After moving into our motorhome fulltime for the last few
months, to work out some of the "bugs";
We finally hit the road, and just in time. The first real
snow storm to hit, 9 inches where we were living in N.J. was followed a few
days later by what the weather forecasters originally predicted to be a "
historic" 1 to 2 feet! Fortunately many areas received much less than
that.
If you've been following our blog you know the main thing
that was holding us back was the sale of our truck, which we finally sold in
the beginning of January.
We had most things in order, so we said our until next
times, and set off on our leisurely journey to our destination, Florida.We knew we would hit a few “bumps in the road" but didn't
expect so many the first day. So here's how it went.
THE FIRST DAY, Tuesday, Jan. 20th.
We wanted to leave
early around noon, but my friend Tony noticed two loose fender screws on the
trailer that needed to be fixed first. (Thanks Tony!) We hit the road around 3
pm much later than we wanted to as I did not want to drive in the dark my
first day out. Well that didn't happen. After we stopped for gas we drove on,
then we sat in traffic from an accident from 4:30 until around 8 pm. About an
half hour later (8:30)we had a rear tire on the motorhome blow out going down
the interstate. I was not going fast so we were pretty lucky and I was able to
pull over quickly. I called my Good Sam Emergency Road service, but they
couldn't assist us on that roadway, it had to be one of the state commercial
service providers, but they informed me we would be reimbursed the cost.
At 11 pm, 3-1/2 hours,
$200 (thank God I had a spare tire) and a lot of stress later, we were on our
way. Exhausted, we pulled into a rest area, between two idling tractor trailers
and called it a night. Our poor dog Max had a stressful day too :( The
overnight temperature outside was 25 degrees, but we were comfortably warm
inside.
Poor Max looking a little worried.
Day2, Wednesday, Jan. 21st.
We woke up early and started the search for 6 new tires,
they are an older style and of course not easy ones to find or so most of the
tire dealers were telling me. Around 3pm I started looking for a campground so
that we could plug in and hunker down as a predicted 5 inches of snow was starting
to come down. We found one about 20 miles away and made reservations. Then my
wife Margie suggested looking for a tire place close to the campground. I did a
Google search and found what looked to be a small place, but figured I'd give
it a try. I spoke with Cory from G&W tires in New Egypt, NJ. When he said
"no problem I can have them here tomorrow" it was the best thing we
had heard all day. Great people & service, I highly recommend them.
So if you think that
was the end of my stress for day two, you'd be wrong. I then punched in the
campground address into my new Garmin, RV (Recreational Vehicle)specific GPS,
and we were on our way down the highway, then down back roads, then through a
nice development until we came to a desolate dirt road, I think I heard a banjo
playing so I hit the brakes! About 10 feet in I decided to call the campground,
the girl that answered assured me it was only a dirt road for a short distance,
so I continued, that's when my common sense kicked in, I called back and told
her my GPS was saying 3 more miles, and there was no way I was driving 50 plus
feet of RV & trailer down a snow covered dirt road!, she then put her
mother on the phone, who realized my GPS was sending me in from the opposite
end of the road. Now I had to back up the trailer and RV out of there, in
short, it was no small feat. Well we made it to the campground and spent the
next two days plugged in, warm, under a couple of inches of snow, while waiting
for the new tires to come in.
Pictures of Timberland Lake campground,Cream Ridge, NJ
Day 4, Friday, Jan. 23rd.
$$$$ later and new tires on (decided to replace trailer
tires too). We were on our way again.
8 NEW TIRES! G&W tires in New Egypt, NJ.
We stopped at our friends Jim & Deb's house in Delaware
who graciously allowed us to plug in for the night. It had been too long since
we last saw them. We reminisced over pizza and beer! It was great spending time
with them.
Our until next time with our buddy Jim C., Sorry no pics of his wife Deb, she had left for the day.
Day 5, Saturday, Jan. 24th.
We said our until next times and headed out. It was an uneventful
short day driving, we stopped and camped out in Walmart parking lot in LA
Plata, MD. Overnight temps were in the 30’s.
Day 6, Sunday, Jan. 25th.
The next morning we picked up a few items at Walmart, then
hit the road again. The next first for us was crossing over the Annapolis (Chesapeake)
bay bridge,
talk about some white knuckle driving, then there was the next
bridge, it was shorter, higher and only one lane each way, I think it was
called the "honey I crapped my pants bridge"(Gov. Harry Nice Memorial
Bridge).
Gov. Harry Nice Memorial
Bridge
Well we lived and made it to Roanoke Rapids, NC, where we stayed at “RV
Resort At Carolina Crossroads”.
RV
Resort At Carolina Crossroads
Day8, Tuesday, Jan. 27th.
We were up very early Wednesday, around 4 AM as the temps
outside was in the 20’s and quite cold inside too. I couldn’t hear the small
space heater or the roof heater running and noticed none of the 110 volt
(normal house current) outlets were on, our lights were running off the 12 volt
house batteries. I though the campground had lost power during the night due to
the snow coming down. Unlike when you live in a “sticks and bricks” house where you can look
out the window at your neighbors to see if their lights are on, this doesn’t
apply to RV’s and campers where the 12 volt lights run off the batteries and
will stay on even if not plugged into 110 volt. After we warmed up the RV with the on-board
propane furnace, I went out to check the breakers which were still on, so we
waited until the office opened to check with them. The electric box checked out
fine and no other campers were complaining, so now to locate where the problem
was in the motorhome, and yes just like a regular house, things will break and
repairs will need to be done. I checked the line coming into the breaker box in
the motorhome to find it only had 55 volts a/c power (half of the normal 110)
then I traced the problem to the plug outside. It finally failed and burned up
due to using the small (undersized) extension cord while we were living in our
driveway the past several months. This must be a common problem because they
had plenty for sale in the campground store. And yes this could have turned out
much worse from the looks of the plug, someone was looking out for us this day.
Fried Old Plug
Day9, Wednesday, Jan. 28th.
We were up early, as
we wanted to “make some miles” this day and try to get further south and away
from the cold. It had been snowing most of the previous night and still was when
we pulled out. But I’m getting ahead of myself. It was time to refill the on-board propane tank that we had been using for the past week to supplement our
small space heater that had been keeping us warm. $48 to refill, not too bad. Soon after we pulled out of the
RV resort we stopped to refill our quite thirsty motorhome with some gas, well
it must have been “bad gas”, because for the next tank full, the engine did not
run as well, sputtering whenever I came to a stop. I pulled over and poured a
container of “octane boost” in the tank and it ran a little better until the
next fill up. And yes this would be our longest day driving to date, 349 miles.
Around 5:45 PM we arrived at one of our passport America membership (50% off)
campgrounds in South Carolina to spend the night.This place was hit with the same storm that brought all the snow to the northeast, only it was lots of rain here. Sorry no pictures of this mud hole.The overnight temp was 29
Deg. Still not out of the cold!
Day 10, Thursday, Jan. 29th.
Once again we were up at the crack of dawn and on our way to
another long mileage day, deciding we would drive straight through to our
destination in Melbourne Florida.
After
we had pulled in to take on some more fuel around noon, we called ahead to see
if there would be a spot for us to stay at the campground we had been planning on
going to, but things would not go as planned. Now that it is prime “snow bird”
season in FL. There were no sites available and there would be none for several
weeks, UGH! We called several other campgrounds and found the same problem. So
rather than sit there we decided to see if the stop over campground we had
planned on in Jacksonville, FL. would have an opening for us for a few days so
that we might be able to locate a campsite that could accommodate
our 50 ft for several weeks. I know some of you are thinking why didn’t we make
reservations earlier? Well we were never certain exactly when we were going to
be on the road and didn’t want to lose our deposit money. So
here we were in another beautifully kept RV resort for a few days in search of a
temp/permanent site somewhere in or near Melbourne Fl.
This day we were in t shirts and Margie was walking around
barefoot outside as the temps were in the 60’s! I started the bike and pulled
it out of the trailer and Margie got out the wax and some rags and put a real
nice shine on the Burgman, great job babe! The overnight temp was 50 Degrees,
now that I can handle! Tomorrow forecast is for temps in the 70’s!
Day11, Friday, Jan. 30th.
This day after some
1200 miles, I decided to give the motorhome and trailer a much needed bath and
I did the wax on while Margie did the wax off. It came out looking beautiful! BTW,
I was a little bit leery of how people would react/receive our older motorhome
that has been among some much newer, expensive coaches. Much to my surprise, I
have been complimented at almost every place by several people where we have stayed at,
hearing “what a beautiful coach you have”.
We spent some time with our new neighbors Sara and Mark, a
real nice couple who just sold their home in Connecticut and are traveling for
6 month on the road in their beautiful new, Newmar” Dutch Star” Motorcoach, then
staying in their house in Arizona for 6 months. We hit it off so well that they
gave us an open invitation to their house, for when we head out west.
Later
that night we continued our search for a place to stay for the month of February
but with no luck.
Day12, Saturday, Jan. 31st.
We were up early and continued our search for a campground.
We did a Florida search using our “Passport America” app and after calling a
few that had some good and bad reviews and not being too happy with what we
were finding, we found a Resort in Titusville, “Seasons In The Sun”, we did a
search for reviews of the campground and found almost all of them to be great
with 5 out of 5 stars. We gave them a call and spoke with the very pleasant
reservationist Heather(Who turned out to be the owner)and staff member Lynette, she said they had one more spot open. I was
sounding a bit indecisive, as it was quite a bit more expensive than what we
wanted to pay, and that’s when Heather started to inform us of all the
activities and amenities they had there. She also said we would have to let
them know within the next 10 minutes as they had someone else who wanted the
spot if we didn’t. We decided to take it and she reserved the site for us for
the next day. We then headed off to the huge Flea Market that was next door and
also owned by the campground (they have a gold mine here) and picked up some
nice fresh vegetables.
Day13, Sunday, February 1st.
We were packed up and on the road by 10AM. We drove through
downtown Jacksonville, Florida then on our way to Titusville. About two hours
and 120 miles into the drive, going down interstate 95 at about 60 MPH, the
motorhome engine shut off. While the motorhome started to slow down, my heart
rate started to go up! I put it in neutral and turned the ignition key off then
back on, the engine fired back up with what sounded like a cannon going off. It
reminded me of when I was a kid and would turn the ignition off then on to make
my car “back fire” just for fun, but this happening now, was not fun at all. It
happened again less than a mile later…. time to get off the interstate. I made
it into a gas station parking lot and started to check the battery cables, they
all seemed tight so next I checked the fuses. I found the ignition switch fuse
to be a little loose so I tightened it up with my “Leatherman” pliers and with
20 more miles to go said a prayer and headed back onto the interstate. The rest
of the drive was uneventful, the way we like it.
We arrived at “Seasons In The Sun RV Resort” around 2PM. This
is one of the more upscale resorts, originally a “Class A” only resort
(Motorhomes only), but has had to change with the economy, and now allows other
class RV’s. There is a beautiful club house here, spotless private bath/shower
houses, two heated pools, a large hot tub, tennis courts, and planned
activities all day long, everyday of the month! This is a very well run RV
resort. Oh… and there’s alligators too!
Don't feed the Gators!
Day14, Monday, Feb.2nd.
We spent the day “setting up camp”, then took a ride on the
bike into town for lunch. It feels surreal being able to ride my Burgman in
February, in warm weather. We packed away our winter clothes and brought out
the summer ones. Went for a walk around the park, Margie picked some oranges
off the trees that are here for the taking. We then kicked back and relaxed for
the rest of the day.
So we survived our
first two weeks, with a few more bumps than we expected but with no less
determination to make this life of living on the road, a great adventure. Even
with all the event's that have happened we are still having a great time! And
yes, we are finally in warmer weather! We can’t express how fortunate and happy
we feel! Although we are missing our friends and family tremendously. Max has adjusted nicely and is no longer nervous riding in his "moving
house", he and his paws are loving the warm weather and all the walks he's
been getting to go on.
Max livin' life!
I hope you enjoyed reading about our first two weeks out on
the road. I plan on keeping it as real as it is, sharing the good and the bad
for those of you who may be planning on living this lifestyle too. Stay tuned
there's much more to come, as I will be updating the blog as often as possible.We will be here until the end of the month, I'll post some pictures of the resort soon in the next blog post. Feel free to comment, but please keep it positive. Until next time…..
Thanks for stopping by!
