A trip without Matilda or Monte

I left both Matilda, the Born Free motorcoach, and Monte, the Corgi, behind after the 4th of July holiday to travel the old fashioned way - I flew to San Francisco to meet up with Nancy and Susan. Little did I know that I would end up going to a jazz concert at Stamford featuring the incredible Regina Carter, seeing Joan Baez live in concert at Stern Grove Park with about 10,000 of my newest and closest friends, and finally, walking across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausilito with Nancy...not to mention some fantastic food and wonderful weather all organized by Susan and Nancy. Loved doing the tour - following in Jayne and Karl's footsteps most of the time. But most importantly my wonderful aura (if I do say so myself) carried Nancy and me successfully thru three job interviews. Nancy is now employed at the University of California at Berkely. It doesn't get much better...fun, food, friends, and funds!

Summer in Connecticut

April 1st found me leaving Bill and Billie's Flagler Beach house after lots of good times and with some really great memories. Totally wonderful winter in Shangri-La. Now the long road back to Connecticut via Texas. Once again we headed west across I-10 dodging spring thunderstorms aiming for Annette's house in Cameron. Stopped in to vistit with Annette for a couple of days and long enough to pickup a smoked turkey for Kevin. Parked in Richardson to visit with Beth one more tme and then just one more stop in Texas - Millsap. Matilda, as in Waltzing Matilda the Born Free motor coach, got a wash and wax from Rueben...a real spring cleaning.

Traveling northeast, I averaged about 250 to 300 miles per day stopping in Mt. Pleasant, TX; Memphis, TN; Nashville, TN; and Bristol, TN (see picture above). The campground in Bristol was great. I actually spent two nights just enjoying the spring weather. Tennessee is a really long state! Finally made it to Natural Bridge, VA. Way hilly! I got lucky to get one of the more level campground spots! Two more nights on the road in Maryland and Pennsylvania and finally crossed the Tappan Zee. Who knew just crossing the Tappan Zee would make me feel like I was home? That and the nasty roads!

Drove in to my driveway and was parked by 1:30 in the afternoon by the end of April. My first season in my RV is over but never to be forgotten. Monte and I met so many wonderful campers - human, canine, feline, and yes, feathered ones, too! Of course, I can't thank Janet, Beth, Jayne and Karl, and Kevin, Luz, and Kayla for coming down to Florida to tool around with me in my home away from home. Or thank Annette, Kevin, and Beth for hosting me - gives a whole new meaning to plugging in!

Grand Tour

March flew by ever so quickly. Monte and I took off to tour around Florida checking out campgrounds. We went down as far south as Lake Okeechobee and than back up to Kissimmee. A big shout out to all the wonderful campers we met at the KOA campgound in Lake Okeechobee. I'm coming back!

Took in a spring training game at Disney between the Florida Marlins and the Atanta Braves (the home team). All too soon it was time to return to Flager Beach.

Took Matilda (as in Waltzing Matilda, the Born Free motorhome) to the Jacksonville airport to pickup Jayne and Karl. Way cool! We headed into old St Augustine for an afternoon of playing tourist. Parking a motorhome turned into an adventure, but thanks to the local police not only did we find a great spot to park, it was FREE!

After thunderstorms roared thru, Jayne and Karl left in my Honda to go visit family before traveling north back to Connecticut, saving me from figuring out how to tow my car back.

Bike Week

Bike week at Daytona is like nothing I've every experienced - more crashes than Daytona 500. Kevin, Luz, Kayla and I got up close and personal with bikers at the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse and up and down A1A. Great visit but still a bit cool for the beach and way too short!

Room with a view

Driving down to Hudson Monday morning, I was able to see Florida burning from a distance. Large brush fires off of Hwy 50 filled the sky with smoke. Glad I was generally travelling in the opposite direction! Well...got to Sandy and Tom's campground around 1:30 - what a treat. First, the last time we were together was in 2004 - like 5 years ago and it's as if no time at all has passed. We picked up right where we left off and haven't stopped talking and laughing. Second, I got a wonderful site, at least for the first night, right down the street from their motorhome and in front of the campground pond. Heard tell that there used to be a resident alligator but he's no more. Anyway, this morning I moved the Born Free over a couple of streets since the first site was already spoken for...now Monte and I are closer to the dumpster and dog walk - we all have our priorities!

Coming attractions

Lots to look forward to in the coming weeks. Monday, I'm headed to Hudson, FL to meet up with my cousins, Sandy and Tom, from Indianapolis who winter there at Three Lakes RV Resort, http://www.threelakesresort.com/. I'll spend the week catching up with them and just hanging out at their campground. Kevin, Luz, and Kayla are flying in the first week in March for some beach time with Monte and me in Flagler. After they leave, it's two weeks of touring central Florida - Lake Okeechobee, Port St. Lucie, Kissimmee. Hope to see some baseball spring training games - Mets, Yankees, Orioles, and Astros. Best bargain around! It's hard to believe I only have 6 weeks left in Shangri-La. Jayne and Karl will be here before I know it to drive my Honda back to Connecticut while I return to Texas to visit with everyone one more time. Already with help from my family, Janet and Beth, I've put over 5,000 miles on my Born Free. So...April showers bring May flowers, Mary, and Monte, too.

Speed Week

Speed Week at the Daytona International Speedway! Amazing! I picked Beth up at the Orlando airport and we drove back to Flagler. In the Honda, Beth followed the Born Free to the campground in Daytona so we would have little wheels in addition to my big wheels. Great decision! We did the Gatorade Duels on Thursday afternoon and the Truck races on Friday night. If anyone was watching Trackside on Speed Friday evening, Beth and I were down front - live and in person! Yes, we were those crazies screaming for freebies and attention! Saturday we went to Ponce Inlet for lunching at Racing's North Turn restaurant http://www.racingsnorthturn.com/aboutus.html. Wonderful table right by the television in the bar - best place to see the start of the Camping World 300! After lunch we drove back to the campground listening to the race on the radio. No traffic, no stress, no crowds! For Sunday's Daytona 500, we opted to once again watch from a distance. We spent the morning touring one of the "Top 5 Markets in the Country" according to USA Weekend http://www.daytonafleamarket.com/ which happened to be right across the street from our campground! After our excursion, we settled in to watch the race on television - warm and dry in the motorhome with geographically desirable refreshments and toilets! For those that watched - Dale Jr deserved a fine and, oh yes, he does need to go back to school to get a refresher on how to find his pit! Monday morning we went to the Champion's Breakfast to see the new Daytona 500 winner, Matt Kenseth http://www.mattkenseth.com/, up close and personal. Very nice ending to a outstanding Speed Week!

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Born Free Rally

Monte and I took off on the morning of Tuesday February 3rd for Brooksville, FL - site of the Family Motor Coach Association Southeast Rally. All us Born Free motorcoaches gathered at the local shopping center so we could caravan in together. Well...what an experience. There were 27 coaches heading into the Hernando County Airport to park on one of the airstrips. Awesome! We were the largest single gathering out of the 1200 motorhomes. I met Born Free owners from all over the East and as far west as Iowa. Got some great tips and tricks...wonderful advice from wonderful people. Learned a lot about dry camping...that means no shore power for those not in the cult yet. I will tell you that for being Florida, I froze my butt off! The only really happy camper was Monte. The lows were really too low - 19 degrees one morning. Finally on Saturday, we got the great weather Florida is know for - only to leave on Sunday. Oh well!

It's a cult!

Since I last posted, Janet and I spent a couple of days in St Augustine - just some down time to enjoy the quiet. Stopped at the World Famous Oasis http://www.worldfamousoasis.com/ for the best breakfast in town on our way to central Florida. The Fort Summit KOA is a wonderful campground with lots of snow birds. They were thoughtful enough to include another camper with a Corgi...yes Monte made new friends, too. I used my new Weber grill to create "incredible" meals - hot dogs, steaks, ribs - that's a quote from Janet, but I won't disagree. We disconnected and took the Born Free over to Downtown Disney for a day of shopping, lunch and the movies. Got there about 10:00am with no one in the parking lot...when we left, it was wall-to-wall cars. Sweated a couple of bullets maneuvering the Born Free out of there. But we escaped without a scratch to us or anyone else! Who's better than me? After breaking camp to begin our journey back to Jacksonville, we stopped by a Born Free barbecue luncheon in Clermont. What a hoot! They are out there and we be two of them!

It's a new year!

Wait a day or a new year and the weather will indeed change. Today was both sunny and overcast with stiff winds. I finally made it out on the Flagler pier ($1.50) where red warning flags were saluting - talk about Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery day! Glad I didn’t have Monte with me – he would have been blown away!

Monte had an wonderful romp on the beach yesterday. They are really serious about ticketing if your dog is off leash so I bought a retractable lease for Monte…not as long as he would like, but at least twice as long as his regular 6 footer. It did the trick. He was all worn out again…just ate and went into his crate for the evening.

I got everything arranged for taking care of my RV’s punch list next week. I’m actually going to head down to Clermont Sunday morning to try to avoid the after the holiday traffic and certainly Monday morning traffic. They have some issues with major traffic challenges further south. I’m staying at a local Clermont RV park Sunday night - http://www.thebeesresort.com/. I talked to them yesterday and made the arrangements – very down home kinda place. Monday morning the audio/visual place will work on satellite setup. Monday night I will stay at the BornFree lot for FREE! Again, what a deal. Tuesday morning they will replace my bad air shock bag underneath the RV and some other minor stuff. I should have everything finished up by Tuesday afternoon, if not I’ll stay another night at the lot. I do not want to be in any rush hour traffic. Life is tooooo short!

My new year's resolution: learn HTML so I can customize My RV Travels! What's yours?