Georgia

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Hello all! It has been a BUZY three days! First I want to apologize for not blogging sooner. I had to catch up on some sleep!

So, as I posted on Facebook, Craig and I now have physical possession of our RV. Hallelujah!!! Let me tell you about our journey. It began Monday night January 14^th when we caught a red eye from LAX to Jacksonville, FL by way of Ft. Lauderdale. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale at 5:30 a.m. with a three-hour layover. We grabbed a bite to eat and waited. We hopped on our 9 a.m. flight to Jacksonville and caught an Uber to the Wells Fargo in Callahan, FL where we met with Diana and Mark to make the transaction.

Mark and Diana are LOVELY folks! Since Diana and I had been corresponding about the RV and a bit about our families, I felt as though we had known each other for a long time. Well, we pulled up in the parking lot and there it was, MY RV. It was exactly how I had imagined it. We greeted each other with hugs and smiles. They began telling us all about the features, buttons, gauges and extras. Mark gave the most thorough “tour” of the RV, inside and out while Diana gave me some highlights and showed me where the “goodies” were that they left for us. This lovely couple blessed us with many extras that would be useful in the RV – coffee pot, pot, pans, towels, sheets, first aid kit, hoses and many more extras to get us started on our trek back across the country. Think about it, this is a house on wheels!

We then took it a test drive with Craig getting comfortable behind the wheel, me shotgun, and Mark in the back, on the couch sharing even more information about the unit. As we rode down the highway, I felt like I was in a dream. It was an amazing feeling, realizing that MY prayers, savings, and my heart’s desire was coming to pass. It felt like a dream.

We returned to the Wells Fargo parking lot where Diana had waited for us with our luggage. We chatted a bit more then got down to business. We all signed the required documents, we paid them and we got the keys and the title. After they helped us load our luggage in our RV Diana handed me one last thing; a nylon velcro bag containing all of the manuals for the RV covering the unit from tip to tail. If I were to stack these manuals on the table they would be a good 7” high! That is A LOT of information to review. Craig and I were on “information overload” but we were four happy very happy people!

RV OVERVIEW

Alas, the transaction was complete and this beautiful Winnebago Navion was OURS! We watched as Mark and Diana drove away. We sat in OUR RV and just grinned at each other, feeling a little overwhelmed. We smiled and said almost in unison, “This is OUR RV!” Well, Craig started it up, I checked the map and we were on our way. (Sidebar: I am old school, I like paper maps. I don’t trust electronics or Navigation systems. I have a paper map for every state that we plan to drive thru plus a US map – just sayin’.)

We departed Callahan, FL and headed North on Highway 23 toward Atlanta to visit our friends Mike and Julie who had relocated to GA from CA several years ago. As we drove we saw trees; lots and lots of trees. We passed near the outskirts of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, drove through “Bacon” county, near “Coffee” county, yes, these are real counties! While driving up Highway 23, besides trees we saw land, lots and lots of land. On many stretches we would see a house and then another about a mile down the highway. Talk about space! I wondered aloud if they had septic and propane tanks since many of the homes were in areas that were very remote. I have travelled through many states, and I do not recall ever recall seeing so many trees, so much wide-open land and so many empty fields. One thing that Craig and I both noticed were churches. We passed so many little churches on the highway. It was actually quite beautiful and a little eerie at the same time. Eerie because we had not seen ANY people, only cows here and there, but no people. In fact, we saw very few other vehicles on the road. We were the only vehicle on the road for miles and miles at a time. It felt a little like the twilight zone. It became a little more eerie when we saw a confederate flag hung on a doublewide trailer along the highway. We looked at each other and I started to hum the twilight zone theme.

It was late in the afternoon and we were tired. Mind you, we had been awake since Monday about 8 a.m….and it was now Tuesday afternoon about 4 p.m. We caught a couple of cat-naps on our flights, but neither of us got more than an hour of sleep. We were tempted to pull over and take a nap, but opted not to, so Craig kept driving.

Craig trying to catch some ZZZ’s on the plane.😴

We had the navigation set and no music playing. We didn’t preset any stations on the radio and we did not have the correct cord to play music thru our phones. We just chatted and familiarized ourselves with the sounds of the RV – the blinds tapping the windows the sound of the refrigerator and the sound of the engine. During a quiet moment, I looked at Craig and said, “This is OUR RV!” After hours of driving, the realization hit me; I was the owner of an RV. This RV, the RV that Craig was driving was OURS! It was such an overwhelming and yet fulfilling moment that I sat there and quietly cried happy tears.

After hours of driving, about 10 p.m., we arrived at our first destination, Mike and Julie’s near Atlanta. We have been friends with Mike and Julie for at least 20 years. These lovely people are some of the most generous I have ever had the pleasure of knowing and are the most gracious hosts ever! Their home in GA is in a gorgeous community with a stream running thru the back yards. Besides the usual wildlife of raccoons, squirrels, and opossums, there are deer. Deer. It is truly a beautiful neighborhood.

Evening View of the nearby lake.

We bid our hello’s and then Mike showed us to our room so we could rest. The room they let us use is actually their basement – which in all honesty is an apartment! It is a spacious fully carpeted one bedroom, full bathroom, living room, huge TV w/cable, a kitchenette fully stocked with snacks, and a pool table! We have access to the backyard from our room. This is our space while staying with them. It is quite lovely.

We slept in this morning – when we were ready for the world, Mike, Craig and I went to lunch atJim and Nick’s BBQ. It was Delicious! We also went shopping for some RV essentials before coming back to relax.

We will spend a couple of days here with Mike and Julie. While here besides visiting we are setting up our RV and getting a little more acquainted with its features. Craig and I will look at the maps and decide which direction we are heading next. I will keep you posted.

Until next time…