Navigating North

Now that it's getting closer to 'going home time', we thought we would start heading North, maybe do some drive-by's of past memories and then just keep going. We drove up through Tampa & Orlando.

[caption id="attachment_1837" align="aligncenter" width="300"] What up O-town?[/caption]

Always good to see O-town! We decided to stop for lunch at a place I used to work at, for shits & giggles of course. We ate our signature salads and kept on down the road.

[caption id="attachment_1848" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Happy to be sitting & not working[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1838" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Stretching from all of her hard work of sleeping[/caption]

While we were still around Sarasota we called a few campgrounds up North. When we lived in this area we used to camp for nothing in the regular season so we thought we'd give a few places a call. After calling some places, we were left scratching our heads because we happened to be in town the same week as all of the big car races as well as the Daytona 500! 

Go figure. 

[caption id="attachment_1846" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Captivated[/caption]

So prices were a lot higher than we were expecting. Just one more lesson of things to watch for: Big Events = more money, everywhere!! We did finally get a good price over the phone and that's what made the final push to drive up North. After a little bit of haggling, (bc the lady didn't want to give us the rate that we were told over the phone), we ended up paying for a week for a spot there. We took a walk around and set-up the van in our spot. We had spot #2 @ Clark's!

[caption id="attachment_1844" align="aligncenter" width="300"] # 2[/caption]

They had a pool, that wasn't working, but I was told (by the lady that worked there) that I wouldn't want to get in it anyway, it would be too cold. I thought that was somewhat rude, how does she know what I like? They also have goats there for your ears' pleasure and squirrels that have never seen/eaten peanut butter before...pure-natured squirrels! I'll keep ya posted on how it goes the rest of the week.

[caption id="attachment_1839" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Give me food[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1840" align="aligncenter" width="300"] I don't think that squirrel knows what it's getting into![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1843" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Ello[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1845" align="aligncenter" width="300"] “The Sleep-away Camp” Bathroom….scarrrry[/caption]

PEACE

66- Checking out Clark's Campground by Ayevangabond

Staying Alive in Sarasota

[caption id="attachment_2095" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Breakfast of Champions… Homemade Oatmeal!
@ Sun’n'Fun[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2097" align="aligncenter" width="300"] My lil’ begger, but she’s a good girl![/caption]

After we had a nice relaxing morning of breakfast, coffee, showers and laundry…~> DETOUR: oh, and we met a super cool couple across the way. They were in their mid 60′s maybe 70′s, I can’t remember now. Jim started to talking to J’ as he was coming back from a tennis match & we were packing up. After about 15 minutes of talking, Jim invited us to come and talk in the “cabin” of their RV. They had a pretty C’ class, with a nifty layout. His wife Denita came in right behind us. We probably talked over an hour about different campgrounds, RV’s and places around the U.S. to travel. It was really nice of them to invite us into their ‘home’. We’ll never forget Jim saying that he sings with a quartet and that they sing Baptist Hymns…but they supe ‘em up a bit!
After saying our good-byes we headed out and turned right onto the highway. While accelerating, we both heard a big sound, like a scream almost and J’ pulled off to the side and said, “That sounded like our belt!” Good thing my hubby is quite the man and unfortunately it was our belt. We tried to back down the exit ramp (for about 10 minutes at turtle speed because the Advance Auto Parts was exactly where we got on the ramp), and there was no way in hell that was going to work with the cars hopping on the Interstate at 65 mph. So, we bit down and prayed real hard that we could make it the mile and a half that we had to go (we had to go to the next exit, get off, get back on the highway and end up where we started). With J’ driving only about 35-40 mph we made it to the car place. And once again I am a lucky girl to have a handy hubby that knows how to change it. He did it himself and it was a bitch. He said I couldn’t really him so, I kept him hydrated!

[caption id="attachment_2098" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Our belt! I’m glad we were where we were and J’ knows what he’s doing.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2099" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Joon Van looks all tore up due to J’ having to get his tools out of the back. (It normally doesn’t look like this!)[/caption]

The belt took about two hours to change out and then we were back on the road. We ventured over to Turtle Beach today. It was very different from Siesta Key, very low key, not a lot of people and not a lot of sand space. We walked the beach, there were tons of shells there. I found a huge Abalone, it was beautiful. I wanted to keep it but knew that it would probably only get broken in the van so I put it back in the sand, maybe an animal can make a home from it. We walked until right up to Sunset, another beautiful one at that.

[caption id="attachment_2100" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Turtle Beach[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2101" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Self-po[/caption]

When you travel as a couple sometimes you have to find a good place to put your camera to take a self-po! With better lighting by the sun, this wouldn't have been that bad of a pic! Oh well, next time.
PEACE

46- Waking up in Sun'n'Fun by Ayevangabond

Keep on Truckin': Back to Sarasota

[caption id="attachment_2122" align="aligncenter" width="207"] “Unconditional Surrender”
Kiss Statue in Sarasota[/caption]

Since we didn't get to spend a lot of time in Sarasota the first time around, we thought it would be a good idea to circle back and try it again. It's a really clean town and there are quite a few beaches (& dog parks).  We were driving to Siesta Key and ended up taking a small detour to The Phillippi Farmhouse Market. It was a Wednesday and we were surprised to learn they do a mid-week market, so you don't have to wait until the weekend! Now that's fresh food!! It was smaller, this day, we were told because of the inclement weather...but we still walked around and saw the venues that were there. There some pretty cool ones too!

[caption id="attachment_2124" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The Bonsai guy. He says, “If you buy a tree and it dies,
come back and I’ll give you another one.”[/caption]

For a few days, we had been throwing the idea around of going to a campground to stay overnight. J' had seen videos and read some blogs on a certain campground/RV Park in Sarasota and we figured since we were right here that we would see what a night would cost and if it was feasible, we would jump in.... so we jumped! We drove over to the Sun'n'Fun RV Resort and booked ourselves in for the night. It's beautiful here. They have 2 Olympic size pools (which, I'm a sucker for an amazing lap pool!) a top of the line workout center (I think it was just opened the week before we got here). They have all kinds of sports, full on laundry facilities, bathroom facilities, they even have a dog wash! It's pretty sweet. I wish we could just live here! haha

[caption id="attachment_2125" align="aligncenter" width="300"] I could live here! I mean look at that pool!
Laps here I come!![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2126" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Joon Van in all of her glory at our campsite[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2127" align="aligncenter" width="300"] We took a walk…saw this sign on the path
Only in Florida!![/caption]

 PEACE

 

41- Sun'n'Fun Pools by Ayevangabond