Finally in Florida But Oops

Sunday November 16-Wednesday November 19, 2014
Fort Clinch State Park
Fernandina Florida

 

SUNDAY

After  a series of medical appointments at the last minute over our final week in Charlottesville, we finally managed to pull out and head on down the interstates.  It was 25 degrees here last night so we are late this year heading south.  Who would have thought it would be this cold in Mid November?

We hop on I 64 here and then pick up I 95 in Richmond.  After 156 miles and just over the North Carolina Line we stop in Roanoke Rapids at the RV Resort at Carolina Crossroads for an over night in one of their Good Sam spots.  Nothing fancy, just gravel, water, electric, a balmy 34 degrees over night and no picture.  In my opinion it is a serious stretch to call this an RV Resort although they do have a section of rigs in a row with two avenues paved and cement pads.  There’s a pool too but not at these temps.

 

MONDAY

 

We are up and  on the road just before sunrise this morning which is not very early actually given that sunrise is at 6:52 am.  We want to get started.  It’s a long 300 mile day’s drive for us. 

Along the way it begins to rain and there are tornado watches from a huge storm running right up I-95 about 30 miles on either side of the highway.  I watch the radar on my phone.  This is not good for my stress level.  When we are almost to St. George, the skies clear up, and the rain stops.  

 

We pull in to Jolly Acres Camp and Storage, get set up and have time to go out for a walk in the woods to relax before dinner.  The duckies enjoy their great view of the neighboring cows. 

 

 

 

 

After dinner it’s a little reading and off to bed.  Sure does get dark early and feel like it must be 10:00 when it’s only 7:00.

When it’s actually 10:00 we turn out the lights.  Unfortunately our neighbor decides to drive in at midnight and let his truck run for a while before turning it off.   I feel like I’ve just gotten back to sleep when a kennel of dogs, pretty high pitched yippers goes at it full force about just after 2am startling me awake.  Has that ever happened to you?  How long did it take to get back to sleep??  

On the bright side, it’s a balmy 41 degrees overnight.  Boy this is more like it.  BUT the deep freeze is really heading south tomorrow night.  They are predicting 24 degrees in South Georgia for us tomorrow night.  Now that’s amazing.  Poor palm trees.   But we’re feeling pretty glad we are heading in this direction when we see that they are predicting 14 for Charlottesville which will no doubt be an all time low for this date in the fall.  It’s over a month until winter is officially here.  I know they are at least glad not to have the snow blanketing other parts of the country.   Strange stuff this weather.  It’s hard for me to understand the folks who deny this Climate Chaos, especially our politicians.  

 

 

TUESDAY

 

With the balmy overnight, interrupted sleep and “Only” 188 miles to go today, we don’t leave until about 10am.  

We stop at the Savannah Camping World which they are wisely moving down the road a couple of exits to a bigger store.  This one is tiny so we felt pretty lucky that they had the bin door latch that broke this morning.  David did an amazing job of getting us turned around through their tiny parking lot on the dead end street.

We arrive at our favorite stop on the trip down 95, Walkabout Camp and RV Park, to find that the owners, Troy and Suz, whom we look forward to seeing, are not here tonight.  Hate to miss them but this year we’ll only be here one night.  Last year we spent nearly a week here enjoying Thanksgiving with them and visiting Cumberland Island.

Lucky we got here when we did since there were only 2 of the 40 spaces left.   This is as full as I’ve  seen it in the past 5 years.  Glad to see business is so good for them but I sure won’t “assume” next time even on a Tuesday night.

 

 

 

WEDNESDAY

24 degrees last night made for a leisurely start to the morning.  A bit too leisurely since we were paying no attention to the time when Suz had to come over and ask us when we were leaving as check out time was 10 minutes ago and the person who had our site for tonight was here.   Talk about hustle.  We were out of the site in 15 minutes.  Going to have to update our memories of Walkabout to its current popular status.

 

So we did get to see Suz though not Troy and we were surprised by blog reader Dee who said she recognized Winnona coming in. What a compliment. We didn’t get to chat with her and Michael long since we got in rather late and had to hurry off once it got warm.  But I did get this picture of the two of them and cute Timmy.  They’ll be staying at Walkabout while they explore the area.  I hope they’ll be able to go over to Cumberland Island.  Also hope we’ll see them down the road.  Keep in touch Dee and thank you so much for the compliments on my blog.  It’s my readers who keep me doing it.  Well that and my poor memory.

 

 

We have been to quite a few of the Florida State Parks but never to Fort Clinch on Amelia Island so we’re very excited since it is on the Atlantic.  Hope it warms up enough to enjoy the water at some point during our two weeks. Another big reason for excitement is that our friends Bill and Nancy Mills are here and we’ll get to spend some days with them.  That’s always fun.

The drive into the park toward the campground is just beautiful.  So Florida.  I can feel myself relax.   There are two campgrounds, one on the Atlantic and one on the Amelia River.   The Atlantic Beach campground is a circle with 21 sites and the bathhouse in the middle. 

We drop off the dolly in the overflow parking and David backs Winnona into our site. 

 

 

And then comes the opps.  Those who are regular followers know that Winnona just got out of the body shop for a bang incurred when someone ran into her in a traffic circle in Colorado.   Well David backed into the very nice site and was going to get out and see if he agreed with me that this was the right spot and not necessary to move over closer to the utilities.  He put the rig in park and stood up but apparently not all the way in park and Winnona backed up into the wooden post at the back of the site.  

 

Big SIGH…………….this is much more damage than the one the insurance company just paid to fix and we just paid a $250 deductible for. I see rising insurance rates in our future. Poor Winnona! The life of a full timer definitely has its ups and downs.

We check all the lights and they still work so we don’t have to drop everything to take care of this immediately thankfully.  

 

 

 

We leave Winnona where she is and get set up.  We’ll think about all this later and try not to let it ruin this day.  The duckies don’t quite have an ocean view.  We’d have to be on the other side of the circle for that.  But they are looking in the right direction.

 

 

 

Time for a bite of lunch and a walk on the beach.  We pass our neighbors who are bundled up for a brisk day reading at the beach.

 

 

 

And here we are back at the Ocean.  Hoo Ray!  Complete with my favorites, sea oats.

 

 

 

It’s too cold in the upper 40’s for me to sit in my chair and read but bundled up, I can take a beach walk.  You can see from the shadows that it is later in the afternoon.  Wish I really were that tall and slim.

 

 

 

David only walks a little way and has to take his shoe off.  Seems he has a sand bur in his sock.  OUCH!  Guess we’ll stay off the grass and on the sand.

 

 

 

We come across some sort of jelly fish.  We see a lot of them beached as we walk along.  Pretty cold water for them I’d think.  I find them very pretty on the sand.  Not so much in the water.

 

 

 

The park is located with the Atlantic Ocean on the east side where we are, the Cumberland Sound to the north where the Fort is and the Amelia River on the west where the 40 site River campground is.  Water water everywhere! 

We can see Cumberland Island National Seashore from the beach.   I wonder if folks with sea kayaks just paddle on over there in the summer.  

The state park is also located directly between the St. Mary’s Naval Station just north in Georgia and Mayport  Naval Station just south along the coast.  As we walk we see numerous helicopters flying back and forth.  They drown out the sounds of the waves.  Not sure what they are doing.  They just seem to be flying around, back and forth, relatively low to the ground.   I wonder if they do night maneuvers.

We also see this beauty of a fishing boat coming out.  Seems strange so late in the afternoon.  Night fishing??

 

 

 

 

The sand patterns the water has made on the beach here are works of art.  When we first come out they are completely dry, the details are marvelous.  As we walk, the tide comes in and begins filling them in and sculpting them all over again.  It will be interesting to check them out tomorrow and see how they have changed.   There is always something fascinating along the shore.

 

 

 

 

We are walking west right into the sun sinking low in the western sky.   The harshness ruins our vision. It’s hard to see anything at this point.   Time to turn around.  Nancy has invited us over for some of her rightfully famous vegan potato soup.  It will be a great way to warm up after our chilly walk along the water.  An evening with Bill and Nancy is always a wonderful time.