QC31-02 To the Locks

January 4, 2013 (Fri) Savannah, GA to Ocala National Forest (231/1260 miles) 49/62° - Up at 6:45, breakfast and over to Walmart for three batteries (2 for Q, 1 for Lamont). Walmart would not install in a motor home so Mark did it and encountered the problem that he was afraid an inexperienced technician at Walmart might - lost a cable down behind the battery drawer. For an hour or so he was unaware that he had lost it. He finally decided this was the only reason things weren't working properly. Finding the cable and getting it out is a real bear. Joy came to the rescue and we were finally back in working order. Off at 10:15.

11:10am first rest stop: A contributor to the internet Chinook forum suggested that our tail light problem might be due to a blown fuse in a separate (Chinook only) fuse panel up under the dashboard. It was. Mark replaced the fuse and the tail lights were working again.

1:00pm 5 Guys for lunch: Tail lights dark again! OK at least we know where the fuse is. Now for the cause. The relatively pleasant skies began to turn dark soon after we got back on the road. We were driving in the rain without tail lights again! At least it's warming up. It got up to 62° before it began to rain.

January 5, 2013 (Sat) Ocala National Forest (2) - Weekends can be very busy here. Since we were coming in on a Friday night we went on and reserved a site (for an extra $9). There turned out to be no need - hardly anyone here. We were disappointed to learn that Bill and Margaret have already been here and gone (they are usually here most of the winter) - Margaret was having a problem with her back.

Three medium sized unleashed dogs wandered around the campground - all around our site and in and out of the woods several times - baying and barking. Joy was inside reading. Mark was outside and but retreated inside until they decided to leave.  Later a lone dog with a strange collar (or two) came out of the forest and hung around. We'd been warned that there were bear around but not dogs. The campground host said they were hunters (whatever that means) and harmless. They didn't seem unfriendly, nor friendly either for that matter, but one doesn't take chances with a pack of unsupervised dogs!

Q086077 Alexander Springs CG, Ocala NF #50 dry $10.50 (+$9 trans fee to reserve the site)
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January 6, 2013 (Sun) Ocala National Forest to Lakeland, FL (85/1345 miles) 59/75° - We got off at about 7:00 after in-house showers and breakfast. Surprise when we were hooking up, three of the four tail lights are working again, without replacing the fuse (we didn't have a replacement). Does that narrow down the source of the problem? We'll see. Laundry in Umatilla and a quick stop at Publix in Eustace and we were on our way. The dominant landscape feature today was miles and miles of nurseries and very young orange groves. We got to Ed and Kathy's at about 1:40pm.

January 7, 2013 (Mon) Lakeland, FL (2) 57/67° - Rainy and somewhat miserable all day. Mark was going to look into the problem with the tail lights but decided that tomorrow is another day and promising to be better weather. So activity was rather on the sparse side. Joy worked on a jigsaw puzzle, Mark mostly read and caught up on some computer work and Ed and Kathy were in and out.

January 8, 2013 (Tue) Lakeland, FL (3) 62/79° - The Book Bazaar (a used book trader) paid us $60+ for some used books we'd read. We bought a bunch and have a $17 credit with them for the next time. Lunch at Chili's then home so that Ed and Mark could track down several electrical problems. As far as we know they found them all and fixed them. They included a blown fuse and a blown diode in line that was supposed to be keeping Lamont's battery charged, two pins in the umbilical connector were out of place and not making contact and a blown tail light bulb in Lamont. We found no cause for this mayhem so we're hoping it was all coincidental.

Q087162 Ed and Kathy's Yard (x3)
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January 9, 2013 (Wed) Lakeland, FL to La Belle, FL (134/1479 miles) 69/86° - The day of reckoning and travel. All systems worked on hookup and throughout the trip. YES!! Even Lamont seemed to be getting nourishment, battery voltage-wise, but we need a longer trip than 134 miles for true confirmation.

It was 75° already when we left Lakeland at about 10:30. Weather reports are promising a record breaking 85° or above. Q's A/C began working early. Gas at USA Murphy (Walmart) cost 3¢ a gallon more than it would have if we had gotten our Walmart gift card replenished ($3.35). Oh well. There is a lot of flat unpopulated land in Florida south of Sebring. The most prolific signs of civilization were miles and miles of orange groves, trees not much bigger than twigs to trees loaded with yellow fruit.  Cattle ranges came in a close second. The skies were full of big puffy clouds and there were birds of many varieties all along the road, cranes, egrets, herons, hawks, anhingas and many we couldn't identify.

Our mail hasn't made it to La Belle yet so we'll have to come back another day.

Q087296 Ortona Locks South CG #21 w/e $12g