Palm Harbor

The first real trip in the new motorhome will take us to Palm Harbor Florida and then on to Fort Desoto County Park in Tampa. We had a good trip down taking a route through western Georgia entering Florida in the pan handle and taking Hwy 19 south along the gulf coast. The drive into Palm Harbor took us through a lot more traffic but we will be staying next to the Pinellas Trail at Sherwood Forest RV park.

We have enjoyed riding on the Pinellas trail before so we returned to the area to spend a couple of days in the sun. We had stayed in Dunedin during our last visit to ride the trail so we chose to locate further north to access that area of the trail. Our first ride took us to Tarpon Springs, this part of the trail was a more rural area away from downtown Clearwater and Largo where the going is slower as there are more grade level street crossings with stop lights or stop signs. Our second day of riding did take us into Dunedin and on to Largo, we enjoy riding the trail and there are plenty of opportunities to stop for lunch, shopping or to turn off and explore the city or beach away from the trail.

The Pinellas Trail Near Dunedin

On our arrival in Palm Harbor we did notice that the front  brakes in our Olds Alero were squeaking, John took off a wheel and discovered that the brake pads were worn out. Apparently during his haste to hook the car up for the trip John did not pump the brakes enough to remove the vacuum from the system so after the Brake Buddy applied the brakes they dragged for some time and wore out the pads. We did use the car for a road trip to visit friends near Orlando but it was very apparent that the car was out of commission until repairs could be made.

We were visited by friends from Jupiter (Florida); we enjoyed lunch together and then visited in the mothership for the afternoon. They  questioned why we would drive into such a congested area but as we mentioned above we enjoy riding this trail and may return again if our travels permit.

After a few days at Sherwood Forest we packed up for the move to Fort Desoto. When we took delivery of the new ship we were informed by the dealer that they had found a crack in the Panaview Windshield and we were scheduled to have the work done upon our return from this first trip. When John pushed the button to retract the levelers the front of the coach dropped pretty fast and hard and the small crack stretched out another four feet. After some initial concern that the windshield may fracture so badly we wouldn’t be able to drive we decided to continue our journey; we made it home with little additional damage.

It was a short trip across town to Fort Desoto County Park. Our site was in the Pet Loop so we took a crooked road with lots of close trees with low branches to our site. Normally John would not have been real concerned about the road but this was the maiden voyage for the new mothership and he was still getting use to the height and length. After a sweaty drive to our site we found it occupied by another motorhome; after some discussion and listening to some poor excuses the couple moved on (to the site next door).

We had reserved this site before we traded motherships and it looked pretty narrow with low branches but we managed to zig and zag into position that put that huge windshield right on the water. The weather was a little cool but we really enjoyed this park; there are nice bike trails and we enjoyed walking through the campground, and if the weather is warm there are huge well groomed beaches to enjoy. This park made our short list of best of the best.

Our site at Fort Desoto

 

View from the Mothership

Low tide brings out the hunters

View of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge from the park