Thursday, Aug 14 - Walterboro, SC

It’s Thursday, August 14.
For “completeness”, this blog will consist of two parts. First, the blog I wrote on Monday thinking I’d be able to get it out. But the new, wireless Internet access USB key I bought wouldn’t work at the north end of the island in Fort Clinch.

More significant, I couldn’t get the USB key installed / initialized. A trip back to the Sprint store Tuesday afternoon where the young lady was able to talk to the Sprint techies and get it working. But it still wouldn’t work at Fort Clinch. So I will post this today with two day’s thoughts.

Monday August 11.

We are ensconced in Fort Clinch. Last night (Sunday) evening was spent in the RV. Thinking we’d escape the noise and confusion of “home”. And although it was a quiet - we were able to sleep in until 8:00 a.m. – the night wasn’t completely restful; too much going on in our minds. You know the drill, you wake in the middle of the night and all you can think about is what needs to be done.

In retrospect, we probably needed to start getting ready, including loading the RV, about a week ago. We have one more day in “town” and tomorrow is already booked. Adding to the challenge is the weather. Once we get past 9:00 a.m., it is too hot to do a lot outside. One can run errands in the air-conditioned car(s), but working on outside RV storage, fighting sand gnats and heat, is more than I want to tackle.

As I anticipated in the last blog, unexpected events occurred to delay / complicate our preparation. Yes, we will pull out Wednesday a.m. regardless of how “ready’ we are. But that’s the way it is when you live the wild, mad-cap life of an Rv’er.

For those interested in the challenges of portable computing, my Toshiba laptop died – again. This is the 5th time. When I reported this failure to the “repair” company (in Massachusetts), they agreed that if the failure is the same as the previous four times (duh!), they will replace the computer – whatever that means. So for the next 60-ish days, I will be using Margaret’s computer (also a Toshiba, but newer!).

And that brought up a new (unexpected did I say?) twist. My “old” laptop (less than two years old which tells you something about the pace of technology) has a standard PC card slot into which I used a Verizon wireless access card. I’ve had it for the last two years and it has worked pretty well and pretty consistently during our travel. Well, Margaret’s “new” computer uses a PCI-Express slot, and yes, the “old” PC card won’t fit. No adapters available, so off to find a solution. While running one of today’s many last-minute errands, I happened to find myself in front of a local Sprint store. On a whim I stopped in to see what they might have. Turns out, they recommend (and had) a USB wireless access card. Since my Verizon two-year contract expired last month, I walked out with a new Sprint access card – which will work, thank you, in any “modern” computer (at least for a while).

On a side note, the Sprint-store lady said Dell has come out with a new laptop with a new PC-card configuration – not compatible with anything out there. Sprint’s tech manager even called Dell and asked what were they thinking. No report on the answer. All of this is a wake-up call to any of you out there who might be thinking about portable computing: don’t buy any device that isn’t USB-compatible (as an example, the techie clerk in the local Staples told me a lop of the cheaper laptops have NO PC card slot – but they all have USB ports).

Between the heat and unfinished errands, it’s beginning to look like I won’t get any new photos while here in Fort Clinch. Too bad. Last night, when driving out on another errand, we saw a fawn and an armadillo crossing the road. The armadillo is usual, but a fawn sighting is rare on this island.

Since we’ve been to busy for photos, I’m including one of the deer taken in Sequim, WA, while with Shell and Lynn in July. At least there’s a connection in subjects.

Thursday – August 14, Walterboro, SC

As we feared, unexpected difficulties arose at the last minute. Instead of a leisurely Tuesday and early departure Wednesday, things happened.

First, as mentioned, the Internet access USB key wouldn’t work so no e-mail, et.al. Second the heavens opened up Monday nights and continued all day Tuesday. So we couldn’t get any outside work done, at least not effectively. Then we found a wet carpet next to the bed – leaking around the slide-out seal. Then water standing in a plastic tray in the closet – leaking around the vent pipe from the bathroom. Sigh…

We discussed briefly cancelling the trip, but decided to press on as far as we could and see what develops. So Wednesday a.m., after coffee and croissant, Margaret headed out with the car to run more last minute errands and I drove the RV over to the repair shop. The tech got up on the roof and caulked the entry points around the stand-pipe and the ventilator. He determined that the gasket around the slide was deformed and needed to be replaced but didn’t have one in stock. So we will sleep with the slide closed if it rains / looks like rain at night. Not the end of the world, but an inconvenience.

We left Florida shortly after noon. Stopped in Georgia (exit 6) and topped up with diesel fuel ($4.179 per gal), had lunch in the parking lot and headed north. Ran through some heavy rain which tapered off by 4:30 when we pulled into the RV park in Walterboro, SC.

It’s less than a 3 hour drive to our next spot – King’s Mountain South Carolina State Park – so we’ll hang around here this morning to catch up on mail, get this posted, and allow time for the “other” repairs, including closet door catch (broke), replace the entry steps cover (torn), and maybe wash off some of the bugs on the windshield (from last September’s trip coming from California). No I’m not lazy about washing the rig, it’s just about impossible given the storage lot doesn’t have water and not having a convenient spot at home to park / wash. Guess I’ll have to find a do-it-yourself place that allows an RV maneuvering room.

Don’t know if we’ll have any kind of Internet access at the next spot. Have to wait and see. That’s it for now.