Research - Finding our more about Florida

I remember that when we were in Los Angeles once you were actually in a hotel it was quite difficult to actually find and organise what you really wanted to do. So now that there is so much info on the internet, now is the time to find out what we want to do, and where we want to go. The State Parks offer a lot of scope to see the best of the history, culture, nature and geography of Florida. I find it difficult to comprehend just how big Florida is. From pictures and information it seems crowded, but it is about the size of the UK, with a third of the population, so some of their State Parks are large and wild. They still have bear and panther in the wild, as well as the more obvious alligators. Browsing the State Parks has thrown up exciting places such as Manatee Lake, The Suwannee river (yes, Way Down Upon The .....), the home of Steven Foster (who wrote it), The everglades, the Keys and loads more.
The difficulty is to know the best way to file all this information.

27 January 2007 Decisions? - Handling information and Communicating

One of the items which must be addressed is about computing: To buy here and take with us, loaded with info. Or to buy there, cheaper and less weight on the plane. Tricky.
Will should be able to get on line easily - many RV Parks have Internet access, but you have to pay for it!! If we can do it this will be the best way to keep in touch with family back home.
A laptop will be useful for:

• Storing Photographs/videos
• Communicating with family
• Getting information about day to day activities
• Finding a car and trailer
• Finding our way around (Do we actually go for a Sat Nav?)
• Getting legal information
• Yellow pages
• Campgrounds (Booking as well)

We will also need mobile phones.

The Next bookings -UK Car park and pre flight hotel

Now that we have booked the flight we need to make sure that we get the most comfortable departure and arrival. Economy class flying is now a horrendous occupation, so anything that makes it less painful is a good idea.
We chose Manchester Airport because it is only 2 and a half hours drive from home, has easy access, cheap parking and cheap hotels.
We have now booked a night before we fly, at the Travelodge. By booking and paying in advance it has only cost £25.50 per night.
By booking a car park in advance it has only cost us £147.00 for the 3 months we are away. We used Park and Go

22 January 2007 Research - Finding our car and TT

The Internet is very useful for finding information about the variety of important aspects of our project. I am trying to build up a background understanding of the area local to Orlando.
Today I have been looking at local adverts for cars and TT using the local free press. Why are there so many more ‘vehicles for sale’ ads? in Ocala (north of Orlando) than in Orlando.
Checked on the tow capacities of US cars to try and tie down which vehicle we want / need to buy.
Had some interesting information from a newsgroup contact about the use of Class B motorhomes which may be useful for a tow car. Also signed up for this blog.

21 January 2007 Our First Booking - A Flight and a villa in Florida

Our vacation started last Wednesday, even though we don't leave until March 5th. We booked a villa in Orlando for 3 weeks. We hope that this 'base camp' will give us the flexibility to find the car and Travel Trailer (TT) we want. On Thursday we booked our seats on a Virgin Atlantic Flight to Orlando. Leaving from Manchester on 5th March at 10.25 and returning on 29th May and 7.20 a.m. Got a good deal there (£320 each return). Used Florida State Parks to start looking at RV parks (about 50 RV parks included).

Also Happy Camper and Passport America have campground listings, but they tend to be more expensive ones.

A bit of background today - Why do it this way?

It has long been our plan to tour the United States.
Because we have caravanned happily in the UK for many years it seems an obvious step to caravan in the US. Now that we have retired we would like to take our time, not just 6 weeks at a time, as we have done before. Now we want to visit for several months, over several years. Sally has M.E. and needs to plan travelling very carefully, so we could not just jet from place to place (even if we could afford it). We would not want to travel much more than a couple of hours a day, with plenty of days off.
How best to accomplish this? Hiring is incredibly expensive, $350 a week for a car and $600 a week for a Travel Trailer (still cheaper than a motor home though). Motels are cheaper (Motel 6 is a very good budget motel chain, at about $40-$50 p.n.) but they are boring, give you no space to move and you don’t meet other people.
It became obvious that the only way to afford to travel extensively was to buy our own car and Travel Trailer and keep it in the U.S. When we visited we could tour and leave it where we finished up, ready to continue on the next visit.
When we started we had no preconceptions as to our destinations, but a number of factors had to be considered. On balance these pointed to Florida as the destination of choice. (may explain this on another day).
The timing is linked in with climate, a shuttle launch (March 16th) and our daughter and who is working in Colorado until June. Spring and autumn are the best times to visit most of U.S. as the weather is at its most equitable, particularly in Florida.