197 miles via FL 40, FL 35, US 301, FL 471, US 98, FL 31 and FL 80. 211 truck miles. 1703 cumulative tow miles. 2075 cumulative truck miles.
This was not the fastest route – that would have been via I-75. But that route would have tested the limit of the gas tank. So I opted for a safer, shorter but slower route. There were no problems, just a lot of traffic, especially through Lakeland. The latter half of the trip, on US 17 and FL 31, was a familiar route which I like a lot, so I could relax a bit as I cruised those last 2 hours.
My greatest concern when we arrived at our site at 4:30pm – certainty, really – was that the Toyota, which had been sitting idle since May 22nd (4.5 months) would not start. I was planning, in my head, what to do: park the rig in the street, unhitch, use the truck to jump start the Toyota, move it out of the way, hitch up again. I figured it would take about 30 minutes before I could even attempt to park the rig. But it started! Barely – turned over slowly a couple of times and then, unexpectedly, started! I was able to simple back it onto the street and let it run, recharging the battery, while I maneuvered the RV into its winter home.
The back-in – always a challenge – went pretty well. I had to make minor adjustments to get it perfectly positioned, but it took less than 20 minutes to get it just where it needed to be. And another 20 minutes to get it open and ready for occupancy. We were home and Jett was in bed by 5:15pm.
Our final one-night stop on the TS6 was at the Wilderness RV Resort. This resort was interesting to me because it is, like our resort, a place where snowbirds can own a site. It also offers seasonal and yearly leases. It is near Ocala which probably makes it too cool for Jett, but it was worth looking at.
It is nice – well maintained and nicely landscaped. But the roads and the concrete pads are short and very narrow. In fact, I was assigned *2* sites because no pull-thru site could hold both the RV and the truck. Also, the grounds were very wet so it was impossible to get the RV onto the pad without digging deep ruts in the grass. And even when the RV was positioned close to one edge of the pad the steps descended onto wet grass. Probably not a place we could stay for a season.
But others might be interested. I will say that the seasonal rental rates are very attractive: about $700 per month (plus electric) for a one-month stay and about $650 per month for a 6-month season (under $4000 for the season!). Many resorts farther south have rates in excess of $2000 per month during season.
So we are safely (until the next hurricane hits) at home in Fort Myers. Tomorrow I will do a wrapup of the TS6.