Sunday January 22
The Italian place last night was great. Fat Clamenza’s. The food was good and waiter was friendly and knowledgeable. We split an arugula salad, then Lee got a mushroom pizza and I got linguini with baby clams. I took a bread pudding home for later.
Around 4 am it started to rain. Hard, very hard! Thunder and lightening too. We had a small leak but it’s not surprising considering how hard it rained. Eventually it stopped. It was actually warm outside. I was able to go for a run in shorts and a T-shirt, the way you’re supposed to in Florida!
Then I did laundry. It was a decent laundromat, relatively cheap, and I had it all to myself. As I was drying things it started POURING! Lee came and got me in the truck but I still got soaked. The laundry stayed dry though because I had it in trash bags. Now we should be set until we get home.
It’s been raining all afternoon. It paused just long enough to take the dogs out to go potty, then it started up again. So we’re just lazing around again.
Monday January 23
In the evening we went to Acme, a New Orleans style restaurant. It was fine but not incredible. We split the charbroiled oysters. I never like oysters much that have stuff done to them. I like them fresh and raw. Then Lee got the New Orleans medley. He said the rice and beans and the gumbo were good but the jambalaya was mediocre. He makes great jambalaya, it’s something I would never order in a restaurant for that very reason. I got the seafood etouffee with crawfish tails and it was good. Then I got the pecan crumble which came in a martini glass with ice cream and caramel sauce. He brought me a to go container for it but it never made it that far. Decadent!
This morning it was sunny, cold and beautiful. We took it easy until after lunch when it had warmed up a little and then got out our bikes and rode along the coast to Destin and back. We rode to the end of the road and then turned around. Destin is fancier than Miramar, more grandiose resorts. On the way back I sped up a little and my bike was flying. Lee texted me that he had stopped for coffee so I rode back and had some too, at a place called Bad Ass Coffee. I had on my sweatshirt and windbreaker on the bike but as soon as I stopped and sat in the sun I was HOT! I had to get back on the bike to cool off.
Back at the RV I set up the dog fence and sat outside with the dogs for awhile, until the sun started to set and it got cold again.
This RV park is near an Air Force base and all day fighter jets have been flying overhead. I tried to get a picture but could never get my phone up quickly enough. The sound trailed behind them so by the time you heard them they were already gone. Also some guy in the park is traveling with a falcon. Strange!
Tuesday January 24
First driving day in awhile. Lee fixed dinner last night. Pasta with pine nuts and parmesan, garlic bread and a salad. Delicious!
We took our time in the morning but we were on the road by 10. Google routed us through the wilds of southern Alabama to get us to I-65 by the most direct route. MAGA signs and Confederate flags. Creepy! I just didn’t feel comfortable at all. We only stopped once though, for lunch and gas. Lee had made his famous tuna sandwiches. We let the dogs have some of the tuna and they were beside themselves.
While I drove after lunch we started listening to songs that reminded us of this area of the country. Angel from Mongmery, John Prine and Bonnie Raitt. Rednecks, Birmingham, Randy Newman. Texas Trilogy, Lyle Lovett.
Now here we are in Pelham, Alabama, outside Birmingham. Thursday night in Nashville the low will be 26. That’s right on the edge, but we should be ok. We’ll winterize when we get to St. Louis and stay in hotels the last two nights.
Wednesday January 25
Cold and windy today. It rained all night but stopped before we got up. We slept later too. It was after six! I ran this morning so we don’t have to wait until I’m finished running before we go see Gail and Michael tomorrow.
The drive was uneventful. It was windy but we just drove a little slower and it wasn’t too bad. We stopped for lunch at a place called Buc-ee’s, which is apparently an Alabama institution. A crazy huge roadside gas station, convenience store, tourist attraction. They are famous for their bbq brisket sandwiches, and they were pretty good. It was the biggest gas station I’ve ever seen in my life, at LEAST 60 pumps, maybe more. Insane.
The weather for today was for scattered showers and they did scatter, all day long. It’s nice to be settled for the day. It’s cold though. We’re going to need the down quilt tomorrow night.
Friday January 27
We spent yesterday visiting with Gail and Michael. It was a very pleasant day. We mostly sat around and talked, with a little eating thrown in for good measure. We had a lot of catching up to do! We hadn’t seen each other since before Covid, January of 2020.
It was cold last night. It dropped into the 20’s, so we turned off our water. I was cold during the night, should have used our down quilt. In the morning we tried to turn our water back on but the hose was frozen. We should know better; we used to bring our hose in at night when it was this cold; I don’t know why we didn’t last night. The RV campground said to leave our water dripping but Lee thought that was risky. But we’ve got the hose inside now in the shower with the electric heater aimed at it so it should thaw up pretty soon.
We’re heading for St. Louis today, and Cedar Rapids the day after, then home. No more nights in the RV, it will just be too cold. We’re staying in motels the last two nights. Lee will winterize the RV today and that will be that for RVing until summer. It will be 0 tomorrow night in Cedar Rapids. Yikes!
Friday January 27
Well as it turned out the water pipe stand was frozen as well so no amount of hose thawing was going to do us any good. So we packed up and left. It was super windy today, and the roads in Kentucky were terrible! All that bouncing is just not good for an RV so it makes you very conscious of them. Plus it’s hard to crochet!
It warmed up quickly and was in the 50's all day. We stopped for gas and lunch and Lee wanted to go ahead and winterize the RV, but he couldn’t get the water pump to work so he could get the RV antifreeze into the system. So we had to stop at a Camper World and buy a little hand held water pump. That worked great and we were able to winterize the RV with it no problem. And it’s a good thing too. It’s going to get really cold tomorrow. We are so not ready!
We pulled into this Fairfield Inn around 4:30. It wasn’t as bad as i thought it would be, figuring out what I needed to bring inside the motel from the RV. We nuked a Rao lasagna for dinner and spread out on the big bed. Ahhhh!
Saturday January 28
It was in the 40’s when we left Wentzville, but as we drove north the temperature started to drop. By the time we hit the Iowa border it was 30, and by the time we arrived at our hotel it was 20, and still dropping.
It had already snowed a little in Cedar Rapids. We unloaded our stuff and I took the dogs for a short walk. What is this stuff?? They were a little preplexed. After all 3 days ago it was in the 50’s! And it’s going to be much much colder tomorrow. Zero here, and -15 by the time we get home.
Sunday January 29
Brrrr it was cold this morning! We didn’t get more snow, which is good. The dogs scampered outside, did their business, and scampered right back in. The snow and salt hurt their feet poor things. I just wasn’t prepared for the extreme cold since when we left it was relatively warm.
We were all set to go, but guess what? The truck wouldn’t start! The battery was very very dead. We had the heat on in the RV and it drained the truck battery. It took awhile to find someone that could give us a jump on a cold Sunday morning in Cedqr Rapids, but we finally did. It really only delayed us about an hour. Then off we went.
We needed gas though. We definitely did NOT want to turn off the truck yet, so we did something you’re not supposed to do (after googling to see just how dangerous it really is). We filled it up with the engine running. In fact we left the engine running all day, until we got home.
We were home before 3. I went inside, turned up the heat, turned on the fireplace, and shoveled a path in the backyard for the dogs. Then I let them inside and let them go outside. Yippee! They were very excited!
Then I helped Lee unload the RV. Usually we do it in an orderly fashion but it was so cold we just got everything out of it as quickly as we could and dumped it all in the middle of the great room! Then we took our time putting things away. It’s always such a big job, it just wears us out.
I put it off as long as I could but I finally went upstairs to see how bad off the plants were. Two of them were dead, but the succulents, the palm, and the dracenas survived the drought! I was astonished. I gave them all nice big drinks.
Tuesday January 31
We’ve been home now for a day. Yeah it’s very cold, but it’s great to be home. We both think this may have been our last really long RV trip. It’s hard, and it exhausts us. We’ll still do shorter trips for sure, but it’s doubtful that we’ll go cross country again.
Some parts of this trip were disappointing. The weather in Florida was colder than we would have liked. I struggled in the marathon and didn’t think it was as much fun as it had been in 2017. St. Augustine was more of a tourist trap than we expected. And the traffic around Tampa Bay was awful.
But you know what the best part was? People! Seeing Amy, and Rich, at Disney. Spending time with Nicole and Tom and Harrison and August. Meeting our puppy and spending a day with Diane and Dennis. And finally, FINALLY spending a wonderful day with Gail and Michael after 3 years. The people made it all worthwhile.
That’s it for Florida 2023. I’m ready to hang around our house for awhile before we head to California and another break from cold weather.
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