Travels with Snowbirds Sunday January 27, 2013, Seffner FL to Thousand Trails, Wauchula.

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The One About Big Girl Panties Fitting Just Right.





I am woman, year me ROARRRRRRR.







After I finished writing last night, and while I still had a great free internet connection, I went to the Lazydays web site and reviewed the class I took on Friday. Great video and slides, almost identical to my live class without the benefit of being able to interrupt the instructor for clarification. Lazydays presents a method of driving that puts (Avery) dots on your rig, windshield and mirrors so you know where your tires are, how far behind you is 3 feet, yadda yadda yadda. I mentally pictured me and Vista (I don’t have a name for her yet, open to all suggestions) driving down the road and parking back at Thousand Trails. I knew the material, I just needed some practical application of it.



I set Garmina up for the trip, and she directed me over the river and thru the woods, retracing my trip of Thursday morning.



I tried to get Winston up on the bed with me, but he has been yelled at so many times to get off, he wouldn’t jump up.



Up at 6:30, walked Winston, showered, and ate. I was ready to unhook before 8, but I was slow, because I KNEW Delivery Specialist Steve was going to show up at 9. NOT. (That was a joke, of course). BUT, I needed someone to help me focus my mirrors and measure a couple of things for me so I could put my dots on them. I begrudgingly asked a neighbor who was busy transferring old rig stuff to new rig stuff, and he was extremely obliging. He could see that one of my mirrors needed adjusting out of the range of how it was screwed to the arm, so he dragged out his Allen wrenches and made that adjustment, then helped me dot. He did not think I was crazy, as he had taken the class as well a few years ago. God Bless that man. I thanked him and told him I would pay it forward before the end of the day. The levelers went up!!!! Yay!!!! Put the slide in, put my seat belt on (it gags me in the Adam’s apple. Gotta figure something to fix that or grow 4 inches.) I drove around the delivery campground and thru Crown Club parking. With my exit pass in hand and without seeing a soul from Lazydays, I went to the booth and asked the white haired lady where the nearest open area was. She directed me to drive around the regular campground, and off I went. I went the same route as I did Friday in the diesel pusher and it was a snap. I headed out following Garmina (I did check with Siri as well, and she was sending me the same way, so I stuck to Garmina as Vista has such a slick cool place on the side window to attach.) I hit her START button and was off. Yes, I was very very very very nervous. My dots worked, and I was able to keep both sides of the rig well within the lines of my lanes. There was a lot of water on the roof which came pouring down, requiring use of the windshield wipers. I felt like a Queen sitting up so high, looking good. In the Lazydays method, you turn left and right when your hips pass the farthest projecting object at the turn, for example, on the right, the curb, on the left, the car in the left lane, or the end of the yellow line. As my stern swings almost 3 feet, I knew I needed to pay attention and turn when my hips told me. It is overturning the turn, and straightening out once the rear is straight. It worked, and I was giddy. Except I was on the road I didn’t want to be on. Somewhere between leaving my campsite and pushing her start button, Garmina decided to reroute me to head west for 30 miles, then head south. This way took me thru busy towns and lots of lights. I wanted to go thru the backcountry. I found a gas station to pull into (tee hee, I was giddy again with power) and found I was at the corner of a road that went 30 miles south to another back road that went 20 miles east and put me 3 miles from the campground with no big towns between. Being Sunday morning, there was absolutely no traffic on this road just miles of orange groves and cattle…..and mounds of earth covered in grass.



Winston tried to get up on the dash board a few times, and when I stopped at the gas station, I stood up and got my fly swatter so I could smack him if he tried again. He quieted down and rode shotgun and eventually fell asleep. He was wonderful. The only issue I had was the incredible whistle noise that came from the windshield. I need to have someone ride with me to see where the noise is really coming from, and if this is an issue. This reminds me of when I was a young married woman crawling all over the back seat of some sedan, memory says red/maroon??? listening for a wind leak.



Remember those landfills of recent travels? Well, they are not landfills. They are phosphate mines. I started to wonder when I did not see any garbage trucks either Thursday or today, and not a lot of birds flying around. I saw the name Mosaic on signs and googled it and learned those hills are really the remains of mining



Digressing for just a few minutes, skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to learn about phosphorus. Phosphorus, Atomic # 15 exists in nature mostly in Calcium phosphate form. Currently it is mined in ocean sediment areas almost exclusively in Florida and Africa. It is used in soft drinks, fertilizer, TSP cleaning agent, and water softeners. Early sources were huge guano heaps – some early clever minded person realized bird crap self ignited and figured out what caused it and isolated phosphorus. Mosaic in Florida both mines and produces fertilizer. The huge hills I was seeing for miles and miles is the leftover sand from mining. Florida’s phosphate industry has been a major economic driver for the Tampa Bay and Central Florida region. Mosaic employs more than 3200, payroll $297M, taxes $16M to the area. Wow. Fertilizer is one of the state’s leading export commodities, $3.2B worth of it. On the other hand, environmentalists are extremely concerned about what the long term impact of removing all this phosphate, reclaiming the land. I encourage you to follow this link:







http://www.baysoundings.com/sum05/phosphate1.html







That was fun, I liked doing that research. Back to the day.



I called Ginnie when I was 5 minutes away so she could meet me at the gate. The wonderful system of entry they have here requires you to push the 4 digit code number and the gate goes up. When you are in a Class A, you can’t reach this touch pad, it’s too low to the ground, requiring you to get out, push it, quickly get back in and drive thru before it closes, or wait for someone to come by to open it for you, hence, Ginnie’s help. She hopped in and we drove to my site. We got out, I gave her a few quick tips in the 3 point system I was going to use, showed her the dots on the side of the rig, told her where to stand and hitched my big girl panties and stepped on the gas. I don’t think she believed me that my system was going to work. Holy Mother of God, it worked. I pivoted around and backed up straight and landed within 5 feet of my sewer connection, exactly where I wanted to be. I was beaming. I still have not come down from that adrenalin high!!! As instructed, before I turned the engine off I leveled and put out my slide. Kathy was on her way out for the day and we only had a brief minute to give her a quick tour and picture taking. The girls did a good job of keeping the neighborhood informed of my Lazydays adventures, and many came over to offer congratulations and best wishes and welcome me ‘home.’ Nice to be back.



I hooked up water (thanks for the help Ginnie – my old hands just can’t make that easy attach gizmo do what it’s supposed to) sewer, and electric. I cleaned up the equipment I had left behind on my rug and stowed it all away, swept my rug, moved my bike from Kathy’s site to mine and sat down in my chair and admired. I had my first alcohol since Wednesday; a Lime-A-Rite over ice at happy hour, and Ginnie made us a wonderful dinner of turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes. I made sautéed spinach and we pigged out.



While I was gone some idiot big rig driver leveled his water outlet pole disrupting water service to most of the campground. He obviously didn’t take the Lazydays course! Ginnie saw it and said his wife was waving him on and she never saw the water spigot. Idiot. The pipe was fixed, but according to ‘law’ since the pressure went down to the system, water must be boiled for 1 minute prior to using. Since I am totally out of bottled water…..I boiled water for me and Winston for drinking, tooth brushing, etc. No need to boil bathing water. Boiling will continue until State testing is completed, probably 2/1. We leave 2/3. I am taking Ginnie’s car tomorrow to the Dollar Store and Wal-Mart and will buy a few gallons of bottled water. Don’t you think they should supply healthy drinking water??????? I do. I know, I know, pull up my britches and deal with it, I just felt I needed to whine about something after such a perfect day.



Kat Out.

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