Savannah Oaks Campground

Traveled north a bit to a campground in Savannah. The alternative was a campground on Tybee Island but they made me mad when they said that no beach on the island was dog-friendly and if we were caught there was a $500 fine!  

My goals for Savannah are 1) Keller's Flea Market running this weekend, 2) taking a trolley ride which is a historic tour of Savannah, and 3) going to the Whole Foods here and stocking up!  (Also making a big pot of soup because the freezer is almost empty!). 

The weather is sixties moving toward low seventies through Monday and then a cold front is coming through so then we'll move again.  We want to avoid the big storm that we think is hitting the NE this weekend, etc.

No photos yet for today.

St Simons Island

Nice day to explore St Simons Island, an island next to Jeckyl Island off the southern coast of Georgia.

We have seen lots of these big ships off the coast here and we understand that a lot of foreign cars are imported through this Georgia Port Authority and vice versa.

Steve went down to the beach to see if there was any beach combing but there wasn't.

The lighthouse on St Simons.

Good example of Spanish moss growing everywhere here in GA!

Rainy day...

Still at the campground in Brunswick, GA...very close to Jeckyl Island.  It is rainy and chilly today, but tomorrow it's going to be sunny and chilly so we are going to spend the day exploring the islands here.  My mom is interested in St Simons Island for next winter.  For $17 a night and excellent WIFI, ya can't beat it!  Got out my suitcase today to switch over from shorts and tank tops to long pants and sleeves...sigh...

Jeckyl island Beach. 2/24-25, 2014

Overnight in Cracker Barrell parking lot in Jacksonville, FL...no WIFI...today (Tuesday) drove to Brunswick, GA,,,Golden Isles RV Park, PA campground only $17...beautiful day so we are heading to Jeckyl Island Beach!  

Wow, we had a tremendous afternoon on Jeckyl Island!  The weather was spectacular!  We drove around a bit, and even if the weather is lousy tomorrow, we can still check out St Simons Island, etc.  The rate here is $17/night with PA with a three night max. and the campground actually on Jeckyl  Island is $28/night with w/e.  We could easily spend a week here, maybe beginning of March to ensure warmer weather...

We re-upped for a second night here and may spend a third night!

        

(Note: This is a really good campground...down to earth and flexible...could stay here for a week next year!)

Onward to Alachua, FL. (I know...where?). 2/23/14

Still too humid for me here in central Florida, even though it's a bright sunny day. After much debate we are going to start meandering north, starting with Alachua, FL which is still inland but we want to circle around Daytona. There is a Good SAMs campground there called Traveler's Campground that we're staying in for one to two days, then due East. There will be a big climate change between here and there!

From there we are going to make our way up the coast, looking for beaches! I can't believe I'm saying this, but we haven't been to a beach yet! Granted there's accessibility to contend with as well as dog policies, but I am going to make it a priority to hit a few on the way home!

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Made it to Alachua in the pouring rain although it's cooler and less humid.  Tomorrow doesn't look much better and this is a one-horse town at best, so we will push on tomorrow to the Jacksonville area.  Tuesday looks good for weather!

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Really poor internet here hence no blog post for yesterday, but here it is!

Davenport, FL

Rained hard early this morning and again this afternoon, but it's still humid. Still not feeling too chipper. We have been kicking around a lot of ideas of where to go next...I'd like to get back to lower humidity but the weather is not cooperating. Turns out it's race weekend in Daytona so that area is all locked up and much too expensive anyway. 

I think we are going to start back north...slowly meandering, maybe a more inland route...not at all sure. Want to get back to being able to reliably use Passport America, and optimally find some places we'd like to spend a few days. It was too cold for that on the way down, but maybe it will be different on the way back.

Steve has been working on customizing our rig while I have been resting! Nothing major but just to make things more organized and user-friendly. The only new thing that's broken is the pull strap on our awning which a nice campground employee replaced for us. 

Sick in Paradise

Ok, yesterday was basically a lost day for me. Several times a year I get hit with a bout of vertigo that sends me to bed for about 36 hrs and it hit me about 36 hrs ago! I keep Bonine in the house and the rig because that's the only thing that helps a bit, plus ginger. A bit better today...I was able to go in the pool here at the campground, which is good because I'm also dealing with humidity here :(. 

We are trying to balance the a/c with fans...it's either too cold or too hot in the rig. Problem is that a front is coming through and it's humid on the coasts as well. I'm going to investigate where we should go next, maybe tonight if I feel a bit better. No sense being miserable here if we can move to be more comfortable somewhere else. That's how we roll...  (Our new motto!)

Visiting With Friends 2/19/14

Had a great visit with our friends Joe and Karen yesterday, just wish it were a little longer.  We had a fabulous lunch at Duffy's in "Old Stuart"...can't wait until next year to be able to check out the cute little shops!  FYI from 2-4 everything on the menu is 40%off!  Then we got a tour of their home in Stuart and had some R&R in their infamous garage!  Next we went to a great fruit and vegetable market so Robin could stock up on her veggies for awhile.  Nice to connect with camping club friends here in sunny Florida!

Phipps Park in Stuart is quite nice!  Pippin had a little excitement this morning...she was running off some energy when the land just disappeared under her and she slipped down the embankment!  Luckily she didn't go too far and Steve was able to climb down a few feet and get her.  Of course he would have climbed down as far as he had to to rescue her, but she was only about four feet down.  We tried for a little reenactment photo but she would not go near the drop off but you can see Steve standing where he had to get her.  

(That's a towel on my lap because Pippin's feet were wet, but that's right outside of our RV at Phipps!)

We are taking off inland to a campground in Davenport for a longer stay...maybe four or five days!  Yeah! And it's a Passport America campground!  Kissimmee RV Resort.  

Having a some problems with vertigo so that's why this blog is a day late.  May be my body's way of saying I'm doing too much and not sleeping enough...good we're here for a bit.

Cracker Barrel Night!

Stayed at Cracker Barrel which worked great...we were even able to pick up the McDonalds WIFI.  On to a municipal park near Joe and Karen's, lunch with them, and then tomorrow we are off to Kissimmee South Carefree RV Resort in Davenport, FL.  Passport America with heated pool and WIFI!  Even though it's within driving range of Disney, they still have availability!  Yipee!  No internet tonight, so wanted to dash off this post now.  

Hobe Sound

Left Fort Pierce and traveled down to Hobe Sound to spend the day with Barb & Jerry.  Drove around sight-seeing with them so they could show us the sites.  Robin swam in their pool and then we had Chinese.  Tonight we are staying in the Cracker Barrel parking lot here in Hobe Sound.  Robin is waiting to get a prescription filled at the Walgreens in Stuart, one town over.  We are hoping to hook up with our friends from our camping club who winter in Stuart, hopefully tomorrow.  Tomorrow night we're staying at Phipps Park but they only have dry camping sites available. Then we're planning on heading inland to be able to use Passport America again.  Turns out this is the school kids' February vacation week so the coast is absolutely mobbed!

Fort Pierce

Staying in Fort Pierce for the day...Super Walmart, swim in the pool...hopefully some relaxation.  Tomorrow (Monday) we will check out of Treasure Coast and head back to my step-mom's house--we can park our rig at her Clubhouse but just not sleep in it.  Then she is going to take us site seeing around Hobe Sound followed by a swim in her pool.  We are dry camping at the Cracker Barrel in Hobe Sound, then we're off on another adventure...

Photos below are of our rig in Treasure Coast, a ridiculously expensive park with really bad internet service.  Also, a photo of this cool shelf unit Steve just got at Walmart to organize all my stuff I keep by the sink in our bathroom.  We should have taken a before and after! 

Visiting Family! 2/15/14

Traveled south to Fort Pierce, FL to Treasure Coast Campground.  We are still about a half hour north of my step-mom's house, but this was as close as we could get because it's a holiday weekend.  It was chilly this morning in Titusville but I can feel it's warmer here, just a bit more south.  Got set up, I went for a swim in the heated pool here at the campground, and then we jumped in the car and drove about 30 miles south to Hobe Sound.

Barb and her husband Jerry have an absolutely beautiful home!  We enjoyed a fabulous home-cooked meal with them.  Then home again to our little house on wheels.

Spotty internet here so the blogs may be less predictable while we're at this campground :( !  

Hang-around Day

Pippin took a bad fall off the bed last night, falling thump right onto her back.  She didn't get up immediately and made some sounds I have never heard her make before.  She let me carefully pick her up and put her on my lap.  We gave her a good dose of Rescue Remedy and in a few minutes I began to gently flex her limbs, rub up and down her spine, then her ribs and finally palpated her abdomen.  No yelps or flinches.  She was very sedate after that.

She is fine today.  It there is such a thing as a dog "having the wind knocked out " of them like people do, that is what I think happened to her.  Love our Rescue Remedy!  

I'm staying put at the campground today...so far it's a bit chilly...I won't say the temperature out of deference to our CT folks who are cold, wet and snowy!  Steve has a load of laundry in, making more tuna Mac salad for himself, and we're going to clean and vacuum the car...much too cold to do this before we left home!

Tires in Titusville, FL

Rain last night but a beautiful day today in the 60s.  Dropped the rig off to get new tires.  They said the tires were all about seven years old so Steve decided to have them all replaced--$1250--seemed like a good price from what Jerry Clark said yesterday, which included valve stems, balance and alignment.  Now we are exploring Titusville!

Found a health food store and then a thrift store which benefited the SPCA...doesn't get any better for me at least!  Also lunch and Walmart.

When we picked up the rig from the tire place (a Goodyear dealership) the owner showed Steve the valve stems and said it was a good thing we came in today, because several of them were hanging on only by a thread!  Phew, I think we dodged a real catastrophe!

Manatee Hammock in Titusville. 2/12/14

Slept in a bit because I was so exhausted.  We decided to stay here at Manatee Hammock Campground in Titusville for a few more days just to catch our breathes! We realize we've done nothing but drive, albeit relatively short distances, without any real R&R plus we need to deal with our tires.  Gram, I gathered us some air ferns!

We called the really nice guy who came out yesterday to change our blown out tire for a recommendation for a reliable place to take our rig here in the area to inspect our tires and replace any that need it.  He recommended a guy in Cocoa so we have an appt to drop the rig off tomorrow and we'll take our tow car and explore.  Here is a photo of the blown out tire...pretty scary looking!

      

Then we seriously began working on a place to stay this weekend so we could visit my step-mom and her husband in Hobe Sound.  It turns out this is a holiday weekend, so we had to call a number of places!  We finally found Treasure Coast Campground in Fort Pierce who had a site for us for Sat. and Sun., and we were able to extend our stay here at Manatee for Friday night, so we're set for the weekend.  We have not been able to use Passport America here in Central Florida because this is on-season for them, but Manatee is only $25/night, and frankly I don't know how much Treasure Coast was, I was just relieved that they had a site for us!

We waited for the heat of the day to subside (low 80's) and then took a walk out on a long fishing pier (you can tell from the pictures that a storm is blowing in!). On the way we encountered this bird with only one foot...wonder how he lost the other one?

       

On the way back, we were shocked to see some familiar faces--our friends the Clark's from our camping club back in CT!  They are staying here until the beginning of March, so after we deal with our tire situation, hopefully we can visit with them a bit!

Double excitement! 2/11/14

Woke to a chilly morning but it's going to warm up considerably.  We want to go to the thrift shop and the laundromat so we think we'll break camp early and then park the rig and the car in a central location and use the car to bee-bop around Daytona Beach.  Might even find the beach?  

On a side note, we were disappointed in the free WIFI here...it was extremely spotty at best.  That's why the blog was late yesterday.  We double checked and this is not a Good SAMs Park and I don't think we'd stay here again.  

A little excitement soon after we left the campground...we were on a limited access highway and needed to turn around.  Found a good place where we could do a wide u-turn which Steve needed to take rather fast because of on-coming traffic.   As we completed the turn I heard a car honk it's horn.  Then a pickup pulled up beside us on the left, made the motion for Steve to roll down his window and he told Steve one of our compartment doors had come open and we lost a couple of quarts of oil onto the ground.  Then a another pickup does the same thing on my side and yells that we "lost half our load back there."

So we turn around and try to retrace our steps...we finally found the site of our spill and there is a lot of traffic.  Steve pulled over into the breakdown lane on the right and we tried to see what was on the road.  We saw the quarts of oil and some rags, but no milk crate that the oil and rags were in and no chair that Steve thought might have been in that compartment.  Cars are wizzing past and we both agreed that it was too dangerous for Steve to even get out.  We decided not to pursue any pick-up.  

Lesson learned that it's not enough to just walk around the rig to see if everything is secure; he has to physically touch and check every compartment.

Excitement addendum:  Steve later checked and the latch on that compartment was latched but the latching mechanism had come loose and he was able to just tighten a screw on the inside of it.  Still going to do a better walk-around before departure, though.

We went to two thrift shops, did two loads of laundry and then Walmart to get a new sewer hose, propane tank and two important wrenches that Steve discovered had also flown out the compartment door, and finally got on the road again.  Of course it was too late to get to the original campground we had picked out in Melbourne/Grant so we selected a new one in Titusville.  Then we had our second even bigger excitement of the day!

Yep, we had a blow-out on 95!  (BEFORE YOU READ ANYMORE, WE ARE FINE!). I was trying to nap on the bed in the back and we blew an interior tire that felt like it was right under the bed.  Steve pulled over and said, "What was that?"  I knew immediately what it was from the sonic boom, the flapping and the terrible smell.

After we took a few seconds to get our bearings, Steve called Good SAMs Emergency Roadside Assistance and a tow truck was here in less than thirty minutes.  Our spare tire appears to be brand-new because it still has the stickers on it (thank you George!) so the guy is using that.  I've got the window open and I heard the guy say we have some dry-rot on at least one other tire and tomorrow we're going to want to get all of our tires checked out.  I'm sure someone at the campground can tell us where to go.  

We're going to sleep well tonight, I hope.

Internet problems thus the delay! 2/10/14

Woke to another sunny morning though it's a bit chilly--think is went into the 40's last night.  

Have some great news!  I couldn't find my Kindle when we got to this campground and was in a bit of a fit looking through everything we had packed up from the last Q.  Called the hotel to ask if they had found it by any chance in our room.  Received a call back somewhat later saying they hadn't found it.   😥    Then last night someone else called from the hotel to say they had really torn the room apart and btw what color cover did I have on my Kindle?  They had found it!   ☺️  They are mailing it to my step-mom's house here in FL!  Yippee!  

It warmed up fast so I did my pedaler outside in the sun:

Steve discovered that we lost a bolt and a cotter pin to our tow car light system, so the campground directed us to an RV service center to get replacement parts.  Brake lights still are working on our tow car but we need to secure the wires better.  But no luck there.  We're going to keep it the way it is for now.  Then gas and a few groceries!  Found a Super Walmart, so we all went in...I need more shorts and tops!  Found a few tops and started working on our grocery list until Pippin got too antsy so she and I came back out to the rig for lunch and Steve continued with the list.  There is a Lowes right here so Steve is going to check there for the parts he needs.  He found what he needed but it took quite awhile. Haven't gone five miles and it's 2:00 already...and we both got up at 7:30!  

When we finally got on the road, we made it as far as Daytona and got a site at Daytona RV and Garden for $22 (saved $22).  I noticed there is a thrift shop right next door so we'll go there in the AM.  Somehow we lost our sewer hose and we just realized we don't have any propane tanks for the grill so back to Walmart at some point.

So far we have saved $100 dollars by using Passport America campgrounds and they have been everywhere we wanted to camp.  Very satisfied campers!  😊

Flea market and sunburn! 2/9/14

Woke to a sunny day here in Jacksonville, FL.  We called the front office to see if we could extend our check-out time so we could enjoy the flea market, which we could for an extra $15.  We got the warmer weather clothes out and put on long pants and long sleeves, but as soon as we got outside we changed into this including sunscreen!

Walked over to the flea market and discovered it's all inside...walked in and it's really chilly in there!  So back to the rig, soaked up some rays...(got a little sunburn)...

...and back into long pants!

The flea market was huge, and turns out we only saw about a third of it, so we might want to catch this again on our way north!  We then decided to stay here an extra night because it's going to be even nicer tomorrow!   Plus we have some little projects we'd like to do around the rig. We'll get back on the road tomorrow whenever checkout is!

FlorIda! 2/8/14

Woke to a chilly 34 degrees and a rainy day...

but Pippin was prepared for the rain!

By the time we were ready to leave this Quality Inn the sun was trying to break through the clouds.  This Q did have a handicap accessible room but not as nice as the last one--no step in shower and no bath seat but I managed with the help of my trusty care partner!  Got another swim in!  (Gram, we are one exit north of Hilton Head, and it's cold!)

Onward!

Stopped for lunch and to hit another Food Lion.  Back in CT Steve found 2.5 oz. pouches of Chicken of the Sea wild caught salmon and they are perfect to throw on top of some organic romaine for an easy lunch.  At the last Food Lion Steve found Bragg's salad dressing with Organic apple cider vinegar and organic extra virgin olive oil!  For anyone on the Paleo diet, you'll appreciate this.  I'll tell you, Steve has really gotten good at spotting the food I eat now wherever he shops.  Mind you, he doesn't eat like I do, but he's eliminated all trans fats and he buys organic cookies for himself plus he drinks almond milk now, eats uncured natural hotdogs, and we eat as much grass-fed or organic meat as we can afford so he's definitely made some improvements to his diet!

Yeah, we made it to Florida!  We stopped in Jacksonville and are staying at a PA campground for $24.00 (cha ching we saved another $24.00).  It's 54 degrees here but it's going to be 70 tomorrow and there is a big flea market next door to the campground that will be open tomorrow!!!

This is the first campground we've found with cement pads so no leveling tonight.

We've been listening to the soundtrack of Yentl thanks to ML so maybe we'll watch the movie tonight.  

Can't wait to feel 70 degrees tomorrow!

Swimming! 2/7/14

Woke to the first really sunny day although it is still chilly in Florence, SC.  Took showers in the rig this morning since JI helped us figure out how to fill the hot water heater last night.  Heaven!  

I anticipate us driving into a substantial rainstorm as we travel south to Savannah, GA.  Steve is getting groceries now at a Food Lion here in Florence while I exercise and blog.  

Stopped for lunch at the SC/GA line and for the first time opened the window of the rig to let some fresh air in while we ate!

Just saw the first Spanish Moss, still in S C...we're getting closer!

WOW...radical change of plan!  I saw a billboard for a Quality Inn with a heated indoor pool that is pet friendly in Ridgeland, SC...screech...we're there!  I figure I can swim today and tomorrow morning...yippee!  There's food within walking distance for dinner!  The refrig should be fine.

It's warmish by CT standards...56 degrees!  We did not hit any rain today but we may tomorrow.  The gigantic rainstorm I saw yesterday does not show up on my online weather app so crossed fingers.  

The pool was not chlorine...I suspect saltwater or maybe Baquicil.  It was warmer than I prefer but I'm not complaining.  Pippin was less than thrilled that I went in the pool and Daddy had to hold her, but Steve did the "baby walk" and she quieted down. 

So Steve's got TV (we choose not to have one in our rig) and I am going to write postcards.  Maybe we'll watch an episode of Doc Martin on the IPad?  Such possibilities!

The photo below is of the first wildlife we've seen...ha ha they probably migrated from CT for the winter!

South of the Border! 2/6/14

Woke  to a chilly 35 degrees here in Wilson, NC.  Our goal is to get to South of the Border in good time to check out some of the shops, etc.  Good childhood memories for me!!!  Depending on the time when we're through we'll decide whether to dry camp there if they will allow it, or whether to push on a bit. We are loving these PA campgrounds so we can plug in our refrig and cool it down agin, not that it really gets that warm during the day.  No worries about food poisoning!  Also, we know we'll have WIFI so I can post this blog!

So far we really haven't hit any bad traffic so this is a great route south!  Just WISH we were hitting some warmer weather so we could put down stakes for a few days and do some fun stuff!

Napped until we hit South of the Border!  I have to admit, it's smaller and yes, shabbier than I recall.  Pedro is looking a little worse for wear...  We got some fun souvenir shopping done, however.  It's a balmy 46 degrees here!  

    

Traveling about 50 more miles to Florence, SC where we found another PA campground that's $20.00 per night so we saved another $20!  This one is called Swamp Fox Campground.  We've noticed that All of the PA campgrounds we have stayed at are also Good Sam's parks, so the standards are very high!

Finally in North Carolina...SOTB here we come! 2/6/14

Light rain overnight and woke to the same.  34 degrees in Milford, VA.  Steve needs to go out in this to hook up the car, while I play fetch with Pippin in the rig to get her moving at least a little.  Still eating off our stockpile of food!  

No rain on the trip today--guess we dodged the storm.  Napped through the rest of Virginia, now we're in NC.  Doing my pedaler every time we stop plus stretching.  This is really too much sitting for my knees.

Enjoying the soundtrack to Sleepless in Seattle (thank you ML!) 

Decided to stop in Wilson, NC at another Passport America campground, Kampers Lodge Campground.  Cost is $35 per night with full hookups, but we are paying $17.50!   Thank you JI for turning us on to Passport America!  

It's 51 degrees here, so we started the process of flushing our systems because it's still winterized.  Got to the part of needing to fill the hot water heater and can't figure out how...May call our RV service center tomorrow and ask Paula to walk us through it.  Refrig is still not automatically switching to gas when we're unplugged so we can ask her about that, too.

Record Early Departure from New Jersey! 2/4/14

We are ready to leave the Quality Inn at 8:30am...QT's and Gram, can you believe it?  We are always the last in and the last out at our camping club campouts, but we want to get as far south as we can.  We probably got 7-8 inches of snow here yesterday, and another storm is coming so we're out-of-here!  

Little rig problem...the refrig isn't switching to propane as it's power source now that we're not plugged in.  Joe, the auto light is on, and when we push the gas button nothing happens.  The propane is turned on...it wasn't and we hoped we had fixed it when we turned it on, but no.  We're going to get out of this awful weather and then really trouble shoot this problem.  Hamm RV fixed this once before--it was a spider nest someplace important, so we might call Paula to see if she can help. Just had the propane tank filled and discovered the gauge on the tank is broken and we really didn't need propane at all.  Wonder if the two things could be related?

Steve is warming up the rig for Pippin and I right now; it's in the single digits here now.  He's also going to bring the rig up to our door cuz my side is snowed in.  I just hope we don't get into another tight turn situation.  Towing a car makes us a bit less maneuverable, for those of you who have never done it...no backing up...sort of like driving that old beater which has lost reverse!  

The route we took today is as follows (this is for you, Barb) :  from the Nj Tpke/Rt 95 we followed and crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge, took exit 1A to Rt 896S, followed to Rt 301S to Rt 50 (Annapolis/Washington Beltway to Rt 495 to 95S.

We made it to Milford, VA just north of Richmond.  We are staying at R&D Family Campground, which is both a Passport America campground as well as a Good Sams park.  The cost for one night with Full Hookups is $33.00 but with our membership to PA (which cost $45 I think for 1 yr) we saved $16.50!  A few more of these and it will have paid for itself and then some!

It's 38 degrees here so we have not hit warmth yet!  Looks like a substantial rainstorm is headed right toward us, and I hope it hits overnight and is done with by tomorrow morning so it's smooth sailing!  

Woke up to a snowstorm! 2/3/14

While initially traveling on a Sunday, in retrospect we should have left yesterday and then we could have missed this storm almost entirely!  Note to self: scrutinize the weather better along our route!  We have about 2-3 inches here at the Quality Inn and it is still coming down--wet, heavy snow!  

In the photo below, there was No snow yesterday!

                                                                          

After much debate and studying of maps we have decided to hole up here!  We can watch TV, movies on Netfix, etc.  More later!

On the Road Again... 2/2/14

Well in true Shaw fashion, we are leaving at 1:00 pm on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014 .  Lots of last minute packing to do, etc. plus the boys showed up at the last minute to do something together in New London.  

Here is the route we've taken so far:  Rt. 95S to exit 21, Tappen Zee Bridge/Rt. 287W, exit 14A, Garden State Pkwy, exit 129 onto the NJ Tpke. Light rain but nothing too major.  The roads became so much better when we crossed over from NY into NJ!  Governor did that right!  

A little excitement on the GS Pkwy...Steve decided to pull off for gas ($3.24/gal) and as we're following the signs for campers/buses and we're a little unsure of which way to go, I pipe up that I see some picnic tables with a bit of grass and I knew Pippin had to go.  We thought we could make the turn to get over to the grassy area but then we couldn't, so Steve started backing up a little but you can't back up when you're towing.  We're blocking the ramp of oncoming cars and Steve saw in the backup camera that the car is askew so he jumps out of the rig to go unhook the car and by now there's a bit of a line of folks who want to avail themselves of this rest stop. Steve struggled a bit to unhook the car because the tow bar was a little askew.  He finally got the car off, threw the tow bar onto some grass and backed the car away from the rig.  Then he jumped back in the rig to pull it forward so he could release the line of cars we had created.  Side note...nobody honked their horns at us!  Then we off-loaded my walker, me and Pippin and gingerly picked our way onto some wet soggy grass and Steve put her down...she dutifully sniffed around then turns around and runs right back to the rig, up the stairs and looks back at us as if to say, "Come on guys, can't you see it's getting dark and it's wet and dirty and kinda sketchy around here? Let's go!"

So we drove some more and then decided to find a motel so Steve could watch some of the Super Bowl...this is why we left today and not yesterday!  Found an exit that had several motels.  Holiday Inn was not pet friendly, Days Inn was pet friendly but charges $50 per pet, but Quality Inn was pet friendly but only charges $15.00 per pet.  We got a fully accessible room for $90.00 and they gave us a 10% discount being AARP members.  The room is designed for wheel chairs so there is plenty of room for my walker, especially in the bathroom!  Below you will see the best feature, a fold-down bath seat in the no-lip shower!  I would definitely stay at a Quality Inn again!

The Night Before We Leave! 2/1/14

Ok, I have made myself crazy and a tad sick today trying to pull together all the loose ends so we can leave tomorrow.  I realized tonight that I have never gone on a one month trip...a vacation...before, and it's made me go a little bonkers!  (Uh hem, someone hasn't even packed their clothes yet and it's 9pm, and that's not me or Pippin...just sayin') 

I know, I know, whatever we don't have we'll just buy on the way, but if I can help it I'd rather spend my vacation dollars on doing fun things rather than on vitamins I forgot to pack.  In reality, we'll certainly find a Walmart or a grocery store or a consignment shop wherever we are, so I guess I need to stop stressing.  

News on the blog front is that my step-daughter taught me two important things today...how to post our photos here and how to install two features here on the right side...I can now post links, like for good campgrounds we find, and a place for anyone who wishes to sign up to follow this blog and be notified by email when there is a new blog post.  That way you won't need to remember to physically go to this blog whenever you want to check in and see what we're up to.

Much of this blog will be my way of recording how I did with my prep work, like pack more underwear but less canned soup.  Also, which routes worked well and which campgrounds were nice.  Hey, did my fellow campers know that Cracker Barrel restaurants set aside parking spaces for traveling RVers? They are all up and down the Eastern Seaboard, and would make a great dinner to boot!

We will miss everyone here in CT, but frankly CAN'T WAIT to "get on the road again"!