We are in Arcadia, Florida, at the Turner Agri-Civic Center (map) for Bussin' 2009.
Today is the official start, and it looks like there are nearly 100 coaches here already. Our first official activity will be the 7pm ice cream social, and we are both delivering seminars tomorrow. We had a pleasant and uneventful drive here yesterday down US-17, after first taking advantage of our gravel parking space to pressure-wash the bus, for the first time in six months or so.
We'll be here until Thursday, when we will start heading in the general direction of Fort Lauderdale, unless we can persuade someone here in Arcadia to replace our coolant hose on Friday.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Disney out of our system
We are at our stealth boondocking lot in Orlando (map), just a few feet from where we spent last weekend.
We had a great time at the Hollywood Studios on Wednesday with Jim, Cathy, and the boys. The park was quite crowded, as we expected, but we still made it onto our favorite, the Tower of Terror. We also caught the Extreme Motors stunt show, which I've wanted to return to see ever since I saw a TV special on how the cars are outfitted. It's really quite impressive driving. We all left the park around 5ish, since we needed to walk Opal, and the boys were running out of steam. Louise and I used our "extra magic hours" access to go back in the evening, though, to see the Osborne Family Holiday Lights. Word's can't describe it, so here's a photo:
What you can't see in that shot is the animated display. There is music playing in the street, and every third or fourth song, the lights flash in sync to the music -- it's really quite spectacular, and I'm sorry the camera in my BlackBerry, which took these stills, was really not up to the task of capturing it. This "tree," which is really just a pole with thousands of lights strung from it, must have been 70' tall:
After we finished in the park, we had a nice dinner at the Flying Fish on Disney's Boardwalk, a short boat ride away from Hollywood Studios. The boats themselves fascinated me, as they were quite maneuverable. Turns out that they are azimuth drive.
We decided to stay out of the parks on Christmas, since we'd heard that the Magic Kingdom gets so crowded that day, Disney often closes the gates by 10am. Instead, we had a quiet morning at home, wandering over towards dinner late in the afternoon. After an excellent meal at Shula's Steak House in the Dolphin hotel, we strolled back over to the Boardwalk, browsed a little bit, and treated ourselves to an ice cream cone. We ended up spending a good part of the afternoon and evening on the Disney Transportation System, since getting from Fort Wilderness to that area and back is something of a project.
To cap off a perfect evening, we rode our scooters through every RV loop at Fort Wilderness, taking in the holiday displays. This one, on our loop, was by far the most elaborate. Again, the still photo does not do it justice, and this shot covers less than half of it -- the rest is behind the rig and extending all the way to the main road:
We saw perhaps half a dozen sites that were similarly over-the-top, and I would have to say that we must have passed over a hundred sites that were "well decorated" with lights or inflatables. If you are looking for a dark, quiet camping experience around Christmas, this is not it. Here's one of the less elaborate sites (really) in the daylight:
Friday morning we packed everything up, then backed up a few yards so we could dump our tanks in the provided sewer hookup. I don't think there's a dump station at Fort Wilderness, since most of the sites are full hookup, and sewer connections are almost always too far back for Odyssey's dump, which is amidships (as far back as we could practically locate it when we installed the tanks). We rolled out right at the 11am checkout time, and situated ourselves in the day lot (map) -- just in time, too, as we got one of the last "easy" spaces, and the several rigs that pulled in after us had to hunt around.
We spent the rest of the day, all the way till past midnight, in the Magic Kingdom, other than a couple hours to come home and walk the dog (and yes, it takes that long to make a round trip on the transit system). Little did we know that we should have rested up in the early afternoon, and hit the park at sundown. Our resort cards would have given us till 3am, when I'm sure it was quite calm. As it was, in the early afternoon, the FastPass dispensers were giving attraction tickets for 9-11pm, and the park was so jammed, you could hardly move.
We ended up doing slow-moving sit-down rides like the people-mover and the steam train for the afternoon, since most standby lines were an hour or longer. The rest of the gang did the smart thing, hanging out at the hotel pool and joining us in the park after 7. We did manage to get on Pirates of the Caribbean (which stopped in the middle, and we sat through the gun battle for Port Royal repeatedly for several minutes), Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain (do you detect a theme here?). We also saw the fireworks, and the nighttime parade twice. And the castle looked stunning in its holiday finery:
We pooped out just a little after midnight, which was closing time for non-resort guests. We handed our resort cards over to Jim and Cathy so they could stay in the park as late as they wanted, said our goodbyes to the entire crew, and headed back to the bus. It was very nearly 1am when we finally rolled out of the day lot, and we made it here by 1:30 and fell into bed exhausted.
Yesterday we tried to sleep in a bit, then spent the morning recovering from our Disney experience. We're really, really glad we got the chance to spend the holiday with friends in this magical place. That said, unless we're meeting someone here again (recognizing that many do not have the same schedule flexibility as we do), we won't likely do Christmas week again. It's very expensive, nearly twice the daily rate as the surrounding weeks, and, moreover, the place is just too crowded to be pleasant.
The parks and resorts are nicely decorated for the holidays, but those are up well before and somewhat after this week, too. Disney even adds extra holiday festivities that run only through mid-December, to attract folks in otherwise off weeks. In any case, we've had our Disney fix now for a while, and I guess it will be another few years before we get back here, absent any of our nieces and nephews coming.
Yesterday afternoon I took the scooter out to go get some coolant -- we got a low coolant alarm leaving Fort Wilderness. I then made the mistake of trying to tighten the clamp on the dripping hose fitting, which made the slow drip much, much worse. Realizing we could lose most of our coolant overnight, stranding us here in Orlando, I relocated the clamp a bit further up on the hose, which cost me a gallon and a half of coolant while it was loose, but at least now the drip has stopped. We need to get this hose replaced in the next week or so.
Last night we rode in to downtown Orlando for a nice dinner at the Citrus Club, a positively relaxing experience after the chaos that was Disney. This morning we'll top off the cooling system with some of the six gallons I bought yesterday, and head down to Arcadia for the start of Bussin' 2009.
We had a great time at the Hollywood Studios on Wednesday with Jim, Cathy, and the boys. The park was quite crowded, as we expected, but we still made it onto our favorite, the Tower of Terror. We also caught the Extreme Motors stunt show, which I've wanted to return to see ever since I saw a TV special on how the cars are outfitted. It's really quite impressive driving. We all left the park around 5ish, since we needed to walk Opal, and the boys were running out of steam. Louise and I used our "extra magic hours" access to go back in the evening, though, to see the Osborne Family Holiday Lights. Word's can't describe it, so here's a photo:
What you can't see in that shot is the animated display. There is music playing in the street, and every third or fourth song, the lights flash in sync to the music -- it's really quite spectacular, and I'm sorry the camera in my BlackBerry, which took these stills, was really not up to the task of capturing it. This "tree," which is really just a pole with thousands of lights strung from it, must have been 70' tall:
After we finished in the park, we had a nice dinner at the Flying Fish on Disney's Boardwalk, a short boat ride away from Hollywood Studios. The boats themselves fascinated me, as they were quite maneuverable. Turns out that they are azimuth drive.
We decided to stay out of the parks on Christmas, since we'd heard that the Magic Kingdom gets so crowded that day, Disney often closes the gates by 10am. Instead, we had a quiet morning at home, wandering over towards dinner late in the afternoon. After an excellent meal at Shula's Steak House in the Dolphin hotel, we strolled back over to the Boardwalk, browsed a little bit, and treated ourselves to an ice cream cone. We ended up spending a good part of the afternoon and evening on the Disney Transportation System, since getting from Fort Wilderness to that area and back is something of a project.
To cap off a perfect evening, we rode our scooters through every RV loop at Fort Wilderness, taking in the holiday displays. This one, on our loop, was by far the most elaborate. Again, the still photo does not do it justice, and this shot covers less than half of it -- the rest is behind the rig and extending all the way to the main road:
We saw perhaps half a dozen sites that were similarly over-the-top, and I would have to say that we must have passed over a hundred sites that were "well decorated" with lights or inflatables. If you are looking for a dark, quiet camping experience around Christmas, this is not it. Here's one of the less elaborate sites (really) in the daylight:
Friday morning we packed everything up, then backed up a few yards so we could dump our tanks in the provided sewer hookup. I don't think there's a dump station at Fort Wilderness, since most of the sites are full hookup, and sewer connections are almost always too far back for Odyssey's dump, which is amidships (as far back as we could practically locate it when we installed the tanks). We rolled out right at the 11am checkout time, and situated ourselves in the day lot (map) -- just in time, too, as we got one of the last "easy" spaces, and the several rigs that pulled in after us had to hunt around.
We spent the rest of the day, all the way till past midnight, in the Magic Kingdom, other than a couple hours to come home and walk the dog (and yes, it takes that long to make a round trip on the transit system). Little did we know that we should have rested up in the early afternoon, and hit the park at sundown. Our resort cards would have given us till 3am, when I'm sure it was quite calm. As it was, in the early afternoon, the FastPass dispensers were giving attraction tickets for 9-11pm, and the park was so jammed, you could hardly move.
We ended up doing slow-moving sit-down rides like the people-mover and the steam train for the afternoon, since most standby lines were an hour or longer. The rest of the gang did the smart thing, hanging out at the hotel pool and joining us in the park after 7. We did manage to get on Pirates of the Caribbean (which stopped in the middle, and we sat through the gun battle for Port Royal repeatedly for several minutes), Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain (do you detect a theme here?). We also saw the fireworks, and the nighttime parade twice. And the castle looked stunning in its holiday finery:
We pooped out just a little after midnight, which was closing time for non-resort guests. We handed our resort cards over to Jim and Cathy so they could stay in the park as late as they wanted, said our goodbyes to the entire crew, and headed back to the bus. It was very nearly 1am when we finally rolled out of the day lot, and we made it here by 1:30 and fell into bed exhausted.
Yesterday we tried to sleep in a bit, then spent the morning recovering from our Disney experience. We're really, really glad we got the chance to spend the holiday with friends in this magical place. That said, unless we're meeting someone here again (recognizing that many do not have the same schedule flexibility as we do), we won't likely do Christmas week again. It's very expensive, nearly twice the daily rate as the surrounding weeks, and, moreover, the place is just too crowded to be pleasant.
The parks and resorts are nicely decorated for the holidays, but those are up well before and somewhat after this week, too. Disney even adds extra holiday festivities that run only through mid-December, to attract folks in otherwise off weeks. In any case, we've had our Disney fix now for a while, and I guess it will be another few years before we get back here, absent any of our nieces and nephews coming.
Yesterday afternoon I took the scooter out to go get some coolant -- we got a low coolant alarm leaving Fort Wilderness. I then made the mistake of trying to tighten the clamp on the dripping hose fitting, which made the slow drip much, much worse. Realizing we could lose most of our coolant overnight, stranding us here in Orlando, I relocated the clamp a bit further up on the hose, which cost me a gallon and a half of coolant while it was loose, but at least now the drip has stopped. We need to get this hose replaced in the next week or so.
Last night we rode in to downtown Orlando for a nice dinner at the Citrus Club, a positively relaxing experience after the chaos that was Disney. This morning we'll top off the cooling system with some of the six gallons I bought yesterday, and head down to Arcadia for the start of Bussin' 2009.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Festival of lights
We are at Disney's Fort Wilderness campground, on the Timber Trail loop 1600 (map). We are just across the street from where we stayed four years ago, and, as you can see, we got lucky again with the satellite.
We remember, from that visit, that the guests here go overboard on decorating their sites. Then, however, it was the week after New Year's, so many of the Christmas-week crowd had already left. Now we're in the thick of it, and OMG, it's over the top. One of the sites in our loop must have, conservatively, over a thousand lights. It's arranged as a north-pole/Disney themed wonderland, complete with lighted pathway for the visitors. A framed certificate reveals that this family won the "best site" competition in the same space last year. We'll see if we can get a picture to post here tonight.
It was very cold last night, so we only saw what we could on the way to and from dinner at the on-premise buffet, Trails End. One night, though, we'll ride the scooters through the entire campground just to see all the lights and decorations. Fort Wilderness definitely has suburban America beat on the holiday light front.
After dinner, our friends Jim and Cathy Lewis dropped by and we spent a few hours catching up over drinks. They had left the boys with their in-laws for the evening, and came over on the ferry from the Magic Kingdom. We had a great visit, and agreed to hook up later this week, perhaps in one of the parks.
We've opted to take today as our parkless one, and we'll do Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom tomorrow and Thursday. If something doesn't work out, we can always defer one to Friday -- we'd just have to move Odyssey from our site here over to the day lot near the entrance. We'll probably head over to Downtown Disney this afternoon, even though we also have dinner reservations there tomorrow night.
On another topic, we've received several questions about our upcoming schedule. Many people are wondering where we will park in DC for the inauguration, and I'm guessing some folks might be wondering why we're driving Odyssey there in the first place. First off, we have no choice but to drive -- all public transportation to and from DC for the inauguration has been sold out for months, along with hotels and other accommodations (including all the campgrounds). As to the parking, let's just say we have several options, and we're certain we'll have a place to stay. I'm keeping our top choices under wraps, though, until we're there -- Google now indexes our blog near the top of the search list, and I don't want our secret spots to get snapped up by someone who isn't even a regular reader just Googling for places to park for the ceremony.
I've also been asked when my seminar will be presented at Bussin' 2009 in Arcadia next week. The organizer just posted the schedule (here and here), and it looks like I will be doing Part 1 Tuesday afternoon and Part 2 Wednesday morning. Louise will also be doing a seminar on living in a small space immediately after mine on Tuesday afternoon. I will also be helping Ed Roelle with his generator session on Wednesday morning. We'll set aside time for tours of Odyssey at some point, and I will also do informal sessions on plumbing, hydronic heat, and/or Internet access on my patio for anyone who is interested -- probably at 4pm to avoid conflicting with any other sessions.
We remember, from that visit, that the guests here go overboard on decorating their sites. Then, however, it was the week after New Year's, so many of the Christmas-week crowd had already left. Now we're in the thick of it, and OMG, it's over the top. One of the sites in our loop must have, conservatively, over a thousand lights. It's arranged as a north-pole/Disney themed wonderland, complete with lighted pathway for the visitors. A framed certificate reveals that this family won the "best site" competition in the same space last year. We'll see if we can get a picture to post here tonight.
It was very cold last night, so we only saw what we could on the way to and from dinner at the on-premise buffet, Trails End. One night, though, we'll ride the scooters through the entire campground just to see all the lights and decorations. Fort Wilderness definitely has suburban America beat on the holiday light front.
After dinner, our friends Jim and Cathy Lewis dropped by and we spent a few hours catching up over drinks. They had left the boys with their in-laws for the evening, and came over on the ferry from the Magic Kingdom. We had a great visit, and agreed to hook up later this week, perhaps in one of the parks.
We've opted to take today as our parkless one, and we'll do Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom tomorrow and Thursday. If something doesn't work out, we can always defer one to Friday -- we'd just have to move Odyssey from our site here over to the day lot near the entrance. We'll probably head over to Downtown Disney this afternoon, even though we also have dinner reservations there tomorrow night.
On another topic, we've received several questions about our upcoming schedule. Many people are wondering where we will park in DC for the inauguration, and I'm guessing some folks might be wondering why we're driving Odyssey there in the first place. First off, we have no choice but to drive -- all public transportation to and from DC for the inauguration has been sold out for months, along with hotels and other accommodations (including all the campgrounds). As to the parking, let's just say we have several options, and we're certain we'll have a place to stay. I'm keeping our top choices under wraps, though, until we're there -- Google now indexes our blog near the top of the search list, and I don't want our secret spots to get snapped up by someone who isn't even a regular reader just Googling for places to park for the ceremony.
I've also been asked when my seminar will be presented at Bussin' 2009 in Arcadia next week. The organizer just posted the schedule (here and here), and it looks like I will be doing Part 1 Tuesday afternoon and Part 2 Wednesday morning. Louise will also be doing a seminar on living in a small space immediately after mine on Tuesday afternoon. I will also be helping Ed Roelle with his generator session on Wednesday morning. We'll set aside time for tours of Odyssey at some point, and I will also do informal sessions on plumbing, hydronic heat, and/or Internet access on my patio for anyone who is interested -- probably at 4pm to avoid conflicting with any other sessions.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Stop the presses -- we're going to DC!
Just a quick update here before I stow the satellite dish, possibly till Friday.
We got word today that our presidential inauguration tickets came through! I just got off the horn with the TrawlerFest people, and they were happy to switch our registration to the San Diego event at the end of February (actually, it turns out that they had mistakenly registered us there anyway, but that's another story), so we will not be under a time crunch to get out of DC.
So our new schedule looks like this:
Today through Friday we will be at Disney World, staying at Disney's Fort Wilderness. Friday night I expect to be back here for a night, after which we will start making our way toward Arcadia. We'll be at the Bussin' 2009 rally in Arcadia Sunday evening, 12/28, through New Year's day.
From there, we will head down to Fort Lauderdale, where our Trawler School charter runs from Monday through Friday, 1/5-1/9. After that, I expect we will spend a few days in the area, enjoying the warmth and relaxing. Since we'll need to be in DC by the 18th, there's really no point in trying to get down to the keys on this trip.
We'll start working our way slowly back up the coast through, perhaps, South Carolina, and then make a cobra-strike into DC on the 18th. We expect parking to be tight and weather to be foul, so we want to limit the time we are there. We need to pick up the tickets during the day on the 19th, which is why we need to be in town a day early.
I expect to be rolling back out of DC the very next day, 1/21. We'll start a southerly loop towards Phoenix immediately, and so will not be coming back this way through Florida. More on that plan after I've had some time to figure the logistics of DC.
We got word today that our presidential inauguration tickets came through! I just got off the horn with the TrawlerFest people, and they were happy to switch our registration to the San Diego event at the end of February (actually, it turns out that they had mistakenly registered us there anyway, but that's another story), so we will not be under a time crunch to get out of DC.
So our new schedule looks like this:
Today through Friday we will be at Disney World, staying at Disney's Fort Wilderness. Friday night I expect to be back here for a night, after which we will start making our way toward Arcadia. We'll be at the Bussin' 2009 rally in Arcadia Sunday evening, 12/28, through New Year's day.
From there, we will head down to Fort Lauderdale, where our Trawler School charter runs from Monday through Friday, 1/5-1/9. After that, I expect we will spend a few days in the area, enjoying the warmth and relaxing. Since we'll need to be in DC by the 18th, there's really no point in trying to get down to the keys on this trip.
We'll start working our way slowly back up the coast through, perhaps, South Carolina, and then make a cobra-strike into DC on the 18th. We expect parking to be tight and weather to be foul, so we want to limit the time we are there. We need to pick up the tickets during the day on the 19th, which is why we need to be in town a day early.
I expect to be rolling back out of DC the very next day, 1/21. We'll start a southerly loop towards Phoenix immediately, and so will not be coming back this way through Florida. More on that plan after I've had some time to figure the logistics of DC.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Stealth boondocking in Orlando
We are parked in a gravel lot in an industrial park in Orlando, Florida (map).
Orlando, of course, being the home of Disney World and numerous other tourist attractions, is notorious for disallowing any kind of stealth camping, but we have an inside track. This particular lot goes with a vacant building next door that the Red Cross, in it's zeal to get a large HQ fully operational in advance of Hurricane Ike, leased through the end of the year. We only wanted the place for a month or two, but the landlord was insistent. We won't even discuss what this place cost, and regular readers here will know that we occupied the building for just a single week before packing the entire operation, lock, stock, and barrel and sending it to Texas when Ike veered off in that direction.
Considering we do some work for the Red Cross nearly daily, there is some legitimacy to us staying here, and we certainly knew the place would be here and available. We'd turned all our keys over to the local chapter when we left back in October, so we can't unlock the gate to an even stealthier parking spot, or access to power and water (included in the pre-paid rent).
Long-time readers also know that I generally do not post map links to temporary Red Cross HQ facilities. They are not state secrets, but no services are available to clients at HQ, and, when word about an HQ gets out in a disaster, clients tend to show up anyway, creating problems -- the clients need to be directed elsewhere, and staff resources need to be diverted to that purpose. But there are literally only ten days left to our lease here, we are out of hurricane season, and all Red Cross assets have been removed from the property (one of the things I checked on earlier today; sometimes these things get forgotten about, and I was ready to call tomorrow in case we needed to get keys and a truck over here to clear it out).
After we arrived last night, we had dinner at nearby Carrabas, and then went to the mall, just for the fun of watching people shop on the last Saturday before Christmas. If there's a recession, you could not tell from the mall parking lot, which was full all the way out to the periphery. Fortunately, the Florida Mall allocates space for motorcycle parking right near the entrances, and we snagged a spot for Chip right by the door.
Today, other than the aforementioned excursion to check that everything's been cleared out, we basically sat around the house and got caught up on email and paperwork. I meant to drop by Northern Tool, just a few blocks from here, to pick up an air brush for touching up the paint on the scooter as well as the bus, but it was past closing by the time I remembered it. I'll have to run over there in the morning before we pack up.
Tonight we'll have dinner at Olive Garden nearby, and tomorrow we will be checking in at Disney's Fort Wilderness. I expect Disney to be a zoo this week; yesterday I called to make holiday dinner reservations, and the pickin's were slim indeed. We're booked for Christmas at Shula's Steak House on a very early seating, and the night before we'll be at the Flying Fish on a fairly late seating. We'll just take pot luck the other two nights.
This may actually be our last post for a while. Fort Wilderness is quite heavily wooded; the last time we were there, we managed to get on-line courtesy of a fortuitously located but very narrow slot in the trees, and I am not counting on similar circumstances this time. Although with the trees at least partially denuded, we might just get lucky...
We are booked at Disney through Friday morning the 26th, and we might well end up right back here that evening -- we're hoping for dinner one night at the Citrus Club downtown, which is just nine miles north of here and an easy scooter ride, but they were fully booked last night when I called. In any case, we should be back on-line Friday evening, if we don't manage it sooner. I'll still be getting email and tweets on my BlackBerry, in case anyone needs to contact us.
Orlando, of course, being the home of Disney World and numerous other tourist attractions, is notorious for disallowing any kind of stealth camping, but we have an inside track. This particular lot goes with a vacant building next door that the Red Cross, in it's zeal to get a large HQ fully operational in advance of Hurricane Ike, leased through the end of the year. We only wanted the place for a month or two, but the landlord was insistent. We won't even discuss what this place cost, and regular readers here will know that we occupied the building for just a single week before packing the entire operation, lock, stock, and barrel and sending it to Texas when Ike veered off in that direction.
Considering we do some work for the Red Cross nearly daily, there is some legitimacy to us staying here, and we certainly knew the place would be here and available. We'd turned all our keys over to the local chapter when we left back in October, so we can't unlock the gate to an even stealthier parking spot, or access to power and water (included in the pre-paid rent).
Long-time readers also know that I generally do not post map links to temporary Red Cross HQ facilities. They are not state secrets, but no services are available to clients at HQ, and, when word about an HQ gets out in a disaster, clients tend to show up anyway, creating problems -- the clients need to be directed elsewhere, and staff resources need to be diverted to that purpose. But there are literally only ten days left to our lease here, we are out of hurricane season, and all Red Cross assets have been removed from the property (one of the things I checked on earlier today; sometimes these things get forgotten about, and I was ready to call tomorrow in case we needed to get keys and a truck over here to clear it out).
After we arrived last night, we had dinner at nearby Carrabas, and then went to the mall, just for the fun of watching people shop on the last Saturday before Christmas. If there's a recession, you could not tell from the mall parking lot, which was full all the way out to the periphery. Fortunately, the Florida Mall allocates space for motorcycle parking right near the entrances, and we snagged a spot for Chip right by the door.
Today, other than the aforementioned excursion to check that everything's been cleared out, we basically sat around the house and got caught up on email and paperwork. I meant to drop by Northern Tool, just a few blocks from here, to pick up an air brush for touching up the paint on the scooter as well as the bus, but it was past closing by the time I remembered it. I'll have to run over there in the morning before we pack up.
Tonight we'll have dinner at Olive Garden nearby, and tomorrow we will be checking in at Disney's Fort Wilderness. I expect Disney to be a zoo this week; yesterday I called to make holiday dinner reservations, and the pickin's were slim indeed. We're booked for Christmas at Shula's Steak House on a very early seating, and the night before we'll be at the Flying Fish on a fairly late seating. We'll just take pot luck the other two nights.
This may actually be our last post for a while. Fort Wilderness is quite heavily wooded; the last time we were there, we managed to get on-line courtesy of a fortuitously located but very narrow slot in the trees, and I am not counting on similar circumstances this time. Although with the trees at least partially denuded, we might just get lucky...
We are booked at Disney through Friday morning the 26th, and we might well end up right back here that evening -- we're hoping for dinner one night at the Citrus Club downtown, which is just nine miles north of here and an easy scooter ride, but they were fully booked last night when I called. In any case, we should be back on-line Friday evening, if we don't manage it sooner. I'll still be getting email and tweets on my BlackBerry, in case anyone needs to contact us.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Staying Flexible
We are at the Wal-Mart in DeLand, Florida (map).
We really enjoyed our stay in Flagler Beach, holding out until the last possible moment to leave today. We pulled up stakes right at the 1pm checkout, spent a few minutes at the dump station, and hit the road.
We did make a brief stop in Daytona Beach. We have some homework to do for our trawler class in two weeks, and we diverted to the West Marine at the yacht basin there to pick up a book and a couple of charts. Then we headed southwest on US-92 for DeLand.
We had the idea that we'd be going to the Elks lodge here, with 30 amp power and just a couple of blocks from downtown, where a search revealed several restaurants. So we made the left onto US-17, after passing a sign suggesting the truck route was straight ahead.
The first few blocks were no problem, but we could see ahead what looked like progressively lower oak trees, and we became nervous about making it all the way to the Elks. We abandoned the idea just as the street narrowed down, and headed for the truck route a block west, where we circled back here to the Wal-Mart. It's a fine stop, and there's a Chili's right across the street.
Now that I have our lives completely scheduled out to mid-February, we got word today from our representative's office in Washington asking if we were still interested in inauguration tickets. Hell yes! I'm guessing that they are just double-checking all the names, and we're still going to get tossed into a hat for some kind of drawing, but the very question caused us to rethink the schedule.
Inauguration day is 1/20, and we're now fully paid up, to the tune of eight bills, for Trawlerfest in Stuart starting 1/22. (We decided the inagural tickets were such a long shot, that we'd get on with our lives as if they were not going to happen.) It's a good sixteen driving hours from DC back to Stuart, so even if we managed to get on the road within a couple hours of the event, we'd never make our first seminars Thursday morning, and we'd have to do the kind of crazy driving that we hate, and reserve only for racing to disaster operations.
I think the tickets are still a long shot, but, if they come through, I will be calling the Trawlerfest people and pleading with them to let us transfer our full registration package to the San Diego event instead, which starts about a week after our flight from Hawaii gets back into Phoenix. Also, that will nix any visit to the keys, but at least we don't have any reservations or deposits there.
We'll still be doing the bus rally in Arcadia and our trawler school in Ft. Lauderdale, after which we would start heading back north toward DC. A slow roll up the coast through the relatively warmer southern states, followed by a surgical strike just ahead of the inaugural, followed by a quick retreat afterwards. After which, if the TrawlerFest folks agree to the change, we will make a more leisurely southwest sweep towards Phoenix, rather than returning to Florida.
Of course, if they hold us to our deposit and our chosen dates, we'll make a two-day run down I-95 right back to Stuart, hopefully arriving in time for the first round of evening festivities on Thursday, only having missed the first two seminar sessions.
Speaking of seminars, the organizers of the bus rally in Arcadia this month have scheduled me for two full slots, basically a whole day, to deliver a seminar on coach electrical systems. I'm working up the slides and graphics now. The morning session will basically be a lecture-format how-to covering a wide range of topics, with the afternoon session being a bring-your-own-problem question-and-answer format discussion. Louise was inspired to put something together as well, for the bus widows, on living full time in a small space.
Tomorrow we will be in Orlando. I have my fingers crossed that our secret boondocking spot is still available, and we'll stay there until our Fort Wilderness reservations Monday.
We really enjoyed our stay in Flagler Beach, holding out until the last possible moment to leave today. We pulled up stakes right at the 1pm checkout, spent a few minutes at the dump station, and hit the road.
We did make a brief stop in Daytona Beach. We have some homework to do for our trawler class in two weeks, and we diverted to the West Marine at the yacht basin there to pick up a book and a couple of charts. Then we headed southwest on US-92 for DeLand.
We had the idea that we'd be going to the Elks lodge here, with 30 amp power and just a couple of blocks from downtown, where a search revealed several restaurants. So we made the left onto US-17, after passing a sign suggesting the truck route was straight ahead.
The first few blocks were no problem, but we could see ahead what looked like progressively lower oak trees, and we became nervous about making it all the way to the Elks. We abandoned the idea just as the street narrowed down, and headed for the truck route a block west, where we circled back here to the Wal-Mart. It's a fine stop, and there's a Chili's right across the street.
Now that I have our lives completely scheduled out to mid-February, we got word today from our representative's office in Washington asking if we were still interested in inauguration tickets. Hell yes! I'm guessing that they are just double-checking all the names, and we're still going to get tossed into a hat for some kind of drawing, but the very question caused us to rethink the schedule.
Inauguration day is 1/20, and we're now fully paid up, to the tune of eight bills, for Trawlerfest in Stuart starting 1/22. (We decided the inagural tickets were such a long shot, that we'd get on with our lives as if they were not going to happen.) It's a good sixteen driving hours from DC back to Stuart, so even if we managed to get on the road within a couple hours of the event, we'd never make our first seminars Thursday morning, and we'd have to do the kind of crazy driving that we hate, and reserve only for racing to disaster operations.
I think the tickets are still a long shot, but, if they come through, I will be calling the Trawlerfest people and pleading with them to let us transfer our full registration package to the San Diego event instead, which starts about a week after our flight from Hawaii gets back into Phoenix. Also, that will nix any visit to the keys, but at least we don't have any reservations or deposits there.
We'll still be doing the bus rally in Arcadia and our trawler school in Ft. Lauderdale, after which we would start heading back north toward DC. A slow roll up the coast through the relatively warmer southern states, followed by a surgical strike just ahead of the inaugural, followed by a quick retreat afterwards. After which, if the TrawlerFest folks agree to the change, we will make a more leisurely southwest sweep towards Phoenix, rather than returning to Florida.
Of course, if they hold us to our deposit and our chosen dates, we'll make a two-day run down I-95 right back to Stuart, hopefully arriving in time for the first round of evening festivities on Thursday, only having missed the first two seminar sessions.
Speaking of seminars, the organizers of the bus rally in Arcadia this month have scheduled me for two full slots, basically a whole day, to deliver a seminar on coach electrical systems. I'm working up the slides and graphics now. The morning session will basically be a lecture-format how-to covering a wide range of topics, with the afternoon session being a bring-your-own-problem question-and-answer format discussion. Louise was inspired to put something together as well, for the bus widows, on living full time in a small space.
Tomorrow we will be in Orlando. I have my fingers crossed that our secret boondocking spot is still available, and we'll stay there until our Fort Wilderness reservations Monday.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Relaxing at the ocean
We are at the Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area, at Flagler Beach (map). There is a nice campground here, with 50-amp power for ~$25 per night. (We don't really need the hookups right now, but its always nice when they are included.)
We did, in fact, spend another night in St. Augustine, affording us the opportunity to ride to dinner at the A1A Ale House, which had come recommended by friends and also sported some good reviews online. The food was quite good, and we had a nice view out the second-floor windows, albeit not very far, since we were in pea-soup fog. On our way to dinner, we rode around looking at the spectacular holiday lights throughout the downtown area.
We were a bit surprised to learn at dinner that the A1A Ale House is part of the Gordon Biersch family (through acquisition). We fondly remember dining at Gordon Biersch in San Jose when it was a single restaurant, and we had a friend who worked there when it was a "chain" of just two stores. I brought a group from my college alumni association there to dine and meet with the head brewmaster just as this two-store operation was starting to bottle its product for retail sales, and I remember being surprised when they opened a restaurant in Las Vegas. It seems they've made the big time.
Looking ahead on our schedule, I saw this park along our route, and the web site showed a 40' space available yesterday, so I booked it for two nights. Louise had a conference call scheduled from noon till 2 yesterday, and the checkout here is a very generous 1pm, so we decided to stay in St. Augustine until her call was done. We had a nice afternoon drive down the coast highway. although it was, again, quite foggy, arriving here a bit after 3. I took my scooter another ten miles south to the Publix to stock up on groceries, and we ended up grilling a pair of steaks for dinner.
Today it was warm and sunny, and we mostly relaxed around camp, walked on the beach (which is quite mushy here), and rode our scooters around the park and the surrounding residential areas. Tonight we will ride into town for dinner, and I expect we will stick around tomorrow till checkout at 1pm, when we will head south towards Daytona Beach.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Christmas with the Mouse
We are still in St. Augustine, at the Elks lodge. Today we rode to lunch at the Sunset Grill on the beach road (after discovering that local favorite The Oasis is closed for renovations), then headed in towards town. Just before the bridge, we stopped at a walk-in clinic -- Louise is still pretty miserable, and, suspecting a sinus infection, she needed to get a script for some antibiotics and have a professional take a look.
Considering we just walked in, it all went pretty quickly. They even scrounged up a full ten-day course of antibiotics out of office samples once they heard we were cash customers (our insurance deductible is very high -- we've never hit it yet -- so we just pay for all our medical care out-of-pocket from our health savings account).
When we were done at the clinic, we crossed the channel at the Lion's Bridge crossing, spanned now by a funky temporary lift bridge (and the lift segment looks very temporary, indeed) while the historic Lion's Bridge is undergoing refurbishment, a project which started soon after our last visit here. We stopped in at the Castillo San Marcos, now in its fourth century, just in time for a nice ranger-led tour. Afterwards, we rode around the historic colonial downtown on our scooters, with its narrow cobblestone streets rattling our teeth. That pretty much wiped Louise out for the day, and we came home to leftovers for dinner.
We've had some change in plans since I last posted. In the time between my last email exchange with them on Friday and our decision Sunday night, the trawler school dates of 12/22-12/26 got snapped up by someone else, so we've requested 1/5-1/9 instead. That ought, at least, to make kenneling or otherwise caring for the pets somewhat easier, but it cuts short our time in the keys. It also left us a bit adrift for Christmas week.
I was still ruminating about that, as well as whether or not to go ahead with Disney reservations for later this week, given how crummy Louise has been feeling, when I got an email that solved both problems. It turns out that good friend Jim Lewis, from Infinity Coach, and his family will be spending next week at Disney World -- he just happened to check in here on the blog today, and noticed we were nearby.
Now, Christmas week happens to be the most expensive week on Disney's menu -- campsites at Fort Wilderness which go for $52 per night this week will be, instead, $94 per night next week, which rankles me a bit. That said, I'm just glad they still had availability, and we've booked ourselves for four nights from Monday through Thursday, checking out Friday. We also purchased a pair of two-day park passes, which will cover two of the three full days we'll be on-property -- plenty for us. Somewhere in all of that, we should find ample opportunity to get together with Jim, Cathy, and the boys. Of course, I expect the resort and the theme parks will be considerably more crowded next week as well -- who knows, we may end up sitting around the campfire at our site.
Spending the holiday at Disney almost certainly means we'll be treated to a good deal of holiday spirit without having to expend much effort of our own. We'll likely eat our holiday meals in the restaurants scattered throughout the resorts, and I will probably make those dining reservations in the next few days, as I know some of the more popular venues fill up. Recommendations for which Disney restaurants are the best for holiday dining are welcome. (Most off-property choices are probably out for transportation reasons -- we'll be using Disney's buses to get around, and we certainly don't want to do any holiday imbibing while out and about on the scooters.)
All of this means that we now have a full week to make our way to Orlando, and so we will be slow-rolling south from here. We may even extend another day right here in St. Augustine, as we've just scratched the surface of the things to see and do, and it would take at least a month to put any kind of dent in the enormous list of eateries in old town alone.
In other news, we now have something of a plan for the weeks following TrawlerFest at the end of January in Stuart, Florida. We've been planning for some time now to attend a wedding on the big island of Hawaii mid-February, and, while we've had the hotel arrangments more or less covered with my huge inventory of Hilton points, we had not made flight arrangments because we didn't really know where we'd be. That's changed now that we've committed to the Stuart TrawlerFest (I paid the registration last night).
There are really only five gateway cities in the continental states for flights to Kona: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, and Phoenix. If you want a non-stop, you have to fly from one of those cities, and if you don't, you'll fly through one of them anyway (and/or connect through Honolulu at the other end). Given that we were going to be in Stuart, Florida just two weeks before we needed to be in Kona, I looked at fares for each of them in order of proximity to Florida. Chicago and Denver had outrageous fares, even for connections (non-stops were sky high), and, even though they were closer to us mileage-wise, we could have serious issues with winter weather trying to reach either of them on a two-week deadline. They would also make for a chilly week of bus storage, requiring either hookups or a lot of diesel.
Of the remaining three, it turns out (surprisingly, at least to me) that Phoenix Sky Harbor actually had the lowest fares. Perhaps even more astonishing is that those lower fares were for non-stop flights. All good, because Phoenix is a good 400+ miles closer than Los Angeles. So when we wrap up with TrawlerFest, we will be spending the next two weeks working our way to Phoenix. We'll return from Hawaii on February 18th, which will be a perfect time to drop down into Mexico for a month or so (unless we get a better offer).
Considering we just walked in, it all went pretty quickly. They even scrounged up a full ten-day course of antibiotics out of office samples once they heard we were cash customers (our insurance deductible is very high -- we've never hit it yet -- so we just pay for all our medical care out-of-pocket from our health savings account).
When we were done at the clinic, we crossed the channel at the Lion's Bridge crossing, spanned now by a funky temporary lift bridge (and the lift segment looks very temporary, indeed) while the historic Lion's Bridge is undergoing refurbishment, a project which started soon after our last visit here. We stopped in at the Castillo San Marcos, now in its fourth century, just in time for a nice ranger-led tour. Afterwards, we rode around the historic colonial downtown on our scooters, with its narrow cobblestone streets rattling our teeth. That pretty much wiped Louise out for the day, and we came home to leftovers for dinner.
We've had some change in plans since I last posted. In the time between my last email exchange with them on Friday and our decision Sunday night, the trawler school dates of 12/22-12/26 got snapped up by someone else, so we've requested 1/5-1/9 instead. That ought, at least, to make kenneling or otherwise caring for the pets somewhat easier, but it cuts short our time in the keys. It also left us a bit adrift for Christmas week.
I was still ruminating about that, as well as whether or not to go ahead with Disney reservations for later this week, given how crummy Louise has been feeling, when I got an email that solved both problems. It turns out that good friend Jim Lewis, from Infinity Coach, and his family will be spending next week at Disney World -- he just happened to check in here on the blog today, and noticed we were nearby.
Now, Christmas week happens to be the most expensive week on Disney's menu -- campsites at Fort Wilderness which go for $52 per night this week will be, instead, $94 per night next week, which rankles me a bit. That said, I'm just glad they still had availability, and we've booked ourselves for four nights from Monday through Thursday, checking out Friday. We also purchased a pair of two-day park passes, which will cover two of the three full days we'll be on-property -- plenty for us. Somewhere in all of that, we should find ample opportunity to get together with Jim, Cathy, and the boys. Of course, I expect the resort and the theme parks will be considerably more crowded next week as well -- who knows, we may end up sitting around the campfire at our site.
Spending the holiday at Disney almost certainly means we'll be treated to a good deal of holiday spirit without having to expend much effort of our own. We'll likely eat our holiday meals in the restaurants scattered throughout the resorts, and I will probably make those dining reservations in the next few days, as I know some of the more popular venues fill up. Recommendations for which Disney restaurants are the best for holiday dining are welcome. (Most off-property choices are probably out for transportation reasons -- we'll be using Disney's buses to get around, and we certainly don't want to do any holiday imbibing while out and about on the scooters.)
All of this means that we now have a full week to make our way to Orlando, and so we will be slow-rolling south from here. We may even extend another day right here in St. Augustine, as we've just scratched the surface of the things to see and do, and it would take at least a month to put any kind of dent in the enormous list of eateries in old town alone.
In other news, we now have something of a plan for the weeks following TrawlerFest at the end of January in Stuart, Florida. We've been planning for some time now to attend a wedding on the big island of Hawaii mid-February, and, while we've had the hotel arrangments more or less covered with my huge inventory of Hilton points, we had not made flight arrangments because we didn't really know where we'd be. That's changed now that we've committed to the Stuart TrawlerFest (I paid the registration last night).
There are really only five gateway cities in the continental states for flights to Kona: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, and Phoenix. If you want a non-stop, you have to fly from one of those cities, and if you don't, you'll fly through one of them anyway (and/or connect through Honolulu at the other end). Given that we were going to be in Stuart, Florida just two weeks before we needed to be in Kona, I looked at fares for each of them in order of proximity to Florida. Chicago and Denver had outrageous fares, even for connections (non-stops were sky high), and, even though they were closer to us mileage-wise, we could have serious issues with winter weather trying to reach either of them on a two-week deadline. They would also make for a chilly week of bus storage, requiring either hookups or a lot of diesel.
Of the remaining three, it turns out (surprisingly, at least to me) that Phoenix Sky Harbor actually had the lowest fares. Perhaps even more astonishing is that those lower fares were for non-stop flights. All good, because Phoenix is a good 400+ miles closer than Los Angeles. So when we wrap up with TrawlerFest, we will be spending the next two weeks working our way to Phoenix. We'll return from Hawaii on February 18th, which will be a perfect time to drop down into Mexico for a month or so (unless we get a better offer).
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Revisiting the Florida coast
We are at the Elks lodge in St. Augustine, Florida (map).
We were at this same lodge almost exactly four years ago, on our first circuit of the country after completing Odyssey. Today, as then, the nearby Anastasia state park was full (we had the foresight, this time, to call ahead, avoiding a tricky U-turn). Ironically, the Elks property literally backs up to the state park campground. For $15 we have 30 amps and a clear shot to our satellite; the state park would be over $25 and in the trees.
We've paid for two nights, and might even extend for a third, so we can explore St. Augustine on the scooters. We already rolled down to nearby Amici's Italian restaurant for dinner tonight. Unfortunately, when I took the scooters out, I managed to drop Louise's in the parking lot while warming it up to get the stale fuel past the carb (her scooter always has difficultly running after sitting for a couple weeks). Nothing catastrophic, but the right fender is badly scratched and will need to be replaced. To top it all off, Louise was embroiled in a Red Cross conference call at the time, and I couldn't even tell her about it for well over an hour.
I did make productive use of the rest of that time to replace one of the hot water recirculating valves (which has been leaking for several days now), replace the Girard awning anemometer (two lobes of which had been sheared off in the last few months by low tree branches), and fix the left HID floodlight, which had quit again somewhere in Tennessee.
Friday afternoon we had a lovely drive from Savannah to Kingsland on US-17, which was the main highway before the advent of I-95 and thus one can discern the faded ghosts of roadside businesses from that era, only a few of which still survive. We arrived in Kingsland just in time to check the Post Office for our mail, which had not yet arrived. It was something of a mistake to drive into their lot, since they've created a labyrinth of narrow lanes with tight turns, bounded by concrete curbs, to organize the traffic flow. Odyssey barely fit through the maze, and we ended up pulling the outside drivers and the tags onto the curb in spots.
After the Post Office (map -- close enough to where we stayed), we drove a couple of blocks to the house of some friends of our friends in Jacksonville. Considering they had never met us, they were very accommodating, and we're very glad to have been introduced. Friday evening we all headed in to St. Mary's for an evening of live music at Seagles, starring none other than our friends, both new and existing (well, the male half of each couple, anyway). The music was great, the wine was flowing, and we had a great evening meeting new friends.
Saturday morning our mail finally arrived at the Post Office, and Louise borrowed a car to fetch it -- a wiser choice to navigate the concrete maze -- while I did some computer troubleshooting for our hosts. We all had a nice brunch at Steffens in town, one of those aforementioned US-17 roadside businesses that has managed to thrive in the post-Interstate world, before our friends had to head back to Jacksonville. We spent another night in Kingsland, thanks to our gracious hosts, getting back on the road this morning.
Today we continued south on US-17, which brought us all the way into Florida over a bridge that had been closed when we passed this way four years ago. We stayed on 17 all the way to Jacksonville, sliding over onto I-95 just north of the Trout River to carry us through the city center. Just south of the city we bailed off onto US-1, which brought us here to St. Augustine.
From here on out, we will be in "snowbird" territory, where camp sites in federal, state, and county parks will mostly be booked solid, the Wal-Mart option is generally prohibited by ordinance, and other roadside parking options are non-existent. We'll be relying heavily on the Elks as we travel through Florida, and snagging first-come-first-served spaces, in those parks that have them, when we're really set on visiting someplace.
We've also settled (over dinner this evening) on a general plan for the next six weeks, subject to making some phone calls tomorrow and actually booking some things. From here we will work our way towards Orlando for a visit with the mouse, hopefully staying at Disney's Fort Wilderness campground. Actual dates, of course, dependent on availability. From there we head to Fort Lauderdale for a "trawler school" cruise 12/22-12/26 (yes, over Christmas). That will involve four nights aboard a vintage 40' "trawler"-style power boat, on which we will receive three days of intensive instruction on boat handling, navigation, docking and anchoring, etc. -- part of our continuing path towards boat ownership somewhere down the road.
The trawler charter is dependent on the operator still having those dates available (he did as of Friday), and our ability to find secure parking for Odyssey as well as care for all the pets. The charter/school operator has provided the name of someone who may be willing to pet-sit everyone, with the bus on here property, and we are hoping this all can be worked out.
After we are done with our training cruise, we are thinking about heading to Arcadia for the annual bus conversion rally there, which would take us through New Years. That will leave us three weeks until we need to be in Stuart for TrawlerFest, which starts on the 22nd (and is subject to preemption by the presidential inauguration, should our request of our congressional representative for tickets come through), during which time we will head down to the keys, hoping to weasel into the state parks there on a space-available basis.
We were at this same lodge almost exactly four years ago, on our first circuit of the country after completing Odyssey. Today, as then, the nearby Anastasia state park was full (we had the foresight, this time, to call ahead, avoiding a tricky U-turn). Ironically, the Elks property literally backs up to the state park campground. For $15 we have 30 amps and a clear shot to our satellite; the state park would be over $25 and in the trees.
We've paid for two nights, and might even extend for a third, so we can explore St. Augustine on the scooters. We already rolled down to nearby Amici's Italian restaurant for dinner tonight. Unfortunately, when I took the scooters out, I managed to drop Louise's in the parking lot while warming it up to get the stale fuel past the carb (her scooter always has difficultly running after sitting for a couple weeks). Nothing catastrophic, but the right fender is badly scratched and will need to be replaced. To top it all off, Louise was embroiled in a Red Cross conference call at the time, and I couldn't even tell her about it for well over an hour.
I did make productive use of the rest of that time to replace one of the hot water recirculating valves (which has been leaking for several days now), replace the Girard awning anemometer (two lobes of which had been sheared off in the last few months by low tree branches), and fix the left HID floodlight, which had quit again somewhere in Tennessee.
Friday afternoon we had a lovely drive from Savannah to Kingsland on US-17, which was the main highway before the advent of I-95 and thus one can discern the faded ghosts of roadside businesses from that era, only a few of which still survive. We arrived in Kingsland just in time to check the Post Office for our mail, which had not yet arrived. It was something of a mistake to drive into their lot, since they've created a labyrinth of narrow lanes with tight turns, bounded by concrete curbs, to organize the traffic flow. Odyssey barely fit through the maze, and we ended up pulling the outside drivers and the tags onto the curb in spots.
After the Post Office (map -- close enough to where we stayed), we drove a couple of blocks to the house of some friends of our friends in Jacksonville. Considering they had never met us, they were very accommodating, and we're very glad to have been introduced. Friday evening we all headed in to St. Mary's for an evening of live music at Seagles, starring none other than our friends, both new and existing (well, the male half of each couple, anyway). The music was great, the wine was flowing, and we had a great evening meeting new friends.
Saturday morning our mail finally arrived at the Post Office, and Louise borrowed a car to fetch it -- a wiser choice to navigate the concrete maze -- while I did some computer troubleshooting for our hosts. We all had a nice brunch at Steffens in town, one of those aforementioned US-17 roadside businesses that has managed to thrive in the post-Interstate world, before our friends had to head back to Jacksonville. We spent another night in Kingsland, thanks to our gracious hosts, getting back on the road this morning.
Today we continued south on US-17, which brought us all the way into Florida over a bridge that had been closed when we passed this way four years ago. We stayed on 17 all the way to Jacksonville, sliding over onto I-95 just north of the Trout River to carry us through the city center. Just south of the city we bailed off onto US-1, which brought us here to St. Augustine.
From here on out, we will be in "snowbird" territory, where camp sites in federal, state, and county parks will mostly be booked solid, the Wal-Mart option is generally prohibited by ordinance, and other roadside parking options are non-existent. We'll be relying heavily on the Elks as we travel through Florida, and snagging first-come-first-served spaces, in those parks that have them, when we're really set on visiting someplace.
We've also settled (over dinner this evening) on a general plan for the next six weeks, subject to making some phone calls tomorrow and actually booking some things. From here we will work our way towards Orlando for a visit with the mouse, hopefully staying at Disney's Fort Wilderness campground. Actual dates, of course, dependent on availability. From there we head to Fort Lauderdale for a "trawler school" cruise 12/22-12/26 (yes, over Christmas). That will involve four nights aboard a vintage 40' "trawler"-style power boat, on which we will receive three days of intensive instruction on boat handling, navigation, docking and anchoring, etc. -- part of our continuing path towards boat ownership somewhere down the road.
The trawler charter is dependent on the operator still having those dates available (he did as of Friday), and our ability to find secure parking for Odyssey as well as care for all the pets. The charter/school operator has provided the name of someone who may be willing to pet-sit everyone, with the bus on here property, and we are hoping this all can be worked out.
After we are done with our training cruise, we are thinking about heading to Arcadia for the annual bus conversion rally there, which would take us through New Years. That will leave us three weeks until we need to be in Stuart for TrawlerFest, which starts on the 22nd (and is subject to preemption by the presidential inauguration, should our request of our congressional representative for tickets come through), during which time we will head down to the keys, hoping to weasel into the state parks there on a space-available basis.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Mall-docking
We are at the Savannah Mall, in (where else) Savannah, Georgia (map).
This really was not our plan, but it worked out well. Yesterday, we took US-301 south out of Orangeburg, connecting with US-321, which deposited us on I-95 just shy of the Savannah river. After crossing into Georgia with no definitive stopping plan, we first saw a billboard for Camping World, then one for Bass Pro Shops. CW came up first, and we pulled off there.
Turns out that this store, just off exit 102 and attached to an RV dealer, has very limited parking -- just four RV spaces. The store told us we were welcome to park for one night, and the spaces even had 50-amp hookups; we managed to snag the last one when we rolled up. After we finished our shopping (empty-handed -- the small store did not have the guidebooks we were looking for), we spent a few moments discussing our options.
While the free 50-amp hookup was attractive, we really did not need it with full batteries and mild weather. The only restaurant choices in walking distance were Cracker Barrel and Waffle House, and the spaces were just 12' wide, making for a very close-up and personal experience with the neighbors.
Remembering the sign for Bass Pro at exit 94, we looked them up to find they were seven miles east of the highway, but with several restaurants an easy walk. Plus, we figured it to be a less claustrophobic experience, and so we called the store to find out if they permitted overnight parking, as many of them do. That's when they let us know that they were actually in the mall, and we could park overnight so long as we called ahead and let them know what night, since they would have to inform mall security. So we said "tonight!"
We had a nice and mostly quiet stay, and got some shopping (and some returns) done as well. We ate at Texas Roadhouse right in the mall. And, while we had hoped to look up some friends who live just 20 minutes from here, Louise was still feeling crappy enough that we decided to forgo it for this pass; if you guys are reading: we'll catch you next time.
Today we will continue south to Kingsland, where we hope our mail will arrive by this afternoon. We have an offer of a parking spot from friends-of-friends there, so we're set in case we need to wait till tomorrow, or even Monday, to get it.
This really was not our plan, but it worked out well. Yesterday, we took US-301 south out of Orangeburg, connecting with US-321, which deposited us on I-95 just shy of the Savannah river. After crossing into Georgia with no definitive stopping plan, we first saw a billboard for Camping World, then one for Bass Pro Shops. CW came up first, and we pulled off there.
Turns out that this store, just off exit 102 and attached to an RV dealer, has very limited parking -- just four RV spaces. The store told us we were welcome to park for one night, and the spaces even had 50-amp hookups; we managed to snag the last one when we rolled up. After we finished our shopping (empty-handed -- the small store did not have the guidebooks we were looking for), we spent a few moments discussing our options.
While the free 50-amp hookup was attractive, we really did not need it with full batteries and mild weather. The only restaurant choices in walking distance were Cracker Barrel and Waffle House, and the spaces were just 12' wide, making for a very close-up and personal experience with the neighbors.
Remembering the sign for Bass Pro at exit 94, we looked them up to find they were seven miles east of the highway, but with several restaurants an easy walk. Plus, we figured it to be a less claustrophobic experience, and so we called the store to find out if they permitted overnight parking, as many of them do. That's when they let us know that they were actually in the mall, and we could park overnight so long as we called ahead and let them know what night, since they would have to inform mall security. So we said "tonight!"
We had a nice and mostly quiet stay, and got some shopping (and some returns) done as well. We ate at Texas Roadhouse right in the mall. And, while we had hoped to look up some friends who live just 20 minutes from here, Louise was still feeling crappy enough that we decided to forgo it for this pass; if you guys are reading: we'll catch you next time.
Today we will continue south to Kingsland, where we hope our mail will arrive by this afternoon. We have an offer of a parking spot from friends-of-friends there, so we're set in case we need to wait till tomorrow, or even Monday, to get it.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Finally warm
We are at the Elks lodge in Orangeburg, South Carolina (map).
We had a wonderful afternoon yesterday with friends Bob and Sandra, who took us on a lovely tour of the Columbia area after lunch at the Capital City Club. That got us a late start on the road, and we opted to head to Orangeburg on US-21, rather than down US-321, as we knew there was both a lodge and a Wal-Mart here, less than an hour from our digs in Columbia.
The Wal-Mart was a bit off the route, and the Elks lodge advertised 30-amp power, so we came directly here, which also put us all the way across Orangeburg before stopping. It was 70° yesterday in Columbia, and it was still that warm when we arrived here. What a treat -- just a day ago, we were having to run the Webasto for at least an hour in the morning, and now, we're having to run the fans to keep it cool inside. The 30 amp power made short work of topping off the batteries, and a quick check of the forecast revealed that it would be 74° here today, although cooling off later in the week.
This morning we decided to stay an extra night, now that we are finally warm, and with a free 30-amp spot, to boot. We really needed a chance to relax for a day, especially since Louise is still under the weather, and I needed some time to get a few things done around the house. I did not make it very far down my list, but at least I got the CB antenna replaced (destroyed by the Harbor Tunnel and several 13'-x" overpasses) and the fridge defrosted -- long overdue, so it took me nearly three hours.
Tomorrow we will try to get an earlier start -- before noon, anyway -- and should be in Savannah's gravitational zone by day's end. We have friends there, too, and we might try to catch them for dinner if Louise is up to it. She pointed out tonight that she's been sick now for a week and a half, and is quite tired of it. We are shooting to be in Kingsland, Georgia (just north of the Florida border) by the weekend, as that is where our mail is heading.
It seems I started something of a firestorm here in the comments with my remarks about Interstate travel yesterday. In hindsight and upon re-reading it, perhaps my choice of words was poor. Of course we understand why many, many RVers choose to travel on the Interstates, and, often, the reasons are compelling. I ought to have written, instead, that we encourage anyone with the time to do so, to forsake the Interstates for the (IMO) far more interesting and relaxed US and State highways. It takes a bit more effort -- the GPS or the trip routing software will never take you that way by default, and handling a big rig on some of these roads does require a slower pace and a steady hand. But the rewards are legion.
We had a wonderful afternoon yesterday with friends Bob and Sandra, who took us on a lovely tour of the Columbia area after lunch at the Capital City Club. That got us a late start on the road, and we opted to head to Orangeburg on US-21, rather than down US-321, as we knew there was both a lodge and a Wal-Mart here, less than an hour from our digs in Columbia.
The Wal-Mart was a bit off the route, and the Elks lodge advertised 30-amp power, so we came directly here, which also put us all the way across Orangeburg before stopping. It was 70° yesterday in Columbia, and it was still that warm when we arrived here. What a treat -- just a day ago, we were having to run the Webasto for at least an hour in the morning, and now, we're having to run the fans to keep it cool inside. The 30 amp power made short work of topping off the batteries, and a quick check of the forecast revealed that it would be 74° here today, although cooling off later in the week.
This morning we decided to stay an extra night, now that we are finally warm, and with a free 30-amp spot, to boot. We really needed a chance to relax for a day, especially since Louise is still under the weather, and I needed some time to get a few things done around the house. I did not make it very far down my list, but at least I got the CB antenna replaced (destroyed by the Harbor Tunnel and several 13'-x" overpasses) and the fridge defrosted -- long overdue, so it took me nearly three hours.
Tomorrow we will try to get an earlier start -- before noon, anyway -- and should be in Savannah's gravitational zone by day's end. We have friends there, too, and we might try to catch them for dinner if Louise is up to it. She pointed out tonight that she's been sick now for a week and a half, and is quite tired of it. We are shooting to be in Kingsland, Georgia (just north of the Florida border) by the weekend, as that is where our mail is heading.
It seems I started something of a firestorm here in the comments with my remarks about Interstate travel yesterday. In hindsight and upon re-reading it, perhaps my choice of words was poor. Of course we understand why many, many RVers choose to travel on the Interstates, and, often, the reasons are compelling. I ought to have written, instead, that we encourage anyone with the time to do so, to forsake the Interstates for the (IMO) far more interesting and relaxed US and State highways. It takes a bit more effort -- the GPS or the trip routing software will never take you that way by default, and handling a big rig on some of these roads does require a slower pace and a steady hand. But the rewards are legion.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Hail, Columbia
We are at a Wal-Mart in Columbia, South Carolina (map).
Yesterday we pulled up stakes at Cheraw State Park just about noon -- a bit sooner than we'd like, but we needed to be back in good cell coverage in time for Louise's call. I had hoped to make it all the way to the Flying-J, but we fell short, stopping instead at the parking lot of a Home Depot at the edge of town. That gave me a chance to shop for stair nosing that I need (they did not have the right brand, though) and put some coolant in while she was on the phone.
The call ran less than two hours, despite having been scheduled for four(!), and we arrived at the Flying-J with plenty of daylight left. So after fueling and dumping our tanks, we drove right through the center of town to get here, rather than going around on the freeway, giving us the chance to pass the State House and several other historic buildings.
Today some friends are driving up from Batesburg to meet us for lunch, after which we will head out of town to the south. I'd like to take US-321 all the way to where it meets I-95 in Hardeeville, but I couldn't find even a single place to spend the night along that route -- not even a Wal-Mart. Hard to believe one can even find a 130-mile stretch of highway with no Wal-Marts, but it's true, which has me contemplating taking US-21 instead, which will pass both a Wal-Mart and an Elks lodge in Orangeburg. The downside is that this route will put us back in the hustle and bustle of the I-95 corridor a full 35 miles sooner.
Speaking of which, I was reading a thread on one of the bus conversion boards this morning, about routes to get to Arcadia, Florida for a rally there at the end of the month. Many suggestions were proffered, and every single one of them involved some combination of Interstate highways. While we understand perfectly why truckers or busy traveling salesmen, for example, mostly stay on the Interstates, it always amazes us that most RVers do as well. It seems to us that the purpose of an RV is to get out and see the country, not whizz past it at 70mph. To each his own, I suppose.
Yesterday we pulled up stakes at Cheraw State Park just about noon -- a bit sooner than we'd like, but we needed to be back in good cell coverage in time for Louise's call. I had hoped to make it all the way to the Flying-J, but we fell short, stopping instead at the parking lot of a Home Depot at the edge of town. That gave me a chance to shop for stair nosing that I need (they did not have the right brand, though) and put some coolant in while she was on the phone.
The call ran less than two hours, despite having been scheduled for four(!), and we arrived at the Flying-J with plenty of daylight left. So after fueling and dumping our tanks, we drove right through the center of town to get here, rather than going around on the freeway, giving us the chance to pass the State House and several other historic buildings.
Today some friends are driving up from Batesburg to meet us for lunch, after which we will head out of town to the south. I'd like to take US-321 all the way to where it meets I-95 in Hardeeville, but I couldn't find even a single place to spend the night along that route -- not even a Wal-Mart. Hard to believe one can even find a 130-mile stretch of highway with no Wal-Marts, but it's true, which has me contemplating taking US-21 instead, which will pass both a Wal-Mart and an Elks lodge in Orangeburg. The downside is that this route will put us back in the hustle and bustle of the I-95 corridor a full 35 miles sooner.
Speaking of which, I was reading a thread on one of the bus conversion boards this morning, about routes to get to Arcadia, Florida for a rally there at the end of the month. Many suggestions were proffered, and every single one of them involved some combination of Interstate highways. While we understand perfectly why truckers or busy traveling salesmen, for example, mostly stay on the Interstates, it always amazes us that most RVers do as well. It seems to us that the purpose of an RV is to get out and see the country, not whizz past it at 70mph. To each his own, I suppose.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Back to nature
We are at the Cheraw State Park, near Cheraw, South Carolina (map). There are 17 sites here with water and electric, but we are the only ones here other than the camp host.
Yesterday was a short driving day for us, because we had a two-hour conference call in the middle of the day. We ended up stopping in Laurinburg, NC, off US-401, to take our call. Our guides showed this park, as well as a Wal-Mart in Cheraw, in the event the park did not work out.
It's a lovely park, with a little lake in the middle created by the CCC in the 30s. There are apparently eight cabins of the same vintage on the other side of the lake, as well as a golf course. The campground is lovely -- wooded, and ajacent to the lake. Having our pick of spaces allowed me to find one with a gap in the trees to get online.
We'll probably take a short walk this morning over to the dam, and maybe across to the other side of the lake. We need to be on the road a bit early today, though, as Louise has a conference call starting at 2 that will last until dark, and I want to be at least as far as the Flying-J in Columbia before it starts.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Thank you, Wal-Mart
We are at a Wal-Mart (again) in Fayetteville, North Carolina (map), one of three in this town. This one happened to be right on our planned route.
As comfortable as we both are with spending the night in such a place, it is a bit tiresome to find ourselves in one nearly every morning. That being said, there really are very, very few options in this part of the country at this time of year, and even fewer that fit in with our chosen travel style of point-and-go.
One of our traditions is to count our blessings each evening over our first glass of wine at dinner, and usually one or the other of us counts as a blessing that we have found a safe, comfortable place to stay. Last night, we got to talking about the Wal-Mart policy, and how our travels might be different if that policy did not exist. I suspect we'd spend a lot more time at Elks lodges, although increased competition for a very limited resource would likely make that difficult. More likely, we would spend less time in the east, and limit our visits to times of the year when state and county parks are open for camping. It's hard to imagine how we could make a Thanksgiving visit with my family work.
So as we wrap up our stay at the fourth Wal-Mart this week, I want to take a moment to publicly acknowledge Wal-Mart's gracious stance on parking. And yes, we know it is also good business -- we rarely spend a night at a store without going inside to buy something, and last night was no exception. Incidentally, this is one of the busiest stores we've seen in quite a while -- we were lucky to find a spot between two trucks that shielded us, somewhat, from a very busy parking lot.
Today we will leave the I-95 corridor, continuing southwest on US-401 and then crossing over to US-1 via state route 79. That will ultimately lead us to Columbia, where we will visit some friends.
As comfortable as we both are with spending the night in such a place, it is a bit tiresome to find ourselves in one nearly every morning. That being said, there really are very, very few options in this part of the country at this time of year, and even fewer that fit in with our chosen travel style of point-and-go.
One of our traditions is to count our blessings each evening over our first glass of wine at dinner, and usually one or the other of us counts as a blessing that we have found a safe, comfortable place to stay. Last night, we got to talking about the Wal-Mart policy, and how our travels might be different if that policy did not exist. I suspect we'd spend a lot more time at Elks lodges, although increased competition for a very limited resource would likely make that difficult. More likely, we would spend less time in the east, and limit our visits to times of the year when state and county parks are open for camping. It's hard to imagine how we could make a Thanksgiving visit with my family work.
So as we wrap up our stay at the fourth Wal-Mart this week, I want to take a moment to publicly acknowledge Wal-Mart's gracious stance on parking. And yes, we know it is also good business -- we rarely spend a night at a store without going inside to buy something, and last night was no exception. Incidentally, this is one of the busiest stores we've seen in quite a while -- we were lucky to find a spot between two trucks that shielded us, somewhat, from a very busy parking lot.
Today we will leave the I-95 corridor, continuing southwest on US-401 and then crossing over to US-1 via state route 79. That will ultimately lead us to Columbia, where we will visit some friends.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Still shivering in NC
We are at the Wal-Mart in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina (map). There are a plethora of restaurants and other stores here, as well as a visitor center -- we ate at the Lone Star Steakhouse across the street.
One of the consequences of our slow pace is that it will take a while to get someplace warmer. We've been driving only three hours per day, which is our usual preference, and our decision to stay on the blue highways means that, here in the east, three hours only gets us around 100 miles, half what could be achieved on the Interstate. Last night, it was colder here than it has been for us in the last few days, and we've had the Webasto running a good five hours between last night and this morning.
Yesterday we rolled south on US-1, electing to take it all the way through Richmond rather than bypass the city on the freeway. We continued south to Petersburg, where I was caught a bit off guard that US-1 diverts from the I-95 corridor and follows, instead, I-85 towards Raleigh. We stopped in an empty lot downtown to consult the maps, and chose, instead, to continue south on US-301, which would keep us further east, and provide a more direct route to our target of hitting the Atlantic coast at the Florida state line. A more westerly route will just prolong the amount of time we spend in the cold, since it's colder west of here, and longer to boot.
Subsequently, we've recived messages from a couple of readers, noting that we were on US-1, and asking if we might stop for a visit. Except, of course, we are no longer on that route. I am now looking at diverting that way south of Fayetteville on US-401, which would mean fueling up in Columbia rather than Dillon. (Yes, I know we just fueled. But we'll be at least 50 gallons down by then, and this will be the cheapest fuel we'll see for a while unless diesel in Florida drops another 20 cents.)
In the interests of not dissapointing anyone else who is hoping for a meet, our rough plan for the next month is to continue south along US-301, -401, -1, and -321 into Savannah, then work our way along the coast down to Florida. After that, we will try to hit some coastal highlights, Disney World, and maybe the keys (dependent on State Park reservations) in no particular order, eventually ending up in Stuart for TrawlerFest at the end of January, subject to being preempted if our request for inauguration tickets comes through. If you think we might be in your neighborhood, send us an email sooner rather than later -- we often get the "we just missed you" comment right after we've already left someplace.
One of the consequences of our slow pace is that it will take a while to get someplace warmer. We've been driving only three hours per day, which is our usual preference, and our decision to stay on the blue highways means that, here in the east, three hours only gets us around 100 miles, half what could be achieved on the Interstate. Last night, it was colder here than it has been for us in the last few days, and we've had the Webasto running a good five hours between last night and this morning.
Yesterday we rolled south on US-1, electing to take it all the way through Richmond rather than bypass the city on the freeway. We continued south to Petersburg, where I was caught a bit off guard that US-1 diverts from the I-95 corridor and follows, instead, I-85 towards Raleigh. We stopped in an empty lot downtown to consult the maps, and chose, instead, to continue south on US-301, which would keep us further east, and provide a more direct route to our target of hitting the Atlantic coast at the Florida state line. A more westerly route will just prolong the amount of time we spend in the cold, since it's colder west of here, and longer to boot.
Subsequently, we've recived messages from a couple of readers, noting that we were on US-1, and asking if we might stop for a visit. Except, of course, we are no longer on that route. I am now looking at diverting that way south of Fayetteville on US-401, which would mean fueling up in Columbia rather than Dillon. (Yes, I know we just fueled. But we'll be at least 50 gallons down by then, and this will be the cheapest fuel we'll see for a while unless diesel in Florida drops another 20 cents.)
In the interests of not dissapointing anyone else who is hoping for a meet, our rough plan for the next month is to continue south along US-301, -401, -1, and -321 into Savannah, then work our way along the coast down to Florida. After that, we will try to hit some coastal highlights, Disney World, and maybe the keys (dependent on State Park reservations) in no particular order, eventually ending up in Stuart for TrawlerFest at the end of January, subject to being preempted if our request for inauguration tickets comes through. If you think we might be in your neighborhood, send us an email sooner rather than later -- we often get the "we just missed you" comment right after we've already left someplace.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Our first Cracker Barrel
We are parked at a Cracker Barrel restaurant adjacent to I-95 in Ashland, Virginia (map).
Yesterday, highway 243 deposited us at the I-95 corridor just north of Quantico, and we continued south on US-1, which parallels I-95, often just a few hundred feet away. The GPS, of course, kept trying to put us onto the Interstate, with an exasperated-sounding "Recalculating" every time we refused to turn.
US-1 is, actually, not so much a parallel route to the Interstate as it is a parallel universe -- it is an entirely different experience. The road is lined with local businesses, and the traffic consists of local people going about their lives, a marked contrast to the rush to be somewhere else entirely on the Interstate, whizzing past enormous signs of national-chain franchises that could be anywhere at all. Most of our drive we could not see the Interstate or its billboards, hotels, or chains.
At Carmel Church we stopped at the Flying-J, conveniently located between I-95 and US-1, and took on 200 gallons of diesel at $2.45, the lowest price we've paid since Mexico. The RV dispensers at this location were faster than at the last one, and it took less than half an hour using nozzles on both sides. Still, it was near sunset when we finished, and we thought about just spending the night.
Our guides showed a Wal-Mart supercenter here in Ashland, just another 12 miles down the road, and we found no reference to parking restrictions, so we decided to press on for what we thought would be a quieter experience, with more restaurant choices. Unfortunately, when we arrived just past sunset, we found signs prohibiting overnight RV parking -- all too common, and becoming more so, here in Virginia.
Knowing there was an Elks lodge in Richmond, but sorry we would be arriving there well after dark, we started to head on to the Interstate, forsaking the friendlier US-1 for speed and absence of hard-to-see hazards. We discovered both a TA truckstop and a Cracker Barrel restaurant right here at the exit, and decided to try the Cracker Barrel, known for its liberal RV parking policy and dedicated oversize parking spaces, with the TA as a backup plan, rather than press on in the dark.
We found a nice, relatively quiet (there is no escaping the freeway noise here) and dark spot in back, and there were at least two other rigs here, doubtless also refugees from the no-parking Wal-Mart. Given the parking policy, it's actually a bit surprising we've never stayed in one in over four years. The truth is, though, that we've eaten here before, and we really can't stand the place for dinner. So we walked over to Applebees last night, and had breakfast here this morning instead as our courtesy purchase -- they actually do a pretty good job on breakfast.
Today we will continue south on US-1, although we might take the bypass around Richmond. We should be in the Carolinas tonight.
Yesterday, highway 243 deposited us at the I-95 corridor just north of Quantico, and we continued south on US-1, which parallels I-95, often just a few hundred feet away. The GPS, of course, kept trying to put us onto the Interstate, with an exasperated-sounding "Recalculating" every time we refused to turn.
US-1 is, actually, not so much a parallel route to the Interstate as it is a parallel universe -- it is an entirely different experience. The road is lined with local businesses, and the traffic consists of local people going about their lives, a marked contrast to the rush to be somewhere else entirely on the Interstate, whizzing past enormous signs of national-chain franchises that could be anywhere at all. Most of our drive we could not see the Interstate or its billboards, hotels, or chains.
At Carmel Church we stopped at the Flying-J, conveniently located between I-95 and US-1, and took on 200 gallons of diesel at $2.45, the lowest price we've paid since Mexico. The RV dispensers at this location were faster than at the last one, and it took less than half an hour using nozzles on both sides. Still, it was near sunset when we finished, and we thought about just spending the night.
Our guides showed a Wal-Mart supercenter here in Ashland, just another 12 miles down the road, and we found no reference to parking restrictions, so we decided to press on for what we thought would be a quieter experience, with more restaurant choices. Unfortunately, when we arrived just past sunset, we found signs prohibiting overnight RV parking -- all too common, and becoming more so, here in Virginia.
Knowing there was an Elks lodge in Richmond, but sorry we would be arriving there well after dark, we started to head on to the Interstate, forsaking the friendlier US-1 for speed and absence of hard-to-see hazards. We discovered both a TA truckstop and a Cracker Barrel restaurant right here at the exit, and decided to try the Cracker Barrel, known for its liberal RV parking policy and dedicated oversize parking spaces, with the TA as a backup plan, rather than press on in the dark.
We found a nice, relatively quiet (there is no escaping the freeway noise here) and dark spot in back, and there were at least two other rigs here, doubtless also refugees from the no-parking Wal-Mart. Given the parking policy, it's actually a bit surprising we've never stayed in one in over four years. The truth is, though, that we've eaten here before, and we really can't stand the place for dinner. So we walked over to Applebees last night, and had breakfast here this morning instead as our courtesy purchase -- they actually do a pretty good job on breakfast.
Today we will continue south on US-1, although we might take the bypass around Richmond. We should be in the Carolinas tonight.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Red Cross fly-by
We are parked behind the Sam's Club, adjacent to Wal-Mart, in Sterling, Virginia (map), just about five miles from the Red Cross facility here. We'd been told we could park there, as well, but we arrived after dark and after closing time, so we decided to play it safe.
We had hoped to find a way into DC today and meet with our leads at Red Cross HQ, but two of them are out of the office this week, and the rest are more or less tied up today and tomorrow. On top of that, apparently the national tree lighting is this evening, and DC will be a mess due to all the road closures -- everyone is trying to bail out of HQ early as a result.
Just as well, really, because Louise is still pretty much under the weather -- I might have had to go to DC alone. So today, we will drive over to the Ashburn facility just to check it out, and scope out the parking situation in the event we are ever asked to do a tour of duty there during a disaster. From there we will head due south, connecting with US-1 (parallel to I-95) near Quantico, and head on south to the Flying-J in Carmel Church for some desperately needed fuel.
The fuel gauge has been getting more and more erratic, and I've got my hands full trying to do mental fuel calculations while driving. This is where I really wish the mileage readings on the DDEC were working, which would help with the calcs. In any event, we passed $2.58 diesel in New Jersey, but it looked like we had half a tank, so we kept going, knowing fuel was $2.40 at the Flying-J south of here. In Maryland, fuel was $2.70 when it started looking like we had only a third of a tank -- still plenty to get us to the Flying-J in Carmel Church. Somewhere on yesterday's drive, though, the needle plummeted.
We passed a couple of gas stations on Leesburg Pike on the way here, but I did not notice any diesel. When we got parked, I tilted the bus to get as much pooled in the dip tube area as possible, but the level was still too low to run the Webasto. We ended up using our electric heaters all evening off the batteries, and this morning, I had to run the main engine for about an hour to get heat, hot water, and some charge back in to the batteries. A bit inefficient, since the main engine burns twice as much as the genny, and several times as much as the Webasto, but it does work, in a pinch. (The main engine dip tube goes nearly all the way to the bottom of the tank; the webasto tube only goes down to about the quarter-tank mark, with the genny just a bit above that -- this keeps either of those devices, which might be running even when we are not around, from sucking the tank dry and stranding us someplace.)
Our arrival here after dark was largely due to an accident on the beltway in Maryland that closed several lanes. We ended up bailing off onto local roads, and using the GPS to navigate our way around the jam and back onto the beltway downstream of it. That cost us half an hour; hard to say if we actually saved any time or not.
In other news, we did pass through two more E-ZPass lanes yesterday, at the Fort McHenry Tunnel under Baltimore Harbor and on the Dulles Greenway (267), respectively, and both registered properly even with the transponder on the lower windshield, where it has been all along. I'm now guessing that the Thanksgiving holiday somehow delayed getting our New York transponder properly registered in the inter-agency system; it would be interesting to see if we would now get properly read in NJ.
We had hoped to find a way into DC today and meet with our leads at Red Cross HQ, but two of them are out of the office this week, and the rest are more or less tied up today and tomorrow. On top of that, apparently the national tree lighting is this evening, and DC will be a mess due to all the road closures -- everyone is trying to bail out of HQ early as a result.
Just as well, really, because Louise is still pretty much under the weather -- I might have had to go to DC alone. So today, we will drive over to the Ashburn facility just to check it out, and scope out the parking situation in the event we are ever asked to do a tour of duty there during a disaster. From there we will head due south, connecting with US-1 (parallel to I-95) near Quantico, and head on south to the Flying-J in Carmel Church for some desperately needed fuel.
The fuel gauge has been getting more and more erratic, and I've got my hands full trying to do mental fuel calculations while driving. This is where I really wish the mileage readings on the DDEC were working, which would help with the calcs. In any event, we passed $2.58 diesel in New Jersey, but it looked like we had half a tank, so we kept going, knowing fuel was $2.40 at the Flying-J south of here. In Maryland, fuel was $2.70 when it started looking like we had only a third of a tank -- still plenty to get us to the Flying-J in Carmel Church. Somewhere on yesterday's drive, though, the needle plummeted.
We passed a couple of gas stations on Leesburg Pike on the way here, but I did not notice any diesel. When we got parked, I tilted the bus to get as much pooled in the dip tube area as possible, but the level was still too low to run the Webasto. We ended up using our electric heaters all evening off the batteries, and this morning, I had to run the main engine for about an hour to get heat, hot water, and some charge back in to the batteries. A bit inefficient, since the main engine burns twice as much as the genny, and several times as much as the Webasto, but it does work, in a pinch. (The main engine dip tube goes nearly all the way to the bottom of the tank; the webasto tube only goes down to about the quarter-tank mark, with the genny just a bit above that -- this keeps either of those devices, which might be running even when we are not around, from sucking the tank dry and stranding us someplace.)
Our arrival here after dark was largely due to an accident on the beltway in Maryland that closed several lanes. We ended up bailing off onto local roads, and using the GPS to navigate our way around the jam and back onto the beltway downstream of it. That cost us half an hour; hard to say if we actually saved any time or not.
In other news, we did pass through two more E-ZPass lanes yesterday, at the Fort McHenry Tunnel under Baltimore Harbor and on the Dulles Greenway (267), respectively, and both registered properly even with the transponder on the lower windshield, where it has been all along. I'm now guessing that the Thanksgiving holiday somehow delayed getting our New York transponder properly registered in the inter-agency system; it would be interesting to see if we would now get properly read in NJ.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Grace Harbor
We are at the Elks lodge in Havre De Grace, Maryland (map).
We had an uneventful drive yesterday, following US-1 until it intersected I-95, which brought us all the way to Newark, Delaware. Louise had a conference call yesterday afternoon, and we rolled in to the rest area/travel plaza at milepost 2 just as her call was starting, and made about an hour stop there with the dish on line. That also gave me the opportunity to affix our lighted holiday wreath to the grille guard -- an annual tradition for us.
Once the call was over and the dish stowed, we bailed off the Interstate, heading a couple miles south at the very next interchange and picking up US-40, AKA the Pulaski Highway. In addition to being more scenic and more our pace, US-40 bypasses the toll sections of I-95 through Delaware and Maryland, and the toll bridge between Perryville and Havre De Grace is free in the westbound direction.
We did make a quick jog back up towards the Interstate at the town of North East, Maryland, to make a stop at the Flying-J there. We did not take on any diesel -- it was $2.699 in Maryland, a dime more than we saw throughout NJ, and $0.25 higher than Flying-J in Virginia, where we'll be soon enough. But we needed to dump our tanks, having not done so since Cumberland Mountain, in Tennessee, 17 days earlier. The RV dump required a bit of jockeying around to access, but was otherwise convenient, and we also took on a few dozen gallons of water. I had wanted to buy a replacement CB antenna there, as we've more or less destroyed in on low overpasses in the northeast, but they did not stock our size.
We briefly contemplated making the Flying-J our stop for the night. After all, we were already there, and Louise has come down with some sort of cold or flu and really couldn't care less where we're parked right now. But our guide showed this Elks lodge just another twenty minutes down the road, and I felt it would be a bit quieter here, plus we'd have a choice of two or three restaurants, rather than being stuck with Flying-J's house fare. We ate at The Bayou, across the street, which was fine, and were even able to pick up a few items at the grocery store next door.
We're just a couple hundred feet from Amtrak's Northeast Corridor here, and we've been watching the trains go by. We both love the sound of trains, chimes and all, so staying near tracks is enjoyable rather than an annoyance (we know that not everyone shares this view). However, I had forgotten the sounds of high-speed electrified main -- very different from the diesel-powered symphony we are used to. The trains whizz by with just a hum and a whoosh, and an occasional blast of the chimes (I think for the swing bridge across the Susquehanna -- there are no grade crossings on the Corridor).
This morning I will walk over to West Marine, just a block away, to pick up a couple of project items. We're ruminating about staying another night -- we have 15 amps of power here, and we don't want to show up in DC until Louise is feeling a bit better. We'll see how things go by lunch time.
We had an uneventful drive yesterday, following US-1 until it intersected I-95, which brought us all the way to Newark, Delaware. Louise had a conference call yesterday afternoon, and we rolled in to the rest area/travel plaza at milepost 2 just as her call was starting, and made about an hour stop there with the dish on line. That also gave me the opportunity to affix our lighted holiday wreath to the grille guard -- an annual tradition for us.
Once the call was over and the dish stowed, we bailed off the Interstate, heading a couple miles south at the very next interchange and picking up US-40, AKA the Pulaski Highway. In addition to being more scenic and more our pace, US-40 bypasses the toll sections of I-95 through Delaware and Maryland, and the toll bridge between Perryville and Havre De Grace is free in the westbound direction.
We did make a quick jog back up towards the Interstate at the town of North East, Maryland, to make a stop at the Flying-J there. We did not take on any diesel -- it was $2.699 in Maryland, a dime more than we saw throughout NJ, and $0.25 higher than Flying-J in Virginia, where we'll be soon enough. But we needed to dump our tanks, having not done so since Cumberland Mountain, in Tennessee, 17 days earlier. The RV dump required a bit of jockeying around to access, but was otherwise convenient, and we also took on a few dozen gallons of water. I had wanted to buy a replacement CB antenna there, as we've more or less destroyed in on low overpasses in the northeast, but they did not stock our size.
We briefly contemplated making the Flying-J our stop for the night. After all, we were already there, and Louise has come down with some sort of cold or flu and really couldn't care less where we're parked right now. But our guide showed this Elks lodge just another twenty minutes down the road, and I felt it would be a bit quieter here, plus we'd have a choice of two or three restaurants, rather than being stuck with Flying-J's house fare. We ate at The Bayou, across the street, which was fine, and were even able to pick up a few items at the grocery store next door.
We're just a couple hundred feet from Amtrak's Northeast Corridor here, and we've been watching the trains go by. We both love the sound of trains, chimes and all, so staying near tracks is enjoyable rather than an annoyance (we know that not everyone shares this view). However, I had forgotten the sounds of high-speed electrified main -- very different from the diesel-powered symphony we are used to. The trains whizz by with just a hum and a whoosh, and an occasional blast of the chimes (I think for the swing bridge across the Susquehanna -- there are no grade crossings on the Corridor).
This morning I will walk over to West Marine, just a block away, to pick up a couple of project items. We're ruminating about staying another night -- we have 15 amps of power here, and we don't want to show up in DC until Louise is feeling a bit better. We'll see how things go by lunch time.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Heading South
We are at the Wal-Mart in North Brunswick, New Jersey (map).
It took us a while to get everything packed up yesterday -- we had unloaded a scooter at the beginning of our visit, and I had no fewer than six cords and adapters out to connect to the 15-amp GFCI receptacle we were borrowing. Also, I had several Monday-morning phone calls to make, including one to Chappaqua Transportation in Fishkill, NY, to see if there was any chance they could get us in the shop this week to replace our bent tag axle A-frame (no dice).
That put us on the road just in the nick of time to avoid the worst of the afternoon rush hour (which, here in the NY metro area, starts pretty much when the morning rush hour ends), but traffic was still heavy. We blasted out of the red zone on the Garden State Parkway, bailing off onto US-1 near Menlo Park.
One of the things that we did while we were in New City (and the reason I needed to take the scooter out) was to sign up for E-ZPass, an automated toll-paying system that works on 24 different tollways in 13 states. New York is a good place to sign up, since they do not asses any kind of monthly or annual "maintenance fee" just to keep the transponder -- you just need to make the deposit for your pre-paid tolls. Also, New York gives a discount on the Thruway and some toll crossings to NY transponder holders, plus they have a lower rate for three-axle motor homes than for commercial vehicles, whereas there is no rate difference when paying by cash at the booth. Lastly, the customer service center was only a mile from my uncle's place.
So Wednesday I rode down there and signed up, getting an RFID transponder for Odyssey that codes it as a three-axle motor home "over 7,000 pounds." They told me the transponder would work on the NY State Thruway by noon on Thursday, and everywhere else in the E-ZPass system in 48 hours. They also assured me that, once the vehicle coding was correct, our coach would register the proper toll in each state.
Yesterday was our first chance to use it, and, apparently, it did not register at all in any of the three toll lanes we passed on the Parkway. Harumph. I called customer service, who assured me that no citations would be issued, since Odyssey's license plate is registered in the database to our account. They will simply deduct the proper tolls from our account when the system matches the plate to an unpaid toll. We have the transponder at the top center of the lower windshield; the next toll plaza we go though, we might try holding it up in the upstairs windshield to see if that makes a difference.
Today we will continue south on US-1 until it intersects I-95, which will blast us over the Delaware and around the Trenton and Philadelphia metro areas toll-free. We're making a bee line for warmer climes, although we will make a brief stop in DC in the next couple of days to visit Red Cross headquarters.
It took us a while to get everything packed up yesterday -- we had unloaded a scooter at the beginning of our visit, and I had no fewer than six cords and adapters out to connect to the 15-amp GFCI receptacle we were borrowing. Also, I had several Monday-morning phone calls to make, including one to Chappaqua Transportation in Fishkill, NY, to see if there was any chance they could get us in the shop this week to replace our bent tag axle A-frame (no dice).
That put us on the road just in the nick of time to avoid the worst of the afternoon rush hour (which, here in the NY metro area, starts pretty much when the morning rush hour ends), but traffic was still heavy. We blasted out of the red zone on the Garden State Parkway, bailing off onto US-1 near Menlo Park.
One of the things that we did while we were in New City (and the reason I needed to take the scooter out) was to sign up for E-ZPass, an automated toll-paying system that works on 24 different tollways in 13 states. New York is a good place to sign up, since they do not asses any kind of monthly or annual "maintenance fee" just to keep the transponder -- you just need to make the deposit for your pre-paid tolls. Also, New York gives a discount on the Thruway and some toll crossings to NY transponder holders, plus they have a lower rate for three-axle motor homes than for commercial vehicles, whereas there is no rate difference when paying by cash at the booth. Lastly, the customer service center was only a mile from my uncle's place.
So Wednesday I rode down there and signed up, getting an RFID transponder for Odyssey that codes it as a three-axle motor home "over 7,000 pounds." They told me the transponder would work on the NY State Thruway by noon on Thursday, and everywhere else in the E-ZPass system in 48 hours. They also assured me that, once the vehicle coding was correct, our coach would register the proper toll in each state.
Yesterday was our first chance to use it, and, apparently, it did not register at all in any of the three toll lanes we passed on the Parkway. Harumph. I called customer service, who assured me that no citations would be issued, since Odyssey's license plate is registered in the database to our account. They will simply deduct the proper tolls from our account when the system matches the plate to an unpaid toll. We have the transponder at the top center of the lower windshield; the next toll plaza we go though, we might try holding it up in the upstairs windshield to see if that makes a difference.
Today we will continue south on US-1 until it intersects I-95, which will blast us over the Delaware and around the Trenton and Philadelphia metro areas toll-free. We're making a bee line for warmer climes, although we will make a brief stop in DC in the next couple of days to visit Red Cross headquarters.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Monday Miscellany: Generosity
Monday is the day for miscellaneous topics
I found out on our last Red Cross job that the following companies gave In-Kind donations. This means that they gave goods and services to support our disaster relief work. This type of generosity is rarely seen by the public, so I thought you might like to know what goes on "behind the scenes."
When companies like these donate food, cell phone air time, lodging, toys, books, or medical supplies, it allows the Red Cross to use cash donations for other vital needs. We couldn't do it without our industry partners. When I saw this list, I knew it would influence my purchasing decisions in the future.
3M
Abbott Labs
Academy Sports + Outdoors
Anheuser-Busch
Chevron
Coca-Cola North America
Country Inn & Suites by Carlson
CVS
Dollar General
Energizer
FirStar Fiber
Georgia Pacific Paper
GOJO
Grainger
Hasbro
Kraft
MasterCard
Maersk N.A. Inc.
Mattel
Nestle Waters, North America Inc.
Northern Products
Playtex
Reckitt Beckinser
Rite Aid
Royal Cup Coffee
Scholastic Inc.
Schering-Plough
Target
The Clorox Company
The Home Depot
Verizon
VSP
Walgreens
Wal-Mart
Waterjel
Wyeth
In other good news for the Red Cross, Marathon Oil Corporation donated $1.5 million for the 2008 hurricanes. For many of our disaster relief needs, there's no substitute for cold, hard cash, and Marathon's generosity is welcome, indeed.
This kind of news makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. In difficult economic times, I think it is especially wonderful to read about acts of generosity in the corporate world. It gives me hope!
Thanksgiving blog backlog
We are (for another few minutes, anyway) parked on a public street near my uncle's house in New City, New York (map). We've been here since Tuesday afternoon, so there is not much of a travel update today.
We've had a lovely holiday with my family, most of whom we have not seen in over two years. While that's not really all that long for adults, especially when we all keep in touch by email and here on this blog, it's a very, very long time for a four-year-old, and so we were thrilled when my cousin and his family, who live in Argyle, New York, decided to drive down here on Saturday to see us. Had they not, we would have made the 360-mile round trip ourselves.
The last time we saw our "nephew" (really my first cousin once removed), he was just one and a half. Unsurprisingly, the thing he remembers most about that visit is the bus, which, apparently, he talks about quite a bit. On that visit, we never moved from their driveway, and so yesterday we all piled into Odyssey for a quick 2.5-mile round trip to the nearby Costco. He sat upstairs in the front penthouse seats and was tickled with the trip, although I think he spent most of the time focused on the pets rather than the view.
We gave up our Costco membership some time ago -- there are so few of them around the country, and we really don't have room to store anything that comes in Costco-sized packaging, like 36 rolls of toilet paper, or an entire loin strip of beef. That said, there are some things that Costco just can't be beat on, and we took advantage of my aunt's membership card to stock up on our favorite micro-fiber towels. While we were there, we also picked up a rack of lamb and a can of coffee, as well as some socks. That should cover us for a while.
We had a nice visit with my family, including my folks who drove up Thursday morning from New Jersey and stayed through Saturday to see their nephew and his family. We ended up visiting with everyone in shifts, since my aunt and uncle have odd schedules that mean they never see each other except on Sundays. We basically headed in to the house every day after our first cup of morning coffee, and did not return to the bus until close to midnight each evening, other than to walk the dog. Of course, there was a great deal of eating involved, so I think we'll be eating salads now until next year.
But this brings me to answering the anonymous comment we received here on Friday, taking us to task for, apparently, twittering instead of blogging. Perhaps it is not obvious from reading these posts, especially to anyone who does not maintain his own blog, but each post here takes me a minimum of about half an hour to complete, and some much longer than that. In addition to actually writing the text of what I have to say, I often have to go back and consult the maps to see where we've been, then generate the link to where we are at the moment, as well as search the blog to generate links to previous posts, etc.. So, no, I have not had enough time since our arrival here to post even one regular update to the blog.
This is one of the reasons we've put "our latest tweets" in our sidebar. I can actually tweet from my Blackberry (yes, I know I can blog from there too, but it is much more involved), which gives me a way to post a quick status here on the blog when we either have no time or no Internet access to post a regular update. Those who also follow me on Twitter know that we've set up the reverse direction as well, with an automatic tweet any time I update the blog (leading to the occasional redundancy of having the "latest tweet" box reading the same as the latest blog entry). This is mostly a convenience for the "blog junkies" among our readers -- you know who you are.
My blogging goal, of late, has been to post at least once from every different location in which we've stayed at least one night. Occasionally, I miss that benchmark, but I am still writing here much more than I ever thought I would when we started the blog. In part, that's because we have developed a quite loyal following, with many diverse reasons for reading this blog. It's also because we've found ourselves going back to earlier blog entries time and again to answer our own questions ("where was that nice camp site?" or "when did we replace the steering pump?"). It's this latter reason that keeps me so diligent about posting accurate map links, descriptions, and timelines.
In any case, I would ask our anonymous commenter to remember that this blog is a labor of love. You may notice that we accept no advertising here, and derive no revenue from the blog whatsoever. We even pay each year to maintain our domain name, web site, and photo repository ad-free. So, while I do try to post often enough to keep everyone's attention, it's a bit unfair to berate us for being too involved with family, whom we hardly ever see, to post over the holiday. FWIW.
In a few minutes, we will pack up and head south -- we'd like to be out of the northeast before it gets any colder or the snows come.
We've had a lovely holiday with my family, most of whom we have not seen in over two years. While that's not really all that long for adults, especially when we all keep in touch by email and here on this blog, it's a very, very long time for a four-year-old, and so we were thrilled when my cousin and his family, who live in Argyle, New York, decided to drive down here on Saturday to see us. Had they not, we would have made the 360-mile round trip ourselves.
The last time we saw our "nephew" (really my first cousin once removed), he was just one and a half. Unsurprisingly, the thing he remembers most about that visit is the bus, which, apparently, he talks about quite a bit. On that visit, we never moved from their driveway, and so yesterday we all piled into Odyssey for a quick 2.5-mile round trip to the nearby Costco. He sat upstairs in the front penthouse seats and was tickled with the trip, although I think he spent most of the time focused on the pets rather than the view.
We gave up our Costco membership some time ago -- there are so few of them around the country, and we really don't have room to store anything that comes in Costco-sized packaging, like 36 rolls of toilet paper, or an entire loin strip of beef. That said, there are some things that Costco just can't be beat on, and we took advantage of my aunt's membership card to stock up on our favorite micro-fiber towels. While we were there, we also picked up a rack of lamb and a can of coffee, as well as some socks. That should cover us for a while.
We had a nice visit with my family, including my folks who drove up Thursday morning from New Jersey and stayed through Saturday to see their nephew and his family. We ended up visiting with everyone in shifts, since my aunt and uncle have odd schedules that mean they never see each other except on Sundays. We basically headed in to the house every day after our first cup of morning coffee, and did not return to the bus until close to midnight each evening, other than to walk the dog. Of course, there was a great deal of eating involved, so I think we'll be eating salads now until next year.
But this brings me to answering the anonymous comment we received here on Friday, taking us to task for, apparently, twittering instead of blogging. Perhaps it is not obvious from reading these posts, especially to anyone who does not maintain his own blog, but each post here takes me a minimum of about half an hour to complete, and some much longer than that. In addition to actually writing the text of what I have to say, I often have to go back and consult the maps to see where we've been, then generate the link to where we are at the moment, as well as search the blog to generate links to previous posts, etc.. So, no, I have not had enough time since our arrival here to post even one regular update to the blog.
This is one of the reasons we've put "our latest tweets" in our sidebar. I can actually tweet from my Blackberry (yes, I know I can blog from there too, but it is much more involved), which gives me a way to post a quick status here on the blog when we either have no time or no Internet access to post a regular update. Those who also follow me on Twitter know that we've set up the reverse direction as well, with an automatic tweet any time I update the blog (leading to the occasional redundancy of having the "latest tweet" box reading the same as the latest blog entry). This is mostly a convenience for the "blog junkies" among our readers -- you know who you are.
My blogging goal, of late, has been to post at least once from every different location in which we've stayed at least one night. Occasionally, I miss that benchmark, but I am still writing here much more than I ever thought I would when we started the blog. In part, that's because we have developed a quite loyal following, with many diverse reasons for reading this blog. It's also because we've found ourselves going back to earlier blog entries time and again to answer our own questions ("where was that nice camp site?" or "when did we replace the steering pump?"). It's this latter reason that keeps me so diligent about posting accurate map links, descriptions, and timelines.
In any case, I would ask our anonymous commenter to remember that this blog is a labor of love. You may notice that we accept no advertising here, and derive no revenue from the blog whatsoever. We even pay each year to maintain our domain name, web site, and photo repository ad-free. So, while I do try to post often enough to keep everyone's attention, it's a bit unfair to berate us for being too involved with family, whom we hardly ever see, to post over the holiday. FWIW.
In a few minutes, we will pack up and head south -- we'd like to be out of the northeast before it gets any colder or the snows come.
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