Another title to this could be/or as we like to call it the “…what’s going to happen next – trip!”
G mapped out a trip, taking us from Fuquay to Fort Myers, Florida and back in a 15 day period. We planned on 3 stops on the way to our final destination, since we both don’t like driving more than about 4 hours at a time.
We left on Friday, Feb. 19th, headed to our first stop in Yemassee, SC. Campground was The Oaks at Point South. I worked in the car for a few hours, as we left around 3pm and G was finished for the day so he’s job was just driving. We had rain for 30days and 30nights, so we should not have been surprised that the campground was a SWAMP when we arrived, in the dark no less. It was hard to find a section of grass for the pups to go out – what a mess. I’ve never been so glad to have rain boots!
We went to bed that night and didn’t make it very long, all (2 of us and 3 dogs) sleeping in the bedroom together. You see, our bed is not quite a traditional queen, it’s considered a camper queen. Shorter than normal and with G’s new wedge pillow, his feet hung off the bottom of the bed! He was so uncomfortable that at 3am he got up and made the bed up over the dinette. It all seems very comical now, but not at the time. So, for the rest of the two weeks, we slept separately – not ideal.
We were going to go into Savannah, GA on Saturday, but due to not getting great sleep the night before, we decided to have an easy day and relax…after we went to brunch at the Waffle House, right beside the campground. I was so hungry…the Alstar Breakfast never tasted so good and Mr Tye, our server was a hoot.
After eating…ah it was so good…we headed into Port Royal Sound area, in search of a Tractor Supply or Walmart – to purchase G some rain boots…for the above mentioned “swamp” campground.
Hanging Moss
Driving into town we saw gorgeous trees with hanging moss. Nothing reminds me of “Low Country” like hanging moss. That was the first time both of us have been to Beaufort, SC – same spelling as Beaufort, NC but pronounced like “bufort” not “bow” like the NC town.
Our second stop was Jacksonville, FL and a campground called Pecan Point, arriving Sunday, the 21st. This should have been just a short 2 1/2 hour drive but we’re not that lucky – always seems to take us longer pulling the camper.
Arriving at Pecan Point, in Jacksonville, we were very pleased to see concrete pads. No “SWAMP” there. 🙂 Very nice campground, but not part of Thousand Trails (TT), so unfortunately we had to pay (our of pocket) to stay.
Of course you know something is going to happen here: That night the sliding door to our bedroom came off it’s tracks (which it has MANY MANY times) in the past, so G had to fix that. Hate that door!
On Monday, the 22nd, we left Pecan Point and traveled to Wauchula, FL – was supposed to be our longest drive at appx 4 1/2 hours, but as you’ll see why, it ended up being MUCH longer. I worked in the truck and it wasn’t that bad. Just a very bumpy ride, when going over bridges / transitions as those can be really rough. If I remember correctly, G took 1/2 a day off for the drive.
Somewhere on I95 we were on the phone with our friend and G just happened to look out the side mirror. Thank God we were in the far right lane because our 6ft by 4ft door to the outside kitchen was open – traveling 70mph!!! We pulled off to a safe location and used duck tape to keep the door shut – I know you’re laughing…duck tape. All the latches on the door were not usable (since they were now bent), from the force of being sucked open by the wind. This taught us two valuable lessens for the road: #1 always have duck tape and #2 keep the tool bag where you can access it easily. AND on this camper there is a silver stripe so the ever useful duck tape didn’t stick out TOO much. 🙂 But seriously, if we had not been in the right lane, we could have killed someone, as the door is on the passenger side of the camper.
Peace River Campground is NOT easy to find. Had to stop for directions, even though we were using Waze. We made it and this is a TT campground, so no out of pocket expense to stay. No concrete pad but also not as muddy as The Oaks either. Huge campground and an interesting fact: You pick out your own site and they have this crazy lottery system for sites with sewer hook up. You have to go to the office, or some designated place and see if your name is pulled. If you don’t show up – twice, you’re OUT of the lottery and out of luck for a “full” hookup. Glad we didn’t stay there long – very loud with a ton of kids. It was nice down by the river though, which we found on our walk.
Peace River
So, the one night we stayed at Peace River, we were awakened up by a SCREAMING alarm. Our propane alarm was going off and we could smell gas! I was so tired, G couldn’t even wake me fully, but I remember him opening windows and going to turn the propane tanks to off. I wondered if we would die in our sleep. But even that didn’t keep me awake long! We didn’t figure out what the problem was until a couple of days later. G originally thought all the rough roads broke a gas line somewhere…but that was not it! That night we were so tired, I cooked a frozen meal in the microwave – just didn’t feel like preparing dinner.
So, this brings us to the fact that our camper is too small for us – for doing this full time. We have a tiny jack-knife sofa that only fits me and the 3 pups and G brings in a “lawn” chair to sit in front of the kitchen area – for us to watch TV in the evenings. So, it’s hard to maneuver around his chair and ottoman. Granted, it is a very comfortable lawn/camping chair. We remember that I had to lean over him to get to the microwave and now think that’s when I turned the nob on the stove to “just barely” the “on” position and not quite to the “lite” setting. So, gas was coming in at a slow rate from the stovetop! I think it was a day or two later that G turned the propane back on, to see if we could figure out where the gas was coming from, and we both ended up at the stove at the same time. I looked down and about died, when I saw a nob was turned to “on position”.
So, driving from Wauchala to Fort Myers (which is appx. 2 hours) we had no power to the fridge/freezer, since normally the propane is on while traveling (to cool the fridge)…but we had to turn it off the night before because of the leak – ah if we had only looked at the stove/cooktop knobs in Wauchala! 🙂 We heat water with electricity when connected to shore power so we would only need it to run the furnace or cooking.
See my next post for more on this trip!