After what seemed like a pretty short night's sleep, we finally crawled out of bed with the third snooze of the alarm, and started our final packing, skipping breakfast today because we have a 5+ hour drive, plus several stops along the way, so we knew it would be a long day. We managed to get out of camp around 8:45, a little later than I hoped but that was partly due to the fact that we stopped at the Hunt camp up the road, where there was a water spigot, to fill up the horse trailer tank and the new big tank on the pickup, so at least we wouldn't have to worry about that later. While we were there, a large horse trailer came in with two guys, apparently they lead rides out through the forest on occasion. Nice work when you can get it! Anyway, our next stop was to grab breakfast at Burger King, then we pulled into a rest area in Alabama where Sani-dumps had said there was a free RV dump, but couldn't find it, so we moved on. The next stop was Walmart in Dothan to get fuel, because their diesel price was a good forty cents a gallon cheaper than anything we'd seen in Florida, and at least fifteen cents cheaper than any other gas station we'd see in Alabama. We also did most of our shopping, to get that out of the way, though I did it alone while Hubby filled up the van. We did find another RV dump at a Kangaroo Station, which, when I called on the way, a woman told me she thought it was closed for repairs, but that we MIGHT be able to still use it, so we stopped and dumped there. I don't know what kind of maintenance they were doing, it didn't look like it had been touched for years! No water to flush, but at least we were empty. Just after passing through Troy, Hubby called me on the walkie-talkie to tell me someone was flagging him over, that he had a problem, so we pulled off onto a side street and discovered one of the tires on the horse trailer has shredded, dang it. Well, we pulled enough stuff out of the tack room to get at the spare tire, only to discover it was flat, with a plug in the sidewall that we must have put there in desperation at some point. Can't remember when it happened (though I'll look back in my diary later to see how long we've been ignoring the problem), but obviously we uncharacteristically forgot about it somehow, and now we were stuck. The man who had flagged us over stopped, and so did another man, to see if they could help. I LOVE THE SOUTH! They haven't forgotten how to be good Samaritans, or how to spread that Southern hospitality. One man took the spare to his house across the street and filled it with air, just to see if it was usable, but it was leaking way to much. While he was on the phone calling his local tire connections (who didn't have the tires to fit), I called the Walmart in Troy, and sure enough, they had three tires that size, so I loaded up both wheels and headed back through town. I had to pass through a construction area where the road narrowed to one lane, and as I got closer, I was next to a mobile home. I was just about to slow down to get behind it, when a woman two cars in front of it slowed down and waved me to come in front of her! I LOVE THE SOUTH! I know this happens in other regions, too, but this kind of kindness just seems to be more prevalent down here. Thank you!! After all the craziness of driving in Malaysia, this was like a huge breath of fresh air. Anyway, I got to the Walmart, and was told it would take about an hour, so I made a quick lunch for us and waited. Jeff, bless his heart, hurried the job along, and I was out of there in less than an hour, so it wasn't long before I got the tires back to Hubby, and on the trailer, and on the road, saving the spare to put back later. Off we went, with just one other stop at another Walmart in Clanton to finally pick up water in the RV. I don't like to carry too much water long distances in the RV, it's hard on the tires and harder to drive, with the weight sloshing around inside. On this last leg up I-65, the temperatures outside were in the low 90's and we were doing some climbing, and the van started overheating as well, so while we were getting water, Hubby got some more coolant put in, and rinsed the dust off the radiator. As he always follows me, on these dirt roads he tends to get everything very dusty, so both things, plus the stop, brought his temps back to normal. Finally, we were off on the final leg of the journey. Despite gaining an hour by moving into Central time, we still didn't arrive at camp until after 5:00. That last four miles was a fairly narrow dirt road, passable but with lots of potholes, and not many places for passing traffic, so we were glad we didn't run into anyone. When we finally arrived at camp, we were surprised to find another guy in a van already here! I introduced myself to him (and he courteously started calling me Miss Jeanette, as they do here in the South!), and he told me his name was Ryan and that he had been here for two days. He offered to help us set up, but of course, we have our process so we said thank you, no. I put the horses on anchors, as there hadn't been any mowing done in the campground, and though it was mostly weeds, I figured they could help trample it down a bit. We opted to use the fence today, though there are plenty of trees for a highline if we wanted, got everything parked and opened up, and even managed get a satellite signal going before we finally crashed with a beer just after sunset. I even discovered that there is a good enough cell phone signal to use my internet out here in the boondocks! Yeah! ..... Whew! What a day! Watched a movie before falling into bed, thoroughly exhausted, but happy with our new, very quiet and remote home!
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