Travel Day: Road Bumps & Swimming Triumphs

Today we headed to our last campsite in Florida. It was a short drive because of our new schedule. We have put a few miles on the RV this trip and we are starting to notice the effects. Somewhere we have lost a bumper cap, and yesterday I had to crazy glue our cupboard because it separated at one of the seams. We also lost the nice septic cap my parents gave us so Ron would not get sprayed by sewage each time we dumped. All of these are easy fixes thankfully.  

Driving along a stretch of Florida highway we hit a bump today that was not marked and everything bounced. Ron and I cringed, and it brought me back to those trips when my parents would do the same. We both looked back at the RV. Everything was still attached, but a side storage door had sprung open. So, we pulled over and I made a few adjustments and locked it again. 

Bracing myself, I went inside the RV. We have not bounced that much since we have owned our RV so I did not know what to expect. I was glad to find that none of the cupboards had sprung open. The food in the fridge didn’t all come tumbling out when I peeked inside. The biggest problem was our couch, which bounced all the way across the RV.  Phew! Some of the highways we are traveling on have not been nice on our poor RV.

Once we collected our nerves, we were back on the road. We stopped for lunch at Cracker’s Bar and Grill in Crystal River and the kids had their morning classes. We were allowed to bring the pups on the deck with us so that was nice. Unfortunately, they saw a cat on the deck that then ran underneath the deck to hide. After that, they both spent their time jumping off the deck and we spent our time bringing them back up.  Making sure the kids were all situated for school and keeping the dogs straight gave us  little time for a relaxing lunch, but we seem to be used to this now.  

After lunch, we finished the final short stretch to our campsite in Perry FL. Ron and the kids were excited to spend the rest of the day at the pool.  They played all afternoon and I spent time with Maggie and Remi at the dog park. The pups enjoyed a really good run and had a lot of time to play.  At one point a nice gentleman from Greece and his two rescue dogs joined us.  Remi was very excited to have two new dogs to jump all over and chase. Susie and Marley were such good sports about playing with him. Maggie was focused on finding wild creatures. She ran around intent on finding something to chase (besides her younger brother).

When Covid hit the kids stopped their swimming lessons. Ariel was already an amazing swimmer at this point but we worried about Wyatt. He was just starting to get comfortable in the water and trying to swim across the short end of the pool. During this trip Ron has been working with him like his swim instructors do by encouraging him and following him as he tries to swim across the pool.

Today I got to see Wyatt achieve his goal. He swam freestyle all by himself across the short end of the pool as Ron followed beside him.  Wyatt was so proud of himself and we were so proud of him. To think that as a toddler he didn’t even like the water. He has come a long way! I have seen him grow in confidence in so many different aspects along this trip.  Wyatt will have a few more opportunities to practice on this trip before we hit the cooler weather.   

Maggie and Remi are all tuckered and just like a new parent I am hopeful that Remi sleeps through the night. The sunset from our campsite was beautiful and we all enjoyed watching the colors. Tomorrow we head to Alabama. I think the movie Sweet Home Alabama may be in my future.  I love that movie!

Goodnight one last time from Florida!