QC31-01 South to North Carolina

December 30, 2012 (Sun) Home to Winchester, VA (293/293 miles) 29/36° [12.1v] - It was cold with ferocious cross winds, sometimes blowing snow, as we went northwest and as we came southwest and south! How does the wind know when to change direction? Slow gas pump at Carlisle, PA Flying J, v-e-r-y slow! While it was pumping Joy went in to the ladies room, then Mark went into the men's room and still there was a long, cold wait in the wind. Mark began to think the tank was taking more than it should so he looked down - and saw gas pouring out the fill tube onto the ground! How long has that been going on??? - at $3.49 a gallon!! Good thing it was a slow pump.

We had  gotten off at about 8:25, and except for the wind, the drive went well. Q behaved and Lamont tagged along behind so smoothly that we hardly noticed that he was there. We had a late (2:50pm) lunch/early dinner (lunner?) at Chipotle in Winchester near the Walmart, then did some shopping before finally settling in for the night. At 5:00 and we were the only transient residents. Snow was piled up in large mounds in the parking lot.  They must have had more snow than NJ.

Q086100 Camp Walmart Winchester, VA
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December 31, 2012 (Mon) Winchester, VA to Mars Hill, NC (396/689 miles) 25/42° - The guys don't take compliments well! When we went to give Lamont his pre-trip exercise we found the battery flat dead. Mark couldn't get him started with the jump start battery we carry for such occasions - not even a "click" from the starter. We got the same result when we tried jumping it with Q's battery (after unhooking and turning him around). The road service truck came within a half hour and even he had some struggles. But he finally succeeded. Instead of hooking up then, Joy drove Lamont to the first rest stop south of Winchester on I-81.

Up at 5am and off at 8am.

We ate breakfast at the rest area and hooked up Lamont. That's when we discovered that Q's (and therefore Lamont's) tail lights had stopped working, just stopped working, sometime between the pre-trip electrical check after hooking up and climbing into the Q's cab! Since the brake and signal lights still worked we got on the road hoping we could make it to Mars Hill before dark. We did.

It was a beautiful drive south through the Shenandoah valley. There was snow in the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east but none on the road. In fact there was very little in the fields along the road. There was more, even this far south, than we had on the ground at home though. We got gas at $3.16/gal (with our Flying J discount) thinking it was a good price - until we saw it for $3.05 a few miles down the road.

Q0086496 Bob and Pat's driveway

January 1, 2013 (Tue) Mars Hill (2) 36/42° - We turned the TV on as soon as we woke up this morning to make sure it had become the new year as promised. It had, i.e. the crystal ball had made its way safely down in New York's Times Square right on schedule. We're good for another year.

Joy broke out a jigsaw puzzle (a Christmas gift) and she, Bob and Pat spent most of the day working on it. Mark looked for a piece to put in, couldn't find it and gave up all together. Other than that it was reading, sitting around, visiting and waiting for "fiscal cliff" news. Dominoes in the evening.

January 2, 2013 (Wednesday) Mars Hill (3) 39/43° - Visited Friends and Fiber yarn shop in Asheville with Bob and Pat (well mostly Pat with Joy. Bob and Mark checked out the Dollar Store.) The yarn selection was amazing. Not so in the dollar store. Then it was lunch at Papa's and Beer, Mexican Cuisine. Very good! In the afternoon Mark, with Bob's help, tried to find the reason Q now has no tail lights. No luck. Nor was there for the local garage mechanic.
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January 3, 2013 (Thu) Mars Hill, NC to Savannah, GA (340/1029 miles) 39/52° - When one's vehicle has no tail lights it's best, in fact imperative, to travel in daylight. One should also avoid fog, rain and heavily overcast skies. We started out in plenty of time to get here before dark but we had no control over the other elements. It was heavily overcast all the way south - overcast enough for it to seem like dawn or dusk. Fog limited visibility as we traveled south out of the mountains on I-26, and rain, sometimes heavy, accompanied us the last 40 or so miles down I-95 to Savannah, GA. And by then it was beginning to get dark!

We were behind schedule because Q's house battery low voltage warning alarm pierced the solitude. This should not be. Driving should be charging the batteries not draining them! We stopped and checked for a cause. We found nothing, but we switched the refrigerator to gas because it draws a lot of power on DC. When the voltage was back to normal we switched it back to DC. But 75 miles later the warning squeal was back. A physical check of the batteries revealed that one was sick. OK, new batteries. Tomorrow. In the mean time we travel with the refrigerator on gas.

We pulled into the Walmart parking lot at about 5:17, parked, exercised Lamont, and did some courtesy shopping in the store.
 
Q088846 Camp Walmart Savannah, GA.