South Carolina

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Georgia Nostalgia

I am parked at the Walmart in Newnan Georgia, the state where the trajectory my old life was taking suddenly look a wild detour! Tomorrow, I get to start adding new states to my map! 🙂

The morning was a bit rough. I couldn’t get online (note to self, reboot the phone next time this happens) and with the laptop being nearly dead, I decided to drive to a rest area about an hour and a half away for breakfast. So I took off without even having coffee.

The GPS routed me at a diagonal through secondary roads back to I-85 just ahead of the rest area. This route was a little bit of work first thing in the morning, but nothing too difficult.

I got back on the interstate and drove through Gaffney, which boasts a big peach for a water tower:

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I cheered when I saw the sign announcing the rest area just after and went WTF???!!! that it was closed with no information about how far the next one was. I checked the DOT website last night and there was no mention of a closure!

I drove. Short of stopping in a busy town and looking for a place to stop, this was the only option. I did want to get through Atlanta sooner than later, so I decided to just get some mileage under me.

At Piedmont, I saw a sign for a Pilot Travel Centre, so I took a chance that there would be room to park. Nope, and I barely got out without having to unhook again. I am NEVER going to a Pilot again!!!

I got out of there, stopped at a red light, and saw the most beautiful sight ahead of me: a crumbling shell of a building with an unblocked U-shaped driveway.

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I managed to get online while the coffee was brewing, dealt with my most pressing matters, made a couple of calls (including that I could park here in Newnan), and got under way again.

I passed a rest area at Anderson, shortly after Piedmont (figures), then the Georgia Welcome Center, but I wasn’t ready to stop. Little did I know, there would be no more obvious stops available to me.

I didn't know that Tiger Direct has an actual physical store.

I didn’t know that Tiger Direct has an actual physical store.

Before long, Atlanta was upon me:

First glimpse of Atlanta.

First glimpse of Atlanta.

I’d done my research and knew that driving straight through in the middle lanes was the best course of action. The semis have to use the by-pass, so that means there are no vehicles bigger than an RV driving through downtown.

Traffic was a little thick in spots, but Montreal traffic is never this easy. So I was really glad I didn’t get worked up over crossing Atlanta or lose any sleep over it!

Cruising through downtown Atlanta, the pace and traffic relaxed enough to enjoy the scenery.

Cruising through downtown Atlanta, the pace and traffic relaxed enough to enjoy the scenery.

It’s a bit early to be stopped for the day, but I am knackered! The lot is big and mostly empty, so I’m not taking up valuable parking space. I’ll take this time to clean up the rig a little (don’t ask me how, but my shredder flew across the office and the cats got into the shredded paper and there is now confetti EVERYWHERE), then I might go to Applebee’s for dinner (hey, I can’t remember the last time I went to Applebee’s, so I’m due!).

I also need to figure out where I’m stopping tomorrow. I was thinking of a Walmart in Mobile, but I wouldn’t mind finding a place where I could park for a couple of nights so that I could take a road trip into Florida. I have only most technically been to Florida, so I side trip to Pensacola might be in order.

Then, New Orleans, probably for a week! I’ll be staying at an inexpensive RV park so that I will have the option to take off with the truck to explore the environs and possibly even overnight. I really need a break from my cats. 🙂

The power situation is good so far today. It’s been too cloudy to get a full charge, but the sun has come out and there are a few hours left, so I will be fine tonight. The batteries are at 94% right now and we’re supposed to stay above freezing tonight! YAAAAAY.

My mood is much improved over yesterday. How could it not knowing that tomorrow I will finally see the Gulf of Mexico?

I continue to be amused by the comments I get that my blog is not about travel when, even with a year’s hiatus in Lethbridge, I have covered this much ground in just over four years:

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I’m Adding Contortionist To My Resumé

It is getting really cold out there and the rig is reaching unpleasant levels. Forecasts for the days ahead tell me to expect more of the same tomorrow night near Atlanta, but my first night above freezing in memory once I reach Mobile!

Anyway, it was getting cold and had some frustration to vent. The parking lot here is very well lit, so all but the deepest recesses of my battery bank were visible. I grabbed an LED light with an adjustable lamp, took a deep breath, and squeezed myself in to look at the positive terminals since I knew the negatives, near the door, were as tight as possible.

The acrobatics were worthwhile. It turns out the nut on the fuse that links it to the battery was threaded incorrectly. It was very tight, but wasn’t actually squeezing all the connections together. I worked it loose and then retightened it correctly (I hope no one hear all the québécois swear words I muttered as I tried to do all of this while twisted upside down and inside out and half blind). I them reapplied some conductive gel to all my terminals. Finally, I took a reading with the multimetre: 12.6.

The furnace is now running full blast and I am having one of these!

Photo on 1-7-13 at 9.02 PM

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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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Day Seven

Walterboro is a nice little historic town with an ‘Artisan’s Center’ where local artists exhibit their work for sale. I decided on a later start Friday so I could visit this place which only opened at 10.

While I was really impressed with the craftsmanship and originality of most of the pieces, nothing really caught my fancy except some jewelry I bought for my catsitter as a thank you.

I then took off, determined to make it to the vicinity of Fredericksburg, Virginia, that night.

Even with this in mind, I took it fairly easy all day, stopping often. Somewhere in North Carolina I saw a sign that said “WIGS! Exit 40!” and I eagerly followed them to a fantastic wig outlet where I bought the hair of my dreams for a truly low price (about 4 times less than what I would have paid at a shop here). I regret not picking up some shorter wigs. Doh.

Using my trusty motel guide, I decided to stop in Ashland, just before Fredericksburg, where I stayed in a cruddy but okay Super 8 Motel.

Day Six
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Day Six

Florida is less than two hours from Savannah, so I decided to go home by way of there just to say I’d been to Florida. I’d initially planned to spend the late morning in Jacksonville, but several things derailed this plan, including the cold and wet weather that would have prevented me from going to the beach, and an upcoming unplanned trip to Winnipeg that meant I needed to shorten the trip to save money.

So, I drove to the Florida welcome centre:

where I called Winnipeg to schedule my interview, and then I headed back north on a slower road.

I had initially wanted to get home in four or five days using these slower roads, but now that wasn’t an option. I needed to get home much more quickly. So, I eventually returned to I-95 and then shot north past Savannah, hoping to make it to North Carolina that night. But by the time I crossed into South Carolina, it was already late afternoon and I was beat. I got the motel guide and decided to make Florence my destination for the night. I made it to Walterboro, a 100 miles shy of Florence.

Other than going to Florida, and calling Winnipeg from Florida, there was nothing particularly memorable about this day.