Saga of all our Equipment Failures

On the first night of our trip this year I noticed that batteries discharged very quickly overnight while we were just running our furnace. When I thought about it I realized they had lasted 6-1/2 years and should be replaced. So after a finding out the battery distributer was along the way we went to Charlotte and bought new batteries.

I then noticed that my inverter was bad, The inverter converts your 12v power to 120v AC for watching TV and other small appliances. This inverter is big, expensive and wired in under my bed. It has a remote panel to control it. No local dealers had a matching unit. I found for $320 on-line, I could have one shipped in about a week. So I had it shipped to Jekyll Island Campground and it actually was very easy to install.

When I attempted to dump my black water tank, I found out the electric actuator would not open the valve. The gray water valve worked fine. You can’t open the valve manually with the actuator installed, so I removed the actuator and found I could open the black water valve but it worked very hard and probably led to the actuator failure. A plastic gear and broken in half, so I superglued it together and the actuator works but I figured if I reinstalled it, it would break again unless I got the valve freely moving, so that’s the way it will be for while.

When we opened our awning this Sunday the right side sagged way down. I noticed that the gas strut that holds the awning fully up was getting weaker and weaker but now it had totally failed and would not hold the awning up, but you can push it up and lock it in place with a little knob.

I checked the internet again and called Carol, the parts expert, at Phoenix RV for a price. Well for $40 she will ship me a new one to our friend’s, Paul & Helen, who live in Inverness.

On Tuesday morning, Peggy found out our  original cheapo plastic kitchen faucet had failed. The little diverter ball had broken in half.

I started to try to remove the faucet but found it was really hard to get at it. I finally gave up. It was in a cabinet that could only be accessed by feel and I had no idea how the water lines were even connected.

I knew there was a Camping World in Lake City, so off we go to see what were my options. We found a very nice replacement for $75 and I asked if and when they could install it., figuring they would say in a few days. They said, no problem, we can do it right now in about an hour and it would cost about $125 for the labor. So I figured maybe they could do it instead of me as I wasn’t sure I was flexible enough to get under there. Well they did it in exactly an hour and we now have a beautiful new kitchen faucet.

I hope the strut replacement next week will go well and things quit failing. Our RV has been very reliable but this has been quite a trip start.

At Ocean Pond in Osceola National Forest

We left the Okefenokee at 7 AM and went grocery shopping in Lake City. We were able to get to the Ocean Pond campground before 10AM on Sunday morning. We did this to be sure to get a good campsite when the weekenders leave. Wow, one of our favorite sites #8 was empty so we pulled in but did not setup as I wanted to see if site #12 might be leaving. We had stayed here two years ago. I found out they would be leaving at check out time so we signed up for that site and waited until they left at noon.

The weather was nice but heavy rains and a cold front were forecast for later in the day, so we stayed in and enjoyed some NFL football games. The morning lows are in the low 30’s^oF but the rain is gone and it is sunny. Peggy turns on the kitchen sink, no water. See next story for our equipment failure sage since our trip began.

Three Nights in The Okefenokee

We got an early start from Jekyll Island and after a pleasant drive on all secondary roads got to our reserved campsite at Stephen Foster Georgia State Park in the Okefenokee before noon. We picked the same site 16 that we stayed in in the past since it is the shortest walk to the boat launch. We dropped off the canoe first and just locked it to a post. The weather was sunny in mid 60’s and a little breezy.

We paddled toward the Suwannee River source since that is where we saw a lot of gators last year. We saw about 10 small ones and one really big one. Peggy pointed them out to me. It was a short 1-1/2 hr., 5 mile paddle, our first canoeing of our trip.

We hoped to paddle again Friday but it was very overcast and windy and threatened to rain. So we didn’t do much and hope to paddle again on Saturday.

There is on-off cell phone service and no internet service in this park which is 17 miles off the highway. But they do have cable TV hookup to get a few stations and the weather report. At this time of year there are no mosquitos which is why we prefer this park to the Everglades, which is always buggy. Beside the gators & turtles, there are lots of birds, deer and they say bear.

On Saturday it finally warmed up to the low 70’s, We paddled 8 miles to Minnie Lake Landing and back. This is  where we caught up to a big group of friendly kayakers.

Like last year the slow current allowed us to paddle back in 20% less time then we paddled up to the Landing. When we got to the main channel we were thinking of going to Billy’s Island but the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up so we just headed back. We saw lots of small alligators and turtles.

Our next planned camp is Ocean Pond campground in the Osceola National Forest about 60 miles South of here near Lake City, FL. They do not take reservations and it is very popular. So our plan is to shop for groceries in Lake City, FL and then drive to the campground and hope to get there about 10 AM Sunday morning. This is when the weekend campers start to leave. There have three types of sites here; Electric/Water, Water and Primitive. They have nice bathrooms and showers and are right on a small round Lake about two miles in diameter. We hope to get an Electric site and stay here for about 10 days.

Judi & Larry Visited us at Jekyll Island

Judi & Larry left on Wednesday morning to head back to cold Northern Ohio. We have one more night here and then leave for Stephen Foster State Park in the Okefenokee Swamp.

The map shows our path from Augusta to there and the day number for the trip.

Yesterday we biked around about half the island with them and again went out to eat at the Driftwood Bistro. The food was so good we didn’t want to try any place else. Now that they are gone we will be cooking in the RV again for a while, no choice in the Okefenokee swamp.

Today we biked entirely around the island. You can click on the map to make the map bigger.. Total bike trip mileage today was 15.5 miles. Getting used to the seat.

Here we are at the Jekyll Island Club                    

Here is what the West side beaches look like.

Rain Stops, Weather Improves Now at Jekyll Island

Since we never got to go biking in VA, the trip was moved up 4 days from our original plan to get to Jekyll Island 0n Monday 11/19. We had reservations so we needed to find something else to do for the 4 days between Greg’s and Jekyll. The last night at Greg’s it rained another 2-1/2”, making the week not only cold but over 5” of rain fell.

So our new plan was to overnight in Augusta, GA and take their canal trail the runs between the Savannah River and the canal that made Augusta boom in the late 1800’s. Last year we toured the museum so this year it would just be our first bike ride of the trip.

The trail starts here at the dam that diverts the water into the canal and follows between them into the city of Augusta. This year we missed a turn where we went last year and only biked for 12 miles which was fine for our first ride. The trail is gravel and dirt in places so it’s slow but even with all that rain only a day before, the random puddles in the trail were all small enough to pass by without going into the mud. The river was high, if you compare with the pictures from Last Year’s Blog. It was only about 50^oF but sunny.

I checked the map and there was a very nice small State Park on SR25 called Magnolia Springs. I checked and even though it was a weekend there were plenty of sites available.

After a short drive to camp we took a trail walk from the campground along the lake over a boardwalk, temperatures now finally were in the mid 60’s. A family campground with lots of kids starting their Thanksgiving holiday a little early.

The lake was too small to take a canoe ride but was very pretty, But the big surprise to us was that this was the site of the largest Confederate prison during the civil war. Camp Lawton, near Millen, Georgia, housed 10,000 Union prisoners at the end of the Civil War. When General Sherman’s forces approached, prisoners and guards fled quickly, leaving the remains of the camp—and even its exact location—lost to history. But a Yankee prisoner had descriptions and sketches allowing them to locate the approximate site location.. PBS did a story about  a group of archeologists who spent 3 day here 10 years ago with a team and helped locate artifacts and it’s exact location. This in this is their  one hour video. Lost Civil War Prison

We still had a evening to kill so we drove about halfway to Jekyll and did a Walmart overnight in Jesup, GA. We arrived early to the Jekyll Island Campground. The camp itself is crowded but the bike trails on the island are great. I picked up my new inverter and installed it in place of the one that went bad last week. After a short rest, Judi and Larry Fordyce arrived and set up their tent. They left home about the same time we left  and have been visiting friends and Larry’s mother in Cape Coral, FL. They are now on their way home to get ready for skiing. They took us out to a wonderful dinner at the #1 rated restaurant on the Island, Driftwood Bistro. It was a fantastic meal at reasonable prices.

Four Nights at Greg & Sandy’s

It got bright and sunny in Greenville but it was so windy we decided not to bike, So Sunday we headed West to our friends in Sunset, SC.

Their beautiful home is on Lake Keowee which was created by the Duke Power company. They dammed up the main river and all the little tributaries fall into the lake making for a very long, narrow lake with many fingers.

Their view is spectacular and you can see down the lake at least 8 miles, It is still Fall down here but it is sure rainy.

They have cute little dog named Asia.

On Tuesday it finally stopped raining for a while so we took a ride with them to Twin Falls in SC, up to Cashiers & Highlands, NC and then to Dry Falls.

It was an easy walk to Twin Falls in SC after a short drive on the poorly signed road. It was a good thing they knew where it was.

We had lunch in Cashiers and past through Highlands, a very upscale resort town in NC to what they call Dry Falls. It was hardly dry and they had a wooden walkway where your could walk behind the falls.

Looking out from behind the Falls from the walkway was pretty cool. Good place in a hot summer day.

When we got back it was starting to rain again, so we decided to stay one more night and head to Augusta, GA on Thursday morning and hopefully bike along the Savannah River on Friday, We then will try to stay at another GA State Park before heading to Jekyll Island on Monday.

Peggy spent a lot of time keeping warm in front of their beautiful fireplace.

Trip Starts but Cold Weather changes everything

Don’t bother looking at our first week plans. Everything has changed.

First, we always watch the weather reports to see what is the best travel day. We moved up our schedule to leave on Thursday morning 11/8 since cold, snowy, windy weather was forecast for the weekend, starting Friday. That was a good decision, Thursday was a bright sunny day. But, looking at the temperature and rain forecast for Galax, VA we decided we couldn’t do the planned bike trails.

Second, We stopped in Wytheville for the night so we could confirm the weather reports of a rainy Friday and head to the south of Ashville to get to warmer weather and hope Saturday would be dry. We found our batteries were almost drained overnight and we really hadn’t used that much power. Our batteries were 6-1/2 years old so I figured I would use the rainy day to buy new batteries. Problem, the closest place I could find that had Trojan batteries in stock was in Charlotte. So another schedule change, instead of heading toward Ashville, we headed to Charlotte. It rained hard all day and the traffic was terrible and it took almost 1-1/2 hours longer then planned. Got the batteries and also discovered that my Power Inverter had an internal short and would not give us any 120v power to watch TV.

Third, we still wanted to visit our friends Greg & Sandy in the SC high country, so our plans changed to drive over to Greenville, SC and stay overnight and on Saturday do a 20 mile bike ride on their well publicized Swamp Rabbit Trail. Saturday was dry & sunny but windy and temperature about 45^oF. Peggy said, no way to a bike ride, so I spent the day on the internet looking for a new Power Inverter. The only place I could find a replacement was mail order and shipping would take 4 days from Monday. This won’t work since we will have left our friends by then and be heading to Augusta, GA where we biked last year, our next camping reservations were at Jekyll Island but not until Monday 11/19. So we may stop at another GA State Park after Augusta.

The weather this year has been miserable and they are now forecasting two more days of heavy rain and high temperatures 20^o  below normal.