Getting ready to travel

I will be transferring to Norfolk, VA this summer and leaving the family back in FL.  The plan is to live on our RV while in Norfolk.   I am going to class next week in in North Carolina so I have decided to take the RV and use it as a "test drive" for Norfolk.  One of my questions was, "how am I going to get internet connectivity" while I am living out of my RV.  Some campgrounds have wi-fi but most don't.  Internet connectivity is a must.   There are a couple of options

1) find free spots in town (e.g., library, Starbucks, sitting in the car  on the street where I find someone that has an open wi-fi connection :-))

2) satellite connectivity

3) cellular EVDO connectivity

I decided to try Verizon's EVDO.  My plan costs $50/month and I will be able to suspend it while I am out to sea.  I have it up an running right now so I am excited to see how well it works out on the road.

Tomorrow we bring the RV home and Karen and I are going to install the MaxxFan we purchased.  Standby for a report on that install.

Things are crazy here

Start of the President's Day weekend and we got a lot happening.  We invited Karen's sister, Colleen, and her family down to do a couple days at Disney and then come hang out at home for a couple of days.  Karen has been trying like crazy to get a room at the Disney Boardwalk (President's Day weekend, what are the odds) with a back up plan for us to use the RV at 1000 Trails, Orlando.  Well, I am sitting here listening to a dog (Buster can be a heavy sleeper at times) snore mixed with all of the other normal camping sounds.  

Me, Jason and Buster brought the RV over yesterday afternoon/evening since Karen will be taking Erik to the big end-of-year soccer tournament and then come over this afternoon.  We got here right at sunset and checked in.  Jason was busy talking to Colleen on the phone and they ended up pulling up right behind us as we were heading to our campsite so that part came together well.

Jason had a lot of fun hanging with his cousin Alex and cooking dinner.  We ended up just throwing some shrimp on the b-b-que.  Worked out great.

Alex slept in Erik's bunk last night and watched the Incredibles.  Colleen thought she would be sneaky and start the movie half way through.  She got to deal with a wide awake kid who was busy proclaiming that he wanted to watch another movie after the Incredibles was over :-O

Boy, that was fun

We spent the night hanging around the campfire talking and everyone got a pretty good nights sleep.  It was a beautiful breezy morning and Buster was itching to get a run in today.  Karen and I got up and had a couple cups of coffee and then took Buster out for his run.  The conditions were perfect and we just ran down roads that meandered along the Homosassa Spring River.  When we got back we decided to for go breakfast and stop for lunch at the Asian Bistro.  When I think of Homosassa Florida I don't exactly think of fine Asian cuisine but Karen had read good things about the restaurant.  She was right.  On the way there (it was only 8 miles from the campsite) we got lost twice.  Always fun trying to do a three point turn on little winding roads.  Even more entertaining pulling a U-turn through the church parking lot as church is letting out.  Well, I figured that was our excitement for the trip.  Boy, was I wrong!

We got to our parking spot at Castle Keep Storage and prepared to park.  Our spot is very sandy so Karen and I had thrown down several bags of mulch to try and build up the parking spot.  It works fine if you get on the right spot but a foot right or left and you are stuck in the sand.  We were stuck in the sand.  Much trying and spinning of wheels only got us deeper.  I finally went to the office and called Good Sams Club for our free towing.  It was going to be a 2-3 hour wait so I asked the owner of the storage if I could borrow a rake to try and dig us out while we were waiting.  Luckily we have levelers on our RV so we were able to jack the RV up really high and dig the tires out and put wood and anything else handy under the tires.  After about 10 tries we broke free.  Good thing because my free towing was going to cost me $180.  I talked the owner into giving me a temporary better spot until another spot opened up.  At least we are on concrete now.

Interestingly enough when I took the rake back to the owner he said, "Oh, if I had know you were going to dig yourself out I would have helped you".  I replied, "Hey, no problem.  It gave us something to do while we were waiting for the tow truck" as I was thinking "what did you think I was asking for the rake for"?

Homosassa Springs

Everyone was feeling the itch to go camping this weekend even though Erik had a soccer game and Jason had a lacrosse game about 90' from Spring Hill.  I attended the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) Southeast Area Rally (SEA Rally) this week in Spring Hill (that worked out well) and I got a flyer for Camp -n- Water RV resort in Homosassa Springs, FL.  That is only about 34 miles from us so we said, "hey, let's run up there Saturday night and camp out".  Everyone was game and so here we are.

It is a very nice clean park on the Homosassa River, created by the Homosassa spring.  If you have come to visit us you have probably been to the Homosassa State Park.  We are all clustered inside the RV right now because the no-see-um bugs are just a little too much.  We just watched a little ol' lady walk by with her dog on a leash.  Bu

ster started growling like there was no tomorrow.  We took a closer look since Buster usually doesn't growl at other dogs.  It was a cat.  The lady was walking her cat on a leash.  I felt like letting Buster out the door just to put the poor cat out of its misery ;-)  Jason and Erik could not stop laughing.  Oh well, the plan is to fire up the grill and cook us up some steaks.

At the FMCA SEA rally I purchased an Electronic Monitoring System (EMS) and

 I installed it yesterday.  Always a bit of a "pucker factor" when I install something that impacts something we absolutely need to

 camp (e.g., Joe and I installing the water heater).  It only took 30' and it appears to be working fine.  I purchased a couple of other items at the rally also this week.  I bought an Extreme Vent to get rid of those obnoxious odors and I got some quick connect adapters for the water filter and hose.  All said that took about 10' to install all of those items.

Well, Karen is telling me to go set up the charcoal grill s

o we can do some steaks.  Right now we are drinking the bottle of white wine that Bill and Donna Davis bought us from the Disney World Marathon.  Thanks Bill and Donna, we are thinking of you while we are drinking it.  More tomorrow.

DIsney's Fort Wilderness

The whole Black family (Don and Eva, Laura, Lyle, and their kids from Canton, OH, Brenda and Jeff and their kids from Severn, MD) met us at Disney World for the weekend.  They were all staying at The Grand Floridian and we stayed at Disney's Fort Wilderness.  They had been there for three days when we got there Friday, the last weekend in January (I am writing this post late).

If you haven't been to Fort Wilderness it is a treat.  The campsites are big and clean.  Lots  to do.  It costs, about $61 per night, but you know you are not in a state park.  We were amazed at the amount of "yard crap" (decorations people set out in their RV, campsites, etc) that people had on display.  We got there Friday before sunset (always easier to setup camp while it is light) and got camp set up.  We then got together with our friends Bill and Donna Davis (yes the same ones we saw the weekend before and ran the Disney World Marathon with the weekend before that) and had dinner at Artist Pointe restaurant i

n Fort Wilderness Lodge.  It reviled the food at the Flying Fish!

Saturday morning we got an early start and headed over to Animal Kingdom where we were to meet everyone.  We got there early enough that we decided to sneak a ride on Expedition Everest.  What a ride!  When we got off we ran into everyone.  We were to meet for lunch at the Yak and Yeti restaurant.  We had enough time before our reservation so me, Jason, Jenna and Megan went on the Kali River Rapids.  Given the cool temperature and light on/off rain it might not have been our wisest choice but what a blast!  Everyone got soaked but since there was no line they let us just stay on the raft and go around again.

We ended up doing the usual rides to include Expedition Everest 5 more times.  We left the park at closing (1700) and headed back to Fort Wilderness since everyone was coming over to the RV for dinner.  Buster was hosting :-)  Karen made a big pot of chili and I threw a bunch of dogs on the grill.   The clan had to do the planes-trains-and automobiles thing to get over to the RV but they eventually arrived.  I think everyone had a good time.  At one point we had 13 people and one big dog in the RV! Laura's daughter Eva had a great time driving the RV :-)

Sunday morning, despite the best of intentions, Karen, Buster and I didn't go for a run.  We just lazed around and made breakfast and go ready to go.  We decided to swing by the Grand Floridian and if they would let us park we would surprise everyone.  The look on the security guards face was worth it.  He directed me to the back of the lot and said, "best of luck".  No problem.  I found four empty spots together and parked in the middle of them.  It is nice to have an RV in a crowded parking lot.  You don't waste time trying to figure out where you parked it :-)  We had a great lunch with everyone, decided it was too cold to hit the pool so we headed home.  That concluded our three weekends of Disney World.  Hard to top that.