Tuesday May 10th 2022

Today was a moving day. My eleven nights at Tropical Palms Resort was up at 11AM this morning. I stretched my travel preparation tasks to the last minute. It was 11:01AM as I handed my gate card to the security guard.

I only had about twelve miles to my new location, but I had to buy gas and needed to show up closer to 1PM than 11:30AM. Yesterday I scouted out the best gas station for access and cost. It was in the opposite direction from my destination. When I arrived at the station this morning, the cost was ten cents a gallon more than yesterday. I put in one credit card pass worth of gas. The current authorization level per card swipe at this station is $200 dollars. I haven’t encountered this high an authorization before. It was good for about 46.5 gallons of gas or a little over 300 miles in range. My approach going forward is going to be buy gas whenever I find easy access and a marginally better price.

Knowing the area pretty well, I turned back toward my destination on major local streets. It was still well before noon when I go into the area of the Orlando Southwest KOA. I choose to get on Interstate 4 toward Tampa rather than stop at the campground. The rest area a few miles down the road provided a good place to kill some time. I returned to the campground just after 1PM and got checked into my site. This the same campground I was at for the weekend a little over two weeks ago. I have stayed here a number of times in the past. It has enough sites that getting a reservation on short notice is usually possible.

On my way to my destination I encountered some of Florida’s famous love bugs. The front windshield and grill of my motorhome were covered with the little insects. You need to get them off quickly, so I had to spend some time with my window cleaner and a cloth after I got setup. I think the majority are gone, but will look again in the morning when the sun is at a different angle. The longer they are on the surface the harder it is to get them off without leaving a stain.