The Beach

Today I finally checked out Santa Rosa Beach, about ¾ mile from the campsite. Even though I had my left hip replaced last March (and also stopped smoking), I still have some arthritis and soreness in my knees sometimes, so I decided to take the tram.  So I spent an hour checking out the beach and trust me, I’ll be spending some time there this week.  I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

First view of the Gulf

Endless

The Gulf 

As far as the eye can see

Lots of bikes

Beauty...More to come, promise..

We're On The Move!

It’s hard to know even where to begin.  As you know from previous entries, we’ve been living in the coach since mid October.  There were all kinds of repairs, delays, appointments with Cummins and Freightliner, all in order to get the coach ready for us to drive away. We got our Exit Pass on Monday November 9 so we could drive the coach off the lot, finally.

       The next morning a tech came to show us how to hitch up the car

and we were on our way!  Our delivery specialist Marroe made it all happen by annotating and scheduling all the repairs, appointments with Cummins and Freightliner, coordinating all aspects of the coach to get it ready for us to take it off the lot.

We finally took off around 10:30 am on November 10, 2015 while the tech watched us go.

 I nearly cried as we drove off the lot and out into the world to meet our future. We waited more than a year for this moment to arrive.  So much preparation, so much work, selling, storing, giving away, all with this goal in mind.  

                            

On our way out of the park, we just handed our ExitPass to the gate.

                                 And we are out and on our way.  We're finally freebirds!

So long Lazydays.  You treated us well.

We can even watch our car.  If we don't see it, we're in BIG trouble!

                                                 Our first rest stop to water the dogs.

We decided to take 2 days to the campground at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park so we stopped at Loves Truck Stop in Lee FL. 

Since there are no hookups, we used our generator to keep the lights and air conditioners on.  Not a big deal, but taking the dogs out at night was a challenge, dodging 18 wheelers, going in between them hoping not to be crushed, and watching out for snakes and alligators in the field.  Can’t be too careful! Boondocking our first night out, priceless. Parking without putting out the slides, double priceless.  End of Day 1!

We finally arrived at Topsail Hill State Park around 2pm. We didn’t realize we crossed a time zone, so we arrived an hour early.  

Getting closer and closer...











The campground didn’t seem to mind we were an hour early, so check-in was a breeze.  We managed to unhook our car without looking like fools and proceeded to our campsite after I, driving the car, got us lost for a bit.  But we made it and while I was parking the car, Shelly didn’t even bother to wait for me and proceeded to back the rig into the site.  Piece of cake.

And once again, we didn’t look like idiots.  We auto leveled the coach, put out the slides, hooked up the electric and water.  When it’s time to dump the gray and black tanks, we’ll get out the new sewer hose and figure out how that works!  We were too tired too tired to cook by then so we ordered the worst pizza ever.  End of Day 2 accomplished.

Yesterday (Thursday) we pretty much got settled, opened the awnings, got out the chairs, went shopping for food and other necessities and hung around outside in the evening.  I bought a lantern and tablecloth for the picnic table, so it looks quite homey already! 

Santa Rosa Beach is about 7/10^th of a mile from here and I started to walk down, but it was almost 4pm so I stopped at a bench to send a text and lo and behold, a ranger went by and picked me up.  I met another couple who aren’t sure where they’ll go next.  They are full timers and we’re just starting out but I think we’re going to like this lifestyle...Til next time...

tomorrow

Well, tomorrow the saga at Lazydays ends and our future begins. We stayed in the bays last 2 nights while the tile in front of the fridge set.  It rained most of the afternoon, so we shopped for a few things for dinner this afternoon. I bought honey and lemon juice to make Bees Knees , thanks to Tom (and Nina) for the recipe: 2 oz gin, 3/4  oz honey, 1/2 oz honey.  Mix FIRST, then shake with ice and strain into a martini glass. Don't be like me and fill the cup with ice first. The honey solidified, so don't do it...

Lucky deal -the tile that was replaced didn't get scratched when the slide was closed.  Glory day!  Winnebago is known for this problem so they started replacing the tile with carpet.  So we're good.

So we have our Exit Pass.  This is really it, the end.

We'll be back in a few weeks to have a window replaced so we'll be staying at Topsail Preserve RV Park near Tallahassee for 10 days at Santa Rosa beach. 

wish us luck tomorrow!

What We've Been Doing

Well we soon may be on our way, but I'll recap what we've been up to this past week to while away the time.  The coach was at Freightliner for a few days to work on the cruise control, so Lazydays put us up at the Comfort Inn and Suites for 2 days.  It was nice to live in luxury for a couple days, but we were glad to get back "home".

Ken came to visit this past Friday and stayed over until Saturday. We've been over to Daytona Beach 3 times so we plan to head north when we leave.  We had dinner at Exit 10 in the campground next door...

It's decorated like an RV and their food is pretty good!

We took the pups to a local dog park that is huge!  They've never been to a dog park so I thought the dogs would just run their hearts out but no.  They mosied along with their noses to the ground until they were as far away as they could get.  There was 1 other dog there and it turns out his owner is from upstate NY and moved down here last February. 

Another day I decided to use our crockpot to cook a chicken and vegetables. It made the coach smell wonderful, like home.  Isn't that the point? 

The dogs are lovey dovey and seem to enjoy being in the coach.  They are always excited to go out for a walk in new places!

We are in the bay for a couple days while the tile by the fridge sets.  There doesn't seem to be anyone else here and it's quite silent because it's Sunday.  We had gin and tonics with a twist of lime while we watched the rain outside (a rarity around here).

The view from our coach.  Just a bunch of bays with coaches, 5th wheels and trailers being worked on.  No one is here on Sunday, so it's very quiet. 

We've been told we can leave tomorrow.  We made a reservation for 7 days at Topsail Hill Preserve on Tuesday. We'll stay at a truck stop for the night and go the rest of the way on Tuesday.  We'll see how it works out and let you know!   

We hope to be on our way so we can document our journey!

  

We're Still Here

We are still waiting to take off on our adventures, but it seems that one thing or another is delaying our exit. Lazydays is doing everything they can, but geting appointments for off-site work at Cummins and Freightliner is causing some delays.  The work is minor, so everything should be in perfect working order once we are off.  We will head on out of Florida and head west until spring.  Luckily we have no schedule and our stay is free.  They gave us a rental one day and also put us up at Country Inns one night.  Right now we're waiting for an appt with Freightliner so they can fix the cruise control.  Since we have no where to go while it's being repaired, I hope we can stay at Country Inn again - it was really nice!

In the meantime we had time to take the dogs to a pet-friendly beach in Ponce Inlet.  Wilbur and Louise had never seen the ocean.  Ken took them in the water, but they seemed more interested in the surrounding vegetation.

When we first arrived in Tampa, we took some time to take a drive and see the Gulf.  The beach and park were deserted so it was all ours to explore.  I wasn't used to the heat and the wind, but it felt good.  I HATE being cold, so I can get used to this. 

My brother Ken also took us to Ponce Inlet for dinner at Inlet Harbor. What a gorgeous breezy evening on the water.  This is not a vacation, we don't have an agenda, and we don't have to go home because we don't have one!  We're home wherever we park - and that is how we planned it all this time - how great is that??

The other day, we went to the tax collector's office in Tampa to get our car registered and driver's licenses. What a zoo but at least that's done, because we have no idea when we'll be able to take care of it otherwise.








Yesterday we put the pets in daycare and drove over to Daytona Beach to pick up the rest of our boxes that we had shipped down here in September.

We spent most of today unpacking and putting everything away and believe it or not, we still have lots of storage.  I guess we did a pretty good job of getting rid of everything we don't need.  Our life is in these 25 boxes. We shipped our clothes, Christmas decorations, kitchen items (I even bought the pasta maker), towels, coffee maker, radio, office supplies, files, who knows what else.

I did have to buy sheets because we didn't know what size bed we'd get (it's an RV King, narrower than a regular King and had to be ordered), but see how much storage is underneath?  The bed was loaded with decor pillows and bedspread, plus the pillows I bought, so they all went under the bed.






We also bought lots of RV supplies like hoses and such, lounge and recliner chairs (I had to have both, cause you never know).  And today we roasted a chicken in the slow cooker.  No tricks, just place seasoned chicken over vegetables and cook on high a couple hours - perfect every time.

I think we are finally done spending.  Now we're just waiting for an appointment with Freightliner so they can fix the cruise control.  It might be a few weeks before it gets in, but we're in no hurry and they're letting us stay for free, so we'll make the best of it until we're on the road. And our dogs approve.