Wine Bar!

The furnace on the 4500 sits above the wheel well on the curb side of the camper. I never managed to get it to light up let alone heat anything, so I decided to remove it and use the space for additional storage. My idea was to put in a drawer which would also be a wine cellar. To accomplish this I removed all the screws, both inside and out that held the furnace in place and disconnected the propane lead, which I capped, sealing it off. The furnace then easily pulled into the cabin and I removed it entirely.

A bit of measuring gave me the dimensions of the wine drawer and I began by building the frame which would hold the drawer in place. This was attached to the old furnace opening walls at the front and to the wheel well at the rear. 

I then made the two-level drawer to fit the frame, installed the slides so they matched up with their counterparts on the frame walls and slid in the new drawer! The holes are for the wine bottles at the front and other storage space is in the rear. Not shown is a separator so items in the rear don't roll forward and drop through the holes. Both the separator and the panel with the holes can be removed, making the space usable for a variety of things besides wine bottles.

New Orleans

Although not particularly private, the camp sites at Bayou Segnette State Park were spacious, clean and full service. We arrived in late afternoon, rolled onto our site not too far from the washrooms and free laundry - yes, free laundry - and settled in for the week. New Orleans lay just a short $1 ferry ride across the mighty Mississippi. We were anxious to explore!

View of a street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. 

Many intersections in the French Quarter featured street musicians.

As we were camped at the State Park on the West Bank of the Mississippi, we had to cross over by ferry every day to visit the city. parking cost us $5 for the day and the ferry which ran each half hour cost another $2, half that for seniors like us.

One pretty sight apart from the busy waterfront was this tall ship from the Netherlands. She was sailed by a few young crew as far as we could see, all very friendly and able to speak English.

This was also the end of the road for my traveling companion. After an early morning drop off at the airport I was alone again and began to make plans for heading back eastward and northward in the coming days. Next stop, Georgia!

Hit and Run Repairs

While waiting for the light to change in Naples, Florida, a young lady who was mostly likely texting and not paying attention, smashed into the rear of my camper. Fortunately for her, my spare tire absorbed much of the impact and she suffered very little damage to her car other than some scratches and maybe a broken headlight lens. Instead of pulling over to the curb as I suggested we do to exchange insurance information, she took advantage once I was back in my car and left the scene of her crime! 

While attempted to pull over, another driver chose to ignore my damaged situation and passing on my right, clipped the right rear of the camper distroying the tail light and breaking the fiberglass on the rear curbside quarter. He at least stopped so we could exchange information! We then spent a couple of hours taping up the damage and fashioning a makeshift tail light to replace the damaged one.

Once home, I began repairs in ernest. I took the camper to a welding shop where the old bent rear frame member was removed and a new piece welded in place. The spare tire mount was also straightened and attached to the bumper. The next job was removing the improvised tail light as well as its streetside mate and ordering some new LED replacements. While the clearance light was working, it had lost its lens cover, so I acquired a new one for there as well. Next I removed everything from the locker and began pushing the fiberglass back to its original shape as best as I could. Someone doing a similar repair online gave me the idea to use small wooden strips bolted to each side of the cracks to bring them into place and stabilize them during the repair and this idea worked extremely well. Once the panel was stable in place, I sanded the inside and applied a layer of fiberglass resin containing glass fibres in the mix. This I did several times to strengthen the cracked areas and make them solid.

On the outside, I filled the larger cracks with the same fiber filled resin as well as the old holes from the tail lights. The small cracks I filled with PC-11, an epoxy filler. This I did several times, sanding everything down each time to bring back the original shape of the rear quarter. The final step was to to use Bondo paste to fill in the remaining scratches and other blemishes, making for a smooth final finish, ready to paint.

Finally satisfied that it was as good as it was going to get, I lightly sanded the whole lower section of the camper all the way around and then rolled on two coats of paint. The last step was to install all the lights. This proved to be interesting as the modern wiring colours don't match exactly the colours Trillium used in their manufacturing. However, eventually everything sorted itself out and began working properly.

The finished repair looks much like the camper prior to the accident. The only changes that are obvious are the new paint colours on the lower part of the camper, the new and slightly smaller, but much brighter tail lights and a very slight colour difference in the beige section below the red belly stripe.

Backtracking to New Orleans

Our time in Beaux Bridge was coming to an end as we had a reservation at the state park across the river from New Orleans. However, we headed one last time into Lafayette to take in the musical lunch in the park. A great modern zydeco band was playing and a ladies group was selling boxed lunches. What could be better than that!

In the afternoon we headed over to the Acadian Center near the airport to take in the musicians jam session. It was a great chance to meet some musicians, dance to some tunes and generally have a great afternoon. The traditional houses and other buildings on the site were well worth the visit. I even enjoyed towing the ferry across the water!

Then it was onward, southward with a brief stop at the Longfellow-Evangeline Musuem. While the story of Evangeline is exactly that, a fictional story, it does harken back to real events making the museum a worthwhile visit. The site and buildings is actually more Creole than Acadian, but nonetheless all very interesting and well worth the visit.

From there is back on the strangely rollicking roads of Louisiana towards our next campground. What is it with those roads? They were simply awful and even dangerous while towing anything large like an RV. I was more than a bit happy to arrive in one piece at our next camping spot where we planned to stay for the next five days or so exploring the French Quarter and nearby neighbourhood of New Orleans.

Paddling on Lake Martin

Just a few miles south of Breaux Bridge is Lake Martin where we discovered one can rent various sorts of kayaks or even take tour boat rides. We drove from the campground and soon had ourselves a double sit-on-top kayak to paddle about on.

 

Much of the lake's shoreline is a cypress swamp with what looks like drowned trees, but in fact this is their habitat along with lots of other things. The latter include the occasional alligator, but much more frequently we saw birds and fish. The water quality was questionable as it seemed full of green algae to the point of a serious bloom. I'm wondering if agricultural runoff is a problem here or whether it's natural having so much algae...

 

In the middle of the lake, there were several hunting blinds. It wasn't hunting season, but the blinds apparently are left up all year and are quite elaborate. The hunter's can drive their boats right inside the blind and then get out on an attached shooting platform. All of this is covered with vegetation which at this time of the year had gone brown and will likely need to be replaced before the next hunting season begins.

So a nice little adventure, especially for my partner who had not had much paddling experience in gator infested waters!

Louisiana - Breaux Bridge

Safely parked in our first Louisiana campground in Breaux Bridge, just off the I-10 highway. The highway had been horrendous because of its undulating surface which was so bad I was forced down to 40 kph and running the flashers! It was unbelievable that an interstate highway was still in this condition, especially in an oil state, but there you go...

The campground facilities were excellent and other than the road noise from the nearby highway, we had little to complain about.

 We were lucky to run into a lady walking her dog in a little park beside the river. She took the time to lead us in her car to the Pont Breaux bar and grill. This turned out to be a very drab looking place from the outside, but was a legendary place for Cajun music. Just about everyone you can imagine has either played here or visited. We stayed for lunch and then a few days later returned for supper and to listen to some live music. The place was packed on a week night forcing us to wait at the bar for a table.

Breaux Bridge is on the Bayou Teche, a muddy looking river which slipped along one end of the campground. This lovely house was right beside the town bridge crossing the river. I loved the colours, the flowers, the whole setting of this house!

Meanwhile, the Bayou makes its muddy way through the rest of the town and on to the sea.

We enjoyed the town and found it a great place to explore the surrounding territory for local colour, music and food!

I even met a fellow Quebeçois who thought he might have met me in Kuujjuaq in 1974!  Possible, but I didn't recognize him...

   

Topsail State Park, Florida

Leaving Sopchoppy, behind, we headed to the coastal road and wade our way westward. We stopped for lunch along the way at a little family run diner which operated in a buffet style. You pointed to the dishes you wanted and the cashier tallied at the end of the counter. For desert we went next door for an ice cream cone and chatted with the owner. He operated the ice cream shop during the winter and then went to pan gold in Colorado in the summer! What a life!

 

Continuing along the coast we arrived at our next home for a couple of nights, Topsail State Park. It was a lovely, well forested park with decent showers and a much needed laundry which we took advantage of!

The beach was about a mile away and a shuttle ran every half hour during the day. Instead we decided to explore the trails which led out of the campground into the forests along the shore.

Once down at the shore itself we were taken with how white and sugary the sand was! It really did look like snow from a distance? 

The trails were not very well marked in places and a one point only my GPS told us we were getting lost! We back-tracked and finally found the trail we were supposed to be on and headed back to the campground.

In places the camp rangers had burned the underbrush leaving it looking black and a bit ugly, however this is a natural process and will actually make the area less prone to accidental fires which could prove very dangerous.

In the evening we strolled down to the beach to see the sunset. The shuttle had ended for the day. So the beach was nearly deserted. The white sand and green plants made a nice setting for the sunset. This place was certainly one of the nicest spots we had camped in during the trip to date!

Sopchoppy Delight

Allstays, the camping app I use said their was a County Park in Sopchoppy, Florida so that's where we headed next. Some friends had stayed at a state park a couple of miles down the road and liked the area, so we decided it was a good spot to stop and explore for a few days.

Driving into the town park it was not immediately obvious where the office was to sign up for a camping site. A man in a pickup truck headed our way, so I lowered the window and ask where I could register. He said, "Hang on, I’ll go round to the office." and then he got out of the truck and walked to the rear, lowered the tailgate and announced the office was open! He wrote up a few details and I signed in. We were registered for two nights! It was that simple!

The campground was nearly empty, but that changed the following day when a few more rigs showed up for the weekend. We checked out the washrooms behind the stage, the showers were hot and the facilities clean. A trail led across a bridge to the opposite side of the river, but we didn't follow it too far. We'd had a long drive and spent the evening chilling out.

 
 The following day we backtracked a few miles to a little trail system we had seen which promised sinkholes and underground rivers. It proved to be quite interesting as we followed the several kilometres of trails through a forested area.

In places the forest sat in water, while in other spots it was high and dry and the streams disappeared underground!

One curious sign suggested not to take a trail as it was closed for some unspecified reason. We headed off in another direction, visiting a number of sinkhole features and so on, eventually coming out at the end of the closed trail. Deciding we didn't have time to continue the loop we were on, we headed down the closed trail to see what the problem was. It turned out to be a bridge spanning a drowned cypress forest. The bridge must have required repairs so was closed. However another trail paralleled the bridge along the shore so we took it as the gps suggested it led back to the park entrance. In fact it led to the original trail closed sign we had seen at the outset!

 

Another kilometre or so and we were back at the park entrance having followed several rivers as they appeared and disappeared on their way through the forest. 

It was time to head back to the campground and forage for food!

I Go To Hell, Tate's Hell That Is...

My son Lee has made the suggestion to check out Tate's Hell, so when we passed a sign indicating the state forest by that name was just ahead, we pulled off and headed down a single tracked sandy road. The further we went the more concerned I became that this wasn't the best place to tow a camper, but the road didn't get worse so we kept on going. After several miles we came to an intersection and turned left following the signs. Another left shortly thereafter and we had arrived!

 

 We headed up the tree lined track, turned the camper around and got out of the car. This was Hell? It was actually an elevated boardwalk over a section of the swampy forest which for some reason had been dwarfed. Perhaps a crucial lack of nutrients had resulted in the dwarf trees, but all the same it was an interesting area to visit.

As you can see in the photo on the left, the boardwalk climbs above the forest and curves around slightly to give a good view of the area below. The dwarf trees are surrounded by normal sized trees, but appear stunted and slow growing. 

 

Finally after having a good look around, we headed back to the main highway and continued our way westward. There were lots more interesting places to see along the way!

Cedar Key

I'd been to Cedar Key years ago and was anxious to once again see the funky little town at the end of the road. I also wanted to revisit the little campground where I had stayed as well. It was one of those places which lingered in your mind and kept asking for your return. We were lucky to get the last spot for a couple of nights. 

When I say lucky, I'm not sure that was the correct term. The site seemed like an after thought it was so small! Luckily we were even smaller so we managed to fit in, but really, what were they thinking? The campground had changed hands over the years and the new people seemed only to be trying to squeeze as many ribs on the grounds as they could. The funky ambiance was gone. It was just wall to wall rigs, the old washrooms no longer the delightful surprise, but a sorry sight. Where was the maintenance, the care and the love the old owners had given the place?

 

Oh well, we headed into town and enjoyed some shopping and the yummy food overlooking the gulf. That was still as wonderful as ever!

That night the bottom fell out of the thermometer and we weren't ready! We damn nesr froze to death! Good thing we both had a warm body to cling to...!
 

Once we had thawed out the next day, we went for a hike up the road a ways where a trail led to some old shell mounds built by the indigenous people long ago. I suppose they had had a village nearby and had taken advantage of the shallow water to harvest the abundant shellfish for food. I had walked this trail on a previous visit and was pleased to find it in good shape.

It was soon time to move westward along the coast to see what else there was to explore.

Bad Day In Naples

Thinking it would be interesting to drive south down Route 41, we headed south from Pine Island roughly following the route laid out in a 1935 guidebook. Needless to say there were changes, lots of them! In fact there were changes even from a few years past when I had taken the same route south to the Everglades. Most notably, there were no more open spaces. It was mall after mall after mall divided briefly by traffic lights. It was at a traffic light that the trip took a nasty turn...

Waiting for the light to change green, we took a sudden impact from the rear. Someone hadn't stopped in time and smashed into Big Trill! I got out and walked back. A young girl was at the wheel on a middle sized car. She claimed her sandal had come off the brake pedal, but I suspect she had been texting someone. In any event, I suggested we pull off to the side and exchange insurance info etc. As I turned right another car clipped the right corner of Big Trill! Obviously in Florida even when it's clear there has been an accident, charging ahead on the right is common practice! 

 

Once on the side street, it was apparent the young girl had run off. We dealt with the second car, exchanged info and so on. We then dealt with the damage. The rear bumper had been pushed in, the right tail light was gone and the fibreglass on the right corner around the bumper was cracked in multiple places. We headed for a hardware store and between that and a deli counter at the grocery store we created a new red tail light. Duct tape covered the cracks in the glass and once again we were on the road headed south.

We were so happy to pull into the Riptide RV Park on Key Largo and find our spot waiting for us. The natives were friendly and the sunset beautiful. Life was good once again...

Pine Island and Sanibel Island

One of the places I had always wanted to paddle was the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, so My companion and I made plans. The first obvious thing we discovered was the total lack of camping spots available in Sanibel, but I had a backup plan. We would camp on Pine Island across the bay! That proved to be difficult as well, but finally we secured a spot at Sea Isle RV Resort in Malakta on the isthmus which leads over to Pine Island itself. There we met Carl and a number of his friends who called the Resort their home. 

It turned out Carl only ever had one site for transients like us and I think thenidea was so that he could have someone new to chat with when the locals got a bit much. Many of the permanent inhabitants were at their last stop in life having been everywhere, done everything already in their lives, mostly thanks to the military. They were quite the crowd each having a small corner on some speciality so that all together they could manage to get by on practically nothing. 

Anyway, Carl was a gem. He got us decent internet, a great meal out just across the bridge and a yummy breakfast in the other direction. All places that mostly cater to locals which gave us a glimpse of the Florida we wanted to see.

Sanibel Island proved itself as well. We ended up renting a canoe and got a first hand look at the mangrove tunnels and typical west coast Florida paddling. We had a great time, although there was less wildlife than I was hoping for. After all it was a refuge!

 

Lunch was just up the street at Dr Ford's new bar and grill. It lacked some of the charm I was expecting as a fan of the books, but I was glad to have see it and we both enjoyed the meal.

I had thought I would take a little tour around on Pine Island the following day and there was a new hiking trail Carl told us about, however, we wanted to see the Keys and we had secured a reservation on Key Largo so we headed south once again.

Lithia County Park, Florida

With no room at the inn, that is Hillsborough State Park, I motored down the road to the county park at Lithia Spring a few miles south of the Interstate east of Tampa. It proved to be a nice, quiet camping spot with a huge spring, some hiking trails and a few interesting characters as well. It proved as well to be a perfect spot to welcome aboard a traveling companion who would be with me until Louisiana, a few weeks away. She was Big Trill's first guest traveller and I was anxious to see how it would work out as the accommodations were on the smallish side!

The first character we met at the check-in. She wasn't afraid to tell you whatever she thought, but did it all with a twinkle in her eye. We certainly enjoyed her dry wit! Another character was living in an old school bus with his band name written all over it. He was camping and writing new songs for the band using the quiet campground for inspiration. He was full of interesting info and recommended another similar County Park north of Tampa which we were never able to find in any map or app we had. Oh well...

We checked out the hiking trails which followed the river out of the springs. Yes, there were several Springs and the flow of water was substantial.

 

Washrooms were nearly new, clean and had lots of hot water, always appreciated, but not always found!

We spent a couple of nights here sorting out the camper and making it more comfortable as we switched over from one person to two. Needless to say, it was a welcome change and the beginning of our second adventure together, the first having been last fall in California. As the photo above shows, we set the 'hut' up for the first time here. It provided a bit of privacy when using the toilet and taking showers when none was available. We learned a few other tricks on using it over the days ahead, but basically it worked very well and was set up almost everywhere we camped.

We then made plans and set out southward...

Return to Hillsborough State Park, Florida

I had stayed at Hillsborough State some years ago in my Teardrop camper and had enjoyed my stay there, so I was interested to revisit. One of the things I wanted to do was hike some of the trails across the river as I had not done that previously.

Once again, it was difficult to reserve a site longer than a single night in any park, so we had to get out an explore quickly and then pack up and move along.

There were more trails than we really had time to explore, but we did cross the river and head down one fine trails. We were surprised to discover it soon came to a fence forcing me to turn along it and then head back into the forest and back to another bridge! Crossing the bridge, we followed the river for a while seeing an alligator and some paddlers in the water below. Where's my kayak! It seemed odd to be in Florida without one...

Turning back along a trail which headed towards the park road, we discovered around a dozen or so vulture like birds in the trees and on the ground. The odour of a large rottening animal permiated the air. The birds were enjoying themselves, feasting away on this find.

We continued along the path and arrived back at my camper. It was time to pack up and leave. On the way out we drove around the park looking for where I had stayed before. It wasn't easy to find the exact site, but it was most likely in the open area furtherest from the river sites. The park certainly was full. I had inquired at the gate about any cancellations, but the ranger didn't seem to want to bother looking. He wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. A lady volunteer  working in the office smiled and rolled her eyes...

We headed down the road...

Florida Surprises

  

The crossing of the border into Georgia did not improve the I-95. In fact it got worse and in more than one spot I saw piles of tire retread debris lining both sides of the road, evidence of the tire shredding road surface. I was one of the lucky one to have slipped into Florida wearing the same tires I had left with. Not everyone was so lucky, it seems...! Once in Florida, the condition of the interstate improved and I could finally relax knowing the camper's axel wasn't going to be shaken off the camper and left on the side of the road. Thank you Florida!

The first surprise, not too unexpected in high season, was the almost complete lack of campsite availability anywhere close to where I had hoped to stay! What a change from just a few years ago when it never occurred to reserve ahead. I simply drove into campgrounds and easily found a place to camp. Those days are gone it seems with everyone seeming to own an RV. I pleaded for help from some Facebook friends and finally one suggested I try Tomoka State Park near Daytona and finally I had a spot for the night. One night... The park turned out to be a gem with nice clean washrooms, good showers and friendly people. 

 

The following day, I discovered that by moving a couple of sites closer to the washroom, I could stay a couple of extra days, so move I did. This resulted in me being next to the couple in the photo above, two Harley enthusiasts who were down from Pennsylvania for Bike Week in Daytona. It was the twentieth anniversary of their previous visit and they were anxious to have a good time revisiting some of the old spots they had been to all those years ago. I loved their vintage bikes which they had trailered down and promptly began riding as soon as they had set up their tent - in the bed of their truck!

That evening they invited me over to their campfire for a few beers and we all had some good laughs together until the rain set in.  Returned to Big Trill, but a while later the Scheller's knocked on the door. My bloody pants - from LL Bean no less - had shed my wallet which they had found in the dirty while dousing their campfire! Thank god! They saved my trip from certain disaster had my wallet gone missing for good. It set off a series of panic attacks throughout the trip whenever my wallet wasn't where I expected it to be.

In the days ahead I biked around the park, checked out the day use areas, the boat launch area, the old shell mounds and the other facilities. Soon it was time to head westward across Florida, but I really enjoyed Tomoka SP and all it had to offer.

Charleston, South Carolina

 

Winter in Quebec was proving once again to be more of a snow, rain, freeze cycle than a real winter, so it was time to see if Big Trill was up to a big trip south. I had done lots of tweeking to her over the few years of ownership and the Kingston trip gave me positive feedback, so off we went on the last few days of February, 2017.

The route the first day took us south through Vermont, over the hills to Rutland and then on to Albany, NY where I stopped at a Walmart Inn in Latham for the night. Fortunately the night was relatively warm so I slept well and was back on I-87 in the morning. By late afternoon I was in Maryland. The dreaded I-95 was scaring me with every bump and bang it's badly kept surface presented. Up again the day after another night Chez Walmart, the horror of the interstate continued. I stopped on the border between the two Carolinas for the night, again Walmart,  and the next morning thankfully got off I-95 soon after crossing into South Carolina. I took rt 52 to Lake City and from there onto Charleston itself. 

I had reservations at the James Island County Campground, but the desk at the campground had no record of them! Fortunately, they had space and I settled into this wonderful spot for several days. 

I spent much of the time cleaning and rearranging the interior of Big Trill. She was incredibly dirty and I had brought way more stuff than I needed, so the time was well spent!

I connected with my Facebook friend Mary Ann and she kindly met me and showed me around the city and some of the neighbouring spots of interest...

  

A walk around the old section of town revealed a lovely seaside park as well as some secret gardens hidden behind old walls and wrought iron gates. Yet, Charleston was not just about the past, we treated ourselves to a take out meal at a genuine English fish n chips joint where even the owner's accent was the real thing! He was from Manchester!

The road soon beckoned southward, so cleaner and tidier, Big Trill and I headed back to the I-95 via rt 17. Soon the bumps and bangs would begin anew...