Wednesday

On Wednesday, we left Durham...

I mentioned that we were very near downtown Durham - I got this picture as we were heading back to the interstate - a house at Trinity and Roxboro (https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/203-E-Trinity-Ave-Durham-NC-27701/49973459_zpid/). According to Zillow, it is a 1910 house -- it is nice to see older houses so well taken care of!

There were also brand new builds going in across the street from where we stayed. The ones that are completed, as far as I can tell, are 3 level townhomes and... according to Zillow... starting at $1.39M! (https://www.zillow.com/community/mangum/2059150799_zpid/?) 

The ones just getting built are 2BR, 4 BA, and $850K+ (https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1001-Hundley-Pl-Durham-NC-27701/2060605086_zpid/?).

The houses that were on North Street down from where we stayed looked like very nicely kept older style homes, but.. as I've done some more looking on Zillow -- some of the houses that we thought might be older homes but had recently had exterior work done may, in fact, be newer homes:

built in 2012: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/805-North-St-Durham-NC-27701/119254896_zpid/

built in 2013: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/711-North-St-Durham-NC-27701/49969743_zpid/?

At least they don't look ultra-modern like the new ones currently being built!

We headed on north into Virginia... 

Welcome to Virginia sign

We made it to the farm by soon after noon on Wednesday. Many things to get done while we're here!

A stop over in Durham

We left Forest Lake Thousand Trails campground on Tuesday morning to continue on our journey north. We had made arrangements to stop at a Harvest Host (https://harvesthosts.com/) in Durham and meet up with one of my college roommates for dinner.

The Durty Bull (I'm thinking related to the name of the minor league baseball team, Durham Bulls?) Brewing Company allows Harvest Host members to park in their lot. You may be able to distinguish Gracie in the corner of the lot on the far right side of the picture.

To get a relatively level spot in the lot, we parked right next to the sidewalk, so we could not put the slides out on the driver's side, and we chose to just put the bedroom slide out on the passenger side as we weren't quite as level as we'd like to be...

... we were blocking one of the entrances into their lot, but they really do not allow customer parking in their lot (all the spots were either marked for employees or filled with outside tables). To get parked in the lot, we backed Gracie into the driveway which ended up being next to her after we did a bit of a K-turn.

It looks really cloudy and threatening, and it did rain quite a bit in the evening and overnight. But, we were right in town, and could walk to restaurants and through neighborhoods with both older and some brand-new homes!

We met Lisa and Paul at Geer Street Garden (https://geerstreetgarden.com/)...

... in what used to be a service station.

We elected to sit "outside" on the patio though under a roof and with roll-down plastic walls that were handy when it started raining!

Carl got "The Pile" -- as described on the menu: "French Fries with Melted Cheddar Cheese, Bacon, Jalapeno, Fried Chicken, Gravy, Cheese Sauce & choice of 2 sauces" -- it was quite a meal!

We always love meeting up with friends and family as we travel!

Pioneer Cemetery

We had seen a marking on a trail in the campground map at Forest Lake that there was a Pioneer Cemetery and our friend Allen had walked by it, so on Monday afternoon, we rode our bikes there...

It appeared that someone had recently put artificial flowers at each headstone.

It was odd because some of the headstones were totally worn away, and others were still very legible - this was the most legible, though it appeared that it may have been repaired more recently... "Elizabeth Cope, born March 7 1811 died October 26 1822 Age 11Y 7M 19D Dau John Cope". (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149696219/elizabeth-cope)

Looks like 1809 -- according to another source, Johannes Kob, died 4 Jun 1809 (https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2585755/memorial-search?firstname=&middlename=&lastname=&cemeteryName=Pioneer+Cemetery&birthyear=&birthyearfilter=&deathyear=&deathyearfilter=&memorialid=&mcid=&linkedToName=&datefilter=&orderby=r&plot=)

Information found online: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149697250/johann-frederick-cope

It had rained a bit over the preceding days, so the trail through the woods had some muddy patches, but we made it through. There were a lot of trails in the woods around the Forest Lake campground that were suitable for 4-wheelers or golf carts, so they were nice and wide for bike riding.

Visit to a Lexington icon

Sister-by-love Regina asked if we would pick up BBQ from a local Lexington place and we were glad to do it. We went on Monday...

Lexington Barbecue

We were shocked at how packed the parking lot was (it may not look packed in this picture, but it was **packed** with vehicles!).

Turns out that this is a local icon, having been featured on The Food Network's "Crave" in season 1 (https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/crave/episodes/bbq-up-in-smoke).

We got chopped pork BBQ to-go along with some extra sauce.

There were 5 chimneys for smoking in the back of the building -- one was going when we were there about noon on Monday.

It is fun to find out about local places that are popular with the local folks!

From bare nest box to fledging

A friend (thanks, Nancy!) shared this video on Facebook -- I found it on YouTube for the non-Facebook folks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRuj_sTWx2Q 

It shows the inside of a nest box from the time the bird first checks it out to see if they like the layout ;-) through nest building, eggs, hungry hatchlings, and fledging baby birds! Very cool!

Always tasks to do

As we're stopped for a few days at Forest Lake RV Campground in Advance, NC, we're working on tasks in and around the motorhome. 

We had noticed in the past few days that the heat from the Oasis hydronic heater was not working well in colder weather (down near freezing) when it is set on the electric elements. It worked fine in cold weather back in December, and it works fine with the diesel burner (which we used last week at the FMCA convention in Perry, Georgia). 

On RVs, if there is one way to accomplish a task, there are often at least two ways to accomplish the task, if not more. So for heat, we have 2 heat pump units on the roof that provide air conditioning and heat -- the heat is effective down to about 40F. Below 40F, we use the furnace which is the Oasis hydronic system and also supplies our hot water. If we are plugged in to electric, we generally use the electric elements that heat the water which then provides heat to the rig. There are two electric elements, and we can turn just one or both on -- if we are plugged in to 30A, we will try to heat with one element. If we want hot water or heat more quickly, we turn both elements on - it also recovers more quickly (for example if we both want to take showers, it can be nice to have both elements turned on). If we are not plugged in, or we want hot water more quickly, we use the diesel burner to heat the water.

We had both electric elements turned on, but the furnace never was blowing air out the registers, even though the temperature in the rig was plenty chilly to call for heat. The system won't start blowing air until the water is warm enough to heat the air, so, for some reason the water wasn't getting warm enough. We had the switch set to have both electric elements on, which had worked in mid-20s weather in December, but wasn't working in high-20s and low-30s now, in March. (It still worked fine with the diesel burner, so earlier this week we used the diesel burner to heat the water to warm the rig until the weather was warm enough to use the heat pumps.) Carl did research on the Oasis system, downloading manuals, looking up information online, coming to the conclusion that one of the two electric elements was not working. He verified this by turning off the circuit breaker to each of them one-by-one - when he turned off the circuit breaker for element 1, the energy draw dropped immediately, but when he turned off the circuit breaker for element 2, there was no change to the energy draw - element 2 wasn't working even with its circuit breaker on.

Now, this didn't prove that the element itself is the issue; there is a relay that provides power to the element when the system calls for heat. It could be that the relay is bad -- a cheaper fix than replacing the element. Maybe we could at least test the relay...

On Saturday, Carl opened up the access to the Oasis system:

Talk about putting 50 pounds of potatoes into a 5 pound bag!

Element 2 is back behind this area...

Carl thinks that the relay for element 1 is this front box and that the relay for element 2 may be behind there. Element 1 is back behind this area.

There does not appear to be an easy way to access the relay or the element without taking much of the system apart. We're thinking that it will be better to have a person who knows more about this system do the work than for us to get into it and not be able to complete it. Part of the task involves pumping about 6 gallons of the coolant mixture out of the system before working on it. Obviously, if something did not go well, we could lose our ability to use element 1 and/or the diesel burner on the furnace.

As I mentioned in my previous post about planning, we have a planned stop at the Newmar "mothership" in August, and we've made a request that they would flush the hydronic heating system (requested before we started having any problems, just a desired maintenance item). We're thinking that they may be able to fix it then if we don't get it resolved before August. With the heat pumps on the roof, the single working element, and diesel burner -- in addition to a small electric space heater that helps provide warmth in a small area -- we have alternatives, so we'll be okay. But, we like to have systems working! 

Just part of (motor) home maintenance that comes with being a home owner!

More friend visiting

We had mentioned a few weeks ago that we met up with friends Allen and Donna at the Tampa Supershow (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2023/01/more-of-2023-tampa-rv-supershow.html), and then we subsequently met them for a meal a couple of weeks later at Lake Placid in Florida.

I had been watching their blog and seeing their progress -- they also have plans to travel up the east coast of the US this spring, and they are also Thousand Trails members, so I thought we might cross paths again. I sent them a message on Wednesday asking when they were going to be in North Carolina, and, lo and behold, they are in North Carolina now and also staying at Forest Lake RV Campground!

We rode our bikes over to their campsite on Thursday and got a timed selfie!

We also met up with them at Cagney's Kitchen in Lexington for lunch on Friday (but forgot to get pictures!).

We're hoping to get together another time for a campfire in the evening before we go our separate ways...

Back on the bikes

After the cooler weather on Wednesday, we got the bikes out of the Jeep on Thursday and started exploring some of the Forest Lake RV Campground.

We found a trail that led to a group camping area (unoccupied) and then went through wooded area and next to a field and eventually...

... to a place where we overlooked the Yadkin River.

There are a number of trails to ride in addition to the campground roads, and there are quite a few hills so we're appreciating the pedal assist!

Planning and planning and planning and plann....

Planning and planning and planning and plann.... well... you get the drift!

In the past, we have not really concerned ourselves with doing too awful much advance planning. I would try to go ahead and reserve Thousand Trails campgrounds for the dates we anticipated we would want them -- easy to do and no cancellation fees -- could change the dates pretty easily -- but other than that, we would either not have reservations at all or make them within a week or two of our planned arrival at a campground.

Well... COVID changed a lot of things, and campground usage is one of them -- campgrounds are a lot more fully booked, and it is harder to get campsites. A number of campgrounds that used to be first-come, first-served (FCFS) - which we *like* because people who have only a few weeks of vacation a year and who make reservations to be sure they have a spot generally do not try to use FCFS campgrounds. A number of FCFS campgrounds have put in reservation systems (don't get me started on how poorly many of the reservation systems work!) so the number of FCFS sites is dwindling.

In addition, this year, we are planning a BIG TRIP to Newfoundland. Longtime readers may remember that Dwayne and I went to the Maritime and Atlantic provinces (including Newfoundland) in August/September of 2016. For that trip, we weren't even thinking about going there until mid-July, so I certainly didn't make reservations way in advance. We *did* have some challenges as Miss Doozie was definitely bigger than almost every other camping vehicle we saw - so there were campsites that we barely fit into, and roads that were tight and/or difficult for travel. We have to take ferries twice (once *to* Newfoundland and once *back* to Nova Scotia from Newfoundland) and reservations are required, especially for big vehicles.

So... I've been doing planning for several weeks for this BIG TRIP. I started using a tool that is new-to-me - RV Trip Wizard. I'm actually still in a trial mode with it, but it is definitely helping. I will work on it for a day or two, and then get interrupted with a SOWER project or an FMCA convention, and then get back to it when the interruption is finished.

One of the challenges is that Parks Canada (the National Park Service for Canada) changed their reservation system this year. As a result, everyone had to get new logons into the new system (which I did a few weeks ago), and then the reservation systems have opened on different days for the different provinces. Because I wanted to make sure that the campsites would fit Gracie, I had looked up the sites at each of the campgrounds where we plan to stay and rated my top 6-10 at each campground.

The parks for New Brunswick opened for reservations at 8am Atlantic time on 3/17 (7am Eastern time) -- while we were at the FMCA convention. I got online a few seconds past 7am and was greeted with a screen something like this:

You'll see that I'm in line -- I took this screen capture at about 7:12am after being in the queue for about 12 minutes. When I first got in, there were 5654 (or some number like that) in line ahead of me and the message told me that I should get into the reservation service in about 15 minutes. The screen updated every 30 seconds or so - Carl watched my screen and moved the mouse every once in a while to keep the screen active while I brushed my teeth and did other things to get ready for the day. 

After about 15 minutes, sure enough, I got into the reservation system. I went directly to the campground that I wanted (Headquarters in Fundy National Park), and went to the section of the campground that had most of the sites I were on my top 10 list. My first choice was not available, but my second choice was, so I booked it and all was good.

A few minutes later (like 7:35am), I went back in to see if any of my top 10 were still available for the dates we wanted, and they were not. There were 2-3 sites still available that were large enough for Gracie, but that was it (out of about 300 campsites at this particular national park on those dates).

The national parks in both Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island opened on 3/18. I was buoyed and optimistic by my success getting the New Brunswick reservation. I debated which park I should try for first, and decided to go for Nova Scotia as there were fewer sites that we could fit in there than the campground we wanted on PEI. I got into the system before 7am, and was told that I was early and that I would get a randomized spot in line when the waiting room opened.

5009 ahead of me in line! Great!

I was let in to the reservation system by about 7:10am, got my first choice campsite at Broad Cove in Nova Scotia, and then headed over to Cavendish Campground on PEI. NOTHING was available for the first 3 days I wanted to book (I wanted 7/6-7/11). There had been a LOT of sites that we could have fit into, but they were ALL booked for 7/6-7/9. What in the world? Victoria Day is in May, before we will be entering Canada. Canada Day is 7/1 (and I had purposely made sure that I booked a private campground to ensure I had a spot for that weekend). 4th of July is not a Canadian holiday but US people might be traveling for that date, but... that wasn't in the dates for which the campground was fully booked. What was scheduled for 7/6-7/9 on PEI?

Turns out that there is a music festival on the beach that is very close to Cavendish Campground. Who knew? (Well, obviously, a LOT of people knew, but *I* didn't!)

I don't know if I could have gotten a site if I had chosen to book the PEI campground first and Nova Scotia second -- probably not because even though there are 200+ campsites at Cavendish, if there were 5000+ ahead of me in line, and if it is a really popular event, then I probably was out of luck anyway. And... we probably would not want to be at the campground if everyone else is there for the music festival (we looked at information about it and it is not appealing to us).

As a result... I got 7/9-7/11 at Cavendish, and have found a private campground that is far enough from the music festival venue to not be filled (at least not yet) by festival attendees.

So... I have been busy doing planning! 

Here are some of our planning maps as captured by RV TripWizard:

Pre-Newfoundland - Virginia to Nova Scotia where we will catch the ferry to Newfoundland

Newfoundland plans (between ferries) -- we are also planning to take the ferry at the north over to Labrador for one night at a B&B (in the Jeep).

Post-Newfoundland - returning to Nova Scotia and then traversing the northern part of US and southern part of the eastern provinces (collecting states and provinces). This part of our trip is cast in Jello at this point -- still being figured out exactly where and when we will be in different places.

Our end-point is in Nappanee, Indiana for service on Gracie's slides at the Newmar "Mothership" (100 bay service center at the factory) during the third week of August. If you've been following along, you may recall that we've had slide issues a couple of times on Gracie. We decided after the last fix (March, 2022) that we wanted to take Gracie to the mothership for a complete inspection and tune-up on the slides / motors / gears. When we called, they were scheduling 11-13 months out, and we decided we did not want to go to northern Indiana in February or March of 2023. Since we were already tentatively planning the trip to the northeast, we selected a date in August. When we had factory service reps work on Gracie at the Newmar Kountry Klub rally during the Tampa Super Show in January, they concurred that we should get attention at the mothership on the slides. So, we have a specific end date and place to our summer travel plans.

Carl used to do all the planning for trips for Sue and him; I did all the planning for Dwayne and me (though, as I noted above, we did a lot less planning). Carl was happy to give up the planning responsibility. There are times (at 7am when I'm more than 5000 people deep in a line) that it gets a wee bit stressful. But, when it all comes together, I enjoy it.

Continuing northwards

On Tuesday, we continued north...

... stopping for fuel in South Carolina to "top off" Gracie's diesel before heading into higher fuel prices in North Carolina and Virginia.

We didn't get a picture of the "Welcome to North Carolina" sign, but we stopped in Gastonia where there was a Walmart store relatively near a Sam's Club and a parking lot that we could fit into.

We walked over to the Sam's Club and then had to carry our purchases back to the rig (a little less than 1/2 a mile - thankfully we remembered to bring bags to hold our items on the walk and we were able to split the items into reasonable equally weights for easier carrying (I was carrying two bags too in case you might think Carl was carrying it all!).

After walking over to Walmart and getting more groceries, we continued up into North Carolina to Advance, where we've stopped at a Thousand Trails for about a week - Forest Lake campground.

It is funny to think back that Carl has only started staying at Thousand Trails since we married... He doesn't precisely remember all of the campgrounds, but remembers when I remind him of certain characteristics...

We chose *not* to stay at Carolina Landing on this trip (which would have been right at the Georgia / South Carolina border) - since Dwayne and I had stayed there previously and were unimpressed, and then Carl and I stayed there in 2020 and were similarly unimpressed (we call it the "terraced site campground" - if you look at the pictures from our post you may see why: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2020/03/carls-first-thousand-trails-campground.html). 

We also stayed at Forest Lake for a few days when Carl and I were driving Miss Doozie from Texas to Virginia back in 2020 (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2020/03/forest-lake-thousand-trails.html) - I remind Carl of which campground it is by "the campground where we had the loungers out beside Miss Doozie" (if you go to the link you'll see the picture). The area of Forest Lake where we'd hiked on an ATV path back in 2020 has now been made into new campsites, most of which are great for big rigs for which we are grateful!

Visiting friends

On Monday, we visited friends Carol and Joe, Doris and Ben - but we had such a good time visiting we forgot to take any pictures! Carl and Sue had participated with these two couples in Bible studies in the far western Chicago suburbs. Dave and Jeaninne (whom we had seen in Florida) were also scheduled to come to have a great Bible study reunion, but unfortunately had a car issue and did not make it - so we missed seeing them again. 

It is always great to visit friends (even if we don't take pictures!)!

Leaving Georgia, entering South Carolina, visiting family

We left the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter in Perry, GA on Sunday morning, made our way around Atlanta and then ...

... entered South Carolina as we continued on our way north.

We got to visit cousins Carol and Buddy on their place...

... what beautiful mountain views!

Their home is perfectly positioned and designed to enjoy the views!

Carol and I on their porch (I think Carol and I are the two shortest of the Talley cousins!).

So pretty!

We got to visit and catch up (Carol is now a grandma!). So good to see family!

FMCA Convention - Last Day

Each morning during the convention, we've been given a copy of "The Lucky Tribune", a "newspaper" about things going on at the convention, notices about changes on session topics and/or times, encouragement to participate in different activities, and sometimes news associated with FMCA or the convention.

Top of title page on Thursday's copy of "The Lucky Tribune"

I had previously mentioned that this was the 13th convention here at Perry, and that the one in 1996 was huge. Information in Saturday's The Lucky Tribune shared information about the RV counts about the attendance in each of the conventions which have been held here.

On the first evening, they introduced folks who had attended all 13 of these conventions -- there were 3 couples and 1 single who have come to all 13 conventions held in Perry!

There were still a few sessions being held on Saturday - I attended one on RV Insurance, and Carl attended one on Towing...

... and one on RV Sealants.

We both feel that we've learned a lot; some of the sessions addressed content which we may have heard before, but it is always good to review; in many cases, questions asked by other participants helped us understand something that we had not thought about previously!

On Saturday evening, we went out for dinner with a group of folks in Coaches for Christ - we got to sit with another couple with whom we had not had a chance to talk, and it was good to get to know them better! It is always fun to make new friends!

Happy St Patrick's Day - FMCA Day 3

Day 3 of the convention fell on St Patrick's Day.

Carl attended a Cummins engine presentation...

I attended a session on a new RV travel planning tool. (More about trip planning in a later post.)

We stopped by the photobooth to get our picture taken.

On Monday while on our way from Florida to the convention, we had seen this Tiffin motorhome, distinctive due to the decoration on the back. We happened to see it as we were walking through a parking area so I stopped to see it more closely....

There is a grate with straight round tubing over the engine compartment; the owner has put colored wire loom over the bars of the grate to make the flag.

A sign on the fairgrounds that we noticed...

This convention is the 13th ("Lucky 13") FMCA convention to be held here at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter. 1945 RVs are here for this convention. 

In 1996, there were 6,632 motor coaches here for the convention -- greater than 3 times the number this convention! At that time, there would not have been readily accessible information on the internet for people to learn about their rigs and how to maintain them. 

Carl and I were wondering how the topics would have differed from the sessions we are attending -- still there would have been sessions on RV safety, engine maintenance -- but there would be nothing on internet tools or lithium batteries. KOA and Good Sam probably would have been here, probably other campgrounds or localities would be in the expo area to encourage people to come visit them.

We got green flower leis when we were in the information center which we donated to Miss Kitty when we got home!

This is a view of the fairgrounds and *some* of the 1900+ RVs here (not all -- our parking area is not included!).

Some additional numbers presented on Friday night

Friday evening's entertainment was billed as country music...

Kenny Ray Horton and the Vagabonds

Kenny Ray did part of the show by himself (we honestly liked him by himself a bit better than with the band)...

... though there was one young lady (20 years old) in the band who was pretty amazing -- Addie Levy.  She played the mandolin and fiddle and sang. Kenny Ray said that she was in Dolly Parton's Christmas show on TV this past year. She and one of the other band members played "Devil Went Down to Georgia" (the other band member played "the devil's" fiddle part). She is from the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia (https://www.addielevy.com/).

Friday was very rainy -- we're hoping the grounds dry enough or are solid enough that everyone can get out on Sunday morning!