Mount Dora Visit

May 25, 2016:  On this RV outing we are visiting Mount Dora, FL and will be taking my wife's sister, Claudia, along with us.  We also plan to visit their cousins up in The Villages because Claudia has never been there.

Yesterday evening Jeri and I took a load of things we will need on the trip to the camper at our storage facility.  We also turned the reefer on to run on LPG so it would be cooled down by morning, after asking the young lady working at the storage facility if it was okay.  She said it was okay.

This morning Claudia got over to the house pretty early and we finished loading up reefer items and the rest of the clothes, etc., we will need. We drove up to storage and Jeri and Claudia loaded the trailer and prepared the inside for travel while I hooked up and got the outside ready to tow.

We got on the road several minutes before 10:00 AM, taking the back roads down to Tavares, FL where Jeri had tentatively booked a campsite at Fisherman's Cove RV Resort.  Upon arriving there we checked in and Jeri paid for the site using our Passport America 50% discount as this campground is affiliated with PA-AM.  

[Rant] We drove to our assigned spot and to say it was crappy is an understatement.  It was in the older, more residential-type and rundown section of the campground.   We went back to the office and were reassigned to another campsite we did not like.  We went back to the office again and this time the woman working there got kind of nasty with Jeri and when Jeri told her we were not going to stay, she refused to give any refund at all (and keep in mind that we had not even pulled into any of the sites!).  There were lots of really nice sites open, too, and the woman offered to put us in one of those for THREE TIMES THE PRICE!  We left and found another campground in Mount Dora.

Fisherman's Cove has a really slick web site and bills themselves as a "luxury RV resort" and they did have a lot of sites up on the hill that were really nice, but kept assigning us to the older, more rundown section--most probably because we were getting the PA-AM discount, but still very bad business ethics on their part.  It seems to me like this place is using PA-AM discounts to lure people in, then trying to up sell (or in my opinion, the old bait and switch routine).  [End Rant]

Here is where we ended up staying.  Very much a residential RV park, but very quiet, peaceful and shady.

After settling into another campground I wrote scathing reviews on Trip Advisor and Allstays and sent Passport America an email complaining about it (I heard back from them the same day, saying they would look into it.).

The girls went for a swim in the pool while I was doing all of this and after evening cocktails we grilled steak and baked potatoes for dinner.  Then watched a movie before going to bed.

Site #62

May 26, 2016:  We had a nice breakfast this morning, then around 1:00 PM we drove around 45 minutes or so up to The Villages to hook up with Jeri's and Claudia's cousin, Paul Cuyler and his wife Jan.  The have a beautiful full-time home there and were great hosts.  They took us on a tour, by golf cart, of The Villages, then we all went to the Sumter Landing square for a cocktail and live entertainment (pretty good, too).

We arrived back at the trailer around 7:00 PM and the girls went to the pool for a while, then we grilled pork chops for dinner and a spent a quiet evening at our campsite.

Jeri (left) & Claudia enjoying coffee

 May 27, 2016:  After knocking around our site enjoying coffee and conversation this morning we drove over to downtown Mount Dora and had a great lunch at the Lost Parrot. The girls stayed to explore and I came back to the RV to work on this blog.  Mount Dora's downtown was a neat place--hopefully the pictures below will convey that.  It was full of artsy stores and restaurants and there was a lot of activity going on with people walking around, eating, shopping, etc.  Cool place!

Jeri (right) & Claudia in downtown Mount Dora, FL

Cool street corner signs showing where things are located--very handy, too.

Lunch at the Lost Parrot -- thank you Claudia!  It was really good!

I will let Jeri and Claudia explain the place a bit, as only they can do. ;-)

Video in Mount Dora downtown

I went back to the trailer and left the girls in downtown Mount Dora to shop, look for artsy stuff and have a good time together.  (I understand they bought some really nice formal dresses , etc., to wear on the upcoming "Cousins Cruise" in November.)  It was only 10 minutes each way.  When they called I went and picked them up.  Since we had all had a large lunch we did not cook a real dinner, but Jeri made nachos and we ate those and watched a movie before going to bed.

May 28, 2016:  We got up this morning and enjoyed coffee and English Muffins as we slowly began breaking camp to head home, leaving around 11:30 AM for the short drive back.  We stopped at the Essex House in Astor and while I did my normal walk around to check the trailer, hitch, etc., Jeri and Claudia went in and bought lunch for us.  I had my usual fried clam strips and a few fried shrimp.  Jeri and Claudia had fried scallops.  Everything was delicious!  We got back to the storage facility around 2:00 PM, unloaded the reefer and went home.  (Jeri and I went back the next day to finish wiping out the reefer and getting the rest of the stuff that we do not normally leave in the trailer.

Epilogue:  While where we camped was more like setting the trailer up in a mobile home park than a campground, the primary purposes of this trip were to get Claudia out and diverted a little bit from her husband's recent passing, go to The Villages to see Paul and Jan, and so we could see what Mount Dora was like.  Jeri also noticed that Fisherman's Cove RV Resort had, in fact, put a charge on our credit card for $67, so she called the credit card company and disputed the charge--we will have to wait and see what the outcome of this is, I guess.