Author Archives: Jicky

A day at home

Home, sweet home.  I spend the entire day at home taking care of regular household chores and a little work.  The camper and JD (the truck) got a good cleaning as well.  I continue to figure out how things work.   I had some water dripping out of the rear of the camper, very strange since there are no holding tanks.  Turns out that the water intake was dripping water into a small storage compartment that was not properly sealed and the water found its way to the rear of the camper.  Good thing I had some silicone to seal the gap.  The dripping stopped, hurrah.  I have a new campground neighbor who also has a truck camper and he gave me some good tips, e.g. my camper legs were too high, putting too much stress on the jacks.  Lowering the legs has also reduced the movement inside the camper.

I can’t make up my mind when to move on towards New Orleans.  At this point I think it will be Thursday.  Given that I only moved twice in my entire life it is kind of weird that I am suppose to move every couple of days now. 

Camper and truck at campground

My "office" and dining "room"

The kitchen

Bathroom with skylight

The bedroom

Storage by the bed

Bed to the front door

Rear of the camper with my blog address

A little tour of my home.  Can anyone give me some tips on inserting photos into the blog?  Every time I insert photos they never end up where they are suppose to be or they jumble the whole blog.  The photos are only 187 x 250 pixels.  Thanks.

The tournament is coming to an end

The last days of a tennis tournament feel always a little sad to me.  On the one hand you are happy that you go back to a regular work schedule on the other hand you have to say good bye to your fellow photographers and people you met during the tournament.  Often you don’t even get a chance to say good bye.  This year it also means for me that this will be the last time for a while that I get to hang out with friends.  I will stay in Miami a little longer and then make my way up to New Orleans.  This freedom to just decide to stay longer feels strange, I have to get used to that.  

Here are some photos from the tournament.  

Rafael Nadal

  

Andy Roddick

  

Rafael Nadal

  

Kim Clijsters

  

Venus Williams

  

Justin Henin

Life’s a beach

Ah, finally the weather is warming up, no rain just blue sky.  I took advantage of the beautiful morning and went to the beach for an hour before the matches started. 

empty beach on Key Biscayne

empty beach on Key Biscayne

 

more empty beach

more empty beach

  

The palm trees I was lying under, sorry.

Always check your tank!

Just something to remember when you travel with a camper.  Make sure you know the capacity of your holding tanks.  Otherwise you will be standing in the shower wondering why the water does not drain.  I had not realized that my gray water holding tank was full.  So when I came home late last night from the tennis I had the pleasure of standing in the shower with more water than desired.  Thank God it was not a clogged drain.  So this morning I just hooked up to the sewer system at the campground and all is well.

Beautiful day in Key Biscayne.

Rain delay

Not all is sunny in sunny Florida.  We lived through a 4 hour rain delay yesterday.  Which in a way was great because it gave me time to fix the blog header.

Rain delay

Just a little tennis

Spend most of the day inside working.  However, I managed to catch the end of the Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Shuai Peng match.  Here is the result.  FYI, Kuznetsova won.

Kuznetsova

Kuznetsova

 

Kuznetsova

Making it a home

Camper deco

I don’t know if you saw the movie “Up In The Air” with George Clooney.  I saw it a couple of days ago.  When Clooney’s character gave his motivational speech about what to put into your pack back and how everything and everyone you put into it weighs you down, I had to think about the choices I had to make before I went on this trip.  I moved from a 300 sq. ft. apartment into a roughly 100 sq. ft. camper.  The bed takes up about half the space.  I left a lot of personal belongings behind, the nick nacks we collect or receive from friends.  We usually don’t pay these little things much attention, they are dust collectors.  However, these little things are the things that make a house or a camper a home.

I don’t need a reminder what my parents look like or that I am traveling the lower 48 states on my own, I know that.  But it is nice to remember that people cared enough to give you these keepsakes.  So, as I continue to make my home, I will think of the people who are in my life, even if they are hundreds of miles away. 

Nancy's card

Check out www.nancydraws.com for more great illustrations.

Camper deco

 

Now a bit about traveling.  Wednesday, I arrived in Key Biscayne, Florida.  I am here to photograph the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament.  I am really looking forward to staying put for a while.  The drive down to Florida was much more strenuous then I thought it would be.  I am glad I have cruise control.  Never used it before, but it sure takes the pressure off my right foot.  Accelerating is hard work.  Steering also takes more strength since I have to deal with the wind.  I am a big fan of the right lane.  I took I-95 from South Carolina to Miami.  Here the speed limit is 70 mph, but I stuck to max.  60 mph.  It will just take longer for me to get places.  I am not really in a rush.

Having a home base hopefully, will give me some time to work on the design of this blog, I am really not crazy about the blue header.

Get ready for some tennis photos instead of landscapes.

Oh yeah, if anyone knows of someone who would like to help sponsor this trip, please let me know.  There is plenty of advertising space available on the camper.  Gas is eating me alive; 10 to 11 miles to the gallon @ $2.75 a gallon.  So far I drove 1,700 miles, you do the math.  I am just waiting for the credit card bill 🙂

Place in Miami

Looking for a parking place in Miami.  With or without electric.  Would be sleeping in the camper.  If you know someone whohas a big driveway, let me know.  March 23/24 thru April 5.  Thanks!

Rainy, charming Charleston

Where to start.  First, sorry I have not written more frequently.  I am still trying to get into the groove of things. 

From Chapel Hill I thought I make it straight through to Charleston.  Well, I made it to Florence, South Carolina.  And I cheated to boot, took the interstate for a stretch of the way.  Arriving at the campsite early was great.  It gave me time to get a little more organized in my camper.  There is a box of stuff under my table that still needs a home.  The drive to Florence was uneventful.  Had lunch in Pinehurst, a golf mekka.  Cute, but too golfy for me.

I drove through rural areas from Florence to Georgetown, a small town just off the Atlantic coast.  Saw a lot of trailer homes and the usual abandoned and overgrown homes and barns.  Then out of nowhere in the middle of nowhere a mansion.  Style and size of the residence of a plantation owner, sitting there all by itself.

Georgetown is a nice place by the water with a little marina.  Unfortunately, the economy has not been kind to the place.  Last year the steel mill shut down and a lot of store fronts are empty and for rent.

Sign in front of the Georgetown court house

I arrived in Charleston just in time for dinner.  This was the first dinner I cooked in the camper, linguine in homemade tomato creme sauce with zucchini and shrimp, yummy.  Couldn’t believe how cheap the shrimp is down here. 

Unfortunately, rain was in the forecast.  Still, I drove to Charleston Sunday morning and ventured through the historic district.  The narrow cobblestone streets with the sideways homes and gas lamps are beautiful.  Some of the gardens are amazing.  Can’t even begin to imagine what this area must look like when all the flowers are in bloom and the sun is shining.

Garden in historic Charleston

I spent about three hours zigzagging the street until the rain got the better of me.

Historic Charleston

Historic Charleston

 

These are just some of the shots I took.  Haven’t had enough time to edit everything.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Tomorrow I am leaving for Florida.  Not sure how far I get, but that really doesn’t matter that much.  After the tennis tournament in Miami I only have one other appointment I have to keep.  New Orleans, April 20 to 24, Habitat for Humanity.  I finally signed up to volunteer building homes, yeah!

Let’s hope I don’t get stuck in the mud tomorrow when I leave.  The campground looked a little soggy after the rain.

Thank you Susan and Jenn for your Charleston tips!

My campground in Charleston in the rain

P.S. Truck names:  JD – Jicky’s Destiny or Jessie.  Let me know.

Reconnecting with old friends

After my last trip in 2007 friends asked what the best thing was about my trip, I said reconnecting with old friends.  And that’s what this trip is about as well.  Reconnecting with friends and meeting new people.

I have spent the day at a friends house in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.   I hadn’t seen Susan in about 15 years.  I used to babysit her children who are now grown adults.  Where has the time gone.  I arrived last evening after a very long drive from Washington DC.   Driving with the camper is not bad, it just takes a lot longer than just driving a truck.  Once I get the “got to get there” mentality out of my head I will be just fine.  So what if I don’t arrive at the tennis tournament for the early rounds.

The drive from DC was nice.  Spring is in the air.  Car window rolled down and singing along to the music.  Yes, I dared to sing out loud, good thing that nobody could hear me.  What was really neat was that when I got hungry, I just pulled over and went into the camper.  I made a sandwich and had a cup of tea and off I went again.  No looking for a place to eat and waiting to be served.

Today was the first trial run of working from the road.  Thanks to technology you can be anywhere, as long as there is an internet connection, and work.

Next stop, Charleston, South Carolina.