Our Rally in the Keys

Prior to buying our Dutch Star in December 2019, Dorcas and I belonged to at least 4 other RV clubs, and occasionally attended rallies hosted by those clubs.  Shortly after our purchase we joined yet another RV club: the Newmar Kountry Klub (NKK), not to be confused with another RV club we still hang with: Country Coach International.  

In April last year we had planned to attend an NKK Carolinas rally in Winston Salem, just a few miles from home and in the summer an NKK International rally in Wyoming. Unfortunately both rallies were ultimately canceled due to the COVID pandemic. We finally were able to attend the NKK Rally in the Keys held December 6-12, 2020.

Our camp at TA Vero Beach

The rally venue, Fiesta Key RV Resort is about 6 hours from our winter home in Titusville.  We had intended to leave home on Saturday, the day before the rally started, and spend the night at Miccosukee Casino near Miami, a place we have boondocked several times in the past.  That would make for a leisurely drive on Saturday afternoon and a very short jump down to the Keys on Sunday.  Being paranoid and overly cautious, we called the casino and learned that, due to the pandemic, they were operating under limited hours and did not currently allow overnight RV parking. BUMMER.  Plan B was to spend the night at the TA Travel Center (truck stop) in Vero Beach where we had already planned to stop and pump fuel.  We departed home late Saturday afternoon for the 1.5 hour jump to the TA where we filled up with $2.133 diesel and enjoyed a Popeye's Cajun chicken sandwich.  Our sleep was very restful and uneventful, nestled among the parked semi-trucks.

I flew the drone for a while and got a good gull's eye view of all the Newmar motorhomes.

We had a happy hour each evening at Sunset Point Tiki Hut at the resort.  Drinking and sunset photography were the primary activities at happy hour. 

This journal would not be complete without a picture of Matilda

Dorcas enjoyed a fish sandwich on the beach at Lazy Days Islamorada

Lazy birds at Lazy Days:

We did several excursions.  One was to Pigeon Key, a small island along the Seven Mile bridge south of Marathon.  Dorcas and I have cycled and walked the 2.5 miles to Pigeon Key a number of times on the old Overseas Highway, but that bridge is currently closed for renovations.  This time we took a boat.  Pigeon Key was a work camp during the construction of Henry Flagler's railroad, or Flagler's Folly, which opened in 1912.  The 5-acre island is home to 8 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, some of which remain from its earliest incarnation as a work camp for the Florida East Coast Railway.  Today these buildings serve a variety of purposes, ranging from housing for educational groups to administrative offices for the non-profit Pigeon Key Foundation. 

Pigeon Key.  Photo courtesy of Wikipedia. 

Faithful readers will know that I have an extreme fascination with bridges. In fact, that is the reason I became a civil engineer.  The museum on Pigeon Key has exhibits documenting the construction of the older Seven Mile Bridge, constructed from 1909 to 1912.  The bridge used two different architectural styles, concrete piers with steel girders, believed to be more suitable for deeper water, and concrete arches for the shallow water spans. 

The bridge has been featured in films and television series, such as Licence to Kill, True Lies, 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Burn Notice.  It is said that when Arnold Schwarzenegger was filming True Lies, he fell in love with Pigeon Key and tried to buy it.  No sale. 

See the osprey nest in the tree on the right?

After our visit to Pigeon Key Dorcas and I lunched at Burdine's Waterfront Chiki Tiki Bar, our favorite restaurant in Marathon.  Dessert included their wold famous fried Key Lime pie.

Famous miniature Key Deer of Big Pine Key

You can't spend a week in the Florida Keys without the obligatory drive to Key West.  Most of our past trips to Key West have been a bit anticlimactic and disappointing, primarily due to the large crowds.  This year, due to the COVID pandemic, there were no cruise ships in town, and you could actually walk down the sidewalk or into a store without being elbow to asshole with all the other tourists.  It was very pleasant. Furthermore, Key West has a very strict and aggressive mask mandate; masks are required in all public places, indoors AND outdoors, 24/7.  Police officers, merchants and trolly operators were all enforcing the mandate.  You go Key West!

Southernmost Point? NOT!

From Wikipedia:

A more southern part of Key West Island exists and is publicly accessible: the beach area of Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park at approximately 24°32'42.2"N  81°48'34.5"W, and approximately 500 feet (150 m) farther south than the marker. Also, the Big Island of Hawaii is farther south than Key West.

Further south, land on the Truman Annex property, just west-southwest of the buoy, is the true southernmost point on the island (approximately 900 feet (270 m) farther south near 24°32'39.2"N  81°48'17.8"W), but it has no marker since it is U.S. Navy property and cannot be entered by civilian tourists.

Finally, the true southernmost point in Florida (as well as in the continental United States) is actually 10 miles away at Ballast Key (24°31'15.9"N  81°57'49.5"W), an island south and west of Key West.

Made famous by Jimmy Buffet's "Woman Goin' Crazy on Caroline Street"

Aside from tourism, seafood is Key West's only industry

Iguanas are invasive to Florida and harmful to its ecosystem, but they sure are pretty!

Presidential Lincoln limousine at Harry Truman's Little White House

The most famous bar in Key West

The other most famous bar in Key West

On our previous trips to Key West you couldn't even get close to Capt. Tony's or Sloppy Joe's due to the crowds.  On this day you could just walk right up to the bar.  

Au Contraire!

Christmas tree: Key West style

Hey, so what?  I have nine boats!  And one even has a motor!

The Wahlburgs weren't wearing masks!

Jimmy's place.  Let's get a cheeseburger in paradise!

We attended a few more excursions to the Dolphin Research Center in Marathon and the Theatre of the Sea in Islamorada.  The following are photos from those events.

The dolphins were flying higher than the parrots.  Go figure.

 

Lunch at the Bayside Gourmet in Islamorada

It was a great rally. The weather was unseasonably cool and windy, but not unpleasant.  There were approximately 48 coaches in attendance, and we made some new friends.  We intend to participate in several more NKK rallies in 2021 and hopefully a caravan.  Stay tuned. 

Finally click HERE to view a really cool multimedia presentation documenting our rally.

 

Life is good!

Paddling on The Econlocklatchee

 On December 17 we paddled on the Econlocklatchee River with our friends Patty from TGO and Michael and Cyndi from Apopka.  The "Econ" is the only about 45 minutes from our winter home, and we usually paddle it 3-4 times each winter.

Normally we see lots of unusually large gators on this stretch, but this day was cool and breezy and none were out.  We did see a number of great blue herons, belted kingfishers, ibis, cormorants, and a few ospreys and red shouldered hawks.

"Low bridge" on the Econ

Lunch stop on the Econ

OK, everyone bend over and show their butts!

Matilda is always the first one in the boat

We didn't see any alligators on this day, so I thought I would include a picture of a few really big gators we saw on this same section in February earlier this year.

Video of the week

 Critters observed strolling through our back yard this week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Every winter for as long as Dorcas and I have been retired, we have made an annual migration to sunny Florida. During most years we leave during the week of Thanksgiving.  Last year we had planned to leave the week before Thanksgiving, but dealing with the aftermath of our crushed motor home set us back a week or so.  You can read about that setback HERE.  This year we made up for that and left home on Friday before Thanksgiving. Our first stop was at my brother's house near Angier NC where we spent 2 nights, exhibiting brazen contempt for CDC guidelines against holiday travel during the COVID pandemic.

Camp Little Brother

Our next stop was at the Circle K RV Resort where we spent a night in the cul-de-sac of friends Mark and Diane K who live near Savannah.  This is a favorite stop, not in small part because it is convenient, about half way between NC and our winter home in Florida. 

Parked in our usual site at the Circle K RV Resort

We hit the Florida Welcome Center on I-95 shortly after noon on Monday November 23.

About 4:00 on Monday we arrived at our winter home at The Great Outdoors near Titusville FL

It wasn't long before I was back on the pickleball courts.

Pickleball Paradise

TGO is for the birds!

Mr. Gator wants turkey for Thanksgiving too!

We snagged the last one!

We had several options for Thanksgiving dinner.  1) cook something from scratch. Dorcas said no way!  2) Go out to a local restaurant. Not the most intelligent choice during a global pandemic,  or 3) get a prepared take-out meal from a local restaurant.  We chose option 3 and reserved a dinner and fixins to feed 6 people from Cracker Barrel.  We love leftovers!

After a few hours of pickleball in the morning and an afternoon nap during NFL on the tube, we enjoyed our Thanksgiving feast.

Dorcas preparing our Thanksgiving dinner

Dorcas enjoying our Thanksgiving dinner

These are the ones that got away:

Dorcas and I are very thankful for our health and good fortune.  Life is still good!  

Gobble. Gobble. 

Fine Fall Camping on the Lumber River

Every November for almost 25 years Dorcas and I have done a November canoe camping trip, usually on an eastern blackwater river, with our friends and favorite paddling buddies, Wayne and Lynda.  Way back when, when we were working, we did a 2-3 night trip over Thanksgiving weekend.  After retirement and since Dorcas and I started migrating to Florida, we have been doing the trip a week or two before Thanksgiving.

Our put-in at Turnpike Road

This year we put in on Drowning Creek, the headwaters to the Lumber River on Friday, November 6 for a 3-night camper.  We met Wayne and Lynda at 9:00 at the Turnpike Road bridge, just south of Aberdeen.  The weather forecast was perfect with highs in the 70s lows in the 50s, sunny and clear. Fine fall camping weather. The river level was perfect, reading about 9.5 feet on the Lumberton gage.

Lynda does a fine draw

We spent our first night at the canoe-in campsite at Chalk Banks, a unit of Lumber River State Park.  The site was equipped with a fire ring, 2 picnic tables and a trash can. These are not luxuries normally found when camping on rivers. 

Our camp site at Chalk Banks

A camp fire on the river is always special

We had several duck-unders.

Low bridge!

We also had 2 blowdowns that we portaged, both on river right.  Once upon a time, we would have jumped up on the logs and dragged the boats over and not portaged.  Piece of cake! But that was then, and this is now.  Our bodies no longer will do what they once could do.  Balancing on a slippery log in a November river, and dragging a boat and gear and dog weighing perhaps 700 lbs is no longer an option.

We spent the 2nd night at Jasper Memory Canoe-in Campsite, another unit of Lumber River State Park.  Jasper Memory also had a fire ring, but only one picnic table and no trash can.  There used to be a trash can here, but for some reason it is now gone. 

Everybody was plum tuckered at Jasper Memory camp

The take-out at Jasper Memory sucked.  It was very steep, there was no good way to get in and out of the boat, and it was hard to drag the boat and gear up onto the bank.  The following picture was just before putting in on our 3rd day.  I had commented to Dorcas that it looked a bit like the Titanic.  This was a very unfortunate and foreboding mistake.  When a canoe is launched at a steep angle to the water, the end tends to dive into the water because there is little volume and buoyancy at the ends.  When the boat is loaded with 4 tons of camping gear the problem is exacerbated.  When there is also a lard-ass stern paddler sitting in the low end of the boat it is catastrophic.   While putting in we moved the boat into the water as far as possible and I got into the stern.  At that point the bow was pointing towards the sky at a 45 degree angle.  Dorcas pushed me in the rest of the way and then screamed that water was coming in the back of the boat.  She didn't need to scream, I knew it right away.  Immediately water was up to my hips and the green box floated out of the boat.  Within about 3 seconds the water was up to my ears, and the cooler, chairs, tent and the large dry bag floated out of the boat.  Finally I floated out of the boat.  In short order we recovered all the gear and emptied the water from the boat.  Matilda was embarrassed. She ran away and and hid in the woods. I was embarrassed too.  It was a rookie mistake, and I knew better.    I was wet, but it was not cold, and it is rare to get a good bath on a river camping trip.  In short order we had the boat reloaded and were on our way. 

There were no more state park campsites along our course before our take-out.  We spent the 3rd night at a primitive site on river left after about 8 miles of paddling.

We took out on Monday at Old Red Springs Road after 3 nights and 28 miles on the river.  Neither our put-in or our take-out was a particularly safe place to leave a car for 4 days, so we were happy to find both vehicles safe and sound, with all windows intact, and tires full.  The weather was great, and it was a wonderful paddle.

Life is always good on the river.

Making Repairs at Freightliner Service Center Gaffney SC

 Faithful readers will remember that at the beginning of our summer trip we had some problems with the leveling system not re-inflating the air bags after leveling, and with the Comfort Drive.  Specifically, when departing the Great Smokey Mountains National Park on August 17, the air bags would not fill.  With no air in the bags, the coach could not be driven without causing significant damage.  After spending hours on the phone with Newmar Corporation and Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation, with no resolution, we were told of a work-around to manually engage a valve to inflate the bags.  At the same time, although the systems are totally unrelated, the Comfort Drive system ceased operating, likely because I had been pulling and checking fuses and had disconnected the chassis batteries.  Both problems persisted for the duration of our summer trip and during our trip to Georgia this month.  

While our Newmar warranty has expired, our Freightliner Chassis is still under warranty until February 2021.  The air issue could be a Freightliner issue or it could be a Newmar issue, depending on what specific part is broken.  I have talked to Newmar and Freightliner and neither could tell me whether it was a house issue or a chassis issue without an inspection and diagnosis.   BUMMER!  The Comfort Drive is clearly a Freightliner issue.  I decided to work with Freightliner first since we are still covered under their warranty.  Shortly after arriving home at the end of September, I called the local Freightliner service center in Greensboro and was told they were very busy, and they did not make appointments for service.  I would need to bring the coach and leave it there, and they would get to it in 1-2 weeks.  BUMMER!  Freightliner RV chassis are manufactured in Gaffney SC only about 130 miles from home.  Freightliner has a customer service center near their Gaffney plant to specifically service and repair Freightliner RV chassis.  COOL!  The good news is they do take appointments for service.  The bad news is they are booked up until 2021. BUMMER!  However, one can drop in and wait on stand-by in case there is a cancellation or they are running ahead.  I called Freightliner last week before leaving Brunswick and was told there was a fair chance they could gets in the same day if we checked in first thing Monday morning.  COOL!  

So that's what we did.  Rather than coming straight home on Friday after our last rally, we drug our (w)heels and spent 2 nights with our friends in Savannah.  On Sunday we drove to Gaffney, which was not too far out of our way home, adding less than 70 miles to our trip, and spent the night at the Freightliner Service Center. 

Our home at Camp Freightliner

There are 27 campsites at Freightliner, each with 50A electric service.  All are available for no charge on a first come basis.  When we arrived we found ~10 sites available and set up on #22. 

They opened up at 7:45 on Monday morning.  I was in line at 7:30, but I was the second person in line without an appointment.  Should'a got up earlier!  However, when I checked in, I found I was #4 in line for stand-by service.  Apparently there were two units ahead of us left over from the weekend.

We are not alone in our quest for factory service

Monday came and went but our number did not come up.  We did gain one position in line.  But that's OK; I don't think I really expected to get in on Monday anyway.  We were in no particular hurry to get home, we were comfortable with good 50A service, good OTA TV and fast internet. I spent some time working on other coach chores and internet projects.  

Tuesday came and went with no service, but when I checked we had gained another position or two on the list.  By this time we are getting a little bit impatient and wondering if we might want to leave the coach and go home.  Finally at closing time on Tuesday I received a call from the lady at the front desk; they would take us first thing Wednesday morning.  COOL!  

They have lots of spare parts!

About 8:15 on Wednesday Scott, our mechanic, came to pick up the coach.  We went over my list of items to check or repair, and he did an exterior inspection of the coach to see if there was any pre-existing damage to note.  Mine was not a short list.  I asked if he would be finished by lunch, and he laughed at me.  We did want to get home as soon as possible.  Hurricane Zeta would make landfall in Louisiana this afternoon, and the remnants of the storm were expected to impact our area on Thursday morning. We really wanted to be home before the storm hit. 

A pair of naked Front Engine Diesel (FRED) chassis

With the coach parked in the service bay Dorcas and I were forced to hang out elsewhere.  They had a nice customer lounge, but I found it more comfortable to sit on the covered porch out front, where I wouldn't need to wear a mask.  Dorcas mostly waited in the car with Matilda.  We lunched at a Mexican restaurant nearby, and got the call about 2:00 that the coach was ready to go.  They made all the requested repairs, checks and adjustments I had requested and all is good.  Specifically, they replaced the auto level valve (which resolved the air bag fill issue), restored the Comfort Drive function, checked ride height, weighed the coach and adjusted tire pressures, and checked windshield wiper function.  All the charges were covered under warranty except for the 4-corner weighing I had requested.  COOL!  It is always a good idea to weigh each corner of the coach at least once after it has been loaded with gear and with tanks full in order to determine proper tire pressures.  As it turns out I had been running the Michelins a bit under-inflated.

We hit the road and headed for the barn.  It was particularly enjoyable that the Comfort Drive was functioning.  Comfort Drive rules!!!!  It rained pretty hard off and on all the home, but the major part of the storm had not arrived, and the winds were light.  We arrived home safely shortly before dark.

We'll be home until about the middle of November and then migrate south to our winter home in Florida.  

A rolling stone gathers no moss!

Life is still good. 

Pals, Pups, Pilots and Pushers

When Dorcas and I drive the coach I-95 through Georgia we usually stop and spend the night at our friends Mark and Dianne K's house near Savannah.  On all previous trips we have parked in the cul-du-sac at the Circle K Motorcoach Resort.  This year we decided not to block the road and not to impede the mailman, so we parked in the driveway.  The Circle K Motorcoach Resort has all the necessary amenities: 50A electric, water, sewer, lakeside parking, paved sites and all the southern home cooking you can eat. 

Pals, Pups, Pilots and Pushers

For those who may not understand the 4 Ps, the Ks also own a Honda Pilot and a diesel pusher, as rear engine diesel motor coaches are often affectionately called.

Bird's eye view of the Circle K Motorcoach Resort 

We spent Friday and Saturday nights at the Circle K on our way home from Country Coach Rallies in Savannah and Brunswick.  We will be back here in November on our way to our winter home in Florida.

Tonight we are parked at Camp Freightliner in Gaffney SC.  Hopefully we can get a few chassis service items checked off tomorrow or Tuesday.

Friends are good.  Life is good.