2019-5 Live Oak Florida, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

2019-5

Blue Springs, Madison Florida

Live Oak Florida meeting up with Elaine and John K

Campground: Gibson County Park. About a half dozen sites with 30 amp electric and water. All back in sites. $22 per night. Along the Suwanee River, steep boat ramp to river. No over the air TV, no Verizon signal at the campground

Gibson Country Park, about 6-8 campsites

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The Good

Well now, the good news is as you may remember from last week, the new axle arrived early and was installed in time for me to head out and meet up with my good Rv friends Elaine and John.

On Thursday morning, I looked out from my stunning Gulf of Mexico site, watching the fishing boats head out for another day of fine fishing. I did my normal packing up, closing the bedroom slide, then the Kitchen slide and wait, what’s this, the big dining room slide won’t close? All the DC power was NON existent.

last views of the Gulf of Mexico and fishermen going out for the day

With a lot of effort I manually closed the big slide using a flex connecting rod with a power drill. My two batteries for the electric drill quit way too early with the slide only closed about 1 foot in. I had asked a local fisherman if he could help me with the manual slide. As it turns out, someone has to hold the slide button in the “IN” position while the second person climbs up on top the slide and begins using the drill to slowwwwly close the slide. Said fisherman came through a second time in that he had an electric drill with a powerful battery in his vehicle which completed the job. Last slide closed.

More good news, before heading out to meet up with John and Elaine, I thought I’d do a google search for Rv maintenance. Luck was on my side and I found a small Rv dealer in Perry Florida which is along the route I’d be taking today… and come to find out he claimed to be an expert regarding electric systems.

An hour later he’s checking out my electrical problem, quickly identifying a bad breaker switch.

The Bad and the Ugly:

I had pulled into Rv service shop with very crowed parking lot, filled with a dozen Rv’s and a couple employee trucks. He mentioned a couple of times that I needed to back out of the lot and re-enter backing in a remaining spot between two other Rv-s. I asked if one of his employee’s could preform the moving and backing in procedure as I didn’t feel comfortable doing it. The owner decided to perform the move procedure and I forgot about the quirky issue with my Chevy truck, that being that the rear-view mirrors automatically tilt down when in the reverse mode. It’s a very annoying feature that I need to have turned off the next time I check with a Chevy dealer.

Long story short, it set the shop owner off but good. Talk about a temper tantrum! I don’t recall ever seeing someone get that upset , yelling, screaming and cussing at the top of his lungs. His face got all blotchy red and angry eyes shooting daggers. Keep in mind he is behind the steering wheel of my truck. As calmly as I could I asked him to step out of my truck. He not only got out of the truck and quickly increased his rhetoric against Chevy trucks, a piece of s. etc. You get the idea. Then added, “I can’t take it, get the h#$% off my property”. No problemo I left as quickly as I could, with one of his employees quietly apologizing for his bosses actions. Sure glad I didn’t have to work with him, yuck.

Now you would think I’d be really upset as well. A bit frazzled for sure, but headed out to lunch and another hours drive I arrived at my next campground, Gibson Park.

refrigerator wouldn’t work (even though in runs on a/c or propane the control panel runs on DC power), led lights didn’t work, and of course I couldn’t open the slides.

Climbing around the camper with closed slides was quite the acrobat feat. Fortunately I had easy access to the rest room and bedroom.

After sort of settling in, I started to make a number of phone calls to Mobile Rv services. Found about 4 or 5, called all of them leaving messages requesting a call back. The next day bright and early one called back and arrived to fix the DC power problem not an hour later. A couple of hours later, the errant breaker switch was replaced and all systems are go. A Side note, everyone I had called the previous day called me back asking if they could help. Thanked all of them for their call backs.

circuit breakers being replaced

completing the repairs, the slides are Open!

Back to the Fun Stuff:

In between all of this I enjoyed a wonderful evening with Elaine and John who had me over their place for a grouper dinner, yum.

Steven Foster State Park.

The Steven Foster Museum

Elaine and John, front row

The next day after the repairs were taken care of Elaine, John and I were off to have a great lunch in Live Oak and then a short drive to White Springs to visit a few historic sites and the wonderful Steven Foster State Park. This state park hosts the Florida Folk Festival in May so if you are ever in the area your in for an awesome treat, with a dozen music stages presenting Folk and Bluegrass music continuously for 3 days. The park is a tribute to the song writer of so many memorable songs the classic being “Way Down Upon the Swanee River”. A river he never visited. Though the song portrayed all of our longing to go back to the home towns of our youth and good memories. Along the country lanes we enjoyed a plethora of wild flowers along the sides of the road including a number of farm fields filled with yellow and lavender flowers.

gift shop, checkers

local artists work

inside the carillon tower

many dioramas portraying the songs of
Steven Foster

he died a tragic young death

Continuing the conversation on camper breakdowns:

Now your first impression might be, what the heck is going on with all the stuff going wrong with Doug’s camper. Well, if you’re a full time Rv-er, which I am, the camper has a lot of miles put on it and of course that can take a toll on the whole unit. Repairs and upkeep are important. Taking care to make those repairs quickly will ensure more damage doesn’t occur. But at the same time I like to look at what’s been fixed and repaired as having a camper that’s back in the same good shape as when I purchased it new.

• Axle replaced with a slightly beefier one making my travels that much safer
• The issue with the solar charger not functioning. A tech support from Blue Sky walked me though diagnosing the problem and it’s now fixed and good as new
• The flickering lights and issues with the DC power failing and not being able to open/close the slides resulted in finding the source of the problem which was due to a circuit breaker. Issue identified, replaced and knowledge learned to properly maintain the system.

Life is an adventure and I get to enjoy it from different locations all over the country. Now that’s living.

everything's working, slides are out
and the views are just fine

RV REPAIR TIPS:

Having had a number of repairs while traveling across the country here are a few tips I’ve learned along the way.

• When in a remote area with the nearest service 30 to 50 miles on down the road. Discuss your Rv issues needing repairs with the locals in the area. They may know a local mechanic who can do the job in a pinch. At Horseshoe Beach, I talked to the folks at the local marina and found Little Buddy who is a shrimper and all around mechanic. Did an awesome job replacing my axle.
• Use your Google Maps on your cell-phone or tablet search for Rv service/ repair shops.
• Often Rv shops have a backlog of months before they can get you in. let them know you are on the road traveling and often they might be able to squeeze you in.
• At Rv shop make sure they know you will be staying in your rig if possible. They will hook you up to water and electric and will be more diligent about getting to your repairs and on your way.
• I find Mobile Rv Repair services to often be the best. While needing to get my DC power working quickly, I used Google maps search to find “Mobile RV Repairs”. I found about 4-5 within a 60 mile radius. Called and left messages with all of them. The first one to call me back got the job. Note: service calls costs are no more expensive than Rv sales/service centers and they come to you.
• Finally, if you can learn the basic systems on your Rv, you might be able to do a number of repairs yourself. YouTube is a great resource for doing basic repairs yourself.

Fun Adventures Continued:

Elaine, John and Doug visit Madison Florida and Blue Springs

Elaine and John went on a great rails-to-trails bike ride and I joined them later in Madison. We had planned on checking out this small southern historic town, but as we entered the town, they were in the middle of a Heritage Festival. After an uneventful lunch we walked around the town square, meeting the locals, more than half appear to be African American in this decidedly “confederate” town. With it’s confederate statue in the center of the park as well as a statue of four angels depicting the 4 freedoms. Around the square were large antebellum homes as this was once cotton growing country. A few of the historic homes were truly impressive and wish we could have toured a couple of them. Among the craft vendors and food trucks there was a Democratic Party booth. Stopped by to wish them well and they told us, though they were not a large contingent they were strong and becoming more vocal, and making inroads.

Madison Florida, water tower next
to the country courthouse

enjoying some shade

Go Team Blue! 

antique car show, part of Heritage Festival

1948 Packard

the four freedoms

after the watermelon contest

coconut palms in North Florida?

On our way back to our campsites, we stopped off at one of a couple Blue Springs State parks…. As there are a couple with the same names throughout Florida. Florida having the most natural springs anywhere in the world, many being magnitude one springs. Sure wish I had a bathing suit in the truck, the water really looked refreshing, at a constant 72 degrees. All the locals in Florida love to swim and paddle down our spring fed rivers, leaving the ocean beaches to the tourists.

Blue Spings

Suwanee River

Blue Springs, Madison

cave diving and swimming

Finally heading out of Florida into Georgia/Alabama on Monday.

More Photography:

Gibson Country park and Steven Foster Cultural State Park

North Florida, LiveOak, Madison

Blue Springs

2019-4 Horseshoe Beach Florida , the Big Bend area

2019-4

Stuck in Horseshoe Beach Florida
or
Whiling away time in paradise

Campground: Horseshoe Beach Park. $20 water and electric. Two sites have 50 amp, others have 30 amp. No dump station. Campsites are at one end of active boat ramp/parking area. Small restrooms with shower. No Over the Air tv signal. Excellent Verizon signal.

Rver Tip: this is one of the few remaining places to camp right on the ocean/Gulf of Mexico for only $20 a night. There are a couple others but I’m not sharing them here. Mainly that’s because it is out of the way and not on the tourist radar as of yet. Though if you like fishing this is THE place to be.

Distance traveled: 67 miles

I’ve headed from the center of the state to the Gulf side called the Big Bend area. Horseshoe Beach is a small fishing community. In 1993 a hurricane came through the area, flooding the small town completely. Many of the residences gave up and sold their land and homes destroyed by the flooding.

Today it is no longer a commercial fishing area, but more of a second home for many from the Gainesville and Ocala area. Meaning all those new homes on stilts are vacant much of the time. The one restaurants and one or two shops, a small library are only open Thursday through Sunday.

daily sunsets were awesome, each one different

“You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me Loose Wheel”

As I started to back into the campsite, the camper wouldn’t go back any further. Hmmm. Got out of the truck and looked back and saw to my amazement that one of the back wheels of the camper had literally fallen off. The axle broke snapping off the tire and entire wheel brakes and all.

I had planned to be here a week, but as it turns out, it looks like I’ll be here a bit more than two weeks. I was able to find a local shrimper and all around mechanic and son Little Buddy and Big Buddy who are ordering the new axle and will replace it right at my campsite.

My plans to meet up with Elaine and John are in disarray since I won’t be able to arrive at the designated meeting place in North Florida. We’ll go to plan B

Big Buddy welding on a temporary
wheel hub so I could tow the camper
to higher ground with big storm coming in

Big storm a Coming:

While waiting for the axle to arrive, one of those big storms is heading our way. Weather reports for Horseshoe Beach is that flooding will occur with possible 3 to 4 foot surge. Canals and land will get some flooding.

Now keep in mind I have one broken axle and one less tire on the drivers side of the camper. But Little Buddy came to the rescue by welding a temporary hub and tire so I could move the camper to higher ground and away from the few feet distance that I was sitting at next to the Gulf of Mexico.

I secured a spot along side the Baptist Church for the next day and a half before I’ll move back to the Horseshoe Beach site. Thank goodness to so many locals who have provided me with information, advice and aid in making this temporary move possible.

boat docks being destroyed by wave action

small waves crashing over sea walls and homes on stilts

canal overflowing into yards

On another note, Progressive insurance couldn’t give me $$ for the axles as it appears it’s a manufacturer defect but they did write a check for the repairs and replacement from the damage done by the tire falling off and damaging the skirting etc.

parked on the side of the Baptist Church

History of Horseshoe Beach

The whole Big Bend area was originally swamp land, but with many canals dug it has gotten dry enough to support camps and a bit of cattle ranches. The town of Horseshoe Beach was once just a commercial fishing village. But after the March 1993 “No Name Hurricane” that inundated the entire community and the Florida legislators banning gill net fishing, around the same time, the double whammy decimated the area. The hurricane hit with a 12 foot surge. It was so unexpected and out of season the reason it was never given a name, rescuers were pulling people out of palm trees and roof tops. Little to no aid was forthcoming as no one was prepared for such an event so early before the hurricane season even started.

Many of the folks moved out and sold their flooded homes and land for cheap. A small number of fishermen turned to shell fishing and shrimping. The cheap land was purchased by investors for weekend retreats and many for weekly rentals. New laws requiring all new homes be built on 12ft piers or higher.

Current full time population is between 90 and 160 people. The town has become a gold mine for the country tax collector as they charge the new home owners between 4 and 5 thousand dollars in taxes each year. While the old timers who stayed continue to pay only about $100-$200 a year in taxes.

It is now considered a vacation spot with great fishing. As I mentioned earlier only one restaurant, one high priced gift shop, local library and a marina are in the backwater town and they are only open Thursday thru Sunday

Though everything is closed for Easter Sunday.

after the storm things really calmed down

Andrew Jackson Waterhole Park

Up the road a couple of miles is a small picnic area with some historical significance… the historical sign states:

“Dec 26, 1817 General Andrew Jackson was directed to protect citizens trying to settle in Florida.

Jackson arrived in Fl with the largest army ever to invade the state to date:

2,000 Creek Warriors

1,000 Georgia and Tennessee militiamen

Winding up in Suwanee – Old Town. His goal was to remove the Indians, destroy their homes and confiscate their horses, cattle and food and slaves..

It was near this spot on a “seek and find” mission that Jackson and his army captured the Indian traders Robert Ambrister and Alexander Arbthnot. British subjects who were supposed to be protected by a truce between England and the U.S.

Jackson had Arbuthnot hanged and Armbrister shot…. Which almost caused a war between he two countries”

One could spend hours discussing the merits of this countries actions in the past. God knows there are enough books out there discussing the strategy, reasons, wrongs, rights, in the name of creating this country. Enough said.

My Lucky Stars

Well don’t you just love when everything seems to align just right. Within the last day or so things have just been falling into place nicely:

• The axle arrived a few days early Monday (5 days early)
• Axle to be installed Tuesday or Wednesday
• I’ll be able to head out on Thursday to meet up with Elaine and John
• insurance is paying for everything except the axle, to the tune of over $800, no deductible.
• Mail arrived and I got a check from the IRS for having paid too much in taxes last year. When was the last time that ever happened
• BlueSky called me back regarding my solar charger not working and they will walk me through trouble shooting Wednesday. Can you believe a human being called back and has been more than willing to help me out, wow.
• ROKU stock has gone back up significantly and is projected to go up another $20+ dollar a share. I can almost hear the song “I’m in the money….”

PS I bought a lotto ticket today

Rv/Photography tip:

For those who like to take lots and lots of pictures while traveling like I do, It had started to become a hassle using the laptop to first download pictures from my camera onto the laptop, then upload them to my Google photo acct. using a fidgety software program. Always time-consuming.

I found this little device to connect my SD card from the camera to my cell-phone. The smart phone then automatically scans the pictures on the card, uploads and back them up to my google photo acct without my having to do anything to initiate the process. How cool is that. I then delete the pics on the SD card using the camera and I’m all set to take more pictures.

Love being able to streamline a process since I often use those photos as well as those I take with my cell phone for FB posts and my Blog reports. With all my photos in one location, it sure makes life simple. I might even start to post my better pictures on Instagram again now that it’s so easy to get to them.

On the Road Again:

I’m ready to get back on the road again. If you ever need help “little Buddy”, Lloyd Knight sure was a big help ordering a new axle, welding and installed. Had a bit of a scare as he was installing the axle he had a bit of a seizure, getting dizzy and sudden pain. Due to a bulge in a disk/spine around the neck area. He recovered and we were able to complete the job with the help of my biker neighbor and a little help from me. Though I wasn’t all that much help.

new heavy duty axle replacement 

Cost: $429.99 Axle

         $150.00 shipping

         $260.00 installation and temporary installation of a wheel so I could move camper out of storms

way.

Happy to have the work complete making my journey back on the road quicker than anticipated.

Onto North Florida for a couple of days before exiting the state.

More photos:

Horseshoe Beach Florida