Times Are Tough!

This trip has been the opposite of easy. Snow storms, death wobble, tornadoes, extreme winds and coronavirus has made our sabbatical a constant uphill battle. Understandably, the current world situation is changing hourly and like everyone around the planet, we are forced to make decisions based on knowledge and the information we receive. However as we sit outside our trailer looking at the picture you see we are faced with new campsite closures, which we feel will definitely send us northbound. What will tomorrow bring!!

Key West

Today we decided to travel to Key West for a day trip. It took about an hour to get there. After finding a place to park Cath, Shep and I walked around town looking at the sites. Everywhere we go Shep is always the attention getter.

This fella just doesn’t follow the rules!

Most Southern Point Trip Data

Shep and I are currently waiting for Cathy to finish a bit of shopping at the Winn Dixie grocery store. I thought it might be interesting to see a bit of our travel data at the most southern point of our trip. As you can see we have traveled a little over 3000 km and the truck has been running for close to 50 hours. Although the mileage of 21.6 L/100km seems a bit scary, I am actually very happy with it. Our old F150 pulling a trailer 1/3 our current trailer’s weight was averaging 25 L/100km. 

Sunshine Key RV Park (Florida Keys)

Today was a good day of travel. We left Okeechobee KOA at 10:15am this morning and arrived at the Sunshine Key RV Park (Florida Keys) just after 4pm this afternoon. I’m happy to report that we have now driven for about 2500 km since the ‘death wobble’ without any truck troubles (fingers crossed).

We woke up on Wednesday morning to find another beautiful day. The temperatures are forecasted to reach about 23°. Cath and I had breakfast, showered up and took a walk around the park. As you can see the water has a brilliant turquoise color. 

Fort Pierce (Atlantic Coast)

Today Cath, Shep and I went for a field trip over to Fort Pierce. We heard the Navy Seals Museum was worth the outing.

The Navy Seal Symbol

Here you see a model of the Osama bin Laden compound which was in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The Navy SEALs actually made a life sized replica of the compound to practice the raid before it happened.

This lifeboat was the actual one used in the real Captain Phillips hijacking. During this true event, the container ship ‘Maersk Alabama’ was taken over by Somali pirates in April 2009. In the end, Navy Seals snipers killed 3 pirates in this lifeboat freeing Captain Phillips from being held hostage. 

Largest KOA in North America

Here we are set up at the Okeechobee KOA. This spot is inland about halfway between Orlando and Miami. We will be here for about 3 nights. If the weather allows, our next stop will be the Florida Keys on Monday. Mostly we need the wind to settle down. Monday has a forecast of over 60km/hour gusts near Key Largo.

This video gives you a better idea of how tightly packed in we are.

Okeechobee Bound

Cath, Shep and I were all up at about 7 AM the next morning. Although we were still tired from the night before, we wanted to get moving and arrive at Okeechobee, KOA early in the afternoon.

Moving South During The Night

On Thursday we decided to travel south during the evening due to a break in the wind and rain. We ended up leaving Sweetwater, TN at 5 PM and arrived at Jennings, Florida (just over the border) at 1:30 AM. We Quickly set up the trailer for a short nights sleep. The best part was our truck didn’t have any troubles and it was a safe evening of travel. In this picture we were stopped for a short period of time just south of Atlanta.

Knoxville Tennessee

Today’s trip to Knoxville went well and our truck didn’t do the ‘death wobble’. I will be honest and say that it was still quite stressful thinking constantly that every bump we hit might trigger it. Each day of successful travel should strengthen our confidence in our truck.

 Here you see Cathy and Shep chilling before heading out for a walk around the Sweetwater KOA. We will be staying here until Friday due to bad weather just south of us. Georgia and northern Florida will be receiving heavy rain with the possibility of tornadoes over the next couple of days. By Friday it looks like the weather will clear and we hope to travel to a destination south of Atlanta..

Settled in and good news in Cincinnati

After a VERY sleepless night not knowing what was going to happen to our trip, we had some good news (we hope). There was a ford dealership only ten minutes away. I called when they opened at 7:30 am and the service manager named Jeremy said, “bring the truck in and we will have a look”. He was very knowledgeable about the problem and eased my mind that the issue would be solved over the next couple of days. The Lebanon dealership kindly transported me back to the campground. WOW, at about 1:30 pm, Jeremy called to say the truck was finished and ready to go. He even sent a shuttle back to the KOA to pick me up. After all our internet research, time will tell whether the problem is actually solved. However, right now we are very happy to continue south rather than back north.  Jeremy, we want to thank you for all your help today and being very kind to tired travelers.

The good news for Shep is he had a lot of walks today while we waited for the truck to be fixed. We are all currently relaxing and hoping tomorrow will be a fairly uneventful travel day to Knoxville, Tennessee.

Trouble Along The Way

Everything was going very well until about 4 hours into our trip. About an hour past London, Ontario we stopped for fuel, breakfast and a pee break (Shep as well). Shortly after our stop, we were heading towards Windsor when, 'the wheels fell off the cart'. Well not really but they sure felt like they were going to. Our truck hit a small dip in the road at about 100km/hr and we experienced what is called the 'The Death Wobble'.  This is a condition that single front axle trucks can experience to due certain mechanical issues. Needless to say, I nearly soiled my pants. Have a look at this video to see what I mean.

https://youtu.be/4JV7L8bBo1Q

After this happened a second time, we decided to stop in Windsor for the night and see a dealership in the morning. As we limped along the 401, we thought to book at the Hampton Inn just before the bridge to the U.S.A. Upon arrival, we learned that pulling a 37 foot trailer doesn't always fit just anywhere (although they said it would). After a lot of attempts at parking and looking at the many signs warning us that they are not responsible for vehicle break-ins, we decided to carry on slowly to Cincinnati, Ohio and the Lebanon KOA. Now after time has passed, we know we made the correct decision.

Sunday The Weather Finally Cooperated

Cath, Shep and I were thrilled to be on the road at exactly 6am Sunday morning. It was a sunny but cold morning in Midhurst. The roads were clear, mostly dry and there wasn’t much traffic.

We’re saying goodbye to the snow for a while.

Bad Weather

Unfortunately bad weather did set in throughout Ontario. Today we received about 25cm of snow and wind gusts up to 70 km/h. I spent a good part of the day shoveling off the trailer and driveway. Tomorrow they say we might get another 25cm by the end of the day. We are keeping our fingers crossed that Saturday might allow us to start our journey.

Heading South

This Friday, February 28th Cath, Shep & I are heading South with our 5th wheel for 6 weeks. We are hoping for good weather!