After Mom’s house, we had to head back to Tampa to get a few things fixed on Rover. Most were minor but since one involved a loose slide topper bracket pulling away from the coach, we wanted to get it fixed asap. Since our first drive on I-75 from Tampa to Port Charlotte was a bit (ok, a LOT) harrowing, we decided our return journey would be on smaller US highways instead. Mike planned our route and made sure we wouldn’t meet any low bridges and we were on our way. Slower roads + less traffic + second drive = no more steering-wheel-grip-of-death. This second drive gave us the confidence that we might be able to handle this beast after all.

The Rain-x and 303 protectant we put on the front of Rover in Port Charlotte seemed to help a little bit but there were still a fair number of LoveBugs that needed to be scrubbed off after our drive back to Tampa. The Rain-x made it easy to get the bugs off the windshield, but strangely the 303 seemed to make it harder to remove the LoveBug residue from the Diamond Shield. With a bit of scrubbing, we did get them all off. I swear I never spent this much time on any of my other cars to keep them so shiny and clean. I certainly won’t miss those things when we head out of here. Next time, I think we need to avoid Florida during the LoveBug season.

Once LazyDays finished the repairs on Rover, we decided to head to St. Augustine as we slowly make our way back to VA/DC/MD. We talked briefly about visiting the Space Coast (Cape Canaveral) but decided on waiting until we came back to Florida later in the year. Then out of curiosity, I checked the Kennedy Space Center homepage and saw there was the Delta V rocket launch scheduled for the very next evening! Once I shared that information, we both decided to head over to the Space Coast instead to watch the launch and explore the area a little more.

Our first fuel-up. Took us a bit of effort to get Rover into position.

We made a brief trip to Camping World with Rover to install two new ceiling vent covers, fueled up Rover for the first time, and headed to the Space Coast. With our new covers we can leave our ceiling vents open and fans on even in the rain. Since the fans are great for moving air through the coach, this was high on our list for coach upgrades.

It amazes and delights me that we can have this kind of flexibility during our travels. We haven’t had to reserve campground sites until  one or two days before arrival which allows us to change our minds if we want to. Many fulltime RVers state they rarely reserve campgrounds in advance although some will call the same day to check availability. We have a little less flexibility because of our two large dogs. Some campgrounds have limits when it comes to dogs (size, breeds, number) so we want to be sure we can get in without issues. Plus since we’re still pretty new to this, we want that extra security of knowing we have a place reserved for us at our next location.

 Hanging out at Space Coast RV Resort