To plan or not to plan... that was the question...

Before we left, we had so many questions being asked of us. What's your plan... What route are you taking... What are you going to see... Where are you going to stay... How long are you staying each place... Our answers were all the same, we'll decide when we get there!

Well. Let me tell you. We got there, and we saw that the route we took of not planning anything was not the best plan, and taking it easy did not make this easy! (yeah yeah yeah, I'm sure there are a lot of "I knew It"s and "I told you so"s out there, keep it to yourself! lol)

So, Florida... You can not get a reservation through the Thousand Trails network during the winter on a whim. You must plan in advance, and by advance I mean 60 days or longer. So we spent a lot of time during our first 2 weeks trying to book an online reservation with Thousand Trails (anywhere in Florida, we didn't care anymore) two to three times a day (just hoping we would be the lucky ones to catch a new cancellation), and calling Thousand Trails every day, sometimes twice a day. We got to be on a first name basis with Katrina. Their phone system leaves a lot to be desired. The first time I called, I was on hold for an hour and forty five minutes. The next time, I called around 9am and I used the call back feature which is supposed to hold your place in line, and got a call back just before 7pm. Finally, as the weeks progressed, they shut off their call back system, and our only choice was to stay on hold. So, we began trying to figure out this camp for free thing in between calls and holding.

Today, I am please to announce that we have planned our travel route and where we will be staying (and reservations made if needed) through April 20th. And as an added bonus - we are only paying for 4 (FOUR) nights out of pocket during this time. More free camping means we get to stay traveling for longer, so I am pretty proud of this plan.

We now have a plan guys. We know what route we are taking (until April 20th anyway), and we know where we're staying and for how long. What we don't have all nailed down yet is what we are going to see while we are there, but I promise you, it'll be pretty and there will be pictures. We have some ideas of course, but not a day-to-day itinerary, and it's certainly not even a full list of what we want to see. But, our plan is a work in progress that will never be a day-to-day itinerary more than a few days in advance. That's just us.

In other news...

-I started school yesterday (online with SNHU) to finish my BA. I was actually afraid my brain (being so antiquated at almost 40) was beyond learning new things and enrolling was a big mistake. But... not so. I am doing ok, for day 2.

-Mike asked to be added as a writer on the blog - so you may be seeing some posts from him soon (YAY!!!)

-Callie seems a little bummed out, it's lonely on the road. And even though the weather is (finally) nice we are not at a park, so there aren't any kids around and there's no pool or water even. BUT, we will be at a park at the beach by next week, and hopefully, she'll get to try surfing like she wanted.

-Oh!! We went swimming! It was not quite 60 degrees out, but the water was heated and over 80 degrees, so it felt nice. Mike and Callie had to beg and plead for me to join them, and I am glad they did.

Until next time! Stay tuned...