Saturday, April 23, 2022. Sun City Center and Sarasota Area Relatives.
It was a little warm to begin the evening, but it did cool off into the mid 70’s in the evening. We didn’t end up running the AC, but probably could have for a while. A sprinkler system did come on at 11:30pm so we had to close the window over the dinette to keep the spray out. The water used for watering may be reclaimed, and smells a bit of sulfur. In the morning, Jack and Sharon had to go exchange their rental car, but ended up with the same car, but with permission to return it to the airport directly without the usual surcharge. Ben looked at the wiring for the rear view camera which seems to be acting up more in the warmer weather. The image sometimes bleaches out or the frame rates drop to stop and go for several minutes. He hypothesized that maybe some water had gotten into the junction box or the connector had worked loose, but when he opened the junction box, everything looked OK inside. Ben ended up applying a little Vaseline to the connectors, reconnecting them, and closing the junction box back up. Ben moved the folding chairs into one of the storage bays and was able to fold the cargo carrier up to shorten the rig now that we were going to be driving into more urban areas and up the East Coast.
We met Wayne along with Jack and Sharon at the Bob Evans restaurant near the freeway interchange. It is a little bit like a cross between Applebees and Cracker Barrel. We had salad and sandwich combos while Wayne indulged in country fried steak. We then pulled into a nearby shopping mall parking lot, switched to our auxiliary propane tank and ran the generator and air conditioner for an after lunch nap. The temperatures were in the mid 80’s with moderate humidity.
We drove down to Sarasota where Janet’s cousin Melody and her husband Craig were gracious enough to allow us to park in one of their driveways with power and water. We had a mini reunion with Janet’s other cousin Barbara and her husband Steve together with Jack and Sharon at an Irish Gastropub nearby. We also met some of Melody’s and Barb’s kids. Melody just retired after a long nursing career including dealing with the worst of the Covid pandemic over the last couple of years. She really earned that retirement!
We will be spoiled with power and water tonight.
