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.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defray our travel expenses to a small degree.

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!

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defray our travel expenses to a small degree.

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.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defray our travel expenses to a small degree.

At last........

8:43 am - Sunday - December 30th - Cedar Key, FL - 66º F, 93% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the east by southeast......foggy right now with a forecast high of 70º F.

As it turned out our driving distance to Cedar Key on Saturday was 176 miles.  We were moving out of our site at Cain Creekside RV Parke about 9 am, but first we had to ford some water.....apparently the pond had overflowed during the night covering the entrance road to our section, but it ended up only being about 12" deep, and we crossed without incident.....

.....initially I-75 was free flowing, but you just know something is going to happen to slow you down eventually....this is the nature of I-75.....

.....within 20 miles we were leaving Georgia in our rear view mirror and entering Florida for the first time in 6 years......

.....and, of course, Florida not to be outdone by Georgia, gave us some good old 'slow and go' at about the 85 mile mark into our day.....

....then it completely stopped, and when it began to move again it took us a good 30 minutes to cover just 3 miles......

.....we're imagining a large, multi car accident, but the actual issue was a motorist who was off the freeway, actually parked on the grass, who was trying to cool off the disc brakes on their SUV, and the attendant steam (smoke) resulted in what we call RPS.....Residual Pinhead Slowing.  Everyone had to slow way down, stopping in some cases, to see what was happening....oh the humanity!

Eventually we exited I-75 just southwest of Gainsville to SR-121 leaving us with 60+ miles to Cedar Key.  In Bronson, FL we transitioned from the 121 to the 24 which took us directly to Cedar Key.  As we approached the bridge taking us on to the island we suddenly saw our friends, Krash and Karen, standing on the side of the road waiving and welcoming us to Cedar Key....what a cool surprise!

As you can see from the picture above it was quite foggy around 1:07 pm as we crossed the bridge......

....eventually we saw the sign welcoming us to Cedar Key, and within another few hundred feet that very familiar, funky sign for Sunset Isle RV Park & Motel.....

.....this is our 3rd time at Sunset Isle RV Park, and for us it is the only place to stay in Cedar Key if your home is an RV.  From Sunset Isle it is a quick 1.5 mile walk to the center of town, and many fabulous restaurants, as well as the beach.  We are only a couple hundred feet from the water in our site (#60), which is a long pull through site....one of only 4 that will fit our coach and trailer without us having to drop the trailer.....perfect!

Within 40 minutes we were mostly set up, and made plans with Krash and Karen to meet them at '83 West', a restaurant on Dock Street on the waterfront, for a late lunch.  By the time we got there it was after 3 pm, and we were famished......

 Our favorite corner table!

....within minutes we had a couple of Yuengling drafts at our finger tips, and were waiting for our entrees.  Krash and Karen arrived about 20 minutes after us, and settled down to talk non-stop for about 90 minutes.  We first met Krash and Karen back in April of 2012 while visiting my sister who lived near Ann Arbor, Michigan at the time.  Karen had begun reading my fledgling blog, and asked if they could meet us.  We agreed and it was the beginning of a wonderful nomadic friendship.  We met again when we returned to Cedar Key in late December of 2012 when we spent over 5 weeks in this lovely, funky, quaint, sleepy, Gulf Coast fishing village.  We have hooked up with them twice more over the intervening years, but the last time we saw them was in Cape Blanco back in 2014.  They sort of made Cedar Key their winter home away from home each of the last 6 years, and it has been our dream to return to Cedar Key again and spend time with them and enjoying the quirkiness that is Cedar Key.

They had arranged an aggressive first day schedule for us....a late lunch at '83 West', a girls basketball tournament basketball final at the local Cedar Key School (K-HS) at 6 pm, and then a gourmet dinner at the 1842 Daily Grind and Mercantile on 2nd Street in downtown Cedar Key at 8 pm....

 From right to left: TLE, moi, Karen, Debbie (friend of Krash and Karen's), and Krash

 The girl's team finished in second place to a much larger school...it was a great game!

The game was over by 7:40 pm, so we drove home to pick up a bottle of wine for our gourmet dinner at the 1842 Daily Grind & Mercantile.  This place is normally a high end coffee shop during the day, but a few times a year they host a two seating (6 pm and 8 pm) gourmet dinner in the evening prepared by one of the co-owners, Martin.  He is a wonderful chef, and the food was exceptional.  There were three choices, and TLE and I chose the Shrimp & Crab Crepe topped with seared Sea Scollops and covered with Lobster Infused Bernaise sauce....

....by the time we finished dessert it was after 10:30 pm, and we were ready to head home and get some much needed rest.  We bid adieu to Krash, Karen and Debby and were home within 3 minutes.  What a great first day in Cedar Key.....what is in store for Sunday?

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defray our travel expenses to a small degree.

The deluge......

7:37 am - Saturday - December 29th - Hahira, GA (just north of Valdosta) - 62º F, 96% humidity, wind  - CALM......cloudy today with a forecast high in Hahira of 71º F.....WOW!

I think many of you know how we avoid driving in the rain, or in the wind to the point we have paid for extra days at RV parks to get beyond rain and/or wind.  Sometimes there is nothing one can do about the weather and it is necessary to drive in it, and this trip south from Nashville is one of those times.  We needed to be in Cedar Key by the 29th, which is when one of our very rare reservations begins.  We don't make reservations as a rule, and where we are this morning (December 29th) is a great example.....we just drove in last night and managed to snag their last site, which alsoha ppened to be a 100' pull through site.  It always works out for us, but if you want to stay in Cedar Key, FL reservations are a must.  Even in this case we waited until the last minute to make the reservation and, once again, got the last site.  Anyway, in order to get to Cedar Key without pounding out two 350 days we had to leave Nashville a few hours after arriving home from SoCal.  By driving 150 miles Thursday we only had 500 miles to go to Cedar Key......two 250 mile days give, or take a few.

It rained all night Thursday, and was still raining Friday morning when we departed Chattanooga, TN at 9 am.  Within minutes of merging on to I-75 we entered the lovely state of Georgia.....

.....which also boasts some of the worst Interstate traffic in the nation.  This is our thrid time traversing the I-75 corridor through Georgia on our way to Florida, and each time the traffic has been worse......no matter what time of day we pass through.  It rained all day long with the exception of a few 15 minute segments where it was not raining........

 In between squalls....entering the Altanta traffic corridor

 See all the red?  Stoppage due to dozens of accidents on I-75, I-675 and I-475

....within 2 hours we were entering the Atlanta Traffic Hell......traffic in and around Atlanta is always bad, and then add in heavy rainfall most of the day and you get dozens of accidents on the various Interstates in and around Atlanta.  It took us 2 hours to traverse about 30 miles of heavily congested roads.  At one point our Garmin Trucker GPS re-routed us off the Interstates and on to surface streets to get us past most of the accidents......  

.....at last we came to a much needed Rest Area south of Atlanta and exited with scores of other vehicles to take a break from the rain and traffic.....

......as we moved south along the I-75 corridor we were smack dab in the middle of the storm front which stretched from far north all the way to the Florida panhandle.....

.....near the end of our 356 mile driving day (I know, right?) the rainfall intensified.....

.....at times visibility was reduced significantly.....

.....at last we arrived at Cain Creekside RV Park in the lovely, welcoming town of Hahira, GA, just 15 miles north of Valdosta.  When we were getting ready to leave Chattanooga TLE and I had discussed the need to be plugged in that night, so I had checked ahead to see if there was a Passport American park (50% off) near Valdosta.  Cain Creekside came up, so we made that our destination hoping we would get a site.....no reservations....and it worked out.  We arrived just before sundown, got our site paid for ($20), parked, hooked up to the 50 amp electrical pedestal, and began to relax.  TLE was amazing all day long checking out alternate routes, checking ahead for traffic accidents, and getting water, and snacks as needed.  In all we stopped at 3 Rest Areas for 15 minute breaks,  and our travel time was about 7.5 hours to cover 356 miles.  That's one of the longest driving days we have had in years, but now we only have 145 miles to Sunset Isle in Cedar Key where we will spend time with our very good friends Krash and Karen.

TLE was in bed by 9 pm, and I followed short time later....it continued raining throughout the night, but as I sit here this morning composing the skies are clearing and it promises to be a rain free drive to Cedar Key....fingers and toes crossed.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defray our travel expenses to a small degree.

Home Sweet Home.....

7:02 am - Friday - December 28th - Chattanooga, TN - 52º F, humidity 92%, wind - CALM.......heavy cloud cover with continuous rain all night long and this morning. Forecast high for today in Chattanooga is 65º F, but we will not be here to see it.  We are continuing our drive southward to Cedar Key today.  We will probably get as far at Valdosta, GA today where the high will be 72º F, but we'll see how far we get with all the rain along our route.

In yesterday's 'Homecoming' blog I really covered Wednesday and Thursday in a 'Reader's Digest' kind of way......I'm pretty sure most of my readers know about, or have read Reader's Digest, but in case you have not I have provided a link.  Anyway, I took a 55 second video of Christmas morning at our son Chris' home which I just rediscovered this morning.  This video really gives you a flavor of what Hockwald gatherings are like......

.....there are typically '19' conversations in progress at all times!  Being home for Christmas this year was very special since we missed Christmas last year while working at the Grand Canyon.  So funny that we missed Christmas last year when we were only 300+ miles from home, but managed to get home when were over 2,000 miles from home this year!  

As TLE and I age being around family for these special times of year becomes more and more important.  Our children's families are expanding, and their children are growing so quickly.  The last time we were home two of our youngest grand children (Brayden and Jolene) did not even speak, and now they talk in complete sentences.....lol!

I really do not like to drive in the rain, but it appears that for the second consecutive day it will be so.  We could just sit still for another day, but sunny skies and warmer, drier weather await us in Cedar Key, so we will press steadily onward to arrive there by Saturday the 29th.  

It began raining about 15 minutes after we arrived in Chattanooga, and never stopped all night long.  TLE had left me setting up the DirecTV to go shopping in Walmart, and she did not know it was raining.  I sent her a text message while she was in the store to ask if she had worn a coat, and she replied she had not.  I advised her it was raining hard, and did she want me to bring her hooded rain jacket to her to which she replied "YES!', so I trundled into the store to find her just passing through the checkout line....perfect timing.  As we walked across the puddle covered parking lot with rain pelting us all the way to the Newell I put my arm around TLE and told her how much it means to me to have her with me on this journey.  Here we are walking in the rain in a strange parking lot to our home on wheels.......and, as strange as it may seem, it does feel like home no matter where it may be parked at the time.  Here we are in a place we have never been before, and yet it all seems so familiar.  The view may be different, but it still feels like home.  We go inside, close the curtains and we are home.....it's as simple as that.

We watched a recorded English Premier Soccer game, then a recorded Fraser (they make me laugh out loud) and were in bed by 8:30 pm.  We both woke up 10 hours later at 6:30 pm feeling refreshed and ready for a 300+ mile drive down to Valdosta today.  We are presently just over the border from Georgia and within minutes of leaving this Walmart parking we will be in that state for the rest of the day.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defray our travel expenses to a small degree.