There, Here and Now......

There......
So we stayed at the campground in Okeechobee for two nights, It wasn't bad but the campground was located between the canal surrounding the lake and the hwy, a distance of about 75 yards. Most of the 'residents' where in pull behind campers or 5th wheels, and some where full time there with permanent porches etc. We were put in two sites that where perpendicular to the road, right on the road. Not to bad but we heard traffic until late and then early in the morning. The plus was that the lake had a bike path all the way around it along the levee. It was great for running and biking.
Here's a few pics, I'll try and give a brief descrip of each.......

Here is a pic of the "Gracious RV Resort" from the levee, across the canal. If you look close, that's the back of our MH, left of center and that's the hwy in front of us.

This is the rest of the campground, the bldg at the right edge is the 'Rec Center' where we went to a pot luck the first night that was a PIG OUT! The people were real nice, most from up north and winter residents.

Here's Mo on the levee, we went and found 5 caches on bikes. Lots of fun. To the her right is Lake Okeechobee, the largest inland body of water in the SE USA. Although it's the biggest, the depth is only about 14'  Lots of history here, Google it if you want to know more. To Mo's left is the canal, dug to releave the lake if it floods.

We waited for the sun to set. here's just before sinking below the horizon.

Here is almost.............

 I have a few more pics but that really sums it up, we enjoyed the two days there, the people were nice, it was a great place to bike, run and shop but we were ready to move on.

Our next stop would be " Fishermans Cove RV Resort" in Tavaris, FL. About 175 miles north. We had gotten a two night free stay there from the Tampa RV show.

The roads were good gettin there, we stay off the Interstates if we can, right now we're not in a hurry.

Here.....

We arrived about 12:30pm, maybe 1 o'clock. Not looking to bad, Mo went in and got us registered and when she came back out she said they didn't have any concrete pads but they would put us in one up on the hill but be carefull some sites where soft, she thought this one was ok. We unhooked the jeep and Mo lead the way. She circled around to give me a good back up route into the site. I pulled thr rig forward onto the vacant lot across from ours and like an idiot I dropped the back wheels off the pavement. The rig went straight down and the wheels just spun! I got out and looked, thought , maybe if I pulled forward just a bit more I could ramp dirt up to the pavement and pull out.....not, just went deeper, now to the axel. Got my shovel out, never thought I'd need it when I packed it, and dug forward of the wheels thinking next maybe I could move forward and then ramp back better......not. Now I have the transmission sitting on the pavement and the axel, leveling jacks and tires below the pavement level and buried.......s--t! At this point people came over and said ' you aren't the first ones to have this happen'.  Ha Ha that's a lot of concilation. They were all nice about it but there wasn't anything they could do. One fellow said when his neighbor got home maybe he could pull us out with his semi rig. Well that wasn't gonna happen, we were way deeper then a pull out, the transmission bolts would have been sheared off at best, the rear axel, the leveling jacks and who knows what else would be ripped off at the pavement edge!

OK, I gotta post a few pics here because it just isn't describable......

Here is the rig after the second attempt to move it forward....... or backward.

 I took the bikes and hitch off after I had tried all I could. You can see the pile of dirt where I tried ..ha, ha digging it out. At this point we went inside and called 'Coach-Net' our roadside assistance insurance company. This would be the second time we used it, both times for towing. Luckily, the only company with rigs large enough was on thier call list, so they called them and called us right back. It would be about an hour before the truck would get there.

 I shutter when I look at these, It just doen't show the desperate situation well enough.

 The rigs Transmission pan was supporting the whole weight of the coach. I tried shoveling out dirt under the leveling jacks but they're pretty far under the coach, so I tried just extending the rear jacks hoping I could slide boards under the wheels. The jacks just sunk in the sand.

 Now by this time lots of people had gathered to enjoy the party, this picture only shows a good neighbor (Chuck) who was a big help all the way through and the Wrecker driver. (Jack, in the plaid shirt). Mo was standing off the road with the crowd, all having a good time.........woe is me......

 This was a big wrecker truck, unfortunetly, he couldn't just lift me up and pull me out. RV rigs just aren't designed to do that.. He couldn't pull me out either, he said it would tear the whole underside loose. I believed him, too. We decided to dig and, with the leveling jacks, lift,, chock it up; dig and lift again, chock it up; repeat until we could get the jacks to lift the wheels up with enough wood under them to pull the rig without dragging the underside on the pavement.  This guy knew what needed to be done but it was going to be a slow, tedious process.

 

 Here's his dog, he stole the show with the crowd. (can't figure out how to rotate it)










Here we are working away

 Here is ONE section of the crowd. there were more down the road from these.  The guy waving had a good time talking to Mo, he was from her area growing up and they went to alot of the same party spots. He also had a 12 pack he was passing around, believe me, this was a party of sorts...... for some anyway.

After about 2 hours of digging and lifting we got it to a point where we both agreed it was time to give it a pull. Jack, The driver, pulled his rig around and set the outriggers and stretched out his cable. He put a ring in the tow hitch reciever and hooked on. I had Chuck in the MH keeping the front wheels straight and watching for us to signal for him to lock the brakes down if we saw it wasn't going right. Jack had a remote for the winch and we both laid down on the pavement and watched as he vveerryyy slowly pulled the RV. It worked perfectly! The rig rose up as it pulled back just enough for the jacks and axel to clear the edge of the pavement. We signaled for Chuck to brake the MH once the rear wheels got solidly on the pavement, about 5 - 8 ft.

Here's a victory video !!

We filled thw holes and then backed the MH up straddling the holes we had just filled. We had done IT! We all stood around a while a high fived and shot the bull, the crowd soon broke up and we went down to the new site. About 5:30pm  .... whew!

Now .......

We're set up on a big concrete site, someone said it is the owners site. So far we haven't talked to anyone with the management, we're trying to decide just how many days we want to stay, I say a week. Mo fixed a good supper and after a couple of beers, things don't seem so bad. We came out ok, no damage was done, the insurance picked up the tab and I learned not to EVER pull off the pavement where there is even a hint of sand!
God is Great,
Beer is Good,
and people are crazy....