Walkabout Days

Monday-Thursday
November 25-28, 2013
Walkabout Family Campground
Woodbine Georgia

 

 

Here’s a flyby view of our past 4 days at Walkabout.  We’ll be here one more and leave on Saturday for Florida, FINALLY.  Sure hope they have warmer weather planned for us!  I’ve definitely learned my lesson about November anywhere north of Florida or the desert in Arizona or California.  Any suggestions for a warm November next year, please send them on.

 

MONDAY

 

   

It is 33 degrees when we wake  up this morning to prepare to leave Hunting Island.  The palms are thrashing  around as is the ocean.  Pretty cold  to be outside packing  up. 

Luckily we did most of it yesterday but given the sandy and piney conditions we still  have to clean  the roof, the slide toppers and  the jacks as well as unhook the water and  electric before we can leave.   We wait for a while for the temperature to get up to at least 40 and then after a stop at the dump station we are off down the road for 158 miles to Walkabout Family Camp and RV Park in Woodbine Georgia just north of the Florida line.

 

 

 

On the way, we stop to do some grocery shopping and look for a couple  of specific holiday gifts for my 93 year old father.  If I don’t want to pay a fortune to send them to Colorado I need to have them in the mail the first week  of December.   One thing leads  to another and it is 5:00 by the time we pull  in where Bill and Nancy Mills have been parked since noon having come 300 miles.  Makes me laugh at the difference.  They came from Port Lucie today on their way north.  Guess cold weather wasn’t a factor in their start time.

 

They are here for an overnight on their way back to South  Carolina after some glorious weeks in the Keys.  Yes they are definitely going  in the wrong direction.  

It is too funny when they get get of their rig to say Hi.  David and I are dressed in sweatshirts and fleece and  they are in short sleeves, shorts and sandals.  I’m so sorry I don’t get a picture  of the 4 of us in our opposite attires before Nancy gets too cold and goes in to change.  But in the dinner  picture, you can see Bill still in his shorts and  short sleeve  shirt while Nancy and I have on long sleeve sweatshirts and I have on fleece pants.

We get together for dinner at Nancy’s kind invitation to share some of her delicious potato soup.   Just the right food for this weather and it is yummy.  We have a great time catching up on  all  their fun in the Keys and sharing elderly parent reports.   Nancy’s mother and my father are in their 90’s and in assisted living homes.  There are some pretty funny stories about both of them.

Nancy and Bill will leave early in the morning no doubt so we say our good byes  early knowing we will see them again in Florida in January.

 

 

 

TUESDAY

 

 

 

The rain starts just after we leave Nancy and Bill’s at about 8:00 last night and goes on for pretty much the entire day today.  So what do you do in the rain?  Oh,  pay bills, do the laundry, change the bed, clean the house.  All those same chores everyone else  does.  

 

 

 

You can see how I feel about it all  from my sweatshirt which says “I don’t wanna”.

 

 

 

Walkabout is a Passport America  park which was purchased about 5 years ago by a young  Australian Couple,  thus the name.  They are the greatest  people and have 4 wonderful  children.  The oldest daughter Kaitlyn who  is now 14 has been managing the desk like she was an adult since they bought  it.   She checked us in the first time we ever stopped  here and I was sold immediately.   Her dad Troy says she’s not so keen on it any more.  She’d rather play softball.  But today when I need more change for the washers, Troy and the boys were gone and  Kaitlin was in the office.  It was good to see her again.  She also gave me the wifi password.

 

 

There are a dozen free range chickens picking up the bugs all around.  A dozen delicious fresh eggs is $3.50.   It’s a great place to stay.

 

 

 

 

 

The rains  let off for about two hours between 3:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon and then come back with a vengeance all night long.  There was a tornado watch and  predictions  of up to 50mph wind  gusts.  Time  to bring in the slides.

 

 

WEDNESDAY

 

I think I have shown a picture of our slide maladjustment in a previous blog.   David got the fix-it instructions from Winnebago but wasn’t able to get them to work so I talked him into calling a mobile tech, who also comes highly recommended but couldn’t get it despite over 2 hours of effort and multiple calls to HWH and Winnebago.  Apparently the adjusting screw just WILL NOT TURN.  So our $200 buys us a shim and he reinstalled the bushing on the Ram cylinder which had again come out.  He tells us that shimming is what he would do if it was his rig and is sometimes the only way to make them level again.  Makes me nervous.  What do you all think? 

Where is one to go to get things like this fixed?  We’ve had some questionable experience with Lazy Days and we sure aren’t going to Forest City Iowa in December.  David fears we would have to have the Ram Cylinder removed in order to replace that screw and make it work again.  So he’s liking the shim idea.  The tech also tells us that according to the manual with motor homes you should have your slides adjusted every couple of years.  No one has ever mentioned this before.

Whenever something mechanical is going on, despite the 20mph winds and low 50’s temperatures there are guys who want to find out about it.  The fella in the short sleeves is from Wisconsin. :-)

 

While they were outside freezing, I was inside nice and warm and seeding a pomegranate.  I love the seeds and this is the season.  Are they a gorgeous color??

 

 

It went down to 31 here tonight.  I just don’t know what to say about this continuing deep freezing in southern Georgia and Northern Florida in November.  Climate Chaos!   What are we doing and why are we not more worried about it?

 

 

THURSDAY

 

More cold weather.  In fact it’s cold enough to freeze my feathers off when we wake up this Thanksgiving morning.  27 degrees in south Georgia.  Here’s how we’re dressing as we hang out for the morning waiting for it to warm up.

 

 

We hope you are all enjoying a wonderful WARM holiday with family and friends and not TOO much food.  Most of you know that Carrie will not be with us this year for the first time ever.  But that’s what happens when you have a new job, not a ton of vacation yet and want to come at Christmas which is only 3 weeks away. 

We are missing her and hope this will be our only Thanksgiving without her. 

We have  our dinner this year with the folks in the park at the potluck put on by Troy and Suze and their children Kaitlyn, Liam, Cameron, and Savannah.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the boys helps Troy set up.  

Elegant wine glasses and decanter befit the occasion.

 

 

 

Our young enthusiastic host and hostess welcome everyone.  We think there were between 40 and 50 people in attendance.  It is a tad depressing that this lovely woman has 4 children and the oldest is 14.  That’s about how old she looks. :-) SIGH………

 

 

One of the two tables of food.   Everything any Thanksgiving table could want.

 

A third table for all the deserts.  Cherry, pecan, pumpkin and apple pies.  And two cakes.  Enough for even my sweet tooth.

 

 

 

David is enjoying one of his TWO plates of food.  Just beyond  him is my plate. We both have dessert too of course.   We love our partitioned pot luck plates.  We can easily sample a dab of this and a dab  of that. 

 

 

 

David thanks Troy and Suze for putting the gathering together.  Everybody had  more than enough to eat that’s for sure.

 

 

We’re here  for one more day and then we will be stopping at Anastasia State Park for a 3 day look around and visit to St. Augustine before heading down to Sebastian Inlet State Park.  If you have any suggestions for must dos or must sees please let me know.

 

Hope you had a very Happy Thanksgiving !!