Just Getting Warmed Up

  This post finds us in Arley, Alabama. That is in the northern part of the state where the Dollar General is the closest store and the houses of worship have to be about one church per five citizens. We are at Hidden Cove RV Resort where there is no cell phone coverage, no gnats, and no TV reception. The campground is quite large with access to Smith Lake;

Thankfully they provide wifi and I have the portable Winegard Pathway X2 for Dish network.

  Prior to arriving here in Alabama we did do some sightseeing in Georgia while staying at Fair Harbor RV. We took a day trip to Stone Mountain:

  What a day it turned out to be. First off I was partially hungover and so hungry that I didn't know where I was going even with GPS and Google maps. After waiting in line at the entrance gate for what seemed like an hour I joked with the gate attendant that I wasn't going to ask him any questions like all the others before me delaying my entry. He laughed and thanked me. What a mistake! We ended up at the golf course clubhouse where we ate lunch. And the service was not exactly expedient. We drove around the massive property looking for the sculpture and ended up at the west side of the mountain at the Confederate Hall Historical & Environmental Education Center where the walk up trail goes to the top of Stone Mountain. 

No way Doreen, You'll never make it. (we tried but didn't get much farther than this sign.)

  We eventually found the main attraction and realized we could have been here hours before.

Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson as seen from the Florida monument plaque:

  Stone Mountain has to be one of the the largest monuments to the Confederate States. The entire complex is dedicated to all the states of the Confederacy plus the three heroes. 

Our next excursion took us to a very pleasant surprise. Late on Sunday afternoon we decided to head over to the Robins Museum of Aviation on the Air Force Base. This was a free attraction and Google reviews stated an hour was the average time spent there. Well that was too bad because I cold have spent the entire day there. What a great place to see- FOR FREE!. They have the largest aviation collection outside of the Smithsonian, which we had visited some years ago.

  There is the main exhibition hall, Eagle Hall along with hangars dedicated to Vietnam, WWII, and Century of Flight aircraft along with outside exhibits.

 I am a WWII airplane nerd and my favorites are the P-51 Mustang and P-40 Warhawk:

An F-15 Eagle graces the main rotunda of Eagle Hall:

B-52 Bomb bay and Mark III atomic bomb (inert)

  I would recommend a visit to the Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force Base to anyone that might have any interest at all in aircraft. It is a great unexpected find.

  Today (Wednesday) took us on a day trip to two not so local attractions. We are so far out of the path of interstates and chain restaurants that it took us about 45 minutes to get to Jesse Owens Museum and another 45 minutes to get to Natural Bridge.

  Jesse Owens Museum is in Oakridge, AL. 

I almost made it to his record broad jump of 26 feet, five and one-third inches:

A nominal entry fee of $3 was a bargain. In the exhibit the museum plays a video of the 1936 Olympics where Jesse won four gold medals. Knowing only the basic history of Jesse Owens and the '36 Olympics this was a great find. Once again, an awesome visit for a history nerd.

  Jesse, his ten siblings and parents lived in this three room house until he was nine years old:

  Next was the Natural Bridge near Haleysville.

Another inexpensive attraction at $3.50. (no charge for Doreen on her scooter)

  Not really a major attraction but it is a remnant of roadside attractions of days gone by:

I forgot my camera so I had to use the cell phone's flash:

   This was a good practice run for Doreen to see what she can conquer on her scooter. The trail to the bridge was wrought with large tree roots and loose gravel on the pathway and I am sure we will encounter more daunting obstacles in the weeks and months to come.

  Stay tuned; next stop is Little Rock Arkansas.

  

Back On the Road-Finally

  Today is Friday June 23, 2017 and we are back in Georgia. The trailer is finally repaired and we are camped at Fair Harbor RV Park in Perry, GA

We picked up the trailer yesterday at Camping World in Byron, GA. Many thanks to Andy the service manager and Bob the parts specialist. They got us back on the road in 17 days, and at no cost to us. Camping World in Tampa paid the bill. Basically a whole new roof was put on, a new awning, and a new Winegard wifi Connect antenna.

Doreen waits in the truck while they bring our trailer out.

I have to be honest- I was quite stressed out during the 17 days of waiting. We dropped the trailer off on June 5 and returned home to Lakeland and the waiting and not knowing when or if we were going to get back on the road. Added to the stress was not being able to turn back on our wifi and cable with Spectrum (formally Brighthouse). Their policy is to allow only one service suspension per year so if we wanted to turn everything back on we would not be able to shut it off again until next June. I ended up buying a Straight Talk Wireless hotspot from Walmart and luckily the basic cable was still on (no DVR or box).

  The whole experience presented a whole set of problems from beginning to end: we had to pack up the contents of the refrigerator and freezer along with all the cat food and buy foam coolers to transport the food. I had bought tickets to baseball games; one in Denver and one in Los Angeles and we were probably not going to make it to; I had to cancel numerous campground reservations for all of June and then had to figure out based on when we got the trailer if we were going to make any after that.

  In the mean time we acted like tourists in Lakeland taking the Frank Lloyd Wright tour at Florida Southern:

  So here we are in Perry for four days. Our next stop is Hidden Cove RV Park in Arley, Alabama then five days in North Little Rock, Arkansas. After that is up in the air. We are going to take it slow and be spontaneous. 

Stay  tuned.

  

DISASTER STRIKES!

Hello all, our ambitious trip is all but a dream now. There will be no telling when we will get on the road due to a disastrous turn of events.

We left Lakeland on Wednesday about 11 AM and arrived at our first stop here in Elko, Georgia at Twin Oaks Campground

We have a nice site and after we were set up I noticed a loose screw laying on the bed. I looked up and saw the roof vent was open. Not a good sign since I knew I had closed it before leaving, also I saw white material sticking up; once again not a good sign.

I climbed onto the roof and this is what I saw:

  As you can see the rubber is ripped away from the wood. How this happened is a mystery. There were no low clearance overpasses or tunnels or low hanging limbs. I did not hit anything.

I did have the roof resealed at Camping World in Tampa before we left and I am in communication with them and the local Camping World in Macon. The prognosis is bleak. Floyd at the Camping World here in Georgia said a repair is going to take a month accounting for time to get the rubber and the lengthy install plus he has four customers ahead of me.
  Now for the really bad news: if I have to pay for this it will cost $7500- $10000!!

  Of course the rain is coming and I did plan for that. I stopped at Walmart last night after watching the hockey game at Buffalo Wild Wings to by a blue tarp and duct tape.
  Now we have to decide what our next step will be. The most sensible course of action will probably be dropping the trailer off at Camping World here (I don't want to risk bringing it back 340 miles to Florida with rain being a possibility anytime which would make matters much worse). In a best case scenario I would then return home to wait until the trailer is repaired and then go get it. That is only if Camping World pays for the repairs because I don't have ten grand to invest for repairs after spending $5300 already in upgrades and other maintenance.
  I have cancelled all of our reservations for the next month. We will then wait and see how all this unfolds.  As I stated in a best case scenario we will then return to the road; worst case scenario is sell the trailer for whatever we can get for it and cut our losses.
  This is hugely disappointing as I so looked forward to blogging about all of travels.