Day 254 – 5/12/21 Moving Day: Orlando, to Perry GA.

Today was moving day, and we said good-bye to Florida.  We moved to Perry, Georgia on our way to Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee, so we have two more travel days in a row.

We had a good morning getting ready to leave, especially because we had left most of our things packed already, or ready to be put away.  I was able to get my writing done and a bit of work before I started getting us ready to leave, which was around 8.  Everyone was up around 8, and our goal was to leave by 10.  Carol packed the inside as usual, and I worked on the outside.  I had re-arranged the trunk bed a few days ago, and had a bit of extra space there now, so we were able to fit the washing machine back there again, the garbage bins, and I left the wooden supports back there as well, so we had a good amount of weight transferred from the trailer to the truck. 

As I was getting things ready, one of my tires was showing it was under inflated by 3psi, so I got the pump and pumped it back.  That’s a rare thing but it happens, and I’m glad I have this handy pump. 

Today I also took some a bit of time to wash the sewer connectors and the box I carry them in, I just hosed it all down and left it out in the sun to dry.  The day I cleaned the back storage compartment and moved the spare tire to the truck, I had also vacuumed the compartment, so it’s all nice and clean there again.  I cleaned up the truck and got all the garbage out, and got it ready for the girls to come with their school stuff.  Carol and I put their school stuff in a single plastic bin, so it’d be easy to carry it into the truck and back to the trailer.  We wanted it that way since they’ll be doing school on the road for two days.  After I got most of the stuff out of the truck, Carol vacuumed a bit and we were all set.  I had everything put away and connected.  We moved the girls to the truck, and rolled out of our spot around 10:30.  We made a quick stop by the dumpsters, and were out of the campground and onto the road.

The trip was pretty good, we basically took one highway, then got into another, and that second one took us all the way to Perry, GA.  Our campground was about half a mile from the road.  It was an easy trip today, and the only “tougher” part was when it started raining, we got hit with pretty heavy rain for a bit, but I just slowed down and kept a longer distance from the vehicles in front, all good. 

We made only two stops today, on a 6 hour drive, I can’t even believe it.  We stopped once for lunch, around 12:30.  Bella and I had Sfihas, Bia had a sandwich and Carol had a salad.  As usual, it was easy and nice to stop at those rest areas. The only bad thing is the smell of piss, dam truckers dump their crap right on the ground at those places and it stinks. 

We stopped for a good 25-30 minutes that time, and then only stopped again when we were about an hour away from Perry, to fill up the truck.  There was a Love’s truck stop just as I was getting low, and I went there.  Love’s is nice, but they are quite a bit more expensive than others.  I have been paying about $3 a gallon, and at this place it was $3.25.  I only like it there because I always know I can find a spot to fill up, and the entire place is long rig friendly.  While I filled up, Bia and Bella went in to use the bathroom.  From there, we went right to our campground. 

The campground was pretty easy to find, and right off the highway.  I guess I was the only check in pending as the lady had my paperwork in hand when I got to the window.  We were given a pull thru site right in front of the office, and it was easy to get to.  Carol and I worked together on getting setup, and we had everything we wanted to connect done within 30 minutes I think.  She unhooked the hitch, I setup the electrical, water and sewer.  She leveled the trailer, then I put down the stabilizers.  She got the propane on, and I turned on the water heater, and we were all set.  We did have the slideout open too.  We planned on all showering and then going into town to see it a bit. 

As we were all showering, Carol and I looked for what to see in Perry, but there is not much.  There’s some agriculture complex that also has a fair, but that’s about it.  We found an interesting place to eat, so we went there first, it was called Jamaican Jerk.  The hundreds of reviews all gave it 5 stars.  After we all showered, we headed to dinner.  The restaurant is quite small, and it looks like it’s more of a take out place, but with like 4 tables for in store dining.  I think we were their first customers of the day, as they were happy to see us.  The menu is pretty limited too, with like 8-10 main items, and then the 6-8 sides, but it is very Jamaican food.  I chose the place based on the fact they had lots of great reviews, and Jerk Chicken, and some spicy food, plus they had shrimp for Carol, and the reviews of their cabbage were great.  It ended up that they were out of shrimp, and because the menu is so different, the girls didn’t know what to order.  We ended up getting a large order of Oxtails (yes, that’s right!), a medium of Jerk Chicken, Mac and Cheese, Rice and Beans, Plantains and Cabbage.  I asked for some hot sauce on the side too.  We ate everything, it was delicious!  The Oxtails were like Ossobuco, super tender and tasty meat, with a great marinated flavor.  The Jerk Chicken was amazing, it was spicy though so I was the only one who ate it.  Bella ate almost all of the Oxtails.  Bia basically only ate Mac and Cheese.  Carol had some rice and beans, all of the cabbage, and the plantains. Everyone liked their food.  The girls also got some Jamaican sodas and liked it.  I asked if they sold beer when we were ordering and the lady said they didn’t, but she would see if the guy had any “in the back”, and if we liked Red Stripe.  Well, yes!  When we finished our order, the guy showed up with 2 red stripes.  Sweet!  I have to say, the two people that were there working looked very skeptical of us when we walked in.  We had never been there before, and we did not look like their typical clients.  But, they were super nice, and their service was awesome, and the food was awesome.  As we were eating, many people came in and ordered Jerk Chicken to go, it looks like that’s the big deal there, and Carol noticed that pretty much all of them were not white, so we stood out I guess, but that did not make any difference to anyone, which was awesome.  We loved the food, and I know I’ll be paying for all the spicy sauce I ate later tonight or tomorrow.

When we were done with dinner, we didn’t feel like driving around, so we just drove back.  The plan from there was to just hang out and watch some TV, which is what we did.  We just relaxed and around 9, had the girls in bed.

We had a good moving day, and enjoyed getting the girls some exposure to Jamaican food.

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