Advertisement
Published: January 4th 2013
Thursday January 3, 2013
Wilmington, NC, to Myrtle Beach Travel Park
Hello, returnees, and welcome newcomers.
For the newbies, this is a diary of my annual Snowbird RV trip. I started this winter trip while I was still living in NJ and needed to escape the cold, snow, and ice. That first year (2008), I was 'out' six weeks, and knew right away that wasn't long enough, because it was still cold in NJ when I returned in early March and I had so much fun I didn't want to come home. Over the years, I stayed out as long as 12 weeks. BUT, now that I live in the south, and it gets warmer earlier.......we will just have to see what develops for 2013 and how the budget holds up Right now my plan is to be home no later than March 7. I love writing, and sharing my often funny yet sometimes boring adventures. I look for the unusual and funny things I see along the roads, and try to share with you the wonderful, strange, bizarre things I see and people I meet along the way.
For my wonderful supporting returnees, I will try to keep it fresh and new, I don't want you to get bored.
Here goes 2013!!!
I can't park my RV anywhere at my NC home. That presents logistics problems getting ready for this trip. Thank goodness for son Tim who let me park it at his house overnight, then helped me relocate it to my house during the day, and this went on for a week. He also helped me do some minor maintenance and overall get it ready. I am not as young as I was, and lifting heavy things is now almost impossible. Winston was incorrigible during this week. All he wanted to do was sit in the RV; I guess he thought if he sat in it I couldn't leave without him. This morning he was like a madman, very high spirited and nervous, and I wanted to give him a Valium.
I had 2 things to do this morning; load the refrig/freezer, and load my bike. MY BIKE. Did you catch that? My 3 wonderful kids gave me a 12 speed collapsible bike for Christmas. It has 20 inch wheels, and is made in such a way that it feels and pedals like a bigger bike. But the big plus-it is collapsible. Over the years I have wanted a bike for camping on many occasions, but I have no way to carry it. Yes I could put a hitch on the back, yes I could hang it off my ladder, but those all require me heavy lifting above my shoulders, and I just can't do that anymore. My thoughts gravitated towards a small collapsible bike I could stow on my platform. I think the kids were tired of hearing me moan about not having a bike, and they came thru for me, and forced me to make the decision I had long been putting off.
The groceries loaded easily in the refrigerator, but I noted the propane option to cool it was not working, and I attributed it to being on a slight hill. The freezer and refrigerator are very full!!! I can go for a week without getting hungry.
I am still clumsy collapsing the bicycle, the fittings are tight and hard to open; I don't know where to grab it (the last thing I threw in the tool box was my work gloves to hopefully save some hand/nail injuries. Camping World sells a collapsible bike carrying case, first stop on my list for today. As it was raining this morning I didn't want to strap it unprotected to the back of my rig. I collapsed and hoisted it into the rig and got it up on to the couch/bed with a lot of tugging and cursing, but I did it all by myself. I am woman hear me roar!
On the road at 10:15, first stop the local BP station. Not my favorite place to buy gas, I still have ill will towards BP, but they are the only station around that sells gas with no ethanol additive. $3.75/gallon, ouch, but I know how much better my gas mileage will be and figured it would work itself out, and be good for the engine. The propane to run the cool cycle of my refrigerator never ignited. I could hear it getting to the motor, I could smell it, but it never lit, and shut itself off. Frak.
It rained the entire way. Not a great start to my trip, I hope it doesn’t continue!!! Temperature was about 55 degrees all day, but rainy.
I made it to Camping World in Myrtle Beach by noon, first stop the service desk where I explained my problem to Robin. She suggested I plug the RV in to see if the electric portion worked and directed me to one of their overnight parking spaces. I was very proud of myself, backing into this thing in the pouring rain; it was on an angle with lots of trees. I pulled out my electric land line, and the blasted electric pole only had connection for 50 amp. I am 30 amp and don’t have a 30 to 50 converter. AND, did it smell. I was walking in mud and it smelled like sewer. I checked the adjacent site and it was 30 amp. Pull out, then pulled into the new one, even narrower than #1 with more trees, if that’s possible, and smelled even worse. Almost gagging bad. I think I was on top of their septic leeching field! I plugged in and the refrigerator worked. Back to the service desk, and at least one lucky thing happened, they had a 1:00 appointment, and could look at my rig at 2:00. So, I went to Smellyville and made some lunch. Hard boiled eggs. More smell. I noticed that this CWorld was pet friendly, so I put Winston on his leash, made sure he relieved himself and went shopping. I bought a carrying bag for the bike; a new outdoor mat, 9x12, black and tan; a new rear view window lens (this is clear plastic which attaches to my rear window and magically allows me to almost see the ground right behind me. My old one got moldy over summer storage, I didn’t want to look at the ugly green); a ladder rack to hold my 2 outdoor chairs; and a membership to Passport America which gives 50% discount on numerous nationwide and international campgrounds. I need to use it 3 times to make it cost effective.
Back to my rig and started to clean a little bit, then couldn’t stand the smell any longer and as I was unplugging to move to an unfragrant area I got the phone call to bring my rig into the shop for examination.
The mechanic had such a thick accent I almost couldn’t understand him. After his inspection, he determined that the ‘mother board’ (yeah right, motherboard on a 1996 refrigerator) was broke. It knew the propane was flowing, it ignited it, but didn’t recognize that it was lit, so shut down. $270 for part, if they could get it, $47 installation fee. If they could get it???? I should also get the burner replaced, but no one makes this particular burner any more. 2 weeks to get the motherboard, if they could get it. So, since I wasn’t having the work done, they charged me $67 for the diagnosis thank you very much, and I was on my way. I can live without the propane as long as I plug in every night to re cool the unit. If things get really bad, I can turn on my generator to run the refrigerator. I really don’t plan on being without electricity on this trip, but it would be nice to have the propane backup. New refrigerator? Over $1000. Time for a new RV.
Back on my favorite road, US 17 to Myrtle Beach Travel Park in North Myrtle Beach. This is one of my most favorite campgrounds, and I really don’t know why. There are almost 2000 campsites here, including sites for RVs and trailers, as well as trailers and other more permanent structures you can rent. It fronts the ocean. It must be hell here in the summer, and I can’t imagine staying here then, so many kids, campsites so close together…but in the winter it is inhabited by 200 snowbirds from the northeast, Michigan and Canada. I suspect they think 55 is warm! The area is rich in shopping and entertainment, the campground is oceanfront, and no kids. They offer a good monthly rate on a 6 month contract, and there are many here that do that.
I plugged in, no electricity on this pole. Fortunately one of the employees was driving his big ass Ford pickup truck around and helped me…..I didn’t turn on the proper plug on the pole. I hate being a girl sometimes. 5 plugs on the pole, 5 switches. I flipped the wrong one.
I installed the window lens. Nice. No mold.
I put the bike in the bag. What nice quality the bag is!!!! The bike went into it easily, and the handles made it easy to get down the stairs, and now is resting up against the side of the rig, underneath the exhaust for the refrigerator, which is running nicely on electric.
What was I thinking when I bought this rug. My last one wore out, and I was going to throw it out when I got home, but it flew off my RV somewhere on the last leg of my trip, so I needed a new one. I bought 9x12. It is monstrous! I thought it was the same size as the old one I had. It is too big for the campsite I am in. I had to fold it to make it work!!!! It will be wonderful in some of the campgrounds I will be in; I guess my old one was 6x9. This will be another large thing I have to fold up and stow. Laugh.
Dinner was cream of mushroom soup and a pumpernickel bagel and 2 Christmas cookies. Temperature now 46 degrees and should hold at that all night. Winston finally settled down and is sleeping on his bed.
I will stay here tonight and tomorrow night then travel on to meet Ginnie and continue our trip. More on her as the days progress, but we will be travelling together until Feb 3. Kathy will join us for a few weeks towards the end of January.
Glad to be back.
Kat out
Advertisement
Tot: 0.146s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0604s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Maureen Kelly
non-member comment
re; January 3rd.
I am pretty sure I know exactly where you are. It is a such a great spot. Hope things warm up for you. It has been cool here and we are expecting rain tomorrow. Can't wait to see this bicycle of yours.