On The Road Again

Well, I am just about all packed up and ready for the short drive up to Lazydays in Tampa tomorrow. Planning on hitting the road before 10 am which should put me in Lazydays' parking lot around noon. Lots of time to drop the motorhome, unhitch the Vue and head for Tampa airport to pick up Chris. Hoping Lazydays will only need Monday to repair the electric on our water heater. Then it is on up the road to Orlando for a couple of weeks. We'll be staying at the Thousand Trails park on Hwy 27 just north of 192.

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I'm Published!! On Schmap.com

One of my Rideau Canal photos is being used in the Schmap Online Ottawa Guide. You should be able to get to the schmap site by clicking on the title of this blog or the widget running above this text. My photo shows the canal locks where the canal meets the Ottawa river. There is a small boat tied up at the dock. It is listed under mdjgcl2008, my Flickr account user name. Schmap works great on iPhones and smartphones.

Tentative Alaska Trip Route

Spent a little time on Google Maps this evening scoping out our possible route to Alaska from Ottawa this summer. This is what I have come with so far. Just over 11000 km from Ottawa up to Alaska doing the Fairbanks, Anchorage loop. Then back through BC with stops in Stewart, Prince Rupert, Prince George, Williams Lake and others. All subject to change of course.


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TTN Forest Lake

We were on the road by 10 am this morning. We only had a short 200 mile drive today, so we left a little later than usual.

Most of today's drive was along I-85. We stopped at the Flying J in Blacksburg, SC to top up with diesel fuel and unleaded for the Vue. Diesel was down to $3.979/gallon ($1.05/litre), the lowest we have seen since last fall. Unleaded was $3.429/gallon ($0.905/litre). Still considerably lower than in Canada. We also checked out a Waffle House for lunch. Enough said on that one. Won't be stopping there again anytime soon.

The drive was great. Traffic was moderate and moved along quite well. We stuck around 55-57 mph and just watched the countryside roll on by, averaging a whopping 9.3 mpg!!! Not bad really when you consider how heavy we are and pulling another vehicle as well. Doesn't take long to blow through $200 or more at the pumps either and of course that will increase the further north we go. Oh well, it is still a great life! We heard truckers are doling out over $1000 per tank full these days. Ouch!!!

We arrived at Forest Lake just before 3 pm and were able to check out a bunch of different sites because the park is only half full. We found two nice sites near the pickleball courts. We couldn't get level on A-20, so we opted for A-18. As you can see from the photo, we are in a well treed site, so no Canadian satellite TV for the two days we are here. Antenna works great though, so we will survive.

The park is very well laid out among Carolina pine trees. The 2 outdoor pools are not open until Memorial Day. Too cold anyway. Last night, it got down to 36F here!!!! Brrrr!!!!!! This afternoon we were closer to 70F.

According to our Garmin Nuvi 760 we are 800 ft above sea level and our GPS coordinates are:
N 35 degrees 51.625', W 80 degrees 23.823'. Punch those numbers into Google Maps for a good idea of where we are.

Our Verizon U-720 modem works well from the confines of our motorhome. NationalAccess though, no Broadband.

Lastly, I added a traffic meter to the blog yesterday. It displays a list of where people accessing our blog are from. I thought it would be neat to see that info. Please sign our guest book too when you drop in. Repeat entries are fine. You don't need to leave an email address if you don't want to, but all comments would be greatly appreciated.

TTN Carolina Landing

We packed up things last night and even had the Vue hooked up in preparation for an 8 am departure this morning. We hit the road right on time and headed up I-95 to the Flying J at Brunswick, GA. We headed inland on US 25 to Hwy 1N and then onto the Thompson Highway (Hwy 17). We stopped at a Walmart in Swainsboro and had lunch in the parking lot. We continued north along Hwys 17 and 77 until we reached I-85 where we turned east into South Carolina. Carolina Landing is located only about 4 miles into South Carolina on the shores of Hartwell Lake.(The yellow 5 on the map. We left from number 3.) It rained on and off for the first half of the drive. The drive was fabulous. Quiet roads doing 55-60 mph, averaging just over 8 mpg. We saw alot of Georgia countryside. This is definitely a beautiful state. Lots of forests along the way today but not the big trees we see up north. One thing we couldn't help noticing was the amount of closed, as in "no longer in operation", gasoline stations. There must have been at least 10 closed down stations on our route which was a little over 300 miles. A sign of the times perhaps.


We pulled into Carolina Landing at 3:30 pm and were quickly checked in and shown to our site, A-7. It is in the 50 amp section, so that cost us an extra $2.00 per night for our stay. We weren't sure how hot it has been or will be while we are here. Having the 50 amp will let us run both a/c units if needed though. Our site is on a fairly steep hill but we managed to level ourselves without any problem. Sites are small but nicely kept.

We took Buddy for a stroll around the campground before supper. We found a petting zoo on the grounds. Buddy got along very well with this goat and rooster. Not sure he knew what they were but it was fun watching them interact.

The shot above is of the outdoor basketball court which also doubles as a pickleball court. Apparently it is used by some campers. The court has 6" inch high grass growing up through cracks in the cement. The net is actually a badminton net mounted on two poles that are not even cemented into the ground. Meanwhile, across from the main entrance sits an abandoned double tennis court just like the one in Orlando, except this one has no nets. We don't think pickleball, or tennis either for that matter, are big hits here but we shall see tomorrow.

There is a nice quiet country road outside the main entrance that leads into an affluent residential neighbourhood on the edge of Lake Hartwell. We are hoping to do a walk/run to the lake and back in the morning. It is quite hilly, so should be lots of fun.

Looking forward to 2 nights here and then on to Forest Lake, NC.

Route Home

Here is our proposed route from the Thousand Trails Preserve in Orlando back to London, Ontario. We will take our time heading back, stopping for 2-3 nights at about 5 different sites along the way. We'll have a chance to check out 3 other TT preserves as well as 3 ROD locations.


Diesel prices are certainly on the rise of late. Presently, we are seeing $4.19/gallon and we will surely see prices approaching $5.00/gallon on the way home. The motorhome is still a great way to travel though. We have all our things with us. All we'll need is food and fuel.

I've put in a new picture on home page, rather a map of which states which have visited so far. We'll add more, as well as provinces, as our adventures continue.

Google Maps

I've been trying to figure out how to add Google maps to my blog in order to give readers some idea of exactly where we are at any given time. The red balloon is Thousand Trails Orlando where we are until March 10th. As you can see, we are not very far from any of the Disney Resorts.

I have linked this page to Google Earth as well. Simply click on the title of this entry, "Google Maps" to follow the link. You should be able see where Lazydays, Thousand Trails Orlando and Thousand Trails Peace River are located.