Setting off on the Great Adventure

Well, we made it out on Friday, January 20, 2017. We left significantly later than we originally intended. The initial plan was to leave around 9:00 am. My dad scheduled gallbladder surgery for that morning, so we decided to wait until he was safely out of surgery and decided to shoot for noon. We were, of course, still running behind. Given the cold Wisconsin weather, we opted not to do much settling in the RV in Wisconsin, instead stowing everything haphazardly in any possible nook and cranny. We hit the road around 1:10 pm (with dad safely on the other side of anesthesia). We had no problems with the roads or traffic, but the late start meant we didn't get very far. We spent the night at a Wal-Mart in Scottsburg, Indiana. We were lucky to find toothbrushes for the evening and had to crawl over boxes to get into bed. 

Saturday went much better in terms of traveling. We got started around 9 and made it to Lake City, Florida at another Wal-Mart. This morning, we were able to shower in the RV because we'd filled up with water at a Florida rest stop. We were still climbing over boxes and could barely find a thing.

However, the weather was definitely improving - it was in the 60s when we hit the road this morning and got up to 82. We made it into Manatee State Park around 1130 and were grateful that our campsite was open. We unhitched the RV and did a bit of unpacking while the kids explored. It is a lovely campground, with small palm tree-like plants everywhere (less than 5 feet tall or so). There is also Spanish Moss on the trees.

We did settle down to attempt to watch the Packers game, but gave up around half-time and dedicated a bit of time to unpacking. We were able to get the kids' room settled and a fair bit of the kitchen items arranged. Dave was able to get the railing up on the bunk bed - this was requested by the children. 

While we aren't intending to eat out very much during the bulk of our journey, we are in no way prepared for cooking yet (and we'd had our fill of packaged snacks and peanut butter sandwiches on the road), so we opted for a dinner out - seafood seemed appropriate. We found a nice place in Sarasota. Andi was happy with her shrimp. Nick had seafood gumbo and Ahi Tuna. I had a mahi dish with capers and Dave has fish tacos. It was delicious.

Tomorrow, we are hoping to get to Fort de Soto Park tomorrow and then meander up the coast to Clearwater. There is a family friendly nightly gathering on the Clearwater beach that looked interesting. We also need to grocery shop so that we can start cooking at home.

We're hoping to get completely settled over the next week or so. At that point, we're going to buckle down and get more serious about the road-schooling. Hopefully the quality, variety, and frequency of posts will improve as well.