Sarasota FL

MON June 21

Here I am in Sarasota FL at a very nice RV park; nice that is in appearance and in swimming pool but no internet access and no community shower, life’s a beach. Ah, there’s nothing like a swim to relax me after a long day.

SUN I headed south from Pensacola along the Gulf through Fort Walton Beach, Panama City, Apalachicola then up to Tallahassee to spend the night and then today through Suwannee, Crystal River, Weeki Wachee and Spring Hill. My GPS wanted to send me to a toll-road but I kept it recalculating until I got tired of all the small town stop lights and turned east to the toll-road. Mistake, it took me 30-minutes longer and cost me a total of $7.25 in tolls.

The thrill of the day came early when I was traveling down US-19, a nice 4-lane divided FL highway with lots of grass in the median and on the shoulders. Of course the grass is slick and soggy with all the rain lately. Anyway, there I was going 65 in a 65 zone when a Pontiac charged passed me like gangbusters; he had to be doing 80+. And a Florida State Trooper was patrolling North on the other side and must have had forward looking speed radar because he immediately hit his lights and siren and started a fish-tailing u-turn across the median. I thought he was going to hit me and I started for the right shoulder and then changed my mind because of the wet grass and braced for impact. The Trooper must not of seen me when he started his u-turn but saw me moving over so he hit his breaks and I wiggled on past. After he saw I had control of my car and trailer he took off and caught the speeder. That’ll get you heart beating.

Oh yea two things I forgot. Last FRI at NAS Pensacola I heard them blow a siren and then make a loud speaker announcement that because of the heat a “Black Flag” condition had been declared and all unnecessary outside work and instruction should be curtailed. Ok, the only noticeable change in activity I saw was in increase on the number of joggers on the running paths.

The second item was this AM when I got up and discovered I didn’t have any water. I opened the trailer door and saw a lot of water but thought that was from the rain most of the night but when I went to the road-side of the trailer I saw that my water hose had popped off the female end and the flood was coming from the park connection; off to Home Depot for repair parts. The joy of trailering.