Casale's Corner
HICKSVILLE TIDBITS MAY 2009
Bob and Ted started their great adventure. Bob had an album on Webshots.com for photos, but it is no longer there.
I have collected his notes to me. The date and time is when I received them in my inbox.
Pat (Koziuk) Driscoll
4/13/09 - 8:23 am
it's Monday morning and Ted and I are in Montgomery, Alabama. We drove from Hickory Knob State Park in South Carolina, about 300 miles and laid overnight. What a storm we had starting last night about 11pm. It just subsided at 8am this morning. Our trip has begun and we are off to Niceville, Florida around noon or sooner. That is in the Florida Panhandle and they are expecting some nasty weather later. Our trip today will be about two hours or three. The picture is from last Thursday when Ted and I were loading up in Augusta before heading up to the mountains.
4/13/09 - 3:40 pm
...we just arrived in Niceville a little while ago. It took about four hours and rained the entire time plus all of last night and it's still raining.
Roger set up a blog site for me and I should be able to post notes and pictures on a daily basis. The only problem is I don't exactly know how to use it and I need to let people know what the site is. Have you been to the site? Tomorrow we are off to Gainesville...then Vero Beach....then to the Keys.
4/15/09 - 8:47 am
I went online this morning and my new little Eee PC had a keyboard that was typing oddball characters on both the computer and my wireless keyboard. I went to Best Buy and the Geek Squad fixed the keyboard on the computer, something about I hit control numbers lock and corrupted the keyboard.
Well, I am still having the same problem with the wireless keyboard and I need that desperately because I cannot type on this little keyboard. I want to bring my blog up to date but cannot type on this little thing. How do I get the wireless active again?
We are in Vero Beach and will be in the Keys tomorrow afternoon.
We have gone almost 1100 miles so far.
4/16/09 - 7:32 am
...it's early Saturday morning, the 11th of April. Masters has hit Augusta this past week and the traffic was horrendous. Ted and I picked up and loaded the motor home on Thursday, April 9th, then took off for a campground in South Carolina...Hickory Knob State Resort Park...what a beautiful location. I let Ted back the fifth wheel into the spot...I'm still a nervous wreck but will get better as we go along.
I left Ted at the Park and drove back Martinez...had to feed Joyce and take care of loose ends. Dawn will be responsible for Joyce while I'm gone. I'm sorry to put the onus on her, but this trip has been planned for a long time.
I do have some pictures and will post as soon as we get on the road.
Friday, I went shopping for more stuff... It's crazy how much stuff is needed just to be comfortable.
Dawn, Sarah and Joyce are driving up to the park today. I am loading the F350 with the last of the stuff and will head up with the girls.
Ted and I take off tomorrow morning, Easter Sunday. Our first stop is in Montgomery, Alabama for an overnight, then off to see Kim, Ted's daughter in the Florida panhandle near Fort Walton Beach.
4/14/09 - 7:50 pm
Ted and I arrived at the Keys around 3:30 this afternoon and set the motor home up for the overnight. Our mileage to date is about 1,300 miles. Actually, we will be here two nights...Thursday and Friday night. We had to park around 40 miles from the Keys because they had no openings for motor homes in that area.
Tomorrow, Ted will be driven to Key West and will start his ride. He will return to the site where we parked and then Saturday we are off to the next Key.
We are dedicating this excursion to the VetDogs website, a project of Guide Dog Foundation (GDF) that provides Guide Dogs and Service Dogs to veterans. We have been asking the foundation to set up a donation page that can be accessed directly.
Please wait with your donation until I find out something from GDF.
Check out the following: https://www.vetdogs.org/
The systems in the motor home are becoming more familiar...I'm still anxious hooking up and dropping the trailer from the truck. It's getting better.
Gonna try to blog another blog, then watch a movie with Ted...
When Worlds Collide; an oldie but goodie.
4/19/09 - 7:17 pm
Pat...
Don't know where I left off.
We stayed in Niceville on Monday....Gainesville on Tuesday....Vero Beach on Wednesday....then got to Big Pine Key on Thursday and laid over for two nights. Reason for staying at Big Pine Key was because we couldn't get any accommodations in the Keys.
Friday, we drove to Key West...about 40 miles...early because we wanted to look around. We went to Fort Zachary Taylor and ate lunch in the original Jimmy Buffet Restaurant in the early afternoon. Ted wanted to get some carbs before he started his initial bike excursion. He got back to Big Pine Key and we relaxed for the evening.
Ted started early Saturday morning from Big Pine Key heading to our next campground in Key Largo. It was the worst trip he's ever made...there were wind gusts of 25 to 30 knots blowing directly into his face and this trip was about 60 miles. He couldn't get much acceleration and the trip took about 8 hours.
This morning, Sunday, Ted left for Florida City around 7:30. I had to wait until 10am for the office to open and when I got to Florida City, Ted was already there. His trip this morning, because there was no wind, took about three hours or so.
Tomorrow, Monday, we are heading to Hollywood...that's about another 40 Miles.
So far Ted has logged about 140 miles. I've logged 9 miles on my treadmill...that should count for something.
4/20/09 - 4:28 pm
Ted is in great shape for 63 years old. He works out every day. He's been on the road today since 8am and it's past 4pm. He's close because he just called and said he is entering Hollywood. We are staying tonight at TY Park (Topeekeegee Yugnee Park). It's really very pretty and there's lots to do...but we are off tomorrow for a new site; to be determined later.
4/29/09 - 8:39 pm
I had a real catastrophe today. Setting up in Yulee, Florida, the bolt on the front landing gear sheared off and my leg was stuck in the down position. We finally got it to release, but I cannot use the truck as we are attached with no way to detach. Have to find a Brunswick dealer locally that can do the repair. Keep your fingers crossed.
love da buff
