We started out bright. and early on our trip north.  We had a quick breakfast  and headed north.  We had only gone 2 miles when we ran into a six miles stretch of 15 MPH speed travel due to construction.  Signs of things to come.  We saw a bus on the side of the road with a flat.  When we stopped for lunch the bus pulled next to us at the Flying J fuel station.  He had some damage (minor) from the blow out.  The driver told me he has had three blow outs on his fifth wheel in the last three years.

We are driving a lot more miles than we want to today – but we need to get from Florida to Indiana to North Carolina by April 1  –  and in that order!

We were cruising along at 3:30 on I-85 about 40 miles south of Atlanta and BAM, the front left tire on the fifth wheel blew!  Now the tire is a good tire so I figure it must have been something on the road.  We were very lucky as there was a sizable area to pull over on the right side.  Of course I was passing a slow guy (55 MPH) and was in the left lane.  We started the slow process of calling the extended warranty folks and it looked like 2+ hours of wait.  I got on the phone (it was 5:01 PM  by now) and 2 referrals later we found a small family owned outfit that does road service.  Our guy showed up at 5:30, and had the tire on by 6:00.  We had minor body damage which I will repair later.

                                      8-year-old spare mounted on trailer.

                         That is one messed up tire, but the tread is still top rate.

By the time we hit Atlanta slow traffic, we didn’t get north of the city until 7:15 PM, we planned on parking in the Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club lot in Gainesville, GA, get something to eat, and do some serious shopping.  Guess what – NO RVS ALLOWED signs everywhere!  This isn’t a national Wal-Mart policy, so it must be something local.  They lost our business for food, groceries, and gifts!

I was running very low on fuel and it was dark by now, we drove east a little and saw a very big lot shared by Goodwill and Rent-A-Center.  Miss Peggy went up to the Rent-A-Center store and begged help from the manager.  He called the local police and told them he okayed us to spend the night. It always pays to be married to a good-looking Redhead!  We walked to KFC for supper at 9 PM, we unhooked, and Miss Peggy guarded our home while I went for fuel.  After fueling we settled in for the night with no slides out and 31 degrees outside.

We started out early, got a breakfast sandwich with a walk to Burger King and hit the road.  We finally pulled into Franklin RV Park  at 10:30 AM.  It took us 1 hour to get into the tight site for the host, but we did it.  We arrived at Enterprise Rental Car 15 minutes before they closed and our car was still out on rental!  All worked out okay.  We went to lunch, grocery shopping, and to K-Mart (still mad at Wal-Mart).  Back at the RV Park we moved the fifth wheel over about 14 inches to the left and started to settled in.  Miss Peggy went to do laundry.  BTW it will be 17 tonight, and there was snow on the ground when we opened the gate at the RV park!  So we had to drain the RV of all water before bed tonight.  (and we were in Florida yesterday???)

                                         The old sailor is ready for business.

                                         Hung out the “Camp Host” sign.

Yes the back of the trailer is about five feet off the ground – welcome to the mountains.

This will be our home until November 15.  We are getting up early in the morning (before the sun is up) and off to Indiana.  When we get back I will be shopping for a tire replacement amoung other things.  The RV park will open up the day we get back.  It looks great, but there still is lots of work to do.

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