Last Leg - Massachusetts to Florida

Massachusetts to Florida –

Our first stop was in an area around Harrisburg, Pa.  It was difficult finding a campsite that appeared to be near the highway, but far enough away not to keep us up all night with a lot of road noise.  We found a 4 ½ star KOA that seemed to do the trick.  We drove a long time today and thought the restaurant they had on the property would be perfect.

Party is over.  Heading home.

 

Well, the place was pretty much shut down for the season.  They charged the full amount, but they had no facilities open, and hardly any staff.  The girl at the counter was probably the most unmotivated employee I have seen in a long time.  There are soooo many people that are out of work, I don’t know how some of these lazy people keep their jobs.  They would be quickly fired if they worked for me! 

Most of the sites here were extremely sloped.  Several motorhomes had their front tires about a foot off the ground, with all their weight forward on their jacks! That could not be a good thing!  Luckily ours was probably one of the most level sites we had been in.  We watched the news, and the biggest headline was the weather.

A front was coming through the eastern states, with tornado watches in our area for the next day.  They predicted 50mph winds with driving rain.  We (actually Norman) decided it was best to stay right there and not be on the roads.  No accidents so far and it would be a shame to end with one.

The next day the forecast was still for a high probability of tornadoes  and we were sitting on a large, open hillside.  Not the best of places to be in an RV!  My Girl Scout preparedness training kicked in, so I began preparing for the worst.

 I went out in the rain and unhooked the car, and brought it around close to the door and left the keys in the ignition in case a tornado was seen and we could jump in and get out of there.  Next I called the front desk and asked what procedures were in place in the case of a tornado. Here’s how the conversation went.

“Hi, this is Alison up on site 20A, and as you know there is a tornado watch.  Could you tell me where we should go if the weather gets really bad?”

“I dun-know”

“You don’t know where your campers should go in a tornado?  Did they give you a procedural hand-book or something during your training?” I asked incredulously.

“No.”

“Could you find out?” I pressed.  She put me on hold for quite a while and replied “they say to just come to the office/recreation center and if it is bad enough we will all go to the bath house with the cement walls.”

Well, this is going well, I thought.  I just pictured the show “Storm Chasers” and our driving a considerable distance to the office (which looked like a cheap aluminum building) and have these idiots either 1) have left already or 2) trusting them to make the appropriate call.

I must sadly admit, at this point my tone was not all that pleasant when I asked “Could you tell me where this safe bathroom is so we could just go there if it really is scary out there? “

“I dun know where it is “.  A long pause. “Well, could you find out?  You really should know this if you work here, for heaven’s sake.“ (Did I really say “heaven”)?

At this point, I got in the car and drove to the office so they could show me a map of exactly where this bathroom is.  I paid to stay another day, and noticed that the roads to leave were washing out already, and the storm had not really hit yet.  My mental emergency plans were firing all pistons at this point. I told Norm that when the wind and rain start really driving, we should pull in the slides so the rain would not get in past the gaskets (I read that somewhere). Norm just thought I was nuts, but agreed.  It would get pretty close in there with the slides in.

About ten minutes after I returned we lost power and internet.  We waited awhile and tried to call the office, but since they didn't answer (I hoped they didn't know something we didn't and had run to the safe area without us) we assumed they just lost power as well.

The road erosion was getting worse and I was afraid if this kept up, we would not be able to get off this site at all, so with some serious pleading, Norman agreed to drive 15-20 minutes up the road to a Comfort Suites where we could have power, a solid building around us, and the motorhome could be parked tightly closed up.  We got our money back (I hope, I must check to verify now that I think of it) and spent the rest of the day at the hotel, and by dinner time the storm was over. 

The next day we made it all the way to Virginia, and after going to one campground that ended up being right up against a major freeway, we drove to another which was extremely quiet. We met a lot of very friendly people there, and learned about this incredible mountain bike rail trail called the “Virginia Creeper,” but I could not, however, convince Norm to stay another day and do it. We had an appointment in Clearwater (which is a two hour drive in each direction) on Monday and we both hated the idea of having only one day home before we had to drive a long distance again.  I could also understand because we were in the “going home mode.”  The weather was perfect, and with the storm two days before, the waterfalls and rapids, we were told, were just amazing.  I really wanted one last “hurrah” before we got home. We will try to hit it next year and hope the conditions will be as good then.

Thursday, September 20^th

Today we drove to the southern section of South Carolina.  Got gas for the last time and the drive was pretty long but uneventful.  This campsite was one that we would not return to. Not an ideal way to end the trip.  I really give Norm a lot of credit for his driving abilities.  These sites were so tight to maneuver in, yet he managed to not only get it into one site, but to squeeze between many trees, cars and motorhomes, into an alternate site after we discovered  we could not hook up the sewer lines where they were located in the first one! Wow!

Friday, September 21st

Tomorrow, if all goes well, we figured would be our last day of vacation. We packed up our clothes and what we would immediately need when we got back home, and got ready to leave.  It was already later than we wanted when I had the bright idea to start up the HHR tow car to give it an extra charge for the drive home.  The supplemental braking system in the car uses up battery power, and they say not to go more than 6 hours without turning it on and letting the alternator charge up the battery. I had forgotten to do this the night before. 

I discovered that the battery was dead as a door-nail.  After six thousand miles, and months of travel, go figure the very last leg of the trip we have a dead battery.  We replaced it back in Nova Scotia in July, so we were a little surprised.

 I looked around for a fellow camper whose vehicle was not attached to the Motorhome  and looked preferably for a pick-up truck. (Pick-up truck owners usually are mechanically superior to those pulling a Cadillac, I thought).  I fortunately found a very amicable fellow who could help us out.  We quickly jump started the car, waited about 20 minutes for it to charge, and finally we were on our way about close to 11AM!

"Are we there yet"?

Traveling through the southern end of Georgia, we will soon be entering back into Florida.  The signs are all there.... Heat, humidity, sporadic rain and the beautiful tropical landscape and of course the dreaded Love Bugs smashed upon our windshield.

Finally back to our spot in the RV covered storage facility

Traffic was light and we managed to get back to our storage facility about 4PM.  We threw everything into the car that we needed that night plus whatever else would fit and finally, at long last, arrived home.

Home Sweet Home!

Things looked good, although we must have had a voltage surge because the Direct TV system was damaged and some circuit breakers were thrown. When we turned the power back on, the smoke detectors started” beeping” because the batteries had died. Poor, tired Norm had to immediately deal with climbing up on a ladder (which we had to borrow from a neighbor because ours was still on the RV )and replacing them. We later discovered the wine cooler was also damaged. We had hired a house-sitter; however we were not surprised these things were not discovered.  Thank God the refrigerator and its contents were on one of the few electrical circuits that did not trip!