Scott and Tom started the trip North at 7:55AM. At 7:56 – half way down the driveway – Scott decided to confirm that garage door was closed. Not only was it closed, but he then realized he could have used his MyQ application on his phone. At any rate, second start was accomplished at 8AM.
Things went smoothly with Tom’s expert driving. First stop was fuel at Buckey’s in Daytona Beach – the very same Buckey’s we had visited when we first saw and arranged to buy Khan. We realized that each fill-up – around 20 gallons of our 24 gallon tank – would be between $110 and $120, with Diesel between $5.69 and $6.00. Scott continually hopes for high fuel prices to keep less important people off the road, a sentiment in keeping with the OWG RV group motto “Privileged and Proud.”
Spoke to Steve mid-morning, and his eye is now swollen shut. He did say that he could see if he held his eye open manually, so no worries. Probably a good thing he went to the doctor rather than another night of camping.
Lunch was leftovers in a dumpy parking lot right off I95– it is great to have a refrigerator and a full complement of kitchen appliances. We discovered that a toaster, the air conditioner, and the microwave at the same time overloaded the generator, but the instrumentation was clear on the problem and we had no real difficulty restarting it, so we added this to lessons learned so far, like, “if someone is taking a shower do not use the kitchen sink hot water.”
Tom discovered from one of his campground sites – FreeRoam – that not only Walmart allows you to park in their lot overnight, but Cracker Barrel does as well. We are spending the night in Roanoke Rapids North Carolina – right below the Virginia line, and had a choice of either Walmart or Cracker Barrel. Scott preferred Cracker Barrel since we could then eat Breakfast there. We called and they welcome campers, but some municipalities may have codes preventing this, so you have to check. We arrived around 8:15PM and they close at 9, and reopen at 7PM. Perfect use of their parking lot.
The Auto Levelers do a good job providing a level and stable homestead, but they do have their limits when the parking area is inclined. We had to move from our first location to find a spot that was flatter, and even in the best spot we could find, the right front tire was completely off the ground.
We will be running the generator and air conditioning all night – so we had just filled up on Diesel before we parked.
Going to bed around 9:30PM to ensure an early departure tomorrow after breakfast.