Leaving Florida Headed North

Friday April 9 to Tuesday April 14, 2015
Florida Caverns State Park, Marianna Florida to Charlottesville, Virginia

 

FRIDAY April 9

Today is our last day at Florida Caverns. We spend it relaxing around the rig and swimming in the spring.  Later in the day we start the take down.  We clean off the mats, fold them up and put them in the bin. Put away the chairs, the table cloth and bench cushions, put up the awning, put the bikes on the car, cover them and check all the vehicles fluids just to name a few chores completed before heading out for the long drive north.

 

 

 

SATURDAY April 10

We hustle to get a fairly early start this morning on our uncustomarily long 265 mile drive into Eastern Georgia.  We’re pretty far west in Florida so we have to take I 10 all the way over to Jacksonville to pick up I-95 heading north.  We also lose an hour here by coming back into the Eastern Time zone from Central.  I will never understand why we keep springing forward and falling back or why in the world some states are split by time zones. 

Being in a hurry is never a good thing for me and today is no exception.  We are on the road about an hour when I get a phone call from the park saying I’ve left all my coach keys along with the dolly lock on the picnic table.  SIGH………..   they say they will send them to me.  How very nice of Florida State Parks to absorb the mailing cost for my carelessness.  And thank goodness, there are about 8 keys on there to the bike locks, the dolly lock, the bins, the coach and I don’t even remember what else.

We arrive late afternoon to the totally full Walkabout RV Park in Woodbine Georgia.  When I found this park our first year on the road, there were maybe 10 rigs here.  We always just stopped here coming and going from Florida.  Drive in and park.  No more.  Thank goodness we have a reservation.  The number of people using his park and RVing in general has skyrocketed in five years at least in the east.  It takes some of the fun out of it for me to have to keep to a specific schedule.

 

 

 

SUNDAY April 11

Nothing to report here but long days of driving.  After 188 miles on Sunday we are in South Carolina where again we luckily have a reservation as the sign on the door says “full” when I walk into the office. This too was a place we never made reservations before.

The highlight of this stay is these darling electric cars.  The yellow one is used to lead you to your campsite here at Jolly Acres RV Park.

 

 

 

This second one is for sale and can be your toad for $10,500.  It’s even shaped sort of like a toad I think although the yellow one would be better.  Actually a green one would be best.  What a hoot!!

 

 

 

MONDAY April 12

Monday night we are not so lucky.  We usually stay at Carolina Crossroads in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina and have never found it to be more than half full including this fall.  If you make a reservation you can’t use any of their discounts like Passport America or Good Sam. So I never have made one.  But when we pull in here in the late afternoon after a long day, they are totally full.  I have never seen this park like this.   After a PDD day for us of 300 miles, we are tired and in no mood for this.  So we park ourselves in a large parking lot nearby and hope for the best.  Free boondocking right off of I-95.  Now that’s amazing if it works.

 

 

TUESDAY April 13

Well nobody knocked on our door in the middle of the night. but it becomes pretty clear that fate isn’t any more interested in our returning to Virginia than I am.  We are up and out of the giant parking lot at 7am.  This is way early for us but we have nothing to do but bring up the jacks and bring in the slides. We stop at the Virginia Welcome Center for their restrooms and to have some breakfast. Finally the long time Virginia slogan “Virginia is for Lovers” is actually true for all lovers as Virginia’s marriage restrictions were struck down by the Supreme court in October of 2014.

Things seem to be going along fine on this last leg of our trip.  However, boondocking the final night before returning to Charlottesville is a problem since we were not able to empty our tanks and now have to find somewhere to do that.

I check on line about finding a dump site.  RV Dumpstations has mostly campgrounds that will allow you to pay.  That’s fine, but nothing near us.  My droid Pilot App says that there is an RV Dumpstation at a Pilot 11 miles ahead of us.  Perfect!  We can get gas and dump.  

Well sort of.  We get there and there is no gas, only diesel.  The entire area looks like a road construction zone with all the pot holes.  SERIOUS potholes that a child could fall in and never be seen again.  We find the dump station in all the mess and it is on a side ways slope.  WHAT?   Are they nuts? 

OK so we weave around in and out of the 18 wheelers parked everywhere and manage to get back to the dump station tilting in the right direction.  That accomplished, we drive 7 miles back to get gas at the Flying J we passed earlier in favor of trying to accomplish two things at the same time.  I’ve investigated our gasoline fill up possibilities and there is nothing easy once we get near Richmond and on to Charlottesville.  So back we go.   Two steps forward, one step back.

 

Despite our early departure it is 9:30 when we are finally on the road north and we’ve gone less than 15 miles.  

To add to the fun, it rains most of the way.  We take I-95 to I-288 around the west side of Richmond and then are on our last leg, I-64 to Charlottesville. 

It’s still raining when we arrive.  We unload overnight gear and save whatever else we may need for a hopefully dry tomorrow.   In Ruby, we drive out to the farm to check out the road.  The rains here have been so terrible that the farm road, particularly the beginning and a low spot just beyond the woods, is the worst I’ve ever seen it.  Another problem to deal with. 

But for now, Winnona is parked in Charlottesville on a nice paved street until we can come up with a better answer.   She’s in a pretty scenic spot with the gorgeous pink dogwood.