April 18-19

Saturday morning we were up with the rooster and on the road by 8 am for a long day of driving ahead. The weather cooperated with bright sunny skies and temps most of the day in the 70’s. We arrived in Grove City PA (70  miles south of Erie PA) shortly after 5 pm for our final night in the RV – in a Walmart parking lot! How romantic, eh.

Today we drove 500 miles (800 km) which was our longest driving day of the entire trip. This would make our final leg home on Sunday about 230 miles. We left Grove City by 7:30am and after a few stops for gas, Canada Customs and the Fort Erie municipal sewage dump, we arrived at Bryn’s house before 1:30 pm. We had a great reunion with Matt, Bryn, Melissa and Emily for the afternoon. Oh yes, all the dogs and cat too!

As we were pretty tired we had an early dinner of pizza, wings and caesar salad and were back at home in Burlington by around 5.

Trip Stats:

Distance travelled – 11,400 miles (18,200 kms)

4 Provinces – 17 States

68 – Campgrounds, RV Parks, Friends yards, Walmarts and truck stops

6,056 litres of gas (thank goodness gas prices went way down)

8.5 miles per gallon(imperial)

This adventure has now ended, but our “journey” together continues on!

Thanks for tuning in. We have enjoyed sharing our travels and hundreds of pictures with you over the past almost 7 months.

Home – safe and sound! Thank you God for watching over our safe travels.

Take care,

Rob and Kathy

April 16-17

Thursday morning we continued our trek north (brrr) leaving the Charleston area around 9:30am. Wayne and Lynn had already departed earlier as they had a couple of long driving days ahead of them to get home by Friday evening.

After 225 miles, we arrived in Charlotte NC – the racing mecca for NASCAR and home for many of it’s premier drivers and team shops. We pulled into a Tom Johnson Camping Center which is just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway – a 1.5 mile track. It was a warm day with the temps in the 80’s, however this changed later in the day as the rain set in. Not a good sign for race cars! The following morning it continued to drizzle until around 10am. At that point we hiked over to the track to see if the “ride-a-long” would still go at 11:30.

Today, I was booked for a drive-a-long where I’m a passenger is strapped into 725 HP stock car, driven by a young man (Adam) 22-24 years old taking me around the track 3 times at 160 MPH (255 KPH). YES, I can’t wait. However we did for a couple of hours as they dried the track. This was OK, as it provided me with lots of time to speak with the “Petty Driving Experience” employees, drivers and get lots of track shots. This company was started by Richard Petty who is called “The King” for his dominance and presence in NASCAR.

Finally, the track was ready and so was I, so they strapped me into the car around 1:15pm. By 1:18 I was out of the car, after enjoying the rush of doing 1.5 mile laps in about 38 seconds! The banking on the turns is 24 deg (see pics) so when the driver heads into and out of those turns you want to make sure the car “sticks” to the track! And it did! The G forces and in car experience gives me an even greater appreciation of the skill, strength and endurance these drivers (and their pit crews) go through when competing at these levels during a 4 hour race. Add to that the high temps in the car when they are racing in warm temperatures, which is often. Oh, by the way, we did 160mph on the straightaways, whereas the pro’s during the race are doing 200 mph(320 kph) with 43 cars on the track. Stop and imagine rush hour at those speeds with cars all around you!

It was awesome, what a thrill!

After getting back to the RV for a quick lunch, I biked over to the Hendrick Motorsports Complex to tour some team shops and their museum. Rick Hendrick owns over 70 car dealerships and arguably is the top car owner in NASCAR. The complex is all encompassing as they make every thing in several different building – engines, chassis, bodies, seats, roll cages, tanks, etc.. I was able to tour the fabrication shops for the four teams (Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.) It was a great tour.

All in all, the weather cooperated and I had a great day.

April 13-15

Charleston SC

We departed Savannah on Monday morning for a short drive up the coast to another historic US city, Charleston SC. The convoy included 3 rigs – ours,  Wayne and Lynn’s and our California friends.

In 1670, Charles Town was founded by the British. Approximately 200 years later it would become Charleston when the American’s defeated the Brit’s in 1865. The city is much larger than Savannah, but still expels a significant amount of “southern charm” with it’s friendly residents (they leave their garden gates open for visitors to “look in”, but please don’t enter), architecture, religion and unique culture.

We decided on Tuesday that we would go on a 2 hour guided walking tour, with a lifelong Charlestonian while the other’s decided on a 2 hour guided bus tour. Our tour started at 10:30am and it went to about 12:45pm. Our group had 14 people in it and the guide was great and we really enjoyed it. We learned a lot and walked a lot! Our final recommendation from the guide was a recommendation on King Street for some authentic South Carolina BBQ. (they take claim to the term southern BBQ – which usually means pork). After a great meal and some cold libations (another hot and humid day touring), we decided to head to some areas of the historic area that we hadn’t seen. After a couple more of hours of walking (and sweating), we reconnected with Wayne and Lynn and headed back to camp arriving around 4:30pm. We had decided earlier to have a BBQ (burgers and salads) and a camp fire after dinner. Our California friends(Bill and Marilyn) where invited to join us and we had a nice evening (warm) chatting.

Wednesday, the four of us were up and in Wayne’s truck by 9 am heading to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. That morning, the weather was tenuous but the weather held out with pleasant temps of the high 70’s and only a couple of sprinkles around mid afternoon. Magnolia has a long and storied history just like Charleston which I won’t get into in any depth. Arriving around 9:45, we purchased the all inclusive package with 4 guided tours (45 min each)which covered the nature train, the house tour, the Nature boat and the Slavery to Freedom tour. There was also a self guided “swamp tour”.

Magnolia use to be a 2,000 acre parcel and is now approx. 500 acres. In the 1800’s it was a working rice plantation. Around 1870, the plantation was opened as a tourist attraction by one of the Drayton’s, John who was an ordained minister, who needed the money to keep and maintain the property. A beautiful property and definitely something to see. If you want more information – http://www.magnoliaplantation.com/  or take a look at a few of our pics below….

More Magnolia pics to follow once we get better internet service…

 

 

 

Savannah, Georgia

On Friday morning when we left St. Augustine, the weather was still quite warm in the mid 80’s and humid. It would be a reasonable drive of about 175 miles up the coast to Savannah (SA). We left early arriving shortly after noon. Wayne and Lynn arrived less than 1 hour later so after setting up and having some lunch, we got together and shared stories of what we had been doing since we last saw them in Ft. Myers back in mid March. The park we were in wasn’t the best, but it was shady and we had great company. The four of us discussed the plans for the next two days in Savannah and dined on Kathy’s world famous homemade lasagna that evening.

The next morning the 4 of us were out at the camp gate waiting for the trolley shuttle to take us to town. While we waited we met a nice couple from California (Bill and Marilyn) who happened to be parked beside us that told us that they had a free pet walking service at the park, so I quickly arranged this before we left.

We arrived in town before 10 am and embarked on a 90 minute trolley tour of the historic part of Savannah. SA was founded in 1733 by James Oglethorpe and is a very unique city as it was one of the first designed in a true grid pattern. Within the grid of the old historic area, there were originally 24 “Squares” that would be ½ to 1 acre in size. Twenty two still exist today. In their day, these squares would be a central meeting area for residents neighborhood. Today, not only are the parks adorned by many huge old live oak trees, but the entire historic downtown is covered in a canopy of trees, many being large oak as in the pictures. Combined with the Spanish moss hanging from the trees, the area is quite amazing.

In its day, SA had the world’s second largest Cotton Exchange. (see pic). See the attached pic about “Savannah’s Waving Girl. For 44 years she waved at every shipped that arrived or departed the Port of Savannah with a handkerchief, using a lantern at night.

After our guided tour, we grabbed some lunch (a disaster) then Kathy and I headed out on foot to retrace a bit of the tour route and then some to get a closer look. Even with the abundance of tree’s, it was a humid day to say the least. We arrived back at the camp by shuttle at around 5:30 with tired feet.

The next day, Wayne decided to drive into SA, so the 4 of us headed in around 11 and we spent the afternoon touring other areas that didn’t get covered the prior day. This would be primarily the water front with its shops and eateries. Another hot day in SA, but luckily we dodged some bad weather that was circling in the area.

Lots of interesting and historic sites had been seen over the two days. We would definitely recommend a visit to SA for its beauty and old world charm. It has lots of history, but part two coming up trumps it!

Moving on up the coast tomorrow (April 13^th). Stay tuned…….

 

 

 

 

 

April 8-10

On Wednesday April 8^th, we headed for our last stop in Florida – St. Augustine(SA) We left Port Orange (Daytona) around mid morning heading to the local Walmart to stock up on supplies as our fridge and freezer was looking a little baron. After that stop it was a short 1 hour (60 miles) drive up the coast to SA.

We arrived and had set up camp and had lunch by around 2 pm. Kathy was feeling a bit tired from the hot days we had the prior week and today proved to be just as hot, so she had a rest. I always seem to be a little more energetic to explore the new area and find out what I can so I looked at some local tourist maps and embarked on my bike for a tour. SA was 4.5 miles into the town limits so I decided to head in that direction to see what the route was like that we would likely take the next day. I reached the city and decided to continue over to the tourist center to pick up some additional information to help us plan the next day. I was into town and back in about 1 ½ hrs – hot and sweaty! Mission accomplished. Now I knew the lay of the land.

St. Augustine is the oldest city in the U.S. with its founding 450 years ago in 1565. SA is a very quaint, compact and walkable city. On Thursday we set the A/C in the RV for Jazz and headed off on our bikes at around 9 am getting into the town for the crowds started assembling. The day before I had witnessed heavy congestion on the narrow streets with people and traffic congestion. We arrived in around 9:30 and locked up the bikes for the day.

We wondered the streets for a few hours reading plaque after plaque at all the historic buildings and sites. During SA’s 450 years it has been controlled by 4 countries. The Spanish from 1565 when Don Pedro Menendez founded it to 1765. The British controlled it from 1765-1784. The Spanish regained control in 1784 to 1821, when the US took over control until present day.

We walked out of town a little to the famed “fountain of youth” that has been traced back to Juan Ponce de Leon who landed in this vicinity in 1513. We didn’t go into this archaeological finding as the entrance was $15 each and another $7 or 8 for a “sip” of the magical water. Back to town we went.  After a few hot hours walking the streets of SA, it was time for some lunch and hydration at the Mill Top Inn under some large shady trees and a nice breeze coming off the Matanzas Bay. After lunch we toured some of the narrower streets that are only for pedestrians checking out a few shops but knowing we couldn’t really carry too much on the bikes, we didn’t buy anything.

After a few more history lessons we decided we had seen everything we wanted and headed back to camp arriving back around 3 pm. Luckily the park we were in was nicely shaded so we could chill out for a the balance of the day outside. We enjoyed a small pork roast from the BBQ that night as we prepared to break camp on Friday morning for Savannah GA., where we would meet up with Kathy’s brother Wayne (and Lynn) who we had seen back in Ft. Myers in March.

Off to the “Peach state”………