On the Road Again

We left St. Augustine Thursday morning headed for home. The weather report predicted a massive snow/ice storm to hit Atlanta and Tennessee, on Friday so we needed to get home before all of this.
We made reservations to stop in Perry, Ga which was a little more than half way home, but south of where the bad weather was predicted just in case we were stuck. We had gone to the store to purchase extra food, just in case.

The campground website showed no pictures of their campground and for good reason. It was pretty bad. The guy that check us in seemed uninterested and never looked us in the eye. Just pointed to a site "over there ."Very small sites, small tight roads and very unkempt. It was obviously old, but it had a 2 things going for it---good WIFI and cable TV. David commented that the sewer hole was so far back he had to use 2 hoses to get to it and it was barely enough. Well, barely was good enough.

We had a restful night and wanted to get an early start so that we could get past Atlanta before the ice and snow hit. David went out to unhook while I worked on the inside getting everything ready to roll. A few minutes later David came in and said the sewer hose was plugged up and he didn't know how to unplug it, He had tried everything and the hose was FULL of poop and paper and nothing was draining. He wanted me to come out and help. UHHHH OK?sThere we were standing in the cold looking at a 30+ foot length of poop filled hose. There was obviously a blockage somewhere. David suggested that I hold the hose up in the air at the point where the 2 hoses joined while he took them apart.
 WAS HE KIDDING??????? Visions of Robin Williams sewer scene in the the movie RV passed in front of my eyes. I didn't think that was a good idea. But, we had to do something. Well, that didn't work so David hooked it back up. I went towards the MH and lifted the hose high and walked it down towards the drain. It was obvious that the drain was on high ground and poop doesn't flow up hill.
There was definitely a blockage and since the hose was still full it had to be at the end where the hose went into the sewer. So David unhooked the 90 degree curved end that went into the sewer---and guess what came out--You guessed it. Luckily he was able to get it in the sewer opening before it splashed all over the ground, but not before it splashed on him. UGGGGHHHH. He was so happy that it all came out he didn't care. Clean pants he had, but there was no way we could travel with a 30 foot long poop Popsicle. The joys of motor homing.

At any rate all went well after that. We got home without further incident and the kitties were very happy to be home in front of their fireplace. That night it did snow some at our house, but we were snug as a bug. Thank goodness. David said this was the worst trip we ever had. He was still reliving the shattered windshield and the poop Popsicle.

A Shinny New Windshield

Monday night neither of us got any sleep worrying about the new windshield, the kitties, the logistics of it all and now rain was predicted for the day. One of the things we were worried about was how long it would take for the new windshield to cure after installation. Looking on the motor home forums it went anywhere from "install and drive away" to "48 hrs curing time", which meant we couldn't drive for 2 days, The other issue was that we had less than 1/4 tank of gas in the MH and if we had to dry camp in the parking in lot, the MH generator wouldn't run on less than 1/4 tank.
We tossed and turned all night. David was more stressed than I was. He kept reliving the broken windshield incident, After unhooking and closing everything up in the MH we left early in the morning to go to the gas station and fill up with gas on the way to the glass shop. Whew!! One more problem solved.

 We got to the glass shop at 8 am and parked around the side until Winston was ready for us. It was raining so he had us pull the front of our MH into the open bay. We put the kitties in the back behind the door and 3 guys took out our old windshield. They had a tough time getting it out--it was really in there good. Then came our shinny new windshield. The whole process took less than 2 hrs, but we needed time to cure. We drove carefully back to our parking spot and waited for cure time. David noticed a leak in the windshield and they came over to seal it some more. Winston decided we should be OK to drive back to the campground by 3 pm. We stayed until 4 pm and drove back. At least we weren't stuck there for 2 days.

Our shinny new windshield and it was beautiful. We finally got a good night's sleep Tuesday night.
We were paid through Wednesday night in the CG so we just relaxed on Wednesday. We met Ryan and family for dinner Wednesday night and had a very nice time. They had had a great vacation in Mexico and it was so nice to see them again before we had to leave to come home.

A Nice Weekend in St Augustine

It was an enjoyable weekend. Late on Friday we received a call from Winston telling us to be at his shop at 8 am Tuesday morning. He said we must have lit a fire under the windshield company to get it there so quickly. Since it was a Holiday weekend Winston's shop would be closed on Monday. On Saturday we decided to take a ride over to the shop to check out the area for our Tuesday arrival.

Wow! the shop was in a little industrial park and I mean little. The entrance had a big tree in the middle of it with little room to get in and out. The back area was very tight and was going to be interesting to try and maneuver a 38' motor home around. It looked like most of their car glass business was mobile, so they come to you. Had we realized we would have had to bring us to them we would have tried to find another company to replace the windshield. But it is what it is and they had our new windshield.

The other issue was what to do with our kitties while the whole process was going on. We thought about boarding them for the day, but that would require taking them the night before, crating them up and transporting them. Pretty stressful for all of us. We decided to go to Home Depot and buy a cheap accordion door to put up between the bunk room and the kitchen. That way they could use their beds, litter box and our bed. David added some extra magnets for closure and it looked like a good option. Whew!!! That problem solved until Tuesday.

Sunday afternoon Mary Anne came up to visit and have lunch with us. Our original plan was to leave St Augustine and go to Ocala to visit her, but our shattered windshield changed those plans. We were so glad that she could drive up to see us. We went to lunch at Metro Diner and had a very nice visit.

Of course we had to take the Mustang Convertible since it was such a nice day.