QC14-02 North to Home

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