The Tour, 2002, Part 2

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February 17, 2002

Up early again, more hard road miles to put on today, we have to get clean across Georgia, about 340 miles, give or take a few.  Anything over 300 becomes a LONG day with that 30 foot of RV behind ya.  Today is warm enough we eat lunch in the trailer, take a long walk with the dogs around the rest areas, drive, drive, drive.  Pick a campground, supposed to have a modem hookup in the office, just inside  Florida, Jennings.  Nice campground, only they no longer offer modem hookups, Ok, I am ticked, more than ticked, now I live with it.  We try to call Margaret Cova on the phone, but cannot reach her.  We have a drink, some dinner, and call it a day.

February 18, 2002

Reach Margaret via phone, she had been in the hospital, but home now and wants us to come visit.  We only have about 160 miles or so to drive today, so we start late, no hurry, stop at a nice rest area (Florida ones seem nice, but the ones in Georgia WIN! ), take the dogs for a long walk, stop for lunch, and finally arrive in Brooksville, Florida.  Nice campground, one area for those of us who are dog lovers, another for no dogs.  We take the kids for a VERY long walk, actually we take two walks, as we are reluctant to take all 4 dogs at once, so Man takes one, I take another, then we repeat with the other two dogs.  We meet some very nice people on our walks.  Everyone loves yorkies.  I hear mumbles from Man, something about I could stay here for a month, February 2003.  Well, maybe, although I had contemplated Texas next year.  We can think it over.

February 19, 2002

Azaleas are blooming here, in fact we see some that are “past” bloom.

Slow morning in the trailer, long walk with the dogs, lunch and then we leave to go over to Spring Hill to see Margaret.   She looks like she is feeling pretty good, we go to the clubhouse for lunch, we have salads since we ate so much in the trailer.  Then we drive around a little, we go to Irene’s place, missing her.  She catches up with us later, back at Margaret’s.  We review all the family files, Nickerson, Leitch, Hurd, Cooper.  The project is looking pretty good. Irene comes in and as she and I are looking over the Cooper file discover that I have overlooked a burial record, and it is the one I need. Figures. So, now when I get back to Michigan I can work on that family again, and I indeed had found the correct Cooper family.    Margaret made us a very nice lasagna dinner.  A very pleasant day.  Back at the trailer I do a little input for Margaret’s lines and another day has passed.

February 20, 2002

We are moving again, further down the coast, to Port Charlotte, right now it is time for breakfast and packing up.

It is windy again today, and that proves to be the second “problem” of the day.  The first is that our brake lights are not functioning as they should.  We have brakes, just no turn signals or brake lights.  After some contemplation we decide to start out and see if there might be a problem with the ground of the electrical connections.  Not sure, but after a few miles, the lights are working as they should.

We stop at a rest area and have lunch in the trailer, take the dogs for a long walk.  Back on the road, windy, it beats us pretty hard, we term this “rockin and rollin down the hard road”.  That is half funny, half true.    So, here we go rockin and rollin and makin miles on the hard road, when Man looks in the side rear view mirrors and says, “oh, oh, we got siding coming off again”.  You have to know this is NOT what I want to hear.  We are not close enough to an exit or rest area so we have to pull off on the side of the road.  We manage to push it back in place, and having no more screws with which to do repairs, have no choice but to pull back out and go on.  After only a few more miles, he looks in that mirror, and yep, you guessed it, the siding is back out, bulging and shaking from the effects of the wind.  We pull off again, and Man pushes the siding back in again, only this time, he pushes more, pushes harder.  Back on the road, we decide to drive slower, barely 50 MPH, and the immediate goal is to get to the campground, which we figure is less than 20 miles.

Goal is met, we pull into Encore Campground near Port Charlotte.  Nice campground and they not only have one modem hookup, they have TWO!  Also a nice swimming pool, hot tub, very WIDE paved streets.  It is also HOT!  Well, one does come to Florida to have hot weather, and it is hot here.  Man had shorts on (he changed at our lunch break), but I don’t.  Ok, so I needed to shave my legs, ALRIGHT????  BLAH!!!  So, after we check in and get on our site and set up, I take a break and shave the ole legs and into some shorts I go!  While I am taking care of this little detail, Man is looking over the situation with the siding and comes to the decision that the siding was coming off the side because of air pressure, the air coming in from the previous damage.  He is going to caulk the holes and open areas caused by the first incident, and feels that will fix all the siding difficulties.

Man heads for the swimming pool, and we have not been here an hour.  I head for the modem, and we have not been here for an hour!

We decide to go out for dinner and hit a grocery store.  We find a nice place to eat, and a Publix and fill up the grocery cart.  Back to the trailer, feed the dogs, put away the supplies, open the windows and doors.  Humid warm air, but this is what we are here for, warm and humid, so open the windows, open the experience.

February 21, 2002

Man gets his work uniform on (we keep one in the trailer for just such events, repair events) and caulks the trailer.  Whew! It now has a couple of days to cure before we head out to the hard road again.

Breakfast, showers, lunch, Man goes back to the pool, I groom Cappy.

This evening we have plans to have dinner with Jim and Mari Marshall.  We have a wonderful visit, sharing photos of our home, their cottage in Michigan, baby photos, and of course catching up on stories, family and happenings.  A very nice evening.

Back at the trailer we open the windows again, it is muggy, but not unwelcome.

No plans for tomorrow, well, I need to groom another dog, or so, it is sooooo nice having running water and sewer, I can clean and groom with no fears of using all the water or filling the holding tanks.

Tomorrow will be one week on the road, and we both agree that the things we took out of the trailer and left home, were well left behind.  We left the chair, and instead have a 4 piece dog play pen in its place.  I clipped a 2 piece pen to it, and it makes a gate, which we insist on, to keep the little barkers from escaping out the door.  This set up is working well, and we are very pleased with our creativity!  Packing (thinking) out of the box has really paid off for our comfort level.  Now, I need to apply a little of that thinking to the maps and travel brochures in the truck, as I find my legs cramped.   Hmmmm, have to think about that.  Hmmmm???

Time for some input, more later- - - - - - - - - - -