St Augustine. Working out accommodations

Here is my miracle worker!  She does everything for me and I appreciate her more than my own life.

After the "getaway blues" of previous posts about the tribulations that all happened as we were trying to leave our Stix and Brix, we stopped at the Pilot/Flying J at Dunn, NC to fill up.  170 gallons and $632 later, we pulled out headed south down I-95. We stopped the first night at Bass Lake RV park in Dillon, SC about 120 miles from Raleigh. Yesterday, we drove on down to Walterboro, SC, and spent the night in the New Green Acres RV park.  Quite nice other than being right next to I95 but this is the same as is true of Bass Lake. In both cases, it's OK for a night and though these parks are appealing for longer stays, the highway noise really ruins the rest of the experience.  SC seems to have booming highways. Big trucks going down them seem to keep booming and it sounds a lot like nearby thunder.

This morning, we left Green Acres. I was disappointed that I could never get the cable TV hookup to work but I cannot say it was not my fault after the events of the past week.

We pulled into the Stagecoach RV park in St Augustine, FL a few blocks off of I95. Some road noise if you are outside but not really bad.  I still prefer quiet.

Given our reasons for being near Jacksonville, Stagecoach RV park is the closest of the ones we have seen even close to our price range so we thought we would plan at least a month here.  However, the desk person did not know anything much about the monthly rates and available sites so we have to check back in the morning with the owner to get that worked out.

To be honest, I love the setting, hate the traffic noise and the lack of Cable-TV so we are backpedaling on our plans just a bit. First thing in the morning we will check the monthly rates and availability at St John's RV park about 5 miles farther south on I95 on hi-way 207.  We will also check the same at the Indian Forest CG a couple of miles east of that same intersection. We drove through both parks this afternoon after setting up in Stagecoach and though both have cable and Wi-Fi, Indian Forest has a much better ambiance for us, is closer to the beach, St Augustine old town and a Super Wal-Mart.

If they have reasonable monthly rates available I think we will likely move to Indian Forest, tomorrow. ST. John's RV park is a second choice to Indian Forest, though.  $375/month + Elec is hard to beat around here so Stagecoach may end up being our residence for lack of monthly availability at the other two places.

I will admit that I had my first surprise this evening when we went out for a walk after dark and no mosquitoes flying around!  They are show stoppers for me as I react badly to their bites. Bob,  my BIL, had told me that he could not remember being bitten around here in the past several years of living in the area.  I can handle the humidity and even the gnats. Just not the mosquitoes and chiggers.

Well, Mer has retired and I am on her heels a lot earlier than usual, tonight.  Not a hard day but tomorrow will be a long one.  We finally get to see Merrily's brother Bob and his Chemo-embattled wife after 2 years absence and we can never stop having fun when we get together so bedtime may come really late tomorrow night.

We have all been deep friends since Bob and I were in Middle school in central Florida. No matter what the gaps in time between visits have been, there has never seemed to be any discontinuity in our relationship because of them. I count Bob as one of the very best people I have ever known and always a stellar benchmark for me to grow towards in my life.  I admire his courage and convictions and the incredible stamina that he has shown in carrying some unusually massive and long lived life burdens. This latest goblin which has been thrust upon his shoulders, is certainly the worst I have ever known of..

God Speed, Bob and Bette. We are here for whatever benefit of comfort to you guys that we are able to provide during this sketchy period of your lives and just know that it will be survived.

ttfn, my friends
Budd

N O W !!!!!!!!

This blog has been fulfilled. We are on  the Road...... NOW!

Left the house this afternoon and are now resting nicely in Dillon SC for the evening.  Some slight irks and traumas tried to forestall our departure yet again but thanks to Emery, III stepping in and taking up the slack by removing and replacing the windshield wiper motor that just decided to strip its gears, hauling stuff to Goodwill, cutting the tree up that fell on the van and Smart car during Irene and generally being front and center whenever anything cropped up to stall our departure this time.

He has certainly been the STP (oil treatment) that has kept us from getting bound up by a few dozen more glitches and goblins that have popped up these past few days.

Thank you, Emery. You make me cry for Happy.
ttfn
Budd

Whoops.. there goes another rubber tree plant...

Not what I wanted to wake up to Saturday morning.  Goodnight, Irene! Did you have to do this the day before we were due to leave here?

Yes, we watched out for hurricane Irene and knew when the winds in our area would start placing us at risk. What I forgot (happens too often, now) was that I always park all the vehicles in a parking deck or out on the open street where big stuff can't fall on them. I did not consider that my neighbor had a defective tree that would break off at the spot. It could have fallen in any of the other 358 degrees of direction and would not have bothered anything but these 3 degrees.. crap!

I guess this is what you call a sacrificial Van.  The '93 Aerostar took all of the hit from the tree and the Smart was just trapped by the branches until I cut them off.  No damage to it.

The dent in the van's windshield frame and the bullseye pattern in the driver's side of the glass is surprising little damage given the size of the tree.  The bad news is.. no comprehensive insurance due to the age.

This, plus the windshield wiper motor stripping its gears on the Truck as I started to move the RV, has delayed our departure yet another day or so.

But no one was injured by Irene and no serious damage so.. there is the lemonade.

ttfn
Budd

Under the weather

The rain we are finally getting has been wonderful. It has been desperately needed around here. But Mer and I have gotten some sort of stomach bug. Hers has now taken her voice and we are pretty drained at the moment but still kicking.

Other than this news of dubious importance, not much else has been going on. I am still waiting to hear back from the insurance guy about the rest of the claims for damages from the tornado. So far, I have fronted about $2k towards repairs with another few hundred to go.

We are still aiming to leave here around the 17th of August and heading down to visit with Mer’s brother, Bob, his wife and family.  After that, the plans are pretty open until Dec 1.

Here’s hoping that all this rain means more civilized temperatures.

ttfn,

Budd

Sweltering!

Ok I said it!  That should be enough! It can stop anytime, now.

This oppressive heat here in central North Carolina is just reminding me of too many summer days as a kid in Central Alabama and Central Florida, BC (Before Conditioning (air, that is)). The phrase that I remember the most was, “It’s a nice day, go out and play.”….. NOW!

Bacd then, I thought it was mean.  Now, I am sure it was just the adults resenting the huge amount of heat generated by 3 kids bodies indoors.  We were dulling their cool space.

This is not Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana or Mississippi.  After all, it “IS” NORTH Carolina and that should count for something at least a little less tropical.

 

My Dad used to say that it was all just in my mind and that it really wasn’t all that hot. These are not my numbers but I will play along and pretend I am in, oh, let’s say, Port Orford, Oregon.

There!  Now I feel so much better…… not!

Maybe I just need some visual aids to help me chill out….

Ahhhh… Now That’s what I’m talking about!

ttfn

Budd

The night was...... Sultry.

Not much is happening around here because it is just too hot and humid.  Our plans were to just not be here during this typical summer weather..... well, so much for plans.

Being here is accomplishing some important things, though.  The 15k A/C - Heat pump on the roof has been replaced by insurance. It was damaged in that tornado we were in on 4/16/2011 in the Smithfield KOA along with the thermostat.

Still a few little things, like the rear ladder, needed to be dealt with but I have managed to get a few coats of Red Max Pro on the front fiberglass end cap of DaKotR and 1 coat on the rear. This certainly makes it look better, is easier to clean and that should help us with the 10 year age limit on an RV that some parks capriciously enforce. I if an RV looks "spent" it might not be allowed to stay there.  I, also, still need to fill some cracks  that are developing in the caulked seams on the roof but they are not close to leaking and that can be done whenever weather permits. This time, I am going to redo them from scratch and then cover the seams with EternaBond seam tape. From what others have said, this should stop the bi-annual reworking of these seams on the end caps.

The other really big issue has been the generator exhaust coupling leak that has refused, for 7 years, to stay fixed.  Now that we are planning to spend more time off the grid and have a residential refrigerator that will need shore power to cool, we need a dependable generator that will not kill us.

To this end, I pulled the generator out, one more time, and took the offending piece of the exhaust pipe to a welder... and he fixed it, permanently! Fixed in this way will make getting the generator in and out of the RV a bit more difficult but not impossible and now, we should be able to trust the generator when it is running. I am now waiting on some better weather to install it, again.

Along with this, I want to add one of those Generator exhaust extensions that take the exhaust up above the RV.  I played with this for a little bit with a make shift arrangement and it was very nice. It made the generator even a lot quieter when outside and we never smelled any exhaust while it was running this way. That was always an irritating thing to keep getting whiffs of exhaust, especially when outside the RV.

We have always been concerned about leaving our dog, Katie, in the RV for hours and having the A/C go out.  The replacement thermostat I got for the A/C unit has a Wifi remote access capability.  As long as we have access to the RV's Wifi system we can monitor the temperature (and control it) in the RV from our Android Phones wherever we might be.  Eventually, I plan to add a webcam link to watch over her, too.   That would be nice and then, maybe we can figure out why she has to go around when we are away and tip over all the trash cans in the place. She rarely bothers anything in them but just goes over and tips them over and then walks away.

The garbage can is another matter, though, and is usually raided if we don't remember to put it up where she cannot get to it. A different fix is needed for that problem.

ttfn
Budd

Not a happy camper at the moment

We just got word that a close relative has been diagnosed with "C".  Prayers are helpful and encouraged.

Compared to this news, I don't really have much to say, for now.  Please ck Back in a day or so.