We have moved from Hull Hill Alabama to Bay St Louis in Mississippi. The camp ground in Hull Hill was OK, but we were sitting on gravel and with more rain in the forecast we decided to move to the Hollywood Casino RV park in Bay ST Louis. This park is all long concrete slabs and is very well laid out. We stayed here 4 years ago and liked it a lot. On our trip into here yesterday the area has still not recovered from Katrina and it is very sad. I would say that only about 10 percent of the homes have been rebuilt since the hurricane passed through here. Some of the damaged homes and businesses are still boarded up after all this time. Some of the new homes sit on stilts and are 20 feet in the air, very safe for storm surge I guess. The thunder , lightning and rain last night was just awesome. The storm was non stop for about six hours and was the best light show we have ever seen. The bright side is it was 70 yesterday and today will be the same. The weather will be a bit cooler for the rest of the week and will be in the low sixties.  Will be here for 7 nights and then onto New Orleans.                                      G                                    



Lying in bed last night and watching and listening to the storm made me think that this is what it must have felt like to live near a battle field while the battle raged on.             L

             So we finally picked up the new rim and tire on Tuesday and I had the old spare tire replaced with the tire we were running on so all is good in the tire world. So we can finally say good by to Four Oaks North Carolina and got on the road Wednesday . We headed south on 95 once again and found nothing has changed in the two years since we went down on it two trips ago. Still full of patches and pot holes. The saving grace was we jumped off on I20 in South Carolina and started south west towards Georgia. Some of I20 is like I10 in Louisiana with tar strips that rattle your teeth .We made it to Augustas' outskirts and found one of those mystery RV parks. You arrive and there is no one there, just an envelope and a slot in a door that a strong wind would take off it's hinges. Put the cash in and find a place to park. On Thursday we moved on and now we are in Hope Hull Alabama which is just outside of Montgomery. We decided to stay here for a few days and let this batch of storms pass.  Can't complain about to much here, was 70 yesterday with lots of sun and today will be rainy with some wind but still high 60's. Will move further south on Sunday and hopefully into New Orleans for five or six days.                                   G

   Well we are still in Four Oaks NC and will be until Wednesday. It seems my slow leak in one of the RV tires was not a tire problem but a rim problem. The rim has a small pin hole in it and it can't be repaired. We went to a truck tire company in Raleigh and they had to order a new one and the people they ordered from has sent the wrong one  twice and the right one will won't be here until Tuesday. It seems the RV has a 7 in spread and most of the other rims are 6 inch. Oh well , it is better it happened here and not in Alaska. It was quite the pretty view this morning when we awoke to find the snow. The first here in 3 years, go figure we would be here for it but it will be back in the 50's tomorrow. Will do some more Civil war today, the Benton Battle field is as large and covers almost 14 square miles with much of it preserved. That is pretty impressive as it is a state park.      G

This is what we saw this morning when we got up. 3 inches of snow.

This is how it started yesterday

Thie how we started the day yeaterday.

Benton Battlefield mass Confederate Grave

Monument to Confederate General Joseph Johnston

        We left Virginia Beach and have moved on to Four Oaks NC. The roads in VB are really bad and the ride out to 95 was slow and full of huge pot holes. They are so bad that many of the locals had blow outs when traveling 64 and 264. V-dot is taking a lot of bad press over it and is actually paying for vehicle repairs. We made it out to 95 OK and the trip down was un event full until we were ready to get off at our exit and I heard a pop under the trucks hood and I then realised I no longer had power steering or power brakes. The exit was one of those short u- turn types and my speed was now in excess due to no brakes. I grabbed the steering wheel and gave it a really hard pull and reached down to the RV brake controller and hit the manual brake lever and God bless MorRides new disc braking system, the truck slowed down and I made the turn slowly and only ran off the road a little bit. The next chore was putting the RV into a back in space with no power steering, I though my arms were going to explode but we managed. So  here we were in the little town of  Four Oaks and our truck with a problem. After we set up I looked under the hood and saw that the serpentine belt that drove all the power equipment was shredded and as I tested all the pumps I found that one of the idler pulleys was frozen and that's what shredded the belt. When we were pulling into the RV park I saw one of those little auto repair shops across from the RV park and I walked over to it and asked if he could look at the truck and he said yes , I brought the truck to him and in less than two hours the truck was repaired and the bill was so small I was amazed. Just parts and $25. and hour labor, not like back in PA. Small things will happen when you travel. We are still headed to New Orleans and maybe we will get there next week. Not in any hurry, 200 to 250 miles a day makes for a nice ride and we will stay a few days between runs to make it easy.It will be in the 60's here today and plan to do some sight seeing.                                         G

        Finally on the road again and glad to be in Virginia Beach. We missed the snow storm by a day . We did how ever have about 3 inches of rain which started about 2 hours after we had set up, good thing we set up the front skirt on the RV, it kept the bikes fairly dry during the 40 to 50 mile wind gusts. It is a nice sunny day here today with just a few clouds. We had a nice visit with Laurens family here yesterday and will spend time with them again today. We will probably on the road again early next week. Watching the weather to see if we have to drop further south before we head towards New Orleans.                                              G

          Another cold and some what snowy Sunday in the Lehigh Valley. It is 20 degrees out with about 1 inch of snow . It does make it quite pretty outside and makes it much easier to see all the small critters foot prints as they move through our yard. In the last week we have spent a lot of time with family and friends as we rapidly approach our time to leave. Have taxes on Monday and then get every thing ready to go. Need to check all the vehicle tire pressures and the RV tires for that last minute make sure nothing will go astray as we head south. Going to spend a few days in Virginia Beach to visit Laurens Dad and then we will head for New Orleans for a week or two. Then on to Texas and New Mexico. As soon as the weather gets better on to Colorado to visit our friend there and then up to South Dakota and do our final part of the address change, Vehicles and Driver license .Not sure from there, only the new future.                                G