Our Travel Blog

I really can’t keep up with the weather, we climbed up to the mid 60’s today and by by mid  afternoon it was very pleasant sitting out in the sun.

Thursday, as usual, is shopping day so we went to the local supermarket this morning. The only problem with shopping is the fact that once we put all the goodies in the fridge and freezer they are both absolutely full for the next couple of days. Oh the hardships of camping with a small fridge!

After lunch we managed our longest walk yet at around 1.4 miles. At least walking up and down all the lanes in the park we get to see all the big RV’s and where they come from. There is a reasonable spread of states and provinces represented here. On the Canadian front we have rigs from BC, ON, NB and NS.

Following the walk we sat around outside in the warmth, content as usual in doing very little!

The furnace came back to life last night. A cold front went through which gave us a little rain and a lot of wind. Wake up temperature was 45°F with a high of 54°F. The sky was clear and sunny, but the main factor was the wind, it was gusting above 40mph / 65 kph for most of the day, which puts it well into gale force territory.

Figuring it was too cold to wax, polish or walk I decided the truck needed some TLC (it kept sending me messages saying “Change Engine Oil”), so I headed off to the local mechanics to get an oil and filter change. Now that the Canadian and US dollars are fairly close in value, it is obvious that a number of items are cheaper down here. The oil change would have cost  $110 at home, it was $79 here. Before any one has a heart attack over $100 oil changes, the truck tales 2.5 gallons (11 litres) of oil!

The other thing I did while I was out was to sort out storage for the trailer. We have decided to leave the trailer down here rather than drag it back up north with us. This came about after a lot of discussion and research on our planned Alaska trip next year. In the end, we decide we will not take the trailer up to Alaska; however we will still go there. A couple of major factors featured in the decision. As usual money reared its ugly head, and a little calculating showed that for the price of the diesel fuel alone that would be needed for the trip we could:

1. Fly to Vancouver
2. Take a cruise to Alaska
3. Rent a Car for 2 weeks in Alaska
4. Fly back to Ottawa

As we had always wanted to do the cruise, this caught our attention. Once we got talking about the trip, neither of us were overly keen on the long drive involved to get there (about 12 days straight driving). We’d also heard from a number of people that the roads weren’t the best, and in many places were gravel which could be pretty taxing on the truck, trailer and driver. So, the decision was made.

Woke up to 65°F temperatures, things are looking up. We reached 80°F by mid afternoon, unfortunately the forecast suggests it back to the mid 50’s tomorrow. Much of the morning was spent trying to sort out an odd but not too pleasant problem. In a nutshell gas was building up in the black water tank and only vented when the toilet was flushed (if I had to suffer fixing this, you can suffer by reading it!). Everything else was working properly so I figured the problem had to be a blocked vent pipe. Unfortunately there is no access to the vent pipe other than from the roof, so up I went armed with a hosepipe and pointed it down the pipe, and turned on the water. After many such flushings success was indicated by the vent pipe venting.  I still don’t know how the pipe got blocked because I am sure it must enter at the top of the tank, another of life’s little mysteries.

Lyn  went off to her craft group in the afternoon, and I got back to waxing and polishing the trailer, only two more sessions required and it should be finished. I took advantage of the warm weather by sitting outside trying to complete one of the more difficult Sudoku puzzles yet. The puzzle is still winning.

We celebrated the return of the warm weather with a barbecue this evening.

We woke up to silence, there was no furnace running. The outside air was 47°F and indoors was a toasty 67°F. Yesterday we decided that, regardless of the weather we were going to get out today. The clear blue skies and warmer temperatures made this a pleasure. By mid-afternoon we were up to 61°F.

We decided to head north to the town of Waycross, about 50 miles from here. The reason for doing so was that it was the only major town in the local area that we hadn’t been to. We headed out on a 4 lane divided highway, which is pretty much the norm around here, it doesn’t seem to matter that only about 10 vehicles were seen in the first 45 minutes, a 4 lane road was required! For the most part the trip was pretty boring, towns were few and far between and the whole area was flat and given over to forestry.

Closer to Waycroft the land was flat and low-lying and the river has burst it’s banks causing quite deep flooding for a couple of miles either side of the banks.

Once we arrived in Waycross we parked the car and went walking in search of lunch. I suspect the town got its name as it is at the crossroads of a number of State highways and a  couple of railway lines. In fact it is home to a very large computerised rail switching yard, but unfortunately we couldn’t get close enough to see it in action.

We found a nice little cafe on the main street of the old town where we had an excellent  lunch. We then wandered around the old town in an effort to rid some of the recently acquired calories. Believe it or not, the old town reminded of some of the towns we visited in New Zealand. Below are some of the buildings.

Waycross Bank

City Hall Waycross

Ceramic Mural

Ceramic Mural Close-Up

Building Mural

After wandering around the old town, we went off to see if we could see the rail yards in action, but there was no way we could get near to them.

Rather than retrace our route back, we headed further to the east before turning south, this took us out of the forestry area and through the start of some farmland. Again on the way back there were signs of flooding from last week’s rains. If ever the ice caps ever decide to melt, I am sure that large hunks of Georgia will quickly disappear under water.

Well the cold snap is still snapping. Today’s high managed to scrape up to 6°C, and now it is down to ZERO. So much for global-warming, I think I believe more in the term climate change.

We braved a walk over to the office so Lyn could get some change for the laundry, and that was the highlight of the day.

There’s not much else to write other than to say happy ?0^th  birthday to Barbara. Have a great day.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Another cold snap on its way through. High today was just about 10°C, with below zero temperatures forecast for tonight and tomorrow night.

We put off our walk until the afternoon in the hope that the temperature would warm up a little. While Lyn did some house cleaning inside, I went out and worked up a sweat waxing and polishing the back of the trailer, only one side left now!

After lunch we headed out for the walk; walking one way the sun was really warm….. very pleasant. Walking the other way into wind, not so.

After getting back and sitting in the trailer for a couple of hours restlessness set in. I decided to go outside and do a simple job – replace the leaky water coupling on the city water hose into the trailer. This was a mistake for many reasons, first and foremost was the fact I was on the windswept side of the trailer. The connector was awkward to reach and I could not get any tools in to unscrew it, so I tool the whole connection panel out to work on it inside where it was much warmer. Even with the whole panel out I could not unscrew the offending part, I had one adjustable pipe wrench, but needed a second to get a firm grip. By now there was no way I could put it all back together and not flood the place, so off to the hardware store for the wrench. Hardware store was closed, not looking good, no wrench = no water. Next stop the supermarket, sometimes they have a small tool section, but not this one. Last chance stop was the dollar store, after a bit of hunting I found what I was looking for.

Back to the trailer, but even with two sets of wrenches it was still difficult to separate the connector, but finally it gave in. I connected the new piece in and quickly connected the hose up and it worked. Tomorrow I’ll put it all back together “properly”

A rude awakening this morning as the outside temperature was around 5°C, it barely made it into double digits by mid afternoon.

After breakfast we headed out for the daily walk and managed to increase the distance to 1¼ miles today, a 2 mile  walk seems a reasonable goal to meet before we leave! The park is really filling up again prior to the weekend, not sure whether there is something on sports wise or whether it is just the week-end crowds invading.

After lunch we headed out to visit the historical area of Brunswick, although there are signs to point you in the right direction, it is still not the easiest of places to find. We eventually found a number of the old large houses, but today they are mixed in with small bungalows, and in some case almost shacks in the less salubrious areas of the town. Here are some of the better kept houses

Brunswick House

Brunswick House

Brunswick House

We then wen down to the water front where there are some modern condo’s and a fishing wharf, but a cool breeze off the water cut short any thoughts of walking along the river.

We had a Skype session with Paul. Amanda and Noah before dinner. It seems Noah is quite used to this way of communicating with his grandparents. Evidently he now recognises the Skype ringtone on the computer and looks at the screen waiting for us to appear.

Despite the cooler temperature we managed our 3rd BBQ in a row tonight. Now the week-end is here we can look forward to a couple of days relaxation.

This is becoming quite acceptable; again we awoke to clear blue skies and temperatures in the lower 60’s

Today we begin our fourth week here, doesn’t time fly when you don’t have to clear snow? Being Thursday means it’s grocery shopping day so we headed out to our local supermarket to stock up. We also dropped off at the local hardware store to buy a piece for the trailer. The trailer suffered a little wind damage yesterday; one of the clips that holds open one of the outside storage compartment doors was damaged when a gust of wind caught the door.

While Lyn was packing away the groceries I went and replaced the door clip, in the process of doing this I noticed a wet area under the trailer, this had the potential to be a little more serious than a broken door clip. Luckily the problem was caused by a worn quick connect hose pipe fitting that brings city water into the trailer. A new fitting should cure that.

After lunch Lyn headed out for some solo craft shopping, so I alternated between sitting in the sun with the Sudoku puzzle and waxing and polishing some more of the trailer.

This evening we treated our selves to a meal out at one of the local steak houses.

Another reasonable day, dry and mild. Wake up temperature was in the mid 50’s climbing to the low 60’s later on.

The morning was spent lazing around as usual, then after lunch we headed out to Jekyll Island again. This time we planned to visit the old historic district and the Sea Turtle Sanctuary. As you may remember from our last trip here, Jekyll Island was the play ground of the rich and famous at the turn of the 20th century. The centre of the activities was the Jekyll Island Club, now an hotel where one must still wear “whites” to play croquet.

If the men wished to escape from their wives there was the men only rooms across the road, this building was home to six apartments.

The First Man Cave?

There are a number of smaller cottages in the area for those families that wanted a little more independence!

The whole area is very well treed with the trademark Spanish moss hanging from the branches.

Spanish Moss on Trees

Last time we were here there was a Christmas market set up in the grounds.

We had been to the Turtle sanctuary before, but we both wanted to go back there. It is set up to treat and where possible, release injured turtles back into their natural habitat, as well as displaying a lot of information on turtles and the aims of the sanctuary, it is also possible to see a number of the turtles in their recovery tanks.

Back at the trailer the weather was remained good enough to have our second barbecue in a row!

After day and night of torrential rain we got up, and there was more rain! The rain finally stopped mid morning and blue skies and warm temperatures returned. We had between 3.5 to 4″ of rain ( for you Northerners that’s about a 90cm snowfall!).

First order of business was to empty and flush out the septic tank, the panel showed it as being full yesterday, but it was deemed too wet to go outside and do anything about it. Previous experience has shown there is normally another 24 hours of available flushing once the full light comes on!  It all worked out OK.

We then escaped the trailer and went for our walk once the rain had stopped, and despite the downpour, the roads had dried up within the hour and no sign of flooding, although the grass was pretty sodden.

Lyn headed out to “her” craft group, there were two new members today so she was pretty happy. Later in the afternoon I went over to the office to pick up my new toys. Three 40lb boxes later I was back at the trailer unpacking and re-arranging the contents so that they could be stored out of the way for the next few weeks.

The day stayed dry so it was back to barbecuing for the evening meal.