#94 We found the coolest boondock in Savannah.

Heading towards Savannah we didn't want to sleep in The Visitor Center parking lot anymore and Skidaway Island is a little pricey. I had the idea that when you can't find anything good just look to see if there are any boat ramps. The wildlife ramps that I've become used to over the years always have huge parking areas. Whether it's ok or not depends on how rural it is. For instance, you couldn’t get away with this at Wrightsville Beach. I wasn't sure but I figured hey why not nose around on google and see. I saw one called Frank Spencer access and I couldn't be more pleased.

As we got closer to the boat ramp somebody riding beside us gestured there was something wrong with my rear tire. I rolled down my window. Hey, there’s smoke pouring out from your wheel well. I thanked them and pulled over. I took a look at the Rv and I couldn't see anything wrong with the tire but the brake drum was smoking. It looked like we were within a half-mile of the boondock. I figured if I could get there, we could always look at this tomorrow morning and that's exactly what I did.

The first night always makes me a little nervous because you just expect a knock on the door from the authorities at any hour. We had no problems at all. Sometimes we see people using these boondock areas in almost a clandestine way. Maybe it's an affair where somebody seems to pull up quietly and waits. Somebody else seems to pull up quietly turn off the engine and speak through a car window. One of them will get into the other car and leave. After a while, they’ll come back and then leave again in two cars. We’re sitting here just being nosey watching all this kind of behavior imagining the worst. Sometimes people park and appear to be sleeping all night in their car. That always gives me the creeps. Imagine quietly sleeping in a vehicle all night in a dark parking lot. Oh yeah, I forgot that’s what I’m doing.

The next morning, I was happy we didn't get harassed by the authorities. I took the wheel off and started looking at the brake drum assembly. The bearing was just melted and disintegrated. Obviously, we're going to replace it and I started calling around to see who had the part.

To go backwards a bit, as we pulled up to this place it is a dirt parking lot that has probably fallen on hard times.

At low tide, there's almost no water available but it high tide is quite a bit and a person could enjoy themselves out in the waterway. They're quite a few hulks of old fishing boat-type vessels. They seem to have gotten washed up here doing some old hurricane and we're just left to decay. Not a real destination place but I liked it because I like free. I took everything apart on the brake drum area. I put everything in a little crate and put it on the back of a truck and started calling around looking for places that sold these types of parts. The auto parts store referred me to a trailer supply place up the road for a half-hour.

I showed them what I had and they sold me the whole wheel assembly. It wasn't that bad about $100. I had bought RV electric brake assemblies for all four wheels before I left Wilmington because I thought that they were in questionable shape. I knew that if I had them with me and I had a problem it would be nice to have them. I put one of them on in my driveway before leaving. I needed the second one for this job so it kind of pleased me for being prepared.

I spent about all day fixing on my bearings. It was nice nobody was bothering us. Monday morning came and I saw the Parks and Recreation truck coming through. I just assumed that they were going to give us a bunch of hassle so I walked over and talked to them. They said to be honest with you we don't care what you do, we're just here to pick up a little trash. You don't seem like you're bothering anybody so we don't really care. It was just wonderful to me that they were being nice because I'm technically not allowed to be here for overnight much less for several days. I was just totally getting off on this whole thing. The free part was good, we were pretty close to a grocery store and we really could do anything we wanted. We just goofed around and did this and that for a few days and that represented our little moment in Savannah and it was time to go.