Ocala calls itself the horse capital of the world. Wonder if they told Kentucky. But, there were certainly many miles of horse farms north and south of Ocala. Here's a picture off a real estate company's website. By the way, what is it that makes a simple board fence a thing of beauty?
Florida is so short of elevation that we saw one of those Steep Slope, Trucks Use Lower Gear, signs at a RR overpass, the downside of which was a 5% grade of maybe four truck-lengths! Must have had an extra sign and had to put it somewhere. Or, maybe they were worried about senior citizens in golf carts.
The RV park we're staying at in Seffner, east side of Tampa, is called Rally Park. It's set up to host rally groups like ours -- there's a large building for group meals and other functions, all sorts of amenities. There are 120 Tiffin motor homes here for the Allegro Rally, but there are also a lot of other-make motor homes here and some empty spaces. Some of the occupants are in the process of trading RVs, or maybe waiting to get in for service. Rally Park is operated by the largest RV dealer in the country -- Lazydays. They told us that they have 158 sales people, going to 180 by January when they have big sales pushing the new models. There's a shuttle that takes people from Rally Park to Lazydays sales and service. In addition to Rally Park there are literally hundreds of RVs parked in the Lazydays lots -- occupied and hooked up. Folks in the park get free (but VERY limited) breakfasts and lunches at Lazydays. Maybe pick up a new motor home after lunch. No such thing as a free lunch.
We got a choice parking spot: on the end of a row so we only have a neighbor on the driver side; the passenger/patio side doesn't. Also, most rigs are parked back to back -- all spaces are back-in -- but here at the end of the row nobody is behind us. The only drawback was that we had kids (!) beside us. (The sound of kids makes Susie think: FIELD TRIP! Except for grandkids, of course.) But they left the first day and nobody moved in all week. Maybe we got this site because we registered early, or just got lucky. We've come the third-farthest distance -- Washington and Nevada rigs beat us.
Oh, one drawback. All the dogwalkers stop and their little darlings water our lawn.
Tuesday was devoted to seminars -- people talking about all the equipment involved in a motor home. I learned a lot, including some things I've been doing wrong -- fortunately with no ill effect that I know of.
Another great feature of the rally is that Tiffin has several service technicians on site, down here from the factory in Red Bay, AL -- which is quite an operation; we were there last fall. Here, you fill out a list of service/repair issues, put it on your windshield, and someone comes to work on them. Free. That happened for us Tuesday afternoon. Very pleasant, knowledgable, hard-working guy, Robert, stopped by and diagnosed and fixed our list of problems.
Another learning experience. For instance, I learned that if you lubricate the front step, which catches all the water and dirt from the road, it will then retract the way it's supposed to. Doh! I thought maybe I had bent it getting out of our driveway because I did scrape it against the RR tie border.
One thing I didn't expect the Tiffin tech to be able to do on-site was to replace the crank handle on the bathroom overhead vent. The strong wind we got into earlier on this trip broke it. I got on the roof and ducttaped the vent shut -- that's my skill-level when it comes to repair. But, the Tiffin parts trailer had a handle and when it didn't fit, Robert just drilled some new holes and made it fit. Talent way beyond duct tape.
Wednesday's activity was a luncheon cruise on Tampa Bay. Here are a couple of Bay shots. Downtown, with convention center in foreground, and a nice row of estates with boats along one bank. We hadn't realized that Tampa is a major cruise terminal. Also, the biggest shipping port in Florida.
After the big lunch, we opted out of the evening meal -- even though it was already paid for in our registration fee -- in favor of a Wal-Mart run and Wendy's. (One day, long ago, not here, we were in a group of people and the talk turned to personal chefs. I said we had one. Her name is Wendy. just kidding :-)
Evening meals have themes and you're encouraged to dress in themes, so we did -- Susie loves this sort of thing. Monday night we were one of a very few dressed colonial style. Tuesday many more folks, including us, dressed Western. Tonight we missed Pirate night -- anybody want an unused eyepatch?
Thursday featured a ladies tea party. Susie won for best costume:
The day's field trip was to the Boggy Bottom Barbecue Ranch. This ranch, operated by the folks who are catering our meals here, features barbecue but also has trails and stuff to look at. Here I'm in the playground bus, naturally.
The owner gave us an eco-tour through his property. Florida produces a lot of phosphate. Historically, after the phosphate was mined, large holding ponds were built to hold and dry out the residue. His ranch has a large U-shaped berm that was the boundary of a long-ago holding pond. Lots of palm trees and boggy growth. The tour highlight was feeding hotdog buns to his cattle.
Friday was pretty quiet. I went to a class on driving tips -- how to set your mirrors, back, turn properly, know your tail swing, ... . More useful advice. Instructor had heard all sorts of stories. One was the guy who drove off from the RV park and three hours later was stopped by a highway patrolman who asked him if he was missing anything. His wife!
Some other advice: You're preparing to back into a campground spot and there's another camper's car in the way. Rather than ask them to move the car, and risk being rejected or scorned -- shouldn't drive a rig that big if you cain't handle it -- just say, This is the first time I've backed a motor home and I .... . They'll move without being asked.
Went to Camping World and found several things we didn't know we needed, but now we have them.
Friday's dinner theme was Broadway and Susie, who had planned for us to go in the pirate garb that we skipped earlier -- she said that would represent the show, "PMS Pinafore" -- was the first to opt out -- I reluctantly agreed :=( . Turned out there was only one couple in costume -- Phaeton of the Opera -- their motor home is Tiffin's Phaeton model and the guy had one of those half-masks from Phantom.
We debated all week about our course after the rally was over. First plan was to go to Nashville to see Mandi and Paul, but we/they hit on the alternative of them coming down here to spend a couple of days with us in the bus in Tampa. We will then take a more southerly route to OK, then home in about 10 days.
I know many of you have been waiting "anxiously" for our Rally report, so we'll post it today.
Cheers,
Rob and Susie
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