Motorhome Trip to Florida 2011

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Getting Ready To Leave

Wopy

Friday, February 18, 2011

Travel Day Foxwoods to HOME, THE END Day (36) 02/18/2011

We spent a quiet night in the Foxwoods Casino parking lot. We were the only MH there, as usual. I staged the inside of the MH for the unload phase while Ron took care of the outside prep.

It was a beautiful day so once home our preparations made our job easy. Unfortunately we were unable to park the MH in its usual space so had to tie up one side of the driveway essentially blocking in one car.

We hoped that the weather would remain balmy but no chance of that with predicted temps in the low teens at night and snow on Monday. Yuck!!!

Next winter we don’t come back until the end of April.

SOMETHING GOING ON AT THE WORLD FAMOUS - STAR THEATER -

Oh so good to be Home………

and our flag was still there…………

O boy, O boy, I am Home!

TOTAL MILEAGES

Motorhome 3,287.8 Miles

Jeep 495 Miles

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Travel Day (35) DC to Foxwoods Casino CT 02/17/2011

Sunset on Foxwoods

THE END TO A ROUGH RIDE TROUGH NY

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Travel Day (34) Florence to DC 02/16/2011

Generally our travel days are uneventful and yesterday and most of today was just that – uneventful. We stopped for gas at the Flying J Truck Stop around 3 PM and decided to hang there until the traffic on the Beltway in DC cleared.

While at the truck stop we parked in the designated RV parking area and watched the never- ending activity. Interestingly there was another MH at the RV gas pumps for well over two hours. Other people were coming in to gas up and couldn’t get at the pump. What’s up with that? Finally that RV moved and blocked the exit for another two hours. Then a second MH came in and did the same thing. What is wrong with people that they would think it’s ok to block gas pumps and exits????

We decided to eat at the Denny’s in the truck stop. Jewel was not happy that we left her. She sat at the drivers’ side window watching us walk into the restaurant and was still in the window looking very mad at us when we returned. I’m sure she was thinking WHERE ARE MY PEOPLE!!!!

Around 6:30 PM we decided to head out and try our luck at getting through DC without too much stress. Well, Ron started the engine and before we could leave he noticed that the marker lights on the MH were out. Not a good thing to have happen when traveling at night.

He also noticed that the middle marker light on the front roof of the MH was black. Great! Next we spent time referring to the electrical schematics of MH. Ron knew a relay switch had to be the problem. He had a hard time finding the culprit.

Next he decided he had to take the burnt out light off the MH, hopefully breaking the connection that may have caused the short. Out came the ladder and he proceeded to climb to the very TOP of the ladder standing on the warning that states “do not stand on the top of the ladder. He’s on top trying to release the melted light and I’m on the bottom and praying he doesn’t fall. Finally after a brief struggle he got the light off hoping to have broken the connection allowing the relay to reset.

Nope, that didn’t work. We knew we couldn’t drive at night without those lights so I settled in to read my book while Ronnie was on-line searching for answers. He was aggravated with me because I was relaxed and reading while he was stressed about the light situation. I couldn’t do anything about it so why not read??? I learned from him not to stress over everything - now he wants me to stress??????

r0n Note:

I have to say my diagnoses of the problem was hampered somewhat by my Lovely Bride who insisted on helping me. So I gave her the scamtics of the fuse box and had her read me the locations of the possible culprits that could be causing all of the trouble. So I am hunched over the steering wheel with a flashlight looking down into this pit with the cover removed and she is giving me the location and function of the fuses first one 10 A humm that one is good second one 15A that one is good to (the fuses are all in numbered rows so I thought it odd that would have an A and a B. After I looked at the book, those are actually the SIZE of the fuse ie 10 A = 10 amp so hard to get good help.

;-)

Well, just as I was planning on going to bed he gets a brainstorm from something he read and changes a fuse that we hadn’t tried and hooray, hooray the lights are all working again. I’m thinking, it’s 10:30 PM so lets go to bed . He’s thinking I have light so lets go. We went and got through the Beltway without difficulty. I was very surprised that there was sooo much traffic even at that time of the night.

We drove for two hours stopping at a rest area in Maryland. It was now 12:30 AM and the place was packed. There were several designated RV spaces but those were filled with cars with sleeping occupants. Not sure why they were parked in the RV spaces since there were about 75 empty car spaces.!!!

Well, we were tired and the only available space was in the RV dump station. Yes, that is what I said the dump station. No, it did not smell and was a little cramped but it was all that was available. We did notice that within the area mentioned were several dumpsters – nice neighborhood for us don't you think? Not sure when the trash pick- up was going to be but hoped it wouldn’t be before 6 AM.

Wrong again! We were both wakened (Ron didn’t sleep well worrying about the trash pick-up) by a horn honking at 4 AM. WOW we maybe got two hours of sleep. Ron was out of bed and at the wheel in 2 seconds. We moved to the exit ramp from the rest area that a space that had opened up.

It was a great spot, one and one-half lanes from I-95 and if you ever thought about sleeping on a runway forget it. The trucks sounded like DC –10’s taking off. Not only was the noise horrendous we were on such an angle that we were almost upside down in the bed. The blood rushing to our heads and the noise left a lot to be desired. We finally flipped ourselves around and put our heads at the foot of the bed. Didn’t help the noise but now our circulation was going in the right direction.

With an additional 15 minutes of sleep we headed out around 7AM to the next rest area in Maryland where we ate, washed and essentially regrouped.

Our campsite at Rest Area in DC

As you can see once we moved from the dump station we weren’t much better off because people have no compunction about littering. Litter. litter everywhere.

I think the third picture depicts exactly what I described as sleeping on the highway. UGH!

Traffic

Once back on the road we made pretty good time through NY City and over the GWB. Ron didn’t want to get home in the dark and try to unload. We’ve been told we won’t be able to get in our yard because of the snow and the size of the MH so we decided to stop at Foxwoods and take in a show – none tonight – go figure. Instead we ate at the California Pizza Kitchen (the two food items we wanted they ran out of – go figure again) and then it was back to the MH for some much needed rest.

We’ll head out in the morning and get home early to get ourselves back into home versus MH living. This part of our return was not without event.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Travel DAY (33) Florence SC 02/15/2011

Today I packed up the MH for travel. We’re heading back home today and dreading that long, boring I-95.

Before leaving we took one last hike. It was warm and beautifully sunny. So, you ask, why are we leaving????

Leaving Suwannee SP

Swanee the Dog saying Goodbye

Ron loves weird trees – so another weird tree picture.

Ron was on a roll today and despite leaving the CG around 1 PM we managed to travel almost 400 hundred miles.

Monday, February 14, 2011

2nd Day Suwannee River SP FL 2011-02-14 Monday Day (32)

OK Guys lets GO!

Jewel makes a new friend I named him , Swanee the Lost Dog

r0n NOTE:

Deb would not let me take Swanee home.

Swanee is a lovely dog that decided to come to visit us. We were told by other campers that he is a stray. He spent a lot of time with the campers across the road from us who were mean to him, shooing him away and even kicking him. We were furious about that. As you can see the friendly pooch came to visit us and even tried to come into the camper. We gave him a treat and some much needed affection then he went back across the way.

He got along just fine with Jewel and despite the fact that he appears to be homeless he is in good shape.

After the people across the road left Swanee disappeared too walking into the woods behind us and she hasn’t been back to our site yet.

OLD COLUMBUS CEMETERY

Paddle wheel ferry boat shaft

We took two one hour hikes today and found more interesting artifacts from the time the Suwannee River was an active means of transportation and bustling river way.

JUNCTION of the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers

RELAXING

Another great day and adventure. We did get to see and do many different things this trip. Our favorite kind of trip. Despite the weather being mostly uncooperative we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

We head back tomorrow and hopefully some of the snow will be gone, although we haven’t been receiving very many promising reports.