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)
______________________________

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
_________________________________________

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
__________________________________

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
____________________________________

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