26 July 2009

Hi: We got under way at about 0845 this morning. Had to unhook car and then move around to hook up to the dump station. Got all that done with no problems and we hit the road. Got gas in Georgia for $2.29 for gas in Georgia. Got to St George, SC at the Jolly Acres Campground at around 1530. We have been here a few times before on our trips up I-95. It is still one of the nicest campgrounds we have found. Photo is our site here at Jolly Acres. Well kept place, WiFi is better than my Alltel Internet. Could not hook up on the Blog until I used their WiFi...

Plan to have our Porterhouse Steaks tonight. Trip up was real nice. Even got 10 MPG a few times coming along. Land is fairly flat. WE hit I-26 in the morning, then I-77 up thru Virginia. Think my good milage will go away when we hit some hills. Am sure we will suffer in the hills of West Virginia...

All is well. Amy is doing better each day, and my hip is getting better too.

Semper Fi.

Don, Amy & Pharaoh...

21 August 2008

Hi All: This will be my last entry for this trip. We have been home a week today and still don't have all the stuff out of the Motor Home yet. It's been raining off and on, but no big wind from the storm that passed to our East a couple days ago. Now the storm is turning and will go North of us again. Shouldn't have much trouble from it this time either. Just some rain, and most of Florida needs the rain. Just not 23 inches in a couple days. Most of it will run off and not sink in to the lakes and aquifer.

Amy figured out our final costs etc for the trip. Thought I would share it with you in case you would think of a trip like this for you:

Trip: 96 days
Miles: 12,645
Campgrounds: 56
Campground $: $2831.98
Gas Stops: 46
Gas $: $7344.37
Gas for Saturn: $165.09
Laundry $: $149.55
Motor Home Repair: $2014.78
Food & Misc, Eating out, souvenirs, tours etc: $8734.78

Total for trip: $21,240.55

We had figured it would cost us $20,000.00 for the trip, and if I had not had the expense for repairing the Motor Home it would have made it under the estimate. I don't know what kind of cruise or trip a couple could take for 96 days and see what we saw and did for less than that. It was a fantastic trip. One we will remember for ever and ever. Also strange that Amy and I were not holding each other by the throats within two weeks in to the trip. We were attached at the hip for the whole time and it was super. I was in a store the other day and walked around looking for her for half an hour before I remembered I was there by myself. hee hee...

I recommend the trip to anyone that can do it. That country is beautiful. Just wouldn't want to be there in January or February!!!

Some folks say a cat only has a memory of 30 days. And if he is away from a place longer than that he won't recognize anything when you put him back in his place. Well, I'm here to say that is wrong. Pharaoh remembers everything. He is now leading us around making us do all the things he did before we left, and remembers where everything is. He is a happy cat to have all his space again.

Again, Thanks for reading our trip.

Semper Fi

Don, Amy & PHARAOH

14 August 2008

Hi All: Well, this is the last blog I guess. We got home about 1 PM today and drove all the way today in the rain. It was good to get home even if it was raining. We unloaded some stuff but decided to not work in the rain any more so we quit for the day.

We had a SUPER time on this trip and will now have to sit down and plan the next one. Not sure where yet, but do plan to use the Motor Home more...

Thanks for all your kind notes during this trip. We'll do it again some time...

Semper Fi

Don, Amy & Pharaoh (He's real happy to have so much room now!!!!)

11, 12, 13 August 2008

Hi All: Sorry it's been so long but the last two campgrounds did not have WiFi available. One of them had it in the building, but it was raining last night and didn't want to unhook the car. It rained most of the night and was raining this morning. Got soaked unhooking the water and electric from the Motor Home, then had to get gas and got soaked again. Glad the heater worked in the dash of the rig. It rained on us all the way to the Tallahassee RV Campground here. At least they have cable TV (72 stations) and WiFi. Was writing JoAnn and the electricity went off. Thought it kicked a circuit breaker, but it wasn't. The storm knocked out all the electricity in the area. We decided to go to the Cracker Barrel for dinner. Had a heck of a time finding it. Knew which exit off I-10 it was but it was hidden way back in the woods. Was just about ready to go to Shoney's but Amy saw a sign so we made it in. Good meal.

Made it back to the campground and the electricity was back on so we are all set for leaving in the morning for home. About 200 miles and we'll be there. Amy said that her records indicate it will be about 12,500 miles when we get home. Wow, that's a lot of gas.... We've been getting about 9 MPG on this flat hiway so far. Should be even better tomorrow as it's down hill all the way home I think.

Hope everyone enjoyed our trip and the Blog. It was fun doing the trip, AND fun doing the Blog...

Semper Fi.

Don, Amy & Pharaoh

10 August 2008

Photo's: A ways to go to San Antonia

One of those long long hiways

Hundreds of these along the way

Hi All: We made it to a little campground about 50 miles East of San Antonio, TX The trip was another hot one and it's hot here again. Close to 100 I'm sure. It's 87 here in the Motor Home, and I hope getting cooler. We did buy a small fan to move the air around and that makes it feel better when it's so hot...

Nothing much to report about the trip. Texas has the longest straightest roads I've ever seen. You can see the road till it disappears WAY down the road. Stopped for gas just outside of San Antonio cause we find that the gas is cheaper in the cities than way out on the hiway. It was $3.53 this time, and I got 9.0 MPG this time, and we had the generator running some this time, so if I take away the gas the generator uses I got better MPG....

Amy found this campground in one of our camping books. It's a Passport America campground, so it is half regular price. It's the cheapest place so far $12.50. No cable TV though, and a couple stations I can get on the regular antenna. Supposed to have WiFi also. Found it on the air and connected, but could not connect with the Internet. There was another WiFi signal there too, so I connected with it and got on line. Don't know who's WiFi it is, but it works just fine...

We are going to Lake Charles, LA tomorrow. A little shorter trip than today. We traveled about 350 miles today. Feel just fine. This rig drives much better than the Beaver did. Hate to say that about My Beaver though. But this rig has a chassis that is made for a Motor Home, not a beefed up one ton truck chassis like the Beaver...

Well, we'll see if we have WiFi tomorrow???

Semper Fi

Don, Amy & Pharaoh

9 August 2008

Photo's One of the storms waiting on us.

Cleaning the windshield. A daily thing

Jack & I with his new helicopter?? Fixing it??

Hi All:

Got on the road at our 0900, but had to stop for gas before we got going. Gas was $3.84. Had to buy the mid grade as the regular was 85 octane, and the mid was 88. They do that to ya around here. Advertise regular at $3.74 and then you have to buy the mid grade. We got gas here before we camped and the gas was regular 87 octane and it was $3.99. Seems like gas is always more expensive in Texas even though there are a bunch of refineries here and they still pump oil, but the gas is more expensive here. We plan to be East of San Antonio tomorrow so we won't have to drive thru there on Monday morning. Amy just made reservations at a campground and they said they have just one spot left. Hope it's still there when we get there.???

The trip was another trip like yesterday, some gradual upgrades and downgrades. We even had our rain storm just before we got here to Ft. Stockton, TX. The campground used to be a KOA, but is now a Good Sam. Even has a restaurant, Not sure we will use it or just eat in. We do like to eat in. Amy's a better cook than most any place out. Except Chinese???

Temp here is around 95 and the AC is working max now to get he inside of the Motor Home cooled down. Didn't use the generator today, just the dash AC. Got 9.4 MPG at our fill up today, and 9.1 on this morning's fill up. That's not to bad I don't think. We were getting 6.? in Canada and Alaska, but there were a lot more ups and downs there.

Didn't try to mess with the satellite today. We get 3 channels here and one of them is the Olympic, so that is what we have been watching since the opening stuff yesterday.

Amy talked to Judy today and Tom is coming along good. He's eating regular food and up and about. Should be home Monday. Good news...

Not sure about WiFi for tomorrow, Wish Us Luck.

Semper Fi

Don, Amy & Pharaoh..

8 August 2008

Hi All: Boy, we had a long trip today. Forgot that we lose an hour when we get out of Arizona. Arizona does not do Daylight Savings Time, so when we hit New Mexico we lost an hour, and we had about 400 miles to travel also, so we didn't get in to the campground till a little after 1800 local time. It's the Coachlight Motel and RV Park. It's supposed to be a Passport America place and our catalog said it would be $13.50, but when we signed up it was $18.50. Guess all things get more expensive. It's still not bad. Pull Thru site with full hookups AND WiFi free, so don't have to much to bitch about. No cable TV. Have to use the regular antenna, but get 12 channels, and 6 of them are in Spanish???? The Temp when we got here was about 87 which is much better than 117. We did hit a big rain storm about 80 miles from here. It cooled things down to 64 for a while. See gas is $3.79 here. We stopped at a station about 200 miles ago and paid $4.09. Guess we need to get gas closer to the big towns. Will top off in the morning. There are two stations here that we are supposed to be able to get in and get out of...

Will be leaving again at about 0900 in the morning, but plan to go only about 300 miles this time. The roads are pretty good, Lots and Lots of trucks, and the speed limit is mostly 75. I keep it at 60 which probably upsets some of the truckers as they think they own the hiway most of the time.

I did a program on Good Sam travel program that had us getting home on Wednesday, but it had me going 400 miles a day which Amy won't stand for, so it will probably be Thursday or Friday before we get home.... The hiway is fairly flat, but there are lots of gradual up grades that eat in to the MPG. Still got about 8.8 on the last tank, and today I should do better than that. Don't need to run the generator here either. It's a lot cooler than Arizona...

Well, better entertain Amy and Pharaoh for a while.

Semper Fi.

Don, Amy & Pharaoh