We woke to sunny skies and warm temps. It did not rain overnight, so that made our packing up a little easier. We got an answer from the online “help” line for Panasonic–the manufacturer of my camera. They emailed a set of step-by-step directions to try and fix the computer glitch in my camera that wouldn’t allow it to focus. Bob followed their directions and abracadabra…..it worked! My camera is back in business. It’s too bad I didn’t have it working to take pictures yesterday at the lighthouse, but at least we don’t have to mess with getting it fixed at home. We packed up as much as we could inside the trailer to make unloading go faster. While I did the cleaning inside, Bob took care of emptying the holding tanks outside. I wanted to have as much packed up as I could so that the job of off-loading all our things would go a lot quicker once we got home and the trailer would be ready to put back into storage. Bob had defrosted the freezer the night before so we wouldn’t have to do that once we got home. Auggie got his morning walk and knew something was going on. He paced inside the trailer while Bob and I readied everything for departure. We pulled out of the campsite around 10:00 and headed out Hwy. A1A over the causeway and the ICW to Hwy. 16 which would take us out of town to I-95.
Traffic was heavy for a Friday morning, but the day was sunny and we’re headed for home. We crossed the St. John’s River which brought back memories of our boat trip down that river with our friends, Pam and Don, a few years ago.
We caught Hwy. 4 just outside of Daytona Beach which would take us through Orlando—not the best way to go home, but the shortest. We saw this amusement “ride” which was a hot air balloon tethered to the ground. Bob said that you wouldn’t get him in that thing, but I’ve always thought a hot air balloon ride would be fun! Guess I’ll have to do that one by myself someday.
Traffic was unbelievable going east around Disney World. It was almost at a standstill for a few miles, even though we couldn’t see any cause for it. At least it was backed-up going in the opposite direction from the way we were going.
Once we passed this landmark for Disney World, I knew we were past the worst area for traffic congestion and it would be easier.
As we neared Tampa, we noticed some unusual cloud formations that told us that we might be getting some rain later in the day.
There was a dark rain cloud hanging over Palmetto as we entered our neighborhood around 2:30. We were hoping the rain would hold off until we could get the trailer unloaded. Auggie was glad to be home. He couldn’t wait to get outside by his favorite tree and start hunting geckos again. We parked in front of the house and within 30 minutes we had everything off-loaded and were ready to take the trailer back to the storage facility. Everything at the house looked good. Our neighbors, Denny and Brigid had kept an eye on things while we were gone. We owe them a big “thank you” for picking up our mail and watering the plants. Thanks, guys! We took the trailer to the storage facility just 5 minutes outside of town and got it set up to be stored until our next adventure. Back at the house, we still had lots to do with unpacking and putting everything away. We had that done in no time and were ready to relax for the rest of the evening. Bob and I work well as a team and we have this packing and unpacking thing down to an “art”. We calculated that we had gone 2,218 miles in 26 days on this trip. Everything worked well and we got back home safe and sound! We had a great time and have some wonderful memories!
