Tuesday, May 8 - Friday, May 11. Sometimes I wonder if the kitties will ever forgive us. They did not take to traveling well and were really strung out by the time we reached, after an 8 hour drive,
Ft. Walton Beach late Tuesday night. When we opened their kitty camper (a 2 ft by 3 ft canvas container with windows that we stored to keep the kitties safe and stationary in the 5
th wheel while we drive), we discovered they had turned over their water (which was in a "spill-proof" container) and mixed it with litter they kicked out of the box to make a thick layer of clay, which naturally
embedded itself into their paws and fur.
The smoke we encountered along the way was really scary. It turned the sky a hazy pink, burned our eyes for hours, and made it feel like all of F
L was going to burst into flames before long... if we didn't get rain soon. Beyond that, this trip tested Joel's towing skills with hills, bridges, and innumerable potholes. We thought once we had reached
Destin, we were pretty close... and we were... but we weren't expecting to start island hopping the way we had to do, and in the dark. Joel was a little tense and a lot tired, but I always feel confident that when he's behind the wheel everything will be okay. He has that effect on me. On Wed, we had the truck fixed and I worked on an article for
http://www.catalogs.com/ while Joel explored the Ft. Walton area on bicycle.
It was still smoky outside, but we were near the beach so it wasn't nearly as bad as inland. While
Destin felt like an overdeveloped beach town similar to Ft. Myers Beach, Ft. Walton felt like old Florida and was really charming. By late Wed, we were ready to hit the road. One of the transmission mechanics recommended we try a different way out, one that required us to travel north into Alabama and then east. We were jazzed not to return on those crazy, bouncy suspension bridges, but little did we know what was in store for us instead.
Unintentional Detour in Alabama. We left Ft. Walton about 5:00 and figured we drive as much as we could, then "
boondock" in a roadside Wall-Mart somewhere in GA, as close as possible to our friends Jen and Jay, who left FL over a year ago and settled just north of Atlanta. Didn't happen. Hours of driving late into the night... and no
Wal-Mart to be found. Anywhere. We drove through AL and into GA, only to find ourselves driving 30 minutes in the wrong direction at 1:00 am. We were not prepared for the mountainous, late night drive and desperately tried to negotiate a plan. We could stop and park at one of the many Baptist churches we saw. What about behind the Waffle House? There was a semi stopped for the night. We kept thinking that if we could go just a little bit further.... But when we ended up back in Alabama, we knew we were licked
for the evening and aimed ourselves back towards
Eufaula, a destination originally recommended by the transmission mechanic in Ft. Walton. When we finally settled in and slid our slides out, Joel grabbed my hand and led me outside. It was completely silent and pitch black. The smell was astoundingly earthy and primal. Realizing we had no human neighbors in sight, we sat on our picnic table and gazed at the stars, in wonder not only at where we were, but that we had made it through the night.
The next morning, I walked my plastic mug of coffee down to the edge of the land we camped on and discovered an enormous lake. See?
Joel followed me down, and I think that's when we both let some realizations sink in. We really were doing this. We had finally sold the house and embarked on the journey we had been planning for years. We didn't know what roads lay ahead of us, but we were excited to start our journey. Leaving FL behind was a huge milestone for us, even if we did ramble in and out of Alabama in the middle of the night.
Joels Comments: The amount of stress we experienced in these few days was incredible. To start the 5th wheel was overloaded which occasionally made driving really scary. I know that we were in safe limits but steering was tricky and braking would occasionally make the hair on my neck stand up. As we passed the Ocala area the smoke from the forest fires got really thick and lasted for the better part of 3 hours. We just plugged along at 65 mph. After Tallahassee it cleared up a little bit but the roads then got really hilly. It was beautifull country but about 2 hours of constant --up the hill -down the hill --up the hill -down the hill--up the hill -down the hill, you get the idea. Driving through Destin was a challenge. Imagine driving a tractor trailer at midnight through 22 miles of downtown Delray and you 'll have some idea of what that was like. Fort Walton was a nice town, but also had forest fires that smoked us out at our campground. The work done on my truck completely transformed it. As we were leaving I had to get onto the interstate, from a dead stop at a light and pulling about 15 thousand pounds up a steep on-ramp I was able to get up to 65mph before the merge. Alabama/Georgia-please look at a Google maps to follow all this........... we left fort walton and took 285 to I-10 east , after that we took SR231 to Dothan AL. At that point we should have got on 431 and taken it all the way to Columbus GA. For some reason that escapes me now we decided to go the back way... we took 52/62 out of Dothan east to GA. This was an OK road and it was still light out so no big deal. then we turn onto us-27
heading north out of Blakley Ga (which is a really cool old looking town). Two lanes of curving hilly winding road in the middle of nothing........ when I say nothing, I mean nothing. There are more 7-11s on 80 miles of any random road in Florida than there were people or houses on this stretch of highway. It took us hours to navigate this stretch, we made wrong turns and finally ended up in Lumpkin GA. If you look at Lumpkin on the map you'll see us-27
coming up from the south and continuing north. but if you look closer you'll also see that the road that comes in from the west and heads east is also, you guessed it, us-27.
Considering that it is now 1:30 am, i
s it any wonder we made a wrong turn? Of course we didn't realize we were going the wrong way until 30 minutes and 20 miles later when we see the sign for Eufaula. I hope to at some time be able to go back and spend dome time in Eufaula the town was really cool with great architecture. The Park itself was incredible with some of the tallest trees and brightest stars I think I have ever seen.
sites along the way. 
May 11th - May 13th. Finally arrived in Wellford, SC! It had been over a year since I'd seen my family and longer than that since Joel had been here. The weather was gorgeous; it was still cool, but also fresh and sunny. We finally got to enjoy spring! Everyone seemed a little surprised by our RV. They thought it was pretty luxurious and roomy inside. We had a visit in Cunningham Campground and we proudly showed them around our little place, in groups of 2 and 3 at a time, of course. 
en hurting a bit more than usual these days. Mike's created a virtual beer fest every time we've gathered together, filling a large cooler with dozens of different microbrew and high gravity beers. I've discovered a love for extra hoppy beers, which all started with Sierra Nevada. Now, there's the Hop Monster, Hoppy Devil, Indiga, and Hazed and Infused along with a slew of others. Joel's still searching for the perfect brew, but really loves Rogue products, such as Dead Guy's Ale.
en took us for a whirl around the perimeter of the lake on their new golf cart and we checked out the neighborhood park. It was a whirlwind of an evening. After going out for Mexican, Joel and I had to call it a night because we were zonked and were heading for SC the next day. Here's a pic of all of us from New Year's 2005 in our old bedroom. We all spent quite a few New Year's eves together, but this was, sadly, our last one to date. Looking forward to the next time we can all celebrate together again! :-)
Tuesday, May 8 - Friday, May 11. Sometimes I wonder if the kitties will ever forgive us. They did not take to traveling well and were really strung out by the time we reached, after an 8 hour drive, Ft. Walton Beach late Tuesday night. When we opened their kitty camper (a 2 ft by 3 ft canvas container with windows that we stored to keep the kitties safe and stationary in the 5th wheel while we drive), we discovered they had turned over their water (which was in a "spill-proof" container) and mixed it with litter they kicked out of the box to make a thick layer of clay, which naturally embedded itself into their paws and fur. The smoke we encountered along the way was really scary. It turned the sky a hazy pink, burned our eyes for hours, and made it feel like all of F
L was going to burst into flames before long... if we didn't get rain soon. Beyond that, this trip tested Joel's towing skills with hills, bridges, and innumerable potholes. We thought once we had reached Destin, we were pretty close... and we were... but we weren't expecting to start island hopping the way we had to do, and in the dark. Joel was a little tense and a lot tired, but I always feel confident that when he's behind the wheel everything will be okay. He has that effect on me. On Wed, we had the truck fixed and I worked on an article for http://www.catalogs.com/ while Joel explored the Ft. Walton area on bicycle. It was still smoky outside, but we were near the beach so it wasn't nearly as bad as inland. While Destin felt like an overdeveloped beach town similar to Ft. Myers Beach, Ft. Walton felt like old Florida and was really charming. By late Wed, we were ready to hit the road. One of the transmission mechanics recommended we try a different way out, one that required us to travel north into Alabama and then east. We were jazzed not to return on those crazy, bouncy suspension bridges, but little did we know what was in store for us instead. 
for the evening and aimed ourselves back towards Eufaula, a destination originally recommended by the transmission mechanic in Ft. Walton. When we finally settled in and slid our slides out, Joel grabbed my hand and led me outside. It was completely silent and pitch black. The smell was astoundingly earthy and primal. Realizing we had no human neighbors in sight, we sat on our picnic table and gazed at the stars, in wonder not only at where we were, but that we had made it through the night.
Friday, May 4th - Tuesday, May 8th, 2007. We accepted it: now was the time to spend money like water, even if the water cost $2.50 at the vending machines.... After spending nearly an hour trying to back our 37 foot 5th wheel into a narrow spot in Disney, we wondered if we had made the right decision to play Tourists after such an ordeal. Hardly sporting a Mickey mood, we grumbled to ourselves and longed for the walkie-talkies we'd planned to purchase at Bass Pro Shops in Ft. Lauderdale as our cell phones were rendered completely useless 
by our exhausted frustration and inexperience. One could simply hang up and ignore any well-intentioned suggestions! After a mad dash of consoling kitties, washing hunter in a plastic container outside by the spigot because he pooped on himself during transport, moving out slides, and showers, we were ready for Cirque du Soleil: La Nuba. It was well worth the rush... what an amazing performance! For those of you fortunate enough to have seen any Cirque performance, you know what I mean when I say it was simply indescribable! From men propelling themselves 
from within huge round wheels lined in neon to little Asian girls balancing over sized spools with rope and jumping over themselves to catch them after throwing them 20 feet in the air to tightrope walkers and trapeze artists, La Nuba threw us for a loop. Can't wait to see the next performance. Saturday was bittersweet as we spent the last day with Joel's parents, who have always supported us (and Joel, of course, way before my time) in all of our crazy adventures. We had a wonderful time visiting Animal Kingdom, but~~considering the unseasonably hot/humid weather (even for FL), our favorite part was surely lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, after while the park finally cooled down as the clouds rolled in. As we said our final goodbyes in the parking lot of Ft. Wilderness, I was reminded of the time 8 years ago that we drove out of their driveway in our '87 Southwind. Betty and Ewart waved us goodbye as we all shed tears, unaware that we'd return in a matter of weeks after the Southwind's engine caught fire just south of Tampa!
Saturday, April 21 - Friday, May 4. Before selling the house, we took our RV out of storage in Betty and Ewart's backyard and drove it to John Prince Park in Lake Worth. Joel did a phenomenal job of backing in this 37 footer for only the second time. Within an hour, we were not only parked but also leveled at our lakeside campsite. Getting level is actually a really big deal and not always easy. Imagine being just a little off: doors don't close properly and you even get a vague sense of vertigo when walking down the stairs (stair, singular really) from the bedroom into the kitchen/living area. Not to mention the fact that salt shakers can fall on your head when you open the cabinet door. Ahem....Using leveling jacks for the front and makeshift wooden platforms for the back end, Joel quickly figured out how to get us stable. We thought it would be easy and efficient to just haul over numerous boxes and plastic containers full of all the stuff we wanted to bring with us on the road, pile them in the RV, and sort them out later~~once we sold the house. We were so very wrong. Suffice it to say that in the end we had to take nearly all of the boxes back out of the RV (including basement storage) and sort them outside, realizing too late that we had been much too generous in our decisions of what to bring. We were daunted by the realization that, now that the POD had been transported ahead of us, we would need to haul nearly 200 books with us to SC. Somehow on Friday we managed to sort through it all and pack it mostly away, vowing to reduce our weight once we arrived in SC and emptied our POD into a stationary storage unit. For the moment, it was time to celebrate and say our goodbyes to some amazing friends. On Saturday, Jeff and Arin, Michelle, Anthony and his girlfriend came buy for a barbeque and to bid us farewell. Don't they look happy to see us off? :-) We saw this not only as a fiesta, but an opportunity. In an effort to quickly shed pounds, we offered our condiments up for the taking in a big plastic bin and said goodbye to endless bottles of olive oil, salad dressing, and barbeque sauce. No more COSTCO for us: We had to get used to storing less than a dozen condiments in our 4 cubic feet fridge. This is going to be a challenge for us! Sunday was the day we drove my 99 Suburu to a marina in Stuart and sold it to Charles. I was really sad to see the old girl go! We had spent some quality time together.... I had put over 85,000 miles on her since 2001! On Monday, our close friend Will came by to spend a little time by our quiet place on the lake. Tuesday brought my best girlfriend, Kristie, over with her little wonder Jojo, who enjoyed singing songs and entertaining us outside our house on wheels. We were fortunate to see everyone at least once more before we left and hope that we will have visitors once we get settled in a place for a while. Then Wednesday came: we had planned to have the truck's transmission upgraded in Miami and scheduled the appt a week in advance. Since we had sold my car, we drove the truck down to Miami and called the car rental company to meet us at the shop. An hour and a half later, we were still lingering on the asphalt, waiting for the car rental driver to show up. They had told us he had gotten lost, etc. but every time we called, Budget promised us he was only "minutes away." On a whim and with time to kill, Joel stepped inside the shop to follow up on the parts he ordered. Turns out they never arrived! There was no way, he was informed, the parts would be received before Monday. Since we had reservations in Orlando on Friday night, this wasn't going to work. As we were getting ready to leave the office, who shows up? We told the driver to stuff it and jumped back in the truck. Optimists that we are, we took it as a sign that our time in FL had certainly expired!
They have served as an inspiration to us. Neighbors of Joel's for years on Kingbird Circle, Nancy and Richard sold most of what they owned and three years ago, bought a 32 foot 5th wheel and hit the road... as full-timers. Richard offered Joel many tidbits of advice and Nancy had us running to Camping World to pick up what we call "puffahs." I don't know what to say about them other than they're puffy, fluffy pillowy type things with one metallic side. You push them up into your skylights to keep the sun out and the RV cool. They're great insulators and we're very grateful for all of their helpful suggestions.... looking forward to catching up with them in another part of the country sometime soon! :-) Friday, May 4th was a whirlwind. We had 9:00 pm tickets for Cirque du Soleil in Orlando and were worried about towing for only the second time. While Joel got new shocks put on the truck, 
I promptly managed to lock myself out of the RV. Joel never figured out how. So instead of preparing the RV for moving, which includes taking our 2 recliners and placing them upside down on our sofa, putting all our plants and breakables in storage containers on the floor, and tucking away any other loose objects, I went for a walk in the park. If you live in FL, you know how hot and humid May came be... by the time Joel came home, I was drenched... but still excited to FINALLY hit the road. 
Closing day was April 24, 2007. The second closing day. The FIRST closing day was February 10th, but we won't get into that just now. We were extremely happy~~and a little sad~~ as we waved goodbye to our dutiful POD driver who somehow miraculously lifted all of our earthly possessions (minus a couple of thousand pounds Joel permitted us to load into the RV) with his mechanisms (Joel calls it a fully articulated hydraulic lift system, AKA "PODzilla") away from our old house, squeezed between 2 pine trees, and onto Sunrise Blvd~~where he then hoisted it onto his truck bed. The entire process took over an hour, and we watched every moment, awed. The driver chuckled, asking if Joel was in the military. Yeah, right. He said only a military man could pack a POD that well and we easily exceeded the 10,000 pound limit a POD could hold. Evidence below.
