We had another flat today on moving day. We’ve been generally annoyed with moving day – since we’re basically bouncing around this area and not exploring in order to spend time as close to our to-be-started home construction as possible…and returning to one of our new favorite RV parks for 2 weeks at a time – for FREE – thanks to our Thousand Trails Camping Pass.
Flats aside, we’re settling in to a rhythm. The kids enjoy spending a few days every few weeks at Mimi & Papas in Naples. Karissa comes back to have a date night before moving day. Then we move, get settled, have another night to breathe after the stress of moving, and get the kids. I’ve been working during the week and Karissa’s been homeschooling the kids as well. Every night, around 5:30pm, we take the dogs to the dog park to get out their energy. Then spend from about 6:30-8:00pm at the pool to let the kids get out their energy. It’s working pretty well.
We’re a bit sick of this moving ordeal. Getting tire blowouts on the interstate isn’t fun, even if it’s not as scary as we feared. Because we’re not out adventuring in the world, we’d rather just hunker down and be able to move things without worrying about having to put them back on moving day and do it all over again. But we’re nearing the end of our short-term moving days as summer approaches up north and we’re likely to start heading back.*
*If a lot of things start moving in the right direction. Vaccine availability, parents getting the shot, availability of our family lake house, no more tire issues, and our house here getting under construction.*
We’re having photo upload issues right now for whatever reason, so this isn’t a photo-dense post. It’s too bad…some of the shots we chose were pretty cool!
We’ll be here at Pioneer Village in North Fort Myers for 2 weeks before finding another “new” place to spend our week out – before a final stay at Pioneer Village.
Almost forgot: We just finished our stay at Club Naples RV Resort in Naples. The southernmost RV park we’ve been to. It was HORRIBLE! A beautiful, well-maintained park to be clear. But the tightest roads and spots we’ve ever had. It took about 90 minutes to get parked in our spot. The neighbor across the street was yelling at the park staff about not driving on his property. The roads were designed before the average rig became 30+ feet long – there isn’t enough room to back up and swing the truck. They could fix the problem if they angled their sites, making the turn less harsh.
The park is also OBSESSED with dog poop and pee. Just about every site had unique signs saying “Be Respectful. No Dog Pee/Poop.” Some in images. Some in gold. Some large. We’ve seen a stray sign or two like that around our travels, but never park-wide! Walking a dog in that environment is nearly impossible. Being respectful with dogs is picking up their poop. But where they poop (and pee) has nothing to do with respect. They’re dogs! They go where they feel like it. We’ve mostly trained ours to go on grass, but they’re not picky. Apparently, picking up your dog’s poop is a big problem in Florida. It must be a southern thing? It lines up with the “shopping cart theory“. People in the south, generally, don’t put back their shopping carts. In the Midwest, people (generally) put them back. Texas is hit-and-miss. And the mountain west tends to be pretty good at it. We’re guessing the “shopping cart theory” aligns with where people pick up after their pets. And since most snowbirds at RV parks are the ones who set the rules – and tend to be from places where shopping carts get put back – they expect dog poop to be picked up. But most visitors might be from the south, and that creates a tension and the crazy signs. But Club Naples is the most extreme, it was a rough stay all around, and we won’t be returning. (Thankfully, we escaped to Mimi & Papa’s for 4 of our 7 nights there.)
