Tampa (Jan 29 – Feb 26, 2017)
We had to go to LazyDays for our annual tune-up. Stayed one week at the LazyDays RV Park and three weeks at the service center. Getting a paint job from a tree attacking the side of the RV and improving some functionality. The Park and the Service Area are outstanding. Plenty of room and plenty of walking space. The sad issue is waiting for parts. Even with the “largest” RV dealership in the country, they still have to order parts because they don’t have all the parts on hand for all the different RV models.
We were very lucky with the staff at LazyDays -specially Precious and Amanda. These ladies really helped Lorraine be able to work in an office when she could not be in the RV. They are definitely special ladies. We are off to Orlando now until March 12 and then off to travelling again. Check out our Travel Schedule page to see where we are going.
Orlando (Jan 2 – Jan 29)
We arrived in Florida after our first trip around the country. We were looking forward to just staying still for a while. However, we found out that the “Snow Bird” Season has some restrictions. We would not stay in the Thousand Trails or RPI resorts for 21 days during prime season. We could only stay 14 days at each site and then only stay in 2 Thousand Trails and 2 RPI sites during the prime season. Prime Season is December to April. So we had to schedule our 2 weeks stays at several sites.
The first stop was at Bees RV Resort (http://www.beesrvresort.com/) through RPI, which mean $10 a night or $130 for our 2 week stay. This is a RV and Mobile Home park. View of the park. The spacing was tight but it was very large and we could do our 1.5 – 2.0 mile walks easily. However, many residents are full time and their sites look like they have not been updated in a while. They do have 2 nights of all you can eat dinners – they call them World Renowned dinners. We cannot provide the picture of it but when these dinners are held the whole RV park shows up. Check out this picture where they are standing in line in the parking lot waiting for dinner. Dinner is served. The outside line. Another view.
So to make things more interesting we went to Disney Springs. Disney Springs used to be called Disney Downtown and is a great place to grab dinner and shops. The Lego Displays were great to see.
As you can see, this shows that it takes 114,190 bricks and 672 hours to build. What dedication.
In addition to that the Rain Forest has wonderful fire show.
From Bees, we went to Kissemmee South RV and Mobile Home Park (http://www.kissimmeesouthrvresort.com/) This was a last minute stay since the Thousand Trails we were scheduled to stay in was not available. We were squeezed into a slot that we were too long for so our front end required them to put up a caution cone in front of it. The park was a nice park and good for walking. They actually had a golf course through the streets. Very strange.
We did the Tampa Riverwalk (http://www.thetampariverwalk.com/) which forms a continuous path of 2.4 miles connecting parks and attractions to several large hotels.
It is very different from the San Antonio River walk. For those who have been to San Antonio Riverwalk, you will be inundated with restaurants and people. However, on the Tampa River Walk has only one restaurant on the river. All the others are in the hotels on the walk. Tampa Riverwalk is a phased open space and pedestrian trail development along the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Florida. The walkway will ultimately stretch 2.6 miles (one way) Tampa’s Riverwalk project dates back to the 1970s, a time when much of the downtown waterfront consisted of aging warehouses and industrial facilities related to the nearby Port of Tampa. Twelve $15,000 bronze busts of prominent figures from the History of Tampa and are long the walking path. (courtesy of Tampa Riverwalk wiki) The path are full of walkers and bikers.
