Saturday, September 10, 2011

Just another day at the beach – St Augustine, FL ( 81°/62°)

Friday…. let’s see… what to do, what to do?   Oh yeah, WalMart!  Gotta go for groceries and beat the weekend crush!

Dawdling…. dawdling….. dawdling… what?  It’s already 2:30 pm and we haven’t eaten anything, yet?  Ok, OK…  we will stop for something on the way to WalMart.

Leaving…leaving…leaving… What’s that smell?… oh yeah, shrimp shells and “parts” in the garbage from dinner last evening…. gotta get it out of here before we go.  Yep, I will just tie it up and put it in the back of the $prite and drop it off at the dumpster on the way out of the park.

BANG!   CRASH! SQUEEK!… crappy dumpster doors! 

Driving, Driving, Driving….. oh yeah, Sonny’s Barbeque on US 1.  Gotta have that….kinda on the way… if we go out of the way… just a little…

uh… what’s that flashing on the dash?  … looks like a gas pump.  Hmm where are all my bars to show me how much gasoline I have.. er…rather, don’t have.   Pit Stop!  Pronto!  Guess I will have to only imagine the smell of BBQ over the lingering rank shrimp stink in the car and the stinky Shell Gasoline tinkling into its tank.  Ding!, Pay!,  now, Driving…..Driving… Driving….

Sonny’s BBQ!

What’s that squealing racket coming from the music system?.. Jimi Hendrix, you say? More like a tank being drug sideways across a concrete slab coated with broken glass and ball bearings. .. yeah, I know he was an acclaimed guitarist… he also invented obnoxious white noise. How useful has that turned out to be?

Excellent!  Shared a half baked chicken ( no, it really was a half chicken) lunch with 2 sides (make those 2 baked sweet potatoes, please.). Sure, I will have a gallon of iced tea to drink….

Waiting….waiting… waiting….

Drooling….drooling…. drooling  … (I did mention we had not eaten yet, today)

Diet is over!  Food is here! Gimme a drumstick while you sort the parts.  Mmmmmm, nice yams  … (sweet potatoes, you dirty old man) Butter, cinnimon, melting hot. 5 different BBQ sauces you say? decisions… decisions… decision!

Eating… eating…. eating….

Apple cobbler ala-mode?  of course! It’s the exclamation point at the end of the meal. It is absolutely necessary to complete the meal and say “I’m ready for a nap.”

What?… oh yeah, we still need to go to WalMart…. sans nap… it’s just across the street.

Driving…. driving….driving… parking… walking…shopping… shopping…. shopping.  What?  No Joe’s Crabshack Salmon filets?… or any other of “the shack’s” products.  Rats!  I’ll have to make do with a can of starkist!

Checkout time!……. still checkout time….. still checkout time……still checkout time…..   Hey! don’t these people know that today is not Saturday?… and what’s with trying to use a bunch of coupons in the self service checkout lane?  That’s just not fair.   I am on a fastpath to a nap! MoveIt!

Push cart, squeeky wheel, load $prite, close doors.

Driving…. driving….driving …  Home!   Unloading.. unloading…putting away… yeah, that’s frozen… ok, Put away…. put away…. pu away…. done!

Naptime!…. RING…. RING….RING!… grrrr  NOT nap time…. Hello. No, we were not doing anything, what’s up?…..

 

……… All this is our day and now, it’s my blog.  If there is anything you don’t understand, just ask.

ttfn

Budd

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Stagecoach RV Park–St Augustine, FL ( 83°/67°)

pano

Stagecoach RV Park:   RVParkReviews  :    Heavy Haulers CG Directory

This is a nice park but not a resort.  It is mostly large pull-thru spaces. Some with concrete patios (for a few $$$ more). 2011-09-07%252015.30.20 No pool, no kids play area, no off leash pet area but it is clean, kept up, mostly open level sites on gravel/grass/packed sand and nicely treed but not dark.

Sprint 4G works in the east end of the park (not where I am, though). 

Wifi is limited at 750kbps/ 170kbps

It is TengoInternet delivered through Bellsouth.net and has been pretty solid most of the time but there is a lot of variability based on time of day a lot more than the number of RVs in the campground. I suspect it is due to the two huge outlet malls a couple of blocks away that soak up bandwidth big time during business hours.

The actual local wifi signal strength throughout the park is excellent but with the speed limited delivery, even small included youtube pics on a web page stutter some.  Forget about getting any smooth HQ quality delivery any time of the day or night.

There is no CableTV but I pick up about 20 Digital channels over the air but few of these have I any interest in watching.  If their bandwidth delivery was better, then the lack of cable would not be such a bother.

2011-09-07%252015.30.122011-09-07%252015.30.43

The main roads are paved and the intermediate roads are packed gravel and kept up pretty well.

 

The layout is comfortable and nice for long walks.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Getting Acclimated to “retired!”

St Augustine, FL - Iso T-Storms 93° / 77°

We spent the day just settling in to what will be daily fare for us for hopefully, a very long time to come.

Merrily’s brother bob came by about 5pm and took us on a mini tour of the St Augustine area.  He showed us where important stuff is, like good seafood restaurants, good beach accesses and more good restaurants.  To bad we are now on the cash and carry plan which does not include much eating out.

Still, a great day. After the tour we went to his house for a great dinner of pulled pork, Bob Evans mashed potatoes, homemade Cole slaw and apple pie. Seriously yummy!

Katie came along and was terrific.  A little curious but no obnoxiously so and she got to meet their dog, Skitch, which is a foot long hairy black 12 volt dog someone put a 36 volt battery into.  Talk about wired! He does not just run from place to place, he teleports! Katie was a little overwhelmed and finally climbed up on the back of the couch behind my head to escape him. I have never seen her retreat quite like that.

I think it spooked her.

Anyway, all is fine, now. We just got back home and are chilling for the evening.  Maybe tomorrow I can find the Digital TV converter so we can watch some over the air broadcast TV since there is no cable in this campground.  So far, Merrily has read books in our down moments and I am still happy with what I can do with the Wi-Fi…. or nap a little, which is something I have not had time for in many moons.

I know this does not sound all that exciting but at this age exciting is less important than regular.

ttfn

Budd

Friday, September 2, 2011

Settled into a spot and had a great evening with our relatives.

(St. Augustine, FL Stagecoach RV)

These are nice accommodations at Stagecoach. We settled on this amenities-sparse park due to no monthly rates at the other parks we were interested in. Wi-Fi is very powerful here but the backhaul limits us to about 700kbps down /  200kbps up best case:

 

Compare that to what I was getting on my Sprint Epic phone 2 days ago:

 

and it can be a little “laggy” sometimes despite only a 15ms ping time.

Right now, at 8:23am on Friday, I can only get:

Slow Wifi Coupled with the lack of cabletv and the digital TV converter for over the air reception has fallen down behind the TV and can’t get out, means we are going to be sans- media for bit.

Still a nice park, though and all too convenient to two outlet malls at this I-95 exit including a Camping World. There goes my upgrade budget for the next year.

We had dinner with Mer’s brother and SIL, Bob and Bette, last night. Excellent pseudo-Mexican fare with a pitcher of lip smacking margaritas for the table. Best Pollo Loco I have ever had and huge portions, too.  We will eat there again before we go.

It was really super to finally get to hug them and just be with them. As usual when we get together, we all talk at once and do a lot of laughing until we are exhausted.

I will say that it is very nice to finally be with them and know that we don’t have to leave next Thursday or …. any particular date or time. We can visit in a much less frenetic mode and really savor the time together for whatever it is.  It always seems that our visits are too short and we all have lists of things to share and do and never can quite get through all that before parting. This time, we are just here until we leave, period.  It is wonderful!

ttfn

Budd

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

St Augustine. Working out accommodations

Here is my miracle worker!  She does everything for me and I appreciate her more than my own life.

After the "getaway blues" of previous posts about the tribulations that all happened as we were trying to leave our Stix and Brix, we stopped at the Pilot/Flying J at Dunn, NC to fill up.  170 gallons and $632 later, we pulled out headed south down I-95. We stopped the first night at Bass Lake RV park in Dillon, SC about 120 miles from Raleigh. Yesterday, we drove on down to Walterboro, SC, and spent the night in the New Green Acres RV park.  New Green Acres CG in Walterboro. Site C25Quite nice other than being right next to I95 but this is the same as is true of Bass Lake. In both cases, it's OK for a night and though these parks are appealing for longer stays, the highway noise really ruins the rest of the experience.  SC seems to have booming highways. Big trucks going down them seem to keep booming and it sounds a lot like nearby thunder.

This morning, we left Green Acres. I was disappointed that I could never get the cable TV hookup to work but I cannot say it was not my fault after the events of the past week.

We pulled into the Stagecoach RV park in St Augustine, FL a few blocks off of I95. Some road noise if you are outside but not really bad.  I still prefer quiet.

Given our reasons for being near Jacksonville, Stagecoach RV park is the closest of the ones we have seen even close to our price range so we thought we would plan at least a month here.  However, the desk person did not know anything much about the monthly rates and available sites so we have to check back in the morning with the owner to get that worked out.

To be honest, I love the setting, hate the traffic noise and the lack of Cable-TV so we are backpedaling on our plans just a bit. First thing in the morning we will check the monthly rates and availability at St John's RV park about 5 miles farther south on I95 on hi-way 207.  We will also check the same at the Indian Forest CG a couple of miles east of that same intersection. We drove through both parks this afternoon after setting up in Stagecoach and though both have cable and Wi-Fi, Indian Forest has a much better ambiance for us, is closer to the beach, St Augustine old town and a Super Wal-Mart.

If they have reasonable monthly rates available I think we will likely move to Indian Forest, tomorrow. ST. John's RV park is a second choice to Indian Forest, though.  $375/month + Elec is hard to beat around here so Stagecoach may end up being our residence for lack of monthly availability at the other two places.

I will admit that I had my first surprise this evening when we went out for a walk after dark and no mosquitoes flying around!  They are show stoppers for me as I react badly to their bites. Bob,  my BIL, had told me that he could not remember being bitten around here in the past several years of living in the area.  I can handle the humidity and even the gnats. Just not the mosquitoes and chiggers.

Well, Mer has retired and I am on her heels a lot earlier than usual, tonight.  Not a hard day but tomorrow will be a long one.  We finally get to see Merrily's brother Bob and his Chemo-embattled wife after 2 years absence and we can never stop having fun when we get together so bedtime may come really late tomorrow night.

We have all been deep friends since Bob and I were in Middle school in central Florida. No matter what the gaps in time between visits have been, there has never seemed to be any discontinuity in our relationship because of them. I count Bob as one of the very best people I have ever known and always a stellar benchmark for me to grow towards in my life.  I admire his courage and convictions and the incredible stamina that he has shown in carrying some unusually massive and long lived life burdens. This latest goblin which has been thrust upon his shoulders, is certainly the worst I have ever known of..

God Speed, Bob and Bette. We are here for whatever benefit of comfort to you guys that we are able to provide during this sketchy period of your lives and just know that it will be survived.

ttfn, my friends
Budd

Monday, August 29, 2011

N O W !!!!!!!!

This blog has been fulfilled. We are on  the Road...... NOW!

Left the house this afternoon and are now resting nicely in Dillon SC for the evening.  Some slight irks and traumas tried to forestall our departure yet again but thanks to Emery, III stepping in and taking up the slack by removing and replacing the windshield wiper motor that just decided to strip its gears, hauling stuff to Goodwill, cutting the tree up that fell on the van and Smart car during Irene and generally being front and center whenever anything cropped up to stall our departure this time.

He has certainly been the STP (oil treatment) that has kept us from getting bound up by a few dozen more glitches and goblins that have popped up these past few days.

Thank you, Emery. You make me cry for Happy.
ttfn
Budd

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Whoops.. there goes another rubber tree plant...

Not what I wanted to wake up to Saturday morning.  Goodnight, Irene! Did you have to do this the day before we were due to leave here?

Yes, we watched out for hurricane Irene and knew when the winds in our area would start placing us at risk. What I forgot (happens too often, now) was that I always park all the vehicles in a parking deck or out on the open street where big stuff can't fall on them. I did not consider that my neighbor had a defective tree that would break off at the spot. It could have fallen in any of the other 358 degrees of direction and would not have bothered anything but these 3 degrees.. crap!

I guess this is what you call a sacrificial Van.  The '93 Aerostar took all of the hit from the tree and the Smart was just trapped by the branches until I cut them off.  No damage to it.

The dent in the van's windshield frame and the bullseye pattern in the driver's side of the glass is surprising little damage given the size of the tree.  The bad news is.. no comprehensive insurance due to the age.

This, plus the windshield wiper motor stripping its gears on the Truck as I started to move the RV, has delayed our departure yet another day or so.

But no one was injured by Irene and no serious damage so.. there is the lemonade.

ttfn
Budd