Last Day

Well time has come to pack up and leave this beautiful location. Everything about Woody's and Anna ranch reminds Susan and me of boon-docking in the national forest. Cool nights, quite, and just plain great. On Tuesday we took the air-boat out on Lake Panasoffkee, it was a might windy, until we arrived on the leeward side. We did spot 2 gators, but just barely.

Susan and I were thinking we really do not want to leave, but the time has come. Of course we have been invited back anytime. Woody, stated next time park in an area closer so we could hook up our sewer hose. Seems we have to stay longer next time.

Photo of Woody driving the Air-boat

 We did come across this Hawk who was having lunch

The Hawk was determined to have lunch even though we were in the area.

The one who will be really sad to leave is Della, she enjoyed her time here, as she never wore her leash, she ran with the pack and enjoyed her time as Queen who survey here domain.

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Well I guess it is time to slowly start packing up. 

Safe travels in your journey 

Dale and Susan

Woody and Anna Hill

Currently we are in the backyard of Woody's and Anna house. They live on about 20 acres outside of Lake Panasoffkee, Florida. They are really West of the lake in a wildlife area. This area has over 10,000 areas of wetlands, rivers and lakes all connected by canals.

Woody and Susan are related and they have always wanted to get together. Being here reminds us of boon docking in the forest except with hookups.

Here is a shot of their place:

In case you are wondering who is Anna and Woody:

On Saturday Woody took us out on his airboat for a ride in the area. In my opinion, it would be easy to get lost out in the wetlands.  (Susan) Air-boats and good hair days do not go together....

Here is a side shot of Woody as we rode along.

We did spot 2 gators, but the camera was not ready. Along the way, we spotted wildlife such as these turkeys, didn't spot any wild pigs, but lots in the area.

The crowning moment, came when Woody handed the controls of the airboat over to me. What a joy it was, this is a toy I could really like. Susan reminded me that we could not tow it behind the Rig.

While out in the area, Susan spotted a news paper delivery tube on an island where airboaters stop and sign in.  Story as told by Anna - before you can sign in you must remove your shirt and run around the tree.  Then you can put your shirt back on and sign in..... (Susan) Like that was going to happen!  But both Dale and I did run around the tree (in opposite directions).

She also was deep in thought with Woody on dry land.

Did I mention that this boat can go over land AND water.

So I leave you with this photo. You can see all the photos we took by going to the link below:

Photo Link

Safe and Happy travels from the DaGirls rig

Where are We

Currently we are at a KOA in Lake Panasoffkee Florida, as reported earlier. We have enjoyed our short stay here as it has allowed us to do minor cleaning, such as laundry and finding out we have a bad sail switch (micro switch) in our Atwood heater. Determining whether or not you have either a bad switch or temp switch is easy.

Our stay here at the KOA will end today as we are traveling down the road to Susan's cousins, Woody and Anna. They have invited us to stay on there property where they have full hook ups and 30 acres. This will be an enjoyable time where we can sit back and relax.

One of the few sites at the KOA is Charlie, here is a photo of him:

On one of our walks in the morning I spotted this guy / gal in a tree sunning.

We also were shown a newly hatched gator. Pam and her husband run a air-boat ride out of the KOA and have a licence to have  on a few small gators onsite.

Our pull-though site.

The KOA has many full timers and people living here year round. They are working to improve the sites by making leveling them. A few sites are pull thru's, some sites will require a remote-mounted satellite antenna. Over-the-Air (OTA) signals are available, but limited to 4 stations.

Anyway time to get back to planning and getting Da Girls rig ready to roll.

Safe Travels

Our Georgia stay

We arrived at the Atlanta Motor-speed way on Wed. Oct 17th. Headed to the Will Call area as we arrived 1 day earlier then expected. Paid our $20 for the night and headed to the parking area. We were parked quickly and easily. With the large lots we were done in less then 5 minutes, and were setup and laid out in less then 30 minutes.

Strange we did not take as many photos, but we did take some.
While there Susan went on a hunting expedition for Alfa RV's. By the time she was done she had located 12 RVs. Which will be another post.

The shows were good, products were mostly related to RV's and not the "Seen on TV" ads. Lots of new rigs to be seen and walked thru. This is a first, we walked away spending $50.00 for the five nights there.

Did not really take a lot of photos, except for the Beach Boys concert. Those have already been posted.
We left early Monday morning.  The dump was available and we took advantage of it. So 6 am we were up and off to Savannah, Ga by 7 am. Our stop there  was a RV golf resort facility, nice location.  We had electric and water and were offered a work camping job for Nov. and into Dec.

The job entailed  turning on and off Christmas lights. Greeting people and being available Wed thru Sunday in the evenings.- Perks made this tempting- all the golf I could play, meals, stipend and great people to work with. If  it had not been for our commitments in Florida, we would definitely considered it.

Here is Susan taking a photo of the dangerous stair sign. as we walked around Old Savannah.

Along our walk we came across this posted in a store window.

Link to Savannah Photos

One of the many places we visited, was the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. This was the main squadron during World War II.

Link to the Mighty Eighth Air Force Photos

We Left Savannah, around 9:30ish and headed on down to Florida. Our destination was Lake Panasoffkee, near Ocala. We were to stay with a cousin of Susan's, but we ended up at the Lake Panasoffkee KOA. This is a nice place with full hook ups. A great way to do laundry and clean out the DaGirls Rig.

Anyway, time to take the Da Girls out for their evening walk.

Safe Travels
from Da Girls RV
Dale & Susan

Beach Boys Concert

The big entertainment for Friday was the Beach Boys. Need I say more?
Although the Wilson Brothers have passed on, they still remain a top group in our minds. Near the end they  got this group of Rver's rockin on there feet. We watched the security folks line dancing in the infield to the music.

Photos of the Concert

Travel Safety
Susan, Della, Tilly and Dale

Day in Greenville South Carolina

The day started out cloudy. We arrived in Greer, SC., on Saturday around 1:30 pm. Don and Shari were expecting us and came out of their house quickly. Like how could they not hear the sound of a diesel in their front yard. After an introduction of Chance, Della and Tilly, we proceeded to setup in the neighbor's drive-way.

 Don and Shari 

We have to say, they are a wonderful couple who have opened their house and hearts to Susan and I. We truly enjoyed our time with them. We were sad to say goodbye, but all things will come to an end. On Wed we packed up and headed south to Atlanta, Ga. for the Good Sam Rally, more on that in a later post.

While in Greer we traveled to Greenville to spend the day enjoying the town.

Photos

We hit the town just as a food event was starting. The food vendors were setup and in high gear. The smells of the different aromas were great. We had a great time.

Anyway sorry for being late in getting this off.

Update to our stay in Greer. Don and Shari took us on a drive in the country, we stopped at the Greenville Wayside SP Upper and Lower Falls area. Nice hiking trails but please were the correct shoes. Shari wanted us to see the area so much she continue on even though her shoes were not correct for the trail. We want to thank them both for our wonderful time in Greer.

Greenville Wayside Park

Safe travels from the Da Girls Rv

Susan and Dale

Freightliner Gaffney, South Carolina

Today, prior to leaving Bandits Roost, due to the *&%) Government shutdown, by the way, I hope no-one is going to vote them back into office. Anyway I do not want to get started on that, back to my thoughts, since we were heading thru Gaffney, I decided to call Freightliner and see if we could get in for a few small items. I called ahead and Pat explained they were booked up to 1st of Nov. but suggested we stop in to see how daily schedule was moving.  We arrived just before lunch time and decided to wait. Well when Pat arrived, she said as soon as you disconnect your tow vehicle, we will put your rig into the shop. It seems, they had completed a rig earlier, and did not want to start a new long job on Friday afternoon.

I was very impressed with the service and the people, I requested a new Air Dryer filter change and new Anti-swag bar bushing installed. This took 1 hour to complete at total cost of $260.

I must say, in the future, if we knew we are going to be in the area, we are making a appointment.

Sorry no photos, but we did meet David and Penny in there Alfa rig. They were in the process of getting ready for service. Nice rig and, of course, wonderful Alfa owners.

Since we only needed to travel less then 45 miles, we asked if we could stay the night and travel on Saturday to Greer, South Carolina.

Safe Travels from Da Girls Rv
Susan and Dale

Bandits Roost COE at Wilkesboro NC

It's been a while since we have logged on. Our current location is COE Bandits Roost CG, located west of Wilkesboro, North Carolina. This one of the few national sites (Corp of Engineers) that is still open and is expected to close on Oct. 11.

On our way south down thru Va. (Oct. 4), we encountered a north bound traffic backup of over 5 miles. We noticed the department of public safety works the same as Arizona. THEY DO NOT DIVERT TRAFFIC OFF THE FREEWAY EARLY. If they had worked on this diversion, the backup and subsequent traffic jam would not have been so disruptive.

This COE CG  does not have volunteer campground hosts. They have 2 sets of gate attendants, 4 days on, 4 days off.

While here we attended the Brushy Mountain Apple Festival in North Wilkesboro.

On Sunday, Susan & I ventured out in the kayaks on the reservoir, this is a very large lake and makes for long kayak rides. Sunday night brought in over 1 inch of rain to the area, which brought the lake up over 1 foot. Susan retied the kayaks to a higher point.

While we were out in the lake Susan spotted a bald eagle flying over our heads and landing in a tree.
The last (2) days brought about low temperatures at night which leads to fog and mist arising from the water in the morning.

Anyway Susan and I are heading to town for supplies, we have to admit, this is a relaxing atmosphere. We have become accustomed to the quietness during the day.

We also identified 2 problems areas on the rig: 1 is the living room slide awning. It was mounted 1.5 inches too low. I will have to relocate the awning rails. The other is the Atwood door, shims were not re-installed correctly. This one will take a little thinking before I do something to it.

Links:
Brushy Mountain Apple Festival

Bandits Roost COE CG


GPS: 36.12313, -81.24525
WiFi: Verizon 3G
Cell Phone: AT&T
Paw Friendly: Yes, except for the beach
Sites: Big Rig friendly

Satellite: Some sites heavily wooded

TV: NBC, and independent. 

On the Way to Hershey Chocolate

On our way to Hershey, Pa., we dropped down to New Haven, Ct. Timing was just right which allowed us to see Pat and Gina. We met them in Mesa, Az., at the Stramiello's wedding. They are such a fun loving couple. We new we couldn't leave Ct., without at least trying to get together.

We left Connecticut, by way of I-84 heading thru New York, sorry Jackie, we did not know where we could stop and visit you. Eventually we dropped down to PA-209 near Milford, Pa. With the National Forest Parks service shut down, we drove thru the Delaware Water Gap National.

We stayed at the Gifford Pinchot State Park. This would have been a nice park except for two items:
 1) Not Paw Friendly - Pets have to stay within a certain area.
2) Stink bug infestation - Seems the spring type weather brought out a major infestation. The nasty buggers are everywhere.

While at Hershey we learned that Mr and Mrs Hershey started a home for children. All of th eirfortune went to the home. Hershey is run by Trustees who sole purpose is to fund the Home. The town is extra clean and  a wonderful stop.

Founders Hall Entrance

Can you say CHOCOLATE

Chocolate Town

Once we left Gifford SP (Glad we did), we headed on down to the Elks Lodge is Staunton, Va. This is a wonderful small lodge. We hated to leave such an area rich in History, but our goal was to reach the COE camp-ground near Wilkesboro, NC. We learned that they would remain open till the 11th of Oct.

Our current location is at the Bandits Roost COE campground near Wilkesboro, NC. And yes, we are still fighting the nasty little buggers. However we seem to be winning. This morning we have only seen 5 of them.

GPS: 36.122858, -81.24541
Paw Friendly: Yes
AT&T: Yes
Verizon: 3G
Sites: Big rig friendly.

I will update our post later with links to our album once we are back in a 4G area