Tampa/Key West

We left Jekyll Island Sunday morning which was pleasant and sunny – finally! We stopped at Flying J to buy fuel for the coach and truck and empty the holding tanks. It was very busy and we were there almost an hour. En route to Tampa we stopped to buy fresh squeezed orange juice at the Orange Shop in Citra, FL – really good! We checked into LazyDays Rally Park Sun. afternoon and were pleased with our site – good view, close to exit to Crown Club, and the WiFi works. We enjoyed the Crown Club benefits – breakfast, lunch, and happy hour daily. Crown Club membership for two years came with the purchase of our coach and is renewable only by purchasing another qualifying motorhome. Our membership expires June 2008 so we decided to enjoy its benefits for a few days en route to Key West. We enjoyed meeting other members and dining with them and also had the pleasure of meeting fellow Country Coach owners and full timers Don and Janet who stopped to visit and and went to happy hour with us at the Crown Club one afternoon. They had contacted us after reading our article in the Country Coach magazine. We also attended several seminars: refrigeration, Cummins engines, Internet 101, Country Coach info, and Fantasy Baja tour. George did all this despite getting sicker and finally ending up with a sinus infection, but he was recovering by the time we left LazyDays Friday morning after one last great omelet at the Crown Club. We drove to Florida City where we overnighted at Wal-Mart and bought a few supplies and groceries. We had a pleasant but slow drive down the Keys and arrived at Boyd’s RV Park around lunch time. We got settled in and took the truck to the car wash since we had considerable road spray from a couple of showers en route. Then we went to Mallory Square to see the Sunset Festival performers and, of course, the sunset which was fabulous. A Carnival cruise ship was departing as we arrived, and we saw a beautiful sailing yatch from George Town, the largest sailing yatch we’ve ever seen – and such marvelous varnished teak. After sunset, we went to our old favorite, the Half Shell Raw Bar, for dinner of yellowfin tuna for George and broiled shrimp for Irene – a great ending for our first day in Key West.