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.

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