Charleston, S.C. 1/26/2014

     Sunday morning we headed out of Apex, N.C. but not until we treated ourselves to breakfast at IHOP.  Debbie was able to work her magic with the RV's Garmin and located several nearby restaurants.  We traveled the backroads of N.C down into S.C .  The interstates have nothing to offer except tractor trailers and fast moving traffic.  We seem to like the easy pace of a county highway since we have no particular place to go and no particular time to get there.  Ben called this morning and he and Debbie had a nice visit as I took over the navigation and driving responsibilities.
    We arrived at the Hardeeville RV Park later in the afternoon after phoning ahead for a reservation.  There was a note on the door saying just go ahead and pick a spot, and leave your money in the envelope.  Most importantly, this was our first opportunity to clean out the anti freeze from the waterlines and get some water on board.  Like a bunch of rookies, we hooked up the water hose and turned the faucet on.  I just forgot that when you winterize the waterlines, you leave the faucets open.  Wasn't long before Debbie was hollaring for help inside Weezy as water was coming out of everything.  We got the shower and faucets turned off and thought we had everything under control, when suddenly water started running out from under the refrigerator!  At that moment I remembered the ice maker.  I had never used the ice maker and had completely forgotten about it.  I quickly found the shut off to the waterline feeding the ice maker, and found that a plastic valve had evidently frozen and cracked over the winter.  We cleaned up the mess, and will order a new valve in the next day or so.  Doesn't look like a hard replacement.  Next fall I just have to remember to make sure the anti-freeze makes it into the ice maker.
    Monday morning we headed over to Charleston for a tour of Ft. Sumter in Charleston harbor.  It was a picture perfect day.  High 60's with little wind on the waterfront.

   Debbie enjoyed the opportunity to get some of the cold out of her bones.  We missed the morning boat ride out to the Fort, so we toured the display and the waterfront, and then moved over to Patriot's Point where the USS Yorktown, CV 10, is anchored.  They have a tour available, but we didn't have time to take advantage of it.  I had spent a few days on the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, CVA-59 during my youth, so we stayed focused on visiting Ft Sumter.

     We enjoyed a boat ride out to the fort, located approximately 4 miles out in the harbor.  We discovered that there are actually 4 forts located strategically around the harbor.  That was necessary due to the limited range of the cannons back during the Civil War era.  The range at that time was only 1-1.5 miles, and to adequately protect the harbor, it was necessary to build several forts.  The original cannon volleys fired at Ft Sumter which started the Civil War, actually came from one of the forts, and not from the city of Charlotte which many people assume.  Since the tour group was pretty small, the Ranger walked the group around the Fort and provided us with several unusual tidbits relating to the Fort.  

One of the most interesting facts he was able to point out to us was the Confederate Battle Flag which is proudly flown over the Fort.  

The Confederate Army changed from this one which kinda looks like a surrender flag, to the full size Stars and Bars, but neglected to have it officially sanctioned by any government agency.  I guess nothing is ever complete till the paperwork gets signed.  The Fort is an important part of history, and although it was "updated" during WW1 and WW2 and used as a coastal fortification against German U-boats, you should spend the time for a visit if you're in the area. 

There's a small museum inside which displays the Union Flag flown over the Fort during the 34 hours of bombardment.  Quite tattered and torn as you can see.  

There's a nasty ice/sleet/snow storm coming from the west tomorrow afternoon, so we'll be heading south into Florida to stay ahead of it.  We're looking forward to visiting our friends Mark and Cheryl in St Augustine, Fl on Tuesday.  

We're on the Road!

Hello everyone from sunny Hardeeville, S.C.!   We've been on the road for 4 days now working the kinks out of Weezy and she seems to be tolerating the cold extremely well.  The weather is perking up now, although this area is expecting an ice storm tomorrow night.  We'll be out of here long before it hits.  Only 1 mishap so far, and I'll get to that a little later in the story.  The day before we departed, the world paused and joined MaryAnne in celebrating her 25th birthday.  At least that's the way it seemed.  No-one likes to celebrate birthdays more than the Princess and usually it includes a 3-month / 6 month / & 9 month celebration also.  But this year it seemed like the other celebrations were missed.  Fear not, this glorious day was celebrated ALL DAY LONG!  The day started with MAE getting a handmade quilt which was her mother's first venture into the quilting world.  For years Debbie had hoarded all of MAE's tee shirts from all her numerous life events occurring the previous 24 years.  At last she had a reason to get them out of storage and produce something which MAE will always cherish.  It was definitely stitched with lots of memories!

We departed Mooers on Thursday.  The weather was a balmy -13, which was a warm-up from the previous day of -16!!!  Debbie did a wonderful job packing which was no easy task because of the extreme cold.  We had most of our summer clothes packed a week or so earlier but the food and assorted supporting requisitions had to wait till the last day.  We burned a little propane those last few days but so far we haven't discovered anything that we left behind that would be crucial to the success of this journey.  The plan when this journey was being conceived was to travel south the first day into Pennsylvania, and then fill our water tanks before continuing south.  Weather in Pa, I've been told by my daughter-in-law's family, is always quite mild.  The weather is so nice, they even golf year round, so I've been told.  Not to beat a dead horse, but the weather stayed below freezing until day 4 of our journey.  Thursday night we camped in a small RV park near Carlisle, PA.  The water had been shut off.  The temps were well below zero.  So we hunkered down, had a great dinner, turned up the heat, and settled into our first night on the road.

As you can see, both vehicles were covered with a good coating of road salt.  But everything was working fine and in the morning we pushed on in search of warmer weather.

Greensboro, N.C.

 Our goal was to travel down to North Carolina and spend a day with our friends Eddie and Carol in Apex, NC.  A little braking problem arose as we approached the NC border from Virginia, which caused a little delay in our journey.  As we approached the bottom of a 7 mile hill, I noticed that the air pressure wasn't recovering like it should.  Soon low pressure alarms were alerting me, which certainly grabbed Debbie's attention.  But Irish luck always seems to travel with me, and 200 yards up the road I spotted the North Carolina Welcome Center/rest area.  We coasted in with pressure to spare!!!  A mechanic was soon dispatched to render assistance by Good Sam, and we made preparations to have our first visitor.  He soon arrived, looked the situation over, and ended up showing me how not to check air pressure lines.  He removed one of the lines going into the dryer(?) but there was no pressure.  He tapped the line on the ground and behold, a small piece of ice fell out the end of the hose.  Looked like it was going to be my fault for not draining the tanks more frequently in the cold weather at home.  Suddenly...POW!!!  I jumped about a foot.  The neighboring MH owner opened his curtain believing someone had been shot.  I looked down at the mechanic as he slowly rubbed his leg.  Evidently, there was a 2nd piece of ice in that line, and it came out like a shot, catching him mid-thigh.  Next came lots of compressed air!  The brakes were fixed!  The mechanic put everything back together, and soon we were headed down the road.  We made an unscheduled stop at a Good Sam RV Park in Greensboro, but still no water.  Maybe tomorrow.

Apex, N.C.

Saturday morning we woke to another crisp morning.  We though we'd get an early jump, and get down to Apex and spend the day with Eddie and Carol.  But first we needed some coffee, diesel, propane, and a bath for these vehicles.  A few miles out of Greensboro, we stumbled onto a Flying J Travel Plaza that had everything we needed.  We've never been to a truck wash before,  but it worked out extremely well.  Looked like there were a bunch of Santa's elves waiting for us as they opened up these massive doors designed to let semi-tractor trailer rigs enter. Each worker had a washing implement in his hand, and they were busy removing 3 days of road salt before I got the vehicles stopped.  In no time flat, we were on the road with both vehicles looking nice and shiny.  You'd never know they had just come south from the frozen tundra of Mooers!

By 1 PM we were settled into a camping spot at Jordan Lake State Park just outside Apex, N.C.  Jordan Lake is a good size lake.  About the size of the Sacandaga Reservoir in upstate NY.  It has several hundred sites around the lake, but only 1 visitor this day.  But we discovered there a unique law in N.C. when it comes to the operation of their state parks.  They close after dark.  That's right...the Rangers lock the front gate at 6 PM.  They then come back at 8 AM and open it back up.  Carol and Eddie came to our rescue though.  They came over to take us out to dinner and we left the jeep near the front gate.  When we returned later in the evening, we jumped the fence, walked 100 yards to the jeep, and had a lovely night on Jordan Lake.  Eddie and Carol treated us to a lovely dinner in downtown Apex at the Peak City Grill, and we thank them for that. They had a great selection of draft beer which we enjoyed a couple of times! Unfortunately I neglected to bring my camera and didn't get any pictures.  I've got to work on that. Can't wait to meet up with them later in our journey when our paths will cross in Tennessee.  But that will be another story.

Toad ready to go

     The days are getting closer to our planned date of departure, and finally the work has been completed getting the toad ready.  We are going to be towing our 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited behind the MH, and there was a little more work involved than I thought.  I'm going to discuss each of the items I ended up using because by reading other people's blogs, I was able to read about all the pros and cons of all these systems. If someone happens to read this blog and picks up an idea or 2, then I've been successful in pushing the favor forward.  Another great source for everything about RV's has been iRV2.

     I was able to locate a used Blue Ox baseplate from a gentleman in Texas.  I saw his post on iRV2 and after a few phone calls to Texas, we reached an agreeable figure, and he shipped it up to me in NY.  Everything arrived in perfect shape, but being summertime, I procrastinated a little, and didn't make arrangements to have it installed until the fall.  How hard could it be??  It only had a couple of bolts holding it on, and just a little modification to the Jeep and I'd be ready to go.  I failed to realize that getting the front bumper off of a 6 year old Jeep that had seen several winters and road salt, would be a major challenge. My buddy Tom down the road had all the necessary tools and a heated garage, and after a  few hours work, we managed to get everything attached.  But it wasn't really much easier getting the bumper back on!  For you Jeep owners out there, now comes the sticker shock.  We had to take off the plastic cowling under the Jeep, and they are held on by either 6 or 8 PLASTIC screws.  Getting them off chewed them up  a bit, so a few days later I swung by the local Jeep dealership to pick up some new ones.  They only had 2 in stock, but they'd have some more in the next day.  No problem as I was working right down the street from the dealer.  The next day I stopped by, and the salesman tossed me a bag full of brand new PLASTIC screws.  Perfect I thought....till the bill was tallied up. Just short of $50.00.....for 8 PLASTIC screws!!!!  I though the guy was kidding.  He wasn't.  Needless to say, I exited the dealer without those plastic screws.  I'm not sure I need that plastic cowling now anyway.

     After checking out the various taillight configurations in multiple discussion groups on iRV2, I decided on the wiring harness offered by Cool Tech LLC for my 2007 Jeep Wrangler.  Order it online, and the harness arrived a few days later.  Followed the accompanying instructions, and in about 2 hours or so, the Jeep was ready to plug into the Tiffin Allegro Breeze for a light check.  The harness plugged into the left rear taillight on my Jeep, and then came the option of running the harness through the frame to the front, or alongside the frame.  The enclosed plug matched my Blue Ox baseplate, and everything checked out perfectly the first time.

     The final issue was the braking system for the toad.  There are dozens of options available to the consumer, and you can spend as much as you would like.  I went with the Ready Brake Supplemental System which I ordered through Adventure RV.

 

It utilizes a hydraulic system on the slide receiver attached to the tow bar, and uses a cable to pull on the arm of the Jeep's brake pedal.  Fairly simple install for anyone who is a little handy around a vehicle.  The only problem I had was getting the cable through the front bumper of the Jeep.  The plastic piece they provided to guide the cable through the front bumper was not long enough the reach through the cover on the Jeep's front bumper, but using a little ingenuity we were successful in making it work.  

     We survived the Polar Vortex which covered most of the U.S. today.  Those weather people sure like to hype thins up!  Little by little we're moving things out to Weezy as we get ready for our Trip to See America.  

A Rondacker???

     For those of you who have stumbled onto our rambling, and are confused as to what exactly a "Rondacker" might be, let me try and explain.  There are several possible answers to this question, but I'll try and keep it simple.
 
      As far as Debbie and  I are concerned, a "Rondacker" is easily described. It is a summer-time cocktail, only imbibed on those days when it is above 70 degrees.  The ingredients consist of a shot of gin over ice, and lemonade.  Debbie likes to slip in diet lemonade to keep the calorie count to a minimum, and not confuse it with a Tom Collins.  Now, the most discriminating Rondacker prefers to use Bombay Saphire as his gin of choice.

     I was introduced to Bombay Saphire several years ago by my great friend Paul, up on Chateaugay Lake, and he has led me astray on several occasions with this magic elixir over the years.  He prefers tonic with his Bombay, but I believe that's because tonic contains quinine, and we all know quinine was used to treat malaria. And malaria is transmitted through the bite of a mosquito.  And anyone who has visited the Adirondacks knows there are plenty of mosquitoes around in the summer in the Adirondacks.  Debbie and I never believed in Paul's malaria theory, although as of yet, he has not come down with malaria, and adapted the recipe to include lemonade to suit our own taste. Additionally, a true "Rondacker" requires a tiny amount of cherry syrup from a bottle of maraschino cherries to give it a little color, and away you go.  A proper Rondacker needs that special presentation to finish it off, and Debbie was able to make contact with an artisan named Stephanie in Ausable Forks, NY, who created the proper glass tumbler for drinking a Rondacker.

   
 So anyway, that's the long story about how the term "Rondacker" came to be utilized around our camp.  You see, people who live around the Adirondacks in upstate New York are just a little bit different.  They live in a climate where a year is described as "6 months of winter, 4th of July, huntin' season, and 3 months of damn poor sleddin!"  Not much of a summer season up here, which is why we only get into the Rondackers when it's above 70 degrees. When it's 70 or below, our swill of choice is Irish Whiskey in case that question happened to pop into your mind.   Not that many days qualify for Rondackers during July and August in the Adirondacks, and a bottle of Bombay may last more than a week or so.

Above all, don't confuse it with Rachel Ray's "Adirondacker" which is a hamburger recipe she developed to remember her days growing up in the Adirondacks.  There must be a story there somewhere...

If it ever warms up, we'll start getting "Weezy" ready for her trip.  We'll keep you posted.