Doing the Crawl.

Our Location today is Mims, Florida.

After the typical pretravel night of sleeplessness we managed to be up and having breakfast by 7:30 with hot cereal and coffee to try and warm up. The thermometer on the rear of the trailer read 41F (5C) by the time we had packed everything inside the trailer for travel. Since we had been parked in the overflow section at Yankee Travelers RV Park we only had water and electric. Once the jacks were raised and the utilities disconnected we needed to dump out before hitting the road. With that completed I slowly drove down the narrow lanes until we finally exited the park at exactly 11:00.

One last look at the pond near where we were parked

The pole and the picnic table remain but we are leaving.

Clear sailing so we thought.

It felt good being on the road heading for more adventure 156 miles away. According to Mapquest and the GPS the trip should only take just under three hours not counting a fifteen minute nature break and twenty minute lunch stop. As we headed down Ulmerton Road through the construction we made good time and timing the traffic lights to the point of only slowing down thinking out loud we could be setting up early.

Crossing Tampa Bay on I-275

The start of the crawl

When traveling never express good wishes, don’t even think them. Before we crossed the bridge to Tampa on I-275 we came to a stand still and then the traffic started inching its way along. Finally things started rolling for all of a mile and another stop. The thought of an early arrival was verbally dashed as we would be lucky to make it in four hours time. The flashing traffic sign read Major Crash Ahead with long delays.  We never saw any signs of a crash just the traffic backed up.

Crawling again.

Finally we started heading east on Highway 4 only to begin the stop and go and crawling process all over again. Enough already we needed to stop to stretch our legs so upon seeing a Walmart pulled in to the driveway on US 17. Whoever designed the parking lot surely didn’t want RVs to enter because they put all kinds of flower beds at the entrance. Normal people would also wait ten seconds so you could make the turn but not the drivers there today. There is now a new drainage rut in that flowerbed because nobody wanted me going forward and the people behind me wanted me to move on so that is what we did.

Crawl crawl crawl that's all we did.

Finally parking along the curb in the parking lot we walked into the building and the place was packed. Can you imaging going into a Walmart and seeing all the cashiers open and long lines at all of them. We couldn’t figure it out unless people were really stocking up for St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday. We did pick up extra minutes for our Trac Phone and a coffee at the McDonalds. Within twenty minutes we were heading back to the truck when I noticed a Walmart semi going towards the back of the store. Driving towards the rear of the store we found an easy way out without risk of damage to our rig.

The Everglades from I-95.

 

The stop and go and crawling continued for a while until we finally got to I-95 north. The last leg of the trip only took forty-five minutes. Tonight we are at the Crystal Lake RV Park in Mims Florida after a three hour road trip that had us crawling along the roads for over six hours not counting our stops that worked out to an average speed of less than 35 miles per hour.. We are sure we’ll sleep tonight.

Finally rolling north on I-95

Our destination Crystal Lake RV Park.

Tomorrow is another day and it is sure to be a better one. Thanks for following along and feel free to leave a comment. Be Safe and Enjoy!

It’s about time.

Krackers

How much do pirates pay for their earrings?

A Buccaneer!