A few rigs left yesterday but most of the rally attendees stayed around for the New Year’s Eve dinner and party.  A lot of us were up later than normal, so the first day of 2014 had a slow, quiet start.  Even so, there were a couple of buses that started up and pulled out before we got out of bed.  The weather was partly cloudy with pleasant temperatures, not the way we are used to starting a new year.  We have been tracking the weather back home and the key words are snow, ice, cold.

Although the rally was officially over we knew from conversations that some of them would be staying at the Turner Agri Civic Center for a few more days.  Some were headed home to places like the Carolina’s or Tennessee, but many others were headed somewhere in Florida.  Jack and Paula live less than 14 miles from the rally site and were headed there along with some of their friends.  Mike and Maryann were headed south about an hour to the Peace River Campground.  Bill, Karen, Mike, and Kathy were headed to Orange City up towards Orlando.  Others, like us, were headed north up the west coast.

We targeted 10 AM as our departure time and finished preparing the coach for travel.  By 9:30 AM we had everything ready to go except for the electrical shoreline, which I like to leave plugged in until the last minute.  We took one last stroll to find Bill and Brenda and thank them for a wonderful rally and say “happy new year” and “until we meet again” to anyone we encountered.  We chatted briefly with Dave Rush who also took a lot of photographs and shot video with his iPad.  You can find his images at http://tikvahmarketing.com .  Look for the Arcadia Rally link on the home page.

There was finally nothing left to do except leave.  We disconnected and stowed the electrical shoreline and did a final walk around.  We checked the lights and found that the towing lights on the car were not working.  I had noticed when we arrived that the connections on the umbilical cable were a bit corroded so I cleaned those and voila, we had towing lights.  We lit up the engine, pulled across the field that separated our site from the entrance road, and were on our way.

We made the 40 miles on FL-70 W to I-75 N in dry conditions, but not long after turning north on I-75 we encountered rain, which stayed with us for the rest of the trip.  We made a brief stop at the Pilot Truck Stop at exit 341 on I-75 to top off the tank and add our diesel fuel additive and biocide.  We wanted to make sure we arrived a Williston Crossings RV Resort with a nearly full fuel tank to keep moisture condensation to a minimum and the biocide to make sure nothing grows in the fuel while we are sitting for three months.

It was raining lightly when we got to Williston Crossings RV Resort so I put on my rain coat and unhooked the car while Linda got us registered.  We had scoped out our site (#439) when we were here a week ago, so I knew it was big enough for us and that backing into it should not be a problem.  We ended up coming at that task from a slightly different direction, but with the help of two resort volunteers and one of our new neighbors I got it backed in and lined up fairly easily.

The site was so level that I did not have to adjust the level low system, which I switched out of ride height position before shutting down the engine as it seems to help hold the air in the suspension.  I hooked up the shoreline (in the rain), shut off the air to everything that didn’t need it, and went inside to help Linda set up the coach for living.  We have more privacy on this site than we normally do in an RV park/campground, and we are parked facing due north (the ideal direction) so we decided to put our front shades all the way up and remove the upper side window covers, which we have never had off until now.  The four windshields form a picture window that is 8.5 ft wide and 6 ft high.  Having those uncovered opens up the sense of interior space, lets in lots of light, and affords a panoramic view as long as we are not parked where they get direct sunlight, which tends to heat up the interior.

We will be here for three months during which time we do not plan to move the coach.  This winter trip to Florida will be the longest period of time we have spent in this or any RV, and the three months at Williston Crossings RV Resort will be the longest we have lived in it while parked at the same spot.  That means we will finally get to use some things, like our printer, that we brought along for the first time but have not yet retrieved from their storage places and set up.  Likewise, it means we can store some things that normally sit out as we won’t need them again until April 1^st.

We did not eat breakfast this morning, we never do on travel days, so once we were set up Linda made a pot of coffee.  She had some berries to use up, so she fixed breakfast for dinner; Pancakes Pirello (vegan) with blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries and real maple syrup, and vegan sausage patties.

Most of Florida is having a prolonged rain event, and the rain at the resort continued all evening and overnight.  I am happy to report that as of this writing none of our water leaks have re-appeared, a combination of Michele Henry’s good work at Phoenix Paint (Edwardsburg, MI) and perhaps warmer temperatures causing things to swell slightly and seal.  Whatever the reason, it was nice to be sitting inside on a rainy day with no drips.