Sunday, May 1, 2022. Heading North from Florida

Sunday, May 1, 2022.  Heading North from Florida

We had another restful night of sleep in the RV and got up for an earlier start.  Ibis were in the yard chasing after worms, like we would have robins doing.

After a healthful oatmeal breakfast with Kathy and John, we bid them farewell and hit the road.  

Our first stop was a travel institution called Buc-ee’s.

It is a chain that originated in Texas, and we have seen a couple on our travels, but we had no idea what they were until Kathy and John recommended we fill up at the Daytona Beach Buc-ee’s because the diesel is cheapest and the place is well worth taking a stroll in.   They also have more than a hundred filling pumps.  We filled up the RV and then went inside to check it out.  The place is huge and is a mash-up of an upscale AM/PM with a Bass Pro or Dick’s Sporting Goods plus a Southern food court with BBQ, roasted and glazed nuts, hot dogs, sausage, jerky, and snacks, as well as an extensive gift and clothing store.  

As we entered the store, a family had just gone through the doors and the mom was telling everyone “OK, in exactly one hour, we meet back at this door”.  

The bathrooms were huge, very modern and spotless.  There were at least 12 urinals with fully tiled walls, floors and dividers, while the sit down stalls were also fully tiled and fitted with full height doors like in Europe.  

There was a huge Jeep Jamboree in Daytona Beach so the parking lot was full of Jeeps of all sorts, including some with extreme custom modifications.

Next we attempted to visit one of Janet’s High School girlfriends Sugie, who lives in Palm Coast.  Unfortunately, Sugie is a bit of a recluse.  Her email address that Janet had on file bounced back as undeliverable, and she never gave her phone number to Janet.  Janet had a street address, and knew that she owned 3 McDonalds restaurants in Palm Coast, so we first stopped in a McDonalds to ask if she might be around, or if an employee might be able to give us her phone number.  Well, it turns out that Sugie retired and sold her McDonalds franchises to someone else, and the staff had no idea how to get a hold of her.  We then tried to drive to the home address that Janet had.  This was in an extremely posh neighborhood, like living on the grounds of Disney World.  Everything was extremely manicured, watered and the landscaping was all very mature.  There were water fountains in many locations along the drive.  You had to pay a toll to get on the private island, and as we turned onto her street, we were greeted with a manned gate.  The guard said he was not privy to any of the residents’ phone numbers and couldn’t contact Sugie for us to allow her to buzz us through the gate.  So that all ended up being one big wild goose chase without resolution.  At least we didn’t have to pay a second toll to get off the private island.  

The rest of the day was a lot of driving through flat pine forests with interspersed palms.  We made a detour to pick up some Florida souvenirs at the Jacksonville Costco and tried to pick up Pollo Tropicale for lunch, but the restaurant was closed for some sort of emergency maintenance issue, so we ended up having peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and potato chips for lunch on the road.  We filled up the RV in Hardeeville and made it to the Hope Haven Equestrian Center and Farm Harvest Host site.  They actually have several RV sites with 30 and 50A power, so we could plug in and run the air conditioning. 

 We Zoomed with John and Price using the Hope Haven Wifi network.  Ciara is in nearby Atlanta attending a wedding, so she missed out on the Zoom call.  

We had chicken and pasta with Alfredo sauce and beans for dinner and called it an early night after a long day of driving.