Showing posts with label Early starts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Early starts. Show all posts
Monday, October 31, 2011
A Typical Pull Out??
What a start for a 6-month trip!
We talked the CW in MB into actually finishing the installation of our Fridge last night, so they, of course, made the mechanic work over until it was installed and working OK.
Then, as instructed, he parked the Rig outside of CW for us to take our unit early and hit the Road!
Well, we got up at 5:30 this morning. Yes, I said, 5:30AM!
We packed our fridge stuff, our overnight bag, and of course Helen had to sanitize the house because Star is coing down for the weekend and using our house, and we drove in the dark of night down to the CW store.
We finally got down to the RV, loaded up, and pulled up to a Gas station that sells Diesel, and I can get my Rig into with the Jeep tied to it.
Guess What?
6:30 in the morning is when all of the Beer and Cola distributors deliver their goods for the day to these roadside establishments.
And ............ Just guess where they park? Right at the end of the long line of fuel pumps, which b ythe way is where they put their only Diesel fuel pump.
So, I had to go inside and ask; "Which one of you is the Miller guy, and which one is the Bud guy?
Well, out of 5 different guys in there, two of them lifted their heads with a very impressive scowl, and both of them said; ME, WHY?
I stepped back a bit and then I responded.
"Hey Guys, I have an RV out side and I need to get to the Diesel pumps, and you guys are blocking them."
Well, Their scowls deepened and one said;
"I got about twenty more minutes before I am finished",
and the other looked at me as he wanted to remove some of my organs, and said,
"and I need more time than that".
I just smiled at them both and responded;
"Well, I am presently blocking the road, going down to a subdivision, and there are already two cars out there with pissed off people in them."
"I'll just go out there and tell them that you two guys need more time, and they should talk to you?"
"Who Knows?" I said; " Maybe a Cop will drive up and I can explain to him why I can't move my Rig because you two are blocking the pumps and are too busy to move your trucks."
As I turned to go out the door, I heard several strings of profanities thrown at me but the two guys actually got to their trucks, before I could get to my Rig.
As they moved, to where they should have been anyway, by the way,I smiled and waved to them, mouthing the words "Thank You!" over and over.
I filled up ($236 poorer) and I hit the road "South Bound and Down", as the song goes.
We put in a good 7-1/2 hours in the RV with only a couple of "Stretch, Pee and Eat" stops.
Finally I was south of Atlanta (daily goal #1), and into Alabama (daily goal #2), so we looked for a CG to crash in for the night.
No Wally-World and No Rest Area, tonight.
I wanted AC, Hot Food, Cold Wine, and a good nights sleep.
I plan to run tomorrow!
So, We are presently sitting in a CG in LaGrange, Ala. and: OMG! OMG! OMG!
I will have to tell you about this place after we leave in the morning.
What a Dump! (but with Good Intentions!)
The Adventure has begun!
On to El Paso
We are presently at Medina Lake just south of San Antonio TX, in case you couldn't tell by my other blog.
Well, I still have a bad Fridge, and have just decided (2-hours ago) to head to Mesa, AZ.
We have taken all of the meat in the freezer that we have been babying for almost a week,
and has cooked every damned bit of it.
We then stored all of this in Zip-lock bags and packed it into a coupel of styro-foam coolers that I just picked up cheap.
For Dinner tonight, we will have MEAT, with a couple of sides of MEAT, followed by a tasty DESSERT of MEAT!
MMMMM!- MMMMM!
We will drive for around 8-hours tomorrow (across the West Texas desert!)
and stay over in a CG just east of El Paso, TX.
It has a Pull-Through site I have reserved for the night.
Using it, we can just pull in, and hook up to; Elec. Water and Sewage, and lay in for a good nights dinner and nights sleep.
We will pull out early and hit the road for around 7.5 hours and get to Mesa,AZ around 3:00PM, in time for my appointment at the local Camping World.
They are supposed to try to fix whatever has gone bad with the Fridge for us.
But, we will have to spend the night
hooked up while they run a required Diagnostic test
that requires that the Fridge be run wide open for a number of hours.
The next morning they can decide what to replace.
The bad thing is we spend the night in a CW parking lot.
The good thing is that we will pull over to Apache Junction (18-miles away)
and lay up there for 9-10 days before we go over to California.
Who was it that said that camping is an Adventure, didn't know the half of it.
Well, I gotta open a bottle of Cabernet, and start packing up some stuff.
Well, I still have a bad Fridge, and have just decided (2-hours ago) to head to Mesa, AZ.
We have taken all of the meat in the freezer that we have been babying for almost a week,
and has cooked every damned bit of it.
We then stored all of this in Zip-lock bags and packed it into a coupel of styro-foam coolers that I just picked up cheap.
For Dinner tonight, we will have MEAT, with a couple of sides of MEAT, followed by a tasty DESSERT of MEAT!
MMMMM!- MMMMM!
We will drive for around 8-hours tomorrow (across the West Texas desert!)
and stay over in a CG just east of El Paso, TX.
It has a Pull-Through site I have reserved for the night.
Using it, we can just pull in, and hook up to; Elec. Water and Sewage, and lay in for a good nights dinner and nights sleep.
We will pull out early and hit the road for around 7.5 hours and get to Mesa,AZ around 3:00PM, in time for my appointment at the local Camping World.
They are supposed to try to fix whatever has gone bad with the Fridge for us.
But, we will have to spend the night
hooked up while they run a required Diagnostic test
that requires that the Fridge be run wide open for a number of hours.
The next morning they can decide what to replace.
The bad thing is we spend the night in a CW parking lot.
The good thing is that we will pull over to Apache Junction (18-miles away)
and lay up there for 9-10 days before we go over to California.
Who was it that said that camping is an Adventure, didn't know the half of it.
Well, I gotta open a bottle of Cabernet, and start packing up some stuff.
We spent a week in LaGrange, last night!
Yep, That's right!
We were tired. I had driven over seven hours in the RV with a Jeep in Tow, and it was time to quit.
Oh, I was OK, but I needed to stare at something other than a white line on the right and a dashed line on the left.
I had wanted to make it to Montgomery, AL, but I decided to find a campground.
I got on the web, and found several in Auburn, AL. and we called a few.
Guess what?
It was Saturday, and what would think goes on at this time of year in Auburn, AL?
Right on College Football game.
It turned out that there wasn't an empty caming site within 30-miles of Auburn.
So, we backed off and found a little, and not highly rated CG in LaGrange.
It is called Hoofers.
Not a clue how it got it's name, but I had a weird feeling, but we went ahead and called them anyway.
The phone rang and a person answered and gave me directions.
Which I wrote down, by the way.
It went like this: You take exit-18, take a right off of the ramp. Go down three stoplights and take a right on the "14-Spur" at the foot of the water tower.
Go 3-4 miles and take a right on Hwy-27, go about a mile on the right and we are there.
OK, Simple right?
Idid as told, and turned right on US-27 ...... and I drove for 7 miles. No Campground.
I have been here before, so I pulled over and called the CG again.
The same guy answered, and I explained my problem.
His response was. "Lordy!" I'm not sure where you are."
TO which I responded; Well, If yoy live here and can't tell me how to get there, I am in big trouble because, I damned sure don't have a clue."
He seemed upet with my anguage, but ai calmed down and went through what I had done, and he said;
Oh, You took US-27, you needed to take state hwy 27!
So, after a minute or so, I peeled myself off of the roof and as calmly as possible mentioned the fact that someone, not from the area, would probably need to know this distinction in the future.
He was silent for a few seconds and agreed that he would keep this in mind.
Needless to say, we had a communication problem, but, by this time I was so tired that I was going to find this damned CG and stay there.
Little did I know!
I kind of knew that I was in trouble when he gave me his Cell phone number, and said if I had any more problems, that I should call him on it, because he was leaving the office, but wanted to be sure that I got into the CG.
OK, three more calls and I was finally on a road that he agreed was the right one.
He told me that; You can't miss the CG. It is right next to the John Deere dealership!
Cold Chills went down my spine.
And, let's ignore the fact that the 3-miles he said was ahead, was really 5.3 miles.
I finally found the John Deere Dealership, and sure as hell, there was a campground right next door.
Oh, Did I mention that he said it was owned by the same person as owned the Hoofers restaurant on the property.
So, we pulled in, and ..... the Office was closed.
It was only 4:00PM, and the office was closed!
I had to take an envelope and put my "cash" money in it and slide it into a slot like at a bank.
Then we went down to the camping sites.
They were all about 30-35 feet long!
So, I improvised.
I pulled into two sites lengthwise and to hell with it!
If no one was running the place, I figured I could do whatever I wanted.
BTW! There were around 70-80 sites, and there were 3 campers in the whole place.
I looked arund as I was hooking up and then I saw the signs;
PRAISE GOD! JESUS SAVES! VICTORY TO GOD!
I had Arrived!
My Beer drinking, swearing, and stinky feet Ass was ensconced in a dyed-in-the-wool religious zealots CG.
I told Helen, and we figured! We would shut up, talk to no-one, and get out in the early hours, so wat could go wrong? Right?
So, we finished hooking up and walked up to the Restaurant. CLOSED! Out of Business!
No problem, we walked out to the street for a look. IF you can't eat John Deere paint, well, we weren't going to eat out that night.
SO, we walked back to the Community building! CLOSED!
We saw a sign that said; WASEERIA!
We walked over and: two restrooms, a table TV, four chairs and rwo washing machines.
But, the AC was on and working.
We waked back outside the whole comples was connected to a big Church, Also closed!
I was ready to pray for a Beer by this time.
We talked things over, and we finally decided.
We went back to the RV.
We turned on the AC.
We turned on the TV.
We opened a couple of bottles of Chardonnay!
We RELAXED!
We went to Bed.
We slept well, and we;
Got the Hell out of "La Grange" before daylight the next morning.
Yep!
We spent a week in a LaGrange ...... last Night!
Goodnight!
We were tired. I had driven over seven hours in the RV with a Jeep in Tow, and it was time to quit.
Oh, I was OK, but I needed to stare at something other than a white line on the right and a dashed line on the left.
I had wanted to make it to Montgomery, AL, but I decided to find a campground.
I got on the web, and found several in Auburn, AL. and we called a few.
Guess what?
It was Saturday, and what would think goes on at this time of year in Auburn, AL?
Right on College Football game.
It turned out that there wasn't an empty caming site within 30-miles of Auburn.
So, we backed off and found a little, and not highly rated CG in LaGrange.
It is called Hoofers.
Not a clue how it got it's name, but I had a weird feeling, but we went ahead and called them anyway.
The phone rang and a person answered and gave me directions.
Which I wrote down, by the way.
It went like this: You take exit-18, take a right off of the ramp. Go down three stoplights and take a right on the "14-Spur" at the foot of the water tower.
Go 3-4 miles and take a right on Hwy-27, go about a mile on the right and we are there.
OK, Simple right?
Idid as told, and turned right on US-27 ...... and I drove for 7 miles. No Campground.
I have been here before, so I pulled over and called the CG again.
The same guy answered, and I explained my problem.
His response was. "Lordy!" I'm not sure where you are."
TO which I responded; Well, If yoy live here and can't tell me how to get there, I am in big trouble because, I damned sure don't have a clue."
He seemed upet with my anguage, but ai calmed down and went through what I had done, and he said;
Oh, You took US-27, you needed to take state hwy 27!
So, after a minute or so, I peeled myself off of the roof and as calmly as possible mentioned the fact that someone, not from the area, would probably need to know this distinction in the future.
He was silent for a few seconds and agreed that he would keep this in mind.
Needless to say, we had a communication problem, but, by this time I was so tired that I was going to find this damned CG and stay there.
Little did I know!
I kind of knew that I was in trouble when he gave me his Cell phone number, and said if I had any more problems, that I should call him on it, because he was leaving the office, but wanted to be sure that I got into the CG.
OK, three more calls and I was finally on a road that he agreed was the right one.
He told me that; You can't miss the CG. It is right next to the John Deere dealership!
Cold Chills went down my spine.
And, let's ignore the fact that the 3-miles he said was ahead, was really 5.3 miles.
I finally found the John Deere Dealership, and sure as hell, there was a campground right next door.
Oh, Did I mention that he said it was owned by the same person as owned the Hoofers restaurant on the property.
So, we pulled in, and ..... the Office was closed.
It was only 4:00PM, and the office was closed!
I had to take an envelope and put my "cash" money in it and slide it into a slot like at a bank.
Then we went down to the camping sites.
They were all about 30-35 feet long!
So, I improvised.
I pulled into two sites lengthwise and to hell with it!
If no one was running the place, I figured I could do whatever I wanted.
BTW! There were around 70-80 sites, and there were 3 campers in the whole place.
I looked arund as I was hooking up and then I saw the signs;
PRAISE GOD! JESUS SAVES! VICTORY TO GOD!
I had Arrived!
My Beer drinking, swearing, and stinky feet Ass was ensconced in a dyed-in-the-wool religious zealots CG.
I told Helen, and we figured! We would shut up, talk to no-one, and get out in the early hours, so wat could go wrong? Right?
So, we finished hooking up and walked up to the Restaurant. CLOSED! Out of Business!
No problem, we walked out to the street for a look. IF you can't eat John Deere paint, well, we weren't going to eat out that night.
SO, we walked back to the Community building! CLOSED!
We saw a sign that said; WASEERIA!
We walked over and: two restrooms, a table TV, four chairs and rwo washing machines.
But, the AC was on and working.
We waked back outside the whole comples was connected to a big Church, Also closed!
I was ready to pray for a Beer by this time.
We talked things over, and we finally decided.
We went back to the RV.
We turned on the AC.
We turned on the TV.
We opened a couple of bottles of Chardonnay!
We RELAXED!
We went to Bed.
We slept well, and we;
Got the Hell out of "La Grange" before daylight the next morning.
Yep!
We spent a week in a LaGrange ...... last Night!
Goodnight!
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