The Required Pilgrimage, MORE rain and moving on

Friday April 18 – Monday April 21, 2014
Walkabout Camp & RV Park
Woodbine, Georgia

 

 

 

FRIDAY

 

 

David is up and rearing to go. He loves Steffens and can’t wait to get there.  I post about breakfast at Steffens every time we stop here at Walkabout. It’s become a ritual.

The parking lot is packed when we arrive.  I’m surprised there isn’t a line for a table.  And then I see what’s going on.  The “boys” and the ‘girls’ are meeting for breakfast and they have all driven in separate cars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The waitresses in Steffens are the happiest I’ve ever encountered.  Every time we come in they greet everyone with a big smile.  Hi, how are ya, just take a seat and we’ll be right with you.

And they are right with us.  Coffee on the spot.  For those who drink the evil brew that is.

 

 

 

David glances up from the menu.  One table of “the boys” is in the background.

 

Here are “the girls” and the other table of “boys”.  The boys definitely out number the girls.

 

 

We place our regular vegan breakfast order – 2 eggs, hash browns, Wainright sausage and biscuits.   For the short while we wait for it to be served, I take some pictures of the atmosphere at Steffens.  

 

They are the Camden County Chili Cook Off winners.

 

 

I just love the curtains in the restaurant.  Don’t they look like 1948 vintage.  Although I can’t imagine these are still here from the restaurant’s opening day that year.

 

 

Today’s specials are written on both sides of the blackboard hanging from the ceiling.  Somebody has decent handwriting on a blackboard.  I was a high school English teacher in one of my incarnations years ago and my blackboards never looked this good.

 

 

The weekly specials are on this card displayed on every table.  The daily specials are in addition to the normal weekly one.  Comfort food all around.

 

 

 

The food comes and the food goes.  Here’s the happy patron.

 

Steffens has been making quite a few happy patrons since 1948 when they had a pitched roof and gas pumps.

 

Steffens is our big deal for the day.

Rain is predicted for and thus we are  wearing raincoats as a precaution.  Lucky thing since it starts coming down just as we pull in behind Winnona and get out of the car.  

It rains   A...L...L    D...A…Y    L...O...N...G.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lake starts forming outside our door. Well today is clearly a soup day.  Cold, dreary and rainy.

 

I always feel like I should clean up the place on a rainy day.  You know dust, vacuum, do the sinks.  But it’s so dreary that I can’t bring myself to do it so I read instead. 

And of course if you’ve read the previous two huge posts on Cumberland Island, first thank you very much, you deserve an award especially if you left a comment, and secondly you know how much of my time I spent doing those. 

Actually rainy days are bad for blogs since I have too much time to write them.

 Or they could turn out to be good for blogs since I have nothing much to say!

 

 

After being in Charlottesville and visiting Carrie we are going to Pennsylvania to do the first step in getting ourselves much more prepared for serious boondocking.  Today we continued corresponding with Greg Young about solar install for Winnona.  He and David discussed wire size, batteries and solar panels. 

We have a Kozy World propane heater that we want to get a quick connect for and we discussed the install details and possibilities for that.

 

 

 

 

Yesterday David discovered that the in dash radio was not working on shore power.  NOT GOOD since it is our weather radio.  It works off the battery so it’s not a desperate situation but David checked all the related fuses and breakers for that.  No luck so far.

 

 

 

 

 

SATURDAY

 

 

Another rainy day.   Cold and damp.   It seems to follow us everywhere.  The funk is beginning.   No pictures. 

Hot Shower time.  Nice and warm.  Doesn’t last long.  I stay inside all day.

In between rain showers David puts air in Ruby’s right front tire which seems to have a slow leak.  These are relatively new tires so we’re suspicious that it is the stupid alloy wheel. 

He also checks all the unrelated fuses under the dash for the radio problem and finds that the very last one checked is the bad one.  OF COURSE.   But RADIO FIXED!   Best thing that happened all day.   Always carry spares of every single fuse used in your RV is our advice.

When you have a couple of days worth of time on your hands you may end up doing things you would never do any other way.  Today David completes a new maintenance schedule for Ruby including all service required with recommended intervals, date last performed, date/mileage next due. 

 

Compiling this is no small task but it is made possible by the detailed records we keep of pretty much everything.  Remember he was a statistician and I’m the Queen of Frugal.  Want to know what we paid for a movie in 1987 and what the title was.  I can find it for you. HA!

And also tell you where we spent every single penny that went out of our wallets for the month of March 2014 or any month you like since 1969.  And that was before I even knew David.  He’s adopted my record keeping frugal ways.   Can’t even list all the ways these detailed records have been useful to us.  This is just the latest one. After filing the income taxes that is.

I spend way too much time of this dreary day working on Part II of the Cumberland Island blog.  Perhaps you’ve seen the result.  Hope you had as much time to read it.  I sometimes say that it takes me longer to write the blog than it did to do the activity.

I also work on the list of things to order on line since we will have a guaranteed address for two weeks. 

Sounds like we’ve had a great two days doesn’t it?   But it sure beats working for a living!

 

 

 

 

Sunday

 

Today it only drizzles a little as we move 188 miles up Interstate 95 to St. George, South Carolina where we camp overnight at Jolly Acres Camp & Storage a Passport America Campground.  No rain after about 1:00.  I’m thrilled!  except that 188 miles feels like a PDD day to me even if it isn’t.  

And tomorrow will be even worse as it’s over 200 miles to Zooland (sounds like where we belong doesn’t it) in North Carolina and another 200 Tuesday before we finally land in our old home town, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Wish me luck getting through 3 days in row of SO MUCH driving. YUCK!!

 

 

Monday

 

Well today was over 200 miles but sadly doesn’t qualify for even bronze level PDD.   The good news is it didn’t rain a drop!

We drove 216.6 miles and arrived by at Zooland Family Campground by 1:00.  

I’ve found, the secret for me is GET ON THE ROAD EARLY.   We pulled out of Jolly Acres at 8:20am and that really did make it seem easier.  Not sure why arriving at 3 or 3:30 feels longer but it does.

Added to the already long trip was the fact that the bridge is out on Pisgah Covered Bridge Road where the campground is located only 3 miles off of I-73. With the bridge out you have to take an 8 mile detour both ways.  Now if there was any other place to stay on this route back to the farm, I would have done it.  In fact, I did stay at the other campground in Asheboro once and that was a total disaster.  As far as I can tell there isn’t even a decent campground in Greensboro, N.C. about 30 minutes north of here.

So here we are for the night with another 222 mile drive tomorrow.  

You can bet I’ll be up early to get started on it and get it over with.  I wish it were a little easier to  “Carry me back to ol’ Virginnie.

With this post I am totally caught up to date!  YES!!  Doubt it will last long though.