Charlotte

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Not the Most Fun Afternoon On the Road

It was steady going into Charlotte this afternoon. I was due for fuel so I started looking for some about 30, 45 minutes before I reached the city. I got off at an exit that promised about a half dozen gas stations, but they were all RV unfriendly, so I circled through town and got back on the interstate.

A sign for a Pilot travel stop was a welcome sight and I was quite surprised to find a dinky little gas station with most definitely no room for RVs. Oh, but there was a truck entrance thataway. I went into that entrance and all the pumps were marked diesel only. Oh. I tried to swing around and encountered… a dead end. Where I was blocking about five truck fueling lanes.

Many of these drivers had seen me come in and had plenty of time to tell me to stop and get around. Or a couple could have backed up to let me get through their lanes the wrong way. Nobody did. Thankfully, I was in a straight line so I could unhook… to the tune of a dozen of truckers honking their horns. What a bunch of assholes! I managed to get unhooked, got the truck out of the way, backed the motorhome out of there, and found a spot where I could hook up again. Needless to say, Pilot did not get my business. Painted arrows on the ground are all that would have been needed.

Thanks to this delay, I hit Charlotte at the start of rush hour with a stalled vehicle in the fast lane. So it was stop and go through most of the city. Not difficult, just slow.

I saw a sign for a Love’s fueling station just before my exit and decide to try them. Fuel in North Carolina had been about $3.35 and I fueled in South Carolina for $3.05!!! So maybe the Pilot fiasco wasn’t so bad after all.

I’m now parked at the Walmart in Rock Hill, SC… where I have no power. At the batteries, I am registering 12.6V, so they are charging fine, but there is a drop to a mere 9.5V between them and the fuse/shunt. Everything’s tight, the cables are short and #1 gauge. In short, it should all be working fine. I am seriously sick of this s***.  Anyway, the fridge is running and that’s all I need for tonight. It supposed to get cold again, but I’ve had cold furnaceless nights and mornings before and I will survive. I’m just irked that I’ve spent thousands of dollars to not be in this situation again and am. A professional electrical person will be in order before I leave New Orleans. And if I’m going to pay that kind of money, then I am going to seriously consider having the stupid battery bank relocated to a place where I can actually get at it without twisting myself into a pretzel.

Yes, I’m cranky. 🙂

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A Vision Coming To Pass

I’m still planning to leave Hampton Roads tomorrow even though the weather isn’t going to be super great. I’m finishing up a couple of projects today and will be doing laundry this afternoon. I’ve got maybe 15 minutes of packing to do in here, if that.

Tomorrow, I need to put the propane tank in the truck, fill the fresh water tank, unplug, and back out of here without impeding traffic too badly. That’s really going to be the hardest part since traffic here is crazy. My friend is going to stand in the road and give me the all clear signal and then I need to be quick and decisive. Next time I come, I am definitely going to arrive later in the day and back in.

I’m looking forward to getting to a drier climate. It has been mostly sunny here, but still quite humid and I’m seeing a little bit of mould starting in the cab along the window frames and the loft windows have been condensating really badly.

I took the giant sheet of styrofoam and cut it down to fit snugly inside the big window and the passenger side window against which my pillow rest with the hope that that will cut down on some of the condensation. Plus, it gives me a bit of a barrier between the wall and my head and means not waking up with soggy pillows in the morning.

While I plan to set off at a leisurely place, I am going to be choosy about the places I will be exploring in the next few weeks. It would be tempting to stop to visit Charlotte and Atlanta for a day, for example, but those cities just don’t interest me.

I learned during my month in Scotland that you really can’t see everything and if you try to, you could end up seeing things you would have gladly missed (glaring at you Aviemore) and missing things on your list (Aberdeen). So I’ve got a pretty good idea of the route I’ll be taking to the Texas gulf coast and have decided that I probably won’t be doing more than one night in a place until I get to the New Orleans area, and there I might spend a few days and do road trips. New Orleans! Finally!

I already know where I’ll be landing near New Orleans as well as in Texas and have a good idea of where I’ll be overnighting in between. I’m starting to find that a more structured route plan is better than my old method of setting off and seeing where the day will take me. I can make educated choices about where to overnight and get an idea of the sights I might want to see along the way.

Tomorrow, my RVing life as I first dreamed of it is finally going to start, nearly four and a half years after I conceived it. I’ve kept a quote on my desktop all this time and today rather than inspiring me, it makes me want to whoop at the top of my lungs!

Those kinds of dreams cannot be found, brave [one]. You have to build them. And I promise you, your hands are still strong and there is plenty of time.