TN5 Hop 3: Flagler Beach FL to Worcester MA

TN5 Hop 3

The bathroom with shower

Jett on her bunk

1436 miles via I-95, Merritt Parkway and I-84, about 960 miles on Amtrak and 220 tow miles to return the RV to Ft Myers. Cumulative tow miles: 457. Cumulative truck miles: 1675. The additional truck miles were accumulated in traveling between the Bulow RV Resort and the Jacksonville Amtrak station, visiting the Florida state parks near Flagler Beach and making innumerable trips to the hospital.

The trip north involved a 75-mile truck trip to the Amtrak station in Jacksonville, a train trip of some 22 hours from Jacksonville to New York’s Pennsylvania Station and a 175-mile car trip from New York City to Worcester MA, courtesy of Jett’s brother and sister-in-law. Yes, it was a grueling trip, but we made it. And despite the trip being much longer by train than by plane, it was the right decision. I booked a private bedroom on the train, so Jett was able to lie in bed almost the entire way and had access to a private bath. That privacy and comfort more than compensated for the extended duration.

The room was very small, but large enough for our purposes. Our luggage – one large suitcase, 3 small bags (mostly food as we had to clean out the RV of anything remotely perishable), plus a folding wheelchair – fit into the room, but only just barely. The bathroom, to our surprise, included a shower, so I was able to clean up before arriving in New York.

In the Club Car

Smoking break (yes, smoking)

Waiting for the Red Cap in Penn Station

We arrived in Worcester around 1 am, exhausted but happy to have escaped Florida. So my first goal – getting Jett to Massachusetts – is accomplished. Now onto the second goal: finding long-term accommodations. Jett’s brother Ray has been wonderful and we are very happy to have a place to land. But we need our own place long-term.

I have included the trip to return the RV to Ft Myers in the TN5. It would be silly to regard that single leg as a separate “trip south.” The trip consisted of driving our Corolla to Logan Airport in Boston, flying to Jacksonville, taking a taxi to the Jacksonville train station, driving the 75 miles to Flagler Beach, gassing up, hitching up and hauling the RV back to Ft Myers. It all went pretty smoothly except for the driving rain, the 90 minutes of stop-and-go traffic through Orlando (I HATE I-4!) and the truck breakdown 40 miles from home.

First Samaritan

The breakdown – the symptom of which was a loud “pop” and a whooshing sound – was obviously a problem with the turbo charger. I feared that the hose section that we had replaced in Tennessee during the TS4 had ruptured. But when I opened the hood I was relieved to see that the hose was fine but that a clamp had let loose. As I was considering the problem a Good Samaritan appeared and reattached the clamp in under 10 minutes. He refused payment and I was on my way again.

The dark finish to the TN5

For about half a mile.

The clamp let loose again. Again, a Good Samaritan appeared and fixed the problem again.

For about 2 miles.

The clamp let go for a third time and this time I was on my own. I used a Vise Grip to tighten the nut on the clamp. But it was getting late so I didn’t dare have a fourth failure. I completed the final 35 miles at a steady 40 miles per hour and was very careful to not accelerate hard. I got to our home site around 8:30 pm – a 6-hour trip – and quickly set up in the last light of dusk. It was raining lightly but by the time I got inside it was pouring. I was VERY happy that I wasn’t on the side of the road trying to reclamp the hose in the wet darkness.

Thus ended our disastrous TN5.

I fly back north tonight to rejoin Jett.