Wednesday February 22nd 2017

I was on the road about 10:20 this morning. The first stop was one exit in the wrong direction to fill the motorhome’s gas tank. The extra few miles were worth the cost savings on fuel. Once I was back in Florida gas was ten cents more per gallon than in Georgia. More important than the cost was the good access. The station I bought gas at had two dedicated RV lanes with plenty of entry and exit room.

The big issue today was the weather. It didn’t rain overnight as forecast. Instead it held off until mid day then the sky opened up. While I was negotiating Interstate 10 around Tallahassee at the lunch hour Mother Nature decided to dump on us. Visibility was not good all the way around the city. I found a Rest Area on the far side of town to take a half hour break during which the rain let up some. I continued the drive in light rain for the next hour before it cleared up to partly cloudy.

Interstate 10 in this part of the state proves that Florida does have hills. The road goes up and down enough that using cruise control is right on the edge of practical. Quick transitions from up to down to up don’t allow the cruise control computer to maintain the RVs momentum. Once it starts to bog down it has to down shift, add throttle and up the RPMs. Driving it without the Cruise Control takes more attention, but I can anticipate the need for fuel and differ the down shifts until they are really needed.

Site D-19 at the Gulf Pines KOA in Milton FL.

Tonight I’m at the KOA in Milton Fl. It is located east of Pensacola about 35 miles from Alabama. I stayed here back in early October. Tomorrow I’ll move on west through Alabama and Mississippi into Louisiana. I need to find a campground in the Lafayette or Lake Charles area.

Tuesday February 21st 2017

It was a cloudy day today. The temperature was slow to rise from the high 50s, but it topped out in the upper 70s this afternoon. It wasn’t a very eventful day so tonight’s blog is kind of random.

My focus today was finishing up all of my errands so I can move on west tomorrow. I drove back to the Jacksonville area to complete the tasks. It turned out to be around 100 miles. Not terrible, but certainly a greater distance than I thought. I drove there on the Interstates and came back cross country through several small Florida towns. I watch my speed carefully in the towns. A couple of the towns in north Florida have a reputation for speed traps.

Another picture of the Spanish Moss in the trees.

Some of my surprise over actual distances is caused by the online programs I use. Paper maps and atlases are very good at giving you the big picture. If you examine the maps scale at good guess at the distance is right before your eyes. With online maps like Google Maps, very often you are zoomed in to a small portion of the region. Changing the zoom allows you to see more territory but doesn’t necessarily provide a sense of the changing distances. The other oddity is orientation north is not always up. This fact when combined with the fact that all turns are not right angles can get you disoriented when the online map is zoomed in. For example, I am much further west than I thought. Turning right off of Interstate 10 onto Interstate 75 was not a turn from west to north. It was a turn from west to northwest. A paper map makes that clear.

I have a four year old paper Rand McNally Road Atlas that usually stays in the draw. I pulled it out over the last few days to look at aspects of my trip west. The paper maps definitely help me see the big picture better. I need to get a new edition. The roads probably haven’t changed that much but this copy is getting a little dog eared on the edges. When I enter a new state, I usually stop at the welcome center for a map. They aren’t the most detailed, but provide another view.

This evening I’ve started the packing for tomorrows travel day. I hope to get on the road around 10AM. I have a time zone boundary to cross tomorrow. I’ll pickup an hour when I enter Central Time.

Monday February 20th 2017

The temperature got into the 80s today. It was a very nice Presidents Day Holiday. I just can’t figure out what kind of a holiday this is.

I would categorize this as a declining holiday. At one time everybody but retail sales people had the day off. All of the business ran Washington’s Birthday or Presidents Day Sales. People flocked to the car dealerships to see what new car discounts were available. Furniture and appliance stores advertised elaborate sales. I haven’t seen any car advertisements on the TV and the dealerships I drove by didn’t have balloons, banners or other get out the customers paraphernalia. I did see a furniture store with a message board describing a weekend sale.

The fact that fewer people have the holiday off work seems to be the driver. Government offices, schools, most banks and some financial related business still have the day off. Manufacturing, Industrial, Computer and similar industries don’t have the day off. I recall losing the day as a holiday in the 1990s. It makes a long run from New Years Day to Memorial Day without a planned day off.

Empty sites at the campground this morning.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog this campground seemed to empty out yesterday. Several campers that didn’t leave yesterday left early this morning. At mid day the transient part of the campground had only a handful of residents. This evening much of it filled up with travelers.

One of the things I tried to do today was get a hair cut. I’ve never particularly liked this task and on the road it is even more of a pain. The last couple of times I’ve used a chain franchise. The similarity of the chains stores provides a measure of comfort, if not assurance of quality. This time there were no chain franchise in the immediate area so I tried a place suggested by the campground staff. It wasn’t open today. That’s probably what feed some of my rant about the holiday.

So I drove fifty some odd miles to the nearest chain hair cut joint. It had two people working two people waiting for cuts and a promise of getting to me in two and a half hours. The chain hair cut joints have joined the smart phone age. People are booking times using an app. I’ll try again another day. At least it was a nice drive.

Sunday February 19th 2017

It was a beautiful day today. The temperature returned to the mid 70s and the sun shined through scattered clouds all day. I went out to explore the area.

Based on the road signs the big attraction in the area is the Suwannee River. The river was made popular in the Steven Foster song “Old Folks at Home”. The song was written in 1851 and has been the state song of Florida since 1935. The song and the mythos surrounding it have been a big driver of tourism to Florida over the years.

Local Resident

I find it interesting that Steven Foster never visited Florida. All he knew about the river was its name. At one point while writing the lyrics the Pee Dee River in South Carolina was considered. Wouldn’t that have made a great song.

The areas of the river that I sampled were interesting but not remarkable. The river was fifty to one hundred feet wide and slow moving. Trees with Spanish moss overhung the banks. It resembled a lazy river and could under the right situation be very picturesque. A canoe or kayak paddle done the stream might be fun, but I didn’t see an outfitters so I may be way off base on that idea.

Odd mix of Flowers in planter at campground.

Back at the campground things really emptied out today. This runs against the idea that the holiday weekend was driving the lack of availability I’ve been encountering. Late in the day travelers have taken many of the open sites, but the campground still has many openings tonight. Several of the new arrivals are from the other end of the Interstate in Michigan. They probably left home Friday to get here tonight. I was thinking of Michigan because there is a billboard on the north bound side of the highway advertising a Christmas Wonderland in Michigan. They really want to get people thinking about it early. Around a thousand miles early.

Saturday February 18th 2017

It was damp and cool this morning. I needed to turn on the electric space heater to warm up the rig. The weather went down hill before improving by the end of the day. It rained pretty heavily between ten and two, then cleared up and warmed up to the low 70s.

I didn’t have any specific plans for today. The rain pretty much washed out any thoughts of going out. I ended up watching television, reading and surfing the internet while it rained. Later in the day I walked around the campground a couple of times. The Spanish moss is really thick on the trees in the campground. It is very pretty, but a few trees appear to have been completely chocked out by the moss. They appear to be dead.

Spanish moss covers the trees surrounding my RV.

This resort is on the east side of Interstate 75. It is even closer to the highway than I was at my last campground. For some reason it is not as noisy at night. I thought the road was as heavily traveled, but it has fewer lanes so I must be wrong int that assumption. This area is more developed than the section of 95 I’m comparing it to. The exit has an outlet mall, a flea market, restaurants and gas stations. Even so, it is quiet enough at night to get a good nights sleep.

Eagle carving in celebration of the campgrounds name Eagles Roost.

I reviewed my travel plans today. If I leave here as planned on Wednesday, I’ll have a week to get to Arizona. My reservation starts on March 1st. Google says it is around 1900 miles. The numbers work out OK for travel per day, but I’m going to be traveling through new territory. I won’t be able to spend much if any time touring. I’ll dedicate time to seeing more of Texas and New Mexico in the future.

Friday February 17th 2017

The weather rebounded into the low 70s today. Around 8am this morning as I was packing up the temperature was around 60 so the low 70s this afternoon was very welcome.

Site 39 at Eagles Roost RV Resort. All the Spanish moss keeps the sun from reaching the ground.

My travel day started with negotiating a maze at the gas station. I couldn’t get near enough to the pump on the first pass, so I had to go around the station and try again. On the second attempt I was able to reach the tank even though the front of the Motorhome blocked much of the incoming traffic path. To add to my grief the pumps were very slow. I gave up when the pump shut off at $75 and about 35 gallons. Normally I would have swiped my credit card again to fill the tank. Getting out of the gas station was simpler, but I still almost jumped a curb. All of this was caused by the location of the entrance with respect to the pumps and building. Another 10 feet of set back would have made all difference.

I stopped at the Florida Welcome center for one more swallow of orange juice. The center was very busy for ten in the morning. There was a waiting line for OJ and for toll road transponders. This is the busiest I’ve seen it this winter. There was still plenty of room in the parking lot. I think I’ve seen more cars in the lot other years.

I’m at the Eagles Roost RV Resort in Lake Park GA at the second Georgia exit on Interstate 75. I stayed here for a couple of nights in October when I ran from hurricane Matthew. The campground has a lot of tall trees with Spanish moss hanging down. Somehow I’m parked just right so my satellite dish can see the satellite through the trees. I’m a happy camper. I have Directv for the first time in a week.

The local television stations are not the best. Watching a news story on the President’s trip to the Boeing plant the screen caption said “Trump at Bowing”. The copy editor either didn’t catch the typo or it’s a political commentary of some sort. The news on some of the small market TV stations can be as entertaining as it is informative.

Thursday February 16th 2017

Tonight’s blog has several random thoughts. It’s very similar to my day of random tasks. It was a nice day in the mid 60s with lots of sunshine. I spent the early part of the day inside waiting on phone calls and email. When they finally came, it became clear that I would need to be in this area for a full business day next week. I want to get everything I can accomplished in my “home” state before I spend the next year in the western part of the country. Since Monday is a holiday, that means I need to stay around for Tuesday.

Some of the pieces of nature that have been falling from the trees onto my RV.

As I mentioned in a blog entry earlier in the week, finding a place to stay this weekend is a problem. It is a holiday weekend and it is the start of Speed Week in Daytona. The reservations I made earlier assumed I was on my way west this weekend. I needed to cancel those reservations and find a new place to stay closer to this area. Canceling one and moving another reservation was easy. It was not so easy booking new reservations nearby.

I checked the websites for several campgrounds south and west of Jacksonville. Not surprisingly, they all showed no vacancies for the weekend. I called two parks about 100 miles to the west of the city in the Interstate 75 corridor. The busy signal and failure to answer on the first couple of tries should have given me a hint. Once I made contact I was met with “I’m sorry we don’t have any sites available this weekend.” I went back to the directories and moved my search further north on Interstate 75. I finally found a site a little ways north of the Georgia line on I75. I stayed there in October when I was running from the hurricane.

I hope this struggle to find a place to stay is an artifact of the location and the situation. My desire is to stay at each place for two weeks with a limited amount of travel nights in between. If I can get into that mode after my month of March at one place in Arizona, I should be more comfortable. I just need to start making those two week reservations soon.

I also went grocery shopping at Walmart. I only bought a few things, but observed a transformation. Valentines Day is over and it’s time for Easter. When I was in the store on Tuesday all of the Valentine candy had already been removed from an entire row of shelves. Today that row was full of Easter Candy. Why is it that from October through April the stores push candy as a way to celebrate the holidays?  We don’t need candy for Memorial Day, Independence Day or Labor Day.  Apparently just for every other major holiday.

Back at the campground, I’ve prepared the outside of the RV to move tomorrow. The tanks are dumped, the sewer hose is stowed and the bicycle is loaded on the car. Inside I’ve emptied the sink of dishes and put a couple of appliances away. I’ve been here six nights, so a few more things than I’d like have remained out of their storage locations. Hopefully tomorrow morning will go smoothly.

Wednesday February 15th 2017

Today’s forecast thunderstorms never arrived, but the wind sure did. The high temperature was around 80 degrees with high wind warnings all day. The sustained winds were reported around 20 plus MPH with gusts in the 40s. I’m glad I didn’t have the motorhome out on the highway today. My SUV struggled in the wind in the open areas and the big trailer trucks were having a hard time staying between the lines.

Chainsaw carving of an eagle at the campground.

The wind at the campground is not as obvious. The tall pine trees isolate the ground area from the wind, but not the debris. Pine cones, loose branches and other forms of fall out rained down on the roof of the motorhome all day. It’s not quite as constant as rain, but some of the pine cones are louder. I jumped out of my skin a couple of times this morning.

One of the nicknames for Jacksonville FL is the River City. It might me more appropriately called the Rivers City. In addition to the main St. Johns river I encountered the Trout River and Ribault River while driving around the city today. Crossing a river means using a bridge. Today’s wind made a couple of the bridges a bit of a challenge. The good thing is that the bridges were not narrow and the sides were high enough to provide the illusion of safety.

The wind was a main influence on the day’s events. At twenty five miles per hour it is not nearly as strong as some of the winds on the plains of the west. I need to keep that in mind as I head west at the end of the week.

Tuesday February 14th 2017

The weather changed throughout the day. It started as partly cloudy and cool. As the day progressed it got warmer and more humid. The occasional full sun went to a continuous hazy sunshine. It is forecast to be warmer yet tomorrow with thunderstorms.

Today was a day for errands and driving or more accurately driving to errands. Here in southern Georgia there are plenty of basic shops, but not the right ones like. In particular, not the right bank. Some of the things that are here in the local area raise my curiosity level. Why would you allow a Fireworks store in a strip mall?

Fireworks store between a pizza place and a Blood Bank.

In the Walmart shopping center in Kingsland a Fireworks store is located between a Blood bank and a Papa Johns Pizza place. All I could think of is the damage if the pizza oven got out of control. I know it’s not a high risk, but common sense says keep explosives away from fire. There are plenty of fireworks stores in the south but most of them are in standalone buildings or even tents in fields. Those locations I understand. I’m obviously biased by having lived in the Northeast where private use of fireworks is usually against the law. Even though you could buy fireworks in New Hampshire, most towns had local ordinances prohibiting there use.

When you stay at a campground for more than a few days you start to get a sense of its patterns. Since this campground is at one of the exits on Interstate 95 it gets a lot of overnight guests. Most afternoons they start to arrive around 1PM and keep coming until dark. A few come in late, after the office closes, but they usually take sites near the entrance. Around 7AM in the morning they start departing. Tonight the park is particularly full. Hopefully, my neighbors aren’t the 7AM kind, or they are quiet so I don’t wake up early.

Monday February 13th 2017

Did you know this coming weekend is the Presidents Day Holiday Weekend. I’m sure you did, but I didn’t until the women on the phone said “Well it is a holiday weekend”. It wasn’t really a mean spirited comment, she just couldn’t imagine I didn’t know it was a holiday weekend. One of the characteristics of this lifestyle is the blending of days. The TV programs I watch help remind me of the day of the week, but I have very few triggers about upcoming holidays.

All of this came up in my struggle to find a place to stay the next few nights. The first three calls this morning resulted in rejection. On the third call I tried to understand what was causing the high demand. I thought it might be early arrivals for Speed week at Daytona Beach that starts on the 18th or just additional February Snowbirders. That’s when I got the reminder about the holiday. My guess is all are factors. I have reserved the site I am currently on through Friday. I’ll drive the 40 miles or so from here to complete my errands by the end of the week. I’ve also made some additional reservations in the western part of Florida for the weekend. It doesn’t seem to be as big a problem booking a site away from the east coast.

Three TeePees in the woods for rent at the campground. They blend in well.

I continue to have difficulty with the need to book sites ahead of time. It limits the freedom of travel. I like the idea of being able to stay an extra night or two in a particular area if I find something interesting. Travel planning needs to be more complete than I’d like. In an ideal world, I would figure out a few options for the next night a day ahead of time. On the travel day I’d go as far as my mood or energy allowed then stop at one of my options. Instead, I need to book the stops ahead. I end up traveling further or stopping earlier in the day than I might if I didn’t have a reservation. On holiday weekends I need to book sites way ahead. I’m only guessing I’ll be able to keep my reservations for next Saturday and Sunday nights.

It was a sunny day with a high in the low 70s; a few degrees cooler than yesterday. I went to Lowes and Walmart to shop for gas grills. Neither of them have much of a selection of small grills. I think I will end up buying something online from Amazon when I get to Arizona. When I’m parked in one location for the month of March, the mail will have time to catch up with me.