Last Day in Florida

We spent the day waxing as much of the Phaeton as we could. We used a borrowed buffing machine which made it a bit easier but we still needed to use plenty of elbow grease too. Thankfully, one half of our coach was in the shade first thing this morning. We hit 34C of 93F here in Tampa today and not a lick of wind anywhere until later in the afternoon. Had to be at least a 20F difference going from sun to shade. Definitely time to head back north.

The highlight of our day was rearranging our two pull through storage trays. We threw out quite a bit of stuff because we never use it and frankly, as any RVer knows , space is always at a premium in an RV. Someone walked off with our portable satellite dish which we never used.
We stayed around Rally Park most of the day except for a quick stop at Camping World to pick up a new sewer hose. Hamburgers on the BBQ for supper. We are ready for an 8 am departure to Valdosta in the morning. Time to hit the road.

Mr Coffee....R.I.P....

We are all set up in our new Phaeton in site 192 at Rally Park. Lazydays finished touching up a few paint chips that we insisted be done as part of the sale. They also sent it back to detailing for a complete wash and buff as well. Our set of MCD RV Innovations tag-wheel covers arrived from the manufacturer in McKinney, Texas via over night delivery.

Nothing to do now but wait until Monday for our out of state delivery to Valdosta, GA. We had hoped to be on the road on Sunday but a driver and follow car were impossible to arrange because it is Mother's Day. Papers are all signed and we are ready to hit the road by 8 am on MOnday. So, one more day in Florida.

I awoke this morning to dutifully make our morning cup of Joe in our 2 year old Mr Coffee machine. Much to my surprise, no lights on it working anywhere. I thought perhaps a GFI plug needed to be reset but nope, that wasn't it. Turns out Mr Coffee, had indeed bit the big one, was pushing up daisies, had gone to the big appliance graveyard in the sky, was dead in the water. In a touching ceremony, we gently placed it at the curb with the rest of our trash and within 20 minutes, it was all gone.

A trip to Walmart later today, and we found a fancy, reincarnated Mr Coffee with a spiffy metal caraffe. It now adorns the same counter space as the old one.

Heritage Propane Delivers....finally

A quiet, hot day here at Tanglewood today. I think I am still recovering from mild dehydration after yesterday's pickleball matches. I played this morning again but went pretty easy. Another 80F day here today, but thankfully there is a breeze as well. Swimming tomorrow morning instead of pickleball. Nothing wrong with a little variety now and then.

Spent the day cleaning up around the RV today. Have to have everything ship shape for Chris's arrival on Jan 10th. I also worked a bit in Lightroom using a colour desaturation technique I learned on the internet. I dropped all the green in the leaves in the above photo before pumping up the orange just a bit. I thought it came out pretty well. Almost good enough to eat.

The propane delivery truck came by yesterday afternoon ... finally. Apparently, they were just too busy to come by last Friday as scheduled. The delivery truck has a huge propane tank on the back and a high volume hose that filled up our RV propane tank in about 30 seconds. I thought that was pretty impressive, given that past fill ups at campgrounds and service stations usually take 5 minutes or more, and that is after you have waited in line for up to 30 minutes on occasion as well. Total cost was $41, which I thought pretty reasonable given our tank was less than one third full. This was the first time we had used a delivery truck and I would definitely do so again. Sure saves packing up the rig and having to drive to the propane supplier.

Heading Home Soon

Weather has been miserable for the last two days. Rain and cold until today when the sun finally came out and the temps crept up slowly.

We spent the day in London. Chris passed her reflexology practical test with flying colours. She goes back for her final written exam tomorrow and will then receive her certification. Way to go Chris!!!!

I went to Future Shop and picked up a Logitech Harmony 670 Universal Remote Control on sale. We met some full-timers here in the park yesterday and they swear by their Harmony. The 670 was on sale for $70 off . Set up was very easy and done over the Internet. We now have three televisions, DVD player and our satellite receiver all running off one remote now instead of the five remotes we had been uisng. Pretty neat. Great space saver.

We'll head for home on Thursday morning and may stop in Marmora to see friends there. Should be back in Ottawa sometime Friday if all goes as planned. There is some weather moving in so that may delay things too. We'll have to see.

J+J Sunshades

We both enjoyed a nice relaxing swim at the Orlando preserve this morning. We used the family pool this time and found it to be much cooler than the adult pool we swam in last week. Cooler temps was certainly better for swimming laps. Little hot tub afterwards and we were ready to move on.

We headed off to Lake Wales after our swim which is about 35 miles south on Hwy 27. We have found that the sunshade we bought from J+J is a bit too wide for it to roll up easily inside the awning. In fact, it is wide enough to prevent the awning from fully retracting into its casing on the side of the motorhome. I had called Gary previously about getting 6"-8" taken off one side and he said that would be no problem. We arrived just after noon and dropped the two piece sunshade off with him while we grabbed some lunch. An hour later, we were on our way back to Orlando with our newly altered sunshade. Excellent service Gary, thank you.

Fuel prices are going up again it seems. When we arrived in Florida in November, we were getting gas for around $3.00/gallon and diesel for about $3.20/gallon. Now gas is going for $3.20/gallon and we have seen diesel as high as $3.75/gallon. A barrel of oil is $102.00. One wonders where it will all end. Prices never seem to go down any. Everything just keeps getting more expensive.

We were home by 2 pm and managed to get an hour of pickle ball in before the skies opened up again. Good games nonetheless.

Tomorrow, we are headed off to Lazydays to have some warranty done. I called them yesterday morning and was assured all required parts are in stock. We are hoping to be back at Thousand Trails Orlando by Friday afternoon if all goes well.

Some of the gang we met in London, Ontario at Fanshawe Conservation Area last summer are wintering in a campground very near Lazydays. We may be able to see them if they aren't touring about somewhere.

Yard Sale Day at TT Orlando

Hard to believe we have been away for 3 1/2 months already! Only 2 1/2 more months to go.

Temps have warmed up again. We went for a nice walk around the preserve this morning. It was so hot we had to put the sun shade up again under the awning.

Today, being the first Saturday of the month, is yard sale day here at TT Orlando. Anyone with anything to sell is allowed to set up a table of wares at their campsite for passersby to check out during the day. We only managed to get to the end of our row, where we came upon Phil who sells very sturdy folding picnic chairs and other things. He wasn't even selling anything when we passed by, he was just out washing and polishing his rig and trailer. I commented on the size of the trailer and he showed us what was inside. His fully customized Haulmark trailer contains a complete air conditioned workshop with office and a computerized commercial embroidery machine. He stencils names, photos, pretty much anything onto cloth, like that on the back of our new chairs.

We watched the embroidery machine at work as it stitched my name on the chair back. I was going to get "Director" stitched on mine, but Chris wanted nothing to do with that! She is seen here enjoying her new chaise while working on another pine needle basket.

Chris is off to check out a site offering reflexology. Professional curiousity I think it is called.

Time for a little pickleball later perhaps. Cheers all!

What To Do? What To Do?

Yesterday was another hot day here in Peace River but we also had a nice breeze for most of the day so that made it more bearable. We played pickleball twice yesterday as well. Chris managed to fit in a beading class in the afternoon and made herself a nice bracelet. After pickleball, she went to Jane's for a reflexology session.

A bunch of the local pickleball players have signed up for a tournament in Sun City on Monday but Chris and I have decided to pass on it. We enjoy the exercise and social aspect of pickleball but driving 90 miles round trip for a tourney is something we can do without.

They are building a mini golf at Peace River right now. I had hoped to get over there today and volunteer some sweat but it has been raining on and off all night and steadily now for a few hours this morning, so I doubt any work will be done today. Looks like a good day to pop into Wauchula for a few groceries before the weekend.

Kawal sent me a few pictures of the ultimate motorhome a few days ago and I thought I would post a couple of them for those of you considering RVing in your future. Bear in mind, these are extreme motorhomes, most Class A owners are far more frugal. Some people simply have too much money I guess. I'd be afraid to even drive something like that.....I meant the motorhome of course! I could handle the Mercedes.

Blog Stuff

I spent yesterday afternoon outside in the shade under our awning, sipping on a beer and categorizing all our blog posts. It took some time but you will now see a list of categories in the right margin. Each entry is categorized accordingly based on the subject of the entry. This way anyone looking for a specific topic can click on that particular category and all related entries will be displayed. Makes it a little easier than having to scroll through all the entries looking for a specific entry.

I have also added an RSS feed button and email suscription button. Those of you with a Reader can simply subcribe to my blog feed by clicking the button and you will receive any new blog entries in your Reader automatically. Likewise, for those with no Reader or those who prefer to subscribe via email. Simply add your email address and you will receive an email whenever the blog is updated. Hopefully, it will save regular readers a little time.

We took a little trip into Wauchula to the Walmart and also ACE Hardware. We picked up some groceries as well as a few bits for our new sunshade. We needed bungy cords and some tie down stakes as well before we could put up the sunshade. The sunshade is in two pieces. The first piece is two feet wide and feeds into the length of our awning roller. The second piece is seven feet wide and attaches to the first piece with S-hooks. The bottom is then staked to the ground with bungy cords. The awning roller is also staked to the ground with a rope, so that it will not move up and down in the wind. I sat out under it all yesterday afternoon. It was bright sunshine and 84F outside but shady and much cooler under the sunshade. All seem to be working well.

While I was under the sunshade, Chris went to her pine needle weaving class in the club house. She has been working on a basket and wanted to check with the instructor on how to move from the bottom part to the side wall of the basket. She spent a couple of hours in class and her basket is coming on nicely.

Chris played pickleball yesterday afternoon but I took the day off. Playing twice the day before in very hot sunshine was a little much. Hard to drink enough water here sometimes.

There were some tornados that went through parts of Arkansas and Tennessee last night causing significant damage but there was nothing her in Florida at all. Another hot, sunny day today with a nice breeze blowing. Think I will sit outside and start my new Jeffrey Archer paperback.

Heading Down the Road

We are off to Peace River tomorrow morning.

I washed the motorhome and Vue over the past two days and Chris was a cleaning fiend on the inside yesterday. We picked up a few groceries at Publix and a bit of cash from our bank, so we are all good to go. Shopping is a little better here than in Peace River.

We ordered a sunshade for our motorhome which we hope to pick up at J+J Sunshades in Lake Wales on the way to Peace River tomorrow. One end of the sunshade attaches into a slot in our main, overhead awning outside and the other is staked into the ground to give us a shaded and hopefully dry area under our awning where we can sit out and watch the world go by. We have seen many motorhomes with these sunshades and everyone loves them.

So today, we will start packing up most of the bits we have, so that everything is ready to go in the morning. Hoping to be on the road by 9 am at the latest.

Stay safe everyone.

Sunshine and Pickleball

We went for one of Chris's power walks this morning. About 5 km all told. It was still cloudy and quite cool when we left at 9:30 am. These walks are more like route marches than walks. Hard to figure out how Chris can walk faster than I can when her legs are shorter. Only way to slow her down was to hold hands. Hard to walk fast when you are dragging my weight. Runnin is far easier for me.

Once we got back we took Buddy for a nice walk as well. He had a bath yesterday, so is back to his all white and furry self. People are surprised to learn he is almost 14 years old now. Still going strong, especially when he knows there is food to be had.

We ducked out quickly for some groceries after lunch. On the way back in we stopped at one of the sites in TT Orlando where a guy was making drying racks out of PVC pipe. These racks are very light, but sturdy, and hang off the ladder on the rear of our motorhome. They are big enough to hold a load of laundry from our washer, about 6 ft off the ground. We have been using a rack we bought at Camping World, that sits on the ground. More often than not though, the wind comes along and blows it over. This new rack should do the trick and it also breaks apart for easy storage while traveling.

One thing of note in most camp grounds we have been in so far. Many campers proudly display the American flag from a free standing PVC flag pole/mast, stuck into the ground in front of their rigs. Sarah brought me down a Canadian flag while they visited and the guy who made the drying rack, also makes flag pole/masts. So that will be our next acquisition.

The sun shone brightly this afternoon while we played pickleball. It has been rainy and windy since last Thursday, so no one has been playing because the courts were wet. Today, that all changed and we had some great games.

Nice BBQ'd steak, with mushrooms, sweet potatoes and brocolli for supper. Dessert was apple pie and ice cream! Life sure is tough.

Christmas Shopping

We have spent 3 days back in Orlando this time. We head off to the Lazydays dealership in Tampa tomorrow afternoon. We have 3 days booked with them for servicing and some minor repairs. We are told all is ready and they are waiting for us. We will be able to stay in our RV while it is in the shop. This dealership is huge and sells more than 8000 RVs annually.

We did a bit of Christmas shopping while here. I bought Chris an iPod Touch which she wasn't supposed to get until Christmas. However, our small Sony Viao laptop is no longer reliable enough to run our computer GPS software, so we were in the market for a new portable GPS. We found a Garmin Nuvi 760 at Best Buy which does all that we need it to do and it is transferable from vehicle to vehicle as well, whereas a laptop is more cumbersome to haul around. Chris bought me the Nuvi, and of course I had to try it out right away, so no present under the tree for me. It was only fair then, that she got the iPod early as well. Now we are both happily playing with our new toys. Both are very cool! Seems we have a little more shopping to do after all.

Cheers

Tracfone

Went for a nice stroll around the park again this morning. Buddy was full of burrs afterwards but I managed to get them all out.

We drove into Clermont for lunch and then went to a Super Target store on Hwy 50 east. Picked up a small Christmas tree for the motorhome as well as a string of LED Christmas lights. We can use these for decoration but they are also quite functional as night time light source outside under our awning.



Our CiCi mobile phone calling card did not save us as much on our mobile phone bill as we thought it would. Either we were misinformed or we misunderstood how a mobile phone calling card works. We understood the cards reduced long distance rates and also roaming charges when using a Canadian mobile phone in the USA. Seems that only LD rates are reduced and roaming charges still apply.....at least with Telus. We have an enquiry in with CiCi though, so perhaps we'll receive some positive news.

Anyway, while at Target this afternoon, we invested in a Tracfone. No contracts or fees of any kind involved. The Motorola C139 cost $10 and 120 minutes of airtime was another $40.00. Setup on the internet was very easy and it took under two hours for our new phone to activate with a local Florida (Tampa) number. Text messaging and voice mail are included. Local and international calls all cost the same low rate. For $50.00 total investment, we'll give it a shot. The one other thing that may be an nice added bonus is that the tracfone has a removable SIM card. I expect that the SIM card will fit in my new HTC phone as well, so once I get the new battery for it, we'll really be cooking with gas.

Prompt RV Sunscreens

We headed off south on Hwy 27 and then west onto Hwy 17 into Winter Haven in order to pick up our new sun screens. We arrived at their shop just after lunch. Bill Rex greeted us and showed me my finished order. We purchased a full set of sun screens, windshield, driver's window, passenger door, passenger window and two wiper covers. The install looked fairly simple using suction cups to adhere to the motorhome. We returned home and the install took me about 2 minutes at the most. Of course, as soon as the install was done, it started to rain! Anyway we think they look pretty good.

Another day in Paradise

Temps have been holding in the 75 - 82F range since we arrived in Orlando but the forecast is for cooler weather by the middle of next week. We cycled around the park this morning and then to the outdoor pool area. Not too many kids here this time of year, so we pretty well have the pools to ourselves. We chose the heated one this morning and both enjoyed swims for an hour. It was almost too hot to swim in this pool. I figure the temperature was easily 83+F. I managed 3000m, taking my time and Chris did 1500m. A little soak in the real hot tub afterwards, but only for a few minutes.

This afternoon we are driving to Winter Haven, which is east of Tampa. I ordered some Prompt RV Sunscreens, http://www.rvsunscreen.com/, online the other day and we'll drive down to pick them up and save the shipping costs. Should help keep the motorhome cooler during the hot part of the day, as well as add some additional privacy. Looking forward to seeing how our Bounder looks with them on.


I took this picture yesterday. It is of the main check in area at Thousand Trails Orlando. I still can't mentally associate palm trees, green grass, warm temps, snowmen, etc with Christmas. However, Christmas shopping is in full swing in central Florida.

TTN Orlando Bound

We left Ottawa on Nov 13, 2007 in our 2007 Bounder Diesel 38N towing our Saturn Vue. Weather was cold but roads were still bare and dry for the most part. It would appear that we got out of Ontario just in time as some nasty winter storms were soon to roll through.

We headed out Hwy 417 and down to Hwy 401 to Hill Island where we turned south into NY state on I-81. Our plan was to average 250-300 miles a day and to make use of Walmarts, Flying J gas stations and Cracker Barrel restaurants for overnight stays.

We stopped in at a Verizon store in Watertown, NY to buy a PC5750 data card to use with our laptops for a connection to the internet. Took about an hour to get it sorted out. We managed to get National Access all the way down I-81 and I-75 into Georgia. Once in Florida we were Broadband access all the way. The cost is only $59.99 plus taxes per month which we thought was pretty good. Besides, we wouldn't have to rely on wifi anywhere, which in our experience can be iffy at best with very slow connection speeds. With our data card, we have 24 hour internet access from virtually anywhere. I also managed to set up my Verizon account so that my monthly bill comes to my email address and not in the regular mail. Far easier to keep on top of our bill that way.

We basically drove for 6-8 hours a day for 5 days, staying overnight in the above mentioned spots. We had absolutely no problem obtaining permission to stay at either Walmarts or Cracker Barrels. In fact, we have decided we like the Cracker Barrels better as the lots are much quieter. Walmarts tend to have delivery trucks coming and going at all hours of the day and night which makes it hard to sleep. Not complaining, just stating the obvious. We always buy groceries/supplies at Walmart when we stay there and we also have supper at Cracker Barrels if we stay there. Great food and the prices are very reasonable too.

Traffic was fairly light for the most part on the way south until we got into the Knoxville and Chattanooga areas. Atlanta was also very busy but traffic moved along at a good pace. We averaged 55-60 mph most of the way and about 7.5 - 8.5 mpg in our Bounder. Diesel fuel was much more expensive this trip than during our trip to Hershey, PA in July/August 2007. Most we paid was $3.45 per gallon at the Flying J in New Milford, PA. Prices seemed to settle around $3.25/gallon soon after that.

We didn't experience any warm weather until we got into Georgia. In fact, we saw a few flakes coming through VA and TN in the mountains. We need the propane furnace all nights until we hit GA.

We spent 3 nights at the Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park in Cordele, GA on US280 just off I-75. It is a fabulous park. Our site was right on the water overlooking Blackshear Lake. We walked for miles with Buddy, our 14 year old Bichon Frise. Signs warned of alligators in the lake but we never saw any at all. We watched squirrels scurrying about the pecan trees in search of nuts for the winter. Many blue heron and other water birds also in the area.

We left GA on Nov 20th and headed south into Florida, overnighting at a Cracker Barrel just off I-75 in Ocala. Again a very nice spot and reasonably quiet too. We had a beautiful day for our entry into Florida. We stopped at the welcome center on I-75 to pick up a few brochures and to also have our complimentary grapefruit juice. We were up bright and early on Nov 21st, as we were both eager to get into TTN Orlando.

We used an old Sony Viao laptop to run the Microsoft Streets and Maps GPS program. It worked well for the most part although the directions were hard to hear at times over the road and air conditioner noise in our motorhome. The computer is also only running an Intel P3 processor, so it was quite slow at times and even froze up completely on more than one occasion. Kind of a nuisance really, as it always seemed to freeze when we needed the last few turns into our destination.

We turned south on Hwy 27 after heading east off I-75 at exit 329. Passed through Clermont and saw Bee's RV Resort which is a campground we will visit from Dec 5-12, 2007 after our two weeks at Thousand Trails in Orlando. We arrived at TTN around 11 am which is located just north of Hwy 192 on the east side of Hwy 27. Our GPS got us close enough but the address I entered came up about 1/2 mile short of the actual turn into TTN. Good thing we kept our eyes open and we both saw another motorhome with toad ahead of us that turned into TTN as well.


We were amazed at the size of this resort. Over 730 sites in all. We settled on lot D110 in the treed area of the park. Other loops have paved pads but are in full sunshine all day due to lack of trees. D110 is a 50 amp site and we had lots of trees to shade us for part of the day, plus our satellite worked fine for most ExpressVu channels. We are also close to the lake, where we are told, it is possible to see the nightly fireworks displays from Disney World. Haven't seen them yet though because we can't seem to stay awake long enough for them!


We have been out exploring the area and found several grocery stores as well as a Walmart, Camping World, hair dresser, etc. We are both back into our fitness routines as well. We run, swim/bike on alternate days. There is a nice 5 km route leading out of TTN and across Hwy 27 into a residential area. TTN has 2 25 yard pools which are not used very much. We swam in the heated one the other day and tried the unheated one this morning. It was still 75F, a bit brisk to start, but fine after 4 lengths or so. This past weekend was Thanksgiving in the USA so we could smell turkey cooking all over the park. Today is Sunday, and many rigs are leaving for home or other camp grounds. Lots of spaces available here.


Buddy seems to be settling in nicely. He is getting walked every day, sometime 2-3 times a day. He is a little dirty but happy nonetheless.

Daytime temps so far are in the 75 - 80 degree F range with lots of sunshine. Night time dropped into the 50's the other night. Only had the propane furnace on once in Orlando and given the daytime temps this week, I don't think it will be on again any time soon.

Chris and I took Buddy for a stroll around the park after lunch. We wandered up to the main store for an ice cream cone and stumbled onto this gopher turtle sitting in the grass nearby. We've seen a few of them around here. They burrow into the ground like a gopher, so that explains the name. Lots of wild turkeys around here too but too far away for a good picture unfortunately.

Well, Grey Cup is on today, so time to relax in the sun and enjoy the game.

More later