Ontario Canada to Key West Florida | Ep. 49

2630 KM from Ontario to Key West (That's 1609 miles for our American friends) in 3 days: In this episode, we kick off our epic four-part series detailing our unforgettable summer road trip from Ontario to Key West and back! Join us for the first leg of the journey as we navigate a chaotic border crossing during Independence Day weekend, share our overnight stay at a cozy Cracker Barrel in Meadville, PA, and weigh the pros and cons of taking I-79/I-77 versus I-75.

We’ll also recount memorable stops along the way, including Carowinds Campground, Orangeburg Memorial Gardens, and Sunshine Travel RV Resort in Vero Beach. Plus, we’ll share tips on planning fuel stops, detouring to Fort Lauderdale Airport to pick up family, and prepping for the scenic drive through the Florida Keys.

Whether you're planning your own road trip or just love hearing about RV adventures, this episode is packed with stories, lessons, and our Weekend Warrior Tip of the Week!

Listen now and hit the road with us on this incredible journey!

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro and Welcome Back - It's been a while
• 1:43 Nightmare Border Crossing
• 5:55 Cracker Barrel for a Free Stay
• 10:09 Interstate 77/79 vs. I75 debate
• 16:04 Carowinds
• 20:17 Vero Beach
• 24:11 Snapper Creek Service Center
• 26:59 Preview of Next Episode on the Florida Keys

Transcript

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the RV Canucks podcast. It has been a while, but we are back with episode 49. And today, we are going begin our epic summer road trip from Ontario, Canada to Key West, Florida. From a chaotic border crossing to a very peaceful Cracker Barrel stay and the scenic yet challenging I 77, I 79 roots. Join us for all the highs, lows, and lessons from the first leg of our adventure.

And this adventure, I think, is gonna be about a 4 part series where we detail this RV Connects road trip for 2020 4. Yep. Welcome back everybody to the RV Connects podcast. I'm Dan. It's been a while.

I think it's been since almost, like, April 2023 since we released 1. Things have been busy. And, anyways, we're not gonna give you excuses. We're just gonna crack right on into it. Okay.

Great. For those of you who listen to us on audio only, you may see a difference, going forward. We're trying to incorporate video into our podcast. So if the audio is a little bit different or there's a little more banter or the audio maybe, contains a little more filler words than you are used to it because we are also trying to incorporate audio and keep the editing down to a minimum. But we will still endeavor to make sure that it's an entertaining show for you.

It is. Like, the good news is we're still married. The podcast takes about 45 minutes for you to listen to. Probably takes another 90 minutes for Melina to edit and upload. And so we're trying to do this and learn a few things and have some fun.

Maybe I wanted to call it, like, RV Canucks raw and unedited, but Molina is a little better on the fancy stuff. So let's dive in on this big trip because we learned a lot. Sounds good. Yeah. So we usually try to take one big trip a year.

This year was to Key West and back. We did make the decision to leave a little bit early. We decided to leave of an evening, and it was just after Independence Day. So I think it was July 5th that we actually left. So it was a Friday night getting to the border in Fort Erie.

And if you've gone, especially on a long weekend from Ontario to New York State, especially in Fort Erie, it can get a little bit hectic, but I'll let Dan get into the details because we have never actually experienced a border delay or a border experience quite like this one before? Yeah. So for for everybody who's tuning in and maybe you're from a little further away, Fort Erie is near Niagara Falls. Canada, it's near Buffalo kinda in that stretch. Usually, I'd say we haven't had a rough time trying to cross the border.

And we did cross the border a couple of times this summer and it seems like the waits were a little bit longer. This particular day, you know, we got away from home about an hour and a half late. We got to the border and it was chaos. People were making their own lanes. There were no lanes.

There was lane jumping. Kinda did the rough math because you could see that there was only one RV lane for us to go through, and it was probably gonna take about an hour and a half to get through. Mhmm. And so, eventually, I think at one point, we just just flagged over. There's a marshal, just a a fellow wearing a high visibility vest trying to, like, bring order to the impossible, and we flagged him over because, like, we weren't moving because people were just cutting the line in front.

And he kinda established some lanes because there were no lanes. It was a big free for all, and, you know, the border inspector was taking a long time at the RV lane. All the other ones were through in, like, less than 2 minutes. This was taken, like, 6 minutes, and you could see where you had to go when he was not going inside the RVs. Yeah.

I think pro part of the problem is is that they do the the RV slash auto lane. Right? So you can go through it in a car. You can go through it in an RV. And I think the number of RVs that we're trying to get through on this particular evening was a lot.

And the way that they funnel traffic in when Dan's saying there was no lanes, it's literally no lanes. You come from, like, 4 lanes down into, like you you have to get all the way over to the right to the RV lane. And so we had gotten over to the right quite early because we could see that was the only RV lane open to us. So while we had gotten over all of the way to the right, there was still, like, a bit of a shoulder situation. And because there was no cones, there was no dedicated lines, there was nothing.

People just kept hammering up the shoulder and, like, zipping in in front of us, And we probably sat for 45 minutes, and we didn't move. And that's when we kind of flagged the marshal who we kind of explained, hey. Listen. This is what's going on. Everybody wants to cross.

Cool. But there's, like, 6 other car lanes. How do we move inch ahead? Because we haven't moved. And that's when he was like, oh, I see what's happening.

And then he went and got some cones and created a lane, and that's only when we started to see some movement. So I would say, though, we've been through the border on really busy times, and I haven't seen chaos like that in a long time. No. And this is the 2nd time that summer we crossed the border. Once into the US, there was a marshal.

Once coming back into Canada, there was a marshal. So it's not really country specific. And both times, we just had to say, hey, sir. Got a quick question, and then you have a polite chat, and it all works out. I'd like to set the broader context of this trip.

Molina and I were traveling just as a pair solo, kidless, and and the girls were gonna meet us in Fort Lauderdale. So we had a deadline to get to Fort Lauderdale to pick them up at the airport, and so the plan was to put a couple hours down on Friday after work. So if you're sitting in your car saying why didn't these people leave on Saturday morning, like, maybe 4 o'clock in the morning, you might be right. That the goal that night was to get to Pittsburgh and, you know, the 2 hour delay and, you know, little construction here and stuff like that. We probably came up 2 and a half hours short of our goal that day, but, like, it all worked out.

And we're okay with night driving. Like, I think at this particular time in our night in our life, we're okay doing the evening and the and the night driving. I actually don't mind it. Dan, can you just feed him coffee, and he'll go 24 hours without stopping it. But we're probably getting to the end of that lifespan the older we get.

But, you know, I don't mind traveling at night, and that's why we decided to kinda leave in an evening. We didn't make it to Pitts Pittsburgh. We drove until we kinda couldn't drive anymore, and and we stopped in a place called Meadville, Pennsylvania, which was just short of Pittsburgh. But that was okay because going through Pittsburgh first thing Saturday morning was was a breeze. There there was no traffic.

But because we had to be, like, we had to be in Fort Lauderdale by noon on Monday to make sure we could meet the girls' flight. It was important to us to kinda lay down as many miles as we could so that, like, the the following days, we could actually spend some time sightseeing and and pulling over and just, you know, having a bit more of a leisurely drive down. Yeah. So Meadville, we stopped at a Crocker Barrel maybe a mile and a half, 2 miles off the main exit. So it was really easy to get into.

Parking lot was wide open when we got there. I think the actual RV parking was maybe a bit small for a 29 foot trailer, would you say? Mhmm. Yeah. Normally so Pennsylvania, if you've driven through Pennsylvania, and we'll talk a bit about this, we did the I-7779 route down, which is very hilly, pretty mountainous.

You go through tunnels. There's a lot of curves or a lot of bends. And when you get into Pennsylvania, like, a lot of the shops and, like, the Targets and the Walmarts and the Cracker Barrels in this case are, like, really up really steep grades. Right? So there's not a lot of room for parking in general as you would see, you know, Cracker Barrel on the side of any other interstate to stop.

So the parking lots are a little bit smaller. And while they did have dedicated RV parking, there was no way. Like, it was angled parking. Like, we were way too long. So we kinda parked along the back end of the parking lot.

We were the only people there. We there was not a single soul in sight. We arrived probably about 11, 11:30, I would think. Like, it was pretty late. Oh, I think it was after midnight.

I think midnight? Just to like, if you've ever pulled into a parking lot at Cracker Barrel at midnight, just, like so you know there's nobody in the parking lot. So it was really What I mean there's big circle. Yeah. There was no other RVers.

Yeah. But there it was very clear if we had tried to park in an RV spot, we would be blocking cars getting in for their Saturday breakfast. And so Like, day 1 lessons are kinda stuff we should already know. Like, we crossed the border into the US. Nothing in the fridge.

No food. You know, might had a cup of coffee and some water up front. All our documentation was in order. We had all our, like, reservations lined up easily to show if they asked. We had our license plate number so that, like, when we did get our turn, we got zipped through Mhmm.

Pretty quickly when it was our turn. Like, the license plate number of the trailer, not just the truck? Because they do check that. And I'll put in the show notes. I don't have the exact episode, but we did do a a distinct episode on crossing the border from Canada to the US and and vice versa because there are some distinct differences.

We never go with groceries for a reason. They're they're pretty stickly. They're sticklers. It's just, like, don't like, figuring out what you can in camp brings too confusing, so just get it all when you're down there. But coming back, it's Oh, coming back.

Coming back, it's almost a free for all. Canada's pretty liberal with what you can bring back and the amounts aside from alcohol, from, like, from a food perspective. So we bring a lot of stuff back. But going to, we have found, even with the exchange rate being what it is, we're never worse off because groceries tend to be a little bit cheaper anyway. So even with the exchange rate, it's we're never worse off, getting groceries down there.

But because we knew we were stopping at Cracker Barrel and, you know, because we didn't have food, that means we get a delicious Cracker Barrel breakfast as you do and as you should if you are staying there for free. You should go in and and, be a paying customer the next morning. Oh, for sure. Like, the coffee was amazing, probably because we really needed it badly. But the coffee is the best coffee I've ever had in my life, a 100% guaranteed.

And the staff was super helpful. Like, it was overall, like, kinda for a bit of a bumpy start the night before, I kinda think it was a good reset to get us on the road and refreshed and ready to go for the rest of the another long day. Yeah. And I think, you know, once we once we essentially woke up, it was like, okay. Vacation is starting that next morning once I had had a little cry that our kids weren't with us.

And this is the first time we've embarked on a trip, just the 2 of us. And I know they came and they flew down to Minas, which is lovely, but it was definitely a different foray for us going on such a long trip by ourselves as empty nesters as It was good. Who doesn't wanna be an empty nester? He he's being brave for the camera, and I'm not being brave for the camera. He misses them too.

So day 2, we we talk about the I seventy nine, I seventy seven, seventy five loop. Set him up for that. So, essentially, I like to travel in loops. Like, I hate going on a trip one way, and then you come back the same way. Like, I I always like to make our trips a loop.

Even when we did Route 66, we weren't straight there, straight back. We went one way on Route 66, and then we looped back. You know? So we could see, some different things. There's different sites to see.

There's different museums to see. Like, we're always about getting in and and seeing small little towns and really kinda getting into the heart of America, North America when we travel. So I hate doing forward and back kind of on the same route. Anybody who goes to Florida on a regular basis from Ontario is like, do not take 77 and 79. Take I 75.

And we know this, especially with the trailer. We have done this trip before. We have gone to Florida before. We have gone to Myrtle Beach before, on this route. And so we knew what we were getting into.

Like, we this was a conscious decision as in, okay. It's, like, not snowy. It's the summertime. You know, we we know the places to stop to kinda get gas. So, like, we we we didn't go into it blind, but it definitely is a more challenging route, especially if you're towing a trailer, and you need to be really more cognizant of, like, how much gas you have left in the tank and the grades that you're going into and how much you're gonna burn.

And, that's probably the biggest consideration. Yeah. Like, I know our range is about 400 kilometers to a tank of fuel. So I know that, like, every 2 and a half or, you know, 4 hours, we need to gas up and forgive our American friends. You know, I don't know what the conversion is off the top of my head from 400 kilometers to miles.

But going through there this time, we were quite a bit The range was reduced even more. It was more like 350 sometimes, probably because we're driving a little bit fast. This was the part of the trip where, you know, more than once we had to get off, you know, partly because we're getting, you know, the creaks and the squeaks out of our, so to speak, out of our our travel and get them back up to speed. We had to get off the highway, not use truck stops, and kinda wiggle into gas stations. I know at one point we, you know, tried to get gas at a Walmart gas station, which was kinda new to us, and it was tight to squeeze in there.

And then, you know, we went across the road and had sheets for lunch. And then, of course, you know, I'm sure you can imagine all the Joka kids make in the back. We're gonna go have a sheets. But that was new to us. It's kind of a family tradition to try something new, but the food was good.

We had to wiggle into that. We had to wiggle into one just north of Pittsburgh. Like, the whole way down, you're kinda wiggling in for gas. And because you're going through more gas, you're doing more wiggling. Yeah.

And so we have long I mean, there's apps that can help you, and and, you know, we have, RV navigation with our Roadtrippers app, which luckily for all of the US now, you can do RV specific navigation in the Roadtrippers app. But when it comes to gas stations, usually one of us, whoever's driving the other person, will go ahead and they'll say, okay. We we're gonna need some gas soon. So they start looking ahead, but we actually use Google satellite view, and we've done this for years just to kind of see the ins and outs, look at the grade going in and out of the gas station, see if there's an end pump that we can use without, like, getting ourselves stuck or inconveniencing other people or or blocking the egress into or out of the gas station. So that's kind of been our go to, and that works really well.

But I would say because this series of highways, like, when you go on I seventy five, it's it's made for truck travel. There's truck stops. There's a lot more, you know, 18 wheelers on the road. So, like, the amenities are made for longer vehicles, and we're, you know, 50 feet at least from toe to tail, really. So it is challenging.

I would say the Walmart gas station in Pennsylvania, that was the only time I was driving, and I had to get out and let Dan I had to do, like, the walk of shame around the truck because I could not make this turn into this gas station. It was so embarrassing. I don't know. I feel like upon reflection, I shoulda let you do it, and I maybe was a little quick to punt you out of the driver's seat and jump in. But we made it there, and we were still married.

And, actually, some some guy was not too happy with Dan in the, gas station because he said, hey. She was doing fine. You should've let her do it. I was wrong. I was wrong.

Which I'm comfortable driving, but it was, like, high pressure. It was, like, busy. There was a lot of people, and I was like, I just don't wanna get in people's ways. Like, I don't want people shaking their fists at, like, these stupid RVers who don't know how to, you know, operate their their vehicle. So I just let Dan handle the tricky stuff, and I'm getting there.

Like And you know what? Like, I'm just happier to have people mad at me. I don't really care what people think. So you know what? Like, so I will say and this started with a trip we did, you know, to take our younger daughter to a Highland dance competition.

I'm gonna put in a plug, and I'm not being reimbursed for this. I'm putting in a plug for the Flying J app. The Flying J app does a couple of good things. 1st, you're gonna get some discounts. Maybe you're gonna collect some points.

Like, you can go online and you can research that stuff. But for sure, we got discounts on snacks. They honored the Canadian military veteran status, so we got that discount as well. Here's the big one for Canadians. Like, if you're a Canadian and travel in the US, you know that you have to pull up to the pumps and then it wants you to prepay, which is a hassle.

And then, you know, it wants your ZIP code. But in Canada, we don't have ZIP codes. You have postal codes, and there's some confusing replace your your your letters with zeros. And, like, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Some Canadians say put in 902-101, it'll give you gas.

Like, it's a pain in the butt if you're a Canadian to prepay in the US for fuel. This, you can load your credit card into the app. You pull up to the pump, You say begin fueling and it charges your credit card. It gives you a little code that you punch in and you fill right up. Easiest thing I've ever done.

I am not being reimbursed for this. Molina says I talk about it too much. But if you're from Canada, look into the Flying J app because it makes fueling up a whole lot easier. Well, Dan is, like, part Scottish, and he's super, super cheap. So if you mentioned free snacks to Dan, like, you have a customer for life, And that is part of why you love that app so much.

It is. I got some free snacks in there too. Maybe we'll get to that. Maybe we won't. Who knows?

So So on this route, we went, pretty far that day. We went 853 kilometers. So we traveled about 530 miles to Carowinds, which is for those who who aren't aware of what Carowinds is, Carowinds is an amusement park, but it's kind of, like, I would say, a blend between Canada's Wonderland here in Vaughan and Darien Lake in New York State because they do concerts and things in a way that Canada's Wonderland doesn't, but it's kind of like a day park. And it's, like, right on the border of North Carolina and South Carolina. Oh, yeah.

Like, we went into South Carolina, back to North Carolina, into South Carolina, back to North Carolina. Like, I didn't know what state we were in and, like but that's just, I guess, the nature of traveling in the US sometimes. Yeah. What I would say is we stayed at Carowinds because it was right on the highway. It was a busy weekend, and there wasn't a lot of option for us.

We didn't preplan any of our stays on the way down there. We used RV parky. We used road trippers to help us find places to stay, and Carowinds had an availability. I would like to give a shout out to Carowinds because they actually stayed open late for us because we were running a little bit late, called, and just said, hey. You know, we're gonna be there.

I think it was about 20 minutes after the, the office had closed. And he's like, no worries. He's like, I'm gonna stay here for you so you know you know, everything's okay. You know where to go and, you know, otherwise, if if if you're any later than that because we had had some construction delays, I'll leave the package outside. But because we had never been there, we were coming from Canada.

He was super nice, and he stayed for us and, opened up the store and allowed us to, like, grab a beer so we could share a beer after this long travel day. And, it was so lovely, taking us to our site and just showing us where to park. So it was it was a great place for an overnight. I would say it surprised me a little bit because I expected the campground to be a little more like like a KOA where everything is very, paved, and this was a little more, like, natural. Like, you're in the Carolina Pines, and it's gravel.

And while it's, like, full hookups and everything, it just it gave a little more of that, like, wilderness vibe that I wasn't really expecting. Yeah. Definitely gave us a little sorry. They I guess we're just gonna tell you. We told the kids to be quiet, and they're upstairs, and now we're gonna hear everything that they're saying.

Nothing bad. But, yeah, like, I would recommend it definitely for an overnight stop. We didn't get to see much in the daylight, but I would definitely use it again just based on the level of service and the dude who stayed, like, to make sure we got settled okay. Yeah. No.

It was great. It was very convenient, like, to the highway to just kinda get us on the road and get going because the next day was also a really, really long day. Yeah. And you know what? We were a little bit smarter on on that.

Molina had the road trippers out when we were planning the trip, and we stopped at the Orangeburg Memorial Gardens, which was a good spot. So a couple things. It was a Sunday. Parking lot was wide open and empty, so it was easy for us to park the trailer. And we probably walked around for, what, a good 45 minutes, kinda through a bit of a natural gardens.

I wouldn't say it was a botanical gardens, but, you know, you learned a little bit about the people of the area and, you know, some of the trees and local vegetation. So it's kinda cool, which was good because you got to get out and stretch your legs because you've now been in the the truck for a couple of days putting down some miles. So that was and it was free. Like Yeah. Free is good.

Right? Because I'm Scottish. Free is always good. It's, in this was in Orangeburg, South Carolina. So it wasn't we got there about lunch, lunchtime, 1 o'clock after we left on day 3.

And so it was a great place to to stretch our legs, and I I purely found it just by filtering through road trippers. Like, when we had done our initial trip plan, I just filter to, like, places of interest, like, good spots for photos, historical sites, and this came up. So I really, really love I would I would say we're widely traveled in the United States, but there's so much stuff to see and so many neat little historical things and places of interest that you would never know. And sometimes we find some really great off the beaten path, ones that aren't very busy, but, like, have a really amazing rating and were really enjoyable to do in this, I would say, was one of them. Yeah.

Just stretch your legs. I remember, like, there's some really cool trees there, and it talks about the tree roots and stuff like that. So, you know, if you're into tree roots, it's a spot to go. So on day 3, we were aiming for Vero Beach, and we wanted to stop a little bit short of Fort Lauderdale, the airport. And this was, like, a great place to stop kind of in advance of that.

Again, it was another pretty long travel day. It was, 869 kilometers, so 560 miles, that we laid down on day 3 to get to Vero Beach. So we, again, we got there after dark. And so for us, it wasn't necessarily we weren't concerned with amenities beyond a good place to stay overnight. Yeah.

But, you know, I had a good walk around the park. You know, it's an RV resort, but I probably wouldn't spend my vacation there. I don't think it's maybe a resort as most people would define that. But, like, super clean, pool was clean. Like, there's no garbage.

The pet area was clean. Taps and hookups were functional. So, like, it was good that way. It was nice and quiet even though you're right near the interstate. That was awesome.

I won't say it's right out the gate, but, like, only a matter of feet. And there's a gas station on one side and a McDonald's on the other side, so you could gas up real easily. I I think I probably unhitched and gassed up just to make it a little bit easier. But you could go in and get, like, some breakfast sandwiches. Like, it was a good American sized convenience store to do that stuff, and you could get coffee and be on the road.

So it was a really nice stop that way. I'd recommend that as well. Mhmm. And this was the Sunshine Travel RV Resort in Vero Beach. And it reminded me actually a lot of the RV resort that we stayed on the side of the highway on our Route 66 trip just outside of Saint Louis.

It was on the other side of Saint Louis, and it had the same vibe. I'll have to look up the name of that one. But, like, definitely, 10 out of 10 for for an overnight or even if you were there for a day to go see Vero Beach. Like, it's just a great place to sleep. Super clean.

So And so there's, you know, obviously, transient people are welcome because we were there. There's some people there that are obviously, like, year rounders. And then there was also a spot, and we didn't get into this area when we camped, but it was there. I walked into it as a newer area where they're obviously putting in some nice new sites and concrete pads and stuff like that. So they're putting money into the place.

Mhmm. For sure. So the next day was was the day to pick up the kids and and head all the way to the Keys. So we were a little bit early for the plane, which was kind of by design, because it was the morning of this. So this would have been Monday that we stopped and got groceries.

So what we did is we got our bearings, figured out where the airport was, found a grocery store that had a parking lot that would be sufficient for grocery shopping and parking. And then and then the garbage truck parked right in front of us, so we had to wiggle our way out. Like, the entire parking lot for this fella to park, and he parked 6 inches off our front bumper. Like, come on, man. Because we saw our trailer was so pretty, and he wanted to look at it.

But in any case, like, the it's it's a very built up area around the Fort Lauderdale Airport. So, like, finding a grocery store with parking lot big enough was a bit of a challenge. But we did, And we we stocked up on a lot of great stuffs, probably more snacks than we would normally get seeing as we had 3 teenagers, coming off the plane to meet us. And then what we did is just about a 3 minute drive from the airport itself is Bass Pro. So we stopped at the Bass Pro Shops.

We decided not to unhitch or drop our trailer there, and I just took an Uber to the airport, to meet the kids and then bring them back in an Uber to the truck, and then we hit the road. And I bought some fishing lures and a new T shirt. Thanks, Dan. Hey. Like, if you're from Canada, there's some fishing lures there that, like, we don't have up here.

So that's important for the my fellow anglers. Well, is that because the variety of fish can't be found up here? Well, it's completely different, but I would recommend that my fellow anglers stop and stretch their legs and get a T shirt and a few lures. Okay. That's fair.

So picking up the kids, again, pretty straightforward. We hit the road. Getting out of the city was busy. It was the traffic was insane. And especially as as the closer you got to Miami, the traffic was really, really busy.

So we decided to take the Florida Expressway, the the toll road, which was much, much better to get down to highway 1 and the start of the Keys. Yep. So we stopped at the Snapper Creek Service Plaza. This is a really good plaza, RV friendly. I think there's even a spot there for trucks.

You can get some food. Washrooms are clean. Easy to get. Like, we have a 29 foot trailer and a f 150 crew cab, so it was, like, easy for us to get in. At one of the we we actually stopped there once going in and once going out of the keys, and I forget which one it was.

But I obviously and it was my fault. Missed a turn, and it was enough for me to, like, do a loop around and get pointed the right way so we didn't have to go down the highway in the wrong direction. Staff was super friendly. Like, if you're gonna stop, make it easier on yourself. Let's gas up.

Use the washroom right there because, know, depending on the size of your your rig going down to the keys, it might not be that easy to stop. Yeah. And I would say there are places definitely in the keys to gas up, like, while you're, connected to your trailer. But Snapper Creek is, like, located just around Homestead, Florida, which is kind of the last place you pass before you get into the Keys proper. And the service center is kind of in the middle of the throughway.

So you've got lanes on one side going south, lanes on other side going north. And and that's kinda what Dan meant, like, is when we had to loop back around, we were facing the wrong direction, so we had to find a spot to turn around. But overall, it's a really good, like, typical service center like an en route in Canada, and great place to, like, fully gas up because you will make it to anywhere in the Keys that you need to go without having to pull in with your trailer hooked up. And I would say it isn't so much the availability because there are a lot of, like, trucks with boats that are gassing up at gas stations throughout the keys. But the way the keys are structured when you're key hopping, you're going from key to, like, bridge to key to bridge.

The gas stations tend to come up pretty quick, and a lot of them are they don't have a lot of pumps. And if you pull up to 1 and there's already somebody there who's gassing up, like, you you would have to wait on the road, which isn't feasible either. So just gassing up before you get there is great. And then once you're parked and unhooked, then you can gas up to your heart's content anywhere in the Keys. Yeah.

And and if you're you know, so you can get from from the plaza or or homestead to the Keys in in one tank of gas. If people need to stop and, like, use the washroom, that was easy to pull off. There's long stretches where you can kinda just ease off to the side. And if they wanna use the trailer, they can use the trailer. If there's a convenience store, they can scoot in.

So driving down that hole, the Florida Keys is actually a pretty smooth It actually went way better than I thought it was gonna go. Yeah. Like, it was actually pretty relaxing. Yeah. It was and, yeah, it was relaxing.

It was beautiful. Super hot. We'll talk about that in the next episode. Canadians, like, it's next level hot, and we'll talk a bit about that and how we kind of dealt with that heat when we detail actual KOA, Sugarloaf Key that we stayed at and going into Key West. So Vero Beach to Key West, all in all, was about 380 miles, so 600 and change of kilometers, to get down down there.

So it was a reasonable like, we were there. We were set up before dinner. Yeah. Like like like, cheers for you and me. We did pretty awesome if you ask me.

Like, we managed to we you know, Molina scooted over to the airport, helped the helped the kids out. I went into Bass Pro Shops. We got groceries. We got into the campsite with lots of good time. The sun was still up.

Like, what I'm trying to emphasize is at the end of that day, we did not feel exhausted. Mhmm. Like, you were ready to have a little bit of fun. And it's you know, you got the energy of finally wrapping up the big part of the trip, but it was a good trip. Like like, getting down there and seeing this and that for a couple of days, you know, whether it's a Cracker Barrel or the Gardens is is kinda cool.

Yeah. And I would say, listen. Like, I mean, our trips are morphing the more and more we travel, the older we travel when it's just us versus when we have the kids. And, like, in this in this particular trip, I wish we had more to talk about on the way down there, but like like I said, I was more happy to know that the kids were able to come with their work schedules and meet us. So I was happy to just bean it down there as quickly as we could to pick them up because it meant we got to spend some time with them, in a vacation setting as opposed to, like, if if Dan and I were just heading on this trip, just the 2 of us, we would probably would have taken a week to get down there and just kinda meandered around.

So it was a little bit different for that purpose, but I think it still worked out really well. So with that, I think we'll end this episode here. Yeah. We'll end here. Come back for part 2.

We're gonna talk about the Sugarloaf KOA. We'll probably squeeze squeeze in a an alligator story. We'll talk about some ghost cars on the highway. Yep. And, you know, we'll kinda finish off the rest of the trip, I think.

Yep. So I think we're gonna start ending our episodes with the weekend warrior tip of the week. And I would say for this one, what I would say is preplan your gas stops like we've talked about. Use whatever methods you find helpful. We find Google satellite view super helpful to figure out.

But, when you're in a tricky situation, there's nothing more stressful than being in a situation where you are caught and can't actually gas up. You're running out of gas. The stress levels in the in the car get a little bit higher. So preplan those stops. Make sure you're checking long before you actually are in a position where you where you need that gas, and, you will have smooth sailing.

Yeah. And I would recommend the Flying J app. Like, if I'm being honest with you, it made it easy to pay. There was a couple of times it wouldn't connect right. You know, you get some discounts.

There are some things I change about the app that could be a bit better. But overall, it was a win for the guy who does all the gassing up and the paying of gas Mhmm. And figuring out his ones and his zeros and his zip cards. So I'd recommend it for Canadians. Great.

And if you are new here and you like this episode, leave us a review on wherever you're listening to your podcast. We certainly do appreciate it, and you can follow us on Instagram and TikTok at rvconnects. And with that, we will talk to you next episode. Have a great day.