February 25, 2007 -We are in Florida

February 25, 2007

It has been a very busy week.  After finishing new floors in the dining and living rooms we helped move much of Jeff & family's stuff into the house. (They finished the job on Saturday)  On Thursday night we backed the trailer out of the driveway at about 5 and parked it in front of the house.  Our plan was to leave at about 2 or 3 AM.   But, because of the high winds we decided to leave later and were able to get a full night's sleep.   We left at 7:19 on Friday morning and had a comfortable drive on the turnpike to 81 and then south to 77.  We stopped at a number of roadside rests on the way and rested and talked with other travelers, usually also in RVs.  We stopped at a roadside rest on 26 just south of Columbia, SC at about 1 A.M. and spent the rest of the night.  The next morning we got on 95 then 4 and then 75.  Alesa's brother Craig and his wife Janet were in Tampa so we waited at a roadside rest until they joined us at about 7:30.  We arrived at his house in Naples at about 9.  We were able to back the trailer in next to his house on the first try.  At one point the wheels began to spin in the sand but four wheel drive solved that problem.  Janet lifted the low hanging cable TV wire to clear the AC and we were in. The trailer is very comfortable to sleep in but, I imagine, so would a bed of nails after the trip.  The weather was beautiful the entire trip (maybe a little windy), the traffic was generally light with no major problems and both the truck and trailer handled well.  The only issue we had was getting fuel.  There are two types of diesel, low sulfur and ultra-low sulfur.   2007 vehicles must use the ultra-low stuff and many stations didn't have it yet so we found ourselves driving around looking for it.  I'm sure we would have been OK with the low stuff but wanted to do the right thing for the environment.  So, we had to see if a station had diesel, then determine what pump it was at, then see if it was the right type, then decide if our truck and trailer would fit in and out of that pump.  We got into some sticky situations until we decided to park at the entrance and walk around before committing.  All in all I thought it was fun although I seriously doubt whether Alesa would agree.  We spent today shopping for the necessities, setting up and testing all the systems and generally making the RV comfortable for our stay.  The weather is great, low 80's and sunny during the day and high 60's at night. Wish you were here.