After a lovely week staying with Judy and Mike Shear, we have moved on.
I took the RV to Parliament Motor Coach http://parliamentmotorcoach.com/service/ (by the way click on that link and look at their inventory of immense 40ft diesel pushers, talk about luxury spec!!) to get a Safe-T-Plus steering control fitted as I had noticed on the highways the Winnebago was subject to large lorries moving it around quite a bit in their slipstream. They fitted it in a day (Monday) and on Tuesday (the day we left St Petersburg) I got to try it out and it has made a big difference!!
So on the Monday before we left we visited the Florida Botanical Gardens with Barbara and Judy. Lovely place with a huge variety of plants and wildlife.
Bananas
Pineapples (not sure why it is locked up)
Looks like the trees in the Lord of the Rings
As if we would, we would be running the other way!! Loads of signs and a nest, but we didn’t see any.
And then on Tuesday we left, having said our goodbyes to Mike and Judy, not forgetting Milo and Maggie (their dogs). Destination Cedar Keys RV, which is 10 miles north of Cedar Keys itself, an island Key further up the coast near Gainesville (http://www.visitflorida.com/en-us/cities/cedar-key.html).
Went up I75 for about 50 miles and then took to Highways to get there. Lovely straight roads through forests with not a car in sight.
Very interesting drive and then we turned off onto State Rd 24 to go the camp site.
Arrived at the camp site and realised our luck had held out and we had made a great choice of a place to stay.
Got a very nice pull through site (no manoeuvring just drive onto the pad).
Since we got here in plenty of time we went for a look at Cedar Key and quickly realised there was a lot to see and it is a beautiful part of Florida, so decided as we had to plan the next few weeks carefully on our way to Houston (STOP PRESS Tim is flying down to see us in Houston and staying with us on a long weekend from the 25th August – 28th August and he says he is going to rough it in the Winnebago, although he has a hotel in mind!!), we would extend our stay until Monday 14th.
We had also realised our site was a bit exposed to the Florida heat and the air con was struggling (although it helps if you have both of the units on COOL not one on COOL and the other on HEAT Ooooppps!!), and as our pull through site was pre-booked for the weekend we swapped to a lovely shady site.
Camping suits someone, looking tanned.
Early morning sunshine.
I will put up pictures of the sights around Cedar Key later, although Anne has already spotted a Quilt shop!!