Day 38 - Orlando to St. Augustine, Florida

Your humble correspondent has always been far more interested in the road less traveled than the road that contains the tracks of multitudes of my fellow humans. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my fellow humans quite a bit. It's just that I like to enjoy them in less than crowd-sized numbers.

So it was that today, as we chose our route north from the western outskirts of Orlando, Florida, I had the choice of jumping on U.S. Route 4 which lay just a stone's throw from our campsite, or to choose a more bucolic route that might include a few stoplights, occasional holdups, and perhaps the opportunity of getting lost. You know what I chose.

We did have to travel a few miles east on Route 4 to get to our turnoff, and we did have to pay a few dollars in tolls for the route north that I chose, but very soon we were motoring north on some of the prettiest stretches of highway we have yet seen.

I know that some of you are going to want to know just what course we took. Here's what I remember: We went east on U.S. Route 4 from the vicinity of our KOA at the crossroads of Route 4 and Florida Route 27. Then we took the Florida Route 429 toll road north for a time. We should have exited the toll road around the town of South Apopka, but we missed the turnoff and ended up having to double back using the Orange Blossom Trail, Route 441, from the town of Piedmont. We continued on Route 441 until we came to a sign that said, "Florida Route 19 North." Once on Route 19 we were home free for most of the day. Route 19 eventually intersected Route 20 which eventually intersected Route 207 which quite quickly brought us to within a couple of miles of our camp.

And there you have it. We took the road less traveled, put up with just a tad of traffic in a couple of towns, and probably spent twice as long getting here as we would have if we had stayed on the Interstates. U.S. Route 4 charges right through the middle of Orlando, picks up U.S. Route 95 on the coast, and in just a couple of hours or so we would have been here at our destination in St. Augustine.

But here's the thing. If we would have taken the Interstates, we would have missed out on the beauty of rural Florida as seen in the above photograph and that surely would have been a big mistake. We're probably the only travelers who regularly take all day to drive a little over a hundred miles, but as they always say, "it's not the destination that's important, it's the journey."

And, as an added bonus, today we rolled past the 5,000 mile mark. We're 38 days into what should turn out to be a 10-week journey.

Cheers!

Day 37 - Naples to (almost) Orando, Florida

Today we opted to not stop at any points of interest along the way, and just motor our way up first Interstate 75, then Florida route 17 towards Winter Haven and Orlando. Florida roads are pretty top notch, and for the most part the traffic was very light. As the green countryside rolled by outside our windows we discussed our visit to Florida at length (more or less because Concetta had dropped our book on tape down beside the truck door and couldn't reach it).

The reason, of course, for our visit to Florida was to connect with the multitude of Concetta's relatives who have given up battling the snow and gray skies of Ohio and have taken up mostly permanent residence in the sunshine state. Couple by couple, they've all been fleeing south and buying places in picturesque gated communities surrounded by gorgeous lakes, waving palms, and a sea of Spanish tile roofs.

To say that their new homes are a fantastic, not to mention timely answer to things like snowy winters and freezing temperatures is a gross understatement. To say that these new residences provide them with the maximum enjoyment of a dazzlingly green and flower bestrewn landscape is also an understatement. Yes, everything is truly beautiful, all the time, and in every direction you look.

Naturally, this arrangement is especially wonderful since the landscape is largely cared for by professional gardeners and paid for by nominal association fees. One need never push a mower nor scout for weeds. You are allowed to have potted plants, but you're not required to do so. You may have a screened-in porch to ward of winged creatures, but you're not required to do so. For all practical purposes it looks very much like the garden of Eden without the apple tree. You do have the snakes occasionally, but they tend to be fairly well behaved.

I, for one, did not really know how to react to this environment exactly. How could you not like it? If you happen to be retired, and most are, you get up in a leisurely fashion, pad out to the screened porch to have your coffee and listen to the birds sing while you surf the web or read the paper. The air is cool and refreshing, and the cloud-studded, achingly blue sky is a perfect backdrop for the coconut palms and flowers lining the walkways leading to a series graceful arched bridges over the nearby waterways, all visible from your patio.

Before long, when your housemates have risen for the day, you'll be digging into a succulent breakfast and making plans for lunch in a few hours. After lunch comes planning for drinks and maybe a visit to a nearby relatives' home for dinner. There's no stress. There's no hurry. It's just life in the S-L-O-W lane. There are weeks when the only thing that has a deadline is when you have to get the trash barrel rolled to the curb by pickup time.

After three days of this Garden-of-Eden lifestyle, Concetta and I had begun to get just a tad antsy. Where were the challenges? Where was the surmounting of obstacles? Something just didn't feel right!

Once before I had had the chance to do nothing much of importance for months at a time. It came when I had done my stretch in the Naval Air Corp for several years, done a half dozen semesters in college, and had decided that I needed to launch into some sort of adventure. A short time later I and my buddy, John, found ourselves living and working aboard a sixty-foot sailboat (photo below left) based in in the Mediterranean Sea. Though there was, indeed, work involved with this life aboard a sea going yacht, there was far more nightlife than worklife. Wine, women, and song was always the order of the day.

Well, contrary to what you might expect, I did not easily fall into this life of near permanent relaxation. Before a year had passed I found myself increasingly obsessed with the fact that I was not accomplishing anything of any note whatsoever. When I had passed my twelve-month anniversary I quit that job and flew back to the daily grind of the eight hour day. Believe me, I has just deliriously happy at the time.

Remembering those days under the sun-soaked skies of exotic places like Greece and Turkey, I had to ask myself just how long anyone could be happy in Florida's paradise where the toughest decision you have to master each day is whether you want one lump or two in your coffee. I'm sure many will disagree with me, but I think just a bit of adversity is absolutely essential to a healthy and happy life. Florida just doesn't make the grade in my estimation. I'd rather ply the nation's highways in a motor home, dealing with the ups and downs of travel, coming up with solutions to problems that come at you out of the blue. Florida just didn't strike me as rough and tumble enough. Very soon you couldn't help but fall into a regime of eating and drinking and very little else.

Now, having said all this, I don't think anyone can avoid the "pull" of paradise very easily. I, too, was totally wowed by the model homes we were shown. I'm sure Concetta felt the same way. No yard work to do. Jogging paths that run right by your door. Swimming pools of bathwater temperatures. Bocce courts just a golf cart ride away. Totally immaculate landscaping everywhere you look. No messy neighbors. No graffiti or litter. I didn't even hear anyone talking loudly.

Darn hard to resist.

But if you want my advice, you should resist.

Days 33-36 - St. Petersburg to Naples, Florida, and remain

Yesterday, we traveled down from St. Petersburg, Florida, to Connie's sister's house in Naples. Not much to report, as we didn't stop at any points of interest, and spent most of our time on the Interstate system just cruising and listening to the last of our James Lee Burke novel. The novel was terrific, scenery was blue-sky beautiful, and traffic was pretty light. We spent our lunch hour in a strip mall parking lot, chosen more for it's "easy off/easy on" freeway access then for it's beauty. There was only one thing I wanted to accomplish for the day: visit an RV sales lot.

Since our driving distance to Naples was fairly short, I wanted to spend at least an hour wandering through new RVs to see if we might pick out a particular model that we liked more than others. Now that we've spent a month in the Tioga, we've come to be reminded of what we like and don't like about its design. I felt it would be a good time to see if the things we don't like had been solved, or at least addressed, in newer models. Conveniently, a Camping World dealer popped up alongside Interstate 75 yesterday just when we were ready to stop for a break from driving.

Personally, my biggest complaint with the current truck is not having enough room in the bedroom. There's very little room on either side of the bed to make the bed each morning, or change out the sheets and blankets when required. In a new RV I would want at least a foot on either side of the bed. On the newer models, depending on the length, they have provided more room. But having provided the room, the manufacturers then stole it back again by locating a storage locker in the rear of the coach, under the floor, that eats into the aisle and blocks access to about half of the mattress on each side (photo right). Major flaw for me.

We both object to the smallness of the bathroom area in our Tioga and in new models they seemed to have gotten that point. Almost every rig in which we toured had made the bathroom larger or split it in two so that the shower was on one side of the center aisle and the potty and sink on the other. Kudos for that design improvement.

Another objection we have with our 1996 model is the carpeting throughout. Because you can't help but track dirt and sometimes worse things into your RV depending on where you're traveling, our next RV will have some floor surface other than carpet. All of the RVs we walked through sported vinyl flooring, which would be easy to care for and more suitable than carpet (See photo left).

On the worrisome side, our Tioga has enormous lockers on both sides of the coach in which I store all kinds of things, from a trio of padded lawn chairs, to my drive-up ramps and blocks, to just about every possible piece of gear you'd need on the road. New RVs do not appear to come with these huge lockers unless you're buying one of the giant Class A models. Since we intend to keep to the Class C models with a length of thirty feet or so, we didn't see a single model yesterday that would be acceptable when it comes to storage. Above left is a photo of the largest lockers I've seen in a Class C coach.

Following the same theme, it looked to us as though they've actually cut down on interior storage as well. In our model there is a sort of peninsula cupboard arrangement, that comes out from the side wall in the kitchen, in which we store lots and lots of things related to cooking. None of the new models have retained this feature.

Having brought up the kitchen, this is the area that bothers Concetta the most about the present RV. The coach does not have enough working room in the kitchen area, though storage doesn't seem to be a problem. I'm not sure just what we can do about this as from what I've seen and researched, you don't get much additional kitchen room until the coach size exceeds thirty feet. Thirty-one and Thirty-two foot models seem to put that footage into kitchen counter tops in most cases. The problem you run into when you exceed thirty feet is that some state and national parks limit coaches to thirty feet. However the kitchen counter in the photo at right from a Thor brand coach probably would be adequate.

On the subject of overall storage, I've always been satisfied with the interior storage in ours. The upper lockers over the side windows are large enough for most anything we want to store. I noticed in a lot of the models we toured yesterday that they had reduced the height of the side lockers, making the storage of anything taller than a package of napkins difficult if not impossible. That would be a deal breaker.

Most of our "overflow" storage takes place on the forward, cab-over bunk area. This area is so cavernous that we have no problem storing things like extra winter clothes we don't usually need or large bulky items like extra blankets or quilts, as well as bunches of other "crucial" items to numerous to mention. I sure hate to do without this storage area. However many, many new coaches have turned this into a media wall where the TV resides accompanied by some small lockers and drawers. This wouldn't work for us.

I like it where they've put just a small cutout (see photo left) on the front bunk which keeps you from bumping your head when you come back from inside the cab, but allow for the bunk to be fully extended to provide the most storage. With our current model, if you push the bunk back to where you don't hit your head then your storage area is cut in half.

Arriving at my favorite subject, that of the internet, I would really like to have a coach that has some sort of built in up-link device with a powerful aerial so I could quit having to depend on parks with inadequate WiFi setups. As I see it, the future of WiFi at parks where people are not prevented from streaming videos and such is not good. We won't be hitting the road again without being independent from the RV park systems.

On a more frivolous level, I would sure like those steps that pop out and pop in on their own as you open and close the door. This would be handy since occasionally I forget to push the thing in when we leave camp. I'd also love it if the rear corner jacks were automatic, but I don't know if such a thing exists on the Class C models.

Lastly is paint. Anyone who knows me knows I don't like white for vehicles. Just too common. I simply must have a sand-colored one or maybe multicolored model (like model right).