Day 32 - Meet the Monster!

OMG so we no longer have our car nicknamed The Beast and are now in charge of a 27 foot RV motorhome - it is enormous to us so we're calling him Harvey the RV/The Monster!!

After our shenanigans last night going to Downtown Disney we ended up getting a room in a Comfort Suites hotel about 10pm (Oli getting good with the chat now and got the room discounted - I make him ham up his posh English Hugh Grant/Colin Firth babbling and the American ladies fall for it)!  We had a really restful sleep in our king-size bed and I took an extra long bath this morning as from now on it will be showers for the next two months in the RV - and me being a bath girl, I'm taking this really hard!

As we usually skip breakfast (even when it comes free with our hotel0 we decided that as today was a big day for us we would make our way down to the hotel canteen to claim our free breakfast for once.  When we got there there must have been around 200 teens fighting over the pancakes and waffles.  The queue was coming out of the door so we grabbed practically the last two muffins that were there and ran out the door faster than you can say "Can I have a skinny very berry muffin and a low-fat soy-shy latte with extra foam please"!

Still in the Beast we had until noon to hand her over, so we drove straight to the RV rental place to pick up our new home.  We were there a bit longer than I anticipated - I thought we'd fill out a form, get a quick tour of the RV and then foot down on the gas and we'd be off.  Wrong!  Obviously lots of forms had to be filled out, for insurance purposes, do's and dont's, yadadadada... the guy didn't find it at all funny when he asked for our driver's licenses.  Oli said he'd be the only one driving and handed his over and I quipped "I'll just drive on the straight roads!"  He didn't find this at all amusing and gave me a short lecture on safety on the roads and muttered something about insurance - I was only joking!

Right, now I thought, bring on the tour of the RV - wrong again!  Firstly we were informed that we needed to buy special toilet paper that is easily flushable (how handy, they had some in store to buy, and it was on offer - methinks this might be a con but we can't take the risk... what a waste it was to steal three toilet rolls from Bellagio in Vegas a month ago!)

So we're finally shown to the RV, which was gleaming so much it practically had a shiny "ping!" coming off it. It was a 2011 model and has only done 2,000 miles (I think it might get dirty as we're planning on driving it another 7,000!).  The guy took us on a tour including showing us how to work all the technical aspects (none of which sunk into my head - all I can remember is there is a fold up table and two outdoor chairs in the storage space under the back!)

Finally inside and again it is all new - slightly too much brown colouring for me but they didn't do one in pink so whatcha gonna do!  Time was ticking away so we quickly transferred everything from the car to the RV, bearing in mind we came 5 weeks ago with a hand luggage mini suit case and a medium suitcase each...somewhere along the way we have collected about 15 bags of souvenirs and clothes - I'm hoping that when I reduce all the carrier bags that the stuff will all miraculously fit into our cases!!

We only had about 20 minutes until the car was due back so I said goodbye to The Beast while Oli drove it back and I stayed to unpack.  As we don't have any thing other than clothes and wash stuff we also hired convenience kits which included pots and pans, disposable bbq, plates, knives, folks, kettle, toaster bin, broom etc - basically more things than I have in my kitchen at home!  Also included is fresh bedding, pillows and towels - gonna miss having the maid change our bed like the last 5 weeks!  Surprisingly there is quite a lot of storage, not sure where I'm gonna put the food when we buy some as I used the cupboards in the kitchen for my shoes and souvenirs:-)

When Oli got back half an hour later we hit the road - slowly - this was so surreal - we got on to the 4 lane freeway and I couldn't help but let out a yelp when we first had to overtake - v scary.  Before we got going to Jacksonville we made our way to International Drive, a well know tourist strip through Orlando.  This is where Oli and I stayed 10 years ago when we came to Disney, we drove past the hotel we stayed in and it was fun to see and remember the place/things we did.

The first restaurant we went to was a place called "Friendly's", we've been looking for one ever since we arrive here weeks ago.  We worried it has been taken over or changed it's name but fear not as we drove along a bit we spotted it - exactly the same inside and out as 10 years ago!  We had lunch in there and I told the manager this is the first place we ate in yadda yadda yadda and asked if I could buy one of their special milkshake glasses - they don't sell them but he let me keep one anyway:-)

Back on the road to Jacksonville we took a little detour to Daytona Beach.  Personally I thought we should have eased ourselves into driving the RV, but Oli didn't hesitate in driving the RV straight onto the beach - this is one of very few beaches you're allowed to drive on.  The air had started to dampen slightly but our spirits hadn't - like two kids we kicked off our shoes and ran barefoot into the sea.  Unfortunately we couldn't stay long but we had fun in the short time we had!

Seeing the local shops we got outta there!

An hour's drive later we were in Jacksonville, we're planning on pitching here for the night (not sure yet if we'll stay in a campsite or just park up in one of the many car parks that we're allowed to, e.g. Wal-Mart).  We're just finishing up dinner at Applebee's (staff here are super friendly and have even let us plug in our laptop to charge it and use their wi-fi!) - I guess from now on our trip might have a very different feel to it.  We've had a fab five weeks but hope the next two months will bring even more adventure, memories and laughs!

J&O