Going Further South to Bradenton, Florida

We left Ashbero, NC on 11th of November after spending 7 days resting and relaxing. We drove as far as Walterboro, SC and spent the night in a Walmart parking lot.

On the 12th we crossed into Florida and stopped for the night in Starke, FL at their Walmart.

On Sunday we made it to Arbor Terrace RV Resort in Bradenton, FL. We found the site we had been assigned and though we both had second thoughts went ahead and pulled in. (In the next post I will explain why we will never do this again.)

After getting set up we rode over to Palmetto, Florida. Our next door neighbor back home in Escanaba recently bought a place in one of the community's in the area and invited us over to see how she has been remodeling the place. We got to see it before her husband. They had rented a place down here last year, fell in love with the people, and the area. An opportunity arose and now they have a place of their own. She is putting together a really nice second home where they will be able to spend their winters and get away from the snow.  We are so happy for them and hope they enjoy their new place for many years to come.

Out to dinner at Popi's Place with Joan Rhoads.
Thank you for dinner Joan. It was great having the opportunity to get together. 

We took a ride over to the Gulf of Mexico and had plans to go back and watch a sunset. Then they had, if I remember the name correctly, a red tide warning. An organism is present that can cause respiratory irritation. I checked further and the dots of red covered pretty much the whole coast where we were. After talking we decided there would be more sunsets and why take a chance.

One of the reasons we traveled to Florida this season was to look at motor homes. Tom had been talking to a salesman down here and there were several that looked promising. This has been an ongoing search that started last spring. We have looked at more motor homes then I care to remember but with each one we learn more about what we want and don't want. So since we wanted to stay east to start out this year we decided to check what was available. After looking at several we decided they were not the ones. We were continuing to look and by now Tom was talking to two different people in Texas. So we decided maybe we should head towards Texas. This is a big decision for us and we want it to be the right one. We really love our Crusader but after two years snowbirding we can see the advantage of being in a motor home. In the meantime we are enjoying the rig we have.

"To be content doesn't mean you don't desire more,

it means you're thankful for what you have

and patient for what's to come."

~Tony Gaskins