Home to Gaffney SC and Perry
GA
Day 1 Thursday March 7,
2019 We have not used the motorhome in 6 months. Normally we take
some short trips in the Fall but due to Hurricane Florence coming
September 14, 2018 and causing tremendous flooding in our area we
spent some of the last six months doing repairs for damage to our
property and helped others in our area with their recovery.
We departed home this
morning at 7:45AM to take the motorhome to Freightliner Service
Center in Gaffney SC for its annual service. We took the new highway
Toll 74 bypass about 30 miles from Charlotte that cuts off a lot of
stop and go traffic but I didn't listen to our GPS when we got to the
end of the bypass and still had to drive a few miles in stop and go
traffic but we got back on track and still arrived on time. We set up
in site 6 at the service center and I checked in at the service desk
for our 8AM appointment.
Day 2 Friday March 8, 2019
We were ready at 8AM for the service tech to take the motorhome so
after meeting with Ken, we drove to the Sunny Doughnut Shop in town
that I found on the smartphone app YELP. They had a great variety of
doughnuts and morning pastries. We narrowed it down to four different
ones and then went to McDonald's for a Latte to enjoy the pastries.
This McDonald's has the best seating of any McDonald's we have ever
been to and today they had fresh cut flowers on every table.
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| Mural on building in downtown Gaffney SC |
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| At McDonalds in Gaffney SC |
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| Mural in Gaffney SC |
We returned to the service
center expecting them to be completed about 1PM but one of the
service techs came out and told us there was a problem with the
brakes that should be repaired. He asked was I hearing a popping
noise when I pressed down hard on the brakes and having to push
harder than normal. I told him I was and he said what they found was
what was causing that. So we gave him permission to do the required
repairs You need all brakes working when trying to stop 36,000 lbs.
We finally got the motorhome back about 5:30PM. So we set back up in
site 6. It has rained off and on about all day.
Day 3 Saturday March 9,
2019 We treated ourselves this morning with a nice breakfast at the
local Cracker Barrel. My Wild Maine Blueberry Pancakes sure were
good. Then we returned to the motorhome after a little shopping. It
was cold, foggy and very overcast with misty rain all day. YuK!!
Day 4 Sunday March 10,
2019 It is still cold (42 degrees) with a little misty rain and very
overcast this morning. We departed the service center at 8AM, stopped
a few miles down the road for fuel and headed for Scenic Mountain RV
Park outside of Milledgeville GA. We arrived at 1PM and set up in
site 13. The temperature here is 20 degrees warmer than it was this
morning in Gaffney. This is the same place we stayed last year on our
way to the FMCA Rally in Perry GA. This is a nice RV Park and the old
part of town is really nice. Refer to the 2018 BLOG for my comments
from last year.
We have seen some unusual
things in a campground but have never seen anyone walking around with
a large parrot on their shoulder until today. The lady across the
street from us came out of her camper with a large white parrot on
her shoulder and walked down the street for a ways before returning
to her camper.
Day 5 Monday March 11,
2019 It was nice to get up this morning to a much warmer temperature.
We drove into Milledgeville to The Blackbird Cafe for our Latte fix
and a couple of pastries for breakfast. This is a nice coffee
shop/cafe and is quite busy in the morning with all the college kids
coming is for their morning coffee fix before classes start. We had
planned to walk through the Lockerly Arboretum that is just outside
of town on our way back to the RV Park but it was raining so we
passed it up. Later we tried sitting outside to read but a few rain
showers keep popping up so we relaxed inside and read. The park is
very quite today even thought lots of campers are here. The
maintenance crew is working on putting out mulch and weed eating.
They keep the park very clean and well landscaped.
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| Milledgeville GA |
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| Backbird Cafe and Coffee Shop |
Day 6 Tuesday March 12, 2019
We departed at 8:30AM for the final 60 miles to Perry GA where
FMCA's 99 International Convention & RV EXPO is taking place at
the Georgia National Fairgrounds. We arrived about 10AM and was
quickly directed to our parking spot which was closer to a hugh
generator that supplies power to the Rvs than I would have liked so
we will get to hear the hum of it while we are here. The first year
we came to this event we were parked right beside the generator and
it was just a few feet from our bedroom slide so we didn't sleep very
good. The generators are bigger than a large pickup truck but are
fairly quite considering the size of them.
We had been told about a
good sandwich cafe in Perry called Yoders Sandwiches, so we decided
to try it for lunch. The food was really good.
I put out our name sign in
front of the motorhome that says The Browns – Wallace NC on it. In
a few minutes a man that was parked across from us walked over to
introduce himself and to tell me they were from Wallace also.
We read for awhile and then
took a walk up to the area where all the seminars will be held
starting tomorrow.
Day 7 Wednesday March 13,
2019 This is the first day of the events at the rally. We attended
several RV related seminars, checked out the vendors and then at
7:30PM attended the evening entertainment with Jim Pelly, a Humorist.
He is also a n RV'r and had planned to drive his RV from Arizona but
it broke down after driving it about 150miles from home so he had to
fly here. He was very funny.
Day 8 Thursday March 14,
2019 We did about the same today with the addition of going to the
morning doughnuts and coffee event. About noon we met a crew from
MagnaShade at the motorhome so they could install our new windshield
sunscreen. It will keep our motorhome much cooler when we are setting
in the sun.
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| Some people just ignore the rules |
After our last seminar we
checked out the new Tiffin motorhomes out of curiosity. We like ours
just fine so there will be no new motorhome for us.
We had to go to the local
post office in the evening to mail something so we decided to stop at
the local Cracker Barrel for supper. I had noticed very poor reviews
on Yelp for this location and after waiting almost and hour for our
meal and then it not being hot we can understand the low reviews. It
seemed to us they were understaffed. Our waitress was having to
handle most of the tables in our section by herself.
Day 9 Friday March 15,
2019 About the same routine today except we attended the
entertainment tonight. The Coaster, Platters and Drifters performed
their biggest hits from the 50''s and 60's. They did a great show.
Most of the RV'ers here have a lot of grey in there hair so they
could really relate to this era of music.
Day 10 Saturday March 16,
2019 It was much cooler this morning. Our first seminar was not until
10:30AM so we skipped the doughnuts had breakfast in the motorhome
and relaxed for awhile. Our last seminar ended at 2PM so we made out
way back to the motorhome and got a cup of hot mocha coffee to warm
up. Even though we have ridden the provided trolleys and been picked
up by a few golf carts we still have walked over 11 miles here since
Tuesday according the Health App on our cellphones. There were over
2700 RV's here for the rally which is a lot but I think about a 1000
less than last year. Many departed this afternoon and we will depart
for home in the morning.
Day 11 Sunday March 17,
2019 We departed at 8:30AM and drove for 4 hours before stopping at a
Pilot/Flying J Truck Stop to fill up the motorhome with fuel and to
eat lunch at their Denny's Restaurant. This is a rather large truck
stop just off I-20 in Columbia SC and it was packed with parked 18
wheelers. It has 178 parking spots and since we have to pull into a
parking spot we only found one parking spot we could pull into and
then pull out of without unhooking the car. It took about an hour and
half to get served in the restaurant they were so busy. But we needed
to rest before continuing on anyway. We stopped for the night about
4:30PM near Dillon SC at Bass Lake Campground just off I-95.
Day 12 Monday March 18,
2019 We arrived home safe and sound about 11AM.
