Day #2 Saturday 3/28/10

What a beautiful ride. Heading out of Florida gives you the allusion of expecting to see tropical sightings. Like alligators or mockingbirds. Well let me tell you, the minute I had seen three deer just standing on the side of the road was breath taking. Then a few minutes later I had seen a wild turkey. My husband had his own experience of seeing an opossum and was even taken in by a pair of squirrels playing at a rest stop. We felt like we where entering the wild again. But laughing out loud together we agreed we still have a long ways to go. I ache to see elk again – one of the most beautiful creatures I’ve ever seen. Oh and of course at a rest stop we had seen an eagle which is pretty common to Florida state.
Driving 50-55 miles an hour is a reminder of how long our trip will take to get to California but we so love it. Driving at that speed allows my fist to relax and not grasp at the dashboard for dear life. Although it did take us 2 hours just to get out of Miami.
We did manage to stop every 100 miles to rest and pet potty walks. Speaking of pets OMG as the young generation would say. My cat June Bug did not do well the first day at all. In fact I think I cried more then he did. I’ve never in my 1 year of having him ever heard a wale like that. I was so stressed. And mad at myself for forgetting to get kitty knock me out drugs to enhance him in peace. Now my puppy Kricket Bee did very well in her kennel the entire day. The only thing with her was she didn’t eat much the first day.
Now as we neared our destination for the night our Mr. Crafty made a clink of a noise and giving us the idea of a rock hitting him. And just one exit from our destination we heard a bunch of rattling under the hood and knew we where in trouble. And we where! We manage to get to a rest stop in St Augustine and parked there for the night. It turned out we had broken 3 of the belts. So Jorge un-hitched the rodeo and drove off to the next exit to purchase the 3 belts. This was about 9am and he was back by 11am. And then for the next 4-5 hours he tried like heck to put the new belts on to no avail. Then we gave in and called for help to our Progressive RV insurance and they proved they are the best. They sent a tow truck and up went Mr. Crafty onto the tow lift and our heart sank. Be sure to check the picture out. So once we got to a RV center our hearts sank again – they where closed. So now what do we do? The tow man got right on the horn and his dispatch was able to contact someone from that company and they sent someone straight out. Now because it was closed we should have paid an extra arm and leg but because the mechanic Pete was from my neck of the woods and thought I was cute (lol) he cut us a deal. So now we are fixed and on our way – SO WE THOUGHT. Our battery went deader then a doornail. So off to Wal-Mart we went and bought this time a deep cell battery. And then after that we decided to say at the Flying J’s that we where suppose to stay at the night before. Goodnight all!! Oh and that night we where hit with the worst rain possible. Made for wonderful sleeping sounds – kind of nice minus the thunderstorms.

Day #3
Sunday 3/29/10

Our adventures where over for St. Augustine and now we are off to find another such adventure – NOT. We do however leave at 10am and heading for Georgia. Because of our adventure we did shorten this trip by 40 miles. As we where going thru Georgia we couldn’t help but noticed all the flooded areas and thanked ourselves for not getting there any sooner then we did or otherwise we would have been in knee deep in water and we didn’t have our floaters to get by. So we made our way thru Georgia all the way to our next nightly destination in Macon (which I would not recommend staying in – not safe at all). I could not sleep at all, I was so scared, but my darling husband as soon as his head hit the pillow was out like a light. About 1:30am another RV came thru and parked not too far from us which gave me some peace and finally manage to get a little sleep and only to be woken by a pair of truckers fighting loud and strong. This went on about a good hour. We decided to get the hell out of there and quick. And headed to the local McDonald’s for coffee and wifi.
We made it to Tennessee where we where in awe of the beautiful spring blooms going on. It is so far our favorite state to drive thru. Trees where of different colors. We loved the purple flowered trees the most. And what I have to say about Tennessee is that they have super clean rest areas, unlike Georgia where in fact they where disgusting and the women do not represent cleanliness at all. So I guess what I am trying to explain is I had to pee standing up because well lets not go into the details other then the fact Georgia has awful rest areas.
The pets are doing wonderful now. June Bug stays in the cat box while the RV is running and comes out on his own when we stop for breaks. And Kricket Bee is just Kricket Bee and growing fast.
We are now in Manchester Wal-Mart and wow super great place to stay for the night. They are clean and super friendly. We always make a point to ask customer service before assuming we can sleep there. In no way do we want to be rude or break any laws. It’s now 6:30pm and we know have time for a good game of cards – let you know who won tomorrow….