Travel from Clermont, Florida to Adel, Georgia

We drove our coach 235 miles, about four hours of driving, from Clermont, Florida to Adel, Georgia.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading northwest:

Route map

An interactive map, with potential stops marked:

Rain coming off the slide topper:

Rain coming off slide topper

A line to leave TTO:

Line to leave TTO

Line to leave TTO

Citrus Tower:

Citrus Tower

Heading north on Florida’s Turnpike:

Heading north on Florida's Turnpike

Rest stop:

Rest stop

A busy foodcourt:

Busy foodcourt

The Villages golf cart bridge:

The Villages golf cart bridge

I-75:

I-75

A nice colored Prevost bus:

Prevost bus

Motorcycles and wildflowers:

Motorcycles and wildflowers

This car was going very slowly, with a flat tire. Just pull over!

Car with a flat tire

Our coach in traffic cams:

Our coach in traffic cam

Our coach in traffic cam

Our coach in traffic cam

Paladin at a rest stop:

Paladin at rest stop

“Thank you for visiting Florida”:

Thank you for visiting Florida

“Welcome to Georgia”:

Welcome to Georgia

Reed Bingham State Park:

Reed Bingham State Park

Dam:

Dam

Arriving at our site:

Our site

 

Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort

We stayed at Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort in Clermont, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A second visit to TTO, the flagship Thousand Trails park.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2024-03-05
  • Check out: 2024-03-10
  • 5 nights

Weather:

  • Mostly cloudy, some rain
  • High temps ranging between 78-85°F, lows around 59-66°F
  • Negligible wind, gusts to 21 MPH

Noise:

  • No road noise
  • No train noise
  • Some neighbor noise, dogs
  • Distant fireworks from Disney some evenings

Site:

  • Mako 11, back in, asphalt
  • Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
  • A little unlevel, high on right; used hydraulic leveling
  • Asphalt driveway about 45 feet long (plus about 30 feet of gravel behind that) by about 17 feet wide
  • Weedy grass between sites about 12 feet
  • Picnic table
  • No fire pit
  • A bunch of trash on site

Utilities:

  • 50 amp power, conveniently located
  • 45 PSI water, conveniently located
  • Loose sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • T-Mobile: 55 Mbps down, 5-7 Mbps up, 36 ms ping
  • Verizon: 18-25 Mbps down, 15 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
  • AT&T: 0.1 Mbps down, 0.01 Mbps up, 500 ms ping
  • Starlink: not used
  • Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

  • Garbage dumpsters only in a central location
  • Package delivery to office, for $5 per package (we got a local mailbox)

We’ve done a review on Campground Reviews for TTO before, so didn’t bother doing it again.

Campground map; our site this time was in the narrow strip on the left side, above the X-ed out section:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site; a quiet area of the park, one that would be a good choice for a longer stay:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Swamp near our site:

Swamp near our site

Cabin near our site:

Cabin near our site

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

We enjoyed some Chinese food from the local takeout restaurant:

Chinese food

Sunset:

Sunset

 

Travel from Disney World to Clermont, Florida

We drove our coach just 52 miles, about an hour of driving, from Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground in Disney World, Florida to Clermont, Florida.

It would actually take less than half an hour to go from Disney World to TTO (our destination), but check out time from Fort Wilderness was 11:00, and check in at TTO is very strictly not before noon, so we drove a longer route, with a fuel stop, to kill some time.

We’re planning to do this again next year, so next time we might instead wait in the Fort Wilderness overflow parking area, and go direct.

Here’s a map showing our route:

Route map

An interactive map:

Leaving the Fort Wilderness campground; we drove separately to a hitch/unhitch area, and toaded up there:

Leaving campground

Leaving campground

This is the overflow parking area, which might be a better place to kill half an hour, if there’s available space:

Overflow parking

Passing the Fort Wilderness entrance:

Fort Wilderness

Leaving the Disney World bubble; it’s been nice:

Leaving Disney World

A Mickey-shaped power pole:

Disney-shaped power pole

Fuel stop:

Fuel stop

Fuel stop

Fuel stop

Our DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid, an additive to reduce pollutants) tank was about half full, but the DEF nozzle in our fuel lane was out of order, so we bought a Blue DEF box (for the first time):

Blue DEF box

Plane:

Plane

FL-33 highway:

FL-33

Our destination, Thousand Trails Orlando:

Thousand Trails Orlando

TTO gate:

Thousand Trails Orlando

Unlike most Thousand Trails parks, at TTO arrivals go to a central area to await your turn to pick a site from a list of available ones. Since we arrived a bit after noon, there was a line of RVs waiting to get to that area:

Line of RVs

Line of RVs

Line of RVs

We untoaded there:

Untoaded

Following our coach to a site:

Following coach to site

Our site

Travel from Ohio Key to Fort Lauderdale, Florida

We drove our coach 148 miles, about three hours of driving, from Ohio Key, Florida to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading back up the Overseas Highway out of the Keys:

Route map

An interactive map:

Leaving the resort:

Departing

Departing

Heading up the Overseas Highway:

Overseas highway

Overseas highway

Overseas highway

Marathon

Overseas highway

Overseas highway

Bird nest

Drawbridge

Overseas highway

Florida’s Turnpike toll road:

Florida's Turnpike

Florida's Turnpike

Rainy:

Rain

Tolls

Service plaza lunch stop:

Service plaza

Service plaza

Paladin at the service plaza:

Paladin

Roadworks:

Roadworks

Hard Rock hotel:

Hard Rock hotel

Turnaround:

Turnaround

Our destination:

Our destination

Our destination

Our destination

Our destination

Our destination

Encore Sunshine Key RV Resort & Marina

We stayed at Encore Sunshine Key RV Resort & Marina, in Ohio Key, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A large park in the Florida Keys.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2024-02-04
  • Check out: 2024-02-18
  • 14 nights

Weather:

  • Partly cloudy; rainy in the first couple of days
  • High temps 66-76°F, lows around 61-74°F
  • Windy most days, gusts to 32 MPH

Noise:

  • Significant highway noise
  • No train noise
  • Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

  • #406, front in, gravel
  • Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
  • Very level; used hydraulic leveling
  • Gravel site about 50 feet long by about 40 feet wide
  • Picnic table on gravel area
  • No fire pit
  • A bunch of small bottlecap-sized garbage on site

Utilities:

  • 50 amp power, inconveniently located on passenger side (when fronted in)
  • 35 PSI water, inconveniently located on passenger side
  • Loose sewer connection, somewhat conveniently located (2-3 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • T-Mobile: 40-50 Mbps down, 40-50 Mbps up, 22 ms ping
  • AT&T: 830 Mbps down, 70 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
  • Verizon: 10 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
  • Starlink: not used
  • Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

  • Pool
  • Swimming beach
  • Marina with kayak etc rental
  • Package delivery to office
  • Garbage dumpsters
  • Frequent food trucks and other vendors onsite

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Waterfront and road noise

We have a Thousand Trails Adventure membership, but that did not help us get a reservation here at all. Considering how hard it is to get a reservation in the Keys, we bit the bullet and paid retail for a two-week stay in a waterfront site that was the most expensive site we’d ever booked. I should point out that site 406 really shouldn’t be considered a “Premium waterfront” site. There is a peep of the water through the mangroves, but nothing like a panoramic view. However, we enjoyed watching the water and the ibises hunting in the mangroves from our front window, so I’ll let it slide.

While the peek of the water was nice, the constant highway noise was not. No matter where you are in the park, there is a constant hum of the Overseas Highway, although it’s somewhat reduced on the far edge and towards the marina.

The park has definite drainage issues. We arrived after a major thunderstorm swept through the Keys and there was a large lake at the entrance and in several other places around the park, including the road our site was on. They had pumps going to try and divert the worst of it out to sea, but it took days to completely dry up.

They allow motorhomes to front-in at the waterfront sites, which is nice even though the hookups were then on the wrong side of the coach. Luckily, we have pretty long power cables and hoses, so we’re able to reach across the nice wide site.

One downside of the waterfront site is that people think it’s okay to walk through your site on their way to the beach. It is not.

There are lots of activities and a robust social scene if you’re into that. We liked that it was convenient to everything we wanted to do in the Keys, but $300/night would be a dealbreaker if we wanted to visit the Keys again. We camped at Encore Sunshine Key RV Resort & Marina in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Griddle

Our power and water hookups were on the passenger side, since we fronted in. Fortunately we have a long power cord and hoses, so it wasn’t a problem (I didn’t even need to use my power extension cord).

Our site

I flew my drone for some aerial views; this first one is above our site:

Aerial view

Aerial view

Aerial view

Aerial view

Aerial view

Aerial view

Aerial view

Aerial view

Aerial view

Entrance sign:

Entrance sign

Direction sign:

Direction sign

Rental golf carts:

Rental golf carts

Rental Slingshot:

Rental Spyder

Mail room; quite well organized. People go in to claim their own packages:

Mail room

They regularly had food vendors onsite:

Food fair

Food fair

Food cart

Food cart

Birds in front of our site:

Birds in front of our site

Our coach next to a rental tiny home:

Our coach next to tiny home

More tiny homes:

More tiny homes

Rental trailers:

Rental trailers

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Dog park:

Dog park

Swimming pool:

Swimming pool

Marina:

Marina

Marina

Fish in the marina:

Fish in the marina

Sunset Pier, with a swimming area and fishing:

Sunset Pier

Sunset Pier

People checking out a grounded boat:

People checking out a grounded boat

Beach access down from our site:

Beach access

Beach

An old bridge, now a walking path:

Bridge

Bridge

The old bridge next to the newer Overseas Highway bridge:

Bridges

Birds and rocks

A glimpse of our coach from the water:

A glimpse of our coach from the water

Waterfront sites

Waterfront

Picnic shelter

A large, nice RV park. It would have been nicer if we could have stayed for free via our Thousand Trails membership, but the premium site was nicer.