The Jello has the last laugh......

6:37 am - Friday - January 11th - Slidell, LA - 36º F, 77% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the northeast....clear skies again today with a forecast high of 60º F.

It was very, very cold overnight in Quincy, FL, and I was up by 6 am to turn on our three Suburban gas heaters to take the chill off the coach.  It was 39º F outside, and 55º F inside....a nice differential considering we didn't turn the heaters on at all the night before.  Although we had no plans to drive more than 200 miles Thursday we were on the road before 8 am.....wait, what?  We never get on the road that early!  

The day began with kind of wispy clouds and finished with clear blue skies, and virtually no wind.  The road was flat, and straight as we cruised at 60 mph westward on I-10 at 100-200' above sea level, then as we approached the Alabama border just feet above sea level......

 A lot of trees blown down by the hurricane back in October....the cleanup continues

 Leaving Florida.....very few states thank you for visiting

 Almost at sea level!

.....our Jello plan had us ending our driving day in Daphne, AL, just before Mobile Bay, but as we approached Daphne I just could not see myself stopping so early (11 am, because we gained an hour back when we reentered the Central Time Zone), and so we set a new goal......Moss Point, AL....another 40 miles.  But, as we approached Moss Point I still could not see myself stopping for the day so early on a day when the driving was just magical.  At this point we had driven some 230 miles, a typical driving day for us, but I asked TLE to see how far Slidell, LA was. She quickly reported it was another 100 miles.....that sounded about right, so I reset the Garmin Truck GPS to Slidell, LA and we continued on our way westward.....

 Entering the Mobile Tunnel

......soon we were entering Mississippi.........

.....and just a few miles later we entered the state of Louisiana......wow four states in one day......Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana! 

Our original plan at the beginning of the day was to drive another 200+ miles to Daphne, AL which would give us just 200+ more into Gonzales, LA.  When the driving is as good as it was on Thursday and there are a plethora of Rest Areas to choose from (we stopped at three this day including a 1 mile walk in the 3rd one of the day....it was finally warm enough!) why not drive 333 miles, right?  By the time we pulled into the Walmart Supercenter Parking lot in Slidell, LA it was just coming up on 3 pm......perfect!

We spent some time relaxing before walking into the Walmart to do some shopping.  About 5 pm we walked over to the Cracker Barrel to have 'breakfast for dinner'.  The parking lot in which we are parked has a Walmart, Lowe's, Murphy Gas USA, and a Cracker Barrel.....how much better does it get?  Almost 7 years ago when we had just begun our full time journey we overnighted in this same parking lot on our way to Florida for the first time.  I have to be honest.....it does not seem like 7 years.

So, as I write this morning we find ourselves just 88 miles from our destination today where we will spend 2, or 3 days planning our trip to Alaska with our good friends Forest and Cindy.  The weather today, Friday, is the same as Thursday.....clear with blue skies.  We are now less than 5 months from the date we will enter British Columbia and begin our journey to our 49th State (49th in our Newell, as well).

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Westward Ho!

6:38 am - Thursday - January 10th - Quincy, FL -  39º F (feels 33º F), 52% humidity, wind 9 mph out of the north by northwest.......cloudy today with a forecast high of 54º F.

What a wonderful travel day Wednesday was!  The skies were clear, and blue, the temperature was in the low 60's, and the roads were straight and flat as we cruised westward across the Florida 'panhandle', but I get a wee bit ahead of myself.

We were up a little after 7 am Wednesday thinking about our departure preparation.  Our goal was to be on the road by 10 am, but sometimes life intervenes, and it takes a little bit longer.  TLE ran to the store about 9 am to pick up a few things whilst I finished putting away the very few things we deployed during our two day stay in St. Mary's, GA.  Around 9:30 am Roscoe and Geni dropped by while on their rounds of the State Park to say their 'until next times', and we ended up talking for about an hour.  They are thinking about upgrading from their travel trailer to a class A motorhome, and wanted to take a tour of ours.  We talked for over an hour, but, alas, it was approaching 11 am and we really needed to get moving. 

We hugged, and promised each other to reunite over New Years day at the end of this year in the SoCal desert.  Once we were rolling we had one more task......empty our black and gray tanks as we will be dry camping for the next few days.  By the time we finished with that it was almost 11:30 am.

We initially cruised south on I-95, then I-295 and finally merged on to I-10 west bound.  In all we covered over 230 miles Wednesday before landing in Quincy, FL at the local Walmart.  We'll be on I-10 until just after Baton Rouge, LA where we will begin angling up to I-20 via secondary roads, which will take us to Ft. Worth, TX where we will again angle northward up to I-40 for the balance of our journey westward.

We stopped at a couple of Rest Areas along the I-10 corridor during our drive, and at one we got out of the coach and walked for about .75 miles before continuing westward to our day's destination.  Typically most Interstates have Rest Areas every 60-80 miles, but along this stretch of I-10 (Jacksonville to Quincy) they are spaced about 30-35 miles apart so you have plenty of options for taking a break.

We arrived at the Walmart around 4 pm, found a spot to park, and by 7 pm we had been joined by several other RV's for the night.  We'll be under way in about 2 hours, or less, so time to sign off for today.

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Nomadic friendships.......

7:19 am - Wednesday - January 9th - St. Mary's, GA - 56º F, 90% humidity, wind 9 mph out of the west......sunny today with a forecast high of 61º F, but we will not be here for that high.  Today is moving day, and we will end our day about 200 miles west of our current location as we begin to work our way back to the western half of our great country.

We began Tuesday with a nature walk along one of the nature trails in Crooked River State Park.  Neither of us is really into identifying trees, or birds, but we just needed to get out and take a walk.......

 The Crooked River in the background

 The nature trail.....nice a shady

.....we were back at the Newell by 11:30 am after a 2.4 mile meandering walk, and waiting for Rosco and Geni to finish their volunteer shift.....I don't know if I mentioned it, but they are camp hosts here at the State Park, and work about 4 hours per day cleaning vacated sites, and cleaning restrooms.  We planned to drive south to Amelia Island, FL to visit Fort Clinch State Park and explore this old Civil War fort.  It was originally being constructed by the Union soldiers until they abandoned it still under construction, then was taken over by the Confederate troops, and then when they abandoned it to send the soldiers north to fight the Union, the Union troops returned and continued construction......

Aerial view courtesy the internet

 That horsehair mattress looks so uncomfortable!

 Rosco standing next to one of the 8" cannon of which there were about 40 when the fort was first constructed.

 Each cannon was on steel track and could be rotated 80º in either direction

....the entire fort was constructed of red brick, and the attention to detail in the construction is quite evident.......

....we wandered around the fort learning about life as a Union soldier in the 1860's, and stood talking for quite a while on one of the parapets all the while thoroughly enjoying the sunny skies and balmy breezes blowing in off the the ocean.  It was just a delightful afternoon!

By 4 pm it was time to head back to St. Mary's and happy hour at the Wee Pub which offers 2 for 1 beers and 2 for 1 appetizers from 3 pm to 6 pm Monday through Friday.   The never ending conversation continued unabated through 8 brews (2 per person) and probably about 8 appetizers consisting of seared tuna, pigs in a blanket, sliders, etc.......

.....by 6 pm we were on our way 'home' where we spent the rest of the evening sitting by a campfire talking, enjoying the star lit sky, and more talking......about 9:30 we bid our adieus, and each headed to our respective homes for the night.  Our visit with Roscoe and Geni was all too short, but there will be a next time.  It is these nomadic friendships that add spice to the vagabonding life we live and we would be the poorer for it if we had never met Roscoe and Geni at Yellowstone.  Thank you guys for a wonderful two days!

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A small bump in the road.......

8:38 am - Tuesday - January 8th - St. Marys, GA - 56º F, 99% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the south by southeast......mostly cloudy today with a forecast high of 74º F.

Monday was moving day....time to leave our site for four days at the corner of Rose and Martinis.  Our goal was to be moving the Newell out of the driveway and over to where the trailer was parked between 9 and 10 am, and we were right on schedule when I lit the fires of our Detroit Diesel 6v92 around 9:15 am, then the unexpected happened.....a 'small bump in the road'.......

.....the left side of the coach would not come up to 'ride height', however, the right side did, so we were listing severely to the left.  I also noted that the air pressure on both my gauges would not get above 100 psi.....usually within minutes the coach is up to 'ride height', and air pressure is registering at 120 psi.  Okay, I'm thinking, something must be leaking somewhere.  I turned off the DD, exited the coach and walked back to the engine bay to check the rear '6 pack' and even before I open the passenger side engine bay door I can hear a very loud hissing.  That's good, because at least the leak is obvious.  I open up the bay door and zero in on one MAC air valve almost immediately.....coincidentally it is the valve that has the 'ride height' solenoid attached to it.....

......on the lower right side of the valve is an 'exhaust port', and was it ever exhausting.  I carry 4, or 5 of these valves as backups, and so it became immediately apparent something was wrong with the valve, so I got out one of the spares, then set about removing and replacing the defective valve.  In all it took about 90 minutes to complete the task, and when I started everything up again the left side was still not rising, but I could manually raise it using the 'leveling mode', and I could not before.  Now here is where it gets interesting.....after completely raising the left side using the 'leveling mode' I flipped the switch back to 'ride height', and the left side,which was now higher than normal settled down to ride height and stayed there.  To test the system I manually lowered the the rear, then put it back in 'ride height' again, and the rear raised back up again......cool, it's fixed!

By this point we were over 90 minutes behind our schedule.....la de da.  I moved the coach over to the trailer and quickly dropped the trailer back on the hitch, inserted the VW and we were on our way north to St. Mary's, GA.  Why St. Mary's, GA?  Well, that is where our good friends Roscoe and Geni, are spending the winter volunteering at Crooked River State Park.  We first met Roscoe and Geni at the Mammoth Hot Springs General Store in Yellowstone two summers ago (2017) and became fast friends by the end of the summer.  When we were working at the Grand Canyon last winter they came to visit us and we had dinner. Neither TLE, nor I could imagine being this close to them and not taking a couple of days to visit them at their winter job.

After a completely uneventful 197 mile drive (including a couple of rest stops) we arrived at Crooked River around 3:45 pm, and after registering at the office headed to Site # 4, which Geni had so kindly reserved for us.  As we approached the site we could see Roscoe and Geni standing there waving us into the site.  We parked and exited to hugs, and a couple of cold brews.....what a great welcome!

After talking for about 30 minutes we agreed to reconvene at our site at 5:15 pm and drive into old town St. Mary's for dinner.  We were able to catch the sunset at the perfect time......

 Left to right: Moi, TLE, Rosco and Geni

Beautiful sunset

.....after spending time watching the sunset we headed to the restaurant....'St. Mary's Seafood and More', reputed to be the #1 restaurant in town, which is verified by Yelp who gives them 4.5 stars on 193 reviews.  I had their special, which was Blackened Tilapia, and Blackened Shrimp.....OMG....I'll leave it at that.  TLE, Roscoe and I chased our entrees with Ying Lings, and Geni had a Fat Tire.  We talked endlessly as if no time had passed since we last saw them a year ago at the Grand Canyon.

We had planned to sit by the fire after dinner, but the NCAA National Championship pitting Clemson against favored Alabama (5.5 point favorite) was on at 8 pm so we deferred the fire to Tuesday night.  The game was close for the first 1/2 with Alabama up 16-14, but in the second half Clemson scored 30 unanswered points to win the game by 4 touchdowns......a complete upset for the ages.   I know our friends Richard & Rhonda (Richard graduated from Clemson in 1979) had big smiles on their faces around 11:30 pm Monday night.

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I dream of Genie......

6:53 am - Monday - January 7th - Inverness, FL - 44º F (It's cold!), 97% humidity, wind - CALM.....clear today with a forecast high of 77º F.....that's a 33º swing!  We roll our wheels in 3 hours!

It has been almost 9 months since our big rear facing radiator was cleaned.  You will recall that we stopped off in Albuquerque back in mid April to have it cleaned on our way to Maine.  I began to notice the coolant temperature was running about 5º hotter than normal on our way south from Campbellsville, KY so I determined that when we got to our friend's home in Inverness that I would take a few hours to clean it once again before we begin our westward haul back to the western U.S. and Sunday was that day.

I waited until about 10 am to let the temperature warm up a tad, and get the sun on the back of the Newell to warm up the radiator somewhat.  It is easier to clean off the sometimes gooey road grime when the radiator is at least warm, but preferably hot.  I learned that lesson in Albuquerque when we arrived at the RV service center after driving for about 40 minutes.  The radiator was good and hot by then, and we got the radiator the cleanest it had been in a long time.

I usually spray Simple Green on the radiator interior and exterior using a garden pressurized sprayer to apply it, then a pressure washer I carry with me to remove the Simple Green and grime, but this time I tried something new.  A friend had recommended something called the 'Radiator Genie'.......

....I ordered it on Amazon while we were still in Maine knowing I would need to clean my radiator at some point before we returned home,  It consists of two different 'wands'....one that can be attached to an air compressor and the second to be attached to a water hose.  I was a little skeptical that this system would work, but was I ever surprised!  The other thing I changed up was to use 'Dawn' dish soap instead of Simple Green, and again I was surprised....

......in all it took me about 3 hours beginning to end (taking everything out of the two engine bays, cleaning them, drying them out, cleaning the radiator, and then putting everything away). I used the compressed air wand to blow out any debris missed by the water wand, then dry the radiator, and engine bays, and anything else that got wet.  I like the Radiator Genie as these wands take up way less room than the pressure washer, and they are way easier to deploy and use.  The Dawn dish soap is less caustic than almost anything.  After all, they use it to clean oil off birds, right?  Of course, the ''proof is in the pudding".....we'll see how cool it runs on Monday when we roll our wheels once again.

Once I was back inside I promptly took a 90 minute nap....where did that come from?  That was followed up by a long, hot shower.  Eventually TLE began to prepare a special dinner.....one of my favorites.....Chicken Marsala.  I wish I had taken a picture of the dish when she served it as her plating expertise was only exceeded by the restaurant quality dish I was privileged to eat.  I cherished every single bite.

We were in bed before 10 pm looking forward to another travel day Monday....where will we end up Monday afternoon?

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It must be a sign.......

7:45 am - Sunday - January 6th - Inverness, FL - 42º F, 97% humidity, wind - CALM - clear today with a forecast high of 70º F.....it got down to a glorious 58º F inside our bedroom last night.....wonderful!  Had to turn the heaters on this morning.....now that is more like it....that is the weather for which I was hoping when we came to Florida......60's-70's during the day, and in the 40's at night.

We awoke to a partly cloudy day, which eventually morphed into clear blue skies in the afternoon.  When I opened the front curtains I saw what I believe are some sort of cranes, but not being a 'birder' I am just guessing.  There are a lot of birds here including dozens of large turkey buzzards......

......my first task of Saturday after completing my blog was to put away the rest of the tools I had been using to install TLE's new seat, then hookup our sewer line to the sewer connection as it had been 8 days since we last dumped.  I had planned to dump our tanks before we left Cedar Key, but decided I could go a few more days.  Once that task was complete I retrieved the sign I made weeks ago to add to Richard and Rhonda's friends post in their front yard, and install it.  The prior record for longest distance from home was Tom and Darlene's sign showing 2,150 back to Wittmann, AZ.  We have now topped that with a total distance of 2,417 from our home mailing address in Rancho Cucamonga, CA....

 Our sign

 The rest of the signs

.....once the sign was affixed to the post I proceeded to apply (over several hours) three coats of polyurethane via an aerosol can.   There is currently a small controversy in process about whether we can claim Rancho Cucamonga as our home as it is just a mailing address.  Some (the McCloud Clan) believe our new sign is only 75' from our home (the Newell), but I countered that the sign is only for people who have driven their Newells to Inverness, not a car.  I'm sure this good-natured debate will continue for some time.......😉

Next up was to finish hiding the power and ground wires we ran to power the new passenger seat.  TLE's old seat did not have power.  That took about an hour, but finally I was done, and then rotated the seat, as is our custom, so it can be used as an extra seat for visitors.....

......after that I took a short, but well deserved nap, then took a shower so I could go out and get a haircut, and do some shopping with TLE.  She found a Fantastic Sam's about 9 miles away for my haircut......there were no Supercuts within 20 miles.  That's my third successive haircut at a Fantastic Sam's (two in Campbellsville), and this one was by far my best haircut of the three.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that our hosts left around 8 am on a trip up to Baltimore, MD  in a rented box van to deliver some furniture to their son who lives there, so we were are on our own for our last two days here in Inverness.  On Monday, the 7th, we'll roll our wheels once again, only northward this time.

We were home by 4 pm, and enjoyed a nice relaxing evening.  TLE made some Cajun Andouille Mac & Cheese for dinner......

....I am not really a mac & cheese guy, but this was exceptionally delicious.  I'm glad we did not eat it all Saturday.......😉

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Mission accomplished.....

7:16 am - Saturday - January 5th - Inverness, FL - 60º F, 87% humidity, wind - CALM......cloudy today with a forecast high of 65º F.

I was up relatively early getting ready to do something I have not done since Burlington, VT.....ride my bicycle. Our Inverness hots, Richard and Rhonda, are avid bicyclists, and specifically avid tandem riders.  TLE was not up to a vigorous ride.....I hoped I was.  We left their home around 8:30 am to ride 2.9 miles over to the Withlacoochee State Trail where we would ride another 6+ miles south to our turnaround point.  To be fair, I was not aware of the distance we were going to ride Friday, and when Richard announced we were almost to the turnaround point I blithely asked "How far have we come?" to which he replied "9 miles" to which I retorted "Wow, I had no idea we had come that far!", and I did not.  Why? I hadn't plugged in my Garmin GPS cyclocomputer for a few months, and its battery had run down, so I was riding without any data input....rare for me.  I like to know how fast I am going, what my average speed is, and how far I have ridden.  I was just taking it on faith they would not ride me into the ground, and my faith was not misplaced....

 On the Withlacoochee State Bicycle Trail with Richard and Rhonda 

resting before the return ride

.....in all I fared pretty well on the 18 mile ride, but the last 2 miles back to their home we were riding into a stiff headwind, and I gradually fell behind them, arriving home a few minutes after them.  I was reminded of how much I love to ride my bike, and how little I have done of that the past 6 months.  I have got to remedy that situation!

About 45 minutes after returning from our ride Richard and I got busy installing TLE's new passenger seat.  In all it took about 5 hours beginning to end, but we finished bolting it to the floor just as it began to rain.  Naturally, I was outside tightening the nuts on the bolts, two of which come out in our house battery bay, and two in the right front wheel well, so just as I was tightening the last nut with my socket wrench I began to feel sprinkles on my back.....perfect timing.....

 The new passenger seat installed with power

....I've got a little cleanup to do Saturday, but that will be a breeze.  The chair works, and it can be turned around easily to provide extra seating when we are stationary.  So our mission in Inverness has been accomplished......now to work on replacing my seat!

Around 6 pm we went inside the house to eat dinner with our hosts and were treated to smoked pork tenderloin, and roasted vegetables.  We sat talking, and sipping wine until well after 9 pm.  Again, as I have written many times, some people you meet along the way you just connect with on a deeper level, and feel as if you have known them all your life.  Richard and Rhonda are just such people, and we have cherished our short time with them here in Inverness.  Life is good, and satisfying.....thanks for stopping by!

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Moving inland.....

6:32 am - Friday - January 4th - Inverness, FL - 68º F (wait, what?), 99% humidity (yeah, it feels like it), wind 7 mph out of the south.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 77º F, and a 100% chance of rain by the afternoon.

Leaving Cedar Key is never easy....I'll just leave it at that.  It seemed that our six days there just flew by way too quickly.  It takes a while to settle into anyplace, even one which you have frequented in the past, and we were just getting comfortable when it was time to change our view once again.  I was up by 7 am, and TLE a short interval later.  By 8:55 am we were rolling our wheels out of site #60 and north on HWY 24.....within minutes we had crossed the bridge and the island was receding into the distance.

Our destination on Thursday was Inverness, FL, about 76 land miles south and a little east.  Within 20 minutes we had transitioned to HWY 98 southbound.  I set the cruise control at 60, and just held onto the steering wheel as we floated on a cushion of air along the straight, flat asphalt ribbon stretching to the horizon.  As we neared the small coastal town of Crystal River I spied a Shell fuel station selling diesel #2 for $2.79/gallon.  We were down to about 40 gallons in our tank, and planned to fill up soon.  By the time I had decided we should take advantage of the opportunity we had passed by the station, but never fear, there was U-turn opportunity less than 200 yards down the road, so we did just that and headed back to the station.  I was figuring we would take on anywhere from 140-150 gallons of diesel.  Since we last filled our tank in Lebanon, KY on October 19th we had traveled about 900 miles.  We paid about $3.10/gallon back in October so the price of diesel is finally catching up with the decline in the cost of a barrel of oil over the last 4 months.  In all we took on 133 gallons of diesel.....always nice when it costs less than you expect.  We averaged about 6.7 miles per gallon.....not bad considering the hours of idling south on I-75 around Atlanta and Macon, GA.

By 11:30 am we had arrived at the home of Richard and Rhonda.  Richard parks his 1999 Newell behind their home on a driveway made of 'pavers' he built himself.  We were to park our trailer in front of his Newell, then move our Newell to his driveway where he has a 50 amp outlet, water and a sewer connection for out of town visitors.  Within 30 minutes we had dropped the trailer, were parked in the driveway, connected to the 50 amp outlet, and running our A/C to dry out the interior air of the coach....it was quite humid on Thursday (that high humidity continues Friday morning as I write).

Richard prepared a lovely lunch for us and we sat talking for a good hour before retiring back to our coach.  I needed to get busy removing TLE's old passenger seat so we could install the 'new' one on Friday.......

 Ready to remove the four large bolts fastening her to the floor

The old seat is now history, and the new mounting base plate is in position

......it took me less than an hour to remove the old seat, and begin planning how to install the new one.  We will need to drill some new holes to accommodate the new base plate, but that should not take too long.

Around 6 pm we headed out to have dinner at the MC Wine Bar (they have craft beer on tap, also) in Old Town Inverness.  We arrived to find we had the place to ourselves on this Thursday evening, and quickly ordered some adult beverages.  Richard and I had their 'Black Lager', which was perfect.  They do not prepare food on the premises, but you can order food prepared at other eateries in Old Town.  We ordered pizza from a local establishment, and it was delivered within 20 minutes.  Time passed quickly, and soon the small hand on the clock was edging toward 8 pm.  Thank you Richard and Rhonda for a wonderful evening filled with great food, brews and conversation!

Left to right: Richard (Rhonda is taking the picture), moi and TLE

We were home just after 8 pm, bid our adieus to Richard and Rhonda and headed retired to our coach for the balance of the evening.  Friday will begin with a bike ride on a local bike path, then Richard and I will get down to the business of installing TLE's new passenger seat!

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