A day on the boat searching for RV's on the Internet and updating the blog, culminating with watching one of the worst movies ever with John and Rejeanne - the made-for-TV "Journey to The Centre of the Earth", not to be confused with last year's version with Brendan Fraser. Instead we had Peter Fonda who seemed to be barely conscious.
Saturday 9th May
A day shopping including picking up a wind scoop from West Marine to try and alleviate the ever increasing elevated temperatures aboard the boat.
Ended the day with "Rat Race" - one of our favourite very funny movies.
Sunday 10th May
Took a drive up the coast to Titusville to look at RVs and gave Doug and Cindy a ride back so they could drop off their car ready for when they store the boat at a Titusville marina.
Monday 11th May
"Never Say Maybe" left early in the day with Doug and Cindy heading for summer storage.
We head off to the West Coast again (180m), Tampa and Lazy Days, the biggest RV single location dealership in the world. 150 acres of RVs complete with complimentary restaurant. Surely they'll have what we want. And they do. So we put a deposit down on one. Only problem is high, high mileage (110,000 miles).
By the time we get back it's late so we eat out at our favourite Chinese buffet.
Tuesday 12th May
Another long drive (140 m), this time to Leesburg, north of Orlando near the Ocala Forest. A very different kind of Florida than we've ever seen before. Rolling meadows and very green. We find one we like a lot that's a private sale but they want top dollar. We tell them we have to check into the importation process and we'll get back to them as soon as possible.
Again we get back late, this time to a thunderstorm. First rain since we got to Vero. We head out for supper to celebrate the fact we now have two hot prospects.
Wednesday 13th May
There's another possibilty in St. Augustine, so we head a (long - 178m) up the coast to find the RV is not in good shape and costs too much anyway.
On the way back we drive through Cocoa and call in at an RV place we somehow have missed up until now.
And we find a very hot prospect. It's relatively new (2000), very low milage (32K) and the price is low because there's some damage on one side where the previous owner gouged the fibreglas. But compared to fixing a curved boat, this would be easy.
They're just about to close so we promise to return the folowing day to check it out and take it for a spin.
Thursday 14th May
We drove back to Cocoa, did all those things and made a deal.
The interior is very clean.
It has a little more counter space than the other prospects.
A bed that you can (sort of) walk around - luxury after almost a year aboard Incognita.
Finally the quest is over after 4 weeks. On the way back to the boat we called in on Bilbo and have supper and a late night with John and Rejeanne who are celbrating their purchase of a new Camry. Cars a a lot cheaper in the USA.
Friday 15th May
Time to rturn the car and re-rent it except that they won't give us the same one, instead we get a full size Mercury Sable with electric leather seats, climate control, staellite radio. Seems they had no others. Don't think we'll miss the tiny Aveo.
Did some shopping for crockery and utensils for the RV. We'll still need some pots and pans though.
