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.