How does Mallory celebrate spring? She goes to the Fort

garneska said:

Saturday the weather was beautiful. Oh yes and we are supposed to leave. It was cool and sunny. We headed to Trail's End for breakfast at 7:30. We always go on departure day so that we have a good bf before driving. He then packed everything up and pulled out of the spot at 11. We are trying to speed up the breakdown process but so far it takes 2 hours. We even did a lot on Friday but still 2 hours.

Then we had to wait a little for the hitch and unhitch area. We were lucky though when we got there we were second in line and the line behind us was packing in. This was new for this trip. We had a towed or toad. We bought the RV in July 2014. All the trips so far to Disney we either went without a car or rented one. We (ok DH) just wanted to drive the RV for a while without the additional challenge. We had planned to get the Rav4 setup to flat tow. We went and talked to the people at beginning of Feb and we had no problems going to take it end of March, well after the calls, and lost phone etc. I was not sure it would be setup for our March trip. However we picked it up from the hitch place the weekend before we left. All was good. So this was our first trip towing. When we arrived at Southern Oaks on Sat Mar 21, the Rav had a low battery. I won't say dead just not strong enough to start the car. FIL came and jumped us. That was our first fun out of the gate towing. We were ok then to Disney as it was only a 2 hour trip. We really did like having the Rav with us. We are glad we did it. On the way home, we started the Rav periodically and let it run. We did not have issues when we got home. We did call the hitch place and they would like us to bring it back. Said it should not do that. However i think the issue is with the Rav battery. The car is 7 years old and the battery has never been changed.

We pulled out of the World over by Western Way and 429 at 11:42 am. It was a little later than i hoped, as it always is, but we did not have to work on Sunday and we had all day to drive. Our normal drive would take about 8 hours in the rig, about an hour longer than in the car.

Now i remember why we never go anywhere for our actual anniversary. It is spring break time, so everything is crowded, especially the road ways. Our first problem was congestion going from the turnpike to 75. The good thing is it was just a lot of traffic, it moved slow but it did move. Lost some time there but no big deal we are not in a hurry. I was checking out the traffic and saw there was an accident in Ocala. I guess we were lucky when we hit it traffic was only backed up 10 miles, while we were sitting in it, it backed up at least 20. We lost at least 1.5 hours. I did feel bad though when we got to it, they had cleared it, supposed to be two left lanes blocked. When we got there I saw a travel trailer hooked up to a towing thing and a big hole in it back end. We think it flipped. Hope everyone was ok. It was very windy which was adding to the driving challenge.

After we got through Ocala seemed to be smooth sailing but lots of cars and wind. We finally stopped near Lake City to run the Rav. We had hoped to get to the Georgia welcome center that is normally 3.5 hours. Finally 5 hours and 4 minutes into our trip we made it to Georgia. Plan was to stop again at exit 11 and get gas then press to the rest area in Macon on 475. It is the last one before Atlanta.

We got to Macon around 8 pm, the time we should have been getting home. Typically it is another 2 hours home. We checked traffic and 75 was stopped between 205 and 215. 10 miles of complete red. Construction and lots of cars out for spring break. We checked the map and made the decision to go an alternate route, with the rig in the dark. We were very concerned about this. If it was the car no issue but it was the rig we would be big and we were towing. Plus it was dark. We took an extended break at the rest area to run the car, feed and walk dogs, and get us mentally ready for what was to come.

The alternate route was fine. Thankfully we had done parts of it before just a long time ago. It was also late when we got there so less traffic. We made it home at 10:30. Our normal 8 hour drive turned into 11 hours of pure joy. We were thankful for the alternate route. We are positive if we stayed on 75 we would have been home 2 hours later. The alternate route problaby only added 20 minute than if we would have taken 75 up to 285, but with the traffic made it better.

We got home and had a lot of traffic in the neighborhood while unhitching the car. Seemed insane that at least 15 cars came by us while unhitching. To be honest someone else had parked on the otherside of the road, if they had not been there not so bad. Just could not beleive the traffic at 10:30 pm. We moved the stuff into the house. Then flipped on the hydro hot because if you beleive it the day we get in and the day the rig sits out (we will take it to storage on sunday) it is going to be below freezing. Seriously, freezing so of course i am worrying about because that is what i do.

Finally to bed at 1 am. Got up late this morning and now getting ready to put it in storage.

Sorry for the long post but so much easier to tell the story with a real keyboard instead of my ipad. I may have to invest in a wireless keyboard for the ipad for my trips. I find it easier to travel with the ipad.

Hope everyone enjoyed. I have to live through other's trip reports. I am not expecting to go back to the Fort till November. I don't think i can make it that long so will see when the next trip is.

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tigger92662 said:

I gotta say, that 1st pic waiting in line at the guard shack is always a welcome sight!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

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