And what a first day it was, a bit of a shaky start, but what the heck, we are on the way! We finally finished the 'move from hell' late Thursday night and the next morning finished our good-byes with all at the farm. I walked through the weeds to make one last visit to the grave of Brutus, the most wonderful dog I ever met and I touched the leaves of the oak tree which grows there and I thanked him one more time for the lessons he so patiently taught me. I still find it amazing how much can be learned from any of God's creatures if only we will take the time to watch and listen, and abandon some of our human arrogance if even for just a moment. As I have stated elsewhere in my ramblings, my relationship with Brutus did much to change my psyche and ultimately my life. After all our gear was stowed and all parts of the motorhome were secured we smashed a coconut on the bumper, said a few mantras, and we were on our way.
I sit here now, both dogs dutifully sleeping at my feet, and I am amazed at how big Zeus has grown. He was but 7 months old when we rescued him and now at 2 1/2 years of age he is a big handsome boy. My only regret about this trip is that the dogs will seldom get to run off lead, a big change from the 5 acres they are used to roaming. Now if only we can train them to walk next to us while we are only our bicycles but that will require a good deal of training and my body may not yet quite be up to the challenge.
Day 2 (June 13) - A bit of backtracking
We spent last night in a KOA campground in Ocala Florida. It was nice because it had a big swimming pool and after yet another 95+ degree day we were missing the pool we had enjoyed at the farm as much as any other single item. Of course here at the campground we were required to wear bathing suits, put up with kids, and had to skip the usual round of frozen margaritas, but still the water felt great. We got a chance to try out our bicycles for the very first time and explored the campground a bit and met a tugboat captain from Louisiana.
For the uninitiated let me explain a bit about the technical side of motorhomes. In a car the air conditioning is supplied by a device attached to the engine and such a machine (called dash air since the vents are generally located on the dashboard) can cool a car or truck quite well. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending upon the point of view...) the living space in a motorhome is much larger and requires a whole lot bigger air conditioner. Such devices are usually suspended from the ceiling in the coach and usually run off of 110-volt house current rather than the 12-volt system, which operates, from the engine. This means that in order to operate the air conditioning one must either be connected to house current or else there must be a 110 volt generator onboard capable of producing about 30 amps of current. So most of the class A motorhome you see traveling on the highways in the warmer parts of the country have these generators running as they drive. At night if you stay in a campground equipped with 110 volt power plugs at each campsite you can plug in and shut off your generator but if you spend the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot then you have to run the generator all night to keep the AC going.
Meanwhile, back at the KOA, at about 4:00 AM the heat awakens me and I notice that the air conditioner is no longer operating. Uh-oh, this is not good. Since the dogs are traveling with us it is essential that the AC work while we travel, especially after the stories I heard at the vet a couple days back about Rottweilers dying from the heat. Now Ocala is not a small town and right next door is Gainsville which is quite a bit larger but after looking through the phone book (with a flashlight - remember it is 4:00 AM...) I can see no RV repair facilities which give me a secure feeling, especially since it is now Saturday morning. So I decide to head on back to Tampa, back-tracking about 90 miles to the Lazydays facility which bills itself as being the largest in the country, surely they will have someone in on a Saturday.
A very good mechanic had us back on the road in about an hour after replacing some rusted condensers. I think it was finally about 2:00 PM before we finally got back to the same spot we had stopped the day before. This distressed me a bit but ultimately forced me to remember that we are on no schedule here with no deadlines to meet and reminded me of the importance of living in the moment - slow down, go with the flow, carpe diem.
So finally, at about 2:00 PM we made it back to Ocala. I guess it will be important to get rid of that feeling that each day progress must be made, ground must not be lost, for the truth is that if we don't make our miles one day we will certainly make it the next. Still, it is hard to ignore that feeling that comes from losing yardage so to speak.
Anyone who has traveled I-75 through central Florida has certainly noticed those billboards that keep popping up 'Café Risqué - nude dancers, wholesome family entertainment' or something to that affect. Only a small minority of those reading this column would even attempt to deny at least a modicum of curiosity as to what really goes on in those places. Knowing this might be my last chance to learn the truth I just had to stop and peek just a bit. As was expected, the girls were cute, the food was lousy and everything was over priced, how could it have been any different than that?
Finally we reached High Springs and stopped to visit my friends Doc (a.k.a. Dr. Dot) and Hannah (Ms. Dash). It is always nice to visit good friends and cook up a community dinner.
Day 3 (June 14) - Into Georgia
Hot as blazes again this morning. Easily 95 degrees by lunchtime and that is a Deep South 95 degrees, not that watered down Western U.S. version. It was then we decided to modify our planned route a bit and instead of going to Nashville where the heat was sure to be more of the same, we would head for the cool mountains instead. Even with the air conditioning running it gets pretty hot inside the motorhome in the hot sun. The length of our travel days is becoming somewhat shortened due to the heat. After driving in the heat for 5 or 6 hours I have had enough and so on this, our third day out I ended up in Georgia Veteran State Park, near Macon.
The park was nearly empty except the sites right on the lake so we had a pretty big piece of real estate all to ourselves. This gave us a chance to try out the bikes a bit with the dogs. Amazingly they did quite well but of course there were no squirrels or other dogs to distract them. This also gave me a chance to let the dogs run lose a bit, something they will be missing a lot on this trip. So our favorite activity at this spot was to bike on the nature trails with the dogs running behind off lead. Still, the heat was stifling with temperatures at 10:00 P.M. still hovering around 85 degrees. Ultimately we ended up spending two nights in this spot mostly just because we had so much space to ourselves.
Doesn't that name conjure up some images? That is the name of the next State Park where we camped. This one too lived up to the pattern of each being more beautiful than the last. We camped on the edge of a lake in a most beautiful forest and again had an entire loop of the campground to ourselves. As we approach the mountains the terrain becomes more and more hilly and the hills in this spot were quite a challenge on the bikes. Once more the dogs acted like they had run along side a bicycle all their lives and did a most perfect job although I must admit I still would not go too fast especially on the down hills. Here we saw our first fireflies of the trip
I started having some trouble with the ignition switch, sometimes with difficulty in starting the engine. The next day we spent a few hours trying to find someone to work on it but after a few stops we gave up - it seems like everyone is too busy to do any work anymore a fact which will continue to plague us. I finally managed to fix it myself after an hour or so lying under the dashboard. These are the hazards of driving an ancient machine such as this but whenever I am in an RV repair facility I certainly see plenty of newer models too so I am not sure this one is all that much worse than the rest.
While we have intentionally avoided too many goals on the trip thus far, one quasi-goal was to reach the cooler altitudes of the Southern Appalachians. Unseasonably high temperatures have plagued the Southeast for weeks now and it seems as though half the residents of Florida have fled for the mountains. Although there are a few nagging minor problems, the motorhome has done quite well at pulling the steep grades of the mountain highways. Sure, we are passed by most everything on the road, but I feel a need to baby the engine a bit if it is to carry us to the end of our trip.
The road to Black Rock Mountain campground was the steepest yet and even in low gear the engine was straining more than a bit to drag the heavy coach to the top. Over one thousand feet of elevation gain in two miles - wow, even for a Colorado native that is a lot. I caused a major problem with the generator and it quit just about the time we reached the top. Fortunately it was cool enough at 3250 feet that we didn't need it and our next goal of Asheville is also at a high elevation so we should be able to get by without it for a couple days and hopefully we be able to get it repaired by then.
The outlooks here are spectacular. The Smokey Mountains surround us and no matter what time of day the views are ever changing and overwhelming. The feeling is much different in this campground with more of a community spirit. Potluck dinners and rockers on the porch allow us an opportunity to get acquainted with our neighbors. As always the two Rottweilers draw a crowd, some who want to pet them and others who prefer to keep their distance from the 'vicious beasts'. It is about a half-mile from our campsite to the phone and the bikes again come in quite handy even with the steep hills. Once more I am impressed with how well the dogs do running alongside. Still they prefer it off-lead but it will be a while now before we get to do that again.
We walked a 2-1/2 mile trail around the mountaintop. Twenty-five stops have been marked and we are glad we bought the accompanying guide, which describes the flora, fauna, and the local geology. Thunder echoes through the valley but we decide to push on. It takes a full three hours to traverse the trail and the dogs love every minute of it as do the two of us. This is one of the greatest things about state campgrounds, the huge areas they encompass. The energy of the forest is so apparent here, so powerfully it surrounds us, melds with us, entrances us.
As great as it was there, always in the back of our minds was the trip back down the hill. The road was very steep and narrow and the brakes had not yet been tested on such steep grades. As it turned out, all fears were unfounded. We put the transmission in low gear and limited our speed to about 15 miles per hour and down we went. The day was cloudy and rainy, the only day we have seen any precipitation at all. This was the same day damaging winds pounded much of the nearby area.
Now it was time to find an RV mechanic to figure out what I had done to the generator since we couldn't stay in the cool mountains forever and would eventually need air conditioning again. We checked along the way and were directed toward and large RV service facility in Asheville. Unfortunately, upon arriving there we were told that it would be a two-week wait before they could even look at it and we were given the name of another mechanic whom I called and got an appointment for the next day.
Flora and I checked into the first private campground we had been in and found out just how spoiled we had been by the Georgia State campgrounds. While many of those had had bathhouses that weren't too clean they certainly gave a good deal more privacy than did the private campgrounds. Generally the state campgrounds will encompass a few thousand acres while the private ones may be on only a couple dozen. We did agree that we enjoyed it at the Bear Creek Campground even with the close quarters, the amenities being nice and the people friendly but we were sure all packed wall to wall like so many sardines.
Ole Sorenson of On-Site RV Service arrived promptly at 9:00 AM. A few minutes of checking brought us to the conclusion that the oil pump was not pumping an adequate amount of oil. Unfortunately the only way to get to the oil pump was to first remove the generator, which weighs several hundred pounds, and then flip it over and remove the oil pan. Such field repairs are difficult at best but given the unknowns of the road ahead I decided to go ahead with them. Ultimately we found out what had happened to the rag I had used for a temporary oil plug a few days earlier. It had been sucked into the engine and had plugged up the oil pump intake screen. Eight hours and a few hundred dollars later the generator was back online and we were ready to move on to Charlotte. Our day near Asheville had been wasted working on the RV so we never did get to visit this, one on my favorite towns, only glimpsing Biltmore on a neighboring hillside.
