Sarasota and Seffner FL

It was a gorgeous day in south Florida. We managed to pack up and get on the road by 9:30. We arrived at Sam’s parking lot at 11:30. Joy (Bill’s step-mother) arrived with her friends Aggie and Hubie soon after. Aggie brought us some oranges, grapefruit, and some banana nut bread she had made. They took a quick tour of the RV, and then we headed off to Bella Cucina, an Italian restaurant that Joy likes. Bill has been there, but the rest of us had not. I was a little skeptical since it was an all you can eat buffet for $7.99. I was pleasantly surprised that the food really wasn’t bad. They had some good salads, and then excellent pizza, eggplant parmigiana, stuffed tomatoes, mushroom risotto, and a ton of other items. We ate well and had a pleasant lunch.

They took us back to the RV, and we headed on to Seffner FL (east of Tampa) to the Rally Park campground. We checked in and got our campsite which wasn’t a bad site. We have 3 small trees on our site. We got set up and were relaxing when Bob, the leader, brought our packets by. Happy hour was at 5 with a catered dinner at 6. We wandered down to the Rally Center which is just down the road from us. We sat with the people who are camped behind us, George and Donna, and some lovely people from near Atlanta, Jerry and Anna. Dinner was a buffet of slaw, potato salad, beans, lasagna, barbequed chicken, ribs, and cake. Our dinner companions were pleasant, and the food was decent.

This rally is five days here. Breakfast and lunch are provided by the campground which offers it to all the campers. The campground is part of a huge operation that sells RVs. Bob has put together suggestions of things to see and do while we are here. There are no organized activities, but the Plant City strawberry festival seems to be a big draw to many of the folks. We are having a pot luck dinner on Sunday night. This is a much larger group than the one in St Augustine, probably 66 people, all part of Coachmen Caravan. I have figured out that a ‘rally’ is just meeting at an interesting place, having a few meals together, meeting new people, and enjoying the surrounding area. Not a bad concept.

We came back to the RV and watched some TV. Bill was sitting outside about 10 having a cigar when sprinklers went on for about 10 minutes which sent him inside. He was warned about it, so it wasn’t awful.