We arrived in Tampa in the midst of an enormous rainstorm, to find our courtesy parking spot at Barry’s flooded several inches deep. The rain was so heavy that merely cracking a window on the Nissan resulted in a complete soaking of the interior door.

But we were blocking the street, so Eleanor bravely put on her rain jacket and sloshed out through ankle-deep water to try to back us in somewhere on Barry’s property. This was one of the tougher backing jobs we’ve had, since visibility was poor and I had to dodge two large trees and a dumpster with the trailer.

Barry’s house is an older bungalow that he’s completely rehabbing, so for now he lives in …. you got it … his Airstream! He has a 1972 Overlander which he rehabbed a couple of years ago. We finally managed to get our Airstream tucked in next to his, and in about 10 minutes the rain ended and the small rainponds disappeared into the sandy soil of Tampa. I managed to avoid scraping trees, Eleanor changed into dry clothing, and we got on with the business of settling in.

We may be here a while. Tampa is a convenient base of operations. We have several friends here, including Barry, Brett, and Rich C (located only about 30 minutes north of here at present), I have work to do, we’re close to fun places like Ft Desoto and Sarasota, and the camping is free. We’re anticipating being here for Thanksgiving, although we may move out for a while to explore before then.