Back in the dim and distant past

Summer was a distant memory, cold winds whistled down from the arctic, with frozen toes, icy windscreens and dark nights, it was time to escape!


So we did, away we flew to Florida to cloudless blue skies, hot sun and white sand beaches where we hired a small RV for collection in Tampa.

By our standards Tampa was warm, almost hot, by Floridian standards it was time for a sweater.


After the obligatory orientation video we were handed the keys to our rig by a smiling Floridian lady who kindly informed us that we'd been upgraded to a bigger, more luxurious model.

We'd thought 26ft long was plenty long enough to drive on the wrong side of the road. So we smiled, accepted the keys walked outside, took one look and panicked. It was huge!


During the pre-trip inspection we discovered we only had a half tank of gas rather than the full one we'd requested. No problem responded the smiling Floridian lady and gave us directions to the gas station.


Feeling as though we were taking our life in our hands we took a right out of the gate, got in the left lane for a couple of hundred yards then did a U turn, got into the right lane and pulled into the gas station. Oh and don't worry about roof clearance there would be plenty of room. Roof clearance who'd ever even thought about roof clearance?


Gas topped off we headed off over the Sunshine Skyway across Tampa Bay, down to Pine Island, onto Naples, Key Largo and Key West, along the way we met lots of friendly people, watched countless sunsets, discovered Jimmy Buffet, Margaritaville and had lots of fun!


We were hooked, we wanted to see the rest of the USA and this was definitely the way to do it.