Wednesday, May 1: What a soggy morning, there’s standing water
everywhere, not a dry place to connect the car so we waded around the RV and
prepared to leave. It’s a beautiful
drive through Louisiana and Mississippi with water everywhere in the form of
lakes, rivers, bayous and swamps.
Around lunch time we found a rest area in the middle of all
that water for lunch and to walk the dog.
After lunch when I started the RV the check engine light came on. My first thought was to go check to see if
the engine was still there. Ha-ha. What the heck does “check engine” mean? It could mean a lot of things so we ran down
the list of possibilities and ruled most of them out. We are in the middle of nowhere so the chance
of getting service quickly was slim. I
put the RV in gear and started off and thankfully the “check engine” light went
out. I’m hoping it was just a fluke
thing and would not reappear later to haunt us.
Today was a long day, over 7 hours behind the wheel and a
little over 350 miles total driving. Our
destination was an RV Park in Lamont, FL at the intersection of I-10 and US Hwy
19. We got there a little before 5 PM
and set up in a light drizzle. The name
of the park is “A Stone’s Throw” because it is a stone’s throw from I-10 and
from US 19. It’s built on a slight grade
so when I leveled the coach the back end was so high off the ground it looked
like the tow bar was almost vertical!
Wine under the awning again…
Thursday, May 2: We awoke to more rain and were not
surprised. Yes, I know, the rain is what
keeps the southeast states so green but does it have to rain so much. Did that sound like I was whining? The drive on US 19 south, otherwise known as
the Florida-Georgia Parkway, was beautiful with big patches of blue sky in
between the rain drizzles. We stopped
for fuel in Spring Hill at a Chevron station that had diesel pump off to the
side making it easier for me to get in and out of. After fueling we parked in a big vacant area
and had lunch then got back on the road.
From Spring Hill south US 19 is very busy because the communities along
this highway have grown so much and this area is also a snowbird destination. We decided to cut over to another north-south
road to avoid the heavy traffic of US 19.
Our alternative route took us through a few residential areas which was
fine, at least the traffic was better.
We rolled into the Clearwater Travel RV Resort about 2:30
and got our site. Wouldn’t you know,
there was a tree at our site and it would be on the south side of the coach
blocking the satellite dish! Mike went
back over to the office and the woman behind the counter gave him 4 other sites
to choose from. We picked one with no
trees and quickly set up the RV. I
wanted to get over to see my friend Chris Wagner at his office in downtown
Clearwater before he left for the day.
Chris is the director of a video phone relay company and is also the
president of the National Association of the Deaf. I've know he and his wife, Staci, since they
moved to the Clearwater area back in the ‘90’s.
We have worked together on several occasions mostly when he was teaching
at St. Petersburg College where I would be his “voice” in the classroom while
he signed to the students. We worked
well together and have been friends ever since.
Downtown Clearwater has changed a lot since I was here the
last time. I found the office and
actually found a place to park! Once
inside I connected with my interpreter friend Rita who works as a staff
interpreter. Luckily, Chris’ wife Staci
was on a video phone call with an employee and I was able to “chat” with her for
a bit. Chris came along and we had a big
happy reunion! Whew! I remembered how to sign! I stumbled a few times but my friend Rita
assisted so all went well.
We had a great visit and after hugs and goodbyes I headed
back to the coach. Mike and I were going
to my sister-in-laws house to have pizza with them and my niece. On the drive to her new house in Seminole we
noticed it was a familiar neighborhood.
Our friends, Ron & Karey, used to live on the same block! They no longer live there but it was nice to
see their old house and to see the new house of my sister-in-law JoAnn. The new house is very nice and much larger
than the house she lived in before. Her
husband, Rick, went and picked up pizza for us.
JoAnn was getting her hair done and joined us, I can’t believe we yakked
until almost 10:00 PM! It was great
catching up with them but we finally tore ourselves away and went back to the
coach and crashed!
That tree in the background is at the first site we were supposed to be in.
A morning visitor! The cats were intrigued....
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