So, I have never been big on "traveling", but back in Feb. 2004 I got a call from a friend that I haven't seen or talked to in years. He had just retired on disabilty and wanted to catch up with friends and family (gees, that sounds like a cell phone ad!) I was getting "downsized" (read as: forced retirement)and when he invited me to visit him in Maryland and offered a plane ticket I thought, "why not". When I arrived he showed me his Camper that fits onto the back of his pickup truck. I can't remember if we planned to all pile into the camper then, for the Big Trip as I now call it, but I do remember that the camper had a formica table top with a map of the USA on it and we marked the spots of places to go on it.
After flying back to Florida I kind of thought of the plan as a "someday" thing and in the very back of my mind it went. I settled in to ponder what next and deal with the bummer of being "retired".
Then in August '04 Bob called and said, "I rented a house at the Outer Banks, NC in September, I'll drive down and you drive up then I want to go up to Maine to visit friends there I want you to meet them and see the neat place they have." Oh boy, after laying around in a funk for months now I've got to figure out a trip up the Eastern shore in two weeks! Now, let's see how my girlfriend reacts to this idea...
Four Hurricanes, one RV
September 16, 2004
Well, She didn’t object! She said, “her family RV’d all the time, but she never got to go and She missed the out on the fun, so let’s do it”! I thought maybe we can borrow theirs, we asked; answer: nope, but they’d sell it to us. The asking price was way too high. So I checked on rentals, too high again. Ok, eBay, internet…found some Class C’s under $5000.00, wow that sounds good!
Well, we headed off with printouts in hand to check them out. I know what you’re thinking, “he’s in for a surprise”, you are right! The first one needed months of fix up, but ran ok, $3000.00. It just made me worry about breaking down on the road. I passed on that one. Ok, now we know what 3k gets you. Next! Lake City, FL, here we come.
We headed to the RV dealer in Lake City. They had a Class C Rockwood for 3k that might do it. Meanwhile, as we arrived, the 2004 Florida Hurricanes were coming.
When we got to the Dealer the Salesman said, “oh we sold that one months ago”! Arrrggggh, well I said, do you have anything in the price range? He showed a small Class A that didn’t appeal to us, so we left. Since it was late, we decided to go eat and get a motel room for the night.
The next morning we were some what discouraged, but we headed to the local library for internet access to try again. We found some prospects at a place in Tampa. Since all we had to do is drive down I-75 to get there it sounded ok. This time we called first and they confirmed the they had the RVs. The only problem was they were starting to have their employees drive RVs out of Florida to avoid the storm and would be closing shop early. We had time to get there, but I wondered if it was worth it to drive into the “Danger Zone”. We decided to take a second look at the Class A.
When we got to the Dealer the first salesman wasn’t available so a different fellow showed us the Class A again. As we were thinking I guess this will have to do. We mentioned to him our trip plan, (with just days to hit the road) He said, “you don’t want this one, come look at the Class C we took in trade yesterday”! He showed us a 1996 23ft Jayco Eagle with a Ford E350 chassis. Perfect! We thought, “how much”, he said, “$22,000.00 it’s a good price, this unit got extras all over it, and will get you to Maine and back with no problems”.
This is the point where a person starts to justify a decision. I thought, “well we could buy it then sell it after the trip and spend less than a rental”. We got the price down to 20k and boom. Phase one complete!
So she drove the MiniVan in front and I drove the RV behind her to Jacksonville…
Phase two: Pack the RV for a 4 week trip. Here’s the scene: two people that know zero about RVing loading for a one month trip. Result: a RV with 90 percent unneeded cargo! We thought we needed it all. We didn’t even think about space to move around or the fact that we were going to add a friend and his Dog! We learned by the School of Hard “RV” Knocks!
When I went over the plan/itinerary with my friend and he told me he’s bringing his ATV and Motorcycles on his trailer. As we talked I remarked about how I wanted a motorcycle someday, he said, “there’s plenty on eBay”.
The next thing I know I bought a Kawasaki KZ450 LTD for $300.00 on eBay. Great deal I thought. Only, it’s in Ohio! Ok, Now we are going to “swing by” and pick it up on the trip. You might be getting the Idea why I refer to this as the “Big Trip”, it got bigger as we went!
Let’s see: OBX,NC, Fredericksburg, VA, Beltsville, MD, Warren, Maine, McDonald, Ohio and back to Jax, FL
TIMELINE:
Hurricane Charley came ashore Aug. 13, 2004 Landfall at Punta Gorda, FL
Hurricane Frances: Sept. 5th (with gusting winds felt as early as the evening of Sept. 3), Landfall at Sewall's Point, FLSeptember 15th arrived in Lake City, FL
September 16th Bought RV in Lake City, FLHurricane Ivan Sept. 16, Landfall at Gulf Shores, Ala. Eastern edge of the storm it the Florida Panhandle, causing tornadoes before the eye hit.
September 16th Arrived back in Jacksonville, FLSeptember 17th Packed RV for TripSeptember 18th Departed for OBX, NC
Hurricane Jeanne Sept. 25, Landfall at the south end of Hutchinson Island, FL
If you want more info on the 2004 Florida Hurricanes click here.
We’re on the Road, now what…
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Alive and Drivin’, I-95
September 18, 2004We’re driving North on I-95 and the first thing we notice is that the Southbound car traffic is much lighter than usual. The truck traffic is heavy. Tree Doctors, Fire Trucks, EMT vehicles, in every configuration from dozens of Cities on the U.S. East Coast are headed to Florida. We think “will the house be there when we get back?” I guess the neighbors, who were digging in as we left will call us if something goes bad (good thing there’s cell phones).
So far the Ford RV chassis is driving like a dream. We’re toolin’ along on cruise control. We are excited to be on our adventure! One of the things we “packed” was our Manx cat Squeeker, he’s seems to be settling to the RV and making himself at home. We’re all chillin’.
Then, My buddy calls the cell phone, he’s headed south on I-95 and except for Maryland and DC traffic he’s doing fine. We compare locations, it looks like he’s closer to OBX than we are and will get there first.
Twenty minutes go by, the phone rings, location update. Another twenty minutes go by, the phone rings again, location update again, observations and idle chatter, it’s kinda boring driving for miles with just your Dog for company. This continues for the duration of the drive to OBX, but what I didn’t think of was the cell phone bill to come with roaming and over minutes charges. More RV learning for the Newbie, (get a mobile to mobile or family plan when RVing).
It seems that it’s taking forever to get there. We are on the country roads of North Carolina when my Buddy calls to say ,”he’s in OBX and where are we?”. Still on US-64 at least we’re in North Carolina! It’s slow going on this “country” road. We finally arrive in OBX, but have no clue as where we are because now it’s 9:00pm and dark. We pull over and call our buddy, he tells us to stay there and he’ll come find us and lead us in.
Ok, we wait on the side of the road for him to come by in his Truck. After a while a guy on a Dirt Bike comes up, it’s our buddy! He got his bike off his trailer. Alright, lets go.
Finally we pull up to the house he rented for a week. It’s five bedrooms with full baths to match, fireplaces everywhere, cable TV, internet and a huge kitchen. But, first we have to unload the trailer and Truck. He brought all his “toys”, two Motorcycles, an ATV, a kayak, tool boxes, desktop computer, musical instruments with amp, and I don’t know what else, but we got it unloaded!
We picked out our rooms, it was good to be settled in. Fell asleep easily .
Tomorrow, we discover OBX…
Lighthouse @ Corolla
