Tripometer – 15,232 mi
Gas Gauge – 1199.325 gal
Location – Triple C’s RV Park and Campground, Chattahoochee, FL
Lodging – $35
Cans of OFF – 4
This morning was cold. Kelly woke at a relatively early hour to get work done so that we could get on the road as quickly as possible. Paul was very nauseous again this morning and fought with his stomach the whole time we were packing up. Whatever this illness is, it has got to be one of the most aggravating bugs we’ve ever had. It doesn’t make you outright ill, it just makes you feel gross for days on end. Not sick enough to cancel plans but not well enough to fully enjoy anything.
We are travelling East today with no real destination in mind. It is at least a two day drive (once you factor in Kelly’s work and the slow pace of our rig) to reach the ocean, so tonight we are planning on stopping wherever we can find a cell signal and a parking spot once we get sleepy.
Shortly after we left New Orleans we stopped at a pizza joint for a late lunch. The lunch was relatively unremarkable except for the news cast on TV. One of the local TV stations was reporting the news and the headline that caught our attention was “NOPD: Man shot in face”. While New Orleans was a fantastic stop on our trip and we will likely find ourselves there again in the future, it’s nice to be away from the crime and violence of the city. We both hope to be in a much more relaxed location in two days not concerning ourselves with the affairs of a big city. Paul made a show of putting the bulk of his credit cards and IDs back in his wallet this evening. He had decided days ago that carrying all of his credit cards and other wallet items was a silly proposition in a city known for its muggings.
During our drive today we were bombarded by two seemingly incompatible news stories. On one hand the Mars InSight lander had reached Mars and is preparing to collect data on its planetary composition. On the other hand, President Trump was telling the world how he doesn’t believe the climate change report. How he can look at the ultimate success of a Mars landing yet not believe the best minds in our country when it comes to our own climate is abhorrent. Much of our day was spent grumbling to each other while listening to the news channel. We’ve got to stop doing that to ourselves.
Today’s drive was uneventful. We pulled off the road after dusk into a small trailer park near Chattahoochee, FL. We had not noticed any hurricane damage on our trip so far today, however this little RV park was fairly ripped up from Hurricane Michael in October. Our site for the evening was immediately next to a large Caterpillar back hoe which we assume they were using to remediate some of the hurricane damage that was readily obvious around the RV park. We didn’t bother to disconnect the trailer.
To our horror the cell signal in the RV park was almost non-existent. As we’ve mentioned in the past, we are using a wide array of cell phone apps to determine the cellular signal strength at RV parks before we arrive. All of our research showed that this little RV park had an excellent signal. After checking and rechecking our cell signal apps this evening we came to the conclusion that the hurricane must have taken out a local cell tower. This place was supposed to have an excellent signal! We’ll have to get up and moving very early tomorrow so that Kelly can work.
Falling asleep tonight we both remarked at how quiet the campground seemed, no traffic, no ambulances, and best of all no gunfire.
Technical Note: We went through almost an entire propane tank while sick in New Orleans. Several nights we decided that if we were feeling ill we might as well be warm. We stopped at a gas station today and filled up the propane for the fourth and hopefully the last time of the trip. (Please, please, please let us find warm weather in Florida…)