. Great way to meet fellow RVers too.

Bee's RV Resort

Temps dropped again last night but things promise to warm up this week and next.

We spent the morning packing up and hooking up our toad for the short 25 mile drive north on Hwy 27 to Bee's RV Resort in Clermont. The campground is located on the east side of Hwy 27 just south of the Florida Turnpike. We arrived here around 11 am and were checked in in no time at all. Initially, we were given site M-04 but the fit was really tight for our 38 ft rig and power, water and sewer were located on the wrong side of the site for us. We returned to the office and were reassigned to site G-05. This is a 30 amp site. There was a 50 amp site free starting tomorrow, but I think we can manage with 30 amp service for the week.

We managed to get in this site with no difficulty but then encountered a glitch with our power levellers. An error code showed up after we tried to auto level and the jacks would not retract. Our front wheels were about 2 inches in the air which was not good. We pulled out the manual and tried all the fixes we found but couldn't get the levellers to retract. Several other Fleetwood owners in park could not help either. I placed a call to Lazydays, who referred me to Fleetwood's 800 number. Fleetwood ran me through a series of easy to follow steps and we were up and running in no time. Levellers are functioning fine now, but we have added the power levellers as something else for Lazydays to check when we are there beginning Dec 17th.

Bee's is a small park with tight spots and is wedged between the Florida Turnpike and Hwy 27. As Resort Parks International (RPI) members, we got in here for $8 a night for the week. They don't take credit or debit cards, so $56 cash was the easiest way to go. We saw one other Canadian from Manitoba in the park and also met an English couple who had purchased a brand new Fleetwood Revolution LE at Lazydays. They are on their way out tomorrow, heading west to Texas and eventually on to Arizona. We enjoyed a couple of nice strolls around the park with Buddy and also checked out the nature trail located within the park.

Looking forward to checking out the area in our week long stay here.

Hitting the Road

Hard to believe we have been in Orlando for two weeks tomorrow. Thousand Trails has been a great experience for us. This was our first time here and we are definitely coming back again.

These last few days have been spent in and around the local stores again. Groceries are always something you have to plan a little more carefully as one simply does not have the same room as at home to stock pile staples. We have a nice double door fridge but even that gets filled rather quickly. Both Walmart and Publix are great grocery stores and only about a ten minute drive from here.

We continue to run, bike and swim almost daily. Managed a nice 4 miler this morning in bright sunshine. Temps dropped into the 50s overnight for the first time since we arrived so I wore long sleeves and my vest as well this morning. Things had warmed up nicely though by the time we returned and did our cool off walk. Another great post run breakfast outside before we get to showers and laundry. We are sure enjoying having a washer dryer in our rig. Can't wash big loads but it is certainly capable of doing smaller loads quite easily. Sheets and towels are no problem either.

We head for Bee's RV Resort in Clermont tomorrow morning which is about 30 minutes up the road. We managed to get in there as part of our RPI Preferred affiliation for $8/night. We have a local RV power wash company coming by to wash all of the travel grunge off our Bounder this afternoon. They do a booming business in this park. I should be able to stay on top of the cleaning from now on though.

May take a little run over to Celebration this afternoon, just to see the sights.