To Williamsburg VA

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The above photo is the roads leading out of Virginia Beach on our way to Williamsburg. Yes I did drive the motorhome down there.
The drive here to Williamsburg, VA was short even with all the road construction going on. As we traveled up the interstate, I noticed a motorhome back behind me and wondered if they were going to the same campground as us. Sure enough they pulled in right behind us at the campground office. I jumped out the door and the other guy said, "Your from California." And pointed to his plates which were also California plates. After talking a while I found that they had just about followed the same route as us. We looked forward to sitting down with them and swapping stories but shortly after pulling into their site they fired up their motorhome and took off. Something about the campground didn't satisfy them. We find this campground to be quite nice.
Last night I hooked up my data cable from the computer to the phone and my software did not recognize the phone. Oh No! I fooled with the cable and found that if I hold it just right it would work. I found some pins on the phone connector had been pushed back into the connector and apparently were not making good contact. So today it was off to the Verizon store. It turns out that I had about 10 days left on my warranty so they just gave me a new phone at no charge. Sometimes life can treat you right. Then it was off to get a haircut so not too much excitement today.
I had a very difficult finding a campground at our next stop, Washington, DC. All the reviews I read for the campgrounds in the area were not favorable. I did my best, I hope, to pick the lesser of the evils and made reservations. This is for a week so I hope it is tolerable. I need to get on the ball and make reservations for Niagara Falls because that will be the 4th of July weekend. Nice place to spent the 4th if I can get a spot. It looks like most of the campgrounds are on the Ontario Canada side so I am going to see what it takes to go through Canada. It looks like leaving through Canada is also the best bet to avoid the toll roads around Niagara Falls.

Digger’s Dungeon

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Those of you that are Monster Truck fans will get a kick out of this. As we were running through Kill Devil Hills we came across Digger's Dungeon which is the Race Shop of Grave Digger. I had to make a big U turn and head back to check it out. They had a couple of Grave Diggers in the shop being worked on, or built. Digger's Dungeon is a gift shop filled with bits and pieces of his crashed trucks. Behind the counter in Digger's Dungeon is a big window that looks directly into the engine shop. They were putting together engines and had one monster of an engine on the dyno. Just out of curiosity I asked where Dennis is today and the girl behind the counter said, "He is back there in the shop somewhere." I looked but didn't se him. Being the Grave Digger fan I have been for 20 years, this was a real treat for me.

Cape Hatteras

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This is a view of our site on the Outer banks on Hatteras Island. Note the house in the background. There are lots of these along the beach. We finally got some good weather so we could get out and enjoy. We visited Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and on the way I thought I had forgot my camera so I didn't get any pictures. I was so mad at myself. After getting back to the motorhome and unloading the car, I spotted my camera right there in the back seat where I had left it. I was even madder then. Oh Well, at least I got a postcard of the light houses (see the where have we been section).


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This is a photo of the road leaving Hatteras island. The sand dunes are quite a contrast from the tree covered roads of the country we have seen.

Bad weather on The Outer Banks

It’s raining and the wind has been blustery from yesterday afternoon through all day today. We did nothing. Well I actually spent a lot of today tracking down and temporally patching a leak in one of my windows. Hopefully I found the problem. I am not sure yet because the rain slowed down shortly after I found what I think is the problem. On top of all that, the power went out in the area for about 4 hours, but we live in a self contained motorhome, who needs power, we can make our own. Since we have not been out and about, I have no pictures to post.
As I mentioned, our cell company has let us down by deciding to not serve this area. This means we still have phone service (extended network) but no internet service. I have found a weak wireless signal here so I can get on the internet sporadically. Don’t know where it is coming from and I really don’t care. So if you don’t hear from me for a while, I have lost the signal. We move up to Virginia on Monday and should be back in network then.

Outer Banks

We are now on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This is where Cape Hatteras is located. We are on the Extended Network with out cell phone which means I have no internet connection but I found a weak wireless signal so I will take advantage of it as long as I can. It is suppose to rain for a few days but the weekend is supposed to be great. There are many light houses to explore here also Kitty Hawk is near by so we will do some sight seeing.

Heading back to the coast

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When we leave to head on down the road it is usually a sad day. We have stayed in some pretty nice places the last month or so. But we are also excided to move on. This time I am especially sad because I have enjoyed Free Wireless Internet for the last 4 days.
The above photo is an example of the kind of roads we have been taking. We have tried to stay off the interstates and travel the back roads. It might take a little longer but when you have to drive on these type of roads, you want it to last longer. Tomorrow we are heading for Washington NC. This is just going to be an overnighter so we are going to check out the Wal-Mart first. If it looks scary we will head for a campground. We will need to go to the Wal_Mart anyway because the nearest store from our next stop is 30 miles. We also have a pile of laundry that needs tending to. At least we will get all the chores done before settling in at The Outer Banks. I hope we will have cell coverage on The Outer Banks so I can get my internet fix.

Averasboro

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We have visited Fort Sumter where the first shot in the Civil War was fired and today we visited the Averasboro Battlefield where the last big battle was fought. During this battle which took place over two days, 1200 were wounded and at least 350 killed. We drove up the road where the battle advanced which is now lined with wheat and corn farms. Some of the homes along the road which were used as headquarters and hospitals are still standing and some have been restored and are used as private residents today. We found out that what is considered today by most as the Confederate flag (all red with a blue X with stars inside) is in reality the battle flag. There were actually 3 Confederate flags. The first looked much like the Union flag with 7 stars in a circle on a blue background with 2 red and 1 white stripe. This was confused with the Stars and Strips of the Union flag so it was changed. The second was the familiar Confederate blue X with white stars but was located in the upper left corner much like the Union flag. The rest of the flag was all white. They abandoned this flag because when hanging limp all you might see was the white and confuse it as a surrender flag. On the third flag they added a vertical red stripe at the end so as not to confuse it with a surrender flag when limp. Ironically enough, no one complains about the real Confederate flag, Only what they think is the Confederate flag which is in reality the battle flag.

Wade North Carolina

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We are in a little town called Wade North Carolina. The drive here was scenic. We took all the back roads and some of them were barely wide enough to pass another car with the motorhome, but what a nice drive. The pace was slow and the view was great. It seems that every house we passed had a front porch with porch swings or rocking chairs. You can tell life around here is slow paced. The traffic was light by California standards but there were a lot more vehicles on the small country roads than I expected. It could have something to do with the holiday weekend. We ended up in a KOA park. Usually we stay from the KOAs because most we have seen are run down or way over priced for what they are. This one came highly recommended and is really nice. As you can see in the picture, the sites are huge. They gave me a KOA discount card so maybe we will be staying at a few more down the road. The charge for the card was $14 but then they gave me a $14 discount on my site because I had the card so it was basically free.
It looks like we are going to have a fairly quiet Memorial Weekend, doesn't seem to be too much to do around here. We will just have to sit back and relax, what else is new huh? Last night we sat out by our faux gas fire pit listening to the guy a few sites over plunking on his banjo and enjoyed the evening.

Last day in Myrtle Beach

This morning we took a drive into town to check out the bikers. As I mentioned, this weekend is Black Biker weekend. It is still early but a lot have already arrived. This proved to be pretty entertaining. I was a little disappointed though because I expected to see a lot of custom choppers. Instead what we saw was a lot of Ninja style bikes.

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We spent the early afternoon walking the beach. The beaches around here don’t have much in the way of waves which makes it nice for the kids. The water was very clear. But what really caught our eye was the amount of shells on the beach. This place is shell collectors haven.

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After the beach we just sat by the lake and watched the alligator as he made his way around the lake. Also what we found comical is the turtle heads that pop up in the lake. I don’t know what makes this so comical but we laugh every time one pops up. They just look so funny.

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Tomorrow is another travel day. We will be heading inland Just for the weekend then back to the coast. We figured we had a better chance to get a site for the holiday weekend by heading inland.

There’s a gator in the lake

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Susan and I were walking around the lake this evening when we spotted this guy floating in the lake. He is only about a 4 footer but a gator nun the less. I saw a sign that said not to feed the alligator but didn't expect to see one. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Looks like I got the leak in the motorhome roof fixed. We had a really good soaking again yesterday and there was no leaking. Good thing it was a simple fix. The motorhome is shinny again. It is difficult to keep this thing clean since most parks don't allow washing of vehicles. This park does so I took advantage of the situation and washed the car and motorhome.

Myrtle Beach Bound

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Monday was a travel day. We got started at around our usual 10:00a departure time from Charleston and arrived in Myrtle Beach about 1:00p. On the way here we were seeing the leftovers of the Bike Week that went on last week. Just before we got into Myrtle Beach we saw the "Girls Gone Wild" motorhome pass by heading south. I wish I had my camera handy.
The park we are in is top notch. You have your choice of beach, lake, or forest sites. With 1150 sites you have a good choice. We chose the lake and what a fine site it is. The site is probably 50 feet wide and plenty long to get the biggest rig into. Just down the row in front of us is the beach. We can either look out our front window and see the beach or out the back and see the lake. Just 3 sites down is a full laundry, fully stocked store, snack bar, restaurant, play ground, in door pool, large outdoor pool and a lazy river for just kicking back and tubing around and around. The weather is great but it did get a bit windy last night. I had to go out at 3:30a and roll the awnings in. In the evening we took a walk on the beach which is clean and loaded with shells. Then we sat by the lake until sunset watching the turtles popping their heads up and down. What a life, huh?
After we arrived in Myrtle Beach, we momentary lost contact with the world. Our cell phone would not call out or receive calls. I found a pay phone and called Verizon to see if it was us or them. After about an hour of try this and try that we determined it was them so they filled out a trouble call and said they would have it fixed in 24 to 48 hours. Well it only took about 2 hours and we were back on the air. The bad part however is that while trying this and that, one of the things they tried is to remove my account and rebuild it again. In doing this I lost my Verizon High Speed internet connectivity. On inquiring about it I found out that I had been receiving it illegally. It is a service that I should have been paying for. What happened is that when they originally setup my account, they had no way of blocking someone from just buying the "Office Kit" and logging on and also no way of limiting usage. And since I was able to do this, I thought it was included in my service. Now they can block someone from doing this but only on new accounts and, since they rebuilt my account now they can block me. No need to say I was rather upset. Now I have to pay $40 a month for limited access. I am going to do some research into other methods to access the internet but in the mean time I will give them my $40. I guess I could always look at it the other way and say I was getting something for free that I should have been paying for. It doesn't make the hurt go away though.

Touring Charleston

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The above photo is a magnolia blossom from one of the many blooming magnolia trees around here. Also the air everywhere around here has the sent of honeysuckle. It almost grows wild around here.
So far we have had 2 beautiful days here at Charleston. The weather has been clear with temperatures in the 80s and little humidity. We took the opportunity to do some sight seeing today. We went into Historic Charleston and took one of the tours around the town. Our tour guide was full of information. For instance, Did you know that the Charleston dance was invented right on the streets of Charleston, well where else. But I bet you didn't know it was black musicians and dancers that started it. We also learned that Charleston is a town that has been devastated by hurricanes fires and even a major earthquake. I wasn't aware that there were earthquakes in this area. I thought that was something us Californians only knew about.
Tomorrow we have to move. Originally there were no spaces available here at the park for the weekend but with the weather being so bad, I acquired at the office and they had a space available. We are only moving to the other side of the park so it shouldn't be too bad. Hopefully we can get it done early enough to do some more sight seeing. The weather is supposed to turn bad again starting tomorrow so we shall see what happens.
The people here are extremely friendly. Everyone we meet are eager to help and answer questions and offer suggestions. There was even one fellow that offered us his spare bedroom if we needed a place to stay. Tourist towns are fun because everyone wants to know where you are from. When we mention California, right away they are curious about what method of transportation we used to get here. When the find out we travel in a motorhome, they want to know all about it. We love to tell our stories. And of course most wish they could do the same.

As I sit here outside under my awning writing this I heard some rustling behind me. I turned to see a raccoon the size of a small dog 4 feet from me snatching food from my bird feeder. I love nature.

Must put it into perspective

I mentioned in the last post that I found a leak in the motorhome. I was feeling pretty down. I would rather be out touring than spending the day chasing down leaks and trying to figure out what to do about it. I then started thinking about my lifestyle. I realized that I could be sitting at a desk, dealing with the problems at work, then I get a call from Susan about a leaky roof on my house. But since I do not have a job, or a house made of sticks, and have no where to be, and lots of time, I can take some time out to deal with my leak. Today I stopped by the park office on my way to Wal-Mart and extended our stay 3 more days. At Wal-Mart I picked up a 3 dollar tube of Silicone and patched what I think is the problem. There is only one more place where the water can be getting in and tomorrow I will focus on that. It’s a maintenance item that should be attended to anyway and won’t cost me a cent. The rest of the day I spent sitting under my awning, with the rain falling, listening to my Sinatra CD, and watching the birds and squirrels eat from my feeder.
I feel better now…

It’s pouring

…And we are leaking. We set out to do some shopping this afternoon and just as we returned it down right poured. They say we had 4 inches an hour. Susan said, “If we have a leak, it will show now.” It showed. There was water dripping out of the light fixture. I removed the fixture, pulled the wires clear and proceeded to dry things out a bit. Suddenly is started dripping from the TV antenna crank. Since this is only 1 foot from the light I suspect they were coming from the same source. I did my best to keep things dry until the delude slowed enough to climb on the roof. After inspecting the antenna area I believe I discovered the breach. I had noticed a while back a spot in a rubber boot that the manufacturer punched a hole in to run some wires. I remember wondering how water never got in there. I applied a temporary patch until things dry out. It is supposed to rain for the next couple of days, so we will see. I sure hope that’s all it is.

The road to Charleston

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Isn't this terrible? This is what we have had to put up with since we left Florida. Oak covered roads through Georgia and now South Carolina. Sometimes I can actually hear the twang of my CB antenna as we pass under the trees. Some roads I am glad we went down with the car and not the motorhome. The campgrounds have been just as nice. In Georgia we had as many as 8 squirrels and 3 blue jays hanging outside our window at one time.

They would actually run up the tree just outside our dinning room window and peek in the window at us. Here in Charleston we spotted a BIG old raccoon rummaging through the dumpster (in the middle of the day) as we sat under our awning.
We could only reserve our site until Friday. This place is full for the weekend. Normally this would be no problem, we would just move on. Unfortunately this poses a problem. The next stop is Myrtle Beach. This week just happens to be Bike Week in Myrtle Beach. All campgrounds are full. At this point I am not sure what we are going to do. I am going to check the other campgrounds around here and possibly stay through the weekend.

Too much History

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I am sure glad I will not be tested on all this. Yesterday we spent the day in Historic Savannah. We drove around aimlessly as usual and decided we needed to take a narrated tour. There was just so much that we wanted too know. We hopped aboard one of the many tour trolleys for a 90 minute guided tour. This was the best thing we could have done. We left with a much better understanding of the history of Savannah. Savannah played a big part in the Civil War and Slavery.




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Today we visited Fort Pulaski which is located on Cockspur Island. This is where the Union Army thought they were protected from the Confederate Army until the Confederate staged an attack from Tybee Island. The confederates fire power was too much for the fort and destroyed the outer wall leaving the forts gunpowder magazine variable. At this point the Union surrendered. You can see the many scars left by cannon fire in the walls and some even still contain the cannon shot imbedded in the wall.




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Over on Tybee Island we toured the Tybee Island Lighthouse which was constructed to guide ships into the Savannah River. This is actually the forth lighthouse after the first 2 were destroyed by storms and the third was set fire by the Union Army to keep the Confederate from spying of them at Fort Pulaski. There are 178 steps to the top of the light. I climbed every one of them. The Light keepers houses are still there and beautifully restored.

Error corrected

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After realizing my mistake in going to the wrong campground, I went to the office this morning and explained my miss calculation to the girl at the desk. "No problem", she said. She gladly refunded one nights fee and we were on our way. It was a short drive but nearly took us an hour to get here (all back roads). These State Parks are nestled in a forest of trees and are quite an obstacle course to drive the motorhome with car in tow around them. We are now 10 miles from Savannah instead of 26 miles. The park is nicer too. We even have cable TV, although I was able to setup the satellite dish here. Also we have 50 amp power instead of the 30 amps we had at Fort McAllister State Historic Park. The flying bugs are a little over the edge so I set up our screen room for the first time and we spent the afternoon and evening bug free. Tomorrow we are going to attempt to spend some time in Savannah as long as my back holds out. There are a couple of restaurants that are owned by a cooking host that Susan watches and she wants to check them out. One boasts good down home southern cooking and the other is seafood. I'll go for the southern cooking myself. We may also seek out a good southern BBQ while here.

I can’t see the Satellite

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We are at Fort McAllister State Historic Park near Savannah Georgia. The woods are so thick here that my satellite dish can not see the satellite. I found a very small opening in the trees and tried for about an hour before giving up. We get about 5 channels on the Antenna so that will do for now. It turns out I messed up anyway. We ended up at the wrong state park although this is a park is nice. Actually this was our second choice. The first one, although Woodall's RV park guide gave it 4 out of 5 stars, ended up being small, cramped, right on a major road, and a bit scary looking. We are about 26 miles from Savannah and the park we want to be in is about 10 miles from Savannah. Don't ask me how that happened, I have no idea. It's not like we have to be anywhere at anytime. We paid for two nights so tomorrow we are going to see if we can get one night back or transferred it to the other state park and we will move. The drive here was nice. We were going to stay off the interstate and take the back roads but I messed up my back and thought a 2 hour drive would be better on my back than a 3 hour drive. Don't worry, I'll be OK in a couple of days.
Well my new weather radio works. We were sitting today relaxing when an alert went off. Seems there is a severe thunder storm heading through the county northwest from here. It should not effect us at all except for a little lightning. I narrowed the alerts by programming in the county we are in and the county nearby instead of the default "any". Now the only alerts we should get will be a real concern.

I under estimated our stay

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We had to extend our stay here at Jacksonville because I under estimated our time here. We were running out of time to do the things we want to do. I think the rain Thursday is what threw me off. Well that's what this lifestyle is all about. We don't have to be anywhere at any anytime so we will stay another day. We are having a ball ( so what's new) here visiting more of Susan's cousins. Today was a combination Mother's day and birthday brunch. Lots of good food! We were entertained by Tina's bird all afternoon. This bird has a vocabulary you wouldn't believe. It not only blurts out words but also sound effects and more. For instance, it will make the sound of a phone ringing, answer it with "hello", hold a conversation and hang up at the end. What a riot!
After the rain ended Thursday the weather has been great. It has been a comfortable high 70 to low 80 with little humidity. In the mornings and evenings we sit outside the motorhome and get entertained by the squirrels that scamper around the trees next to our patio. They run up and down the trees peeking around the branches at us. We put out our "bird feeder" and the squirrels have come up and rummaged through and picked out all the sunflower seeds and left nothing but empty shells. Then we watched as a couple of ducks came up from the lake, headed right for the feeder, had a snack then back into the lake they went. How did they know it was there? So far this feeder has been shared by birds, squirrels, ducks, raccoons and who know what else while we are sleeping.
I almost forgot. We have been features as RVers of the month at www.rvresources.com. Check it out.

Jacksonville

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We have made our way to Jacksonville Florida today. When we woke this morning in St. Augustine there was thunder, lightning and rain. We took the coast route and the drive was good except portions of the road were rough. It could be due to storm damage. We got about half way to Jacksonville and suddenly, as if we went through a invisible wall, the rain suddenly stopped. I mean the road wasn't even wet. How weird. It's a good thing we took advantage of our time in St. Augustine because there doesn't seem to be much going on in Jacksonville. The campground we are at is great. We got a spot right on the lake. I wish they would design the sites so we could drive straight in instead of back in only. That way we would have a great view of the lake out our front window. Instead we have a great view out our bedroom window. It is raining tonight. I love the sound of the rain falling on the roof of the motorhome.
The motorhome has been running good since I replaced the burnt plug wire again. I am glad that is all in was. Fortunately replacing the wire was a since. I simply raised the front of the motorhome with the levelers, turned the wheels all the way to the right and sat in the wheel well while replacing the wire. It wasn't even as hot as I thought since I just shut it down from driving a while.

St Augustine

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St. Augustine was fun. We spent the day visiting the sights. We thought the day was going to be a bust. We started by visiting the Whetstone Chocolate Factory and found they were no longer conducting tours. Then it was off to Tom's Fruit and Produce Stand, they no longer have fruits and produce. It is now a tourist gift stand. We then headed over to the Alligator Farm and found they wanted $18.00 each to view the gators, we passed on that one. One that is real impressive is the Castillo De San Marcos. This is a fort that was built from 1672 to 1695. The walls are 18 feet thick and 30 feet high. It is part of the National Park systems and we got to use our National Park Pass to see it. It is a must see if in the area. There are also other historic sights to see in the city. Being the Oldest city in America, the whole place is full of history.

We moved

We are in St. Augustine Florida right now. We will be here for 2 days while we visit the oldest city in America. That’s what they call it.
Well I blew another spark plug wire. The symptoms were a bit different this time so it confused me for a while. I pulled into a Wal-Mart parking lot with the thought that if I didn’t figure it out right a way we could spend the night and get help in the morning. I figured I would start with the plug wire and go from there. That was it! Good thing I had 7 spares. I will be giving Workhorse a call tomorrow and see if they have come up with any more ideas. I am about ready to foot the bill and go for some race wires.

Traveling at last

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Tomorrow morning we will be back on the road. We were supposed to leave today but we don't like traveling on the weekends and it was supposed to be raining all day. Even though it is only about 2 ½ hours to Jacksonville from here I figures it will take us about 5 hours. That is because we are going to stay off the interstate and take the coast route. Since I don't drive for more than 3 hours at a time, we will be stopping over for a couple of nights between here and there. I hope to make it to St. Augustine. I would like to spend a couple of days there.

Our stay here at Orlando Florida was just great. We got to spend time with family that live in the area and Susan's parents flew out from California also. There is so much to do in this area that a month just isn't enough. But I just have to get back on the road. There is always next time. I think the next time through we will limit our stay to 1 to 2 weeks and head on down to the keys. I found a campground right at the end of the keys. That would be cool. The campground we are at is very nice. I was undecided over 2 in the area but with some advice from friends on the internet I chose Orlando Winter Gardens. Good choice.

A new toad?

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I wish! Last night Susan's cousin came over to check out our humble home. It is no doubt dwarfed compared to his 15,000 square foot home on the lake but mine has wheels and I can take it with me. I like that. Anyway, after the visit, Jim and Jenifer took us to a local jazz club for some food and drink. On the way home Jim was so beat that he asked me if I would mind going to his house and driving his convertible Lexis to our house so he wouldn't have to drive to our house and back to his. He said, in fact you can keep it all weekend and return it on Sunday. Twist my arm! The problem is, it rained today. Well we still have tomorrow.
We were going to go to Universal Studios tonight to see the Mardi Gras but since it wants to rain here we will just have to do that another time.

Another day at Disney

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Today was The Disney's Animal Kingdom. I didn't feel as beat after the Animal Kingdom as I did after The Magic Kingdom. Not sure why. Maybe I needed a day to loosen up. The Animal Kingdom was very cool. Being the nature lovers we are, we got up close looks at the big cats, gorillas and more. They have a really cool Jungle Safari ride that takes you around to see many animals. The driver does a good job pointing out where the animals are hiding and gives you a little education on them. There is so much to do at Disney World that we will have to go back a few more times to see more.

How did I ever do it

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We just spent the day at Disney World's Magic Kingdom. We are either getting old or out of shape. Probably more like old and out of shape. We were beat at the end of the day. I guess sitting under my awning outside the motorhome all day is taking it's toll. The Magic Kingdom was, well, what can I say. Living all my life 1.5 hours away from Disneyland in California, I went at least once a year and The Magic Kingdom is very similar. But we had a great time. We couldn't ask for better weather. What I don't understand is why they have to charge so much. It cost about $60 a person to get into each park and then there is food and snacks to buy. The place was packed so they must be making a fortune with the prices they charge.

More of the house

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The above is a photo of only part of the inside of the house.
Susan's parents have gone off to Massachusetts and her cousin is going to Paris so we have some time to our selves. We are going to checkout Disney World and Disney's Animal Kingdom then Universal Studio in the next week. Universal Studio is having Mardi Gras nights every Saturday night for the month of April with real authentic floats from the New Orland's Mardi Gras so it should be worth checking out.
It has been somewhat hectic, but very enjoyable, for us with all the visiting we have been doing in the last couple of weeks. We have been gone just about every evening, not getting in until after dark. Not our usual mode of operation since going fulltime.

What is it?

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You have to click on the photo and get a closer look at this face. Yes it is a cat. This is Sinatra, Susan's cousin's cat. This cat looks like it ran into a brick wall. They also have a 3rd generation Manx named Frank and a cool little puppy named George.
The last couple of days Susan and I did NOTHING. We went nowhere and did nothing but sit around the motorhome. We will be here until the end of the month so we can do nothing and not feel guilty. Next week we will be doing the tourist thing so I should have more to write. Until then I am catching up on some maintenance items on the motorhome and car.

We're still here

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...in Orlando Florida. The park we are in is very comfortable and everyone is so friendly. We have been so busy spending time with family that I haven't had time to update the journal. We haven't even had time to do much sight seeing. We will be here for the rest of the month so I am sure we will find time. In the mean time we are just having a ball. Susan's cousins are lots of fun to be around. The above picture is her cousins house that we are spending most of our time at. This place is beautiful and is located on a peninsula that stretches out into the lake so there is a lake view from every window in the house. The sunsets are magnificent over the water. I know it was a very hard decision but he just sold the place. The upkeep in a place like this is just huge. Next month he will be moving into his other home in the country club across the street. I believe this is the same country club that Tiger Woods resides at. The weather here has been great. We have had mostly warm days in the high 70s to low 80s with little humidity and the evenings are very comfortable. We are keeping a close eye on the weather up north and might take our time traveling to let the storms clear out.

The Snow Birds are going home

Snow Birds are a name given to people that live in the cold northern parts of the country and travel south for the winters. They settle into the RV parks for months waiting for the weather to warm up back home. Well they have been pulling out of here at the rate of one or two a day now. The couple between us and the lake have left leaving us with a great view. Nice!
I have been as busy around here as I was when I owned a home. Since we are settled in for a month, I have been cleaning and fixing. Fortunately the weather has been great. I would hate to have to be doing this during bad or cold weather. They are calling for a thunder storm Thursday and Friday. Good this will force me to take a break for a couple of days. We have been here for 4 days now and haven’t even done any sight seeing. Since we will be here for a month there is plenty of time for that.

Orlando Florida

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4 month and we finally made it to Orlando Florida. We will be here for a month while visiting with family. Susan's parents are going to fly out to visit family also, so we will get a chance to spend some time with them too. Glad we got out of Tallahassee because they are still having some pretty sever weather and more tornado watches. The weather was warm and humid when we got here and last night we had a small thunder storm drift through. I even got up and turned on the air conditioner. Today the weather was cooler and comfortable. I spent the day cleaning up the motorhome. It sure looks nice. I have been waiting a long time to do that. A little more detailing and it will be good to go for another few months. I still haven't got a chance to take that Air boat ride to go gator hunting yet. I have been wanting to do that since Louisiana. I hope I can "get 'er done" while here.

Homosassa Springs Wildlife Preserve

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Tomorrow is another travel day. This is going to be an easy 1 hour and 45 minute drive down to Orlando so we will not be in a hurry to get an early start. They have a wash rack here and one at the new location. I haven't decided if I want to wash the Aerbus here or there. I guess I will see what the weather is like in the morning.

We had a real good stay here at Rock Crusher Canyon. Today we visited the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Preserve. This is similar to the Living Deserts we visited in Arizona and New Mexico. Here we found not only the bears, panthers, snakes, and birds, but also Manatees and alligators. Our visit started out with a 20 minute boat ride down a wildlife channel where we saw birds, snakes, turtles, and alligators IN THE WILD. These are not placed there nor are they in captivity. They are in the wild. We were lucky enough to see these on the trip to the preserve because we only saw birds on the way back.

OK, It’s only for one night.

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Steinhatchee? You don't want to go there. Being on the Gulf Coast, I pictures this place as being a clean small town with white sandy beaches. At least that has been our opinion of the Gulf Coast until now. Steinhatchee is a small town alright. So much so that the motorhome took up all of the 8 foot wide lane road through town. We missed the turn for the road to the campground and had a heck of a time finding a place to turn this 55 feet of motorhome and car around. Once we did get going down the right road we found the campground but couldn't find the office. I finally spotted a couple of guys pounding out some car body parts next to an old mobile home and they pointed me to the office down a narrow road at the back of the campground. This place looked like it just went through the latest hurricane and they didn't have time to clean it up. I gave then the $25 they wanted for the night and had to unhook the car to turn the motorhome around to get to my site. Once at the site I began to hookup and noticed the sewer hookup was plugged with dirt and leaves. No problem, it's only one night. When I went to plug in I had 2 choices bad or worst. The 2 receptacles were fried and corroded. I had to get out my needle files and clean and straighten things out a bit before I could plug in. I went in and checked my plug tester and guess what? Reverse polarity. Go Figure. However, cable TV was good and the night was quiet. The water in this area was a very dark burgundy color. Why? I don't know.

Crystal River (see photo above) makes up for Steinhatchee. This place is rated WWWWW by Woodall's campground guide. That is the top rating. Although it is Very Nice, I would give it a WWWW. The weather has finally turned around. Today was beautiful and it is supposed to get better. We will relax here for 3 nights before heading into the Orlando area.

Where the hell is Steinhatchee

We will find out. That is where we are heading in the morning. Why? Because it’s there. Actually because it is about 3 hours from here. We like to limit our travel to only 3 hours a day. This lets us leave late and arrive early usually missing all the traffic.

We are still under sever thunder storm and tornado watch around here. A watch means the conditions are right but not necessarily that it will happen. Last night we had a tornado warning. A warning means that one has been spotted and we are being warned it might head our way. Fortunately for us it was spotted just east of us and it was heading in a north easterly direction. Tomorrow the weather forecast look good and as the week goes on it will get better. After Steinhatchee we will be heading more inland which will lessen our chance of fowl weather.

Hopefully I will have internet access for the next few days so I can keep in touch. We will be in the Orlando area by Friday and I know I will have access there.

We survived

Read the post below first..
Well after everything settled, about 11:00, last night it was an un eventful night. We are still under Tornado watch until 11:00 this morning but it is remarkably calm right now. I am back sitting under the mighty oaks. Just to be on the safe side we had clothed, rain jackets, flashlights, and my weather radio by the door ready for the worst. I have no idea where we would go, but if someone came by and rousted us with a place to go we were ready. The worst that happened is when I came out this morning I had to go hunt down my flip flops because the river that developed under our motorhome washed them down a few sites. Surprising I found both of them side by side like I placed them there. After today the weather is supposed to be nice. I sure hope so because our next stop is right on the gulf coast.

Wow!

I have never been in a thunder storm such as this. Our power has been knocked out and the lightning reminds me of a strobe light. It is just constant. There were a couple of hits close by. The rain is so heavy I can barely see across the street. This is exciting to say the least. I know we will survive though. Don't worry, we will be OK. I have my battery operated weather radio on and am keeping a constant ear on the reports. They are saying the worst of this storm has passes but we are still under a tornado watch until morning.

The following is from the weather site in the column on the left.



The National Weather Service has issued a Tornado Watch for southeastAlabama... southwest and south central Georgia... and the Florida BigBend and Panhandle... effective until 500 am EST Sunday morning(400 amCST Sunday morning).

at 1036 PM EST... National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated adeveloping tornado near Tallahassee... moving east at 55 mph.

... This is a particularly dangerous situation... Destructive tornadoes... large hail to 1.5 inches in diameter... thunderstorm wind gusts to 60 mph... and dangerous lightning arepossible in these areas.

A Tornado Watch remains in effect for the warned area. If a tornadois spotted... act quickly and move to a place of safety in a sturdystructure... such as a basement or small interior room.

I will try to report in the morning if we are still here.

Stay off the Interstates?

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When I decided to go fulltime, I read a lot from other fulltimers about the dos and don'ts. One thing I read is to stay off the Interstates and take the scenic highways. This is good advice when traveling through Los Angeles and areas like that. However, when the interstates look like the photo above' Believe it or not this is Interstate 10 through Florida. The only problem I can see is that it does get a little monotonous, so we have decided to take highway 19 down the gulf coast of Florida as we head for Orlando.

Plans change

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We intended to stop for a night in Alabama but when we got there I wasn’t ready to stop driving. We continued on and stopped at the first rest stop/visitors center in Florida. Since it was only going to be a 1 niter we did a Walmart in Pensacola. I asked the Walmart greeter for permission and after granting it I got to listen to his whole life story. Some of those ol’ guys really like to talk. Well after picking up a few items and dinner this Walmart night cost me about $50. Who says camping at Walmart is free?

I took a chance and made a reservation for the next stop. I figured Florida will be like California as far as reservations being a must this time of year. I don’t like reservations incase the place is a dump but we made a good choice this time. We are at a place in Tallahassee called Big Oak RV Park. The place sure lives up to it’s name. We are parked under some giant oaks. This place is so nice we decided to extend our stay through the weekend. The place is full but they found a spot under the oaks where I can share power and water with a nearby site. This is fine with me since the other guy is using the 30 amp outlet and I am using the 50 amp outlet. We have no sewer hookup but with my holding tank capacity this is not a problem. They even have free WIFI internet. I am not sure what there is to do around here for a weekend but I am sure we will not have a problem finding something.

Storm Watch

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OK, What gives. According to the weather forecast we are looking at a tornado watch ahead of us. I thought this was Spring. The weather is supposed to be nice. The good thing, it's heading northeast and we will be heading southeast. And there is a big high pressure coming up behind us. We still plan to move into Florida or eastern Alabama tomorrow in spite of the weather. We woke this morning to some rain. When we headed out to tour, the sky over the gulf looked pretty scary. We pulled into a visitors center to get some info and when we came out there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Strangest thing I ever did see. The rest of the day was beautiful.

Well we are looking at another sleepless night tonight. Take a close look at the picture above. Yes, that is a train right outside my windshield (behind the trailer). We are camped right next to the tracks. Not only that but there are 2 sets of tracks. What this means is, this is the area where one train will pull over to let the oncoming train go by. Imagine the sound in the middle of the night of a train putting on the brakes and all the cars banging up together, then the other train going by, then the stopped train pulling out with all it's cars clanging apart. Oh Yeah, since we are also right next to a cross road, they lay on the whistle. This went on pretty much all last night. You can actually feel the motorhome shake just like a good ol' California earthquake.

Biloxi Mississippi

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We arrived in Biloxi Mississippi today at around 12:00. The first thing we did when entering Mississippi was to stop at the Rest Stop/Visitors Center. We have found that most states have these on all the major routes leading into the state. This one is really nice. It looks like a southern plantation house and once inside there are antique style furnishings to sit and relax and free coffee and soda for refreshments. There is also a very helpful staff that will answer all your questions and even make reservations for you at the hotels, campgrounds and tours in Mississippi.
Biloxi is beautiful. It is located right on the Gulf Coast with stately Plantation style homes on one side of the oak lined street and white sandy beached on the other. This sand is like finely ground sugar. We got into a Passport America park and only had to dish out $29.00 for 2 nights. Tomorrow we are going to tour the area and maybe even check out the many casinos.

Movin on down the road

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We had a good time in New Orleans. We have been here for 6 days and it's time to travel on. We spent a day in the French Quarters just walking the streets, looking around and tasted some Beignets which are a French donut type pastry that is smothered in powered sugar. We also took a drive through the Garden District and viewed the plantation style homes and a cemetery. The cemeteries around here are all above ground. The reason is because there is so much water around here that if they dig a grave, it will fill with water before they can get the body in it. This cemetery had graves from the 1700s to present. Some were in pretty bad shape as you can imagine. What I didn't understand though is some had as many as 20 names on them.
We just love sitting in the mornings and early evenings an listening to the many types of birds in the Bayou. I wish I could post sound so all of you could listen to it. It is really something. Every evening after dark, we get a visit from a couple of Raccoons. They have been eating the bird seed I put out so we started putting out peanuts for them. They not only eat the peanuts but all the bird seed so I don't leave the bird seed out at night.
Tomorrow we are moving on. We are just going down the road a bit and stopping in Biloxi Mississippi. Why? I don't know'Just because we can. We have to slow down. I figure if we only travel 2 hours a day we will still be in Orlando Florida a week early. We will have to find some place to play for a while. Since we don't like to travel on the weekends we will most likely find a place to stay over the weekend. I mapped out a route along the gulf coast of Florida then realized that it may still be messed up from the last hurricane so I gave some of the beach state parks a call. They said they are open and mostly rebuilt. Now how about the roads? We will have to see.

A day in the French Quarters

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Well, I have mixed feelings about New Orleans. A lot of people I have talked to said it is dangerous, some have asked why I would want to go there, and I have read where they say to stay on the populated streets and if you find yourself on an empty street, turn around and go back. Maybe it is because we visited New Orleans during the day time. Maybe it is because we visited New Orleans during the week day. Although it was St. Patrick's day, I found New Orleans to be cleaner and safer than I expected. We did stay on the more populated streets and I kept my wallet in my front pocket and kept a close eye on Susan but at no time did I feel unsafe. For an area that goes through so much abuse, with Mardi Gras and all, it was clean and in good shape. We parked our car across the Mississippi from New Orleans and took the ferry, which also carries cars, across as suggested by the locals. They say it is too expensive to park in New Orleans, If you can find parking. It was $5 to park near the ferry and did not to appear to be a good area, the ferry was free. After crossing the river I noticed a large safe parking structure with plenty of open spaces in New Orleans for $13 a day. Although the car was OK, I think I would have felt better paying the extra money. Now I would imagine the weekends are a different story.
Along Bourbon Street there is an areas lined with souvenirs shops and an areas lined with bars and night clubs. Decatur Street is lined with mostly Hotels and Eating places. Canal Street has the Harris Casino and high end shops such as Sacs. The riverwalk is a nice shopping mall. There is pretty much something for everyone. You can take a carriage tour of the area or take the trolley around, but we found it no problem to walk. The tours will teach you more about the area and history but if you just want to look around just walk it.
We had a good time and may go back tomorrow to take the trolley over to the Garden district to look at some plantation homes.

New Orleans Louisiana

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We made it to New Orleans about noon. I took off on a highway that goes around New Orleans to Westwego where we are staying. It might have been a little longer but it saved us some traffic hassles from what I have heard. The drive was easy with good weather and little traffic. We passed over more swamp land on another long bridge but not as long as the 18 miles the day before. We also crossed the Mississippi again so we are back on the west side, actually the south side because of the way the river bends here. Boy do I love modern technology. I had picked out 3 campgrounds near New Orleans and was undecided which to stay at so I put out a question on some RV forums on the internet. I got many responses. All negative. They all said to stay away from that part of town. They all suggested the State Park where we are at. This was a good call. This park is very nice. We are nestled in the swamps with moss covered cypress trees and water all around us (see above photo). All we can hear is the birds and there are plenty of them. It is primitive but we do have water and electricity hookups with a paved site for the motorhome, and all for $12 a night.
Another thing I like about modern technology is my GPS navigation system. I could not be without now. All I do is tell it where I want to go and it will map out the route to suite my preference. I can go interstates, highways or rural. I like to chose a mix. I can tell when it gets time to start looking for signs to the parks. So far it has lead me right to the spot.
We had a big thunder storm come through last night. It down right pored all night but this morning was calm. It is suppose to clear up today and be nice the rest of the week. Today we went gator hunting around the campground but didn't see any. It may be too cold right now. Tomorrow we will check out New Orleans. I really want to take a swamp boat tour so we will be checking into that also.

Crossing the Mississippi

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We crossed the Mississippi today. We are in Baton Rough Louisiana. We will be crossing the Mississippi again on our way to New Orleans and again leaving New Orleans. We are only going to be here for 1 night then off to N'Orleans. We were going to stay at a Walmart here but it looked a bit scary. We are at an RV park and horse Activity center right next to the Mississippi. I can sit in my recliner and gaze out the window at the horses in the pasture next to camp. At our back over the levee is the Mississippi. I hate reservations. If we hadn't made reservations in New Orleans we would stay here a couple of days.
The drive here was interesting. We drove over an 18 mile long bridge. You might ask why the bridge was so long? It takes you over 18 miles of swamp land. The bridge was only about 50 feet off the water the whole way. This is the only way they could put a road through here. We kept an eye out for gators along the way but didn't see any. I am sure we will see plenty at our next stop in New Orleans.

Heeyy BoBo

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We are staying at Yogi Bears Jellystone Campground while here at Lake Charles. This place is nice. They have a good size (very clear) lake and lots of planned activities for the kids. When we pulled in on Thursday it was pretty empty but Friday afternoon it started to fill up. There is an old guy they call Pop that runs around in a golf cart and parks rigs. He looks to be pushing about 90 years old. He sure was busy Friday. We decided to stay through the weekend and leave Monday. That's kind of our policy to not travel on the weekends.
We took a drive around town to see what's happening around here. We visited their alligator Pond to see some alligators. They had about 6 small guys in the pond and a bunch of what are known as alligator snapping turtles. It appears that gambling is legal here because there are a few casinos at the lake. They all are aboard paddle wheel boats that are permanently moored. After talking with one of the security guys, I learned that they used to have to take the boats out every 3 hours. This posed a problem because a lot of people didn't want to go out so they where loosing customers. The casinos finally convinced the state to allow them to stay moored. They sure got some nice homes around the lake. Big plantation style homes with lots of land around them.

Taking a break from the drive

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On the way from Galveston Island to Lake Charles, LA we got to take a 20 minute break. We loaded the Aerbus onto a ferry and took a ride across the channel. This was a pretty cool experience. There are 3 ferries that run the course and they can accommodate many vehicles including 18 wheelers. There was an 18 wheeler along with 2 other motorhomes and many cars and trucks on the same ferry with us. They do a good job of getting them on and off quickly with no problems. Oh and by the way, It is free. Yeah, that's right, FREE. I don't know how they do it, that must cost them a fortune. While on the ferry we have a choice to stay in the motorhome or wander around the deck. I chose to wander. Susan tried but here motion sickness started to kick in so she retreated back to the safety of our home. The drive to Lake Charles was good until we got into Louisiana then I-10 turned into a wild bronco ride. The road was really messed up. It is easy to see that Louisiana doesn't spend much on their roads.

A day in Galveston

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As I said before, everything is on stilts around here. The lower left is a hotel on a pier. That must be one strong pier to hold up a large hotel, especially during a hurricane. The lower right is a new construction. There is a lot of that going on around here. We saw a sign that said they were selling lots for $20,000 to $60,000. We didn’t see any prices for a completed construction.


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In the above photos, the top 2 show homes along the many canals. I guess these guys are lucky. They can get to their house even after the hurricanes flood the area. The bottom 2 photos are of the downtown area.


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What can I say… The beach.

We were lucky to have really good weather while we were here. They were predicting thunder storms for today but they never materialized. It was a nice warm day. I am kind of disappointed I haven’t seen an armadillo. They say there are some around here.

We are back on the road tomorrow. We are heading for Lake Charles Louisiana and going to stay at the Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Camp-Resort, should be interesting. Since it is getting close to the weekend and we try to stay off the roads on the weekend, we will be hanging out until Monday.

Galveston Texas

'Doesn’t make sense. My GPS says our altitude is –63 feet. We are parked about 500 feet from the Gulf of Mexico. If this were true I would think we would be under water right now. We decided to get off the beaten path and take the rural route to Galveston. We passes thought some really cool towns. Some were High class where all the stores and shops had the same colonial look with brick facades and some towns were downright rundown.
I didn’t realize Galveston was on an island. That could be why they call this park the Galveston Island State Park. To the west of us is what’s called the West Bay and to the east of us is the Gulf of Mexico. I pointed “out to sea” and told Susan over there is Florida.
All the houses around here are on stilts. It looks strange to see some really nice 2 story homes with front porches and second story balconies up on stilts like that. Even the large hotels are on stilts. They utilize the ground level for parking. There are signs along the north bound roads that read Hurricane Evacuation Route.
I guess yesterday they had quite a downpour here. They said it was about 4 inches. There is water everywhere. They assigned us a site and said if it is under water, pick another. It was. Tomorrow it is suppose to rain again with lightning and thunder. Hopefully not as bad. Everyone seems to act like it was unusual to rain that much. The park if full. Even the sites under water have been taken so either everyone is crazy or it will be OK.

Heading for Galveston

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I'm disappointed. I figured when we got to Texas that we would see a bunch of guys with cowboy hats saying things like Y'all and talking funny. For the most part, you wouldn't even know you were in Texas. Also I pictured miles and miles of flat barren land. We have been driving through some nice hilly country with beautiful green grass, oak and pecan trees and cow farms along the way. I guess we aren't in the right part of Texas, or maybe we are.

Today we landed in Columbus Texas. It is a stop over on our way to Galveston. The weather reports said we were in for Thunder storms today but it has been a really nice day. The sun has been popping in and out all day and I had to run the air while traveling because it was in the high 70s outside all day. We will be spending the night in a Walmart parking lot tonight. If this wasn't such a nice little town, I would be worried because we are the only RV in the parking lot. You kind of get a more comfortable feeling when there are others around. When we parked here I went into the Walmart and asked the greeter if it was OK to stay. She said yes and pointed to my motorhome and said park out there. I said, where that motorhome is, and she said yes. I didn't tell her that was my motorhome.

Remember the Alamo?

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Today we visited the Alamo. I was never good at history in school so this is all new to me. I remember enough about my history lessons to know what it is about but the details escape me. This was a good history lesson for me. On display was Jim Bowie's knife (remember the Bowie knife) and Davy Crocket's rifle and a lock of his hair. WOW, over 169 years old.

San Antonio is a mess to try to get around. There's got to be 50 highways (well maybe not that many) that run everywhere. And a lot of them overlap so you can be on 3 or 4 at the same time. OK I'll admit it, I got lost. We ended up in a shady side of town. A gentleman noticed I was looking at a map and probably noticed the California plates on the car and asked if he could help. He got us going in the right directions and told us to "be careful". What did he mean by that?


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We also took The River Walk. This is a 2.5 mile path around a portion of the San Antonio River that is lined with mostly restaurants. I wish I had known about the restaurants before we ate at the Pizza Hut across from the Alamo. We may go back for dinner sometime before we leave.

San Antonio Texas

We headed to San Antonio. We are finally back in the Verizon network however I have free wireless so I can update the web site. We are at a nice resort in San Antonio. At $32 a night it might be a bit pricey compared to the other parks we have stayed at. While here I need to look up a windshield repair guy to fix the 2 dings I got in my windshield. I finally got a chance to wash the motorhome and car. MAN were they dirty. The mud that came off the wheel wells was increasable. I will most likely get better mileage now that I got rid off the mud. Speaking of mileage, I got almost 10 MPG. I am impressed. Tomorrow we are just going to rest.

Pecan Valley

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We were back on the road. We traveled I-10 and the roads were really good. Crockett county was the best with grass on the shoulders and a nice wide smooth road. We are in Junction Texas right now. We found a nice park off the beaten path. It is called Pecan Valley RV Park. There are only 14 sites and right not only 5 have RVs on them. We are the only Motorhome. It is in a pecan grove right next to the Llamo River. In the evening the wild turkeys and deer come into the park to graze. It is very quiet and peaceful here. If I hadn't made reservations in San Antonio tomorrow I would stay another night. We have not been making reservations unless it is a major tourist town and have had no problems.