#9 Woo Hoo! We did it!

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!

                                                                  Pics of Pecan RV Resort.

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 1^st.

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.2^nd.

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!