Sunday, Nov. 4th
We headed to Lakeland today to spend one night at Sanlan RV Resort before dropping the 5th wheel off tomorrow morning for the new “hydraulic” landing gear to be installed. It was a scenic rural ride headed west on Hwy 60 from Hobe Sound through a mix of orange groves and grazing cattle. We arrived in the early afternoon and headed into the office to check in. Ahead of us was a gentleman who was having difficulty getting on to their wifi. Ultimately he was trying to pay bills using their wifi, which was not advised because it’s not secure. We ended up leaving the office at about the same time he did and suggested that if he had a smart phone he could use his hot spot to have a secure connection and then pay bills blah blah. That’s when he said he wasn’t all that computer savvy because he spends most of his time in Iraq and Afghanistan. About then I thanked him for his service and Gary offered to take a peek at his phone. That started a conversation about him saying that he was in town because he was helping to repair his brother’s house that had been damaged from a hurricane a few years back. His brother was a pilot and had been killed in the war. We expressed our condolences and then he said he was headed back to Afghanistan. He was no longer active military but had used about $50,000 of his own money to pay for guns and supplies for himself and others like him to help the people and children in Iraq and Afghanistan who were being killed because of the ISIS terrorist activity. He was actively involved with an orphanage over there. We talked for a bit and then said our goodbyes. Wow. Amazing the people you meet.
On a more mundane level, we spent the afternoon doing laundry.
Monday, Nov. 5th
We organized ourselves to spend two nights away from the RV and drove the 15 minutes to drop off the 5th wheel with Roy at Bigfoot Leveling. The plan was for him to back the RV into his bay since, as he put it, if he scratched it, his insurance would be paying for it. We were all for that because it was going to be a snug fit. It took him and a helper a little while to maneuver it in, but they did it. Then we said our goodbyes and agreed to be back on Wednesday morning to pick it up.
We were going to be staying with friends in Englewood, Florida for two nights but we had some time to explore before arriving at their house. Big thanks to Ellen for mentioning that Florida Southern College located in Lakeland has the largest concentration of Frank Lloyd Wright structures anywhere in the world with 10 buildings and two chapels on campus. The timing didn’t work for us to do a student led tour but we were able to wander around on our own.
Wright felt most college campuses were architectural failures and wanted the opportunity to design an entire campus from scratch. The Annie Pfeiffer Chapel is generally considered his most notable work at FSC and uses a very simplistic geometric stained glass treatment on the inside. The William Danforth Chapel was the second chapel Wright designed for FSC, and is the only use of leaded glass on the campus.
There are cantilevered, covered walkways called esplanades that connect one building to another and allow for plants underneath or places to sit as well as walk. The short height is what’s most notable about them!
There’s a new Usonian House that has been recently completed in the style of Wright that houses FSC’s Tourism office. The college is definitely making this whole Frank Lloyd Wright thing work for them. Tours can run about $20 to $35 a piece depending upon which one you take and even the campus map showcasing the FLW buildings costs $5. If the timing had worked we would have liked to have done one of the tours, but it was fun to wander around on our own too.
After leaving the beautiful buildings at FSC, we stumbled upon the historic district just outside of FSC…. paved brick roads and beautiful old historic homes… just gorgeous! We stopped for lunch, then, en route to our friends in Englewood, checked out Alafia State Park in Lithia…. thinking we could possibly camp there another time, but alas, it was too tight for us. We wouldn’t fit. Not to mention we were picking up on a weird Deliverance vibe in Lithia. We’ll let that one go.
Great to catch up with our friends and see their beautiful home that they re-did with Mike doing all the work! Once upon a time… probably 35 years ago they lived in MA and Diane and I worked together. That’s how we met…. along with our other friends, Linda & Phil. We were a six-some. Luckily we’ve all stayed in touch!
We spent an enjoyable evening with Diane & Mike, and got our dog fix with their Brandy. Thanks for the terrific dinner, Diane!
Tuesday, November 6th
Diane & Mike are still working folks so we entertained ourselves during the day and visited a few other State Parks. Our favorite was Myakka State Park on the Myakka River… we saw lots of alligators, a great birding spot, there were hiking and biking trails and you could take a boat cruise on the Myakka River.
We got back and I took a walk in D&M’s neighborhood which is just darling because it’s an older community so the homes are all different and unique. I wanted to take Brandy with me and get another dog fix, but she was doing nothing of the sort! Apparently I didn’t past muster.
Diane & Mike were leaving the next day to come up to MA to visit family for a few days. Very kind of them to let us crash at their place when they were leaving town the next day! We had a fun dinner out and then it was time to call it a night.
Wednesday, Nov. 7th
We said our goodbyes in the morning and headed back to Roy’s at Bigfoot Leveling to pick up the RV. We ended up having to wait a few hours to pick up the 5th wheel since they were having a problem with a “limit switch.” I don’t even want to know what that is. Just get ‘er done. I don’t want to hear about any problems. I’m done with problems. By 1:30 they were finally done and it appeared as though everything was working ok.
We got a quick tutorial from Roy on the new system, paid them, said our goodbyes and drove the 15 minutes back to Sanlan to spend the night before heading out on Thursday. We got our first chance to use the new landing gear. It worked like a dream. As Gary said, “this is how an auto leveling system is supposed to work.” Temps were warm and sunny and they have a pool at Sanlan so we spent the afternoon pool side.
Thursday, Nov. 8th – Saturday, Nov. 10th
We drove about 250 miles to Coastal Georgia RV Resort in Brunswick, Georgia. We spent the next few days organizing the RV to leave it for six weeks at a storage facility across the street from the campground. We will be wintering here January through March. We’re driving home (but leaving the RV in storage) to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas at home plus do things around the house that need to be done.
Thankfully the pack up of the rig, the truck and putting the RV in storage all went fairly smoothly.
We’ll look forward to returning in January and exploring the Golden Isles region of Georgia, which includes Jekyll Island, St. Simons Island, Little St. Simons, and Sea Island among others.
Sunday, Nov. 11th – Wed., Nov. 14th
We dropped off the RV on Sunday morning at the storage facility then hit the road. Gary had mapped out a nice route for getting back home and we were able to avoid the heavily trafficked part of 95 in the Northeast Corridor. The prettiest part of the drive was through I-77 and I-81 north thru North Carolina and Virginia. We passed through scenic areas of the Blue Ridge Mountain plateau and a National Forest area to see rolling hills, cattle grazing and farms behind white picket fences. Lovely.
We beat the snow that landed on our doorstep two days later which would have made the drive home more challenging.
Once again we had a wonderful trip! This time it was made special by seeing so many family members and treasured friends who unfortunately, because of distance, we don’t get to see as often as we would like.
Besides spending time with people we love, part of the fun of this type of travel is seeing what’s beyond the next bend in the road, meeting people different from ourselves, stumbling upon a local find and experiencing a part of the U.S. that we haven’t experienced before. Being able to come back at the end of the day to our own “tiny home” is icing on the cake! Even with having to change itineraries because of weather complications or dealing with mechanical problems with the RV, we wouldn’t change a thing!
Here’s hoping you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas! xoxo
