We moved on to Arizona. This has been a favorite playground of ours in the past, but we planned to just pass through on our way to LA this time. Ah plans! A year ago we stopped in El Paso, TX to catch a plane to Atlanta for a Bat Mitzvah.. When we got back, we found a Southwind set up next to us. As these things happen we got to talking and as we sat down to dinner we heard a knock on the door and Pat was there inviting us over for a glass of wine after we got cleaned up from dinner.

We have kept in touch by email and these blogs ever since. Bob had sent us their planned stops at the beginning of the travel season and I have kept it on my desktop. As we headed for Arizona I looked at it and noted that they planned to be in Tucson when we would be passing through. A phone call later and we were set to meet at Gilbert Ray Campground in the Tucson Park near the Sonoran Desert Museum. As we traveled we got a phone call from Yechiel suggesting that they would like for us to be with them February 23rd and 24^th when Azriel was going to have a minor medical procedure done. This gave us the idea of extending in Tucson and delaying our arrival in Malibu. A call to the campground in Malibu got that in motion.

We arrived in Tucson mid afternoon and once we got set up we spent the time catching up with Pat and Bob Hogg. They have a 2003 Southwind 36E and it was the first with that floor plan that we saw. Bob has made many modifications and improvements and with Pat they have personalized the interior far beyond what we have achieved so far. I was particularly taken with Bob’s solution to storing the sewer pipe (the stinky slinky). He has bolted a section of PVC pipe to the back of the street side slideout compartments to hold it. For those who don’t get it, when the living room slideout is extended the storage compartments below it move out with the room. When the room is closed, there is sufficient space between the backs of those compartments and the frame for a four inch diameter pipe. This will be one of my next improvements; otherwise the stink slinky rides in the same compartment as the freshwater system. The other changes were too numerous to mention, but certainly make for a comfortable way of life which is important since they are full time on their Southwind.

In the evening we went to dinner in town at Seri Malaka a Malaysian restaurant that was very lovely. We all managed to order dishes that met our desires. I had a lamb chop dish in curry that was just on the edge of fiery and was perfect for my mood. The next day we set out to spend the day in the Desert Museum. We had spent some time there four years ago, on our first voyage. We had much more time and managed to take in most of the outdoor exhibits. While there we had lunch in the restaurant. This turned out to be more of a dining experience than we had expected. The food was excellent the service was interesting. How do you divide a bill in two even parts and end up with a $7.00 difference between the results? The waiter never did understand our complaint and it became more trouble than it was worth to sort out. He reassured us that the two separate bills added up to the correct total. Oh well. We continued our tour and then returned to the campground to relax and have some wine before venturing out again. This time we introduced the Hoggs to Sweet Tomato, a restaurant we first enjoyed in Atlanta and more recently in St Petersburg, FL. We had spotted it from the car the day before and suggested it as a treat for our credit cards. In all of our experiences this has been a source of good fresh vegetables well prepared and modest prices. We had a delightful time and returned to the campground sated and ready to keep talking for another hour or so. On Wednesday we took our leave.

We stopped first at an Albertson Grocery we found in Casa Grande, AZ to stock up our food supplies and ate lunch while stopped there. We then kept moving until we reached Quartzsite, AZ. This modest crossroads in the far west of Arizona grows from it’s permanent population of less than 1,000 to over 250,000 at any one time during the peak of mid December to mid February. This is the second time we have stopped there. No Bob, we didn’t figure out where to boondock in the desert, we just pulled into the B 10 campground where we stayed two years ago. Prices are UP. Our purpose was to hit the vendors and the swap meets to see if we could find some items for Gee 2. We had very little luck. We started too early in the day – 9 AM – and had to be out of the campground by 11. As we pulled out of town, we could see many more vendors open, but none had the kind of things we were looking for.

We still have a couple of days before we want to be in LA, but we want to be able to get in mid day, to avoid the rush hour and to be able to get to Miriam and Yechiel’s before Shabbat. We decided to stop in the Palm Springs area. We are in Sky Valley Resort in Desert Hot Springs, CA and a very nice resort it is, especially since they are Passport America and we were able to take advantage of the 50% off program. Two nights for the price of one. The place is packed with many park models and otherwise permanent looking arrangements. We are a lonely itinerant RV in the block we are located on. The hot spring fed pools are very nice and I am sure we will get back to them tomorrow.

We finally made it to Austin and the Lone Star RV Park on Saturday, February 5. As soon as we had settled in to this very high touch RV Resort (more about that later) we went off to meet Leigh and Patrick at the Austin Museum of Art (AMOA). The exhibit —and we spent over an hour there before going to their home for a breather and a beer until it was time to go to dinner at Z Tejas. This is a very Texas place with fine southwestern cooking that is a substantial cut above the normal Tex-Mex one gets here. Sunday morning we had breakfast on board and joined them for Brunch at Shady Grove, another funky place that is mostly outdoors.

It used to be the reception area for a trailer park. The park now serves mostly as parking for the restaurant. We wandered through interesting parts of Austin and walked the South Congress area which has many interesting shops. At last as Super Bowl time approached we parted and Carol and I returned to Gee 2 to clean up and make preparations for the next stage of the trip.

This is the first campground we have been to that had greeters and assistants always around. We were met at the gate by a gent wearing the blue shirt uniform that came to be familiar. He had our name on a reservation list and it had our site number too. He lead us directly to the site and saw that we were getting set up while he gave us all the necessary information about getting registered and about what activities were scheduled. The kitchen offered pancake breakfast included in the price of the site and on Monday, as we were preparing to leave, it was a nice addition to the service and it helped us avoid the breakfast cleanup on board.

Upon departure we had a route to LA that in our usual indirect manner included a visit to Big Bend National Park. First we stopped in Del Rio, TX at Buzzards Roost CG, don’t ask. If you look at a map of Texas, you will soon come to the conclusion that if you go to Big Bend that is where you are going. It is at least 85 miles out of the way from anyplace, in this case anyplace is McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains. There are two roads that lead to Big Bend and both of them end there. For variety, one can come in by one route and leave by the other, in either event you will find yourself back on US 90 within the same 30 miles. The material for the park warns that distances are vast and always start out with a full tank of gas. This is not a laughing matter. In addition to great distances there is no cell phone service and the mountains block most other radio service as well. We set up in the Rio Grande Village campground run by the Park Service. It is primitive; this means there are no services other than a fresh water supply. We recharged our batteries each day with the generator, about 90 minutes in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening.

The park is huge and magnificent. From the St Elena canyon in the west where the Rio Grande enters the park through a 1,500 foot gorge cut in the cliff

to the Boquillas gorge in the east where the river enters another huge gorge cut in the highlands. We hiked both of these canyons as far as the trail permitted as well as several other modest hikes of 1 to 2 miles. Here is Carol at the end of the trail.

Through out our stay we enjoyed the company of many interesting people and shared trails and stories with many. The most thoughtful people are still unknown to us. On our first day we did a newby stunt. We left for the day with our awning extended and without any storm fittings. It was a mild sunny day, what was the worry? As we drove back to the campground eight hour later, the temperature dropped a little, clouds moved in and the wind picked up. As we approached the campground the wind was strong enough that I began to worry about my awing being ripped. When I parked in front of Gee 2 I still couldn’t see the awning and it wasn’t until I walked around the side that I could see that someone had stowed it properly in our absence. The Camp Hosts denied any knowledge so I printed up a large “Thank You” and posted it on the windshield.

As we approached the banks of the Rio Grande in places that had been traditional “soft crossings” before 9/11/01 we were greeted by hopeful salesmen displaying their wares on the far shore.

After two days and three nights, our food supplies were getting low and we needed to move on to keep our schedule with Yechiel through Alpine and Ft Davis to go to the McDonald Observatory. We have passed this way before but never with time or inclination to stop. This time it was in our mind to make the stop and we had noted that near the observatory was a camp ground at “Historic” Prude Ranch. We called ahead for a spot and were assured that they were open and empty. How true, we were the only RV in the campground when we arrived and remained so the following morning on our departure. They won’t last long on $10.00 a night. However they have been there for over 50 years serving guests so they must know what they are doing. We went up to the Observatory and took the Solar Tour (that’s the day time tour). Since it was cold and grey we decided not to come back for the “Star Party” beginning at 7:30 in the open amphitheater. It was really impressive going onto the dome floor of the 107 inch telescope and watching it move and watching the dome revolve. They couldn’t even open the observation slit because the wind was too high. We then went to the 432 inch segmented mirror HET scope, WOW. No useful pictures because there was no was to get far enough from any of these instruments. Check out the observatory website for pictures.

I will cut this off here and post. Next I will be writing about getting together with other RVers we met last year.

I know, depending on the context the title can have a wide variety of meanings. In this instance it is closest to the musician’s understanding. Since leaving Dan and Malena’s we have not stayed any place for more than one night.

That first night, looking for propane, missing the family, and rehashing the Bar Mitzvah, we ended up in a WalMart parking lot in Lynchburg, VA.. We pulled into a Flying J on I 81 only to find that they were out of Propane. We backtracked six miles to another Flying J that said they had plenty of propane. By the time we maneuvered through the truck fueling area to the propane tank by the scales we were frazzled. The campground in the area that we remembered was Hungry Mother and our memories were not fond. We asked about the nearest WalMart and found one in ten miles just off the interstate. The signs said No Camping, I said to Carol “we aren’t camping, we are eating and sleeping.” We had company and no police or other officials disturbed our sleep to tell us to move on.

The next night found us a bit out of place. The direct route would have had us in Nashville, but we spotted a show cavern we had not seen only 60 miles or so off the route. We went to Lost Sea Cavern just east of Sweetwater, TN. The underground sea and the anothodites (cave flowers) were spectacular. The rest of the cavern was rather sad as it had been open and unguarded for some years and the wandering public had stripped the cavern of many of its features. After all how could it hurt if I just break off one stalactite? Enough people took enough that little is left for today’s public. We located Sweetwater Valley KOA just west of the interstate back through Sweetwater. It is very pretty and is on our list as a return should we ever be so far off any predictable route again.

The roads we selected to get to Nashville could be used to design a rollercoaster. By now Carol was fully in the grip of the stomach bug bequeathed by Cory. I had the driving to myself as we soared up and down hill and around bends that had me staring at the tow’d in hopes it wasn’t trying to pass me. It was good that Carol’s version of the bug did not include nausea as the road would not have been possible had that been so. If anyone is really interested, I can clip the log and send you the route. It is gorgeous, would love to do it again.

Once in Nashville we took Gee 2 into Camping world for routine maintenance (oil change) and did some shopping. Since we had stayed at two of the three adjacent campgrounds we decided to visit the third, Two Rivers. We won’t go back there. The people were officious, the camp ground was ordinary and the price was high. KOA or Yogi Bear are nicer and no pricier. We had dinner; well I had dinner at the Nashville Palace. It is a venue that has been the gateway for several country musicians and we had wanted to go. Tuesday night is amateur night. We got worse than we expected. Fortunately the back up band and the waiters who performed were quite good.

We were heading for Little Rock, slowly, as we planned to meet the Beth and Josh Brunner, from Rochester, at the William Jefferson Clinton, Presidential Library which has opened recently. Although we were planning on meeting them Friday, we decided to arrive on Thursday. We stopped in West Memphis, AR (just across the river from Memphis, TN) and found America’s Best Campground (that is their new name). The people were lovely, the campground was immaculate and we determined that it would be high on the list for return visits the next time we were in the area. We would like to spend more than one night there.

For our Little Rock visit we found there was very little choice at this time of year. The only well located campground that is open is Little Rock North KOA. While not among my favorite campgrounds, it has nice facilities, and the people are pleasant. We went into town and met the Brunners as planned. They had changed their schedule and had to move on before dinner, so we had a nice visit, and bade them safe travels and went looking for some entertainment and eventually dinner. We found “The Flying Saucer” which is a “beer restaurant.” The wall behind the bar was covered with, it seems, 60 active taps. I was not able to sample them all J or even more than one, but the selection was so great as to be cruel for one who likes tasty beers. Their web site which I have not had the chance to visit is www.beerknurd.com We went on to dinner at Sonny Williams Steak Place. It is a fine restaurant and as such was able to cater to Carol’s vegetarian needs every bit as well as to my desire for a the Omaha Beef they serve, Yum.

Our last one night stand on this segment is Buffalo RV Park and Campground in Oakwood, TX. We did it again. How do you get to Austin from Little Rock, or for that matter any place in Texas from Little Rock, without passing through Dallas? You get off the interstate and go someplace else. In this case the route is through Tyler and Taylor Texas and it misses all of the big cities until we get to Austin where we plan to get together with Leigh and Pat Rainwater tomorrow. We may stay more than one night, thuis breaking the chain of one night stands at six, which is way too many. The laundry is piling up and other things need attending to, like putting this blog together. Oh, yes this campground rates way down on the list. It is on a par with WalMart, but noisier. Highway 79 is a hundred yards from my windshield and the trucks are moving fast and constantly. The campground is little more than a flat open field in which decent amenities have been installed. It serves its purpose and being Passport America it is not terribly expensive, unless you compare it to free.

The long awaited day finally did what such days do. It arrived with a flash and was gone almost before we realized. From our perch in the driveway we helped with preparations both for the party and for the house. We also were able to observe the rising levels of stress in the household. All was pretty much as usual, with the exception that I was watching my precious supply of propane dwindle rapidly in 10 F over night temperatures. There was a storm called for so no one would come to fill my tank and clearly I was not about to drive any place for a refill, which would have necessitated spotting the unit back into place, a non trivial project. We pulled in the slides, turned the heat down to 55 F and left it up to the fates. We left for our hotel room at the Omni in downtown Charlottesville where the party was to take place.

The first stop was rehearsal at CBI (Congregation Beth Israel). This was to be the only opportunity for picture taking in the sanctuary and here is Josh carrying the Torah.

After the rehearsal we had time to get settled at the hotel, greet the arriving guests and family and try to get our act together for Shabbat dinner at Escafe, a wonderful restaurant just a few steps from the hotel. We went to services, well some of us went, and then came back to the hotel where we stopped in the lounge to unwind before going to bed in preparation for Josh’s big day.

The Bar Mitzvah did his part of the service beautifully. The rest of us filled our roles as best we could, very well in most cases, and Josh got to deliver both his D’var Torah, teaching us about the portion, and a talk on the mitzvah projects he had performed as part of his preparation. The presentations by the parents were wonderful and my reservations about such presentations were lessened. If only more parents would talk about there hopes and dreams for the child and offer them solid advice drawn from the portion of the day and not tell us about what the child likes to do.

During the afternoon we escorted some people out to Dan and Malena’s house since they had never seen it and the sight of Gee 2 perched up there brought a chuckle or two in my car. Then we went back to town as the weather was getting dicey. We stopped in a coffee shop on the mall and there Dan found Alex and Corey and two cousins and he read a book to them instead of drinking his hot chocolate.

The party in the evening was at the Omni and the food was great, the DJ was ok and everyone had a great time. It is really exciting to have four generations together. Here is a picture of my mother with my sister and her daughter.

Somehow we never did get a shot of the four generation lineup from my mother to me to Dan to Josh.

Sunday morning found Corey with a stomach bug, the weather deteriorating and people ready to get back home. Some left early to try to get ahead of the weather, others waited, counting on good fortune to make their connections. Over brunch in the hotel lobby, we said our goodbyes and eventually, leaving a few who were delayed to await their flights, we departed for the house. The first thing I did upon arriving there was check the propane level. Although it had showed ¼ of a tank on Saturday afternoon, now it read Empty. We decided we had no choice but to depart at once rather than wait another day. We said our farewells and beat it out of there to a Flying J almost to Tennessee along I 81. It was a good thing we left. By nightfall everyone in the house except for Josh had the stomach bug, he had had it the week before. We thought we were clear, but Carol came down with it the next day.

More about the next days in another piece.

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.

We finally got word from Carol’s doctor, he said “keep traveling, enjoy your trip and there is nothing to worry about”. “Resume breathing!”



We pulled out of St Augustine before that call and made a stop in Micanopy, FL after less than 80 miles. It is about twelve miles south of Gainesville and is a very old town dating back to the early 1800’s. Micanopy (accent on the long o) means highest chief in the local Indian dialect. Today it is a beautiful town of many antique shops and a lovely B & B. We walked a bit and then had lunch and moved on to Paynes Prairie Preserve just a couple of miles north of town, where there was great birding and a campground with room for us. We saw Bald Eagles in flight and other birds to numerous to list here. The facilities were lovely and well maintained.

On Thursday we moved on to St Petersburg and our reservations at Ft Desoto. The campground met all of our expectations. It is rustic and woodsy and the sites are very nice once you get into them. When Carol first saw #195 (our first site) she thought the entry was obstructed by a tree and hydrant. With some careful maneuvering and Carol’s guidance, I was able to back between the two trees with a foot our two to spare. Once in we had plenty of room to deploy our slideout rooms.

We went to Art and Natalie’s home as soon as we got set up and cleaned up. There we had a wonderful dinner and sat and talked until time to drive back and get some sleep. That night it rained. A front came through and the wind came up. We heard some strange noises and went back to sleep. Art and Natalie came over in the morning and as I was showing them around the motorhome and site I realized that there was a tree leaning against the back of the motorhome. It had fallen in the storm. It did not cause even a small scratch. I pulled it clear and was able to see that it had barely touched us. I called the rangers and within an hour it was gone. Whew!

As I write this it is Thursday night the 20^th. The time has certainly been flying. Natalie had some doctors appointments and is going to have a heart pace maker implanted next week. The good news is she will get to go to her grand daughter’s bat mitzvah in Israel, the bad news is she will miss Josh’s. The even better news is she was diagnosed early and has not had many of the symptoms.

We have continued to sight see around her appointments. On Tuesday Carol and I took off for Sarasota and Long Boat Key where we have several friends. We had a delightful lunch with the Blochs at Tommy Bahamas on St Armand Circle after touring the John Ringling Estate. We went on from lunch to the Selby Gardens where we took in the orchids and many other beautiful plants. Then we ended up at the Rapowitz’ house for cocktails before going out to dinner with them, the Blochs and the Holtzmans. After all that we drove back to Fort Desoto and called it a night.

In the midst of this we keep make small additions to Gee 2 to make it more personal. I finally got around to mounting a second fire extinguisher in the bedroom, and applying Velcro (I bought the stuff with the brand name) to hold down the DVD player in the A/V cabinet and applying it to the bottom of the docking station for this computer so it won’t slide around on the dash when the driver turns or hits the brakes. We have been adding hooks in appropriate places and looking for better ways to do things. Today we went to the flower show at the Tropicana Stadium. I found the only way I will ever get onto a professional baseball field. We even found stuff to buy for Gee 2 there. Tomorrow we hope to see some Manatee at the power station and do some other things during the day. We have not made any plans for Saturday yet and Sunday is move out day.

Wow, did we see manatee! The Tampa Electric Company canal where they discharge warm water was full of manatee. The highest number thye have recorded there is 303. There weren’t that many, but enough to give us the sense of their presence. We went on from there to lunch in Ybor City, the home of the Tampa Cigar and a wonderful mixed culture of Cuban, Spanish and Italian. Today it features lively night life and decent luncheon places.

The weather as warmed as we prepare to move on Sunday back to the cold of Virginia. I may post once more before the Bar Mitzvah, then you won’t hear from me for a few days while we get clear of the East Coast.

We decided that we needed to stay on the East Coast until after Josh’s Bar Mitzvah. This meant going to Florida, if we were to have any hope of finding warm weather. It also provides us with the opportunity to visit Carol’s brother and sister-in-law in St Petersburg. Having decided that we searched for a nice place to stay near them and between our magazines and the RV.net forum we decided to stay in Ft Desoto. This is a campground that has ratings varying from excellent to dreadful. Reading the individual reviews leads me to believe it will be fine for us. We will know tomorrow.

But first we have to get there. We rolled out of Hungrytown Hollow mid Sunday morning. Our goal was to continue until it got dark or we got tired and we found someplace to stop. The route was easy, south on US 29 to I 85 to I 77. The roads were clear and with nothing to cause us to pause we soon were entering Columbia, Sc with the sun beginning to set and a Flying J in the offing. We pulled in to top off the propane tank and empty our holding tanks which we had not emptied since arriving at Dan and Malena’s. As we surveyed the parking area it did not look very welcoming so we asked about the nearest WalMart along our route and found that was one “just off the highway.” Five miles of “just off the highway” brought us to a WalMart in a fairly congested area. There were no RVs in the parking lot, not a good sign. I decided that since we were the first I had best ask the manager for permission. The surly customer service person said they didn’t permit it, but she would ask the manager anyhow. Within a matter of minutes the manager granted us permission and we did our shopping and retired to dinner and a good night’s rest. So far we had not stayed in a campground this trip and we were out seven days.

We left Columbia on I 77 which brought us to I 26 which brought us eventually to I 95. At this point I could see that we would make St Augustine with plenty of daylight. We called ahead to Pepper Tree RV Resort in A1A about five miles south of St Augustine. A quick review, it has 17 rental sites scattered among many park models. The sites are tight, but level and acceptable. For a two night stay when amenities were of no interest at all and a 50% off Passport America deal, who could complain? If passing though and needing a few nights rest, I would stay there again. If I were looking for a fancy resort with plenty of things to do on site, this would be my very last choice.

The first thing I did was wash Gee 2, it needed it. Then I washed me and we went to town to see about dinner. After checking out every restaurant within walking distance of where we parked, at least twice, we walked into the nicest surprise that can be found. The Columbia serves a Spanish menu mixed with Cuban and it is excellent and the price was not exorbitant (that become relative having dined in New York City recently). We finished a bottle of superb wine between us and made it home safely. The next day we did the tourist thing with a couple of hours at the Alligator Farm and other tourist wanderings. We had lunch in town and returned to Gee 2 for a modest repast from our own larder for dinner.

To be continued. . .

We are off on another winter escape. The plan to leave on Monday the 3rd of January was thwarted by Carol’s need to have doctors cause her pain and suffering. Once we knew the schedule we went ahead with a revised plan to leave on the very next day, Tuesday the 4th. I need not go into the effort Carol put in to not losing more time on the trip than was avoidable.

Sunday we loaded as much as we could and on Monday both before and after the procedure, we worked getting everything ready for a Tuesday departure. Tuesday we woke up early and it was clear we were leaving, although my co-driver was going to be sitting out the drive in the navigator seat. We rolled out at 10:50 AM and made a brief stop at my mother’s to say good bye and make our departure real for her.

Then in grey and drizzle we started south. Our thoughts were to make Carlisle, PA that night and stay at Western RV Village and push on early in Wednesday. I have not taken a solid 5 hours at the wheel since we started these adventure. Fortunately Gee 2 handles very well and is not troubled by big trucks passing or normal cross winds. The new tow’d, 2005 Toyota RAV4 AWD standard transmission follows like a contented puppy dog. The only consession we have to make to it’s owner’s manual is to remember to start the engine and let it idle 3 minutes every 200 miles. Since it is unlikely we will travel that far without a normal stop, we just run back and start it up each time we take a break.

We did not make it quite as far as the RV park. I pulled into the Flying J at the intersection of I 81 and the Penn Turnpike (I 76) to fill up the propane tank. While there Carol found a place at the end of the row of parked RV’s with just enough room for us. I pulled in, leveled, and ran out the bedroom slide into a space that was not in anyone’s way. After dinner on board we took a walk and met some of our neighbors. While talking with a couple and a trucker, the other guy noticed that I had a puddle of water and a drip from the utility compartment. I opened it and noticed that the low point drain did not seem to be secure and that was the source of the leak. I seated that and closed up, content that the problem was easily solved.

The lullaby of diesels and rv generators was fairly steady and we slept quite well, waking early as the others in the parking lot started to get under way. One fifth wheeler, from our neighbor to the north, was trying to go between our unit and the next one over, where our overnight neighbor had departed. This space was really too narrow for him to go through and turn, but he was putting my bedroom slide in jeaporady, so I yelled to Carol to get out of the bedroom and I pulled the slide in. Eventually they gave up and backed clear and pulled around behind me, without hitting the tow’d.

Having had enough of that kind of excitement we rolled out at 7:30 AM. The drive down 81 was uneventful and we arrived at Malena and Dan’s by 11:45. AM. There I was able to spot Gee 2 in a reasonably level place in no time and we invited Malena and Cory on board for lunch. Gee 2 may have a new name, “Zayde’s Bus” Cory started calling it that. We will see how long that lasts. Alex’s “Kitchen Bus” is long gone. He is too sophisticated, its “the Motorhome.”

We had dinner at Gretchen and Ed Robb’s home. For the story of how we met see San Antonio, TX, Winter ’04. Dinner and conversation were delightful and we may go back on Saturday afternoon, to take the kids to see Gretchen and the farm and horses.

Back on board, during the night I noticed that the water pump was cycling occasionally. This is not good, it means there is a leak in the system someplace. Somehow I managed to ignore it and sleep just fine. In the morning it became more evident that there was something wrong and I began a search. The search took me to the utility compartment ( this compartment houses the water inlet, the drains and the black and grey water drain as well as cable, phone and satellite connections). There I double checked the inlet connection. This connection has a check valve which must be depressed a bit when winterizing. I had read on rv.net that it was subject to damage if pushed too enthusiastically. I determined that this was the source of the leak. By the time I finished the diagnosis it was no longer a slow leak. I had also read that the part is inexpensive ( a relative term in the RV world) and easy to change out. The latter was true, undo three screws and unscrew the the pipe connection from the back. It is clear this is not a repairable item. The nearest rv supply place to Dan’s is in Harrisonburg, 60 miles away, nearby in RV terms. They had the part and the installation was trivial. I have a spare stored in the utility compartment. Any item that breaks and costs less than $100 is worth having a spare on board, especially if it’s failure is a show stopper, and this one is, it means no running water.

We are repaired and settling in to celebrate Josh’s 13th birthday, he is a legit teenager, God help Dan and Malena. The Bar Mitzvah is the end of this month, we will be back.

No pictures this time, it has been grey and dismal and we have not had time for photos yet.

Just in case someone should happen by this site, I thought I would post an update.

Gee 2 is in storage with pink stuff in the water lines and everything else shut down. We have been out a couple of times to run the generator and be sure that everything is ok. I expect that we will make at least two more visits to exercise the generator before we bring it home to prep for the winter trip.

As a surprise, even to ourselves, we have actual plans for the first 30 days or so. we decided to spend some time in Florida near Carol’s brother in St Petersburg. It being Florida we needed to have reservations so we are booked into Fort Desoto Park in Pinellas County for ten days. We hope to spend a lot of time with Art and Natalie and also to visit several friends who live in Long Boat Key.

At the end of that time we will retrace our route to Covesville to arrive in plenty of time to help out in preparation for Josh’s Bar Mitzvah. After that, we will be off to the west (left) coast.

Watch here for updates and reports.

Saturday morning we had little to do to get underway. We had breakfast and cleaned up the interior to batten things down for getting underway. By 7 AM we were rolling, in short order it was 8, we had camped 20 miles from the time zone change, lost an hour instantly. We went though Kentucky and West Virginia and on into Virginia all on I 64 stopping only for gas and bodily needs. At 6:30 that evening we were unhooking the car to take Gee 2 back up the driveway to camping pad in Hungrytown Hollow. The kids were excited to see us the dog had clearly missed us and Malena and Dan also seemed quite happy we were there. Malena had had a procedure that provided some immediate relief and was doing more than she should. Carol and I made our own dinner and used their kitchen table. We spent time with all of them on Sunday and on Monday morning we took responsibility for Josh, this meant taking him ice skating. Carol and I are old timers at skating having grown up on the ice in Cobbs Hill Park. It is amazing how long it takes to recover those abilities. Also the ice seems a lot further away then it did then and falls are not as easy to laugh off now. We had a ball and I may actually do it again some day; after the bruise on my leg from falling on my keys heals.

Then we had a quick changing of the guard and Josh went off with Dan for haircuts, while Carol and I took over with Alex and Cory. I drew the easy job, Cory fell asleep in the stroller and all I had to do was keep him with me. Carol had to keep track of Alex who does not slow down very often. Malena has had another doctors appointment and went directly home from that. We kept the boys in town and had lunch all together at Baggbeys on the Mall. After lunch we went back to the house and caught up with Malena. The kids played and we did not do too much of anything. Dan had to get to work on his computer and somehow we all ended up with computers going.

In the morning we got up to see them all off to the first day of school for Alex and Josh. They all went for the opening day ceremony and Carol and I once more prepared Gee 2 for a long day on the road. As we rolled we decided that reaching Rochester was doable, but probably not fun. I remembered a nice restaurant in Corning, NY that we have stopped at many times before, London Underground, and suggested that the timing would be perfect if we stayed at Ferenbaugh Camps just north of town. And so it was. We sat down to a delightful dinner at 7:30 and enjoyed the meal. The time was made even more interesting as we struck up a conversation with two men at the next table. They were new Yorkers who had decided to escape the Republican Convention. They came to Corning for the Glass museum and the Rockwell and then were going on to Niagara on the Lake for some Shaw and then to Rochester to see the George Eastman House. We commended their brilliance at finding the good stuff.

The next morning we cleaned up, disconnected the utilities and hooked up the car for one last day on the road. We started up 17 to I390 and almost immediately got distracted. I turned off on to 15 and enjoyed the ride through the countryside at a slower pace. When we got to the intersection with 15A in Springwater I decided that the lesser road was more interesting and it didn’t have dump truck for me to follow. We came up the east side of Conesus lake and decided to pick up 65 coming through Honeyoye Falls and came in on Clover Road, a very new route for us in the motorhome.

Our lessons learned were not too painful. We have retained our flexibility when it comes to route selection and extended planning. I learned that the upper rear corners stick out further than I expected, fortunately my tuition was some barked rubbed on the finish on the upper right rear corner. We also will be clear about who has responsibility for watching what parts when maneuvering in tight quarters. Most everything about Gee 2 is an improvement on what we had before and it is a delight to travel and camp in.

Watch for more adventures starting in January.