Lazydays...Bay 12.....Day 2

Spent a second night in bay 12 because the after market tray they looked at putting in my second pull thru storage bay would not fit. Apparently, even though the actual tray itself is the same size as the OEM tray in the first storage bay, the two rails holding it to the floor are each 2 inches wider (4 inches total), ergo....it no fitty! My solution, which Lazydays has agreed to do, remove an OEM slide from another Tiffin model on the lot and install on my coach. I explained that Chris arrives tomorrow afternoon and I want our new coach set up at Rally Park before that. No problem was the answer. Guess we will shall see today. The bay is still pretty comfortable, though not much of a view.

Fort Desoto

Chris and I spent last night camped in the parking lot at Lazydays again. We waited for overnight delivery of a circuit board for our energy management system. Unfortunately, we learned after lunch today that the part did not arrive, so Lazydays has kindly put us up at the Rallypark across the street at no cost. Hopefully the part arrives Wednesday. In any event, we will stay here until Thursday, when Chris flies back to Ottawa from Tampa. Makes no sense to drive to Thousand Trails in Orlando tomorrow afternoon, only to have to run her back to the airport in Tampa on Thursday.

We were up before sunrise this morning and drove out to Fort Desoto in St Petersburg. We spent a few days here last year on our tandem bicycle and really enjoyed the beaches. Today, we both had our cameras going. I caught this snowy egret on the fishing pier mooching a few scraps of fish from the guys fishing on the pier. We enjoyed a morning of warm sunshine after a stormy day yesterday. The top shot was taken looking north from the fishing pier as well.

Fanshawe Friends

We packed up from Thousand Trails and headed back to Lazydays in Tampa. Our levellers still weren't working properly but we managed to disble the alarm buzzer before we left so at least the drive was quieter than it would have been otherwise. Our control panel is mistakenly reading our jacks to be in the down position when in fact they are fully retracted. As soon as I put our Bounder in gear, an alarm goes off. More of a nuisance than anything else. We parked in Lazydays' lot around 2 pm this afternoon and are to be first in the shop tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed.


We unhooked the Saturn and took a short drive over to Happy Traveller RV Park to see the gang we met up in London, Ontario last summer. They haven't changed much and are a really fun group. We gratefully accepted a completely unexpected invitation to stay for supper. We enjoyed a great afternoon chatting about all kinds of things. Buddy was getting a little hungry and we hadn't brought any of his food with us. He sat in my lap most of the afternoon and I decided to see if he would like one of those mini Ritz cheese cracker sandwiches. As you can see in the picture, it sat on his lip for more than a few minutes. Once I put him on the ground, he ate in right away. Nice picture, I thought.

After helping clean up dishes, we headed back to Lazydays for another night camped in their parking lot. We had lots of room this time and parked with all our slides out. May as well be comfortable, right?

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!

Busch Gardens

The four of us took in Busch Gardens on Friday. A very interesting park with some awesome rollercoaster rides including Sheikra. The picture here shows the cars hanging over a drop off at the top of the ride. We were in the front car when we did it and you are 160 feet up in the air. They stop the car right at the edge and let you hang for about 5 seconds, contemplating your fate, before they let you go. Your feet are hanging free as well because there is no floor. Just a shoulder harness to hold you in place. The ride only lasts about 40 seconds but we were hitting speeds of 65 mph with all the drops and turns. Lots of screaming on this ride!

We spent the entire day at BG and I think we hit most of the rides including an old wooden rollercoaster. Chris and I found that one the hardest on our bodies. Lots of bumps and jarring of the neck. We were glad that ride was over. We spent some time on a 3/4 scale steam train touring the park and seeing all the wild animals as well. Lots of elephants, rhinoceros, flamingos, giraffe, water buffalo, gorillas, etc.

This is a photo of our ride. I decided to take a picture of a picture instead of paying $20. Note the relaxed expression on my face. Not sure how that happened! The kids did Sheikra again later in the day, but once was enough for us.

We bought tickets that are good for a year at no extra charge, so Chris and I will likely return to BG again at the end of March when we return to Tampa to have some work done on the motorhome.

There is also a skyride which offers an aerial view on the park. Gondolas on a cable take you over just about everything. We saw these rhinos from the air. The was a rhino rally offered as well, which is a off road vehicle ride through the animal habitats but unfortunately the lines were too long for us to do it. Perhaps next time.

We brought Buddy with us and boarded him right at the kennel at BG. It cost $6 which we thought was quite reasonable.

Yesterday, the kids went back to Disney, downtown area and spent the day. There were tornado warnings last night beginning around supper time which made for an interesting time. No funnel clouds materialized anywhere but temps have dropped from high 70s yesterday afternoon, to only 60F today. But at least the sun is out.

Looks like we are headed for Universal Studios today.

Tampa RV Show

We were up and out early this morning, dropping Matt and Sarah at Disney World before Chris and I headed west to Tampa for the 2008 Tampa RV Show. We saw hundreds of RVs including a $2 million Featherlite Luxury Coach which was pretty amazing. It even had an enclosed double decker car trailer to tow behind if you want to pay a little extra. I've put the link up if you want to see how the rich boys live. Personally, I can't imagine ever driving something like that. There simply aren't that many places to park it, or at least we haven't found many places that will take a 45 ft long motorhome very easily. Apparently, many owners of these coaches also have a hired driver. Very posh and ornate inside with lots of mirrors and two 48" plasma televisions. The salesman told me the company only builds 36 of these a year. Maybe in another lifetime.

We had a good time at the expo and picked up a few much needed accessories including two MaxAir covers for the roof of our Bounder and a new mat for under the main awning. The covers fit over our external roof fans and permit us to travel with these vents open if needed, instead of closed as we do now, thereby giving better air circulation. We had a woven straw mat from Camping World but don't like it as much as the new lighter and stronger one we bought from J+J Sunshades of Lakeland, FL.

We got back to the RV around 4 pm. Buddy had behaved very well and was very eager for his lunch/dinner after he took care of some other business.

Kids are still at Disney until after the fireworks tonight.

Winter in Orlando/Tampa

During our evening walk through the preserve, we came upon this rig, all decked out for the holiday season. Unfortunately, this photo does not do the scene justice, as it was much more colorful to the naked eye.

We battened down the hatches last night as a huge storm blew in from the Gulf of Mexico. Heavy rains and hail in some areas. There was even reports of a tornado touching down in Land of Lakes. Thankfully, we survived unscathed here. Might have to have long pants out tomorrow morning though as over night lows are forcasted in the upper 30s!

The drive down to Lazydays in Tampa was uneventful. Took about an hour is all. Tough handling the Bounder on I-4 with the crosswinds but we managed alright. Pulled into the Flying J at exit 10 and fueled up. Also topped up our propane as well. We ran into a couple from Marmora, Ontario at the propane pumps. They were also wintering in this area and know Gary Poirier, who we met in London, Ontario this summer while Chris was doing her reflexology course. We will see Gary 'et al' at the Happy Traveller RV park in Tampa in early January.

Things have cooled off noticeably here today as we got closer to the Gulf of Mexico and the winds picked up. I am sure we can put up with a few days of cold before it warms up again.

We are set up in the parking lot at Lazydays for the night. We'll likely be camping in a service bay for the next few days if all goes well. Gotta love it!!