Travels with Snowbirds 2015. January 2, 2015, Wilmington NC to Pooler GA

---

January 2, 2015, Wilmington NC to Pooler GA

The one about the first day for 2015.

I’m baaaaaaaacccccccckkkkk

Greetings family and friends, and some new readers as well.

I have missed my writing. Not recording last year’s trip left me feeling empty many nights, but I sure did get a lot of crocheting done!! So, my decision for 2015 was to write, just maybe not every night. I will try to record the important and fun stuff, but forget about the boring stuff as many of the things I will be doing are the same old same old, but, new for 2015!!! Mardi Gras!! I will spend all of January and the first week of February cruising around FL seeing friends, getting the RV serviced, going to the RV show, and then 2/8 for 10 days I will be in New Orleans, LA for Mardi Gras. That has been on my bucket list for years. I have been to New Orleans probably 10 times, my recruiting company sent me and co workers to a trade show there every spring. I have eaten at all the finest restaurants, thanks to a great boss’s expense account, gambled at the casino, got drunk on Bourbon Street, rode the paddle boat with clients, eaten PoBoys and grits, and been to Jazz Fest, but never to Mardi Gras!! I am so excited, but more on that as it gets closer!

My 2013 27 foot Class A Winnebago, who I have named Moya (a living starship from the scifi TV show Farscape) has served me well. I have 13000 miles on her with not a problem at all, except for a chip in the windshield, growl.

My HOA allowed me to keep her in the driveway for 2 nights instead of the normal 1, which made it so much easier to pack up, and I had excellent help from the kids, grandkids, and visiting friend John. All I had to do this morning was pack up my toiletries, turn the heat down and be on my way at 7:20.

Probably the most difficult part of this trip is the first 120 miles – driving west to meet up with I95 using the backroads of southeastern NC. It is a pretty ride, just long. I used to think the longest drive in the world was driving I195 across NJ, but I have now replaced that with driving US74 across NC.

I gassed up before I left home. On Wednesday I filled my car at Costco at $2.16/gal. On Thursday I filled the RV at Costco at $2.21/gallon. Should have been the other way around.

It was a pretty uneventful ride all the way until I came to a (literally) screeching halt near Yemassee, SC. It took me over an hour to go 3 miles due to the rubbernecking going on. There was a multiple car accident on southbound I95, with one car flipped over on its roof and another on its side in the ditch in the median. I don’t know enough about the physics of those things to know if they were heading north or south, but the cars were closer to the southbound side. . It was pretty amazing, actually. There were no ambulances, I assume they had left already. One lady had a bandage and sling on her arm. No tow trucks yet. I hate drivers in situations like this, jockeying for position, speeding, yes speeding past me in the breakdown lane, and trying to cut me off. So, I pulled over and covered half that breakdown lane, as did the car behind me, and watched out for rednecks in pickup trucks with gun racks intent on killing me for blocking the lane. You can take the girl out of NJ but you can’t take the NJ out of the girl. The most amazing thing was, I estimate I was backed up for 3 miles while the traffic going north was backed up 11 miles and I know that because I looked at my odometer.

I arrived at my first nights campground – Walmart in Pooler, GA. It started to pour about 3:00. I could have driven another hour, but just decided I would stop. I did 302 miles today and have 311 to go tomorrow. I was the only RV in the lot when I arrived. Now at 6:45 as I write this I am surrounded by HUGE Class As towing bigass trucks. The couple that pulled in next to me came over to say hello. They spent a week in Orlando and are on their way home to the north shore of Lake Marion, SC, a favorite place of mine in years past. He is a retired deputy sheriff, his ‘lady’ has 2 more years to work and then they are going to travel the country! They invited me to join them at Ruby Tuesdays for dinner, I declined as I know Winston would just bark and bark and bark. Nice, though, huh?

I did go into Walmart to buy a few odds and ends (cereal, bananas, V8) and OMG, this was probably the sloppiest, messiest, dirtiest Walmart I have ever been in. It was a disgrace, actually. The employees were in a similar condition. But, what happens when the Walmart is like that??? The customers are also in a similar condition. I just did not know where to look, and found myself laughing out loud several times. There was one couple, late 20s I am going to say, weighed 250 pounds each. Their 5 year old barefoot ?son? sat in the front of their basket sucking on his pacifier. All that is just fine until she opened her mouth and had this squeaky high-pitched voice in a deep Georgia accent. I lost it. Now, mind you, I am dressed in purple sweat pants that have shrunk and are too short, blue polka dot socks, red and white sneakers, and a royal blue sweatshirt that has a big grease stain on my boob. I belong right here at Walmart with the squirrel people. There is some ‘dude’ drag racing his Shelby Mustang up and down the aisles of the parking lot. This place is amazing. I am about 100 yards from whatever street is out front, and I see red and yellow and blue flashing lights, lots of sirens. Uh huh.

It’s good to be back writing, it’s good to be on the road, both are my therapy. I can’t say I will write every day, but I will when something remarkable happens.

Yup, it’s good to be back.



Kat out.

---

Comments

[Kathy Everett]

walmart
really glad you were next to a deputy. Better watch out with the outfit, somebody's going to take a picture of you. Happy trails