Heading to North Carolina – Florida & Georgia
Silver Lake Campground, Withlacoochee
State Forest, Brooksville, FL
As planned, we left our house on
Saturday May 18th, heading for the central west coast area of
Florida. We camped at Silver Lake Campground in the Withlacoochee State Forest.
We had never camped there before and our goal was to ride some great biking
trails nearby, which were highly recommended. During our five days there, we
were able to ride some trails for a couple of days. However, as our luck would
have it, the heat was in the upper 90’s each day. So most days were too hot to
ride. We tried our best but the heat was unbearable for riding, even on the
forested trails. We did have some fun hiking around the park, relaxing by the
lake and walking the dogs along the lakeside. It was a nice campground and we
did enjoy our stay there.
On our way there at 60 miles into
the drive, we stopped at a turnpike service plaza for a break. Before leaving
we did our normal walk around the RV. I reached up to test the back ramp door
to make sure it was still locked. To my surprise the door came open! WOW, what
happened? Kurt took a look at it and found the latch had broken, so he had to
get inside the RV and fortunately had metal cables to rig up to the floor and
secure the door. Needless to say, we were not happy with this situation. We
then headed on to the campground.
Once at the campground, we were
able to setup and relax a little. While at the campground, we noticed that the
refrigerator was not cooling adequately (we keep a thermometer in there to
monitor temps). Kurt tried to troubleshoot the refrigerator issue. Could not
find any reason for the problem. So we had to live with lower temps and purchase
ice for the cooler to keep some of our foods in. During our time there, the
kitchen faucet began to leak heavily. Aaaaagggghhh! What next? Kurt contacted the
RV dealership where we purchased it and explained the problems. They stated we
would have to stop at the dealership to initiate the warranty process. He also
contacted the RV manufacturer and got some help from their customer service.
They were going to ship a new latch for the ramp door and Kurt would install.
Thursday May 23rd – Friday, May 31st
Petersburg Campground, Thurmond Lake,
Augusta, GA
Heading north to our campground
in Georgia for two nights, we approached Ocala and saw the sign for our
dealership location in that area. We pulled off the highway and drove into the
dealership. The service department got our rig in there quickly to look at the
problems and start the warranty process. After 7 hours of waiting, they were able
to fix the door latch, diagnosed the refrigerator problem (which Kurt will have
to install some parts that they will ship to us) and setup a new faucet to be
shipped to our location when we arrive in N. Carolina. Since it was so late in the
day, we were able to “camp” in their parking area for RVs. Fortunately there were
water and electric hookups.
The next morning we left for General
Coffee State Park in Georgia where we had planned to stay 2 nights. So now we
only had one night to stay there, then headed north to Augusta, Georgia area. After a nice back roads drive north, we
arrived at Petersburg Campground near Augusta. We had stayed here last year and
loved the lakeside camping and the great mountain bike trails nearby. Well, the
only problem there was the extreme heat. For our 5 days there the temps were
99-102 degrees. Again our luck with extreme heat did impact our plans for
mountain biking. We were able to ride a couple of mornings, but not as much as
we wanted. To top it off, the trails were then closed due to a forest fire in
that area. The only saving grace was the cool breezes off the lake.
So that was the beginning of our
summer trip! Unexpected problems, heat and much frustration. We are so looking
forward to the cool mountains and a place to settle for a month.
