Back In the Saddle - Traveling Again

The short story is we left Virginia Beach early Tuesday morning and headed down I-95.  We put in a pretty good day and camped overnight just off I-95 in Florence SC.

From there we drove to Lake City FL for another overnight stay.  Then we had a short drive over to Eglin AFB where we are presently camped at Postl Point military campground- one of our favorite places.

Tonight we are scheduled to have dinner with long time friend Karin.

The longer version goes like this.

We weren't sure if we were going to be able to leave Virginia Beach on our planned departure the day after Christmas.  Pam has been fighting the crud for about three weeks on and off.  In the middle of that she developed pink eye that moved to both eyes.

After treatment of pink eye, it cleared up and she worked through the ups and downs of flu-like stuff that ended up being a sinus infection.  Some days were better that others and we decided to go to Urgent Care to start some antibiotics. The antibiotics appear to be working and she's feeling much better.  I've had a touch of something but think I'm now over it and pretty much back to normal.

We were glad to feel well and get up early and pull out on Tuesday.  Early -- as in we got up just after 5:30 am and had breakfast and started packing up.  I had done most of it the night before so there wasn't much to do emptied the sewer hose, turned off the water hose and packed it, and unplugged the power cord.  In all it took us about 15 minutes to also get the slides in and the car hooked up.

On Monday, we had turned on the diesel Engine Pre-Heat button and the Roadrunner had no problem cranking up.  The HWH hydraulic jacks control box near the driver seat was beeping its head off indicating the jacks were up.  But the truth was, two jacks were just about an inch off the ground without any action on our part.  Not sure what that was about.  I spray the jack shafts with WD-40 periodically, especially after sitting for three months.  I did that a few days ago.  The treatments prevents the jacks from sticking when they retract.

The Driver Side bedroom slide did not go all the way in when Pam pressed the button to retract.  Pam pushed the slide out and retracted it again to make a good seal.  Checking how well the slides retract is part of our walk around checklist.

When I got in the driver seat and start to pull out of the site, I noticed one of the headlight beams was brighter than the other.  I put it in Park and went outside to investigate, finding one of the two main lights on the DS was out.  The headlight has two LED main bulbs, plus six smaller ones -- so it was not entirely dark.  A new light bulb is something else to replace next time we have a dry sunny spot to do some minor maintenance.

After that, we pulled out and made our way off base and over to the freeway and drove toward Emporia, VA and our connection to I-95 heading south.

We obviously have mixed emotions leaving our sons and daughters and grandchildren in Virginia until we return in the Spring.   It is going to get harder to leave so we are talking about the time when we might start doing Extended Time instead of Full Time RVing.  But we'll save that for another post.

We love being back on the road.  And after being at the same campground for a number of months, we wondered what we had forgotten.  Driving the Roadrunner is a breeze and it is a smooth ride.  Everything was moving along beautifully hour after hour and mile after mile.

We were headed south on I-95 the day after Christmas and true to our expectations, it got busy and slow at times.  We had one slowdown that last almost an hour.  Last time we did this it was worse.  And then the engine hesitated.  Over the next couple of hours it got progressively chuggier (is that a word?) and we had to seriously talk about getting it checked out.

We called ahead and made reservations at the Hilton Head turnoff at Lake Jasper Campground. We've stayed there and liked it.  But we were about three hours away near Florence SC.  We found a Freightliner repair shop off the highway and pulled in.  We were able to get in ASAP and we suggested it might need new fuel filters since the Roadrunner had been sitting for months.

Theoretically, they don't need to be changed until 12-15 months and we had new ones replaced last June.  I got the two spares we carry and the tech installed them and revved the engine good and hard for a few minutes.  The check engine light went out.  By now it was 2:30 and time to call it a day.

We cancelled our reservation at Lake Jasper and got a spot at Florence RV Resort.  I thought the place looked familiar but we weren't sure.  We were able to also get our propane tank filled which saved a separate stop down the road.  The lady behind the desk confirmed we had stayed there in December 2011.

Yikes!  Sometimes we don't even remember where we have been!   We had an uneventful evening and got to bed early and left the next morning again before the sun came up.

On Wednesday, we drove south to Jacksonville and then took the beltway west to I-10 until we reached Lake City and stayed at the Lake City RV Resort.  It was fine for an overnight stay.  I liked the campground because the owners are putting a lot of effort into it and are doing a good job on improvements and maintenance.  Nothing fancy but a good place for a one night stay.

Then it was back on the road on a soggy, misty, rainy day.

Again we made decent time and were able to get to Eglin AFB, Postl Point FamCamp about noon.  We got the last spot in the area and gladly took it.  Its a million dollar view even on a sketchy day.

That's a recap of the last couple of days.  More to follow.

As always, thanks for checking out this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles!