Orlando: not just Disney World

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When we arrived to the Orlando RV Park which is part of our Thousand Trails membership, I felt like a hillbilly in Beverly Hills. We had been sponge bathing for 4 days, not washing our hair, and I just felt dirty and unkept. Thank God my hair is long enough now to tie up otherwise I might have looked like a witch.

The park is HUGE! Just the entrance is quite impressive with a large welcome center where guests register. It was really busy with many big rigs parked in the parking spaces but there was still room for a few more. After registering, like all other Thousand Trails parks, we were asked to drive around and find our spot then just call them and let them know which one we chose. I was told that there was a loop which was more private with more vegetation. After driving around and seeing the other sites which were basically rigs parked side by side in a flat field with just a few trees, we headed for the D section. Ah! Just what we like! Sites surrounded by trees and fan palms making each one private and also giving the impression of camping in the jungle. The site we chose also had a private trail connecting to the trail system at the back which was super convenient for our little Cheeka's walks as we could leave her off-leash since very few people used the trails.

It is very quiet here except for the beeping happening in the trailer next to us. The owners are away and there is some kind of alarm on that beeps every 3 minutes or so. We're now so used to it that we hardly hear it but leave it to us to get THE site with the beep. And the beep goes on...

I haven't done any more renovating of our trailer because Glen is dead against painting. But it will happen eventually. Trust me.

There is a lake at the back that is fairly close to us. There is a fishing dock where quite a few try their luck but most seem to catch very small fish that they throw back in. We keep looking for alligators. All we have seen so far is a turtle and some lesser egrets (they are everywhere). From that location we can see the Disney fireworks every night. We hear them very clearly from our trailer.

On our walks we keep seeing those little lizards scuttling about, crossing our path, jumping from tables and rustling leaves on our hikes. At first I kept hearing these sounds and thought maybe they were snakes so I kept the dog on leash but then realized that all that swishing sound came from these tiny little harmless creatures. They are very cute.

There is a leash-free park by the lake. I have yet to see any dogs using it. Cheeka would like it if there were other dogs to play with but by herself I'm sure it's not interesting enough. There is an area behind our trailer where I can play ball with her and where she can do her crazy fast running when she feels like it so we haven't gone to the park yet.

It is a lovely park and we would love to come back but it is very popular and apparently hard to get into during the high season (Jan. to March). We'll have to see.

Meanwhile we'll keep looking for alligators...

Stay warm my northern friends. We wish you could all be with us enjoying this lovely weather. We would have so much fun!

Boondocking is for the birds!

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Our next stop was in Florida. We were to dry camp for 5 days until our reservations in Orlando were due. Good plan but…

The two locations I had found online were not available. The first, which was really beautiful after driving on a dirt road for a while, turned out to be a private property with signs telling us to stay out. This was the first tight spot we had to turn the rig around in. The second one was beach camping on Amelia island which both Glen and I had watched a video of someone doing just that but the beach was closed to any vehicle because of clean-up of the storm’s remnants. Second tight spot with one of the crew guys directing me and yelling "You're doing it girl" totally amazed. He didn't know I had already had quite a bit of practice. Now what? I veered into a welcome center and when Glen asked what I was doing I informed him that I needed a good cry and thus couldn’t drive any further. Between my plans falling apart and Glen’s constant harping on me that such places do not exist, that it’s all baloney and now we’re stuck with no place to go, I felt like a real failure. So we stopped, searched the Internet again and came to a compromise: a dry camping site at $10/night but with potable water available and a dump site. OK. That would have to do. But it was getting late so we slept over in the parking lot to the constant hum of truck engines running.

Big Bass Campground turned out to be very pleasant except that a cold front was hitting the region for the next 4 days. Yes my friends, the exact period of time we were there with no electricity and a forever dying battery. Poor Glen would get up through the night to run the truck so he could fire up the furnace to heat up the trailer a little bit and ensuring that our holding tanks wouldn’t freeze. The temperature would warm up during the day to a pleasant 20 – 26 degrees C. but at night it went down as low as 0. I couldn’t believe it! Finally in Florida and we’re freezing!

This campground is located in the Ocala National Forest. You leave your money in an envelope at the gate. There was a nice trail that ran around the campground and into the forest. It was actually a road – pretty primitive in some places – which hunters used. Oh! I forgot to tell you that it was hunting season. So we would hear gunshots and trucks right outside the park. Made me a bit nervous to walk there but I didn’t think I looked like a deer so I took my chances and Cheeka being small would not appear worth shooting even if I put antlers on her.

We met a lovely young American couple from Seattle who were on their way to Miami to go over to Cuba for the first time. We had such good conversations with them. Theresa and Austin who are both in their late 20s decided to quit their jobs and travel after saving money for quite a long time. They lived very simply to keep expenses down. Theresa laughed that their friends didn’t like them as they never had money to go out. They didn’t even own a TV. They donated their hand-me-down furniture and made sure to keep only what could fit in their car including a small tent and sleeping bags. They looked so fresh and happy I kept wanting to hug them! Their plan is to ditch the camping gear and sell the car while in Miami and then take a plane (tickets already bought) to South Asia and backpack their way through there. Austin has already been so he knows that it’s quite safe for Theresa's first backpacking trip. Interesting enough is that Austin lived on a boat with his parents and sister since the age of 13. He absolutely loved the experience but his sister didn’t. I think he already had wanderer blood running through his veins. I told them that young intelligent people like them give us hope for the future by not being influenced by a materialistic society which makes most people want more and more but doesn't make them rich with life experiences or happy. Hopefully they will have kids and give them the same values. We need more people like them in this world.

I can’t say I was sad to leave Big Bass Campground as our next site was further south and I just wanted some nice weather.  But we did leave this boondocking site knowing that we might be back later on.

And now on to Orlando!

South Carolina: cotton fields and weird legless lizard

Driving through South Carolina, I was totally enchanted to see actual cotton fields. Acres of white fluffy stuff that is not snow. It was amazing to see where a lot of our fabrics start from. Of course I knew all about the cotton plantations from movies and learning about slavery but to see it right there by the side of the road was cool. We also got to see baled cotton which looks like very large hay bales packed with cotton. Neat!

Doesn't it look a bit like snow?

We stayed at the Little Pee Dee State Park which is quite beautiful but they lost their lake during the storm because of a broken dam. We were told that so much rain came down that the water pressure was too much for the old structure and it gave way draining the lake. What is left is a bit of water on the bottom and a lot of tree stumps. The now empty lake is popular with egrets and herons as the fish must be real easy catches! My camera would not focus well during that time (realized later that it had been put on manual focus by mistake) so no good pics of the birds.

The park itself was different for us as the sites were all sandy and we were surrounded by those trees with spanish moss hanging from them. The sand was a more reddish colour. I met my first campground host there. Her name was Vicky and she and her husband Bill, were very nice. They camp host year-round going from 6 month engagement to 6 month engagement in another camp. They were amazed that I was backing up the trailer by myself but they definitely didn't see the tight spots we got into looking for free camping! I know that getting the truck and trailer out of those spots taught me a lot and reinforced my backing abilities.

It's a bit of an odd feeling to have the same interior all the time but with different views outside. The campground was pretty quiet with not too many campers as the temperature was getting cold. They are however open year-round. At about $20/night for electric and water hook-up it wasn’t bad and there was a dump available on our way out.

 It seems every campground provides us with a trail or nearby trails for our lively Cheeka. This one was no exception having a trail right there but also having a park nearby (Beaverdam Park) that offered miles and miles of trails! We did encounter a weird creature on one of our walks. It looked like a snake at first but upon closer inspection was more like a lizard. When Glen (the brave one) pushed it aside with a stick it moved more like a fish out of water than a snake but it had no legs. It did have a small fin on its tail. We have no idea what it was a no one at the campground could tell us either. Any ideas?

We enjoyed South Carolina a lot and wished we had more time in better weather to visit. We were also really near to Savannah which I would love to see but again we decided to head for warmer weather ASAP. We’ll put this one on our to do list for the way back.

The wild horses of Corolla island

We had decided a long time ago that if we were going near North Carolina’s Corolla Island, we would go see the wild horses.

Let me give you a bit of history concerning these horses. As early as 1528, Spanish ships’ logs document horses being pushed overboard to refloat grounded ships; some swam ashore from shipwrecks, and some were left behind when colonies failed. The herd was inspected in 2007 and were declared Colonial Spanish Mustangs eligible for registration. Skeletal evidence as well as DNA studies have strengthened these findings. An interesting note here: these horses are missing one rib and one vertebra compared to any other horses in the world which gives them a compact body.

Corolla Island is actually a peninsula with only one road: highway 12. But highway 12 is actually the beach! It’s a formal highway with signs, etc. but it is tracks on the beach. When the tide is high the road disappears. People who live there must always have provisions for 1 to 2 weeks as they never know when the road might not be usable.

The first beach is called Swan Beach and the houses there are mostly cottages and seem to be planted here and there beyond the sand dunes without any real roads. There are wooden steps to go over the dunes so I figured that the house owners must have to park their car on the beach and walk home. The next beach is Corolla Beach and there are more houses there and more year round habitants. A sand road goes into the house development and from there several roads, all sand, lead to different areas. Each house has its own well and sceptic system which is normally covered with grass to keep it from being exposed. Horses eat grass. So guess what? That’s where they hang out a lot. We could spot manure piles everywhere on the properties. If you don’t like horses, don’t live there.

No one is allowed to approach these horses, touch them or feed them in order to keep them wild. The horses are used to seeing cars and people so are quite calm but they are still wild.

Our ride to go there was the back of a truck equipped with benches on each side of the box and a canopy. It was a lovely warm day but when we got to be ocean side it got quite cool! It was very windy and the waves were big and loud. The ride itself is quite a thrill as the truck bounces along the tracks left in the sand. In some areas the truck had to go into the water. In the summer, when it’s quite busy, the vehicles park in the middle of the beach and traffic is allowed on each side dodging running children and dogs. Not a kid friendly beach!

Most houses we saw in the Outer Banks are built on stilts and are of various beachy colours. We enjoyed seeing the change of scenery from Virginia to North Carolina. The trees closer to the ocean are low and wide as compared to the very tall trees we see every day at the campground.

Being in an open truck I could fully appreciate the ocean air. There is something very special about sea air as I find I breathe more deeply and better. Even though the ocean scares me just thinking of how large and deep it is and of all the creatures in it (sharks in particular – I should have never seen the movie “Jaws”) I love being near it. The roar of the waves and the constant breeze are invigorating.


We didn’t see many horses, only small herds of three or four. They were all nice and fat. They have 8,000 acres to roam so it’s hard for the guide to know where they are. There aren’t any burrs there as their manes and tails were flowing free. At the last count there was 83 horses including this year’s foals. The group before us saw the most recent foal which was a late addition to the herd. We only saw mares, not even a stallion. We joked that it must be Glen’s fault as when Glen and I went to the Everglades in Florida last year we didn’t see a single alligator. The other couple with us laughed but they secretly must have wished for him to fall off the truck so they could see more horses.

To say that the tour was as advertised would be wrong. The pictures on their website are of horses on the beach. In fact, all their brochures and written material show pictures of horses on the beach with the ocean behind. Why would horses go on the beach anyway? There is no grass, the water is salted so not good to drink and they are totally exposed to the elements. I think they herded them on the beach for a photoshoot. It was still worth it even if it was just to see that area which is so different from normal house developments. We did meet a woman who lives on Swan Beach year round and she just loves it. It’s a way of life just like us living in our trailer. Different strokes for different folks!

The tour we took is given by the Corolla Wild Horse Fund and all profits go to the horses. They have a herd manager who inspects the herd every day and any horse that is sick or badly wounded is taken out to a rescue center where it gets proper treatment. Those horses are not reintroduced to the herd as they have been exposed to other animals who could have viruses or germs that the herd never encountered which could be a threat to the whole herd. So once better, the Fund finds them good homes. There is a small adoption fee of around $500. We were glad to contribute to this fund by taking the tour.

It doesn't rain, it pours (or snows!)

So let's back up a few steps to before we left Bay Meadows.

Everything that could go wrong went wrong. First I had 2 teeth with cracked or missing fillings that needed repair. I kept putting it off but now they were hurting and I didn't want to leave for "our big trip" with bad teeth. So I went to the dentist in Trenton (the nicest guy ever and really good dentist with an equally good assistant) and after taking numerous x-rays, he discovered that I also had a cavity under another filling. We do have a dental plan but the whole thing cost us more than $300 out of pocket.

Then it rained for 2 straight days after which we discovered 3 leaks in the truck cab. The corners in the back and the corner on the passenger side were drenched. Again, we thought we shouldn't leave it like that so off we go with the truck to the Ford dealer in Belleville because the Trenton one was rude to us and didn't care. That cost us $300. And while we were in Belleville waiting for the truck it snowed like crazy! I couldn't believe it! It made me very anxious to go south.

My laptop, which used to be Glen's laptop, had loose USB connections that started to act up. You have to understand that ALL my stuff is on an external drive since the memory on the laptop was nearly full (Glen keeps ALL his pictures - the good, the bad and the ugly) so I started having problems accessing my pictures or documents. We took the laptop to a repair guy who honestly told us to go buy a new laptop as even if he repaired it, it would break again in a couple of months. So off we go to Best Buy and get a new laptop. Cost? We were lucky to find one that does the job for $400 after tax.

But all those things add up to $1300 that wasn't in the budget! On top of that we had to buy our US phone plan up front ($300) and our health insurance while in the States ($1300). Needless to say that we left Canada deeply in debt.

Our trip included an overnight stop near Scranton NY and I had chosen to find something free. So we stopped at a truck stop. Man! It was so busy there was no parking available except backing between two large rigs which I wasn't ready to attempt. So I parked our rig on the side of the entrance road. We couldn't open our slides because they would have been on the road. Everything that we have outside the trailer (deck chairs, small table and 2 bicycles) has to come in to travel and everything that could fall during the trip has to be put in baskets which stay on the floor. With the slides closed it leaves no room to walk! We made sure to be able to access the bathroom and our bed. Now it gets interesting.

We have been having problems with our trailer battery not keeping the charge when we travel. It should get charged when the truck is running but instead we leave with a fully charged battery because we were connected to shore power and arrive with an almost dead battery. So we used the camping lantern for light and didn't use any electricity at all except we had to fire up the propane furnace as it was very cold. That lasted for 3 hours after which the battery was too weak to fire the furnace. So now we had no heat. Thank the Lord that our pets are used to sleeping in bed with us so we were all cozy under the blankets and actually slept well. We woke up the next morning to a trailer that felt more like an icebox than a home. The temperature outside was -3 C! So we quickly got ready to leave and stopped for gas where we bought 2 horrible muffins and a chocolate milk (anyone who knows me will understand why I had to have chocolate milk). We had fed the animals but couldn't make the cat use her litter box so she had to go the whole 6 hours on the road holding it. We now have to have the truck looked at to see if it actually has a hot wire that will charge the battery as if it doesn't the problem will persist. More $$$.

The whole ordeal made us realize how lucky we were to have such good animals. They were both really good travelers and put up with all this nonsense without holding a grudge.

We arrived at our present destination which is Chesapeake Bay Park in Gloucester VA tired, dirty, disheveled (that was me) but happy to be able to hook up to power, water and sewer.

It's amazing all that we take for granted. Like electricity. When there is none, so many things don't work anymore. If we have no water, it affects our life in another way. Yet we think nothing of leaving lights on or letting the water run while we brush our teeth (not me as I lived on a well for 31 years so know about not wasting water). So be grateful for your house with all the comforts it gives you. There are people somewhere freezing at a truck stop and wondering if they're having fun yet.