The time has come to head back north, to Charlottesville. As we prepared for our last night in Ft Desoto I turned on NOAA weather report and heard that there was a front coming through at 4 AM with high winds, falling temperatures and some rain. I just hoped this would not interfere to greatly with our departure.
At 5 AM on January 23, I was awakened by roaring winds, flapping awnings and leaves driven across our roof and side walls. I got up and put some clothes on to go out and assess the damage, if any. I almost lost the door to the wind as I opened it. Having had that experience once, I was prepared to hang on tight. A quick look assured me that there was no damage yet. I was not sanguine that the circumstance would continue. I got Carol up and we pulled in the slide-out rooms so their awning toppers would not be exposed to the wind. This made it a bit cozy, especially in the bedroom where the foot of the bed was now pressed firmly against the opposite wardrobe drawers as it always is in travel mode. We snatched our needs out of those drawers before we closed the room. Being as secure as we could be, we went back to sleep for an hour.
With this early start and three and half days to travel 900 miles we decided that we would get out of Florida and stop early. We took a slightly indirect route because we did not want to retrace our route down, first as a matter of our usual practice and second because who needs I 95 up the east coast of Florida and through Georgia. That road is the pits for traffic. For those who like to see maps of the route click here (be warned this is a large file). Instead we went up I 75 through Valdosta, GA and pulled into Paradise Lakes RV Park north of Valdosta. Paradise it isn’t unless you like a flat piece of land with no redeeming features other than nice owners and full hookups, which were unusable in this instance because of an impending hard freeze. As soon as we had showered, I disconnected the water line and drained it and I could not hook up the sewer line for fear that the cold hose would break in my hand as it has in the past. This was no problem and we may come by here again in March. For $10 my expectations are not high.
Arguing with Hal
We are using mapping software from DeLorme, if you have bought the big state map book or done much with maps you know DeLorme. They are very good. This software works with the GPS to provide constant tracking of location versus the planned route. It has voice prompts and will accept voice command. When I set it up I assigned the “voice’ of Microsoft Mike” as the default voice. Carol instantly renamed it Halitosis, Hal for short. Of course that name has given it an obligation to be difficult. He has not yet refused to open the pod bay doors, but I am waiting. Early on it became clear that when I “forced it” to route me in an inefficient, but scenic way that some of the “vias” I had inserted were slightly off the track I intended. After the first blip of this sort, I went in at higher magnification and relocated most of them to the intended route. In one instance, the main route was split into two one way streets passing through a town and Hal went nuts recalculating to bring me back to the route, which was a one way street the wrong way! Once I figured out what was happening I ignored its clamor to immediately turn right, left, or do anything but follow the highway signs. We laughed it off and kept going.
As we entered Athens, GA, with me at the wheel and Carol as navigator, the route became somewhat convoluted. Rather than stay on the bypass around the city it insisted that we go right through the city. Not having surveyed the route carefully on a FPM (folding paper map) we proceeded to follow the directions until the program seemed to stop responding after having us take a couple of obvious wrong turns. At the next light Carol and I swapped seats on the fly and I tried to coax Hal into being more helpful. I then noticed that I had left a random “via” in the middle of the city and Hal, as any good computer program will, was following its programming to the command. We pulled into a shopping mall parking lot and I restarted Hal without the misleading command. It promptly guided us out onto a slightly different road than we would have taken otherwise that very conveniently led directly to a Flying J Travel Plaza. Lesson learned, Hal is very precise and generally accurate, but has no sense of humor.
From the Flying J we searched for a nearby campground and found another Passport America facility nearby. The Lake Hartwell Camping and Cabins is very nice with wooded sites that have been newly leveled and upgraded. We are putting it our file for a return visit if we come by this way in better weather. The 50% discount price of $12 sure makes it nice on a winter’s evening. For tomorrow I have coaxed Hal into following another scenic route, part of the Savannah River National Scenic Highway and the Cherokee Foothills National Scenic Highway. Click here for map If the computer gets too obstreperous, we will turn it off and return to the paper maps.
Well it worked quite well taking us through SC and into NC on I 85. Our route passed through the Greensboro area where we were to pick up US 29 North, the last leg. Well unknown to DeLorme or even to the NC State map maker, they have opened a new bypass carrying I 85 – I 40 further south and well beyond the connection to US 29. Hal went nuts trying to route us through an area that did not show any roads. Eventually we got back to the old road and backtracked to US 29. Then we had to follow a detour because the ramp we wanted was closed. Hal took this in good stride and figured out the detour and brought us on to 29. We got off in Danville, VA where the software had located a Wal Mart just off the route. That was where we spent the night before coming on to Malena and Dan’s house. We are now in our usual spot in front of the house.
We will stay here until Monday, January 31. Then we roll out west.
