August 4--Panama City Beach, FL
I didn't go to Shoneys; I went to Outback Steakhouse instead. I had a very nice shishkabob, plus a chicken and bacon quesadilla. Then I waddled back to the motel.
Sleeping didn't go well, because there was a lot of activity outside. I don't know if it was prostitution or drugs or something innocuous, but there were people talking and knocking on a door and the door opening and closing all night. Combine that with the air conditioning apparently going out for a bit and the cats escaping and going under the bed, I didn't sleep well.
We headed out about 6:15, when it was 82 outside (and 87 in the rig). I stopped to get diesel, and then stopped at McDonalds, where I let the cats out in the RV (they could use the exercise) and I got breakfast and ate it while the cats ran around. Then I began to drive to Panama City.
I took my time, because it was only a few hours and I didn't want to be too early to the campground. The weather was OK; rather sunny and hot, reaching the low 90's by the time I got to PCB.
I'm in the same campground I stayed in last summer. There's a bit of shade, but I'm hoping it's cloudy while I'm here (I may be renting an apartment tomorrow and hopefully will move in (at least to sleep) on Friday). I met with Fran to get my car and had lunch, then I visited four or five apartment places, checked in at work, bought cat food and a sandwich for me, and then looked at the new library.
Now I'm relaxing, enjoying not having to drive far anymore. And I have a new trip to think about: my mother and I are taking a cruise to the other Panama City over Thanksgiving! We're going to take an excursion to go through the canal, which ought to be great. I'm looking forward to snokeling as well, and having a room with a balcony. I'm sure I'll update this blog more then!
Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
SMOG!
August 3--Montgomery, AL
I slept OK last night; I kept waking up to make sure I didn't oversleep. Well, I didn't; I was up at 5:30 eastern time and out by 6:45 (subtract an hour for Central time, where I am now). I filled up with diesel, bought some McDonalds breakfast burritos and a sweet tea, and headed out.
Lots and lots of hills, for most of the day (until after Birmingham, really). It wasn't too hot for the first hour or so, and actually it was rather foggy. I did notice that my gas mileage was rather bad--I blame the hills. I stopped right over the Tennessee border to fill up, and kept going (after turning on the air conditioner, since it was 84 or so by then--8am local time!).
Nashville was rather smoggy, although the construction/traffic wasn't too bad. The temperature really ramped up when I crossed into Alabama, leading support to my idea that Alabama is a suburb of hell. We hit the 90's in Decatur, and by the time we got to Birmingham it was flirting with 100. I hate driving through Birmingham, between the traffic and the lousy roads, and this was no different. But we made it! I did lose a couple of years of life when some cars that had apparently had a bit of a fender-bender were stopped in the middle of the road, including my lane, and others were dodging around them and I slammed on my brakes and still don't know why I didn't get hit by someone driving like a maniac, since everyone drove like that all the time. But I'm feeling much better now!
I was going to stop in Birmingham, but decided to keep going to Montgomery; it's only about an hour and 15 minutes longer, and it had a pool. So I kept going, and got to the Motel 6 around 1:45pm. I'm in a handicapper room, which was the only single on the first floor. I got the cats unloaded, but not before the temperature in the RV reached 92; I shudder to think what the temperature must be now, but since I forgot to get clothes for tomorrow, I may find out soon. And I might need my umbrella as a parasol to go for dinner!
The room is nice, with a wooden floor, although when I let the cats out Nell discovered that she could indeed get under the bed, so I lifted the bed up to try to get her out, and nearly cut Puck in half when I lowered it, so after a few more misadventures they're both back in the kennel. Nell is meowing, most likely because she's hungry (too bad, so am I), and I suspect Puck is just glad he's not in that hot RV and/or cut in half.
I just went out to try the pool, but 1. it's somewhat dirty-looking, and 2. when I put my feet in I found out that the pool is about 95 degrees, and the water almost feels a bit slimy. So no pool for me. Which is probably good, because the sun is strong enough to reduce me to ashes in a very short period of time (and I'm not even a vampire!). It'd be nice if we got a thunderstorm and cooled off a bit, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm planning, when it gets cooler or I get hungrier, to walk to the Shoney's across the street. Yay Shoneys!
Only about four and a half hours to Panama City, and the weather there looks normal, which is damn hot enough--highs 90, lows 78 or so. If it doesn't get much hotter than that, we'll be fine until I can get an apartment (hopefully by this weekend).
I slept OK last night; I kept waking up to make sure I didn't oversleep. Well, I didn't; I was up at 5:30 eastern time and out by 6:45 (subtract an hour for Central time, where I am now). I filled up with diesel, bought some McDonalds breakfast burritos and a sweet tea, and headed out.
Lots and lots of hills, for most of the day (until after Birmingham, really). It wasn't too hot for the first hour or so, and actually it was rather foggy. I did notice that my gas mileage was rather bad--I blame the hills. I stopped right over the Tennessee border to fill up, and kept going (after turning on the air conditioner, since it was 84 or so by then--8am local time!).
Nashville was rather smoggy, although the construction/traffic wasn't too bad. The temperature really ramped up when I crossed into Alabama, leading support to my idea that Alabama is a suburb of hell. We hit the 90's in Decatur, and by the time we got to Birmingham it was flirting with 100. I hate driving through Birmingham, between the traffic and the lousy roads, and this was no different. But we made it! I did lose a couple of years of life when some cars that had apparently had a bit of a fender-bender were stopped in the middle of the road, including my lane, and others were dodging around them and I slammed on my brakes and still don't know why I didn't get hit by someone driving like a maniac, since everyone drove like that all the time. But I'm feeling much better now!
I was going to stop in Birmingham, but decided to keep going to Montgomery; it's only about an hour and 15 minutes longer, and it had a pool. So I kept going, and got to the Motel 6 around 1:45pm. I'm in a handicapper room, which was the only single on the first floor. I got the cats unloaded, but not before the temperature in the RV reached 92; I shudder to think what the temperature must be now, but since I forgot to get clothes for tomorrow, I may find out soon. And I might need my umbrella as a parasol to go for dinner!
The room is nice, with a wooden floor, although when I let the cats out Nell discovered that she could indeed get under the bed, so I lifted the bed up to try to get her out, and nearly cut Puck in half when I lowered it, so after a few more misadventures they're both back in the kennel. Nell is meowing, most likely because she's hungry (too bad, so am I), and I suspect Puck is just glad he's not in that hot RV and/or cut in half.
I just went out to try the pool, but 1. it's somewhat dirty-looking, and 2. when I put my feet in I found out that the pool is about 95 degrees, and the water almost feels a bit slimy. So no pool for me. Which is probably good, because the sun is strong enough to reduce me to ashes in a very short period of time (and I'm not even a vampire!). It'd be nice if we got a thunderstorm and cooled off a bit, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm planning, when it gets cooler or I get hungrier, to walk to the Shoney's across the street. Yay Shoneys!
Only about four and a half hours to Panama City, and the weather there looks normal, which is damn hot enough--highs 90, lows 78 or so. If it doesn't get much hotter than that, we'll be fine until I can get an apartment (hopefully by this weekend).
Monday, August 2, 2010
I guess I slept well . . .
august 2--Shepherdsville, KY
. . . because sometime last night some guy decided to take a header out of the fourth floor window and smash into the sidewalk a few rooms down from mine. I headed out that way to get to the RV and saw all the broken glass and the dried red areas, and thought maybe someone had dropped wine and/or soda with a pizza or something. The broken window was then pointed out to me, and I was told the lovely story. You'd think the Motel 6 would block off that door, or that the police would, or that someone would have cleaned up the gore and broken glass, but no. Rumor has it he didn't survive. I shouldn't wonder, given it was the fourth floor and, from the glass break pattern, he went through head-first.
Eesh. The day got better. It almost had to. I checked my tires (all well), loaded up the kitties (after moving the RV so I didn't have to walk through the debris) and headed out. I got to Port Huron in about an hour and 15 minutes, and spent 40 minutes waiting to get through customs. Grrr. And then I got Mr. Wonder-Customs-Guy, who I think was trying to trip me up from my prior stories--he stated that "you have a pet" and I confirmed two cats. He asked me why I stopped in London, and I told him about the show (I should have showed him the program). He finished by asking me what year was my vehicle; I told him. I suspect he looked up my license plate to play 20 questions to see if I was Al-Qaeda or something. Given all that, he didn't bother looking through my rig, which everyone else has done.
The interstates in lower Michigan are awful. Horrible, bumpy, terrible. Even with all the construction, they stay horrible. Things improved when I reached Ohio, and got diesel and lunch (and let the cats out a bit--I told them it was going to be a long day, but I don't think they believed me). Then more driving.
I also hate I-75 in general. Whether you're in Michigan or Ohio or Kentucky (or Florida, for that matter), it's heavy traffic and wall-to-wall semi trucks. And every time a semi overtakes me I get pushed all around the road, which freaks me out, since I feel like I'm either going to be pushed into another semi on my other side or into a wall or something. I'm also a bit leery, since I almost got sideswiped by a semi in Canada, so I wasn't happy. Every city had construction: Detroit, Toledo, Dayton, Cincinnati, Louisville. And around Dayton it got above 90 degrees. The high was 97 here in Louisville, right before I stopped.
The Motel 6 here is old and tired, but clean. I got a room right on the end with a lovely efficient air conditioner, although I had to go talk to the desk to have them turn my water on (there's renovation here in the bathrooms, and apparently after they finished mine they forgot to turn the water on). I also can't let the cats out, because the bed is old and they can get up into the box spring and Nell, for one, will. I think tomorrow I'll take them out early to the rig and feed them there and let them stretch their legs. It's the real problem with going to motels with cats: they're often penned up in the fabric kennel, which is rather small. But I don't want to camp when it's 93 degrees in the shade. Oh well.
Onward south tomorrow!
. . . because sometime last night some guy decided to take a header out of the fourth floor window and smash into the sidewalk a few rooms down from mine. I headed out that way to get to the RV and saw all the broken glass and the dried red areas, and thought maybe someone had dropped wine and/or soda with a pizza or something. The broken window was then pointed out to me, and I was told the lovely story. You'd think the Motel 6 would block off that door, or that the police would, or that someone would have cleaned up the gore and broken glass, but no. Rumor has it he didn't survive. I shouldn't wonder, given it was the fourth floor and, from the glass break pattern, he went through head-first.
Eesh. The day got better. It almost had to. I checked my tires (all well), loaded up the kitties (after moving the RV so I didn't have to walk through the debris) and headed out. I got to Port Huron in about an hour and 15 minutes, and spent 40 minutes waiting to get through customs. Grrr. And then I got Mr. Wonder-Customs-Guy, who I think was trying to trip me up from my prior stories--he stated that "you have a pet" and I confirmed two cats. He asked me why I stopped in London, and I told him about the show (I should have showed him the program). He finished by asking me what year was my vehicle; I told him. I suspect he looked up my license plate to play 20 questions to see if I was Al-Qaeda or something. Given all that, he didn't bother looking through my rig, which everyone else has done.
The interstates in lower Michigan are awful. Horrible, bumpy, terrible. Even with all the construction, they stay horrible. Things improved when I reached Ohio, and got diesel and lunch (and let the cats out a bit--I told them it was going to be a long day, but I don't think they believed me). Then more driving.
I also hate I-75 in general. Whether you're in Michigan or Ohio or Kentucky (or Florida, for that matter), it's heavy traffic and wall-to-wall semi trucks. And every time a semi overtakes me I get pushed all around the road, which freaks me out, since I feel like I'm either going to be pushed into another semi on my other side or into a wall or something. I'm also a bit leery, since I almost got sideswiped by a semi in Canada, so I wasn't happy. Every city had construction: Detroit, Toledo, Dayton, Cincinnati, Louisville. And around Dayton it got above 90 degrees. The high was 97 here in Louisville, right before I stopped.
The Motel 6 here is old and tired, but clean. I got a room right on the end with a lovely efficient air conditioner, although I had to go talk to the desk to have them turn my water on (there's renovation here in the bathrooms, and apparently after they finished mine they forgot to turn the water on). I also can't let the cats out, because the bed is old and they can get up into the box spring and Nell, for one, will. I think tomorrow I'll take them out early to the rig and feed them there and let them stretch their legs. It's the real problem with going to motels with cats: they're often penned up in the fabric kennel, which is rather small. But I don't want to camp when it's 93 degrees in the shade. Oh well.
Onward south tomorrow!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
And now it's over
No, nothing bad has happened, but I've thought of seeing "The Tempest" as the end of the summer vacation, and it really feels like it. Dammit.
The show was fantastic. I didn't sleep too well last night (I don't know why, but I've not been too successful sleeping in motels this trip), and I was out the door by 8:45 or so. I followed the GPS instructions to Stratford without incident (44 miles).
It turns out I was right, and there are nice shaded spots along the river--I'll remember that for next time (if there is a next time, although after looking at next season I'm tempted to spend more time here--or maybe volunteer!). I walked around Stratford, which has lots of older brick houses of two and a half stories that are just lovely. Also an old-fashioned downtown, and the park next to the river is beautiful--grass and trees and benches everywhere so you can look at the swans and ducks (very few geese, and no Canada geese, which seems odd). It appears to be the tradition to pack a big picnic lunch, eat it at this park, then go see a show. It even looks a little like Stratford-upon-Avon, although there's not nearly as much river current here, and instead of rowboats they rent pedal-boats.
The Festival theatre is huge, with a big thrust stage. I was in the orchestra, fifth row, all the way over on the side, but I could see most everything. The show was great, and Christopher Plummer is a god. But I kind of knew that before.
Due to my seat location, I got out and got to my car before most people had left the building. I know this because I had to drive through a bunch of people on the way out who needed to realize that while they had numbers, it's best to get out of the way of a 10,000-lb RV. I just went slowly and let them part around me, and got out before the worst of the traffic began. I do think some theatre-goers caught up with me on the way home, though, because there was a lot more traffic and I got passed a couple of times like I was standing still.
It's probably good that I got this room, as it is indeed hot out--84 with humidity to match. Not as hot as it is down south; I'm not looking forward to going back, for any number of reasons. Ah well. The next three days are long drives, and probably staying at motels due to the heat. I'll try to keep updated, but if you want to say hi remember that my phone will be working once I cross the border (about 10am tomorrow, I'd say).
The show was fantastic. I didn't sleep too well last night (I don't know why, but I've not been too successful sleeping in motels this trip), and I was out the door by 8:45 or so. I followed the GPS instructions to Stratford without incident (44 miles).
It turns out I was right, and there are nice shaded spots along the river--I'll remember that for next time (if there is a next time, although after looking at next season I'm tempted to spend more time here--or maybe volunteer!). I walked around Stratford, which has lots of older brick houses of two and a half stories that are just lovely. Also an old-fashioned downtown, and the park next to the river is beautiful--grass and trees and benches everywhere so you can look at the swans and ducks (very few geese, and no Canada geese, which seems odd). It appears to be the tradition to pack a big picnic lunch, eat it at this park, then go see a show. It even looks a little like Stratford-upon-Avon, although there's not nearly as much river current here, and instead of rowboats they rent pedal-boats.
The Festival theatre is huge, with a big thrust stage. I was in the orchestra, fifth row, all the way over on the side, but I could see most everything. The show was great, and Christopher Plummer is a god. But I kind of knew that before.
Due to my seat location, I got out and got to my car before most people had left the building. I know this because I had to drive through a bunch of people on the way out who needed to realize that while they had numbers, it's best to get out of the way of a 10,000-lb RV. I just went slowly and let them part around me, and got out before the worst of the traffic began. I do think some theatre-goers caught up with me on the way home, though, because there was a lot more traffic and I got passed a couple of times like I was standing still.
It's probably good that I got this room, as it is indeed hot out--84 with humidity to match. Not as hot as it is down south; I'm not looking forward to going back, for any number of reasons. Ah well. The next three days are long drives, and probably staying at motels due to the heat. I'll try to keep updated, but if you want to say hi remember that my phone will be working once I cross the border (about 10am tomorrow, I'd say).
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