Sprint from HI to FLA

When we left Hatteras Island on Thursday we knew we had to be in Ocala by Monday for our annual service. That meant four days of driving and one night stops along the way. It did not start real well as the place we picked to stay the first night was very shaky, so we ended up at another (more expensive) place. The next day we called another place early only to learn it was booked. Since the weather had cooled a bit we did a night at a Wally World. The third night we stayed at the Elks in Jacksonville, a place we have been before and located only 100 miles from Ocala where Cummins has "free" sites with water and electric. We don't like making these kinds of quick trips, but it all went well and we were lucky enough to visit  friends along the way.  

We had to re-cross all those bridges we crossed getting to Hatteras and we knew we had to cross a few more to get to I-95. This was a different one on the Alligator River, a swing bridge that rotated to allow this boat that was on the Intercoastal Waterway to pass.

Day two we were in South Carolina.

A unique spot at Wally World right on a retention pond that filled with migrating geese at sunset.  The problem was, between the squawking geese on one side and the trucks going in and out on the other, it made for a very noisy night. 

Day three was a quick pass through Georgia on I-95. At that point we only had Florida on our minds.

Wow our welcome to Florida was not one the tourist bureau would be showing in the ads. The rain  was very heavy but ended up being only a passing shower that we were out of before we arrived at the Elks. 

We knew in advance that George and Nan, who we met at Betty's and have crossed paths with several time, where staying at the Elks. George found a very neat place for dinner, Julington Creek Fish Camp, right on the water. We had a great evening getting caught up with each others travels.......  

......and our view of the harbor was beautiful. It is always great when we cross paths with friends on the road. 

We moved on to Cummins in Ocala for annual service. We had the oil changed (it still amazes me that Opus needs 27 quarts), chassis lubed and filters changed, on both the rig and generator. It was also time to change the transmission fluid, every 50,000 miles, and even with all that we were on the road by 1:00. 

It was less than 50 miles from Ocala to the Escapees park, Sumter Oaks, in Bushnell. We were happy to see the park came through Irma without too much damage, mainly tree branches coming down. One reason we love this park is the resident Sandhill Cranes. 

The same pair has been here for quite awhile. You not only see them all over the park but can hear their squeaks as the call each other.

Right out our front window is this birdhouse that the squirrel used as a perch. We stayed for two nights just to relax a bit after five straight days of travel.

The next day it was 200 miles down I-75 to Lake San Marino RV Resort in Naples where we will be parked for a month. This park also came through Irma without too much damage (mostly downed trees and pieces of skirting around units being blown away), but this 5th wheel looked like it had blown over.

This is a common sight in South Florida, giant piles of downed trees which has created a new problem. We saw on the news where a power line came down and set a pile on fire. Another result of Irma is that many business signs have blown away and have yet to be replaced, sometimes making it difficult to find places. 

The park had three park models that were totaled. Those were generally the older models that were built before newer construction standards were put in place after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Driving around we have seen houses with big trees still on them, but everyone seems to be doing all they can to get repairs done and to get businesses open.

The weather here has been really hot so when the front AC began blowing hot rather than cool air we needed to find a repair service quickly. We called Land and Sea Cooling and Daniel was here within a couple hours. He found the problem was a bad coil and had the air working in no time at all. We have also been having a problem with a slide not working all the time and a battery charger issue. Daniel checked both and explained what I needed to do. All this in an hour and half. We were very impressed with the service and would recommend Land and Sea Cooling to anyone in Southwest Florida who may need mobile service.  

On Thursday we will be flying out of Miami to Punta Cana for a two week vacation at Secrets Royal Beach. We will be celebrating our anniversary on November 1st and my brother Rick and his wife Denise will be flying in for a few days while we are there. While many people think we are always on vacation because our house has wheels and we stay in many different places, we love going to Secrets to be pampered and just kick back in the tropics.