Avery's Arrival

When we checked in at Wanee Lake, we asked them if we could just pay nightly because our daughter was expecting and could be having her baby any day.  They said that was fine and so every day when I would go pay for the night they would ask:  "Do you have a new grandbaby yet?" 

Then, we got a call from Grant early Saturday morning, October 13th, saying Crystal had gone into labor.  We drove the 3 hour drive up to Atlanta and got there an hour or so before she had the baby.  And after a very short while, we were introduced to Avery Ellen Robinson:

 

 

Crystal did great and Avery was a healthy little girl.  Later that afternoon, we drove back to Wanee Lake and told them we would be leaving the next day because we had a new grandbaby!  They all congratulated us and were asking how everyone was doing.

On Sunday, we drove to Stone Mountain and checked in a day early to our monthly site:  #357.  The monthly sites are some of the worst as far as not being level and a lot of tree cover.  But we were glad to get the monthly rate of $720 (or $23.22 per night) rather than their normal $50-$60 per night rate. 

We visited Avery, Crystal and Grant at the hospital again and then helped them get back home.

Avery was also introduced to Bo.

 

And then they laid her down for a nap (kind of hard to find her in that big baby bed).

 

 

We stayed at Stone Mountain for a little over a month helping out Crystal and Grant where and when we could and holding Avery as much as we could.  It was amazing how fast she grew over that month. 

We drove up to Nashville and brought my mom (Norma Suiter) down for a weekend so she could see her newest great-granddaughter. 

 

We also got some good pictures of the new Robinson family this weekend too.

 

And of course, her Pa and MiMa didn't miss a chance to hold Miss Avery.

Because we were there over Halloween, we got to be with both Isabella and Avery and see their cute Halloween decorations.  Isabella was a butterfly:

Avery dressed up as a 2 1/2 week old infant.

I think Isabella likes her new cousin.

 

Larry and Laura Robinson (Grant's parents) came in to see their new granddaughter too. 

But it has been quickly established that she is a Tennessee Vols fan (sorry Larry and Laura).  :)

 

Crystal and Avery even came to visit us at Stone Mountain.

 

We enjoyed every minute we got to hold lil' Miss Avery.

 

 

Cheap Golf at Wanee Lake

After leaving Wildwood, we headed back north towards Atlanta.  We still had a few days before our reservations began at Stone Mountain and Crystal still had not gone into labor so we decided we would just take our time heading back to Atlanta.

I found a Passport America campground at Ashburn, Georgia, called Wanee Lake Golf and RV Resort and so we decided to stay there.  It was a small but nice park with a 9 hole golf course, tennis courts, and swimming pool. 

With our Passport America membership, the campground fee was $16 per night (sweet!).  And it only cost $12 to play 18 holes of golf with a cart!  (Really sweet!)

We were camped right behind the first hole.

 

Chuck got in several games of golf that week and even played in one of their weekly tournaments.

 

I even played one game with him.  Other than putt-putt, I think I have only played one or two other games of golf in my life.  My score?  Let's just say I kept it under 200. :)

Diesel Leak

When we were in Nashville, Chuck had noticed a wet spot under the motorhome.  Unfortunately, it was a small leak from the diesel tank on the motorhome.  He put a tub under it so it would not continue dripping on the ground and went to an auto parts store to try to find a repair kit.  The diesel tank repair kit he found was kind of an epoxy that supposedly stuck to diesel tanks and would fill the hole. 

When he got under the motorhome to see where the leak was, it was coming from a crack in the weld around what looked like a sealed drain hole.  He sanded the area and cleaned as best he could.  Then he filled the hole by rubbing this waxy stick on it so the diesel would stop leaking through for a few minutes and then we were ready to apply the epoxy.  The epoxy came sealed in one pouch with two parts.  When you were ready to apply the epoxy, you pressed on the package so the separation between the two parts of epoxy would open together in the pouch and you would mix it by continuing to press on the pouch.  Then you open the pouch and take a brush and apply the epoxy to the area of the leak.  Seems simple enough?

Not really.  We thought we could pour the epoxy into a little tray and then Chuck could take the brush and carefully brush around where he thought the leak was coming from.  The problem was the epoxy set up very fast.  I mean real fast.  Chuck barely got a couple of strokes of epoxy spread on the tank and it was already setting up.  He could not even get a good coat spread on the area to be repaired before the epoxy was already set up.  So now what? 

We went back to the auto parts store and got one more kit and he tried putting more epoxy on the leak area hoping it would hold and fortunately it did...or so we thought.

A day or so after we arrived in South Carolina, Chuck noticed the leak was back.  We put the tub under the motorhome to catch the diesel again and then began researching on the internet and found that a lot of people recommended J B Weld to repair fuel leaks.  We went to an auto parts store and picked up a tube.  Chuck got under the motorhome and sanded off the area again and applied J B Weld to stop the leak.  It did not work either.

At this point, we knew we would have to take it somewhere to get it fixed.  We found a Cummins service center in Savannah.  We called them and they said it would be very difficult to repair.  They said normally they would just replace the tank but Monaco does not make that tank any more.  Instead, they said they would have to drain the tank (which we had just filled up before arriving at the campground), remove the tank, take it to a welder, and then re-install the tank.  This was going to be expensive. 

In our research on the internet, we also found that there had been problems with Monacos developing diesel leaks at this welding point on the tanks.  We happened to remember that there was a service center in Wildwood that was formerly a Monaco service center but now they worked on all types of motorhomes.  It was Saturday but they had an emergency number.  I called it and the guy I spoke with said they repair diesel tanks all the time and to bring it on in Sunday, we could stay on site where they had hookups and they could probably work on it Monday morning.

So we checked out of the campground earlier than we intended on Sunday morning and headed for Alliance Coach in Wildwood, Florida.  We stayed on site Sunday night and then they started working on the coach on Monday morning.  By Monday afternoon, the diesel tank was repaired and we were ready to go. 

We sure were glad we thought to call Alliance.  We were so worried about Cummins having to remove the tank and we figured if they had done the repair it would have cost $1,000 to $1,500 or so plus whatever diesel we might lose.  Alliance had it fixed in under a day for $445 and did not have to remove the tank.  

Chuck continued to check the tank for leaks and so far it is holding up great.  Thank goodness!

Hilton Head and Beaufort Shrimp Festival

We took another day trip to Hilton Head.  It, of course, is much newer than Charleston, but still very nice.  There were golf courses everywhere.  We found a place to park the car and ride our bikes a little bit.  After riding our bikes, we also walked out a very nice decked walkway to the beach.

It was a sunny day and there were a lot of people at the beach. 

 

We checked out a couple of campgrounds on the island that were also very nice but fairly expensive. 

On Saturday, we drove to the Shrimp Festival going on in Beaufort, South Carolina.  Just for your information in case you are ever traveling in the area, Beaufort is pronounced "bu-fort" -- not "bow-fort". 

There was no admission fee to the festival.  You would buy tickets at a $1 per ticket and then use those tickets to buy shrimp and drinks from the different vendor booths.  They had shrimp cooked so many different ways they could have called it the Bubba Gump shrimp festival.  And we tried several of them.  This is what we had left.

There were a lot of people there.

 

Can you find Chuck in this crowd waiting to get some more shrimp?

 

They also had different bands playing music.  We walked around a bit and had a hot, but very nice afternoon at the Beaufort Shrimp Festival.

 

Quick trip to South Carolina -- Day trip to Charleston, SC

Since Crystal's baby was not due for another 3 weeks, we decided to go to South Carolina for a couple of weeks.  We stayed at a Thousand Trails campground at Yemassee, SC, because we could stay for $3 per night and then do some day trips to explore the area.   The campground was a much older campground and in need of a lot of repair and updating. 

Our first day trip was to Charleston, SC.  Neither of us had been there and we decided the best way to see the town was to take a carriage tour through the city. 

 

So many visitors tour the city via carriages that the City has a lottery set up.  The carriage is driven to where the lottery is drawn, and then the City employee draws a ball out of the lottery to determine which route your carriage will take.

 

We saw some old historical churches....

 

...rode through the streets of downtown Charleston...

 

...saw a lot of the smaller (but still expensive) row houses...

 

...and then some bigger houses...

 

and then some REALLY big houses on the Battery.

 

The trimwork on the houses was amazing:

 

On several of the houses, the "front door" was actually an entrance to a big side porch also called a piazza. 

 

The landscapers on this house had to not only keep the bushes trimmed but the steps too!

Charleston is known for its many wrought ironwork fences, gates and decorations. 

This house had a very unusual fence and gate:

 

Another odd item pointed out to us on the tour was the "earthquake bolts" on many of the houses.

 

In 1886, Charleston experienced a very devastating earthquake that lasted for 8 minutes and would have been about 7.7 to 8.5.  When the first shock hit, everyone ran from their houses to see what was going on; but it was the second shock that killed people and sent 15,000 chimneys toppling to the ground.  The earthquake killed fewer than 100 people out of a population of 35,000.  (I'm surprised it wasn't more.) 

Since, Charleston had just been through Reconstruction during the 1870s, a depression, and two hurricanes in August of 1885, they didn't have the money to "raze the city" and start over.  So what they did was piece by piece they fit everything back together again and just maybe rearranged slightly.  And they inserted these long iron rods in between each  floor of each building and when everything was ready, very slowly turned these turnbolts to supposedly tighten the houses back up. 

(Source:  http://www.charlestonhomelistings.com/Historic_Charleston_Present_and_Past.htm)

We drove through the intersection called "the four corners of law" -- named this because of the presence of federal, state, and local offices and a church located at the intersection...

 

...and by the entrance to Washington Park...

and by Chalmers Street, one of the last remaining original cobblestone streets in Charleston.  (Glad the carriage didn't go down that street!)

 

The carriage wound its way back to where we started.  The carriage tour was definitely the best way for us to do a quick, but informative tour of Charleston.

After eating lunch at the Charleston Crab House, we rode over to the harbor for the boat tour of Charleston Harbor. 

We rode past the Battery first (where all the big houses were).

 

Next we rode past Castle Pinckney which was briefly used as a prisoner-of-war camp during the Civil War.

 

Then we rode past Fort Sumter which is where the Civil War started. 

We saw some lighthouses....

 

and nice houses.



As we headed back into the harbor, we rode by Fort Moultrie.  The first fort constructed here was built out of palmetto logs which inspired the flag and nickname of South Carolina:  "The Palmetto State."

 

We could see a hazy view of Charleston and all its steeples from the boat.

 

Then we rode by Patriots Point, a naval and maritime museum that had the USS Yorktown (an aircraft carrier), 

 

the USS Laffey (a destroyer) (to the right of the aircraft carrier)

and  the USS Clamagore (a subway) as well as some aircraft on display.

 

Next, we went under, around, and then back under the Arthur Ravenel Jr Bridge that connects Charleston to Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.  The bridge is the 3rd longest among cable-stayed bridges in the western hemisphere.

 

When we got under the bridge, the captain stopped the ship and blew his horn so we could hear how it echoed under the bridge.

 

As we were headed back to the harbor, we saw a HUGE freight carrier was making its way under the bridge and out of the harbor.

It was loaded down with cargo containers.  These are the same type of containers that we see on railroad cars and tractor-trailer trucks. 

 

It was amazing how big it was.  (The pictures don't even come close to describing how big it was.)

 

There were two other big carriers in port.

As we were heading back to the dock, we could see another carrier coming into the harbor way off in the distance (I zoomed it in).

 

By the end of the boat tour, we were pretty pooped.  But all in all, it was a great day and a great way to see the sites of Charleston by land and by sea.