Day 125: Haines City, FL

We are once again on the move, after returning to the point on our route near Mt. Dora where we had stopped pedaling a bit more than a week ago.  We've made the decision to end this year's travels tomorrow near Zolfo Springs, FL.  That means that this is our final night of camping for this year.  It also means we have around 130 or so miles to cover in two days, so today we split the riding.  Alea covered 36 miles this morning, while I rode the final 34 miles in the early afternoon.

Refueling at Green Mountain Overlook.  Surprisingly, we had no trouble breathing
at the staggering altitude of 308 feet above sea level.

Yay!  Three and a half miles with no traffic!
(Note Alea's new rack bag).

There was more traffic than we like seeing along a good chunk of today's route.  And when the traffic was better, the roads mostly had no shoulders.  We expect we'll see more of the same tomorrow.

When we returned from Palmetto last weekend we previewed the roads that we were hoping to use to ride all the way to Teri and Carson's vacation house.  Nearly all of them had no shoulders, and many had a fair amount of traffic (and that was on Sunday).  So we made the decision to avoid those hazards and end this year's trip near Zolfo Springs.  We will begin our 2016 travels there in February.

Tonight we are staying at Central Park Carefree RV Resort ($42, full hook-ups and showers) in Haines City.  There are something like 354 spaces here, plus they have a separate mobile home park just down the street.  And for our $42 we could have had a dinner of pancakes and sausage, but that didn't really appeal to us.

Our Haines City neighbors.

We really enjoyed our week spent staying with Alea's sister, Jean.  It gave us the chance to give the camper and van a quick cleaning and to reorganize the van.  And by using her wi-fi connection, we've likely avoided having to buy extra data this billing period for our AT&T mi-fi.

But Lana seems to be somewhat relieved that we are traveling again.  That is mainly because, in addition to her own pets, Jean fosters cats and dogs.  So Lana had to figure out how to interact with three dogs and six cats.  She did pretty well with Jean's dog Trip, but the two chihuahuas that she is currently fostering was a different matter, as they would yap and charge at anything that moved.  The cats were a mixed bag - some stayed hidden, some were kind enough to let her chase them and one made it clear who was in charge in the household.  I think she appreciates the simple social environment of the camper, where it is so easy to stay out of trouble. 

We are looking forward to the next two months as a time to clean the camper top to bottom, continue to consider refinements to the camper and van, and for me to buy an alternative to my Chromebook (so that I can write without always being tethered to the internet).