2 RV's to FL, 1 to Ocala, 1 to Fort Myers (both delivered)

... spending the night at Ocala FL

Muffin sandwiches to nuke, that is what we had from the front desk. Better than nothing.

Before we leave the motel this AM, BB had to do her (least) favorite thing. She has to make phone calls. She has to call the dealer help line so they can locate a repair shop. And then call the repair shop to set up a time. Her check engine light is still on.

Left the room at 8:30 AM local. Less than one mile to go in a half hour. 31 mile range this AM to go one more mile. I was OK.

One block to the gas station, found an open pump, but in the correct amount of dealer fuel and was just turning in the drive at 9 AM. New place, not on the map yet. It has 'horse rail fence' around it like the neighboring farms.

2nd stop the drop. I didn't see their little sign, just the one painted on the street. Turns out I parked in the correct place. From there to the office was quite a walk. Someone helped me right away to find the correct person. I left them my paperwork and went back out to my RV. It was a long half hour before anyone came out. Once they started looking at it, it was about 15 minutes and they were done, signed and we were gone.

I'm done. It's been a while since BB has had the longer run, but she wanted the shorter RV so this was the trade off.

Somewhere this AM there was a cop on the side of the road with it's lights off. (so we didn't have to get over) And BB couldn't get over because there was a truck right beside her. As soon as we were past the cop, the truck started coming into our lane so BB hit the shoulder ... but she couldn't do that for long because there was a disabled vehicle on the shoulder that we were coming up on real fast.

Luckily the truck got back in it's lane until it completely passed us.

3rd stop was a rest area near Ruskin

4th stop was at Pilot and then Wendy's in Punta Gorda for fuel and food. Pilot had an Arby's but they had a very small lot, lots of room for cars but no room to park an RV. So we went next door to Wendy's where there was more room to park. Arby's had had outdoor tables but here we had to sit on the steps of our RV, again. At this point we were in no hurry, check engine light is still on so we are heading to the repair shop to drop the RV. We hadn't asked what time they closed but usually late.

BB's fuel range was going down faster than the miles. She too had thought she had overfilled yesterday and now today she added another 7 gallons.

A few miles down BB notices the check engine light is off. Now we need to hurry to still make delivery today. She had written down the info for the repair shop but not the dealer. Because of how late it was getting we were talking about going to the drop first and taking a taxi to get our car. Then I decided to look at which exit we would want for the drop and the airport.

The one thing I hate about Google Maps is the highway numbers stay the same size no matter how much you zoom in. And for what ever reason I could not get the exit numbers to show at all. I look up and see an airplane on a sign ... on the ramp that we had already past. We missed our exit. BB had written down the correct number but remembered it wrong.

Five miles extra each way and we are already short on time.

The airport is 10 miles past her drop so we are now back tracking. Pilot for fuel and then get to the drop a half hour before last call. We made it. They will take it, but it takes a while for someone to come out and inspect it. No damage other than what we already knew.

It is 4 PM by the time we start heading home. Looking at the rental agreement we see that our price is only good for the days we rented it. Anything longer is a higher rate and a mileage charge. So we are heading straight home. Not sure if this type of agreement is a one time, one location deal or how things will be in the future.

This car is brand new, about 5 miles on it at pickup. A new Toyota but things have changed. Besides style and location of switches, this one also has the radar and lane assist that some of the RV's have. BB drove first and thought the tires were bad. I had only driven it for a few minutes and realized it wasn't the tires, it was the lane assist. If I wasn't right in the center of the lane the assist would kick in and get me back to the center. Very little wiggle room so the assist was on more than it was off. It may be great for narrow lanes but I shut it off as soon as I realized what the cause was.

And there is nothing good on the load boards heading home. The loads to MO were gone early in the AM and nothing new was ever added today out of NC. FL runs came and went but nothing good. And nothing good out of GA.

Now 1,800 miles in three days plus stops. It can be done but no extra stops or sleeping in.

Just north of Tampa was stop first at Chic-fil-A but the line of cars is all the way around the building and the counter is not open. There is even a sign to not block the exit from the drive thru (the line won't move if they can't get out)

So we went to a Stake and Shake close by. Counter was open so we went inside to order and use the restrooms. Nope. We could order, but they have boarded off the whole seating area so no restrooms. Just a few places to sit while you wait for your order. Good food :) just burgers this time.

Because there were not open restrooms we had to stop at the next rest area which was San Antonio.

Back to Ocala for the night but this time two exits closer to home at a Comfort Inn. It is well after dark but we don't want an extra day on the car.

It was 85 degree's here when people started sending us pictures of snow at home ... hope the farmers got their crops off that they needed too.

Load board

US - 132

IA - 40

MN - 1

WI - 3