We were up early this morning. Besides having an 8 a.m. appointment to have the tires rotated on the RV, we were trying to beat the severe weather that was moving in.
While Mike dumped our holding tanks and disconnected the electric and water, I stowed the last minute things away and picked up the throw rugs before bringing the slides in and lowering the antennas. Mike paid W. T. for the electric for our last week and it was time to leave.
It started raining just as we left The Willows and the lightning was getting closer and more frequent. Then it REALLY rained – it was like driving through a tropical storm (not quite hurricane rain). Mike was driving the RV and I was following in the Vue. We would outrun the rain, but would have to stop for a traffic light. By the time the light turned green, the torrential rain had caught up with us – this happened 2 or 3 times before we made it to Bell Frame and Brake.
We had put Tinker in his crate in the RV for the drive to Bell’s and we left him in it instead of taking him out into the rain. We drove over to Flying J to have breakfast. Actually Mike had the breakfast buffet, I had toast since I had an upset stomach and hadn’t been feeling well since yesterday. After breakfast we went by the UPS Store to check our mail and turn in the key for the mail box we had rented.
We got back to Bell’s by 10:30 and they were just starting on the RV. The camber on the front wheels was out of alignment and after talking with the owner about it, Mike had them also bend the axle to bring the camber into alignment. So after having the toe-in on the front wheels corrected, the tires rotated and the camber aligned we were finally on our way at 4:30.
We drove over to the Flying J and had the RV weighed. The last time we had it weighed we were 50 lbs over weight and now we are 560 lbs under. So between what we stored and the stuff we donated, we had lessened our load by about 600 lbs. We hitched up the Vue to the RV and left at 5:30 – in the rain.
After leaving the Flying J we drove south to I-10 and headed east. We had planned on spending the night at the Flying J just west of Tallahassee at Midway. But when we pulled into the parking lot a little after 8 p.m. E.D.T.(we lost an hour when we entered the Eastern Time Zone) we weren’t able to park in the area for RVs. A couple of RVs hadn’t pulled into the parking spots straight and so everyone else who came in was also parked crooked. We decided to go up the road and find the Wal-Mart, but saw a Pilot Travel Center not too far from Flying J and decided to park there.
There were some long parking spaces there (not in the truck area) and after some maneuvering Mike was able to go between some trucks and come around the back side of the spaces and park in the last space. By this time it’s 8:30 E.D.T. and after driving in rain since Dothan, we were just ready to stop for the night (forget about the breakfast tomorrow morning at Flying J we had been looking forward to).
This was our first time driving the RV at night – we’re usually stopped for the night by mid to late afternoon. The high beams on the headlights show up great, but the low beams are LOW. Did I mention it rained all the way here?
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