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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 230302 IA-FL 2 RV's to Seffner FL (delivered) ... spending the night at Lakeland FL Breakfast - two of the leftover deviled eggs, scrambled eggs and ham. Still trying to stay away from grease. Also took a package of Pop-Tarts and a nutrition bar to go. Because we don't want to return our rental car until Monday at noon, we aren't picking it up until noon. So we don't leave the hotel this AM until 8:30 local. Interesting day on the highway. We saw one car with everything open, including the hood ... it had eight cop cars behind it. Another place we saw a man in the ditch holding something about five feet long/high and a squad was driving the wrong way in the ditch back to him. Before we got to the area there were fire trucks and others blocking one lane of traffic but they cleared before we got there. Beyond that man there was a car where the fire trucks had been, they had all their luggage and stuff piled in the ditch and they were also out of the car. Then a quarter mile down the road there were three guys walking to the above area. My guess ... What ever the first man was holding up, had fallen off the three guys pickup and hit the car and they thought it was going to burn. Just a guess. 1st stop was in Wildwood at a Pilot for fuel. I put in six gallons, BB put in three gallons. 2nd stop was the TA Express in Seffner. Not sure why it is (now?) an Express. It looks like it was built as a TA. From areal photo's it looks like they sold off part of the car parking lot and there is now a Bob Evans there. We do final fuel here and park BB's RV. We leave it here as we drive to get the rental car. BB gets lost ... not on the highway ... in the mall :) 3rd stop is the mall to pick up the rental car. Last time we picked up a rental car at the mall the directions weren't close to where it actually was. So this time we just drove around the mall. Then BB called and this location is inside a big enclosed mall. It has 250 stores, including four remaining anchors. The former Sears store is still empty. I had dropped BB off once the agency said they were inside the mall, and then I drove around the mall to where the rental cars were parked. But BB was confused as to where she was in relation to the agency. She called me and I got her heading in the right direction (even though I was outside the mall) and she looked at their map ... finally found it and I was gone to the dealer. 4th stop is the drop. I pull into the dealer and have to be let in and out of the gate because inspection is not at the main location. Once I was stopped, I sent BB a message but mis-worded it so she was kind of lost getting there also. Someone started on my RV right away so I was done by 1 PM local. Someone else did BB's and hers did not get inspected until 2 PM even though she was there only a few minutes after me. But it would have been the same if one person had done both. One hour per inspection. After BB picked up the rental, she drove it back to the TA where her car was parked and got her RV. After my RV was inspected, I walked to the TA to get the rental car, it was only a couple of blocks. The Flying J would have been closer, right across the street, but they didn't have nearly the number of parking spots. We had thought of going to the Strawberry Festival after we dropped and then realized that 'Willie' was going to be there tomorrow, not today :) Also it was already 2 PM, the day was half gone. So we decided we will go tomorrow. 5th stop is the Bob Evans a couple of blocks away. We both had something mild and light. I had the turkey and BB had fish. 6th stop was the Circle B Bar Ranch Reserve. We have been here a few times. It's free and plenty to see in the wild. Today we were closer to prepared. We had sun-screen, water and knew how long the walk would be. Today we saw lots of birds, a few alligators ... including babies, and LIVE armadillos. I've likely seen 100's of dead armadillos over the years but never a live one until today. As we were driving in, we saw a live one on the side of the road. Then as we walked to the visitor center we saw another one, I got one picture, blurry picture, before it ran away. Our walk didn't take us past where we have seen the most alligators, but we did see about five large and five very small alligators. One place I was trying to get a close up picture of both a small and large gator. We were likely about three feet from the small one, and six feet from the large one. Both were below the level of the ground the path we were on. The small one was a little over a foot long. As soon as I saw the large gator's legs start to move, I decided it was time to get out of there ... quickly. Our total walk was 2.5 miles, a lot more than we have done in months. Seeing I had missed a good photo of the armadillo earlier, I went back to where we had seen them (BB headed to the car.) First I saw a little lizard, and caught a picture with something red. Either their tongue ??? I'll have to look it up. Then I took a few more steps and saw two armadillo's running. It took a couple of seconds to get my camera switched to video, but I good some video of them running ... and bumping. I saw them do it a few more times but once the camera wasn't on yet and other the camera was lower than my eyes and didn't get what I could see. 7th and final stop was the Comfort Inn. Tonight we are staying for free. When we got here we followed some team of players in. Turns out some are right across from us. It is after 10 PM and they are still going strong, talking loud and slamming doors. At some point they should have to shut down so they are ready for their game. Load board US - 279 IA - 133/131 FL -0- There had been a few out of FL during the day but gone by the end of the day. There is now trucks in NC going to WI, IL and AR. Not sure if we will grab one for Monday/Tuesday or not yet. Tomorrow we plan on going to the festival early, before the weather gets too warm. Not sure how long we will stay. Willie Nelson is sold out but we will likely be able hear him anywhere on the grounds if we stay that long. Saturday there is a one day festival a couple hours north of here, we might also go to that one. There is also a place to eat up there we want to hit, if we are not too full. And we might stop at one of the places where manatees are seen on the gulf side. Other than that we might stop at some cemeteries or national parks/monuments. 230303 IA-FL 2 RV's to Seffner FL (delivered) ... spending the night at Ocala FL When we got to our room last night, BB had noticed that a sign on the door one door down said 'Coach.' And we had followed a large group of young people in. They seemed to be loud for a while and then quiet down. We guessed they would quiet down at 9, 10 ... 11 maybe? They likely have a game tomorrow? We shut down at 11 instead of 8 or9 because we knew we wouldn't get to sleep anyways. I went to sleep. BB finally called the front desk at 12:30 to complain ... and it is not often SHE is the one to call. We slept in later this AM. No breakfast for us. We leave the hotel about 9 AM. They don't ask about our stay and I don't say. 1st stop is the FL Strawberry Festival. We read there was $2 parking so we kept driving past the private lots until we got to where the street was blocked. Then we turned and parked in the first open lot for $10. Another $10 each gets us in. I have now looked at info and this festival is larger than the FL State Fair. Food vendors seemed to out number all vendors combined. Everything seemed to be squished into a county fair sized setting. Auto and farm dealers were limited to a lot that would hold a half dozen units. Food vendors are side by side almost anywhere there isn't a ride. Our first food is the 'Make Your Own Strawberry Short-Cake.' BB makes one, we split it. Very good. Real food. We then walk over to the stadium. We planned on seeing Jimmy Sturr (Polka,) that was part of the reason we got here this early. The stadium was empty. We asked someone sitting at the sound equipment what happened. What happened was that was that I/we read it wrong. There is only an AM show on Thursdays. Today is Friday. Our next food is the 'Mac Stack.' Pulled pork, with a corn bread, baked beans, mac and cheese, coleslaw, BBQ sauce. We looked at a lot of food before deciding on that. We asked at the Mac Stack place if they knew where we could find a malt. They had to ask a 'northerner' who also worked there ... they did know where we could find a 'milk shake.' We found it. Next food was the milk shake. They served one kind. Strawberry. It was good, but not MN Fair good. BB could taste the red die in it I guess. Which is why she really liked the short cake, all real food. From there we walked down to see the animals on the other end of the fair. Three buildings, right next to each other. We try to go in but no food. That includes no water bottles. We'd have to throw the water in our back pack. We pass. By now it is 90+ and BB is ready to go. She no longer wants any more food. But I still want to try some. So the next, and last, food is the strawberry corn dog. Turns out is is <> a corn dog with jelly poured over it. Not bad, but not what I expected. After that we found shade and sat on our way back. Then we were looking for lemonade. Last food, drink. We walked around looking for lemonade with real lemons. It was worth it. It was good, but we should have bought a gallon of it. I had hoped we would at least stay until we heard Willie say 'How ya all doin?' We knew Willie's was the only show the whole festival that is sold out, but I was guessing we could hear the music from anywhere close. But it is hot and we are old and already tired of walking. At 70 degrees we likely would have lasted the day and been able to sample more food. This festival looks like all the food vendors in the US winter in FL and show up here. We really didn't know where we were going next, after looking at hotels and what still had rooms we headed north. 2nd stop was the FL National Cemetery to take pictures of grave markers of three graves. 3rd and final stop was the Comfort Inn in Ocala. We've stayed here a few times and that is why we are back. Food is next door at Murphy's Oyster Bar. BB had the Po Boy and I had the Philly, to go. We did watch the load board all day but nothing worth calling on. This morning, the NC to WI trip was gone almost right away. Now tonight there is another one. We might call on it if it is still there Monday AM. Problem is that it 1+ days to get to it, so a two day rental to pick up and then a 2nd rental car at the drop. We'd be better off to get something that doesn't drop as close to home. Logistics. Load board US - 217 IA - 88/87 Not sure what we are doing tomorrow or Sunday, we kind of plan on the fly. We've looked at options. The better known something is, the less likely we are to go there. 230304 IA-FL 2 RV's to Seffner FL (delivered) ... spending the night at Fort Myers FL I am up during the night and walk to the bathroom 'light.' Almost there and ... YIKES ... I meet someone coming out of the bathroom ... ME :) I almost walked into the full sized mirror. That woke me up a little more than I wanted to be at that time. Later ... Awake first at 6, up at 7 AM. Breakfast - not what we expect from a 'nice' hotel. Three of the four juice choices were water. The fourth was listed as OJ but was mostly water. They did have omelettes, I took one. And sausage, I didn't take one. Other than that it just seemed cheap. BB and I split my leftover Philly from last night. So for me it was 1/4 of my original Philly, 1/2 my omelette and most of my left over onion rings. I was full. Seeing we had just ate and the main reason to go to the local Strawberry Festival here in Ocala was to eat ... we didn't go. Instead we choose to go to the Three Sisters Springs in Crystal Springs. It was listed on one site as the best place to see manatees. Coming into Crystal Springs we see a vacant enclosed shopping mall. I had to look it up :) Seems it was opened in 1990 with four anchors. Belks, Sears, JCPenny and Kmart. It started going down hill almost right away because other new retailers were building their stores in another part of town. The mall finally closed in 2022. There is still one Rural King store in the former Sears. Rural King is a small version of a Fleet Farm. 1st stop is the Visitors Center. There are a few signs that say 'No manatees seen today.' There was a line so we had to wait. After hearing others talk, it seemed like a waste to pay $13 to walk on a few trails when we walk at the Circle B Bar Ranch for free. Before we got to the counter we decided against walking here. As we were walking to our car we saw a trail across the highway but it was a city busy city street so we were going to drive to the other side of the road. By the time we looked at a map for a place to park, we decided against that also. So we are both sitting in the car looking for things to do. The fourth thing on our list had been Homosassa Springs. It looked about the same price but everything that was written about it sounded better. 2nd stop was Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. We couldn't tell from the write-ups if we 'might' see wildlife from those area's or we would see them because they were in cages. Both this place and the last have little or no parking at the park. You must take a bus, boat or tram. We opted for the tram because the boat was a longer wait. We weren't in a rush so we should have taken the boat, but didn't. It turns out the animals are in 'small' cages along a board walk. The area started out as a train stop in the early 1900's. In the 1960's it because home to animals used in TV shows when they were not working and additional income for the owners. Since the 1980's it has been some kind of park and is now as State Park. One of those TV animals was a hippopotamus. That hippopotamus is now the oldest living hippopotamus in captivity. It was born in 1960, they can live for 60 years in captivity so it is over 'average.' Lu was eating hay when we got there and then went into the water where it still was when we left a couple of hours later. All it has is a few feet of cement to eat off the ground on, the rest of the area is water. No grass to roam on. Other than that there are birds, fox, bears, deer in cages similar to what we have in our state zoo, except these are smaller. One interesting story from the signs by the animals. There are several versions of this story one line, but part of what is posted on the sign near them says "After several years of detours to visit Peepers, Levi became a park resident. Although fully flighted, Levi stays here due to his strong bond with Peppers." These two are Whopping Crain's. Peppers was injured and can't fly. Levi flew back to see her six times. Each time Levi was removed until the park finally decided he could stay. After an hour, we needed a break and went and sat inside where there was AC and ate ice cream (It turned out to be our lunch for the day) Then we stay another hour before we were back to our car. After ice cream we saw the fish and the deer. It seems the manatees come to the spring waters because they are warm. These spring waters are always 72 degrees, if the temps are in the 80-90's like this time the manatees will not come to the springs. If the weather is closer to freezing, there will be 100's at each spring area. Last year they said they counted 400+ here in November. When we are ready to leave we don't know where we are going ...again. It is 3+ hours to Tallahassee where the weather will be cooler. 3+ to Jacksonville on the other coast. And 4 hours down to Fort Myers by the Everglades. No reason, we just started driving south. 3rd stop was the Pilot near Dade City. From here we made a hotel reservation in Fort Myers. Where we could get a reservation was also an issue. It is a weekend and winter still in much of the country. Not every hotel has 'free rooms' right now. 4th stop was because we were low on fuel. Flying J in Punta Gorda. 5th stop is a block from our hotel. Fat Katz. The temps have cooled so we sat outside. BB had their special, chicken sandwich with strawberries. I had a Philly with chicken rice soup. Good, but not wild rice and the broth was not as thick. I only ate half, breakfast again tomorrow. 6th stop is the Comfort Inn in Forth Myers. Load board US - 211 IA - 81/80 Not sure hour plans for tomorrow. We did see traffic backed up on the freeway for a county fair :) Or maybe we will go back to the Strawberry Festival after dark when it is cooler. Or maybe the Everglades? We do want to be back to within a couple hours of our next rental car by tomorrow night. .. the trip continues HERE
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