Monday, January 21, 2013

Florida or Bust!!

These 2 days have been exciting!  We left home at 4:30 AM Sunday and hoped to get close to SC before stopping for the night!  It appeared that it would be below freezing that night if we didn't get that far south.  So, Ken put the pedal to the metal and off we went!  We only made a few stops for gas and food at the gas service centers and arrived in SC only 53 miles from the border of GA.  We decided to make it easy on ourselves and spend the night at a Best Western getting there around 5:30 after driving 640 miles.  We were tired and ready to have an early dinner and then watch the Ravens.  We had a nice place to park Willie and Ken leveled it while I took things into the room.  Ken discovered that our propane was not working, so our refrigerator was not going to stay cold.  After some discussion, we decided we needed to go to a campground where we could hook up to electric.  The hotel personnel were great and did not charge us, so off we went to a CG that was only a mile up the road.  It had level pull thru sites for $30.00 with full hook-ups.  We had stayed at this CG 2 years ago, so we knew it was a good one.  Not fun to set-up in the dark, but at least we had a cold refrig.  But, we knew we had to try to solve our propane problem tomorrow. 

After a good night's sleep, we headed up 95 about 30 miles to a large RV Sales and Service Center.  What a wonderful, accomodative place!  They even had a restaurant there where we got an amazing, cheap breakfast while waiting for them to check out Willie!  Met a wonderful older couple from Delaware who were "camping there" since Sat. night waiting for the service center to open today.  We had a geat time talking to them.  We were back on the road by 11 with a great "diagnosis".  There was air in the propane line which they "bleeded" and then explained how our 4 gas tanks have to be connected to work properly.  He said he doesn't even understand the logic behind how it has to be, but if not exactly right, you can have a problem.  Now everything works great.  But, somewhere between the CG and the service center, we lost the outside refrigerator panel, and they didn't have any in stock.  We stopped at Camping World to get one, but they didn't have the right size.  So we are one of the camping folks driving down the road with an opening on the side of their 5th wheel.  Hope to find a replacement tomorrow.

We had planned to drive to Wauchula FL today to camp at an Escapees Park.  But, after calling to get a reservation, they would be closed by the time we arrived and we would have to stay in their parking lot for the night with no hook-ups.  Not what we were looking to do.  Plus, it was now 4:15 and we had driven 300 miles.  We were ready to call it a day!  So, we made a reservation at Sunshine Holiday RV Resort at Daytona Beach, an Encore Park, using our Ready, Go Camp Membership.  We were within 8 miles of the park when we made the reservation.  Felt so good to be done driving at a reasonable time.  Got all set-up and then went to a local pulled pork place for a delicious supper.  Back to Willie by 6:15 to relax and get revived.

We are in Florida and it was 70 today.  What more could a girl ask for!!!  It was an interesting day, but it didn't tarnish our spirit.  RVing isn't for sissies!  You have to be strong and positive!!!!

Looking forward to checking out the beach tomorrow!  Will head out on Thursday for Naples, about 300 miles to met up with our Canadian friends, Barry and Deb.  We are excited to see them again!

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