Wauchula again!

We left Clermont on Sunday, January 9 at 9:40 with Acey’s mileage at 80,252.8, Thor’s 97,775 and we have put 1,631 miles on our bicycles. We stopped for fuel on the way to Wauchula and then waited in the parking lot at Winn Dixie for a few minutes. Wauchula is in Southwest Florida – south and east of Tampa. We have stayed at the Peace River RV Resort 3 times before and they were very strict about their 12:00 noon check in time; they would turn you back if you are early! (We later found out you can arrive as early as 9am) This park has a lottery system to get a sewer spot, so after we came thru the gate, we found a spot to park Acey and then went to the office to sign up for the lottery. At 1:00 you can get a list of sites that are available that have a sewer hookup, so you can check out those sites and be sure your rig will fit. At 2:00 they start down the list and as your name is called, you tell them which site you chose and then move into that spot. This is the only park where we have seen a system like this! Seems kind of crazy, but they have been doing this for a few years and apparently, they seem to think it is the fairest way to assign the sewer sites. We’ll be here for 2 weeks, so we prefer to have a site with sewer, and we got one! We got settled into our full hook-up spot by 2:40.

Tuesday when we woke up it was 59 outside – and 64 inside – kind of a surprise! We have had “typical” Florida weather – warm and sunny! It will be cooler for the next week with lows in the 40s and warming up into the low 70s.

Jim had been looking for an electric actuator to replace the hydraulic one that controls the step cover inside the front door of our coach. The hydraulic one was leaking fluid and needed to be repaired or replaced. He brought it to an outfit that works on hydraulic parts and found out it could not be repaired because of the way it was made. He located an electric one in Sarasota, so we planned to drive over there to pick it up. It was a nice day to go for a bike ride, so we packed up lunch, picked up the part and headed to the McIntosh Road trailhead for the Legacy Trail. We rode on this trail last January and Linda had forgotten about the 2 big bridges we had to climb up and over, but we managed to ride over them – and back over again on our way back! We stopped to eat our lunch near the train station in Venice before we headed back.

As we finished lunch, Linda noticed some porpoises in the canal. Finally got a photo when they surfaced a third time as they headed down the waterway!

This was not a welcome sign – but we saw no gators!

Its always interesting to see evidence of the former railway when we ride a rail-to-trail path.

On Wednesday we finally got our mail! Chris had picked up our mail in Dickson and brought it with him when he flew down for the cruise, but we never remembered to get it from him! Last weekend he drove out to Dickson again and sent the batch of mail to us. We finally got our Christmas greetings from friends! Now Linda feels a bit guilty as we did not send emails or cards out for Christmas 2021 – a first for us…

Thursday, we drove to Tampa to pick up a new set of coils for the refrigerator. Currently, the refrigerator runs on propane or electric. Jim wants to get rid of the propane tank; since he installed an induction cooktop last year, the only thing using propane now is the refrigerator (and only when we are on the road or have no electric to hook up to). On the way to Tampa, we stopped for gas and Jim tripped and fell, landing on his knee. Linda was quite surprised because she is usually the klutz…

Friday and Saturday we didn’t do a whole lot – rested and went for a walk around the campground – Jim’s knee was swollen and hurt, and he has been icing it – he decided on Saturday to change the tailpipe on Acey. He had noticed it was cracked and ordered a replacement from Spartan RV Chassis. Here’s the old tailpipe.

We had our family Zoom on Saturday evening but had only the “older” generation – until Tom and Missy joined us for a few minutes before we signed off. It’s always good to see the family and catch up!

Sunday there was a snowstorm in Nashville, and Stephens Valley Church cancelled services, so we watched a couple of sermons from Sundays that we missed. That same cold front came in here and made for some bad weather; there were some tornados in the Fort Myers area and several houses and mobile homes were destroyed. We had a lot of rain and wind, but fortunately no damage here.

Monday Jim decided to tackle changing the coils on the refrigerator; the weather was perfect – dry and pleasant. We had to take the fridge out and the side of the motorhome was open to the outside.

The refrigerator and freezer are working great – and seems to be colder than before! The fridge will work off the inverter when we are driving or when we are not plugged in to power. It only pulls 2 Amps to run.

On Wednesday, we drove over to Tampa to go to the Florida RV SuperShow – one of the biggest RV expos in the US. We have been the show several times, but it seemed a good idea to go again! They have seminars and vendors as well as TONS of RVs to look at. Our sleeper sofa is in bad shape, and it needs to be recovered or replaced. We ordered a new one and will pick it up in Indiana in October. There were some bagpipers – always fun to see a group playing the pipes and drums!

There were RVs of all sizes on display. These tiny ones were interesting!

Some RVs have a back porch on them!

This is the place to go to see every type and brand of Recreational Vehicles out there – motorhomes, vans, fifth wheels and travel trailers…The show is always in mid-January.

A lot of folks that have an RV also have a dog – or two – or three – even more! We always see dog strollers at the show – big and small – we sometimes see folks out for a walk at campgrounds using a stroller too…

We returned to the show on Thursday to order the right color for the new couch – none of the samples we took with us were the right color. Afterward, we stopped at Coppertail Brewing for lunch and brews.

Linda liked the artwork at the brewery.

Musical mice playing guitar, violin and horn!
This mural was on the outside of the building

On Friday, we drove to Orlando to meet up with Marty – he let us park Acey in his driveway when we went on the cruise. He wanted our old set of coils to upgrade his refrigerator. We filled Thor with gas shopped at Costco and headed back to Wauchula. Linda had fixed BBQ chicken in the Instant Pot – which also works as a slow cooker – so dinner was cooking while we were gone. Jim vacuumed out Thor and we had a little time to relax before we had dinner.

Saturday was a day to rest and prepare to move to Clermont in the morning.

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12 thoughts on “Wauchula again!”

    1. We are very fortunate that he is so handy! He says YouTube and instructions help… but he seems to have a lot of intuitive ability to fix most anything. Definitely a big help 🙂

    1. Hope you and Johnny are keeping warm – Nashville has had some cold wintry weather! It’s been colder than we hoped for here the last week or so, but nice and sunny today! We’ll try to visit with you when we get back to Nashville in April!

  1. Hello travelling Compsons! You make life on the road so much fun. Quite a few bag-pipers there in Florida. Acey get the kid-glove treatment with Jim keeping all systems go. Thanks for the photos. You capture some interesting moments.

    1. Don’t worry Patti – we’ll connect with you before we head back north – we are in Florida until April!

  2. I never want to pull a trailer, but those little ones at the RV show were cute! I can’t remember if I told you that Toni and John refurbished my mom’s 13’ Scamp (from 1977!) and use it a lot on weekend adventures – John even lived in it for a couple months when he first got to Idaho before they found a house, and Toni was in North Carolina finishing up her job. And they both lived in it til the house was ready to move in! Two people and 2 dogs in a 13’ trailer made for a pretty “cozy” arrangement! But compared to a tent it was great, and they love the Scamp! Mom would be absolutely thrilled!

    1. How fun that they refurbished the Scamp! You are right – your Mom would be thrilled that they are using it 🙂
      That reminds me of the 14′ Aljo that Dad borrowed from a friend in 1962 and we travelled out west with it. Details and photos are in a blog I wrote in May 2020 as we started out on the road with Acey – check it out if you haven’t already seen it!

  3. Great read and great pix…Jim is quite the handyman for Acey..

    With 43 years in this business, I have never known or insured an RV named ACEY…😂 We’ve got you covered as you move around our wonderful country.. Keep having fun and know we are here if you need anything!!!

    Bless you both!

    1. Glad you have us covered! We have been very fortunate to be safe and – well for the most part – healthy! And we are enjoying the travels – glad to be in Florida for the winter; there was a hard freeze here last night which was THE topic on the news – there had not been a freeze here in 4 years – but nothing like folks are facing up north.

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