Trip to Lazy Days on Our First Full Day at Terra Ceia

   We both woke up at 8:15 this morning.  Our plan was to go to Manasota Beach in Venice for the day, but that changed when we saw on the news that the "sea fog" had once again settled on the area beaches and it wasn't expected to lift until early afternoon.  Even the Sky Bridge over the Tampa Bay was closed to traffic.  So, instead, we decided to go to Lazy Days in Seffner to check out the new Bounders.  No, No, No, we're not looking to replace Harvey, we are just curious to see how the new ones differ.  They also opened up a new RV Accessory Store that we were anxious to see.  (We need to compare it to Camping World).  So we had breakfast, chilled a bit, took the top off the Jeep and then at about 11:00 took off for the 45 minute trip to Lazy Days.  Just after we got on the highway the closure of the Sky Bridge was very evident.  The westbound side of 275 was all backed up because the exit for I-75 southbound was blocked off.  Cars were lined up on the road and off the road just waiting for it to open.  It was crazy!  Luckily, we only hit a few minor snags.  You just never know what to expect on I-75!!

There we are "tooling" down the highway.  I'm
glad John didn't catch any bugs in his mouth!
Hey...I took a "selfie"!!

  We arrived at about 11:45. 

I love these cute RV planters out front. 
The zinnias are still small, but pretty!

 

Here's where it all started 2 years ago when
Bonnie and Ken wanted to show us the place
they got their Waldo.

 

This is the front door.

We immediately went inside to look for Phil Collie, the great guy who sold Harvey to us.  He wasn't in his office, but his co-worker told him we were looking for him and he found us shortly after in the cafeteria (we were getting drinks).  We chatted for a quite a while...it was so good to see him again!  Then we headed out to the sales lot to take a peek at the 2016 Fleetwood Bounders.  Yes, there were a few updates we like in the new ones, like all vinyl flooring-no carpet, repositioned powder room vanity, and French door fridge, but overall we would still choose our Harvey!!  None of them had a dinette, they all had booths.  We had our free hotdog , chips and soda and then checked out the Winnebago Sightseers like Bonnie and Ken's Waldo.  The only one we saw that caught our eye was a 36 footer (theirs is 33').  It had an all vinyl muted black and cream colored mock hard wood floor that was pretty neat!  But all in all we didn't see anything better than Waldo.  John and I LOVE their RV!!  Then we went back into the café and had a strawberry shortcake sundae made from strawberries from Plant City.  We also bought 2 quarts of strawberries.  YUM!!  From there we went over to the new store.  When we got there John and I went our separate ways.  In a few minutes John came to me and said I needed to come with him because he wanted me to see something.  Now, Bonnie and Ken...pay attention!  He drug me over to an Encore/Thousand Trails sales counter and guess who was there...

...JOSH!  (He is the rep we usually deal with
at the Hershey RV Show)

That is now his permanent location!  No more communication centers and no more RV shows, although he still keeps in contact with his prior clients.  He lives about 68 miles from Lazy Days, and they even pay his mileage.  He seems very happy there.  We booked a fall trip to Royal Coachman while we were there.  We tried to book a month long stay in Texas for 2017, but he found out that the quote he gave us was not available at this time.  We'll get back together with him later.  It was fun talking with him.  We left Lazy Days at about 3:00.  It was smooth sailing on the way back, thank goodness.  We stopped for some groceries at Publix in Palmetto not too far from our CG.  When we got back and were ready to put the groceries away, we noticed that the temp of the fridge was up to 40.  We have been having trouble with keeping the temp under 38 lately, so we purposely put it on propane while we were gone, to see if that would help.  Well, obviously it didn't.  The blades/coils in the rear of the fridge were pretty frozen over, so we decided to use a hairdryer to melt it off and see if that might make a difference.  We worked at that for about the next 45 minutes and then put everything back in.  Now we have to keep our fingers crossed that it will solve the problem!  When we turned it back on it was at 60 degrees (the freezer was still frozen and we had put a bunch of things in there so they wouldn't spoil).  Then John grilled hamburgers while I re-organized the pantry.  A gal stopped by to let us know she was from Lancaster...she graduated from Hempfield.  She now lives in Maine since 1997.  Small world, huh?!?  After supper we played a game of 5 Crowns.  I won again, but it was 73-74 going into the last hand.  I watched Am Idol and worked on the blog while John did some reading.  He went to bed about 10:45.  I'll probably get there about 11:45.  BTW...the fridge is at 40 right now.  Hopefully, it will go down to 34 or so by morning!!