USA

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So, the Gulf of Mexico…

I am going to have TONS more tonight, but I’ve got to share just one photo right now. My camera glitched and I was worried I’d lost all the pictures from this morning, so I pulled over to transfer them to my computer. Since it’s on and I have cell service…

I always have a vision of a place that I am going to. That vision is usually wrong and I know it’s just that, an ideal imagining, so I’m never disappointed. For the Gulf of Mexico, my vision had blue green water and white sand beaches as far the eye can see. Except for the fact that my vision had sunny skies, it looked something like this:

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Someone Please Explain This To Me

I drove about 400KM southwest from Hampton Roads and my destination was COLDER. I drove about 400KM southwest from that destination, and it was JUST AS COLD. I drove about 400KM southwest from that destination and it was now COOL. Finally, I drove another 400KM southwest to where I am now and the temperatures are BOILING.

Make sense? I didn’t think so. Not complaining, except that it is really, grey, grey and wet out there. No sense hanging out at home since I need to charge the computer, something I can only do while driving (this situation is being resolved).

Oh, and the time here is screwy. I’ve been looking at the time on my computer since I got here and it turns out I should have been looking at my phone. I’ve moved to CST and gained an hour yesterday!

More later with soggy looking pics of the Gulf of Mexico. So excited. 😀

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Kind of Like BC In Winter

So, I’m THIS close to the Gulf Coast and it is actually warm out there, but it’s raining and the next few days will be grey and overcast. Darn it! I would have been glad for chilly temps with sunny skies. Oh, well, no sense looking a gift horse in the mouth. Tomorrow, I will get to frolic on a beach off the Gulf of Mexico! Now, where did I put the sandals?

Tomorrow’s plan is a bit zippy as I want to cover a lot of ground, but I really don’t want to spend tons of time in the area since I am planning to be in New Orleans for a week. But by the end of the day, I will have most definitely and not just technically been to Florida!

Question: how did I get to be so lucky?

Answer: I worked my ass off to get here. These kinds of lives have to built. They don’t happen on their own.

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Sweet Home Alabama

I’m parked for a few nights at the Wind Creek Casino in Atmore, Alabama. I was thrilled to find this place since it is a great location to drop the rig and go explore the Gulf Coast with my truck!

The weather is dreary, so I have decided to delay seeing the Gulf of Mexico for just one more day. I’m going to hang out at home this afternoon, get some rest, and plan an awesome itinerary for tomorrow!

My last night in Georgia was pretty good. I woke up raring to go… at 2:30AM. I threw off a bunch of blankets as the temperature in the loft was almost infernal and I managed to get back to sleep for four hours. When I got up at 6:30, I was unusually awake and decided to just have my coffee and banana and take off. The outside weather was just a notch cooler than balmy and a real treat.

It was still very dark at 7:00!!!

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I had just gotten on the interstate when I glanced at my dashboard and decided that I really need an auditory signal that screams, “Look at your gas gauge, dummy!” I wasn’t in the red, but almost.

Moments thereafter, I saw a sign for a Love’s travel centre, so decided to try my luck there and had an uneventful fill up. I can’t believe how far $125 goes in the U.S.!

Before long, I crossed over into Alabama and stopped to get some tourist info.

My rig in Alabama.

My rig in Alabama.

I stopped at the next rest area for a bite to eat and to change the bad nut in my battery bank since I managed to find one the correct size in my hardware bin. Voltage on the battery was 12.5 and 10.7 in the rig before the switch, then the same! Woohoo! I noticed that the inside of the bad nut had a bit of corrosion, which surely wasn’t helping.

There was another Love’s just before the casino, so I decided to top off the tank. This chain is definitely going to be my fueling stop of choice from now on.

The casino is conveniently located just off of I-65. It has lots of RV parking, but no hookups. There is no stay limit (within reason) as long as you go in and spend some money, which I always do when I am at a casino.

I’ve got power, it’s almost warm out there, and would you look at that, I’m finally overnighting somewhere that I can get my rig and a palm tree in the same photo!

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WOW! (And an adventure)

This afternoon, I set to work cleaning up the rig, but a broom was no match for The Great Confetti Disaster of 2013. Hmm… voltage was super high since full sun was hitting the solar panels and the battery was at 94% capacity.

I turned on the whole house inverter. So far so good and I was drawing barely 0.1 amps more than when I’d just been running the fridge. I plugged my Magic Vac into the dressing room outlet and gingerly switched it on.

You know what happened?! NOTHING. My inverter didn’t explode and my rig didn’t implode. The vacuum ran for the two minutes I needed it to run and I lost 0.1% battery capacity. OMG, I can vacuum when I boondock! Wait, why am I happy about this?!

That’s the good news. The bad news is that as soon as the sun started to set, I once again got a discrepancy between my inside readings and the batteries themselves. Not as bad as yesterday, but still annoying. I am going to try to find a lock nut of the correct size for my fuse and see if that helps.

As for the adventure, I noticed Red Lobster was across the road from the rig. That’s a huge treat for me! I haven’t gone there since the fall of 2011 and the time before that was in 2007, so I didn’t feel that going there tonight was particularly excessive.

But the area here isn’t pedestrian friendly, so I had to walk two blocks to the nearest traffic signal, then hike those two blocks again through bushes and a ditch to reach the restaurant! The trip back in the dark was particularly fun, but the exercise was good. 🙂