Taking RV to FLA (west cost) to pick up mother in law

Let me tell you about the west coast of Florida. Walking the dogs this morning and we stopped so two runners could cross "socially distant" from us. They yelled over that we were the first people they had encountered who did that and thank you! My wife yelled back that it's because we don't live here and they said "neither do we, we're Canadian".

Went to Publix to get food for the trip north. Walked in the door and the guy in front of us stopped to blow his nose. We quickly steered around him an encountered a woman with a mask just starting a coughing fit. We bolted from the area, bought our food, took it outside and wiped everything with disinfecting wipes and put in the coach.

I like Floridians, I was a resident in the Keys for a number of years, but they aren't taking this seriously. One local actually said "it's okay, we can't catch it because we live here". Ouch.

Anyway, you should be fine. We need to travel for 3 nights north to get home and have plans for each interaction with humans. The best advice I got from this board is to use dog poop bags when pumping gas (72 hours virus life cycle on pump handles). Easy on, easy off into the always handy trashcan.

We love coming to Florida for a couple of months, but today we started packing the coach to head home and for once there are no regrets!

Dave

45years back ,spent my honeymoon on martha,s vinyard was just goofing around at a cab stop. lady asked us if we were from out of town,said yes ,she took us on a tour of the island, never had such a great time. and I remember her every may. my ,theres nice people every where. but she was great .

Forget travelling anywhere in Florida. State troopers stopped us on I95 asking us where we were going and how long we planned to stay. My son decided to not stay and we turned around and headed west on I10 where again we were stopped. So we turned north into Georgia - which has no roadblocks or overly inquisitive troopers. We will fly home to Panama tomorrow. Our vacation trip to Montana was just fine until we got back down to Florida. The rv company says they'll retrieve the unit for free.

Lots of mean spirited posts here. I am not going down to Fla for the fun of it. My mother in law is 80 and with the way things are going if something happens to her we will not be able to go visit, or go advocate for her if any thing bad happens. Originally I thought the best place for her was in Fla, but with the way things are going not so any more. Believe me I am old and high risk also and the last thing I want to do is leave my home.....

fourthclassC.... I think you are doing a great thing by coming to FL to pick up your MIL and taking her back. You might encounter a few closed campgrounds, but I suggest you have a few picked out where you "think" you might stop for the night and call ahead to see if they are open and accepting overnighters. By lunch each day, you should have a good idea where you are headed to for the night.

Take precautions at the fuel pumps and just normally do what you are doing at home to keep safe. I am in FL right now, was supposed to leave out on a 6 mo trip but have put plans off with all of this going on. Good Luck, stay safe.

Use lots of sanitizer and gloves. Sanitize everything brought into the rig. Have as little contact with the outside world as possible. Take shoes off at entrance to rig and leave them there until you go out again. Eat meals you prepare. With food you take with you. Write up the reason for your trip and tape it to your drivers side window. That way you don't have to have a long discussion with the officials. Good luck

Friday I went from SE Fla to N GA... 700 miles using I-95, Turnpike, I-75. Moderate traffic, few LEO, and only 1 idiot driver in Atlanta. Set the cruise on 68 and rarely had to slow down and bought diesel N of Atlanta for $2./gallon.

If there is a non stop flight, I would probably have her take it. Extensive hand washing and NEVER touching your face is all I would have her do while traveling with her own food.

Ivylog, that's a great idea! While it may seem sort of uncaring, it's probably the quickest and safest way to get her up north.

fourthclassC, if you come to Florida, assuming you're in a "safe" area, fully stock your RV and don't stop for anything besides gas and rest. No grocery stores, no hotdogs at a gas station, no using a restroom at a rest stop None of that, no exceptions. Everyone stays aboard and rides, no wandering around.

Ivylog wrote:


If there is a non stop flight, I would probably have her take it. Extensive hand washing and NEVER touching your face is all I would have her do while traveling with her own food.

This might be the best way, a friend recently had to fly for work and they said there were only three passengers on the whole plane!

I'm a NYer, and the last couple of years, been looking to resettle in the state of florida. I have family there, and good, close friends that I take pleasure in going to see. Ive been snowbirding there the last 6 or so years, found a place to move, but it fell through.This season, I was unable to get down there for personal reasons, but left my RV down there to pick it back upo about now. Then coronavirus hit... This morning, I saw DeSantis on TV, and he said, 'if youre from NY, stay away, we don't want you.' I understand the sentiment, but I bet he sure loves our money. I understand the sentiment, and have been self quarantining in NY for about 3 weeks now. I'm chomping at the bit to get down there, and have cancelled 2 reservations so far to autotrain it down.

Long story short, Im eventually gonna get down there and get my RV. and when I do, governor DeSantis will be very happy that me, and my money, will be out of his state. There are other states in the southeast that have very similar, or are trying to, implement tax advantages to retiring there.

We are going to get through this. when the smoke clears, we'll get through it. That sentiment of 'us against them' is hurtful. If everybody did their part, and practiced what they're being told to do, I'd like to think we wouldn't be in a fix, the scale we're in.

Just had to vent....