The trip to Orlando

Our trip was pretty uneventful, which is good. We stopped at the Flying J in Knoxville, Tennessee for the night and to get some fuel, as Marcie's internet research indicated that it would be the least expensive. This was a fairly normal travel day for us, totaling 406 miles. This Flying J, as do most of them, has a special area for motor homes and fifth wheels. We pulled in the last spot and had room to even extend the bedroom slide, which we normally are unable to do. We took advantage of the restaurant, Marcie was smart enough to order from the menu while I 'pigged' out with the all you can eat buffet. All in all the food was .. terrible and we were really disappointed. This is the second Flying J that we have been disappointed at, so I doubt if we make any effort to eat their again.

The next morning we got up early, around 7:00am, reset the truck transmission for towing and took on fuel at $2.20 per gallon. I remember when we returned home, in July, that we had paid $4.71 per gallon in Illinois. What a difference that makes on the budget! The weather was good, it was nice to be able to complain about the sun shinning into the cab. The temperatures are getting warmer and warmer as we get further south.

After driving for 529 miles, with a couple of breaks we stopped at the Flying J at the Georgia/Florida border for a final fill up prior to hitting the normally higher prices of diesel in Florida. We paid $2.25 per gallon and filled up the propane tank as well. What has happen to the inexpensive propane? I used to use the propane furnace as it provides for a more comfortable heat in the motor home, but at the prices for propane, we have started using the electric heat pumps, as the electric at the campgrounds is free.

We traveled to the Gainesville, Florida area and stopped at a road side rest area and stayed the night. The lot was really full, and there was 24 hour security. We relaxed, watched some TV, had dinner and retired early.

On Tuesday we drove the final 100 miles to the Thousand Trails Preserve. The place didn't look much differently than it had when we left last year for our long trip out west. We were able to find a nice site, we accidentally passed on up one of our favorite sites, but have taken down the site number and when we return here we will try and get it. Our current site is deep, protected with bushes and trees and looks like a lot of birds frequent the area.

Setting up was a little different, as we hadn't set up camp since last July, but we managed to get leveled, the awning out, tables set up, water and electric hooked up etc. We took a nice walk, and visited the pool and club house. I was able to get an internet connection, all-be-it slow. thre is a WiFi service available to us at a very reasonable charge and we will look into that the first of the week.