Still Alive

It was another long strange trip, but we made it to Florida.

We left New Hampshire about a day and a half late due to the Blazer having a broken windshield. The guy at the windshield place did right by us. He put in extra hours to get it done. Once that was in the vehicle was legal for a New Hampshire inspection sticker.

There was light snow in New Hampshire followed up by horrible Massachusetts traffic. We ended up taking a hotel off of rt. 84 in New York.

Bad weather held off, allowing us to get below the predicted storm bands with only a bit of light rain to show for it. Turns out weather was not our main problem. In southern Pennsylvania the boat trailer made a horrible noise as we pulled into a rest area. The lug nuts had loosened, distorting the rim and damaging the lugs.

Since we were in a safe place I decided not to try and move it an inch further. It took some time on the phone, but I found a 24 hour road service that said they could do the job. They pulled the hub to fix the lugs in the shop. The bearings were still good. I had a spare tire, but it was pretty worn. I had them mount the newer tire on the old rim. All in all there was a four hour delay and a three hundred dollar bill. Part of that bill will be offset with my Bloat US towing insurance covering the road service travel time.

By then I was exhausted. My lovely wife and I caught a late dinner and checked into a motel. It was all I could do to have a quick shower and stumble into bed.

Originally we’d booked three nights at a campground in S. Carolina. We lost the first two days of that right off the start of our trip. However, my lovely wife talked to the campground people and they said they kept the gate open. We decided to try and spend a night there. It was paid for and cheaper than another night in a hotel.

We went from southern Pennsylvania to S. Carolina in a day and pulled into the campground around 8:30 p. m.. We have two tents with us so we set up the small one for just one night. By morning we were back on schedule.

Sunday we pulled into our campground near St. Augustine. Monday we went into town to enjoy the massive light display the city puts on. It’s starting to feel more like a vacation.

When we left I was truly struggling with the cold causing me to cough constantly. That wore me out as much as anything. Now that I’m in a climate with warm moist air, my cough has already diminished by at least 70 percent.

While the trip down was a bit of struggle, we survived with fairly minimal issues. The Blazer ran well and even the trailer problem was solved without anyone getting hurt or being in danger.

-Sixbears