Time to unwind. The last two days of driving were uneventful but great driving weather.
We arrived in Ellenton, FL this afternoon. Ellenton is on Hiway 301 just east of Palmetto and Bradenton. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge is a few miles from here and connects to St Pete across Tampa Bay. 12 miles south of here is Sarasota. Plenty of stuff to see and do in the area.
During the travel down we had the Garmin GPS on at all times. Not only did it warn us of traffic problems ahead but one of the other features is that it shows elevations of the areas that we traveled through. Traveling through Iowa the high point was about 1250' (above sea level) and the elevation dropped through Iowa into Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky to a low point of about 650'. As we entered Tennessee the elevation rose to a point of 1935' just before the HUGE drop into Chattanooga,TN. I-24 has about a 4 1/2 - 6% down hill grade into Chattanooga. This is about a 1300' drop in 7 or 8 miles. The elevations varied until we got to Florida and they slowly dropped to 18' here in Ellenton.
The park we are in, Pelican Pier MH Park is a small private park of about 65 residents. We have one of the few RV sites. The park sits on the bank of the Manatee River which flows into Tampa Bay.
