Saturday, January 28, 2017

On the go go go!

On the go go go!

2016 went out with a bang -- or more accurately, the annual fireworks that we see from the campground at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound, Florida. We enjoy being in this park when the year changes as we not only have family nearby, but also several RV friends that swing through at the same time, giving us a chance to catch up on the past year's travel "happenings".  In this lifestyle, that is always a mix of "where have you traveled" and "what had to be fixed"!

Speaking of having to be fixed, the "bang" this year also included the sad demise of our RV refridgerator cooling unit. Lucky for us it didn't really "bang", but just quietly quit keeping things cold. We had to wait over the holidays for the new cooling unit to be shipped, but did okay living with a little dorm fridge we picked up at Target (and then promptly sold from our RV site for only $10 less).

As we can only stay in the Florida state parks for 2 weeks at a time, we crossed to the Florida west coast to stay at Myakka River State Park.  This is our second year here and, though it is a bit tight for our motorhome, it is a lovely place. Unlike Jonathan Dickinson, it has a lot of natural high growth and trees. The good part about this trip was seeing dear friends who live nearby.  We also had good enough weather to install our new window awning fabric ourselves. This park will definitely stay on the annual FL "swing". It is a good thing that Lazydays was only an hour away because we had to make day trips up there twice -- once to get the new cooling unit installed and AGAIN to have the toilet repaired. Jeffrey was not amused at all by the toilet as we had just replaced it but the new one had some sort of defect.

Max hiding in Myakka River State Park
Now for the BIG news! We were employed for a week! We were asked by the Escapees RV Club to help man their booth at the huge Tampa RV Supershow. They not only provided an RV spot for Max at the fairgrounds where the show was being held, but also gave us a daily stipend -- which we immediately spent on new LED lights we bought for Max along with other must-have items we couldn't pass up. We also had a chance to make new full-timer "Escapee" friends and, no surprise, learned some great tips from them! Jeffrey was happy to have LOTS of time to peruse the latest RV models, but thankfully didn't see anything he liked better than Max.

Us with fellow Escapees on the first day of the Tampa RV Show
As I write this post, we are back in Jonathan Dickinson State Park for just a week and then travel to Lakeland, Forida, for our first FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) rally. No doubt we'll have some interesting stories to tell from that!

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2 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about your problems with Max. Don't like to hear about Winnebagos having problems since they are made in our home state. Keep Max away from those alligators. We went to Alligator Alley not far from here (Alabama) and never realized how big they could get. We will move the end of February to Gulfport, MS to spend a month with friends. Since our one month stint at Escapees CARE got canceled, we will just go back to Iowa early and start our subsistence gardening. We should be home for most of the warm months, except for a week with a cousin and wife in Cabo San Lucas.

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    1. Hi Paul! I really can't blame Winnebago for us wearing out appliances. I'm just happy we have an extended warranty that is covering fixing them! Sorry to hear your CARE stint didn't work out. Surprised they cancelled on you as I thought they always needed help. Where in Iowa is home for you?

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