Tuesday, May 9.

We travel across Florida from Pensacola to Jacksonville, some 335 miles along Interstate Highway I-10.

It is a wonderful route as the I-10 is a well-maintained freeway with immaculately kept rest areas about every 40 miles. In each rest area there are two sections, one for cars and one for trucks with a “pull-through” bay for each truck.

With a motor home, as with a commercial truck, the last thing on earth you want to be doing is reversing especially when you have a car attached to the RV. In fact, you physically can’t do it, so maintaining a forward direction is essential. In these rest areas, you can pull into a bay, attend to your business, and then drive forward and re-join the freeway. In Florida, it would seem, most of the rest areas have night-time security enabling drivers to sleep at ease.

We overnight at the Flamingo Lake RV Resort which is a park with some 300 sites located on a lake. It would seem to “Mrs. Inexperienced-RV’er” that they are marketing to a range of different clients: 1) those stopping for a night or two; 2) RV owners who have kids and want to go somewhere for the weekend where there are activities; and, 3) folks who are full-timers and want the camaraderie of neighbours, the freedom to up-stick and move-on when they want, and the ability to access activities if they want.

Wednesday morning, we head from Jacksonville, Florida to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina via the I-95 – some 170 miles.

Oh my, what a difference. There was only one rest stop in the 150 miles we travelled!

We are now on Hilton Head Island at the Hilton Head RV Resort & Marina where we plan on staying three days.

Harbor Town Lighthouse, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.