Sherling Lake Park, Greenville, AL

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We stayed here in March of 2022, overnight enroute to Gulf Shores, Pensacola area I think. I thought I’d blog about it today because I’m sorting files and came across the receipt!

This is a cute little city park. Thirty Bucks! Many of the sites are just “on the side of the road” that runs through, but they are adequate and have full hookups. There are roads and paths all over, and a nice little lake. It backs up to a golf course. It’s a great friendly little place to spend a night. There’s not a lot to see and do in Greenville, we couldn’t even find a restaurant. We did like it enough that we came back here on the way home. It’s hard to beat full hookups for thirty dollars!

Winter Air?

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I always joke about “winter air” and summer air. In the tires of course. Just like your car tires get low in the winter due to the cold, the motorhome’s huge tires get “WAY LOW.” Like from 95psi to 75 psi! So when it’s time for a winter trip, it’s time to put some “winter air” in the tires, pump them all back up to 120 front, 95 rear. While I’m at it, since I have to unscrew all the TPMS Sensors anyway, I check the battery voltage, and change the batteries if they are low. This time, they were all a bit low, 2 were completely dead. I changed all the sensor batteries and filled all the tires. 1-1-23 Jim

Flea and tic protection for our “Pack”

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So many campers travel with pets. For us, one primary reason for RVing is so we can take our pack with us. In the RV, the dogs are comfortable. Traveling, sleeping, living, our RV is their home. Yell “Who wants to go camping” and there will be 3 big hairy beasts at the door of the motorhome in seconds. Even at home, the RV is Nikko’s favorite place to be. After our morning walk, he pulls me to the camper door, demanding to go in, or just be tied outside the door on his leash.

Of course pets need protection from pests, Especially Nikko, he’s a tic magnet. After trying about everything, the only thing that actually works is Seresto. These collars work for 8 months! But they are expensive, over $50 from chewy.com, near $100 local over the counter, even Walmart!

We’ve found we can order these from “out of the country” at a much lower price. I had a source in Australia that was under $100 for 3 collars, but took months to get them here, even when the global supply chain wasn’t messed up.

This year I found canadapetcare.com. They are like the canadian version of chewy. And they sell seresto collars for $35.49 (07/2022) with a 15% discount and free shipping. They arrived in a week, and cost $90.49. Such a deal!

Frozen in Nashville

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I just stumbled across this draft, never published, from a couple years ago and figured “why not”?
On November 15, we bought another house! This one in Sevierville, just minutes from the parkway, from all the restaurants and action, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Our bus has been idle in the driveway since we moved in on November 28.

But Saturday, we took off for Nashville, where Carol wanted to attend Imaging20, the big Photographers convention.
Good to know, the bus has been perfect. Everything still works. There are a few things we wish we had brought, but mostly we have everything we need. (Knock on wood) the Aquahot has been flawless, keeping us warm and cozy no matter what mother nature threw at us. And throw she did. Until today, we were looking at lows in the lower 20’s and highs in the upper 20’s, with wind and snow flurries. Walking the dogs has been just nuts (they didn’t mind a bit…), heck, we’re whimpy now, pretty much anything has been nuts.

Our days have been “wake up early” “Drive Carol to Opryland” “clean up the bus” “walk the dogs” “pickup Carol”

Today has been really good though. I got on the phone with Winegard and learned a bit of good things about our Trav’ler satelite dish. The weather has been better. All the way up to 38 this afternoon, downright balmy! And Carol had a short day today, we got to go out some. We went to a nearby antique store and picked up another dozen or so great record albums, went downtown to music row for a bit, and had some great Mexican food back at Opryland.

Oil Change!

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I’ve been terribly remiss in this basic maintenance. Our Entegra’s last oil change was in October of 2018 at 21,800 miles!
Thanks to covid, and a lot of sitting and hardly any travelling, I “just didn’t get there.”
Last week I finally did. Aug of 2021, at 38,000 miles. (should have been 1 year/15,000 miles. At least I’m close on the mileage.)

I went to Speedco , same as last time.
No changes at all since Speedco was bought out by Loves.
YES, they still do RV’s!
I pulled in backwards (unlike trucks, my engine is in the rear)
Went inside, they told me middle lane after the truck that’s in there leaves. After about 20 minutes, the truck rolled out and they guided me in.
As I’d been there before, the computer knew exactly what I needed. They carry genuine Cummins Fleetgard filters, and had my oil filter and 2 fuel filters in stock.
Someone in “The Pit” got started doing a full chassis lube and draining the oil, while someone up top removed the old fuel filters, prefilled the new ones, and installed them.
After a while the guy underneath called for the new oil filter, guy topside put in 30 quarts of Rotella.
I went inside and paid them $439, this is up a hundred from 2018. They did a great job, and did it immediately.
I went across the street to Flying J, lucked in an open lane, got half a tank of fuel in record time.
Home to home about 4 1/2 hours, including travel time. We’re ready for our next trip. Leaving on the 23rd.

Space Coast

Cocoa Beach, NASA, Space Coast KOA

02-28-2021. After we left Daytona, we wanted to stop in the Space Coast, you know, see NASA, go to Cocoa Beach, see if we could find Jeannie, stuff like that. It seems campgrounds are few and far between here, most are full even though it was Sunday night, and too many have “Trailer Park” in the name.

We found a spot at a KOA, in Mims, just north of Titusville. It may have been the last spot they had. KOA’s are generally nice enough, sometimes a little pricey, and usually have a dog park. This one fell a bit short. When we got there, the space in front of the building was full of fifth wheels coming or going, including one mostly still on the road. I found a place in everyone’s way and went inside to check in. The very nice lady who took my money gave me a map and told me my site was over there somewhere, she wasn’t sure. The guy who’s job it is to escort campers to their sites was taking a break. Another guy was asking for his money back, saying his neighbors had been arguing loudly the entire 2 days he was there. I figured I’d unhook the Jeep out front and try to find a campsite.

The campsite was right where she said it would be. I’d have had a better approach angle if I’d gone between the big building and this utility shed, but it looked tight so I didn’t. After a couple tries I got the bus close enough to plug in the power, levelled, and put the slides out.

We took the dogs for a walk, explored a little, got the lay of the land, and figured out how I’d get our monster out of there in the morning. Turns out this place is kinda 3 campgrounds in one! The middle was your basic old campground. Smallish sites, gravel roads, everything really close together. Our site was the last row of this. To the left of us was a fenced area with a sign saying “Residents only.” Lots of old broken down trailers in there. Lots of interesting looking people coming out walking their dogs or heading for the bathroom or laundry. On the other side is New Stuff! Big long concrete pull throughs, each filling up almost as we watched. Still gravel roads, still kinda tight, but the campsites were nice.

After feeding the dogs we headed out to explore. Titusville wasn’t much, kinda a forgotten looking downtown next to The Intracoastal. We took the causeway across to the Kennedy Space Center. We just drove through here, saw the sign for the visitors centers but continued on into Cocoa Beach. Cocoa Beach turned out to be your basic beach town. We stopped in a beach store with it’s own parking lot and picked up a magnet, paid for parking for an hour to walk on the beach. Weather is great, whole area is very crowded. On the way out we spotted a Mexican Restaurant called La Cantina that had patio seating out front. Always up for that I pulled in and parked. We had to wait a bit for a table out front to open up, but not long. Service was just fair but good enough. I really need to keep up on these posts. That was a week ago now, I don’t even remember what we ate, but I remember that it was very good!

Back to the bus to get some sleep. This turned out to be less than easy. A crew was doing what must have been emergency repairs to the plumbing in the bath house. He pulled his big diesel pickup in right next to us and left it running while he sat in the cab and twiddled on his phone. I finally went out and asked him to shut it down. He was nice, and did. For an hour, then fired it up again. There were also no less than 3 generators running! One behind the “Residents only” fence. One next to an old fifth wheel a hundred yards away, the third I never found. Now normally (in no hookup camping areas) “quiet hours” are from 10 to 6am at the least, no generators during that time. In campgrounds with hookups, no generators allowed ever, period. I don’t know why these people needed to run these things all night, and I certainly didn’t go out and ask. We closed our windows tight, turned on our AC, and tried to drown them out and get some sleep. Unsuccessfully.

They had a pool but no dog park. I was able to fit one more bag of garbage into the 3 overflowing dumpsters on our way out. I do not recommend this campground.

Three Fishermen, N. Fort Myers

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Last night we had a great dinner at a place called Three Fishermen. Thank you Google for finding this place, tucked behind a Best Western Hotel beyond a nondescript parking lot just across the river from our Campground. Note nobody will ever call Cypress Trails RV Resort a campground, but that’s a subject for another blog.

Anyway, I got behind a little bit in Daytona Beach. I skipped a day, or maybe two. I got a post up on Daytona Beach, but need to do another. Completely skipped The KOA from hell two days ago. I’ll get back to it. We did get to our “final destination” in Fort Myers yesterday, also a subject for another blog.

But last night we had seafood on the waterfront and it was fabulous. There’s this little road that looks like nothing. A big parking lot. 2 Hotel buildings. And in between them is this tunnel and a little sign. The tunnel leads to Three Fishermen Restaurant. It’s a quaint and beachy place. We sat in their covered patio between the main restaurant and the pool. Had a great view of the water and the sunset. Carol had Crab Legs! We’ve talked about her now-non-allergy to seafood, right? Crab Legs is her most favorite seafood ever, except maybe for lobster, she had that a couple days ago. Anyway we enjoyed a wonderful dinner, and here’s some pictures.
Jim

Ft Myers 2021 Day 3 & 4

Destination: Daytona!

I’ve been a car guy and a NASCAR fan since, well forever. I watched Cale Yarborough and The Allison Brothers when I was a kid. Daytona has always been the Holy Grail of Speed. I watched Daryll Waltrip win here. I watched Dale Earnhardt die here. I’ve always wanted to go here myself, and on Feb 26, we did.

It was a short ride from Brunswick, Ga to Daytona Beach, FL. 150 measly miles, just 2 1/2 hours. We got here at 2, had camp set up by 2:30, and went out exploring. Even without any “special events”, Daytona is a big and busy place. We drove past the track and toward The Beach, over the bridge over the Intercoastal and onto “Island Time.” First stop was the Nascar Store, where I bought a hat, a Tee Shirt, and a Hot Wheel #18 M&M car for Kaison. We found a hat each (2 for $15!) and a magnet at a nearby gift shop then continued up the Boardwalk.

We stayed at Speedway RV Park, on International Speedway Drive, picked of course because it is close to the speedway. Nice place. Kinda an odd layout of multiple circles, seems to give everyone more room so that’s good. No dog park or pool though. This one is a case of “Location Location Location.”

Eventually (The Daytona Boardwalk is very long) we got hungry and turned around, got the car, and drove a mile south along the Boardwalk to Crabby’s Oceanside where we were lucky enough to score a table on the outer railing right on the dunes. We watched the tide come in while we stuffed ourselves silly. I had “Crab Stuffed Flounder,” it was delicious! And Carol? Carol had Lobster! Her first lobster in 2 1/2 years! A doctor had told her she was allergic so she stayed away. New Doctor says NOPE! Looks like new doctor was right, no reaction beyond salivating from the deliciousness.

We’re here 2 days. As I write this on the 28th, we’ll leave later this morning. It’s nice to do a 2 day stop. Even only driving a couple hours, overnights are hectic, packed tight with things to do. Soon I’ll do a second Blog Post. Yesterday I toured Daytona Motor Speedway!

Ft Myers 2021 Day 2

Destination: Coastal RV Resort, Brunswick, GA / Jekyll Island

Today we got up and out pretty early, for us. We did go by the dog park, and Carol did get a workout in running around throwing the ball for the dogs. We were rolling by 9:30. For excitement, another Entegra passed us at mm80 on I-75 south. I cranked it up a bit, and stayed on his bumper for 20 miles. I had to had to make a quick pit stop, and stopped in a rest area to take care of business. Back on the road, hammer down, we did catch and pass him before crossing into Georgia.

Our stop tonight is Coastal Georgia RV Resort. This is a kinda plain vanilla nice place. All paved, concrete campsites, bushes between them for privacy. “Close to” first class, but sites are narrow and there’s just not a lot of character. No trailers that still have dirt on them from 1962, and not a window air conditioner to be seen.

We got in early, a bit after 2, and after setting up camp and walking the dogs, we took off for some sight seeing. Jekyll Island was our destination tonight. Oddly, they charge you $8 to get on the island. We’d been there before, it’s kinda quaint and quirky, our kind of place! We walked around Beach Village, did some shopping, bought some stuff in the Life is Good store. I needed to replace my Jekyll Island hat, it’s looking kinda over worn, but struck out. Life is Good had one I liked for $26, but no way I’m paying that for a hat. There’s a campground on the island, we drove around to check it out. Nice in a heavily wooded old fashioned kind of way, but not a chance I’d ever try to get the big bus in there.

For dinner we found The Driftwood Bistro, in the Villas by the Sea Condominiums. Truned out to be a great little place. I had shrimp and grits, Carol had shrimp. Dinner was fantastic, though the portions could have been a little bigger. Carol really enjoyed the Sweet Potato Souffle!

Beautiful view of the sunset coming back over the bridge, made a quick stop at Winn Dixie for the ice cream I forgot, and home to feed the dogs. We’re gonna stay on the coast, see some stuff we’ve never seen. Tomorrow a short 150 mile run to Daytona. Good night all.

Fort Myers 2021 Day 1

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Destination: Barnyard RV Park
Columbia South Carolina

On the road! Wow, it’s been what, 3 months for me, over 8 months for Carol. We’ve kinda forgotten how to work this thing. Oddly though “behind the wheel” felt very natural and comfortable today. Usually I’m kinda on edge the first hour, but today I felt like I belonged there.

We finally got moving about 11:30. I’ve heard of people who can get up and rolling at 7 am. Heck, I’ve heard them as I’m trying to finish a good nights sleep. Somehow there’s just too many things left to do. This morning, I still had to bring out and hook up all the Dish equipment. Bring out and hook up the record player and a selection of albums. (playing John Denver’s Greatest Hits right now.) Yesterday I made sure all the TST sensors were working (with the help of TST Tech support) but still had to set the air pressure in all 8 tires before we could leave. There goes another hour. Stop at the old K-Mart to hookup the Jeep. Finally heading toward the highway.

This is one of our favorite drives, I-40 East through the mountains into Asheville. South out of Asheville the construction going on forever. And ever. And ever. We left with under half a tank so we needed fuel. Before “The Rona”, I got one of those TSD fuel cards. It was all setup but I’d never used it. Yesterday I got into the new App. Had to call and reset my PIN, but all set for this fuel stop. We stopped at a TA travel center. App said price is $2.40. Pump said $3.019. Everything worked, pump started, diesel came out. It still hasn’t hit my bank so I can’t verify the discount. 80 cents a gallon times 77 gallons says we saved Sixty Bucks!

We got here to the Barnyard at 4:45, just as she was sticking “late arrival info” to the door and getting ready to go home. She peeled my packet off and checked me in. I forgot to ask for a veterans discount so it was $4 more than last time, $38.29, still a bargain. We’ve stayed here many times. If you’re heading to Florida (or Savannah or Hilton Head) and don’t want to drive through Atlanta this place is the first night’s stop, 240 miles from home. Barnyard is mostly a home to full timers, but they keep a row of pull-throughs open for travelers, and we got the last one. I’m glad we called this morning for a reservation. These sites are big, long and wide, plenty of room. Full hookups and a picnic table. They have a big dog park. A cute pond with resident ducks. Lots of sites with a wide variety of RV’s “in residence.” Roads are asphalt, sites are sand with a concrete patio, no bumps no puddles, nice wide turns. I guess a 3 out of 5 rating? Hilton Head Motorcoach Resort this isn’t, but it’s very adequate.

We have explored the area some in past trips. The campground is behind a great big cool flea market. We love those, and have explored this one a few times. Columbia is the capitol of South Carolina. Downtown Columbia is cool in an “Old South” kinda way. I’m very into history, I love walking around there, reading all the plaques, checking out the statues and big old buildings. Columbia was the capitol of one of the main Confederate states, and there is a lot of Civil War history here. Preservation seems to be a thing, everything is beautifully preserved and maintained. I hope it stays that way for a long time.

A few miles south of here is Congaree National Park. We stumbled on this a few years ago. It’s basically a boardwalk built through a swamp full of giant old trees. There is a really cool story to it which I don’t remember right now, but you can read about it on the website https://www.nps.gov/cong/index.htm.

Tomorrow we’ll head out and south. Savannah seems too close. Jacksonville too far at near 300 miles. We’ll shoot for Brunswick, Georgia, and the Golden Isles. We’ve been here before too. I have hats from Jekyll Island and St. Simons Island, but they are wearing out, maybe we’ll take the Jeep and try to find new ones. Good night all, I’ll post again tomorrow.
Jim

Barnyard RV Park Columbia South Carolina
Tennessee To South Carolina
Barnyard RV Park South Carolina