On Tuesday, 1/14/2014, we got to Wilmington, NC for a wonderful visit with Bob's aunt, Martha Kate. Bob's dad had 9 siblings and Martha Kate is the youngest of the group and the only one still with us. She's a spry, active 84 year old with a quick mind and some fantastic memories of family members. She stays very active in her community doing volunteer work at the hospital and teaching Sunday school at her church. We visited with her & then treated her to dinner so we could have even more time to visit. On Wednesday (1/15), she prepared a lunch for us and invited 6 other family members as well - 5 cousins that we'd never met before and Aunt Margaret that we met in the midwest about 35 years ago.

The KOA in Wilmington was not so great. Our least favorite of all campgrounds we've visited so far. It was very wet, the sites were soggy and the staff was not helpful when we reported a problem with the sewer hookup. We also lost electric power for a while in the campground. They finally had Duke Power come out and fix the problem, but when the problem occurred or when it was restored, it tripped a breaker on our inverter which kept us from having any AC power in the coach. It took Bob a while to figure out the tripped breaker as it was on the actual inverter (in the big storage bay) rather than on any of the breaker panels in the coach.

Our trip from Wilmington to Gaffney, SC on 1/16 was uneventful but a somewhat a long day. The campground in Gaffney was great! We had a terrific level site with a great view. We did a tour of the Freightliner plant on 1/17 in the morning and then took the coach in during the afternoon to be weighed on each wheel. The people at Freightliner also adjusted the tire pressures on the tires based on each tire weight. We had great weather in Gaffney for both days -- lots of sunshine and in the low 60s. The night of 1/16 was cold but only got down to about 29. 1/17 got down to about 21! Brrrrr! We kept the propane furnace in the back of the coach running enough of the time to keep the water bay from freezing. We also put a 60-watt light bulb in the water bay to help with the heating of this area.

On Saturday, 1/18, we pushed out early (it's a long drive) for Brunswick GA. As we travel south, we keep hoping for warmer weather. Shortly after we hit the road, we got a phone call from the campground owners in Gaffney who'd found one of the locks for the system we use to tow the Honda. Someone is really looking out for us 'cause without that lock, the tow vehicle could have serious problems. We stopped immediately and secured the towbar with a cotterpin. Since we'd only gone about 5 miles, we turned around, went back to the campground and reconnected the lock. Whew!! There are just so many ways this could have turned out differently -- thank goodness it worked out the way it did. We got to Brunswick about 4:30 pm & had just enough daylight to get set up at our site.
Sunday 1/19 was terrific!! Our first day without driving or any other commitments. We got a chance to meet some our neighbors, take a walk, do a few odd and ends along with a few loads of laundry. Very relaxing.

Monday 1/20, we were facing our longest driving day so far. 340 miles to Port Charlotte and the Myakka River Motorcoach Resort. We are learning so much as we travel. This morning, we accidentally ran over our bag of garbage as we were leaving. Most of the campgrounds ask people to leave bagged garbage at the curb. 10 minutes later, we'd cleaned up the mess and could move along. Note to us: don't leave the garbage where we can run over it. We're including a picture of the Myakka River Resort combined with our vehicle and a sign we saw as we approached Port Charlotte.

Many people reading this blog know that we spent some time in Toledo, OH in the 70's. Notice the name of the road is "Toledo Blade Blvd". The Toledo Blade is Toledo's newspaper and also used to be the name of the hockey team from Toledo. We're looking forward to the next two weeks here in Port Charlotte. It'll be nice to give the coach a rest along with the coach driver (Bob). We want to explore the area and get the coach set up a little better.