On the road this summer ...day one

 May 12, 2025

Sugar Mill CG site 26

Ochlocknee, GA (near Thomasville)

Momma says I'm the best traveler!   I got to practice last night.  With rain in the forecast, Dad decided it might be beneficial to hitch up the night before, while the weather was dry.  I hopped in the truck while Dad backed the Ram into the pinbox and Momma raised the 5er to the correct height for a smooth engagement.  Dad had been doing some preventive maintenance which involved moving the jacks.  In other words, the leveling device had lost the memory of the height that we had unhitched at, thus, necessitating a manual alignment.  It all went smoothly and as it turned out, with the light rain this morning, hitching up last night turned out to be an excellent idea. Only had to pull the plug (electric cord) and we were good to go this AM.

I think everyone was excited to get on the road and begin the 2025 summer adventure.  Aunt Pam is traveling as our 'shadow'.  We had decided on a 9:30 departure time but everyone, including The Shadow, was ready to blast off before that time.....so we did.

As I mentioned, we had a light rain this morning as we headed north but that only lasted for roughly the first 20 miles.  The rest of the journey was dry .... and we even had some blue sky and sunshine.

We have crossed our first state border leaving Florida in our rear view mirror.

Our travel break was schedule at exit 2 in Georgia

Dad likes to keep the fuel costs low as possible.  I really like that idea as it means more money available for my dog treats!!  He has an Open Road fuel card so when we stopped 

instead of paying $3.65 for diesel, our Open Road card lowered the price per gallon by 61 cents.

Dad always looks so good when he is smiling at the pump.

Our trip was smooth and uneventful, which is the way we like to travel.  The highways were decent and the other drivers sharing the roads weren't wearing their 'I'm a jerk' hats.  As a matter of fact, the roads were so smooth that Momma had no trouble texting with Steve to get the updates on Auntie Carol.  Okay, I have to fess up.  She really isn't blood related, but she treats me like family and has more than earned the 'auntie' title. 💖

Steve and Auntie Carol's day began at 5:30am when they rolled out of bed in preparation for an 8 am arrival for Auntie Carol's knee replacement surgery which didn't begin until close to 11am.  Long morning for sure.  But I'm happy to report that all went well, as expected, and she is back on her feet...with the aid of a walker for now and suffering no pain with the aid of super pain meds.  That's my Aunt Carol.  She's the best!!  I guess I'll have to give her doctor some positive praise as well for taking such great care of her.

So getting back to my day,  upon arrival,

the office was closed, as we expected it to be.  The owner had told us to pick a site and pay later when we made our reservations.  That was a bit tricky as the sites are not really well marked and are laid out in a unique, unstructured pattern.  Dad picked site 26 and the set up process began with an oops.  What?? no power??  After getting leveled on our jacks, Dad went inside to turn on the AC discovering no power in the rig.  Then he checked the power box.  Mmmm.  Good power at the post.  As it turned out, it was a simple matter of the plug not seating itself properly when first plugged in.  Whew!  Dodged that disaster of having to relocate sites.  And as it turned out, that was a good thing because just as I was finishing my walk after he finished his setting up chores, it began to rain.

It didn't last too long though.  Momma didn't have to dance amongst the raindrops later that afternoon when she walked to the office to pay for our stay.  It's a nice friendly Good Sam rate of $31.50 a night.  Too bad all our stays won't be as reasonably priced.  Some areas have a much shorter season so they have to make their year's profit during a shorter time period.  

Life is good and our first day on the road was joyful for everyone.  Especially when Aunt Pam came over to toss my chicken for me to chase in the rig.  I really gave her a piece of my mind when she arrived. "Where have you been?  It's about time you got yourself over here!"  She told me to cut all the chatter and get to chasing that chicken.

I'm Chloe