11/30/2018. Devilish Squirrels

We are camped at Fontainebleau State Park in Mandeville, Louisiana (just outside of New Orleans).  It is a beautiful state park with very high Coniferous trees (similar to pines).  Well in these trees lives a family of 10 or so young squirrels.  I am beginning to think that the top of the COW has a big target on it similar to that used in Darts.  These devilish young squirrels are carrying acorns up to the top of the trees and dropping them on to the top of the COW at all times day and night.  It’s as if they are teenagers at a bar throwing darts except the board is the top of the COW.  They drop the acorns from about 80’ up, then “BANG” the acorn hits the roof and rolls down and off the side.  I will give them credit as they are equal opportunity pests as also I heard them hit the camper next to me which then bounced off and hit his pickup truck with a clunk.  I wonder does auto insurance also cover acorn dents similar to that of hail damage? :-)

11/27/2018. Louisiana. What a day of firsts for Sandy and I

Today we drove from Mobile Alabama where we stayed at the worst campground that we have experienced to a State Park outside of New Orleans Louisiana which is very nice.  

Previously,It was a Plantation prior to becoming a State Park.  

The campsite, although tight for the COW to fit into are being renovated.  They experienced damage during Hurricane Katrina so many of the showers houses are new.

To our surprise this State Park has cabins built on stilts out in the water of Lake Pontchartrain.  It has wooden walkways to access the cabins.  From these cabins you can fish, see great sunsets, and see the Lake Pontchartrain Causway Bridge going into New Orleans.  

I stopped a couple out walking near the cabins.  They explained that the cabins have two bedrooms, are $150/night, and are very nice inside.  If we come back without the COW, I will be staying in one of these cabins.

By the way, the Lake Pontchartrain Causway Bridge is the largest bridge in the United States built over water.  It is 23.875 miles long.

Also, tonight during a ride in the park we saw 3 wild boars, 5 deer, and a possum.  Neither Sandy nor I have ever seen a boar before.  Wow, they are the size of the biggest pig I have ever seen.  They walk around the campground at night digging up the ground.  I assume they are eating grubs??  We were warned by other campers that they will attack.  Needless to say, we will not be making any runs to the campground bathrooms at night.

We are here for 1 week.  I can’t wait to see what the future days will bring.

11/26/18. What a DIVE in Mobile Alabama

We stopped in Mobile Alabama at a campground named I-10 Kampground.  The name and spelling alone should have been a warning of what will come.

As we drove into the campground, our initial impression was “YUCK”.  By the way our initial impression was correct. The first thing we saw was permanent campers with old mildewed trailers, old scrap cars, and miscellaneous junk all over their lots.  

The GOOD SAM Club rating was 8.0 on most things.  Boy their employee that rated this location should be let go.

The site they gave us looked like it had not been taken care of for the last 10 years.  (Obviously just a money maker for travelers, suckers passing through).  The greeter looked like he had just came out of a cave, no teeth, long straggly hair, and spoke with a deep southern draw.  The breaker box was a hodge-podge of some off brand plastic piece of junk.  Of course I look at these things.  When we checked in the password for the wireless that did not work was buster2828. I am sure this was the owners nick name. The advertised cable TV also did not work. The office advised they would send over Junior to fix it.  I am beginning to hear banjo’s

Needless to say, I did not hook up the water for fear of what was at the other end of the pipe, we double bolted the door, slept with my shotgun, and left first thing in the morning.

By the way I do not carry a shotgun, but I am rethinking my decision now :-)

NOPE, we will not be coming back!!!

11/14/2018. Rekindling a longtime friendship

Sandy and Marsha are longtime high school friends. They were both in their high school spirit leaders club cheering on their high school sports team.  Marsha was also our maid of honor in our wedding.  Circumstances, family moves, jobs, and children pulled us in different directions over the years.

Luckily for us, Marsha and Mark were to be in Myrtle Beach the same time that we were traveling south for the winter this year.  It was perfect for a reunion.

I must admit I did enjoy the reunion and seeing these two beautiful ladies together again.

To see them after a 25+ year hiatus was eye opening and nice.  It was as if they had never been apart.  We had a great time.  Mark (Marsha’s husband and I) had a front row seat to experience these two enjoying each other as if they were back in high school again.  

They giggled, told stories, walked the beach, and enjoyed each other’s company.  At one point, as we walked down the beach, Mark and I trailed behind as they pulled away from us laughing and enjoying each other’s company.  I expected that any minute they would start skipping down the beach like young school girls again.  It was fun to see.

Mark and Marsha are great hosts.  I expect that it won’t be another 30 years before we meet again.

Charleston, SC Surprises

11/16/2018

Charleston, SC Surprises

By Sandy

Although many people told me Charleston was a great place to visit, I honestly did not expect to enjoy the city due to the fact that I am in no way a fan of history (thanks to my high school teacher) and Bill doesn’t have an interest either.  We approached the town from the north, coming from Myrtle Beach.  All along the route to town were stands, unattended in November, but designed to sell handmade sweet grass baskets.  Taking the bypass around the city, it was evident the northern outskirts had much development and growth underway, and it looked like a nice area.  One thing we did notice was a stench of what we thought was rubbish/landfill areas nearby.  We didn’t find a cause, but there was both swamp surrounding much of the town and a paper factory spilling out pollutants, both a likely source.

From a really nice campground, near every high end car dealership you can imagine (ie Ferrari, Mazaretti, Alfa Romeo) giving us the idea this town probably offers more than we were expecting, we set out the next day for a Grayline historic tour of the city, then followed that with walking King Street, a retail/restaurant mecca.  We found that this city isn’t as old as imagined.  Most of the 1600’s and 1700’s buildings have been destroyed from Civil and Revolutionary Wars, hurricanes, fires and earthquakes, along with general tear down and rebuild activities.  One unexpected twist was that growth in the city is taking place courtesy of land fill.  As they need more space, they bring in landfill to expand into the harbor.

The next day we toured the Boone Hall Plantation, complete with slave quarters and some history.  The main home was not as grand as the movies make plantations look, but still elaborate for the time period of 1800’s.  Isle of Palms, a beach town with gorgeous newer beachfront homes but little in terms of town amenities, and Folly Beach, a random mix of smaller older homes with a few restaurants but not offering much else, both had limited beach access.

Overall, I thought Charleston was much nicer and a more modern city than I expected and the neighborhoods being developed outside of town to the north look inviting.  For history buffs, there are so many more historical sites to visit.  But we did get the impression that the people here are not as ‘warm and inviting’ as other areas of the country. Could it be that Bill was treated almost like a terrorist for carrying a backpack of raincoats and water bottles into a government building and getting kicked out for it?  

Random piece of information:  At any given time, I have 10-11 towns listed in my weather app, deleting towns after we leave them and adding more.  Home and daughters’ towns, current location, winter location, next winter location to see how the other side of the country compares and to help with that route planning, and 5-6 upcoming locations, to help in determining when to move on and/or when to schedule those outside vs inside excursions for best weather selection.

Distance and Time Makes No Difference

11/12/2018

by Sandy

Especially when it comes to good friends.  We met up with my high school friends and maid of honor, Marsha and her husband Mark.  It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other other than on Facebook and when we found our paths could cross, we made it happen in Myrtle Beach.  What a great time we had!  Bill and I had been to Myrtle Beach several times over the years with our girls, but this “grown up trip” included nature walks along with beach walks and some great restaurants, a fantastic way to reconnect, and it felt like we’ve been getting together weekly.  We picked up right where we left off the last time.  What was amazing to find out was how much we still have in common.  The guys also enjoyed their time together.  Thanks Marsha and Mark for such an enjoyable visit!  As Marsha put it so well, you can have as much fun at almost age 60 as you can at age 16.  New “to do” item:  get together more often!

MYRTLE BEACH - saw hurricane effects, including offshore dredging activities to get the sand back to the beach, large seashells washed ashore and the hurricane-rerouted inlets along the shoreline

                               - Heritage Shores Nature Preserve, north of town, had a boardwalk over the marsh, with interesting views of marsh wildlife.                     

                               - there’s a 7 mile hike/run/bike trail in town, just watch out for fire ants and mountain bikers that don’t care if they run you over as they race around the bends 

                               - Recommended restaurants:  Lulu’s, waterfront dining on the inter coastal, Rios, a Brazilian restaurant with unlimited meats served by gauchos at your table, Paula Deen’s for southern cooking, and small, quiet Luigi’s for Italian.  

We started South Carolina in Gaffney with a 2 day course on our Freightliner chassis (which Bill will probably write about), but one really useful thing we learned there was an option we didn’t even know we had that has so far increased our gas mileage by 1 mile per gallon in highway driving, an approximate 10-11% gain in fuel mileage.

Then, we hopped over to North Carolina just over the border to visit with Sandy’s aunt.  Another precious visit that should happen more often.  Looking at a paper map does have its advantages over a GPS, it showed us we were fairly close to her.

Another unexpected surprise in Myrtle Beach was finding Sandy’s sister and brother-in-law were on vacation there, so they met us upon our arrival and got a tour of the bus and went to dinner with all of us, making our Myrtle Beach stop doubly special.  This is the beauty of travel, finding not only unexpected places but people in unexpected places and being able to flex your time and schedule to capture it all.

Next stop:  Charleston, SC

11/4/2018. Another lesson learned.

When we pulled into Salt Fork State Park we picked the perfect site.  We parked under a beautiful Maple tree full of yellow leaves. Who would of thought that all those beautiful leaves would fall within the two days on top of the COW and Toad.  It was like having 6” of snow on top and completely around the vehicles.

Luckily at the last minute (before we left home), I added a battery operated leaf blower to the list of tools that we carry.

To remove the leaves and the sticks from the top of the roof and keep them from wrapping up in our slide out awning gears etc... I had to get on top of the roof and blow the leaves and stick offs twice.

The lesson we learned:  Although tempting, DO NOT park under a tree ready to loose it leaves during the fall.

Nov 3 2018 Is it to much to ask to have a working throne for the King :-)

If you have kept up with our blog you know that we purchased to pots, but only one can be used to piss in :-).   That is, we bought two toilets (one for the Queen and one for the king) in the COW, but here we are at 1 year of ownership and the only working pot is the Queens throne.  Do you have any idea how demeaning it is for me to have to use the Queens throne all the time????

Sandy can only laugh.  She says that only I could figure out that the toilet was broken.  Most people would just accept it as is.  You see it does flush, but it doesn’t:

• Let me set the water depth at any level my heart desires and should be repeatable.
• Let me drain the water completely out of the toilet so it doesn’t slosh out while driving down the road
• Like I said in my previous blog, if this thing is programmable I want it to salute me when if approach :-)

Well my RV dealer replaced my King throne with a brand new shiny porcelain model and advised that it works.  Well I made the mistake of believing them without checking it.  After all, a brand new unit should work as expected.  WRONG.  We are on our 2nd adventure.  This time 5 months.  During our first stop (Salt Fork State Park), we had a day of rain.  Perfect time for me to program my new King Throne.  Out came the programming manual.  Sandy was shaking her head.  Well guess what, my throne does not work as programmed.  This time I called the manufacture.  The customer service team at first blamed it on a missing ty-wrap.  Must have thought I didn’t know what a ty-wrap was.  Well my King Throne is much to important.  Off came the toilet and I quickly put the ty-wrap in place.  Guess What, it didn’t fix the problem.  Now they tell me it is not a consumer fix.  It could be the controller or the push-buttons.  Give me a break.  A MAN NEEDS HIS THRONE :-).  

Well Sandy is laughing at me.  Can you believe it.

I told her I am going to buy potting soil and plant flowers in my Shiny new Porcelain Throne.  After all when I flush it, it will at least water the flowers.

In the meantime I will continue to use the Queens Throne

To be continued.

10/30/2018. We are off again

10/30/2018

We are off again.  (SANDY’S EDIT:  WE ARE OFF ON OUR ESCAPE TO THE SOUTH TO AVOID WINTER). This time for 5 1/2 months.  Most things are fixed on the COW (Condo On Wheels) or a plan is in place to fix (SANDY’S EDIT:  the remaining minor issues) when we return in April.  YEE-HAW.  Hopefully this trip will not present more issues with the COW.  

Day 1:  We traveled 3 hours south and are at (sandy’s edit:  our favorite) Salt Fork State Park in Ohio.  We are one of maybe 8 other campers in the entire park that typically holds a couple hundred or more.  The animals are out to play.  We saw a bunch of deer and rabbits running around the campground.  (SANDY’S EDIT):   We pretty much had the entire state park to ourselves, except for the deer, rabbits, birds and wild turkey we saw.  Only about 8 of the several hundred sites were occupied, therefore leaving the gorgeous fall leaves on full display without interference of other rv’ers.  We are pleased that the leaf peeping season is delayed this year.  It’s making for a beautiful time to travel.)

Attached are:

1).  Snap shot of our Route for the next 5 months.  As you can see Sandy is getting much better at using the Rand McNally Mapping software.  A lot better than I.  (SANDY’S EDIT:  This route is approximate and always subject to change, and a few definite stops near existing points on the map are not marked.  If you’re going to be near any of these areas, we’d love to meet up with you, let us know.  Or if you have any hot ideas/recommendations of must do items near these areas, feel free to share.  We do have reservations in several locations, but not all and unplanned diversions always make for some excitement.  Sandy had made reservations at Henderson Beach State Park in Destin, FL prior to Hurricane Michael, so we were watching the path very closely.  Luckily, Destin was spared the devastation and the park is open again.   Whew! 

2). Photos of camping at Salt Fork State Park.  What a beautiful time of year to camp.