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?