RVing With Mike and Danny

New Mexico/Daniel Marques

On Monday morning, November 25th we were eager to get through Texas. It is such a LONG ride. El Paso was about 120 miles and a couple of hours drive. We knew that once we got into New Mexico then Arizona would just be on the other side – well, that’s what the map said anyway! We drove up Interstate 10 coming within miles of the Mexico boarder and the Rio Grande. We didn’t realize just how close we were until we drove through downtown El Paso around noon time. We could see what seemed like less than a quarter of a mile away, across the Rio Grande the Ciudad Juárez. Daniel snapped a couple of pictures – I was way too busy trying to navigate through the downtown highway.

New Mexico/Daniel Marques

Once through El Paso, Las Cruces New Mexico was about an hour away and then another 2 hours to the Arizona Boarder. Our plans were to be in Tucson around 7ish. Everything takes longer when you are in an RV pulling a car behind you! We finally arrived at Diane’s Daughter’s house around 8pm. Diane thought that Carrie and Chad’s place, because it was on a dead end, would be a great out of the way place to park – and it would have except their beautiful house is in a hilly area overlooking the city and there wasn’t a level street to be found and their driveway would have gotten us hung up for sure. We just wanted to have a little dinner and spend the night with Diane and Jim. This time we really didn’t have a Plan B so we decided to head to the Super Walmart closest to Diane and Jim’s place. It’s not proper RV etiquette to park your RV and leave it empty in their paring lot. If anything happened or they needed to get the RV moved – it wouldn’t be a good thing. So, as it was getting late, we decided to stay where we were and meet Diane and Jim in the AM for breakfast.

Arizona/Daniel Marques

We would park in front of their house for an hour or until someone complained. So, we went into Walmart and did a little shopping – you ALWAYS need something! We hunkered down for the night with about 3 other RV’s and slept pretty well. We woke up at 8am with cars parked pretty close – probably Walmart employees trying to send a message. At least we were not the LAST rig out of the lot that morning! LOL During the evening we got a call from Palm Springs that made us decide to head there first thing in the morning, on the 26th, instead of later so we postponed our breakfast plans and promised Diane and Jim that we will be back their way soon! Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, things don’t always turn out as planned. But your real friends always understand and know that you will see them soon. So, we left Tucson after fueling up and getting a coffee for the road.

Arizona/Daniel Marques

Phoenix is only about an hour and a half from Tucson on the way to Palm Springs. We had previously planned to have a very quick lunch with Holly & Jason Mallette in Glendale which is a suburb of Phoenix.

We tried to get my Cousin Jonna Coleman and her Husband Paul to join us but it was too short notice for them and we ended up postponing our stop in Phoenix and made more promises. We blew through Phoenix about 9:45am on the 26th and hit the CALIFORNIA state line about 12:30pm.

Arizona/Daniel Marques

HOLY MOLEY!!! Only 2 hours to Palm Springs from the State line! We got into Palm Springs a little earlier than expected and had to wait an hour or so until my friend Tom was through with an appointment. SO, what did we do??? We parked in the parking lot 2 1⁄2 miles away at the Walmart Supercenter on Ramon and Crosley and waited until we could get in to the gated community. We headed down to meet Tom at the house about 4:30pm. And temporarily parked on the side of his house to unload a few things from the RV before it got dark. We made plans with the community Manager to park the RV in their RV lot for the time that we would be staying here. It is only 2 blocks from Tom’s house which made things very convenient.

Palm Springs,CA/Daniel Marques

We got settled a little bit and headed out to grab a bite to eat at Elmer’s (https://eatatelmers.com) and old staple here in Palm Springs. We sat by the Fireplace as there was a chill in the air and had a delicious diner with my best friend who I had only seen a couple times briefly in the past 7 years. It was a good thing. Since Tom could not make it to our Wedding in June, we had made plans during the Summer to come to Palm Springs in November for Thanksgiving. I had made reservations for us to fly to Palm Springs on November 19th and return to CT on December 17th in time for Christmas. Then as most of you know a few things changed, which pushed us in to making a decision sooner, especially after finding the RV and car package literally in our back yard. I was able to get my miles returned from American Airlines and that’s when we decided to drive out to California.

Wednesday, November 27th was time to finish planning the Thanksgiving dinner. Tom was able to finish most of the grocery shopping before we got here but there were still a few things that I wanted to pick up to add to the planned feast. For as long as I have been making Thanksgiving dinner for my Family, I have always stuffed the turkey the night before as my Mother and Grandmother did before me – and no one ever got sick or died! Of course, the turkeys then were upwards of 28 pounds with a few pounds of stuffing inside. I always had to get them into the oven around 6am in order for us to eat at a decent hour. This fresh turkey was a tad bit over 12 pounds so I decided to get up a wee bit earlier than usual on Thanksgiving morning and stuff the bird then.

It worked out great, even though I had to move dinner from 2pm to 3pm as it took a little longer than I had expected to get that bird into the oven. As you can see from the beautiful pictures that Daniel took, the meal came out fantastic and the pictures almost looked like Thanksgiving dinner at Norman Rockwell’s! We all hope that all of our family and friends had a wonderful Holiday. It was very different being away from our family back in CT but also very special being here in Palm Springs for a slightly warmer Holiday. The next addition to the Blog will be much shorter and a little less detail.

I feel good now that I am only 6 days behind but the bulk of our cross-country adventure has been documented and things will be slowing down now as we enjoy the rest of our time here.

By Mike Farkas

Photos: Daniel Marques

We left Sumter County, FL very late on Thursday afternoon because we also made a stop at the Bank of America there to open a joint bank account in our new location. We were able to make it to Marianna, FL and after calling a few places, found a spot right off the I-10 in Marianna called Stay N Go RV. It was a no-frills place where they leave envelopes in a night box. You just grab a spot, put the money ($23.50) in the envelope and drop it through the night drop. We spent a quiet night with excellent WIFI and cable TV (Daniel was VERY happy!!!) It was also a pull-through spot so we didn’t even have to disconnect the car – we drove in and drove out in the morning. We decided that we were going to drive more than usual that day and made it out of Florida through the tail of sweet Alabama and into Mississippi.

Photo from the internet

So, earlier on the morning of Friday November 22nd, I spoke to Curtiss at Parc D’orleans RV Park (6 miles from the French Quarter) He told me that he had a spot for me and that I should call him when I was an hour out so that he could give me the passcode to the gate. I was so excited that I was at least going to have enough time to take Daniel into the French Quarter, have a bite to eat and take a few shots of a great place! When I called Curtis back at 5:30pm as he requested there was no answer, so I left a message for him to call me. After waiting another half hour, I called again and left another message and sent an email. Still nothing. So, it was time to go to Plan B. I was a little disappointed that we wouldn’t get to see NOLA but I also did not have to drive all the way there that night. Sometimes you just have to dropkick and punt. Daniel has said a few times that it is all part of our adventure, so we just roll with the punches.

We had stopped in the Slidell, LA Rest stop on I-10 and even though Curtiss had emailed me back – claiming that he had not received either call or the two voice messages, (which was unlikely) we told him to stick it and we stayed right there in the rest stop overnight. It turned out just fine. We hit the road early that morning, as you don’t want to stay in a rest stop for more than 8 hours at a time. It’s just common courtesy.

We headed toward the Texas boarder from where we were in Louisiana. Around 2pm on the 23rd we hit Orange, TX and then drove through Beaumont and around Houston. Earlier that day I had talked to Chris at the Colorado Landing RV Mobile Park in La Grange, TX. She had a spot for us – another Drive through and also late check-in with our site information in the night box. It was a quiet, cute little park with great hot showers and laundry to boot. I started a load of wash and took a shower. By the time that I was finished with my shower that load was done and I started another – we hadn’t done laundry since before we left CT. I didn’t finish until midnight but it was worth it to have all nice clean clothes!

Photo: Daniel Marques

Colorado Landing RV Mobile Park in La Grange, TX Photo:Daniel Marques

Photo:Daniel Marques

My only regret was that I had wanted to stop in Austin, TX to visit with my good friends Frank and Eric. We met in Palm Springs on my very first trip there in 2000. We became fast friends. They Lived in Long Beach, CA at the time and I always stayed and visited with them for a few days on both ends of my trips to Palm Springs. We just ran out of time and also had to cancel a trip to Shreveport, LA to visit a good friend of Daniel’s. The good thing is that we both want to head back that way and spend an extended period of time there. We will make it up to them! We promise guys!!!

Photo:Daniel Marques

Daniel was dying to get out of Texas, I told him that I wasn’t going to drive that far and we compromised once he realized just how BIG the state is. We left La Grange and at our next fuel stop, I checked out the RV Parks along our route and found an inexpensive, no-frills spot right off the highway in Van Horn, TX. It was about 8 hours away and it wasn’t quite as far as El Paso and the AZ boarder but it was going to be our next stop.

Photo:Daniel Marques

We pulled in to the Wild West RV Park (www.wildwestrvpark.com) on Sunday night, Nov 24th a little after 8pm. Another drive through spot (gosh it makes it SO much easier when you don’t have to unhook the car!). We slept well and left the next morning for Tucson where we had plans to be there about 7pm to meet up with my good friends Diane and Jim Svab for a little homemade soup, a nice visit and a good night’s sleep. We couldn’t wait!

Photo:Daniel Marques

We hated to leave the Vitambi Resort but on Monday morning we finished packing up after a very restful 5 days and headed toward the West Coast and Punta Gorda. We met my friends Elaine and Bill Cosgrove who both retired over a year ago (Billy as Fire Marshal in Bridgeport and Elaine had owned CopyBreak copy center in Bridgeport) and headed South to live the life of leisure in the Florida Sunshine. We decided to go to their home and park the RV and the car in front of their house.

Bill Cosgrove and Elaine

We all hopped in Billy’s big comfy SUV and headed to Fisherman’s Village (www.fishville.com). It is a cute little waterfront location that offers restaurants with a view along with boutiques, a resort and a Marina on Charlotte Harbor. We picked Harpoon Harry’s (www.harpoonharrys.com) as Bill and Elaine had been there before and they said that the food was good. We grabbed an empty booth right on the rail overlooking the water but it soon turned a little to breezy and cold for these land lubbers and we moved closer inside where it was more comfortable.

We enjoyed a great lunch. I have no idea what everyone else had but I had their version of an oyster Po-Boy. It was delish – very fresh! On the way back to the house Billy gave us a mini-tour of the complex where they live. Lots of palm trees, ponds and of course – alligators! They have a charming 4 bedroom home and if we weren’t on a mission that day – we would have stayed around a little longer. Elaine had mentioned that she hated her profile picture and had wanted to have a few headshots taken. Well, Daniel offered and soon they were in the back yard in the midst of a photo shoot. The shots came out well and he even got Billy in a few pics!

We wrapped that up and headed out. Afterall, we were excited about getting to Bushnell and Sumter County to take care of business. We hopped back on RT 75 for a 2½ hour drive which took us to the Sumter Oaks RV Park. This is where we were going to establish our residency or what the government calls a Domicile. We pulled in after dark – and our reservation was waiting for us. We found site #6 and quickly set up “camp”.

We were going to be here for 3 nights and after the 7 hours or so of driving we were asleep in no time– especially since our TV antenna could not pick up any of the “local” broadcast channels. The next day was spent changing Insurance policies from CT to FL. And going over all of the paperwork that we needed to re-register the two vehicles in FL and to get my very first non - Connecticut Driver’s License along with filing our new address with the County Clerk.

It literally took more than a whole day to get this stuff together and on Wednesday called the Local Sheriff who, as a courtesy, came out to the RV park to verify the VIN number on the RV. I guess it’s easier than having a bunch a big rigs hanging outside the Tax collector’s office. A very nice Sheriff came and verified the VIN and making sure that both vehicles were not stolen!

He was even nice enough to verify the VIN on the car also, which saved the tax collector from having to do it at the office. This was the last document that we needed. It was still only 2pm and so we headed into Bushnell, to the Sumter County Tax Collector’s office (www.sumtertaxcollector.com).

At 3pm we walked through the door and we were immediately greeted by a nice woman who asked how she could help. Now, being from CT or possibly anywhere in a Northeast big city, we all know that most of us would rather get a root canal than to make a trip to the DMV. Well here, the motor vehicle stuff is handled by the County Tax Collector.

It was actually a pleasant process – well not the paying part but everything else! After they checked to make sure that we had all of the necessary items to do everything that we had to do we filled out a couple of forms and they gave us a number.

We waited less than 10 minutes for one of the 3 women to finish with the person that she was helping and we were called to sit down across from her desk. She asked us what we need to do and we started with my Florida Drivers License. That was a painless process and in no time, I had my new license in my hand. The first time in my life that I had a Driver’s license from somewhere other than CT! She did the car and then the RV.

We saw some specialty plates on the wall while waiting. Daniel said “do you think that we could get some specialty plated for the car and RV? I said are you kidding – they won’t have them here – we would have to order them and pay about $75 dollars for each of them and then have them mailed to us. Of course, I was thinking about the process in CT.

We saw a specialty plate with a Bear and another one with a thoroughbred horse – we asked if they were available to get today – and they were!!! They were each an extra $25 which was a long stretch from the $75 or more that it would have cost us in CT.

We were there less than 90 minutes, got all that done and we were on our way. We were SO excited and in total disbelief that we forgot to go across the parking lot to visit the County Clerk to file our domicile paperwork. It bothered me all night. I felt that something was missing.

We were only at the RV park until 11AM and were hitting the road to try and get as close to New Orleans as possible. When we got up on Thursday morning, I called one of the women at the Tax Office who was so helpful, Miss Annie, and asked her if we had filed the domicile paperwork during our visit. She told me no, that has to be done at the County Clerk. So, I looked through the papers that we had with us the day before and sure enough it was there.

We couldn’t leave Bushnell on Thursday as planned until this was taken care of! Both of our signatures had to be notarized and I just assumed that there would be a Notary somewhere in the Court House.

Well there was not but thankfully across the parking lot, next to the Tax Collector was the Planning and Zoning office where on of the nice employees was a Notary and she took care of that for us. So, it was back to the Courthouse where I registered the domicile paperwork which made us legal residents of Sumter County, Florida! We gassed up, got a coffee, called a RV park in NOLA – 6 miles from the French Quarter and hit the road for New Orleans!

By Mike Farkas
Photos: Daniel Marques

Danny, Tina, Mike, uncle Roger and Steve

We left the resort a little before noon on Thursday morning and headed two hours East to Port St Lucie. We arrived at my Aunt and Uncle’s house and my Cousin Steve was there. We got the royal tour and almost jumped in the pool but decided that it was a little too cool.

We hopped into our cars and we followed them to Sal’s Italian Restaurant. We had a delicious pizza, shared some pictures. As you can see, it was one of those meat lovers pizza’s – delish! We followed them to Publix after lunch and picked up a few essentials.

We got the Focus washed and headed back to the Resort. We hung out in our new home on wheels, watched a Bob Dylan, Green Day and an Adele Concert on our new internet STREAM GENIE. If you have never heard of it, it is a box that hooks up to your Internet and your TV and makes it able for you to view virtually any channel in the world that is streaming on the Internet. It is amazing!

Daniel can watch Brazilian TV and I can watch Channel 8 – WTNH in New Haven from anywhere in the Country – if I wanted to , of course. For more information, contact our good friend Wayne Garrison at 203-522-1916 or on Facebook and he will get you the info and a demo if it interests you. It costs about $325 and is guaranteed for 5 years.

Throw your cable and its high monthly charges out the window! I was paying Spectrum/Charter $240 a month for Internet, Phone and Cable. Wayne mentioned this to me over a year ago but I was skeptical. I am no longer skeptical! Imagine that!

We were enjoying ourselves so much and it was such a calm peaceful place that we asked if we could stay through the weekend. I would not be able to do the paperwork that I needed to do in Bushnell over the weekend, so why not stay? We were lucky enough that there was a site available, even though we had to pick up and move 2 sites over – it was all worth it!

On Friday, Daniel had a few projects on the RV that he wanted to do. One was cleaning and repainting the bicycle tow bar. So, off I went into Clewiston to the local ACE Hardware Store and he started taking the whole contraption apart. The rack is part of the towing set-up for the car, so it was quite involved. I got some sandpaper and black Krylon paint.

I also bought a brush, squeegee and telescoping wand to clean the RV along with a nice water nozzle. Daniel spent the rest of he daylight time finishing up cleaning and spraying and the rack looked like new when he was done.

Friday night there were many more people at the Resort so we decided to go to the Lodge for dinner. It wasn’t a large menu but some great homemade/handmade burgers and a couple of chicken items. We decided on the grilled chicken and Daniel had a Ceasar salad and I had mine over a nice selection from the Salad Bar.

We met a couple of new friends (one who was born in Trumbull!!!) and then headed back to the rig. Later on, I did some computer work and Daniel went back to the Lodge to see if he could play some Pool.

Saturday, we decided to stay at the resort and to hang out at the pool. It was cloudy and windy and cool so it wasn’t perfect weather for the pool but Daniel and a few other visitors were brave enough to get into the water but everyone had the same response when coming out into the cool air!

Ahhhhhhh!!! I got to talk to a new friend named Richard who was born in Trumbull and lived there until after College – I believe he went to UCONN and moved out west to work for a large corporation there. He remembered a lot about Trumbull and the area but had not been there in a while.

On Sunday, which was also not a typical Florida Day, Daniel picked up and stowed away all the stuff that we had brought out. We wanted to be ahead of things as our Friend David Labbe from Ft Lauderdale came out to meet us, spent some time and even treated us to lunch at the lodge.

Mike, David and Danny

We had a nice visit and he headed home, we then left for Ft Lauderdale ourselves to meet, Tim Kandel, a longtime online friend of Daniel’s. It was about an hour and a half to Ft Lauderdale and he made plans to take us to J Marks on US 1 in Ft Lauderdale. We had close to a three hour dinner.

Had some great food and conversation and then Tim invited us back to see his new apartment. We hit the road back after 11pm and hit some doggone traffic round the Airport. They had I595 totally closed for construction, however no one ever told the GPS!!! We drove in circles, following the GPS for a few minutes until I got off the highway to get some gas and look at the map. We drove through the City and picked up Rt 75 after the construction and made it back to the resort about 2pm.

Danny and Tim

It was ZZZZ time as we were leaving on Monday morning around 11am, heading to Punta Gorda for lunch and then on to the Sumter Oak RV Park in Bushnell which would become our new Domicile!

See Y`all next time!!

To see all the photos,click on Facebook icon down below

So, we arrived back at my Cousin’s house after they were so gracious to cart us around all day and to feed us also! We had decided earlier that we were going to set up the car and RV now instead of in the morning. That’s when the unexpected happened! I guess that you have to expect it --- I could not find my set of keys to the car. We looked high and low, inside and out, up and down and all around. They were no where to be found. We knew that I had them earlier, 2 minutes before we left, because I moved the car so Paul could get out of the driveway and I also said to my Cousin Laurie – Oh! I forgot to give our friend Earl back his house key – it was still on the ring! It was a little red plastic tag that said: “EARL’S FRONT DOOR”.

For whatever reason (maybe the Detective in him?) Paul decided to call the Restaurant and sure and begorrah – the lady at the Dead Dog Saloon said – you mean “EARL’S FRONT DOOR” key? Well, they had a good laugh and we made arrangements the next day to pick them up since we were meeting Carol and George Oldroyd for lunch in Murrells Inlet, SC close to were they live. Instead of trying to park the rig with the car in tow I called Carol and asked if one of them could pick up the key on their way to lunch – THANKS GEORGE!

George and Carol/Photo from Carol`s FB page

Yummy

We met Carol and George (who are long time friends from the Fairfield Fire Department) at their favorite local spot called Big Apple Bagel on Tuesday Nov 12 th at 12:30pm. Bagels aren’t their only gig, they have delicious sandwiches and other things.

We had a nice visit, got some great RV and travelling advice and headed out for Brunswick, GA. Port St Lucie was just too far to do in one day, so we decided to try and drive half way so it wouldn’t be so far of a drive on Wednesday. While still at my Cousin Laurie’s place I decided to Join Passport America. You join as a member and that allows you to up to 50% of oodles of RV parks.

So, I called the Golden Isles Vacation Park in Brunswick, GA. Spoke to the woman at the desk and asked if late check-in was a problem. She said “No Sir. We have someone here all night”. I gave her my CC for the $44 a night reservation which was only $22 with Passport America and off we started South toward Charleston. We got through some 5pm traffic in North Charleston, flew through Savannah, GA and made it to the Golden Isles about 10:30pm on Tuesday. Guess what? No one to be found! No after hours check-in, no phone’s answered with voice mailboxes full. So, after driving around the entire Campground 3 times I decided to look for a plan “B”.

Photo from the internet

I searched online for other close by RV parks and low and behold, less than .7 miles away was a very nice park called Coastal Georgia RV Resort ( www.coastalgaresort.com ). Their phone recording said that they had a night kiosk and if there were any maps behind the magic door, then you got to pick one. If there were no maps left then they were full. Lucky us!!! ONE map left. We found our spot, pulled up and found a beautiful location with water behind us. It was a little chilly and overcast. We slept like bears and headed out the next morning for Clewiston, FL.

Photo from the internet/Photo by Daniel Marques

On Wednesday morning, Nov 13, after leaving Brunswick, GA, we called ahead to the Vitambi Springs Resort (www.vitambi.com ). Martin said that he did have a spot for us but we needed to be there by 7pm as they closed at 6 but he would stay later for us as we would never be able to find the site in the dark. We called him back at 4:30 to let him know where we were. One GPS said that we would be there at 6:58pm and the other GPS said that we would be there by 6:30. Clewiston, FL is just south of Lake Okeechobee and out in the middle of nowhere! Thirty minutes to the closest town.

Well, Martin had to leave earlier than expected so he gave us directions on how to get to the open RV site and also his cell number in case we needed help. NEEDED HELP??? These two RV pro’s??? LOL We slowed down our pace a bit since we didn’t have to worry about anyone waiting for us. Stopped to get fuel and a coffee and arrived at the Resort at 8pm. We found our site without a hitch and were set up within the hour. The mosquitos and little natty flies helped us set up a little faster than normal.

The location is directly across from a beautiful little lake and not too far from the Main Lodge, bathrooms and showers – which can be VERY important when staying in a park. Again – lots of driving that day and we both slept like bears. We had plans to head to Port ST Lucie the next day to visit and have lunch with my Uncle Roger, Aunt Tina and Cousin Steve Farkas.

See Y`all next time!...

By Mike Farkas

Photos by Daniel Marques

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