Our Cross-Country RV adventure to Arizona

4/4 - Tuesday

Jim & I are still in the campground in Port Orange, Florida. We went to the beach at ‘Dayton Beach’ one day last week and again yesterday. It is a beautiful beach! (pics attd). The beach itself is longer than 20 miles. You can drive onto it…and drive most of the length of it. The 1st day we went, we parked outside and walked in. The ‘driving ramps’ leading to the beach have free parking available. We took the truck on yesterday. (Some folks even drive on with their motorhomes). It costs just $5.00 to take your vehicle on for the whole day. A lot of the young adults just ‘cruise’ up and down the beach (in specific ‘driving lanes’), but most people just park (along the side in designated parking). That way, we were able to leave everything in the truck, lunch etc, and since we were sitting right next to it….just get things out as we needed them (very convenient). Since it is April (most of the winter people (snowbirds) left in March), the area isn’t overly crowded. I’d love to come back again in late March/April or possibly September. Temps have been 75-80’s during the days and 50’s at night.
Tomorrow, we will be driving over to the Daytona Race Track for our RV rally.

4/18 - Tuesday

The rally went really well! We had great weather, it rained one night (overnight only), other than that it was sunny and 70’s-80 everyday. We got to see Juice Newton & The Spinners for entertainment (don’t know if you remember them) on two of the evenings (pics attd). The shows were held right in the middle of the Daytona Speedway track and we, the audience, viewed from the bleachers. They each put on a great show!
Several race-cars were on display during the rally…and I was able to get a picture of Jim in front of car #88 (pic attd).
Jim and I actually got to drive around the track! We test drove a new motorhome they had for sale….and the test drive was around the track! ( : Jim drove it first, then I drove it! It was great! I love our RV. and never thought I would want something else…but I would trade it for that motorhome. Problem is….now that we are both retired….we no longer have the income to purchase it….(Mike K., any job openings???.....just kidding).
Speaking of RV’s, they did a complete make-over on one while we were there. They started to tear it apart on Friday morning and were completed by 4 pm Monday (pics attd).
We ‘hit the road’ for home on Tuesday, 4/11, and stopped at a campground in Florence, South Carolina the first night! On Wednesday, we drove as far as Winchester, VA, then spent the night at the Wal-Mart there (same place we spent our first night 4½ mos. ago). It was funny, there were so many ‘snowbirds’ heading back north, that, that section of Wal-Marts parking lot looked like a small RV park. Jim happened to be outside when another RV pulled in…and Jim said to him ‘welcome to the RV village at Wal-Mart’!
The drive home was good……it was strange to see the foliage in the trees (from full summer leaves in Florida) to get progressively younger as we drove through states. Georgia had areas of gorgeous blue and yellow mixed wildflowers along the highway; in South Carolina, some roses were in full bloom. In North Carolina there were areas of absolutely beautiful orange poppies mixed with a purple flower (couldn’t tell from the highway what it was as well as large areas of solid blue forget-me-nots! Spring was ‘abloom’ in Virginia, with all the flowering trees and wisteria everywhere; such a wonderful fragrance driving through Virginia (I kept trying to breathe it all in as we were driving through). West Virginia, the Forsythia, all the flowering trees and daffodils and tulips were in bloom. In the southern part of Pennsylvania, the Bradford pears (while still in full bloom) were just starting to leaf and the Magnolias were in bloom. The northern part of Pennsylvania looks similar to Connecticut…the Forsythia, cherry trees, Magnolias and daffodils are in bloom….but the leaves on the trees are still in bud!
We arrived home safely on Thursday evening, 4/13. While Jim was happy to get home (he is outside, cutting down trees, as I write this)…..I am anxiously looking forward to our new adventure (when & wherever that may be)! Thank you all for taking the time to read my ‘travelblogs’ and sharing in our adventures.

That’s all folks!!!

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