Hitting the road and saying good-bye!

May 31 – Paul and Larry were out under the shelter when I got up!  Those guys sure get up and going early!  Bill was up sooner than I expected and we had a quick bowl of cereal and started our chores of stowing and unhooking! 

Sadly we said our good byes to Jean, Paul, Larry and Clarissa.  We pulled out first but Paul and Jean were behind us at the exit by the time we hooked the truck up!  They headed north and we veered right and then a left that took us directly to I-75 for our actual trip north.  It was 9:30 when we pulled out and all was going well with the inverter and power to the fridge. We stopped at the 2 hour point for a bathroom break and for me to loosen up my back.

I hate going through Atlanta so we went east toward Macon.  We stopped for a quick lunch and stretch and back on the road.  The original plan was to stay at a Wal-mart on the east side of Macon  but Bill wasn’t really comfortable with that so while we were driving he looked up a place right off I-75, Safe Haven Campground.  They gave us a Good Sam rate total $28 so that wasn’t bad.  It was a bit on the creepy side but the space was a pull through with full hook up and pretty level.  The electric set up was new, water pressure was great, so we were happy for the night.  Later a Class A pulled in on our left and then a Class C on our right.

I baked the chicken breast we didn’t grill last night, nuked the corn on the cob Jean gave us and put out some applesauce for a simple dinner.  I remembered a section of Chocolate Pan cake with frosting that I had put in a sealed container and stuck in the toaster oven!  Wasn’t sure how it survived the last 3 days so nuked us each a piece and put some whipped cream on it and it was just fine.  Super chocolaty!

The passenger side mirror had either been nudged again or just isn’t correctly aligned so we took the set screw out and adjusted it and then the darn screw would not tighten.

 We were in the open and thought we’d get better TV but I guess I got it all fouled up trying to get both TV’s working so we ended up with none!  I need some time to read the manual for the matrix box and see what we can do!  Oh well, at least we have lots of books and love to read!

Busy day with friends!

30 minutes before making my coffee. To my surprise my brand new first time being used coffee maker was not working !I checked the plug and it was in tight, tried again, still no little green light! I unplugged it and moved it over to the table and tried it there. Voila! So in figuring out it was the outlet, I surmised that all of the outlets on the big slide were not working! What a way to start the day! Crap!

 Bill was still asleep so I waited until he got up and broke the news! Larry and Paul were outside and Bill asked them to come over and see what they thought. They checked the new GFI and decided it was not working properly. So I got on the phone and left a message with the mobile RV that there was a problem that it was not working and causing all of the outlets on the slide to not work. I made breakfast and then the tech who was here yesterday called back and said his boss was coming over late in the day and he still had the old GFI. So will see! 

Window seat at Roy's

We agreed to leave around 10:30 with Paul again as our designated driver! Their car seats 6 so we didn’t have to drive 2 cars. We stopped at the Bealls Outlet in Chiefland. Jean and Clarissa were the only ones to find anything! Then we were off to Steinhatchee! We had a little snafu on the directions but it all worked out and we eventually found our way to Fiddlers to find they are not open on Saturday! Geez! There were boats and boat trailers everywhere and

Window view

this is not the day they should be closed! We saw a decent crowd parked at Roy’s on our way to Fiddlers so we went back there. We were seated immediately, but you had instructions to read the menu posted on the doors before entering as they were not using menus. Everyone had some seafood, Bill had a gator tail appetizers chased with a hamburger. Jean was the best as she only had the salad bar. I went with a coconut shrimp appetizer and a side of steamed broccoli. I think everyone enjoyed their meal. My shrimp were huge and excellent! 

We got a bit turned around leaving and as we made our way to the main road there was discussion if we had room for Diary Queen. Surprisingly, Paul opted “no”. Most agreed. Jean said she would like to stop and I chimed in and so Paul u-turned and we went back a block to DQ. Now EVERYONE wanted something! We left with 2 shakes, 3 Blizzards, and a cotton candy dipped cone. 

We had barely got into the RV when the mobile guy and his daughter arrived. He was a bit on the arrogant side and was training his 14 year old daughter. He changed out the GFI and tested all of the outlets and left. My opinion is the GFI was probably not the problem to start with. I guess we won’t know until we get to our next campground and try to hook up! The fridge has been fine here. Time will tell! 

The group had planned to grill out again but we decided we were all pretty stuffed from our seafood lunch! We decided everyone would eat “dinner” at home and meet later in the shelter for dessert. I still had a whole raspberry jello pie I forgot to take last night and lots of cookies and brownies I froze during the lock in! We met about 6:15 and had a wonderful assortment of cantaloupe, sliced oranges, my pie, lemon brownies, regular brownies and I think 3-4 kinds of cookies. Yum! Great way to end our mini-vacation and our time together.

Great Day in Old Town!

5-29   If it rained last night we didn’t hear it!  The RV tech was scheduled for 3 as the plan was to head over to Steinhatchee for lunch and be back by 3.  The others were going to make a run to Wal-mart and we had a bit of mis-communication.  Jean thought my text meant we were having lunch here so once they ate lunch it was no big deal as we spent part of the afternoon just visiting and once a short shower popped up we all head in.

 

Our shelter

We reconvened after the rain and Bill set up our grill and Paul and Larry ran electric cords and 2 fans in the shelter.  Everyone grilled what they wanted and the rest of the meal was pot luck!  As usual, no one left hungry!

It was a very pleasant evening until the

We watched this guy a lot

mosquitoes took over so we packed it up and went back inside.

Covid-19 slowed us down but didn't stop us!

5-28 Having spent the last week repairing the RV for our summer journey washing, waxing, installing a new tv system and packing, it was a bit unsettling when we plugged it back in a few days ago to charge it up, we had a crazy message on panel! “Brown Out”! What does that mean? The fridge was not on! We had turned the chassis and house battery connections off while it was sitting but it appeared the house batteries were dead. We started the generator and the batteries charged up and the fridge came on, so we thought we were good!

Daily as we brought more things to the RV and began loading the freezer, it was fine on shore power. Well, of course today when we got there the fridge was not on. Nothing was thawed and it appeared to have just gone off shortly before we arrived. The house batteries showed dead again. Once we ran the generator for a bit they charged up and the fridge came on. We completed our unloading and put away what we could and drove out to the road and shut off the generator and the RV while we hooked up our truck for towing. 

Once back inside the fridge again was not on so we drove our 2 hours to the campground running the generator! We also quickly discovered that our “newly repaired” dash air was not working AGAIN! So to get any AC we had to have the generator on and ran the roof AC. Bill had called the campground while we drove and asked if they had a mobile company they used. He called and set up for the tech to come out tomorrow afternoon as were planning to go to Steinhatchee for lunch.

The drive was fine with a few scattered showers along the way. Timing was perfect as Larry and Clarissa had only been there about 10 minutes and Jean and Paul were shortly after us! The weather for the remainder of the day was excellent!

It was very exciting when Bill plugged in the 50amp power and the fridge stayed on when I turned off the generator. We still need to have it checked out as it could fail again at our next stop.

Our sites are side by side facing an inlet and we have our own shelter with some chairs and a table to sit out on and watch the alligator cruise around and mullets flying. The perfect spot for visiting and group meals!

View from our RV front window