Cold, Cold and travel plans

March 30, Saturday, 2013

Since my last post last Friday the weather has dried up but it has been real cold.  We had the coldest temperatures of our RV life here in Tampa Florida.  Last Wednesday morning it was 39 when we got up at 7 am with frost in the surrounding areas.  The temperature in NJ was 35!   Then it only warmed up to 57 in the afternoon.  Also, it was very windy.  We took the lights off the awning and rolled it up.  Even though we have the awning tied down, we were afraid that the awning would separate from the RV!  They reported last night on the local news that this is the 3rd coldest March on record for Tampa.  The last coldest was in 1969!  Anyway that cold stuff seems to be over now.  It got up to 75 yesterday and it supposed to be in the 80s for the foreseeable future,  yea!

This cold weather is very good for adventures with clothes and for chores.  We took advantage of the cold and did laundry one day and went food shopping another day.  Yesterday we went to the Jay Starkey Wilderness Bike Trail and rode 5.5 miles one way and then back for a total of 11 miles.  The trail is mostly flat and with lots of turns and is all paved.   We had to drive 17 miles to get to it but it was worth it.  A beautiful day in the mid-60s to start and it was low 70s at the end of the trip.  We are going back to finish the entire trail with is 6.5 miles which will be 13 total for us.  We didn't know there was only a mile and a half left to finish when we turned around.  Oh well, next time!

Not good pic, but the blue is the trail we rode on yesterday.

Picture from the trail

Another picture from the trail.  Patty in front.

Last picture from the trail.  Patty in center.

The cold also allowed us to do a little more planning for travels this year going in to next year.  Patty and I have a method we use when we are planning our trips.  We use Google maps in a shared mode so we can both see the map on our computers.  Patty does the campground searching and I use Google calendar to lay out the timing.

We like to keep our travel to just under 250 miles a day, preferably 200-250 a day.  There are 2 reasons for the mileage limit.  One, 275 miles is about the limit of the fuel tank and I don't like to stop along the way if I can plan around doing that.  Number two, 200-250 miles is around 4-5 hours of driving which is more than enough behind the wheel.  Almost forgot, there is also a third reason.  We like to travel in mid-day from 10 am to 3 pm.  We don't want to rush in the morning leaving and we don't want to drive after dark or even arrive in the dark. We also like to stay a minimum of 2 nights when we are traveling.  So this means if we want go 2000 miles it will take us a minimum of 10 travel days and 10 rest days for a total of 20 days.  We can and have moved much quicker than that but we use that slower pace as a cushion.  I think our fastest move to date was 1200 miles in 3 days.  Way too much driving, however we liked it while we were doing it.

This is the basic plan we laid out :

• Paradise Pines in Lutz FL (where we are now): Leave May 28th
• Disney Wilderness Park: 5/28 – 6/7  (Grandkids and Parents with us 5/29 – 6/6)
• Crawfordsville IN (Grandkids and our medical appointments): 6/16 -25
• South NJ with Friends Debbie and Ian: 6/28 – 7/1
• Sunny Rest RV park in PA: 7/1 – 15
• North NJ with Friends Cindy and Rob: 7/15 – 29
• Elmira NY visiting friends Sandy and Jim (We will be in a campground there): 7/29 – 8/1
• Grand Island NY visiting family: 8/1 – 8/15
• Clarkston MI visiting family: 8/15 – 18
• St. Ignace MI to explore Mackinaw Island: 8/18 – 21
• Yellowstone National Park: 9/5 -12
• Grand Tetons National Park: 9/12 – 21
• Grand Canyon: late September early October
• Shangri La Campground near Phoenix AZ:  Week in early October 
• Texas State Fair in Dallas TX: Early  to mid-October
• Buffalo NY/NJ/IN: Thanksgiving – Christmas
• Natures Resort in Edcouch TX: 12/28 – 3/28/14

The dates can change some after the Sunny Rest PA stay in July.  We know we want to be in Yellowstone for about a week and we don't want to be there later than the end of September due to weather.  After that we have some time to explore the New Mexico and Texas areas before our hard deadline of November 28th when we fly back to the Northeast for the holidays.

Year 2014 we're not sure about but are thinking we will do the East Coast down to Florida.  That is just something to ponder in the future, just never know!

Coming up this week we hope go to the Caliente and Lake Como resorts one night each.  We have been waiting on the weather to get nice before we go to these places.  I think today we will get some sun time in at the pool as we haven't done that yet here!

We walked to Lake Como one morning.

Picture of the lake at Lake Como Resort.

Stay tuned!