2 RV's to Seffner FL (delivered)

... spending the night at Lakeland FL

Breakfast - two of the leftover deviled eggs, scrambled eggs and ham. Still trying to stay away from grease. Also took a package of Pop-Tarts and a nutrition bar to go.

Because we don't want to return our rental car until Monday at noon, we aren't picking it up until noon. So we don't leave the hotel this AM until 8:30 local.

Interesting day on the highway. We saw one car with everything open, including the hood ... it had eight cop cars behind it.

Another place we saw a man in the ditch holding something about five feet long/high and a squad was driving the wrong way in the ditch back to him. Before we got to the area there were fire trucks and others blocking one lane of traffic but they cleared before we got there. Beyond that man there was a car where the fire trucks had been, they had all their luggage and stuff piled in the ditch and they were also out of the car. Then a quarter mile down the road there were three guys walking to the above area.

My guess ... What ever the first man was holding up, had fallen off the three guys pickup and hit the car and they thought it was going to burn. Just a guess.

1st stop was in Wildwood at a Pilot for fuel. I put in six gallons, BB put in three gallons.

2nd stop was the TA Express in Seffner. Not sure why it is (now?) an Express. It looks like it was built as a TA. From areal photo's it looks like they sold off part of the car parking lot and there is now a Bob Evans there.

We do final fuel here and park BB's RV. We leave it here as we drive to get the rental car.

BB gets lost ... not on the highway ... in the mall :)

3rd stop is the mall to pick up the rental car. Last time we picked up a rental car at the mall the directions weren't close to where it actually was. So this time we just drove around the mall. Then BB called and this location is inside a big enclosed mall. It has 250 stores, including four remaining anchors. The former Sears store is still empty.

I had dropped BB off once the agency said they were inside the mall, and then I drove around the mall to where the rental cars were parked. But BB was confused as to where she was in relation to the agency. She called me and I got her heading in the right direction (even though I was outside the mall) and she looked at their map ... finally found it and I was gone to the dealer.

4th stop is the drop. I pull into the dealer and have to be let in and out of the gate because inspection is not at the main location. Once I was stopped, I sent BB a message but mis-worded it so she was kind of lost getting there also.

Someone started on my RV right away so I was done by 1 PM local. Someone else did BB's and hers did not get inspected until 2 PM even though she was there only a few minutes after me. But it would have been the same if one person had done both. One hour per inspection.

After BB picked up the rental, she drove it back to the TA where her car was parked and got her RV. After my RV was inspected, I walked to the TA to get the rental car, it was only a couple of blocks. The Flying J would have been closer, right across the street, but they didn't have nearly the number of parking spots.

We had thought of going to the Strawberry Festival after we dropped and then realized that 'Willie' was going to be there tomorrow, not today :) Also it was already 2 PM, the day was half gone. So we decided we will go tomorrow.

5th stop is the Bob Evans a couple of blocks away. We both had something mild and light. I had the turkey and BB had fish.

6th stop was the Circle B Bar Ranch Reserve. We have been here a few times. It's free and plenty to see in the wild. Today we were closer to prepared. We had sun-screen, water and knew how long the walk would be.

Today we saw lots of birds, a few alligators ... including babies, and LIVE armadillos. I've likely seen 100's of dead armadillos over the years but never a live one until today. As we were driving in, we saw a live one on the side of the road.

Then as we walked to the visitor center we saw another one, I got one picture, blurry picture, before it ran away.

Our walk didn't take us past where we have seen the most alligators, but we did see about five large and five very small alligators. One place I was trying to get a close up picture of both a small and large gator. We were likely about three feet from the small one, and six feet from the large one. Both were below the level of the ground the path we were on. The small one was a little over a foot long. As soon as I saw the large gator's legs start to move, I decided it was time to get out of there ... quickly.

Our total walk was 2.5 miles, a lot more than we have done in months.

Seeing I had missed a good photo of the armadillo earlier, I went back to where we had seen them (BB headed to the car.) First I saw a little lizard, and caught a picture with something red. Either their tongue ??? I'll have to look it up.

Then I took a few more steps and saw two armadillo's running. It took a couple of seconds to get my camera switched to video, but I good some video of them running ... and bumping. I saw them do it a few more times but once the camera wasn't on yet and other the camera was lower than my eyes and didn't get what I could see.

7th and final stop was the Comfort Inn. Tonight we are staying for free. When we got here we followed some team of players in. Turns out some are right across from us. It is after 10 PM and they are still going strong, talking loud and slamming doors. At some point they should have to shut down so they are ready for their game.

Load board

US - 279

IA - 133/131

FL -0-

There had been a few out of FL during the day but gone by the end of the day. There is now trucks in NC going to WI, IL and AR. Not sure if we will grab one for Monday/Tuesday or not yet.

Tomorrow we plan on going to the festival early, before the weather gets too warm. Not sure how long we will stay. Willie Nelson is sold out but we will likely be able hear him anywhere on the grounds if we stay that long.

Saturday there is a one day festival a couple hours north of here, we might also go to that one. There is also a place to eat up there we want to hit, if we are not too full.

And we might stop at one of the places where manatees are seen on the gulf side. Other than that we might stop at some cemeteries or national parks/monuments.