Ormond Beach FL 2-17-2019

We have departed Clermont FL and heading north to make it to the Coachmen Manufacturing plant in Middlebury IN, that’s 1,123 miles if I drive the freeways all the way there. We have been careful to map things out, check the weather and how long it will take to get there, our appointment is Thursday, March 14th, our manufacture representative Jason said he had an opening to do our repair. I did talk about this previously but if you are jumping in to our blog now I will do a quick review. This 2019 Leprechaun 260DS has had it share of problems (30) but one of the biggest problem has been the finish on the cabinets and walls. It was explained to me that this body has painted graphics on it, it had to go in the oven to cure, which brought the temperature up past where the finish on the inside could take, so it bubbled. This only effected the appearance but, for resale it would cause a problem. We were advised to take it back to the factory where expert cabinet installers would replace them. So, we had to make this side trip to Indiana where we would not have chosen to go in the winter time, most people leave Indiana in the winter to go to Florida, needless to say not our choice for a destination. Since we cannot be in our RV while its being repaired we leave it in Middlebury IN and made plans to drive our Mini in to Detroit to visit family and friends. We are looking forward to exploring new places and seeing new things as we head towards IN. The first city we come to is Ormond Beach which I’m not unfamiliar with, as national sales manager I travelled to many places and one of my sale representatives lived here, the Daytona Beach area is near by so lots of racing fans (Daytona 500) and a terrific place to have a motorcycle, it has the largest motorcycle event in the world. We are now on the east coast and can see the Atlantic ocean, we choose to drive Hwy A1A as its closest to the water, we would definitely recommend this route. It’s really beautiful, full of luxury homes, resorts all the way to single level motels. The warm salt air is refreshing as we travel with the windows down and travel at a slower pace. The Hwy brings us to St Augustine FL, with its claim to fame as the oldest city in America, we cross over the bridge in to the bustling downtown area full of tourist and spring breakers. The evening is coming upon us and we have no plan of where to stay yet, we can’t make it to Tybee island tonight so somewhere in between. We roll into Amelia island after finding many RV places are full and look for a Walmart, we are in luck a small Walmart in Fernandina FL with a number of other RVers there to make us feel at home, some Walmart’s are noisy and not a great place to stay but this one works great. We park right next to the garden supplies and get a good night’s rest. We really liked Amelia Island for its location size and ease to get around, wish we could stay longer.