August 28, 2011 (Sun) Englewood, FL to Lakeland, FL (110/1348 miles) 85/90° - It's been a busy and emotional few days. Finalizing the details for Bom's memorial service didn't take a whole lot of our time but it seemed otherwise. The time with family, Joy's 2 sisters and 3 cousins, was all too short though there was plenty of time together and unending "catching up". And it seemed that we were always eating from the time we got up until we fell into bed at night. And hot? Was it ever hot, high 90s during the day and mid 80s at night with the air so saturated that just walking around outside was drenching. Sleeping in Q was nearly impossible. Running the A/C required running the generator. Too much noise - for us and for the neighbors. In spite of the periodic hardships, it was a good 4 days. And the service went well, with many of Bom's friends - and ours - there as well as family.
Bad night last night as well! We hardly got any sleep - too hot, too humid. So we were up early. Rather than adding to the heat in Q by turning the stove on to make coffee, we went to Burger King to get some - in our air conditioned car. After breakfast back "home", Mark took Q up US41 to get some gas ($3.49). Joy followed in Lamont after saying goodbye to Jeannie. Then it was onto I-75 and north (9:20 85° clear but slightly overcast). We were hot and tired and since it was still early stopped at a rest area, started the generator (and A/C) and took naps. The A/C fought hard to get the temperature down a few degrees below the ambient 89° but it dried the air nicely and we were able to snooze a bit.
We got to Ed and Kathy's at about 12:45. It's been good to kick back and relax for an afternoon.
Q080817 Ed & Kathy's yard
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August 29, 2011 (Mon) Lakeland, FL to Savannah, GA (323/1671 miles) 80/101° - We said good-bye to Ed and Kathy - they were off to do some work for their church in Lakeland - and got Q ready to travel. Rather than hookup on the narrow streets by the house we drove separately to the Publix on US98 north where we found a nice big space. Then Hildene let us down! Our intent was to go North on up US98, find SR471 and from there go to I-75. Hildene had different ideas. She wanted us to go East over to I-4, then north. Trouble is we didn't know that until too late - we thought we had turning East toward SR471. We ended up on some pretty bad back roads - roads not even on the map! - trying to get back to our intended route.
Temperatures got up to 101° as we drove north on US301 to A1A to I-95. Cab A/C worked great.
On back of truck: "N Dew Tyme"
Walmart has a great discount on gas, "Up to 10¢ per gal". Sounds like a good deal but we are finding that their prices are now often higher than other stations in the area. So not as good a deal as it sounds. But prices are no worse than any other. At Walmart's USA Murphy south of Savannah, GA the price went up 16¢ since we were here a week ago. The 10¢ discount yielded a price of $3.49, the same as the BP across the street.
Q081140 Camp Walmart Savannah, GA
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August 30, 2011 (Tue) Savannah, GA to Mars Hill, NC (345/2016 miles) 78/88° - Another bad night! Hot and humid. We ran the A/C for a while in the evening to cool things off inside but it didn't last long. Even the relatively cool 78° this morning wasn't enough to make us believe we were comfortable. It was good to get on the road again.
When we stopped to exercise Lamont at a rest area on I-26 a police car pulled in and parked several spaces away. A few minutes later a flat bed truck carrying the widest load we've ever seen came in and stopped beside it. Following it up I-26 later we could see that it was fully as wide as both northbound lanes. That's wide! He drove with one wheel on the shoulder most of the time (under passes were an issue for him) which left most of the left lane open for traffic. It was interesting to watch how different drivers took up the challenge of passing him. 18 wheelers weren't the least bit intimidated but older drivers in smaller cars would hang back for miles piling great numbers of impatient people behind. The wide load was traveling about the speed we usually go so we just stayed back and watched the drama. In Columbia the load disappeared! He apparently took an exit when we weren't looking. Suddenly he simply wasn't there!
Traveling today was really quite pleasant after our week in Florida. We were not confronted with a solid wall of heat every time we stepped out of the motor home. It was even a little on the cool side in the mountains when we got to Bob and Pat's at about 3:45pm.
August 31, 2011 (Wed) Mars Hill, NC (2) 62/84° - It was actually cool enough last night for us to use a blanket. Sleeping was good and we took advantage. Awoke refreshed and raring to go this morning - well almost. We and Bob and Pat celebrated our wedding anniversaries by sharing a jumbo Mountain Extravaganza pizza - a pizza with almost every imaginable topping (except anchovies) - in Weaverville. Then came home for a swim in the pool. Sandy came over for soup and dominoes in the evening. It's been a lazy day. We needed it.
September 1, 2011 (Thu) Mars Hill, NC (3) 65/85° - An unremarkable day - company not withstanding. Joy and Pat poked around in a local antique shop. Delicious dinner, dominoes after!!
Q081485 Bob and Pat's yard (x3)
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September 2, 2011 (Fri) Mars Hill, NC to Winchester, VA (396/2412 miles) 60/94° - We said good-bye to Bob and Pat before breakfast and headed up over the mountain into Tennessee. We wanted to eat our breakfast in one of the rest areas along I-26 overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains but the signs said "No Trucks". Fearing that meant we'd have to turn around (read unhook) to get out we went on to the new visitors center near the bottom of the pass. The Unicoi, TN Walmart appeared to have hiked the prices of their gas so they could give the big discount without pain too. The price was good ($3.39 including discount) but not that much better than other area prices. 10¢ off per gallon sounds good though.
At 9:45 we turned north on I-81 (77° hazy) and made our way through Tennessee into Virginia (10:06 80° hazy sun), stopped for lunch and then on up I-81 to the Fuel City gas station where we got gas - and discovered that Lamont's battery was dead! We pulled into the truck area, unhooked and turned Q around so we could give him a jump start - disturbing sleeping truckers several times by setting off the car alarm! We drove separately for 30 miles or so to recharge Lamont's battery. Then went on to Winchester, VA.
Except for the trauma of the dead battery and unusually heavy traffic in places, it really was a beautiful drive with the hazy Blue Ridge Mountains off in the distance on our starboard side.
Q081881 Camp Walmart Winchester, VA
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September 3, 2011 (Sat) Winchester, VA to home (291/2703 miles) 70/84° - It was a relatively quiet night except for waking in the middle of the night to a sound that Mark thought might be a helicopter hovering some way off. It droned on and on until sleep finally returned. It turned be the generator in a big class A motor home a couple of rows over. It was still there and running this morning! Fortunately there was an 18 wheeler parked between us which had muffled the sound somewhat during the night.
We got off about 8:00 (72° cloudy) and made our way through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and into Pennsylvania on I-81. The line at the Flying J dump station was long, 3 units ahead of us, but it moved fast - partly because one fellow discovered that he was in the wrong line (he apparently wanted diesel fuel) and moved out. I-78 through PA has no rest areas so we stopped at a Pilot truck stop which turned out to be a mistake. There were no long parking spaces in the car area and only back-in spaces in the truck area. We ended parking in a "No Parking" zone while we exercised Lamont and took turns running in to use the facilities.
We got home about 2:30 and found the homestead unscathed by either earthquake or hurricane Irene.
Q082172 Home
QC14-02 North to Home
QC14-01 South to Englewood
August 21, 2011 (Sun) Home to Kenly, NC (498/498 miles) 72/88° - Another early start. We left the house at at about 7:15 Mark in Q and Joy driving Lamont. She picked up the Sunday papers and then dropped the Netflix DVD off at the Post Office and met Mark at Applebee's. Then with Lamont in tow we headed south on US18, west on I-195 and south again on I-295 (72° - some clouds). It looked like rain most of the way through New Jersey but there were only spritzes until just before we stopped for gas ($3.35/gal) north of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Luckily the heaviest downpour was over by the time we did stop. The toll at the bridge has gone up to $20 for a rig like ours (up $4)! That with an additional $16 in tolls by the time we'd reached Washington made for an expensive start - not to mention the cost for the gas.
We thought the traffic around Washington, DC on a Sunday would be light, no commuters. It was, but between Washington and Richmond, VA it was horrible. We've never seen it so bad! We never did figure out what the problem was. Just before Richmond it suddenly disappeared and the rest of the way to Kenly, NC was relatively easy going.
Q079967 Camp Kenly 95 Kenly, NC
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August 22, 2011 (Mon) Kenly, NC to Savannah, GA (379/827 miles) 74/97° - Heavy rain on Q's roof, continuous lightning across the skies bright enough for the solar panel to produce electricity of its own, nonstop thunder drowning out the engine brakes of the 18 wheelers coming off the interstate, thus ended the 52nd year of our marriage. This morning we lay in bed as the dawn overtook the parking lot security lights and remembered, or better put, tried to remember the events of that day 52 years ago today.
Off at 7:40, gas at Flying J ($3.55), back on I-95 south at 8:00. Odometer turned 80,000 at 8:35. That was the extent of our excitement for the rest of the drive to Savannah - unless you count our anniversary lunch at Wendy's (a spicy go-wrap and fries).
We got to the Savannah Walmart at about 3:30 and went in to do some shopping. When we got back the temperature in Q was 102°! We started up the generator so we could run the air conditioner for a while. 2 minutes later it died! Temp was still at 102°! It turned out that the gas in the tank was too low - the generator doesn't run with less than 1/4 tank of gas. Off we went to the US Murphy gas station to fill up ($3.33 with a 10¢ discount for using the Walmart gift card).
Except for a rather fierce thunderstorm, we settled in peacefully for the night. We have our eye on hurricane Irene headed for the Florida coast, due late Friday.
Q080296 Camp Walmart Savannah, GA
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August 23, 2011 (Tue) Savannah, GA to Lakeland, FL (297/1124 miles) 75/99° - Up at 6:00, off at 8:11 (76° - some clouds). There is all kinds of talk on the radio and TV about the hurricane brewing in the Caribbean. A big sighs of relief from the forecasters as they predicted that it would probably miss Savannah - and slam into North Carolina instead - then move north to New England with the biggest punch they've seen in centuries! There were no sighs of relief from Q's occupants. Home would be in Irene's direct path! Just as we were getting used to the possibility that we would be coming home to devastation we got a text message from our son that there had been an earthquake - very rare in the east. It was 5.8 in VA near where we'd come through on Sunday. No destruction in our area but they had felt it. What next?!
Haze off in the distance as we crossed the state line into Florida. Could be fog, could be smoke. We smelled smoke when we stopped at a rest area to exercise Lamont. Mystery solved but what was the fire? We never did find out.
ZEUS CATillac on back of truck. Name of truck or name of business?
The 10¢/gal discount at Walmart's USA Murphy gas stations only yielded 5¢/gal at the Starke, FL. They'll hear about that - false advertising? We could have done better at a BP down the road 1/2 mile! We got to Ed & Kathy's at 3:00.
Q080593 Ed & Kathy's yard.
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August 24, 2011 (Wed) Lakeland, FL to Englewood, FL (114/1238 miles) 85/91° - We left Lakeland at about 10:20 am. Thanks Ed & Kathy for a chance to shower, do some laundry, refresh Q's sanitary systems and, most of all, for that delicious lasagna. We had all day to go a short 114 miles so we took the opportunity to stop at the Brandon Costco where we got some gas and a few supplies. A leisurely lunch at a rest stop on 1-75 yielded a Chinook sighting (a Concourse). We got to Jeannie's at about 2:00.
After paying Jeannie a short visit we headed out to do some shopping - and take up some time. While we were out it rained (downpour) several times (the electricity in Publix went out with one particularly loud thunder clap)! Alternating periods of downpours and oppressive humidity filled the remaining afternoon and evening. Ugh!
Q080707 Jeannie's back yard.
QC13-01 Western New York 4th
July 1, 2011 (Fri) Home to Prattsburg, NY (336/336 miles) - The week leading up to this trip turned out to be a surprising prelude to the trip itself. Mark had a heart catheterization to place three stents in one of his coronary arteries. What was initially thought by the doctor to be a possible restriction turned out to be a "real mess" (the doctor's words). A ten minute procedure turned into an hour and a half. "Everything is beautiful now" (again the doctors words). Since there was no heart damage his recovery was fast enough to allow us to make the trip as planned.
We were up early so were able to finish packing Q, hitch up Lamont and be on the road by 7:30 (66° clear), just before the heavy crush of commuter traffic. The traffic on the Garden State Parkway was surprisingly light for that time of day so we made good time to our first stop - to get gas in Paramus, NJ before crossing into New York State. Then at 11:30 we made a pit stop to exercise Lamont and eat lunch. That's when we discovered that our sewer hose had taken up a new residence along the highway somewhere. The storage tube cap was off and the hose gone. An unscheduled stop at a Walmart in Johnson City, NY yielded a new one. We were also able to pick up a few of the things we'd forgotten - getting ready to go was far from routine this time.
Drivers who arrogantly thumb their nose at polite and civilized traffic flow through construction areas are a double annoyance to us. A sign indicated that two lanes were merging into one as we approached a work zone. A long line of traffic had already merged well ahead of traffic control cones (unusual!) when a tour bus from New Jersey pulled out of the line several vehicles behind us with the obvious intent to get ahead of everyone. The 18 wheeler just ahead of us saw him coming and moved over to block him. It made going through the construction zone almost fun knowing his plans had been thwarted.
Mike, Dorcas and their son Steven and family were the only ones at "Laverondack Park" when we got here at about 3:45 but their many guests soon began to arrive. Sleeping accommodations in the camp itself are very limited so all manner of abodes, from tents to motor homes, are scattered over the property. Our area at the bottom of the hill looked like a small campground. All indications are that it's going to be a fun weekend.
July 2, 2011 (Sat) Prattsburg, NY (2) 54/85° - Breakfast was on our own as we like it. That way we can go about our morning routine at our own pace. Mid morning we drove up the hill (Mark is not up to that kind of strenuous hike yet) and joined the festivities - which amounted to sitting and visiting. The many kids were just beginning to stir so it was a relatively peaceful time. Later on three more cars came up the hill and the real party began. Lunch was pie - blueberry crumb, multi-berry, apple, apple caramel, peach, toll house, Margarita, key-lime, mince meat, chocolate chip and others. For desert we had hamburger pie. (It would be hard to find a more nutritious meal.) A Ladder ball tournament, in three courts, took up most of the afternoon. And of course there was swimming, boating and fishing - not to mention sun bathing. The evening meal was a BYO meat BBQ with salads to share. Desert was left over pie. In the evening, after the old folks (us) went to bed there were fireworks all around - though not at Laverondack Park. They were banned here.
July 3, 2011 (Sun) Prattsburg, NY (3) 68/90° - This is a communications dead area - no phone, no internet, no TV and very little radio. Apparently AT&T has a tower near enough for some to get a weak signal but Verizon is not using it. So after breakfast we took Lamont and went into town. Joy went into the small supermarket there while Mark tried unsuccessfully to connect to the internet. We were able to get phone service though and found that no one had tried to reach us since we'd been out of touch. A relief! We came back and spent some time puttering as we waited for things to get started up the hill.
Mike and Bill got up at 5:30 to start the fire and put the meat on to cook. Bill was going to make his famous pulled pork, an all day process. As we waited, we grazed. All kinds of munchies found their way onto the sharing tables and from there into the many mouths. Leftover pie was also available along with cookies and other sweets. Time was spent playing games and sharing stories until the pork was finally ready - not that any one was starving. Pulled pork, sweet corn, salt potatoes and salad (and pie) conspired to overload our stomachs. It was well worth the wait.
July 4, 2011 (Sun) Prattsburg, NY (away) 55/80° - We haven't seen Susan and Paul in several years. We had planned to stop in Belfast, NY last year on our way to Seattle but our sudden diversion to Florida kept us from doing it. It was good to see them today. We spent most of the too short time catching up on family doings - theirs and ours. Susan fixed a nice roasted chicken for lunch and we went over to the Fiddler's Pub Irish Restaurant in Angelica, NY for dinner. It was a good day, well spent.
July 5, 2011 (Sun) Prattsburg, NY (away) 53/89° - Blasted Rock Farm is owned by Joy's high school friend Stephanie (nee Barbara). The farm is located on 140 some acres in the hills north of Naples, NY. Her passion, other than isolation - she was tempted to buy the farm next door a couple of years back so she wouldn't have such close neighbors - is Icelandic horses. She has 4 as well as one Arabian and a mauve gray mule. Joy hadn't seen her in 50 years but they had no trouble at all getting reacquainted. In addition to nonstop conversation she showed us around her very nice (and large) post and beam house overlooking the rolling hills of the Finger Lakes wine country. She also gave us a very rough tour of the far less developed (and forested) parts of her property in her 4 wheel drive diesel powered ATV. (It was a two-seater but we stuffed in three.) The ride was almost as exciting as an amusement park ride and probably more dangerous. The road, a stony washed out path really, was so rough, even at 3 miles per hour, that Mark wondered if his healing wounds would survive. We'll have sore muscles tomorrow from keeping ourselves aboard - especially those times when we were on the verge of rolling over. We had a great time with this interesting and delightful lady and we enjoyed our afternoon with her.
On our drive through through Naples in the morning we stopped at a quilt shop so that Joy could see what new and different fabric is now available. And of course she found some that needed to join her stash. Lunch was at one of the less interesting restaurants (we learned later) in Naples. It was a huge place but the food was just above diner grade - good but not exceptional.
Q079067 Mike and Dorcas' Laverondack Park (x5)
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July 6, 2011 (Wed) Prattsburg, NY to Fayetteville, NY (101/437 miles) - The drive through New York State wine country was beautiful - rolling green hills dotted with vineyards overlooking sparkling blue lakes in the valleys. The well kept Amish farms here and there helped make everything seem more prosperous than the last time we were in the area. Then the vineyards had shown signs of neglect, weeds between the rows of trellises and even amongst the vines themselves. We saw very little of that neglect today.
The lush greenery turned to teeming masses and heavy traffic when we hit US 5 & 20 and turned East. We resisted Hildene's attempts to put us up on the New York State Thruway (I-90) in favor of more interesting environs, as urban and congested as they may have been. We did opt for the interstates when we moved into the more hardcore city traffic around Syracuse.
Shane was at camp and Dave at work when we got to Fayetteville at about 11:30 so we had some time alone with Jennifer. We had burritos at a nearby Chipotle Mexican Grill for lunch and she showed us the house they will be buying in a couple of weeks. From the outside it looks like a very nice house with a big yard in a quiet neighborhood. We look forward to seeing the inside after they have moved in.
July 7, 2011 (Thu) Fayetteville, NY (2) 60/83° - Slow lazy day (for a change). Shane went off to "camp", Dave headed out to see his first client of the day and Jennifer retreated to her office giving us some needed relaxation time. And we took advantage. Seafood (at Red Lobster) for lunch, Pizza (at home) for dinner.
Q079170 Jennifer and Dave's yard (x2)
July 8, 2011 (Fri) Fayetteville, NY to Home (298/735 miles) 65/93° - The highway patrol was really out in force today. Like lurking predator insects they sat in hidey holes along the interstates waiting to pounce. Every once in a while there would be one devouring its prey with roof lights excitedly flashing. It was actually good to see them so active. But where were they on the Garden State Parkway when what might have been a fractured (and lost) funeral procession created havoc through the already chaotic traffic? Hazard lights flashing, disabling directional signals, cars of all shapes and sizes going too fast darted from one lane to another without warning and took exits (plural) willy nilly. At one point a small group suddenly stopped in the center lane ahead of us to wait for an opening to cut across to the exit! It's not easy to stop a motor home going 60 mph with a car in tow in so short a distance. The supplementary braking system we installed in the CRV paid for itself in those few short seconds.
Other than this one bit of excitement it was a good trip home. Traffic on US 17 through New York State was relatively light and the crush of weekenders headed for the Jersey shore had not begun to build. And we missed the dangerous storm that uprooted trees and flooded much of metropolitan northern New Jersey after we got home. We even had time to unpack before the heavy rain hit.
Q079468 Home
QC12-03 And the trip Home
May 27, 2011 (Fri) Englewood, FL to Savannah, GA (389/1549 miles) - It's been hot and muggy the whole time we've been in Florida. There have been forecasts of rain but none materialized - until it was time to hookup Lamont for our trip home. Then it cleared and we had a beautiful blue sky with rain clouds off in the distance as we made our way to I-75. We must have gone through a speed trap north of Sarasota. We didn't see it but we did see 2 motorcycle cops and a couple of police cars with several customers clustered on the side of the highway.
The Costco store in Brandon was closed (for another hour) but the gas station was open. We filled up at $3.61. The price is going down in spite of Fox News reports that it is going up for the weekend because of our president's policies. As we were getting back on I-75 the second car ahead of us on the ramp suddenly pulled out of line and bounced into the grass median hitting several marker posts along the way. When he pulled back onto the ramp just ahead of us, we thought it looked like he was on the phone - still.
Joy has a favorite road sign "End Road Work" We passed one this morning without seeing any road work. That kind of takes the thrill out of seeing the sign!
The dump station at the Dade City Flying J was a mess! Someone ahead of us apparently didn't know how to use it and didn't bother to clean up. It made an unpleasant task even worse. But it had to be done.
We passed Tony's Artistic Taxidermy and Motel. We thought it probably wouldn't be a good idea for anyone to stay there too long. The Bates Motel came to mind.
Saw a car pulling two small tear drop trailers in tandem. An estranged couple going on vacation?
We pulled into the Savannah Super Walmart at about 5:30pm and later watched a wonderful sunset over the parking lot. Other than an unattached flat bed truck trailer we are the only overnight guests as of bed time.
Q077704 Camp Walmart Savannah, GA
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May 28, 2011 (Sat) Savannah, GA to Mars Hill, NC (339/1888 miles) - It turned out to be a very quiet night after the late evening shoppers had all gone home. We even slept with our window open - we usually don't when not in a campground - and felt no safety concerns. The slight breeze this produced made the nearly 100% humidity a little more tolerable - but not much. The sunrise was beautiful.
We got gas on the way out ($3.47/gal) and climbed back onto I-95 (7:00 73° clear). We stopped at the first rest area, the South Carolina Welcome Center, and fixed and ate our breakfast (to the soothing background music of idling diesel truck engines).
The temperature was up to a humid 78° as we turned west onto I-26. The sky was mostly cloudy though the sun did show itself once in a while. A badly mangled alligator (unusual roadkill) was a distraction but otherwise this was a beautiful drive with all the spring and early summer flowering trees and wildflowers along the roadside. Got gas at a Pilot station for $3.44/gal.
All the way up we have been seeing cars pulling golf carts on trailers. One or two might not have peaked our interest but so many, there have been more golf carts than boats, make us wonder what it's all about.
The temperature was up to 80° as we crossed the state line into North Carolina at about 1:00. The deep blue sky was filled with puffy white clouds. Ten minutes later we stopped to fix some lunch at the NC Visitor's Center where we discovered Lamont's battery had died in March. No problem this time. We're trying to stop to exercise him more often. It might be working. We got to Bob and Pat's in time to take showers before guests began to arrive for a combined birthday party for three of their friends.
May 29, 2011 (Sun) Mars Hill, NC (2) - We went to church this morning where we saw many of the folks who were at the party last night. The rest of the day was for relaxation and conversation. Oh, and dominoes in the evening.
May 30, 2011 (Mon) Mars Hill, NC (3) - A lazy day reading, napping and generally doing nothing. We had a swim in Bob and Pat's pool even though we'd forgotten to bring our bathing suits. In spite of what you might be thinking, we made do with street clothes though more brief than we might wear on the street. More dominoes in the evening.
Q078043 Bob & Pat's Driveway (x3)
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May 31, 2011 (Tue) Mars Hill, NC to Winchester, VA (297/2185 miles) - We were awake earlier than we had expected to be so we were able to accomplish our morning routines and travel preparations to get off by 7:30 (61° foggy but clear above). We said good-bye to Bob and Pat and headed for I-26 which would take us over the Blue Ridge Mountains into Tennessee. We took advantage of the lowest gas price we've seen this year - $3.21/gal at the Walmart in Unicoi, TN. (What happened to that Obama caused Memorial Day weekend price hike, Fox News?)
At 9:15 we crossed into Virginia on I-81 (77° hazy). About 30 miles north of the state line we began to see indications of some kind of natural devastation. large road signs were bent or gone, trees were uprooted or broken off, motel windows were gone and house roofs were either gone, covered over with blue tarps or being rebuilt. Every so often there would be a pile of debris with some kind of big machine sitting beside it. We thought tornado rather than hurricane because it lasted only a mile or two. After that everything seemed okay.
We discovered that the Winchester, VA Costco is just over the hill from the Walmart where we usually stop - probably less than a mile away. We made a detour there and stocked up on a few things we haven't been able to get at home for a while.
The temperature has been going up all day and as we sit here recovering from our day on the road the thermometer reads 99° even though we are parked in the shade. We have been running the generator off and on so that we can have some air conditioning even though we don't like to draw attention to ourselves with the noise. But no one seemed to notice. We are the only motor home here this time.
Q078440 Camp Walmart Winchester, VA
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June 1, 2011 (Wed) Winchester, VA to home (291/2476 miles) - We didn't get much sleep last night, it was too hot. The temperature both inside and out was 92° most of the night. The high humidity made it even worse. As much as we would have liked to have the A/C on we though running the generator all night would have been abusing Walmart's hospitality a bit. It was 81° when we got up at 5:30 which didn't feel too bad with a breeze coming in the windows. As we ate breakfast, we watched a flock of 20 - 25 Canada Geese wandering around in the busy road below us. A police car came along at one point and whooped his siren at them but they paid no attention.
Lamont's battery was very low this morning - not dead but so low that the car barely started. We thought we had the problem figured out. Guess not. We let him idle for 10 minutes or so and again at the first rest area 12 miles north on I-81, the West Virginia Welcome Center. He seemed fine the rest of the trip.
Bumper sticker "Re-elect No One"
There had been a bad accident on eastbound I-78 in Pennsylvania that was causing a two mile back up. It must have happened several hours before, because they were in the process of cleaning up. CB chatter, as much as it can be believed, said that there was a small pickup and a couple of cars involved. Apparently one car landed on top of the pickup which was up side down in the brush. When we went by the clean up crew was about to attach a cable from a heavy duty tow truck to what looked a pile of mangled steel recognizable as vehicles only because there were wheels mixed in. Bad!
The outside temperature ranged from 76° shortly after we started out to 91° when we crossed the state line into New Jersey to 96° when we got home at 1:30. Unpacking Q was an unpleasant adventure.
Q078731 Home
QC12-02 A hot vigil
May 22, 2011 (Sun) Englewood, FL (4) - This was a day of family visiting. Bom seems to improve everyday but is still very weak. Prognosis is still very uncertain. Craig left this morning to return home.
May 23, 2011 (Mon) Englewood, FL (5) - Our first orders of business today were laundry and refreshing Q's sanitary tanks. Mark dropped Joy off at a laundromat while he went to a near by state park. Last year - it may have even been the early part of this year - the charge to use their sanitary facilities was $10. A reasonable fee and standard. This time it was $14 because it included the park entrance fee. Mark remembered that we had to get fresh water from one of the campsites last time as it wasn't available at the dump station. He asked the gatekeeper about this. She said, "Fresh water? You mean drinking water?" "Yes" "It's not available." "How about I go into one of the campsites?" "No. We're not licensed for drinking water" (Whatever that means.) He said he wanted his $14 back, he'd go somewhere else. While they were trying to figure out how to unring the cash drawer he decided to go on and dump anyway - which he did. He also backed into an empty campsite and stole a tankful of fresh water. We may have to paint Q a different color.
May 24, 2011 (Tue) Englewood, FL (6) - We haven't been tracking the thermometer readings as we usually do but it has been hot. Temperatures have ranged from about 70° to 94°. There has been no rain and only one day, so far that could be considered cloudy. The sun reigns.
May 25, 2011 (Wed) Englewood, FL (7) - Gail and Alison flew home today having said good-bye last night. A physical rehabilitation program and Hospice are incompatible - one can not have both (surprisingly). It was decided that Bom is not ready for Hospice, so today she had her first visit from a physical therapist. Kelly was amazed that she has made so much progress since going into the ICU just over a week ago - she is now able to stand and take short walks around her room. Kelly's goal is to have her in the swimming pool again in a few weeks.
Fran said good-bye this evening. She will start her drive back to Indianapolis early tomorrow morning.
May 26, 2011 (Thu) Englewood, FL (8) - Joy spent most of the day with her mother while Mark suffered the heat and humidity on our shaded "patio'. There have been predictions of rain but the probability of it actually happening is low. This small part of Florida seems too often be spared the wet weather when storms pass either north or south of here (and sometimes both). It's a wonder the area is so green.
This is our last day here. We leave at first light in the morning. Saying good-bye is always hard but it's been particularly hard this time as it may be the last. Bom looks good though and may well see her 100th birthday in December.
Q77265 Jeanne's back yard
QC12-01 Unexpected trip to Florida
May 18, 2011 (Wed) Home to Kenly, NC (500/500 miles) - We got a call late Monday that Bom, Joy's mother, had been taken to the hospital emergency room with, among other things, congestive heart failure. This didn't look good for a 99 year old, especially since she had just returned home from the hospital with an infection a week or so before. Joy and her sisters decided that a trip the Florida to see her was in order so we spent yesterday getting ready for travel. Although we thought we'd only be gone a week or two we needed to do everything we do to be gone 3 months (albeit on a smaller scale) plus cancel all our near-term plans and appointments, of which there were many!
We got off this morning at about 7:17am and drove separately over to the Applebee's near US18 where we hooked up our toad. The rain started just as we were finishing up. Then it was South on US18, West on I-195 and South on I-295 where we stopped to top off our gas tank before leaving NJ ($3.75/gal). We've been having problems with Lamont's battery going dead while he is in tow so we took the opportunity start him up while we were there to for some recharging.
The last time we crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge into Delaware the toll was $16. Today we paid $6.00! We asked the toll taker if he realized that we had a car in tow. He said yes, that's why the toll was $6. We think he didn't realize that we had dual rear wheels. But $10 for two extra wheels? That's outrageous! Tolls down through Delaware and Maryland were $6 and $7 respectively. The Francis Scott Key Bridge toll East of Baltimore was $9. (We are not allowed to go through the tunnels in Baltimore because we carry propane.)
Traffic down I-95 and around Washington wasn't as bad as we'd expected - until we got to Tysons Corners and the major highways out to Dulles Airport from the city. Construction slowed things down considerably. By 2:00 we were ready to pack it in but we still had a long way to go if we were going to get to Florida in two days - our plan.
The drive down I-95 through VA was much better and after Richmond actually beautiful (relatively). NC was especially beautiful because of all the wild flowers planted along the highway by the North Carolina Department of Transportation Wildflower Program. There were many long swatches of sometimes brilliant color in the berm between northbound and southbound traffic lanes. Ah, North Carolina in the Spring.
We stopped to eat at a Wendy's in Kenly, NC and found it was part of a large truck stop complex with several fast food establishments, several brands of gas and diesel in the area and a huge mall catering to a trucker's every need. We could have bought a couple of chrome tail pipes to decorate Q's cab and to direct his exhaust out and over the roof line for instance. It also had a very large relatively empty parking lot, separate for the trucks, with markings for RV parking and even sanitary dump facilities. We decided to spend the night there rather than going over to the Flying J truck stop on the other side of the highway.
Q076605 Kenly 95 Truck Stop.
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May 19, 2011 (Thu) Kenly, NC to Englewood, FL (660/1160 miles) - We worried about it being a noisy night as we turned Q's living room to a bedroom. The big 18 wheelers were using their noisy engine brakes as they come off nearby I-95 but it turned out be a very quiet - or we were so exhausted from the long drive yesterday that we slept through it all. At any rate, we were awake at 5:15 and back on the road at 6:15 - well almost. We went over to the Flying J for gas ($3.73/gal, 3¢ a gallon cheaper than the BP where we'd spent the night). Then we were off.
We picked up some General Tso's Chicken at a Walmart hot food counter (Gourmet all the way) for lunch, ran Lamont to circulate the transmission oil and recharge the battery and got back on the road. We've been noticing a lot of highway police activity all the way down. They seemed to be particularly active through NC and into FL. We saw them every few miles either with someone pulled over or sitting in wait.
Honda specs call for us to stop every 8 hours to run their CRV for a few minutes - to insure that the automatic transmission doesn't dry up. It had been 6 1/2 hours since we'd run him last at the Walmart at noon so we pulled into the rest area off I-75 West of Ocala, FL to do that and to give the battery a shot. Too late!! The battery was completely dead! Not even a click from the starter! So unhook, turn Q around, and employ the use of our jump cables. Fortunately the parking lot where we were was completely empty so we could move to an almost flat space to unhook. We drove separately down to the next rest area (to put some charge back into Lamont's battery) and hooked back up. And Joy fell in the parking lot, bruising her hip and scrapping the skin off her elbow. Fortunately our rig blocked the view of the trucker sitting in his cab with the door open watching us hook up.
These adventures cost us two hours. Instead of getting in a 9:00, it was after 11:00. Bed was well appreciated!
May 20, 2011 (Fri) Englewood, FL (2) - A lot of people are waiting for Bom's prognosis. As are we. It's certainly better than a couple of days ago but still uncertain. Joy and her sisters (and Alison, Gail's daughter) spent the day at the hospital. And we all went out to eat last night. Word is that Bom will be coming home tomorrow.
May 21, 2011 (Sat) Englewood, Fl (3) - Bom came home about noon today. She was very tired and was asleep almost immediately. Gail's son Craig arrived this afternoon and we all had lunch together at Panera's Bread. Otherwise we just hung out - visiting Bom one on one (or so) when she was awake. We don't know what the prognosis is, but at least she is "home" and with the people who love her. A lot depends on what the visiting nurse says tomorrow. Right now she is sleeping. The trip home was exhausting for her. Thank you all whose prayers are with us, it means so much to us.
Q77265 Jeanne's back yard
QC11-15 Forest to civilization.
March 21, 2011 (Mon) Juniper Springs RA (8) 55/87° - When we got here last week, we had the choice of one site to choose from - unless we chose to fight for the one being saved for a big rig. If we'd come in today we'd have had the choice of almost any site in the campground. School is open again. We'd like to say that it's been a quiet day but it wasn't quite. There has been a little dog barking all day in a site on the opposite side of the loop. Campground rules say that animals are not to be left alone and are to be controlled - noise-wise as well as physically. Violation of these rules is grounds for eviction. We saw a warning tag on the campsite's second car this afternoon which is apparently a warning because they were still there this evening.
March 22, 2011 (Tue) Juniper Springs RA (9) 54/89° - To the big city (Silver Springs) for laundry, hair cut (Mark), shopping and lunch. When we got back the folks with the barking dog were gone. We don't know if they were planning to leave today of not. There are a couple of other units in the loop but we are pretty much alone here. Quiet!
The Swallow-Tailed Kites circled low over our campsite this afternoon. They would have made a good picture or two but the camera was stowed in the motor home!
March 23, 2011 (Wed) Juniper Springs RA (10) 64/89° - Mark found another tick last night! He (Mark) sprayed liberal doses of Deep Woods Off on his clothes when he got dressed this morning. Maybe that will discourage them. The campground hosts told us that they (the ticks) are particularly bad this year, even dropping down on the leaves falling from the trees. Many of the trees are Live Oaks with tiny (quarter sized) leaves that seem to fall constantly. A slight breeze will stimulate a shower of them.
March 24, 2011 (Thu) Juniper Springs RA (11) 67/84° - We seem to remember hearing somewhere that Florida schools are on a 4 day week schedule. Or maybe that they were thinking about it. The campground really filled up this afternoon. From our being one of only three in our loop and the other loop similarly populated to a mostly full campground. The weekend has begun! We're out of here tomorrow.
Q074084 Juniper Springs CG, Ocala National Forest. #48 dry $9.50 A (x11)
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March 25, 2011 (Fri) Juniper Springs RA to Savannah, GA (341/3383 miles) 59/74° - Propane adventure number ?: Our propane was running on fumes (gauge on empty for two days) so we took US 41 West toward Silver Springs where we knew, from roadside signs, that we could get propane at RV campgrounds. Stop one, "Yes, we have propane but my husband has the key in his pocket. He should be home from work around 4:30." We didn't wait around. Stop two. Confusing signage at the entrance almost led us into a cul-de-sac but we got in far enough that we had to unhook Lamont to get out. That turned out to be just as well because getting to the propane supply station would have been awkward with a car in tow. We had to back into position. The folks there were very nice, though. The fellow never complained, as some do, that Q's propane tap is nearly impossible to work with.
Roadside farm stand? Not exactly. There was a fellow sitting under an umbrella behind his pickup truck in a grassy area beside the road. Displayed all along the side of the truck were 15 or 20 boxes of various sizes with full color pictures of rifles with large ammo clips - obviously containing automatic (semiautomatic?) rifles. Just the thing for someone unexpectedly finding himself on the way to a mass killing.
We had lunch and got gas in Green Cove Springs, then proceeded to I-295 around Jacksonville (FL) to I-95 North. We got to the Savannah, GA Walmart at about 3:30. After some shopping we settled in for the night.
Q074325 Camp Walmart, Savannah, GA
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March 26, 2011 (Sat) Savannah, GA to Mars Hill, NC (340/3723 miles) 52/60° - It turned out to be a relatively quiet night for a Walmart parking lot. Although we were parked along one of the main access arteries, there wasn't that much traffic. A Walmart truck idling in the distance became background noise when we pulled up the covers and turned the reading light out.
We woke to a pretty sunrise, one of only a few on this trip, and got off at about 8:05 (52° and clear). We began to see haze in the distance as we crossed the Georgia South Carolina border and remembered the news reports we've been hearing about wild fires in the area. We didn't see any fires, but smoke was definitely in the air. The rain started about noon and the temperature began to drop from a high of 60° to around 50° when we stopped for lunch in a rest stop.
As the highway became more mountainous, Mark noticed that the light monitoring Lamont's brakes wasn't coming on indicating that they may not be engaging as they should. And on the off-ramp into the North Carolina Welcome Center the CRV seemed to be pushing against Q instead of helping with the braking as it should. We found Lamont's battery almost completely dead! There was just enough juice in it to set off the burglar alarm when we tried to open the door but not enough to shut it off. In the pouring rain, we had to find the proper wrench of the right size - not as easy as it may sound - and disconnect the battery to hush the noise. We disconnected Q and turn him around on a road barely wide enough (delaying impatient travelers anxious to get back onto I-26), and off-loaded the bicycles (so Q's hood could be opened). Then using the motor home battery we finally got Lamont's alarm shut off. We reconnected the car battery and got it started with a jump from Q. After reloading the bicycles, we inconvenienced more drivers turning back around. Did I mention it was pouring rain all this time? We decided not to hook up again and drove separately the rest of the way to Bob & Pat's (about 50 miles) so as to recharge the car battery. The rain line stopped about half way here and the roads became dry. We got here about 4:30.
March 27, 2011 (Sun) Mars Hill, NC (2) 44/51° - Church in the morning and hanging out in the afternoon, Kaye joined us for dinner in the evening. It was great to see her again.
March 28, 2011 (Mon) Mars Hill, NC (3) 41/57° - Bob and Mark went to see if a mechanic Bob trusts would be willing to take a look at the electrical circuits that caused our problem Saturday. He wouldn't. Didn't know anything about that kind of circuitry. He did recommend someone in Hendersonville, though so we'll go over there tomorrow. The pizza the four of us had for lunch in Asheville at The Mellow Mushroom was excellent.
March 29, 2011 (Tue) Mars Hill, NC (4) 37/59° - There was frost on the windshields this morning even though the thermometer read 37°. Mark and Bob took off about 8:00 for Hendersonville to see about the electrical problem between the motor home and the toad. It turned out to be a loose connection easily fixed. The running down of Lamont's battery was apparently coincidental maybe caused by not properly preparing the CRV to be idle overnight in Savannah. We'll see. Joy went with Pat to volunteer at My Sister's Place, charity a second hand shop, for the morning. Kaye hosted an evening of conversation and a wonderful meal.
March 30, 2011 (Wed) Mars Hill, NC (5) 42/61° - Joy and Pat took a jaunt to the yarn store while Mark went over to Kaye's to see if he could get her email working. She can now receive mail but can't sent it. Calls to Verizon, her ISP and Microsoft were little help. Joy was more successful, buying two hanks of a beautiful yarn. This evening we went to the soup supper at their church where a DVD about a woman's search into her slave trading ancestors (a documentary) was shown and discussed. We ended the evening with a game of dominoes at home.
Q074665 Bob & Pat's driveway
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March 31, 2011 (Thu) Mars Hill, NC To Winchester (472/4195 miles (includes ~50 miles on Tue)) 42/48° - Got off from Bob and Pat's driveway at 9:10 (42° cloudy) and headed over the mountain (foggy!) and crossed into TN about 9:33. We found the price of gas the lowest at the USA Murphy (Walmart) in Uncoi, TN (10¢ a gallon less than Ingles Gas, the lowest price in Mars Hill) so we filled up.
Along I-81 northbound the forsythia was in full bloom as if thumbing its nose at the 41° showing on the thermometer and the Dogwood and Red Bud tree blossoms give sparkle to the drab woods. Many of the black cows in the fields watched over much smaller versions of themselves cavorting around them. Some fields had hundreds of sheep, apparently recently shorn. It was a beautiful ride in spite of the dark over cast skies.
Virginia seems to have a problem with upkeep of their rest areas (the economy?). Many are closed up and those that are open aren't what they should be (or have been). The area North of Blacksburg has porta-johns lined up along the parking area substituting for the more modern facilities in the buildings. We could see a few in another rest area as we passed but we don't know if the main facilities were actually closed or not. Traveling is becoming more primitive!
Some people shouldn't be driving big rigs! As we sat relaxing after supper a red pick-up pulling a huge 5th wheel moved from a perfectly good parking spot to one way too small behind us. The space was just about as long as he was giving him absolutely no room to maneuver. He was nosed up very close to a small camper in front of him and the bumper of the 5th wheel was less than 2 feet from Lamont's. He'd missed hitting us by inches! He could not have gotten out without one or both of us getting out of his way! We moved. Unaware as he is, he may try in the morning anyway and leave us with a damaged car.
Q075137 Camp Walmart, Winchester, VA
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April 1, 2011 (Fri) Winchester, VA to Home (295/4489 miles) 37/41° - The fellow with the big 5th wheel was still there when we got up this morning but he left as we ate breakfast. We couldn't see him from where we were but in order to get out he had to have backed up, either all the way out or enough to make a sharper swing to get by the small camper - which would have caused the rear of the 5th wheel to smash into our car. Since the trailer was licensed in Maine and the truck in New York we think he must be moving it for someone else, totality unaware of how long the rig is.
We got off about 8:30 (37° partly cloudy) and got back on I-81 north. There was a lot of construction in the Chambersberg, PA area but the traffic was light, even with a lot of trucks, so it didn't slow us down much. It spritzed rain off and on most of the way up through Maryland and into Pennsylvania but didn't actually start raining until we crossed the Delaware River into New Jersey. There was snow on the ground in the hills through Pennsylvania but not enough to make us worry about conditions at home.
We got home at about 3:20 and found the car battery dead again. The hook-up electrical system definitely needs attention! Other than that all was well in and around the house after 3 months. It's good to be home.
Q075431 Home
QC11-14 Forest Living part 2
March 14, 2011 (Mon) Alexander Springs RA to Juniper Springs RA (21/3042 miles) 43/83° - We pulled out of the campsite at about 10:00 and proceeded to the dump station. After taking care of Q's cleansing and replenishing needs we got on the road at 10:30 (47° clear, sunny and warming up) to move our home over to Juniper Springs - not a long trip (21 miles), no adventures. We got here at 10:52.
The gatekeeper told us that there was only one site available other than a pull-thru that they wanted to save for a bigger rig that was coming in later. We were a bit put out by this as non-reservable aren't supposed to be "saved", but we respect the unique needs of those over-sized rigs. Actually we were early into the campground. If we'd come in after the mandatory checkout time, we'd have had a bigger choice. It turns out that we really like this site (so far). It is in a part of the campground that we've been in only one other time - the first time we were here back in 2004. It is sunny and very private - we can't even see any of our neighbors. This kind of privacy makes us a little wary though. So we will probably lock up our bicycles and stow our chairs at night - which we tend to do anyway.
There seems to be no TV reception here!
March 15,2011 (Tue) Juniper Springs RA (2) 47/85° - Laundry, shopping, a haircut for Joy, and lunch in the "big city" of Silver Springs. Otherwise a lazy day - actually afternoon since our adventure took all morning and then some.
There has been a bird flying over now and then with a deep "V" shaped tail. This afternoon Joy was able to get a good enough look at him to identify - with the help of Roger Tory Peterson. He was a Swallow-Tailed Kite. A beautiful red Cardinal wandered to within a couple of feet of Mark's chair as he sat reading on the patio. His camera was in the motor home.
March 16,2011 (Wed) Juniper Springs RA (3) 52/84° - Wonderful showers! The best public showers we've used. They were clean, roomy (enough for two, if so inclined. The doors lock), and the water was hot. It helps that they are less than two years old. They were closed for renovation two years ago when we were here.
Our big adventure of the day was to go over to Astor to get our mail. A noteworthy item from this exercise is that there was no new summons (or arrest warrant) from the Red Bank police or courts. Oh, we did get a notice that Mark's NJ driving privileges had been revoked, but a call to the Red Bank Municipal court revealed that the notice had been sent before they received the check paying the fine.
On our walk on the boardwalk along the springs run there was a turkey high up in a tree. We didn't know a turkey could fly that high. He/she/it looked like he/she/it was trying to figure out how to get down.
March 17,2011 (Thu) Juniper Springs RA (4) 57/87° - A lazy day enjoying a quiet campground - after our noisy neighbors (they talk loudly) moved on and the kids all went down to the springs to swim.
March 18,2011 (Fri) Juniper Springs RA (5) 53/87° - Mark found he had two ticks when he took his shower this morning. He extracted the one on his leg. Joy did the honors with the one on his back. We have no idea where they may have come from. Needless to say, we will be checking very carefully from now on! Other than that it was another lazy day. This is getting sinful. The weekenders are moving in but so far they seem quieter than the midweekers.
March 19,2011 (Sat) Juniper Springs RA (6) 53/93° - Our thermometer read 93° on the shady side of Q this afternoon. We're not sure we believed it. It wasn't all that uncomfortable sitting in the shade. There was a slight breeze and the air must have been dry making it tolerable.
This is the day of the moon's closest approach to the earth in 18 years. To record this momentous event we walked a little way out on the Florida Trail to a point where we had a good clear view of the rising full moon, set up the camera and snapped away. The result, some pretty horrible pictures of a blob of light on a black background. They were almost bad enough to sell to a UFO magazine. Another attempt from our back yard yielded better results but still not all that good.
March 20,2011 (Sun) Juniper Springs RA (7) 50/82° - Joy's turn to do battle with a tick. She found one as she was getting dressed. Mark plucked him off with tweezers. He was quite small.
When we stopped at a drug store this morning, on our trip out to find a NY Times, Joy asked if there is Lyme Disease in the area. The clerk said yes, but it is very rare. We'll watch for symptoms, especially around Joy's bite site because the tick was so small, and discuss with the doctor when we get home - if no symptoms develop before then.
The school holiday must be over for Florida kids. The campground is practically empty. There is a group somewhere, though, with at least 4 young men of high school age. They have been going around and around our loop, which is on a hill, on skate boards. Ah, such energy! There is a site at the foot of the hill with several large tents. We think they are camped there - with adult supervision.
Q074084 Juniper Springs CG, Ocala National Forest. #48 dry $9.50 A
QC11-13 Forest Living part 1
March 8, 2011 (Tue) Titusville, FL to Alexander Springs CG, Ocala NF (89/3021 miles) 50/81° - A few days ago we watched the movie RV with Ed and Kathy. Several times through the movie Robin Williams' character (or a member of his family) saw the big class A motor home they had rented roll away - usually with a disastrous conclusion. This morning it was our turn! As we were saying good-bye to Dorcas and Mike, Q and Lamont began to roll down the road unattended. But unlike the movie this misadventure did not end in disaster. Joy quickly jumped into Q's cab and jammed on the brakes. On that note and with all of the residents looking on and laughing (except one who was unhappy that we were blocking her driveway), we departed The Great Outdoors and made our way to I-95. Before getting on the highway, though, we stopped at the Walmart to fill up with their bargain priced gas - $3.48/gal (though we paid only $3.45/gas with our gift card).
All along I-95 we saw evidence of the fires that had closed the interstate off and on over the last few days. No smoke today but the blackened trees and brush along the road was enough proof that it had been bad. This being "Bike Week" in Daytona, there were motorcycles everywhere - along the roads, in gas station and restaurant parking lots and in fields at swap meets. We were a little concerned about the availability of campsites at Alexander Springs but there was no problem. While none of the sites we have used in the past were available, the one we found seems to be a good one.
March 9, 2011 (Wed) Alexander Springs CG (2) 58/79° - This campsite, with more privacy than the others we've had here, is closer to the main road outside the campground. This makes the road sounds more prevalent which isn't really a problem - except that this is Bike week. Every so often we hear a loud roar that makes us think a large propeller transport plane is about to land on us. Motorcycles, usually in groups by the sound, are going by on their way to or from Daytona (or a swap meet). Motorcycles are apparently exempt from loud muffler laws that generate tickets with other vehicles. These background noises are accented now and then by one of our neighbors starting up his motorcycle. Fortunately these guys, our neighbors, are considerate campers in spite of their noisy vehicles. We have yet to hear any of them rev up over an idle as they make their way through the campground.
We spent most of today relaxing and enjoying being on our own again after some weeks of visiting. It has been warm enough to sit outside even when the sun was behind the occasional cloud. About mid-afternoon the breeze, never very strong, died down and the gnats, no-see-ums, and small black flies came around. We put up with them for a while then went indoors.
March 10, 2011 (Thu) Alexander Springs CG (3) 61/68° - It rained most of last night. About the time it started in the evening, maybe a bit before, a young couple pulled into the campsite across the road and began to set up their tent. The site was empty when we got up this morning.
Mount Dora was the town in Florida where Mark's grandparents retired and over the years we've been there to visit. Once a sleepy little town now it is full of little shops and interesting restaurants. We stopped there a few years ago to explore with our motor home, which wasn't much fun because there was no place to park it. Today we were in our car and were free to poke around and have lunch there. We ate at the Palm Tree Grill. Joy had a crab cake and Mark a fish wrap. Both were delicious.
March 11, 2011 (Fri) Alexander Springs CG (4) 41/63° - Too cold for showers this morning. But it warmed up enough in the afternoon, though it was still chilly. We have been wondering why there are so many kids around at mid week. There are 10 or 12 late high school aged young men - we haven't seen many young women - in a site down the way a bit and sites here and there throughout the campground with similarly aged young people. Most came in yesterday (Thu). We learned this afternoon that this is teacher conference weekend in Florida.
March 12, 2011 (Sat) Alexander Springs CG (5) 36/70° - Even colder this morning than yesterday but it warmed up nicely. By early afternoon we were dressed for summer - shorts and T-shirts. This has been a typical Saturday in a national forest campground (and state park for that matter). Most of the campsites are full with mostly families or older teens in tents (except for the motorcycle dudes). It's surprising to us how many have to bring the noises of civilization to the wilderness with them. As we took our walk tonight we heard radios drowning out the crackling of campfires in many of the sites with tents as shelters. We felt kind of sorry for the older couples next door to them trying to enjoy a quiet evening by their fire. One fellow even took a radio into the shower with him! Oh well, they will all be gone by this time tomorrow. Actually things quieted down very nicely as the evening went on.
March 13, 2011 (Sun) Alexander Springs CG (6) 39/74° - After getting the New York Times and a couple of bagels at the Publix in Eustis we spent the day enjoying the mild weather - mild, that is after it warmed up from the chilly 39° this morning. As expected, the campground pretty much cleared out over the course of the day. But there have been a surprising number coming in to replace them.
Tomorrow we are off to Juniper Springs CG.
Q074063 Alexander Springs CG, Ocala NF #42 dry $10.50 B (x6)
QC11-12 The I-4 corridor
March 1, 2011 (Tue) Lakeland, FL to Plant City, FL 65/83° - Now this is interesting (read complicated). Because this is the Q chronicle, the dateline should be Lakeland because that's where Q is. But we are in Plant City. After breakfast this morning, we packed up Lamont for a two day trip west. The park where Gordy and Ruth live is not very friendly to anything bigger than a large station wagon, so we have had to relegate Q to a small parking lot over by the swimming pool in the past. Being able to bring a car this time is another advantage of towing. We got here, without incident, at about 1:00 and spent the afternoon catching up on family news.
March 2, 2011 (Wed) Plant City, FL (2) 66/79° - A two mile walk in Alderman's Ford Park this morning was the highlight of the day. Otherwise a family day with Gordy and Ruth.
March 3, 2011 (Thur) Plant City, FL to Lakeland, FL 66/79° - After a leisurely breakfast with Gordy and Ruth, we packed up the car and headed back to Lakeland. Plant City is known as the Winter Strawberry Capital because three quarters of the nation's midwinter strawberries come from here. Florida's Strawberry Festival is held here ever year causing the expected heave traffic and congestion. Today is the first day of this years event. We cleverly avoided the nightmare by going east instead of south through the city. It was the way we wanted to go anyway.
We got back to Ed and Kathy's about 11:30am and we all went out for lunch at Five Guys Burgers and Fries.
March 4, 2011 (Fri) Lakeland, Fl (5) 63/80° - Today was the third day of the Flower and Garden Festival at Disney World. According to their publicity "The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival presented by HGTV is a spring special event filled with Disney character topiaries, a colorful array of flowers, gardens, live music and special presentations. It's where Disney springs to life! The festival is held from March 2 to May 15, 2011." It certainly was beautiful!
Many (if not most) people come/go to Epcot for the rides but with Ed and Kathy - who work at Disney for many of their special events - as our guides we spent almost all of our time looking at the gardens, floral displays and topiaries. We did go on two of the rides in the The Land Pavilion - Living with the Land and Soarin'. We've gone Soarin' before and it still takes our breath away!! Living with the Land was a boat ride through an area where, among other things, the newest methods of growing food are shown and explained. We saw tomatoes, pumpkins and squash on trees, various veggies grown in aquaculture, and a bunch of other interesting growing methods - with spectacular results. i.e we saw a 7 1/2 lb lemon! They also had display fish tanks, showing how fish farming works. Really interesting.
We had lunch at the Mexican Restaurant in "Mexico" in the International Area. The 3 course Mexican meal was wonderful!!
March 5, 2011 (Sat) Lakeland, Fl (6) 61/82° - Yesterday was a long tiring day for all four of us so we spent today catching up. It seemed as though there was always someone napping at any given time all day long. If the napper wasn't human, he/she was animal - dog or cat. Otherwise we worked on various individual projects.
Q073851 Ed & Kathy's yard (x6)
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March 6, 2011 (Sun) Lakeland, FL to Titusville, FL (123/2932 miles) 61/79° - We pulled out of Ed and Kathy's yard at about 8:00 and drove separately over to the Publix supermarket. We had a few things to pick up (most importantly The New York Times) so decided to wait til after we'd shopped to hook-up. Then it was I-4 to Orlando and US 50 East to The Great Outdoors near Titusville, FL. We found Mike and Dorcas' pad with no problem - we'd been here several time before - and settled into the empty site across the road at about 10:30. We spent the rest of the day sitting out on their patio beside their 5th wheel chatting and catching up. We were on our own for lunch but they took us over to The Dixie Crossroads, a restaurant they'd raved about in the past, for a delicious seafood dinner. We walked out feeling well satisfied even with "small" portions.
March 7, 2011 (Mon) The Great Outdoors (2) 55/74° - There's a very good yarn shop in Cocoa Village south of Titusville that Joy and Dorcas visited this afternoon. Mark and Mike tagged along. The village has a lot of small interesting shops that cater to tourists ashore from the many cruise ships that dock in nearby Port Canaveral. In addition to being a stop the area is the terminus for several large cruise lines. Seafood restaurants abound in the Port Canaveral area, especially along Glen Creek Drive on the water front where the ships can be seen across the water. Dorcas and Mike mentioned one restaurant whose name inspired a "try" - Fishlips Waterfront Bar and Grill. It features seafood in a huge sports bar, a large indoor dining room and at outside waterfront tables. We chose the regular dining room. Mark and Joy shared a seafood platter (seasoned grilled snapper, grouper, sea scallops and jumbo shrimp). Delicious! Dorcas raved about her lobster bisque and Mike devoured his Kahuna Burger with great pleasure. It was well worth the effort to find it.
Tomorrow we'll be on our own again. We'll be going back into the Ocala national Forest.
Q073974 The Great Outdoors #443 Oak Cove Dr w/e (x2)
QC11-11 Ortona Lock revisited
February 22, 2011 (Tue) Monument Lake CG to Ortona Lock CG (92/2541 miles) 60/87° - We got off at 8:30 after on-board showers and breakfast. The drive west on the Tamiami Trail and north on US 29 to Labelle was unremarkable. We stopped at a Winn-Dixie for groceries, then went in search of a laundromat. We found one but could not park our rig in the parking lot - too small - so had to hunt up a lot where we could drop Q. As we drove Lamont back to the laundromat we discussed how we couldn't do this if we weren't towing a car. Then we thought, if we weren't towing a car, we wouldn't have to do this. But it was convenient running errands in the smaller vehicle. Mark made a run to the post office and then to pick up something to eat while Joy stood guard over our laundry. We ate lunch while the clothes tumbled in the drier. There is a washer and drier here at Ortona Lock CG but they are some distance from our campsite. It seemed easier to do the job in town where several loads can be done at one time.
February 23, 2011 (Wed) Ortona Lock CG (2) 61/87° - This campsite is not as ideal as the one we had the last month. We can still see the waterway but have to look past a row of RVs in sites across the road. Also our orientation makes it harder to find relief from the burning rays of the sun. Actually there are no bad sites here just some that are better than others. We can be happy in any of them.
February 24, 2011 (Thu) Ortona Lock CG (3) 63/81° - Moving day. We moved 5 sites east today - same view of the canal past different RVs. We'd been told, via TV, that we should be able to see the final launch of Discovery (the space shuttle) from here - with clear skies. The skies weren't clear. We didn't see the launch. Mark had his camera to prove that we had but . . .
Late in the afternoon we saw a couple (fellow Chinook owners) that we'd met in Hillsborough State Park several years ago walking past with their dogs. They come here every year so have developed friendships with other people who do the same. As we talked two other couples stopped by and we all had a good time talking about travel and RVs. One couple was particularly interesting. She is a deaf mute - and does all the driving. He is a paraplegic (legs) with limited use of his hands and arms. They too come to FL every winter in their motor home leaving the care of their good sized peanut and cotton crops to others. They left their Georgia home this year in November.
Q073678 Ortona Lock CG #16 & 11 dry $12 A+ (x3)
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February 25, 2011 (Fri) Ortona Lock CG to Englewood, FL (85/2626 miles) 61/79° - Joy has had a cold shower two days in a row now. The faucet is strange and getting hot water is not easy. Mark explained how he finally did it in the men's shower yesterday but apparently the women's shower works differently. We'll be using Q's on-board shower for the next few days where we know how to control the temperature.
We got off at just before 9:00 (61° high fog) and found our way to US 29 and turned North. Other than encountering the normal traffic congestion between Port Charlotte and Englewood the drive was an easy one. We got here at about 11:00 and found that Gail had taken Bom out for a ride along the beach. We hung out and waited for their return.
When we went through our mail, which we had had sent to us here, late this afternoon, we found a summons to appear in court two weeks ago to pay a fine for not shoveling our sidewalk on Jan 31. The "ticket" said that if we fail to appear as ordered (which we did fail to do, of course) a warrant for our arrest would be issued and we might lose our driving privileges in NJ. Let's see - if we go home now we are not only facing charges of failing to keep our sidewalk clear but of failing to appear in court as directed, avoiding arrest by being out the state, driving without a license and maybe others. We'd never thought seriously about full-timing in our motor home. Maybe we should now.
February 26, 2011 (Sat) Englewood, FL (2) 59/84° - It's been a quiet day of just hanging out. Joy and Gail spent time, off and on, with their mother while Mark paid pills, read and napped in Q. For lunch the three of us took wraps over to Lemon Bay Park and sat on a bench in the shade. Panera Bread provided our evening meal.
February 27, 2011 (Sun) Englewood, FL (3) 59/81° - The first order of business today was to go over to the Publix and pick up a New York Times so that Joy could catch up on the real news. Then it was another day of hanging out. Gail's flight back to Seattle from Tampa was at 9:00am this morning so it was just Joy with her mother. Mark continued to hold down the (motor home) fort. In the evening we took the computer in so that we could show Bom the DVD of Shane's first six plus years.
Q073768 Jeanne's driveway.
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February 28, 2011 (Mon) Englewood, FL to Lakeland, FL (83/2709 miles) 61/82° - Off at 7:45 (62° clear). We had said good-bye to Bom last night so that we could get an early start - and so as not to disrupt the ladies' morning routine. Joy took Lamont and headed for the laundromat on the Tamiami Trail north of Venice while Mark went in search of relatively inexpensive gas with Q. He found a station selling it for $3.38/gal and got a few gallons. We planned to stop at Costco in Brandon where it was selling for $3.24/gal so we needed only enough to get us there. After the laundry was done we hooked Lamont to Q and jumped on I-75 North toward Brandon and the Costco store.
As we were putting things away after shopping, a car pulled in too close in front of us. We always park in the outskirts of parking lots when we can because Q takes up so much room - especially with a car in tow. There are usually all kinds of empty parking spaces out there and that was the case this morning at Costco. But this woman had to park where we could not pull out - we can't back up. She was quite put out when Mark asked her to move her car down a couple of spaces. While stopped there, Mark called the Red Bank Municipal Court offices and made arrangements to pay our fine for not keeping our sidewalk clear. So we guess we won't be going to jail!!!
We got to Lakeland and Ed and Kathy's house at about 1:30.
Q073851 Ed & Kathy's yard
QC11-10 Monument Lake revisited
February 17, 2011 (Thu) Monument Lake CG (2) 55/80° - Those of you who have been here at Monument Lake will remember the road - a two track crushed coral pathway really - that extends into the Big Cypress swamp at the north end of the campground. In past years it has been closed to unauthorized vehicular traffic but OK for foot traffic. This year there is new signage stating "Service Trail" "Authorized use only" "The area beyond this sign closed to public use" which seems to imply that we can no longer go there even on foot. There have been several truckloads of crushed coral going through the campground and out the road every day that we have been here. Another change from the past is the curtailment of overflow camping. There have been times when every available piece of real estate has been utilized for RVs after all designated sites are occupied. They are turning away people this year. A couple of questions for the host sometime.
February 18, 2011 (Fri) Monument Lake CG (3) 55/81° - Shark Valley is essentially a 15 mile paved loop trail into the Everglades. The first 7 miles is straight south along a small, somewhat stagnant, waterway to an observation tower. There is plenty of wildlife to see and photograph, and plenty of impressive photo equipment to record it with - for the first mile or so. There was no wind, barely a breeze, when we got up and as we ate breakfast - and no forecast of rain - so we decided that today is the day. We took off at 9:00 only to discover six miles down the road that Mark had forgotten his wallet with our Golden Age Pass in it.
The parking lot is relatively small and fills up fast after its 8:30 opening but there were still plenty of spaces when we got there at 10:00. The wildlife was not as plentiful as we remembered it from previous visits but there was plenty and we got lots of pictures. About five miles into the loop Joy wandered off the trail and fell off her bike. Luckily there weren't any alligators sunning themselves right there! Other than scraping some skin from her ankle and bruising her legs in a few places she was good to continue. We counted about 60 alligators (80 last year), saw all kinds of ducks (including gallinules), herons, egrets, anhingas, ibis, cranes, fish (including gar) and turtles (one very interesting looking one - the Florida soft-shell Turtle). At one point we heard what sounded like a very loud fart in an echo chamber. It turned out to be an alligator advertising for a mate. Mark tried to get a picture of him with his mouth open but he stopped bellowing by the time Mark got his camera out. The last 8 miles was grueling, as it always is. The wind had increased, a head wind, of course, and there was less wildlife in the more open environment to keep us distracted .
February 19, 2011 (Sat) Monument Lake CG (4) 54/79° - President's day weekend and the campground has filled up, not just the RV sites but the tent sites as well. There are kids running around and the sounds of a horse shoe game off in the distance. A father and his two young sons are paddling around the lake in their canoe and kayak. As we were sitting out on our "patio" by the lake this afternoon a young family came to our shore to fish. They were a mother, father, a girl about 12, a boy 8 or so and a little 4 year old girl with a pink fishing pole. The boy wore a bright yellow T-shirt and was holding his fishing pole with the line in the water, the girl, in a baseball cap on backwards with her blond hair coming out from under the bill was baiting her line. Mark took what might have been a prize winning photo of them if he had had the camera set properly. The shot was not only unsalvageable but unrecognizable as a picture!
February 20, 2011 (Sun) Monument Lake CG (5) 53/78° - Another quiet day sitting by the lake.
February 21, 2011 (Mon) Monument Lake CG (6) 55/82° - Are we finks? Early this afternoon a rented RV stopped at the recently vacated site on our port side and clipped the orange reservation ticket stub to the picnic table indicating that the site belonged to them. Then they took off, sightseeing or something. About 3:00 a small VW Passat sedan pulled into the site without first checking with the host as required and 3 young men (in full camouflage outfits and acting as if under the influence) got out and started setting up a tent. They could have been friends of the folks in the rental RV but again they might not have been. Either way we felt very uncomfortable about them so Mark decided to check with the campground host. He said no they should not be there and went right over to talk to them. They packed up their tent and left the campground! In talking with the host later we learned that he had only told them that the site was already occupied and that there was a specific tenting area they could use. They were shocked to learn that they would have to pay $16 for "a couple hours of sleep". The host said that he thought they were the same fellows who have done the same thing before - come in, set up camp without paying and joined later by 2 or 3 other car loads of kids for a (loud drinking) party. They would then leave in the wee hours before the host made his morning rounds to register late arrivals. Finks? yes but we are glad. It could have been a long sleepless night. If they'd gotten fully set up and agreed to pay, the legitimate occupiers might have been asked to select another site.
Tomorrow we are going back to Ortona Lock on the Okeechobee Waterway. (Electricity!! Hooray!! )
Q073586 Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress NP #2 dry $8 B (x6)
QC11-09 The Everglades and back.
February 14, 2011 (Mon) Monument Lake to Flamingo (139/2336 miles) 50/81° - Off at 9:00am (63° clear) and turned East on the Tamiami Trail (US 41) toward Miami. We needed propane and thought we should get gas before going into the wilds of Florida. The service station near the Miccosukee Indian casino seemed like a good place to stop. The propane supply is easy to get to and the gas would be relatively inexpensive. We got in line at the pump behind a car whose driver had apparently decided it was a good place to park while he when off to do something else. We were stuck - can't back up with a car in tow - until the lane beside us cleared. We decided to go on and get propane which meant going back up on the highway in order to get around back where the propane supply point was. There was plenty of room back there to move around but it meant mixing it up with 18 wheelers maneuvering to get their diesel, to get washed, to pick up stored trailers and maybe some just driving around for fun. The fellow helping with the propane had trouble with the pump so that took a while. A half tank full is better that running on empty.
We went back and got our gas then made our way to the laundromat in the Kendall area of Miami where we usually go. Then after a grocery stop we headed for Homestead. We unhooked Lamont in the Walmart parking lot. Homestead is a tight little town with few places for a motor homes to park much less one with a car in tow. A nice policeman (WM security) came over and told us that we were no longer allowed to park there overnight. That was OK with us. We weren't planning to any way. After picking up our mail we tried a new (to us) Mexican restaurant (La Quebradita), found it satisfactory and filling. Then we picked up Q at Walmart and headed for Robert is Here (a farm market) for a long anticipated key lime milkshake. A tour bus had just gotten there and the whole load of tourists was lined up at the milkshake counter. We decided to pass up dessert this time.
The gate keeper at Flamingo asked how long we wanted to stay. We said a week but that would depend on the mosquitoes. He said the mosquitoes are very bad and suggested that we might want to try one night and see if we wanted to stay longer. We decided to go with a two night trial. The mosquitoes saw us coming and descended on us as we unhooked and backed into our chosen site at about 5:30 then followed us inside in a cloud. We spent the evening exterminating them one by one.
February 15, 2011 (Tue) Flamingo CG, Everglade NP (2) 53/72° - The Flamingo area of the Everglades National Park is due for some major changes in the next several years. Some good and, in our opinion, some bad. The whole area will be getting a face lift. The campgrounds will be modernized - they have recently put hot showers in two loops, there are now electrical hookups in many of the sites in the "RV" loop - there will be a modern hotel/motel, cabins, permanent "eco" tents to rent, and an improved "walk-in" tent area, a shuttle service and what looks to be bicycle/walking trails will meander throughout. These are improvements that they hope will attract more visitors (read income) to the park.
What we find objectionable in the "master plan" is that the vehicle accessible campsites not restricted to big RV rigs (those bigger than we are even with a car in tow apparently) are being reduced to less than a third of what are available now - from 116 sites to 45. Loops B and C will be turned back to nature. This might make sense if loop A could accommodate those using these sites now but it can't. Whenever we have been here loop A as either completely full or very close to it while loop B is often very well occupied. Last year they even opened up normally closed loop C on the weekend to take the extra influx. What is going to happen when loops B and C are no more? And what happens to those who drive the 40 plus miles down here and find the campground full as it very likely often will be?
The prevalence of wildlife has been a bit disappointing this time. Other than some Crow like black birds and a few Vultures there haven't been many other birds in the campground. But on our bike ride over to the marina we did see a couple of Osprey watching for unsuspecting prey and a hawk circling above. And on the way back along the bay there was the expected mix of herons and other water birds. At one point a large flock of White Pelicans flew over, beautiful, and a Red Shouldered Hawk posed for pictures near the current walk-in tenting area. And, of course, the two resident crocodiles lounged by the canal - in the same position as last year. Maybe they're stuffed!
We spent the another evening chasing mosquitoes, gnats and no-see-ums.
Q073473 Flamingo CG, Everglades National Park. #B6 dry $8.00 B (x2)
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February 16, 2011 (Wed) Flamingo to Monument Lake (113/2449 miles) 55/79° - One of the advantages of living like we do down here is that if we don't like our neighbors, we can move. There have been times when we've moved from one site to another, but when the annoying neighbors are mosquitoes, gnats and no-see-ums, it's time to move out of town. Actually they weren't too bad during the day as long as we stayed away from thick foliage and kept moving but at night they were nearly impossible to eradicate. So back to Monument Lake.
We watched the elevation read-out on Hildene as we drove the 38 miles out of the park. We got all the way up to an ear popping 13 feet before we started back down again. At Robert is Here at a few minutes before 10:00, we were only their second customer to order milkshakes - no tour bus this time. We stopped at the new Shell gas station on the road out of Homestead and found that they still don't know how to build stations for big rigs. We're comparatively small for a motor home with a car in tow but we almost needed to unhook to get away from the gas pump island. Lamont came within 1/2 inch of hitting the trash container! He doesn't follow Q exactly but tends to cut corners in turns. The turns into, then out of the pump islands were almost too tight for even us!
The Everglades is really a very wide "river of grass" that was effectively dammed up when the Tamiami Trail was built across Florida in the early 1900s. Stopping the natural flow of water from Lake Okeechobee has done considerable damage to the Everglades ecosystem over the years. Efforts are being made to reverse this trend. So a section of US 41 a few miles Wast of Miami is being raised up onto pylons to allow the water to flow through the area more naturally. It was interesting to see how far them had come in the two days we'd been in Flamingo.
When we pulled into Monument Lake CG at about 12:30, the sites were about 2/3 occupied. That's about normal for a weekday. Surprisingly the site we had been in was empty so we reclaimed it. What was surprising was how fast the campground filled up after we got here. By 3:00 all the sites had residents and road weary travelers were being turned away. We were very lucky!
Q073586 Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress NP #2 dry $8 B
QC11-08 Monument Lake
February 7, 2011 (Mon) Ortona Lock CG to Monument Lake CG (89/2197 miles) 63/88° - After we sent the news letter out last night Joy happened to look out the window and saw a man doing a very strange thing. He was aiming his flashlight on an object in the grass and walking (side stepping) around and around it about 8 feet away. Every once in a while he would step closer and lean down then jump back and begin to circle again. It was almost like watching a ritual dance of some kind. We concluded that he must be looking at some kind of small animal so Mark went out to investigate. It was a snake. Poised to strike!! Mark went back to Q to get his camera but the snake was gone when he got back.
We left Ortona Lock at about 9:20 this morning and after doing some shopping in Labelle, made our way south into the Big Cypress National Preserve. For the last several years we have been hoping for a campsite at the south end of Monument Lake where Q's orientation would provide shelter from the prevailing wind - it seems to always be blowing here - and shade from the afternoon sun. The 4 sites have always been occupied. When we pulled in today about noon, all four were empty, as was the very nice site at the north end where we were last year. And they remained empty most of the rest of the afternoon - except for the one we took, of course.
February 8, 2011 (Tue) Monument Lake CG (2) 60/75° - The wind was blowing at a good clip when we went to bed last night but not hard enough to be of any big concern. That changed. Around midnight we woke to the sound of the bathroom vent and TV antenna rattling and the awning, though only out a little way, flapping. We got up and battened down - even to the extent of lashing the bicycles together and bringing in the "welcome" mat. Then, snug in our little motor home, we went back to bed.
Loop Road: a challenge and a half, but good photo ops. When we took Q on Loop Road, a 23 mile road into the Everglades, seven years ago or so the challenges were mainly negotiating low hanging trees and finding wide spots to pass oncoming cars. The road itself was what you'd expect of a single lane gravel road, some washboard and an occasional pot hole but that's it. No place for a motor home, maybe, but not too bad. When we went out to Sweetwater Strand (a wildlife viewing spot) with Bob and Pat in their toad a couple of years ago there didn't seem to be any particular issue with the condition of the road. Today it was nearly impassable for the whole 18 mile gravel portion. It was not unlike driving on an Olympic skiing mogul course and a real "off road" challenge even for our CRV. There were many places so bad that we could have gotten hung up on a high "speed bump" type mounds across the road or stuck in a mud hole if we weren't careful. 3 MPH was our average speed.
A couple passing in a Chrysler stopped us a mile or so onto the road and asked if we really wanted to continue. The fellow said "There are 15 miles of this and there is nothing to see." We told him that we had done it in a motor home a few years ago. The look on his face was priceless. We think he may not have gone the whole way because there was plenty of wildlife to see. Most of the 5 or 6 cars we passed were SUVs and one big wheeled pick-up camper, probably 4 wheel drive, but some should not have been there at all. Toward the end of the gravel section a fellow (actually 3 fellows) in a low slung car stopped us to ask if it got any better. We said it was a lot worse than where we were right then. He said that the 11 miles they'd just come were very bad but he was going turn around and go back. Actually he'd only been 3 miles.
We did stop at Sweetwater Strand, the most beautiful spot on the road and spent an hour or so enjoying the atmosphere and taking pictures. It was so quiet (no cars came by during that time) and the sounds of the various cranes, herons and egrets was wonderful. So In spite of the road we got some great pictures of birds and scenery.
When we opened the back door of the CRV to take out the camera equipment at one view point there was a tiny green frog curled up between the door and the door jam. We took him out and put him of the side of the car thinking that he would move on but when we came back later he was back inside the door jam. We got him out on a small stick and left him on the road near the water. He reminded us of the little frog that got caught in our vent last year in the Everglades.
After leaving the loop road we drove over to Shark Valley to check it out, and then stopped at the Miccosukee (Indian) Restaurant across the road for a late lunch. Along with some heavily battered and fried grouper, we also tried a piece of alligator meat - an "Alligator bite" they called it. It tasted like a combination of chicken and calamari, with the same texture as calamari. Well, we can say we ate alligator! And the stop was definitely a "been there done that" experience.
February 9, 2011 (Wed) Monument Lake CG (3) 50/80° - Everglades City and Chokoloskee were our adventure destinations today. Well that's not exactly true. Our destination was the Kirby Storter boardwalk into the swamp but we decided to go on to the junction of US 29 where we knew there was a gas station. When we got there, we saw that the price was $3.49/gal and we thought we could do better in Everglades City. It was $3.39 there - not good but better. Everglades City seems to be looking better than the last time we were there. We couldn't remember if we'd ever been to Chokoloskee at the end of the peninsula so decided to do some exploring. We found it to be the place where the bigger motor homes come to play. There were several very fancy campgrounds and marinas (and campgrounds with marinas). Both Chokoloskee and Everglades City have restaurants worth investigating sometime.
On the way back we stopped at the Big Cypress Welcome Center to look for a birthday gift for grandson Shane. The volunteer naturalist was just starting her 15 minute tour and talk. Her subject was the manatees that winter in the water behind the park building. Although we've seen manatees several times, this was the first time there was someone knowledgeable talking about them. We learned some very interesting things. For instance alligators and manatees share the same waters - peacefully.
We decided to save the Kirby Storter walk for another time.
February 10, 2011 (Thu) Monument Lake CG (4) 66/81° - This was a day to sit around and read. While we were enjoying the peace and quiet, a couple from Michigan stopped by in their Chinook. They were on their way from Naples to Fort Lauderdale and came in to see what the campground was like. We had a good talk.
February 11, 2011 (Fri) Monument Lake CG (5) 63/71° - Today was the day we were going to take our bicycles over to Shark Valley but the weather forecast was for 30% rain. We pictured ourselves being on the trail 7 miles into the Everglades when the skies opened up so we stayed home. It never rained although the wind was bad. We did take our postponed walk on the Kirby Storter boardwalk though. Saw an Eastern Bluebird, a little green heron and some deer.
February 12, 2011 (Sat) Monument Lake CG (6) 49/63° - The predicted rain came during the night, or I should say in the early morning. The skies were overcast and rain threatened most of the day with heavy winds, so sitting or doing much outside was uncomfortable. But it seemed like a good day for a quick trip over to Midway campground to refresh Q's sanitary and water systems. That done, we spent the rest of the day waiting for the wind to die down and the sun to come out.
The park's campfire program tonight was a volunteer singer/guitarist singing and talking about Big Cypress - its history, its wildlife, its beauty etc. We bundled up in several layers of cool weather clothes (all our cold weather clothes are up in the pod) and walked over. It was quite interesting and just long enough, considering the cold.
February 13, 2011 (Sun) Monument Lake CG (7) 49/72° - It was cold and windy again this morning but the forecasts promised that more normal temps for south Florida were on the way.
Turner River road goes about 20 miles north into the Big Cypress Swamp to the Bear Island (free) campground. The part we negotiated today was all rough wash-board gravel. We had thought we'd go all the way and check out the campground as a future destination but after 7 miles of brain (and suspension) rattling, we gave it up and took a left turn onto another gravel road that would eventually take us back to civilization. Rough ride aside there was plenty of wildlife to see and photograph. We probably won't be camping at Bear Island any time soon.
At one stop we saw a gator we were watching plop into the water with a large black snake in its mouth. Lunch!!!
Tomorrow we pack up and head down into the Everglades. We will be out of phone/internet/TV contact for the week we plan to be there. If the mosquitoes are bad like they were last year, though, we won't be "toughing it out" we'll come back here. While we are there we can be reached by calling the Flamingo campground.
Q073334 Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress NP #2 dry $8.00 B (x7)
