JEMISON, AL: Christmas Time is Here!

We arrived back at the Minooka Park campground in Jemison, AL last Thursday, surrounded by southern warm weather! 

Friday, Selene and daughter Debbie had a Christmas cookie baking day and we now have plenty of cookies to see us through the holidays. The next week will be a time for family as our 5 children, their spouses and significant others, our grandchildren, and extended family members gather to celebrate the season.  We look forward to this every year, and are very lucky that in most years we are all able to come together for at least a day or two.

We'll be staying in this area until January 5 and then we'll head even further south for the next couple of months.  Before then, we'll just celebrate as much as we can!

FRANKLIN, TN: Athens, Shepherdsville and Back South

Last Saturday, we had an uneventful drive from Athens, AL to Grandma's RV Park in Shepherdsville, KY.  We've stayed at Grandma's many times.....neat premises, level gravel sites although a little close together, and very near I-65.  During our 4 night stay, we had plenty of time to enjoy being with  Selene's brother - Joel and his wife - Jan, their daughter Carolyn and her daughter Sophie, Selene's sister - Mary Kay and her daughter - Colleen, Hank's cousin - Sister Marilyn, and neighbors-Maggie and Skeeter.  Family visits are always meaningful, but especially during the holidays. And it sure felt like Christmas with lows in the teens, a couple of days staying below 32 and even a few snowflakes.  When we were ready to leave today, there was a new challenge - ice on top of a slide under the slide topper preventing the slide from closing properly.  It took Hank about 15 minutes to break up the ice and remove it, and then everything worked as it should. 

Our planned trip today was just a little over 3 1/2 hours and we're now parked in the Sam's Club parking lot in Franklin, TN..... our first time to park at a Sam's Club,,,, another business that often allows RVs to stay on the lot overnight. The warmer temperatures we encountered today were very welcome!   Tomorrow, we'll travel to Minooka Park near Jemison, AL where we stayed last week.  The next 2 weeks will be spent visiting with our children and their families. Central Al  is the gathering point for our family's holiday gatherings. 

JEMISON, AL: Minooka Park

Yesterday morning, we fired up the Cummins engine and headed northwest from Colquitt, GA to central Alabama.  The 5 hour trip, with a fuel stop and lunch stop, was mostly on 4-lane US highways with little traffic and some light rain, but that changed once we got to Montgomery, I-85 and I-65 where the traffic picked up and the rain stopped.  We wanted to stay at Minooka Park near Jemison, AL to see if it would work for future visits to the area.  Our usual RV hangout in Hoover, AL is still closed for renovations and additions to the property, and there aren't a lot of other good options for us near I-65 and I-459.  Minooka Park is a quiet county park in the woods with a small campground with concrete sites and full hook-ups, a fishing lake,  and ATV trails.

During our 3 night stay, we plan to visit with our daughters Kathy and Debbie.  We'll leave here on Friday and travel to Athens, in northern Alabama for a visit with David, our oldest son before heading to Kentucky for a pre-Christmas visit with our Louisville family.  It's time to get some winter clothing moved from the storage bin in the car to inside Little House!

COLQUITT, GA: Brunswick and Beyond

First, here's an update on Hank's new HP laptop, which he purchased in Jacksonville on Dec. 2nd.  A problem with some of the video graphics showed up over last weekend shortly after the "Anniversary" update for Windows 10 was installed.  Hank used the Staples support function built into the laptop to investigate graphics problems and determined it was a graphics driver (software) problem, but none of the available drivers resolved the problem.  He wound up working with Staples free 30 day support twice on Tuesday after which they referred him to HP support.  After looking at the problem HP support provided him with a "Free MS Support" phone number and sent him on is way.  It took several attempts to get through the MS phone system without being disconnected or mis-directed, followed by a successful connection to the wait queue (with announced 30+ minute queue length) which also disconnected after a 15-20 minutes.  A later attempt stayed connected to the queue for 65 minutes followed by a 80 minute interactive support session.that eventually resolved the problem with a more recent, unlisted, graphics driver.  So far, everything is now working as it should and Hank is in the process of re-installing all the applications he uses and restoring data from backups.

We're a little behind on our posts.  From Dec. 5 - 9, we were at the Coastal Georgia RV Resort in Brunswick, GA.  The reason for our stay was the holiday gathering of the Metter Roadrunners,  Many of the members are also ham radio operators.  The group had the use of the mostly enclosed pavilion and there were daily happy hours as well as visits to nearby restaurants and attractions.  Thursday night, the club provided a Low Country Boil by chefs Don and Horace, with side dishes and desserts  provided by the members.  There was also a Chinese gift exchange.  We became members of the group several years ago after meeting some of the members  through ham radio. 

Coastal Georgia is a pristine campground with  level concrete pads, most of them pull-thrus,  a fishing lake, large clubhouse, smaller meeting room with kitchen, a pool, and free cable TV.  We've stayed here several times iin the past.

With the weather turning much colder, and our plans in place to head north to have Christmas visits with our family, we knew we'd have to leave the warmer confines of the deep  South, but decided to stay in southwestern Georgia for a few more days.  We're at the Emerald Lake RV Resort near Colquitt, GA.,  a small and more rustic campground located in a rural environment with a fishing lake, heated pool and level, grass sites.  The friendly owner, Bucky, lives on site overseeing the park as well as running the restaurant on the property.  The free WiFi works pretty well as does our Verizon Jet Pack, but we have no Sprint coverage.  We'll be here until Tuesday when we'll put on our long johns and head north into much colder weather.  The low temperature here this morning was 31, but that's much below what it should be this time of year for this area.  It's beginning to look, and feel, a lot like Christmas!

ATLANTIC BEACH, FL: Extended Stay

Our Thanksgiving celebration was fun, filling and festive.  Our son-in-law's father had a small family gathering at his place near the beach again this year and extended the invitation to us.  There were 13 of us at the table and the counter was overloaded with turkey and all the trimmings, topped off by 3 different pies!

After discovering that we needed more car repairs, we decided to extend our stay at Hanna Park until Monday, Dec. 5.  That turned out to be a good decision for several reasons.

Monday evening, we were able to meet up with Dee & Jim, old ham radio/RV friends, who were living in Raleigh when we moved there.  They became full-time RVers for 5 years, then decided to settle down in central Florida.  They were traveling through this area so we all met up for dinner and conversation.

Last week, we had turned the car over to a local Chevrolet dealer to fix leftover problems from the apparent vandalism in Raleigh.  Saturday we returned the rental car and picked up the HHR after extensive work on the front brakes, and repairs to the  electronic dash alarms We also had a switch installed  in the fuse box so Hank doesn't have to pull a fuse whenever we tow the car.  We soon realized the car still wasn't driving as it should with pulling to the right or left in different circumstances.  Tuesday, we returned to the dealer and got two new front tires along with balancing and alignment.  Things appear to be back to normal now.

 Thursday night, Hank's Toshiba laptop, that hasn't worked well over the last 18 months of use,  died a sudden death with a hard drive failure.  Friday, we went to several stores to compare new prices versus repair costs.  He now has a new HP 17.3 inch laptop with plenty of memory and a large hard drive with a keyboard that is comfortable for his large hands.

We'll spend some more time with Karen and family today and tomorrow.  On Monday, we'll head north to Brunswick, GA to meet up with several friends for a holiday celebration. 

ATLANTIC BEACH, FL: Car Repairs and Family Time

Our weekend in St. Mary's,GA was a good stopover in our travels.  However, the car was still showing the effects from the apparent vandalism in Raleigh. Friday morning, the right front tire was showing a slow leak and some other things concerned us.  We visited a local Chevrolet dealer and discussed the problems and ordered two new wheel covers as well as a new passenger sun visor, and they put air in the tire.  No appointments were available until this week, however. Saturday morning, we returned to the dealership to pick up the ordered parts, got the tire aired up again and made an appointment for service on November 29.  Sunday night, there was a pot luck supper at the campground and we met some more nice people.

Monday morning, it was time to head further south to Atlantic Beach and Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park Campground in Atlantic Beach, only an hour's drive.  (  http://www.coj.net/departments/parks-and-recreation/recreation-and-community-programming/kathryn-abbey-hanna-park/camping-at-hanna-park.aspx)   This park will be filling up this week and we always reserve for the next year before we leave.  Hank called a Chevy dealer here and made arrangements for them to check out the car over the next couple of days as they had time.

 Our 2nd daughter, Karen, lives about 15 minutes away from Hanna Park, and we headed to her house for dinner that also included Karen's husband, Sean, granddaughter Samantha and grandson, Montgomery.  There was a nice surprise in store as our oldest daughter, Kathy, was also in town for a visit and will be here until tomorrow.

Today we took the HHR to the Chevy dealer, rented a car for the next couple of days and made a drug store run. Although this area took a hit from Hurricane Matthew, most damage has been cleared and the weather is now sunny and cool.

We'll probably be here until Wednesday, November 30.

ST MARY'S, GA: Alarms, Delays, and Destinations

Wednesday:  It was time make our way further south, and we pulled out of the Fairgrounds campground about 10:30 A.M.  We have a portable Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) that tracks the pressure and temperature of the coach tires, and the car tires while towing.  As were were nearing the I-40 ramp in southeast Raleigh, the TPMS alarm sounded showing the  car's  left front tire temperature was very high. We stayed on city street's until we could find a place to check things out.  The tire was almost flat, and it appeared that overnight someone had stolen two of our wheel covers, damaged the valve stem and removed two of the TPMS monitor covers while trying to do their mischief.  The TPMS definitely paid for itself today and without it the results could have been much worse. A call to AAA promised a wrecker with ETA of 45 min, and they would not be able to bring a tire, or make repairs, but would mount our "space saver" spare.  So while waiting on the wrecker,  Hank unloaded the back of the HHR and piled the contents on the side of the road - ladder, case of bottled water, bin of misc supplies, umbrellas, etc and removed the carpet covering the tire storage compartment, then removed the cover itself and removed the lug wrench, jumper cables, and small tools, then removed the cover allowing access to the bottom section so I could remove the tire.  The wrecker arrived just as he was finishing up. (A neighbor lady did stop and ask if we needed some help!)  Luckily there was a tire store nearby with access for the coach and car so we didn't have to unhook and we got a good used tire and new valve stem.  We finally got on I-40 about 1:30 P.M, only to be stopped 30 minutes later by a huge traffic tie-up due to a semi wreck several miles ahead of us. Another 30 minutes went by before we could get to an exit where we could get past the accident and get back on I-95 .

 About an hour later into our drive we heard another alarm beep, but saw no indication of a problem.  A few minutes later another beep sounded and this time there was a yellow alarm on the dash for the HEST (High Exhaust System Temperature).  We knew from experience that this was not unusual - it is a result of the diesel engine literally burning exhaust particulates by injecting fuel directly into the exhaust.  This process takes 20-30 minutes during which time the yellow alarm (yellow means informational) stays illuminated and you need to keep driving, but previously there was not any BEEP associated with the process.   After about 10 minutes of worrying, Hank was able to determine that the beep was actually coming from the TPMS because it was not getting any signal from the damaged TPMS sensor which was currently resting quietly in his pocket and not transmitting any status updates.  The HEST indicator went out about 25 minutes after it had started. 

 After that, the rest of the day's journey was carefree.  We made it to the  I-95 SC exit 57 and the Walterboro, SC Walmart about 6:30 P.M  for our overnight stay.  This Walmart is known in the RV world for allowing overnight parking, and by morning there were at least 10 other RV's and a couple of trucks keeping us company.

Thursday:  There was no need to hurry on our way, so Selene did some shopping before we headed south on I-95 once again.  After a lunch stop and a fuel fill-up, we arrived at A Big Wheel RV Park in St. Mary's, GA where we'll be until Monday.  The park is small (35 sites), and is set in a wooded area.  We parked in the tent area on the pond shore until our site became available today (Friday).

We always say each day is a new adventure!