This week's events - Day 1676 (Year 5, Day 207)

Zephyrhills, FL

On Thursday (Jan. 24th), we took a ride into Tampa.  Jessica was on a business trip there, so we decided to meet up with her for dinner.  It was a 35 mile trip which took us an hour to get there!  It was mostly on 2 lane roads with a lot of traffic and congestion.

I was not at all impressed (in fact, disliked) the area we were in (known as the Westshore).  Tampa is rather large, so I won't pass judgement on the entire city, but this reminded me very much of any cramped urban area, such as parts of Queens or Brooklyn, with no consistency of storefronts, very little parking, lots of traffic, crazy drivers.  Just not a pleasant place to visit.

We did have one little bit of excitement, however.  Prior to meeting our daughter, we needed to make a side trip to a Trader Joe's and Whole Foods to stock up on some items that are very hard to get, and these were the closest locations to us.  In the parking lot of where the Whole Foods was (part of a mall or huge shopping center), is a Total Wine store.  It seems that Budweiser is having a nationwide promotion and is taking their Clydesdales around the country (recently, we received a video from my sister-in-law who lives in NYC, showing the horses in her neighborhood.  We also saw a news clip showing the horses in a local parade, and I heard from a friend that they were out West a few weeks ago).  The last time we saw them was at their stables in St. Louis, in 2010.  This was kind of fun, seeing them all hooked up, with the golf cart following behind picking up the poop.

I took a video while we were waiting for the traffic light to turn, so we could get a better look, but sadly, it did not turn out well at all.  But I do have a few photos.  Unfortunately, these photos were taken when the horses were being taken off the carriage and brought back to the trucks, so you can't get the full extent of the glamour and glory of these magnificent animals.  For example, the photo below shows only 2 horses hooked up to the carriage, but there were actually 3 rows (6 horses) before they were dismantled.

  

Today (Sunday), one of the residents (Carol) arranged a pot luck get together in the greenhouse 2 "doors" down from us (actually looks more like a big tent, and there are picnic benches, not plants, inside).  Although it was a miserable, all-day rainy day, the party still went on, as we were assured the tent did not leak and it had doors that closed.  There were many wonderful food choices, although I could not eat any of them (I brought some hard boiled eggs and grape tomatoes).  We made a vegetarian chili. 

Group photo (although a few people were missing).  Of course, this event reinforced how this place is not like a standard campground filled with overnighters, weekenders, vacationers and a few long termers, but rather is a close knit community.

Update (not much of an) - Day 1670 (Year 5, Day 201)

Zephyrhills, FL

Something tells me my blog posts here are going to be about as "exciting" as they were in Virginia Beach, which means not a whole lot to write about.

Today is exactly one week since we arrived here.  As I've stated previously, it definitely does NOT feel like we're in Florida, with all the live oaks instead of palm trees and waking up to temps in the 30s and low 40s.

We met a few more neighbors and this definitely is a small, close-knit community where everyone knows everyone else, they offer help when needed, and have frequent get-togethers.  The owners, Chris and Howard (life partners) are super friendly and helpful as well.

We've managed to take 1 or 2 walks around the campground every day.  Thanks, Mitch, for pushing me.  Here is a better picture of the garden (more like a mini farm) next to us (that's us to the right).  The "building with the blue roof is the chicken coop).  There are about 15 different veggies being grown now.

We're still very disappointed in the grocery shopping choices here.  There is no Aldi nearby and the prices, even at Walmart are about 10 to 25% higher here than anywhere else we've been.  Very frustrating to say the least.

As for a "day in the life", I'm pleased that business has started to pick up quite a bit for me so I've been spending at least half my days on billable time.  Mitch has also been spending at least half his days job hunting.  Nothing solid yet, but he's getting a lot of good leads.

Will keep you posted.

More about the campground and the area - Day 1664 (Year 5, Day 195)

Zephyrhills, FL

First, about the area.  I'm disappointed that there are very few, if any, palm trees.  I guess I'm not far enough south.  There are plenty of oaks with Spanish moss.

As I mentioned yesterday, the park only has 30 sites.  It's in a huge circle, with sites around the perimeter and in the middle of the circle (we're in the middle).  Most residents are permanent and their trailers appear old and worn.  That seems to be the appearance of the entire area of Zephyrhills, other than the shopping area.  There seem to be lots of trailer parks (most saying 55+) which all look old and tired.  This appears to be an economically depressed area.  But then again, right now we are in that financial boat too and it's all we can afford.

The folks to our right (Joe and Chris) are actually renting 2 lots (they've been here for 4 years).  On 1 1/2 lots, they have a huge garden where they are growing lots of crops.  I'm told they are being grown for the Meals on Wheels program.  They are also raising chickens and roosters; they have 8 of them, which we hear clucking quite often.  I hope they'll share the eggs with us (after I offer to buy some).

Across from our site are woods.  I'm told there's a lot of wildlife there, including turtles, foxes and rattlesnakes, as well as hawks and owls.  There are plenty of molehills in the dirt on the sites (I'm sure the owls never go hungry!)

Photos:  garden next door, woods in front, view from back

We've only met 3 of our neighbors, and whenever they see us outside doing work, they're right there to lend a hand.  I hope today or tomorrow we'll have a chance to walk around the circle and perhaps meet other neighbors.

As for weather here, I'm told we're in a cold spell, as it's only in the 40s and 50s.  Still better than 20s and 30s, though, and no snow!  I still need the heat and fireplace though.

Arrived - Day 1663 (Year 5, Day 194

Zephyrhills, FL

What a day!!!

We were very fortunate that we were not asked to move during the night, nor did we wake up to find a ticket on our windshield.  Good night's sleep!

We left the rest area at 7:45 am, drove 38 miles to the first and only rest area on the 70 mile route to change drivers (I don't mind doing highway, but when it comes to the back roads and commercial areas, I really need Mitch to do that).

We arrived at this little campground at about 9:45 am.  We didn't get into our site to get set up until almost 11:30 am.  Why???  Because the site is all dirt and we got stuck in the mud!   At least 3 neighbors came out to help us (I have no doubt this will be an incredibly friendly place to stay!).  It took quite a while, with much digging, to maneuver (interestingly, one of our neighbors - Joe-- is an extremely religious Christian.  He said a prayer for us, which I then followed with my own prayer. Within 5 minutes of our praying, the problem was finally solved (after almost an hour of trying).  Make of this as you will.  I think this was a way of G-d answering our prayers.

Meanwhile, my clients are keeping me busy and I just picked up a new one!  Hopefully, Mitch will find work soon, too.  (interestingly, our  neighbor owns an IT business.  It will be exciting to learn more. Who knows if there's an opportunity or at least some good leads here?)

Almost there... Day 1662 (Year 5, Day 193)

Ocala, FL

I've been saying how much I wish I was in a warmer place.  Well, we're now in Florida where it's 70 degrees!  Almost shorts & flip flop weather!

It was a lovely 3 night stay at the campground in Brunswick.  We went out for a walk around the place twice on Saturday.  Small but pretty place (it was never our plan to stay, but you know... the delay and all...)

Anyway, we never unhitched so we only needed to pack up this morning.  We left the campground at 9:45 am and stopped at every rest area we passed, each one approximately 30 to 40 miles apart.  It was quite nostalgic pulling into the first rest area, which was the Florida Welcome Center right over the border -- the first place we stopped when we were on the way down to pick up our new home.  This was us at the same welcome center in June 2014:  http://mitcheryl-rv-journey.blogspot.com/2014/06/officially-floridians.html

We traveled about 210 miles, and have about another 70 to go.  We are staying at a wonderful rest area now.  What makes this more lovely than most is that they have a separate area for RVs so we don't have to park with all the trucks.  The spaces are wider as well, for those of us who need to open our slide-outs.  We hope to be able to stay the night, but there are signs posted "no overnight parking or camping" and "nighttime security."  My fear is that they probably DO enforce the rules here and we may be asked to leave.  The next rest area is in about 38 miles where we were planning to stop en route tomorrow, but if we need to leave, I guess we'll just go there for a few hours in the middle of the night, if needed.  We shall see.

G-d willing, I will be posting again tomorrow from our next semi-permanent location, in Zephyrhills (30 miles NE of Tampa).

Finally moved - Day 1659 (Year 5, Day 190)

Brunswick, GA

$2,300 later, we got the truck back at 1:30 pm. We needed to take a 12 mile trip first to refill our propane and fuel tanks, so after we hitched up and left "Camp Ford" it was 2:45 pm.  We had 160 miles to go to the campground which we reserved until Sunday, so we only stopped once, at the halfway point, to change drivers.

We arrived at the campground around 5:30 pm, when it was starting to get dark (fortunately it was a pull through site so we didn't need to spend 1/2 hour +++ backing into it!!!).  A few sewer problems, but we'll deal with it in the morning.  

It's too soon to give my opinion about this place.  So far, from first impressions, it seems like a really nice place.  I'll enjoy being here over Shabbat.

Another night at "Camp Ford" - Day 1658 (Year 5, Day 198)

St. George, SC

Looks like we're spending another night on the Ford dealership lot as truck is still not ready.  They narrowed it down to either a fuel pump or injector(s) but as of 4:30 pm today, they still didn't have an answer. 

As for now, the plan is that we hope to be on the road tomorrow at some point tomorrow.  We have about 4 hours to get to the next campground (in Brunswick, GA), where I changed the reservation to leave on Sunday, so we'll spend Shabbat there.  I can still prepare for Shabbat on Friday, even if we need to do a little more driving on Friday morning, depending on what time we can hit the road tomorrow.

Plan B is that if the truck isn't ready tomorrow either, if it's ready on Friday, we'll just find a local campground and stay there until Sunday.  Time will tell.....

3rd travel day - "Camp Ford" - Day 1657 (Year 5, Day 197)

St. George, SC

Our "campground" view today (notice the sign in the background):

"Camp Ford".  This is the 3rd time in 4  years we've been parked at a Ford dealership because the truck broke down.  They really should have a reward program for frequent visitors!!!

We left the rest area at 7:30 this morning.  The travel plans were similar to yesterday's, going about 175 miles down I-95 with the driving hopefully very similar.  We planned to stay at a campground off the highway, with an arrival time before noon so we could enjoy the grounds and/or get some work done.

As you can tell, that wasn't meant to be.  We weren't driving even 5 minutes before we started running out of steam.  We were very fortunate to have a good shoulder to pull onto, where we just barely made it as the truck died (it made a whirring sound but didn't turn over again).  Once again, since we have the truck pulling the trailer, we need a tow truck that tows semis, which are generally very hard to find.  We broke down at 7:45 and the tow truck showed up at 11:00.  By the time we got hooked up, over to the dealer 15 miles away and unhooked (and backed into a spot in the back), it was close to 12:30 pm.  At 2:00 pm, the truck still wasn't even in the bay, so it's extremely unlikely that it'll be fixed today.

For now, the plan is continue with our route as planned, just a day later.  But of course, that depends on the diagnosis and how soon tomorrow they can have it ready.  We'll need at least 4 hours to get to our next destination.

UPDATE:  They didn't take the truck into the bay until just after 4:00, so clearly we are camped out here for the night.  Mechanic took a real quick look at it and said it could be one of several things: a bad fuel pump, and/or a bad injector (sadly, not the starter as we were hoping).  He needs to work on it more in the morning to determine for sure.  Service manager said that IF it is one of those things and IF they can get the part from their warehouse, then maybe the part will arrive by noon.  Which probably means the work won't be done until 3 or 4.  So right now I'm sitting tight and prepared to figure out next steps.  Doesn't look like we'll make it down to FL even by Friday, so we'll probably go as far as we can and stay in a campground over Shabbat.  Did I say last week that I couldn't be serendipitous?  Guess it's not all that true (ok, I can't just go without a plan, but at least my planning is very flexible).

This is turning out to be quite a very expensive week, just at a time when we can afford it the least.  I hope Mitch can find lucrative employment very quickly. 

2nd travel day - Day 1656 (Year 5, Day 196)

Santee, SC

Thankfully, today's travel was very uneventful and it was the kind of travel I prefer -- all on Interstate 95 with no traffic and no road construction and fairly decent roads.  We traveled almost 200 miles and were able to stop approximately every 50 miles at rest areas to stretch our legs and change drivers.  We landed at a rest area here.  There is a sign posted, among other things, no overnight parking, but hopefully they don't have the personnel to enforce that or even keep track of who arrived when (we got here at 4:00).  Naturally, we'll be fully clothed for bed and ready to hit the road if needed, but praying that won't be the case.  Plan is to hit the road around 7 am tomorrow, and arrive at our next destination, which will be a campground, at noon.  We have about 175 miles to travel.

Oddly enough, although my work has been very slow over the past few months, this week clients decided they needed me!!!  I'm not complaining about having billable hours, but the timing really sucks!

One more thing I really need to make a note of.  It is a political statement so please just close this and don't read on if you don't want to read it......

Last night, on the way to meet the kids for dinner, we were pulled over by the police.  Apparently, all of our back lights on the truck were out (no running lights or tail lights).  It's probably a bad fuse somewhere.  In addition, our registration expired the week before (in Florida, you only get a tag to put on the vehicle -- no paper).  We paid for it but it didn't arrive in the mail yet so we had nothing to prove that the vehicle was legally registered.  So in affect, we had 2 strikes against us. The officer was extremely nice.  He liked us and noted that he thought our vehicle was used for business and said we seemed like really nice people.  We built a rapport explaining our traveling lifestyle and how we were just meeting our daughter for dinner.  We promised to look into the issue in the morning.  But here's the catch.... we got off without even a ticket. But what if we were black???  I really hate to think of it, but I'm truly convinced that if we were black, we would not have gotten off anywhere near as easy as we did. Not only would we have received a fine, but I wouldn't be surprised if we were arrested.  Just food for thought here, folks.  This is not a fair world we live in.

Last day in VA Beach, 1st day of travel - Day 1655 (Year 5, Day 195)

Selma, NC

We spent Friday and Saturday at the Holiday Trav-L Park, down the road in VA Beach.  Thankfully, the water pump was replaced on Friday so we were able to travel as planned (left today, Sunday Jan. 6th).

I'm not sure I would stay at this park again.  It was pleasant enough as it was quite empty, although the sites are very close and the roads narrow.  I can't imagine what it's like during the busy season.  They had lots of amenities (including 4 pools).  They converted one to an indoor heated pool, which we forced ourselves to take advantage of after services and a nap on Saturday.  The campground also had very nice decorations all over the park, including cute signs, a large statue of Neptune, even wooden duck in the fountain pond.  They still had some Christmas decorations up, including these:

 

So... we packed and hitched up for our ride down to Florida.  We're not planning to drive more than 200 miles a day, so God willing, we'll arrive on Thursday.  We left VA Beach at 10:30 this morning, and after a 20 minute stop at the first rest area we came to (NC Welcome Center just over the border, where we changed drivers), went the rest of the way to this campground, in Selma, NC, where we arrived at 2:45 pm.  Other than being right off the highway and not too far from train tracks (thus car, truck and train noise, which doesn't really bother us), this is a real gem of a park (why do we always manage to find these gems when we're only staying overnight???).  The property is a  nice size, sites are extremely spacious, grounds very well kept.  Our site is right on a small lake (catch & release fishing, no license required).  In fact, it's a gorgeous day with temps in the high 50s, so I decided to sit outside and do some work.  I'm also impressed by the fact that instead of a standard picnic table, the sites all have real patio furniture -- glass tables and outdoor chairs. Below are some photos of my table setup and what I am looking at as I sit outside:

And a few hours later, sunset over the lake:

Anyway, tomorrow's plans include more rest stops (about every 50 miles) and we will most likely be staying overnight at a rest area, as I couldn't find any affordable campgrounds within that mileage.  The destination will be Santee, SC.

UPDATE:  We discovered that we were only 35 miles away from Raleigh.  Turns out Jessica was leaving on a business trip early in the morning, but we all agreed to meet at the halfway point (which was Clayton, NC) for a wonderful sushi dinner.  Thanks Jess and Griffin!!!  It was great seeing you again, especially so spontaneously!

Status on leaving - Day 1652 (Year 5, Day 192)

Virginia Beach, VA

Yesterday (Wed), we were told the part (water pump) would arrive today.  Note there are 2 RV techs that are working the project: the owner of the company (Shawn) and his specialist that works on plumbing issues (Mike).  Mike is the one who is doing the labor but Shawn needs to do the warranty work, order the parts and other administrative stuff.

Anyway, we called at 10:00 am this morning to find out whether the part arrived.  Got Shawn's voicemail.  Mike said that Shawn had to take his father to the hospital, and therefore didn't know what the story was.  He said he would drop by Shawn's house after work to see whether it had arrived, and if so, he would install it tomorrow (Friday).  So another day of wait and see.

Meanwhile, we packed and hitched up and went down the road to the other campground.  Lots of wide open space here, but the sites are rather close together.  It's probably not very pleasant during busy season.  The place is huge, however, with tons of amenities and 4 pools.  One of them has been converted into a heated indoor pool, so I'm hoping we'll have a chance before we leave to get at least 1 swim in.

Happy New Year (and update) - Day 1650 (Year 5, Day 190)

Virginia Beach, VA

January 1st and it's 74 degrees!!  Strange for this area.  But it will be 49 tomorrow.  Mitch is still underneath the trailer making stuff "pretty".

We're starting out the year on a fairly positive note... one of the places I contacted in Florida called me back and has a spot for us.  It's in Zephryhills, which is about 30 miles northeast of Tampa.  I guess the reason they're not sold out is that it's a small little hole in the ground (about 30 sites), it's not a resort -- absolutely no amenities; just a place to park, and they don't advertise.  I found their listing on a site of RV lots for rent by owner.  But hey, the price is right ($400/month + electric) so it's worth giving the place a try since we wanted to be in FL anyway and it's peak snowbird season.

Whether we go down the road on Thursday or head down south depends on when the water pump comes in and gets installed.  We're hoping tomorrow, but time will tell.