We were headed to Florida because we had an oil leak, and there was an automotive shop with experts on Delicas. Florida became our 11th state in one month of travel.
Let me start by saying that I have never been to Florida and never had any intentions of visiting before now, Part of the reason was that my parents weren’t fans of Florida. Therefore, we weren’t the typical Ohio family that went to Florida for vacations.
I was determined to make the best of it regardless of my biases. Several things were making that difficult. First off, the wind was dreadful. All the way to Fort Myers. Our tall, thin driving box was buffeted around on the highway. Second, it felt like summer in Ohio: hot and humid.
Third, Florida doesn’t seem to have much in the way of free camping. My regular online source for searching showed previously reported places as being closed now. Other places in wildlife management areas require permits.
When we stopped at a rest area on the interstate, we discovered there is a 3-hour limit for staying there. No overnight stays allowed. When we talked to someone at one of the rest areas because of our van. It is definitely a conversation starter, he said you can usually stay the night if you explain that you are still too tired to drive after three hours. The thought of a possible knock on the window in the middle of the night by security did not sound restful, so we didn’t even try to sleep at one.
Florida is just not off-grid boondocking friendly.
We came across the fanciest truck stop we had ever seen. It’s called Busy Bee and they brag about their restrooms. I have to admit it was like being in a fancy restaurant. Apparently, the men’s room has a TV. The store was pretty fancy too.
The wind was just as bad on our second day in Florida. We stopped in Tampa to take a break. We found a park on the water to have dinner.
After dinner, it was off to Fort Myers to find a Cracker Barrel near the mechanic to spend the night before our appointment. This would be our first, but not last, overnight Cracker Barrel experience. It was a quiet place to sleep.
After we dropped off the van at the mechanic, we took a walk and came across the first of many different birds we would see in Florida.
After the mechanic took a look at the van, we were told that not only did we have the aforementioned oil leak, but a radiator leak and even worse, a brake fluid leak into the driver’s side of the cab. We had thought it was water from all of the rain. There were other issues too.
During our travels, we talked about how nice it would be to get one of the new engines that Hyundai manufactured that would fit our van. We would be able to not only drive faster but avoid more issues with our 32-year-old van’s engine.
When we brought that up with the mechanic, he said they had them in stock, which would almost double our horsepower. Although it would be expensive, I was willing to spend the money to make our home more reliable and allow us to travel longer.
They said they could schedule us in 2-3 weeks. The benefits of having a new engine made up for the money we would have to spend and having to come back to Florida. It didn’t make sense to try and stay until then.
Part II will have a lot more photos.
WanderLyd 