At the end of the day, when the engine’s shut down and the a/c with it, it can get pretty stuffy inside the SUV with the windows closed as they have to be in mosquito infested areas. There are all kinds of netting devices that can be purchased on Amazon and other venues. But I saw a neat hack on one of the Facebook groups I’m a member of.
The poster bought a couple of those 10″-high sliding screens, and used foam pipe insulation around the edges. I thought it was brilliant and did the same thing when I was in Gettysburg on what was supposed to be my epic adventure. At night I set my small USB fan that runs off the Bluetti power pack in front of one of the screens. It sucks in the air from outside and cools the interior of the vehicle.
The sliding metal parts of the screen are white and the insulation is black.
Makes the setup stand out like a neon sign. While holed up for the weekend at the Susquehanna Auto Service yard waiting for my second alternator to be installed I painted the screens black with some Krylon spray paint I had with me. In the dark they are nearly invisible.
Works great! EXCEPT when it rains. Then you have to take the screens out and close the windows until the rain stops. Now you’re all stuffy again. My solution for that was the use of large, plastic garbage bags. I trap the top of the bag in the top of the door with the screen and let the bag drape down.You need to have weight on the bottom of the bag to keep the wind from blowing it around and letting rain hit the screen.
At first I used whatever was available…my rain boots, small bottles of water, canned goods. But that really wasn’t satisfactory. So, after getting my THIRD alternator of the trip installed in Lake City, FL, I went to Home Depot and purchased four magnets. They’re small; 3/8 in. x 1/2 x 1-7/8 in. They come two to a pack and, of course I bought two packs for a total of about $5.
One goes in the bottom corner of each bag. Rain comes, it only takes a second of two to drop the bag and bam! the magnets grab the side of the door and the wind is NOT going to move them. Doesn’t look sleek but it does the job.
I struck my campsite at the Stephen Foster Cultural Center State Park in Warm Springs, FL, Monday morning, 8/23/2201, getting ready to head back to what serves as “Home” these days. Does anything really qualify as “Home” when you’re living either on a boat, vehicle, or tent? Took about three hours to do it.
Fold up the cot. Sit, rest, catch breath.
Lug the Alpicool 12V/110V fridge freezer to the SUV and plug it into the Bluetti Portable Power Station . Sit, rest, catch breath.
Strike Coleman portable table and bag it and put it in the SUV. Sit, rest, catch breath.
Pull up all the stakes and remove rain fly. It’s wet from previous night’s rain so I spread it over the picnic table to dry off. Sit, rest, catch breath.
Collapse tent, roll it up and stuff it in its sack. Shove it under the bed in the SUV and store camp folding camp cot on top. Plenty of room. Sit, rest, catch breath several times.
Fold up rain fly which is mostly dry by now, put it in its bag and toss in bin on trailer hitch carrier that serves as my basement/attic for stuff.
Super sweaty now because it’s hot, muggy and the start of an enervating heat index day. Gather up soap, shampoo, and towel, fold up Coleman camp chair (a wonderful, comfortable thing, by the way) and store it in SUV. Sit, rest, catch breath on the picnic bench before heading off to the showers.
Reading this you should get the idea that being a 79 year old with COPD is a bit of a pain in the pooper.
As I’m heading over to the showers it starts to rain. When I get to the shower building it’s POURING! Back at the SUV I find that where the tent had been is now covered by at least three inches of water!
It rained most of the three and a half hours it took me to drive the back roads to DeBary. Quite glad that I had new wiper blade installed at Jim’s when they replaced the faulty alternator. Oddly, looking at Google Maps, taking the Interstate, macadamized rivers of death, would only have saved me about 20 minutes overall.
Back in the swamp the river’s really up. The gangplank is on an upward incline to the boat where most of the winter it was just the opposite. Went on board, scooped leaves out of the cockpit drain, pushed back the hatch into the cabin. What a mess! A lot of work to be done so I’ve spent the first two nights back in the SUV and probably will for quite a while yet until I get the boat scrubbed up and knock back the mildew that’s formed.
Now I need to get a few things straightened out on the Montero. Get the hitch carrier off and situated. The box will still be a great place to keep extra stuff, though.
It may be a while before there are any more adventures. I have a doctor’s appointment in two weeks. I’ve been having some adverse effects from the new med put me on for the COPD. So there won’t be any “adventures” for the next month and the posts here will be slight. But I’ve gotten a taste for this camping thing again. There are some state parks fairly near by so I think I’ll be visiting them from time to time and will let you know about them.
“Get close to the wildlife,” they said. “You’ll love it.”
YAH? Well guess what? You were WRONG!
At least about loving the wildlife…This morning I heard some noise on the side of the tent and there was an effin’ squirrel clinging to the netting window. Little bastard left over a dozen holes that I’ve now got to try and fix.
Because it’s in a state park you’re not allowed to kill the tick-carrying rodent, more’s the pity.
Nothing is a bigger incentive to putting the rainfly over the top of the tent than the sound of loud, approaching thunder.
After having the THIRD alternator installed in the last couple of months but the good people at Jim’s Auto Repairs in Lake City, Florida, I returned to the Stephen Foster Cultural Center State Park. I got to Jim’s just as they opened at 8 a.m. When I explained that I was traveling they put me on “urgent” status, apparently, and I was back on the road before noon. If you have to break down in north Florida, try and arrange it so you’re near Lake City and Jim’s. They did me right.
Not being sure of when the repairs would be finished I didn’t look for any parks closer to home and decided to return here. I like the place and at $10 a night with water and electricity at the site it’s an unbeatable deal. Will be here through the weekend.
My most important breathing med, Trilogy, was on its last hit, though I still have some of the Breo Ellipta left, I called the Lake City Wally World Pharmacy and renewed the prescription which will be ready this afternoon, Fri.
It was sweltering when I got back to the park. Willy Weather says the heat index was between 106F to 108F! It took forever to get the tent pitched. Do a little, stop, sit and catch breath, repeat. Of course it finally got done but it was a real battle. I didn’t put the rain fly on since it was bright and sunny. But a couple of hours later what had been distant thunder became a lot louder, and a lot closer. I went out and struggled getting the rain fly over the tent. Only the second time I’ve done it but I think I’ve figured out how to do it a little easier next time. Practice makes perfect, they say.
About a half hour later it started to pour. Lightning all around. This lasted for well over an hour and the rain continued on into the night. I slept well, though, on my new Osage River Camping Cot…
Except for a couple of old man moments in the middle of the night I got almost eleven hours of shut eye. Didn’t sleep well at the motel the other night. People back and forth all night. Noisy. Even worse in a lot of ways then the constant drone of traffic I encountered when overnighting at Cracker Barrels.
There’s a certain type of person/camper I absolutely don’t want to have anything to do with. These “Sunshine Patriots.” I’m a Navy vet but far from being a flag waver. I can’t stomach the kind of people who have to fly the flag wherever they are. Semper fuck you and all that! This nearby rig is owned by a retired couple I definitely DON’T want to meet. There’s not a doubt in my mind that these people are hard-core Trump supporters.
Shortly before I made it to the Stephen Foster Cultural Center State Park in White Springs, FL the combination Battery/Brake light warning on the dash started flashing. I made it into my campsite fine, but checking things out with the multimeter indicated that the alternator wasn’t charging…AGAIN!!!
I looked on line and found an AAA repair facility in nearby Lake City and called them. They were able to schedule me in on Thursday, which is fine since that’s the day I’m supposed to check out of the state park. One problem, though, is I have a couple of things waiting for me at the local post office. Have to see if I can get a ride there with someone on Monday.
Weather forecast is gloomy for the week. Looks like Fred is drifting further to the west and going to miss us here, but Gladys is on a track that could be a real problem come Thursday. Ugh!
Had a strong thunderstorm pass over yesterday afternoon. Knocked out the electricity. My Bluetti kept the fridge going and in the morning still had 60% charge. However, wasn’t getting any power. Thought perhaps the “brick” that charges things had died. Then checked the power box. Breakers were fine, but even when plugging in my corded drill I got no power. A bit later I asked a passerby if he had electricity at his site. He said it had come on about 5 a.m. Went back to the outlet and, now with better light, I discovered that the ground fault had tripped. Pressed the button and power restored.
Haven’t set up the tent. When I arrived it still looked like Fred could be a real threat and then, with yesterday’s heavy rain the area where I would have set up had a couple of inches of water. Drained of quickly, but the tent floor would have been under if it had been set up.
This is a lovely spot, but heavily overcast. Going to rain today, no doubt about that.
It’s that time of year…Hurricane season. And there’s trouble brewing in the tropics as I write this. The National Hurricane Center is calling it “PotentialTropical Cyclone Six” right now since it hasn’t formed a circular pattern and reached minimum sustained winds of 39 mph of 1 minute duration to be officially categorized as a tropical storm and given a name. YET!
Florida falls within the “Cone of Uncertainty.” It looks, now, as though the area most impacted will be to the east of the current predicted track as it moves along the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The bad news is that the worst area of winds and rain in tropical storms and hurricanes is on the north east quadrant of the system. Where I am!
I have reservations for a week at the Stephen Foster State Park on the Suwannee River starting on Thursday. According to the Hurricane Center the earliest expected arrival of tropical storm force winds around that area might be Friday night to Saturday morning. I have no idea what effect this might have on my being able to stay at the park. In any case, it certainly won’t be tent weather, that’s for sure. But I’ll have everything packed and stowed from being on the road and am able to sleep in the SUV. Cooking isn’t going to happen in the vehicle, but I’ll just get sandwich stuff and survive well enough for a couple of days.
I quite like this camping thing. But, like everything else in life it has its good and bad sides. The bad for me here at Three Rivers State Park in Sneads, FL, is that I seem to have chosen a site that offers very little shade. On Saturday and Sunday ,many of the campers departed. I’m writing this at the picnic table two sites away towards the water. It is gloriously shady. There’s also a slight breeze, and over by my tent it’s becoming stifling.
I’ve been living small for quite a few years. Twenty-two foot sailboat with just sitting headroom. Now SUV, but can stand up in the tent, Then I look across the street at a guy, all by his lonesome, getting ready to hit the road in his 5th-wheel camper with slide outs. Makes no sense to me. Same as when I was driving for the airport pickups in southeast Florida. I’d take withered, elderly people to mini-mansions and it was like dropping a couple of BBs into a 55 gallon barrel.
Then he spotted me and came over and started chatting. Telling me about how the FBI, the DOJ and others were trading him. Blocking his internet service. Placing tracking devices on his truck. He wasn’t going to let anybody stick a needle in his arm with “no vaccine.” I just sat silently nodding my head and “tsk tsking” along. When I told him I’d been invaded by an army of tiny ants that bit like crazy he went over to his rig and brought me some spray as well as a six pack of Miller Lites.
Got food and drink to last me the rest of my stay here.
Delayed two days since there was no internet connection in the woods at the Manatee Springs State Park in Chiefland, FL.
Today, August 5, is the first time in about 68 years that I’ve spent a night in a tent. I LIKE it.
I spent a very peaceful night at the Houlihan Boat Ramp on the Savannah River as noted in the previous blog post. I had arrive there in the middle of the afternoon and simply hung around reading a Kindle book. I went into the nearby town of Wentworth, South Carolina, and found a Chinese restaurant. Wanted something bland for supper because my duodenal ulcer has been acting up giving me heartburn in the middle of the night. I returned to the boat ramp after dark. No one else was around. talked to a new acquaintance of the female persuasion for about an hour on the phone and then turned in. Didn’t wake up until almost 7 which is unusual for me.
Threw a lot of stuff in the trash. When I’m on the road and munching on junk food I simply throw the wrappers on the floor between where the Bluetti lives and the fridge. I DON’T throw crap out the window. One of the things that distressed me when I lived in Panama, and there were only a couple, but the worst is that the people treat their beautiful country with it’s glorious mountains and sea coasts on the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean like one gigantic trash can. You absolutely don’t want to see how much trash, like pop bottles and those sacs that you stick straws into, cover the area around casettas…covered bus stops.
When you mention it to them, Panamanians agree it’s horrible and then get quite defensive. “Is it better in the United States?” they’ll ask. And my answer alway was, “Yes it it. But once upon a time, when I was a kid, we had a similar problem. The President Johnson’s wife, Lady Bird, got on a big tear and things changed. It didn’t happen over night. It took an entire generation to change their way of thinking about the environment they lived in. One thing that helped was there is a deposit of 5 to 10 cents on every soda bottle. You don’t see them lying around on the ground in the states. To poor people and kids they’re like money found in the street. The same thing needs to happen here. But it will be your grandchildren who benefit.”
Anyway, I left the ramp and headed in a westerly direction looking for a McDoo Doo’s. I won’t eat their meat, but I do like their pancakes and coffee for breakfast. And it gives me time to look at maps and figure out where to go next. I try and keep the distances down to a couple of hundred miles a day. About five hours driving time on the back roads. I’m not into the marathon road trips any more. I’ve been thinking about going and visiting some of the places I stopped at when I was taking my boat trip four years back. Like Panacea where I was brought in by Coast Guard-dispatch when I had total kidney shut down caused by severe dehydration. Or Suwannee. Maybe go over to Apalachicola famous for oysters and spend a couple of days pigging out on seafood. While my coffee was cooling down to a drinkable temperature, I perused an app called iOverlander. I specified both established campsites as well as free places like Cracker Barrels and Walmarts. Not having has a shower since New Jersey I’m getting a little rank so I searched for an “established” site and settled on Manatee Springs State Park in Chiefland, FL. Made a reservation on line for Thursday but since the site is reserved for Friday I grabbed the spot just across the street for the second night. The sites are $20/night with electricity and water, but with taxes and “fees” it rounds out to a hair over $25 which is still a bargain considering that a cheap, gungy motel will set you back close to $70.
While I was getting things set up for camping in the SUV I also bought camping gear, too. I bought an Coleman “Instant Tent.” It’s a “six-person” tent. Well, sitting in it as I write this they’d be six very little persons. My brother says it takes him about two minutes to set it up. This was my very first try and it took me six or seven minutes and left me seriously panting for breath. Never the less, it IS easy to set up and I’m sure with a little practice I can cut the time in half.
I also bought a Coleman folding table at my brother Marks suggestion and a Coleman camp chair. I slept for several years on an Intex twin size air mattress and sprung for one of those, too. They’re under $10 at Wally World. I have the electric air pump to inflate it and the Bluetti takes care of the power. I have two pumps, actually. One is a 110-volter and the other is a 12 volt cigarette adapter power source. The Bluetti handles either one.
Just after throwing stuff in the dumpster and a quart of transmission fluid in the beast it started to rain. It rained from light drizzle to downpour all day long. Just as I pulled into the state park I caught a break and the rain stopped for a short time. Time for me to get mostly settled, that is. While my brother says he can get the tent erected in about two minutes, this was my first try. It took me, maybe, five minutes.
I managed to get the table, chair, Bluetti, and the USB fan into the tent just as it started to rain again. This time it poured for about an hour.
As I was sitting, looking out the tent door at the woods around me I spotted this deer, just as she spotted me.
So far I’ve avoided paying for places to sleep what with Cracker Barrels, Boat Ramps, Family and Friends. But I think I’m going to be doing more of this camping thing at places with showers. Try and do it once every 10 days or so.
Slept ’til almost 7 then dug out the Gas One single-burner stove and the 11 lb tank and made myself a steaming mug of espresso. The sun is out this morning but it sounds like there’s thunder off in the distance. Without a wifi signal I can’t check the weather.
I have to re-register at 10. Check-out time is 1 and check-in time is 3. So I’ll use those two hours to hang around down by the manatee food concession where the map they gave me shows there’s wifi.
Manatee Springs State Park
I have to change campsites later in the day. Right now I’m watching the couple who are occupying it break their camp down. They have a small trailer pulled by a Jeep. Not looking forward to breaking this mess down and setting it up again in a few hours and then striking it tomorrow. Will make Saturday’s run a short one. Look for a Cracker Barrel over around Apalachicola perhaps.
Heavy rain most of day. Had struck tent and decided to just sleep in the SUV instead.
Spent the night at “South of the Border” in Dillon, South Carolina. Place has fallen on really hard times. First visit was back in 1964 driving to Miami from Orleans, Cape Cod. No Interstate then, just US1. Very shabby and tacky now. One lonely waitress in the restaurant serving mediocre, overpriced food.Many letters on various neon signs over the “attractions” not working giving the place an even more forlorn look. Checked with a Security dude and he said there wasn’t any problem staying overnight. There were quite a few of us doing that. At least a half dozen others that I could tell. The one thing I’ll give them is that the toilets in the stand alone building were very clean despite being very old. There was am older, black man who was the attendant overseeing the operation. Good thing I can sleep under adverse conditions because big rigs blasted by on I-95, a hundred yards away all night.
Cleared out about 7 am. Stopped at a McDooDoo’s down the road. An all black crew and the best soul music was playing in the restaurant. They all laughed and hooted when I told them the music was making it hard for me to leave.
South Carolina roads are pretty rough. You notice it the moment you cross over the state line from North Carolina. But the back roads, except when passing through a couple of small towns, had speed limits of from 45 to 60 mph which is relaxing where Interstate driving, for me, anyway, is white knuckle time. Most of the time in the five hours I drove today I saw very few cars either coming at me or behind me. A couple of times I drove through tunnels created by the boughs of live oaks meeting over the road. South Carolina, at least when driving down the back roads, seems to be a state filled with single and double-wide mobile homes.
I’m spending the night at a place called Houlihan’s Boat Ramp by the Savannah River. Look to the right and you can see the cranes in the Savannah container port. Overall the place is well tended with a couple of picnic tables and a bench seat for contemplation. Off to the side there are three Port-A-Potties. Roamed around the whole place and there are no signs prohibiting overnight parking. It’s going to be noisy here, though. There’s a draw bridge over the river with 18 wheelers humming over the grated section of the bridge. Probably quiet down later tonight, though.
Not sure where I’m going to go tomorrow. Will scope that out later.
One More Good Adventure 