Sumter Oaks Escapees RV Park, Bushnell, Florida

We left Lazydays RV park on Saturday and drove a short distance to the Escapees park near Bushnell, Florida.

We are enjoying walking around the campground and seeing the neighboring properties...

There is a swamp directly behind the campground. It is actually very pretty although it has duckweed or something like it on top.

On one side of the campground, there is a property with donkeys...

... since we were beside the fence, 3 of them came over to check us out.

We had no treats, so they quickly lost interest!

Some more of the donkeys...

There was one baby...

... so cute!

It appears that their ears are full grown from birth!

Staying close to mom...

... seeing what she is looking at...

... don't let mom get too far ahead!

We are appreciating a few days without scheduled rally activities.

DroneUp!

We stopped at a Walmart in Seffner, Florida, near Lazydays RV park and noticed an interesting display in the parking lot.

It was a setup for DroneUp. We weren't sure what that might be, so we went over to find out.

It is a pilot/experimental program that Walmart is running for drone delivery of items to customers.

The delivered item must fit into this box that is hung below the drone and the weight of the item(s) must be less than 10 pounds.

At this time they only deliver within a 0.8 mile radius of the store. (I have to wonder who would have something delivered if they live only 0.8 miles from the store... as I recall, he said that the delivery costs $3.99.)

The drone is pretty large - the fellow we talked with said that the total weight is limited to 55 pounds (by the FAA?) and the drone itself is 45 pounds (thus the weight limit of 10 pounds for the delivered item).

He told us that the initial project started in Arkansas, and they are now running trial programs in Virginia and Florida, and maybe some other states.

The "pilots" of the drone are located at this spot in the parking lot as the drone delivers the product to the customers.

The fellow that we talked with said that the customers who used it during the initial program in Arkansas often got things delivered that they forgot to pick up when they were at the store. (Patti comment: they should make a list!)

When the drone gets to the delivery location, it can set the package down in the front or back of the house, wherever they are directed to deliver it - however, the drone is limited by the presence of trees. The drone does not land, but has a winch that lowers the package down to the ground (so no one can make-off with the drone!).

More information here: https://www.droneup.com/

We asked the 3 guys there how they got involved with this -- two of them majored in college in drone-something... flying drones, programming them, etc. -- didn't know such a field of study existed!

We asked about the possibility of delivery to RVs. He said that they currently need a street address, and cannot deliver to apartments, though there are probably plans on how to address that.

We wonder how many deliveries they would need to do in a day to make it cost effective -- there were 3 "pilots" plus the equipment to be paid for... we have a hard time figuring how that business model will work (especially if they deliver only a short distance from the store!). It will be interesting to see if and how this develops!

Lost in translation?

We went out to a Chinese buffet ... a couple of interesting things...

There was script written on the table (under the finish) - it looked like it might be "cursive characters", but I'm not sure...

... then this was my "fortune". I read it as written and tried to figure it out...

...then I realized that it made more sense if "virtual" was changed to "virtue". Either way, it was funny!

More at the Freightliner Chassis Owners Club

While at the Freightliner Chassis Owners Club rally...

... we got our holding tanks cleaned by Kleen Tank...

... we heard from one of the folks who conducts the "Camp Freightliner" classes with a lecture about some of the components of our chassis...

... and we viewed the traveling chassis... looks like it would be a bit windy driving it...

... but it is interesting to see all the components...

... I guess I shouldn't mess with the batteries!

Note - they don't drive this from place to place - it comes on the semi that is just behind it. We had seen both a chassis for a Class A (which is what this is) and one for a Super C at the Tampa RV Supershow.

We've been occupied with sessions and socializing with other Freightliner Chassis Owners - we've enjoyed the rally!

Freightliner Chassis Owners Club Rally

The Freightliner Chassis Owners Club (FCOC) Rally started on Tuesday - we had registration, a session for first timers to learn about FCOC and the rally, a happy hour, dinner, and card bingo on Tuesday.

Dinner was BBQ  - which was very good!

The sessions are taking place in the large meeting room here in the campground.

It was interesting to hear about the FCOC. One of the things that we heard from FCOC and from the Newmar Kountry Klub is the difficulty they are having in finding locations for their rallies - wanting to have space for 100-200 coaches, preferably with full hookups, and meeting space - at a reasonable price - means they aren't easy to find!

We are envied by everyone we've talked to here as our chassis maintenance is done by my brother - what a blessing we have with him!

Another day, another rally!

We left the Florida State Fairgrounds and Newmar Kountry Klub Rally on Sunday and drove to Lazydays RV Campground, less than 5 miles away, for a Freightliner Chassis Owners Club (FCOC) Rally scheduled to start on Tuesday. Gracie is built on a Freightliner Chassis, so we are members of the owners club.

Since the rally did not begin until Tuesday, and we arrived on Sunday, we had Monday as a recovery day between rallies!

We walked around Lazydays campground (we are right nextdoor to the Lazydays RV dealership too).

Whoever was directing the parking of this motorhome sure did a poor job of directing them - it goes right through the wall!

Wow, they drove all the way into the building!

The motorhome is a custom designed 68' RV that is part of the Exit 10 Restaurant and Pub on the campground property. It is within the meeting room that will be used for the rally.

Just outside the meeting room and restaurant/pub area is a huge screened in area for the hot tub...

... and pool.

Gracie in her parking space with the Jee-rage in front. The sites are adequate... not huge. We've heard rumors that the campground is going to be closed and totally renovated later this year.

This is an interesting 5th wheel parked here at Lazydays campground -- it has a camouflage wrap on the outside (covering the windows also), and links to information about the US Honor Flag (https://www.ushf.net/).

The rally started on Tuesday with registration and dinner and a couple of introductory events. We will have the opportunity to participate in seminars and other social events over the next few days. The rally ends on Saturday.

Leaving Tampa Supershow and Florida State Fairgrounds

While a number of folks left on Saturday from the Newmar Kountry Klub (NKK) rally, we stayed until Sunday as our next campground reservation was to begin on Sunday. The weather was threatening rain on Saturday but it really did not rain much - a little sprinkle - for which we were thankful as we were parked on grass and not certain what difference rain might make to the surface. 

We got to visit with a number of NKK folks on the last day. We were "show'd out" (not interested in going to see anything more at the Supershow), and could not check into our next campground until 1pm on Sunday and it was only about 5 miles away from the fairgrounds, so not much driving time! We met a number of folks that we look forward to meeting up with again in the future... that is... if we remember... which brings up a funny story.

We were talking with a couple in the tent one evening and in the process told them "our story". When people ask where we live (fulltime in the RV) and then follow up with "well, where did you live before?" - the question gets complicated with me having lived in Texas and Carl in northern Illinois. So it prompts us telling the story of how we met at Quartzsite as couples with our late spouses, and losing our spouses in 2019, reaching out as we were going through dealing with a life-changing experience, and then marrying in 2020, and how blessed we are that God arranged for us to meet back in 2015 so we would be prepared for what God knew was coming in a few years (and how thankful we are that *we* didn't know what was coming!). The couple with whom we were talking said, "Wow, that's amazing, we met another couple with a very similar story out in Las Vegas a year or more ago..." and we said, "We're probably that couple!" Turned out we had met them and none of us remembered each other (Carl said that Alan looked familiar to him, but didn't remember that we had met before). So... that's why I say "we look forward to meeting up again ... if we remember!"

Today (1/23) is Sue's birthday, so we're remembering her and thinking of her today. It is an emotional day as we are thankful for her and her life and impact on her family and friends.

Even more of Tampa Supershow

We still had a few things we wanted to see at the Supershow, so headed back there on Saturday.

First, though, Dometic called about 7:30am and asked if they could do our appointment first thing in the morning, and we said, "Sure!"

Our awning is a Dometic awning - we had a couple of issues that we needed help with... they showed us how we can adjust the height of the awning - we'll need to carry a step stool with us to do it, but that is do-able.

The other problem is an electrical wiring problem... and it was determined to be too involved a problem to be dealt with at the show. What we have is working, just not as "elegantly" as it should.

At the show, we visited some additional Newmar motorhomes, some Tiffin motorhomes, and then stopped at the Winnebago show area.

Winnebago was touting their history -- their 500,000th RV was built in 2022!

We had seen that they were making an announcement on Wednesday -- called eRV2. We asked a salesperson about it; it is a completely electric vehicle and RV:

It is still at the prototype stage, they are looking for feedback on it.

Some more of the marketing around it:

This is the actual unit - a class B. Note that there are solar panels on the front roof. We didn't think to ask how far it travel (how many miles) go on a charge - another person in our Newmar group asked and said that they didn't get an answer. Maybe that's still being worked on!

When we got back to the Newmar group, there was a cornhole tournament going on in the tent. We didn't stay to watch long...

Saturday was the last real day of the rally -- a number of folks left Saturday morning. We had reservations at a campground starting Sunday, so we were staying over, but we'd seen pretty much all we wanted to see at the event by Saturday afternoon. We definitely enjoyed the rally -- meeting new folks, re-meeting folks we'd met before, seeing RVs and RV-related stuff, and getting some service items addressed. All-in-all, a good use of our time!

More of the 2023 Tampa RV Supershow

More of what we've seen and done at the 2023 Tampa RV Supershow...

Neighbors who are parked across from us in the Newmar area invited us to join them for dinner and conversation on Thursday evening. We were happy to find that they were also Christians, and we had good fellowship with them!

Sunset view of our camping area.

Thursday night there was to be entertainment put on by the Florida RV Trade Association. We weren't exactly sure where it was to be, but we walked over to the fairgrounds, asked a few workers there - one indicated that they had set up 1500 chairs for something in the evening in a particular building, so we headed there. A group called "Sunday Drive" (https://sundaydrivemusic.com/home) was singing - we enjoyed their concert very much!

Friday morning was a "Tech Talk" for Newmar owners in the tent at our camping area. A fellow from Onan generators and another from Cummins engines did presentations and answered questions - very informative.

After the tech talk, we headed into the event to attend a seminar on a tour to Alaska. We enjoyed listening to the presentation, but as the presenter finished, we noticed folks on the row in front of us getting up were friends from the SKP Christian Fellowship group - Allen and Donna! We got up and met them in the back of the room...

... and then got to sit with them a little while during lunch. Carl and Allen...

... Patti and Donna.

What a neat God-incidence! We knew that they were staying not too far away, and they knew that we were at the Tampa Supershow, but we had not made arrangements to meet up - so it was great to have God-orchestrated so we would meet and be able to visit for a little while!

After lunch, we headed out to look at some more RVs -- we're enjoying seeing the inside of rigs we've seen in campgrounds from the outside.

One of the things I wanted to see was truck slide-in campers. We stopped at the Host truck campers -- I was shocked at how roomy they were --

Looking from the entry door at the back toward the front over-cab bed....

... looking toward the back where the entry door was to the left, and a bath was on the right side.

$113K - high for a truck slide-in camper.

Underneath there was a slide-out drawer in the bed of the pickup truck.

When I was in the camper, it felt like I was in a class C, not a pickup truck camper! The weight information indicates it is 4,349 dry weight, and indicates a 1 ton dually with 8' bed needed to carry the camper. We think it may still be quite top-heavy for the pickup truck.

We also looked at a number of "class Bs" or camper vans. The manufacturers consider them quite dear...

Over $220k for this one...

It was a 4x4 and small in size - good for going to places that a rig like Gracie would never fit, but much too small for full-time RVing.

Some more truck campers - these by Lance. Lance is well known for well-built and insulated campers.

There were some unique rigs such as a Show Hauler. We had seen one of these in the storage lot at National Indoor RV and wondered what they are like inside -- they are *very* nice!

We also stopped and saw a couple of the DRV Suites 5th wheels -- we didn't take pictures, but we think that they are also very well made - felt very solid and well built.

When the Onan representative was talking to our Newmar group on Friday morning, he indicated that there was a new "concept" generator on display at their booth and that they were interested in hearing our feedback on it.

So, we stopped by the booth and got a bit of an explanation on it --

... it combines a quiet small generator with a power distribution hub and lithium-ion battery pack. Carl understood more about it than I did, but what I got out of it was that it was a first step toward something that would comply with soon-coming California regulations on generators.

Finally, as we were leaving the event grounds, we stopped to see the River Stone 5th wheels - another set of models that is putting more under-bay storage in 5th wheels...

This one showed that even a small golf cart could fit into the under-bay!

The concept on these is that the interior floor of the living area is on one level - unlike most 5th wheels that have an "upstairs" room over the hitch -- in these, the whole living space is at the level of the "upstairs" room. That means more steps to get into the RV, but none once you are inside. We were interested to see how much more storage space they have than normal 5th wheels!

We were anticipating a service representative coming to our rig so headed back to meet them if they came... it turned out they did not, but we were glad to have some time that we weren't walking or standing! Going to these events is exhausting! We joined the folks who were parked near us for dinner again and enjoyed another evening of conversation with them. We are enjoying our time at the Tampa RV Supershow!