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345 miles via FL 80, I-75, FL 326, US 301 and I-95 with a refueling/lunch stop in Bushnell and a brief bio break at a rest area on I-75 north of Bushnell. Cumulative miles: 345.
The planned route had us taking I-10 into Jacksonville and I-295 north and west of Jacksonville, but Google decided, before we got to I-10, that continuing on US 301 was better.
The weather was nice and the traffic was mostly light, though it did get pretty heavy in spots. But, overall, a nice, carefree trip.
The car wasn’t packed as tightly as we had feared. But it would have been uncomfortably tight if we had brought Rusty along. Another good reason to leave him behind.
About halfway through this book I thought “This is like reading an updated version of It;s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, but with everyone high on drugs and lots of killing – not just one guy ‘kicking the bucket.'” Then, some time later, I noticed a capsule review by the Denver Rocky Mountain News on the back of the book: “An updated version of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World told by an author who apparently learned his literary skills from Hunter S. Thompson.” I guess my thinking was pretty much in line with some others.
This is one crazy book and is just the first of a series – 25 at the present time – of crazy books featuring Serge Storms, a sociopathic killer who loves Florida and travels all around the state visiting historic sites and killing people in highly imaginative ways (e.g., injecting Fix-a-Flat into a victim’s lungs). It sounds grim, but the writing style is so light that it is like watching a crazed Harpo Marx dispatch people while playing the harp.
It is pointless to even attempt to summarize the plot. But let me list a few of the characters:
A drugged-up stripper
The CEO of a small fraudulent life-insurance company
A orthodontist who engages Serge and a buddy to cut off 3 fingers so he can cash in on a $5M policy on his hands
Two innocent buddies who get duped into absconding with that $5M
Three biker enforcers who, for a time, protect residents of a mobile home partk from their predatory developer
Four Ubekistanians who are the smallest known drug cartel in the world
All of these crazies come together, more or less, to make this book work. It is never dull. It may be hard to follow at times and difficult to believe most times. But never dull.
Speaking of plans for the TN8, they have been significantly revised – not because of the unexpected arrival of COVID but because I have decided to leave Rusty behind, with my son. Planning hotel stays with a dog – especially an elderly, incontinent dog – became too difficult. So Ooma has graciously thrown out all of her previous bookings and has booked new stays in hotels where we don’t have to accommodate a dog. That will save a few bucks (though less than I will be giving to my son to care for Rusty) and also frees up some precious storage space in the Toyota.
Speaking of Toyota, it is ready to go. The body repair work was more that satisfactory – the cruise control is once again functional – and she is sporting two new Cooper tires on the front. A thorough mechanical inspection at the Toyota dealership revealed no other problems She got a new infusion of oil, too.
The most significant hotel switch is the one in New York City. Ooma found a hotel on Staten Island rather than in New Jersey. I have never stayed on Staten Island before and am looking forward to at least one trip on the Staten Island ferry.
Besides a whole new set of hotels, I have altered the plan to approach New York City via Pennsylvania rather than New Jersey (though, of course, I can’t avoid NJ entirely). I just don’t like the New Jersey Turnpike. Boring, busy and expensive. I would rather approach via the relatively bucolic I-80. But that is just the current plan and routes have a way of changing. We will see.
See the previous post for my comment about how “I came down with a cold the next day but that didn’t spoil the fun.” To be cautious – mostly because Ooma has had COVID twice and is still suffering some of the effects of “long COVID” – I took a home antigen COVID test on Wednesday and it was negative. I was pretty sick Wednesday and really sick Thursday, with dry heaves and severe muscle aches. So on Friday I took another home test. POSITIVE. To double-check, I took a second home test. POSITIVE. Then, to triple-check, I drove to CVS and got a PCR test. The results were returned an hour ago. POSITIVE.
I guess I have COVID.
After two vaccinations and a booster, that is a surprise. And not a good one.
But the good news: I have fully recovered. Four days after feeling the first symptoms, I feel 100% normal again. The even better news: Ooma continues to be negative with no symptoms. But we haven’t seen each other, except at a distance, for 3 days. That part isn’t fun. ‘Cuz we seem to like each other.
I will be careful to avoid contact with anyone for a few more days, but will proceed with packing for the trip. I don’t believe that this will affect the plans for TN8.
Fireworks on the banks of the Caloosahatchee River
Finale
The COVID-19 pandemic killed a lot of fun activities over the past 2 years. One of the victims was 4rh of July fireworks. Most fireworks displays in 2020 and 2021 were simply canceled. And the July weather in southwest Florida is usually not conducive to fireworks – or so I have heard, as I have never been in Ft Myers in July. This year I was in residence, the weather was perfect and Ooma is a big fan of fireworks, so we took a room at the Best Western in North Fort Myers where we could watch the Fort Myers fireworks and, in the distance, the Cape Coral firworks, the Fort Myers Beach fireworks and the Bonitia Beach fireworks.
The fireworks were fine, though a little more distant than we expected. Fortunately there were some private fireworks set off from the nearby parking lot after that main event finished, so we got some up-close-and-personal fireworks, too. And taking pictures with my cell phone was interesting. I had no idea that some very good photos could be taken in very low light. The photo at the top, for example, was taken in near-total darkness. When I switched to “Nightscape” the photos were even brighter. You wouldn’t know that they were taken at night.
Anyway, it was a fine evening of fireworks and photography. I came down with a cold the next day, but that didn’t spoil the fun. A good time.
I previously stated my intention to go north this summer, but would spend only a month in MA then would head to WI for my 55th high school reunion. That remains my plan. But it has been modified in one major respect: rather than traveling with only Rusty I will now be accompanied by both Rusty and Ooma. As this will be a trip by car rather than RV, packing will be critical. Ooma and I can both travel pretty light, but the Toyota is small and half of the back seat will be reserved for Rusty. Packing will be a challenge.
Speaking of the Toyota, it is currently in the auto body shop getting some minor front-end damage repaired. The plastic grille was damaged 6 months ago – possibly by someone backing into the car while parked. The damage was cosmetic except for one rather important thing: the cruise control no longer worked. Apparently the sensor for traffic ahead (the automatic collision avoidance system) was knocked out of alignment. I was not about to embark on a 5,000-mile trip without cruise control.
I hope to get the car back today. Assuming that the cruise control is working, I will then schedule a general maintenance checkup and get two new tires. Then all that remains is packing and preparing the RV for 11 weeks alone in Florida. There is some work involved in leaving the RV on site in the summer, the most important being obtaining a contract to have the RV moved if a hurricane approaches. I took care of that a month ago. But that also means that I have to leave the RV in a tow-ready state: slides in, utilities detached (except electric), stabilizers retracted. The truck will be left, too, but I need to position it such that the RV can be hauled away without being impeded by the truck. I also need to clear out the freezer as I don’t want to return to rotting food if the RV needs to be moved.
TN8 plan
So there is some work to be done before we can head north. But the details of this eighth trip north (TN8) are now set. We will depart July 17 and will make the following stops:
Kingsland GA. Two nights near St Mary’s and Fernandina Beach – two towns that I have never seen but which are highly recommended by Ooma.
West Ashley/Charleston SC. Two nights near Charleston, one of my favorite cities and a city never visited by Ooma.
Rocky Mount NC. Just an overnight stay.
Woodbridge VA. Four nights with Jett’s sons whom I have not seen in over a year.
Elizabeth NJ/New York NY. Four nights near New York. I have not been in Manhattan in years and Ooma has never been there at all. It will be fun visiting the city with a NYC novice. Rusty is a problem on this stop as I had no desire to bring him into Manhattan and I surely wasn’t going to bring him on a train or a bus. So I will be boarding him for 4 days.
Our destination is Worcester MA where we will stay for a month, courtesy of Ray, Jett’s brother, and his lovely wife Kim.
The TN8 will be a trip of about 1,500 miles (plus a fair number of miles spent sightseeing) over 6 hops – an average of 250 miles per hop. Nine nights in hotels – carefully selected by Ooma – will run about $1,300, a cost more than offset by savings on campgrounds and diesel fuel. We will also stay for 4 nights with Jett’s sons, so 13 nights total.
It should be a more leisurely trip than our recent trip to Austin (TX1), but it is 13 nights together, followed by a whole month together in MA (with lots of activities planned for that month – a topic that I will cover separately) and a long trip back to FL via WI. This will be a good test of our relationship.
If you have been reading this blog for more than 4 years you might recall that way back in October 2018 some rotted wood was discovered on the floor of one of the large slides in the RV. I dealt with that problem then by installing a metal plate that covered the rotted plywood – about a foot square – on the underside of the slide and that seemed to be sufficient. At least it kept the slide functional for years. Until now.
Last weekend, as I was preparing to bring the slides in so I could hitch up and take the RV out for a spin – mostly to make sure that the brakes got some exercise – I inspected the metal patch and discovered that it was falling off. Worse, the rotted area under the plate had grown. Clearly, the root cause of the rot – water leaking into the plywood from somewhere – had not been corrected and the rot had continued. Some kind of more serious corrective action was needed.
Removing the rotted wood
So, with a great deal of trepidation, I pulled up the carpet covering that corner of the slide (after moving the recliner off the carpet). I was horrified to discover that the rotted area had grown to about 3 ft by 1.5 ft. I set to work removing the rotted wood. In a few minutes I had removed great clumps of wet, rotted plywood, opening a hole in the floor so that I could see the pavers below.
Debris on the ground
The patch
I set to work replacing the rotted section of 1″ plywood with 3/4″ plywood and a 1/4″ plywood layer on top, all fastened with metal strapping. It took me days and it wasn’t easy. And there were times when I was not at all certain the outcome would be positive – I worried that I might actually disable the slide, which would be a disaster. It will take some time for me to be confident that the patch will hold. And even longer to convince myself that the water leak has been fixed (I think it was due to a loose strip of trim at the bottom of the slide), but I was able to pull the slide completely in and then back out again without any problem.
Well, it is a few days late but here is the wrapup for TX1.
By the numbers… 10 days, 9 nights, 2,551 miles of travel over 7 hops (about 365 miles per hop). I didn’t track expenses as this was mostly on Ooma’s dime.
Highlights:
The wedding of Peter and Ashley in Austin. This was the reason for the trip and it didn’t disappoint. It was a casual affair, but with great food and drink and was generally a lot of fun.
The 4 nights at the AirBnB in Austin. This little cabin was a treat. If all AirBnBs are this nice then I am a new fan. In fact all of the accomodations were very good or terrific. Ooma did a great job of picking places to stay.
Dinner with Jett’s sister Christine in Austin. Dinner at Cafe Malta is always a treat.
Two meals at Court Street Cafe in Port Allen LA. This place is a little gem.
The one night at the Clarion Pointe hotel in Tallahassee FL. This was the first experience for either of us at this new Choice Hotel brand and we were impressed. Fine accomodations at a budget price. Can’t beat that.
The opportunity to let my relationship with Ooma evolve. Ten days on the road with a new love is a test by fire. It wasn’t all sweetness and light, but we worked through any issues and ended the trip with a relationship that was more solid than when we started.
A brief surprise visit with Ooma’s sister Maggy in Fairhope AL. It was less than an hour but it gave Ooma a chance to see a sister that she hadn’t seen in 2 years.
Lowlights:
Long, boring days on the road. We listened to an unabridged audiobook of Stephen King’s Billy Summers (17 hours!) and that helped, but it was a lot of driving on a pretty boring route.
292 miles, almost entirely on I-75. Cumulative miles: 2551.
We stopped for groceries and gas in Sarasota.
The only time we needed a GPS on this hop was when we decided to look for a Publix. The only difficulty was that we were trying to beat the arrival of Tropical Storm Alex. We did, but just barely – it was raining steadily while we were unloading but the skies opened up shortly thereafter.
Ooma felt better this morning and drove the whole way.
347 miles via US 98, I-10 and I-75 with a stop for fuel and lunch at Ruby Tuesday. Cumulative miles: 2259.
Another easy trip to navigate, but another long day in the car. Ooma drove the first half but I took over after lunch as she was very tired.
Our one-night stay in Fairhope AL was at the Holiday Inn Express. It was a very nice, very clean room in a very new hotel, but this one did not have the bar/restaurant that we enjoyed so much the night before. Still, more than adequate.
Because Ooma was not feeling well when we arrived in Lake City we chose to do takeout from Texas Roadhouse, and only appetizers. She didn’t eat much but I ate more than I should have. Then I watched the Celtics beat the Warriors in a thrilling come-from-behind victory in Game 1 of the NBA finals.
Hopefully Ooma will feel better for the last leg of this epic roadtrip.
