Florida

I have been remiss in my writing, my only excuse is we have been kept busy seeing the sights with Mark and Sharon, Mark is a life time friend who lived next door to me when we were younger.

I will now catch up on all that has happened.

We had an uneventful trip from Louisiana. We left on Dec 28 our first stop was Azalea Acres RV Park in Robertsdale, AL. The park was relatively easy to find my GPS lead us right to it. The owners took a big field and turned it into an RV park. They have a few cement slabs everything else is grass. There is a comfortable amount of space between camp sites so you don’t feel claustrophobic. The owners and camp host were very friendly and accomodating. We only stayed one night but if we needed a spot and were in the area I would most likely stay there again. This is a Passport America park so $14 for the night was nice.

Wednesday found us on the road to Lake City, FL and Oaks ‘N Pines RV Park. Now this park was the opposite of Azalea Acres. Where the night before we were a mile or two from the interstate, Oaks ‘N Pines was right next to the interstate. The sites were quite tight, had I put the awning down it would have been close to touching the camper next to us. This is basically a no frills park set up mostly for short term stays and at $38 per night it is not a cheap park. The owners were very friendly but the interestate noise is quite heavy.

We arrived at Sarasota Lakes RV Resort, Sarasota, FL Thursday about 2 pm. This is one time I did not listen to the GPS our friends had given us directions to the entrance of the park which was different from what the GPS wanted me to do. Anyway, we made it just fine and got checked in. My friend Mark, we lived next door to each other as we were growing up, he and his wife Sharon met us at the office.

 

Mark led me back to the campsite. The road is narrow, all one way streets, one vehicle wide.

As you can see not a lot of room to manuver.

Our camper is across from the yellow truck. Lucky for me the yellow truck was not home when I was trying to back into the site. The fifth wheel is just shy of 38’ and the F550 is quite long so all of that made for an interesting time. I have concluded that with backing into this site and my brother in laws driveway I should be able to back in to most campsites, we’ll see.We have a view of a lake out our back window, which is nice, it beats looking into another camper.

This park is well maintained and has quite a few things going on for activities etc, but I am not one who wants to go to the same place every year, that is why there are wheels under me.

Mark and Sharon have kept us busy since we arrived, we have had lunch down on the Bay, drove over to Longbow Key, had breakfast at the Blue Dolphin off of Armand Circle among other things. Friday night we went to the beach to watch the last sunset of 2010;

I was very nice, I had hoped the clouds would get red after the sun set but no such luck.

Thursday after we got the camper situated the way I wanted it, I unhooked the truck and parked it but after I shut it off I discovered the tail end was in the road by a few inches, so I went to move it and it wouldn’t start. I tried several times that afternoon with no luck. Needless to say I was not a happy camper, I decided to wait until the next day to see if it would start. Friday morning the truck started, so Mark and I took it to get fuel, it wouldn’t start when we wanted to leave. Long story short I called Coach Net, they had a towing company take it to Sarasota Ford and that is where it is at today, I am waiting for a call telling me it is done. Hopefully we will get it back today. The problem had something to do with some type of oil pressure needed to make the injectors work otherwise the engine will crank as if it wants to start but isn’t getting any fuel.

All in all I like our site, we do have an alligator in the lake behind us, I saw it yesterday sunning itself, I will try to get a picture of it.

That about takes care of our trials and tribulations so far, we are having a good time and enjoying ourselves.

Dreams Do Come True.