We Planned to Slow Down!

I’m not sure we succeeded but that’s part of the adventure! We started the year back at Sanctuary RV then popped up to central Florida to meet our South Dakotan friends. Then it was back for some springs, then over to the Space Coast and then back to the Sports Coast for more mountain biking. We decided to meet my mother in New Orleans so we headed north and stopped at the Gulf Islands National Seashore in Pensacola in time for the Federal Government shutdown. We thought we could stay the night in nearby parking lot but despite no signs prohibiting it, law enforcement kicked us out. We ended up at a Walmart where I am interviewed by the local TV station and later that day I win a $100 gift card from Publix. That’s a win! We did our time in New Orleans and then doubled back east, where our stop near Montgomery, AL is punctuated by an RV fire (not ours and no one was hurt). We landed near Atlanta in time for the an eclipse of the super, blue, blood moon. Meegan and I got up really early to hike up the mountain to witness the eclipse and take photos. It was well below freezing up there. Oh and later that day, I flew back to Cayman. And this was just January!

February started out with the same cadence. We headed to Chattanooga and then found out that I had family traveling from Europe to Fort Lauderdale. So we drove south to meet them and also see my mother again. While there, we learned that some Cayman friends were in town as well. We last visited them last fall in upstate New York! Then it is back over to the Florida Gulf Coast and then back up to Stone Mountain and Atlanta where we finally catch up with a university friend from Paris. Then is back to Chattanooga and the same campground! It was fun to see the winter to spring transition in both Atlanta and Chattanooga. But wait there’s more! In preparation for Alaska, we had coordinated our satellite Internet installation with the Mothership. Alas, I had to fly back to Cayman so Tanja managed that process and I attended remotely. I returned to Ohio with the installation complete but found a failed part!

Now for March! Our Cayman/Toronto friends were at the World Equestrian Center, just down the road from the Mothership so naturally we visited them. Actually we surprised them at a nearby restaurant. After spending time with them, we headed towards north Texas to meet friends and ended up getting stuck in Paris, TX for a few days and with a broken power convertor. We had shore power but no way to power the DC systems like the fridge or thermostat. We arranged with Airstream of DFW to replace our convertor but to keep things going until then, we took our batteries to a local auto parts store for charging. Would you believe our luck to have found that they had a broken charger and didn’t know it?! With the delays in Paris, we were unable to visit our friends in north Texas but they were very kind to drive down and meet us at a Cracker Barrel where they also delivered the replacement satellite Internet part – the elevation sensor for the dish. We then headed down to the Austin area where we were reunited with 13roads at a Harvest Host. We spent a very enjoyable time in Austin and even caught the spring bloom of Bluebonnets on our way back east to see my family in north Houston.

Phew! That was a busy three months.