July 13, 2003 (Sun)
Darien, GA to Rock Ridge, NC (386/2208 mi)
Up at 5:30, showered, had apple pancakes for breakfast, and were off at 7:30. The weather was a cool 75.6 degrees, sky was cloudy, and the air a bit humid and tending toward sprinkles. All in all not a bad day to travel after yesterday's 94 degrees. The temperature was only up to 83 degrees when we pulled into the Flying J station - where we spent the night on the way down - for gas and an on board lunch. The traffic continually increased as we traveled north - we speculated that was everyone headed home to start another grueling work week - and the weather deteriorated to heavy rain through South Carolina.
Rock Ridge is a lovely, wooded' uncrowded, quiet campground. Our site overlooks a pasture with a small pond which is home for a sizable herd of goats, white with brown heads, and two ostriches (or emus). - - - Well, so much for quiet and uncrowded! As I write this we got a neighbor on one side close enough touch of we stick our arm out our living room window and another outside our dining room window whose awning will overlap ours if they open it. Only three of four other units in the whole campground and these folks were assigned so close to us!!! When Mark asked to be assign a less crowded area, the owner said there won't be any. The whole campground is going to fill up. We've eliminated this place from our list of possible stops in the future.
Q051946 - Rock Ridge Campground #22 w/e/s $17.00 D
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July 14, 2003 (Mon)
Rockridge, NC to Home (468 mi)
The whole campground didn't fill up! Far from it. In our section, full hook up, there were more empty sites this morning - twenty or so in a row - than occupied ones. In the other area, water and electric only - but not as scenic, there were only a few units packed as closely together as we were. Some day I'm going to write a dissertation speculating on the psychology of campground owners. It will probably be based on the theory that they don't and never have camped. It was quiet last night, though, in spite of our being able to hear every word of our neighbor's dinner conversation while they sat in their motor home and we sat in ours
We were up at 6:00 and at 7:00, headed off to find a McDonalds for breakfast (72 degrees and heavy clouds). There were periods of heavy rain as we traveled north but the traffic was tolerable - fast but tolerable. We circumvented Richmond on I-295 and jumped off I-95 on to SR-207 and headed for US-301. We wanted to avoid the traffic around Washington and Baltimore. It almost worked flawlessly. Construction on the bridge across the Chesapeake Bay at Annapolis backed us down some. Southbound was much worse.
Company name on the side of a truck - "J & H Bentnel & Sons & Granddaughter"
I-295 up through New Jersey was the worst road of our trip - stair-step rough all the way. We wondered if there'd be anything left of the cargo in our trailer.
Q052432 Home
North and Home - #33-03
Back to Penney Farms - #33-02
July 11, 2003 (Fri)
Englewood, FL to Penney Farms, FL (338/1665 miles)
Our time with Joy's mother (6 days) was very relaxing and restful. We hadn't realized how much we needed that time to unwind after the events of the last week. We started each morning with a long bicycle ride and a swim. In the evening Mark retreated to the bedroom to practice his guitar while Joy and her mother played SkipBo - a card game. In between there were a few errands but it was mostly naps and reading. It was a lot like a vacation.
This morning, instead of our morning bike ride, we packed up Q for the trip home. After a swim and breakfast we were ready to hit the road - well almost, we had to make a stop at Bealls Outlet and Walmart. At 9:38 we were on our way for real - 85 degrees and breezy. We had a relatively uneventful trip up to Starke with only stops for lunch and for gas. Gas prices have jumped 4 to 6 cents over the last week!! The summer travel season must have begun.
In Starke we stopped to pick up a U-Haul trailer and learned that we need an adapter for the electrical connection. The nice young lady at U-Haul sent us back across Starke (horrendous traffic) to Auto Zone, an auto discount store, to buy one. (Why doesn't U-Haul carry items like that to sell themselves?). Back at U-Haul (horrendous traffic) we found out it was the wrong part. Back to Auto Zone (horrendous traffic) to exchange it. But found they don't carry the part we need and they didn't know where we could get one. Back to U-Haul (horrendous traffic) to cancel our contract. The nice young lady - it turns out she's really not so young, she has a son who looked to be in his mid twenties - made a few phone calls and found a place that knew just what we needed and presumably had one in stock. So again we battled the traffic back across Starke to a Napa store. They didn't have the part after all! Back at U-Haul we finally managed to cancel the contract. As they did the paper work, the young lady's son reluctantly told us about the U-Haul Service center quite near Penney Farms that should have the part and if not they could "wire it direct" for us. Two and a half hours shot and we barely made it to the funeral home in Green Cove Springs in time to pick up Mother B's ashes.
The day ended well though. We met David, Judy, and Jake (Mark's brother and his wife and son) in St. Augustine and shared a delicious seafood dinner at the Santa Maria Restaurant on the water. Since parking is scare in this tourist laden city we were subjected to walking through several blocks of the beautiful alley ways with their most interesting and fascinating old buildings and gardens. It was well worth the walk - and getting lost trying to find the car again. It was good to have some time together with some of Mark's family during this tough time
Q051403 PRC RV area w/e $7.50
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July 12, 2003 (Sat)
Penney Farms, FL to Darien, GA (157/1822 mi)
Another eventful day started at 6:00 am - when we got up. Mark caught up on the email and checked phone messages at home while Joy cleaned up from breakfast. Then together we cleaned dead ants out of the basement compartment!
While parked in Englewood a large contingent of ants moved in, set up house keeping and began to generate and nurture the next generation. Mark sprayed ant poison into the compartment before we started out yesterday and it was enough to lay down a fair pad of carcasses but some ants survived. It turned out that many survived. We took everything out of the compartment - discovering a huge cache of eggs in the back corner - hosed it out and washed ants and ant poison off everything. We think we got them all!
We found the U-Haul service center on Orange Park's infamous (and dreaded) Blanding Avenue and an hour and a half later we pulled out with a trailer tagging behind. A nice young man, after a thorough search, discovered they didn't have a compatible adapter either and offered to replace our unique connector with one more willing to accept electrical connection. We said "Do it!!" He then proceeded to hook up no less then five of the six small trailers they had until he found one with working lights. In the process he checked out all of Q's fuses and traced wire integrity all the way back to the connector. I guess he couldn't believe that they were stocking so many nonfunctioning units. Neither could we! They were. It wasn't Q's fault.
Back at Penney Farms we ate lunch and loaded up the trailer. At 1:10 we were on our way. Other than a three mile parking lot on I-95 - CB radio chatter reported an accident with helicopter evacuation at milepost 12 but there was no evidence of problems when we got there - the first leg of our trip went smoothly. This "pack um in" campground - across I-95 from our favorite fudge store - is very clean and, so far, uncrowded. Our air conditioner is drowning out any noise that there might be outside but it seems to be quiet. The temperature got up to 111.5 degrees on the sunny side of Q before starting back down. It would be that inside too without A/C.
Q051560 Tall Pines Campground #4 w/e/s $10.00p B
Sad News - #33-01
July 2, 2003 (Wed)
Home to Latta, SC (636/636 miles)
Beautiful sunrise this morning promising a good day for travel. It was 70 degrees and sunny when we got off at 6:15. We got bagels at Bagel Masters and headed for the Garden State Parkway, south. We turned west on I-195 then south on I-295. All relatively uninspiring interstate travel except for the "stair step quality of the concrete paving on I-295. (I wonder if they have special machines that insure just the right amount of drop at each expansion joint.)
New Jersey gas prices aren't the lowest these days but they are best we'd find for a while so we stopped at the flying J before going over the Delaware Memorial Bridge into Delaware ($1.29). We also balanced up the air in all the tires. The powers that be in Baltimore decreed that no hazardous material was to enter their tunnels. Carrying over 10 pounds of propane is considered hazardous so we have to leave I-95 and follow I-695 over the Francis Scott Key Bridge before getting back on I-95. This is normally not a problem but this time we missed a turn and ended up on local streets to get back to it.
Getting around Washington on I-495 wasn't the problem we'd expected but construction at the southern intersection to I-95 produced a 2 mile long parking lot. It took us nearly an hour to go those two miles.
The rain - Hurricane Bill we think - started a few miles later and continued, off and on, until we got well into North Carolina. It was so heavy at times that we could hardly see the road in front of us much less the traffic in front and behind. At one point we went from a few sprinkles to water hitting the windshield like the splash of a passing truck in an instant. It was like hitting a wall of water miles thick. Afraid of hitting something or getting hit, we had to get completely off the highway a couple of times to wait it out. We were treated to a brilliant full arc rainbow in Lumberton. That was a special sight.
We pulled into the Flying J parking lot (our campground for the night) at about 8:00 and took advantage of their gourmet (yeah sure) buffet.
Q050375 Flying J parking lot dry $0
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July 3, 2003 (Thu)
Latta, SC to Penney Farms, FL (426/1062 miles)
Camping in a truck stop parking lot is an experience like no other. Bright lights, 18 wheeler jack brakes, and periodic public address announcements informing us that one of the showers was ready aren't conducive to much sound sleep especially with a full stomach. But when you're tired enough sleep does come. Some. We gave it up at about 4:15 and by 5:00 we were southbound on I-95 again.
At 7:15 our cell phone rang. It was Diane from the Pavilion at Penney Retirement Community to tell us that Mother B had had a bad night and that we needed to get there as quickly as possible. We were 100 miles north of Savannah, GA, 5 hours away. An hour later Carol from the Pavilion called to tell us that Mother B had died. Knowing that we were so close to being with her was devastating.
The next several hours were very difficult. Along with the emotional struggles Mark had to make phone calls to his siblings and Mother B's sister and we continued to battle periodic heavy rain.
We got lost trying to find the last Flying J in Georgia - gas prices in Florida are very high - got gas and dumped our holding tanks. At about noon we stopped at a rest stop for lunch and continued on to the funeral home where Mother had been taken. At Penney Farms we learned from Carol that Mother had died peacefully, without pain, and someone had been with her - holding her hand. Knowing this helped a lot. One of the assistant pastors here (Rex Lindemood) met us at the funeral home and later invited us to join him and his wife, Verna for dinner. We went to a seafood restaurant in Middleburg - very good. His being here for us was a real comfort.
For the next few days we'll be here at Penney Farms cleaning up Mother's room and tying up loose ends.
Q050801 PRC RV area w/e $7.50
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July 5, 2003 (Sat)
Penney Farms, FL to Englewood, FL (265/1327 miles)
We finished sorting and packing the things in Mother B's room about 11:30 - sooner than we thought we would - and fixed a sandwich for lunch in Q. Then we unhooked and started south to visit Joy's mother. It's 94 degrees and it feels all of that and more. Thank heaven for air conditioning!
We stopped in Stark to inquire about renting a trailer to take Mother B's things north. Although Q has a receiver hitch, we've never used it, so along with prices we found out what accessories we needed for the hitch. At Camping World in I-4 we bought a bar and ball. It turned out that the bar wouldn't fit into the receiver. But it was close enough so that Mark tried to force it with a hammer, thinking that the rust build up needed to be scraped off. All this did was destroy any option of returning it for exchange - it still wouldn't go in.
Otherwise the trip was uneventful. We got to Englewood, FL about 5:00, unloaded Q and shipped him off the the bank parking lot :-(
Q051066 SunTrust Bank parking lot
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July 7, 2003 (Mon) Englewood, FL (3) - No travel today but we did hunt up a Walmart where we could get another trailer hitch bar. Like Camping World, they had a selection. We could not detect any difference in the size of the bars among those available, either by physical comparison or information on the label, so we took a chance and bought another one - different brand, different configuration - vowing not to ruin this one. If it didn't fit we'd take it back and get some expert advice somewhere. It fit fine! Apparently there are different size 2" receivers (bars anyway). Who'd a thought?
