Well it is hard to believe that it has already been a little over six months since we left Belfast. So far we have not had any major problems - just a couple minor events with the RV. The first was a disconnected water line which flooded our large underneath storage compartment. But, I was able to easily reconnect the hose and after a couple days of airing, the compartment and contents dried out - no damage done - not a big deal. The other problem was a broken kitchen faucet. We were able to find a replacement at a nearby RV dealer and it was easy to install.
Here is a map of our travels to date
Future Plans - From Sumatra, FL, where we are now, we are going to head North with our first stop being near Eufaula, Alabama. After our stay there which will be at an Army Corps Of Engineers Campground which I have heard are quite nice, we will be working our way back to New England with a rough plan of being in the New Hampshire/Maine area some time in June.
Regrets - None, other than we wish we had started doing this sooner.
Surprises - The biggest is how easily we (including Darby) have adapted to living in about a 260 Sq. Ft. space. We are pretty comfortable and don't feel we are lacking any creature comforts although we are talking about replacing our mattress as it is not quite as comfortable as what we have been accustomed to.
Grocery brands vary significantly from region to region. In addition to always doing our shopping in an unfamiliar store where you don't know where anything is located, some areas just don't have the products and brands we are accustomed to which leads me to "The Great Wheaties Mystery". Donna likes to start her day with Wheaties - very few of the grocery stores in the Mayo, Florida area or, where we are now, carry Wheaties and I am not sure why. They carry all the other major cerals, Cheerios, Raisin Bran, Rice Crispies, Special-K, etc., etc. but no Wheaties. I even asked a store clerk one day why they didn't carry Wheaties - his response was a blank stare. I added "you know, Breakfast Of Champions", "pictures of famous athletes on the box, you know " . . . crickets, . . . he finally broke the silence and admitted he had never heard of them and suggested we try Walmart ( I think that is the standard response for anything they don't have). The only problem with that is Walmart was about 40 miles away and by my calculations of 80 miles at 18 MPG, diesel fuel at $2.60/Gal and a box of Wheaties at $3.50, that's a $15.00 box of Wheaties! Donna has since acquired a taste for Special-K.
Campers are, on the whole, very friendly people - I guess it is the kindred spirit thing - most everyone we have met has been very pleasant.
What We Have Learned - We had been staying at commercial campgrounds for 30 days at a time mainly because you get a very favorable rate. We have learned though that after 2 weeks at any one place we are ready to move on. Two weeks seems to be the right amount of time for us to check out what an area has to offer, hike all the local trails and check out a few historical sites and still not be rushed. We plan to spend the next few months staying primarily at National Forest campgrounds and Army Corps Of Engineer Campgrounds for two weeks at a time as they have very good rates and we get half off of that with the Senior Access Pass for National Parks. We are currently in a National Forest Campground and to date it is our favorite place of the trip - much smaller campground, quieter with less people. The trade-off here is no electricity and no Wi-Fi but, our solar seems to be working out ok and we have a generator for those rainy/cloudy days. As for the Wi-Fi, we are starting to become somewhat proficient at finding Wi-Fi hotspots while traveling. Most McDonalds, Walmarts, Lowes', libraries, casinos, and some restaurants have Wi-Fi you can access from outside. We have an external Wi-Fi antenna on the RV that works very well and we have a smaller magnetic mount external Wi-Fi antenna for the truck that also works quite well. If we continue with the National Forest Campground plan and with boondocking out West, we will probably get a Verizon hotspot for the RV so that we have internet at most of the places we go.
Don't trust your GPS in Florida (at least in remote areas). We have been led astray by our GPS on a number of occasions while in Florida. The most memorable was when we decided to go hiking in Murphy's Swamp (who doesn't enjoy a good hike in a swamp). This was a large (several hundred square miles) swamp with a matrix of tiny dirt roads that you could only travel on at about 15 mph. We found it with no problem and hiked 5 or 6 miles on some of the roads and then returned to the truck to leave. Keep in mind that the entrance to the swamp was only about a 25 minute drive from our campground. Because we had driven about 8 miles into the swamp we decided to go out the opposite direction rather than backtracking for 8 miles on the narrow dirt road. The GPS showed that it wasn't that far to a numbered highway. Well , we drove about 5 or 6 miles following the GPS directions and were almost within site of a paved road when there was a gate blocking the road – the sign said it was private property belonging to a hunting club. So, we turned around and took another road that looked like it went to a paved road – the same thing happened. To make a long story short it took us about 2-1/2 hours to find our way out of the swamp and back to the campground.
This one could also go in the "Regrets" column and the "Surprises" column but I will put it here. Mockingbirds have to be the most annoying birds on this green Earth. We had a mockingbird that lived right behind our camper in Mayo, Fl. If you are familiar with mockingbirds then you will know that they have an amazing ability to mimic the calls of other birds - they have a near infinite repertoire of calls - some are very pleasant, some are less so. Well "our" mockingbird was a nightowl. It was not uncommon to hear it practicing its art at 3 or 4 or 5 AM - did I mention that in addition to their skill at mimicking other bird's calls that they are quite loud. This bird would sing about 18 hours a day - he would take a break from around dark to 3 or 4 in the morning then up and at em. . . it is probably a good thing I didn't bring any firearms on our travels.
Well, that is a brief summary of our first six months - we'll do another when we hit the one year mark.
