Day 5, a very good day!

Dan showed up as promised at 7:30am, and since we were ready and raring to go, moved us into position to dump our gray tank.  They have a policy here that Dan moves all the coaches around and he is very good at it.  There is not a lot of room and it is packed in with motorhomes of all sizes and shapes, mostly big, and the other thing to remember is there is no driver's seat so it is a bit more challenging.  After we dumped he moved us over to their good water supply and we filled our fresh water tank, so now we are set for the duration.  While we were filling he went around and shuffled several coaches around, moved one out of the paint booth making it ready for our arrival.  So by 8:30am, we were parked in the booth, and Rick was already blowing it dry getting it ready for paint.  It was necessary for us to be gone for the day, so off we went.

First stop was Lazy Days who happened to have our step motor in stock, and the CB antenna bracket we needed.  Now that our important goals were met we decided to go to Fort De Soto for the day.  We called Jason to see if he could recommend a place for lunch since he had lived in St Pete for awhile.  He reminded us of Lucky Dill, a cool little deli in downtown St Pete where we had eaten many moons ago.  We stopped in and got a couple awesome sandwiches to go and headed over the the Fort.  Had to pay 2 tolls on the way, but it was worth it, a beautiful day, a bit windy, but nice for our picnic.  We got out on the island and stumbled across a very popular kite surfing spot, and it was easy to see why it was so popular.  The wind was blowing parallel to the beach, and the area was perhaps a 1/2 mile or so wide, and went out about 500 yards to deeper water, and this whole area was maybe 2 feet deep!  And did I say popular, at least 15 were flying around!  We decided we had found a perfect spot for lunch.

A bunch in the background as a kite is being readied for flight
That's the Skyway bridge in the background

We sat and munched our delicious sandwiches marveling at this really cool sport.

Getting some air!

Flying, with a kite being readied in the foreground

The next 10 photos are in order, yeah I know Sandy, we should have taken video, but Jan wasn't thinking about it.

As the PGA commercial says, Yeah, these guys are good!  There were two girls who were sharing a kite and board next to us and Jan went over to get some info about how hard it was, etc?  Turns out they were European and they travel all over the world kitesurfing.  She said it is a bit costly, about $2200 for the kite and board, and that doesn't include additional kites or boards needed in different wind conditions, or the wet/dry suits, harnesses, etc.  And she said it was imperative to get some lessons as it has the potential to be very dangerous when you don't know what you are doing, if you get tangled in the lines with the incredible forces it is possible to even lose a limb!  And lessons are about $100/hr.  Pretty cool, and there were several, shall I say seasoned folks out there right along with the younger people.  Very neat.

We found a 1 1/2 mile hike up on the north side of the park, nice and quiet, with the temps perfect we had a good time.

Pretty day

Pleasant hike through the trees

Jan hard at work

Hard to see, but that is a frog's snout poking out of this bat box

He says, "What's going on up here?"

Horseshoe crab on the beach

So after we left we drove up along St Pete and Clearwater beach for awhile, got caught in incredible traffic, but managed to get back before 5pm, just as Dan brought our rig out, turned us around so we have a "view" for the weekend, put out our slides, leveled it and welcomed us back.  A great place.  And all the paint was done, still has to be buffed out, but I'll tell you it looks good so far.

So then as we were driving around, we got a text invitation to spend the weekend with our friends Ray and April, so we'll be off to see them in a little while!  I didn't have time to update this last night as Jan and I did something out of character and went to a nice little Italian restaurant for a delicious dinner, recommended by Dan the man!

Have a good weekend, we'll catch up with Monday's progress next.